June 8, 2026

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Meeting Transcript

Duration: 2 hours, 19 minutes

Source: Lillian Skinner’s London Council Archive

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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.

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[ Inaudible ] >> Good afternoon, everyone. We are going to get started with the ninth meaning of the Community and Protective Services Committee. We’ll start with the land acknowledgement. The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeck, Haudenosaunee, Lenapuik, and Adewandran.

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 Nation, Métis, and Inuit today. As representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to live, work and live and work in this territory . With that, I will also share a communication disclosure the city of London is committed to making every effort to provide alternate formats and communication supports for meetings upon request.

To make a request specific to this meeting, please contact CPSC@London.ca or 519-661-2489 extension 2425. And with that, we’re on item one, which is the disclosures of pecuniary interest. Okay, seeing none, we’ll move on to our consent items. We have a number of items under consent.

So far, I’ve received requests to pull 2.7, 2.9 to be dealt with at an upcoming meeting. And is there any other requests to pull items? Okay, seeing none, I will look for a mover and seconder for the items that are on consent. I have Councillor Ferrera and Councillor Pribble.

Thank you for everything, but 2.7 and 2.9. We will begin discussion and looking for speakers . I’ll start with Councillor Troso, go ahead. Thank you very much.

This was an unusually agenda for this committee. There are a number of things on here I would like to comment on, but I’m not gonna poll, I don’t have any amendments. I’m thrilled to see 2.2. I think establishing a tree nursery feasibility study would be an excellent point, very much in favor of that.

My only comment is before we go letting out a consultant’s contract, I really hope that we’ll be looking at some of the local nonprofits and academic units that have expertise in this area. I’ve raised this before with respect to consultant reports. I don’t know if this is gonna come back to us as a RFP that we have to approve or a contract that we have to approve, but I’ll have much more to say about this if I find out that we’ve let this out to a for-profit tree company instead of an academic unit. So I don’t know, do you have any plans regarding what you’re gonna do?

Thank you, I go to Ms. Chair. I thank you, Madam Chair. This is actually a good opportunity for me to introduce our relatively new manager of Urban Forestry to me a filer to me if you could join me so you can provide some insight into the direction we’re going.

I will say as she’s taking a spot that this is a very unique type of feasibility study we need done. There’s certainly an aspect to laying out a site but really a lot of it’s around the economics of growing nursery stock from an agricultural and ag economics perspective. So, very few qualified consulting firms would do this work that we are looking for partnerships with some potentially unique organizations, so I ‘ll flip it over to Ms. Feiler.

Thank you for the chair. That’s good to know and welcome. This is a very interesting portfolio that the public has a lot of interest in. So I don’t get five minutes for each one.

I get five minutes in the aggregate, so I better get moving. Thank you. Yes. So the comment I want to make on 2.6, well, I think there are a lot of problems in terms of how London Middlesex community housing has been maintaining their units.

So I’m not surprised to see this. And once again, I feel that much more attention needs to be given by this agency, and I’m not dealing with the tenant selection issues here . I know others are, maybe we’ll raise that, but I ‘m concerned about the improvements and maintenance on the premises. I will save my substantive comments and questions and motions for the upcoming shareholders meeting, but this is one of the reasons why I was so disappointed with the plan that was recently submitted to Council.

Now, I have a number of questions, about 2.5. I don’t want to pull it because I think what’s in front of us right now is a good framework and I’d like to see that passed. But I think there are a number of questions that still need to be worked out on an operational level and rather than pull this and have debate over amendments which I think might not be necessary. I think a lot of this is just a question of understanding what staff plans to do about certain, how to operationalize this.

I think that we really badly need to do this. I think the bylaw is a good framework bylaw, so I don’t want to delay that. But I do have a number of questions that I’m wondering if it might be expeditious for me to just privately meet with somebody between now and counsel to just see if I can get answers, answers to that. We received another inquiry today from Mr.

Hopcroft, familiar name to many of us, and we have quite a few other—I’ve received quite a few other requests for clarification. Nothing that would rise to the level of me wanting to oppose this by law at this point. So, can I do that between now and council? Would I talk directly to—who would you prefer I talk directly to?

Yes, okay. That’s—that’s that’s done. Finally, I better make this quick, I am, I was just so pleased to see the report on community grants. This is such a successful program and I really want to commend not only the authors of this report but your whole department for the manner in which you’ve conducted this very difficult and and should I say, in my opinion, underfunded— 30 seconds.

Area of work. My only problem with this report is, and I asked this last year, I’d love to know what the nature of the unsuccessful applicants has been. I know I can’t ask you who they are, but it just seems as if we’re doing a great job here, we’re filling many unmet needs, and maybe I should talk offline again to staff about what are some of the things? What are some of the opportunities?

Thank you, Councillor, that’s your time. You missed. So, I’m out of time and that’s that’s that, but great work on that. Thank you.

I will look to committee further speakers before going to visiting Councillors. Councillor Ferrera. Thank you, Chair. I wanted to, I guess, ask about 2.4, first, that’s the building, Canada Home application that we are seeking to submit.

I just wanted to get some information on how the monies would go if we know that information at the moment. I know that we’re looking at like mixed units where we have a mix of market rent and affordable housing units. I wanted to know for the money that we’d be potentially receiving on a successful application, will that money go towards capital bills on the affordable unit side? Will it go for both for the mix between the two?

Thank you, I’ll go to Mr. Felberg. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms.

Espinoza, we’ll take that one. Thank you, please go ahead. Thank you through the chair. It would only be for the affordable units.

Councillor? Okay, thank you for that. So if it goes to only the affordable units and we have, let’s say, an apartment or a mixed kind of unit complex and we’re incentivizing the capital build, the market rate side, depending on, I guess, the builder would be paying for the capital cost requirements for the market rate and then the affordable units would be, the gap would be covered with the build Canada home side. So when it comes, I guess, on the operational side, I would assume that market rents would have some type of surplus in their rents.

Would that surplus be used to cover the operational gap on the affordable unit side? Thank you, go to Ms. Espinosa. Pardon me, through the chair, technically yes.

So the reason why they have to have a mix of market and affordable is because some of the market would help offset some of the capital costs for the affordable side and could assist in some operating. Councillor Ferrera. Okay, thank you for that. And I guess on the follow up question, I guess a little bit different for the type of housing providers that may be sought out.

So I understand that LMCH has a regeneration plan . Is LMCH potentially, would they be part of this, this task or this submission? I’ll go to Mr. Felberg.

Thank you and to you Madam Chair. With the submission of the regen plan last week at SPPC, one of the things that we were looking to do is include the LMCH units into our Bill Cannon Homes application. We’ve also received a number of inquiries from local developers in the past few weeks and months that would be in addition to the 1250 that we’ve identified in the report. So we actually think that we’ll be able to increase the number of units.

The key part of the application is that Bill Kan ner-Holand wants to actually look at the projects before they make any approvals. So they’d be assessing each of the individual projects in our portfolio prior to making a decision on which ones they will fund and which gaps they will have. help us close in order to build new affordable housing. Councillor Verara.

Okay, thank you for that. So I guess the applications are really kind of focusing on the 12 to 18 months portion of applications. So I also wanted to know if there’s any consideration of rent, gear, tank, or cooperative housing or anything like that, or is it just market or just the affordable rental units. Mr.

Palberg. Thank you and to Madam Chair. So there’s no consideration for rent, gear to income. We’re not actually looking to increase our service level standards from the 5,794 that we have within our service manager area.

We are looking to include county projects as well , so it’s not just the city of London, it’s everything within our service manager area. If a co-op is providing affordable units and they ‘re eligible for that type of housing, then yes, they would be considered. So it would be non-profits, co-ops, and then if market developers are eligible under the to build Canada homes rules and criteria, then they could potentially be eligible to close a gap as well. Councilor Ferrer.

Okay, thank you for that. I wanted to also touch on to 10 of the community grants update. I do appreciate the report. I do see that our community grants project supports anti-racism, anti-oppression, diversity, inequity , and inclusion.

I did want to ask from what I remember from the budget changes. We are now looking into funding that program through the community investment reserve fund. And I do believe that there was a cap, a limit on that fund’s balance that we would need to require to be able to continue the program. I was wondering if staff could just tell me what the limit is or just remind me of what that is and tell me where that reserve balances if you can.

Thank you, I’ll go to Ms. Smith. Thank you and through the chair. So we’re coming back in July with the allocations for 2026 for our annual grant program for capital projects.

So next year, 2027, based on as of January 1st, if there’s a minimum of a million dollars in the community investment reserve fund, then we will continue with a $250,000 application for our annual capital grants program. Councillor Peraire. I thank you for that. I do understand that those dollars do leverage private dollars on top of that.

So I would say, you know, the more money We are able to put into that the more leveraging of dollars and the further that those dollars go So I do appreciate the report and I do I do wish to see the program get expanded if possible in the future For actually I’ll leave it there actually not one more question I want to go to the municipal compliance service policy update and online public municipal compliance tools review I appreciate that report I do see that this is a report coming back with a couple of directions from council in the past and I wanted to follow up on the status update and when we specifically expect or how would we in the immediate term see potential updates on any type of compliance issues and any type of resolutions there. I’ll go to Ms. Pfeffer. Thank you and through the chair.

So this is also a multi-stage process. If the policy change is implemented, then you would be able to receive status updates almost immediately. But in terms of the digital tools that you’re referring to, that would be subject to strategic of planning and then a multi-year business case in order to determine whether that is something that council wants to proceed with. Councillor.

Okay, thank you for that. In the immediate term, if I were to know that there was a compliance matter going on, is there any other way other than the IT or the web portal to check, would I be able to potentially contact staff directly, make a phone call and see if I can get a status update for that? and when would that change be made if this were to be approved here and at council? Thank you, I will go to Ms.

Stafford, go ahead. Through the chair, yes, of course you could contact staff and we would be ensuring that the entire team is aware of the change in policy and of course you would be able to get those updates directly from the staff person who’s in charge of the file. I’ll go to council for error. Okay, thank you, I’ll end the questions there.

I appreciate that report as well. I’m happy to support everything that I moved for the consent items. So those are my questions, thank you. Thank you, Councillor Hopkins, next.

Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. And I guess I’ll just go through the list here and make comments, 2.1 London’s newcomer strategy . Thanks to staff for this. It’s really good information to have.

It’s really good to know that London’s one of a few municipalities where we do the evaluations and the framework and do the measureables and have that information. So we can keep track of our strategy. So great work staff on that. 2.2, very supportive of the tree’s strategy going forward, the study that’s needed and understanding the benefits and the costs.

So looking forward to further information on that . 2.5, just like to make a couple of comments on the bylaw amendments to reduce rat infest ations. I thank the Councillors for bringing that forward . I know the advisory group has good information on the report as well.

I do see concerns in the community that I represent, especially when you have residential and businesses backing on to one another and how we can maybe even provide stickers on some of our bins not to have the bins overflow. I think there’s a lot of things we can kind of do in the meantime, and so supportive of the recommendation going forward, and I agree with Councillor Trus sell to many, many questions still to have, but I think we can do that as we go through this process. 2.7, which is the affordable housing at Duluth Crescent, really pleased to see— Councillor Hopkins, sorry, that one’s been pulled. Oh, is that one?

Oh, thank you for the reminder, OK. 2.8. Then with the fire department, the source of financing, I’m really pleased that we as a council put some funding aside for the fire vehicle and that there is funding available for the purchase of a new truck. I understand 2.9 is also pulled.

And just maybe ending my comments with 2.10 on the community grants program. I am so glad that we still have this program. And you can see the benefits that we have that goes into the community. And 2.11, which is the child care and early years servicing system plan update.

I know there’s a lot of conversations I hear out, more with the federal government. But I do think we need to kind of work together and continue to work together as it’s outlined by staff in the report with the sector because we do have to respond to the increasing demand and pressures that we see in our area. And I think it’s important that we continue to work together. So with that, those are my comments.

Thank you. I look for other speakers. I know of Councilor McAllister, just making sure I covered off the committee first. Okay, with that, I’ll go to Councilor McAllister.

Go ahead. Thank you and through the chair. I wanna start with 2.5. Excuse me, I appreciate the detail in this report .

This was definitely an issue that in my ward, we’re really facing a lot of rat infestation. So I really appreciate committee counsel supporting this in the past and bringing this back. Appreciate all the work that staff have put into this. eSAC weighed in as well.

They had some good recommendations too. So thanks to everyone involved. I know this was a big undertaking. We did this in a relatively quick timeline.

So again, appreciate that. I do just have some questions regarding it, just for clarity so people understand in terms of next steps. Appreciate in terms of the step one, step two, step three that was laid out. I think that it was very succinct in terms of where we’re going with it.

But just in terms of immediate impacts, if by-law could just speak to the changes be making in terms of our response in terms of how much time we’ll be giving people who are in violation in terms of the the amps that will go along with that if I can comment on that. Thanks. Thank you. I’ll go to Ms.

Pfeffer. Thank you. And through the chair, so in terms of immediate next steps, we’re looking at an increased penalty for yard and lot maintenance violations of $400. We also considered the compliance timeline that we can currently operate under.

We consistently provide 10 business days once an order has been issued for a property owner to become compliant with the by-law and in terms of rat inf estations or developing rat problems, an infestation will definitely occur within that timeframe if we give the full 10 days. So we wanted to consider maybe reducing that to 48 to 72 hours depending on the nature of the violation. That would give the, we believe that would give the property owner some time for compliance. >> Thank you for your time and thank you very much.

Thank you for keeping in mind that we always work with the property owner too so this isn’t a hard and fast that we will only get the 48 hours but it is something that we are going to look at in terms of these conditions that contribute to infestations. >> Councillor. >> Thank you for the chair and just a follow-up to that. I also appreciate the recognition that this will take coordination between departments.

And so my other concern with that is I appreciate the reduced timeline but at what point will we where I’m seeing a lot of issues specifically around residential dumpsters is it’s left far too long. Even if we issue the order to comply, it will get to the point where the rats will come , right? So what I’m trying to do is have those measures in place to ensure that if they’re in violation, yes, we might have the amps, but we can also take action to clean up the site. So we’re not dealing with that on an ongoing basis.

Thank you, everyone, Ms. Pepper. Through the chair, that is our process. So if we were to issue an order and not receive any indication that the property owner is trying to work toward compliance, we would certainly have to move to bring the property into compliance after the timeline expires by which, or the timeline that was listed on that order expires.

It doesn’t change our process in terms of whether or not we contract someone to come in to clean up. It’s really the property owner engagement that we’re looking for. Councillor McAllister. Thank you and through you.

In terms of the changes for dumpsters specifically to, I know a number of sites where they may have dump sters. Dumpsters are in poor shape, they’re not contained. I know there was mentioned in terms of having some like fencing or something around the dump sters to ensure that they’re not out in the open. And even a lot of dumpsters, they’re not in compliance with just having lids.

So, you know, addressing those. I’m hoping that’ll be part of this as well. Ms. Pfeffer for the chair, yes.

That’s the intent with some of the bylaw improvements as well. Councilor McAllister. Thank you and through you. And I’m also wondering in terms of the reporting, I have had some residents in terms of the confusion in terms of where they would report this, whether it’s through bylaw or through like garbage collections.

I think it would be nice with Service London if we could make some tweaks in terms of what the complaint is, just to save our staff some time on the back end in terms of what they’re responding to. So I’m just wondering what changes we might make with Service London. Thank you, I got it, Ms. Pfeffer.

Thank you and through the chair. We would, we are always willing to receive input in relation to improving service London enhancements in reporting options. In the immediate future, there won’t be any reporting options changing, but certainly if you have that feedback for us, we could take that back and work with our service London partners to see if there can be an immediate change made. The changes to service London are changes that are proposed in phase two and three of this proposed project.

Councillor McAllister. Thank you, through you. Yeah, even something as simple as a redirect. I think might be helpful, not necessarily building out something new, but even, I just find that we haven’t, when we go to service London, the options are helpful for people, so even if it’s a redirect to bylaw, to let them know that’s where their complaint would go, not necessarily having to fill out a new form, but just in the immediate, until we get to the multi-year budget and those larger asks, I think that’d be helpful, so at least people understand that’s where that request would have to go, just to make things easier for folks.

Yeah, and I do have some other comments quickly . Appreciate, again, all the work that Bylaw has done on this with the community grants. I just wanted to congratulate everyone who was able to get one. I just wanna speak in terms of experience.

I’ve seen a lot of the grants in action. Really appreciate that this is still an option. One of the things I’m seeing a lot of activity around is food security specifically. I know a lot of organizations in my award use the community grants and it’s really important in terms of addressing those needs in the community and lend it at large.

And I’m just wondering if staff could maybe speak to a little bit with the community grants. I appreciate this report but one of the things I think would be helpful for us as council is I know you have the percentage breakdown but I think that’s more tied in terms of our strategic goals but I’m finding it interesting in terms of the programs themselves and where we’re seeing the largest demand come from. So I’m wondering if staff, as part of this report , if in the future, we might be able to see which programs or organizations, what they’re looking for in terms of the needs in the community. I’ll go to Ms.

Smith. Thank you. And through the chair, I appreciate you bringing that up as, you know, a council has directed us to look at the community grants policy, which we’ll be bringing back a proposed update in 20, early 2027. And we are looking at alignment with the strategic plan, but also alignment with community priorities and you write food security is probably one of the top three that we fund, but we’re also hearing from too.

So we can look at this when we do the impact report and talk about those projects or priority areas in a bit more detail. And also we will be bringing something kind of different and looking at what are those community priorities and maybe aligning our future community grants program with those top three to five community priorities . So thank you for the suggestion. Councilor Callister.

Thank you, through you, I appreciate that, Mr. Chair. And then also appreciate again, bylaw all the hard work that went into updating the amendments for the reducing the rat infestations. No, it’s not a glamorous topic.

I have a lot of residents who are very embarrassed, obviously, when they come and talk to me, but appreciate all the work that went into this. Thank you. Thank you, looking for other speakers. We’ll go to Councillor Stevenson, go ahead.

Thank you. There’s quite a bit in here that I have questions on, but I’ll start with 2.4, the Build Canada Homes. The motion says to submit an application to secure capital funds, and the executive summary says refers to partnerships. So just wondering, is there gonna be more sharing of what that would entail from both sides?

Thank you, I’ll go to Mr. Felberg. Thank you, and through you, Madam Chair. So we have a lot of work to do still with Bill Canada Homes to put together the portfolio of different projects and take that through their process of review.

Once we’ve finished that work and once they’ve established what projects they will be, they’re willing to fund, we’ll be bringing back an agreement to council for approval so that they can weigh into what is moving forward and what can be funded by the new grants from the federal government. Councilor Stevenson. Thank you. On page 29 at the bottom, it says that BCH has requested that the city submit a portfolio of projects ensuring municipal support.

So I’m just wondering, don’t we need council or public support for that portfolio prior to the application going in? I’ll go to Mr. Felberg. Thank you and through you, Madam Chair.

So the projects that we’ve identified are projects that would be eligible under our CIP or dollars to door CIP, which has a certain level of criteria that’s required and that applicants must align with. Additionally, some additional projects that we’ve also added recent, or we’ll be adding recent, following the master regeneration plan from LMCH. Those are some additional projects, and then we also have our shovel ready projects. So those are projects that through the roadmap are have been identified for new affordable housing, and those go through various RFPs and procure ments prior to rainforest council as an example item 2.

7 is one of those projects so we’ve identified generally a portfolio and those are the things that BCH or Bill Canada homes will be evaluating and providing us guidance on. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you I understand but it’s very general and when I look at what the City of Ottawa did their council was given the list of projects the number of units for each one, whether it was going to be affordable or supportive. There was also a long list on the contribution for that city is going to be $ 250 million.

And it gives many exemptions, one of which is exemption of property taxes for 75 years. So I’m just this just looks very different than the one that we’re this before us. So I’m wondering if we could just get clarification on why theirs has all the specifics and ours doesn’t. Thank you.

Go to Mr. Felberg. Thank you. And through you Madam Chair.

So I forget which section in the report, but it talks about a recommendation or a resolution from Council for us to report back to Council and identify when we’d be submitting an application for new affordable housing projects. So the MOU that Ottawa signed was actually much further down the line and they identified all of the different projects. Once they’d done that negotiation and actually submitted that portfolio. So that’s the stage we’re in right now.

we’re establishing the portfolio, we’ll submit it to build Canada homes, and then we’ll bring it back to council for a final approval. Councillor Stevenson. I have a lot of concerns about this one, I’m gonna leave it there for now. So for 122 baseline, it talks about arrears, that 30 plus arrears notices were sent out this month.

There’s only 61 units. Can I hear more about that? Thank you, I’ve got a Mr. Felberg.

Thank you, and Madam Chair, We have our chief operating officer from LMCH here. She can answer many of those operational questions. Thank you, please go ahead. Through the chair, you may have a qualifying question as a follow up.

They are generally natured due to back payment in rent or due to requests for keys or fobs, chargebacks. They do range 80% or under $2,000 and 20% are over between the $2,000 and $4,000 mark. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you, as a follow-up through you, what would be the percentage of tenants on OW or ODSP?

Through the chair. - Go ahead. Sorry, through the chair. I actually don’t know specifically.

I am aware of the numbers associated to support, but the exact number associated to those programs , I couldn’t tell you at this time. Councillor? Thank you, then, through you. What’s the policy for a tenant that’s collecting OW or ODSP if they’ve missed a rent payment?

Go ahead, please. Through the chair, we do work with OW to help reconcile that. We have a relationship with Ontario Works. We do communicate with a tenant as well, too, to help them eliminate the situation.

As typically, there is a path forward to come to resolution, and we do find success. Generally speaking, in the odd time, we do not. Councillor. Thank you.

Yeah, knowing that there is the option to have rent deducted, I would hope that arrears aren’t accumulating in that way. The other thing is it says on here that the number, or it talks about a 47% decreasing Q1 20, 20, 20, 26, but it doesn’t talk about the fact that it went up 166% in Q4 of 2025. So we talk about it getting better, but it got way worse still not as good as it was before. there’s 330% increases there.

So I just wondered if we could hear more about the improvement in that. Thank you, I’ll go to Ms. D. Kendia.

Through the chair, so that spike from the last quarter 2025, we do attribute it primarily to the seasonality, the cold weather temperatures. So that would be a spike that we see from a portfolio perspective across LMCH. It’s quite common over the winter months that we do see an uptake there. And then going into Q1 with the weather improving and we have had a different approach as articulated in the transition plan in terms of engaging with tendencies.

We do think that there is some parallel with deeper engagement with tenants in their partner, their supports and partners, which are hopefully contributing to positive shift in the building in terms of reminders of what being a good neighbor looks like and your responsibility to ensure that you are managing your guests. We hope has resonated and we think is seen in the results. That is what we’re contributing to. The initial spike is really a citywide cold weather thing.

And then the improvement that we saw on Q1, we do attribute to us working more closely with the partners in addition to reinforcing certain messaging. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you and through you. It talks about the primary goal being to stabilize complex tendencies by supporting tenants to remain housed where possible.

It’s a housing stability first eviction as a last resort. I’m just wondering why the safety of the residents in the building that aren’t the more complex ones and the neighborhood isn’t the top priority. Thank you, I got a mistake, Indita. Through the chair, they are equal priorities for us.

Stabilizing the tendencies, we believe is possible and we believe that working through with the tenants and our partners, that goal is in parallel as we work through the safety of the building and the community is equal to us. And so that’s really the approach that we’re describing in this transition period. As we have a window, we’re opening the conversation to the system, right, working with city partners, city administration and our partners. We’re trying to establish off-ramps for individuals who may be better supported in alternate housing, which is now really for the first time available to us as a tool, as we have more supportive housing and other types of housing online.

We are doing our best to take a balanced approach with dignity for tendencies while being extremely focused on that community safety piece. The goal is that over a period of time, both are stabilized, and that is the approach that we’ve been taking. Councillor Stevenson. Okay, thank you.

On the next page it talks, it says that as part of the ongoing implementation, RTA line processes may be advanced in the upcoming quarter. We’re appropriate to address unresolved high risk situations. Can you tell me more about that? Thank you, I got a Mr.

Gandita. Through the chair. So we do have some tools available to us that in terms of enforcement, a reassures as a way, obviously, that we mentioned in the report initially that we are progressing with. I think the piece that I hope is captured here today is that there are some arrears challenges with complex tendencies and some complex tendencies don’t have arrears challenges.

We are really trying to take an approach that does stabilize sentences, protects community safety and wellbeing. We are just having our initial conversation. So in January is when we started to communicate around this framework that we are trying to work through. We are trying to let the process take time.

We’re hoping that for some individuals that there may be an opportunity for them to have an off-ramp that is more aligned with maybe we’ll create some housing stability and wellness pieces, and these different pieces take a little bit of time. So we’re trying to allow the system to do its work while we are organizing ourselves to prioritize those who would move forward in the LTB process. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you.

One last question was around the, it talked about there was some difficulties moving people into the support of housing and highly supportive housing. Could we hear more about that? Thank you. I’ll go to Mr.

Gendeda. Through the chair, that piece isn’t led by LMCH . We put forward through the framework or recommendation to our city partners on those who we felt based on a multitude of factors would benefit most for this opportunity to potentially be transitioned. Those conversations with the tenants and the partners are not held by LMCH.

We are the property managers, we are the landlords, and so that would be out of scope for what is within our obligation. Thank you, Mr. Dickens. Thank you and through you, Chair.

Those conversations are absolutely ongoing between the housing provider and the supportive housing providers looking at program capacity. So who has vacancy in supportive housing spaces? Are there any issues or barriers that emerge in terms of the tenant actually wishing to do that? We can’t force people.

We can’t come into baseline and say, We’ve deemed that you should be in support of housing out you go. There is an element of trying to coax convince, demonstrate the effectiveness and value of moving into a different housing type, where it’s fully staffed with lots of supports. And so we are still doing that work through the support of housing providers and their assessments of the tenants as well as working directly with the tenants. Councillor Stevenson.

Thank you very much. I’ll move to the newcomer strategy. It says that Strategic Priority 1 is attraction, that there was a digital marketing campaign launched throughout 2025, promoting London as an ideal destination, attracting secondary migration. Could I just hear more about that?

Thank you. I’ll go to Mr. Tao whenever he’s available. Thank you for joining us.

Please go ahead. Thank you. And through you Madam Chair, the like campaign was launched last year throughout the calendar year to attracting the secondary migrant to London and Harry because of the cuts to direct migration from overseas to Canada while there’s still some foreign labor shortages in the area that we need to address. So this is part of the Beggar Attraction Campaign that is tied to the new commercial strategy.

Councillor Stevenson. Thank you. And maybe a bit more about the key economic sectors that are being focused on? Yes.

And thank you. Through you, Madam Chair, the key economic sectors are manufacturing, construction, IT and healthcare and life sciences . Those are the key sectors that we focus on in the campaign. Councillor Stevenson.

Thank you. And another follow-up. How is the high unemployment rate that we are seeing now highest in the country? How does that impact this at all?

Mr. Toh. Thank you. And so the new commercial strategy work in concert with other cities approved initiative to address the full range labor force needs including high skill, fiscal and low skills.

So while without down playing the significance of the unemployment rate, there are still chronic shortages in key sectors that we still need to address because general labour availability does not necessarily translate into off shift or specialised skills availability in the area. Thank you. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you.

And it mentions that it’s funded within existing resources, but I can’t remember Member, what is the budget for the newcomer strategy? Thank you, and the budget is spent on the immigration services, but I will have to go back and double check the exact amount. Thank you, and if you could provide that in between now and council, if that’s possible. Thank you.

Councilor Stevenson. Thank you. For the Municipal Compliance Services, it mentions that at the stage, civic administration can’t determine the preferred solution implementation approach cost timeline or operational impact until council has provided direction on the scope and the nature of public disclosure to be authorized into the policy and I just wondered does this 30 second up of that for them to go forward because we’re authorizing a business case but I I am not seeing exactly where we’re providing direction or scope unless it’s included in that by-law amendment. Thank you and through the chair yes that’s exactly at counselor it’s it’s it’s provided within that by-law amendment.

So if that by-law amendment is passed, then we can look to the next steps would be, which would be the strategic planning process. Councilor, you’ve got 17 seconds. Okay, thanks. The last one is just about it being, it’s meant to shift from a blanket non-disclosure approach to a more transparent approach.

And it refers to 2023 and previously, how long have we had this blanket non-disclosure approach? Was that a change in recent times? Thank you, I’ve got Ms. Pfeffer, and that’s your time.

Councilor, you have three seconds remaining, but if you want to try to squeeze something in, okay, I’ve got a misstepher. Through the chair, this policy has been in effect since 2023, that’s why that time was listed as when we first began operating under that policy. Thank you, next speaker on my list is Councill or Pribble. Thank you, Chair, and I’m gonna start with 2.3, and I’m gonna thank the staff because when I look at that report, it’s truly meaningful, conceptual with a vision, and I certainly hope the next council will support it to multi-year budget and it’s also very meaningful because honestly I don’t think that there is one single week that I wouldn ‘t have at least one call, one comment, one text regarding asking for additional information and I think we all of us here on this side we do understand regarding the privacy but on the other hand we believe that there is some additional information that we could be sharing and this is the step forward so thank you very much to you and your entire team very positive and as I said the only thing would be for me would be timeline because I would love if we could introduce it tomorrow.

Two-point regarding 2.6. I do have a question and it’s the follow-up on the baseline. And when I look at the number of units and number of 30-plus areas, it was kind of worrying me as well when I read that. Then when it was stated kind of potentially what it could before, then it’s kind of some potentially minor items, minor things, minor reasons.

Could you provide us? Because as I said, this actually in the report looks more negative, quite negative, 30-plus just in three months. Could you provide us or share with us before the Council with additional information what these 30-plus are or potentially amounts or reasoning? Are you able to share more information?

Mr. Candida. Through the chair. So we provided a most recent in time of the data report, but if we’re looking at last quarter, when we were at 26 units, so close enough, I think.

So four were related to chargeback. Two just received outstanding balance reminders, which would mean it’d be a very recent type of a year. Someone already came forward to for a repayment plan in 19 were issued and fours. Councillor Preble.

Okay, thank you for that. That certainly is very much helpful. So thank you for providing that. And I do know that these reports are not, they weren’t completed yesterday, but any additional information or the most current one would be helpful.

So we are more at peace. So we don’t see these kind of potentially huge numbers behind and huge, you know, since the beginning, et cetera. So thank you for that clarification. 2.10.

I really want to highlight this impact report, what a great report and how it again accudes to the entire team because I love in these plans and in these reports they come to the big picture and strategic plan. So when I look at the pie chart, when I look at the percentages and our areas of focus, we are , and as I always say, we can always be better, we can deliver more, absolutely. But when I look at the percentages, how it fits into our implementation plan, it absolutely makes sense on the corporate level. So thank you for that, because I always look at these reports, are they fitting into our strategic plan implementation plan?

The answer for this one is yes. And I love not just the organizations, the feedback from the parents, the feedback from the participants, much more beneficial, don’t get me around the organizations that receive it. I do want their feedback as well, but when we go directly to the source, it’s even much more meaningful. So thank you for that.

And I believe I hope I didn’t miss anything. But thank you. Thank you. Looking for other speakers.

Okay. Seeing none, Councilor Provost, can you take the chair? I have the chair and I recognize Council Raman. Thank you.

I wanted to start on item 2.1, the London newcomer strategy. First, I want to thank staff for the report. I really appreciate the update and the welcoming Francophone community initiative that’s so so outlined. I just wanted to follow up on the new camera strategy and just ask a question around participation of those with lived experience.

So I know that we have a panel it’s mentioned in the report. We have chairs that have been involved for quite some time. I’m just wondering how does lived experience enter into the discussion? Thank you.

And we have four new camera champions with lived experience on a panel and they are selected through community recommendation and also based on the portfolio and their expertise in different area to make sure there’s a meaningful contribution and representative voices on a panel that represent newcomers. Thank you. Yes, I’m grateful for the work of the committee and it’s wonderful to see the involvement that we have. One of the things I hear quite often is around some of the significant and challenges faced by newcomers to our community, especially around employment.

And the fact that they feel like the strategies that they’re presented with and the strategies that they’re trying aren’t working for them. And so they’re looking for new ways to engage and find opportunity. And so I’m pleased to see that we continue to update our programs, that we continue to look for new ways to engage folks. What I’d like to see about some of our programming as it’s been evolving and changing is that we’ve been moving it around the city.

So we’ve had some programming out at South London Community Center. We’ve had it at Fanshawe College, and we’ve had it at other locations, as well as the resources that we have available throughout the community, through our resource centers, through our libraries and other partners. So I think that that’s great and very helpful. I’m very pleased to see that we continue to work on these strategies, but I agree that there’s a newer realization around our unemployment rate that we have to take into consideration and how that may affect newcomer communities differently.

So I’m just wondering if you can speak to that a bit more. Going to the staff. Thank you, and through you, we do recognize the unemployment rate is impacting almost everyone, including the newcomers population in the city. And we do recognize there’s a growing trend that because of the unemployment rate, more and more newcomers have been pushed to entrepreneurship.

So there have been some work dedicated to this area to ensure that they can succeed if they decide to choose on the entrepreneurial venture. And there’s something that will continue to work on with community partners. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor, follow?

Thank you. on to 2.2. Very pleased to see the tree strategy supportive of looking at the feasibility of this nursery. 2.3.

I want to thank staff for the compliance service policy update. I do think the update will be meaningful and it will require some business process changes in not just the counselor’s office but in service London and elsewhere. I am hopeful that we can smooth that out as we we go forward. I know for instance, oftentimes when someone contacts the Councillor’s office, we have kind of some standard language that we say around this policy that will need to be tweaked and updated.

Now that we’re able to give address disclosure information, so I’m pleased to see that. And I know with these types of updates, I just want to get some clarity around if somebody filed a bylaw complaint, let’s say before the date of this policy, does that mean they’re not eligible for the address disclosure information. It doesn’t only apply after the date that the policy takes effect. Thank you going through the staff.

For the presiding officer, I would definitely want to get a legal opinion on that. I don’t feel comfortable saying that it would or wouldn’t apply at this point in time, but I could come back to you before counsel with that answer. Thank you . Thank you.

That would be very helpful. Because I know I have a number of probably everybody does has a list of outstanding complaints that people would like more information on with respect to kind of the summary of what other municipalities are doing. I’m really thankful for the information on Brampton and Toronto and their standards and what they’re using as disclosures to the public. I really do think Bram pton’s approach and the tool they’re using is quite robust and I’d like to see us do that so I’m hoping that future council supports a strategy that enables that.

In the meantime though, I’m just wondering what will the public be able to ask of city staff in terms of an update on any of these types of disclosure information that would be in something similar to the Brampton system? And with this update and policy should we pass it, what kind of information can the public request of staff? going through the staff? Thank you and through the presiding officers so much like the Councill or’s offices receive complaints about a lack of information coming back in relation to service requests we also receive similar complaints from complainants who have filed a service request and are left wondering what’s become of that service request.

This is going to come with some growing pains admittedly and we will have to work through a process to identify what the best or who the best person is to contact to enable that information sharing piece until we explore some of these digital tools during the strategic planning Process, but we can commit to having something identified so that they can access that information and they would be able to access the information and receive the same information as the Councillors are able to receive that Doesn’t change so the members of the public to answer your question directly would be able to get information related to the status of their complaint and and any outcomes as a result of an investigation conducted. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you. So, would that look like they just would email the by-law office, they would provide the date and the address for the particular complaint, and then they would receive the information back?

I’m going back to the staff. Thank you, through you. It could look like that, yes. I think it would make more sense to have a central or a defined process in place where by their emailing one specific email address to obtain that information instead of individual staff members.

But certainly that process will be identified going forward. Thank you, Council. Thank you, that’s very helpful. I wanna thank staff for the report on 122 baseline as well.

It’s very much appreciated to get this level of detail in this report and continue the discussion. I’m glad to see that we’ll get a report back in Q 4 2020, or there will be a report back in Q4 2026. And lastly, I just want to thank staff for the community with the update from getting the time, sorry, with community updates. Thank you.

Glad to see community grants moving forward. Really appreciate the level of detail and the participant numbers included. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor.

We’re returning to chair. And I do have one full up question for our staff. Thank you. Thank you.

I’ll go to Councillor Pribble. Go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And if I can have on the 2.1 the newcomer strategy, we talked and it was mentioned the economic sectors. They are really matching the ones with LEDC. And I just want to ask if we can fall in terms of the sectors, newcomers, same as LEDC. How is our cooperation coordination with LEDC in terms of these in various initiatives?

Thank you. I’ve got a Mr. Chair. Thank you.

And through you, so LEDC is part of the membership on the NUNDE NUNDE NUNDE NUNDE NUN DE first report and they do have regular input to help us navigate and understand the trends in the local workforce issues, including how to better attract newcomers to address some of the chronic shortages in key sectors, especially in those economic key sectors in London area. Thank you. Councillor Preble. Okay, so which is great in terms of the concept and strategy and then how specific initiatives Are they still involved on the kind of what I call ground level or is it really gone or involved on the ground level initiatives?

Thank you, Agandam’s channel. Thank you and through you Madam Chair. So there are multiple layers in the involvement and we do have some partnership with LED CU especially and with Small Business Center in helping newcomers entrepreneurs to set up their businesses. And this is one of the few examples of how we work together.

So depending on the areas of focus we may switch and adjust >> Thank you very much, no more questions. >> Okay, thank you. I’ll look for any final speakers on these items under consent. Okay, seeing none, we will open the vote on everything but 2.7 and 2.9.

Councillor Hopkins votes yes. >> Opposing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. >> Thank you. That moves us on to item 3.1, which is our scheduled item.

We have first the fifth report of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory committee where we have a delegation from Mr. Sam uels. Mr. Samuels, excuse me, I’ll invite you to the microphone.

Thank you very much and you have five minutes. Welcome. Good afternoon Councillors, staff, community folks here and watching online. My name is Brendan Samuels and I’m here today as a member of the Environmental Stewardship and Action Community Advisory Committee.

I led the working groups that developed the reports attached to your agenda. I realize it’s a lot of content so I wanted to be here today to try and help break it down. Not given a lot of time to talk about these , I’m going to try and be brief. And if you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer them afterwards.

I just want to state clearly for the record why we’re providing these reports. We are a volunteer community advisory committee that serves as the discretion of counsel. We do not provide direction. What we hope to see is for our report to be received and discussed by your committee, and we would, of course, look to counsel to provide for the direction as you see fit.

Our first report begins on page three of the attachment to your agenda. This is relating to proactive measures to help limit the spread of invasive species of plants and animals associated with the horticulture and pet trades in London. If you want a great example of this, you can step behind City Hall and I just pulled out a long strand of English Ivy, which has formed a carpet and took taking over all of the garden beds back there. In summary, we suggest the city explore how it can use business licensing to ensure consumers are provided with information about purchasing specific invasive species that can cause significant environmental and property damage.

We believe this cost-saving measure could be set up in a way that would pay for itself in terms of recouping costs, and our report suggests using mechanisms that are already present in the business licensing by-law schedules for pet shops and businesses selling fireworks. We hope to continue our productive dialogue with the staff and support them to develop information materials to be provided to consumers by licensed businesses. Again, we already have a flyer just like this in every shop selling fireworks which looks like this and can be downloaded by the vendors from the city’s website. When our committee previously collaborated with staff to update the yard and lot maintenance by-law, we provided technical guidance on selecting specific prohibited plants now listed under a by-law schedule.

Our second report relates to the transition of the blue box recycling program that started in January and some concerns we’re bringing from community for for your attention. The current program seems to be facing some friction locally as Londoners are not all aware of the changes, such as the expanded types of materials now accepted in their blue box and what cannot be recycled. We’re not sure about how residents are receiving communication from circular materials or Miller Waste about sorting, and we believe that the rollout of communication has been uneven. We suggest the city collects additional feedback from Londoners about recycling issues they are experiencing, while also appropriately referring them to the program provider.

For instance, if you visit the service London portal, there’s already buttons for green bin and garbage , but nothing referring people for recycling. Because the city has longstanding communication channels used for communicating with residents about waste , we think it would be worthwhile to reach out to the new blue box provider and ask them how the city can collaborate to support their communication efforts locally. While this is no longer the city’s responsibility , uptake of the program is still relevant to our environmental goals like reducing waste sent to landfill. Our third and final report responds to Council’s request for feedback on rat infestations and property standards.

We are generally supportive of the staff recommendation. I’m gonna briefly highlight a few areas where our report provides guidance beyond the staff report. People need to know how to use waste facilities correctly, how to identify non-compliance with property standards and how to report issues to the city. For this reason, our committee has produced information stickers like these, Service London, and this one says help keep wildlife out, which helps to alert people to how their behavior can influence the risks of pests and buildings, and to orient people to the service London portal .

We think dumpsters in the city should be better labeled, or at the very least, municipal compliance should be able to install a label where a waste container is contravening a by-law. Second, if a waste facility like a dumpster is deficient, say because it’s missing a lid, or because it’s too small to accommodate the volume of waste being produced by the users, We believe municipal compliance should have the option to compel the owner to increase the volume or quantity of their waste containers. If it makes sense for an enclosure to be installed around the waste containers to prevent animals from getting in or litter from escaping, municipal compliance should have the option to compel the owner to install an enclosure. It’s unclear from reading the draft by-law if that mechanism exists.

Lastly, we suggest the city explore discontinuing collection of loose garbage bags for curbside pick-ups. - 30 seconds. Other cities like Kitchener Waterlow, Kingston, Barrie use waste carts with lids. In summary, these three reports share a common thread.

We believe Londoners want to make responsible choices and take care of the environment. But to do so, they need to be provided with the right information in the right places at the right times, whether that’s at a garden center, at their curb, or when depositing garbage and waste facility. We suggest measures the city could take to improve public awareness, reduce risks, and ultimately lower costs to taxpayers. Thank you.

Thank you. Next, we will deal with the request for delegation status. So I look for a mover and a seconder, Councillor Trossa, Councillor Hopkins, and we will open that request. Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero.

Thank you, I’ll invite Ms. Blake Rose to the microphone. Welcome, you have five minutes, go ahead. Hi, thank you all for the opportunity to speak today.

My name is Mary Blake Rose, and I live in Ward 7, here in London. And I am here to offer a non-expert opinion on a bit of what Dr. Samuel just talked about. But so I’m here basically as somebody who had the opportunity to buy a property not quite three years ago.

And so in those not quite three years, I’ve been doing a lot of learning because there’s just a lot of information that goes with being a property owner. And some of the learning I’ve been doing has to do with taking care of the yard and planting things and removing things that maybe I didn’t want planted there. And as I think you can see from the letters that have been submitted with regard to with the community advisory committee submitted, I think that you can see that numerous property owners also have experience with plants on their property that maybe they didn’t plant and that are just there for the foreseeable future. So in my personal experience, as I said, I’ve been doing a lot of learning, and I love that learning process, but there is a lot of information, and I think that people have the best of intentions, but sometimes maybe they purchase a plant and don’t really know what it is, but it was recommended or it looked nice, and then it creates problems for them, or it creates problems for neighbors, or it creates problems in an environmentally significant area.

And so I wrote in as did numerous other people about goutweed or agapodium protograria, which is an invasive species that can be found in numerous locations in our city. And in my case, I believe that my goutweed patch, which I share with at least five other neighbors, I believe it was, I believe it originates from an ornamental patch that had been planted numerous years ago, probably by a previous owner of a neighbor’s property. And I don’t hold that against that person. I think that they planted something either because they needed something that would grow under a maple tree or they liked the way it looked or somebody recommended it.

You know, people buy plants for many reasons, but well, I will have goutweed for the foreseeable future because as I mentioned under a maple tree, I could try digging it out, but the roots are mixed up with maple roots. So mostly I have the choice between tall goutweed or short goutweed under that tree. And I can live with that. I can continue to pull and/or weed whack the goutweed and keep it at least— at least I can minorly annoy it and try to keep it vaguely under control and keep it from flowering, keep it from spreading more than it already has.

But there’s also— there’s people who maybe have English Ivy that’s taken over their entire yard or that’s growing up a wall or that’s destroying a shed they have. I think that invasive plant species do affect our ability to use our properties, in addition to, of course, the fact that they create all kinds of problems when they get into environmentally significant areas. And so I think that that education piece is really important, because as I said, I believe that people have the best of intentions , but there’s just a lot to know in the world, and we don’t all know everything. And so using business licensing to help to provide information to people at point of sale about a plant they may want to purchase or a pet that they may want to purchase, I think is a really powerful tool.

And so I support the recommendations of the Community Advisory Committee and I support the motion from Councillors, Troso and Ferrera. And thank you all for your time. Thank you. Okay, that takes us back to the motion from Councillors Troso and Ferreira, who would like to introduce the motion.

Councillor Troso, go ahead. Yes, thank you very much and through the chair, I wanna start by thanking the advisory committee. It was a very thorough, well-researched, evidence-based report. I’m happy to accept it.

And I’m really pleased that from what I’m hearing , you were working closely with staff on this. I’m not hearing any significant pushback on this. And while there are more onerous regulatory approaches that could be taken , I think that that would raise some legal issues. I would look at the what the town of Halton Hills .

Sorry, Councillor, do you wanna introduce your motion and then you can speak to it? That’s a good idea, thank you. Yes, so this was submitted in the, This is in your added agenda packet, and it is at page 287. And I just want to, I’m not gonna read the whole thing because this text is largely taken from the material in the report.

Okay, so you’re asking for the motion. So you’re putting your motion on the floor? Yes. - Thank you.

And I will look— - That civic administration be directed at what’s in bold there. Wonderful. - Yes. Thank you.

And I have a seconder in Councilor Farira, thank you. and Councillor Trost, I would like to speak to your motion. I think I’m going to let the report and the recitals in the pre-emble in my motion speak for itself. I’d be very happy to take any questions or try to deal with any concerns that people have .

I want to, first of all, clarify once again that this is something that Steph would find do able and acceptable within the timeframe. Actually, let me just clear that up with staff first. Thank you, I’ll go to Ms. Pepper.

Thank you, and through you, I would just like to seek some clarification on the timeline, actually. I didn’t see the timeline. I think through the chair, as in many other requests for a staff report back , by not putting a timeframe in, my intention was to defer that to you. This committee gives you an exceptionally heavy workload, My preference would be as soon as possible.

If you’d like me to say next meeting, I’ll say that. But I know that how much time do you think you need on this realistically? Thank you, I’ve got to Ms. Tepper.

Thank you and through you. Just in the context of the other work that we currently have, I’d really like to take some time to look at this properly and have it ready to go for the next growing season. So ideally speaking, that would align with early 2027. Councillor Trossa.

That is fine with me. I would ask the seconder. And I think that the proponents of this at the advisory committee are really looking towards how we’re gonna deal with this prospect ively. So the next growing season would be perfect.

Thank you. Do you need something in the motion to clarify that? Or can we just sort of leave that with you? Thank you, I’m Ms.

Pfeffer. Through you, Chair. Could you please repeat that? Or could you have him please repeat that question ?

Councillor Joceau, do you wanna clarify? Yes, would you like an amendment to the motion or can we leave what you just said with you? Ms. Pfeffer, thank you and through you.

There’s no need for an amendment in relation to the timeline. Okay, thank you, Councillor Joceau. Okay, well, I’ll yield to other Councillors for now. Thank you, I’ll go to Councillor Ferra.

Thanks, Chair. Thanks to Councillor Joceau for moving this motion. I’m happy to second it. I just wanted to say to the report the environmental stewardship and action advisory committee.

I thought it was very thorough. It was very, very well written and I want to say a special thank you to Dr. Samuels. You’re very engaged.

One of the most engaged Londoners is that I know and you are here quite often and you are informing us and educating us quite often and I think the work that you do is amazing also to the delegate Ms. Blake Rose. Thank you for coming out and telling us your experience and I agree exactly with everything that you’re saying. People have the best intentions but they may not necessarily know what it is that they’re buying.

For myself as a homeowner, I have English Ivy all over the yard and it was growing up the house and doing a lot of things to the yard and it’s probably something that is going to forever be there. I just know that combating something like like that is going to be a difficult thing. And that speaks to the whole, I guess, intent of the report and the motion that Councilor Trussell and I have brought. And that is really, it’s about prevention.

Prevention is the most effective solution. It’s the most effective solution environmentally speaking and cost effectively speaking as well. Once an invasive species spreads, management is exponentially more expensive than that preventative measure. So I think just the recommendation coming in the report and the motion that we’re moving here today when it comes to requiring the business license and I really appreciate how there’s a potential cost recovery framework that can be embedded here, but also providing that education for individuals who are buying somewhat invasive species, whether it’s a plant or an animal, to have that information provided alongside that, I think is a really good step forward and it’s a really good move.

So I like how we’re focusing on the preventative side and not being reactive. That’s something that I’m always trying to push here at council being preventative, being proactive rather than reactive. So I’m hoping that we can get support from committee and from council moving forward. And I think this is a really good approach.

I’d like to see more preventative proactive approaches for other items too, but I will yield to committee and see what committee has to say. But I appreciate the work, so thank you very much . Thank you. have Councilor Hopkins next, and then I will turn the chair over to Councilor Pervall.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I’d like to address the advisory group. Dr. Samuels, thank you so much for being here with us.

And thanks for the advisory group’s work on three main areas, the blue box, the recommendations on how we can do a better job educating the community, and as well as rat infestation. Speaking to the invasive species though, thanks again for the suggestions in your report. On the motion, it is a report back. I’m glad to see that there are no timelines on this one.

I think we have to kind of get it right a little bit and allow staff to get the information that we need. I do think it is an issue, not only prevention like Councillor Ferreira spoke to, but I think again, it’s that education piece. Good friend of mine gave me beautiful plant 15 years ago and I am still tackling that plant in my yard. It hasn’t interfered in our friendship, but there have been moments.

But again, it reminded me she didn’t know, I didn’t know and how do you get rid of. Some plants are very, very difficult to get rid of. I see a lot of dumping in our parks and in our ES As. In our conservation areas, people want to get rid of these plants and dumping is a really great way to get rid of it, but guess what?

It starts to grow. And it’s an issue that we should try to tackle, educate, and understand and maybe this through the licensing, it is an opportunity to do that. So for now, I am supported of it going through. And I think as a city, we should be at least trying to do a better job and looking at what other cities are doing.

So thanks again for having this conversation here at committee. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, I was here in the chair to Councilor Pervall.

and I recognize council around. Thank you and through you. So I wanna thank the committee for the report as well. Very helpful to have so much background on this item.

And in looking at the report, I saw lots of examples for the native species conversation around plants. But I’m just wondering, or sorry, invasive species, sorry, conversation around plants. But I didn’t see as much around animals and pet shops. I see some references to goldfish, but I’m just wondering how that is determined, what’s an invasive species for a pet?

And is that determined province-wide? Is it something where there might be some? For instance, determination locally. We’re talking about rats at the same meeting.

Some people keep rats as pets. Are they considered an invasive species on the pet side? I’m just wondering if somebody can clarify with me other than goldfish. What other pets are we talking about?

Thank you and going to the staff for their feedback. Thank you and through you. We would certainly have to collaborate with community partners, ESACAC in particular, to determine what should and could be classified as an invasive species in terms of an animal. That would all be subject to commentary in the follow-up report, but I don’t have that information right now.

And I couldn’t give you a list of what would be considered to be an invasive species in terms of an animal. Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, yeah, in the report from the committee, I only see reference to 2023 discussions on gold fish. So at this time, I’m not sure how and what we would get back in the report back on animal species.

My question would be because the motion directs that a by-law come back and a report back. So I’m just not wanting to catch folks off guard because we’re having a discussion mostly about invasive plants, but yet at the same time it includes plants and animals that could come back in a by-law. So I’m just wondering what would be kind of the staging. I know we’d still have a public participation meeting when it, as it relates to this, but folks may not realize that we’re also talking about invasive species that have to do with things like goldfish.

Thinking, going through stuff? Yes, that’s a, sorry, through you, that is a concern. We would definitely have to look at what approach we’re going to take in terms of whether we’re focusing only on invasive species of plants or whether we ‘re going to look at invasive species in relation to pets. That would be something that our policy team would have to sit down and really parse out.

Thank you, Councillor. Thank you, and through you, and also with the invasive species that has to do with plants, those could be sold at pet stores as well, right? like anything to do with the aquarium or something of that sort. So how comprehensive of a list and outside of, let’s say, our environmental stewardship committee, where else would you go to get that information?

Going to the staff, please go ahead. Thank you and through you. So we would look to our internal partners as well in Parks and Forestry, natural heritage staff, the Upper Thames Conservation Authority as well. And then, of course, there are existing provincial and federal lists that we would have to reference as well.

Thank you, Councillor. Thank you and through you. So that tends to be like a taller order. And I know that that’s probably a lot more work.

I understand we’re not giving a timeline. I just don’t want staff to feel that they have to come back with a tight timeline with so many different sources to connect with. Really thankful for the report. I’d be more inclined to support the invasive plant species this time and separate the two in the by-law discussion just so that we could get more clarity around the animal species first so that I can better understand what we’re looking at.

I see the list for Ontario for pets that are considered invasive species but I’m not sure because it’s not all reference there what we’re talking about so that’s just my thoughts on it at this time. Thank you. I didn’t hear any questions. I think those were comments.

So thank you and returning the chair back to you. Thank you. I have the chair. And I saw a couple of hands go up.

So Councillor Trostle, did you have your hand up? Sorry. And then I have Councillor Ferreira and then I have Deputy Mayor Lewis as well. Thank you.

You’re welcome. I think I’ll just, for the only thing I would say with respect to your comments is, I just want to leave it with staff to write the report that they want to write. If they want to write a report saying that this opens up, whole another series of issues that’s going to delay our report on the plans, I’d be very happy to get them back. But I’d like to at least give them the chance to talk about that from the literature that I’ve looked at and from what I take it to report.

Really, it’s the goldfish that are the problem. I’m not sure how much research that’s going to take. I don’t want to hold this up, but I will— I would prefer to just leave it with staff to tell us what they think about whether this is too much scope for one report. Thank you.

I’ll go to Council for our next and then I have Deputy Mayor Lewis. Thank you, Chair. Just to maybe try to answer some of your questions, like I do understand, I do see that the report is referring to the red eared slider turtles. And those are the two kind of main ones between the goldfish and those.

And I would also point out, in addition to the Ontario’s invasive species lists, the Upper Thames Conservation Authority has a very comprehensive list of animal species as well. so that work wouldn’t be starting from scratch. Staff would be able to go to those lists that have already been published and the upper times conservation lists are directly related to this report. Thank you.

I will go to Deputy Mayor Lewis, go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. I will say that I certainly, especially on the invasive species plants, very supportive of where it looks like we might be going on this. I know others have shared their stories For me, it’s Perry Winkel.

I have been pulling that stuff out of the ground at my house since the day I moved in. Very difficult to manage. And I think having some educational material. And I think that responsible greenhouses and plant sellers would be more than open to having information available to people as well .

So supportive of that, I do share the chair’s concern a little bit about perhaps separating the two. Although I hear Councilor Trussow and Councilor Ferreira’s comments about the fact that there are some information out there, staff wouldn’t be starting from scratch. So I will say I’m sort of with Councillor Truss, I want, I’m okay if staff want to say do a report A and then a report B later and separate the two. I do think it’s a lot for one report, but I’m flexible on this.

I do, I’m very supportive of the native species or the invasive species of plants being, you know , better informed for the public and trying to restrict people putting those out ‘cause a tremendous frustrations. I will also say, coming out of the advisory committee’s report, I’m very supportive of well as well about the idea of requiring garbage that’s going to the curb to be in containers. I think that that is part of our issue right now. The Councilor McAllister has raised with rats, but I think there’s other problem animals, skunks and raccoons among them that are attracted to garbage is put out in just a plastic bag for collection.

I know other municipalities do have requirements that actually say you have to put it out in the container. We don’t accept loose bags. So I appreciate the advisory committee raising that. And I think that works a further discussion from us as well.

Thank you. I didn’t hear any questions, so just comments. So I will look for other speakers on this item. Okay, seeing no other speakers, what’s in front of us right now is the motion from Councillor Shossow and Councillor Ferrera, as well as the above-not ed report be received, and then it includes all the communication that we received on this item as well.

Okay, Councillor Troso. That’s what’s on page 288 with the addition of the being noted in the list, ‘cause I can’t see the report. Yeah, and receiving that report, yeah. Okay, with that, I will open the vote.

closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero . Thank you. We will move back to item 2.7. That was from our consent agenda.

That is the award of the NRFP 2025 to 48 municipal lands for affordable housing at 1958 Duluth Crescent, block six. So I had a request to pull this item. I don’t know if I have a mover and seconder on this item to begin with. I have Councilor Ferreira to move it.

Do I have a seconder? Councilor Hopkins. Okay, with that, we’ll begin discussion and I will go to Councilor Perbal. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for my colleagues to bring this, or to supporting this on the floor .

I did wanna place this out because the clause C which states be directed to work with the proponent to submit necessary planning act application to support an increase in density from 71, to 107 units per hectare, I will not be supporting. And what I’m gonna do is I’m gonna give now, if you can please go to the Deputy Mayor, Luis, please. Thank you. And I have Deputy Mayor, Luis, next, go ahead.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So I appreciate Councilor Pribble pulling this. I do have a real concern with Clause C and the applicant seeking increased density here. As it is, they’re proposing moving the height, the apartment building from three stories to four stories.

I understand from staff that 12 meters still sits within the zoning bylaws that we approved in the draft plan of subdivision. But that’s why I have an issue with this is we have a draft plan of subdivision. The proponent knew exactly what the expectations were for an application to command to develop this block. We already, and I support it, pushing the density a little bit higher on block five, where Wostell has come in to do a seniors bill project and we moved from four stories to five stories to accommodate increased density there.

I’m concerned that we continue to see throughout this plan of subdivision. Every time an application comes forward, there’s a push for increased height and density on things. There’s another block, block seven, that allows for greater height density if the proponent wants to apply for that block instead. There are other blocks with lower density.

I really think that we need to be keeping to the plan of subdivision that this council proved for this school zone rep urposing of the site. I also am against the increased density for a very specific reason and it comes back to the discussions we have around what is appropriate in terms of clustering and putting all the sort of services and everything in sort of one location. So this project on Duluth is immediately north of Trafalgar Street. If we go to the south side of Trafalgar Street, we have a considerable amount of affordable and RGI housing already.

Over 250 units, actually, through the Genesis Co-op, Talisman Woods Co-op, LMCH itself has 51 town houses that are RGI units as well as LMC duplexes on Marconi itself between Trafalgar and Noel. I’m very concerned that pushing up the density further is starting to cluster what is already a fairly significant co-location of affordable and RGI units in one part of one neighborhood in the city. I support the ask in terms of the density that was part of the plan of subdivision. I’ve supported the plan of subdivision since the beginning, but I will not be supporting another increase in density being put forward here.

And I do understand from staff as well that my other concern, this would not even come back to us. If we moved ahead with this in part C , it would actually go to the committee of adjustments not to counsel for final decision. I don’t think that that’s the way we should be handling these when we acquire school lands for redevelopment. As I said, I’ve supported the project throughout.

I worked with staff on the plan of subdivision, done considerable community consultation. There’s no community real opposition to the plan that exists, but there is considerable concern that we are seeing yet again another push on another block to increase the density further. So I’m respectfully asking Kent Committee and And we’ll be asking council to support everything , but clause C and ask the proponent, balance it to work within the plan of subdivision that was laid out for it. Thank you.

I don’t think I heard any questions in that. So I will look to other speakers for this item. Councilor Hopkins. Thank you.

I just have a couple of questions for clarification for you, Madam Chair. As it relates to clause C, we’re directing the work to work with the proponent to submit necessary planning act applications to support an increase. By supporting C, are we confirming that we are going to be increasing the units per hectare in this recommendation? Or would it just go to a landing?

I just want clarification on that. Thank you, I’ll go to Mr. Felberg. Thank you, and through you, Madam Chair.

So what the intention of clause C is to identify they will work with the proponent to submit the application. So after we follow up with the Director of Planning and Development, we’ll determine if it needs to be a minor variance or if it goes to PEC initial, our initial reviews suggested it would be a minor variance so it would go to the Committee of Adjustment. It probably would also be helpful for Council to understand that within the contribution agreement itself, in section three, it requires consent from the city to change the number of units on the property. So the development that’s been identified in the contribution agreement is two story apartment buildings having combined total of 45 units and then five three bedroom townhouses.

So if the committee of adjustment were to find in favor of that added height and density, we would need to enter into an amending agreement with balance if to change the type of development at the property. Additionally, in section six, We have some conditions which are precedent to the transfer of the property. So we won’t actually transfer the property to balance it until such time as they have received site plan approval. So again, for them to be able to add the additional density, add the additional units and create that new development, they would still need to go through that planning process.

And then only after we have that site plan approval, would we then consider transferring the property to them for the building permit and then construction? Councillor Hopkins. Yeah, so right now the contribution agreement states to two stories, nothing more. Do we really need clause C then?

Or so in other words, could we just support the contribution agreement and what’s in it and leave it up to the process? Mr. Palper. Thank you and through you Madam Chair.

So the purpose of clause C is to give council some clear idea of how they can approach the approval of this particular development. If council does not wish civic administration to explore additional height and density, not additional height, additional density, and more units on the site, then we would move forward. If they don’t, then you could make a motion to remove clause C and then we would just go forward with the concept that you actually see in the report and then what’s identified in the contribution agreement. And Councilor Lochen’s question, as well as it relates to the affordability, I understand it’s only 30% that is affordable in this development, I just want confirmation.

Mr. Palberg. Thank you, and through you Madam Chair, just looking in the report, we actually identified the number of units that that relates to. So in section 2.3, where it says potential for additional units, the very last sentence, says the new number of affordable units will increase from 15 to 29.

So that’s that 30% of the existing development to what could potentially be 40% of the new proposed development that the developer proposed in the procurement process. Councillor Hopkins, looking for other speakers. Councillor Ferrera. Thank you, Chair.

I guess coming off of Councillor Hopkins’ question. So I was looking at that section of the report as well. And it’s, I do see that going from the 15 to 29 is the reason that we are potentially looking to move towards the greater unit per hectare density. And I do see also, I was wondering if you could just kind of point out some of the types of units.

Like I see it says provide more family size units in the back to back town homes unit or the town house units. I was just wondering if you could maybe tell some details if this increased density were to be approved, what would you see in addition to the number of affordable units. What type of units are we talking about? Thank you, I’ll go to Mr.

Felberg. Thank you, and through you Madam Chair. So by adding the additional townhouse units, we’d be adding additional family size units to that. But we’ll have to go back and take a look at the specific numbers and we can get that information to a committee before council.

Councilor Ferrer. Okay, thank you. Okay, looking for other speakers, Councilor Stevenson. Thank you.

When I look at this, I’m wondering if you can tell us a little bit more about the negotiated request for a proposal and how that worked for this project. Mr. Felberg. Through you, Madam Chair.

I wonder if Councilor could provide a little bit more clarity on what are you looking for? What information are you looking for? Are you looking for the back and forth? Are you looking for the things that we talked about?

Councilor Stevenson? Yeah, the back and forth and what you guys talked about, I guess, I’m wondering, there was only two proponents and you spoke with them and this is a, It blends a competitive bidding with a structured negotiation. I know this is relatively new. So I’d just like to understand how this proponent was chosen.

Thank you and three, Madam Chair. So one of the nice things about the negotiated proposal, it does allow us flexibility for it to be able to have a conversation. So the developer can come in or the proponents can come in and they can offer different elements depending on what it is they’re specifically looking for. So in this case, through the negotiation, identified an opportunity to add more height and density.

So what we said as part of that process was we needed to understand what council’s perspective is on that before we advanced the project. In the initial procurement document, we had highlighted what the development could be, which is what you see in the contribution agreement, what I talked about before with the 50 units or the 45 in the five unit townhouse . So it really depends on what the particular proponent might want to talk about. But all elements of the development and all elements of the contribution agreement can be negotiated as part of that process.

Councillor Stevenson. Thank you. That’s helpful. And I guess so what had this one be chosen over the other one, like Mr.

Falberg? Thank you. And through Madam Chair. So one of the things that was most appealing about this project was the modern methods of construction.

So the modular build that balance it is offering. As you know, that’s a priority for the federal government and also the provincial government in building new housing and getting it up and ready and occupied faster. Councillor? Okay, thanks.

And just because this is new and I’m wanting to understand it, how is it, I don’t even know how to say this, but you negotiate different things. You choose the one that you feel is best for the city. How is the other one, is there any, how is fairness maintained, I guess? Or how is it clear so that we don’t have people who are unhappy potentially with the decision?

Mr. Felberg. Thank you and through you Madam Chair. So there is a evaluation criteria built into the RFP, very similar, and the NRFP.

It’s very similar to any other RFP that we would have. So we identify certain things that are not negot iable. They are yes, no kind of components of the proposal. And then there are other parts that are things that we can score and then negotiate.

So again, this one because of the speed and the ability to move faster was one of the key things for this particular proponent in this project. Councilor? Okay, thank you through the chair. So what I’m understanding is you have a winning person through the, or a proponent through the RFP and then you negotiate with that one to get the specifics that you want.

Mr. Palper. Thank you and through you Madam Chair. So yes, there is a priority.

So we’d negotiate with the highest scoring proponent first, but we can negotiate with all proponents through the process. Some of that is identified as part of the procurement process and in the procurement document as well. So there are various options, which is nice. It adds flexibility.

It’s not as restrictive and as closed as a traditional RFP where if certain elements are not answered, they may or may not get scored. Councillor Stevenson. Thank you and through you. I just wanted to know also about the partnership piece of this.

Is this something new or have we done this on other projects? Mr. Pelberg. Thank you and through you Madam Chair.

I assume the council you’re referring to the partnership with the city and the proponent, is that what you’re referring to? Go ahead, Mr. Felberg. Thank you, and through you, Madam Chair.

Yes, we have done this in a few other locations. So a really great recent example would be the Hyde Park Project, where we partnered with PI homes, I forget what the PI stands for, but in also Zaren, which is a nonprofit. But those are very similar process, that that was our first NRFP that we did as a city. and we’re finding that it is effective, especially in the affordable housing world, where there’s so many different variables that can change through the process.

Councillor Stevenson. Thank you. And so just to clarify in the conclusion, it says that approval of the recommendations in this report will authorize a project partnership with balance it ink, and it might be my accounting background that has me pay attention to the word partnership . And then it also says that the city helps secure construction financing, can assist with tendering and contract administration.

So that level of partnership has been done before . Mr. Falberg. Thank you, three, Madam Chair.

So a really good example would be the 18 Elm Street project. So that was formerly the HDC, but a very similar model that we’re undertaking through some of the work that we do. We partnered with the Ontario Aboriginal Housing Services. we actually took on the design of the building.

We went through site plan approval on behalf of O HS. And then when they were ready, when they had secured their financing and they were ready to move forward with the actual development and get a permit, we then transferred the land to the proponent to OHS and they undertook the construction. So it varies depending on the proponent in which partner we’re working on and how we are going to participate. But that 18 Elm Street project is a really good example of us taking things all the way through the process.

And I believe it’s actually occupied right now. The childcare center will be open in the coming months or weeks. So it’s a very exciting project. I encourage you to drive by and check it out.

Councillor Stevenson. Thank you very much for that. And through you, another follow up is, I guess when taxpayers know that we’re contributing the land, so they’re buying it for $2 and then they’re doing it. and then we’re also contributing city land, staff expertise, all that kind of things.

Why do we do that versus doing what we did at 122 baseline where it was our project? How does the city determine what’s in the best interest long-term? Mr. Pelver.

Thank you, three, Madam Chair. So in section three of the report, we try to touch on that a little bit. So the investment that we’ve made on this particular property in order to prepare and get a shovel ready is just a little over a million dollars. So the cost per unit for this particular project is about $23,000.

Now, though, we have a property or a block that has a different appraised value. So that appraised value is actually works out to closer to $68,000 a unit. So we’re adding value to the community. We’re actually going over and above what our contribution is on the roadmap by $45,000 and we’re creating that value in the community.

As far as constructing new buildings, so the baseline, Thompson and Sylvan Street projects, they were part of a federal program where the federal government was granting funding specific for construction of new buildings. A big part of that was a COVID response in making sure that there was construction happening at the time. So very different and hard, very difficult to compare apples to apples. The roadmap has given us that structure and councils endorse the shovel ready projects.

very similar dial DS where we go out, create value, and then make that available for proponents. Councillor Stevenson. I think that’s it for now, thanks. Thank you, looking for other speakers on this.

Oh, sorry, Councillor Hopkins, you had a question , go ahead. Yes, I do, Madam Chair, and I’m just also thinking how complicated all these funding formulas can be sometimes. And my question through you is just to confirm that any kind of planning application changes will be the responsibility of the applicant, not the city. Mr.

Palberg. Thank you, through you, Madam Chair. Yes, it’d be their responsibility to undertake those applications, but again, in that contribution agreement we’ve identified that the transfer of the land, so they won’t actually receive an asset until they’ve gone through site plan approval. So we’re trying to ensure that the planning approvals are done and complete prior to them moving forward.

They should also have financing in place at that point. So at that point, their banks and their finances will have a commitment from the developer to move forward with a project in a certain way under a certain development framework. And again, it’s through you, Madam Chair. It’s their responsibility.

Mr. Felberg. Through you, Madam Chair, that’s correct. Councillor, any follow up?

Okay, Councillor Ferrer, go ahead. Thank you, Chair. So just to follow up on that. So the city total amount invested for the preparation of the land and everything there was about five million from the report.

Is that correct, Mr. Palberg? Thank you, through you, Madam Chair. Yes, all of the money that the city spent to redevelop Duluth was five million dollars.

Councillor Ferrer. Okay, thank you. And then like with that investment from the city, and especially with our direction of council, we’re looking to maximize how as many affordable units as we possibly can for more affordable housing and family size units, which I have seen in the past. We have seen a lot of like bachelor and single bedroom units, and I’ve been advocating for more family size units, which is why I like this.

I understand some of the concerns that I’m hearing, but I do think that this is the best bang for our buck. Do you happen to have, and I know this is probably not a fair question, but do you have any numbers on how many single and non-family affordable units that we have approved as of date compared to the family size units. And if not, I totally get that. I can get that back later.

Mr. Palberg. Thank you. And through Madam Chair, not off top of our back of our hand top of our head, but we’ll come back and let Council know.

Council for air. Okay, thank you. Well, I would say, you know, with the city strategic plan and our goal of creating more affordable units as many as we can, especially family size units, which are needed and trying to mitigate the affordability needs of Londoners, especially when it comes to families, and stretching our dollar for as much as we can when it comes to affordable units. I would support this project as it is.

I do wanna see as many as we can. So when I see increasing the minimum from 30 to 40% of affordable units, and I see the type of units that they are, and then I see the money that we’ve invested, we have a chance here to increase that from 15 to 29. So I would hope that the committee does support this. Thank you, I’ll look for other speakers.

Councillor Stevenson, go ahead. Thank you, I forgot one. Has balance IT Inc built the building of this size before or was this the first time? Thank you, I’ll go to staff.

Thank you, and through you Madam Chair, we’ll have to get back to you with some of that information. Councillor, that’s great. If we could get it before council, that would be great. Thank you.

Any other questions on item 2.7? Okay, thank you. We will open parts A and B first, and then we’ll deal with C separately. So this is the opening of A and B.

Closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero . Thank you, we will open part C. Closing the vote, the motion carries four to one. Thank you, that takes us to item 2.9, which is the Byron Veterans Monument donation to Spring Bank Park.

Councilor Pribble is prepared to move a referral on this item. You would have received a notification today have a special meeting on this item coming up in the coming weeks, and the referral is for the purpose of us to receive additional communications and legal on this item. With that, I will look to Councillor Perbell to move that amendment, or referral, sorry. Thank you, Chair.

So I don’t know if you want me to, as stated by the Chair, I would like to refer this. And there’s a motion for us. I don’t know if you want me to read it, or if it’s, if all my colleagues can. You can read it, that’d be great.

Better on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager. Nope, sorry, second one. I see it. Did a matter of the Byron Veterans Monument donation to Springman Park as included in the staff reported June 8th, 2026 be referred to a special meeting of the community and protective services committee on June 16th, 2026.

Thank you and a seconder in Council Ferrera. Is anyone looking to discuss this matter? Okay, I’ll go to Councillor Hopkins, go ahead. Yes, definitely.

This is in the ward that I represent and maybe to the mover or the seconder, what would be the reason for the referral? Thank you. So we’re having a special meeting on this item on June 16th. Follow up question maybe through you then to staff would be, does this delay the timing for the Remembrance Day service that this memorial, which would be in November.

Thank you, I’ll go to Ms. Smith. Thank you, and through the chair, thank you for the question. This is why we’re recommending that we hold a special meeting.

We need just to make some minor adjustments to the template agreement attached to the report. So in order to do that, we’ve asked for a special meeting. So it will still go to the same council meeting that it would have gone to if the report came forward today. So it will not impact anything with respect to the project.

It’s just some minor amendments to the agreement that civic administration would like to have in place before council reviews it and improves it. Thank you, Councillor Hopkins. As long as there are no delays, I’m happy to support it. Thank you, I’ll go to Deputy Mayor Lewis.

Thank you, Madam Chair, as somebody who’s been on the committee working on this project, I will say Councillor Hopkins asked the most important question already, and I’m glad to hear that it’s gonna come to the same council staff have answered that it’s some minor technical amendments, so I’m satisfied with that. This has been a long, long in the process project . Councilor Hopkins and I have both talked multiple times with former Mayor Holder and Padre Frank Mance and others involved, eager to get this done in time for Remembrance Day this year for the people in the Byron community. So when this does come to council, because it’s coming to the same council, I’m looking forward to supporting it and moving this project forward.

Thank you, looking for any final speakers on the referral, seeing none will open the vote on that matter. Councillor Hopkins, closing the vote, the motion carries five to zero. Thank you, that concludes our deferred matters and I do not have any notice of additional business. So with that, we’ll move to confidential session of which the reasons are in the agenda.

We will deal with 6.1 and 6.2, looking for a mover and seconder, Councillor Hopkins, Councillor Trossa, thank you. With that, we’ll open the vote. Councillor Hopkins votes yes. voting the vote, the motion carries five to zero.

Thank you. We’ll just take a moment to prepare the room. Thank you, Councillor Perbville. If I may ask you to report out from closed session.

Thank you, Chair, and I would like to report that progress has been made in the 2.6.1 and 6.2 that our committee went into the camera. Thank you. Thank you. And with that, I will look for a motion to adjourn.

Okay, Councillor Joceau, Councillor Hopkins, thank you by hand, all in favor. Motion carries. Thank you, everyone. [BLANK_AUDIO]