June 16, 2026, at 11:00 AM

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The meeting was called to order at 11:00 AM.

1.   Disclosures of Pecuniary Interest

That it BE NOTED that no pecuniary interests were disclosed.

2.   Consent

None.

3.   Scheduled Items

None.

4.   Items for Direction

4.1   Byron Springbank Veterans Monument Donation to Springbank Park

2026-06-16 SR Byron Springbank Veterans Monument Donation to Springbank Park

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by Mayor J. Morgan

That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Neighbourhood and Community-Wide Services, with the concurrence of the Deputy City Manager, Finance Supports, the following actions be taken with respect to the staff report dated June 16, 2026 related to the donation of Byron Springbank Veterans Monument to the City of London for Springbank Park per Sections 4.1 a) and 4.2 b) of the City of London Donation Policy:

a)    the donation of the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument, valued up to $100,000, and cash contribution of $200,000 for installation and maintenance from the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument Consortium BE ACCEPTED; it being noted that the Monument Consortium has surpassed its fundraising goal of $400,000 estimated as the total cost of the Byron Monument Project;

b)    the proposed by-law, as appended to the above-noted staff report, BE INTRODUCED at the Municipal Council meeting to be held on June 23, 2026, to:

i)    approve the Donation Agreement, as appended to the above-noted by-law, between The Corporation of the City of London and the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument Consortium, setting out the terms and conditions of the donation of the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument and cash contribution of $200,000 for its installation and maintenance; and,

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

c)    the above-noted staff report BE RECEIVED.

Motion Passed (6 to 0)

5.   Deferred Matters/Additional Business

None.

6.   Adjournment

Moved by A. Hopkins

Seconded by C. Rahman

That the meeting BE ADJOURNED.

Motion Passed

The meeting adjourned at 11:08 AM.

Full Transcript

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

View full transcript (27 minutes)

Good morning, everyone. I’m going to call to order the 10th special meeting of, well, it’s a special meeting, but it’s also the 10th meeting of community and protective services. I’ll start with the land acknowledgement. The city of London is situated on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lenapawik, and Adawandran.

We honor and respect the history, languages, and culture of the diverse indigenous people who call this territory home. The city of London is currently home to many First Nation, Métis, and Inuit today. As representatives of the people of the city of London, we are grateful to have the opportunity to work and live in this territory. With that, we’ll move to item one, which is the disclosures of pecuniary interest.

Hey, I’m seeing none. And just so people are aware in chambers, I have Mayor Morgan and Councillor Hopkins and myself. And online, I have Councillor Pribble, Councillor Palosa, Councillor Deputy Mayor Lewis and Councillor Fer rera. Nice to see you all.

Okay, with that, we’ll move to item four as we have no consent, no scheduled items. 4.1 is the Byron Springbank Veterans Monument donation to Springbank Park. I will go to Councillor Hopkins to move this item . Move it.

Thank you and Mayor Morgan as the seconder, thank you. And with that, I’ll look for speakers. I’ll go to Councillor Hopkins. Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you to staff.

I do have a quick question through you. Madam Chair to staff on the changes to the amendment that was made here. If we can have an explanation, that would be great. Thank you, I’ll go to Ms.

Smith. Yes, thank you very much. I have some of my colleagues with me who can speak directly to that. Their report and their recommendation are the same.

There were some minor, minor amendments to the agreement and I’ll look to legal to provide additional information. Thanks. Thank you, please go ahead. Through the chair, thank you for the question.

Yeah, we learned about some details regarding the composition of the donor group, which necessitates some changes to the report proposed by-law and the agreement. Not significant changes, the substance of the documents remain the same, but some minor amendments were required to be made after learning about those details. Councillor Hopkins. Yeah, thank you for that.

And I just wanna say my thanks to the monument I want to thank them for the donation, $100,000 as well for the maintenance and it’s been a long time coming and looking forward. Hopefully this November for having our service at the at the monument. So thank you. Thank you.

I have Deputy Mayor Lewis next. Thank you, Madam Chair. And through you, I definitely want to echo Councillor Hopkins’ comments. This has been a long time coming.

I am so happy to see it here. I do want to thank staff for the work they did to bring this across the finish line. As a member of the group that has been driving this along with former mayor Holder and Padre Frank M ance, the group met again with staff on Friday. I had a great phone call with our former mayor Ed Holder last night.

And I know that the consortium is very, very happy where things have landed. Everything has worked out great. And he did ask me to pass along his personal thanks again to Jeff Bruin and some of the other staff that he’s been working with over the last two weeks to bring this to its finale. So looking forward to supporting this at council and looking forward to seeing the Remembrance Ceremonies happen in Spring Bank Park this fall in Ward 9 instead of having to close the street and walk around the fire hall, which I know for Councillor Hopkins residents causes some frustrations and some traffic movement challenges sometimes, but I know it’s going to be a great celebration when we open this, and I hope every member of council is able to attend when we have the dedication celebration.

Thank you. I have Councillor Palose next. Thank you, Madam Chair, in just following up on those words of gratitude as well, it’s been definitely a project in the making and a project of dedication and remembrance for sure. Having met with the artist Mayor Holder and the Padre to just thank you for their engagement throughout this process, making sure that it was smooth and will benefit Londoners in service of remembrance as well.

So just thank you for all those involved with this dedication and passion that they brought forward and fulfilled. Thank you. Thank you. Looking for other speakers, Mayor Morgan, go ahead.

Yes, let me add my thanks to both our staff as well as Padre Frank Vance and former Mayor Ed Holder. But the entire committee and team who have been working on this. I know NADA, who formerly of Mayor Holder’s office, currently at my office, has provided some consistent support through the entire process as well as many others. I also want to thank the donors.

People actually donated their money to make this happen. It’s great that we had the organization team for the city to provide support, but we know these projects don’t happen without generous people in our community, seeing this is a priority, recognizing our veterans and then creating new monuments that will last for generations to come. We thank them for them putting their dollars behind this and allowing it to get to this point where we can now proceed with the project with the city’s support and do the construction and then, of course, completed and then have it maintained by the city in perpetuity. So looking forward to passing this today and then at council and again thanks to all is involved in such a wonderful project and what will be a wonderful recognition of the work of many.

Thank you looking for other speakers. Okay seeing none I’m just going to make a comment from the chair. I just want to say thank you to those that have donated what a beautiful recognition this is going to be for those that made the ultimate sacrifice and veterans in our community. And I just wanted to thank staff as well because I know that this work has been going on for some time.

We’ve had a lot of great support which is wonderful from the community. And this is just an inspiring effort I think in general reminds us how the power of community can change and make our public spaces. So thank you to everybody involved and I’ll go to Miss Smith. Sorry I threw the chair.

Thank you very much. Just wanted to note that October 3rd. So if you want to put the date in your calendars now, October 3rd is when we’re looking for the dedication ceremony for the Byron Spring Bank Veterans Monument. Wonderful, and I’m so glad you have that already planned and ready to go.

Okay, with that, we will open the vote on this item. Up where I vote. Process votes, yes. Pulling the vote, the motion carries six to zero.

Thank you. We have no deferred items and no additional business that takes this item six, adjournment looking for a mover and seconder to adjourn. Councillor Hopkins and myself and with that I will ask for a hand vote all in favor of a journey. Motion carries.

Thanks everyone.