Committee of the Whole – March 10, 2026

00:02:53
Beep beep beep. Lenovo.

00:05:35
Welcome to the next generation of website creation. Wix Harmony. Get the power of AI and the freedom of drag and drop to turn your words into a website with purpose and a brand that’s entirely yours to shape. Work alongside Arya, your personal AI agent. Ask for anything from pages to sections. And there it is.

00:06:00
Then flow naturally between instant generation and pixel level control. Or just grab what you need. Hey.

00:11:15
Scale your content 10 times faster with Magic. Write. Turn one idea into tons of content tailored for any audience or platform, all in a few clicks. Save time with fast and easy content generation. Try it on Canva Pro today. The all about new event is on now at Shoppers Drug Mart with over 100 new products.

00:11:42
Find your new and get PC Optimum points, too. on now until March 27th. Heat.

00:21:07
Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat.

00:40:58
Heat. Heat. Good morning everyone. My name is

00:54:28
Maryanne me Ward, mayor of the city of Burlington and I’d like to call to order this regular meeting of Burlington City Council for Tuesday, March 10, 2026. I’ll now read a safety notice for all those in council chambers and good to see you all. In the event of an emergency, please evacuate the council chambers by the nearest exit staircase, which is located through the doorway marked with the exit symbol.

00:54:50
Once you’ve evacuated the building, please gather in civic square outside of city hall. I’ll now read a land acknowledgement. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many First Nations and the Matei. From the Anesnab to the Houdnosonyi and the Matei, our lands spanning from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Escarment are steeped in indigenous history.

00:55:15
The territory is mutually covered by the dish with one spoon Wampom belt covenant, an agreement between the Irakqua Confederacy, the Ojiway, and other allied nations to peaceibly share and care for the resources around the Great Lakes. We would like to acknowledge that the land on which we gather is part of the treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit.

00:55:40
I’ll now ask all those willing and able to stand for the singing of O Canada. Oh Canada, our home and native land. True patriot love in all of us. Come. God keep our land. Glorious and free. Oh Canada,

00:56:39
we stand on guard for thee. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee. That was great singing everyone. Thank you. Uh city of Burlington committee and council meetings are live webcast and archived on the city’s website. today’s meeting. As all meetings are being captioned digitally, so please speak clearly so that your words can be captured.

00:57:18
We do have rules of engagement in council meetings. We ask everyone to please be respectful while others are speaking and listen as you’d want to be listened to. By way of introduction of our members, our first order of business for today’s meeting is to conduct a roll call. I’ll turn it to the city clerk who will take attendance of members present and confirm quorum.

00:57:40

Thank you, Mayor Maidward. Councelor Goldbury >> present. >> Councelor Karns >> present. >> Councelor Nissan >> here. >> Councelor Stoalty >> present. >> Councelor Charman >> here. >> Councelor Bentania >> present. >> Mayor Mid Ward >> present. >> There is quorum. >> Excellent. Uh we also have staff joining today.

00:57:56
Our CEO Kurt Benson, city clerk Mike Dond, and clerk’s assistant Roxan Goss. Other staff will be introduced as their items come up during the meeting. Uh, our meeting is scheduled till noon today with a lunch break till 1:00 should we be able to complete business in that time.

00:58:16
In the event we need to continue, does anyone have a hard stop at noon? All right, we are scheduled to come back and go until 4:30 if needed. Does anyone uh have an expected early departure today? All right. Uh turning now to the approval of the agenda. Are there any requests for changes to the agenda? >> Do you want to do it? >> Sorry, my apologies.

00:58:55
I was looking for the script to uh follow along, but it doesn’t seem like council has that. Uh yes, I’d like to withdraw and it will be I’d like to withdraw the amendment that I had tabled for PWS526 which is the strategic parking framework for downtown Burlington. Thank you very much. >> Okay. Thank you uh through Mayor Midwart.

00:59:22
The effect of that amend of withdrawing that amendment withdraws the amendment that councelor Misan made uh that was an amendment to the amendment. So um the amend a amendments can still be made if the at the discussion if the item is pulled today but I just want to make that clear for council. >> Okay.

00:59:39
So the effect of that is the motion is gone. The underlying report is there and anyone wishes to bring it back they can during the item uh that or a different one. All right. Any other changes to the agenda? All right. Seeing none, I have moved by councelor Kern, seconded by councelor Golra, that we approve

01:00:00
the agenda with that one change and I’ll turn to the city clerk for the recorded vote. >> Councelor Gre >> support. >> Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentania >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support.

01:00:17

That’s seven in favor. >> And that does carry. Turning now to declarations of interest. We do have one uh pre-irculated declaration of interest. That’s councelor Golbrath who’s declared a pecuniary interest in item 15.1 city land for affordable housing DGM 1126 and item 15.2 real estate matter declaring intent to lease water down road properties LLS 1626.

01:00:44
Are there any other declarations of cuniary interest? All right, seeing none, we do have one proclamation for World Primary Immuno Deficiency Week, which is April 22nd to 29, 2026. And we do have a number of peer lightings. April 4 lit purple for National Dental Hygienist Week. April 7 lit green for green shirt day.

01:01:09
April 11 lit medium blue for Spark the Night, World Parkinson’s Day. April 13, lit blue and orange for functional neurological disorder awareness day. April 15, lit indigo blue for International Biomedical Science Day and National Medical Laboratory Week. April 17, lit red for light it up red for World Hemophilia Day.

01:01:35
April 20th, lit periwinkle for World IBS Day. April 22nd, lit green and blue for Earth Day. April 23rd, lit green for light the night for Canadian Fertility Awareness Week. Turning now to recognitions and achievements. We have two this morning. So, first I’m pleased to recognize a member of staff, Ian Mlonzo.

01:01:59
Ian has recently completed the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks, and Treasurers of Ontario, that’s AMCTO, uh diploma in municipal administration with honors. Uh that is a significant professional achievement that reflects his dedication to public service and municipal excellence. We always like to uh see residents uh and staff in our community investing in themselves that allows them to serve us better.

01:02:28
So, at this time, I would like to invite Ian to come forward and receive a certificate to recognize this achievement. And we will uh all as council gather in the middle of the horseshoe to get a photo with him. Come on up, Ian. Ian just mentioned that took five years

01:04:05
to get. So quite a significant uh achievement. Uh turning now to our city’s forestry team who are all here and uh very visible in your orange vests. Uh we are pleased to recognize all of you uh who have received an honor that is both rare and significant. The ISA which is the international society of arb arborulture award of merit is given to a municipality public institution or nonprofit organization that serves the public good.

01:04:36
recipients demonstrate clear evidence of innovation, leadership, and long-term commitment to arboric culture and urban forestry in Ontario. This recognition reflects years of dedicated work, introducing new techniques and technologies, advancing research and practical applications, engaging and educating the community, and leading others through example.

01:04:59
It acknowledges sustained effort over more than a decade to strengthen our urban forest and contribute meaningfully to the health and resilience of our environment. It’s a privilege to highlight this significant achievement and celebrate the exceptional contributions behind it. I want to now name all of the recipients and we’ll invite you up again to the middle of the horseshoe to get a photo.

01:05:25
Uh, first Steve Robinson, Drew Dener, Josh Reid, Melissa Torschia, Kyle McLaclin, Laura Wright, Mike Sukup, Eric Torqulson, Justin McDonald, Greg Bunker, Megan, Krywicki, Robin Shaw, Luc Lucavski, John Lee, Kevin Williams, Kevin Wearing, Colin Huff, Colin Eisner, Steve Doerty, Connor Simmons, Aaron Bland, Miles Maher, Dan Anel, Tyson Trant, Dave Watson, and Andrew Perry.

01:06:04
Thank you so much for your work to preserve our trees, build our tree canopy, meet our climate goals, and for the amazing and incredible work that you do every single day in our community. Come on up and please be recognized. I just lost the visual on my computer.

01:08:53
So, I’m going to ask for some tech help. May just need to be plugged back in. Just give me uh two seconds here to fix it. Thank you. All right. I have uh we have no presentations. I do have a motion to approve council minutes moved by councelor Nissan, seconded by councelor Stolty that the regular council meeting minutes of February 17 and the special council meeting minutes of March 2nd be approved.

01:09:33
All those in favor, raise your hands. Any opposed? Seeing none, that does carry. Turning now to delegations. And uh a reminder to delegations that the items will be discussed in the order of the approved agenda. You’re certainly free to stick around uh and wait or you can tune in online at burlington.ca/meings to view the discussion and ultimate disposition of the item.

01:09:56
Uh each delegate will have five minutes to provide comments. There is a clock that you’ll be able to view your time and once you are done, please remain at the podium. There may be questions. Uh I will remind committee members that uh our procedure bylaw limits uh comments to three minutes and questions to one minute.

01:10:17
So we will uh and they are for clarification only. So we’ll be uh checking that with the help of the clerk. We do have seven delegations today. Uh Leah Logan and Sylvia Harris are the first from Indwell regarding two items. the real estate matter declaring intent to lease water down road properties and the uh second item regarding city land for affordable housing DGM 1126 and they do have a presentation which will relate to both items.

01:10:45
Uh so since you are registered twice you will have 10 minutes to uh five and five uh to address both items. So whenever you are ready please get started. We’ll put uh 10 on the clock. Yeah. >> Now they can hear you. >> So close. Okay, let me try that again. Um, good morning council. I’m Leah Logan and I’m a regional director at Indwell.

01:11:24
While we were introduced formally last week, I wanted to take a few moments today to share some further information about Indwell and more specifically spend some time describing the project at hand. Next slide. Indwell is a Christian charity that creates affordable supportive housing communities that support people seeking health, wellness, and belonging.

01:11:43
We talked a little bit about that last week. In the next slide, we’ve also talked about our scope. uh we are across southwestern Ontario in 10 different municipalities. I offer this information to you again for two reasons. The first reason is to show that we are actually already operating in Burlington.

01:12:01
We are working in partnership with Halton Region to operate 21 units of enhanced supportive housing to those that need it most. Our first tenant is set to move in in April. The second reason I show this slide to you is that you’ll see on the map that we have extensive experience building, operating, and growing affordable supportive housing across southern Ontario, working in 10 m uh 10 various municipalities and addressing the needs of those communities.

01:12:30
10 years ago, we operated in only two municipalities. We are in demand across the province because we have a solution to homelessness and precarious housing. Next slide. We know how to build good quality affordable housing with supports that are affecting the lives that we want to see transformed.

01:12:52
Across all of our programs, we are seeing people stay housed. We have a retention rate of 8 92% seeing our tenants stay with us upon movein. We also see that our tenants are thriving in their health and wellness once they’re moved into our housing. We have low rates of hospitalization and we see actually tenants moving more into independence and independent living situations because they’ve had supportive housing in their lives.

01:13:20
A stat that is not on this slide that I think is important is to demonstrate that we also are seeing reduced uh criminal activity in our communities because people have housing to live in um and they don’t have to be out in the community at pay. So, we work really closely with our police services and with all of our police services, we’ve got data to demonstrate that success.

01:13:44
Next slide. We have been able to grow and see these impacts because of our success at acquiring needed funding for new construction. Well-versed in different federal programs already working with build build Canada homes. We are successful in attaining the funding needed for development to begin for this project.

01:14:06
Particularly with the land contributions from the city of Burlington. We would then be able to leverage further support from Halton Region and Build Canada Homes to see this project shovel ready in a timely fashion. Next slide. We want to see shovels hit the ground quickly for a multitude of reasons and almost most predominantly is due to the need.

01:14:31
Halton is seeing significant growth of housing need in this community with a Hatch wait list growing 72% in the last 5 years. Burlington is the most signi is in most significant need of new affordable supportive housing with the highest number of individuals on the wait list looking to live in Burlington and with visual homelessness apparent in encampments and go stations today.

01:15:00
Next slide. It is why we are here to make an impact to the problem at hand. With 21 units already in operation, we believe that this project could create Indwell’s continuum of housing that would support up to 91 citizens of CI of Burlington with appropriate housing to meet their needs.

01:15:21
We are also here because in November of 2024, we were invited by the city of Burlington staff to a stakeholders meeting to discuss the need to develop affordable housing. With the city’s half plan to build 228 units of affordable housing, stakeholders were invited to look at ways that they could contribute for Indwell.

01:15:42
That would be in developing affordable supportive housing units. We have spent the last year working with the city of Burlington to find a site within the city that would work well to develop this housing. After looking at various options, we jointly concluded that the Waterdown Road location is the best location for creating 74 units of housing to meet the accelerated timelines put forth by the housing accelerator fund.

01:16:12
We are a long way to getting from from getting to shovel ready. We have zoning work to do. We have community engagement and capital funding asks that need to be made. But we believe that this is all possible within this year. And we have the track record that demonstrates we can indeed make this happen.

01:16:33
Next slide. While we are still at the concept stage of this project, we envision a project similar to our embassy commons program that is located downtown London. It is home to 90 tenants who live in two different programs within the building with commercial neighbors on the ground level.

01:16:53
We in uh we worked with our community. We worked with our local BIA to design this building to meet the needs of the community around us and that’s really important when we are designing our buildings today. Next slide. We are in the early stages of this project, but we believe that it could make a great impact for the city of Burlington in reaching their half goals and meeting the needs of this community.

01:17:21
For Halton Region, who is looking for 165 units of supportive housing to be built in the next several years, and most importantly for the 74 tenants who would be able to call this project home. Thank you. >> Thank you. I’m just looking to the board to see if there are any questions for you. All right.

01:17:43
Uh uh Paul, uh councelor Charman, go ahead. >> Sorry, I wasn’t quite quick enough on pushing the button because you finished so well. Um I I I I noticed that the discussion is around housing and I know in Ontario whenever we talk about older people, we need more housing. We need more housing. Um the question that goes through my mind is is housing itself by itself adequate because we see other people creating housing but for those of people who need support services is that not the most critical component that you’re offering. >> Thank you for saying that uh through to the chair. I believe that support is important in housing because we all have support in the housing that we uh are experiencing in our lives. And so yes uh we understand that housing is the first step and then bringing health supports alongside is the stabilizing step as well. And so we see them interchangeably

01:18:42
and as important of each other. We are working in municipalities right now with their social housing services because housing hasn’t been just enough. they’re asking us to bring their health our health supports into those housing situations because people are not thriving with just housing and so for us we know that the two have to go hand inand so thank you very much >> thank you >> and I just add to that through the chair um I think that there’s a third factor in what we bring to our housing um that is in addition to the housing that is affordable for people to live on very low incomes the the clinical and the um technical supports that allow them to meet some of their needs needs that have developed over time being very vulnerable situations but also I think that what we would say is our secret sauce at Indwell is building the communities of belonging and that is actually what transforms people’s lives is that they experience home they experience true knowing they experience neighborly relationships that that

01:19:41
transform their lives because you can have all the clinical supports in the housing that you need but if you don’t actually have a sense of being known you’re not going to achieve achieve that that progression in terms of your life um that we are really seeing and the stories of hope that our staff are sharing with us all the time that is the difference somebody knows them somebody cares over time >> thank you and you’ve clarified the question that goes through my mind when I hear people talk about we’re looking after people’s health but actually what you want to do is not for them to have health problems >> and is that are you working on those aspects of social determinance of health to make sure you’re giving them engagement in the right way that keep them mentally Well, socially well, psychologically well, and spiritually well. >> Is that a yes? >> I think I got Yes. >> I think that was a yes. Okay. Uh, councelor Karns, go ahead. >> Thanks very much for joining us again through the through the chair. Um, one of the key recommendations in the

01:20:40
housing strategy was to uh consider opportunities for partnerships with faith-based organizations, of which I believe you would consider yourselves one. And I’m just wondering um how did your explorations go with any other surplus land from uh any type of faith-based institutions? Because if it’s still in here and an organization like yours is unable to secure this, might this be uh a milestone or an objective we cannot achieve? >> Yes, thank you for the question and through the chair. We did extensive research on available lands um primarily through city staff when um they were looking at lands that the city of Burlington owns. So staff had done that research internally to determine that this was the best location. Indwell we are also here with a strong contingent of delegates many of whom are from the faith community. Um and we had actually done um a created a database of all the existing faith properties in Burlington

01:21:38
and their current zoning status and we are at a the beginning stages of a number of conversations that could develop into future projects. Um and that’s those are great partnerships. We’ve worked with churches many times across the province. Um churches are are well-meaning.

01:21:55
They have some of the same goals that Indwell does. the the timelines that churches um work with tend to be uh a lot longer, especially when we’re looking at the requirements of half funding. And all in the database that we uh um worked on, there was only one church site that would be of adequate uh size and amenities and services that is currently zoned and um they are not ready to do a housing project at this time.

01:22:26

Okay. Thank you. My second question is this uh through the chair. So uh thank you for showing us where you operate in many other municipalities in Ontario. Um we are a governance board and our objective is to uh protect the corporation of the city of Burlington. My understanding is that uh we don’t have a lot of latitude in terms of a lease agreement with you.

01:22:44
H how might that be be viewed from your organization >> through the chair? We work in partnership with with every municipality and service manager that we’re um in the location of um and that partnership goes beyond legal requirements um into listening into what is needed in the community to to do the best thing so that everybody can feel like this project is a success.

01:23:09
So I I’m not sure what those limitations are. I know we haven’t been able to discuss those yet as we’re not at that stage. This is this vote today is the first step in that process. But we were very willing to do any sort of listening and engagement with counselors, legal staff um to see what how we can be flexible in terms of that lease agreement and get you the requirements that you need.

01:23:32
We’ve we’ve done leases in other situations with churches um where there there was a desire to continue to own the land. Um and so we had to do the same thing and we would have that same approach in terms of understanding your needs and your concerns and how we can get you the accountabilities through our the funding agreements and through the legal structure.

01:23:53

Okay. So then for absolute clarity as a followup uh you would be supportive of the final lease agreement being approved by council. >> We would be supportive through the chair. We would be supportive. I I think we assumed it would have to be approved by council. Um, but I I know if you if that’s an issue that is a sticking point, we would be supportive of that process.

01:24:15

Okay. Thank you. I’ll go back into Q. >> Uh, councelor Charman, back to you. >> Thank you. I just wanted to I have a follow-up question with respect to the influence of council over your activities. As you know, counselors come and counselors go. So, so as as councils change, so do their priorities and and and their perspectives on things.

01:24:32
So, do you have an ongoing relationship with councils and as things change, you’re willing to address those needs as they change? Also, how does that work? >> Through the chair, we do have an ongoing relationship with through councils, but primarily what we see is the most vital relationship through carrying out the work in our community is with staff because they are they are on the ground.

01:24:58
They’re doing the work. They’re acquiring the data. They are, you know, enacting strategies that are many many years long. And to your point, counselors their terms are always um changing. So, but and what we find is that when council councils change over over time, there is a re-education that we have to do in places that we’ve worked for many years.

01:25:17
We often times come back and just do a very breadandbut presentation, who we are, what we do, the impact that we’re having on the community, because sometimes we just uh we’re a part of the community. Uh people don’t even know that we’re there. and um and we need to bring to the forefront the impact that we are having and the and the ways that we’re aligned with with lots of municipal services as Leah was mentioning.

01:25:43

Thank you. Um when do you initiate that yourselves? >> We do initiate ourselves. It it usually comes up because you know we’re looking to do another project or there’s an uh you know there’s some education that staff are trying to do around housing need. Um it just depends. Thank you very much, >> Councelor Currence.

01:26:03

Uh, thank you very much through the chair. So, I want to thank you for the invitation to come out and see you. I’ll definitely be taking you up on that. Um, but I’m thinking about the broader community and what might it look like to do a community engagement forum that’s that’s led by you.

01:26:15
So, you see there are very minimal uh delegations here today. It’s a new introduction to Indwell in the city of Burlington. How might you do that um while we’re working towards the first milestone here? Yeah, thank you for the question and through the chair. Yes, community engagement is a very significant part of our project development whether it’s required through the zoning process or not.

01:26:39
We we always want to be um known by the community answering questions uh um understanding concerns as it relates to our operations and the design. So, we would be uh after if assuming the vote goes positively today, we’d be making um a community engagement plan with staff and with our team and we’re open to um involvement of the counselor in terms of what he would think is best in terms of groups that need to be met with meetings that need to be have.

01:27:09
So, we have a range of strategies from larger town halls or open houses where we can get, you know, bring the most people in to smaller um priority conversations with with specialized groups such as the BIA, any neighborhood associations, any faith communities. We do a range of presentations and and then also one-on-one conversations with key community stakeholder holders that might have questions or concerns.

01:27:35
And that that also extends throughout the um it’s at the beginning of the project, but then also when we start opening or getting close to opening our buildings, we invite those neighbors back when we have the actual staff hired so that they have their relationship with staff. They have their contact information.

01:27:52
We invite them to tour the building so they know what it looks like inside that they can get the sense and feel of the place so that if there are any concerns going forward, we are building that relationship with our local neighbors. Thanks. And then a followup. How soon can you do that? So it could help inform any of the metrics in the lease.

01:28:13

As soon as required. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. I’m not seeing any other questions. Thank you so much for being here this morning. Our next delegation is Jim Young regarding two items, the same two. the real estate matter declaring intent to lease water down road properties LLS1626 and regarding city land for affordable housing DGM126.

01:28:37
And Jim, you have five minutes for each item. You can do one or you can break it into two as you wish. So, we’ll put uh we’ll put 10 on the clock unless you direct me otherwise. >> I’ll be as brief as possible. >> Go ahead. Good morning, Madame Mayor, members of council or Clark, members of staff, fellow residents, in particular the representatives of the Indwell group.

01:28:58
I delegate today in support of the proposal to endorse the endwell project concept for 1022 28 and 30 water down road as outlined in development and growth management report DGM 1126 appendix A and in support of the intent to enter into a long-term land use lease on these three properties to Endwell and to develop an affordable housing project again as per report DGM 112 26.

01:29:32
That’s the formal part. As a society, we we seem endlessly to discuss affordability in housing. We create committees, commissions, study groups. We do all sorts of things, but we very rarely actually achieve anything in terms of real affordability for people who most need affordable housing. If I look recently, this council has devoted lots of time over the past few weeks debating the advisability of forgoing millions of dollars in development charges to some very wealthy developers with little or no guarantee that it will result in any real impact on housing affordability or provide a single affordable home. In comparison, this particular proposal gives our city a very real opportunity to put money where it will have a

01:30:32
measurable impact on affordability to invest in a proven track record by Endwell of providing affordable housing rather than speculating on possible affordability outcomes through other means. As a resident of Aldershot living within a few hundred meters of the site, I can’t imagine a good reason why not to proceed with this proposal.

01:30:55
As well as bringing affordability to its potential residents, my understanding and it’s just been clarified um is that it will have an element supportive element to the housing units which in my opinion makes the proposal all the more attractive and even more essential. In closing, I would like to thank staff and council for having the grace to consider a proposal like this and thank Enwell for bringing the need to our attention.

01:31:26
If I could beg a little indulgence, um I’m not familiar with the rules and regulations about how you decide what a long-term release will look like, how you cost it, but in this instance, I would think it would make the citizens of Burlington and in all the short in particular very proud of the city if the city could grant some form of nominal lease rather than some bureaucratic determination of market value.

01:31:52
Is that a possibility that staff and council would consider because I think that would be a great help to people in need of affordable housing. Thank you for the opportunity to speak in this matter. >> Thank you, Jim. I’ll just look to the board to see if there are any questions. All right, not seeing any.

01:32:14
Thank you so much for being here this morning with us. All right, our next delegate also on the same item uh registered twice uh for each of the reports. So you will have uh 10 minutes as well. Reverend Cara Dhan from Faith Christian Reform regarding uh LLS 1626 and DGM 1126. Uh whenever you are ready, go ahead and get started. Thank you, Mayor Meard.

01:32:43
Hello, good morning counselors. I am Reverend Cara Dhan and I’m the lead pastor of Faith Christian Reform Church. Uh we are on Mountainside Drive which is in Ward 3, uh Councelor Nissan’s ward. We are a community of about 300 members, 2025 households who live throughout Burlington as well as some in Hamilton.

01:33:07
I’m here on behalf of our church. You’ve already received a letter from our council chair, our leadership board, to express support for the proposal brought forward by your staff recommending use of municipal land on Waterown Road for affordable housing development by Indwell. Last month, I sat in a movie theater in Oakville together with several members of Faith Church and maybe 150 others from across Halton Region.

01:33:35
We were there to watch Thinking Beyond the Market, a full-length documentary addressing the housing crisis in Canada. I wonder if any of you here have had a chance to see that documentary yet. Their goal is that every mayor and perhaps even every counselor in Canada will watch it. With many thanks to the director and primary researcher, Dr.

01:33:59
Brian Ducet who’s a professor at University of Wateroo. Here are my three takeaways from that movie and evening. First, let’s not waste more time debating whether Canada has a housing crisis. It does. Two, let’s focus instead on learning what’s already happening across Canada to make a positive impact on the housing crisis.

01:34:24
And then let’s do something. The f fil film focused on a number of these good works. And then third, Indwell was featured in the film. And I took away from the film a reminder and an emphasis that Indwell is one of the leaders in the supportive housing movement in Canada. So first, the housing crisis does exist in Burlington.

01:34:47
I moved here in August 2019 and I’ve seen close at hand as a pastor and as a resident the rising need for affordable housing and support for vulnerable folks in our city. We at Faith regularly receive phone calls for financial help. We live or we work right across the street from the wonderful organization Food for Life and we’ve heard them tell us that they’ve seen a dramatic increase in need for their fresh food distribution.

01:35:14
Food insecurity and housing crisis go together. Some of our own congregation members have struggled with finding housing in our city. We need more affordable housing right here in Burlington. But second, in the past few years, I’ve been grateful to see a growing acknowledgement from our leaders and attention to the local housing crisis.

01:35:40
Together with other pastors across Burlington, I’ve been invited into several different conversations about responses to homelessness with the Halton Regional Police Department, with the mayor, with other religious communities, schools, and other not for-profit organizations. I was at that collaborative meeting in November 2024 that our indwell representatives mentioned.

01:36:03
Thank you as a council and as a mayor for your attention to this problem and for the work of brainstorming and collaborating toward positive change. And now third, you have before you a strong proposal to affect positive change in the housing crisis. For more than 50 years, Indwell has been growing a network of affordable, supportive housing across southern Ontario.

01:36:30
We saw the map and it is incredibly exciting to see council considering a proposal to welcome Indwell to Burlington. Our congregation knows from experience that Indwell is a solid partner. We’ve heard the origins of Indwell from one of its founders, Ciney Prinsen, who’s 94. She’s still living in Ward 6.

01:36:51
She’s a member of our church. We’ve seen by serving breakfast to indwell residents at a number of sites across Hamilton at least twice a year for a number of years that residents are growing in health and contentment and well-being and hope. We regularly read stories in our church newsletter of how having a stable home at Indwell transforms people, transforms lives.

01:37:22
We’ve also had the opportunity over years of partnership to come to know key leaders at Indwell such as Leah, such as Sylvia as people of integrity who are motivated by deep compassion and by a desire to see whole entire cities flourish. In 2025, just to give you an idea, our congregation gave more than $17,000 in donations to Indwell.

01:37:47
That’s on top of a $400,000 budget to our church ministry. And for comparison, we gave $10.5,000 to Burlington Food Bank and $8,000 to Food for Life across the street. $17,000 to Indwell was our greatest secondary offering. If Indwell is given permission to build supportive housing on Waterdown Road, you can be sure that Faith Church will continue to walk alongside Indwell and their residents to support their work financially with volunteers and with prayers.

01:38:25
Why does our congregation support Indwell? Well, we are Christians. So, it’s ultimately because of our desire to follow Jesus who says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But this desire really is very similar to the golden rule, which is the basis for many worldviews. Do unto others as you would have them do for you.

01:38:46
What sort of treatment would you want? Well, I’ve loved myself by investing in my own housing, safety, security, relationships, and a positive, stable community. That’s the baseline for flourishing. And so the call of Jesus, the call of being good neighbors in Burlington, the call of being human is to work toward fulfilling these housing security and community needs for all people, even even when it feels inconvenient, like coming to a council meeting on short notice, or even scary, building relationships with people who feel very different from us. Our congregation partners with Indwell to provide supportive housing because their work is in the line with the call of Jesus and the call of Jes and the call of humanity to seek justice for all. We

01:39:45
urge you don’t hesitate. Make a way for Indwell to come to Burlington. Thank you. Thank you. You do have one question so far from councelor Stoalty. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor. I will get to a question. I just feel the need to preface. One, thank you very much for being here. I know it’s difficult to stand up there.

01:40:08
I’ve been in your space before I was sitting in this chair and I know it’s uncomfortable and a little bit nerve-wracking. So, secondly, I love the message you’ve given. Love it. Okay. So my question to you may sound a little bit confrontational and I’m not saying it to you directly or to your congregation because we have not met and I have not spoken to your congregation in particular.

01:40:30
Okay, that’s my preface. >> Yeah, thank you. My question to you is, are you aware that many supportive housing projects, including perhaps with indwell, could have been in the ground in Burlington years ago, years ago, if our faith community had been willing to partner with the city? Are you aware of the fact that I in my role as deputy mayor of housing have met with six different faith communities of which three in Burlington? >> Sorry, you’re out of time on the minute to ask a question. Can we stop there? >> I will be concise with my question. >> Okay, go ahead. that I have met with multiple different faith communities in Burlington who did have land available and conversations about partnering for affordable housing

01:41:29
and that those faith communities in Burlington did not want to partner with the city of Burlington because it was more important to them to offer their land to the highest bidder in order to get the highest dollar value. Are you aware of that? And do you have any commentary about that process that has unfolded over the last few years? In my years of being in Burlington, I don’t have direct knowledge of your meetings.

01:41:51
I am not surprised to hear of that. Um, councelor Stolty and uh, it saddens me. It also doesn’t surprise me. Um, as a pastor, I call my people and my community to live in the way of Jesus, to live against the ways of culture, which are about me first getting getting all I can. um seeking security for the future and yet we continue to grow uh to be more and more uh like Jesus.

01:42:22
So I am sad that that hasn’t happened. Um, you’ll notice that I’m not offering our land or enough money to make this happen, but I can tell you that our community in people and in prayer and um and you know at least some financial investment uh would be glad to partner with Indwell. >> Okay, second question. Thank you.

01:42:46
Thank you for that. And may I ask of you as a question, given the fact you’re clearly a passionate leader in the community, could you take the charge up to work with other faith communities in the city to have a similar outlook to you? Would you be willing to do that? >> For sure.

01:43:07
I would I would be glad um especially to talk more with you, councelor Stolty, to learn more about what that would look like. >> Thank you, Councelor Sherman. >> Thank you for that. I have two questions for you. Thank you so much for being here. I have spoken to faith leaders whose churches, congregations are now declining to zero.

01:43:25
Um and they feel the need to have funding to continue their um their work elsewhere but not necessarily in Burlington. Uh do you do you anticipate that that could be a reason for them not wanting to sell their property at a discount or give it give it away or something like that? Can you see that there is a need to to enhance and give us some sustainable future for their for their uh faith? >> I don’t know if I feel able to uh imagine what their motivation is.

01:43:55
Um, I can speak to a sister congregation that recently closed. Um, and they chose to sell to another church. Um, and then they took the profits and shared those with other Christian organizations. Uh, and I I’m not sure, but I think Indwell may have received some of the proceeds of the sale.

01:44:18
Um but yeah there are so many motivations and any congregation like any council is an amalgamation of of different values and priorities coming together. So >> thank you for that. My second question is with respect to um your particular interests as a uh as a Christian group and Christian groups are not all the same.

01:44:38
And uh as I was looking at your website there um I I also recognize that that there are issues around you know world other world religions um not just interdenominational within Christianity um and and are are you aware that within Indwell the notion of interdisiplinary teams was actually actually found that it founded in San Francisco in Chinatown with the onlock protocol.

01:45:10
The unlock >> o one word lo second word the unlock protocol was the foundation of interdisipary tools it’s Chinese >> I am not aware of that um should I be concerned about that >> no you should be pleased >> okay >> thank you >> may I speak briefly to that I don’t know if that was May I say more than no uh just just to say that as a faith community we certainly follow the ways of Jesus but We believe God is way bigger than any particular denomination or any particular faith even and so we are ready and excited to work with others. >> Thank you. I’m with you, >> Councelor Karns. >> Thank you very much to the chair. Thank you for joining us in service today. I have a question around what you’re seeing in your congregation around the individuals that may be seeking um housing options. So that’s one conversation that this council has not actually had. Uh we have our supportive

01:46:08
housing conversation at our regional table. Um but we do know of many people who are seeking housing that are um young workers uh youth experiencing homelessness uh people who are uh escaping intimate partner violence and looking to restart their life. So I’m just wondering as a reflection of your congregation um what insights might you share with us around the types of housing that are of greatest need uh that would be at the municipal level? Thanks for that question.

01:46:40
The uh most recent uh pastoral interactions I’ve had are with two people who have struggled with mental illness and um they have found it challenging or impossible to live on their own um without support and so uh they would seek supportive housing exactly like uh what Indwell would offer.

01:47:03
Um, and we were able to through a a group within our congregation find housing for one of them at Bethany Homes, which I think is Ontario uh operated. Um, and so yeah, we we see the need for supportive housing in that respect. Uh there are certainly a lot of young adults in our in our congregation who as you say are finding it difficult as as uh starting out employees to find housing that is affordable within Burlington.

01:47:35
Uh some of them are living longer with their parents. Some of them are living with roommates that they’ve met in college or university. Some of them are moving out of the city which is always a sad thing because it usually means um separation from our community. Also, I would say that there’s also folks who are looking for to downsize, looking for bungalows, uh, condos, um, something that’s on a single level close to to services.

01:48:02
Um, I don’t know that they’re having as much trouble because they tend to have more um, capital to work with. Those are the ones that come to mind. >> Thank you very much for that. So then my second question is this. Just in doing a a Google map of your congregation area, it seems like you have a significant amount of uh land around the parking.

01:48:27
Not sure what your parking ratios are. I can check that later. Um but one of the things and one of the services that Hton region offers is um like twobedroom emergency supportive unit houses of which I have two of them in my ward and they are fully accessible. And I’m just wondering, would you be open to um beginning those conversations with with the region around your property or could you bring that back to your congregation for uh those with less acute uh needs or like lower lower acuity? >> Speaking for my own self, um I would be delighted to have that uh conversation further. In fact, I have tried by drip across six and a half years to encourage the congregation to think creatively about this. Um, I can’t speak on behalf of our council, but but yeah, um, councelor Karns, I’d be glad to learn more about that and maybe with um, councelor Stolty to have further conversation >> because you’re right, we do have land. Um, it’s not in the ideal uh, location

01:49:26
um, but maybe in an emergency situation. >> Yeah, I think it could be a beautiful solution. So, I hope you can open up those conversations. Thank you, >> Councelor Stoalty. Thank you. Um, councelor Charman’s line of questioning actually brought up something that I was curious and again I’m sorry you are representing everyone here today all of the faith communities.

01:49:47
So as I said it’s not a personal directed towards your congregation. It’s just a more generalized question. Um, do you are you aware of the fact that faith communities in most municipalities, including Burlington, are exempt from paying any property taxes? And do you believe that that um that agreement with the city and the taxpayers of the city to allow faith communities to exist without contributing to the tax dollar base should um promote more collaboration with the city when other community needs are needed like housing. >> Sir, I’m just going to pause us there for a moment. We’re I love the question and the conversation, but it is off topic of our report which is about the lease. I’ve allowed some latitude, but I’ve gotten some feedback from my council colleagues that we really need to stick to the material in the report and to focus our questions on what the business is before us. So, if that’s

01:50:46
okay, uh, great conversation to have, but not for now. Okay. Any other questions before we conclude? Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Thanks very much. We do have one final delegation. That’s Homer Lensing. You are registered once. So, you will get five minutes per our procedure bylaw.

01:51:08
And without uh singling anyone out, I’ll just ask council to keep your uh comments and well, not comments. We’re in we’re in questions now to keep them focused on uh the item which is city land for affordable housing and the indwell project. Go ahead, Homer. >> Thank you, Madame Mayor and uh ward counselors.

01:51:27
I speak also this morning in support of staff reports number 1126 and 1626 both recommending use of municipal uh land in Eldershot for affordable housing developments by Indwell. My wife and I are 34 year residents of councelor Stool’s ward 4 Longmore neighborhood. Uh and as of my retirement last year, I am also a volunteer board member at Indwell.

01:51:51
Uh it’s becoming increasingly obvious to most that the city of Burlington and Halton region, like many other urban areas, are having a growing homelessness and affordable housing need. The recent arrival of various small tent encampments around the city of Burlington that we’ve all seen is painful evidence of this need. As an Indwell board member looking at the challenge of affordable housing and homelessness from the inside out, it’s very clear to me that Indwell’s mission and strategy, organizational capacity and effective responses um in support of housing needs in our municipality has tremendous integrity and should be supported by host communities, including we here at the city of Burlington. Having volunteered at several indwell facilities with groups of volunteers from our local church as well as having toured a number of other facilities in the Golden Horseshoe, I can say that their strong reputation is well founded. The city of Burlington will count an indwell

01:52:50
facility on Waterdown Road as a good neighbor for decades to come. Please make some personal time yourselves if you have not already done so to take a tour of an operating indwell facility in Hamilton to get yourself a firsthand corroboration of their reputation. I also know well the subject property on waterdown road its proximity to two major transit thorough affairs as well as retail and professional service outlets on Plains Road appears to be an ideal location.

01:53:19
Additionally, with the early momentum that we see with the federal government’s build Canada homes initiative, it seems like perfect timing for the city of Burlington uh to partner with Indwell and other stakeholders to become part of a leading edge solution to this societal challenge of affordable housing.

01:53:36
As you’ve heard from Indwell staff earlier in their slide, 1300 people in buildings across Woodstock, Norfolk County, London, Waterlue, Missaga, St. Thomas 550 apartments alone in Hamilton. Um we recommend we commend city council staff uh councilors and staff for your leadership and using all the tools at your disposal to address this pressing need and we look forward to council support of this initiative.

01:54:03
Thank you. >> Thank you. You have one question from councelor Karns. >> Thank you very much for joining us and I’m glad that you’re representing uh a board position which is a governance position. So we have in our correspondence some considerations around um where interventions might be needed from uh some outside services in terms of metrics and I’m just wondering what do you use internally as a benchmark or a measurement to ensure compatibility with the community for any of the indwell locations that you oversee as a board of directors member. Well, I’m going to deflect the question a little bit to staff counselor Karns, but I would say that in my nine months on the board, I have seen lots of examples where they have layer upon layer of professional staff offering the supportive element. So they’re working with health care providers in the community, local hospitals, uh police, they’re they’re gathering a growing

01:55:01
argument of supportive data to say that those incidences of residents need for those supports from the community is going down dramatically because of the culture that they’re finding in the home. And there is a a tangible argument that this is offering a lowering cost solution to the communities where they live because they’re finding home health, hope, and recovery.

01:55:24
So recognizing second question recognizing that the city should be a stakeholder given that it would be city land on a long-term lease. Um what type of reports or metrics or performance deliverables would you be prepared to deliver to the city to ensure that the objectives were talking about today can actually be sustained in the longer term? I I would say from my short term on the board, I have seen lots of metric reports in terms of uh operating the facilities in terms of encounters with police, encounters with healthcare providers, um program initiation, training programs offered to the community at large. I would recommend conversations with staff that could be part of the development of the lease program that they would be very willing to explicitly state in the lease what kind of reporting metrics need to go year-over-year. Okay. So, I’ll look I’ll look forward to those uh types of requirements as we develop the lease. >> I’m not seeing any other questions.

01:56:24
Thank you so much for being here this morning. We have no petitions. Turning now to the recommendations from standing committees. Uh and just so you know what we’ve been up to to bring uh recommendations today. We did have a regular meeting of council that was four hours and 14 minutes on February 17.

01:56:43
There were six delegations and five recommendations dealt with. The minutes are in the package. The special meeting of council March 2nd was 6 hours and 15 minutes. There were eight delegations and 10 recommendations. Committee of the whole meeting of March 3rd and 5th was 7 hours and 32 minutes with 11 delegations and 11 recommendations.

01:57:03
Audit committee was an hour and 47 minutes with two delegations and eight recommendations. The pipeline to permit committee was 45 minutes with zero delegations and three recommendations. So a total of 37 recommendations being dealt with and 27 delegations. Uh for a total time of 23 hours and 39 minutes which we won’t repeat here today.

01:57:29
Confidential council meeting of February 17th. We spent 29 minutes enclosed with five recommendations. The confidential uh council meeting of March 2nd had we did not go into closed at all. Confidential uh committee of the whole meeting of March 3rd and March 5th. Uh that segment of the meeting was 2 hours 27 minutes with one recommendation.

01:57:52
So the total time enclosed was 2 hours 56 minutes with six recommendations arising. We do have a number of items grouped together as consent. So if a member wishes a separate vote or additional questions, uh, just put your hand up so I can pull that out. So what we have right now is our consent list is on the board. Building vibrant communities, updates to the recreation, community and culture grant programs and policy, the budget and tax levy for both the downtown business improvement area and the aldershot business improvement area. Burlington economic development and tourism destination stewardship plan. The appointment of livestock valuers and weed inspectors. Assumption of municipal parking operations across the street at 390 Brandt Sim Square. The city of Burlington community strategic plan horizon 2050. The strategic parking framework for downtown Burlington and the delegated authority bylaw amendments

01:58:50
and enabling official plan amendments. So, I’ll pause to see if anyone wishes a separate vote on any of those. All right. Uh, that is the list. Does anyone wish to comment on any of those? Councelor Karns. >> Uh, thank you very much. This is just a note of appreciation to uh one of our staff members that uh Kaitlin Edgecom that uh headed up a pretty hard job of the parking framework for downtown Burlington.

01:59:23
And I just wanted to recognize a really good job on significant community engagement between downtown parking committee uh the the BDBA. she presented to a number of public PIC’s, a virtual PIC uh survey um and did really have to take in a lot of information and look both short and long term at solutions around um how we can continue to welcome people to the downtown uh and experience all that there is to enjoy.

01:59:49
Uh quick plug for the destination stewardship plan also.

02:00:00
and with great community engagement. >> Councelor Charman, >> thank you. I want to comment on uh item uh D, the destination stewardship plan uh that was brought forward. It was an stunningly excellent report uh by the EDT and I know that they collaborated with the city and it was good that we can have a good collaborative relationship between the two separate organizations and land a wonderful plan.

02:00:26
Thank you. All right, seeing no further speakers, I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Go ahead. >> Councelor Gre support. Councelor Karns, >> support. >> Councelor Nissan, >> support. Councelor Stoalty, >> support. >> Councelor Sherman, >> support. >> Councelor Benttovenia, >> support. >> Mayor Maidward, >> support.

02:00:45

That’s seven in favor. >> That does carry. Uh, turning now to the use of corporate resources during an election policy review. LLS 1226. Are there any questions of staff on that item? Any comments on that item? All right, we’ll just wait to get it up on the screen before I call the vote. All right, that is on the screen.

02:01:33
Any no questions or comments? Uh, councelor Currens, I just wanted to say thank you for bringing this forward. Uh, I’m still not 100% perfect on this and I think it would be difficult to explain it to someone who would be uh newly seeking um political office. So, I look forward to the toolkit to provide a bit more clarity um and consistency.

02:01:53
And I think this is going to be sort of a living breathing document at the moment because there’s still some nuances that I don’t have 100% clarity on. >> All right. Seeing no further speakers, I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Go ahead. >> Councelor Gworth, >> support. Councelor Karns, >> support.

02:02:16

Councelor Nissan, >> support. Councelor Stoalty, >> support. >> Councelor Charman, >> support. Councelor Bentovenia >> support. >> Mayor me >> support. >> That’s seven in favor. >> Turning now to the remuneration and expenses paid to council and appointees for 2025. We did get some additional material from staff on that item.

02:02:32
Uh 20.2 the supplemental memo in your package. Uh councelor Nissan, you have a question. Go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you. And I circulated my questions ahead of time because uh to to the staff because uh they’re sort of they’re numbers questions. So um could you could staff confirm the one-year figures? I don’t want to give the wrong impression that this is all these numbers were for one year.

02:03:02
They’re actually because of the backdating um for several years. So on a one-year basis, I’m trying I just want to confirm for everyone what the actual uh pay was both the gross and the net through the mayor to uh councelor Nissan. I’m actually going to ask uh the city’s controller and manager financial services, Michelle Moore, to come up and answer.

02:03:31

Just going to lower this. Okay. Sorry. Uh through the chair. Sorry, could you repeat the question again? >> Yeah, no worries. So, um under additional earnings in the in the new um new chart, it notes uh a payment in lie of benefits related to of 23,282 uh in W 5, a payment in lie of benefits of 8,938 in W 5 and 8,591 in W 6.

02:04:00
However, those numbers are over actually over 3 years, I think, or 3 years in a month maybe. Um, so do you have those those numbers just for 2025, so that we’re all on the same page. I don’t want to over state the amount of the pay and L for one year. >> Uh, yes. So, through the chair, uh, for the MRS amount for 2025, uh, the 2025 amount just by itself would be $7,715.

02:04:24
Um, for the, uh, nonomers amount, benefits would be $2,75. Uh, and then I guess W six would be a very similar maybe a little bit less. >> W six would be the same the 275. >> Okay. For 2025 for other reasons why there’s a difference there. >> Okay. And then on the net basis again it it shows uh one counselor receiving 110 but that relates to back pay as well.

02:04:52
So what is the actual net pay for 2025? Uh so the differential uh for 2025, sorry, through the chair, uh for Ward 5 is $7,380. For Ward 6, it’s $1,750. >> So that’s the net pay increase just to clarify. >> Correct. >> Uh over everyone else, uh all the other counselors who don’t receive the pay in L >> through the chair. Yes, that’s correct.

02:05:24

Okay. Uh I’ll get back in line if there is one, mayor. I’m not sure if there is >> no other hands on the board. Go ahead. >> Um, thank you. I’m almost done anyway. Um, make sure I got got those questions answered. Sorry. Just one sec here. There it is. It’s coming right up. Oh, okay.

02:05:54
All those questions were answered. My only other question uh is actually for the clerk. Um if you could uh I know you have the procedure bylaw handy. Could you just remind counselors how reconsideration works? Certainly through you um Mary Ward. So the motion to I mean it deals with section 52 in the agenda or excuse me the procedure bylaw.

02:06:28
Uh any proposal to reconsider must be um made in its current term or or has to be made this term of council. A motion to reconsider previous council decision uh in an earlier meeting would be allowed within the meeting before the confirming bylaws have passed. Uh and a motion of a previous decision at a subsequent meeting may only be introduced by the member who wasn’t present at the meeting uh or who who was in the majority.

02:06:49
and it will be introduced as a notice of motion uh under sections 36.5 and 36.6. >> Uh do you want me to keep going or is that >> what uh covers? >> I think that covers it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay, >> those are my questions. I’ll just have a comment in due course. Thank you. >> Not seeing any other hands on the board.

02:07:13
Go ahead with your comment. >> Sure. So, excuse me. I hope that’s clear for all of my colleagues that um we’re now this is the the actual consequence of what was supposed to be an equity issue. Uh one council member is now receiving pay in L of $7,380 per year uh which was backdated to 2022 uh with a three-year total that’s roughly three times that.

02:07:45
Um, another council member through the benefits is getting an extra 1,750. So, that’s one one counselor getting over $7,000 more than the other colleagues. I don’t think any of us should be getting that money. We’re well compensated for what we do, we don’t need more. And it to the extent we do, there should be a system for uh increase um which we’ve actually undermined uh by cancelling the remuneration committee for that uh for this period.

02:08:14
This extra pay was never an equity issue. And when equity is misused as an argument, it undermines real equity arguments across the board. There was so much energy to make the case for what was supposed to be an issue of inequity. Um, and far less time was given to other groups who actually deserve equity consideration.

02:08:37
There’s no equity case here. The pay inl is just extra pay. On the non-OMR’s benefits, courts have determined that it is not an equity or human rights issue as confirmed by our human chief human resources officer. On the OMR’s issue, this is beyond the questions never even come forward. That’s how beyond normative it is. That’s uh our our chief human resources officer has noted this is not normative.

02:09:04
It is not normal. It is exceptional. It is one of a kind and it is inappropriate. This is on top of the R’s pension that is already being collected on a mandatory basis. That money was former. We don’t give that money to another person. It doesn’t make sense. So, we’re giving this pay and loo to our council members, but we don’t give it to members of our own staff.

02:09:26
Why? Because it would never fly in the public service. It doesn’t fly in any public service. It’s only flying around this table. We gave up on the council remuneration committee so that we could do this. That was a mistake. We undermined our own compensation and the the legitimacy of our own compensation by doing that.

02:09:46
When I pursued these questions in December 2024, I was shut down by closure by twothirds of my colleagues. Well, I’ll give my colleagues the benefit of the doubt for a moment that you didn’t know that we would be giving 10k extra to one council members through your decision. Assuming there is no reconsideration, I would just like the mayor who brought the motion, council members who voted for it to justify why this is okay.

02:10:12
Why is this extra pay okay? I look forward to hearing. >> Councelor Charman. >> Well, thank you very much. Every counselor is welcome to their opinion. uh as are all people about all things all night. Um what the councelor forget to acknowledge is that in fact when you recognize that the contribution by the city and the individual counselor to their own pension uh that they they get a $27,600 worth of deferred income and and what that means is they will get that money in future years uh where somebody who is older and who is past getting uh the ability to get the um contribution from the city to or the region uh to compensation uh which is total compensation. Um there is in fact a difference uh between the gross including deferred payment and the um

02:11:12
and the net uh which is such that uh an individual who is over the age of 71 is getting about the same amount of money from um from their pension as they as the actual contribution would have been. So the net of this is uh with the adjustment that was made um ward five, that’s me.

02:11:39
It’s all about me and the council getting upset about me. Um my actual take-home pay, my actual total compensation was $16,000 less than his because he’s got a 24,000 um 20 20 28,000 contribution to his pension. So, I’m thinking he’s just making up um he’s not recognizing the actual uh the actual um amount of compensation he will get relative to the year.

02:12:07
He’s pretending that it’s not real. Thank you. >> Uh thank you. I I do have a question actually. Uh and perhaps this is for for you Sue, our chief human resources officer. And um it just occurred to me as we were sitting here. So I apologize I didn’t have the opportunity to uh pre-irculate. But uh one of the things that was very um instructive to me was the before this adjustment was made that that the uh council members that were over a certain age were getting less.

02:12:36
Do you have that unadjusted number of what uh uh what council makes if we don’t make this adjustment? And is it less than is it less for folks that are over a certain age? And if you don’t have it now, could you could you get it for us at some point through you the mayor? Um, thank you for the question.

02:13:01
When you talk about like if they’re making less, you’re talking about on their paycheck, not from a benefits perspective. Are they because you can see the report that was done by finance on the net side of it. Uh so it’s clear with regards to what OMR’s piece that they would be contributing to if they were under a certain age as well as what the city portion is and the city portion is paid into um the pension not um individually paid out from a compensation perspective.

02:13:29
When we talk about a salary like cash it is it is a pension piece that is not being contributed on their behalf. The benefit piece is as you know if your f your family status or your single status we pay a premium to a benefit company to provide those benefits. And in this case the medical and dental are they remain um status quo.

02:13:53
It is the insuranceances of LTD and life insurance where the shift happens at a particular age. >> Yeah. I I guess what I’m what I’m asking and maybe if we do go to the appendix it will become a little bit more clear because the way the way typically the remuneration is reported it is salary plus benefits for a total.

02:14:13
So if you look at the top line city and region salary it’s 125 across the board in that appendix. When you look at the OMRs and benefits for those that qualify, it brings it up to 160. If we were not to have made the adjustment for the council members who are over a certain age, they’re still sitting at the 125.

02:14:39
I think that’s the equity difference is some with salary and benefits counselors of a certain age make 160 with salary and benefits without this adjustment some council members would make 125 >> is that correct so that that is that was uh quite instructive that roughly $40,000 differential was quite instructive uh for me in thinking this through.

02:15:11
Okay. Uh, councelor Karns, >> uh, I think this is a question to the clerk through the chair. Um, so this is retroactive information. Is it not my understanding that we should also be receiving uh a new report shortly on the legislative services forecast that talks about the recommendations of the um, compensation committee that would be effective for next term’s council? And might this be an appropriate avenue to explore this further? through you the mayor.

02:15:44
Uh so thank you for the for the question councelor Karns. Um this is going to be brought to um committee next week, next month, excuse me. Um with regards to those recommendations by the remuneration committee which are specific to uh a request of information on the premiums for deputy portfolios as well as a benefit piece of a spending account.

02:16:04
um this piece with regards to what your overall um compensation piece is like because the compensation side of it has been decided that was already decided previously. Um it is specific just to those pieces. Councelor Garns, >> apologies. A follow-up question then. At what point would a reconsideration of this be valid? Is it like landing a reconsideration request in this immediate moment or can it be further explored via the compensation committee because it really is a compensation matter >> uh through the chair uh to the councelor on that. So, as uh Sue has indicated, the report that’s coming back from the remuner

02:17:04
remuneration committee is dealing with a particular um subset of uh uh uh items that has been that they’ve been directed to report on. And if we’re introduc if council is going to introduce new items to that, that’s certainly there’s nothing restricting council from doing that.

02:17:23
if they wanted the remuneration committee to look into something else or wanted staff to look into something else that is there. The restriction on that of course is that if council has already decided on a particular item then you’re getting into uh a reconsideration. Uh I would suggest the time for that reconsideration would be at the next meeting with respect to uh when that report comes forth as opposed to in relation to this report that’s before you today which is simply a finance report uh meeting municipal act requirements with respect to reporting of details. Um we’re really not into the substance today. were into simply a report uh a finance report uh meeting the municipal requirements to report on the compensation for 2025. >> Okay, I see another hand up. I’m going to think about that answer. >> Councelor Nissan, question or comment,

02:18:23
just let me know. >> Yeah. Uh questions actually. Thank you. Go ahead. Um the um the question for the clerk or or legal but um I think the clerk has the procedure bylaw. So you can um is it true that uh reconsideration could be brought as a standalone item at at any committee meeting or council meeting.

02:18:42
Is that fair to say >> through you mayor meard? Yes I believe that just through the notice of motion and in accordance with the sections. >> So as long as you meet your timelines and uh if not twothirds and so on. Correct. >> Okay. So, I hope that uh clears up for my colleague. Uh with respect to the mayor’s question, and I apologize because I didn’t circulate this one ahead, so it might take a second, but um if we did uh zero zero out the additional earnings of 22 23,282 and 8,938, I believe that that on a net basis would bring Ward 5 in line with wards 1 to four. Could um could staff confirm if that’s the case? Uh I honestly I don’t know for sure. So um could staff tell us what the net pay would be if we hadn’t done these additional earnings. >> Yeah, just give me one second here. Uh

02:19:44
through the chair. So, if we zero out those earnings, then Ward 5’s net would be 78,565 and W 6 would be 80,650. >> And uh could you um So, it’s about $2,000 uh different and uh are you able to at this time explain why there’s a $2,000 difference in the net pay? >> Uh through the chair, uh it would be the difference between the the benefits.

02:20:10
So there is uh certain benefits that stop at a certain age. So those would those benefits would be less >> and those have already been litigated and found to be aligned with uh human rights practices. So I appreciate that. Uh thank you mayor. Those are my uh questions at this time. >> Councelor Charman.

02:20:32

Um can I make a comment at this time? >> You uh yes you can go ahead. Uh just hang on. We need uh to get it on the board. Go ahead, Councelor Sherman. >> Yeah, I’m I’m simply pointing out that if you treat the $29,545 that were contributed to OMR’s part half of which is the individual uh councelor’s um contribution and half of which is the city’s contribution.

02:21:03
When you consider that that then goes into future income and with the benefit of investment gains that that has a value um that you add to the 81606. So the 81606 that has been reported by staff add the deferred income it comes to 11 $111,151 after tax money. Compare that to Ward Five which is $95,12 and therefore the ward five counselor gets $16,049 less total compensation than all the other counselors except Ward 6 that is based on the 2025 compensation.

02:21:53
uh the the differences um income tax um and uh benefits and um of course the region’s contribution to which we do not get. So I think I think there is some argument going on about equity or not equity that I actually substantially disagree with. Uh and it is absolutely age related.

02:22:18
I agree completely there are laws that define other things but the fact is this compensation equity is completely determined by this council and at the region and and what I’m saying here is um in the event that the contribution and the uh the benefits contribution is corrected so everybody gets the same total compensation that is totally that is totally within uh the rights of council and it is also demonst demonstrating that we are respectful of old rattles who do the same work that they should get the same total compensation. Thank you. >> Councelor Bentovenia, question or comment so I can set the board. >> Question. >> Question. Okay. >> Yes. Thank you, Mayor. Just one simple question. I’m not sure why we’ll keep having this conversation at the staff and I’m not sure if the CFO or

02:23:14
compensation person uh staff come up. Is there any difference in the council budget up or down based on all this discussion that we’re having? Is the taxpayer paying any more money than we all agreed with at budget time for the last eight years? >> Thank you. >> Through Go ahead. >> Through the uh mayor to the counselor.

02:23:47
So the 2025 payment was was handled within the existing uh operating budget that was previously passed. >> Okay. Uh seeing no other questions, uh what would be I think helpful for me, so this will be a question uh to uh Sue um our our chief human resources officer and our chief financial officer is uh simply to show us what it would be without the adjustment that that’s where we started this conversation which did show uh a difference uh with the older adults uh with respect primarily to benefits which we are uh which we are adjusting and I guess a a follow-up uh question would be um if I heard correctly the net was 70 um 70 something uh for the older counselors uh versus 81

02:24:46
is what I see on the chart. So, I just wanted to make sure that I understood that, which is closer to a a 10 uh $10,000 difference, but maybe I understood the answer incorrectly. Far person can come back. Sorry. I saw I heard two different numbers reported for net and I just wanted to make sure I had the right the right ones.

02:25:14

Yes. So through the chair without the adjustments, if we take those out, then the estimated net pay for ward 5 would be 78,565. For the wards 1 through 4, it’s 81,606 as it’s on the chart. And for ward 6, it would be 80,650. Okay, that’s very helpful. Thank you. Uh, councelor Nissan, question or comments? >> It’s a question again.

02:25:41
Um the uh I just want to zero in on this uh issue of whether this uh increased our budget or not. And what the actual relevant question is is whether this is uh taxpayer dollars or not. Um and how it’s accounted for and and where we where the money came from. So, um, if our CFO could could just clarify, um, what the actual consequences of of an additional payout in this case of about uh, $40,000 um, if we if we use sur we use surplus uh, would be my first question.

02:26:21
And, uh, and what do we do with our surplus that’s not spent? If it wasn’t if it hadn’t been spent here, where would that surplus have gone? I I believe it was surplus, but correct me if I’m wrong. through the the mayor to the counselor. So, that’s a different report that’ll be coming up soon in terms of the overall year-end number.

02:26:41
So, as I’ve said, there’s no overages overall um related to this transaction. Um it has been uh utilized the existing overall budget was was enough to cover it. But as I say, we work bringing forward a uh year-end report should be coming next month uh which should be able to have more detail in there. >> I’ll just try the question again.

02:27:03
Mayor, did this money come out of surplus? Did it come which budget did it come out of? >> So this this was paid for through the city’s budget overall budget. >> So we we budgeted >> approved budget. There was no additional funds uh uh used for 2025. So we budgeted for it out of our operating budget for this year because that this was over a year ago now.

02:27:25
So is that right? >> So again it it was accommodated through the budget. I’ll have to look exactly the details. As I said that’s next year’s next month’s report. >> And uh what was the tax increase again that we had that taxpayers had to pay uh out of the operating because of the operating budget going up.

02:27:47
So, this was a portion of that tax increase, right? >> So, through the chair, um I’m I’m pulling my memory banks. Um what the final number was for 2020, >> two and a half. >> Um it’s okay. But the point is that Craig, I would just >> Are you in comments now? >> Uh no, it’s still a question. Uh I don’t see any other hands.

02:28:13
Do you want me to >> Yeah, phrase it as a question, please. Go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you. So, um, what I’m trying to get at to through the mayor, to our CFO, is that it, this money, in the end, it does come from taxpayers. If it, if it came from our operating budget, that was an operating budget increase, correct, that we had this year that taxpayers had to pay for.

02:28:36

Correct. This is funded from taxpayers. >> Thank you. I think that answers that question. Thank you, >> Councelor Sherman. Go ahead. Well, given that remarkable question, uh, is it true that the OM’s contribution to the council’s deferred income, their pension that they will get later, also was paid by taxpayers and was in the budget.

02:28:59

So, the city’s contribution to is paid from property taxes. Yes. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay. Uh just a final question uh for folks that may be watching around the uh the role of the council compensation committee. So um we did have a committee that was struck that gave us some initial recommendations uh and can you remind us when so we and then we have some further exploration that council wanted to do on some items from that report.

02:29:32
So, uh, can you just, um, let folks know what the what the, uh, committee did? Uh, they were in fact there and council received their initial report. Three, mayor, just for clarification, you’re looking for what the working group did. Yes. So, the R uh, the working committee, they came together. Um, I believe it was in September was when they started.

02:29:55
It was it’s a a group obviously of community members who have expertise in this particular area. Um they met they met with council members individually as well. They uh a report was presented to council in December uh with based on um what the feedback they received as well as their own research as well as um our internal um professional services who provided support in that particular area.

02:30:19
Um and they brought forward it was three I believe I might not get all the three I know the ones in with respect to human resources which is in relation to deputy portfolios as I mentioned before to look into as well as u a dive into a spending account potentially exploring that which council will be given an opportunity to um vote on that in will be presented to council anyways in in April.

02:30:44
The other one was uh with regards to the reserve fund um on the on the finance side. So those are the three pieces in particular um that we will be speaking to in that report in addition to um which is u I’ll just say um a supplementary piece on the internship program the student internship program which is a bit of a a disconnect from what the the committee came back but it was a request at December um council.

02:31:12

Okay. Thank you very much. All right. Not seeing any other qu uh go ahead councelor Nissan question or comment. >> Just a final comment. >> Go ahead. >> Um so >> uh in in to be clear if we want to bring in the question about deferred income around you have to do it on both sides. So once you reach a certain age you are getting your salary your own pension which let’s say for 12 years would be worth $30,000 gross roughly.

02:31:40
you get the reduced deduction for the contribution and the extra pay. So I think it, you know, I think is there’s rules around that. That’s why I didn’t take that issue any further. But net pay is also net pay. So net pay is uh that uh because of this decision of this council, we’re taking taxpayer money and we’re paying one counselor extra money.

02:32:08
It shouldn’t be that way. This is unprecedented. It should not be happening. There’s no should like should uh should they get should someone get more benefits or the others the should has been litigative on as a human rights issue. So that’s over. So um there’s a lot of cloak and dagger I think around what the actual pay is but the net pay is the net pay.

02:32:30
It shows that because of decisions of this council taxpayer money is going uh to to bonus uh one council member and it’s not right. So it’s just not right. Um, I can’t bring a reconsideration and I won’t because I can’t, but I feel that this is a a this is wrong and it really it why am I harping on this? Uh, good question.

02:32:52
Um, one is that uh it the justification as an inequity. I find that it bothers me frankly. It bothers me because there are a lot of people who are seeking equity in our community and uh staff have always been against this and for good reason. It’s always been uphill against the staff recommendation.

02:33:19
I know staff did not never supported this because it’s not a question of equity. So that really bothered me. It also irked me to not be able to ask my questions when this was brought to committee because of the closure on it. So, some of my questions I’m getting out now and getting the chart out now for everyone to see.

02:33:38
So, now it’s now it’s completely out in the open. I appreciate my council members for supporting the direction at committee. And uh you know, we can argue over the numbers if we want, but net pay is net pay and uh I think I for me it’s it’s clear in black and white at this point of what’s going on, but um folks are welcome to to argue about it if they want to.

02:34:01
Um, yeah, I don’t think it’s uh a good use of taxpayer dollars. I don’t think it’s fiscally responsible to give uh extra pay on a false basis of equity to council. Thank you, >> Councelor Sherman. >> Well, we need to get our facts right here. Um, >> am I done? I thought it was a question earlier, but >> you had two comments.

02:34:31
Okay, you are done with your two. >> Well, I just want to ask a question then. Um so to staff uh if I were if if we had the facts right is it true that I would have only had 10 years of contribution to because of my age and that actually the contribution I would be getting would be essentially the amount that I’m offsetting now you know in terms of the numbers the additional pay so it’s not a lot different >> through you mayor to the counselor.

02:35:05
Um, when you say 10 years, >> well, not 12 >> 12 years while on council. >> Yeah. As less than 71 >> based on the pension act, you’re saying with regards to eligibility rules, >> it would you would not be eligible for whatever that whatever your from an age perspective >> is the Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that.

02:35:28
Um my second question is um is it not correct that when we think about total compensation it is dramatically different from net income because net income breaks into things like child children and tax breaks for children uh taxes and and marriage allowances and things like that. So net contract net pay has all sorts of other variables involved even you know insurance for for a spouse that which is a uh which is a further benefit.

02:36:00

Certainly net net pay is is different. >> Thank you >> councelor Kron. >> This is a procedural question of staff. So, it sounds like this is generating some conversation and I’m just wondering uh with the committee cycles if a reconsideration were to be brought forward um and if that were to be by way of a notice of motion in this council meeting, what might that look like for uh additional opportunity to gain some information andor uh review the direction? Can I just get some timelines, please? Clerk, do you want to answer that in terms of how it’s brought forward or who’s going to take that >> uh through you, Mary? I would need some time to confer with staff just about everything that’s going on. >> Okay. So, we we might I do want to know

02:36:59
this answer. So, perhaps a fivem minute recess is suitable. I’ll we’ll take a break uh before closing out if you wish. U I’ll just look to the board to see if there are any other questions or comments before we take a brief recess to get the answer. Okay, let’s uh we usually take a break at 11. Uh so let’s take our break now.

02:37:26
Uh come back at 20 after that. gives you about 7 minutes to have a bio break and we will uh pick up with this item when we come back. Thanks. All right, folks. We are back from our

02:44:28
recess. If any everyone can take their seat and stop side conversations, that would be most uh helpful. We are still on the receive for information finance department report FIN 326 folks. Hello. Thank you. Don’t have to gavvel usually, but uh we’re an exuberant crowd today. All right.

02:44:53
Are there any final questions or uh speakers uh before I turn it to the clerk? Okay. Go ahead. to respond to the question that was asked before the recess. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh so through you mayor beard the uh of course reconsideration as was been discussed today would be uh through the process identified in the procedure bylaw in this case the uh motion would be from I can’t my team has sent it to me I can’t see what the date was but it was a motion carried 52 with councilors Greath Karns Charmin Bentania and Marie Ward in support and counselors Nissan and Stalty uh opposed so if that was the motion that wanted to be reconsidered that would be um have to be done through the process test identified in the procedure by it could be done at the April or could be uh started at the April committee of the whole meeting. >> Councelor Curts, go ahead. >> Okay, just for clarity, so at the April

02:45:53
committee of the whole which is what the 13th. >> Yes, correct. >> And then just as a follow-up question, it can just be brought on. What day does that have to be submitted by? That was my original question. >> Apologies for missing your original question. It would be the Wednesday before the agenda is issued.

02:46:17
So that we are Wednesday, April 1st at noon. >> Okay. >> April Fool’s Day it is. Thank you. >> All right. Not seeing any other questions on the board or comments. Uh I will just speak to um the the information that we’ve received here today. The way this is typically reported has always been salary and benefits.

02:46:48
Uh that’s the legislated requirement at city and region. And in response to the question earlier, um if you look at the the salary and benefits net of having made this adjustment, um the older uh council members are getting roughly $35,000 less in gross salary and benefits than their counterparts. So there’s lots of different ways to look at the numbers.

02:47:14
Um but uh that certainly has been instructive for me. It is a a difference for sure and a fairly substantial one. All right, seeing no further questions or speakers. Um, sorry. Go ahead, councelor Karns. A question >> first first >> or comment >> and only comment. >> Um, when I hear things like lots of different ways to look at the numbers, it makes me very nervous in a financial oversight role.

02:47:44
And I think now that we have a little bit of data behind us, uh, it may be prudent to review this. And so I just wanted to say, uh, appreciations for both the report and the insights around the report, but it does sound like there’s something more to be explored here, and I just look forward to doing that. >> Thank you, counselor.

02:48:07
And uh certainly we can all always benefit from additional information to give our consideration. That would be a comment clerk my second time. All right. Uh thank you. So uh certainly look forward to getting the numbers and there are different ways of looking at this. Uh you can look at net, you can look at gross.

02:48:28
Those are two different ways of looking at the numbers at least. So um we will have that conversation and certain for me the gross numbers were very instructive in uh in our initial deliberations on this item which showed a substantial difference between older and uh and younger relatively younger adults. Okay.

02:48:50
Uh seeing no further speakers I will turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Go ahead. >> Councelor Greath >> support. Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentana >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> That’s seven in favor.

02:49:10

And that does carry. Turning now to the audit committee meeting of March 4. All items have been grouped together for a vote. Unless somebody wishes to pull one for separate questions. You don’t need or a separate vote. You don’t need to pull it. If you’re just making comments, we have the status of management action plans, the quarterly dashboard for the office of the city auditor, resourcing for the office of the city auditor, the performance management process for the city auditor, risk to our objectives, the corporate compass, the 2026 annual audit plan for office of the city auditor, and the aquatics space allocation audit. Councelor Karn’s uh question or comment. Go ahead. >> It’s actually a poll for >> Okay. It was G, but now it’s F. Uh, the uh Yeah. Okay. It’s already been pulled. So, I I’m asking to pull G out, which has now been done, and then when we get to that one, we will um have an amendment. Thanks.

02:50:07
Okay. Any other requests to pull anything out of that list on your screen? All right. Any comments? Seeing none, over to the clerk for the recorded vote. Go ahead. >> Councelor Galbreth >> support. >> Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support.

02:50:32

Councelor Bentana >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> That’s seven in favor. >> All right. Uh pulling the aquatic space allocation audit. And we have an amendment. Uh the mover and seconder. And if we can get that on the screen that would be helpful. Who is the mover? Councelor Karns I assume.

02:50:51
And uh I think it was councelor Golreth as a secondary. Okay. Uh councelor Cronhn, do you wish to speak to it? Go ahead. Uh thank you very much. So it’s just a statement that should be going with this and it was a receive and file uh response from the city auditor which was much appreciated.

02:51:09
There is more in the report around uh some latitudes for interpretation uh but it’s not applicable at this time. So, uh, what we what this is intended to do is to kind of, uh, close up the conversation in a more definitive way that’s a little bit more robust than a simple receive and file. >> Councelor Gre, do you wish to speak it to it as a second? >> My colleague worded it well. Thank you.

02:51:34

Okay. Thank you, Councelor Nissan. >> Yeah, just a little anxious because uh, usually audit committee things go go through um, without being modified by council. So, um, is this necessary? Uh, question to staff. Is this Didn’t we already do this? Didn’t we already recognize this? >> Who would like to take that, Blake? Or >> I’ll I’ll have a go first.

02:51:59
Uh, through the mayor to the counselor. So, it technically it’s not needed in um it’s it the reference to in accordance with the city’s procurement process. it it it’s already been done and uh and and completed. So, it’s uh it’s a bit of a stretch to say it’s in accordance with the city’s procurement process if you want to take out that part or because it’s not really part of our process to have council endorse it.

02:52:28

Okay. Well, I would support it with that change. Um assuming to staff that there’s no negative consequence to us approving this. >> Go ahead, Blake. Uh thank you uh mayor through the chair to the councelor. Uh what I would recommend is that the original uh recommendation for the receive and file be included because that concludes the audit process.

02:52:53
If council wants to make an additional addition to the recommendation and add a statement like this, then that’s something that can be that can be tacked on. But I’d suggest that the original uh recommendation of receive and file that brings the audit report to uh council. Council uh approves that uh uh direction from the uh audit committee and then is adding on a uh an additional statement here.

02:53:18
Uh as um the CFO has indicated, there really isn’t any procurement process that uh council would be weighing in on. it would be inappropriate for council to weigh in on a procurement process. So, I’d suggest that uh that is is removed and agree with the CFO on that point. Um those are my comments. >> Okay.

02:53:44
So, it looks like we need to modify the wording a little bit. Um councelor Karns, go ahead. >> I think you happy to uh make those redactions as recommended. If the clerk can just do that quickly and then for clarity, the original receive and file still stands in its entirety. This is an add-on to below that. Uh so it would be main motion as amended.

02:54:11
All right. Do we need a recess to get modified language? Okay. We’ll take a recess until 11:35. Thanks. All

02:57:18
right, councelor Charman, go ahead. >> Thank you. I thought we were reporting on a finding of an audit that should have so we should have said surely question that the finding of the audit was that the uh assignment of the contract uh to jacriate that’s what this should say only surely >> uh well if you’re making that motion to add a word >> I’m I’m well just simply that that The audit, the finding of the audit was that the the award of the uh of the um contract to Ghack was found to be appropriate. That’s it. Did somebody catch that? Do you want me to say that again? >> An additional sentence on top. >> I don’t think we need this one. We’re talking about the audit meeting. The audit meeting. This was already decided. This was >> the procurement. Ah, I gotcha.

02:58:16

Procurement was already decided last year. Earlier, right? Last year we just did an audit and we have a finding of an audit that in fact the audit found that the award of the contract to Ghack was appropriate. >> Okay. Uh the way we’re going to have to do this then is you will put that language on the floor with a seconder.

02:58:41
Councelor Stoalty. We will need to get that on the board to replace this. um I will consider it not contrary to the spirit but in the spirit of this so you can replace it with that and then we will uh either that or we have to vote on yours and this becomes irrelevant so >> so can I comment on that >> yes you may go ahead >> I’m just simply saying that this does not reflect the decision of the uh of the of the audit committee what is on the screen >> I’m going to pause and see if the mover and seconder would like to withdraw this to allow uh what uh councelor Charman has recommended to come forward. If not, we will need to handle it as an amendment to the motion and and then let the votes proceed. Councelor Karns, >> I’d like to I would like this to stand because at no time has council been able to take the opportunity to give its own decision or give its own recognition,

02:59:41
more importantly, uh to what had unfolded. And so the audit did only deliver a receive for information. It did not deliver uh a an overly definitive recommendation. So there’s no recommendation report contained in the audit. So what this does is allows council

03:00:00
to rely on the information found by the auditor uh to allow us the opportunity to recognize uh where it has been awarded. So, uh very benign but is is certainly a good signal and uh you know it’s just very simple and I’m I’m hopeful that it could just be moved along to be honest. >> Councelor Benia question or comment.

03:00:25

Comment please. >> Go ahead. We have committee the whole meetings. Then we have council meetings. At council meetings, we make decisions based on what we talked about in committee the whole meetings. At the audit committee, the audit committee makes a decision whatever they decide and then it comes to council meeting that we approve.

03:00:48
So I’m not even sure why we’re going through this exercise. We’re going to approve, may not use the word recognize, we’re going to approve what the audit committee did, which says everything that we’re all trying to talk about here. So, I’m not sure why we’re even having this discussion. Thank you. >> Okay.

03:01:17
Um, I’m going to ask a question of uh our commissioner of legislative legal services around whether you believe that this is in order with uh an audit or is it out of scope of what we received from committee related to the award. Uh you heard councelor Charman’s uh suggested language that the audit found that that there was an appropriate award.

03:01:41
uh this language is uh slightly different and I I know you didn’t have any problem with the language but now that we’re talking about is this appropriately here as an amendment to an audit report which actually doesn’t deal with the procurement matter help us out. >> Uh thank you chair. Uh so the audit report did consider the procurement process to determine whether or not uh to to consider whether what the procurement process occurred and whether there were any recommendations coming out of that.

03:02:10
Um, and so it was that tie-in that I was, you know, holding uh relying on in in not opposing or or uh the proposed additional tack on to this. For additional clarity, I agree uh with council char that the the what is before council is the audit report. And so if you’re perhaps that the best way to deal with this is that it’s that council recognized that the audit committee concluded that and then add in uh the the verbiage that you want to afterwards just so it’s uh it’s clear that it’s the recognizing that the audit committee concluded that as opposed to any other recognition because from from my perspective and I think this is referred to uh was referred to by the CFO as well. We wouldn’t want any suggestion that council’s making any sort of decision on this. There is no decision for council

03:03:10
to make on the uh awarding of the contract to to G-Hack. That was already done through the procurement process last fall. >> All right. So, we got some words to add there. Uh councelor Karns, go ahead. >> Uh sure. So, I’ll I will accept that friendly amendment if we don’t have to take a five minute typing break.

03:03:28
Um, but I also want to recognize councelor Bentovenia’s comments and I think it would actually be fairly inappropriate for the audit committee to make a statement like that council recognized and that this is the actual appropriate forum. So, um, that’s why I lifted it out of audit committee and brought it brought it into here.

03:03:48
And the reason why it came in short notice is because I was uh seeking some community input uh and heard some community conversations coming out of the the audit committee and I thought that this just wrapped it up uh quite nicely and let us kind of be where we are. Okay. Uh so let’s get the appropriate words in there.

03:04:13
If we need to recess, we will. If we don’t, uh we won’t. But we’ll we’ll make sure that we all know what we’re voting on. And councelor Charman, go ahead. >> Well, given given um councelor’s last comment where that we’re now recognizing the golden horseshoe credit club as the awarded I would suggest was awarded, right? Because it was awarded under um what what’s the word? Yeah.

03:04:41
Yeah. Thank you. So, if our clerk can help us with the additional words that council recognized that the audit committee concluded, there we go. Was awarded. Okay. Thank you for your speed in getting that up. Are there any final questions first on what we have before us? Any final comments? All right, clerk. Go ahead.

03:05:26

Sorry. >> All right, let’s add that after concluded. was the award. Are you sorry? Are you are you putting the that Yeah, there we go. Okay. Uh, councelor Benia, go ahead. >> Again, I’m just looking at this and making a comment here. We’re saying that we support the

03:06:25
continued delivery of youth aquatic programming. We don’t have any say in the procurement. It’s already happening. I’m not sure what I’m supporting here. It’s already happening. It was decided by the procurement group. And I’m not sure what we are approving. Are we making the audit committee happy by just making a statement? Are we making the residents happy by making a statement? I’m not sure. So, I’m not going to support this.

03:07:08
Okay, that was a comment and just back to our clerk to put athe’ before awarded was the awarded vendor. So the amendment is that council recognized that the audit committee concluded that the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club was the awarded vendor for the delivery of youth aquatic programs to support the continued delivery of youth aquatic programming.

03:07:38
Okay. Are we all good to call the vote even though you don’t see that the has been added, but it will be. Yes. Okay. Uh, I’m gonna any anything final here from staff. Okay, last call. Go ahead clerk for the recorded vote. >> Councelor Gre >> support. >> Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> do not support.

03:08:28

Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentovenia >> do not support. >> Mayor me >> support. >> That is five and two. Five in favor, two against. >> And that does carry. All right. Um turning now to the pipeline to permit committee. There are three items. The staff presentation regarding uh >> Oh, I’m sorry.

03:08:50
We have to do the main motion. Yes. Um All right. Back to you, clerk. >> The main motion as amended. Go ahead for the roll call. Councelor Nissan. >> Yeah. Just a point of order. Could we Can we split the uh paragraphs, please? I want to support this the receipt and file. >> Okay. The vote has been divided into two parts.

03:09:12
First on the receive and file clerk, over to you. >> Councelor Greath, >> support. >> Councelor Karns, >> support. >> Councelor Nissan, >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty, >> support. >> Councelor Charman, >> support. >> Uh, councelor Bentovenia, >> support. >> Mayor Maidward, >> support. >> That’s seven in favor. >> And on the second part, over to you, clerk, for the recorded vote.

03:09:37

Councelor Greath, >> support. >> Councelor Karns, >> support. Councelor Nissan >> do not support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentania >> do not support. >> Mayor Mard >> support. >> That is five in favor, two against. >> All right.

03:09:53
Turning now to the pipeline to permit committee. Three items grouped for one consent vote. The staff presentation regarding faster, smarter, simpler trans transforming the site plan process. staff presentation regarding Burlington’s new residential zoning bylaw and the concierge service 2025 operational update. Are there any requests to pull any of those items for a separate vote or questions? Councelor Karns, >> could we just give clerks a second to have the motions reflective of pipeline to permit committee? The pipeline to permit committee is listed at the top of your screen. It’s there. >> Motion A is for the audit plan for the city auditor. >> Thank you for catching that. So, uh,

03:10:56
item A should be swapped out for the staff presentation regarding faster, smarter, simpler transforming the site plan process. If you can make that change, PPO426. So remove item A and put the correct uh report in there. All right, we have the correct three now

03:13:04
on the screen. Any requests to separate any of those items for a separate questions or separate vote? All right, seeing none, I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. >> Councelor Gre, >> support. Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support.

03:13:26

Councelor Bentoania >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> A seven in favor. >> And that does carry. Turning now to the motion to approve the standing committee minutes moved by councelor Charman, seconded by councelor Bentovenia that we confirm the minutes of the following meetings of committee.

03:13:40
The committee of the whole meeting minutes of March 3rd and 5th. The audit committee meeting minutes of March 4th. and the pipeline to permit committee meeting minutes of March 5th. All right. Any questions or comments? All those in favor? Show of hands. Any opposed? Seeing none, uh we have a number of items of urgent business that were forwarded uh from committee and I’m just uh we have 10 minutes left.

03:14:15
wondering if uh we think we can get through the first one which is the affordable housing item before lunch. We can try to do that. Okay, everyone good? So we have uh the land for affordable housing DGM 1126 that has been moved by councelor Charman seconded by councelor Nissan that we endorse the indwell project concept and you see the rest of the items on your screen.

03:14:43
and I won’t read it. Are there questions of staff? Councelor Karns. >> Uh, thanks very much. We We haven’t actually heard anything from staff if I recall. We haven’t had any staff comments, uh, any staff overview, any staff presentation, any staff background or uh, other than what’s been contained in the report.

03:15:05
And I’m just wondering, might that be something we should expect? All right, Jamie from our planning department is going to respond to that. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Uh through the chair, uh maybe I can just get a little clarity from from councelor Karns in terms of a backgrounder. Um, and I I know at committee the whole we were kind of going back and forth with the legal report with the uh the the land lease.

03:15:47
Are you meaning more more details on the terms of the land lease or the terms of the concept that’s before you in this report? >> Um, if I may as a followup, well, as an example, it it’s to endorse the concept. um we we don’t know what that full concept entails or what it exactly does or what options we have around the concept.

03:16:08
I don’t know if that’s within the lease or within the affordable housing city land piece. So, um I’m hearing now that conversations were underway uh since 2024 and I only have one closed meeting report and two open meeting reports here. That’s all I know. >> Correct. So, uh, uh, through the mayor to, uh, to councelor Karns, uh, there’s going to be more steps than the process.

03:16:36
And I I’ll give you one example. Uh, for examp to to enable this project. So, that will be a future check-in point. But between now and then, there are obviously some consultations and and whatnot to further crystallize, if you will, what the development concept will be and how it’s going to fit and how we can uh modify the the zoning regulations.

03:17:05
If I if I may speak to and I don’t want to speak on Kristen’s behalf on on the legal report, but I know there was also well part of your question is how do we perhaps define the terms of the land lease to ensure we’re doing something that council wants us to do and we can do those things and perhaps that’ll be the next conversation and I apologize because I know we are kind of toggling between two reports that are that are related.

03:17:34
Okay. Okay. I’ll say thank you for that. Um can you tell us um if we were uh appropriately scoped in selecting indwell? I am recalling back uh sort of when um you know we made some decisions for Baitman around who would be um you know approved on the lands that our city lands.

03:17:56
Um how did we get to Indwell and what other organizations were considered? U mayor to to uh counsel Karns. Uh so in terms of process uh I think I spoke about this a little bit perhaps uh at committee the whole but I’ll continue on that conversation with uh I’ll begin with what the region of Halton did and what they started through through their work and and they did a fair amount of engagement uh again to see who can do this work who’s capable of doing this work uh and building it and and equally important and as you heard through the deleg ation this morning who also can work with all levels of government to to manage the funding uh that is required to deliver this work because we all know construction development it’s very expensive so you need a lot of funding sources to enable it quickly so what we

03:18:55
did is is we we piggybacked off of that work so we held uh what I’ll call a bit of a workshop that we did back in 2024 and we followed that up uh with a a survey again building off of the work that the region had already done to to again see who who can do this. We were gauging the nonprofit nonprofits that are out there to see who can do it and who can do it more importantly within our half our housing accelerator fund timelines because that’s a really critical critical thing for us if we’re going to uh utilize funds to to enable this. We have to try and hit building permits by the end of this year. And so again, as a as a result of that, really the only group who came forward to us and and was was in dwell and we we continued that conversation. We checked in with the region. We validated what we were

03:19:55
hearing uh with the region’s work who had already begun uh some work with indwell on on other projects uh elsewhere. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any final questions? comments. Councelor Bentania. >> Thank you, Mayor. And uh thank you u Jamie for those uh comments. uh in listening to uh Jaime’s comments here and um and obviously in the previous meetings uh I actually emailed the region um and uh managed to uh have a virtual meeting with uh staff to get uh what I feel um confirming my positive position on this project and uh I was pleasantly pleased to hear what I heard. and I’m prepared to support this

03:20:53
program. Thank you. >> Thank you, councelor. Any other comments on the item? >> All right. I will uh also express my support for this and and many thanks to our staff for uh bringing this to our attention and uh for all of the work that you’ve done in fairly short order uh under significant time constraints and uh I I think uh this is this is moving quickly to address u a housing um issue in our community.

03:21:26
We are in a housing crisis. We do know that there are people that need uh shelter in our community and the data that we saw earlier around uh at least uh 160 plus units would be required to keep up with that. So this is a a step in that direction. It also unlocks um and uh makes good use of our housing accelerator fund money.

03:21:50
Uh maybe that’s the next report. I know they’re both here. So uh I’ll leave it at that. Uh but I think that this is a way that we can um uh partner with a number of different organizations. Partnerships really is the word of the day uh going forward that we can’t do it alone. Region can’t do it alone. Other levels of government can’t do it alone and private or nonprofit sector can’t do this work alone.

03:22:15
We all have to come together. We all have a role to play. uh and uh I’m pleased to see the city stepping up to play the role that we can play uh and bringing together all of the other partners to make this happen for our community. Uh councelor Charman, go ahead. >> Thanks uh very much. The um the world we live in is so expensive for housing and we have so many people who need housing along the continuum.

03:22:43
The only people who don’t are the ones who already have had, you know, 30 or 40 years of equity build up and they can afford some fancy homes later, but even affordable, relatively affordable homes, whereas the vast majority of younger people cannot without having their parents pay. But for those who’ve been less um less successful through their lives, um housing is a very difficult challenge.

03:23:11
Uh so I’m I’m completely agnostic on who should get housing other than you know those who’ve got lots of money already. Uh but when it comes to affordable housing and technically affordable housing the only way that that happens is through government funding. It’s not possible any other way.

03:23:31
And and frankly we have such a desperate need. Uh my belief is that any any incremental housing um is an addition to the community’s ability to house people. Um and and and you know whether it’s affordable, relatively affordable um entry level, I want to make it happen. I I want to say about Indwell uh in particular that they provide support supportive housing.

03:24:01
Um and to me a home without without support mechanisms uh where people who are already at a social disadvantage for whatever reason um have have a path towards crisis of healthcare because without without having um social supports um anxiety, depression sets in perhaps hunger perhaps return turning to addiction and um and and mental health problems occur.

03:24:34
And we know as we were talking to our housing uh commissioner in the region that probably 50 or 60% of all the homeless people that we work with have mental illness. My question of him was to what degree did those people have mental illness before they became homeless? And the answer is I don’t know but I suspect it’s very high.

03:24:53
whatever we can do on a preventative basis as soon as we can do that I am delighted to be able to help and have that done so I’m totally supportive thank you >> councelor Kren >> thank you and foremost I just want to start with an explanation around if you had felt any friction in my conversations it’s because I am putting on a governance lens to make sure that we are entering into uh a robust and sustainable um agreement agreement for a very long time to make sure that we’re with the right partner to create that long-term relationship that also is reflective of the community needs and is reflective of the community values. And so, um, because this has come to us where not all of council has been engaged in the conversations, which I understand are from 2024, um, it does come at a little bit of a surprise, which is why we have the

03:25:51
conversation. But um it’s also very much in tune with the acceleration of the housing crisis and in the needs that we are hearing which is why I asked uh the delegate you know what are you hearing in your congregation as what are some of the needs that are emerging because we do have needs across many different sectors from high acuity to uh quite frankly um you know um you know employment housing where people can work and live in the community that they that they call home. So, I do really want to recognize that from some of the early conversations that we’ve now had in public with Indwell, um that the that the leadership that they have, including hearing from the board member, did give me some resolve um and that they are emerging as a trusted community partner, but that doesn’t mean we slow down with our diligence. So, I will be taking you up on the tour and uh looking into more of the reporting type pieces as well as any type of reflections that will uh be included in the lease because it’s

03:26:50
always best to get the expectations set up front because when you’re living it in the middle of uh the process, uh it becomes really difficult to chart a new course. Um, you know, there is going to be uh uh proof soon that we do have an incredibly compassionate community considering that a significant amount of the partnership funding will come directly from community and possibly from the faith-based groups.

03:27:14
And so, as we heard earlier in one of the delegations, so uh we will see that and that will again allude uh to the fact that any friction was really from a governance lens. Um, you know, we have a lot of people that we need to help. That is for sure. And I’ve mentioned some of those cohorts uh very specifically.

03:27:30
So, um, we’ll move through the process. We’ll get people housed. We’ll give them a great quality of life that Burlington is known for. Um, but we will do that with the appropriate diligence and with the right types of agreements and partners in place. Thanks. >> All right. Not seeing any other hands on the board, I’ll turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote.

03:27:55
Councelor Golreth has conflict and is not voting. Councelor Karns >> cautiously support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentoia >> support. >> Mayor Mid Ward >> support. >> That’s six in favor. >> And that does carry unanimously.

03:28:19
Uh we will deal with the next item because it’s related and then break for lunch. This is uh item 15.2, a real estate matter declaring an intent to lease Waterdown Road Properties LLS 1626. Moved by Councelor Bentania, seconded by Councelor Nissan. Uh councelor Stoalty, a question or a comment. Oh, go ahead.

03:28:49

There’s no one else in line. >> There’s no one on the board. Do you have a question. >> Go ahead with your comment. >> Thank you. It’s been difficult to uh to clarify questions or comments in regards to these two items because they are so incredibly closely related. So, this is in regards to the declaration to enter a long-term lease with the Endwell organization on this land.

03:29:15
Uh we as a council voted earlier this year to spend $7 million of city dollars to make a strategic land acquisition in the hopes of leasing it for affordable housing. That was a good decision to make. Strategic land is important. Today we are looking at the hope of leasing this land to Indwell. Indwell is an organization that while they’re offering services that are extraordinarily needed in our community, there’s no doubt about that.

03:29:41
They’re also offering services that do fall clearly under the responsibility of the region. And that’s where I’ve struggled with from a strictly from a policy perspective about agreeing with this. Um because it’s not necessarily a program that is outlined as meeting the needs in Burlington’s housing strategy, which I think at this table is what we’re supposed to be looking at.

03:29:58
So I do struggle from a strictly policy perspective to agree to this lease. I’m not sure it’s the right program for this land that we’ve acquired. But from a community and programming perspective, I do have different thoughts that I do want just want to take this opportunity to share because I think the conversation will probably be concluded today.

03:30:14
So faith communities in Burlington pay zero dollars in property tax purely because they’re seen as community partners offering strong and supportive benefits to our community, which is true. So imagine my excitement over the last couple of years when multiple Christian faith communities announced their intention of selling congregation owned land.

03:30:31
I jumped on the opportunity to meet with them to see if they’d be willing to partner with the city to create muchneeded affordable housing opportunities. Now, imagine my dismay when these conversations around partnering on available church land resulted in each of the congregations making the decision to offer their land instead on the open market in order to sell to the highest private developer bidder rather than partner with the city.

03:30:52
I actually had quotes unquote saying the city of Burlington cannot afford to pay the dollar amount that we want for our land. We heard today from representatives and delegates from our Christian faith communities who implored council to heed the call to support the Inwell program and not ignore the dire housing needs of the community.

03:31:07
In the end, I will support this land being leased to Indwell today because Indwell is a fine organization and they clearly do good work in the communities that they support and ultimately the program they’ll be creating will undoubtedly support those most in need in our community. But I cannot let this conversation conclude without calling on our Christian faith communities in Burlington who’ve long been in a position to negotiate their available land to organizations like Indwell and implore these congregations to remember that through their existence they benefited from being able to not pay any property tax and now if they’ve determined they have excess land available for sale rather than insisting on selling to the private highest bidder, please come back to the city and be willing to have those conversations and engage around continuing to be good community partners and help us at the city of Burlington to find more opportunities to provide housing across our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other speakers to this

03:32:05
item? >> Councelor Nissan. >> Yeah, thank you very much, Mayor. um on this item and the two items are interlin. I think it’s a I do believe this is a step in the right direction for uh our community and the broader community and uh there are no boundaries when it comes to uh homelessness uh and when it comes to finding uh housing for people in need.

03:32:31
Um and I think this project will address a gap uh a very serious gap uh in our needs not just for Burlington but the broader uh area. So it in my opinion it’s a step in the right direction and I want to also note that it was made possible through um federal government uh funding and uh I think that’s important because uh there’s a there’s a lot of money uh coming onto the table and this demonstrates from the federal government and this demonstrates what we can do with that money.

03:33:02
I think it also demonstrates that um although um the the units are welcome and you know they’re in the double digits they won’t look at how much work it takes to um to find homes for 70 to 80 people and uh it also shows I think there is a there is a better way and uh I don’t I would like to see uh the provincial government uh step up take a look at what we’re uh doing through this project and start um acting on a larger scale uh rather than um thinking about things like the notwithstanding clause to uh clamp down on people. So uh kudos to to our team, kudos to the federal government and I know there will be some provincial dollars around operating expenses and all likelihood here as well, but um we need a we need a larger solution. Uh so this is great news, but until the provincial government gets serious about

03:34:01
ending homelessness and creating affordable housing, uh these will be band-aid solutions. Thank you, >> Councelor Karns. >> I’m sorry, I need to jump back into questions. I’m just looking at the calendar and so this is a lease. So we need to come back. So, first of all, we need to do um a male circulation uh for 120 meters, but then we need to consider the long-term land lease at committee of the whole on the 13th.

03:34:29
And my question goes back to the community engagement piece. Will staff be doing if you just email if you just send out a letter and we don’t have a a PIC or an information session or something to that effect. I feel that because this is a little bit different than a normal um development application.

03:34:50
It’s a little bit more nuanced than that. Um what commitment and do we need a staff direction to hold a public information session before the next committee of the whole meeting when this is brought back and also that public engagement session will inform some of the terms of the lease. So, I need a I need a commitment at this point.

03:35:11
And how can we scope that? >> Come on. Back up. Jamie Tillier through the chair. Uh to the counselor. uh we hadn’t quite put our mind to the timing but absolutely we our commitment is to we need to as I was mentioning previously we have to hand uh process a resoning application and we’re targeting bringing that back in May so when you start reverse calculating from that typically we would do a community meeting uh like that pre-application meeting we heard from the delegates this morning they also wish to do that we just We needed to see how uh how council was going to decide on this so that we can then put our minds on on next steps. Um we are in March right now, mid-March. So

03:36:10
I think conceivably we could try to target something uh as soon as possible to land something and get enough notice. It could be early April before we could do that. But uh I’m going to have to take that back. I honestly I I don’t have a date in mind because like I said that was that was the next step after this. But the commitment is there.

03:36:30
We absolutely need to reach out to the community and and the plan was to do that before we start processing uh a development application. >> Okay. So for clarity, what are you telling people in the 120 m public notice? an intent to lease because I didn’t know that was a requirement under the planning act or are you indicating that there is a development application coming down the pipeline for reszoning? >> Going to be a little bit of both and I’m going to hand this over.

03:37:05

Go ahead, Kristen. >> Through to the chair through to the chair. So the the notice was posted on the website as well as um mailed out to everyone within 120 meters in regards to the intent um for the city to lease these lands. Um and as indicated in the report, uh realy services will be coming back to council, uh next month with a confidential appendix outlining, uh some of those items, um that are crucial in the lease in the land lease for council’s consideration, um next month, should council be agreeable to the terms uh itemized in the confidential appendix, uh then we can proceed with formalizing a lease and executing that. Um, so that would be the process on the realy side. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Did you want to add something to >> Well, again, just to pro because I we’re weaving in and out between the land lease and the development application. And so Kristen just explained how the

03:38:04
land lease process will go. But again, back to the development application, we need a zoning bylaw amendment. we need to start processing that in a very aggressive way so that again we can uh get everything set up to to achieve our our targets for building permits by the end of this year.

03:38:23
Uh so again on purely on the development application side of things as we have a zoning bylaw amendment. Uh again, we’re we’re going to we’re in mid-March, so realistically, we could probably get something set up for end of March or very early April uh to again have the community consultation for the development application independent of the real estate work.

03:38:50

Okay, I appreciate that because the website posted on February 23rd was just to an intent to lease municipally owned lands, but this is very different. It’s to um declare the intent to lease to devel to develop an affordable housing project. So the two pieces I guess because this hasn’t been approved, you weren’t able to update the the public notice.

03:39:11
So now you need a new public notice that’s more wholesome or no? >> Uh through to the chair. So the the notice posted on the on the realy side of the policy um will not be updated. It is to give the public knowledge of our intent to enter into a long-term lease. That is the requirement. Uh not the requirement of the policy is not to declare who the uh the tenant will be, but that the lands are for lease for a long-term period greater than 20 years.

03:39:41
Um and so that’s what that notice that that’s the intent of that notice. Um so there won’t be an update. Thank you. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh councelor Stoalty, question or comment? comment >> comment uh for a second time. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Just a quick comment and while I love the positive tone of my colleague councelor Nissan’s comments, I just want to clarify and prevent any m miscommunication for any member of the public that’s watching.

03:40:06
Uh the comment made about kudos to the federal government for stepping forward to such a great degree. My understanding is is that as much as we would like to think they’re going to come to the table, there hasn’t even been an application made yet, let alone any commitment from them.

03:40:19
So, we can be hopeful that they’ll step forward, but I think just the publicing messaging about kudos to the federal government might have been a little premature. >> Okay, any final comments? Seeing none, I will turn it to the clerk for the recorded vote. Go ahead. Councelor Gre has a a conflict and is not voting. Councelor Karns Cautiously support.

03:40:52

Councelor Nissan >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Sherman >> very happy to to support. >> Councelor Bentania >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> Six in favor. >> And that also carries unanimously. Thanks everyone. I will put us in recess now.

03:41:09
Uh is everyone good to come back at one? Not 1:00. You want 115? >> Sure. We’re done with done with >> Okay, we we’re going to come back at 1:15. That That’s the Sorry, at 1:00. I’m sorry, Paul. I’m sorry. 45 minutes. Uh lunch break. Uh let’s be back here at 1:00. We’re now in recess.

CLOSED SESSION BEGINS

06:48:34
Welcome back folks. We are out of closed session and we do have a public motion to vote on. I know folks are waiting uh for this. So we will just get the public motion up on the screen and then I will call the vote. Oh, >> all right. I will turn it to you for the vote on the motion. Go ahead. >> Thank you, Mayor Mard.

06:49:00
Councelor Galbreth, >> support. >> Councelor Karns, >> do not support. >> Councelor Nissan, >> support. >> Councelor Stoaltzer, >> do not support. >> Councelor Sherman, >> support. >> Councelor Bentonia, >> support. >> Mayor Midw >> support. >> Five in favor, two against. >> And that does carry.

06:49:16
Turning now to motions from members. We have none of those. We have three council information packages February 20th, February 13th, and March 6th. And if there are any items the councelor wishes to bring forward, the let the clerk know by April 1st, we have a motion to receive and file information items from councelor Bentovenia, seconded by councelor Charman.

06:49:41
All those in favor? Any opposed? Seeing none, are there any notices of motion? Seeing none, I will move to the approval of the bylaws. Moved by councelor Charman, seconded by councelor Galbreth that we enact and pass the following bylaws which are now introduced entitled and numbered as indicated below. 13 2026 a bylaw to amend designating 488 Locust Street.

06:50:09
14, 2026, a bylaw related to city-owned parcels of land. Uh 1526, the appointment of municipal livestock valuers and weed inspectors. 16 uh 1626, an amendment to repeal and replace schedule one of bylaw 39 2016. 1726, the new site control site plan control bylaw. 18 2026 a bylaw to adopt the official plan amendment number eight.

06:50:40
19 2026 a bylaw to adopt official plan amendment number two. 2026 a bylaw to amend the uh bylaw 24208 adopting the Burlington official plan. And finally 21 2026 a bylaw to amend bylaw 71 2023 to delegate approvals to staff. Any questions or comments on any of those? Seeing none recorded vote on that. Go ahead. >> Councelor Greath >> support.

06:51:15

Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan >> support. >> Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentovenia >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> That’s seven in favor. >> That does carry. We have a confirmatory bylaw moved by councelor Charman, seconded by councelor Stoalty to enact and pass bylaw 22, 20226 to confirm the proceedings of council March 10 being read a first, second, and third time.

06:51:38
All those in favor, we need a recorded vote. Back to the clerk. >> Councelor Gre >> support. Councelor Karns >> support. >> Councelor Nissan support. Councelor Stoalty >> support. >> Councelor Charman >> support. >> Councelor Bentoia >> support. >> Mayor me Ward >> support. >> That’s seven in favor.

06:51:51
Turning now to statements by members. You have three minutes each. I’ll look to the board. Go ahead, Councelor Charman. >> Thank you very much. The um the in-person public open house for the proposed amendment to affordable rental housing community improvement plan will be held on Tuesday, March the 24th from 7:00 p.m.

06:52:12
to 9:00 p.m. at the Applebee Ice Center community run. Uh I want people to save the date for an important upcoming community conversation between councelor Kernis and I will be hosting a community traffic forum uh bringing residents together with community stakeholders and traffic experts to discuss the future of mobility in our city.

06:52:33
The forum will take place on April the 1st, 2026 at 6:30 at the Art Gallery of Burlington. Uh this evening will offer an opportunity for meaningful dialogue, constructive feedback, collaborative problem solving as we work toward safer, more efficient transportation across Burlington. Registration is recommended. For help registering, please email my office ward 5billington.ca.

06:52:58
In addition, I’m looking forward to joining Mayor Me Ward at the Spring Town Hall on Wednesday, March the 25th from 7 to 8:30 p.m., uh, which is a community conversation on development, safety, traffic, and your concerns taking place at the new Applebee Public Library. I hope to see you there.

06:53:13
Um, coffee with me, a counselor, is taking place Thursday, March 26th from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Tim Hortons, 5353 Lakeshore Road. Your thoughts, ideas, and feedback are important as we work together to build a stronger community. So, even with cold weather, you can stay active. The Skyway Community Center and Arena offers an indoor walking track to keep you moving.

06:53:40
uh plus a calendar of upcoming events to play pickle war and things like that at the um and I’m I’m delighted to say that I spent many mornings walking around that track at 6:30 in the morning with a whole bunch of other community members uh enjoying the wonderful wonderful um facility that Skyway Community Center and Arena now offers.

06:54:00
If you’d like any additional information on the above, please feel free to contact my office ward 5burnson.ca. Thank you, >> Councelor Nissan. Okay. Uh let’s see. A couple dropins with myself. Um discuss your questions, concerns, and ideas. One is Thursday, March uh 19th, 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Brand Hills Community Center.

06:54:25
And the second is March 28th, 1 to 2:30 at uh Forinos uh the G Line in Upper Middle Super Center uh Forinos. Any questions, email me at ward 3@arlington.ca. A um conservation Halton is hosting maple season until April 5th. You can visit Mountsburg’s Maple Town and Sweetwater at Crawford Lake.

06:54:48
Enjoy a working sugar bush, maple treats, farm animals, and so on. It’s a lot of fun. Uh I try to go every year. conservationhalton.ca/maple season for more info. Uh finally, also from uh Conservation Halton, um is uh if you’re interested in a rain garden or cover crops or upgrading your manure storage on your property, uh Conservation Halton provides recommendations and financial assistance to land owners in the watershed for projects just like that.

06:55:22
And you can also find that on conservationhalton.ca. Thank you, Mayor. >> Councelor Bentania. Thank you, mayor. Um, after we leave here tonight at uh Alton Community Center, we will be having a town hall hosted by the mayor and my ward, and I will be there to support uh her and the residents in in the area.

06:55:45
Um, also, Saturday the 14th from um 11 till 12:30, we have a drop in at Farmboy. Wednesday the 18th at 3 to 4:30 uh drop in as well at Tim Hortons in the Longo Plaza on Dundas. I’ll leave it at those three and um we’ll see you at one of those three. Thank you, >> Councelor Stoalty. >> Thank you. Just a couple quick things.

06:56:13
Um Tech Cafe is a regular feature at the hub at Burlington Center. Their next events on Saturday, March 21st, 11 to 1. If you’re an older adult who finds technology a bit tricky, trained volunteers are standing by to provide one-on-one support and answer all your questions.

06:56:25
Uh this month, the Holiday Inn on the South Service Road in Ward 4 is a venue for two Easter fun events. First up, on April 3rd, the Spring and Burlington Handmade Market is offering baked goodies, home decor, jewelry, candles, treats, and countless unique handmade treasures. And the next day on April 4th, uh the Burlington Easter and Spring Market will take over at the holiday in.

06:56:45
Come meet the Easter Bunny for that. And I just want to remind everyone that on the last Saturday of each month, I host the Ward 4 coffee chat at the hub. Our next event’s on Saturday, March 28th from 10:00 to 12:00. I’ll have coffee ready and everyone’s welcome to drop by with their questions and feedback. Thanks, >> Councelor Karns.

06:57:02
The upcoming W 2 community meeting is scheduled March 17th and April 22nd, both at 7 p.m. A hybrid room is in room 247 at city hall or at Zoom. Just register at ward 2 burlington.ca to get the link. Not to worry about March 17th. We’ve got lots of great establishments in walking distance that can help you out for all your St.

06:57:23
Patrick’s Day needs. The first Burlington community traffic forum hosted by councelor Charmin and I will take place on April 1st. Uh you heard it from councelor Charman as well. Our gallery of Burlington and it will bring together solutions focused experts and agencies to address traffic congestion and mobility concerns in the city.

06:57:40
Uh, lots of community participation is encouraged and we already have dozens and dozens of signups. So, please register for your spot. The next W 2 walking tour, now that the weather is a bit better, will take place on April 26th at 10:30 a.m. with a meeting place at city hall. U, it is always rain or shine, and we have been caught in definitely the rain.

06:58:00
Park popups are also back. Uh, select dates and locations from April 23rd to April 29th. You’ll see more information from that, but please sign up to the newsletter ward 2@bururlington.ca for additional details. We have a statutory public meeting coming up for 1056 Brandt Street, which proposes to amend the subject lands uh mixeduse corridor with with sight specific policies with a maximum height and floor area ratio.

06:58:29
Uh that will be April 14th at 9:30 a.m. in council chambers or via live stream. The BDBA is uh introducing no onthe-go, a mobile digital directory to bring you all downtown businesses together in one easy place with instant access member info, business categories, up-to-date listing listings, and helping to strengthen connections across more than 400 local businesses.

06:58:53
Please download the pass and get into the know on the go. Our Burlington Public Library is geared up for March break with lots and lots of fun and exciting things happening. Please go to bpl.en.ca for the branch nearest to you. There is Paint by Sticker for Kids, Stretch, Breathe, and Create, Mel’s Magic Amazing Show, Nintendo Switch Hangout, uh March Break, Bingo.

06:59:21
Really, the list is endless. And of course, it’s all free. Um, we also have coming up the art gallery of Burlington with some events to note. March break pottery workshop for teens and wheel throwing and handb buildinging is on March 17th and 19th respectively. And they also have making natural dyes which is a three-week course starting March 12th to the 26th.

06:59:45
And then BPAC has a number of events with Alex Samaris on March 11th. Art of Adventure March 14th. Burlington helping Burlington presents the essence of Cohen and that would be on March 14th.