Committee of the Whole – July 6, 2026

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Heat. Heat. I’m only

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and we are on. Good morning. My name is Paul Charman, councelor for W 5. I would like to call the uh to order the committee of whole meeting for Monday, July 6th, 2026. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many first nations and the matei from the anesnbe to the hoden and the matei are lands spanning from lake Ontario to the Niagara scarment are steeped in indigenous history.

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The territory is mutually covered by the dish with one spoon wampam belt covenant and agreement between the ikqua confederacy the ojiway and other allied nations to peaceibly share and care for the resources around the great lakes. We acknowledge that the land on which we gather is part of the treaty lands and territory of the missagers of the credit.

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So 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. Once you have evac evacuated the building, please gather at veterans square outside city hall. This is on the north side, not the south side. All City Burlington Committee and Council meetings are live webcast and archived on the city’s website.

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Today’s meeting is being captioned digitally through our agenda management software. I will remind everyone slow down and speak clearly so your words can be captured by the software. I would also ask everyone attending virtually to please uh use appropriate microphones so your words can be captured accurately by the software.

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With respect to rules of enga engagement, we have uh we do have them. Uh we have rules of engagement in committee meetings. We ask everyone to please be respectful while others are speaking and listen as you would want to be listened to. A reminder to committee members to adhere to the procedure bylaw and limit your questions to two at a time.

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Further, a member may ask a question only for the purpose of obtaining facts relevant to the matter under discussion and necessary for a clear understanding. All questions will be stated succinctly and will not be used as a means of making statements or assertions. We are not making decisions at this meeting, only recommendations that will go to city council for final consideration on July the 21st, 2026.

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The public is welcome to see when the final decision making happens by attending the meeting either in person person or watching the live stream. Delegates are welcome to register to speak at the council meeting. By the way of introduction of our members, our first order of business today’s meeting is to conduct a roll call.

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I will now turn it over to the clerk who will take attendance of members present and to confirm quorum. Go ahead. >> Thank you. Councelor Galbre >> present. >> Councelor Karns >> present. >> Councelor Nissan >> here. >> Councelor Stoalty >> present. >> Councelor Venttovena >> present. >> Mayor me >> present. >> Councelor Charman >> here.

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We have quorum. Thank you very much staff joining us today. Our chief administrative officer Kurt Benson, our committee clerk Susan Gillis. Other staff in attendance will be introduced as agenda item. Each agenda item is discussed. Uh we will take short breaks midafter afternoon and afternoon uh midm morning and afternoon and lunch from 12 till 1.

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We will deal with confidential items after lunch at 1 pm. This meeting is scheduled until 4:30 p.m. today and we will continue tomorrow at 9:30. So at this point, uh, a motion requiring twothird support is being sought to appoint councelor Staly as chair for the remainder of the July 6th, 7th committee of the whole meeting and September the 14th and 15th cow meeting.

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Uh, we need a mover for this. Okay. So, car. Okay. So, uh, the mayor, you want to speak first? >> Yes. Thank you. I have my hand up uh on on the screen. So, uh, I support that. I will move that motion. I think, uh, councelor Stoalty did an outstanding job of chairing our last committee cycle. I think it’s extremely helpful, uh, to have somebody in the chair who is not running for re-election.

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She’s the only one. and so can help to ensure that our proceedings are focused on the business of the city and not uh campaigning or polit polit uh politicking in council chambers. Uh so I just want to uh take this opportunity to say what a great job you did and I’m sure that you will do a great job uh in July. Thank you.

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Thank you very much. Did you did I see your hand up earlier? No. Okay. >> Oh, it was >> you put your hand up. I’m sorry. I thought I I needed a second and I think you’re going to second it, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. Okay, go ahead. >> I can comment. >> Yes, please. >> Oh, thank you, chair. Okay. Thank you.

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Thank you for the opportunity. Um, I just wanted to pass a comment to say that I’m not the least bit interested in participating in a meeting again like we had at the June committee. The whole council chambers is a sacred place meant for professional, respectful, democratic debate and discussion and decision-making. the June committee.

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The whole meeting was by multiple members of committee used to be purposefully argumentative, combat, combative and disruptive. I believe that many questions and commentary were used less for clarification on city business at hand and more geared to political posturing meant to impress influence and potentially deceive the media and the public during the election period.

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There have been many public statements and commentary around bullying in CH council chambers and shutting down of debate. Uh, I want to clarify that if I am to chair, there needs to be a decorum around respecting the procedure bylaw, respecting the expertise of our clerk and the authority of the chair and council chambers.

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Debate was procedurally ended and votes were called to purposely curtail any kind of grandstanding or attention seeking. This type of behavior is not professional. It’s beneath us as elected officials. And on behalf of the community, I implore us all to have more respect for ourselves, have more respect for each other, the staff, and the public, and to do better.

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So, I’ll be chairing this meeting as neutally, as professionally, and as efficiently as possible. I will not tolerate any disrespect towards the chair or any disrespect towards each other around this council chamber. If you agree to this, then vote in favor of this motion. If you’re not in agreement to act professionally and respectfully, then do not vote in favor of this motion. Thank you.

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Thank you very much. I see hands. Um, questions. Go ahead, councelor miss. >> Thank you. Uh well, first of all, I’m there’s a few things going on here. I’ll start with questions. Uh our uh report says that councelor Bentania would be chairing the meeting today. So I just want to get clarity for why councelor Charman is currently in the seat.

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Thank you. the uh report that council approved uh for the rotation of uh of chairs. >> Go ahead. >> Good morning. Uh the so the rotation of chair’s report was amended earlier this year because of I believe councelor Stoalty was absent for a meeting or maybe councelor Nissan I think it was councelor stoli was absent and so councelor Nissan chaired two in a row so it’s it’s been pushed back a month uh so that’s why councelor char today is supposed to be the chair and then councelor Benavani would be the chair in September >> thank you very much okay uh I guess my question is to

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councelor Bentavvenia if he was aware of this and was willing to give up his uh his role to chair during the balance. So, councelor Bentovenia, were you were you aware of this change or is this new to you? >> No comment. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you very much. Two questions. Council N. Councelor Karns.

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Well, thank you very much through the chair of the moment. I’m just wondering, I don’t think it’s a requirement to have a council member chair any of the committee meetings because we do have other chairs uh in other standing committees of council and I’m just wondering if there’s an option for staff uh to chair these meetings going forward if the if the situation is as dire as expressed.

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Uh the reason is because we don’t have a closing date on who is running uh until August and so there can be some significant changes uh if that was the rationale. So my question to staff is can you please uh advise us if it’s an possibility to explore appointing a staff member to chair for the balance of the term? >> Go ahead Mike.

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Uh through you Mr. Chair. Um generally no that that it’s a member of the committee or member of the council who would be the chair. Uh the procedure bylaw I believe is silent on that but um it’d be very unorthodox for a member of staff to chair a a meeting of um elected officials.

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But my question is, can it be possible with a motion? Just because if the rationale is that the appointed in the moment chair is not running for reelection, that’s not a solid fact. Uh because that fact can’t be proven until August 27th. >> Uh through you, chair. It uh I’d have to look into it for sure to get back to you.

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I I don’t believe it is possible, though. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Second question. Um, >> I thought you had to. >> No, that was a followup. Okay. >> So, my second question is this. Is there a way to appoint a member of the public to chair until the balance of the term >> through you uh chair? I’d have to get back to you about that. >> Thank you very much.

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Well, in any event, we do have a motion on the floor. I just want to ask a question of councelor Bentovener if in fact you would agree to uh then uh pass the battle uh the the cavl to councelor stalty for September. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you very much. Okay, councelor Nissen. >> Yeah, just a comment. >> So, uh I appreciate that no names were uh were used uh moments ago with uh the apparently incoming chairs.

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um uh prepared remarks. Uh but I do want to note that the procedure bylaw was in fact broken twice uh last month at committee. Uh once was to improperly uh close uh debate. Uh actually they were both related to that. once one needed two/3 and then the second time uh was uh when uh upon councelor Charman making comments introducing a motion being allowed to then close that debate.

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So uh I’m concerned about uh about bias and I’m concerned about this being a railroading of this uh of this committee uh by a majority uh to put in someone in the chair. I I don’t even understand it because councelor Benttovenia and councelor Galbreth would be the two chairs and um they can certainly do the job quite well.

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It’s not uh like you know we can see the writing on the wall here. It’s not councelor Karns or me who’s going to be chairing it anyway. So I’m not sure what the problem is here. In fact, I would have more trust uh based on last month and the way the procedure bylaw was not followed last month uh with uh the other uh with councelor Bentania and councelor um councelor Galbreth um and with the of course the able support of our of our clerk’s department.

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So you know uh obviously there’s something of foot here. It’s it’s uh clear that there’s plans uh not shared in advance but uh through the grapevine hearing that this might be the case and uh yeah I think everyone should tell us if they if they were part of this uh decision ahead of time or not and I would just say you know uh even councelor Charman I would have uh more trust in yourself to continue to chair this meeting.

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Uh you have a great track record of following the procedure bylaw and being unbiased. uh the comments made by uh councelor Sulty just showed that she of course we all have our own individual opinions on things but that she has very strong opinions on one side of the procedural debate and uh one side of the question of what occurred uh in in last month.

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I’m certainly uh I certainly do not and again she didn’t say names but as far as I’m concerned and my own um my own uh conduct was entirely focused on the issues uh that occurred and I am certainly uh allowed to give my opinion about what occurred in those committee meetings around bullying and and other matters.

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These are matters of opinion and I have a right to free expression in this chamber and outside of it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you. And I think when we call the vote, I think everybody will express their opinions quite clearly when we take the vote. Thank you. Um, councelor Staly. >> Uh, thank you. I just want to clarify that councelor Nissan’s comments, there’s no opinions around the procedure bylaw. It’s not a matter of opinion.

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It’s a matter of fact that we’ve all agreed to. And I can assure you that the procedure bylaw, I will be relying not on council members to interpret their opinion of the procedure bylaw. I’ll be relying on our clerk. and actually met last week with our city clerk who has agreed to be in council chambers today to be the ultimate authority on our procedure bylaw. It’s not my authority.

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It’s not my opinion. It’s not any member of council’s opinion on the procedure bylaw. It’ll be followed as it is written on paper. Thank you. >> Thank you very much councelor Karns. >> Thanks perhaps for the chair. This is a a question to council. Um so councelor Schulty my question in in uh proofing your capabilities of chairing will sound a little bit like this.

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What what mechanisms will you be using to stop any type of posturing comments? And I’m reflective of one of the comments made by the current mayor that said if I’m so lucky to be reelected again and it continued on and yet there was no pause in in dialogue. And so I’m just wondering uh when you’re using your own determination around what is political posturing, how will you make that determination and how will you um correct the record in that situation if you were to be chair for the next uh balance of the committees? >> I certainly appreciate that question, councelor Curtains. Um, if any member of council feels as though there is any kind of election posturing going on, I welcome you to put out a point of order to say that that’s not in regards to the business at hand. So, if it’s yourself, if it’s anyone else around the horseshoe, if you feel as though I have missed a comment that needs to be addressed and stopped, then please bring it to my attention through a point of order. >> Okay. So, follow-up question. And so I

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was absent uh last uh council meeting and I believe I observed uh after the fact a point of order that was not able to be heard. Will you plan to hear people’s point of orders before making a ruling? >> I’ve thought about this and what I intend to do after talking with the city clerk is asking some very direct questions for the member to clarify what their point of order or any perceived point of privilege is in regards to.

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It’s not going to be a matter of allowing an open dialogue or an open speech um to go on at at end because that’s actually not our procedure bylaw to allow speaking time especially 2 or 3 minutes worth. So what I’ll be doing is asking some very direct questions and if I declare a point of order or a point of privilege to not be held.

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Uh there is absolutely within our procedure bylaw the opportunity for that member to appeal it and it will go to a decision of twothirds vote of council and if the majority of council at 2/3 believes that there should be more discussion about the point of order point of privilege that will happen. >> Thanks.

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The second question, are you aware that your opening comments felt like they would be uh eligible to trigger a point of order? >> Nope. My opening comments are establishing some decorum as expected in this room to be professional and act in a way that we could be respected and we could feel proud of how we are conducting ourselves in this council chamber.

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If council does not wish for me to chair under these rules, I’m absolutely fine with that. I don’t have a burning need to chair. If there is decisions made for me to not chair this meeting, I’m happy to excuse myself. So, vote for it or don’t vote for it. That’s fine with me. >> Okay, I’ll go back in quue. Thanks. >> Well, I think I’d like to have the vote uh taken because I think we had enough conversation.

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We are turning this into a political debate again, which is not helpful. Um, we have the motion on the floor. Um, and councelor Karns, if you would like to continue this dialogue, uh, go ahead. But all we’re doing is avoiding the fact that we have a motion on the floor. >> I’m not sure if I’m invited to speak or if you’ve just looked to close debate.

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Go ahead. >> Thank you. Um question of staff. Given that uh it seems that there’s a bit of a heightened temperature, is it possible that we could request uh that the city clerk chair uh sorry that the city clerk clerk the balance of the meetings with support from clerk’s office, but that the city clerk would be in the chair to ensure the strictest compliance with the procedure bylaw.

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And do you need a motion >> through you um chair? I I have full and complete uh confidence in the committee clerk and Suzanne’s ability and knowledge of the procedure ballot to continue on. However, if council did feel more comfortable, um I could do that with with the motion. >> Okay.

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I’ll table the motion at the appropriate time, chair, that the city clerk clerk the balance of the uh committee meetings to the end of the term. >> So noted. Uh go ahead, councel. >> Yeah, thank you. I just want to note that we don’t need to be doing this right now. um that we could get along just fine without it. And I don’t appreciate the gaslighting that we’re causing politics into this chamber.

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There’s only one side bring politics into this chamber talking uh at least in a minority ahead of time uh to bring this motion, not giving any notice. So when you talk about trying to put an end to politics, we could be halfway through our agenda right now. So no gaslighting about politics here.

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Uh this is obviously politics. The motion is politics. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I’m seeing no further. Oh, go ahead. >> Thank you, chair. Um I understand these are uh challenging times and difficult times and it is it is really incumbent upon the council and the committee members to ensure that the debate is focused on city business.

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uh on uh doing the work of uh what the community expects us to do and uh I will simply say that uh opinions are not fact. Um there was a statement made that that that committee improperly closed debate. That is an opinion but that was we followed the procedure bylaw to do that. There was a democratically taken vote.

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We make our decisions by majority vote and when necessary by twothirds vote around this table. Uh we all know that as councelor Stolty has mentioned there are options within a meeting to raise a point of order or a point of privilege. the chair rules on that matter and there’s an opportunity to challenge the ruling of the chair and that in fact happened and uh the council member was outvoted on that uh and there was the appropriate votes with the majority thresholds to close debate that had gotten beyond the business of the city and so there was nothing a miss or improper. This is our democratic process. the tools uh that I understand people find uncomfortable perhaps uh when they when they wish to continue uh a dialogue that uh the tools are there to refocus us all professionally respectfully on the business of the city

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and the community that we serve. They are there for a reason. We haven’t had to use them uh very much at all. uh but we’re using them a lot right now as we head into an election and people will make their own conclusions uh about that. I can tell you that I have had incredible uh feedback from uh many people in community and in the city about the job that councelor Stolty did to refocus us on the business to try to take the temperature down to not uh make um improper or false allegations of uh bullying. We are following our procedure by law. We are using the tools and the democratic process to focus us on serving our community which is our only job here today and I hope we can stay focused on that. So uh thank you chair and I hope we can I hope we can come

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together and do that. >> Thank you very much. Um before we take the vote I will make the following comments. Um I believe the councelor Staly did a stunningly good job uh at the last meeting that was very helpful. Uh it brought us back into order. Um and it and it made us efficient and effective.

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So I’m I’m strongly supportive of this. Uh I believe uh it’s decision of council of the committee and uh we need to move on with this instead of continuing. um which is what we’ve seen constantly in previous meetings where people just kept on putting their hands up and asking questions and making comments and spending hours and hours in this room that we don’t need to be spending time on and making false accusations about bullying and things like that. We don’t need it.

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It’s not correct. We’ve all everything’s been done in accordance with the uh with the regular um bylaws. Thank you. Um Councelor uh Karns, is this a question or a comment? When’s the appropriate time to add an amendment around having the city clerk clerk the balance with probably additional support from the clerk’s team? >> After the we do the uh vote on this motion.

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So I’m going to call the motion. Thank you very much. I’m calling the motion mo. No, it’s not. I’m calling out of order. Um this is we’re now taking the vote on this motion. Thank you. This would be an amendment to this motion. >> I’m thinking we should take the vote on the motion as it is and then the uh and then the next care chair can hear hear the motion.

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Can we not do that? >> No, there’s no agenda. >> Go ahead, councelor K. Maybe we could see the motion and then I could add the amendment too to the emotion. And the amendment will be to uh direct the city clerk to clerk the balance of committee meetings through to the end of the term.

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And of course we have every confidence in our clerk’s team. I think we need two on to be honest. Uh and so that would be the motion right there. Thanks. >> Go ahead, Mayor. Sorry, I see Kurt’s hand up. I don’t know if he wanted to speak. I missed that first. >> Thank you. Uh thank you, chair. Um I I just want to offer staff’s uh comments.

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Um we actually uh stand behind our professional staff and clerks. We feel strongly that uh there is no change necessary here. Um, Miss Gillies does a fantastic job uh in that chair. Um, and her patience and thoughtfulness should be commended. Um, I don’t recommend um, moving forward with the motion.

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Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Go ahead. >> Thank you. I was going to say that myself. I find this motion extraordinarily disrespectful and offensive to our city clerk. I have every confidence in Suzanne who has been with the city for many years uh to do this and uh the fact that there is additional support in the room if needed shows that we have a team Burlington approach.

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We have a professional approach. I have every confidence in you Suzanne. I’m sorry this is even here. It shouldn’t be. uh and the fact that staff are getting drawn into the continued really unfortunate drama is is is uh exactly why we are trying to reset the table and focus on the business of the city. So I apologize.

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This shouldn’t even be here and I will absolutely not be supporting this. >> Thank you, Mayor Councelor Stalty. >> Uh ditto what the mayor said. I too Suzanne apologize for this being on the table. I don’t think it’s necessary. My comments about the city clerk being in the room was merely meant as a support to you, not in any way, shape, or form to replace what we all know is your strong professional ability to clerk this meeting.

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So, I will not be supporting this either. >> Thank you, councelor. Councelor um councelor Karns, >> thanks. Let me be more explicitly clear. This is absolutely not personal. So, I would like my committee members to remove personal comments. This is about the chaos that is happening here, which just almost happened again with councelor Charman looking to go to the vote.

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I would like to see the person who is accountable for all clerking, which is the city clerk, at the front of the room for the balance of the committee meetings. Because what’s happening is that we’re getting um lost between comments, questions, timers, referencing back to procedure, bylaw, who spoke, what’s in order, what’s out of order.

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If we’re changing around who is the chair to address the boogeyman in the room, then I would like to see the same amount of effort on the staff side. And so I’d like two clerks for the balance of the meeting so that we can be absolutely certain that we’re on the right side of the procedure by law.

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This is not a personal comment. Nothing that I do with staff is personal. So I’d like all those comments that are personal to be struck. We all know Suzanne is excellent. I’d like to and that’s what I’m asking for. So, uh, it’s nice that you’re making this into another political thing, mayor, but I’d like that to end. Thanks.

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So, vote against >> privilege. Uh, chair, >> I beg a pardon. >> A point of privilege. >> Go ahead. >> Yeah, this is exactly why we need uh to take the politics out. I would like the counselor to apologize for that last column and and comment and retract it. Thank you. Council Karns, >> I will not apologize. I made no names.

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I made no references. The mayor brought the names into it. I’m not apologizing. I’m asking for two clerks for the balance to keep us aligned with the procedure bylaw. That is it. Well, thank you very much. So, the mayor has a point of privilege. We’ve had a response. We’re going to move on. Uh, councelor Ben.

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Thank you, Chair. Uh, I will not be supporting this motion. Um, we have seen uh Suzanne work for 8 years and I’m very confident that she can do the job as well as anyone else. Um, the motion asked for a change of clerks. Uh, it did not ask to have two clerks uh because we always have two clerks in the room if we need to.

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So, I will not be supporting this. um staff do the best they can. Yes, sometimes we need help and support. Absolutely. But um I stand firm on this. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um have you spoken to this? >> Yes, you’ve already spoken. So, councelor Nissan. >> Yeah, thank you chair. Uh well I think the problem a problem is identif is we’re working towards a solution here because uh and I don’t need to say that Suzanne does a great job.

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That’s obvious and it just it was just shown because she would made sure that um that her opinion was felt here around this this uh table. That’s exactly what we want from a clerk. Um, so I do think Suzanne can do this job independently and I think she’s she’s good to go. But the immediate uh immediately apologizing on behalf of another counselor’s comments, it’s just so drawn out.

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The This is This is ridiculous. Um, nobody needs to apologize on an adversar’s behalf. Like, come on. Let’s get it together, folks. >> I agree. Councelor Stalty. I agree with councelor Nissan. This is ridiculous. This motion is about who’s going to chair this meeting. My god, it’s not about opinion.

00:41:13
It is about who is going to chair the meeting as per the procedure bylaw with the support of Suzanne, our clerk. That is what this conversation is about. This is getting so ridiculous. I am this close to excusing myself from this meeting because I so don’t want to be part of this anymore. >> Councelor Karns, what are you planning? Is this your second comment? Yeah, it is my second comment and I’m about this close from walking out.

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Well, I mean, if you had two clerks, you’d know. Um, >> sorry, was it second or third? >> Thank you. >> We are asking for a change based on the chairing side. I am asking for a balance on the clerking side. If this concern is the way that it is and it’s so humongous that we have to wave the procedure bylaw to allow someone to chair who can still change their mind and run for election by August, why would we not have the same balance of of flanks on the clerk side? So, that’s all I’m asking for. I’m happy to amend my um amendment to direct the city clerk to clerk with another clerk the remainder of the committee meetings in the 2026 term of council. This will allow a stronger adherence to the procedure bylaw. It will allow for extra checking of comments, times, etc. Uh and it will ensure the strictest adherence to the procedure bylaw as we’ve already had

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debate and conflicting opinions about it uh in the last couple cycles. So that’s all I’m asking for. It has nothing to do with anybody’s personal or professional performances or anything of that matter and I will not let that be construed in that manner because we have different clerks for different things.

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This also includes you know it doesn’t even anyways it this is out of context. So I’m very clear that I want extra bench strength and that’s as simple as it is. >> Thank you very much councelor Stalton. I’d like to call the vote on both the amendment and the main motion, please. >> She can’t do that, but that’s fine.

00:43:15

I actually did point of order. I did clarify with the city clerk that this our procedure bylaw says that a member should not have spoken. It doesn’t say shall. So, yes, I can call the vote. Thank you. >> In any event, I see no more hands up. So, let’s I’m going to call the vote right now. Just be clear.

00:43:26
I’m calling the vote. So, this is an this is relative to the amendment. All those in favor? Okay. One in favor, all opposed. That does not carry. I’m now going to move on to the initial item, which is wave section 10 of the procedure bylaw to appoint councelor Stalty as chair of the July 67th committee of whole meeting and the September 1415 committee of the whole meeting.

00:43:50
All those in favor? Okay. And all against that passes. Thank you very much. Okay. So, we’ll now proceed to moving from me to >> uh point of order. >> Sorry, we’re in You’ll have to go deal with the chair. >> Yeah. >> Well, you’re the chair. We’ll take a recess for five minutes. while we were on recess to um explain

00:54:10
some points in the procedure bylaw to every single member of council. I’ve been asked to say it publicly, so I will do that now. Under section 1.32 of our procedure bylaw, it speaks to unreasonable or offensive conduct above council chamber. Um, and any behavior that’s considered to be disruptive or frivolous can be ruled by the chair to be out of order.

00:54:31
If the chair has ruled conduct or behavior to be frivolous or vexacious or disruptive and called out of order where a member has been called that by the chair and has and persists, then the chair may ask the member to vacate the meeting place. If the member called out of order does not apologize and will not leave the meeting place then security will be called.

00:54:50
So I’ve been asked to repeat that in public. So I have done that now. That is if you want to follow along the procedure bylaw that’s section 1.32 section 43.2 section 43.3 and section 43.4. So as I said I have spoken to each member individually to make sure they understand our procedure bylaw. That’s not a matter of opinion.

00:55:10
That is a a procedure that we’ve all agreed to. So I just wanted to start and clarify that as has been requested. So we will continue now with our meeting point of order. Go ahead, councelor Nissan. >> Yeah, it’s actually not about that. It’s uh I just wanted to note cuz I didn’t get a chance to put my hand up before the last vote was taken that um we have a report that was approved an appendix to CL124 that has the chair rotation in it.

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So I’m concerned that waving the procedure bylaw is not sufficient to change the chair role. I the will of committee is quite clear at this point. So uh maybe that could be cleaned up for the council meeting. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay, so we’re going ahead with our approval of the agenda. We’ve received a request from councelor Karns on behalf of interested residents to reorder the agenda to deal with item 8.

00:56:10
3, a motion memo regarding Freeman Station report CO-18-26 as the first community and corporate services regular item. I also understand that we have a request to delegate that has come in after the deadline. Uh, so would a member like to move the following motion to suspend the rules for section 46.

00:56:29
1 of the procedure bylaw 59-22024 as amended to per permit an unregistered delegate Dave Volcem 8.3 motion memo regarding Freeman Station report CO-18-26. Mayor, you’ll move that. Thank you. All those in favor? Oh, sorry. Do you have a question or a comment to it, Councelor Karns? >> No.

00:56:52
I thought I would just move it since I had tabled it, but that’s fine. >> Okay. Sorry, I looked to the left first. I will look to the right next time. Uh, all those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. So, are there any requests to change the agenda other than the one that we have already uh agreed to? Seeing none, I’ll ask for a member council karns which asked would like to approve the agenda as amended. Okay.

00:57:19
All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Any declarations of pecuniary interest. Seeing none. Good. Okay. So, we’re going to move on to delegations. Reminder to delegates that their items will be discussed in the order of the approved agenda which may be later today. You may remain in council chambers.

00:57:45
If you choose to leave, you can watch the meeting live on stream online. Sorry. The link to the live stream is available at burlington.ca/meings. All public attendees must maintain order and not engage in any behavior that may be considered disruptive. Each delegate will have 10 minutes to provide their comments.

00:58:02
We’ll be using the time clock in council chambers to keep track of your time, which you’ll be able to view at the podium or on your screen if attending remotely. Once you’re done, please remain to answer any questions committee members may have for you. So, I’ll remind committee members that your questions should be for clarification only.

00:58:17
So, we have two registered delegates now for today. The first one is Jim Thompson who’ll be joining us in person to speak regarding staff direction update report CAO-04-26. Welcome Jim. This is a report to receive and file. Yet it contains a recommendation to change the reporting cycle to semiannually.

00:58:42
If you receive and file it, the recommendation doesn’t happen. It just goes into the file. Since the report as okay to change the reporting cycle, staff need to provide a recommendation to amend the procedure bylaw, specifically article 40.5, which states that the clerk is to issue his list of outstanding staff directions quarterly.

00:59:05
From my point of view, the reporting cycle should remain quarterly and be enforced by council. One of the reasons the list of outstanding staff directions got so large was that council allowed the clerk at the time to fail in his duty to report to council quarterly. Council needs to ensure that an actual procedure is in place so that staff directions get reviewed on a regular basis and that someone is held to account when that doesn’t happen.

00:59:32
This report is also misleading when it states that the items in CAO125 have largely been dealt with. CAO25 identified 17 staff directions that were incomplete. CAO426 states that eight of those staff directions are still incomplete. That’s uh 50% plus one. I don’t think that constitutes largely The report also states that all of the outstanding items are actively progressing and aligned with the anticipated report back timelines.

01:00:10
However, when I look at the timelines for the eight remaining outstanding items from CAO 125, five were to be completed in 2025 and one was to completed in Q2 2006. So, six of the items that are marked in progress are already past due and there is no indication of when they will be completed. I submit that the report needs to be referred back to staff to have them provide actual updates for the outstanding directions along with the dates when they can be anticipated to be complete. Thank you for your time. Are there any questions? >> Thanks, Jim. Are there any questions for the delegate? Councelor Nissan, go ahead. >> You almost got away, Jim. I just wanted to say so uh because you went you went pretty fast, but I’m I’m trying to take notes. If we uh if we could get something back for council that includes

01:01:07
the deadline for the for that was part of the direction and anticipated completion time that would go a long way to making this report better in your opinion. Is that correct? Yeah, the report report doesn’t say anything other than the uh eight eight staff directions that were incomplete are still incomplete, but it doesn’t say why they’re incomplete or when they’re going to be completed.

01:01:31
And as I say, there needs to be a change in your bylaw to go to semi-regular reporting. You need to change your procedures. It’s not just we’ll put it in a report that’s going to go into the file. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. I see no other questions. Thank you for your delegate, Jim. >> Okay. >> Okay.

01:01:59
Our second delegate today is Dave Volic. Welcome. And Dave is here to speak to the motion memo regarding Freeman Station report COW-8-26. Go ahead, Dave. Madame Chairman, Madame Mayor, councilors, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today on behalf of this motion regarding Freeman Station. Say I am a spokesman for an informal group and we have some of our members here today with me.

01:02:22
Earl Chapman, Ralph Malstrom, Ken Brooks, and Joe Gay Tan. Say this is not the complete informal group that we have rebranded ourselves as champions of Freeman Station. Others are gainfully employed or are volunteering in other areas of Burlington and could not make this meeting. But they are all in support of this particular motion.

01:02:43
Say this group and there is a letter that has been attached to the uh minutes of this meeting or the the motion for this meeting explains in more detail what this group is and what we hope to accomplish. But we have come out of the former friends of Freeman Station and still have in our opinion a desire to be able to serve within the community and to make the Freeman Station a premier destination for people and also an explanation point of our history not only for current residents but certainly for school children. So we would like to be able to again expand and and bring it back to life. So we are very happy with this particular motion because it answers a number of questions which we as a group

01:03:41
have been kind of on hold for for the last couple of years and that regards to fully settling in place who will be responsible for the station. what timelines will be, who will in fact control the programming and hopefully give us a point of contact where we as a group can come forward again and put our volunteer services to the best use.

01:04:07
Say the group behind me have been with the restoration of the station most of them since the very beginning. So there is a wealth of knowledge sitting here in these chairs behind me. And I as a past president of the friends of Freeman Station and part of the construction crew also believe again that we have much to share to be able to bring forward to our community a very very useful piece of history.

01:04:37
If there are any questions, please direct them to me or to again the wealth of knowledge that I have sitting behind me. >> Okay. Thank you very much. You have a question coming from Mayor Midwart. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh thank you so much to all of you for being here and uh I’m interested in uh learning a little bit more about the vast array of services that you have to offer us.

01:05:05
I know some of you are handy with uh with wood and nails and paint brushes. I know some uh are handy with artifacts and collections. Uh some are volunteering to just keep the station open and and be there. Uh let us know what you um what you have to offer, which is absolutely incredible.

01:05:25
Well, again, in addition to the things that the mayor has mentioned, we have on staff or had on staff a professional teaching committee, >> principles and classroom teachers who have put together curriculum for grades 1 through 8 to be able to bring school groups through that station and again explain the importance of the railway to the formation of Canada.

01:05:54
So again, this is already in place. Plus the artifacts that are there that presently we do not have enough space or have had not had the time to be able to display are sitting in containers and are not out for the public and do not have again the tags underneath to be able to explain how useful they were, what they were, why they were needed and again how they added to the growth of Canada and how important in fact this particular station was to the Niagara Peninsula and the fruit growers of this area and with the rail being tied from Chicago through the Grand Trunk system to Halifax, the ability to transfer food from the Heartland right through to Europe and Australia. >> Again, there’s a kind of a tiein as well

01:06:52
with the museums. Ireland House was able to ship their apples via rail through the station again to South Africa. So before the Granny Smith got here, we were sending Burlington apples there. >> I I remember learning about that when I was there. Uh and and do you uh you know in the times that it was open uh the people that casur residents? Was it people that like is it a tourism draw, an economic draw? Well, what we have found when we were holding our open houses, there were an overwhelming number of stories that came forward particularly from the Dutch community saying after World War II, this was the first place that I came and stopped and then I was picked up from here and went on to a farm and built my farm, my family, my businesses. So again it we have a lot of personal connections that have been brought forward over time

01:07:51
as the station has been open. In addition to that we have such stories as this was the first place that we came so that we could go to Toronto the big city and it was a major hub and recognized that that was the ghost station up until 1988 until the new Fairview station was built.

01:08:10
that in itself being shared with people. What it was used as a ghost for that late in his life. >> So again there there is a wealth of of details little bits and pieces of Burlington that we can share if we can have people in and again they can ask the questions and we have the people who were there who put this together and again can explain in detail what is visible here in the on the site.

01:08:39

That’s great. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. You have a good next question coming from councelor Karns. >> Thank you very much for being here and uh sharing all that good information with us. My question is around how you foresee the future uh if it has to be scripted to a museum or not for profofit or if you would entertain commercial retail or joint venture.

01:09:01
as again a spokesperson without bringing this back to the group and just for the general uh meeting. We we tend to meet here at the local bakery at 4:14 locust uh every Tuesday afternoon during the fall months. We have a reduced schedule during the summer. So I think that and again I’m now expressing my personal opinion on behalf of the group.

01:09:23
We simply want it assigned to somebody who is going to get it open so that the public can come in and see it. We really don’t care, I believe, who runs it. Please get it open so that we can be on site to share our enthusiasm about the history of the station and this area with the general public. >> Okay, that’s great.

01:09:49
My second question is this. You’re also aware it’s in the midst of a real estate transaction, correct? Yes, we have been made abundantly clear that this right now is the major roadblock for anything going forward that this needs to be resolved that the actual ownership of the property that is on because it was a tripartide lease agreement that was initiated again in I believe it was 2009 with the resale of the land.

01:10:20
This has put things in jeopardy and this does need to be resolved. Again, what we would ask, can this be resolved expeditiously so that the next stage can start to take place, the planning, the assignment, the the uh business planning, the best possible group to be able to administer the station? Can that be determined? Again, can what can we do? And we would like to volunteer if it’s at all possible.

01:10:52
If there’s anything that this group can do to help realy uh move this along, we would be more than happy. Simply ask us and we will be there to to help. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any more questions? Okay, seeing none. Thank you very much, Dave. That was a great delegation. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, that concludes our delegates for today.

01:11:19
So, we’re going to move on to our consent items. There are seven consent items on today’s agenda. 7.1 is Burlington’s application for development charge reduction program funding report CAO-3-26. Item 7.2 is a corporate policy framework and policy review report CAO-05-26. Reports are item 7.3 staff directions update CAO-04-26. Item 7.

01:11:46
4 Four, amendments to rates and fees bylaw 92-2025 bylaw compliance report DGM-22-26. Item 7.5, repeal and replace parks bylaw 35-1976. Report DGM47-26. Item 7.6 is our options to restrict construction noise response to staff direction CO-16-26, report DGM-48-26. And item 7.7 is amendment to licensing bylaw 42-20008 to clarify food stuff sales report DGM-49-26.

01:12:23
A reminder, if you’re just commenting on a consent item, there’s no need to pull it. All members will be given the opportunity to comment prior to committee vote. So, are there any does anyone have any uh questions and want to pull an item from the consent agenda? Yes, Councelor Karns. >> Thank you. I’d like to pull 7.6, please.

01:12:40
the noise uh uh response. >> Okay, just the one. >> Okay, council Nissan, go ahead. >> Thank you. Yeah, I was going to pull the same also 7.3 staff directions update 7.6 and 7.3 and councelor Sherman, go ahead. >> Yeah, I want to pull 7.3 also. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you. So, items 7.3 and 7.

01:13:00
6 have been pulled. So, can I please have a member who’d like to move the con remainder of the consent agenda? Councelor Charman. Uh, before calling the vote to approve the consent agenda, would any member like to comment on an item? Councelor Curts, go ahead. >> Uh, thank you very much.

01:13:19
I’m just going between screens here. The item that I wanted to comment on is the application for the development charge reduction program funding CAO326. And I just wanted to highlight for anyone watching that we did apply for two projects. Uh and we put two in as may. Uh it’s clear that when we have a response back from the province and when it comes to August when we have to sign the document to move into this kind of agreement, uh the two project numbers that are going to be referenced are POPD115, that’s engineering services city View Park. Uh that one is a little bit shy of what we have. We need to come up with 877K. that’s not really available to us in the uh capital levy which sets out 2026 to 2029 only within a balance of 122 uh,000 and then the other one would be the trans transit signal priority which is uh definitely a good one. Uh so but in

01:14:17
balance which is project RDTS2718 but in balance we need to come up with $1.7 million in order to uh be able to acquire that offset funding by the federal and the provincial uh piece of the $ 8.8 billion. So when we do get something back uh in August, I would be asking that staff please provide that type of information.

01:14:39
and I won’t ask for it by council uh because there’s no point, but we do need to have a line of sight into how that financing plan will be uh when it comes forward. So, our infrastructure deficit is still 350 million. Uh we’ve got 8.8 billion in funding coming to municipalities through the federal and the provincial government.

01:14:57
Uh and we would have a net value allocation of 3.6 million within that 8.8 billion, but we still need to come up with 1.7 million in order to get that money. So, I’ll be looking for that information when we get that back next month, please. >> Okay. Thank you, councelor. Uh, comments, councelor Sherman. >> Yeah, I I want to pick up on that uh discussion with respect to the um the transit oriented lanes.

01:15:24
Uh we did pass a motion memo back in April for uh on demand vehicles that would yield an improvement of perhaps 5 to 10,000 community riders a a day in Burlington. Um that would actually uh work quite fine on the existing roads. Uh our current budget for transit this year is $37 million. We get fees of $6 million and here we are talking about a few mill a few hundred,000 for uh um for improvement things.

01:15:53
Um, when we are blowing $31 million a year on on empty buses, I think we need to give this a lot more thought before we start putting on big bucks, more more big buses that drive around empty. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, councelor. Uh, Mayor Reed, go ahead. >> Thank you, Chair. I just want to say a huge thank you to our entire staff team.

01:16:17
I know that this report and this collection of uh potential projects uh the financial detail that’s in it as well as getting an application in in very short time uh took a a a team Burlington effort. So I want to thank everyone for that and I really think it’s a model of how we can approach our relationships and partnerships with the federal and provincial governments that um that we don’t just sort of accept that uh what the what the program is is the only way to uh advance what is important to us that we have the ability to uh negotiate and to say to our partners um this is what would work for us. uh we want to participate. Uh we do want to get some of that federal and provincial infrastructure funding back to our residents who’ve uh paid taxes for that at those levels of government. We want that coming back into our community uh as much as we can. So, I think this council uh did a great thing

01:17:17
when we said uh that we would we would task our staff with uh really uh proposing something back to the government about how we could uh potentially meaningfully participate and I really look forward to getting uh to hearing back. The government did say in multiple occasions that they were open to negotiation to hearing uh from municipalities what would help them to participate and uh of course we want to have all the financial details when that comes back as well.

01:17:46
So I’m uh I’m always an optimist but if you don’t ask if you don’t try you don’t get. So um so kudos to everybody. I know there’s still some work to be done on your side of the table and look forward to hearing more. Thank you, mayor. Go ahead, councelor Nissan. >> Yeah, thank you, Chair. U I guess I’ll start on that uh item.

01:18:06
It’s good that we are giving it a go and I’ll certainly be watching to see what the uh whether there’ll be costs uh to taxpayers before going ahead with any uh any sort of subsidy here. Um I you know the uh I think we’ve been uh framed we’ve been framed on this to make it look like we’re applying for project funding when really these funds are are meant to be it’s meant to be growth paying for growth anyway.

01:18:35
So, I think we’ve been put into municipalities have been put into a box here. And uh although I like the idea of us doing whatever we can to get funding for our residents, um certainly something that FCM has, uh railed against is uh unfair timelines and expectations for uh programs. I mean, no good program has flexible mandatory criteria.

01:19:00
I mean that’s it’s a uh it’s uh it’s impossible for um small to mediumsiz municipalities to manage um when you know they’re hearing oh just put your put your application in and hope you know and we’ll go around it or I I don’t understand how we’re getting to this point. It’s a it’s really a scary um program for that reason.

01:19:27
So, uh, that’s, uh, that’s it for that one, but I guess we’ll see what happens for Burlington. Um, that’s that’s it, Chair. I I I would note the, uh, the parks bylaw, and I’m really glad that’s being replaced after 50 years. So, uh, that’s definitely due for, uh, for an update, and, uh, it’s good to see some of that uh, some of that housekeeping happening.

01:19:49
corporate policy framework and uh policy review definitely very very much uh required and uh would ex you know I think this is something we committed to do quite a long time ago actually so um want to see that uh see those results as well thank you >> thank you councelor uh I agree it was actually got a chuckle out of myself too to see that parks bylaw 35-1976 okay so I think that is it for comments Uh the >> sorry I wanted to talk about 7.3.

01:20:21
Are we doing that now? >> No, right now we’re going to vote on moving the consent agenda. >> Okay. And then sorry just to clarify after that we’re going to we had made a motion to go straight into Freeman Station and then we’ll go to our pulled items. Okay. >> Uh so it has been moved and I’ll call the vote.

01:20:39
All those in favor on the consent agenda? Any opposed? And that carries. Okay. As clarified, we had moved a motion to bring forward item 8.3. So, we’re going to deal with that before we do our pulled items. So, we’re looking at a motion memo regarding Freeman Station report CW or report COW-18-26. Uh, Mayor Me Ward, would you like to move the motion and speak to it, please? >> Yes. Thank you very much, chair.

01:21:06
And uh I want to thank the delegation uh for being here and I want to thank the entire group of folks who are now the the newly branded champions of Freeman Station. Uh we we need you and I’ll cast your mind back uh to um when I first started as a W 2 counselor. This was in my ward.

01:21:28
I heard about it uh uh from community members loud and clear that they wanted this saved. And it was my very first motion uh July 2011 to stop the wrecking ball. There was a staff report to uh uh to uh demolish the station. Uh myself and Blair Lancaster at the time persuaded council to let the community step up and save it.

01:21:47
Um I wrote the first uh check for $450 to incorporate that was out of my personal funds. >> Mayor, I’m just going to ask you to keep your comments towards the motion at hand, please. >> Certainly. I wanted to give some background in terms of why this is so meaningful to me to get it open. >> Okay, we’re just walking a fine line and I did promise that I would keep things clean.

01:22:10

I appreciate that. Please stop me again if I stray. Thank you, chair. Uh so I give you that background because uh we it does feel a little bit like deja vu where the station has been closed now for a couple of years um because of some of the complexities and uh we really do want to get uh to get on with opening this uh to deal with the complexities uh that may be there and uh and get a report from our staff around how we can advance uh the situation to get this back open. as the delegate said and and really take advantage of the uh the services in our community from the delegation that have offered historically to um uh to keep the station open to restore it to provide the programming. Uh I know that there’s opportunities for that kind of partnership in community uh once we get this open again. So uh we want to get

01:23:07
from our staff uh not only what the uh what the path and the remaining steps we have a sense of that uh but what the timeline is and we don’t want it to um to sit while other things are happening we want to find a way to get this open uh notwithstanding some of the challenges.

01:23:23
So staff are going to look into that. Uh we do have uh financial costs that have been put into the budget so we have the funding available. Um and so this is really to give council the uh the next steps, the critical next steps uh what can be done now or in parallel with some of the uh real estate negotiations.

01:23:45
Uh we don’t want this to sit uh closed uh any longer than it has to. uh and we really do want to move forward with uh reopening this to the community, taking advantage uh of the of the community members that have stepped forward uh to help us. And I really do want to give a thank you to uh someone who’s not here today, but I know is a sympathetic member of your group, Alan Harrington.

01:24:09
That’s uh what started this whole conversation. He reached out uh by email to say, “Can I volunteer to uh to be in the station uh should it be open?” And that sort of cascaded a series of questions. And uh I also want to thank councelor Stoalty in her capacity as uh our representative on both museums and heritage for participating in this conversation with me. Thanks.

01:24:36

Right to the wire. Thank you. Uh councelor Curts, go ahead. >> Sorry if I can clarify it’s a question or comment because it’s been moved. >> I just want to know the appropriate time to table my amendment that was pre-irculated. Are there any other questions or comments to the main motion? And then we’ll go ahead with an amendment.

01:24:57

Okay. Can we get the amendment on the board, Suzanne, please? Thank you. Okay. Okay. So, we have an amendment on the board to add the following wording adding the wording options to engage with Discover Burlington to explore any available business supports, access to funding, and mar market research insights and also options to explore a joint venture agreement.

01:25:31
Uh, is the mover open to this being a friendly motion, a friendly amendment to add the wording, or do we need to vote on it as a separate amendment? >> Absolutely support this. Thank you. Appreciate the collaboration. Okay. Councelor Karns, you’re comfortable with that that it’s a friendly amendment that will be added to the wording to the main motion.

01:25:50

Sure. Can I can I speak to it? >> Yep. Yep. >> Okay. Is that Is it now? >> Sure. >> Okay. So, it’s not an amendment now. It’s just gone straight into the main motion. Is that what you’re telling? >> I’m No, my question for you is if you’re comfortable with that that the mover has agreed with the wording.

01:26:10
So, it doesn’t need to be a separate amendment, but if you need it to be separated out, I’m asking for your thoughts on that. >> Okay. New way of doing it. I I’m I’m indifferent any which way. Uh I just want to explain my rationale. >> Okay. So, we’ll consider it a friendly amendment to the main motion and go ahead and make your comments, please.

01:26:27

Thanks. I mean, it could have been helpful if I was uh you know, pre-irculated the the motion and said uh as the W 2 counselor, I was not aware of it until it came forward in the package. So, uh, that’s why this is an amendment and not a point of collaboration. So, and let me know if I’m saying anything that’s not factual because I believe it is.

01:26:46
Um, the reason I’m adding this in is because I think that there’s more to this story and I’m not adding uh a lot of dialogue to this because as I mentioned, this is an item that’s currently within the confines of realy negotiations which was publicly declared. Uh, so I don’t even know if this should be an open whatsoever. Um the reason I’m putting this amendment forward is because there’s technically four options available for this property.

01:27:10
One is that it’s privately uh owned entirely. Uh two is that it can be operated within the Burlington portfolio of museums which has a significant financial and operational uh impact. Three, we could look at it as a tourism draw and engage with Discover Burlington. So this is a direction to see if there’s any um insights available that can be shared when this report comes back uh in complement to the outstanding 2024 staff direction that’s still on the books.

01:27:39
Uh and the last one is that we should uh look at what our options are through recreation and community culture to explore a joint venture agreement where it is um a lease with a private property owner operated by a notfor-profit group. We do that with many of our joint ventures, but at this moment we don’t have a direction to staff to explore that on the table.

01:28:01
So really, if we’re looking to uh truly engage in a way that’s trying to bring public access back to Freeman Station, we must look at all available options. And by adding these two which are absent the first motion memo and absent the 2024 or or presumptive within the 2024 uh motion, I think that these two need to be included as the best forward path.

01:28:28
So that’s why I’ve put these amendments forward. >> Okay. Thank you. So we have the clerk adding the wording to the main motion. Do we have any questions in regards to the added wording or to the main motion as it now reads? Questions or comments? because it’s been moved. Okay.

01:28:47
So, everybody understands that we’re not voting on the amendment, that the wording has been added to the main motion. I’m seeing no hands on the board. So, if that’s the case, I will call the vote. I’ll read it out just so that we are clear. Sorry if I can get it back. Okay. So the main motion now reads item 8.

01:29:11
3 motion memo regarding Freeman Station report CO-18-26 reads the director of commissioner director sorry let me start again direct the commissioner of community services to report back by Q4 2026 with information exploring options and implications for the long-term sustainable operation of Freeman Station including options to engage with Discover Burlington to explore any available business supports access to funding and market research insights and options to explor for a joint venture agreement.

01:29:42
Councelor Nissan, question or comment. >> Yeah, thank you. Just one uh question to staff. Is this enough time for you to uh complete the complete what’s needed or would you like more time? >> Yeah. Three uh chair, in speaking with staff, um we will endeavor to get it back uh in quarter 4 of this year.

01:29:59
Uh if for some reason um we are struggling to do so, we will make sure that council uh becomes aware. Um, but it is a reasonable ask. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Okay, I’ll call the vote. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. Thank you very much.

01:30:22
And thank you to the new champions of Freeman Station. Okay. So, now we are going to move back to our two pulled items. We’ll try and get through the first one and then we’ll take a bio break. So our first pulled item is 7.3 correct clerk which is our staff directions update report CAO-4-26 receive for information transformation office report CEO-04-26 regarding the update on staff directions since CAO-01-25 including progress made the current status of outstanding items and the proposed transition to semiannual reporting. So, this was initially pulled, I believe, by councelor Nissan and also councelor Charman, but councelor Nissan, would you like to begin with your questions? >> Sure. Thank you. Uh, it’s pretty straightforward actually. Uh, thank you Andy for the report. Um could you provide for uh in time for our council

01:31:22
meeting uh just a list of the initial report back uh time as per the original staff direction and the anticipated completion time of those uh staff directions. I think that would be uh that would be good. And uh by the way, I would also welcome any explanation for perhaps the difference between the two uh because uh I point out the pet boarding uh bylaw which is um um uh well it’s one of those it’s a toughy.

01:31:51
It’s a toughy but it’s uh from a strictly from a time point of view it’s well overdue >> through the chair to the councelor. Yes. Um we can commit to that before the next council providing a memo with the um with the information that you’re looking for. That’s great. So that would be July council. >> That is correct. Yes.

01:32:09

Okay. Thank you. >> Councelor Sherman, you had questions on 7.3. >> Oh, I do. Two items here. The first one is the bird friendly resolution that we brought forward in 2022. We haven’t liked birds for six four years. What’s what’s the plans to deal with that please? >> Through the chair to the councelor.

01:32:30
Um so since that time um the the city has um undertaken a number of the recommendations that were put forth. So one of the recommendations in the report that was actually part of the um staff direction was to create a um create a standalone web page which has been completed since that time.

01:32:48
The city has also renewed its certification as well in 2024 um for the bird friendly city initiative as well. there that is more that we need to provide council with that written update to fulfill that requirement and um look if there’s any other ways that we can um fulfill those um those staff directions. >> So that’s an easy one. Thank you.

01:33:06
The second one is not so easy. I see Kerry Davvern is what’s in the room. Uh and I I really would like to get an update on the kennel boarding licensing framework that has been a pain in our side for years and years and years. if we might >> through the chair to the councelor that would be something that we’d be able to provide through the memo um the before the next council.

01:33:29

Okay, thank you very much. Okay, that’s it. Thanks. >> Okay, and we have a question Mayor Me Ward on the same item. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh thank you for pulling this. I I would have as well. Um so I had a chance to talk with you in advance. Uh but I thought the answers uh might be helpful to all of council.

01:33:46
So, uh, the question was around and I I did end up, um, looking up some of the, uh, actual wording of some of these because of, uh, because I just wanted to make sure that I remembered what we were doing there. So, so my question is uh can you provide uh not only before council but in future iterations of this report the actual uh staff direction in the uh in the description um so that we know the outstanding items related to that matter particularly around the health protection and air quality bylaw the bird friendly city uh I was wondering as you know what what still left what’s still left to be done on those two things through the chair to the mayor. Yes, absolutely. We can do that in future iterations. >> Okay. Uh that is great. And um with respect to the health protection and air quality bylaw, we did we have had some

01:34:44
interest from uh community around that item and where it’s at uh particularly uh folks living in and around quaries. Uh and that’s where it really originated from. So can you uh just enlighten the uh those who may be watching um where that is at that particular one? >> Certainly through the chair to the mayor.

01:35:03
So within with that staff direction specifically um it currently um the Nelson quarry is currently still um sits at an OT appeal. We are waiting for the tribunal to um set down its um its decision. the decision of that tribunal could impact the way that staff then put forward and recommend um how we would address that staff direction.

01:35:24
So that’s still rem that that is the rationale as to why it still remains outstanding at this time. >> Okay. I had one more uh chair. >> Yeah, I see no one on the board. Go ahead. >> Okay. Uh and this this is actually uh procedural since procedure was raised if we’re with and this may be uh to the clerk around um do we need to amend our bylaw and there’s is there a different process than uh receiving and filing this report to go from quarterly to semiannual.

01:35:54
Just thought it would be helpful to give uh staff a chance to comment on that matter that was raised >> uh through the chair uh to the mayor. Uh yes, that is included within our procedure bylaw contemplates the uh clerk’s uh reporting on a quarterly basis. Uh so in order to uh deal with that in relation to what’s being proposed here, we can come back at council with a modified recommendation uh that tidies up that end of it and including the amendment to a procedure bylaw to make that happen.

01:36:28
Okay, seeing no more questions on the board, councelor Nissan, as you pulled it, would you move it, please? >> Yeah, happy to move it. >> And do you have any comments? No. No. Thank you. Great. So, it’s been moved. Does anyone else have any comments on item 7.3? Seeing none, I’ll call the vote.

01:36:44
So, I’m calling the vote on item 7.3, staff direction update CAO-04-26. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Moving on to item 7.6 that was pulled from the consent consent agenda. Uh councelor Karns, I think you pulled that first. Uh would you like to move it and have questions or comments? >> Chair, I’d like to move it and uh table an amendment that was pre-irculated.

01:37:15

Okay, if we get that up on the screen. >> Uh that one’s not pre-irculated. Sorry, just uh the clerk has it. Sorry, we’ll just wait a second and get that on the screen so we can all see it. >> I’m sorry. Just to clarify, you have moved it, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. Good to speak to it, chair. >> Sorry. Yes. Go ahead, please.

01:37:58

Thanks so much. So, this is a motion about engagement and when we look at step two in our engagement charter, it’s to at the outset determine the level of engagement and techniques. Uh techniques are clearly outlined. Uh but I would like to make sure that the community and the stakeholders have the ability to understand uh their involvement level with this particular motion.

01:38:18
Uh so I do have the amendment right here that is just really asking for uh setting that out in advance and I just want to make sure we have it correct. There’s five levels of AP2 engagement and we’ll just change if we haven’t already and it should be involve and consult. So I think we’re good here.

01:38:37
So that’s all that we would be asking for is that that uh level of engagement is set out at the onset. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Do you have any questions of the mover of the amendment? Sorry, chair. I’ll just add that this is a staff supported amendment. >> Okay, great. >> Any questions on the amendment before we vote on it, >> councelor Benia, go ahead.

01:39:02

Thank you, Chair. Um, this is a great amendment. Um, I was going to ask a question and I guess for me this is the best idea that we can do so that our residents have some skin in the game and they understand what’s going on. How can we get the questions that they have now to staff so that that could be part of the report? Is there a mechanism there for residents to be able to send an email uh to staff to say, you know, while you’re doing this, can you please look into this? >> Uh through the chair to the council. The short answer is yes. staff are always available to have conversations with any resident or property owner within the city as to what the noise bylaw does and does not regulate or if there’s a potent if there is a concern that there is

01:40:00
something that is offsite as it relates to that noise bylaw and ultimately if whether or not a follow-up investigation is required but uh if you any residents do have that concern just if it’s coming through your office they wish to contact me or the director or the bylaw compliance staff directly um The information that contact is on our city’s website and staff are always available to have those conversations about the bylaw defining what is construction versus construction activity um and those hours of operations. Um it’s much what people also do have to understand. It’s like when we post a speed limit at 60 km an hour, somebody may drive at 61 km an hour. Obviously, we’re not going to go out there and ticket them or in direct enforcement. So it’s it is we can’t stop a business or an operator from showing up at you know five minutes before the hours. But if it’s a repeat pattern of behavior obviously then we will arrange to have bylaw staff speak with the operator so that they are aware what the bylaw requires and try to get compliance

01:41:00
as opposed to laying charges under the bylaw. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I will continue to do that. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Questions to the amendment or questions or comments to the amendment. Counc a question to the mover of the amendment. Uh I would like to know if we can change one thing which is there’s a reference to gathering resident input.

01:41:23
The um you know we uh we made sure to amend the original uh motion to talk about effects on businesses and so on. So what’s in the uh executive summary of the staff report is public and stakeholder engagement and just wondering if we could amend that. Thank you. >> Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you.

01:41:39
I’ll just turn that to staff to make that amendment. >> So, it would be public and stakeholder input instead of resident. >> Yep. Correct. >> Okay. Council Nissan, is that the wording that you were hoping for? >> Very much. Thank you. >> And councelor Karns, you’re comfortable with the wording? Okay, great.

01:42:02
Is there any other questions or comments about the amendment before I take call a vote? Seeing none, I’m calling the voting of the amendment. Uh I don’t think I need to read it out again, do I? No. Okay. So, calling the vote. All those in favor of the amendment. Any opposed? And that carries. So, back to the main motion that has been moved.

01:42:23
Are there any additional comments to the motion as amended? Seeing none, I’ll call the vote on item 7.6 as amended. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Thank you. Okay, I promised a bio break. It’s 11:03, so we’re going to take a break until 11:10 and we will come back and continue on with our regular agenda.

01:42:48
Thanks. Okay, welcome back everyone. We’re going

01:49:44
to move on to our regular agenda items starting with item 8.1. 8.1 is to advance authorization to pursue community recreation and sport grant opportunities report CSS17-26. Are there any questions for staff at this time? Okay, councelor Nissan has offered to move. Thank you very much. The item’s been moved.

01:50:10
Are there any comments? Nissan, >> go get us our money. Thank you. Sorry, >> I said go get us the cash. >> Oh, okay. >> Yeah, some great uh opportunities definitely uh coming up. Uh so, uh thank you for uh bringing this motion and making sure that we can uh have every chance to uh get money for the community. Thank you.

01:50:36

Okay, great. Thank you, uh Mayor Reed. Go ahead. >> Yeah, thank you, Chair. I do want to thank staff, uh and particularly Emily Cotay, our director of recreation, community, and culture who is here. Uh thank you for having eyes on the uh the many different uh timelines and criteria and funding streams that open and close uh so that we can um put our best foot forward and what we need for our community and get some of those uh provincial and federal dollars that our residents have paid for uh as well through their other taxes at other levels of government uh to bring it back home to Burlington. So look forward to uh hearing uh hopefully success uh and I would say our our GR folks who are here as well. I know it’s a huge team effort to uh put these kinds of applications together and this kind of report together to uh you know to make our case and uh we’ve done really well. I think it was uh roughly $16 million something

01:51:35
like that uh that we had in our last budget because of the efforts of staff uh you know putting forward uh projects and and getting that funding. So uh go get them and thank you for all the work to do this. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh comment from councelor Galbreth. >> Yes. Thank you chair.

01:51:56
Um, yeah, the government uh has definitely increased the uh the funding uh up to $500 million. So, uh I just want to thank staff for being prepared and uh good luck. Uh we have some um some big projects on the horizon that uh it would be great if we could get some funding for. So, uh good luck with the uh with the recommended ask and looking forward to the results. Thank you.

01:52:21

Okay, great. Thank you very much. So, seeing no more comments, I’ll call the vote on the motion to direct the director of recreation, community, and culture in consultation with government relations staff, our director of engineering services, and chief financial officer to pursue and submit applications for future community recreation, sport, culture, and related infrastructure grant opportunities, including provincial and federal programs as outlined in community services report CSS-17-26, and to authorize the director of recreation, community, and culture to execute all documents required for the submission of such applications where any required municipal contribution is within approved budgets and in accordance with applicable city policies and to authorize the chief administrative officer in consultation with the CFO to identify an appropriate funding source for the municipal contribution should we be successful in the grant application under these programs? All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Okay, we’re moving on to item 8.2. Two

01:53:22
recommendations from traffic congestion and road safety roundtables report MO-02-26. Are there any questions for staff? Seeing none, can I have someone move the motion? Councelor Galbra, any comments? Council Galbra, you moved it. Do you have any comments or no? >> Uh sure. Yes. Uh thank you chair.

01:53:52
I was uh I was at one of the roundts uh to discuss uh traffic and congestion in our city. Uh it’s a very uh multi- uh government complex issue. Um and I certainly support uh getting some information back on on an implementation and a framework. Um uh looking for solutions. I know it’s not it’s not going to be easy.

01:54:17
Uh we are a city where uh all these highways run through us. So it’s often not Burlington traffic that’s causing our traffic. It’s it’s all the uh neighboring municipalities that drive through us that uh cause a lot of the traffic in Burlington. So uh definitely interested in some suggestions and uh looking forward to what it what it comes out with.

01:54:38
So um looking forward to the reporting. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Councelor Galbreth. Um comments or questions? Mayor me >> comment. Thank you chair. Uh I want to thank uh a number of people who contributed uh significantly to this. First of all uh the two members of my office uh Esther and Marie who put the report together.

01:55:01
A huge thanks to Chris King who is in uh the audience as well as our director of transportation uh Craig Kumer who did an outstanding job of bringing forward um information in a way that made it very user friendly for us to understand the complexity of the issues the multi-jurisdictional issues the need for a number of stakeholders to be around the table.

01:55:26
Uh I also want to thank the uh council members that were able to participate. We had two uh roundts. At the first one, uh councelor Karns and Councelor Galre. Thank you for being there. Uh and at the second one, councelor Charman and councelor uh Nissan attended. And we had uh folks from uh multiple agencies, levels of government.

01:55:48
We had residents around the table that are participating in our advisory committees. Uh so we got a really good cross-section. We had our first responders there as well. uh and all of uh that work went into this report and there’s a lot more to come. This is an endorsement of the uh the key findings from uh the work that was put in uh in terms of uh steps and actions that we can take uh and there will be uh there will be more to come after this.

01:56:16
So uh thanks everyone. We do know that uh traffic is an issue uh that that we all face throughout the city. uh being out in community on the weekend, I had a number of people uh talk to me about it and was able to um uh send the report so that they know the steps that we are taking around this uh table to turn uh to turn ideas the great ideas that were brought forward into some meaningful action. Thank you.

01:56:43

Okay. Thank you. Comments or question? Councor Nissan. >> Yeah. Thank you. Uh so I’m going to ask that this be referred to staff. Do you want to me to put that on the floor now? >> Sorry. A question to staff or referring the report. I’m not sure what you’re asking for. >> Um uh I have a motion to refer this to staff with uh by amending the um the report the recommendations.

01:57:14
It’s a referral motion. Is there Yeah. Is there anything to put on the board or just a Okay. >> Okay. So, this is the amendment you’re putting forward, Council Nissan. >> That’s right. >> Okay. Would you like to speak to it? >> Yeah, sure. Thank you. So, uh, first of all, I acknowledge the work that has been completed, and I’m not looking to take that work away at all through this, uh, through this amendment.

01:57:53
However, uh, what, uh, what has occurred so far has been directed out of the mayor’s, uh, office and, um, has not I have not gotten a staff report, uh, reviewing this before we decide to endorse the recommendations that come out of it. So for us to do the proper due diligence on this, I would need to hear from our staff first, you know, through the CEO on down to our uh director of transportation on what they think about these ideas.

01:58:23
Um I the brainstorming sessions were were good. Um there was a lot of you know um people writing things on the on the back of um notepads and things like that. uh sticky notes and uh you know that’s a that’s a good process but it didn’t it leaves a gap before we can endorse these actions and yeah no question people do want us to take actions but they want us to take it in the right direction so that we have results so to do that for me to endorse these recommendations I got to hear from staff um in a in an appropriate report please don’t put them on the spot right now that’s not what I want to see I want to see a proper report from them this is uh obviously a big issue for people in the community. And uh so what I’m uh suggesting to amend this is to refer this back to staff to report back on um the uh key findings arising. Uh I would add that beyond uh attending for that uh

01:59:21
for that second session um the what’s actually provided to us is a list but it doesn’t have a justification for that list. Uh what happened at that session was basically okay whose ideas do we like the best and there was you know that’s subject to group think we need to bring this uh grounded in data and uh actually a lot of the uh motion that’s provided through the mayor sort of puts us in that direction but I’m not willing to endorse it until we actually have the uh staff review that will keep this uh you know that’s uh we’ve all committed to keep the politics out of uh what we’re doing here. So, let’s get this grounded with staff and their recommendations and go from there because although they participated in those meetings, I need a staff report to make sure we’re going in the right direction. So, that’s why I’m bringing this forward. Thank you, chair. >> Okay. Do we have any questions to the mover of the amendment to refer? >> Uh, just do questions first. Any

02:00:25
questions? Cuts occurrence a question or a comment? Um, so maybe it is a question and I think it might be between the amendment and the main motion. So, you know, just be patient with me. So, I’m trying to understand if we’re having any overlap between the key findings and the business plans that are already on deck.

02:00:41
And I would use key finding number three, expanding the transit service and enhanced reliability to support a balanced transportation network. Are we not in the midst of trying to bring together our transit master plan right now? And I just don’t understand how one piece of a motion here would uh inform or supersede work that’s already happening by staff.

02:01:03
I see a lot of this already happening by staff. And so I would like to have that um reconciliation of the two pieces of of sort of work uh married up together so that we have a clear and efficient path forward. So, if there’s a comment that can be tabled related to that, that would be the one that I would pull out as a as an illustrative example of why having staff look at this again u through a referral would would be helpful before we endorse something.

02:01:31
Of course, I would endorse >> Sorry, just for clarity, you I’m just curious. It’s a question about the amendment. >> Yeah, that’s the question. >> And the question is to staff or to the mover of amendment. >> It’s how do we how do we reconcile work that we’re already doing? >> Sorry, who is your question towards if they need an answer? It could be the mover.

02:01:49
Um, so how do we reconcile the work that staff is already doing with trying to endorse key findings? >> Okay. As the mover of the amendment, council Nissan, do you have a answer to that or would you like to refer the answer over to staff? >> I could I can respond to that and maybe staff could as well. I think um well, let me see if I can just answer it.

02:02:09
I think what councelor Karns is getting at is exactly what would go into any staff report. you know, they always give us a summary of of work completed to date and and next steps. And that’s exactly the kind of ground tru thing we need uh coming out of these roundts uh to make sure we don’t uh move too fast in the wrong direction.

02:02:29
So, uh open to a friendly amendment there, councelor Karns, but I think that this fundamentally will take into account what they’ve uh what work they’ve done already. But if you want to add to it, I’m I’m perfectly fine with that. >> I’ll see how the referral goes. Thanks, chair. >> Okay.

02:02:45
staff, do you have anything to add? >> Nope. Okay. Okay. Councelor Sherman, go ahead, please. >> I’m going to start off with a comment and I may have a question afterwards. Um, as I as I look at the nature of those, um, workshops, uh, where you’ve got a lot of people in the room coming up with good ideas. I I often wonder whether it sort of turns into a domocracy kind of logic.

02:03:07
And I I I echo councelor Nissan’s comments. I’m respectful of the process, but I’m a data person. And and as I look at the uh as I look at this and I think about the the session that councelor Curtis and I did down at the art gallery uh earlier also um there’s a lot of people who are looking for answers.

02:03:26
Um and the question that I’ve always been asking staff is so what is the percentage of cut off traffic, highway cutoff traffic? We don’t have an answer to that. We got it in 2014. it was 25% and we know that it’s grown dramatically since then. Um but I have other questions like pollutants. You know it it is it is not generally understood but I understand this from very from health uh authorities that we have very high levels of cancer in in in our community and around communities and we also know that there’s a very very high level of pollutants that comes off that highway that traffic sea we have uh going through us every day. Uh and what that does is increases the particles that are going up in the air around us. We need to address that as well because we don’t seem to be able to put any pressure whatsoever on the province to take us seriously, right? And we know what the answer is is they need to give us more capacity to have flow through traffic,

02:04:25
not stopping on our stopping on our roads. So I I’m kind of okay with with with with staff doing something, but I I would rather it be more oriented towards getting the data first and then thinking about okay, so what might we do about that rather than focus on what we did in a workshop environment.

02:04:43
So I if if we were to maybe we could come get staff to come back and council with some thoughts on okay how might we do this to address the questions of data um and and pollution uh and yes transit because we we said we were going to have we need on command on demand transportation and the data that we have says we can get up to 10,000 more local riders commun you know Burlington residents riding the buses and we need it because we’re ignoring them today. So there’s my comments.

02:05:12
So question of staff, if we were to refer this, could we refer it back to council to refine the language uh of of the staff direction to then, you know, achieve more of what councelor Nissan is looking for and I’m looking for that is going to do to be clear about we’re going to come back with in terms of traffic congestion and pollutions and you know the clear critical data things and then what is there a reasonable buy do by date given that.

02:05:39
So question staff >> uh through the chair to the council. I think that’s achievable by staff. I think this staff motion or the amendment here allows us to come back. Um we’ll report back on what we have found. We won’t have the data by the deadline of council, but we can usually come back with how we are looking to get that data.

02:06:05
These are all key findings that staff are working towards anyways. Uh, one thing that came out of those roundt sessions was good uh, reinforcement for staff to know we’re heading in the right direction of what the public perception and the agency perception was of the key findings. So, I think we could easily come back by council with a list of what we’ll look for in a report back to council.

02:06:25

Thank you for that. And so, I look to councelor Nissan to address that. >> Go ahead, council me. >> Yeah, thank you. Uh what I would uh although I’m just sensing the room here, but what I would uh propose in line with what staff and councelor Charman have said is simply to refer this item to uh to council.

02:06:43
And uh I would uh I’m suggesting that staff give me some language and I’ll make sure to uh bring an amendment and maybe councelor Charman will second that amendment with the staff language to get us right where we want to be. So, uh, I’m going to, uh, fully amend my own. Uh, yeah, you can just, uh, change that to, uh, to council.

02:07:08
Yeah. And then you can delete the next two paragraphs and we can discuss further council if we need to. Thank you. While I have the floor chair, I just wanted to really echo those comments about public transit and go transit, right? Getting good GO transit over the uh over, you know, to Niagara so critical for us.

02:07:36
We’re not getting that right now. Thank you. >> Okay. So, Council Nissan, as the mover of the amendment, you’re comfortable with this wording? >> Perfect. Thank you. and councelor Charman as the potential amendment to the amendment. You’re comfortable with this wording? >> Okay. All right. So, now we have a new amendment that we’re looking for questions or comments if we just clarify so we can start the timer.

02:07:58
And first I have Mayor Reed Ward. Go ahead. >> Uh thank you very much chair and uh certainly um referring to council for additional conversation is fine. I want to keep the uh momentum going and the action going. So, I wouldn’t have supported uh sort of a referral uh back to staff. Uh staff were present at the meetings, have contributed uh every step of the way to uh to all of uh what we were doing.

02:08:26
And uh as we just heard from our commissioner, uh an endorsement by council of uh some of the key uh priorities actually gives you u strength when you’re going to negotiate and talk to all of the other agencies that are involved. So, I think it’s important to keep this going forward. I would um uh suggest that there if there are specific things that council would want to see back at council that we uh let staff know.

02:08:54
So data was mentioned uh we have the ability to refer with instructions. Uh so I think you know to the degree that we can having the bulk of our work and conversation in committee is helpful. Uh so I would invite that everyone’s had the report for uh 10 days and had a chance to think about it uh and bring some of those ideas forward and I’m sure we’ve all uh deep dived into it.

02:09:17
So, um, if transit is something that we want to see, if uh additional data or or air quality protection is what something we want to see, I would add that to the referral motion so staff are clear what um what they are bringing back so that we um so that we can um uh be prepared for uh council meeting. Thank you. >> Okay, next on the board question or comment, councelor Karns.

02:09:46
Um maybe it’s I don’t know maybe it’s both. Um what I’m looking to see here so first of all I commend the good work that was done bringing everybody together. I’m looking to see what are the net new recommendations that were derived from this work and I think that’s what I’m hoping staff can reconcile to pull out what was a new discovery.

02:10:05
So again we’re building out the transit master plan right now. We have a vision to focus already which is talking about our modal split. That’s focus area number one. Of course, we’ve already been briefed on the transit signal priorities and those are being implemented kind of through the region and with the city.

02:10:23
So, there’s a lot in here that we already have work plans wrapped around. I’m looking to see if staff are able to uh reconcile both the roundt work with the higher level plans vision to focus transit master plan regional transit signal priority plans and investments to see where are the gaps that would require funding resourcing or advancing policy.

02:10:46
So um is that something staff can do? So through the chair to you, councelor Karns. Um so what is new? Um one items that was pulled out of there was the governance structure. So we talked about that we have multiple agencies that have oversight under over the um forgive me. I’ve got a bit of a cold right now that I’m dealing with.

02:11:13
So uh multiple agencies that are dealing with the roadway network system. So that is one thing that we need to sort out and create policies around. Um, the other one as well is we talked earlier this year about and this goes back to councelor Charman’s question about a a 20% deviation I think you had you had mentioned about traffic coming off the Q.

02:11:33
We have currently been working um obtaining that data so that we can get the data you’re speaking about counselor and I’m hoping I think within the next month or two months we’ll have that report back um on how that network data is flowing through the city. So that will give us some information. Um and the other thing is just the the city doesn’t have a congestion management uh framework or policy.

02:11:56
So that sort of articulates how we balance our road network, how we balance dealing with pedestrians, how we be deal with uh the drivers, how we deal with transit and so we don’t have that governance model just from a uh technical perspective. So I’m not talking about the agencies but the actual how we uh program our traffic signal timing.

02:12:17
So that will be coming um out of this as well. So that’s some of the new items that came out of those discussions at those meetings. Thank you. >> Okay. So then just as a followup with the amendment here, are you able to extract those new items for a direction by council? That’s that’s really what I’m looking for. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thanks.

02:12:37
Then I’ll support this amendment. >> Okay. >> Next on the floor for question or comment if you can let me know. Councelor Bentovenia. >> Thank you, Chair. Uh just a comment please. >> Okay, go ahead. >> Um I’m pleased with this conversation. I think we’ve uh we all have great input and all the conversations we’re heading in the right direction.

02:12:59
My take on this is this is a work in progress. This is not going to be solved in a month, two months, three months. We get whatever information we can get and we’re happy to get it when staff can put the information together. I want to remind everyone that we can agree on anything here. This conversation can change in November and October and December and so on.

02:13:26
So, it’s important to have input and it’s important to get the information out, but let’s not be close-minded and say, “I want this, I want that, I want that,” cuz we could be shotguning this approach with with, you know, staff going in every single direction. So, uh, I just want to caution that staff do their work with what we’re asking them to do and then move forward from there.

02:13:55
and then we can make a decision now which may change later on. So, thank you for that. >> Okay, thank you. Question or comment, councelor Sherman. >> Thank you very much. Well, I have a a question first. Do you need us to give this all the long list of things that you could put in the what you bring back to council or you would you could you figure out what those are? >> Uh through the chair of the council, I think we can figure out what those things are.

02:14:23

That’s what I thought. Listen, you know, I I’m very concerned that that that we are still thinking in the extent if you imagine that in the next 30 years, if the province is right, we’re going to double the population around us. The problem we have today is in short pens. It’s going to be horrendous if we do not address the significant issues that are coming forward as the number of vehicles double essentially.

02:14:51
I know we talk about modal split. Oh, if we get from 4% or 5% to 12%. That means we still have almost twice as many cars and and we need to put that into a planning uh simulation model. So when we talk about things like digital twinning that has to be comprehensive of all the factors that we need to be considering now and and I thought that Craig’s comments right now we’re adding more and more to that fire.

02:15:16
But I want to know what all that is because otherwise we kind of struggle from thing to thing and keep hoping we’ll come up with a magic answer and we’re not actually thinking enough about all that’s coming down the road at us. I think what we have is terrifying and I know that I hear as I knock on doors. I don’t do that. Sorry.

02:15:32
Nothing to do with elections. Um, I know I’m just telling right now our community in in uh in in in eastern B East Burlington thinks that downtown doesn’t know what they’re complaining about because we get all the same traffic they get downtown. And now with the opening of the Wcraft Bridge, just wait.

02:15:51
We are we are in for a rough ride here. And so, yes, we need to do something comprehensive. All I need to do council is please define what that is and what a reasonable schedule would be. and recognizing over the years to with respect to council Ben’s comments that this is not going to be resolved in one year or 10 years.

02:16:08
It’s going to continue over many years and we have to start thinking that way. So digital 20 may be something to think about too. Thanks. >> Okay. Thank you very much. So we are looking uh to the amendment which is to refer report MO-02-26 recommendations from traffic congestion road safety roundts to the July 21st 2026 meeting of council.

02:16:32
Uh all those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries unanimously. Thank you. And that completes our regular agenda of open items. Uh so now we’ll be looking to going into closed. Uh whether or not we go into close now or come back at 1:00 kind of depends on the next question. So we’re looking to go into close to discuss items uh 9.

02:17:03
4 on a confidential verbal update regarding a human resource matter CO-06-26. Oh, so we’re going to be doing that tomorrow at the end of the meeting. Um, correct. Okay. So, that one’s tomorrow. Do any members want to go into closed for the following remaining items now or after lunch? We have item 9.1, confidential legal update on a litigation matter regarding appeal of OPA2, projected major transit station areas report LLS-28-26.

02:17:33
Does anyone want to go into closed for item 9.1? Nope. Okay. Uh, next we I’m asking if anyone wants to go into close for item 9.2, which is a confidential legal update on a litigation matter regarding 1200 King Road, LLS-1-26. Councor Nissan, you’d like to go into closed for that one? Okay. And does anyone want to go into close for item 9.

02:17:58
3, confidential legal advice regarding City of Stratford legal challenge to Strong Mayor Powers Report LLS-33-26? Does anyone want to go into close for 9.3? Council Nissan. Yes. Okay. So, I’m going to ask committee. We have 20 minutes. I did check at the break with our commissioner of legal services. We do not have any out external legal staff. Correct.

02:18:25
So, we could go into closed now for however much of we can get through if we want or we can take an early lunch now and come back at 12:40 to go into closed. >> That’s correct. Okay. What do we have? Yeah, counc. >> Yeah. Just want to confirm because our our agenda says we’re going to go into close at 1 p.m.

02:18:47
Should we wait till then? It’s up to you, chair. >> Um, the agenda does say that. It’s not a matter of being available to the public because they are closed items. So, what would your concern be if we did it sooner? I’m open to >> only that that’s what we uh put in our agenda, but uh I think that’s well within your uh jurisdiction to determine, chair.

02:19:11

Okay. Does anyone have any concerns with us going ahead now and seeing if we can get through one of the closed items at least? >> Okay. Okay. So, we’re going to go ahead and go into close now and see how far we can get, but we will only do until noon and then we’ll come out and resume at 1:00 if we need to.

02:19:30

I just don’t have to read that one. >> Okay, it’s not recorded. >> Okay. So, a reminder for everyone joining us virtually in closed session to please ensure you’re alone in the room. If you cannot be alone, please use headphones so the conversations held in close session are kept confidential.

02:19:42
The motion to proceed into closed is as follows. The committee of the whole is proceeding into close session in accordance with the following provisions under the municipal act pursuant to section 2392E litigation or potential litigation including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the affecting the municipality or local board regarding item 9.

02:20:04
2 two and pursuant to section 2392F advice that is subject to se solicitor client privilege including communications necessary for that purpose regarding item 9.3. Uh councelor Nissan you wanted to go into closed. Will you move that? Thank you. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries.

02:20:27
So we are now going into close session. Okay, thank you everyone. We’re back.

02:43:01
Uh, so to rise in report and close session, committee discussed and provided instructions to staff for the following items. 9.2, confidential legal update on a litigation matter regarding 1200 King Road, report LLS-31-26, as well as item 9.3, confidential legal advice regarding City of Stratford legal challenge to strong mayor powers.

02:43:18
report LLS-33-26. We’ll now deal with the items we did not go into closed for. So that’s item 9.1, confidential legal update on litigation matter regarding appeal of OPA2 projected major transit station areas report LLS-28-26. Uh councelor Karns, could you move that for me? Thank you. Any comments? Nope.

02:43:48
So, I’m going to call the vote on instructing the commissioner of legal and legislative services, city solicitor, or his designate to proceed in accordance with the instructions sought in confidential legal report LLS-28-26. All those in favor? Any opposed? And that carries. Okay. So, that concludes our confidential items.

02:44:10
That concludes our committee the whole for today. Good job everyone. Thank you. Uh continue remaining items. Uh we will have one closed item tomorrow and we have three statutory public meetings tomorrow. So at this point committee the hall is recessed until 9:30 tomorrow morning. Thank you.