Committee of the Whole – November 3, 2025

00:32:59
Good afternoon everybody. Got a full house so that’s exciting. Please see you all here. My name is Paul Shaman, council ward 5 and I would like to call the order to order the committee of the whole meeting for Monday, November the 3. Um first we’re going to start off with a land acknowledgement. Burlington as we know it today is rich in history and modern traditions of many first nations and the Matei from the Anesnab to the Hodni and the Matei are land spanning from Lake Ontario to the Niagara Scarment is steeped in indigenous history. The territory is mutually covered by the dish with one spoon wampam belt covenant an agreement between the Iricqua 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 Missagas of the Credit. 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

00:33:59
symbol. That one up there. Um once you have evacuated the building, please gather in the civic square outside of city hall. Take a coat with you. All the City of Burlington committee and council meetings are live webcasted and archived on the city’s website. Today’s meeting is being captioned digitally through our agenda management software.

00:34:19
I will remind everyone slow down and speak clearly so your words can be captured by the software. I’d like to ask everyone attending virtually to please use appropriate microphones so your words can be captured accurately by the software. We do have rules of engagement in committee meetings.

00:34:35
We ask everyone to please be respectful while others are speaking and listen as you would want to be listened to. Uh a a reminder to committee members to adhere to the procedure bylaw and limit your questions to two at a time. 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.

00:34:57
All questions shall 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 November 18th, 2025. The public is welcome to see uh when the final decision-m happens by attending the meeting either in person or watching the live stream.

00:35:20
Delegates are welcome to register to speak at the council meeting. By way of of introduction of our members, our first order of business for today’s meeting is to conduct a roll call. I’ll now turn it over to the clerk who will take attendance to the uh of the members present and confirm a quorum. Thank you. Councelor Galbra present.

00:35:41
Councelor Karns present. Councelor Nissan here. Councelor Stoce present. Councelor Bentovena present. Mayor me present. Councelor Charman here. We have quorum. Thank you. Staff joining us today are Chief Administrative Officer Kurt Benson, committee clerk Suzanne Gillis, audiovisisual specialists David Thompson and Richard Bellamire.

00:36:02
Other staff and tenants will be introduced as each agenda item is discussed. Schedule for today’s meeting uh is we’re going until 4:30 and we will continue tomorrow at 9:30 at which time we will deal with confidential items and any items not dealt with today. In terms of the agenda, before we start that, we have we have a motion.

00:36:24
I need a motion to adow allow a delegate which requires us to I’m getting a funny message. There you go. Join U which so w need to wave section 46.1 of the procedure bylaw as amended to permit Michael uh Champagne to speak to item 8.1 which is the 2026 budget overview. Finn 42 to 25. I need somebody to move it. So moved by councelor Karns.

00:36:51
Uh do be seconded? No, we’re good. All in favor. All right, that passes. Thank you very much. Michael, you’re on. Uh but not quite yet. Are there any other requests for changes to the agenda? I see none. Um okay. So I’ll ask for a member of committee to move the approval of the agenda. Please been moved by councelor Stalty.

00:37:16
And uh we’ll take all those in favor. That passes. It carries. Thank you very much. Here’s the tough testing question. Are there any declarations of pecunary interest? Seeing none, we move on. Uh we have no presentations. So we’re going to directly to the delegations. A reminder to delegates that their items will be discussed in the order of approved agenda which may be later today or tomorrow.

00:37:45
You may remain in the chambers or if you choose to leave you can watch the meeting live stream online. The link to the live stream is available at burlington.ca meetings. 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.

00:38:04
We’ll be using the time clock on in council chambers and that is also on the uh the uh table at the front in the middle there uh to keep track of your time which you’ll be able to view uh as I said in the podium and or on your screen if attending remotely. Once you’re done, please remain to answer any questions committee members have for you.

00:38:25
I will remind council members that your questions should be for clarification only. So we have seven eight regist eight delegations seven seven that are already pre-elis uh registered the first one is going to be Lawson Hunter who is joining us in person to speak to the 2026 budget overview in 20 42-25 Lawson over to you and you have up to no 10 minutes thank you go ahead yes okay my name is Lawson Hunter I’ve been a resident of Burlington for over 30 years.

00:39:01
I’m here to speak about what I perceive is sadly lacking and underfunded in the proposed 2026 budget. As we all know, in 2019, this council declared a climate emergency. You also made a promise to the residents of Burlington that the city would be net carbon neutral by 2050. I am of an age where I most likely will not see 2050 to see if Burlington truly lived up to the promise to become a net carbonfree community.

00:39:28
So I’m here to advocate on behalf of future generations who I hope will not look back and ask what were they thinking? Why did they not do more? I’m sure you’re immediately thinking about the list. EV chargers, free transit, geothermal heating at Skyway, solar panels on fire station 5, lead design at City View Park, transition of city fleet to electrification, in integrated mobility plant, green building standards, protected bike lanes, etc.

00:39:58
Even this budget document on page 12 highlights that what was done in 2025. The city is investing over $12 million and between 2015 and 2025, the city has invested $90 million in storm water management infrastructure. The city repeats its past accomplishments as new adventures. In consultants plans or staff reports, things that have barely taken place or aspirations that have little hope of being accomplished are presented as bold new initiatives when in fact they are run-of-the-mill must-do items that keep the lights on, the streets busy, and are performative displays that lead to empty promises and systemic underachievements. I’m here to ask what are you going to do in 2062 26? In this proposed budget, there is mention of supporting an overall health and well-being of the local environment. It’s stuck on page 138 under transportation services. I suppose there’s some logic behind assigning

00:40:57
improving climate resiliency to transportation since transportation is responsible for 45% of our emissions. The argument could also be made that it might fall under the jurisdiction of building which is 30% of our emissions or community planning or public works or roads, parks and forestry. The fact is that climate change affects all aspects of city’s activities.

00:41:18
Climate action deserves to have priority status, not just stacked tacked onto one department. In this budget, the transportation department will be responsible for reviewing development plans, implementation of active transportation, coordination and creation of parking, installation of signage and paving markings, traffic control, intelligent transportation systems, automated speed enforcement, traffic signals, street lighting, large-scale emergencies, and crossing guards, and raising $6 million in licenses and parking fees. My concern is that the department might be in conflict with other priorities and limited in staffing numbers. According to the city’s corporation corporate energy and emissions plan from 2024, with only two staff members responsible for earning energy use and facilities, the corporate energy and emissions team has constraints that limit their ability to undertake additional actions. And speaking of two employees, earlier this

00:42:18
year there were three employees doing their best in the environmental sustainability department until the manager retired. But there’s no mention of replacing that vacancy. Mentioned many times in the proposed budget is a dedicated 2% resilient infrastructure levy. It is if to say up to this point all our infrastructure has been non-resilient. It’s meaningless.

00:42:41
Climate change is always two steps ahead of whatever we manage to build. Replacing an aging bus fleet, city equipment or buildings is not resilience. It’s just repair, refurbish, or replacing an existing asset to extend its useful life. If I have a fire in my kitchen or a flood in my basement and I fix the damage, can I call that innovation or is it simply repair? It might be an improvement over the inf infrastructure, but it’s not resilient.

00:43:14
When the head of the UN, Antonio Gutara, says, “Let’s recognize our failure,” the truth is that we have failed to avoid an overshooting above 1.5° C in the next few years. According to the city’s corporate energy and emissions management plan, appendix A to EICS-08-24, Burlington has not reduce greenhouse gas emissions by any measure.

00:43:38
But on page 50 of the same plan, community and custom customer outcomes, community emissions in 2024 totaled 1,22,435 tons. But the projection for 2025 will only be 751,453 tons, an amazing 26.5% decrease. I also have to ask, what’s the purpose of sustainable building development guidelines? And when I quote from the staff report, the applicants did not provide consideration to the sustainable building and development guidelines.

00:44:18
However, staff is of the opinion the applicants can take future steps through the construction and maintenance process. Staff recommended that approval and you approved it as well. I’m concerned when 91 out of 97 mature trees are allowed to be cut down to allow for a development just because it would eliminate 20 dwelling units out of a potential 253.

00:44:44
Does this mean that 20 dwelling units are more important than 91 trees? I’m concerned about terminology creep when staff reports change council’s desire to be net carbon neutral to become a lowcarbon future. If you can’t even convince staff that you’re serious about climate change, what is the public supposed to think? David Miller, former mayor of Toronto in his book Solved, notes several things that cities around the world can do.

00:45:13
One of them is creating a committee of residents, industry experts, and city staff, similar to the pipeline to permit committee to do something called participatory budgeting. Since 2014, Paris, France has set aside 1% of its annual budget to be allocated towards climate issues. This process has engaged thousands of residents with the intention of building stronger relationships between city hall and residents.

00:45:37
And what’s our approach to community engagement? Here’s a quote from a staff request in this budget. Although the broader environmental impact of not having a $30,000 flood awareness campaign is that unprepared properties could substain more damage than they otherwise might. Technically, the city programs themselves have no environmental impact at an operational level.

00:46:04
City programs have no environmental impact. Despite what Doug Ford says, you have the responsibility to change this budget and put a fire under the feet of city staff who I believe do not seriously take your request from 2020 to examine every policy, every staff report, every action under a climate lens.

00:46:25
Everything the city does is connected to climate change. Every program, every purchase, every development application, every policy has an impact on the environment. I have a few suggestions. Engage and involve the public in climate action strategies. Create a dashboard similar to the one you have for housing starts to show the community our progress on climate change and who is doing what.

00:46:53
Allocate 1% of the city’s budget on climate change mitigation and adapt adaptation and show that as a separate budget line item. think long term and create a robust education program to help support the community in its efforts to truly become net carbon neutral by 2050. In conclusion, I feel that I’ve made myself perfectly clear and will not take any questions. Thank you.

00:47:25
Well, thank you very much, Lawson. I guess we could ask ourselves questions, but we won’t. So, we’re going to move right along. Never had that before. Okay, so our next speaker is Zohar Khan. Come on up, please. Thank you very much for coming. You have 10 minutes or less. Thank you. Good afternoon, counselors and members of the committee. My name is Zohar Khan.

00:47:51
I’m here as a swim parent, a volunteer for the broth and aquatic devil rays, and someone who cares deeply about our young swimmers and about the fair, transparent and about fair, transparent city processes. I I appear today fully aware that under the minutes of the settlement that the Burlington Aquatic Devil Rays signed with the city, we are prohibited from speaking publicly about the RFP process or pool allocation.

00:48:10
I’m not here to breach that. I’m speaking about carefully about facts that are already in the public domain to support this motion for an independent audit. I would be remiss and frankly negligent to stay silent when this committee is considering an audit of the very process that has affected public confidence in how Burlington governs community access to its facilities.

00:48:33
While I respect confidentiality where required, accountability should not be subject to a confidentiality clause. I also ask that my remarks not be used against the club or volunteers. My intent here is constructive to help improve the process so no community organization finds itself here again. So, how did we get here? In March of this year, the Burlington Aquatic Double Race submitted a proposal for the city’s 5-year youth competitive swim program contract.

00:48:59
For nearly four decades, the Burlington Aquatic Double Race or BAD has trained Burlington youth, delivered excellence, and complied with every term of the prior agreement. In 2020, the city’s RFP required biders to submit a proof of nonprofit incorporation. The wording was clear and easily satisfied and bad complied.

00:49:19
In 2025, that clause was changed to require a current and valid certificate of incorporation as a nonprofit or not for-profit organization. This phrase does not exist in Ontario law. A certificate of incorporation is issued once at the birth of an organization. It never expires. The only document that can be considered current is a certificate of status, which is what Bad submitted.

00:49:41
It is like requesting a birth certificate to understand if a person is alive and well. Nevertheless, BAD was disqualified for failing to submit a document that cannot be obtained. When the club questioned this, the city cited sections of the not for-profit corporations act to explain what a certificate is.

00:49:58
Without acknowledging that the RFP itself introduced a non-existent requirement that is not fairness, that is bureaucracy collapsing on itself. At the same time, the Burlington residency requirement was communicated publicly as if it was a hard pre-awward requirement. While BAD was excluded over an impossible paperwork standard, the winning club was recognized for agreeing to meet an 85% Burlington resident threshold by the end of September 2025, months after the RFP deadline.

00:50:28
It is important to note that had our proposal been reviewed and not disqualified on the on the technicality, bad submission already included residency data for the past 5 years meeting this requirement. In September, the city further shifted the goalpost to define the 85% as swimmers swimming at Burlington pools as opposed to 85% of your swimmers, which further affected us.

00:50:51
At this point, because we had lost city hours, Bad had to contract time at the YMCA, a private pool, just to keep our kids swimming. I do want to express my appreciation. The marginal hours ultimately made available to our club kept many kids afloat. Literally, city worked under pressure, and we recognize that effort. My comments here today are simply about fairness, about ensuring that Burlington’s process is clear, even-handed, and trusted.

00:51:17
rules that feel feel unclear or uneven erode confidence no matter who wins. For youth programs where hundreds of children’s training hours depend on continuity, the city applied zero tolerance to one bidder while allowing flexibility for another. When questions arose, a non-disparagement clause limited discussion.

00:51:37
This is the very definition of an uneven process and exactly what this audit must address. Your motion rightly directs the city auditor to examine whether the definitions and requirements used in this RFP were consistent with the city’s procurement bylaw. This is critical because section 270 of the municipal act requires municipal procurements to be clear, fair, and transparent.

00:51:57
Behind these policies are real Burlington families. Children who lost training lanes overnight. Parents who now driving to Oakville, Hamilton, and Milton. Volunteer coaches and board members who spent the summer seeking basic clarity from the city they’ve partnered with for decades. For our families, the impact has been catastrophic.

00:52:16
The long-term damage to a grassroots volunteerpowered program is real and it will take time to repair. This isn’t about lawyers and clauses. It’s about community. This is why this motion matters. The three outcomes listed in the motion, if answered clearly and publicly, will restore trust. They will give staff, clubs, and families a shared playbook moving forward.

00:52:37
This motion is about ensuring Burlington’s processes live up to Burlington’s values of clarity, fairness, and honesty. When a city issues an RFP with ambiguous language, relies on technicalities, and then communicates in ways that do not match the documents, public faith is eroded. You have an opportunity this afternoon to begin repairing that confidence.

00:52:58
Please let this audit bring the facts to the surface so that every swimmer, every parent, and every resident can once again believe that Burlington plays by its own rules openly, fairly, and in good faith. Thank you. Thank you very much, sir. I’m just going to check to see if there are any questions.

00:53:11
You have a question coming from Mayor Mariam Mewood. Thank you, chair, and thank you so much for being here. I know it’s been a really difficult process for everyone in the community. My question is around what um you hope will be the outcome of this process. What do you think the audit will find and then with those findings, what you hope will be done with that? Um to be honest, the the the ideal scenario is the one of least friction.

00:53:42
We’re not here to litigate an RFP or waste tax dollars at the city’s level or the the limited funds that a that that a not for-p profofit has. Um ideally we we want acknowledgement that there was a gap in the process. Um and then some sort of remediation to allow our club to continue to exist in Burlington and provide the services we’ve provided for 40 years.

00:54:10
So, are you hoping then to change the contract that you have with the city to get more hours? Is that where you’d like this to go? That would that would definitely be a starting point. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, mayor. Our next speaker is councelor Karns. Thank you very much through the chair.

00:54:27
Are you aware that there is an option for anyone disgruntled with any process that unfolds at the city to employ the services of the ombbudsman for a review? Yes, we are aware. um in in complete transparency with all the chaos over the last several months. Um we have a completely new board that was just elected last week.

00:54:46
So we have been catching up very fast to the to the uh happenings of the summer and on our list of of avenues to explore the person’s on it. Um but this we felt this was the first step to get the to get that process rolling. Thank you. Thank you. And then second question is are you supportive of restoring transparency and accountability through this audit even if it doesn’t result in a change to the current arrangement with uh competitive swimming allocations 100%.

00:55:20
Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much counselor. I’m seeing no further questions. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. Our next speaker is Cody Rat representing the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club. Uh he’s joining us to speak to the motion memorandum regarding audit of space allocation for competitive youth swimming.

00:55:43
Welcome Cody. Uh you have up to 10 minutes. Please proceed. Thank you. Good afternoon mayor, members of council, and city staff. My name is Cody Brat and I’m honored to serve as the chief operating officer and associate head coach of the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club. It’s a privilege to stand before you again this afternoon and share the incredible progress our club has made in this community has made since we last met.

00:56:03
I’m thrilled to tell you that competitive swimming in Burlington is busy, vibrant, diverse, and inclusive. We are off to a booming start. Even with the delays caused by the legal matter that followed the RFP process. Despite those setbacks, programs have launched with extraordinary momentum. Today, we have over 250 Burlington youth aged 5 to 18 swimming in city-owned facilities from introductory levels all the way to high performance.

00:56:31
We also have 179 Burlington residents registered as officials volunteering their time to support our sport and ensure fair competition. In our first month of operation in City of Burlington owned facilities again demand was so high that we had to request additional lifeguards at every single one of our practice hours.

00:56:54
And today more than half of our practices have weight lists. That is a good problem to have. Burlington families are eager to participate, to belong, to be part of something positive, inclusive, and athlete- centered. And here’s a statistic that I’m especially proud of. In this 2025 2026 season, we have had zero transfers out of our age group programs. Not one.

00:57:19
That level of retention and satisfaction is almost unheard of in competitive swimming or sports in general. It shows the trust our families have in our coaches and the excitement our athletes feel about being a part of Ghack. Now, I know the question of critical aquatic infrastructure is one we’ll have to tackle another day, and we remain committed to being a constructive part of that conversation, but these numbers clearly show the demand and enthusiasm for swimming here in Burlington.

00:57:45
Since I last stood before you, our coaching staff have continued to lead and represent Burlington in the Golden Horseshoe with excellence. They’ve completed more training, earned provincial recognition, and presented at Ontario’s largest swim conference. I want to highlight one coach in particular, Colleen Ben, a Burlington resident and longtime member of the Burlington swimming community.

00:58:04
She was recognized by Swim Ontario as a world-class coach for guiding an athlete to a top 15 world ranking. She also presented on the main stage about effective coach leadership, showing that Burlington’s coaches are leaders far beyond our local pools. I too had the opportunity to present and serve on a panel at that same conference sharing insights on inclusivity, collaboration, and athlete center development from my experience coaching team Ontario at the Canada Summer Games.

00:58:32
These are not just Burlington stories. These are our stories and they demonstrate the caliber of excellence that exists right here in this community and has for well over a decade. I’d like to address the process that all brought us all here. We followed the stipulated RFP process. the same process we respected in prior years.

00:58:51
It was open, transparent, and thorough. When we were unsuccessful in 2020, we respected that outcome and moved forward. We were successful this time in the youth bid. We are proud and excited to begin. What came after, however, was painful and unnecessary. without revisiting every detail because I can’t.

00:59:13
I want council to know that as we were asked by the city to give up some of the rights we had earned through the RFP process, rights awarded through a fair process in order to reduce the tension within the community. That was not an easy task, but we agreed because we believed unity was more important than division. Let me also remind council that we were again unsuccessful proponents of a swimming RFP this year alone. We did not win the adult bid.

00:59:39
We participated in good faith. The city made its decision and just as before, we accepted that result without question because that what it because that is what it means to respect a fair transparent process. I asked council to review the Bellamy report following the Toronto computer leasing inquiry which established the recogn recognized best practices for public procurement with this foundation procurement decision should be based solely on the merits of the submission and keep political influence out.

01:00:12
Let me remind council of a quote I shared with you months ago, one published in 2020 regarding this very RFP process. procurement and purchasing decisions are best made on value for service and not political influence. Those words were true then and they remain true today. I do want to take a moment to recognize city staff.

01:00:31
Everyone we interacted with from procurement to leadership to aquatics. Each individual we engaged with was professional, responsive, and understanding. We know they were doing their jobs, following the direction they were given, and we appreciate their diligence throughout this process. We followed the process then and we continue to follow it now.

01:00:52
I want to also address the misinformation that has circulated in the media and online. There have been false claims made about our organization, claims that are simply untrue. The Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club has been a part of this community for over 15 years. We have run Burlington We have run programs in Burlington facilities long before the first RFP ever took place.

01:01:14
In fact, there are old contracts still on file with the city, predating far before 2020, showing our long-standing partnership. We didn’t suddenly arrive in Burlington. We have been serving this community faithfully for more than a decade and a half. Unfortunately, some media commentary has painted a misleading picture, one suggesting we’re outsiders.

01:01:37
This is not only untrue, it’s unfair to the athletes, families, staff, and your constituents that call Burlington home. As we all know, Burlington, Hamilton, and surrounding communities are deeply interconnected. We share census data, infrastructure, recreation, and workforce. Businesses based in one municipality often serve families across many.

01:02:00
A perfect example of this, the Burlington Gazette, one of the outlets most active in covering this story, is actually based in Hamilton, just off of Dream Street South. And that’s perfectly fine. It’s just a reflection of how our region truly works. We are not defined by postal codes, but by service, commitment, and community.

01:02:25
Our club operates in that same spirit, proudly serving Burlington and Golden Horseshoe families, contributing to the broader sporting fabric of the GTA. Finally, I need to address one last matter. The Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club itself became the subject of a formal complaint filed with some Ontario by a member of this community questioning our right to operate and offer programs within Burlington.

01:02:49
While I am not at liberty to release those reasons without the express permission of Swim Ontario, we were completely vindicated and our right to offer services in this community were validated. Swim Ontario, the governing body for the sport and its dispute resolution office determined that the Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club has every right to operate here in Burlington and that our work is in full compliance with all provincial standards, regulations, and requirements.

01:03:18
This decision reaffirmed what we have known all along that our organization has acted in good faith within all proper frameworks and always with the best interests of Burlington athletes and families at heart. That process though difficult brought closure and it validated the trust that hundreds of Burlington families have already placed in us.

01:03:36
We are proud to continue building a positive, inclusive and thriving swimming community here in Burlington and across the Golden Horseshoe. As council now considers this RFP process and if it needs to be referred to the audit committee for review, I ask you to consider this. Was the process unfair or was the success unsuccessful bidder simply louder this time? The city is not responsible for the viability of any other corporation than its own.

01:04:04
And to date, the city has spent tens of thousands of dollars in staff and time resources on this topic. one that serves fewer than 1,500 constituents. We too have spent thousands of dollars of our own resources as a direct result of council’s involvement in matters tied to the legal proceedings. It is time for us to move forward, to find closure on this topic and to focus on what truly matters, that Burlington youth have places to swim, grow, and thrive.

01:04:34
There is space for everyone. And as demonstrated of that commitment, let me remind you that we voluntarily gave up pool time that we had rightfully won so that our competitor could continue offering similar programming as requested by the city. We did this in good faith in the spirit of cooperation and with the hope of putting this matter behind us once and for all.

01:04:56
And within our organization, competitive swimming is not only alive, it’s thriving. We are ready to move forward together with respect, collaboration, and with our focus where it belongs on the athletes and families and the constituents we all serve. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much, Cody. Are there any questions? Go ahead, Council Bentovenia.

01:05:23
Thank you, chair. And uh thank you for the um delegation. There’s two things that you mentioned that I know I didn’t know and I don’t know my colleagues know you mentioned that uh voluntarily you gave up full-time after you successfully um and if I can’t say anything maybe legal can tell me uh are you can you give up can you mention how much fulltime you gave up just curious uh I’m not sure I’m able to comment on that at this time due to our contract with and release with the city that we signed. But so I’d need to seek legal counsel before providing any further information on that. But uh we did give up a number of hours each week for the length of the contract. And just to follow up on that, please um and I’m assuming that both bad and yourselves were in

01:06:20
agreement and sort of think you move on. Uh yeah, let’s move on. we thought we moved on. Um, so we went through the process with your city staff with legal and got to a point where we had an agreement that everyone stands up here and references contracts and releases that were signed. So, here we are again.

01:06:42
So, I think that we’ve put this to bed, but here we are. Okay. Thank you for that. And my second question is to you mentioned 175 volunteers like are we talking new volunteers or just the total number? uh within our organization uh we have 179 Burlington residents as volunteers uh officials I would say well I don’t have an exact figure it’s over a hundred um and part of our commitment to the sport and growing it um as we know officials are really struggling um across all sports so trying to get them involved uh and it also allows us to run events that bring a lot of sport tourism dollars to the city and if we don’t have enough officials. We simply can’t run those events. And I’ll even speak to that how we’ve been good community members that actually we have members of our officiating staff helping uh the

01:07:40
other organization run their swim meets to help generate revenue at their upcoming meet in November. Um so those members are registered with our club but helping out help them run their swim meets. So thank you. Thank you very much. I’m just going to make a comment to members here that we are talking about the uh an a motion for an audit.

01:08:00
Uh and we don’t need to revisit all the data and facts around what did did not occur. So we could just focus more on the audit question. Thank you. Go ahead. Uh Mayor Mid Ward. Thank you chair. I’ll ask uh you the same question that I asked the other delegate and I know this has been a really difficult process for everyone. Uh well, first of all, do you support uh council directing staff to go forward with the audit? And if so, what do you think it might find? And what do you hope it might find? And and what uh do you hope the outcome of that exercise would be? The audit itself is a process left to the city to review a process that we all went through with the RFP that we lost. So I think one of the RFPs that we lost. So I think going through if they’re going to go through the youth one, they have to go through the adult one as well and ask themselves what other litigation are they opening themselves up to

01:08:57
amongst uh different RFPs within the city, building arenas, planting trees, all those pieces. What are the findings of that RFP going to or that audit going to find? And I think for us, we would just like to move forward with what we have uh in place. Although it’s not where we were when this contract was first awarded, but for the betterment of the community, we came to terms with the city and city’s legal um to come to an agreement.

01:09:26
So, I’d like to move forward with that and stop wasting all of uh taxpayers dollars on this subject that serves less than 1500 constituents. So, so no audit. No, go, go ahead. Do the audit. What are you going to go ahead? We did everything as required by the process. I stood up here. I said we submitted over 500 pages of uh RFP and go through. Um, absolutely. Go ahead.

01:09:56
Okay. And you heard from uh the delegate that one of their hopes is that the city would resend the contract at least with BAD to try to get more hours for them. Do you uh do you have a similar perspective on that that you’d like to reopen your contract as a result? I think that the city needs to look at uh exactly what they’re looking to reopen the process of bad acquiring time from the YMCA.

01:10:22
That will have to be looked at as well. Was the city’s involvement with that? I don’t know this for a 100% for certain fact, but my understanding is that the Burlington Y is on city- owned land. So, I don’t know what the city’s involvement with that was, but we got told we were getting more pool time at the Burlington Y and that got rescended and all of a sudden bad acquired it.

01:10:44
So, it’s interesting how that process entirely unfolds as well. So, um yeah. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Maria. Councelor Karns. Thank you through the chair. So, same question. In order to restore trust, which you mentioned in your delegation, accountability and transparency, would you support the audit even if it does not result in any changes to pool allocation times? Yes, we would.

01:11:12
Thank you. I have a question for you. Um and and considering that to the accounts the awards were made and and um the process is finished other than this issue about an audit there was a question raised by a certificate of incorporation that could not be provided because it didn’t exist. So how were you able to qualify uh satisfy the uh the request if you don’t have one either? Uh we had the document that was required in the RFP process.

01:11:41
um the initial certificate of incorporation which was the same document that we submitted in the 2020 RFP we submitted in 2025. We didn’t need a certificate of status or anything like that because we already had it. Um we had the initial paperwork that was required which was the valid valid certificate of incorporation.

01:12:06
We had our original documents because that’s okay. Yeah. No, that that answers my question. That’s clear. Thank you very much. Um, I see no other questions. Thank you. Thanks. Okay. Our next speaker is Kerry Terry Cado representing the Burlington Chamber of Commerce. He’s joining us virtually to speak to economic development and tourism regarding findings from the third party review of Burlington EDV and tourism CAO06-25.

01:12:39
Uh thank you uh Chair Charman, Mayor Me Ward, and members of city council. On on behalf of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and our nearly 900 members, I’m here to express our position on the recommendation to dissolve the independent Burlington Economic Development and Tourism and bring its functions under the city’s corporate structure.

01:12:59
The Burlington Chamber of Commerce does not support this recommendation. We strongly believe that the Burlington Economic Development and Tourism Department functions most effectively as an independent third-party organization rather than a department within the municipal government. Since tourism joined economic development, the department has evolved into one of the best-in-class tourism organizations in the province.

01:13:27
Uh they provide exceptional value and results for the uh community. The municipal accommodation tax has been managed effectively under this model and the majority if not all of the hotel funders who are also chamber members have expressed satisfaction with how marketing funds are being used to promote Burlington as a tourism destination.

01:13:46
You know, as a matter of fact, the Burlington Chamber of Commerce, we’re currently hosting nearly 100 of our colleagues from across the chamber world in Burlington uh today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. And this was a result of using the municipal accommodation track uh fund to attract a conference. We also note that the that while the Burlington Chamber of Commerce was mentioned in the staff report, the chamber was not engaged or consulted by the report’s author in its preparation.

01:14:16
Given the chamber’s active role in the business Burlington’s business ecosystem, our ongoing collaboration with Burlington economic development and tourism, we believe our perspective would have provided valuable insights into the effectiveness of the current structure and the importance of maintaining it.

01:14:32
Uh as a matter of fact, a number of our members uh with the direction of the chamber have worked with economic development to resolve many of issues that they had and it would be totally opposite of the comments that were included in the report. I was a little disappointed that the chamber was not engaged or and were able to not connect our members to the reports a reports uh creators.

01:14:55
As an independent organization, the Burlington Economic Development Tourism has de demonstrated the ability to collaborate effectively with key community stakeholders. Examples are the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and the West End Homebuilders. Recently, uh the three of us worked together to question the original consultants report for a 25 or 15% increase in the development charges.

01:15:21
and working independently, we were able to do research that ultimately uh we advocated for a 25% reduction in Burlington’s business and development community with a number of communities across the province recognizing it as showing true leadership uh on that file and council has received a lot of credit from the industry and your colleagues for that.

01:15:46
I don’t think that would have occurred if the Burlington Economic and Development Corporation was not independent. Burlington Economic Development Tourism plays a vital role as one of the four members of team Burlington. Alongside the chamber, our downtown BIA and Alershot BIA. Team Burlington was instrumental during CO 19 pandemic, providing critical support, providing uh test kits, up-to-date information for the business community.

01:16:15
And more recently, this partnership has continued to deliver value by supporting businesses affected by the current tariff challenges and ensuring timely communication and coordinated advocacy. I want to clarify on on behalf of the chamber. The report said that the chamber and economic development were duplicating information and that truly is a false statement.

01:16:38
The chamber and economic development spoke on a regular basis to make sure we didn’t duplicate it. The chamber presented information from the Canadian Chamber of Commerce and the Ontario K Chamber of Commerce. Uh economic development promote forwarded information and posted information specifically for around the city programs and we had links back and forth to ensure no duplication occurred.

01:17:03
Uh the chamber is concerned that bringing economic development and tourism under the city’s corporate umbrella would erode independence, agility, and business centered collaboration that have been key to Burlington’s economic success. Maintaining the current arms length model allows for greater responsiveness, stronger engagement with the private sector, and a continued focus on driving investment in our community.

01:17:31
I mentioned earlier that I’m currently hosting nearly a hundred of my peers from across the province and I share with them the relationship that the Chamber of Commerce has with economic development and how we collaborate and advocate together and they and they’re like how do you work so well with your economic development in number of cities um Peterborough Aurelia economic development is part of the city city and they’re they’re at odds with the chamber at odds with the business community because their decisions not only are looking at econom economic data but also through a political lens rather than a true indep independent lens. So with respect uh council um the chamber is urging uh that city council maintain Burlington economic development tourism as an independent organization preserving the collective framework that has served Burlington so effectively. The model has proven to foster innovation, build partnerships, and strengthen the city’s economic resilience. And Burlington’s currently

01:18:31
the number one community to live and work in in Ontario. We aspire to be the number one city to work and live in in Canada. And the mayor’s challenged me is why can’t be we the number one community in the world to live and work in? If something’s working so well, why would we want to change it? Thank you. Thank you, Terry.

01:18:48
I’m going to be looking for questions from uh council. There you go. The first one is Mayor Mid Ward. Thank you, chair, and thank you so much uh Terry for being here today and for your submission. And I’m uh glad to hear your experience has been a positive one. Uh I really just wanted to ask a little bit more uh and inquire about the the the comment that you weren’t uh consulted in by the reports author and its preparation.

01:19:14
Can were you not reached out to at all at any point in this process um to provide any input? I was never engaged by the report’s authors. I had spoken to the previous city manager on a regular update to uh share that I really valued the relationship with economic development and thought they were doing a best-in-class role and especially around the tourism and the destination marketing operation they’re running now.

01:19:43
from really pointing people to washrooms previously to running proper campaigns, having proper tracking mechanisms for uh tracking room nights as well as average room night uh value. It really is what what tourism should look like uh on a well-run community. Okay. So, and just to be clear, when you say the reports author, are you talking about the the staff report on our agenda or the third party review report? I was not approached on either on on either one.

01:20:19
Yes. Okay. Thanks. Thank you, mayor. Next speaker is councelor Karns. Thank you for joining us, Terry, through the chair. So, uh, previously our vision to focus, um, business plan, I’ll call it, had economic development as the second pillar in that. uh it’s shifted a little bit um in the updated vision to focus but my question remains the same.

01:20:42
What uh measurements or KPIs uh are we or should we be using that are indicating the success of an economic development arm from your uh experience at the chamber? I I can’t comment on a specific KPI on economic development. I can comment on specific KPIs on tourism because I’m aware of them.

01:21:03
I can more comment on u response times to re when the chamber reaches out to economic developments. The fact that we were able to do the uh the Bay Area economic summit which has hosted the premier and focus on issues uh attractive that are important to the communities. our collaboration on having the minister of finance here last year um supporting the city’s uh our next CEO and leaders summit in conjunction with economic development where we’re hosting the three uh presidents of the three universities and colleges that’s part of the city strategic plan. So I can’t I don’t know a KPI specifically for uh economic development. I apologize for that but I do reflect the the collaboration that economic development does with the business community to to make the community better. Okay. I appreciate that. Then uh my second question will be a little bit

01:22:00
different. What do you view as uh pillars of good governance as it might relate to and observed uh by you for both your organization and Burlington economic development tourism? So certainly just walking through that uh through a board meeting with the Chamber of Executives of Ontario where I sit on their board.

01:22:19
It’s do you have are you following proper bylaws? Do you have minutes? Do you have budgets? Are your budgets approved? Do you speak do you have an annual general meeting? So basic rules around Robert’s rules of order are are your basic pillars of a proper governance organization structure as well as an independent board. Followup uh strategic plan.

01:22:47
Yes. Uh strategic plan uh operation plan and approved budget. Thank you for your insights. Terry, thank you very much. Council, I’m just going to jump in here very quickly. Terry when you look I think you have a pretty good understanding of all the activities and pro programs of e that dev and tourism have am I correct yes so do you did you see any reference to those in terms of the consultants report that was looking at the uh performance of ecdev and was it correctly presented in terms of those programs I didn’t see any specific measurables uh commented or things that they were lacking in seem to be more of a policy based discussion. Sorry, could you elaborate? Uh could you um tell us what you mean by policy decision? What are you talking about? uh more of an an organizational structure to connect um economic development uh

01:23:45
through the through council and and being responsible for for council’s mandates as opposed to having a better letter of know it could be a solution could be a better letter of understanding between council and economic development. It was more a process of who where should economic development sit? Should it sit as a division of the chief operating officer, a CEO, or should it sit independently with um independent uh directors that have fiduciary responsibilities? I think that’s important that the directors have fiduciary responsibilities as opposed to being advisers to the city. I think that’s a critical piece that needs to be recognized. Thank you for that. And then that raises the question about whether you saw much in that report from the consultants at all that addressed the work that was being done by ECDev. Did you see much in there that expl des described it and was was um gave a a good understanding of the value of of what ECDEV was doing and tourism? No. What I see on a regular basis of

01:24:44
what economic development does and how it promotes the city and promotes business and and helps grows the city. It was not reflected in the report. Uh the report was vague. Thank you very much. Uh, next question is coming from the mayor. Yeah, thank you, chair. Um, I I just again I wanted to follow up and make sure that uh really wanted to make sure that businesses were given an opportunity to uh comment and the there’s many ways of course to gather feedback.

01:25:17
One would be a sitdown interview and it sounds like that didn’t happen with you. Um, but I uh I’m aware that there was a business survey that was posted on the city’s get involved page and I think that that was circulated to all 900 of your businesses seeking input on economic development and tourism. So, uh, did you, uh, send that survey to your members which was part of the third party review process to, uh, solicit business input? I’m not aware if it appeared in our newsletter or not.

01:25:51
Um, surveys like that, I think we all recognize, uh, squeaky wheels tend to, uh, people that have things that didn’t work right for them would would be the more likely people to respond if um, but you don’t recall if you said you don’t recall sent it out appeared in our newsletter or not. I can’t comment one way or another.

01:26:15
I don’t I don’t have I don’t remember doing it. It’s not to say it didn’t occur in our members members news update. I certainly would have been glad to refer the at least a dozen members that I’ve put in contact with economic development to resolve issues that that did have uh positive experiences. Okay.

01:26:37
Uh there was a survey posted online but I I guess you don’t know whether you circulated that to your members. Okay. Thanks, Terry. Recall. Sorry. Thank you, mayor. Our next speaker is uh councelor Benia first time. Thank you, chair, and uh great comments and conversations. Um Terry, are you um you mentioned you haven’t been uh nothing was discussed from your side of it and do you know anything from the hotel end of it the Matt funding has the hotel association spoken to you or uh or are you aware if the third party um was involved in talking to the hotel association? I don’t know if they were. I I spoke to Jason Stoner this morning because he’s the host of our our conference and he’s unaware of what’s occurring. I I do regularly speak to the fif 15 of the 16 largest hotels in this in the city are

01:27:37
part of the chamber of commerce and and we work we’ve set up a number of meetings with um Burlington economic development and tourism and and all the stakeholders uh at our last we twice a year we bring all the groups together uh to talk about where the direction is and the the hotel association are very happy with the uh new concierge service, what’s going out for to attract conventions, what that booklet looks like that they receive.

01:28:05
Uh probably the the biggest part that the hotel uh association and our members are still having concerns about and haven’t seen visible results is on the 50% of the Matt tax that stays with the city that’s invested in infrastructure. They’re still waiting to see what the results of that are. They can see the concier service and the Matt driving room nights.

01:28:33
They still haven’t been able to see how the infrastructure piece is will will drive tourism to the city. There are still concerns around that piece of the Matt funding. Thank you for that. Second question is to do with staying with the cooperation side of it and the third party. Um, and I know you spent a lot of time with uh about downtown business association, the BIA downtown.

01:28:58
Has there been any reaction from them to you or that you’re aware of or vice versa? Uh, I had a brief conversation with the executive director of the Downtown BA. The timing was so tight on this report, it didn’t allow for proper conversation. um when it comes out on a week before the meeting um economic development or sorry downtown BIA is also concerned about the merger uh of having um and I shouldn’t really speak for them but informal conversation they’re not uh supportive of of this uh having economic development not remain third party independent and I know councelor Karns sits on their book their board thank you for that thank you very much councelor for the second time speaker council cos thanks so much Terry can you tell me if your board is volunteer or paid our board is volunteer

01:29:58
your board is volunteer okay so I’m going to I’m going to extract some comments here from the report and I want you to tell me how your volunteer board would feel if these uh statements were made uh in reference to your volunteer board uh risking further erosion of trust wasted resources lost economic opportunities source of misalignment accountability gaps and operational confusion how would your board feel, Terry? My board would have some strong conversations with the staff and they’d be um they would not as a as a board member of a of a current board, I would be uh offended that a board that I was on that the staff were operating in manners that is such as are described here. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much, Terry. appreciate your insights. Terry, I have another question with respect to culture. Um, do you think that there’s any possible way that the

01:30:57
culture within the city which is related to laws and bylaws and and uh compliance um is quite is rather different from business building business and creating business relationships and working with this with with uh corporations to increase economic activity. Do you think they’re this they could you could merge you could get that out of the culture of the city staff and and there clearly is a challenge being a civil servant having been one working for the Ministry of Tourism for the province of Ontario.

01:31:30
You have a different lens. You have different responsibilities and you have different layers. You’re not the position doesn’t allow nimleness and and quick responsive of decisions and you’re always looking even though you’re not uh directly reporting to the staff you’re always have a political lens through decisions and through actions and it you’re tend to be slower in making decisions and it’s not uh we have great city staff at the city of Burlington any government any staff that works directly for a city with uh an elected elected body running the organization has a different lens and is cannot be as quick as a third party organization. Thank you for that. And then I want to talk to planning because there was a question about overlapping responsibilities planning department versus ecdev and and when you look at it planning is dealing with an application for some sort of development and ecdev are talking about

01:32:29
the business opportunity to increase revenue and grow a business. Uh do you think the report correctly represented the uh the the the the the apparent disagreement as being understandable or not correct? Where I get involved with economic development and and and de and development is that they were able uh for a number of our members in the development community fast track and at least get answers quicker.

01:32:58
Um there there always a little bit of a conflict with the planning department um in that the the red tape project is to hold people accountable to timelines and there’s not duplicative information. It’s a more of way of of holding staff accountable to making deadlines and making decisions in a prompt manner that businesses need.

01:33:23
when Burlington’s com competing with cities across the province, we can’t take the maximum amount of time. We should take the minimum amount of time. And that’s probably the difference in philosophy between city staff and economic development staff. Thank you so much for your time uh today. I see no more questions, Terry. Um I’m going to let you go now.

01:33:42
Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh our next speaker is uh Vanessa Dew and Julie Ellis representing the Burlington Economic Development and Tourism uh uh board are and they are joining us in person to speak to ECD and tourism regarding findings from the third party review of Burlington Economic Development and Tourism. Welcome. Thank you for coming.

01:34:06
Uh you have up to 10 minutes. Please go ahead. Good afternoon. I’m Julie Ellis, board member at Burlington Economic Development and Tourism, speaking to the municipal accommodation tax delegation uh which you have received. Um the purpose today is to highlight how the merger has modernized Matt governance, improved accountability, and ensured legislative compliance.

01:34:34
BEEDT fulfills the provincial requirement that 50% of the net MAT revenues flow to a qualified nonprofit tourism entity. This amount represents approximately $1 million annually. If dissolved, council would need to reestablish a new nonprofit to maintain compliance, creating unnecessary administrative and legal costs and time, as well as setup.

01:34:57
To be clear, council cannot direct that an independent not for-profit be dissolved. The merged models have deliver the merged model has delivered tangible results including the tourism investment fund, the destination stewardship plan and integrated marketing campaigns, improving transparency and stakeholder satisfaction. There is clear evidence that the tourism businesses are happy with the progress made since the merger.

01:35:29
Reopening the structure now would duplicate costs and reverse progress before the merged model has even completed one full year. The city is open to risk in the current governance of the Matt and clear financial accountability framework. BEDT supports a comprehensive Matt modernization review in partnership with the city and the chamber to update bylaws and financial accountability frameworks.

01:35:58
The MAT is a reinvestment mechanism that strengthens Burlington’s visitor economy. The city and BEDT now have a unified model that works and in fact the staff reports indicate that costs will need to be spent recreating the current structure if BEDT is brought inhouse. So instead, let’s update the framework, not the model. Thank you.

01:36:24
Thank you very much. I’m looking for questions. First comes from councelor Curts. Thank you very much through the chair Julie. Um you talked about risk to the Matt uh tax compliance. I’m actually not as familiar or understanding of that. I don’t sit on the uh active tourism board. I just get the reports.

01:36:41
Um can you help me understand that a little bit more around why this is a risk uh element? Uh so we had flagged in multiple conversations with city staff that the uh current bylaw was not being followed and so we’ve flagged that and it has been indicated it’s not it was not a priority to make any changes to it. Uh we have followed that up in email um just to confirm that that was the position, but multiple of our staff members have attempted to get some clarification.

01:37:20
Okay, that doesn’t sound good. Um Julie, can you tell me what who are the kind of people who sit on the board uh that oversee this? What are their credentials? Uh we have people who work in higher education. We have building business leaders within the community both from a large business perspective as well as entrepreneurial um representation.

01:37:45
We have representatives from uh city staff um we have the mayor who’s a permanent guest and we have two counselors who are voting members. Just a point of clarity designations do you know MBAs LLB’s CAS cedars all of those things? All of those things, the whole host. Okay, that gives me good confidence. Thank you.

01:38:06
I would also add to your previous question that all of the board members are volunteers. Chair, may I please can you repeat that in the microphone? Oh, sorry. I just want to clarify that in response to a previous question that you asked of a a separate delegate that all of our board members are volunteer members and that over the last year there has been a significant number of increased meetings to ensure the smooth transition as we went through the merger of economic development and tourism.

01:38:28
And we’ve also gone through a recent uh governance review process through our HR and governance committee to ensure that due to the revised structure that we currently have incorporating tourism into the economic development structure that we have appropriate committees that support the revised objectives and goals.

01:38:47
And so we have undergone that process and we’ve also gone through uh a most recent AGM where we were able to add three additional members and we had a significant amount of interest uh in individuals that were interviewed uh who applied and were interested to be not only members of the board but also to sit on committees.

01:39:04
And so we do also have a very thorough process to ensure that we have the designations and representation across a various uh you know significant representation of members across both the economic development and the tourism industries in the city of Burlington. Thank you chair. Thank you very much councelor. Our next question comes to you from councelor Nissan.

01:39:27
Uh thank you very much for for uh delegating today. uh my question and if uh and feel free to sort of uh ask your chair to answer this if you feel that uh if you have any you know concerns or he can add on to it but here’s the question um so it’s a two-parter tourism was officially merged when and more importantly do you feel that that’s been enough time to fully uh understand uh how that works from a governance point of and to uh evaluate it for a potential next step which would be to be brought uh in house. I think we’ve spent a lot of time at least in speaking for myself thinking about economic development but I want to make sure that we think about the tourism side also as you have brought forward. So do you think that there’s been enough time to evaluate how that’s how that’s going in order to decide whether it should be brought in house?

01:40:26
I think we have early indicators that the merger has been very successful. Some of them have already been spoken about here today. Some of them were included in the delegation. Um we are 10 months into this merger. So all of this data is really early early data. Um it has taken a considerable amount of time.

01:40:48
I’m a member of the finance committee and we met only about 10 days ago um to approve the tourism financial statements for 2024 year ended December 31st. So it has taken us a lot of time to bring all the pieces together and considering those difficulties the early winds are clear. Do you have anything to add? Yeah, I just wanted to also add for clarity uh which Julie mentioned is that um there it is a requirement for a nonprofit to to run them at which I I’m not sure if everybody’s aware but just to reiterate that. So if this uh you know structure as the report indicated were to happen then there would be uh assume I would assume that there would be costs associated with uh not only the merger into the city but also to establish a brand new entity. Um and uh I think that that’s a relative relatively significant move considering the amount of change

01:41:47
that has occurred over the last year and a half. Yeah. And the considerable resources both human and financial that were invested to bring our two organizations together. Thank you. Just one uh last question. Were you interviewed by the um by the consultant and approximately when were you interviewed? We had a board meeting.

01:42:07
I was not personally interviewed by the consultant. Um we did as a board make a request for the opportunity for the consultant to come forward to one of our board meetings because as a board as a collective we had not had the opportunity to speak to the consultant. And so uh we had initially understood uh and it might not be the exact timeline but in and around I believe spring was when the report was originally anticipated to come forward and uh because we had put in a formal request to speak to the consultant that consultant came to our board meeting in June June. Um and then uh also noted would be that uh there was a previous commitment from the consultant and from the former CEO uh as noted in our board minutes that we would have the opportunity to review the report prior to it coming to council and that was not the case. We received the report as board members at the same time as counselors would have and uh from my experience uh notably

01:43:06
working at the office of the auditor general of Ontario, there would generally be a structured process where any entity or organization being audited would have the opportunity at the very least to review the report for any errors and omissions prior to it coming forward. And so I think that’s something to note for counselors is that uh as board members we did not have the opportunity to review uh at a baseline for errors and omissions prior to that report coming forward today.

01:43:31
Thank you. Thank you very much councelor. Our next speaker is councelor Benign. Thank you chair. Uh thank you for being here and um many of us sit on different boards throughout the city here. So I guess my question is we’ve had information about the satisfaction rate and we went from way down here to it says 100%.

01:43:57
So from a board standpoint, what is the biggest concern with this merger with respect to operations? Um what what potentially can you lose in this merger? Just a question of clarification. You mean the Yeah. the proposed bringing into the city of BEDT, not the merger of tourism and economics development, correct? Do we want to keep questions around the mat for this and then because the the board chair is I just want to be respectful of the board chair coming up as well.

01:44:38
Yeah. So, if I’m going to pass that back to the counselor, I I do want to get to the mat. Should we? Yes. So, the Matt, go ahead. Well, no, I think you need to revise your question. Okay. Are you concerned about losing the mat with the information coming to sorry, the organization coming into the city? Do you think that that might be an issue um for tourism? Uh well an a new organization will have to be struck uh in order to administer the portion of the mat that we are currently administering.

01:45:17
Um and you know there will be administrative costs and staff costs. Um we believe we can do it in a in in that piece in quite an efficient manner as a larger organization with the team we have to leverage on the mat and the programs that we’ve put into place already. Great. And the reason why I asked that question is for this next question.

01:45:37
Are you receiving any reports at all with the 50% of the Matt funding to the city at this point? How they how they’re using the the funding? Sorry. Just whatever is public. We have uh any information about the city portion of the mat that is public information is information we have. That would be the extent of our information.

01:46:11
So follow there’s no detail. There’s no what? Sorry. There’s no detail on how the the funding the 50% is being used the city’s portion. No detail for us. No. Thank you. Thank you very much councelor. Our next speaker is councelor Galbra. Thank you, chair, and thanks for the delegations today. Um, Vanessa, you spoke about not having enough time uh considering the report only came out a week ago.

01:46:36
Would any more time change the feelings of the board or allow you opportunity to discuss things with staff and would it be of benefit at all to have any more time moving forward before we make this decision? Uh we did have a a board meeting as well as an opportunity uh it was unfortunately via email to uh to approve the submission that was made just due to the timing that you’re referencing.

01:47:00
Uh but I don’t believe that our position would change and I think that uh our board is aligned on the fact that we do uh operate well. I mean we are absolutely open to a number of the recommendations and and uh information that was provided as part of the third party report and so as board members we would absolutely feel the responsibility to ensure that we appropriately review those recommendations and implement them.

01:47:22
uh but I don’t think that the the actual operational aspect uh and our view on that would would change which is that we believe that we would best be best suited to remain as an independent organization and uh to have the benefit of having board members who are representative of businesses and partners right throughout the city of Burlington.

01:47:44
Thank you. Thank you very much councelor. My question is this. Um, having been involved with the merger last year, do you have any can you just recap what the total cost outside uh uh um consulting cost was and and how many hours were put into that project in order to merge the organizations. So outside of the uh report that was issued by Rubicon, the costs of uh the legal costs, consulting costs, accounting costs, etc.

01:48:20
were approximately $170,000 to merge tourism and Burlington economic development. And those costs were split by economic development and the city and and do we have any idea of the man the men the women hours put into it by by volunteers and by staff? There were hundreds. Um I’ll note particularly um HR and governance and the work that they did um in you know bringing two boards together looking at all the pieces looking at the staff pieces making sure that you know moving people between entities all of the HR and governance pieces that went with all of that um as well as each committee. I think perhaps the chair has a few more comments there. Can I Yes, sir. Go ahead. Um, we’ve estimated over 2,000 hours have been spent between the board, between staff resourcing. If you put a dollar amount to that, we’re talking over $300,000 of

01:49:16
inind time that has been spent. Thank you for that. Um, and just as a followup on that then, what would it take to dismantle the corporation of BEDT? Um well, we’ve got uh we’ve got staff, seven full-time staff and contractors. Um and then there would be an orderly we are an a have audited financials. We would have to figure out what an orderly windown process looked like.

01:49:46
Um and it’s possible that extends into stages because you know there are the economic development and tourism pieces, there are the map pieces. It isn’t quite straightforward. There would be many decisions to be made both by the board and by council about how we were proceeding. Thank you for that.

01:50:07
I’m just looking to see if there are any other questions coming from other members. I’m not seeing any. So, I’m going to ask then in your conversations with staff throughout the last six months um actually eight months. I guess it was it was January, right? I got it all wrong. Um did you talk to them at all about what would be involved with you know the merger of BEDT with the city and the processes that would be required and the amount of effort the amount of you know support they would have to take over something they have no familiarity with. Um we I mean the staff has stepped up and worked incredibly hard throughout the process of this merger. Um implementing new programs, discovering you know things as the you know as they got up to speed and things came to light looking at gaps and quickly moving to address them. you know, all of the hours

01:51:06
that were spent for for that and then feeling like we’re in that stage now where we can start to see some wins from our progress definitely is happening. Um, I think right now, I mean, one of the reasons to answer your question and a question that came up earlier, one of the reasons that we have hustled over the last five business days to come here today is because we we really are concerned about our staff and and the public nature of how this is playing out and how that does uh affect them.

01:51:36
Um, and we have had a staff meeting that the mayor and the CEO attended last week on Friday. I was able to attend as well. Um, but they have a lot of questions right now. So, thank you for that. And I was I guess my question was was rather different and that was whether or not actually the city staff had engaged with you in the discussions of what a merger would take for them to be able to take on the duties of BED as they were preparing the report that we have from before us.

01:52:06
Not at this time. We haven’t had any conversations. So, okay. That’s very helpful. Thank you very much. I’m getting a flag from sorry staff. Uh following the publication of the report, um I was awaiting board direction because we didn’t want to kind of put the cart before the before the horse, but I have met with uh Andy Andrew Scott, our new CTO, to start to map out some of those areas, but that’s just been in the past few days.

01:52:30
Thank you. But to qualify that, that was not considered as part of the report that’s before us. Correct. I couldn’t speak to that. I’d suggest addressing. Well, have you held those conversations in the last week since the report was uh was um produced or before? We’ve started just in the last week after the report was not part of the report.

01:52:48
Correct. Thank you very much. Our next uh question is coming from councelor K. Thank you very much. And through the chair, does do is there any evidence in this report that you would have us put our eyes to that would support the incorporation of BDT into the city of Burlington? I’m feeling like the sentiment is that you would support option three, but is there anything valid in here that that we should be leaning into um that would support bringing it in house to the city of Burlington and you can say whatever you feel. I I don’t have specifics. Um but as I alluded to, I think that there actually there are recommendations that we should consider. um and that we’ve had discussions and we’ve had uh a governance individual come in over the last number of months because there had been some commentary uh from some of the city members that you know maybe increased reporting to the city would be beneficial and so in understanding that

01:53:47
I think that there are definitely opportunities for improvement but there isn’t anything specific within the report that I would point to that would indicate that uh there would be you know 100% benefit but that’s not to say that there aren’t areas for improvement for sure. Okay, thank you very much. Sorry, sorry to keep this going a bit longer.

01:54:05
Um, I keep hearing comments that that the the put an awful lot of effort into in financial committees and and HR committees uh and that would that would not have been necessary had the had BDT been part of the city because the city HR people and finance people could have done that work. Um would you would that was that work on excessive because of the merger? Was it more work because of the merger and has actually very little to do with what might be needed on an ongoing basis? Uh well in any merger of two organizations I think there’s always an additional lift uh that happens. I think on an ongoing basis there will still be work to be done. Um I think the merger converged with the time that we were looking at updating and lifting in other areas of HR and governance. And so those two things kind of came together in a in

01:55:05
in a workflow perspect from a workflow perspective. Um the additional 2,000 hours is a moment in time in terms of the merger and we would expect in a merged organization with a new board that we would settle back into a more regular cadence. So thank you for that. And then my my my follow-up question on that is um well, okay, but could you not have just asked the the city HR department who serves you right now uh and the city’s finance department to do all the work we do routinely? Could we’ve not have been doing that for the last 10 years? Um we have had support from the city’s finance department. However, um we have had um challenges with that support in terms of it’s one of the reasons it’s been lengthy the times in in finalizing financial statements with the changeover in ERP. Um it has meant a lot of manual

01:56:03
work to correct the books and correct the financial statements to so that items are being tagged properly going to the proper accounts and that has dramatically increased the workflow. We um have attempted to work with the city and have done so, but we have had to hire our own financial consultant to help us navigate that process.

01:56:25
And and sorry, just you uh what about HR? Um HR, we have used an independent HR consultant at times. Uh again, I think staff would be better prepared to answer that question. Um but I think uh basically at a high level there’s there’s only a certain level of support. One the city provides our payroll services and the city needs to maintain an armslength HR agreement so that they aren’t delivering services which could be construed as them being an employer which puts obligations and risk onto the city. Uh so absolutely the city has helped us through processes to a certain extent but in a lot of matters we have to hire external consultants and move those items forward so there isn’t a misconstruing of employer employee relationship through additional services provided. Okay. Thank you very much. I’m going to move back to Mayor Midward. Thank you chair and thank you both for being here and for all the work uh that that you’ve been doing over a very long

01:57:25
time and under challenging circumstances. I wonder if you um if there was anything in the report uh either report from staff or the third party review that caught your attention around areas for improvement that we can think about. So uh some of the so I’m thinking top level stuff there was uh identification of of strategy formulation misalignment with city uh some of those things and are there recommendations that would help us uh regardless of what council chooses to do with uh ultimately I I think we’re all rowing in the same direction to do what’s best for the city in the best way and we want to uh not ignore what we’ve seen but find uh you know is are there specific uh steps that can be taken? So uh and again speaking to the Matt I’ll ask the same question obviously around the broader ecdev piece uh but around

01:58:23
the Matt funding that you’d like to share with us that would help to address some of those things specifics. I think in regard to the Matt funding um the bylaw needs some updating. we need to determine and make sure that we’re all compliant and that we’re distributing the MAP funds in a in a manner that’s expected uh that we were entrusted to to do.

01:58:47
Um so I think as far as the MAP funding goes, that’s the comment I would have there. And I think just more generally, I think that um out of respect for the rest of our board members, uh given that we were only uh able to receive this report last week and our first order of business was uh ensuring that we put forward a delegation, I think in fairness uh to our board, it would be best if we had the opportunity to have a board meeting to discuss that and bring that back to council should that be the wishes of counselors.

01:59:17
Yeah, I think a board discussion about all of this would be really helpful. Okay. So, um, in terms of, uh, specific recommendations around the MAT and how that might be aligned with city priorities, do you have any advice for us there just to make sure that that we’re again all rowing in the same direction trying to achieve the same goal? I think if you look in the um delegation, we did have a recommendation around strengthening accountability and ensuring compliance.

01:59:47
We recommend that council direct staff to undertake a comprehensive review of the MAP framework in partnership with BEDT and the Burlington Chamber of Commerce so that the review will endorse the destin

02:00:00
ation stewardship plan uh as Burlington’s guiding tourism policy and integrated its subjectives into horizon 2050 and the corporate compass to update the map bylaws and establish new financial accountability agreement and compliance with compliance with S400.1 of the municipal act and OEG 4357 clearly defining roles reporting requirements and KPIs develop a joint Matt communications and reporting framework ensuring consistent transparent public updates on revenue, spending, and ROI include Matt modernization within the upcoming ABC accountability framework review, aligning financial and governance standards across all city boards and agencies, and to evaluate the extension of Matt to short-term rentals, ensuring equitable treatment for all accommodation providers. So, that would be our recommendation. It’s really helpful. Thank you. Thank you so much for uh delegation. appreciate your time here and uh we’ll be considering what you’ve told us.

02:01:00
Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next uh speaker is Ron Lman representing Burlington Economic Development and Tourism. He’s joining us in person as you can see to speak to Dev Tourism regarding the findings from the third party review of Bern Economic Development and Tourism Cao 0625. Ron, thank you for being here and you have up to 10 minutes.

02:01:29
Microphone. I’m on. Yes. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Um, my name is Ron Leman. I’m the board chair at Burlington Economic Development and Tourism, uh, BED, as you guys have all come to hear today. Um my purpose today is to really to reinforce to council um that any decision on BDT structure should be based on accurate information, full consultation and an understanding of the broader context that led to the current review.

02:01:56
I would like to address a few points. Many of these were covered within the delegation letter and the accompanying reports. Um I will build upon some of those just for the context of the discussion today. Um, council requested the merger of BEDT, sorry, Burlington Economic Development and Tourism Burlington uh over a year and a half ago now.

02:02:16
Um, now council can’t force two organizations to merge, but there was clear direction and we worked with Tourism Burlington to come together as one combined organization. The the intent of this was to modernize governance uh increase accountability and really find synergies between two companies that were serving uh a broader part of our business community.

02:02:37
Um the work required significant staff time which uh we’ve already highlighted in the previous dele delegation now but there was $170,000 of tangible costs that were spent. These are taxpayer dollars that were spent um and including over $300,000 of board time, employee time, and other intangible costs. uh stretched resources and probably some delivery of outcomes that were having to be stretched over time or maybe not the focus uh during that particular time.

02:03:07
While that merger was still underway, um senior leadership of the city changed over. Uh we were without a city manager CEO for a certain period of time. We had a change over in the leadership as you all know. Um and during that time the third party review was launched um by the city at that point and this was really evaluating a structure that at the time was not even yet fully fleshed out or in place um and that we are still working through and as you heard in the previous delegation we are just getting to that point where the organization is now starting to see the fruits of that labor and even the audited statements have only just been done recently as part of that merger. So and at the same time the ABC review was also underway identifying risks with service agreements and other things that had expired and risks with the city. So what I want to get across here is the third party review was really a moment in time a particular moment in time during a great transition for the city for BED for everybody involved. Um and it’s really not a reflection of a current or normal state that any of our

02:04:06
organizations were running in including the city at that point. Um, so many of the process commentary that was mentioned in the report is really in my view and the board’s view a reflection of a lot of the a lot of the transition that was happening during that time and we’ve been working to address much of that uh over the last 10 months as well.

02:04:27
Um, some findings also misrepresent BEDT’s operations uh in our view and we’ve identified those in an accompanying report. I won’t get into those right now. Um, hopefully you’ve had a chance to review those. But as you’ve heard again from the previous delegations, this has created reputational staff risk uh in the organization and we feel those should be addressed before any major structural changes re really be discussed here at council.

02:04:48
Um the staff report did make note that this is not an indication of negative performance of staff, but the truth of the matter is there was a lot of stuff in there that was really not very complimentary towards our operations. Um and and it has c caused disillusionment with staff uh and resentment amongst many of the staff um at BEDT.

02:05:13
Um we we do also want to talk about the impact that an internal restructuring would have into the city. Um while no one can say for sure because no analysis was really done about this that the long-term solution within the city is the best solution or the not not the best solution. Um the truth is no real due diligence has occurred as part of this and what I can say for certain over the next year there are going to be costs and I think councelor Charman you did ask that question previously there’s going to be costs there’s going to be re merger costs or un merger costs there’s going to be people’s time there’s going to be board time city resourcing time intangible costs um that go into this all to bring this into the city so um I Just want us to all be aware of that that mergers are not easy one way and they’re certainly not easy the other way as well. Um the report also mentions the need for better city oversight and we certainly agree with this. Um in fact we’ve been asking for this for quite

02:06:12
some time. Our board believes this can be managed through clear accountability agreements, modernized frameworks rather than dissolving a working model for one that is unknown and has not yet been vetted. There is also not a huge amount of mention about the impact of the end stakeholders and I think you heard that through Terry Cado through his through his delegation earlier as well and we really should be focusing the conversation on what our stakeholders what our end users are expecting to get out of this as well. I also want to draw your attention to the Rubicon report which is the third party report um that the staff recommendation report was based on. Um I want to read a few of the lines from the findings within the report itself and these are from the very last page under findings. Um ACD and tourism may be lower priority if brought in house and these are their words. The public consultation done is of little value. Both internal and external ACDEV models are widely used and there is no consensus evidence to one being

02:07:11
considered superior to the other. There’s no reason to believe BED can hire more qualified or effective people than the city. There is real value to private sector represent or participation in BED. So, I don’t know about you, those don’t scream to me, let’s overhaul an entire organization, change everything about its operating structure based on that.

02:07:31
Now, there was another comment in there. Um, the relationship between the city and BEDT is broken. The two groups are not working together collaborative collaboratively and show little interest in doing so. Now, I have addressed some of the context around that of what I believe led to some of those interactions, some of those comments, but I don’t agree with the sentiment that we have no interest in doing so.

02:07:50
We have four city representatives who either serve on our board, are guests to our board, or involved in other ways. We have other city representatives who are involved in committees, who are invited to our meetings. We try at every every chance we get to have a participation um through the city and at the operational level, too.

02:08:09
We’ve always had a great relationship and during the city leadership some of the gaps in those processes obviously came to light and that was reflected in the report and we have every desire on earth to try to address those and to figure out how we can make those better. So um I agree with those comments except for the sentiment part.

02:08:26
We are trying to work together. We want to work together as much as we can. The conclusion of that report also states the findings point towards reform as essential whether within an improved arms length framework or through full internalization. Again, we agree with this sentiment. Um but our position changes from the fact that we think the current framework, the arms length framework is the best solution for the city uh in terms of getting the best value for the money being spent within this organization.

02:08:53
It’s the most prudent. It’s the lowest risk. It is the lowest cost solution uh for the path forward at this time. So, what this all comes down to is where control should fit. Whether it’s a direct reporting relationship to the council or to an independent board, I’m not going to be here answering that particular question.

02:09:14
That’s even the Rubicon report could not address that question and we haven’t had time even to have that analysis or do that due diligence. What I can tell you is we have a working model that delivers results for our city right now and our stakeholders. Um, and we agree that more oversight and better accountability frameworks need to be in place with the city at this time.

02:09:33
So, we would ask that part of this consideration be the discussion about um recognize that the original service agreement between the city and Burlington Economic Development Corporation that expired in 2020 or 2011 um has contributed to the governance ambiguity and perceived accountability gaps that have been identified in the report.

02:09:55
We would also ask to direct the CIO and the chief transformation officer in collaboration with the BET board to negotiate and finalize an upgraded service agreement and alignment framework for council by Q2 next year. And part of this would be establishing clear roles, decision-making protocols, escalation pathways between the city, CIO, and the board so that if there is ever a change over in leadership in the future, again, we’re not going to run into these gaps that have that come up over the last couple years.

02:10:19
Um we will integrate our strategic objectives, KPIs, reporting cycles into the city’s performance uh and budget frameworks. Uh and we want to define service standards and cost recovery mechanisms for shared corporate supports as part of those recommendations. And we want to have explicit we do recommend explicit provisions for transparency, annual reporting, and public performance reviews within that updated service agreement. So thank you.

02:10:44
I did it with one minute to spare. Thank you, Ron. Efficient as always. Much appreciated. I’m just looking uh for questions and the first is coming from councelor Galbra. Thank you, chair, and thanks for being with us today, Ron. Taking some time out of work to delegate to us. Um just a couple of questions.

02:11:08
Uh as chair of uh BEDT, uh you put in a lot of time, a lot of volunteer time. Uh do you communicate with any other chairs of other municipalities with internal or external boards to um like like do you have a feeling on the difference between the two? You know, one being internal, one being external or like do you talk to colleagues about it at all or? So to answer your first part of that question, I do not communicate with any other uh boards who are in this particular situation. No.

02:11:40
So uh in terms of communicating in terms of sharing ideas that that’s not something that’s part of what we do. Okay. Um and then the second question in the report it does uh suggest uh sorry can I Yeah. Yeah. Keep going. That’s my position as the chair. Our executive director on the other hand I know she has close interaction with her equivalents in all the other organizations too at an operational level. So I should clarify that for you.

02:12:06
I could ask her that if she was there but um thanks for that. And then um there’s a suggestion that the board uh sort of if it comes internal would be an advisory board to the economic de development function that would operate within the city. What are your feelings on and on on how that would operate and how effective that might be? So I I I was happy to hear that at least there was some consideration of that.

02:12:28
um because all the reports and all the recommendations uh certainly identified the value that our executive and our uh private sector board um participation has. Um I think we would all agree for those who serve on boards there’s a difference between being invested in something and being on a board and being part of an organization and living it and really feeling a part of that versus just advising not really being fully invested in an organization.

02:12:58
So to me the difference between being a board member where you have a fiduciary duty where you have a part of that organization versus I’m just giving my thoughts into something there’s value in both. It’s just a different level or depth of commitment and involvement. Good point. Thank you. Thank you councelor.

02:13:16
Our next speaker is Maywood. Thank you chair and thank you chair for being here. uh really appreciate the time that you and uh other board members have invested in bringing your thoughts to us. Um so I want to ask you the question I asked uh earlier about the map but in now this is in the context of all ECDEV.

02:13:39
So you’ve seen um the not only the third party review which is an amalgam of many different uh points of uh contact and feedback those are detailed uh as well as the the city uh staff review of that and recommendation. And where where do where would you agree there are gaps? You mentioned oversight and alignment and uh is it just those two? Are there other uh areas where you feel there does need to be improvement? Yeah, so you’re right.

02:14:12
I did uh focus very much on the oversight and alignment portion and I I firmly believe that um you know as as I mentioned uh during the leadership change last year we realized how reliant uh as a board and I’m not sure about other agencies and boards and committees were in this position but uh we were incredibly reliant on the city manager at the time for as a conduit into the city and to be able to get things done and to communicate.

02:14:37
and when he left all the sudden gaps started to present themselves um which we thought we didn’t even realize existed. So um that’s where a lot of this has come from. It’s it’s been eye openening to us that oh wait there is not that formal structure that formal process that form for formal communication and expectation and definition of roles between the city and between the board itself or not the board necessarily but the the staff within the the organization.

02:15:02
So that to me that is a you know outside of the actual oversight that exists having those clear roles having that definition of who’s who’s doing what and how we’re communicated how we’re expected to communicate with each other the conduits we use to do that that that’s all highlighted within that report that in in in the form of surveys and and opinions and things that were fed back through all those interviews.

02:15:22
Um to me that stands out as as a key part of of of those recommendations and I fully support let’s let’s figure all this stuff out. Let’s align all this. Let’s look at the structure. let’s look at the proper um organizational uh requirements that we need to have and let’s map all that out which has not been done just to to date.

02:15:40
So I I I would support that 100%. Okay. And then just on the uh the role of council and staff as part of the board. Uh I think um well I’ll I’ll save it for comments. Um uh but on the one hand it is often presented and and you did uh certainly today as a strength or a part of the alignment or collaboration. On the other hand there are significant limitations on what a uh whether self-imposed or not uh limitations on what a uh council member or staff member can do or contribute as part of that board.

02:16:19
So um is that an area that would deserve additional uh discussion and clarity around roles, responsibilities um and really to that piece of alignment. Yeah. and and and obviously we’ve had our own discussions in the back about some of the role of council and and uh designates on the board as well and and we have bylaws which do outline this clearly but I think the city also doesn’t have clarity on their end about how city interacts with its boards and its committees as well too.

02:16:51
So this all gets to that broader framework, that broader accountability about what those roles are, who does what, what are the expectations of council on these boards as well. And we can align our bylaws to to match up with those as well too. So um all of this we’re speaking to is broader is better oversight, better accountability, better clarity um between not just us but all the ABCs that are servicing um the city itself.

02:17:16
Um does that answer your question? It does. Yes, we have lots lots more discussion on all of that. Thank you. Okay, who’s next? Sorry, I just had a little side discussion about a bathroom break, but I thought we’d let you finish the questions, which could I appreciate that. Could take a little while. Yeah.

02:17:34
Um, thank you very much. So, next question is coming from councelor Karns. Thank you so much, and it’ll probably be more than two questions. My first question is this. You identified that you have an agreement that expired in 2011. In 2023, the city identified that it’s uh has ABC ABCs and eight of them would be with significant funding coming from the city.

02:17:56
I don’t have the status of those. I I know boards that I sit on may be expired as well. Why do you not have an updated agreement? I cannot answer that. um it has not been something that has been a priority discussion with the city from my perspective but maybe Anita can offer insight. Uh yeah, I think this is one that’s part of a broader systemic issue.

02:18:19
Um this is something that we’ve been aware of and raising regularly with the city manager for a number of years around the service agreements. Um it was also pointed to as part of the 2020 um governance review as a priority action item. Um I think with uh the ABC review coming into base and frankly COVID happened in between the 2020 governance review and some of the recommendations and some resources got rep prioritized would be my perspective on that.

02:18:47
So those conversations weren’t pushed as hard but I think it was really deferred into the broader ABC review as part of a broader framework has been our expectation. So then just a follow-up question, if you can’t integrate a single agreement, uh how do you intend to integrate finance, IT, HR, risk, insurance, audit, all the things that are identified as potential optimizations uh in house? So if you can’t get one thing done, how do you expect to get the rest done? That’s a fair question.

02:19:17
Um, and that speaks to the broader complexity of any merger and that’s really what we’re talking about here. We’re talking about a potential merger of a independent organization into a municipal organization in this situation. So there’s complexity involved that I and I’m sure people have thought about it, but I’ve been through eight mergers now in my life. I’ve run some.

02:19:40
I have I have been leading through some of them. Um there’s no such thing as an easy merger ever. Uh it doesn’t matter how big or how small it is. Um they all have complexity. They all have costs to them and this won’t be any different. Thanks. I like a good merger. This is my second question. Um in the summer you released the 2024 annual report and this is going to speak to um that piece about reporting.

02:20:07
Uh you issued the 2024 annual report complete with your financials, a slew of statistics, KPIs, charts, graphs, very visually stimulating. Uh complete with a mayor’s message around support for um active tourism. Um what feedback did you get on that because it didn’t look like it’s striking uh balance between what we received in the consultants report and what was published.

02:20:34
Um can you clarify feedback from are you just asking in general or from council or from any Sure. for clarity chair if I may. You issued out your 2024 annual report was circulated to council published online accessible to all transparent and then we received this consultants report and the two speak very differently.

02:20:53
Can you help me reconcile those or do you feel they’re at odds with each other? Um so as part of the consultant review um there was this insinuation I I’ll use that word uh throughout many of the interviews that we heard about about lack of KPIs and lack of information available from our organization which as you referenced in the annual report is quite frankly untrue.

02:21:20
Um and as part of that we had an engagement we had a follow-up session where we sent him information to ensure that he had all the KPIs. During that time, we were actually working with the previous CTO as well to ensure that our KPIs were aligning with what the city was trying to get towards within their framework as well.

02:21:36
And we were very transparent about all those. At the same time, we also issued our annual annual report that had to your point a slew of KPIs. And we had the discussion about maybe we have too many KPIs as well and how do we frame hone that in a little bit to to to ensure we have that that focus that the city needs uh to align with whatever you’re trying to report as well.

02:21:54
So um I can’t rectify that counselor. Um but that’s in my view that’s what’s happened. Okay. Thanks. The humor on the turnover is not lost on me. Okay. Thank you very much councelor. Our next speaker is councelor Nissan. Thank you to the chair Ron for uh being here. Um it’s uh it feels unusual uh uh to me in some in some respects that you would need to take time off work uh here. So I appreciate it.

02:22:22
um two sets of questions really. Uh we haven’t talked much there’s a fundamental difference in between the two potential models which is now you are more arms length uh versus being inside the city. So um you’ve made your position clear about about the uh this potential being brought in house. So, uh, I think I could easily say, uh, what would you say are the benefits of being arms length versus being in the city? And feel free to add any, uh, concerns or risks, uh, for that as well.

02:22:56
Yeah. And I I our delegation response, I think, highlighted that the best we could right there. But with this arm length, sorry, arms length um, framework or structure that we have, we’re able to truly be responsive. We are business leaders. We are people running this organization. We are agile. We’re able to be out there and responding to things and working within the gray area, if you will.

02:23:19
And that’s not something municipalities are necessarily strong in. Um, so to me, that’s a big upside. We also have, we talked about the board commitment as well and the board involvement. Um, we have the ability to leverage leaders from within our community who are working within the community who are engaged and who are participatory, who are deeply involved in the organization.

02:23:41
Um there is benefit to that that I even like the Rubicon report even like we do not want to lose that. So these are things that are are just incredibly beneficial. These are value ad these are these are intangibles that cost the city nothing at the end of the day and we are doing this as part of this this board as part of the way we are structured right now and you will lose that to some degree.

02:24:01
Will you be able to maintain some of it potentially but it’s all about how it’s set up and it’s certainly not going to function the same way it is right now. Now, is everything perfect with what we do? No, of course not. We have our challenges. We have every organization has its challenges right there. But I think the benefit I I firmly believe this the benefit outweighs any of the costs that come with that.

02:24:22
Okay. Thank you. Uh my my second question is um related if um one of the uh benefits of being brought in-house would be that um there will never be a gap between the um uh the city’s interests and economic development interests because they’ll be combined. uh how are you making sure or how will you make sure in the future uh from a governance point of view that there that that doesn’t occur where you could end where BDT’s interest could end up in conflict with the city’s interest.

02:24:52
How would that be resolved? Yeah, I think that’s let me answer that a few ways right now. Um, to this point in my seven years on the board and a couple years as a chair, I can only think of one situation where there was even remotely the smallest hint of an area where there may not be alignment. And we have the city involvement on the board.

02:25:15
We have permanent representation on that board. And the report talks about how uh the city representation, there’s only one vote out of many on that. In practice, that’s not actually the case. in practice and councelor Charman coun or mayor board your and councelor goler sorry your uh your participation your voices on that board take up a lot more bandwidth they have a lot more meaning a lot more depth to everything going on so everything is factored in um is that a formal thing no these are there’s ways that we can ensure that’s written into our bylaws I’m happy to explore things like that way we can come up with that in terms of our of our uh of whatever the service agreement is in terms of how the city is interacting, the expectations for how they approve or how they how they interact with our board. Um, these are all things that can be in writing, put in place on the expectations and pretty easily managed. Uh, from my perspective, my two, thank you. Thank you very much, counselor. Um,

02:26:14
before we go to second time questions, I have a couple of questions. Um, so, so should should council adopt the recommendations of staff? Um, would that suggest that the all the $170,000 of consulting fees and the $300,000, you know, in kind of of of board members and staff effort to to do the merger over the last, you know, for of tourism? Um, would that therefore be essentially no longer valuable? would be a waste of time and and what is the likelihood that the existing board members that therefore would want to spend another number of hours and days and weeks trying to move the company into the corporation of municipality of Burlington. Okay. Um so two questions there. Uh this the money that was spent was done under the right reasons to bring the organizations together. I don’t think that was that will ever be a waste of time. We did that for synergies. We did that for bringing the organizations together to make it stronger to serve

02:27:13
our community better. We’re not going to lose the good work that came from that. What we are going to lose is the structure that came from that and the culture and everything that has arisen from that. So, we are going to then have to spend some money to unmerge certain things.

02:27:28
We’re going to have to recreate a nonprofit organization. There’s going to be time and money spent. So, a lot of the work done. Yeah, it’s going to continue for sure. Um, I can’t speak on behalf of the rest of the board members about what they would intend to do in that situation. I know from soft conversations that I’ve had, there would be quite a bit of disillusionment that all this time was spent and all this commitment was spent to do this as directed by council as well previously.

02:27:54
And we did this for all the right reasons only to say, let’s unwind this entire thing after we have not even fleshed it out as a board. we after we’ve not even shown what this looks like um as an organization together. I I again I won’t speak on behalf of everyone, but I my general sentiment is there would be some turnover.

02:28:10
There would be some issues, some less commitment than normal. So So thank you for that. And that leads to my next question, which was yes, you did have a board meeting last week. It was on Wednesday. Yes. Um I did not attend it uh for reasons you understand. Uh but two members of council and two staff members were present.

02:28:29
Um, was it possible that the city folks cause other independent board members to be circumspect about the communications and what and how open they were to speak during that meeting? I won’t speak on behalf of everyone. I I did speak with many afterwards and being part of that meeting. It was certainly not the clearest conversations and clearest outcomes that we would normally expect from a board meeting.

02:28:53
uh many did indicate that there was challenges expressing their opinions because they did not want to be seen as taking one side or the other or getting into positions that might compromise their um I’m not sure what the word is there but might compromise them in that situation. So yes, I I would say it it made the board meeting less open to dialogue than we would normally expect in that situation.

02:29:18
Thank you for that. Our next speaker is C uh is the mayor. Thank you uh chair. So on that very point is that uh part of the challenge that’s being faced here that on the one hand it’s positioned that council representation around the board is a strength in terms of the connection and on the other hand a detraction in terms of the connection and it’s kind of hard to have it both ways.

02:29:50
So uh to a question would it make more clarity if the economic development and tourism functions simply reported to council and then we know our roles. We’re governed by MIPA. We’re governed by integrity commissioner. We’re governed by a code of good governance. We are very clear in terms of what constitutes any conflict of interest in our voting.

02:30:15
uh we know our role. Would that provide greater clarity and agility uh rather than an independent board which uh can’t be directed by council and and sometimes council members can’t even be part of those meetings. So to to answer the first part of your question, I all all of what we talked and and this the board meeting this week was a a very unique situation.

02:30:41
I will say in in my couple years as the chair and seven years on the on the board itself, uh we were faced with a an odd situation where again we we had a report about our organization with recommendations about our organization uh which we were not consulted on and we had to figure out how to respond and that led to an emergency board meeting in that situation.

02:31:04
So I don’t want anyone to feel like that board meeting is representative of every board meeting or every discussion that we have. Um and in that meeting it was certainly difficult and hard to get clarity around what conversations what decisions we could have and I think we were all navigating that in real time. So I don’t know how you I don’t know how you formalize something like that uh to manage that situation.

02:31:29
What I do, what I can say is we can formalize again and have better clarity around what the city’s expectations are in terms of their board involvement and in terms of how they’re expected to vote or how they’re expected to contribute. These are all things anything is doable within within that framework while not losing them the flexibility and the agility of the independent organization.

02:31:49
um reporting into council and the difference with that that’s not something I I this is the first council anything I’ve been to in my time so I’m not going to sit here and say whether that uh is more agile or clear from what you’re trying to do. Um I think that’s a better question for each of you in this room to to address.

02:32:10
Great. Well well thank you uh for that. And then um the other matter um that’s been on my mind is how we use the time uh the limited time that our uh volunteers in our community have to give to us including yourself. And right now a good portion of the time of the volunteers on the board is spent running an independent corporation which means doing an audit committee, finance committee, HR and governance all of those uh subcommittees and many many hours of work.

02:32:41
uh on the business of administering an independent corporation if those uh same hours were able to be deployed directly to the task of economic development and tourism and even better if those same voices could be right around the table with this group of folks uh making recommendations to council. So we have two models audit and P2P where that exists.

02:33:05
It’s not advisory, it’s direct recommendations. uh do you have thoughts on whether uh the time that folks have to give us would be uh really valuable uh spent in that way rather than running an independent corporation. So I think uh a lot of this discussion needs to get back to what is BEDT’s steady state or normal state and we have not had a normal state for over two years now through this mer well I can go back even further through co through through the merger through now this city city leadership change if it if it helps maybe just answer outside of a merger I understand there’s extra work but there’s always work running a corporation well that that yes so I I offer that context from the perspective of I think the board has been stretched the last couple years. We have spent more time on things running an independent organization that would not normally be part of normal course of business for us. That’s the context I want to offer.

02:34:04
So, um I think all of us sign up to be part of the board because we want to be part of that. We want to help the city steward forward. We want to deliver outcomes. Um whether we would be as equally engaged on a direct engagement committee or something like that, an advisory committee, I can’t speak on behalf of the rest of the board.

02:34:21
Um I do know we get into a lot of discussions. We get into deep discussion at our committee level not just at the board level more so at the committee level where we are able to contribute. We are able to add value and the board members feel they are adding value to the outcomes. So whether they would find that same commitment to the city through an advisory committee I’m not going to I they both have value for sure but I’m just asking about time commitment.

02:34:45
Okay. Directly spending all their time on business attraction, retention and tourism versus running a corporation. Yeah. Sorry. Um I think I think most of our in a steady state most of our time is spent on that at the board. Um there is actually if I go back to 7 years ago or 6 years ago, most of our time is spent on those initiatives and those discussions at council or at committee that we have.

02:35:07
Um so I personally speaking and again I won’t speak on behalf of the board. I I feel my time is valuable and spent wisely at the board in that steady state condition. But thank you, mayor. Next speaker is councelor Karns. Thanks so much. So, one of the things I’ve been having difficulty reconciling is this conversation around meeting targets or or carrying out the vision of the city.

02:35:34
And I recall that we did have our 2018 to 2022 vision to focus plan. And it I think we maybe made a mistake, not going to lie. And it indicates, you know, we know success when we annually increase employment by a thousand jobs. Well, your annual report says 335 jobs created um in the 2024 year. So my question is this.

02:35:55
Did we get the has the city properly issued you what they want to see from you by way of council? this governance committee for the city. Have we properly issued to you what we want to see as when we will know success? Um or did we forget to do that? I I will Anita can chime in in case I misrepresent this response. Um I’m not aware that we have been given that direction um in terms of what those are.

02:36:24
I think it’s more the other way around. We are trying to align to the city’s strategy. We have always tried to align. We’ve always tried to have KPIs that will align and feed up into that and I think I mentioned earlier this we’ve been working earlier this year with the CTO on ensuring that our KPIs are inserted into that framework as well.

02:36:39
in terms of the actual expectations I am I saying anything wrong by saying that uh I can yeah okay something um so in terms of the alignment process that was previously done through direct integration through both vision to focus and um vision 2040 all of those pieces are in progress we’re coordinating with staff um we’ve submitted KPIs we’ve submitted background policy documents um so I think we’ll see that over time I think uh just to speak directly to the KPI Okay. Um, we’ve changed what we measure.

02:37:13
So within vision to focus, that measure is overall economic uplift. So that doesn’t measure we touched a file and therefore we kept or brought 40 jobs, 100 jobs to town. That measures what you see through the Halton employment survey. Essentially, we go out, we survey, and then over time we’re saying overall our economic indicators would ride to 1,000 um jobs per year.

02:37:33
What we’re directly measuring now is impact. So, we’re saying through our programs and services, which we then go back through and back up via customer service surveys and our Salesforce database, directly touching files, we’re bringing in um I think it’s 400 jobs a year and retaining 5,000 plus jobs a year. Okay.

02:37:53
So, then just just to understand, do you have a mandate from the city and are you meeting it? I think we’ve got a mandate for vision to focus and vision 2040 from the city around aligning KPIs. We’re still figuring out what that renewed mandate looks like. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. And then my second question is uh possibly preferred to the board chair.

02:38:14
Can you tell me what are the hallmarks of good governance that that your board subscribes to and are you meeting them or missing them? Yeah. So I I I’ll I’ll start that with what is a board expected to do? We are expected to have a strategy. We were expected to manage risk and we expected to oversee the performance of the CEO or the executive director in this case and we are expected to be reasonably assured that we are heading in the right direction.

02:38:40
Um so if you look at it from a broad perspective what does that mean? We have a strategic plan in place. Um we are still trying to align parts of that with the new strategic plan of the city but we have our pillars and we have our strategic plan and our KPIs that align to that. We have our audited financial statements. Uh we have our risk matrix.

02:38:58
We have a skill-based board uh that is a well- balanced board including members of the tourism committee, members of the economic development community, uh CEOs, managers, directors, different levels, different ages within the organization as well. So these are all things that uh we have bylaws obviously we have and those have just been updated as part of the merged organization as well.

02:39:19
So um when you look at all the tools that we have and overall what a board is expected to do um these are in place uh as far as I’m concerned uh little bit delayed from the merger some of them but but they are they are certainly there. Okay. So then if I hear that then are we having a conversation actually about governance or are we having a conversation about control? Yeah and I may have highlighted that in one of my can’t remember exactly what I said now but it was like an hour ago.

02:39:45
Um it was uh this is a question in my mind about control like we we have a lot of people on our board who are senior leaders and organizations who are part of other boards. Um do we do every little thing every little nuance perfectly at a board? I don’t think any board does but we have the broader things in place to manage risk to manage accountability to manage our strategy and the manage the people uh in the organization.

02:40:08
So to me, this is really a question of who is a better to have direct control of the organization right now. And and again, I’m not going to sit here and answer that and say one is the better the other either. Even the report did not say that. What I do know is we have a model that works right now that we feel accountable. There are improvements that we can make as we’ve talked about here today.

02:40:30
Um and it’s the lowest risk, lowest cost, most prudent option in our view moving forward. Thank you, Ron. Thank you, council. Next speaker is council Nissan. Thanks. Just uh my last question and maybe your last question as well. So, I really appreciate you taking the time. Um maybe not. Uh maybe maybe not. Um okay. So, it’s uh it’s about the report.

02:40:57
Do you the It wasn’t a Deoid report. It came from a different kind of consultant. So um is it is it your view that this report was um and and based on your uh interviews that it was say done in good faith uh with an open mind to outcomes or did you feel that there might have been some uh leaning towards one way or another? I won’t prepare to know purport to know what the consultant was thinking in their head, but I can tell you the questions that I received at least and those of the other board members and I can’t speak on behalf of the city or other people who were interviewed uh were very focused and leading in a certain direction. It was quite clear. Um, and many times I had to pull back the conversation to a more neutral standpoint the best I could and to focus on tourism as well because there was no mention ever of tourism during any of these discussions and the fact that we were now a merged organization as part

02:41:54
of it. So um it left it left a bad taste if you if I can say that in in some of our mouths. Uh in fact it led to a letter being issued in March to uh the CEO at the time just indicating we wanted to have more information included wanted more involvement in the process. I think that was part of the delegation package if it uh itself.

02:42:14
So um I think that speaks to where I think the mindset was but but again I wasn’t in his shoes exactly. So based on your best analysis of the situation, you felt that there was some leaning the questions were leaning towards being brought in house. Is that correct? It was it was why wouldn’t we bring it in house was kind of the framing? Why not? Okay.

02:42:36
Yeah, that’s if I can position it anyway. All right. Thank you. Sorry, one more before between me and the washroom. Um, more question. Um, so I’m just thinking about the service agreement and and and the agreement clearly this is about control not governance. Um, and that leads to then whether or not the city had done its duties and provided you service agreements over the last 10 years that we might not be in this room today.

02:43:04
I that’s what we’re asking for moving forward to have a robust service agreement. So having that identified, having clear roles, having accountability, having frameworks in place, that would it solve everything? I I don’t know if it would solve everything, but it would certainly be a huge starting point uh to potentially avoid where we are. Thank you for that.

02:43:22
And I’ve heard the the mayor say a number of times that, you know, boards, independent boards cannot take direction from others. But with a service agreement in place that defined the nature of the relationship between the city and the uh and the board, would that have been resolvable to a significant degree? If it was written that way, if it was formalized and clearly laid out in a service agreement, I’d say it could be.

02:43:43
Yeah. Yeah. And I’m not a lawyer and I don’t think the mayor is. Uh, but you think that would be stand that would be a legally viable I I’m not a lawyer and nor do I understand the mayor to be. So, do you believe that that such an arrangement would actually stand up in law? I I’m not a lawyer myself, but I I have to believe that there’s mechanisms in there that would as long as that’s formalized, even if we reference it in our bylaws in some way, if we referenced with within our corporation, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be. Um but but again, I’m not a lawyer, too. So, no, it’s fine. But uh you’ve done your job. Thank you. I see no further questions. Ladies and gentlemen, we’re going to take a 7m minute break. Seven. Okay. There’s the red light. Okay. So, thank

02:52:35
you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Uh thank you very much for taking the time and uh all the questions and answers were were were well handled. All right. So, uh our next uh our next delegation is uh Megan Triuno from the representing the Burlington Community Foundation. uh she’s here in person and uh she’s going to speak to the me the motion memorandum regarding Burlington Community Foundation pres um and the vital signs.

02:53:03
So you so you have up to 10 minutes and if you need more you can just say you when you finish you can we can say we need more. Thanks. Go ahead. Forgive me I have my phone with me because my parking is going to run out in 10 minutes and I need to extend I need to extend the session but the app won’t let me do it yet.

02:53:19
So um Oh, so I may have to uh extend the session in about 15 minutes. So hopefully I’m wrapped up by then. Um but good afternoon, chair, council members, city staff, community members, and neighbors. Thank you to councelor Stoolte, deputy mayor of housing for today’s motion memo um for the committee of the whole to receive BCF’s 2025 vital signs report and presentation on key findings.

02:53:51
I am delighted to be here in my capacity as CEO of the Burlington Community Foundation, Burlington’s trusted philanthropic partner for over 25 years. In that time, BCF has invested more than 12.7 million in people, projects, and initiatives that strengthen Burlington and communities across Canada. You have likely seen BCF’s impact over the years in more visible ways, such as the recent million-dollar donation from the Scrow family honoring their beloved daughter Lindsay and uplifting arts and culture in the city. But you don’t always see the quiet ways generosity is having an impact. Like when Community Living Burlington reached out with a request for $2,000 to help people living with disabilities gain new skills and confidence in the kitchen with a partnership with No One Goes Hungry. An anonymous donor made this possible. This is the magic of the community foundation. Burlington Community Foundation is a registered charity established by the residents of Burlington to serve as a giving and generosity hub. A place for generosity to be seated and grown into long-term

02:54:50
community impact through endowment building. We help connect people to causes they care about and help people make a strategic impact on local issues in Burlington as well as causes across Canada. We are part of a national movement of more than 200 community foundations across the country, all working together to create communities where everyone belongs.

02:55:11
Burlington Community Foundation’s vision is an informed, engaged, and generous community working together in support of a resilient and inclusive Burlington for all. One of the ways we do this is by conducting local research through our Vital Science reporting. Vital signs is Canada’s most extensive community-based research initiative led by community foundations of Canada and implemented by community foundations locally.

02:55:35
We have produced vital a vital science report for over a decade. Our last report inspired the creation of BCF’s mental wellness fund which now provides sustainable support annual grant funding for charitable organizations addressing needs connected to mental health and wellness. Next slide please. Our 2025 report is presented by First Ontario Credit Union and was enabled through the generosity of local businesses.

02:55:58
This report is a digital first report and available for download on our website at burlingtonfoundation.org. It presents a timely snapshot of how Burlington residents are feeling on 13 vital indicators that contribute to community connectedness, including housing, standard of living, arts and culture, diversity, equity, inclusion, and more.

02:56:22
For our 2025 report, we took a new approach, partnering with respected Canadian-owned market research company, Leger, to conduct firsthand research through a panel survey that included over 400 local residents, as well as a BCF community-led survey that received participation from over 250 residents. We are very proud to have partnered with Community Development Halton as our regional research partner, also a charitable organization.

02:56:47
Firsthand data from Burlington residents is shared alongside regional data from across Halton, providing a comprehensive picture of how Burlington residents are feeling and how the city’s needs compare to those of the region. Each indicator received a grade to help community members interpret how we are doing and where we can strengthen as a community.

02:57:06
We have also shared detailed information outlining how residents feel about specific issues tied to vital indicators, giving us key insight to the why behind the ratings. And we outline actions that BCF has taken to strengthen our community in these areas and how community members can take action themselves to create impact. For example, BCF partner in a social impact investment along with two other community foundations providing a mortgage to the Halton Children’s Aid Society that has supported 55 youth through the Bridging the Gap program, a supportive housing initiative that provides two years of housing for youth right here in Burlington. With this report, our goal is to compile a vital community resource that could help inform decision-making, deepen conversation, and inspire civic action. BCF has also made a commitment to conduct a new vital signs report every two years so that we can share how the Burlington community has evolved, track the impact of our changes, as well as work towards a thriving and inclusive

02:58:05
city. Some of the key findings I’ll draw your attention to in the report. We know that there are many things that people love about Burlington. Residents specifically mentioned access to the waterfront and trails, feeling safe, the city’s location and green spaces and festivals and events, which I know has been a big topic of conversation for the last couple of months.

02:58:23
Overall, Burlington received an A minus for quality of life and scored well, a B+ or higher in many categories, including arts and culture, sports and recreation, and belonging. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges. It’s important to look at how we maintain those successes while taking actions on opportunities for growth.

02:58:42
Top issues identified in Burlington included affordable housing, cost of living, and transportation. Next slide, please. For example, 39% of panel respondents said their ability to access supportive housing was poor or below average. 49% said the same for affordable renting housing to meet their needs. Less than half, 46% rated their ability to find suitable employment as good or excellent, and even fewer, 35% rated the availability of entry-level jobs the same.

02:59:14
We know that residents love Burlington. While there is a lot to be proud of, it’s important to recognize that the experience is not the same for everyone. Much like the two stories I shared with you earlier, generosity can be more visible and also quiet or unseen. So are the needs of people in our community. Charitable organizations such as the Burlington Community Foundation and its partners play a vital role in ensuring that our neighbors have the support that they need.

02:59:41
Each year, BCF’s annual granting program provides funding for local Burlington serving charities to help meet important needs in the community. Last year, through our community granting program, we supported 33 individual organizations with funding to help provide safe housing, youth and environmental programming, mental health support, and more.

03:00:01
Later this month, we will be announcing the charitable partners who will be receiving funding from our annual community granting program. The need is always there, and it’s often growing. Through the insights derived through vital signs, we were able to align key community priority areas with the report’s findings, ensuring our granting has a direct impact on where it’s needed most right now.

03:00:23
Our key community priority areas for this year’s grants are children and youth, standard of living, health, mental health, and wellness, and housing. Through our ongoing and in-depth conversations with our charitable partners throughout the year, we are able to continuously learn the most pressing needs of Burlington residents and how we can help.

03:00:44
As the city’s giving and generosity hub, BCF brings together people to create change and help break down silos to ensure we are having a collective impact. Next slide, please. During the next two years, BCF will be hosting a series of vital community conversations to bring together diverse voices from around the the conversations and indicators and vital signs to see how we can all take collection act collective action and make change together.

03:01:09
We welcome support and partnership from counselors in the city for these conversations as we look to reach residents from all areas of Burlington on a variety of issues. While BCF provides annual granting and helps mobilize change in the short term, our commitment is one of the long-term community impact. We invest for the long term, creating an infrastructure that will support the evolving and pressing needs of Burlington for generations to come.

03:01:34
With that in mind, I’m pleased to share that later this week, BCF will be launching a community initiative that will allow residents to support urgent housing needs in the city. As evidenced in our vital science report and the experience of so many communities in Ontario, we are in a housing crisis. We have an opportunity to take action together and create meaningful collective impact.

03:01:53
I’m excited to share more detail details with you soon. I certainly wish we could share those today, but we’re in the final stages of of uh uh making some decisions with a partner around that initiative. But in addition, I look forward to joining those of you who can attend the Halton’s National Housing Day Summit forum, which will be held on November 21st, hosted by Community Development Halton, and where I will be pleased to moderate the panel.

03:02:17
Next slide, please. So, we know that the work of BCF and Vital Signs is just one piece of complex and diverse needs and insights in the Burlington community, and we’re grateful for the generous community members, fund holders, and donors and businesses who support our vital work. One initiative at a time, we are continuing to strengthen Burlington through generosity.

03:02:36
Together, we invite you to take action by signing up for BCF’s newsletter, following us on socials, sharing our report with constituents, neighbors, and your newsletters, such as councelor Stolte did earlier um this month, and connecting with us to discuss how we can collectively inspire community action. Thank you for allowing me to share about the work of BCF and our vital signs research report.

03:02:56
I would be happy to receive any questions or comments. Well, thank you very much for that wonderful presentation, Megan. I’m going to uh uh pass you over to uh Councelor Stalty. Thank you, chair. Thanks, Megan, for being here. That was great. Thanks for all the information that you share. Uh all the information and data that you’ve gathered from BCF is critical for us as far as understanding our community that much better.

03:03:18
Um I just was wondering that Burlington Community Foundation supports a variation of a private public partnership and collaborations and so on. And I know we use that term private public partnerships often when it comes to infrastructure builds and so on, but you certainly do offer and support a version of that. Um, if council determined it would be really beneficial to have a more wholesome council council workshop um on how we could collaborate more closely between council and the city and the Burlington Community Foundation. Is that something that you’d be open to doing? Absolutely. We’d welcome that. It’s um a very common practice for community foundations and municipalities to have very strong relationships with our collaborative uh partnerships whether it’s around granting funding key initiatives and we’ve had a long and very um thriving relationship with the city of Burlington since our birth uh 25 years ago. Um as you can imagine things evolve during as council evolves but we certainly are still uh delivering the fruits of the labor uh of mayor and council from 25 years ago. So we’d love

03:04:16
to continue that uh that relationship. Okay, great. We’ll see what we can do. Thank you. Thank you, councelor. Next speaker is Mayor Meade Ward. Thank you, chair. And I’m uh I’m thinking about the 2014 flood uh perfect example of great partnership uh between the foundation and the city and the province actually in that case and community of course.

03:04:35
Uh so thank you for all the work and I want to thank councelor Stoalty for providing the opportunity for you to be here. Mike, uh it’s great to see that we have an A minus. I think that’s an outstanding achievement and and it’s not the achievement of any one um organization or person for sure. It’s it’s a collective effort.

03:04:52
Um, and I’m interested if um, and maybe this is is the intent of the workshop um, itself if you have any specific thoughts or if you’re going to give some thought to what specific actions the city might take understanding what’s in our wheelhouse and and whether it’s ours or we can do advocacy to other levels of government to address some of the areas that you’ve identified where it’s BEB minus or or there’s real challenges.

03:05:22
Thank you, mayor. A great question. Um, we’d love to do that collaboratively together. I think there’s there’s so many opportunities. Sometimes the challenging thing about a community foundation is we’re so flexible. We can do so many different things um and create so many unique partnerships to help in ways that maybe other organizations can’t.

03:05:37
Um, we have uh we’re able to bring multiple sectors together around issues that impact everyone. And it can be challenging, as you all know, in a two-tier municipality when we have the region and the city. But we believe we have a community responsibility regardless of who’s going to put dollars in for different areas. We have a responsibility as a community to support through generosity however we can.

03:05:59
So I think there’s ways that we can mobilize around key issues such as housing, standard of living um our our big ones. I know those have been big conversations here at uh council as well as with the region. Um but we don’t need to wait for other decisions to be made. We know of real needs in the community which is where our our initiative around housing support um will be announced later this week.

03:06:18
But those would be examples around granting funding um and uh strategic partnerships that again we’d love to explore together through that that workshop. So would you uh so the region sits around the table with our pip pipeline to permit committee on housing uh market housing but of course they deliver supportive.

03:06:37
So would you uh advise us that they might be uh good folks to invite to uh a workshop as well like have them at the table? Sure. I think the more the more at the table the better. Um and it’s a good example. Housing is a very challenging one as we all know. It’s very complex and from a philanthropic standpoint donors don’t often know how they can engage on such a big topic but neighbors want to help each other and so we know some of those ways by being in relationship with the organizations that are delivering frontline service.

03:07:04
So while region may fund housing supportive units, there are capital costs that these organizations are responsible for delivering. They have to go out and fund raise for it. but we can help mobilize the community around that generosity. So those are some of the ways um that we can partner where having the region at the table would only be more more constructive. Great. Thank you.

03:07:27
Thank you, mayor. Next speaker is councelor Karns. Thank you so much for joining us through the chair. So I heard a conversation about a potential workshop which of course is great. Do you think there’s value in us uh bringing something back for council that would outline more of a partnership agreement with you that would give you access to let’s say government relations, you know, have a clear understanding of the priorities of council, things like that where it would formalize uh that relationship? Would that be something that would be more helpful to you? Um I just feel like we could get a little bit confused because housing isn’t technically purely a Burlington responsibility. It’s Halton. And then I heard a lot of other really great things that that you do in terms of arts and culture. I mean our our arts and c culture plan is coming forward. So do you want a more formalized role with the city? I think that’s something uh that we certainly would love to explore. Um again so our our approach is that we’d like to be more proactive than reactionary. So I think we learn from examples of the flood several years ago.

03:08:26
We were able to mobilize quickly but it was largely reactionary. So I believe I I delegated about a year ago and we talked about the most recent flood. Um, and there’s an opportunity to be proactive around uh a community readiness plan, right, that involves the charitable organizations that would be on the front lines delivering service should a crisis happen in the community.

03:08:44
Those kinds of um uh partnerships are things that we need to work on now as opposed to waiting until those those situations happen. So that would be a great um uh opportunity to explore. Councelor Curts. Sure. So just a followup, chair. Um, so might I suggest would this be something you’re more interested in in getting plugged into corporate affairs? Maybe not GR, maybe it’s corporate affairs to see sort of where those service partnerships can be aligned with an expectation within some of the other uh policies and pieces, right? We don’t want to trip over each other. We want to walk side by side. Um, so maybe that would be the more appropriate approach. Thank you. And to clarify, as corporate services, would um your granting fall under that umbrella or which umbrella would that fall under? Yeah, because I think that’s an area we can look at collaboration too. We’ve we’ve invested in some pretty significant technology as an organization, which is the best granting software out there. Um it allows us to be more inclusive in our granting so that we can have more adjudicators involved. So we have

03:09:43
community members that are adjudicating with lived experience and experience in different areas of the community. So that may be an area to granting to see you do great granting right in different areas, but sometimes people can get confused as to what is Burlington Community Foundation doing from a granting standpoint versus what does the city offer from a granting standpoint.

03:10:00
Are there opportunities to synergize on those or for um you also to lean on our expertise in the granting side to see how maybe we might be more efficient in some of that granting and more um clearer to the community on ways that they can engage for potential funding support. Thanks.

03:10:14
I’ll follow up with you in corporate services. Thank you. I see no further questions, but then there’s me. So, I really appreciate you being here. Um, full disclosure, we had a a conversation last week about uh the foundation and and giving capabilities and I I made a discovery that the city has a foundation has a has a charitable number.

03:10:36
That’s right. So, that raises all sorts of questions that I relative to what you do and the mechanisms you have and I knew nothing about that. So, so perhaps you could get into some depth not now but when we do a workshop as to what the opportunities and the mechanisms that would be available to you and and therefore to the community.

03:10:55
Absolutely. I think great um my colleague Dana Brown is here today too has been a big part of our success in delivering vital signs and um I think for our team to go back and think about some of those ways um to share certainly in a a really constructive workshop and to create that agenda together, right? it really is meaningful.

03:11:11
But one of the really um important ways that we’ve collaborated recently in in the last uh few years is for organizations that are considered not for-p profofits that are not charitable organizations. So we’ve uh very um uh proudly supported the Emancipation Festival right over the last several years through granting organizations that don’t have charitable status.

03:11:30
The city has been a great partner and able to ensure that some funding can flow to those organizations through BCF. So, while we’re mindful of anti-udded giving rules and all of those legislative things that we are governed by as a charitable organization, there are um really effective partnership ways that we can help ensure that um all members of the community are supported uh through charitable giving.

03:11:52
Well, I’m looking forward to that meeting when we can do it. Thank you very much and see further questions, but really appreciate you being here. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, councel. our uh the delegation that we approved earlier when we started has withdrawn. Uh so we have no further delegations and uh so therefore I’m going to move on into consent items.

03:12:16
There are six consent items on today’s agenda. Uh 7.1 heritage response. Mayor, you have your hand up when you’re done. Okay. Um 7.1 heritage response bill to uh to bill 23-368 um Brandt Street peer review update. Heritage response again Elizabeth Street peer review DGM8525 Heritage Response to Bill 23 which is 513 Locust Street uh peer review DGM8625.

03:12:51
Um then 7.4 Four, heritage response again to bill 23-367 uh Torren uh street peer review uh DGM8725 and then after that we have item 7.5 involving the targeted realignment work plan DGM63-25 and 7.6 naming of new recreational trail PWS40-25. Uh would anybody like to uh remove any of these items from consent? Go ahead, May.

03:13:27
Thank you, chair. I would like to remove item 7.1, please. Okay. Anybody else? Okay, I see none. Mayor, would you like to move the others? I would, and I do have a comment on uh on several of them. So, I’ll start with uh the heritage items. Um I really want to thank the uh the staff and I have no questions actually.

03:13:54
Yeah, just a comment. Uh staff and the heritage committee and council for asking for a second opinion on uh 723 4 as well as 71, but I’ll save my comments when we get to that one. I am uh I am really sad to see that um they are deemed not to have heritage value by two uh independent reviewers. I know that’ll be disappointing to our heritage committee who uh nevertheless still believes they should be um they should be designated and if it weren’t for a stroke of the pen at the province they would be uh eligible for designation. So I think that’s a loss for community and um um I’m think that’s a loss for uh for community and we will if those ever get demolished I think that will be a huge uh heritage loss for community but we

03:14:53
are where we are because of provincial decisions. Uh secondly I’m really excited about the naming of the new recreational trail the Tyendenega Trail. I loved uh the description that was provided for the name around uh the standing trees and I think um that really echoes uh also our motto of standby and uh the standing people the the trees are the standing people and I also really want to thank the indigenous advisory circle to the mayor who were one of the inputs in consultation on this and uh and talked about the indigenous roots of course of that name and uh the land that we are on. So, uh, well done. And I I was out uh by Tyandga the other day and I see the um the diggers, there’s a better word for that, I know, Commissioner Hamilton, but uh I saw them out there getting ready to do that and I can’t wait to get out and walk that trail. Of course, I used to

03:15:50
live in that neighborhood and uh and and loved that park. Uh and I I look forward to going back and getting out on that trail. So, thanks to everyone for that. Okay. So, thank you very much. You moved 7.2 to 7.6. Is that okay? And you’ve commented, so that’s great. Does anybody else have any comments to make? I see none.

03:16:11
Uh, so we’re going to move on to the what? Yes, I know. That’s what I was about to do. No. Okay. So, we’ve had no further questions. We’ve got we’ve got no further comments. Uh the item that has been pulled will be dealt with tomorrow at the um at the beginning of the other section. Uh okay. So before calling the vote to approve. No, we’ve done that.

03:16:39
Finally, I’m going to call the vote. All those in favor. Okay. So that passes I should say any opposed. I see none oppose carries. Okay. Thank you. Um we’re going to deal with the regular items now which is the first one is the uh uh the committee and corporate services regular items which is uh 8.12026 budget overview uh financial-42-25.

03:17:06
Going to hand it over to Kurt Benson, chief administrative officer to make some opening remarks and introduce staff who will be providing a short presentation. Yeah, thank you chair. Um thanks members of council. Um on July uh in July of this year, council endorsed the mayoral direction uh to have staff prepare a budget that results in a total tax increase inclusive of city, region, and school board uh portions of 4.5%.

03:17:33
With the city of Burlington share of taxes being less than 3%. through report uh FIN4225 um we have delivered on that budget direction as well as building on some of the key aspects that were brought forward through that direction and making sure that the budget was inclusive of principles of affordability, livability, sustainability and transparency.

03:17:58
I want to thank uh our CFO uh Craig Miller um Lori Javon and and your respective teams as well as all of the the city staff that contributed to shaping the budget. Um it’s no small task. Um I also want to extend um my thanks to uh Mayor Me Ward um and to you councelor Charman as the deputy mayor for budgets and strategy.

03:18:28
um and all members of council who were um supportive of our engagement efforts. Um there were a lot of uh engagement sessions and uh we’re not done yet. So um it’s important that uh we’re continuing uh our work on the budget. Um the the book is provided um uh to council. Um we all have some reading to do.

03:18:53
Um, it’s going to be important for staff to be uh responsive to, you know, as we get into the details of the budget. It’s important for us to continue to be responsive and making sure that council is equipped with the best possible information to make a decision. So, those are uh my remarks and be happy if uh if chair, you want to pass it over to to our CFO.

03:19:16
Thank you very much. I suggest we just go straight over to the CFO. Thank you. Thank you. If you if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stand. I’ve been we’ve been sitting for a while, so I got to stretch a little bit. So, if I could just ask we pull up the uh presentation. And while that’s coming up, I’ just like to echo um CEO Kirk Benson’s comments while I get to stand here and and have the pleasure of presenting the overview presentation.

03:19:50
And this is not one individual that put this together. The budget does touch the whole corporations. There’s a lot of people involved and uh I certainly uh we couldn’t have done that done this without them. And as Kirk said, this is really still the beginning even though we’ve been working on it probably since about March.

03:20:08
Um, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t, as Kirk already did pointed out, the team in finance led by uh Lori who have coordinated to get us this far and over the next month are going to bring us to the the finish line. So, we’re just about to pull it up. Um, I will I will begin as as as we wait to uh to get the slide. Um, I think it is important for residents and businesses to take a step back and remember how many services the city provides or funds through the region.

03:21:00
Uh, services we all use every single day. There’s the obvious ones. There’s roads, there’s sidewalks, there’s parks, libraries, recreation facilities, there’s emergency services. Uh you name it, we’re in that business. Um and some of the businesses that municipalities are in are probably because uh businesses don’t actually want to take it on.

03:21:20
So, we have many, many services we provide. Um and like everyone at home, we’re also experiencing cost increases. And for each one of those services, some of those costs are driven by different factors. Um, if you just go to the next slide there, please. Um, sorry, the next one. I’ve jumped ahead a little bit, but I’m just getting to the point about what are the factors that are really pushing on our budget this year.

03:21:47
Like everyone at home, we are experiencing inflationary pressures and inflationary pressures can be measured in different ways. Um, we have huge amount of infrastructure which we’ll touch upon. Climate change. We just spoke about climate change and mitigating flooding risk. Uh these are items that the city’s feeling a lot of pressure on.

03:22:06
We’ve had some service improvements. We’ve had some decisions from the past that affect us today on our budget. Uh we’ve had um provincial downloading and changing of legislation that affects what we do. So, as municipal staff, we do try and balance everything that we are dealing with to kind of bring forward an affordable budget.

03:22:27
As Kirk mentioned, through this budget process, we uh council approved the uh uh direction report in July, and there’s been a phenomenal amount of engagement. I’ve worked in different municipalities over the years. And I will say before I’ve got to this stage in the uh budget presentation, I haven’t ever seen as much engagement as we have done.

03:22:47
We had the uh food for feedback which was wellreceived and we got a lot of feedback from there. The six town hall meetings were wellreceived. there’s been a lot of discussion and ongoing discussion which is excellent and again we are town hall telephone uh conversation this Wednesday night so it’s uh in the past has been well uh well particip well particip a lot of participation so we anticipate a lot more uh and we are back here on the 13th with uh divisional budget presentations uh we will then also be coming back for council deliberation on I believe um the 23rd, 24th, 24th, and 25th. And then the plan budget passing hopefully December 2nd. So, we’ve got a month. There’s still lots of time, so get involved. All right. And if we go on to the next slide, I personally love this slide. Um, a lot of people may not get that excited about it, but um, in July, council approved

03:23:47
the asset management plan for the city that municipalities are required by legislation to bring forward. And the conclusion in that asset management plan was it called out we have 7.1 billion of city assets which is a very large number and those are in different sizes small big buildings flood um pathways roads buildings you name it we own it.

03:24:09
Uh the good news is our service levels are at they’re good but they’re trending towards fair. So what the conclusion was um to maintain the city’s current service levels on on the asset basis, we would need to spend 1.2 billion over the next 10 years. Currently, we’re projected to spend close just under 900 million, and that’s with our 2% capital levy.

03:24:34
So right off the get-go, over the next 10 years, we have a $350 million shortfall to maintain current surface levels. Excuse me. So that’s why it’s important that the decisions we make today will impact uh service levels uh in the future. Next slide. So there’s been a lot of conversation about uh CPI and and where that’s headed and and who’s got a magical um crystal ball to tell us where it’s going.

03:25:02
Um what we did here is we took a look at the Bank of Canada and took some words and and statistics right from their website. And as you can see in July or September 2025, they just came out to call out that CPI is is at 2.4%. However, in the bank’s own words, they do say that CPI components can be particularly volatile and as a result, the Bank of Canada focuses on core inflation measures that better reflect the un the underlying trend of inflation.

03:25:35
So without getting too much into the details, their core inflation members uh measures are really around CPI trim and and CPI median, which if you go online, they’ll explain to you in great detail what it is. The bottom line is it’s running around 3.1%. Um equally important to municipalities, especially one that owns 7.1 billion in assets, is the non-residentidential construction price index.

03:26:00
And as of September, that was running at 3.9%. And again, in context, we’re recommending we continue our 2% infrastructure levy. But if you take a look at the 4-year compounded average, um, so the non-residential construction price indexes since 2022 is running around 7.2%. And on average, we put away close to 2%, 1.9% of infrastructure levy.

03:26:26
So, while it’s impressive that we are doing 2% right off the get-go, we’re falling behind and this will be a continuing pressure on municipalities going forward, which at the end of the day under the current funding model does unfortunately affect your property taxes. And if you just quickly go to the next slide, which is just again, we stole this right from uh the Bank of Canada website.

03:26:50
Um it’s just a graph outlining the uh the historical CPI and the core inflationary measures. And I think the takeaway for us was which kind of ties into what we’re seeing with our own costs is it’s still projected. It’s right now the core inflation’s 3.1 and that’s sort of at the higher end of their projection going up.

03:27:09
So 2026 will still be a challenging year on the on the uh cost pressure front. And we go to the next slide. So, getting into the weeds a little bit um but not too far of our operating budget and and it’s important to remember um kind of how we fund this. So, overall the gross operating budget for the city of Burlington for 2026 is proposed at $387.

03:27:35
3 million. How we fund that is is listed underneath. And I don’t think it’ll be surprising to too many of you as you’ve seen this before, but 73% of our operating budget is funded from property taxes to the tune of $282 million. Municipalities are heavily regulated in terms of how we collect property taxes and where we’re allowed to charge for fees.

03:28:04
As you all know, so we do have to follow all the legislations. Our second largest funding source is user fees and services charge at $25.8 million. So user fees would be everything from recreation fees to transit fees to fees for city services. And obviously if you reduce one of them, one of those funding sources, then that will have an impact.

03:28:27
You either reduce the service or you increase another funding source. And uh usually that ends up being on the property taxes. So next slide. So getting a little bit more into the weeds. Um this is what I would call the building blocks of our operating budget. So the first line is if if we did nothing maintaining current services, what’s the cost increase? So the base budget and full transparency, we do net in some additional growth against that number.

03:28:58
That brings it down a little bit to $9.1 million or 2.69%. And what that represents is a property tax funding source increase of $9.1 million just to sort of keep the lights on. And the next line of course is that important renewal levy of 2% of which is $5.2 million. So you add those two together and right off the get-go we’re at $14.4 million or $4.67%.

03:29:28
And again, I just want to emphasize what that means is we need additional $14 million of property taxes to fund our budget next year. And then working through the additional lines, um uh you can see additional budget pressures. These are sort of decisions from the past. Uh they are highlighted in our um budget binder.

03:29:47
It explains exactly which one of what each one of them are. Um it would basically include um decisions, past decisions of of new facilities, new buses and that sort of thing. Um and then that gets us to 16.5 million. Uh and then we add on key investment recommendations for 2026. So, these would be new initiatives and they are on page I’m going to I don’t have all the pages memorized but um they are on page 55 for your reading for your considerations.

03:30:25
And where that gets us to again is for $17.5 million or 5.8%. And again, I’m going to stress what that really means is we need an additional $17.5 million of property tax revenue to fund the 2026 budget. the region sets our uh property tax our policies for property taxes. We take that information once the budget’s passed.

03:30:48
We follow the assessment act, the municipal act and we sort of put it through a grinder which determines what the actual tax rates are per class and that comes out to a on your tax bill an increase of 4.49%. Now we are a a multi-ter uh municipal structure. So out of that 4.49% 2.98% which which is under three is the city of Burlington’s portion and the difference uh of roughly 1.

03:31:17
5 is currently uh the region’s impact municipal or provincial education is is expected to be 0% so no increase on that front but again I want to stress that the 4.49 49 is on your tax bill and that’s your piece of the pie that you’re paying for the additional needed property taxes. Next slide, please. Uh equally important is our capital budget.

03:31:44
So the 2026 capital plan is uh currently at $105.7 million of new spending. And being from finance, uh I I’ll say the the left side of of the of the slide that breaks down by asset category will tell you the main areas where we’re spending that money. And probably more Scott and and others love that side a little bit more.

03:32:09
I get excited about the funding column uh pie chart on on the right of the screen. Uh and it just calls out 51% of our capital plan is funded really from our it says operating but that’s basically our capital levy huge part. And the second biggest uh item on this list uh is other reserves the city does have uh currently funds. So we’re really doing a lot of self self-funding and I believe there’s also some federal or provincial funds in that group.

03:32:38
And then the third largest one on there’s development charges. And I’m going to pause because I might someone might throw something at me because development charges are certainly getting a lot of negative press. Um but it’s important to realize it’s a significant portion of our funding and it is in theory uh development charges pay for infrastructure to help development happen.

03:33:02
Um so with the recent legis legislation changes uh where development charges will now be payable at occupancy. This is going to be something municipalities are going to have to um monitor. Obviously that means we’ll get the the payments later provided um the economy hopefully will pick up and the changes will spur some growth.

03:33:24
Um but if it doesn’t happen and we don’t collect that money, you got two options. you’re deferring capital or you’re going to have need to use more debt. Um, but at this point, we’re going to monitor that each year and uh and report back to council. But, uh, it is important funding source for the city. And if we go to the next slide, which is bigger numbers, it’s our 10-year forecasted capital plan, and it’s $1.

03:33:46
18 billion. And you can see on the pie on the right, 67% of that from our own capital levy. So that that’s a big number and as I suggesting um in a previous slide that we need to spend more on infrastructure to keep our existing assets at the current service levels. So we’ll be having more conversations certainly uh as time goes on with council on how we’re going to fund this plan.

03:34:13
Uh but I will again point out that uh currently 94 million um in development charges are are earmarked to uh support that this plan. And then the next slide. So I won’t repeat all this. I said this kind of at the beginning. Um today’s November 3rd. There are multiple opportunities for for engagement and this Wednesday is one of them.

03:34:38
And we’re looking to wrap this up on December 2nd. And with that, I’ll next slide. I think it’s a question slide and I’ll push back to you, chairman. Thank you very much. So, I’ll be looking for questions from members. First up is councelor Curts. Uh, thanks so much. Can I just ask our IT support to go back by one slide.

03:35:04
So, I’ve had some conversation with the community around um understanding the book a little bit better, and I’m just wondering at what time will the presentations uh by each of the divisions of the city be available to the public? I recognize they’ll physically be considered on the 13th. When are they disclosed? Uh through the chair.

03:35:28
Excellent question. Um I’m going to look at the clerks. I I we’re going to try and have them out I think by next Tuesday. If they’re finished sooner than that, we will certainly have them up at that time. Um but at this point, I think next Tuesday is the day we’re we’re looking for. So 3 days before the presentation. That’s correct.

03:35:51
I will point out the information is coming right from the binder that uh was released I think uh uh a week and a half ago, but if we have them done sooner, we will certainly get them out. Thank you councelor. Next speaker is May Ward. Thank you. Thank you chair. So uh just some process questions for me at this time.

03:36:16
Um, so we are already starting to get uh and certainly through the town hall process and by email and by many many different avenues lots of questions about the budget. And I find it really helpful uh to have sort of a rolledup report uh with all the questions anonymized and all the answers that we can all have uh when we go into those uh those discussions.

03:36:40
So is that and I know we’ve done that in the past. Uh I don’t know with every question but you know some are quite detailed that are coming in. So um how will you be handling that and should we simply just funnel all questions we get through to you and then wait for that rolled up report? So uh through the chair to the mayor. Thank you for that question.

03:37:00
I I was a bit remiss in answering that or providing that information in the presentation. So, what I would ask counselors uh and your staff to forward those questions that you’re receiving through uh the email budget burlington.ca. Um I know I encourage you to try and put them all through there. Finance takes those number those questions and works across the corporation and externally if you have to to uh get those questions answered.

03:37:28
We will then provide um whether it be through a CIP or emails, you will all get the Q&As’s answered and we’ll try and do that at least weekly uh when we when we get them in. Um if you do have sidebar conversations, that’s certainly up to up to yourselves, but if it if it goes through this email, I can guarantee that at least we’ll we’ll have uh we’ll have it to share with you all.

03:37:51
Okay? And that includes questions that members of council might have too. For sure. as you go through the binder and please please you know put them together and just send them through there. Um that would be very helpful. That’s great. And then um my second question and maybe this is one of the ones you can put in your first first list of questions.

03:38:08
Uh you talked about uh you mentioned the inflation rate and I think I’ve seen a chart but um it would be helpful to know the city uh the overall tax increase in that same period of time. I think it’s running around 34% versus inflation compounded at 31 and then the city portion of course would be less than that.

03:38:28
That’s the the the 34 is the city region education. Can you uh provide that information to us as part of your questions that you report back? Yes, we can. It’s noted. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. The next speaker is councelor Benignia turn. Thank you, chair. Um, just to uh just to follow up a little bit on the some of the mayor’s questions u going through the the key investments u which right now uh is what we’re focusing on.

03:39:08
I guess my concern is I we can send out all the questions and and that’s a tremendous amount of work that not just on these key investments. Then then you get into the the actual work summaries. My my concern is or my question is how can we get information that says for example uh on page 55 the transit we need to you know new mechanics.

03:39:31
I just want to know how many mechanics we have last year how many we’re going to have this year. like not just that one, but some of these questions can be pretty simple to to sort of plug in, I guess. Um, and there’s a number of things like that that I don’t have to, you know, concern myself with.

03:39:52
You know, there’s 10 more questions here and and then that’s okay. I get those answers, then I got another 40 questions down the road. And honestly, I’m not going to do 40 questions. But anyways, uh so I’m hoping that staff can help us out and again it’s food for thought here. Whatever we can this year, we’ll do our best on our side looking forward.

03:40:18
I think those are very very helpful um things that we can look at and have some comparisons. So can we have that? So I’ll try and answer that um through the chair. So I’m not saying do not contact anyone other than this email. So certainly if you want to have a quick conversation I would encourage you to call the commissioners that responsible for the areas and and they can certainly answer those or get the answers for you and where there is an opportunity to summarize those Q&As’s um realizing that’s not always the case.

03:40:51
Then we would ask that commissioner if they’re able to share that with us so we could we could put it in a broader group. But by all means, you know, don’t hesitate to ask those simple questions um that to to a commissioner. Thank you, councelor. Our next speaker is councelor Nissan. Thank you to the chair for the um very efficient presentation uh and the budget um a lot of work in there.

03:41:17
So, thank you. you uh you mentioned in your opening presentation about and it sort of you know it’s an overview so I might have missed a little bit of it but I think you said we were falling behind on CIP. Could you provide a little more elaboration on that especially as it relates to our uh capital um program so through through the chair to uh the counselor.

03:41:42
So if you could just maybe roll back the slides if possible to I think it’s slide to slide five. I think you were referring to um so what I was referring to is the non-residentidential construction price index has gone up on average 7.2%. And I was just we’re highlighting that even though the city is doing really well putting away 2%.

03:42:06
Uh which is no easy task um it sort of shows you that our costs are going way up more than the 2%. So, um, we’re we’re falling behind. Um, and you’ll never catch up to it. I’m not unrealistic, but I think that’s something that you need to be aware of when you the asset management plan said we need to fund to contain keep our current service levels where they are.

03:42:31
You need another 350 million on top of the almost 900 million we’re spending. It’s going to be hard to do when inflation’s running away on the construction uh non-residential construction index. so much more than we’re putting away. So, I’m just emphasizing that these are real challenges and and it’s important that we continue the 2% but there’s still pressures coming.

03:42:55
So, uh, just as a as well, I don’t know, followup or whatever, but, um, uh, why not recommend, uh, a more of a levy, um, given that we know that if we keep, I mean, we were in trouble and, you know, before these numbers hit in terms of our infrastructure renewal, the 2% was meant to go towards that, but clearly it’s not enough.

03:43:15
So, um, why haven’t staff recommended an increase in the renewal levy? Uh, through through the chairman. So I I think from an affordability standpoint and the direction that we gave and inflations core inflations at 3.1 um there’s a a longer term discussion we have to have on how we’re going to fund those and do you have to do it all in one year.

03:43:39
So we are going to bring forward a long range financial plan to kind of revisit our debt levels ceilings because I think we’re going to need more debt to do it. You can smooth the costs over time. Um, but I’m not ruling out that staff won’t come back with a larger request uh to fund the asset management plan.

03:43:58
We’re also dealing with a lot of legislation changes in other funding sources too that are going to impact what we’re doing. Um, but we’re also trying to be true to the the affordability piece of it as well for the residents. Sorry, the affordability of what? The affordability of of owning property like the afford the municipal burden on residents.

03:44:18
is is that you know what what’s a what’s what’s a sustainable or acceptable tax rate or all fee rates for the mun for the municipality of Burlington. I don’t think we uh staff and council have kind of established what that number is. I think that’s something we need to do a little bit more um conversation around when we focus on the long range financial plan.

03:44:40
Okay. I think that probably counts as two chair. Thank you. That’s fine. I’ll move along. You can come back please. All right. Next speaker is councelor Staly. Thank you chair. Just a quick question on our process and timing. Um I see that I think it’s November 23rd and 24th that we are 24th and 25th.

03:44:57
Just curious if you have the deadline date by which council members need to submit their amendments. I will get back to council on that that that date. Sorry, I don’t have that in front of you right right now, but we will uh provide Oh, I think someone’s coming up to answer that question now. So, I’ll defer it to Laurier. Thank you.

03:45:21
Sorry, you’re referring to the bar forms that you normally submit. Uh we’d request them back on Friday the 14th by the end of the day if you could, please. Thanks. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh second time speaker, Councelor Karns. Thank you so much. So, in 2023 or 2024, I can’t remember, we got our last community engagement survey, uh, which was very informative, uh, particularly on how residents feel about taxes.

03:45:52
At the end of September, we also received a preliminary review in our council information package on September 26th. I’m just wondering when I’m looking at the legislative forecast uh for December, I don’t see the completed um survey responses being included in our forecast. And I’m just wondering before we approve the tax rate, will we get our community engagement survey results? I’m going to get back to you on that.

03:46:26
I I certainly uh unless someone in staff here have an answer for me, that would certainly be the intent. Uh so, but I will get back to you on that piece. Okay. And my next question is um there is a proposed new framework report coming in for community rates and fees and I and I just want to say like these two things talk to each other.

03:46:48
Um, will that be considered before we do the rates and fees which informs the budget? I know it’s the next item on the agenda, but it also informs the budget because it’s revenue. My understanding, I haven’t quite dove into that uh report yet, but my understanding is no, it’ll affect future years.

03:47:10
I think they’re looking at the methodology that’s used to calculate the fees. Okay, I have a few more questions. I’ll go back in line. Thank you very much, counselor. Our next speaker is the mayor. Thanks. Just a final process question. So, we get our bar forms to you Friday, November 14th. Uh and then there’s a week um in there and then the uh 24th is the Monday when we’re in deliberations.

03:47:36
When uh when are we going to see this? So, you’ll see it. When is council going to get the rolled up uh bar report to inform our discussions on the 24th? I’m gonna have to defer that one to Lori again as she comes up. I hope it’s not Friday. Can it be not Friday? The following Friday. It will not be the following Friday.

03:48:02
Um we are hopeful everybody gets them in on time. Uh we will then spend uh a day or two consolidating them and work with clerks to get them out as soon as possible. So hopefully maybe by the Tuesday. Oh wow. and then you’ll have them for the 24th. That’s great. Thanks. Thank you, Mayor. Next speaker is councelor Benia. You know what my question is going to be? So, here we are doing this process today on the 13th.

03:48:34
We’re going to get the divisional all the discussion so-called detail that’ll probably take all day. Then we’re going to go home, six o’clock, whatever that time may be, and get whatever amendments we need done for the next day. I guess my question here is why can’t we have three four days? Do we have time? So through uh the chair, so um I would say that um the budget was released uh a week ago.

03:49:20
Um so hopefully some folks have started reading. I understand you’re busy. You may not have had that chance. You still have a bit more time, but the 13th. I mean, if you I I will defer maybe the clerks if there’s time to change it. So you need more time. I think we’ll we’ll have to have that conversation. Um, I certainly going forward if you want to have more time for that next year, we can certainly uh fit fit that in.

03:49:44
But at this point, I would say hopefully there’ll be enough time. Um, and if there’s not, we’ll we’ll look for a solution through the clerks to see if you need more times added. I’m confident there is a lot of detail in in that binder and I think there’s a lot of good details and I think I think you might find if the information might be there to help you.

03:50:06
With all due respect, Commissioner, you’re the one who mentioned there’s a lot of services out there and I don’t want I feel guilty keeping Lori up all night on the phone going through what we need to go through to get all these amendments in for the next day. Yeah. Okay, I get it. Thanks. I’m not quite sure whether that was a question or a statement or whatever that was, but you know, we’ll just pass on that for a minute.

03:50:29
Um, not to be terribly controversial in asking a question here. Just assuming for a moment that in the next in the course of tomorrow and council meeting we agreed that we’re going to take over BEDT. Should we actually be thinking that in the budget that we should put away some money associated with that? Yeah. through you chair.

03:50:57
Um as a part of the recommendation of that report that council has on its agenda around looking at BEDT, I think uh the recommendation suggests that we uh maintain the level of funding to recognize that uh um 2026 would be a year for transition uh and then to get to 27 which would be a future state year. So, so I think uh we’re satisfied that uh um we have uh in terms of the operating budget allocation as well as the reserves uh a sufficient uh funding envelope to address the change.

03:51:33
So that was for operating budget, but I’m thinking about the, you know, if we spend $170,000 in uh 2024 25 to to do the merger uh and another $300,000 maybe 2,000 hours of uh volunteer hours in kind. Um that we could be looking at, you know, quarter of a million dollars or something that we need in order from outside support or are we just going to do all that work internal internally? Yeah, through you, chair.

03:52:02
Um, we have a um we’ll discuss this when we address um the agenda item uh that’s coming up. Um we we don’t um we don’t agree that um council’s investment would be anywhere near um the investment uh that was provided to merge uh ecdev and tourism. And so that’s our our our starting uh assumption and I think it’s grounded in um kind of what we believe uh needs to happen uh to support transition.

03:52:36
Uh the majority of that will be addressed in house. However, there there may be a component or two that may be specialized where we’ll seek external resourcing but not to that degree. Okay. Thank you. Our next speaker is councelor Karns. Well, I’m just going to change my question now. Um, my question will build on councelor Charman’s.

03:52:59
So, again, you’re going to want to get out your little pen here and be like, how does she find this? Um, page 8 of report CM 1024 actually does indicate that the financial matters related to bringing BEDT in house would be outlined in the initiative through the completion of the review. So it specifically says um the financial implications of this initiative cannot be fully determined until the procurement process is initiated and the review is completed while the total financial impact is currently unknown. It will be clarified upon receiving the results of the review. So if we are going to be um considering this report today um in any type of material change those costs should have been included and should be included in the in the budget. So just a reminder CM 1024 does provide that direction to attain that information. So now I will go into my uh would you agree? Yeah. Yeah. Through you chair. I I think

03:53:58
there are obviously a couple of different ways that that we could have approached um this this question of what is the best economic development and tourism model for the city. Um we chose to uh bring forward uh to council um the third party uh third um party consultant review together with a recommendation to get direction first um and then um have that direction subject to a transition plan that would um fully cost out um uh everything to do with moving to a future state model.

03:54:35
That’s that’s the choice that we made. that that that choice um you know um um may not be fully aligned with the 2024 report but that’s uh that’s the way we proceeded with uh um with the review. Thank you. My next question is related to the budget and it identifies the um relationship between assessment growth and projected growth.

03:55:02
And so when I look back to the number of budgets that we’ve done, and this is on 35, page 35 of the proposed budget, we keep talking about we’re preparing for growth. We’re preparing for growth. We’re investing for growth, but our growth targets continue to fall significantly short of 1% with only the highest hitting 1% uh in 2024.

03:55:22
And I know which development that brought on. So, I’m just wondering how for the community can we better reconcile the portion that we’re attributing to growth, including staffing, with growth numbers that struggle to break a percent. Um h how do we reconcile that? Or can we get a memo with some additional insight? Uh through the chair to the counselor.

03:55:48
So, I I I guess it’s how you’re measuring growth. So if we if we’re improving service today above what we current service level. So for example increasing transit service that’s the service enhancement not really tied to your growth. That’s your property tax assessment growth. Property tax assessment growth again is how many new buildings are coming online that are adding to your tax base.

03:56:13
But um so if it’s a service enhancement piece um you what would you be sorry looking for in that context? Well we keep increasing employees to support growth but we’re just not seeing and this is the community’s lens. This is not my opinion, but we’re not seeing the reflective assessment growth or growth numbers um that track with that.

03:56:45
And so the community is asking for some kind of um additional insights or reconciliations into how the this side of the balance sheet keeps going up, but the additional tax supported base doesn’t keep up with it through that assessment growth um surplus or charge or bonus or windfall, however you want to call it. And it’s been since 2018.

03:57:04
I mean, we we hollowed out a little bit to shore up some underperforming um assessment growth. Then 2019 2020 is not on the chart. And then 2021 is.34.45 2022. The the numbers just aren’t lining up with what we’re calling growth and what’s actual growth. So through the chair, so again I can we can highlight what council’s approved the last number of years that’s tied to staffing and and what was the outcome expected on that.

03:57:37
So again it wasn’t necessarily it could have been catch up from previous years growth because as I said the budget is impacted by decisions of the past or it could mean there was a decision by council to enhance the service and it required people to do it. So I can certainly fill in we can provide that detail to you if if that helps as to what has been approved the last few years but it is a bit of a separate conversation on um you’re enhancing service based on the current tax base as opposed to we’re adding more staff because there’s more residents that come online. We’re not we haven’t really added staff for that purpose yet. There might have been a few additional staff to help processing uh applications and that sort of thing, but it’s I would say that it’s been more of catchup and new service enhancements the last few years, but we can certainly give you a table with with what that what those new positions have been over the last number of years. Okay, thank you.

03:58:37
Thank you, councelor. Our next speaker is councel. Thanks. Last line of questions here. Um, first one is uh the um the memo that we uh received um back uh October 31st. Trying to pull it up here. I have a lot of tabs open here, but it was a it was in the information package, council information package.

03:59:00
Um it mentioned that a member of council had requested what it would take to reduce by.5%. Will you be also providing what you would add for 0.5% increase? Uh can you do that so that we can see what you would be adding into the budget if we had more money uh magically? I’d just like to know what your priorities are that are not being funded.

03:59:27
So through the chair, I think that was through the CIP. there was a memo and I think there’s an opportunity to maybe discuss that at the I don’t know the clerk’s uh protocol at the next CIP but um yeah we were we were we were asked to to get it under uh to shave off half a percent what would that look like so from a corporate level and so we did and we put I believe we have some explanations of what the impact of that are um certainly if you wanted to go up we we we we could certainly add to that but it’s really to inform you as part of your exercise.

04:00:00
you’re reading the budget and you’re filling out the barcodes, to really dig a little deeper even when when we’re deliberating in a couple of weeks is those are options to council. And you’re absolutely right, there are consequences in decisions you make. Yeah, it would be good to know what’s uh what your unfunded priorities are.

04:00:17
Um and uh I mean that wasn’t a a council request at 0.5% so uh you can consider my request on an equal footing of wherever you got that other 0.5% reduction. Uh I would appreciate seeing that. And I’m sure there’s lots of time uh for that uh in the Q&A package as well. Um my other question is about the multi-year um community investment uh plan.

04:00:42
Um originally uh intended to be adding a million per year incremental, I think until we got up to five years from 2024 to 2029. Um that was cut um at least two budgets ago, uh the one-year increment. And uh now it’s being shown at 250,000 increase uh while also being on a chopping block potentially for a 0.5% decrease. So uh I think uh it would be really helpful.

04:01:10
I don’t want to dive too deep into the budget, but it’s kind of a it’s a part of a larger package of investments. Could you um could you tell us, you know, where that uh the MYCIP should be according to the plans that we approved back in 2023? How well it should be funded and funded going forward in order to pay for things like the fire master plan, parks provisioning master plan, um a number of different um uh MTSA plans, for example.

04:01:42
Um all of that got uh cut by council. And uh and is potentially on the chopping block yet again. And those are all capital related to the increase um uh and affected by increase in uh CI uh community conser- in cost of you know cost of goods so Can you help me out here and could you provide us with with that so we know the consequences of of the cutting and you and it’s coming at 250,000 which we approved with 1 million increase per year so I’d like to know why it’s at 250.

04:02:19
Through the chairman so to counselor thanks for the question great question I think you summarized it pretty well what the intent of what that fund was for to fund those master plans is my understanding it was actually to fund the debt servicing costs for some of them so we have allocated some of those dollars to specific projects the reason why that one sort of being taken off list it’s still there and it’s certainly councils prerogative if you want to go back up to that level because we’re trying to balance the current needs of our existing assets so we could have said okay take take money away from the 2% levy which is funding funding what we own today or pause and slow down on putting away money to pay for debt for future projects that aren’t quite there yet so that’s really kind of the balance from a staff point of view when we looked at it again it’s it’s a it’s a challenging

04:03:18
it’s a challenging environment to fund all this that we’re doing there is an argument that when you incur the debt charges then you increase the taxes if you’re if you need to use that you know some of the feedback I have seen last year and even this year why are you putting so much money away in reserves um and and again it’s so it’s a circular argument but certainly prerogative your prerogative to to put it back in or increase it but our lens was from the staff’s point of view was the current Um, that we own today we we we need to fund. Yeah, my uh my question is we’ve Why is uh is why was the decision made at the staff level to cut our investment in this fund when we have a standing multi-year community investment plan to invest it in 1 million, notwithstanding the fact that we’ve reduced it in previous years. And is that because of because of the target that council gave you at 4.49?

04:04:18
And that so that got on the that got chopped? Yes, and among other things too that that we didn’t put forward. Well, I would love to see what you would have put forward if you if you didn’t have the 4.49, even though that was staff recommended. So, I look forward to seeing that. Thank you. Well, thank you very much.

04:04:36
I’m seeing no further questions. Um So, would somebody like to move the motion? It’s moved by the mayor. Thank you very much. And any comments? Go ahead. Thank you. Well, just uh briefly I did want to say uh a huge thanks to our communications team who put the binder together and also all of the materials uh for the town halls and um it it was really clear. I think well received.

04:05:09
We we continue to do uh a lot of work to make it as clear, transparent, uh and open to the community and understandable as possible. And so, uh I can tell you when I opened the binder this year um I just found it uh really um a delight to look at. So, and I don’t normally say that about uh 600 pages or whatever it is of numbers, but it it’s uh it’s really well done and I think that will help our community.

04:05:33
I do want to invite uh members of the community to tune in to the town the telephone town hall on November 5th. We we typically get around 2 to 3,000 people joining us, which is wonderful. Um we don’t always get to all the questions, as you can imagine, with that many people online. So, please do send in your questions.

04:05:56
We’ll make sure that they get to our staff. You can send them direct as well to the budget@burlington.ca. But if you want to know how to tune in and you didn’t receive an automated call, please go to the get involved burlington.ca page in order to see the phone number or to register your telephone number to get a call out when that happens.

04:06:16
So, that’s at 7:00 on Wednesday, November 5th is the telephone town hall. And I also just want to thank staff for all of the work and answering all of the questions that members of council have put to you to get us here today, as well as additional questions that I know we will have coming. And thankful for the community input to date and all of the people that have participated, whether it’s food for feedback or the town halls that were in person.

04:06:47
There’s been many ways that residents have already asked questions and shared their input, and it’s all been really really valuable and helpful. So, more to come. Lots more decision-making to to be had on the budget. And at the end of our process, this will be a true community council and staff budget because of the process that we follow.

04:07:11
So, um stay tuned for all those amendments from council on two days of deliberations if we need all two days. But council can add to the budget, they can cut the budget. And at the end of our deliberations, we will have a community council and staff budget. Thanks, chair. Thank you very much, Mayor. I’d like to thank staff for all the work they’ve done getting us here.

04:07:35
And there has been a lot of work done already to make sure that as you work through the potential budget over the last few months, you’ve already been very considerate of the interests of the public and so I think that’s really great. With respect to the the community meetings, um we we had we had good questions, we had some attendance, we’ve got some actions to take.

04:07:57
I saw a a letter this morning that said you know, there’s a whole lot of data, like seven pages of data and questions and I’m sure we’ll make every effort we can to answer those questions and the uh in subsequent information releases that we have. And indeed, I’m looking forward to the meeting on Thursday. So, that’s my comments and now over to you, Councillor Kearns.

04:08:19
Thank you so much. Of course, I want to extend my gratitude to the staff that have continued to work on this including putting forward the budget blueprint and the rest of the ancillary items. I do want to bring the community’s voice to the forefront at the moment and I just want to say one of the themes that I have heard through my two formal workshops and three pop-ups and more workshops to come is that people are really really stretched.

04:08:41
We heard that from our community survey sorry, our community pulse today. People are in a really tough spot and what they want more than anything from the city is a guarantee that we’re running as efficiently and as right-sized and are wasting literally nothing at all in this budget. When we did receive our preliminary community survey results related to the budget, here’s what the community is asking for.

04:09:06
38% are asking for current services with tax increases that match inflation and then another 36 are asking us to limit tax increase by limiting service enhancements. While fewer support raising taxes further or cutting services. So, we have our task cut out for us, which is why I’m asking for that community survey to come forward.

04:09:28
We were all at a forum earlier today which had some you know, dismal but not the worst economic news from um one of the VPs at TD Bank. And so we are looking for a year at least in terms of recovery for Canada. And that means we need to deliver an austerity budget that is very very prudent. I will have pages to be circulated for Q&As that will go out to the public.

04:09:55
That’s been a culmination of those workshops and drop-ins. We have a very informed community that is learning a lot about this budget and is asking questions now more than ever. And they’re asking us what are you saving? Where are you saving it? Tell us what cuts you’ve made. There are a few outlined in the budget.

04:10:13
Our community wants to see more. They want to see that we’re really achieving the optimizations that we said we were going to achieve. We’ve we’ve done a lot with technology. We’ve done a lot with work from home. We’re entering into our return to work phase. They want to see that efficiencies are being found and had. So we have a very challenging budget before us today.

04:10:34
I don’t think it is a complete budget. We do need to continue to do work on it and find some additional savings. I will note as Councillor Neeson highlighted, Council hasn’t asked for that yet. We will probably ask for that at Council. So I appreciate that 0.5 has been asked to be shaved off and from where it’s from. We did rewrite size some of the reserve funds in the last cycle of Council and Committee.

04:11:00
So that was really important work to be completed. But really every penny needs to be accounted for and I will entirely support every diligence that comes forward under this budget. Thank you, Councillor. The next speaker is Councillor Bintabinya. Thank you, Chair. I also want to reiterate I want to thank staff for this budget book is in the best I’ve seen.

04:11:26
I said this to Mayor Last Week. Opening it, realizing, you know, the the the services that have, the priorities we have. I also appreciated the reduction piece of 0.5%. It from my standpoint, it gives me an idea of oh, okay, this it’s almost like a an endorsement of okay, take this away, but I know that’s not necessarily the case, but uh certainly gives us a good indication as to where staff’s at, but the reporting of it uh for the most part, like I said, information was better than last year.

04:12:02
I just, you know, from my standpoint, I’d like to see more comparisons, not just for myself. I think generally speaking, we can make sound decisions uh knowing that this is what it cost us, you know, myself and and a few others that helped me with with all this, you know, we make the calls to other municipalities and see, you know, what’s the differences in numbers and stuff.

04:12:25
So, those things always help uh making the proper decisions, but you have given us um better tools this year than I’ve seen in the past, and I want to say thank you for that. And uh I certainly want to see uh continue continuation of more and more improvement as we go along. So, thank you for that. Thank you, counselor.

04:12:46
Counselor Lissette. Thank you, Chair. Um and uh I thank you uh to the chair, uh Deputy Mayor, and the Mayor for uh helping shepherd this uh process uh forward. Um thank you to staff for getting us to where we are today. And uh it’s you know, it’s obviously a ton of work. Um and I don’t want to repeat comments I I made when we made this determination to go at 4.

04:13:13
49%, which I I did not support, but council did. Um all I’ll say is that it it’s not what uh what was what I was trained to do through uh seven budgets um uh since I started here. So, I worry I have real process concerns about how we land on a staff recommended budget that we then we can decide as politicians to uh to decide what we think is affordable or not affordable for our residents and shave or add where we want to add.

04:13:50
So, you know, I continue to have a major process concern with going with percentages ahead and I found today that the waters are even more muddy in terms of what is the best uh budget for the community from the perspective of our experts. So, yeah, I’ll continue to have that concern, I think, going forward, but I’m going to do my best to try to clear it up in the in the days and weeks ahead um to understand where you know, what what would actually be the recommended budget for the community.

04:14:25
Uh half. I I find 4.49 to be very arbitrary and um I don’t want us playing towards a number, but that’s the road that we are going on at this time. And that being said, I hope that we have a great budget for the community in the end. Thank you. Well, thank you very much for those comments and I kind of echo your point about I’m never sure about the number, either, and they always look arbitrary until we actually get through the details.

04:14:52
And so, that’s what that’s the job we have ahead of us. So, thank you very much. I’m going to call the vote here. The motion is received the 2026 proposed budget book and direct staff to present the recommendations contained in appendix A of finance department report FIN 42-25 to the budget committee meetings at of November 24th and 25th, 2025 for review and approval, taking into consideration committee amendments, and that pursuant to Ontario regulation 284-09, finance department report fin 42-25 serve as the method of communicating the exclusion of the following estimated expenses from the 2026 budget. Number one amortization expense which is $47 million and be post-employment benefit expenses of 1.7 million. I’m going to call the vote now. All those in favor? Uh we’ve got four and four five and five four and those opposed? One opposed and one no vote. So I guess

04:15:52
that’s five in favor and two against. Right? Okay. That carries. Thank you very much. Um we just before we leave then before we call it a close of the day um I’d want to just check which items uh in the closed you wish to go into um with the confidential list which items you wish to go into closed to discuss.

04:16:16
So Okay. So let’s let’s get to there. Mayor, go ahead. Uh 9.1 Yep. 9.2 Okay. 9.3 Yep. And 9.6 That’s my list. I don’t know if others want the other two uh four and five I don’t need to personally go into closed on but others might. Anybody else? Carol, you okay with that? Okay. So um we don’t need to go in for 9.4 and 9.

04:16:54
5 but we will go in for the other four. Is that clear? Okay. Thank you very much. Uh on that basis we’re going to uh recess right now. We’ll reconvene at 9:30 in the morning. Thank you very much. Have a good night. Mhm.