Grey County Committee of the Whole Meeting Transcript — March 26, 2026

00:00:06 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you very much.

00:00:08 Andrea Matrosovs: I'd like to call to order this committee.

00:00:10 Andrea Matrosovs: The whole agenda of March twenty-six, twenty twenty-six.

00:00:12 Andrea Matrosovs: At this point in time, I will put out a call if there are any declarations of interest.

00:00:17 Andrea Matrosovs: Looking around the room and online, I am seeing no hands raised.

00:00:21 Andrea Matrosovs: In that case, then we will move on to our delegations.

00:00:24 Andrea Matrosovs: We have just one delegation this morning, and Hillary Thurston of Local Immigration Partnership, as the Local Immigration Partnership supervisor, will be making a presentation with regards to the Grey Bruce Local Immigration Partnership.

00:00:39 Andrea Matrosovs: So welcome, Miss Thurston.

00:00:42 Andrea Matrosovs: I see you there online.

00:00:43 Andrea Matrosovs: And what we'll do is we will listen to your presentation, and then I'll put it out to committee.

00:00:50 Andrea Matrosovs: The whole members, if they have any questions for you, so at that point in time, we can direct them to you.

00:00:55 Andrea Matrosovs: So, welcome.

00:00:56 Andrea Matrosovs: Sounds great.

00:00:57 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you so much.

00:00:58 Andrea Matrosovs: Thanks for having me.

00:00:59 Hillary Thurston: Thank you, and through you, Warden.

00:01:01 Hillary Thurston: I am going to share my screen here.

00:01:03 Hillary Thurston: So, give me a moment.

00:01:05 Hillary Thurston: I'm going to pull up our community action plan from 2025 to 2028, which we have just completed, and we are quite proud to share it today.

00:01:15 Hillary Thurston: My name is Hillary Thurston.

00:01:16 Hillary Thurston: I'm the supervisor of the Grey Bruce Local Immigration Partnership, and you should be able to see the action plan up on the screen there now.

00:01:31 Hillary Thurston: Yes, we can.

00:01:32 Hillary Thurston: Okay, so the what I'll present to you today is a rundown of this community action plan, as well as generally updates from our first fiscal year under Bruce County's leadership, and highlights around priorities planned for fiscal year two.

00:01:53 Hillary Thurston: So the community action plan builds on a foundational settlement strategy that was developed and carried out during the first funding term from 2020 to 2025 under Grey County's leadership.

00:02:05 Hillary Thurston: The new action plan sets the direction for the next three years under Bruce County.

00:02:10 Hillary Thurston: It was developed through partner consultations and listening sessions and is informed by local research on newcomer needs.

00:02:18 Hillary Thurston: On page six, you will find an executive summary outlining three strategic priorities.

00:02:24 Hillary Thurston: So I'll scroll down here through.

00:02:27 Hillary Thurston: We have a land acknowledgement, our acknowledgments, a bit of an about section, but I wanted to highlight this summary in the interest of time because this kind of gives you a snapshot of what the plan includes.

00:02:42 Hillary Thurston: So, if you see this highlighted box here in the center, this highlights our three strategic priorities for action.

00:02:50 Hillary Thurston: So, all our action steps are oriented around these areas.

00:02:55 Hillary Thurston: The first being fostering community collaboration, focusing on strengthening partnerships, improving coordination, enhancing access to shared tools and information, so that services and resources are aligned for maximum impact.

00:03:08 Hillary Thurston: And the second priority is employer engagement and workforce integration focus, and this aims to respond to persistent labor shortages by supporting employers with education resources and inclusive practices that help newcomers access meaningful employment and succeed in the workplace.

00:03:29 Hillary Thurston: So, we run workshops and seminars, and we hire experts to come and speak about issues like PR pathways and other things that affect employers, like immigration law, things like that that can really set us up as a region to support not only newcomer attraction but retention.

00:03:48 Hillary Thurston: Importantly, the third priority is welcoming communities, which emphasizes that belonging requires ongoing intention, creating opportunities for connection, challenging misconceptions, and fostering a culture where all residents feel valued and included.

00:04:04 Hillary Thurston: So, just kind of scroll down here, give you a general look at the plan.

00:04:10 Hillary Thurston: Here's this kind of graphic that details these priorities.

00:04:47 Hillary Thurston: We did intentionally think about how these particular priorities were going to map onto our actions more broadly throughout the next few years, and so they actually align with our structure in a way.

00:04:57 Hillary Thurston: So the first priority really speaks to our partnership council as a whole.

00:04:59 Hillary Thurston: So we organize, you know, sixty plus community agencies, municipalities, businesses in the area.

00:05:00 Hillary Thurston: We convene everybody, and that's really where the networking happens, and where we can connect to collaborate and develop these opportunities for pathways to you know new opportunities, new resources, new programs, etc. So that's that first fostering community collaboration piece really hits on that general council.

00:05:10 Hillary Thurston: Then we have the subcommittees.

00:05:11 Hillary Thurston: So you can see those in the purple.

00:05:18 Hillary Thurston: The purple stones there on the side.

00:05:21 Hillary Thurston: So we got to connect.

00:05:21 Hillary Thurston: So we've got a Connect subcommittee and a Workforce subcommittee.

00:05:23 Hillary Thurston: So you can see how that sort of maps onto our employer engagement, workforce integration, and welcoming communities.

00:05:30 Hillary Thurston: So we have a sort of social development piece as well as workforce development.

00:05:35 Hillary Thurston: So our focus is relatively well rounded in that regard.

00:05:44 Hillary Thurston: Now, fiscal year one has been a foundational year for us.

00:05:48 Hillary Thurston: We're really focused on rebuilding momentum under Bruce County's leadership after you know some wonderful work that was done over the last five years at Grey County.

00:05:58 Hillary Thurston: Some of the key accomplishments from this sort of transitional year we've had is that we did develop these two subcommittees: the Workforce subcommittee focused on workforce economic development; the Connect subcommittee focused on social and cultural development.

00:06:12 Hillary Thurston: We hosted expert webinars on immigration law and policy trends.

00:06:16 Hillary Thurston: We delivered cultural competency skills training to partnership council members.

00:06:21 Hillary Thurston: We onboarded three new regional partners, including Elephant Thoughts, Victorian Order of Nurses, and Keystone Child, Youth, and Family Services.

00:06:31 Hillary Thurston: We relaunched an existing public awareness campaign in partnership with neighboring local immigration partnerships.

00:06:37 Hillary Thurston: We developed a comprehensive communication strategy to improve public engagement, and we have a number of initiatives outlined for the next year in our comms strategy.

00:06:49 Hillary Thurston: We launched the 2026 Immigrant Experience Survey as well, and this is in collaboration with the University of Guelph, the Research Shop Lab.

00:06:59 Hillary Thurston: These activities reflect our objective to strengthen the region's coordinated approach to welcoming newcomers and addressing labor force needs.

00:07:07 Hillary Thurston: And so, in fiscal year two, we have several major initiatives underway.

00:07:13 Hillary Thurston: We'll just scroll down here.

00:07:14 Hillary Thurston: This is, if you can see on the plan, this just kind of fleshes things out a little bit in a little bit more detail.

00:07:27 Hillary Thurston: That's a nice visual to land it on, and I'll tell you a little bit about our fiscal year two plan.

00:07:34 Hillary Thurston: So, we've got several key initiatives going on currently.

00:07:37 Hillary Thurston: We are planning the Diversity and Belonging Conference, set for October 2026.

00:07:44 Hillary Thurston: This was a conference that was run in 2024, and it was a big hit.

00:07:50 Hillary Thurston: We convened over 120 participants.

00:07:53 Hillary Thurston: We had some excellent speakers and entertainment, and it was a really great opportunity.

00:07:59 Hillary Thurston: People had a lot of good feedback around it, so we definitely wanted to do this again.

00:08:06 Hillary Thurston: We are redeveloping a cultural competency training program, and this was initiated by Grey County staff in the first funding term.

00:08:14 Hillary Thurston: So we're sort of redeveloping, revamping, and aiming to relaunch in July.

00:08:21 Hillary Thurston: We're also developing a partner portal, which would be a digital hub to streamline collaboration between settlement and non-settlement service providers and partnership members.

00:08:36 Hillary Thurston: A speaker series including topics on immigration policy updates, cultural responsiveness, debunking misinformation, platforming newcomer success stories, truth and reconciliation—that sort of thing.

00:08:49 Hillary Thurston: So we've got a lot lined up for knowledge sharing events.

00:08:54 Hillary Thurston: Our communications campaign, of course, we've got Welcoming Week campaign planned, website update, social media strategy, working on a ton of good stuff there, and research collaborations.

00:09:07 Hillary Thurston: So we of course we are, we're currently running the Immigrant Experience Survey for the second time; they ran that in 2023, so we're trying to keep you know updating this information.

00:09:21 Hillary Thurston: I've also just started working with Huron Lib as well as a researcher from Western on a retention study about why newcomers leave our rural areas.

00:09:32 Hillary Thurston: We expect the findings to inform local strategies to improve retention efforts.

00:09:38 Hillary Thurston: So as a local immigration partnership, our work focuses on unifying the efforts of settlement and non-settlement sectors.

00:09:45 Hillary Thurston: All of our activities reinforce that collaboration is the key driver of success, key driver of successful newcomer retention, and by mobilizing our diverse partners, we can build smarter systems, stronger relationships, and more welcoming communities.

00:09:57 Hillary Thurston: Thank you so much for your time today, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

00:10:02 Hillary Thurston: Thank you very much, Miss Thurston, and this is very helpful.

00:10:08 Andrea Matrosovs: We'll look around for any questions directly for you later.

00:10:11 Andrea Matrosovs: Item 7A will be our discussion item, where we'll look to endorse this.

00:10:15 Andrea Matrosovs: So most of the discussion is going to happen at that point in time from committee, the whole members, along with the support of our staff.

00:10:22 Andrea Matrosovs: So at this point, this is just a good moment for us to be able to understand the information that you presented to us today.

00:10:28 Andrea Matrosovs: So thank you.

00:10:29 Andrea Matrosovs: So I'll look around the room, looking online for any hands going up, any questions.

00:10:35 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, not seen any.

00:10:38 Andrea Matrosovs: You did provide us with a lot of information in that, so thank you very much.

00:10:42 Andrea Matrosovs: That has been very helpful.

00:10:43 Andrea Matrosovs: I think that has been very helpful.

00:10:48 Andrea Matrosovs: I think that's going to really foster a good conversation when we get to that agenda item.

00:10:49 Andrea Matrosovs: So thank you very much.

00:10:53 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:10:53 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

00:10:53 Andrea Matrosovs: So with that, then we will move on to item five, which is determination of items required for separate discussion.

00:10:58 Andrea Matrosovs: Listed in section six of the consent agenda are ten different items.

00:11:02 Andrea Matrosovs: So I'll ask you if you can, if there is an item that you wish to pull, that you cite which one it is, so the clerk can make sure that we address that towards later on in the agenda.

00:11:12 Andrea Matrosovs: Any items six A through J?

00:11:17 Andrea Matrosovs: Looking online, looking around the room.

00:11:20 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, I'm not seeing hands go up.

00:11:22 Andrea Matrosovs: So at this point in time, then I will entertain a motion for item six, which is that the following consent agenda items be received and that staff be authorized to take the actions necessary to give effect to the recommendations in the reports, staff reports, and that the correspondence be supported or received for information, as recommended in the consent agenda.

00:11:43 Andrea Matrosovs: May I ask for a mover and a seconder?

00:11:45 Andrea Matrosovs: Moved by Councillor Hutchinson, seconded by Councillor Nielsen.

00:11:49 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion.

00:11:51 Andrea Matrosovs: Any discussion?

00:11:53 Andrea Matrosovs: Since we've just looked at all of those together, okay.

00:11:56 Andrea Matrosovs: I'll call the question.

00:12:00 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor?

00:12:05 Andrea Matrosovs: And that motion is carried.

00:12:06 Andrea Matrosovs: All right.

00:12:06 Andrea Matrosovs: That allows us to skip a few pages through.

00:12:08 Andrea Matrosovs: Then to item seven A, which is timely since we just heard the excellent delegation.

00:12:14 Andrea Matrosovs: It is recommended that EDTC CW zero seven twenty six Gray Bruce Local Immigration Partnership Community Action Plan and annual update be received.

00:12:29 Andrea Matrosovs: That the report regarding the Gray Bruce Local Immigration Partnership Community Action Plan and annual update be received, and that the Community Action Plan 2025 to 2028 be endorsed.

00:12:41 Andrea Matrosovs: May I ask for a mover and a seconder?

00:12:43 Andrea Matrosovs: I've got Councillor Eccles online is moving, and Councillor Keaveney is seconding.

00:12:48 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion.

00:12:50 Andrea Matrosovs: So welcome, Director Myers.

00:12:54 Savanna Myers: Thank you very much.

00:12:55 Savanna Myers: I will not repeat everything that Hillary just said because she did a great job of presenting this report for me, which is wonderful.

00:13:01 Savanna Myers: But we wanted to have the opportunity for you to meet Hillary, who is the supervisor for GBLP now that it is under Bruce County, and then Bailey, who also works with her as the engagement specialist.

00:13:10 Savanna Myers: She wasn't able to join today, but we're very fortunate to have two excellent staff who are working on the new version of GBLP.

00:13:17 Savanna Myers: And I do wanted to say that it is a new version.

00:13:20 Savanna Myers: We had the agreement here for the first five years.

00:13:23 Savanna Myers: It was a five-year agreement.

00:13:24 Savanna Myers: It looked very differently than what this one does.

00:13:27 Savanna Myers: IRCC has pulled back quite a bit, so this is now a three-year agreement.

00:13:30 Savanna Myers: We have fewer staff.

00:13:31 Savanna Myers: We have fewer, you know, key action items to do, but they're very well focused.

00:13:36 Savanna Myers: And I think that's what you see in the community action plan now is a real kind of framework around this.

00:13:41 Savanna Myers: Is the role that we play to help clarify the roles and responsibilities for us and our partners, because as Hillary said, we do have more than sixty partners who are still around that partnership council, and that continues to grow, which is great news.

00:13:52 Savanna Myers: So we know that the community sees value in it.

00:13:55 Savanna Myers: Our role really is about assembling everybody together, making sure that we're not duplicating efforts, and sharing our resources wherever possible, and that really is the role of the LIP to help create welcoming communities.

00:14:08 Savanna Myers: So there's nothing else that I have in this report to discuss because she has already covered it all for me.

00:14:12 Savanna Myers: But if you do have any questions, I'm happy to answer them.

00:14:16 Savanna Myers: Okay.

00:14:17 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much.

00:14:18 Andrea Matrosovs: So with that, then I will look around the room for any questions or items for discussion.

00:14:26 Andrea Matrosovs: And well, Director Myers, I think perhaps you and Hillary have been doing a great job because you've informed us so well.

00:14:32 Andrea Matrosovs: I don't see hands going up.

00:14:34 Andrea Matrosovs: So in which case, then I will ask for the vote.

00:14:36 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor, and that motion is carried.

00:14:40 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you again to both of you.

00:14:44 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, that allows us to move on to item seven B. It's recommended that report PDR CW eleven twenty six regarding the county's age-friendly action plan progress be received for information, and that the staff be authorized to make minor amendments to the county's age-friendly action plan without impacting the intent of the plan to enable the plan implementation, and that staff be directed to share the progress report with all members, all member municipalities for information, moved by Councillor Dickert and seconded by Councillor Carleton.

00:15:18 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion, and so we will look to Cassandra Dillman.

00:15:24 Andrea Matrosovs: We'll be doing a presentation.

00:15:27 Andrea Matrosovs: Yes, we have a presentation from our intermediate planner, Cassandra Dillman.

00:15:34 Andrea Matrosovs: Welcome, and we've got everything cued up for you.

00:15:49 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, can you hear me now?

00:15:51 Andrea Matrosovs: Great, thank you.

00:15:53 Cassondra Dillman: So, welcome.

00:15:55 Cassondra Dillman: My name is Cassandra, and I am a planner here at the county, and I also lead our age-friendly action plan.

00:16:26 Cassondra Dillman: So, in my presentation today, I'll provide a brief overview of age-friendly community planning, just to sort of put us all on the same page.

00:16:36 Cassondra Dillman: A bit about the project timeline, an overview of the plan and the progress that we've made, what we've learned along the way, and then highlight some of our success stories and our next steps.

00:16:37 Cassondra Dillman: So, to start, an age-friendly community is designed so that everyone—children, youth, adults, and older residents—can live, work, and play in safe, accessible, and welcoming spaces.

00:16:42 Cassondra Dillman: So, the county has taken a little bit of a different approach here by focusing on all ages.

00:16:46 Cassondra Dillman: So, some communities choose to focus their age-friendly initiatives on seniors, but that does a little bit different, and I think it's really important and valuable to be focusing on all ages.

00:17:00 Cassondra Dillman: Really, though, we are asking ourselves this question: How can we support independence and social connection across the lifespan?

00:17:11 Cassondra Dillman: And to guide age-friendly community planning, the World Health Organization they've developed a framework that focuses on eight community dimensions.

00:17:19 Cassondra Dillman: So those are listed there on the screen.

00:17:22 Cassondra Dillman: And when you combine those, create your livable community.

00:17:27 Cassondra Dillman: Those eight dimensions are divided into two categories, if you will: the physical infrastructure of our communities, so those physical spaces, housing, transportation, and then those softer social design components, so your respect and social inclusion, our health services, and employment.

00:17:49 Cassondra Dillman: And the county's age-friendly action plan is designed and organized around these eight dimensions.

00:17:59 Cassondra Dillman: I think, really, like, why does this matter?

00:18:03 Cassondra Dillman: I think is a bit of an important question to address.

00:18:06 Cassondra Dillman: And really, at the heart of age-friendly planning, it benefits everyone.

00:18:11 Cassondra Dillman: And those are the communities that we want to live in.

00:18:15 Cassondra Dillman: It aligns well with the principles of good planning, and really creating communities that are walkable, that are inclusive, that are accessible, that reduce downstream health costs, that support vitality.

00:18:30 Cassondra Dillman: They're sustainable communities, places where people thrive.

00:18:34 Cassondra Dillman: We are also facing, more locally, a demographic shift.

00:18:38 Cassondra Dillman: So right now, in the county, one in four residents are over the age of 65, and by 2030.

00:18:46 Cassondra Dillman: And by 2035, that is projected to grow.

00:18:48 Cassondra Dillman: So it's projected to increase to one in three, and those over 85 are projected to double.

00:18:54 Cassondra Dillman: So I think that'll have a really significant impact on our communities, reshaping some of those needs.

00:19:01 Cassondra Dillman: And I think we're all very familiar with the challenges of living in a rural community.

00:19:09 Cassondra Dillman: Our project timeline: Some of you may remember a grant that was received by the province in 2021, and that grant was to create the strategy and the action plan.

00:19:21 Cassondra Dillman: That work was finalized and adopted in 2022, and then in later in that year, in 2022, actually we joined the World Health Organization's Age Friendly World Network, and then in 2023 we established an age-friendly community so that's a network of county and municipal staff, community partners, local agencies, and interested residents that are all working in age-friendly, age-friendly projects across the county.

00:19:53 Cassondra Dillman: So we're working to implement that action plan.

00:19:56 Cassondra Dillman: We started the progress review in 2025, and then also earlier this year, you may remember the county was recognized as an age-friendly community by the province.

00:20:11 Cassondra Dillman: Our action plan; it is—it's quite ambitious, so it has over a hundred items that were identified by the community as priorities.

00:20:21 Cassondra Dillman: Each one of those items has a lead, a partner, performance indicators, resources.

00:20:27 Cassondra Dillman: So over 700 residents helped to shape that plan.

00:20:35 Cassondra Dillman: There were workshops, interviews, focus groups, community audits, surveys, and over 20 community partners were also involved in that work.

00:20:44 Cassondra Dillman: I think that at the end, our action plan is really a community plan, so it's meant to support collaboration between the county, member municipalities, stakeholders, local agencies, and it's meant to align with other plans, policies that we have at the county, and it also gives us this lens that we can apply to our decision making.

00:21:14 Cassondra Dillman: So, how can we make this project, this decision, this policy more age-friendly?

00:21:25 Cassondra Dillman: And our progress so far.

00:21:26 Cassondra Dillman: So we have started underway over half of the action items in the plan, and there's been items started in each of those community dimensions.

00:21:40 Cassondra Dillman: And I know maybe some of you are thinking 50 percent, not always good news.

00:21:51 Cassondra Dillman: But I think considering this scope of this plan, I think considering that we've done most of this work on the side of our desks, there's been very little resourcing into this plan.

00:22:05 Cassondra Dillman: I think that number is impressive, and I think it is something to be celebrated.

00:22:11 Cassondra Dillman: And just for maybe for illustration, I can also share that part of this work was identifying which action items are within the county mandate, and which items might be outside of that scope that rely on those community partners.

00:22:29 Cassondra Dillman: So, if we take those thirty-seven items that we've identified as a community partner, if we just, for illustration, if we take those out of those numbers on the screen, we've made progress on seventy-three percent of the action items.

00:22:46 Cassondra Dillman: And what's working well?

00:22:47 Cassondra Dillman: So we did learn that there's a lot of age-friendly work that is happening across the county.

00:22:55 Cassondra Dillman: So a lot of staff are applying this lens in their daily work, and that in turn makes it part of our organizational culture.

00:23:04 Cassondra Dillman: We also—I really wanted to sort of show and tell that story of our age-friendly community planning.

00:23:11 Cassondra Dillman: I think there's a number of items that we learned that go above and beyond what's in the action plan.

00:23:18 Cassondra Dillman: So how do we capture that?

00:23:20 Cassondra Dillman: How do we tell that story?

00:23:21 Cassondra Dillman: And know that there are items that show the staff commitment to HFE goals.

00:23:30 Cassondra Dillman: We also have a growing community engagement.

00:23:32 Cassondra Dillman: So membership on our committee has increased.

00:23:35 Cassondra Dillman: We had 11 new individuals and organizations join in 2025, and just a couple more a few weeks ago.

00:23:43 Cassondra Dillman: We also have had over 250 residents join an email list.

00:23:48 Cassondra Dillman: They're interested, and I will share.

00:23:51 Cassondra Dillman: I haven't sent out an email yet, so those are people that are interested in learning more.

00:23:56 Cassondra Dillman: And after this meeting, I'll be sharing with them the good news.

00:24:00 Cassondra Dillman: So I think it just shows that there's interest and that there's commitment and people.

00:24:06 Cassondra Dillman: People are curious to learn more here.

00:24:08 Cassondra Dillman: Locally, we know that Hanover has been a provincial leader for nearly a decade in age-friendly community planning.

00:24:12 Cassondra Dillman: And then more recently, we have Grey Highlands and the town of Hanover that have really taken this intergenerational approach to age-friendly.

00:24:20 Cassondra Dillman: And I think it really shows that we're in good company.

00:24:26 Cassondra Dillman: What have we learned?

00:24:36 Cassondra Dillman: The action plan speaks to several really complex societal issues.

00:24:42 Cassondra Dillman: You know, mental health, addiction, homelessness, and we know that those can't be addressed by one organization.

00:24:50 Cassondra Dillman: I think that those challenges.

00:24:53 Cassondra Dillman: It also really shows the county's unique role in our ability to gather stakeholders, to identify priorities, to focus resources, and to advance some of those age-friendly goals.

00:25:08 Cassondra Dillman: The COVID-19 pandemic.

00:25:10 Cassondra Dillman: The action plan was created at a very specific moment in time, at the height of the pandemic.

00:25:17 Cassondra Dillman: Staffing resources as well, so the plan identifies hiring a full-time age-friendly coordinator.

00:25:25 Cassondra Dillman: And in the absence of that position, it does make it challenging to sort of manage and coordinate the plan.

00:25:31 Cassondra Dillman: That position was tied with over twenty-five items for them to lead.

00:25:36 Cassondra Dillman: Right now, accountability for the plan lies with the planning department, which is why I'm here today.

00:25:43 Cassondra Dillman: And staff are continuing to advance the plan as best as we can.

00:25:48 Cassondra Dillman: Evaluation, I think this is often can be a challenge.

00:25:52 Cassondra Dillman: So sometimes the data for those indicators they weren't available.

00:25:56 Cassondra Dillman: Sometimes those organizations they may no longer exist, or the position no longer exists.

00:26:02 Cassondra Dillman: And I think some of that prioritization of action items can really help us focus the implementation and the evaluation.

00:26:16 Cassondra Dillman: Part of this work, as I mentioned earlier, I really wanted to highlight the scope of projects that were underway across the county, so both within the organization and with our community partners that are advancing age-friendly goals.

00:26:30 Cassondra Dillman: So you'll see in the snapshot document in front of you that's a summary, and there's more than forty projects that are highlighted in the report card.

00:26:40 Cassondra Dillman: So some of those projects they range from you know millions of investment in the county housing fund, to staff creating a virtual courtroom, which you would have seen on your way into chambers today, resurfacing the rail trail, installing cycling signs, supporting student placements, to forming an Indigenous advisory circle at Grey Roots, and I think all of this work it really shows that if we apply that age-friendly lens and we ask that question, how can this project or policy be more age-friendly?

00:27:13 Cassondra Dillman: We do some great work, and that's how we create more inclusive communities.

00:27:24 Cassondra Dillman: For some of our next steps, and this was outlined in that covering staff report as well, there's a few minor refinements that we're proposing at this time.

00:27:34 Cassondra Dillman: Really, they're efficiency improvements.

00:27:37 Cassondra Dillman: Some of the action items are quite robust, so for easier tracking, they can be divided into smaller components.

00:27:46 Cassondra Dillman: In the report card, I identified those with an A, B, or C just to sort of show that they're all related.

00:27:54 Cassondra Dillman: There's also four duplicate items in the action plan, and there was one item that we identified: the creation of an accessibility group that's really no longer needed, especially with the success of our joint accessibility advisory committee, and then continuing plan implementation.

00:28:07 Cassondra Dillman: And that concludes my presentation.

00:28:20 Cassondra Dillman: Please let me know if you have any questions.

00:28:23 Cassondra Dillman: Thank you.

00:28:25 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you very much, and thank you for sharing the highlights brochure.

00:28:30 Andrea Matrosovs: And I assume that in this brochure that you've circulated, these are highlights of what the lower-tier municipalities are doing and highlights of what the county is doing.

00:28:39 Andrea Matrosovs: Not—not a full and complete list, but just snapshots about what's happening across the county.

00:28:45 Andrea Matrosovs: Very, very helpful.

00:28:46 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:28:46 Andrea Matrosovs: That will be a good piece to be sharing at our age-friendly fair that are happening everywhere.

00:28:53 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:28:54 Andrea Matrosovs: So, any questions for Planner Dillman?

00:28:55 Andrea Matrosovs: We'll start with Councillor Dobreen online.

00:29:04 SPEAKER_258: Good morning, Warden, County Council, and I wanted to thank Cassandra for the presentation and all of the great work that's being done.

00:29:15 SPEAKER_258: I do want to note that Southgate was one of the first to hold a seniors health fair.

00:29:21 SPEAKER_258: Two of them, in fact.

00:29:23 SPEAKER_258: So we're really delighted that it has continued.

00:29:28 SPEAKER_258: What I would like to note from the website that you can sign up for the newsletter through the website.

00:29:35 SPEAKER_258: Is there an email address if someone isn't—you know, website-friendly?

00:29:41 SPEAKER_258: And my second question, Cassandra, through you, Warden, is there an age-friendly committee?

00:29:49 SPEAKER_258: Are there openings for that?

00:29:52 SPEAKER_258: We have a new seniors, a relatively new seniors residents that have regular coffee chats and are interested in becoming more engaged.

00:30:02 SPEAKER_258: So I'm just wondering how we might refer them on.

00:30:03 SPEAKER_258: Thank you.

00:30:04 SPEAKER_258: Great, thank you, and through you, Chair.

00:30:15 Cassondra Dillman: If someone's having difficulty with accessing the newsletter, they can certainly reach out to myself and I can assist with that.

00:30:24 Cassondra Dillman: So, my email is also right below that link on our website.

00:30:26 Cassondra Dillman: So, Cassandra Dillman.

00:30:27 Cassondra Dillman: I—grade—CA.

00:30:27 Cassondra Dillman: And in terms of if there's anyone else that's interested in joining that committee or learning more, I would also suggest reaching out to myself, and I can connect as well.

00:30:31 Cassondra Dillman: I know we have some staff in Southgate that are really active on our committee, so that would be great if we had more residents and seniors as well.

00:30:40 Cassondra Dillman: Okay, thank you.

00:30:40 Cassondra Dillman: Any other?

00:30:47 Cassondra Dillman: We'll go to Councillor McQueen.

00:30:53 Cassondra Dillman: Councillor Warden, thank you for your report.

00:30:59 Paul Mcqueen: I just wanted to comment about the, um, the regards to the age-friendly seniors health fair that was at the complex last year, and I tell you, those seniors are pretty fired up.

00:31:12 Paul Mcqueen: They were an exciting, vibrant, an exciting bunch, and they were just enthusiastic, and it was like I couldn't get over how, how up there they were.

00:31:20 Paul Mcqueen: So I will say that it was really inspiring to see, and there's a lot of aspects I would say that we're having it again this year.

00:31:28 Paul Mcqueen: But yeah, they were, they were just charged right up.

00:31:31 Paul Mcqueen: It's good to see.

00:31:32 Olivia Legate: Yes, thank you.

00:31:32 Olivia Legate: And looking around the room on screen, okay, I don't see any further hands going up.

00:31:44 Andrea Matrosovs: Then so we have the motion in front of us.

00:31:46 Andrea Matrosovs: It's been moved and seconded.

00:31:47 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor, and that motion is carried.

00:31:50 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much.

00:31:51 Andrea Matrosovs: That was a great update to see what's happening across the county.

00:31:57 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, next we'll move on to item seven C. It's recommended that report CAORCW zero six twenty six regarding the provincial offences annual report be received for information.

00:32:07 Andrea Matrosovs: May ask for a mover and a seconder.

00:32:13 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, we've got it moved by the Deputy Warden online and seconded by Councillor Pringle.

00:32:18 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion.

00:32:19 Andrea Matrosovs: Welcome, Manager Kokas.

00:32:20 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:32:20 Andrea Matrosovs: Good morning, County Council.

00:32:27 Amanda Kokas: I'm here today to give you just a brief overview of the provincial offences operations over the last year.

00:32:33 Amanda Kokas: So, for our ticket volumes, we've remained relatively the same over the last ten years, with having around eleven thousand seven hundred ninety-six Part One tickets issued last year in two thousand and twenty-five.

00:32:45 Amanda Kokas: So, those are the less serious charges, such as speeding and liquor license charges.

00:32:50 Amanda Kokas: And then last year we had eight hundred and eighteen Part Three informations laid.

00:32:55 Amanda Kokas: So, those are the more serious charges.

00:32:56 Amanda Kokas: So, we have had relative stable ticket volumes, which has resulted in a consistent revenue source.

00:33:04 Amanda Kokas: However, we do continue to see increased costs.

00:33:07 Amanda Kokas: Again, specifically surrounding the increased need for interpreter matters and inflationary costs on such as copying, printing, and postage.

00:33:17 Amanda Kokas: While we've made a lot of progress with having virtual courtroom, all of our physical documents are still legislated to be in paper.

00:33:25 Amanda Kokas: So we still every ticket issued is a piece of paper that we have to deal with.

00:33:31 Amanda Kokas: Which and also everything has to be mailed.

00:33:33 Amanda Kokas: So while we can send things by email, we also have a mandatory legislation to send things by mail.

00:33:40 Amanda Kokas: So we are working on that.

00:33:43 Amanda Kokas: Other changes that we faced over the last year is the court security costs.

00:33:47 Amanda Kokas: So that is another new thing that we have.

00:33:49 Amanda Kokas: So currently on court days, we do have a special constable and an armed officer in the building, and they're responsible for securing the building, walking around, and screening all individuals that will enter the courtroom using a handheld wand device.

00:34:08 Amanda Kokas: So there still remains a lot of uncertainty around these security requirements and any funding that might be provided.

00:34:17 Amanda Kokas: But I did find out that I have a follow-up meeting with the parliamentary assistant next week.

00:34:23 Amanda Kokas: So hopefully, we can get some further direction on these new requirements as well as the need for an increase in these fines, such as speeding, which haven't been increased since 1990, to ensure that we can continue operating as a self-funded model and we don't have to go to the taxpayers.

00:34:44 Amanda Kokas: Another big change that we actually just implemented last week is that we are expanding our collection efforts.

00:34:50 Amanda Kokas: So currently, over since we started, we've always used one collection agency to collect on our outstanding fines.

00:34:58 Amanda Kokas: So we are following suit with a lot of other courts in the province, and we have expanded now to three collection agencies.

00:35:06 Amanda Kokas: So instead of having one collection agency look over all 22,000 outstanding fines, we've now spread them out over three different agencies, and hopefully they'll get more attention on the specific fines that are outstanding, and hopefully we can collect on that revenue.

00:35:25 Amanda Kokas: So those are the big changes that have or happened in POA over the last year, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

00:35:32 Amanda Kokas: Okay, thank you.

00:35:35 Andrea Matrosovs: And indeed, that's good news to hear that we're getting follow up from the delegation.

00:35:39 Andrea Matrosovs: So good luck with that next week.

00:35:41 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, looking around the room and online for any hands, and I am not seeing any.

00:35:49 Andrea Matrosovs: So, in which case, then I will call the question.

00:35:52 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor, and that is carried.

00:35:55 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:36:09 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, we're just going to try to get one more report in here, and then we are going to need to consider when we do our break time.

00:36:15 Andrea Matrosovs: So, I will recommend that it is recommended that report CAOR CW zero nine twenty six regarding the green development program be received, and that the voluntary green development program be approved as presented, and staff be directed to proceed with the program implementation with an anticipated launch date of the spring of 2026, and that staff be directed to continue collaboration with municipalities to confirm their preferred option for participation, and that staff be delegated authority to make minor program adjustments as needed, subject to approval by the Director of Planning and the Manager of Climate Change Initiatives.

00:36:47 Andrea Matrosovs: May ask for a mover and a seconder.

00:36:58 Andrea Matrosovs: So we've got a move by Councillor Hutchinson, and seconded by Councillor Mackey.

00:37:02 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion.

00:37:05 Andrea Matrosovs: So, who is going to begin for us?

00:37:08 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

00:37:08 Andrea Matrosovs: All right.

00:37:09 Andrea Matrosovs: Welcome, Manager Swanston.

00:37:09 Andrea Matrosovs: Good morning.

00:37:10 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:37:28 Linda Swanston: I'm pleased today to present to you the output of a period of work, which is our recommended green development program.

00:37:36 Linda Swanston: I'm going to provide an introduction and a little bit of rationale and context, and then hand it over to our dedicated lead, Megan Myles, to walk you through the details of the recommended program.

00:37:48 Linda Swanston: So, what we're really bringing today is a made-in-Grey approach to green development.

00:37:54 Linda Swanston: This doesn't look like what you see in the 15 plus other jurisdictions across Ontario who have these kind of programs.

00:38:01 Linda Swanston: What we're bringing is a voluntary, no-cost recognition program that allows us to celebrate the great development that is already happening across Grey County that is energy efficient, climate resilient, and affordable in the long term for our residents.

00:38:17 Linda Swanston: We're also designing the program to really maximize our regional competitive advantage and prepare us for construction of the future.

00:38:25 Linda Swanston: You see that in the letters of support, which are part of the report package.

00:38:29 Linda Swanston: We heard anecdotally there's already two local developers who would like to participate in this program should it be approved, including Habitat for Humanity Great Bruce, which I think is a really nice tie-in to the affordability that comes with high-performance construction.

00:38:35 Linda Swanston: This program works beside our existing regulatory planning process.

00:38:38 Linda Swanston: Nothing's getting slowed down.

00:38:39 Linda Swanston: Nothing is being presupposed.

00:38:40 Linda Swanston: This is an opportunity for projects that meet the regulated planning process to then be further recognized and validated.

00:38:52 Linda Swanston: So what is this thing?

00:39:06 Linda Swanston: It is a supportive framework that we have developed in partnership with Dufferin and Wellington Counties.

00:39:14 Linda Swanston: It's a flex.

00:39:14 Linda Swanston: It's a flexible menu of 18 performance metrics, so 18 different things that a development can choose to incorporate.

00:39:23 Linda Swanston: And Megan's going to walk you through the details of some of those.

00:39:27 Linda Swanston: Again, many of these elements are things we're hearing from local developers; they're already doing.

00:39:31 Linda Swanston: So it's more insulation.

00:39:33 Linda Swanston: It's using native plants.

00:39:35 Linda Swanston: It's looking at ways to manage stormwater on site in a way that is most effective and efficient.

00:39:42 Linda Swanston: The process to create this flexible menu was in part led by the technical expertise of Urban Equation, consulting firm that we've worked with, and really informed by a lot of local consultation and conversation, which is why it took us some time.

00:40:00 Linda Swanston: Work began in earnest on this project in January of 2024 when we received $445,000 from Intercan for their InterCan for their codes acceleration fund through 2024.

00:40:14 Linda Swanston: We really tried to ground things locally in conversation with our municipalities and also local industries.

00:40:20 Linda Swanston: So we held two public workshops with over 40 participants in Grey County.

00:40:25 Linda Swanston: We had three industry sessions with over 114 participants, and then three Grey County-specific municipal workshops to talk to your local planning and building staff.

00:40:37 Linda Swanston: We took all that, and in 2025 we refined it.

00:40:40 Linda Swanston: We also paid heed to the changing provincial landscape in terms of planning regulation, and we launched a key component of the program, which is the Talent and Business Attraction Plan.

00:40:54 Linda Swanston: So the Talent and Business Attraction Plan is really, as I mentioned, trying to make sure that we are well positioned to realize the benefits of green construction in our area.

00:41:04 Linda Swanston: So we launched that with Georgian College.

00:41:06 Linda Swanston: There's also a letter of support in the package from Georgian about why they think this is valuable.

00:41:11 Linda Swanston: And we kick that off, and then to my great pleasure, in August we were able to bring on Megan Miles as the dedicated program coordinator with the InterCan grant funding, and so she's been kind of refining and leading us up to today.

00:41:27 Linda Swanston: So that's what it is.

00:41:28 Linda Swanston: But why are we doing this?

00:41:30 Linda Swanston: So we know from the latest growth management projections that there's going to be over 14,000 new residential units over the next 25 years.

00:41:39 Linda Swanston: Those buildings hopefully are going to last over 100 years.

00:41:42 Linda Swanston: We want to build them right.

00:41:44 Linda Swanston: We want to build them in a way that brings the most benefit to our residents.

00:41:48 Linda Swanston: We know that in our climate, an upfront capital increase, so spending 1 to 4% more when you build the building, to be energy efficient, can result in up to a 50% annual energy cost savings.

00:42:02 Linda Swanston: If you think about that, you're paying that little bit more at the beginning, and then your energy bills, or our residents' energy bills, could be up to 50% less.

00:42:10 Linda Swanston: That's in a multi-unit residential building.

00:42:12 Linda Swanston: Single-family homes, the returns closer to 20% in energy cost savings, but still significant.

00:42:18 Linda Swanston: Also, if we're building these things to be water efficient, it also saves us on county infrastructure.

00:42:26 Linda Swanston: So every, you know, every millimeter of rain that doesn't end up in our storm sewers or our municipality storm sewers because it's being permeated into the soil is a benefit.

00:42:38 Linda Swanston: There are social and environmental benefits on top of those long-term affordability benefits through things like water management, complete streets, and then the last piece is this regional competitive advantage.

00:42:49 Linda Swanston: So, on top of the number of new units we know are being built, that accounts for 9.2 percent of the Grey labour force in construction.

00:43:02 Linda Swanston: So, we know a lot of our residents are working in this sector already, and the estimate is that green construction jobs will double by 2030 from pre-pandemic levels.

00:43:13 Linda Swanston: So, we want to make sure that our regional builders are ready for this transition.

00:43:20 Linda Swanston: It's also homeowner preference.

00:43:22 Linda Swanston: So, this was a last-minute slide.

00:43:23 Linda Swanston: This is from Terion.

00:43:28 Linda Swanston: So, this is the company that provides warranty for new home construction.

00:43:34 Linda Swanston: They do an annual new home buyer report where they ask residents who are going to be buying new homes what's important to them, and in their own words, energy efficiency has a surprisingly strong showing in important factors when shopping for a new home, so it's number three.

00:43:34 Linda Swanston: They do an annual new home buyer report where they ask residents who are going to be buying new homes what's important to them, and in their own words, energy efficiency has a surprisingly strong showing in important factors when shopping for a new home, so it's number three.

00:43:50 Linda Swanston: And this is new home buyers specifically.

00:43:52 Linda Swanston: So it may not be the top priority of all home buyers, but people who are going to be buying new residential units are interested in energy efficiency.

00:44:01 Linda Swanston: And so this program allows us to recognize and celebrate developments that can deliver that for our residents.

00:44:09 Linda Swanston: So my final slide before handing it over to Megan to talk about the details is to say that we are aligned with provincial direction.

00:44:15 Linda Swanston: Scott and his team know that it's been a rapidly changing landscape.

00:44:19 Linda Swanston: By bringing forward an entirely voluntary program with flexible pathways to achievement, we know we are well aligned with the province and what they are asking for in terms of redevelopment.

00:44:30 Linda Swanston: So with all that said, I will hand it over to Megan to walk you through the details.

00:44:42 Megan Myles: So, for applicants who choose to participate, the program will work alongside the usual development review process with no additional delays and approvals.

00:44:50 Megan Myles: As Linda mentioned, we work closely with county and municipal planning staff to develop a streamlined process.

00:44:57 Megan Myles: And based on this input, we're proposing a county coordinated program, meaning that the county would receive and review program submissions alongside planning applications going to the municipalities or the county.

00:45:09 Megan Myles: We'll continue to collaborate with municipalities on implementation, subject to local interest and capacity.

00:45:15 Megan Myles: Municipalities are often the first point of contact when an applicant is starting a project, so we certainly welcome municipal staff sharing program information with applicants early in the process and flagging any potential participants.

00:45:28 Megan Myles: If an applicant chooses to participate, they will submit a completed checklist and supporting documents, and then county staff will review the submission and confirm the points achieved.

00:45:39 Megan Myles: So here's an overview of the metrics and the point structure developed through stakeholder consultation and best practices.

00:45:45 Megan Myles: Generally, the number of points reflects the cost or difficulty of implementing each feature.

00:45:51 Megan Myles: The point structure allows applicants to pick and choose what metrics make sense for their projects and provides them with the flexibility for different types of projects and different site conditions.

00:46:02 Megan Myles: The energy and carbon merit, as well as the bronze threshold, provide a very attainable entry point with the ability to achieve recognition with just focusing on a few metrics.

00:46:13 Megan Myles: So the builders don't have to do everything; they can pick and choose to see what makes sense for their project.

00:46:18 Megan Myles: Over time, it'll be really useful to see which metrics have the greatest uptake and where more support is needed.

00:46:25 Megan Myles: And in the future, council may choose to refine the points to reflect new local priorities.

00:46:33 Megan Myles: Some similar municipal programs have implemented financial or non-financial incentives, such as development charge rebates, community improvement plans, expedited approvals, or servicing allocation.

00:46:45 Megan Myles: At this point, as a new program, we're initially proposing a recognition program where applicants would be and participants would be featured through project profiles, bronze, silver, and gold program logo that the company can use for marketing purposes, as well as an awards event.

00:47:03 Megan Myles: And we'll explore doing this in coordination with existing business or industry events.

00:47:08 Megan Myles: We'll also continue to explore opportunities for other financial or non-financial incentives, which may be feasible or of interest to some municipalities.

00:47:20 Megan Myles: So while the recognition process, while the recognition program focuses on what features are being implemented, the capacity building aspect of the program focuses on why and identifying what supports are needed to make it easier to incorporate key features into new builds.

00:47:36 Megan Myles: As we shared with PDAK last month, we're collaborating with Georgian College and non-profit Sustainable Waterloo Region on a regional readiness research project, which will help us identify what barriers and economic opportunities exist.

00:47:50 Megan Myles: We also have an advisory group of county and municipal economic development staff to make sure findings align with local experience and strategic priorities.

00:48:02 Megan Myles: So overall, this research is helping us get a clear understanding of where we have good coverage and where we don't.

00:48:09 Megan Myles: Is local industry able to get the goods and services, the skilled workforce, or training that they need to implement these features?

00:48:16 Megan Myles: Given the projected growth in the green building sector, there's a significant opportunity in building higher performance and retrofitting buildings.

00:48:24 Megan Myles: So rather than sending money out of our communities by importing fossil fuels, we can hire local businesses and create local jobs.

00:48:32 Megan Myles: So currently, we're in the engagement phase of this project.

00:48:35 Megan Myles: So we're talking to local contractors about their on-the-ground experiences.

00:48:39 Megan Myles: We've collected over 70 survey responses in the past month.

00:48:43 Megan Myles: We're hosting a series of focus groups, and we spoke with local contractors at the Home Builders Association earlier this week.

00:48:51 Megan Myles: And we'll share these findings in a report later this year.

00:48:56 Megan Myles: In terms of next steps, pending council approval, we'll work to launch the program later this spring.

00:49:02 Megan Myles: We'll start with confirming with each municipality on how exactly they want to be involved, and after launch, we look towards promoting the program, providing one-on-one support with staff and applicants as needed, and working towards getting our first cohort of participants.

00:49:17 Megan Myles: Of course, with any new program, we'll be closely monitoring outcomes and making tweaks and improvements as needed.

00:49:25 Megan Myles: You know your communities best, so if councillors are aware of residential projects in your communities that you might be interested in participating, please let us know.

00:49:35 Megan Myles: Overall, we're really excited about the opportunity to work collaboratively with the construction development industry to meet them where they're at, celebrate leadership and innovation that's already happening, and make it more visible and valued in our communities.

00:49:50 Megan Myles: Having local examples and case studies of different types and scales of development will help showcase what's possible and practical in our communities.

00:50:00 Megan Myles: Thanks so much, and happy to take any questions.

00:50:03 Megan Myles: Okay, thank you very much.

00:50:07 Andrea Matrosovs: So this has been a long road.

00:50:09 Andrea Matrosovs: It's good to see, and with that, I will look around and see if there are any questions from in the chamber, and we'll just wait a moment for the screen to switch so I can check online.

00:50:21 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, and I'm not seeing any hands go up.

00:50:25 Andrea Matrosovs: This has been a long road.

00:50:27 Andrea Matrosovs: We have seen a lot of progress along the way, and the timeline that you shared certainly emphasized the kind of input that went into it along the way as well.

00:50:36 Andrea Matrosovs: So with that, I will call the question.

00:50:38 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor?

00:50:39 Andrea Matrosovs: And this motion is carried.

00:50:41 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

00:50:42 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so we are going to need to do a break at this point in time.

00:50:45 Andrea Matrosovs: We're at 11:15, and our lunch is scheduled for 12:30.

00:50:49 Andrea Matrosovs: So if we can be back in our seats ready to go at 11:25.

00:50:53 Andrea Matrosovs: We will move on to the next report.

00:50:55 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

01:03:13 Andrea Matrosovs: Could I please ask committee, the whole members, if they could start to make their way back to their seats?

01:03:17 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

01:03:47 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, we have the nod from technology that we are able to continue after our break.

01:03:51 Andrea Matrosovs: The next one is item seven E, and Madam Clerk, I'm not going to read this out because we have already done it.

01:04:00 Andrea Matrosovs: We are actually putting it back on the table.

01:04:03 Andrea Matrosovs: So this was the item.

01:04:04 Andrea Matrosovs: What you see printed in the agenda was the item that was deferred from the February 12th meeting.

01:04:11 Andrea Matrosovs: So there is no need to look for a mover and a seconder to enter into discussion.

01:04:15 Andrea Matrosovs: And as the report, as we will hear from the CAO in a moment, the report adds extra information and a consideration of different directions in which we may go.

01:04:25 Andrea Matrosovs: Now that we have the table open to begin discussions on this topic again, so just before you get started, CAO Shirts, sir, I do want to just recognize first of all, I want to recognize the municipalities, staff, councils of the lower tiers, who worked very hard to piece together the input that they are able to give to us in a timeline that was effectively needed to happen.

01:04:49 Andrea Matrosovs: Now couldn't have happened earlier because we needed to have this kind of information in front of everybody to have those discussions.

01:04:55 Andrea Matrosovs: So it was the right time and place for us to hear that feedback.

01:04:58 Andrea Matrosovs: We couldn't have been able to process that as swiftly as we could with this report in front of us without the energy and effort of our senior staff, CEO Shirtsir and Director Koi and Deputy CAO and the whole team that was ready to respond and visit with all the municipalities to make sure that as much information could be shared as possible, so that we could come back here as a County Council committee, the whole to be able to contemplate the pathway that we may wish to go forward from there.

01:05:21 Andrea Matrosovs: So my thanks to that, and with that, CAO, why don't you share what you've learned and support the report that you provided us?

01:05:35 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

01:05:35 Andrea Matrosovs: Great.

01:05:37 Randy Scherzer: Good morning, Warden and members of council, and thank you for those comments, Warden.

01:05:42 Randy Scherzer: And I equally thanked the CEOs when I met with them last week for their efforts to allow us to come and delegate to all nine members of councils in such a short time period, and also thank them obviously for all the reports and comments and questions that each of the staff from the member municipalities put forward as well.

01:06:04 Randy Scherzer: Again, under a short time frame, so definitely an overall great county team effort to put all this information together, so that we could present this report to you today.

01:06:13 Randy Scherzer: So again, good morning, everyone.

01:06:18 Randy Scherzer: Following the deferral, the task force recommendation regarding the proposed road transfers, as the warden indicated, staff attended all nine member municipal council meetings to provide an update on the road transfer process, the proposed financial model, as well as the proposed transfer dates.

01:06:36 Randy Scherzer: We also provided updated information, including the most recent asset data and the draft road transfer agreements, were also shared with municipal staff.

01:06:45 Randy Scherzer: So this report provides a summary of what we heard from member municipalities during the additional engagement period, identifies some potential options to address the municipal comments.

01:06:55 Randy Scherzer: Options to address some municipal comments for council and or the task force to consider depending on what pathway and direction that council provides.

01:07:14 Randy Scherzer: While staff have identified potential options to address some of the concerns heard in the report, there hasn't been sufficient time to fully assess those options or to have further discussions with municipal staff regarding some of those potential options.

01:07:24 Randy Scherzer: The report does identify some potential next steps through the motions in the report that would allow these options to be explored in further detail.

01:07:25 Randy Scherzer: The first motion that committee will need to deal with following the presentation of the report is to deal with that deferred task force motion that was deferred at the February 12 committee of the whole meeting to be dealt with at today's committee of the whole meeting.

01:07:35 Randy Scherzer: For the deferred motion, as noted in the report, council has a few options.

01:07:45 Randy Scherzer: You can vote on the deferred motion as it stands.

01:07:48 Randy Scherzer: You can amend the deferred motion, you can defer it to a future date, or refer it back to the task force, or you can postpone the deferred motion indefinitely.

01:07:59 Randy Scherzer: Postponing indefinitely avoids taking a position or on a question motion, and avoids a direct vote at this time.

01:08:08 Randy Scherzer: It essentially, I'll put in quotes, kills the motion, which allows committee to consider other motions based on the information that we've summarized in this report.

01:08:20 Randy Scherzer: If council chooses to support, defeat, or amend the deferred motion, this could limit options moving forward, or could create scenarios where you're in find council may find themselves into reconsideration territory.

01:08:33 Randy Scherzer: So to avoid that quagmire of reconsideration, we think the cleanest approach likely is postponing indefinitely that deferred motion.

01:08:43 Randy Scherzer: Then council can decide through either the main motion that's identified in the report, or the alternative main motion, or some other motion, whether to continue the road transfer work with refinements and further analysis, or to pause and reset through an updated transportation master plan, or some other form of direction that staff are looking for.

01:09:06 Randy Scherzer: If a committee wanted to consider providing a different direction compared to the deferred recommendation of the task force, again staff are suggesting that's the cleanest approach would be to postpone indefinitely that deferred motion.

01:09:19 Randy Scherzer: Before I turn over to Pat to highlight some of the comments that we heard during the most recent engagement and some of the potential options to consider, we did hear from most municipalities that they understood and generally agreed upon the overall principles of the right road, right owner approach, but we also heard from the majority of the municipalities that additional time is required in order to review the agreements and to better understand the financial and the asset management implications, particularly for roads proposed for download.

01:09:51 Randy Scherzer: We did provide links to all the municipal staff reports, and again, thank you to all the municipal staff that put forward those reports.

01:09:59 Randy Scherzer: Those are all linked in the report, so you have all the information that we've received.

01:10:04 Randy Scherzer: We've also summarized all the questions and comments that were provided by municipalities in the appendix, and provided some initial responses to those questions and comments as well.

01:10:15 Randy Scherzer: So, with that procedural framework and context in mind, I'll now turn over to Pat to highlight some of the key themes of the comments we heard during the recent engagement and some of the potential options for addressing the comments we heard, because that information we think will help them form the direction that committee as a whole may want to provide back to staff to consider.

01:10:28 Randy Scherzer: All right, thank you, Randy.

01:10:41 Pat Hoy: And again, I'll echo those thank yous from the Warden and the CAO to your staff and councils.

01:10:47 Pat Hoy: There was a lot of heavy lifting here in a very short time, so I know it's a lot of pressure for everybody, and everyone worked real hard to get their comments back.

01:10:53 Pat Hoy: So we appreciate that.

01:10:55 Pat Hoy: I'm going to try to briefly go over this report here.

01:10:57 Pat Hoy: As you can see, this kind of this report is 36 pages.

01:11:00 Pat Hoy: It's kind of like Nile talks.

01:11:01 Pat Hoy: There's a lot here, so I'm as you see, Nile put my name on it, but there's a lot of Nile in there.

01:11:08 Pat Hoy: But I'm going to try to work through it a little briefly, just to go over because we did notice a lot of the same themes coming up, right?

01:11:13 Pat Hoy: And they, you know, we weren't totally surprised by it, and it's good to get it all that we're all talking about our concerns because it's a big step for everybody.

01:11:21 Pat Hoy: This whole process, this long-storied process.

01:11:25 Pat Hoy: So the first thing I start with is item two on page nine of the report: the transition timeline.

01:11:31 Pat Hoy: That July timeline, pretty much everybody it seemed like felt it was just too soon.

01:11:37 Pat Hoy: It's kind of you know, sped up here at the end.

01:11:40 Pat Hoy: So we're recommending in this to move the date either to late October after the election, and potentially shifting to 2027 or as Randy went over with those options, maybe further.

01:11:51 Pat Hoy: That also kind of takes care of item number two on page nine: the civic address changes.

01:11:56 Pat Hoy: If it was pushed off to after the election, some of the concerns about everything being in place for the election gives us more time just to work, and it would be after the vote that people would be getting these address changes.

01:12:08 Pat Hoy: So next I'll move on into page nine about some of the funding, the transition funding.

01:12:13 Pat Hoy: So the majority of the concerns were about the various forms of funding because it isn't just one kind of stream.

01:12:19 Pat Hoy: It is very complicated, so we had a lot of concern about the predictability and security, where people just wanted a fixed amount.

01:12:29 Pat Hoy: And it kind of goes over in the report here that the fixed funding might seem appealing, but it introduces risk for both the county and municipalities.

01:12:36 Pat Hoy: Either the percentage of increase of the county capital budget is more than expected or less than expected, it can end up with one party being short of the funding sharing.

01:12:48 Pat Hoy: If you pick a rate to the number now, so like I'm kind of trying to think of it kind of like our OCF funding.

01:12:54 Pat Hoy: You know, we know a number is coming.

01:12:57 Pat Hoy: We don't know exactly what it is.

01:12:58 Pat Hoy: You're kind of in the ballpark.

01:12:59 Pat Hoy: If you get the number, you think you're going to get your fine.

01:13:02 Pat Hoy: If you get more, that's even better.

01:13:03 Pat Hoy: So that's kind of where we're still recommending to stick to the formula that we came through for funding, at least for the transitional costs.

01:13:12 Pat Hoy: One thing we heard from the majority of the people receiving potentially receiving urban downloads was the operation and maintenance costs.

01:13:20 Pat Hoy: That's a challenge to absorb those costs.

01:13:23 Pat Hoy: It's a challenge regarding staff, equipment, and as we said, even in our original trip to all the municipalities, they're busier roads than the majority.

01:13:34 Pat Hoy: There's a few cases they aren't, but in a lot of cases they are.

01:13:38 Pat Hoy: So we also added in here another potential option of flexibility of transition funds.

01:13:45 Pat Hoy: So we'd be phasing in the county support regarding maintenance costs, the operation and maintenance costs on page 11.

01:13:51 Pat Hoy: So we would pay because no one has it in their budget for this year.

01:13:56 Pat Hoy: We'd be paying 100% now, and then over time it would slowly diminish that by 2030.

01:14:02 Pat Hoy: That by 2030, people would be paying for their own urban maintenance.

01:14:03 Pat Hoy: One other funding, page 12 and 13, was development charges.

01:14:12 Pat Hoy: So the municipalities ask that funds collected to the county flow through for those projects.

01:14:18 Pat Hoy: So we're proposing the consideration of a one-time transfer of that portion of the DC reserves.

01:14:24 Pat Hoy: So you'll see a chart on page 13.

01:14:27 Pat Hoy: So just to give you a little bit of background on how that chart is formed, the amount of DC jobs that are going in the potential transfers, the urban transfers, are 28% of the DC reserves.

01:14:39 Pat Hoy: So we took that 28% and came up with that number of 5.3 million.

01:14:44 Pat Hoy: Of that 28%, the jobs that were identified in the DC study each add up to a percentage too.

01:14:52 Pat Hoy: So I'll take Owen Sound for an example. 60% of the jobs, 60% of the job of the money being collected under the DC was for jobs in Owen Sound, so that equates to 3.1 million that Owen Sound would receive for the DC funding.

01:15:02 Pat Hoy: Now that being said, as with all our DC jobs, they're collected, you know, into a pot.

01:15:04 Pat Hoy: But depending on what happens with the jobs, they end up going to a DC job.

01:15:09 Pat Hoy: But that being said, the amounts do change sometimes over time.

01:15:32 Pat Hoy: It's not like if a job had a DC amount in our in our bylaw of a million dollars, it's not like whoever receives that has to spend that million dollars on that exact job doing the exact same thing we would have done.

01:15:42 Pat Hoy: It would go into the DC pot of the receiver.

01:15:44 Pat Hoy: So the risk, of course, you know, there's the risk that DCs aren't going to be around, which is you know, one government decision away from happening, maybe, and the other risk, of course, is that a lot of the roads we're taking on probably they have needs, obviously, and they weren't necessarily have any DC funds connected to them, depending on what the municipalities have in their DC bylaws.

01:16:04 Pat Hoy: So, there's a bit of a risk there in DC, and that it's not, it's not totally clear and it's not permanent.

01:16:10 Pat Hoy: Maybe it's just a kind of an unknown.

01:16:13 Pat Hoy: Another thing, I go on to item seven on page 13 was the short-term capital needs.

01:16:15 Pat Hoy: So, and we've kind of said this from the beginning too.

01:16:24 Pat Hoy: Nobody really wants to inherit a road that immediately has a whole bunch of needs.

01:16:29 Pat Hoy: Now, we are sort of getting that in the rural exchanges.

01:16:32 Pat Hoy: We're getting a few that have needs, you know, more quickly than slowly.

01:16:37 Pat Hoy: But we've kind of been taking from the start the the the the action that anything that is imminently going to need to be done we would do before we hand it over so we're doing that this year we're working on Markdale and Dundalk those are jobs that were you know scheduled to go anyway so we're doing them this year so as the as the timeline moves forward there's always going to be a new job that is supposed to be going the next summer so those will keep changing as the as the path goes forward but right now we've got in here committed to doing work on the Clarksburg Bridge which was pretty imminently needing work solving the Harrison Park Hill issues because we have money and a lot of it's DC related so we'd have to calculate the DC with that Meaford Grey Road 12 which is going to go fairly soon and Grey Road 4 and Fletcher and there's a job there which is going fairly soon, which that part of the job would be going or to the municipality.

01:17:32 Pat Hoy: So those are the four new jobs that we've kind of got in the, in the queue.

01:17:37 Pat Hoy: So they would go forward.

01:17:39 Pat Hoy: And on to item eight was the the overall funding package.

01:17:41 Pat Hoy: So they expressed concern it did not reflect lifecycle costs and long term needs.

01:17:45 Pat Hoy: So in some cases, and part of this is because there wasn't that much communication as far as people phoning us before they wrote something in their report or whatever.

01:18:10 Pat Hoy: But in some cases, the funds used or the figures used were were representative of an entire new road cost, where the municipal portion of the sanitary and water main is already included in the lower tier numbers.

01:18:29 Pat Hoy: So some of the numbers are inflated just because this is only our the Grey County portion of the costs.

01:18:36 Pat Hoy: And as no one has full funding, as we've said from the start, you know there was no staff report written saying we have more than enough funding and we're going to give some money back, right?

01:18:46 Pat Hoy: So, that was that was a pretty widespread thought that just they were a little concerned about the funding.

01:18:52 Pat Hoy: And again, you know, there was some some recommendations on inheriting or fixing up the road in its entirety before it goes over.

01:19:02 Pat Hoy: That is a pretty heavy thing to handle as far as they would kind of you know tie up our capital program on every other road trying to get these done.

01:19:12 Pat Hoy: So we struggle with that one, but obviously that you know they're heard that it's it's tough to take on a new road that has needs that you're not used to.

01:19:24 Pat Hoy: On to page 15, item nine, public engagement.

01:19:27 Pat Hoy: So a lot of requests for more consultation, and now we've been to a lot of these public meetings.

01:19:32 Pat Hoy: We've had a lot of them.

01:19:35 Pat Hoy: You know, we spent a night in an empty hall talking to the warden the one night, and and the public, even the ones that did come to the meeting, there was a lot of folks in a few of them.

01:19:44 Pat Hoy: They they really they're really confused by the whole thing anyway.

01:19:46 Pat Hoy: They want the road plowed and and they want the pavement to be good and they don't want potholes and we didn't really get a lot of concern about the project.

01:20:05 Pat Hoy: They they want they just want the road taken care of and they don't care who does it and they don't want to hear excuses why it's not done that it's one municipality not the other.

01:20:14 Pat Hoy: They don't like the run around.

01:20:15 Pat Hoy: They they again agreed to the idea in principle that okay we'd have one person to go to.

01:20:17 Pat Hoy: You know, if I want to do my parade, I don't have to go to multiple people.

01:20:19 Pat Hoy: I can just go to the the municipality. so I think the targeted we're recommending the more targeted communication because it seems like the meetings that were well attended are ones that were attended by people that live on the roads that are switching municipalities.

01:20:28 Pat Hoy: So those attendees had a lot of concerns just to know exactly how it was going to affect them.

01:20:34 Pat Hoy: So I think rather than a whole bunch of public meetings, I think we'd be looking just to keep targeting the residents directly affected.

01:20:40 Pat Hoy: On item ten, page 16, and and your staff, a lot of your staff mentioned this that the transportation master plan, you know, it's evolved a lot since then.

01:20:53 Pat Hoy: Maybe as it was completed the first time, there was a lot of for those that remember, there was a lot of kind of hanging recommendations where the solution wasn't really thought out, which is what we're trying to get through here now.

01:21:07 Pat Hoy: But it's evolved over time, so if you if you just went and read the transportation master plan and didn't read any report between 2016 and 2025, you would have a hard time reconciling it too.

01:21:16 Pat Hoy: So that's why we we think at some point, whenever that is, you know, a TMP update would be appropriate.

01:21:22 Pat Hoy: We didn't necessarily take one on the time in between because this process has been working its way kind of through.

01:21:34 Pat Hoy: One other thing, I guess, at the end there was additional issues, traffic signals.

01:21:38 Pat Hoy: A lot of concern about traffic signals.

01:21:40 Pat Hoy: We don't really have a lot in here now as far as traffic signal ongoing expenses.

01:21:46 Pat Hoy: So that is something that we will need to straighten out on whether it's maintenance or ongoing capital.

01:21:52 Pat Hoy: A lot of the condition based funding people were concerned about, and part of that when you are inheriting an asset, we have a lot of asset information.

01:22:01 Pat Hoy: But of course, there's only so much time and room to look over it all for the municipalities.

01:22:07 Pat Hoy: So there's a general uneasiness that they don't have a full idea of the assets that they're taking on, and I get that because there's a lot there, and it's a lot of it's a lot of data to sort through for something that you don't even have yet.

01:22:20 Pat Hoy: So I could understand how how there's uneasiness there, and just some boundary considerations.

01:22:26 Pat Hoy: You know, some of these agreements with Bruce County and such.

01:22:31 Pat Hoy: A lot of issues in around Hanover.

01:22:33 Pat Hoy: There's there's you know that border there, and the Prosperity Lands are in there.

01:22:38 Pat Hoy: There's a lot of things going on that just that make a kind of a strange agreement compared to other places.

01:22:45 Pat Hoy: So a lot of it requires further analysis.

01:22:48 Pat Hoy: But on to financial impact.

01:22:50 Pat Hoy: So you'll see the chart on page 19.

01:22:55 Pat Hoy: 19.

01:22:57 Pat Hoy: So we've added some operating funds on there, the DC transfers.

01:23:04 Pat Hoy: So that is just under 10 million more in funding.

01:23:07 Pat Hoy: Again, we haven't had you know a ton of time to go over all these numbers.

01:23:11 Pat Hoy: We haven't gone through and done a full capital on behalf of the county based on these numbers yet.

01:23:18 Pat Hoy: Although we did multiple capital analysis last year with the urban transfers in and out, so we do have some some stuff around.

01:23:24 Pat Hoy: But so that's kind of where we're at.

01:23:28 Pat Hoy: We know it's going to cost more.

01:23:30 Pat Hoy: Everyone didn't feel like there was enough funding there, and I understand that.

01:23:33 Pat Hoy: So I just wanted to mention that like like Grey County Transportation Services, we're fortunate enough to have long term professional, knowledgeable staff that work for us, and we are working with the best of intentions.

01:23:43 Pat Hoy: So we're committed to working with the member municipalities.

01:23:47 Pat Hoy: We're only a phone call away.

01:23:48 Pat Hoy: So when a question comes up at your municipality, feel free for anyone to call us, councillor, staff member, and then maybe we can answer your questions.

01:23:59 Pat Hoy: Because there is some, there is some things going on in the task force.

01:24:04 Pat Hoy: If you didn't have all the information, or maybe you weren't here from the start, or maybe you just started at a municipality, there is some things that make you shake your head.

01:24:13 Pat Hoy: Not, it's not totally clear where some of the thinking came from.

01:24:15 Pat Hoy: So we're always available for consultation to talk about where things came from, especially with that TMP history.

01:24:18 Pat Hoy: There's a lot of history there that you wouldn't really know about without reading through report after report after report.

01:24:27 Pat Hoy: So we're always around to talk.

01:24:30 Pat Hoy: So I guess back to random.

01:24:32 Pat Hoy: That's kind of where I'm at as far as the.

01:24:35 Pat Hoy: And again, thanking everyone for their feedback.

01:24:37 Pat Hoy: It's all valuable, and we can kind of understand what everyone's mentioning.

01:24:45 Randy Scherzer: Thanks, Pat.

01:24:46 Randy Scherzer: And just through you, Warden.

01:24:47 Randy Scherzer: Just to wrap up, then, in closing, again, just going back to what I was noting earlier, the first motion that committee will need to deal with is the deferred task force motion.

01:24:57 Randy Scherzer: As noted previously, council can vote on the motion as it currently stands, amend the deferred motion, defer it to a future date, or refer back to the task force.

01:25:06 Randy Scherzer: Or council can postpone the deferred motion indefinitely.

01:25:10 Randy Scherzer: As noted earlier, the postponing indefinitely probably is the cleanest approach.

01:25:14 Randy Scherzer: Avoid some of the any future procedural reconsideration.

01:25:18 Randy Scherzer: Craig Myers, I'll call him.

01:25:22 Randy Scherzer: If it's dealt with in any other way, if council adopts the motion to postpone indefinitely, for example, council can consider the main motion or the alternative main motion that are in the report to provide further direction to staff.

01:25:38 Randy Scherzer: Or some other motion that council may want to put forward and consider.

01:25:42 Randy Scherzer: I'll just go over those two motions.

01:25:44 Randy Scherzer: If council adopts the main motion, I call this the continue to do the work, but recalibrate options.

01:25:52 Randy Scherzer: So staff would return with a full structured options report for task force consideration in late April or early May, bring recommendations back to council in late May early June.

01:26:07 Randy Scherzer: As noted in the motion, the intent would be to invite municipal staff to participate in the task force discussions.

01:26:13 Randy Scherzer: That approach is again intended to further explore some of those key issues that were raised by municipalities, as highlighted by Pat earlier, and to explore some of those potential options that Pat provided.

01:26:27 Randy Scherzer: Based on that timing, it does mean that the July 2026 transfer date cannot be achieved, and therefore the implementation into transfers to either late 2026 or early 2027, or whatever the task force recommends based on some of those further conversations.

01:26:43 Randy Scherzer: If council adopts the alternative main motion, we call this the pause and reset option.

01:26:49 Randy Scherzer: Staff would essentially conclude the current road exchange work for now and proceed with a new transportation master plan during the next term of council, with road transfer decisions revisited through that updated TMP process.

01:27:04 Randy Scherzer: Just to build on some of Pat's earlier comments, too, just to highlight, in terms of either those processes, of course, we're open to further engagement with whatever directions provided today by committee.

01:27:15 Randy Scherzer: The whole we're committed to working with member municipalities further to engage with them to look for explore some.

01:27:24 Randy Scherzer: Of these options further.

01:27:26 Randy Scherzer: Whether that's rolling up our sleeves and doing that this year through the task force, or as part of an updated TMP process, we're happy to still have those conversations and dig through some of these options in further detail.

01:27:42 Randy Scherzer: Of course, council can put forward and consider any alternative motion once the deferred motion has been dealt with, and ultimately staff are looking for direction from committee on how you would like to move forward based on the additional information presented in the staff report.

01:27:57 Randy Scherzer: And we're happy to take any questions.

01:28:02 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you, CAO.

01:28:03 Andrea Matrosovs: So just to recap, in terms of what our process of decision making is here, we did pull it back onto the table.

01:28:10 Andrea Matrosovs: It was moved and seconded.

01:28:11 Andrea Matrosovs: Obviously, if it were passed, then that would be the direction.

01:28:15 Andrea Matrosovs: But if it were not passed, that would cease our ability to have further work done and conversation, versus if we take what we have on the table, but then proceed.

01:28:27 Andrea Matrosovs: And I'll confirm with Madam Clerk just to make sure that we're all on the same page here.

01:28:31 Andrea Matrosovs: The first item then would be to the alternative route would be to recognize that first motion that.

01:28:40 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, it is up on the screen.

01:28:45 Andrea Matrosovs: No, okay, all right.

01:28:46 Andrea Matrosovs: So within the report, just because everybody has that motion already printed in their agenda, I don't think we need to have the original one on the screen.

01:28:54 Andrea Matrosovs: But looking into the report, the first action that committee the whole can consider is the motion that reads that the motion deferred from the committee the whole meeting of February twelfth, twenty twenty six, regarding approval of the road transfer agreement templates and direction to bring forward road assumptions slash deletion bylaws for council's consideration be postponed indefinitely.

01:29:18 Andrea Matrosovs: That would be the first motion that would be moved and seconded, and should that pass, then that would then allow us to then carry on with new motions afterwards rather than needing to return to the one that's currently on the table.

01:29:33 Andrea Matrosovs: Is that correct?

01:29:36 Randy Scherzer: Through you, Warden.

01:29:36 Randy Scherzer: Yes, that's correct.

01:29:37 Randy Scherzer: So that would be the option to postpone indefinitely.

01:29:41 Randy Scherzer: Is the wording in that motion and the first motion the report as noted?

01:29:46 Randy Scherzer: There's other options that committee may consider, but that is one option is to postpone indefinitely.

01:29:51 Randy Scherzer: And as noted earlier, that be the cleanest option we think from a staff perspective.

01:29:58 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so perhaps then if we just focus on that part before we might so that we can see where we go as a committee, the whole, and then we'll know about what part part two would be in terms of decision making.

01:30:08 Andrea Matrosovs: Madam Clerk, does that work well for process?

01:30:11 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, she is concurring.

01:30:13 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so with that, I would like to actually take a moment to look to the chair of our task force, Councillor Gregg, if he would like to begin this point of discussion that we have at this point in time.

01:30:30 Scott Greig: I don't have a whole lot to add other than I'd be in favor of the motion to postpone indefinitely so that we can open up the floor for further conversation.

01:30:40 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you.

01:30:42 Andrea Matrosovs: So, okay, well, I can hear that as a willingness to move and look to see if there's a seconder to get on the floor for discussion.

01:30:50 Andrea Matrosovs: I see it seconded by Councillor Boddy, so it has been moved by Councillor Gregg, seconded by Councillor Boddy to postpone indefinitely.

01:30:58 Andrea Matrosovs: It's now on the floor for discussion, which allows us the opportunity to make any further discussions on the topic here.

01:31:07 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

01:31:07 Andrea Matrosovs: Oh, I see, Councillor Eccles online.

01:31:08 Andrea Matrosovs: Please go ahead.

01:31:13 Kevin Eccles: Thank you, Madam Warden, and through you to, I guess maybe it's possibly Tara, Madam Clerk.

01:31:24 Kevin Eccles: So do I. So I do understand, or if I can, make it clear for me to understand where the motion on the floor is to postpone indefinitely.

01:31:33 Kevin Eccles: How and when would any of this ever come back?

01:31:35 Kevin Eccles: That's.

01:31:44 Kevin Eccles: Is it a notice motion that somebody would need to put forward for the next meeting to consider?

01:31:52 Kevin Eccles: And I'll put out an option, you know, I notice a motion for the next meeting to consider splitting this transfer, and that we deal with the rural and the urban separately, because as of right now, that seems to be where the biggest problem is, is the urban, not necessarily transfer.

01:32:22 Kevin Eccles: I've always looked at it as an agreement very similar to the one we have with MTO on Highway Six, but I guess we're not there at that for the benefits that have that, but to I guess postponing this indefinitely.

01:32:33 Kevin Eccles: I just you know that indefinitely.

01:32:44 Kevin Eccles: You know that indefinite part.

01:32:48 Kevin Eccles: I mean, obviously, we've postponed it almost indefinitely since 2012, when the transportation master plan came out.

01:32:55 Kevin Eccles: So we—that's how do we get a motion back in front with this postponing indefinitely thing?

01:33:08 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so that question has been directed to the clerk.

01:33:11 Andrea Matrosovs: So, Madam Clerk, do you want to begin with the response?

01:33:15 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you, through you, Madam Warden.

01:33:21 Tara Warder: Hopefully, I can provide a little bit of clarification.

01:33:23 Tara Warder: So, the motion to postpone indefinitely is simply to take the motion that was deferred, the motion itself, and postpone it and put it to bed.

01:33:33 Tara Warder: It doesn't have the effect of putting the topic to rest.

01:33:38 Tara Warder: It's just a way of because if you if council votes on the deferred motion, in essence, you're going to be making a decision in favor or against.

01:33:47 Tara Warder: So this is just a different way of setting that aside based on the additional information that's been collected from member municipalities, and then because we're still on this topic today, and there's a supplemental report that's been included, there are other motions that are related to the same topic that will give staff direction if council votes in favor of it to proceed in a separate way.

01:33:47 Tara Warder: So this is just a different way of setting that aside based on the additional information that's been collected from member municipalities, and then because we're still on this topic today, and there's a supplemental report that's been included, there are other motions that are related to the same topic that will give staff direction if council votes in favor of it to proceed in a separate way.

01:34:12 Tara Warder: So just to summarize, just putting the motion that was deferred to bed, not the topic as a whole, if that makes sense.

01:34:20 Tara Warder: Okay.

01:34:21 Andrea Matrosovs: So if I could just add a question of clarification before checking to see if Councillor Eccles has any follow-up.

01:34:26 Andrea Matrosovs: The way you've just said, so how would it get back here for discussion?

01:34:34 Andrea Matrosovs: That could perhaps be if a subsequent motion has directed that the task force continues work.

01:34:39 Andrea Matrosovs: For example, then we would see a report come back, and then it would be back on the table for another discussion.

01:34:44 Andrea Matrosovs: Is that correct?

01:34:48 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

01:34:49 Andrea Matrosovs: Could you just answer with the microphone on?

01:34:51 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

01:34:54 Tara Warder: Yes, any subsequent motion would provide that direction to staff.

01:34:59 Tara Warder: It gets discussed further with committee of the whole or the task force, but it is related to the minutes from February of the task force, as well as the supplemental report that was included today.

01:35:09 Tara Warder: So as long as it's a motion that's generally in line with those things, then I would suggest it's perhaps in order and could be done and given today.

01:35:15 Tara Warder: Okay, so Councillor Eccles, do you have a follow-up?

01:35:18 Tara Warder: Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at.

01:35:23 Tara Warder: Was we could put forward the postponing motion for clarity?

01:35:26 Tara Warder: It's basically the February twelfth action and that report.

01:35:29 Tara Warder: It's off the table.

01:35:32 Kevin Eccles: The supplementary report today.

01:35:35 Kevin Eccles: We can derive motions out of that today.

01:35:42 Kevin Eccles: Yes, that is correct.

01:35:56 Andrea Matrosovs: We are getting that confirmation that that is correct, and it allows us to clear the deck so that we can move forth with motions after this one.

01:36:07 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, I did see the Deputy Warden's hand up online, but he's shaking his head, so I think that's been resolved.

01:36:13 Andrea Matrosovs: And I'm looking around the room for any other questions, comments.

01:36:18 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, I'm not seeing any hands in the room, and I'm not seeing any hands online.

01:36:22 Andrea Matrosovs: So the motion that we have is about to postpone indefinitely.

01:36:26 Andrea Matrosovs: I will call the vote.

01:36:28 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor, and that motion is carried.

01:36:31 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much.

01:36:33 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so that now allows us to move on to subsequent actions.

01:36:38 Andrea Matrosovs: So, CEO Shirtsurge, you just want to dial us back in now at this point in time where we are, and then I'll look for.

01:36:46 Andrea Matrosovs: I saw a hand over here.

01:36:48 Andrea Matrosovs: I think it was Councillor Boddy, and then I'll go to the Deputy Warden as well.

01:36:54 Randy Scherzer: Thank you, Warden.

01:36:54 Randy Scherzer: So with that deferred motion now kind of put to bed, essentially indefinitely.

01:37:00 Randy Scherzer: Now staff would be looking obviously for direction from committee in terms of next steps as it relates to some of the comments that were identified in the report, exploring some of the options further.

01:37:13 Randy Scherzer: So there's two motions that are identified in the report.

01:37:17 Randy Scherzer: The main motion, as noted, is what we call the continue the work but recalibrate option.

01:37:23 Randy Scherzer: So if adopted, council will be directing staff to prepare a report that incorporates the feedback received from member municipalities, as well as council's discussion and direction today, and to bring that report back to the task force for consideration.

01:37:38 Randy Scherzer: The motion would also identify that up to two members of the municipal staff would be invited to participate as part of those task force discussions to make sure that we're again all on the same page from a technical and financial perspective.

01:37:53 Randy Scherzer: And finally, it directs the task force to bring forward recommendations for potentially a late 2026 or early 2027 road exchange.

01:38:02 Randy Scherzer: So that's essentially what that would mean is that it's all this information goes back to the task force.

01:38:10 Randy Scherzer: We bring back further information.

01:38:11 Randy Scherzer: We explore some of these options further.

01:38:15 Randy Scherzer: The task force will make some recommendations, and those would come back to this committee of the whole for further direction consideration.

01:38:23 Randy Scherzer: The alternative main motion is the pause and reset option.

01:38:27 Randy Scherzer: If adopted, council would take no action as it relates to the February 20, February 5th task force recommendations.

01:38:34 Randy Scherzer: At this stage, direct staff to cease further work on the proposed ranch road transfers until completion of the next TMP, and direct staff to proceed with the development of a new transportation master plan that would be funded from the development charges reserve, and that would be completed during the next term of council.

01:38:51 Randy Scherzer: So that would be a pause and reset into next council.

01:38:55 Randy Scherzer: The alternative main motion, the main motion, the first motion in that report would be to roll up our sleeves, continue the work this year, have further discussion with the task force and member municipalities, and bring that back to committee in May or June of this year.

01:39:05 Randy Scherzer: Okay, thank you for that clarification.

01:39:15 Andrea Matrosovs: And yes, so I heard several times in your verbal presentation, plus in the report, your staff recommendation is the cleanest way would be to consider the first main motion that you've cited in the report.

01:39:38 Randy Scherzer: Through you, through your Warden at this stage, obviously we're looking for any direction from the committee in terms of how to proceed in terms of next steps.

01:39:47 Randy Scherzer: Up to the committee in terms of how they would like to proceed based on the information that we provide to them today, and ultimately, we're just looking for some direction, whether to continue work on that this year, and move that forward further, or to pause it and incorporate as part of a TMP update into the next term of council.

01:40:09 Randy Scherzer: So, either way, we need to build this in as part of our work plan and our work and our next steps.

01:40:15 Randy Scherzer: So that's why we're looking for that direction.

01:40:19 Randy Scherzer: Okay, great.

01:40:20 Randy Scherzer: So you're looking for direction.

01:40:21 Randy Scherzer: Thank you.

01:40:23 Andrea Matrosovs: I appreciate that you've put forth some items for us to consider at this point in time, and we're going to go to our committee of the whole members next.

01:40:32 Andrea Matrosovs: The main motion allowing you to continue getting the direction to continue the work in this way and form that it's been outlined, and that it should be noted that the two members of municipal staff would not be voting members of the task force, but simply there to assist in having more of the conversations that have been happening for months between the lower tier and upper tier staff members.

01:40:52 Andrea Matrosovs: So it would just be helpful to have everybody in the same room at the same time.

01:40:56 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so with that, we're going to go to Councillor Boddy next.

01:41:02 Ian Boddy: Thank you.

01:41:02 Ian Boddy: Looking at the alternative motions that were recommended in the staff report, looking at this, so the first one is take no action.

01:41:09 Ian Boddy: I don't think we wanted stop action.

01:41:14 Ian Boddy: We certainly didn't want to throw out all the hard work that's been done by the committee by staff, staff's really, but mostly county staff.

01:41:23 Ian Boddy: So I don't think we wanted to say take no action because I just would sit into the ether.

01:41:32 Ian Boddy: Same thing to cease all further work and propose road transfers until completion of the next master plan, but. seems me ceasing all further work.

01:41:43 Ian Boddy: Also means that there's nothing going on, but there still could be things going on that we want to do.

01:41:50 Ian Boddy: If I'm reading that right, the third recommendation.

01:41:54 Ian Boddy: I think I've got them in order, but I may not.

01:41:57 Ian Boddy: That staff be directed to proceed with the development of a new transportation master plan to be funded from the development charges reserve, and that master plan be completed during the next term of council would be the next step.

01:42:14 Ian Boddy: I think, if I'm reading this right, to keep moving the ball forward.

01:42:21 Ian Boddy: And if I've got that right, I'd be happy to move that motion, but I want to make sure that I've got it right.

01:42:27 Ian Boddy: See you.

01:42:28 Ian Boddy: Three words.

01:42:28 Ian Boddy: Three-year ward.

01:42:34 Randy Scherzer: So that is one potential option for direction that this committee can provide is to pause this work for now and incorporate some of this work and some of these comments and direction as part of that TMP update.

01:42:51 Randy Scherzer: That would bring it into the next term of council.

01:42:54 Randy Scherzer: If committee wanted staff to still investigate some of that work this year, then I'd be probably then be recommending or leaning towards the main motion in the report, which is to again continue the work and have some further discussions with member municipalities, have those discussions with the task force and the task force then brings recommendations back to this council.

01:43:26 Randy Scherzer: Those recommendations from the task force could include to pause this and bring it as a transportation master plan in the future, or could include that we've landed in a good spot, or a good enough spot from a financial consideration that they're recommending some of these other options that were identified in the report, and are recommending that to committee to consider.

01:43:52 Randy Scherzer: So, so that's where I think if committee wants the work to still continue this year, I'd be suggesting then that the main motion maybe is what this committee may want to consider.

01:44:01 Randy Scherzer: Okay, follow up, Councillor Boddy.

01:44:09 Ian Boddy: Before I go to the deputy warden, my thinking is that we want to move forward, but not necessarily put it to the final vote or come to the final conclusion.

01:44:19 Ian Boddy: We want to collect more information.

01:44:22 Ian Boddy: If we've learned anything from the discussions with boarders, is there's a lot of questions that there isn't answers for.

01:44:28 Ian Boddy: And so, you know, I've got some other motions that I've potentially could bring that I've shared for thought with others.

01:44:35 Ian Boddy: And my thinking is, how do we collect the information?

01:44:41 Ian Boddy: Scott wants to point out that back in October tenth, twenty twenty-four, I said at a meeting that we've been dragging this on since twenty twelve, and we need to move forward.

01:44:51 Ian Boddy: I still feel that.

01:44:53 Ian Boddy: And at that meeting in October tenth, twenty twenty-four, we passed a template for the financial plan, or however you want to call it.

01:45:03 Ian Boddy: And we also talked then about starting negotiations.

01:45:09 Ian Boddy: In my mind, I still support that and stand by behind my comments at that point.

01:45:14 Ian Boddy: In my mind, negotiations is and it goes back to practicing family law.

01:45:16 Ian Boddy: Try and get everybody so they're almost in the same level of unhappiness.

01:45:25 Ian Boddy: That's kind of sarcastic, but right now we're really far apart because we got too many questions and too much information that we don't have all the same information.

01:45:35 Ian Boddy: How do we close this gap?

01:45:39 Ian Boddy: Because we're never going to get that we're all perfectly happy or unhappy.

01:45:43 Ian Boddy: Some are still going to benefit more than others.

01:45:45 Ian Boddy: That's fine, but how do we get that gap close?

01:45:47 Ian Boddy: That we've got data that we all have that we all understand that moves us closer to that to that middle of unhappiness.

01:45:55 Ian Boddy: So, so, I want to figure out how to get there.

01:46:04 Ian Boddy: And I think talking to Randy earlier today, the transportation master plan gets renewed every ten years or so, probably automatically, and it's probably been about twelve now, with some amendments that have come along the way.

01:46:22 Ian Boddy: That it probably makes sense that, given the growth that we've seen, certainly in the town of Blue, but across the rest of Grey County, that the transportation master plan was for 2014, and though there's been some changes, if we could get that new change come together and some of the other things that I want to ask about, how do we move this forward so we're not losing the good work that's been done, but we collect more information that we can put to council, do it not in a hurry, but do it carefully so that we're all understand it and do it right, and be able to continue to move forward and not kill it, not bring it backwards, not stop it.

01:47:13 Ian Boddy: So it seems to me that directing to proceed with the development of a new transportation master plan is probably the next motion, I think.

01:47:26 Ian Boddy: And then possibly after that, that although I don't know that we want to cease further work in the proposed road transfer, I guess maybe we do until the completion of the next transportation master plan.

01:47:35 Ian Boddy: I think we'd want to decide here whether we want to proceed with the development of a new transport master plan first before we decide what that next.

01:47:37 Ian Boddy: Am I talking in circles, or does that make sense?

01:47:39 Ian Boddy: See you.

01:47:39 SPEAKER_295: Through your warden, and as noted, that is one direction.

01:48:12 Randy Scherzer: That is one option that this committee can provide is whether or not they want to proceed with a transportation master plan update.

01:48:22 Randy Scherzer: From from a high level staff discussion that we had just even as this morning, we think that the outcomes of that transportation master plan will likely recommend something very similar to what is being proposed in terms of the road exchanges and the road transfers.

01:48:24 Randy Scherzer: How we then explore those.

01:48:24 Randy Scherzer: So whether that we're exploring those options as part of that transportation master plan process into the next term of council, again that's one option, or still exploring those options in further detail with member municipalities during this term of council, which is the main motion, which is the task force?

01:48:34 Randy Scherzer: Bring it back to task force and having further discussions.

01:48:53 Randy Scherzer: Where that lands and where the task force would recommend back to this committee, the whole I can't predict, but we'll provide that information back to the task force to then decide is there enough information there?

01:49:08 Randy Scherzer: As council body indicated, there's some gaps, and so we haven't been able to explore those in further detail and have those further discussions with member municipalities.

01:49:16 Randy Scherzer: So we will do that.

01:49:17 Randy Scherzer: We are on a regular basis.

01:49:18 Randy Scherzer: We do what the pavement condition index updates every year.

01:49:20 Randy Scherzer: The last couple of years hasn't been as accurate as we had hoped.

01:49:22 Randy Scherzer: So we're actually going and looking at a different approach to how we gather that information.

01:49:27 Randy Scherzer: We will have that information.

01:49:37 Randy Scherzer: Might not be in time frame for this, but we will have that information this year, to be able to explore further in terms of what the pavement condition index, and we're using, we're hoping to use what's called LiDAR information, so it'll be more accurate.

01:49:52 Randy Scherzer: So again, these are all information and inputs that we can provide eventually as part of this process.

01:49:58 Randy Scherzer: But there's two paths here.

01:50:00 Randy Scherzer: One is refer this essentially back to the task force, explore some of these options that we've identified in this report in further detail with member municipalities, to eventually come back with recommendations to this committee as a whole in terms of what you would like to do this year or into the future years, or pause this all for now and incorporate this work as part of the transportation master plan update into the next term of council.

01:50:15 Randy Scherzer: So those are the two paths that we're hearing.

01:50:18 Randy Scherzer: Both both have pros and cons.

01:50:22 Randy Scherzer: I would say.

01:50:37 Randy Scherzer: Again, if the intent of this committee is to roll up our sleeves a little bit more and to dig into some of these options a bit further with member municipalities, I'd be leaning towards the main motion, which is referring this back to the task force.

01:50:52 Randy Scherzer: Let's have some further conversations, dig into this a little bit further, and then bring this back to committee in terms of what you want to do.

01:50:59 Randy Scherzer: And the timeframes again that we're looking at, we'd be meeting with the task force either late April, early May, and then in bringing back that recommendation from the task force in May in or June is the time frame.

01:51:09 Randy Scherzer: So that gives you the context of the main motion.

01:51:17 Randy Scherzer: Again, the alternative motion is that we're pausing this for now, or this is this is how staff are interpreting.

01:51:23 Randy Scherzer: We're pausing this now, and then we're going to incorporate these this review as part of the TMP.

01:51:29 Randy Scherzer: View as part of the TMP, but again, staff think that it's likely that there's these will be recommended as part of that TMP process.

01:51:36 Randy Scherzer: So we're going to have to unpack these options, anyways, either now or later on.

01:51:41 Randy Scherzer: Okay, thank you for that, um, uh, Councillor Boddy.

01:51:42 Randy Scherzer: I see your hand raised.

01:51:48 Andrea Matrosovs: If there's, I, I do the deputy warden put his hand up at the same time as you.

01:51:57 Andrea Matrosovs: So I do want to.

01:51:58 Brian Milne: Okay, thank you.

01:51:59 Brian Milne: I'm getting the go ahead.

01:52:00 Brian Milne: Okay, so deputy deputy warden, floor is yours.

01:52:01 Brian Milne: Thank you, Madam Warden.

01:52:02 Brian Milne: I have a bunch of thoughts about how council wants to deal with or trust or listen to any of the committees as I've had in the past.

01:52:04 Brian Milne: That isn't necessarily productive for this morning.

01:52:05 Brian Milne: But one question I would ask before I say anything more: Is there a motion on the floor?

01:52:12 Brian Milne: Yeah, we're getting confirmation from clerk.

01:52:21 Andrea Matrosovs: There isn't because the motion to postpone indefinitely clean the slate of the previous motion that we had moved.

01:52:35 Brian Milne: Okay, thank you very much for that clarification.

01:52:37 Brian Milne: So, what I'd like to do is I'd like to move the main motion is is being discussed or described on the agenda.

01:52:44 Brian Milne: There, the main motion, which would refer it back to the task force for their consideration, further consideration.

01:52:52 Brian Milne: I think I think that's important to do that.

01:52:53 Brian Milne: The task force has has put a lot of time and effort into this.

01:52:56 Brian Milne: The chair has done a marvelous job of guiding the committee through various discussions.

01:53:06 Brian Milne: So, I want to give kudos to Councillor Greg for his work there.

01:53:12 Brian Milne: I do think it's important, as I say. to send this back to the committee and listen to some of the or all of the discussion that has come forward from the lower tiers on their concerns about, you know, the the recommendations that were put forward.

01:53:21 Brian Milne: Let's have another look at them.

01:53:22 Brian Milne: Let's look at them harder, and and not lose all of the work that has been done to date.

01:53:36 Brian Milne: So, with that said, as I say, Mister Madam Warden, I'll move the main motion, please.

01:53:42 Brian Milne: And Councillor Mackey, are you seconding?

01:53:43 Brian Milne: Thank you, Warden.

01:53:43 Brian Milne: Yes, I would second that motion.

01:53:55 Scott Mackey: There has been a tremendous amount of work done.

01:53:58 Scott Mackey: No, we can see the finish line here, and it's like running a marathon, seeing the finish line, and dropping dead before you get there.

01:54:06 Scott Mackey: I don't want that to happen.

01:54:07 Scott Mackey: I want us to keep this work going.

01:54:09 Scott Mackey: I hear the concerns that have been brought forth from member municipalities.

01:54:14 Scott Mackey: I think there's an opportunity to try to address those.

01:54:17 Scott Mackey: I think we're doing all of us a disservice if we don't try to address them.

01:54:22 Scott Mackey: So I think we need to keep the work going, and I fully support doing that through the the task force and keeping this process going to start fresh.

01:54:33 Scott Mackey: We've just wasted 12 15 years of work, so that's not good use of dollars.

01:54:38 Scott Mackey: So let's keep it going.

01:54:39 Scott Mackey: Thank you.

01:54:39 Scott Mackey: Okay.

01:54:40 SPEAKER_119: Thank you.

01:54:40 SPEAKER_119: Did I see a hand back over here, Councillor Greg?

01:54:50 Scott Greig: Well, I have a lot of thoughts that went sideways because I'm actually planning to run a marathon in six weeks, and I just got a whole lot more worried about the outcome.

01:55:01 Scott Greig: Thanks for the analogy. first question to staff: Council approved in the budget last year.

01:55:10 Scott Greig: Moving forward with this initiative fully was not a recorded vote.

01:55:16 Scott Greig: As not asked for anybody to show any abstention or or disagreement with it.

01:55:17 Scott Greig: I have one question.

01:55:25 Scott Greig: There was an ask to increase legal resources to accommodate this initiative as part of that budget.

01:55:34 Scott Greig: And we budget for three quarters of a year starting April first.

01:55:37 Scott Greig: Generally, when we make those assessments, where are we with that position that this council endorsed at the budget process to facilitate this initiative?

01:55:47 Scott Greig: Sir, you, Warden.

01:55:47 Scott Greig: Through you, Warden.

01:55:48 Scott Greig: So I'll first start to say that that that position has been hired.

01:56:02 Randy Scherzer: Person has started actually this week.

01:56:04 Randy Scherzer: One of the potential projects for them to to work on, or to at least provide additional capacity and legal services, was related to the outcomes or the potential outcomes of this project.

01:56:14 Randy Scherzer: There are many other things that that person will also be able to work on with the amount of agreements and other things that we we have from a capacity perspective.

01:56:26 Randy Scherzer: We we see there's a there's a current bottleneck as part of the agreement review process to be able to move forward with some of those agreements in a in a more efficient quicker way.

01:56:38 Randy Scherzer: So so it's although this is one project, there's there's other things that we needed on the capacity side from legal services perspective.

01:56:49 Randy Scherzer: But that person has been hired and they've.

01:56:51 Randy Scherzer: But that person has been hired, and they have started earlier this week.

01:56:54 Scott Greig: Okay, thank you for that.

01:56:56 Scott Greig: I'm just going to touch upon a couple different items here.

01:57:00 Scott Greig: I'm in agreement with the motion on the floor.

01:57:02 Scott Greig: I think it's the way to go.

01:57:04 Scott Greig: Some of the motion covered by the City of Owen Sound was request that the task force undertake further analysis of the financial and operational impacts associated with the proposed urban road transfers.

01:57:19 Scott Greig: I'm in agreement with it.

01:57:20 Scott Greig: It's something that we just and thank you very much to staff for being diligent in the last month and getting out there and visiting all the municipalities and bringing this back in a very quick fashion.

01:57:30 Scott Greig: It's something that I probably thought we would have been doing over the last eight or ten months.

01:57:35 Scott Greig: It didn't happen last June or last September.

01:57:38 Scott Greig: It happened in March, but we've collected the responses that we, as a collective, I think we're hoping to collect by going out and hearing and listening to our municipal partners.

01:57:51 Scott Greig: I don't think the alternative of going back to a TMP is going to keep moving the ball forward.

01:57:57 Scott Greig: It's going to kick the issue forward to another council.

01:58:02 Scott Greig: The council of 2014 to 2018 moved this forward.

01:58:18 Scott Greig: That's the one that adopted the master plan.

01:58:28 Scott Greig: The council of 2018 to 2022 moved this forward.

01:58:29 Scott Greig: It's in the report that there was reporting back.

01:58:31 Scott Greig: This council moved it forward.

01:58:32 Scott Greig: There was only one ever dissenting vote, and I see Councilor Nielsen smiling.

01:58:34 Scott Greig: He took it on the chin that day, but his five votes mattered, and he was concerned with the cost.

01:58:36 Scott Greig: If I'm not, hopefully not, putting words in his mouth, otherwise at committee it has always been unanimous moving this project forward, and there has not been loud disagreement at this table.

01:58:53 Scott Greig: There hasn't been a plethora of recorded votes.

01:58:57 Scott Greig: The goal of the 2014: there's five goals.

01:59:00 Scott Greig: First goal: encourage active transportation, cycle, walk, run.

01:59:04 Scott Greig: That might be even a little more specific to Hanover, Owen Sound.

01:59:08 Scott Greig: It's hard to say Holstein.

01:59:11 Scott Greig: That's as relevant, perhaps, as it might be to the urban centers.

01:59:16 Scott Greig: Goal two: movement of people and goods to the year 2036.

01:59:23 Scott Greig: Goal three: OP and this council's strat plan incorporates the transportation master plan, guiding documents.

01:59:32 Scott Greig: This council adopted and supported those in the official plan update in the strategic plan for this term of council.

01:59:41 Scott Greig: The TMP is to direct policies and infrastructure initiatives for the next twenty-five years, not for the next ten until something gets difficult to make a decision on, and then we get a little bit wobbly and we want to pass it off and just redo the plan.

01:59:59 Scott Greig: Redoing the plan, I strongly suspect, would just bring back the same recommendations, and we're just determined to make it someone else's problem.

02:00:08 Scott Greig: We know that's going to be the outcome.

02:00:11 Scott Greig: It's not a question of objective; it's a question about money.

02:00:16 Scott Greig: The rural exchange roads are a large commitment and requirement to put in the county books.

02:00:21 Scott Greig: If you go back a couple reports, it's about seventy-five million dollars going onto the books of the county for those road exchanges to be uploaded.

02:00:31 Scott Greig: That's offset by twenty million dollars, twenty-one million dollars coming off the books with the roads being downloaded back to the rural partners.

02:00:41 Scott Greig: The difference is levy, grant programs, and DCEs.

02:00:46 Scott Greig: And if we're going to pull a lot from DCEs to fund other items, that levy ask is going to increase for that rural road exchange in the future.

02:00:57 Scott Greig: Still, there's still more information to come back.

02:01:00 Scott Greig: If you ask the casual citizen around the county, I think they're going to tell you that the rationalization process, as where we've landed right now, makes sense to the general resident of Grey County in terms of how they move about the county.

02:01:16 Scott Greig: We did not, and I think it's probably that same meeting in 2014, acknowledged strongly that we were looking for resolutions of support from every lower tier municipality because we knew we were not going to get a resolution of support, as the Warden stated that day.

02:01:34 Scott Greig: Not everyone will get an equal share, but everyone will get a fair share.

02:01:40 Scott Greig: And as Councilor Boddy touched on that day, there has been a lot of work put into this, and none of us are going to be 100% happy ever.

02:01:51 Scott Greig: You got to think about the whole picture as part of it.

02:01:54 Scott Greig: We all have to give up something to get something, and we all get something when we give up something.

02:01:59 Scott Greig: And not everything is going to be perfect.

02:02:01 Scott Greig: We could ask lower tiers who are gaining something to contribute up, but we will never get the agreement we need on this.

02:02:07 Scott Greig: It's been 12 years, and it's time to move it forward, both urban and rural, and get it done.

02:02:13 Scott Greig: We will have concerns ongoing.

02:02:15 Scott Greig: Hanover, you're getting an intersection problem, but you're not getting a bridge problem.

02:02:22 Scott Greig: Town of Blue Mountains, you're getting a bridge problem, but you're not getting an intersection problem.

02:02:28 Scott Greig: Owen Sound, kind of getting both.

02:02:32 Scott Greig: So I understand the complexities of trying to ensure that we have a funding formula, a transitional funding formula that is fair and responsive to the concerns that we hear.

02:02:47 Scott Greig: But we have to continue the work of the task force to be able to generate that outcome from staff, not just dismiss it and all the work that's been done at this point.

02:02:56 Scott Greig: I'll just note it back in the transportation master plan there was five options.

02:03:03 Scott Greig: The recommendation is: recognizing that the proper maintenance and upkeep of the road system, regardless of whether it consists of county roads or local roads, will incur significant costs beyond the current capability of the county and of the local municipalities.

02:03:18 Scott Greig: An approach which seeks to establish partnerships and cost sharing of the candidate road transfers is recommended.

02:03:26 Scott Greig: At the end of the day, the ultimate decision is on money, and if you don't want to put that on the county books, don't move the initiative forward at all.

02:03:35 Scott Greig: But don't just kick it; that's pointless and make it someone else's problem.

02:03:40 Scott Greig: It's responding to what we know needs done.

02:03:43 Scott Greig: The county has had the plan; we've moved it forward for two years.

02:03:48 Scott Greig: Are we going to decide to fund it, or are we not going to decide to fund it?

02:03:57 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you, Councillor Greg.

02:03:59 Andrea Matrosovs: I see just one hand online, not around in the room.

02:04:03 Andrea Matrosovs: We'll go back to the Deputy Warden.

02:04:06 Andrea Matrosovs: I was just going to say in response to Councillor Greg, Amen.

02:04:09 Andrea Matrosovs: I agree.

02:04:13 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you, and I don't see any further hands up.

02:04:16 Andrea Matrosovs: Oh, yes, I do.

02:04:17 Andrea Matrosovs: I see Councillor Eccles has just raised his hand.

02:04:19 Andrea Matrosovs: Go ahead, Councillor Eccles.

02:04:28 Kevin Eccles: Thank you very much, Madam Warden.

02:04:33 Kevin Eccles: I agree with Councillor Greg to the point that, yeah, we've been kicking this around.

02:04:41 Kevin Eccles: I guess that's something about being at County Council, basically since the last transfer of roads that happened, and that was in what 2004, 2005.

02:05:04 Kevin Eccles: No, 2003, I believe it was that those ones happened, and some of the same questions arose at that time, and throughout.

02:05:24 Kevin Eccles: And I'm talking: it wasn't urban road exchange, but those were rural road exchange, and it's in that master plan of 2012, 2014.

02:05:36 Kevin Eccles: I think it was initiated in 2012 and never got to council.

02:05:40 Kevin Eccles: So it's two years.

02:05:42 Kevin Eccles: The idea of pushing this off, you know, for another two years, down to twenty-seven, we wouldn't get anything back until twenty-nine.

02:05:53 Kevin Eccles: Digest it and whatnot; it'll be through a next council.

02:05:58 Kevin Eccles: And it's not the second point that Councillor Greg made there.

02:06:04 Kevin Eccles: Was the rural roads that move transportation, move our products, whether it's farm products coming off the farm in Grey County and going to market.

02:06:19 Kevin Eccles: They're finding those, and that was the responsibility of county roads to have that, and here we are.

02:06:30 Kevin Eccles: Whether it's an extension of Grey Road Twenty-Five, or I'm going to call it the extension from Grey Road 40 to Mennonite Corners through two municipalities, Chatsworth and Georgian Bluffs.

02:06:47 Kevin Eccles: But that's where the traffic is.

02:06:49 Kevin Eccles: That's where the county traffic is.

02:06:51 Kevin Eccles: I guess my frustration is by doing this and not getting anything done out of this in this term of council is extremely disappointing.

02:07:11 Kevin Eccles: And that's why I would at least get that rural road exchange made, as traffic is coming off of Highway 89 and coming north to Hopeville.

02:07:24 Kevin Eccles: It doesn't follow the road through Con as we know anymore, and for any traffic that's going east-west.

02:07:32 Kevin Eccles: East-West, the majority of traffic.

02:07:34 Kevin Eccles: We have a county road nine that comes from the county line to Highway Six.

02:07:39 Kevin Eccles: It only makes three different jogs to get there.

02:07:44 Kevin Eccles: It comes straight through, and the traffic count will tell you that there's more traffic on Concession Twelve, normally township, than there is on the Grey County Road Nine.

02:07:59 Kevin Eccles: And obviously, it connects right on a straight route right through to Dundalk, a straight route through right to Highway 124.

02:08:10 Kevin Eccles: To be able to put this off, as they said, it's just totally frustrating, and a disservice to not only the county but the county residents and the residents that are coming to and fro.

02:08:34 Kevin Eccles: So I'm wondering if I could put forward an amendment to say that we continue forward with the rural roads and the urban upload and the DC charges and the funding aspect that goes with that urban area goes back to the committee.

02:09:02 Kevin Eccles: But that we get at least some accomplishment here.

02:09:06 Kevin Eccles: I would ask that Tara, if that's possible, to put an amendment into this motion that the rural road and the rest of it goes back to the rural.

02:09:18 Kevin Eccles: Of it goes back.

02:09:52 Andrea Matrosovs: The railroad exchange moves ahead with the date of July 6th, and the urban exchange, considering the money aspect and everything, goes forward.

02:10:02 Andrea Matrosovs: Moves for back to the committee for further definition.

02:10:03 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, is that amendment in order, Madam Warden?

02:10:05 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you very much, Councillor Eccles.

02:10:06 Andrea Matrosovs: Just before I direct your question to the clerk, just to confirm before I can look for a seconder, I just want to look to the CAO.

02:10:08 Andrea Matrosovs: The motion that is currently on the floor without amendments, there is nothing in there that would not allow the task force to prioritize where the closer wins are where the and and and be able to focus on the example that, Councillor Eccles.

02:10:14 Andrea Matrosovs: It does say in the motion late 2026.

02:10:21 Andrea Matrosovs: That doesn't say specifically before after elections.

02:10:24 Andrea Matrosovs: That that just says in the fall.

02:10:26 Andrea Matrosovs: You feel would be reasonable.

02:10:28 Andrea Matrosovs: So can I just ask for that input before I look to the clerk for the process question.

02:10:34 Randy Scherzer: Through you, Warden.

02:10:36 Randy Scherzer: So, yeah.

02:10:37 Randy Scherzer: Obviously, whatever direction committee wants to provide is is is is will will receive and and move forward.

02:10:47 Randy Scherzer: With respect to the main motion that's currently on the floor, the Warden is correct.

02:10:50 Randy Scherzer: That could be explored further as an option with the task force to look at road exchanges ahead of say some of the other proposed transfers.

02:11:00 Randy Scherzer: That is an option that's available to to the task force.

02:11:20 Randy Scherzer: The wording, and I'd look to the clerk on this in terms of the wording that we try to create some flexibility, but still provide some maybe some some goalposts that can shift is to still move forward with the road exchanges either late 2026 into early 2027.

02:11:30 Randy Scherzer: If if the direction would be to consider those earlier still, then maybe we look for amendment that way.

02:11:34 Randy Scherzer: But at the end of the day, this is something that could still be discussed with the task force.

02:11:56 Randy Scherzer: And from a staff perspective, based on some of the comments we heard from on maintenance and some of the maintenance questions, we would recommend that that be discussed with the task force as to whether or not rural exchanges should be should be put forward ahead of of the other transfers that are proposed.

02:12:06 Randy Scherzer: And then again, to have further discussions with the municipalities, and then bring that information back to this committee in terms of what they would like to do.

02:12:07 Randy Scherzer: But my only question back to I guess Tara and the clerk would be to on the time frame of that last part of that motion, if if the direction would be to advance those road exchange potentially earlier than late 2026.

02:12:22 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you, CAO.

02:12:23 Andrea Matrosovs: And just before I look to the clerk, I do note that the current motion that is on the floor says recommendations for potentially a late 2026, early 2027 road exchanges.

02:12:33 Andrea Matrosovs: I read that there would be nothing stopping us from bringing something of this up ahead of schedule, ahead of late 2026.

02:12:41 Andrea Matrosovs: I'll look to the clerk for that in a moment.

02:12:44 Andrea Matrosovs: I'll look to the clerk for an answer to Councillor Eccles, and then I will and also to confirm if the wording is doable.

02:12:53 Andrea Matrosovs: As Councillor Eccles, and then then I would look for a seconder.

02:12:57 Tara Warder: So, Madam Clerk, thank you.

02:13:01 Tara Warder: And just in response to Councillor Eccles' proposal for an amendment, I do see it as kind of a separate.

02:13:09 Tara Warder: It's bringing another idea in another action into the motion, so I don't suggest it would be an amendment.

02:13:16 Tara Warder: Just jumping onto what Randy has indicated, it is something that the task force could consider, but I don't see it as being an amendment to the motion on the floor because it is introducing kind of a separate idea, and there's some other information and things that would have to be considered if that were put forward.

02:13:34 Tara Warder: So, that would be, I think, staff's recommendations that it's not included as an amendment here today.

02:13:42 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, so Madam Clerk, then to answer Councillor Eccles, then if he wishes to put forth this specific this specific aspect for the task force to consider, I mean the task force members are all sitting here, we're all listening to the input and all listening to the feedback.

02:14:01 Andrea Matrosovs: But if he so wishes, then that would need to be the form of a notice of motion.

02:14:09 Tara Warder: I think you, after voting on this motion, should go forward.

02:14:13 Tara Warder: I think another motion could be brought forward, referring these the rural exchange portion to the task force to consider in their meeting.

02:14:28 Tara Warder: Okay, does that help you, Councilor Nichols?

02:14:31 Kevin Eccles: Yes, and it preceded the discussion from staff of the information that Randy gave.

02:14:40 Kevin Eccles: Yeah, I understand.

02:14:42 Kevin Eccles: I wouldn't make it as an amendment, but I probably, depending on how this motion goes forward, the prioritizing that the committee can probably bring a thought process that I had there.

02:14:58 SPEAKER_269: So I'll leave it at that.

02:15:01 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay, thank you.

02:15:03 Andrea Matrosovs: We'll go to Councillor Nielsen.

02:15:04 Dane Nielsen: Thank you very much, Warden.

02:15:08 Dane Nielsen: Staff.

02:15:08 Dane Nielsen: And I'm slightly off topic, but I'm trying to process Councillor Eccles' comments here.

02:15:14 Dane Nielsen: For my recollection, the budget was based upon doing both, and that there were savings being realized from the downloading to counter the uploading costs.

02:15:22 Dane Nielsen: With their like to produce the proposal, as far as I understand in my own mind, there's not enough money in the budget to just do the upload, which is the greater cost.

02:15:31 Dane Nielsen: So can I just get clarity on that?

02:15:33 Randy Scherzer: Just in response to Councilor Nicholson, to your Warden, Councilor Nielsen is correct.

02:15:39 Randy Scherzer: The budget is considering the budget that's been approved by Council considers both the rural road exchanges and the urban road transfers, and there's balance there in terms of what the actual end cost of that would be.

02:15:57 Randy Scherzer: So, with that, again, it is something still that could be discussed at the task force as a potential option to consider, but we'd want to look at what the financial implications are, as well as some of the comments we received from member bodies about the maintenance considerations.

02:16:12 Randy Scherzer: Recognizing that it may take quite a quite a period of time for the traffic patterns maybe to change, and therefore the minimum maintenance standards will have to still be addressed as part of the maintenance of those sections of roads once they're transferred.

02:16:26 Randy Scherzer: So, that's some of the comments we heard.

02:16:28 Randy Scherzer: We would need to unpack that a bit further with the task force.

02:16:30 Randy Scherzer: Is it be my suggestion?

02:16:34 Randy Scherzer: Okay.

02:16:34 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

02:16:35 Andrea Matrosovs: Not seeing any further hands online.

02:16:38 Andrea Matrosovs: Not seeing any further hands in the room.

02:16:41 Andrea Matrosovs: So I'm going to call the question on the motion that is on the floor.

02:16:43 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor?

02:16:47 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

02:16:47 Andrea Matrosovs: And opposed?

02:16:49 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

02:16:50 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you.

02:16:50 Andrea Matrosovs: That motion is carried.

02:16:53 Andrea Matrosovs: Oh yes.

02:16:54 Andrea Matrosovs: Sorry, Madam Clerk.

02:16:58 Andrea Matrosovs: We've had a request from Councillor Nielsen for a recorded vote.

02:17:00 Andrea Matrosovs: Councillor Mackie.

02:17:01 Andrea Matrosovs: In favour.

02:17:32 Tara Warder: Councillor Mackie, in favour.

02:17:34 Tara Warder: Councillor McKay.

02:17:37 Tara Warder: Councillor McKay, in favour.

02:17:39 Tara Warder: Councillor Carleton.

02:17:41 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:17:42 Tara Warder: Councillor Pringle.

02:17:43 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:17:44 Tara Warder: Councillor McQueen.

02:17:46 Tara Warder: Opposed.

02:17:48 Tara Warder: Councillor Nielsen.

02:17:51 Tara Warder: Opposed.

02:17:52 Tara Warder: Councillor Patterson.

02:17:54 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:17:55 Tara Warder: Councillor Dicker.

02:17:57 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:17:58 Tara Warder: Councillor Kentner.

02:18:00 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:01 Tara Warder: Councillor Keaveney.

02:18:03 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:03 Tara Warder: Councillor Boddy.

02:18:04 Tara Warder: Opposed.

02:18:06 Tara Warder: Councillor Greig.

02:18:08 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:09 Tara Warder: Councillor Milne.

02:18:11 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:12 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:13 Tara Warder: Councillor Dobreen.

02:18:19 Tara Warder: Councillor Dobreen.

02:18:20 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:20 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:21 Tara Warder: Warden Matrosovs.

02:18:21 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:22 Tara Warder: Councillor Bordignon is absent.

02:18:27 Tara Warder: Councillor Eccles.

02:18:28 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:28 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:28 Tara Warder: Councillor Hutchinson.

02:18:29 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:29 Tara Warder: In favour.

02:18:30 Tara Warder: That motion is carried, seventy to nineteen.

02:18:36 Tara Warder: Okay.

02:18:36 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much.

02:18:38 Andrea Matrosovs: So there was a discussion about a potential other motion, but I not seeing a hand go up.

02:18:43 Andrea Matrosovs: So we are good to.

02:18:46 Andrea Matrosovs: Nope.

02:18:47 Andrea Matrosovs: No hands are up.

02:18:48 Andrea Matrosovs: Okay.

02:18:48 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much.

02:18:49 Andrea Matrosovs: I appreciate everybody's input, and as I mentioned at the beginning, very much appreciated all the lower tiers, both the councils and the staff, for working so carefully, so quickly throughout this last bit to try to give us something to work with.

02:19:03 Andrea Matrosovs: I think we have something to work with here.

02:19:05 Andrea Matrosovs: We've heard from committee the whole, and this will come back to council at our next meeting.

02:19:10 Andrea Matrosovs: We do not have any closed session matters nor other other business.

02:19:10 Andrea Matrosovs: We do not have any closed session matters nor other other business.

02:19:15 Andrea Matrosovs: Nope, and therefore I will look to any notices of motion.

02:19:22 Andrea Matrosovs: Not seeing any hands up for notices of motion, so a motion to adjourn.

02:19:27 Andrea Matrosovs: We've got it moved by Councillor Hutchinson, seconded by the Deputy Mayor, the Deputy Warden.

02:19:31 Andrea Matrosovs: All those in favor.

02:19:35 Andrea Matrosovs: And that motion is carried.

02:19:36 Andrea Matrosovs: Thank you very much, everyone.