Grey County County Council Meeting Transcript — July 23, 2026
Hook: 100K Funding Caps Exclude Primary Care
Grey County · County Council · July 23, 2026
Summary
On July 23, County Council focused on critical healthcare infrastructure updates, paramedic service expansion funding strategies, permanent staffing adjustments for development roles, and regulatory changes to local markets. Staff presented options regarding loan repayments while noting resident concerns about primary care access in specific community areas like Southgate and Dundalk, alongside broader discussions on childcare consolidation and invasive species controls.
Top Newsworthy Developments
- Infrastructure Funding Caps Block Local Healthcare Expansion: Speakers identified Southgate and Dundalk as critical pinch points for healthcare access, specifically citing a lack of physical space to serve patients rather than shortages in physicians or nurse practitioners. The discussion highlighted that while provider recruitment is improving through increased graduate numbers from local academic facilities like Georgian College, infrastructure remains the primary constraint preventing service delivery close to home.
- Net New Attachment Targets Replace Lost Patients in Baseline Rosters: The discussion clarifies that patient attachment targets are calculated as net new additions to a baseline roster rather than gross totals, meaning organizations must replace any patients lost due to physician retirements or de-registration. Funding allocations in the second round were approved for April 1st, 2026, and require specific staffing positions like nurse practitioners and social workers to meet these targets within one year.
- Loan Application for Paramedic Base Financing: Staff recommends authorizing a loan with Infrastructure Ontario to finance two paramedic bases in Durham and Beavercam, consolidating applications to reduce administrative burden while utilizing current year advance payments.
- Council Moves to Shorten Paramedic Base Financing Term to Fifteen Years: Council members debated switching a paramedic base loan term from twenty years to fifteen years, noting that while upfront capital budget costs would increase by approximately 44,000 dollars due to higher principal repayments ineligible for provincial grants, the faster amortization reduces long-term interest expenses and accelerates debt elimination. Staff clarified that although paying off more principal results in slightly less grant reimbursement because only interest is eligible, the net financial position remains favorable with significant total savings over the loan horizon.
- By-laws: Council members approved converting the Green Development Program Coordinator role from a short-term contract to a permanent full-time position effective summer 2027, leveraging grant funding to reduce anticipated expenses from approximately $196,000 to roughly $124,000. The committee also supported stricter county rules for invasive species sales in pop-up markets to address issues like giant hogweed and directed staff to deploy radar trailers on Gray Road 1 instead of permanent signs due to high costs while forwarding speeding enforcement matters to the OPP.
- Review Confirms Increased Need for Special Needs Childcare and Consolidates Services: Scott Greig explained that the province operates a program providing classroom assistance for children with special needs in childcare centers and conducted a review to address increased demand by reallocating funding from other provincial areas. The review recommended consolidating services into one provider to ensure consistency and better outcomes, while Cassondra Dillman clarified that contracts are annualized allowing for yearly reviews of funding availability.
Key Topics & Sections
Meeting Details
- Jurisdiction
- Grey County
- Body
- County Council
- Date
- July 23, 2026
- Transcript Status
- Machine transcription, lightly cleaned
- Official Source
- View official meeting page
- Agenda Page
- View agenda page
- Original Video
- View original meeting video
- Meeting Portal
- View eScribe meeting page
Related Discussion
HelpOS discussion thread link pending.
Transcript Notice
This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors in wording, speaker identification, punctuation, or timestamps.
It is an unofficial convenience copy provided for reading and searchability.
For the official record, refer to the original source materials published by the relevant authority, including the official video, agenda, minutes, and meeting records.
Full Transcript
1 Call to Order
Paul McQueen called the committee meeting to order on July 23, 2026, and welcomed Executive Director Lindsey Johnson from the Grey Bruce Ontario Health Team who provided an update on organizational transitions. The team successfully cleared over 5,400 residents from the Healthcare Connect waitlist by spring 2026 through expanded primary care access and attachment initiatives following a shift to smaller, hyper-local structures established in 2019.
00:26:48 Speaker 01: call to order this committee. The
00:26:50 Speaker 01: whole meeting of July twenty third,
00:26:52 Speaker 01: twenty twenty six. At this point
00:26:53 Speaker 01: in time, I'll put out a
00:26:56 Speaker 01: call. Are there any declarations of
00:26:58 Speaker 01: interest? See no hands raised. Business
00:26:59 Speaker 01: arising for minutes. See no hands.
00:27:00 Speaker 01: We will move on to the
00:27:02 Speaker 01: delegation. We have one delegation this
00:27:02 Speaker 01: morning. I would like to welcome
00:27:04 Speaker 01: Executive Director Lindsey Johnson. She will
00:27:13 Speaker 18: be providing us with this regular
00:27:15 Speaker 18: update. We look forward to it.
00:27:16 Speaker 18: Please come on up to the
00:27:18 Speaker 18: lectern, and I think they've they've
00:27:19 Speaker 18: given you the go-to on how
00:27:21 Speaker 18: to get that that microphone going.
00:27:23 Speaker 18: And what we'll do is, well,
00:27:24 Speaker 18: it'll either have to be your
00:27:26 Speaker 18: microphone or mine, back and forth,
00:27:28 Speaker 18: so that I can receive questions
00:27:32 Speaker 18: for you at the end of
00:27:35 Speaker 18: your presentation. So welcome. We're glad
00:27:38 Speaker 18: you're here. Thank you so much,
00:27:41 Speaker 18: Warden. So good morning, everyone, and
00:27:44 Speaker 18: thank you so much for having
00:27:48 Speaker 18: me here today to speak with
00:27:53 Speaker 18: you. I think I've had the
00:27:56 Speaker 18: opportunity to speak to many of
00:27:57 Speaker 18: you over the past couple years
00:28:00 Speaker 18: as I've been in the role
00:28:02 Speaker 18: of Executive Director of the Grey
00:28:04 Speaker 18: Bruce Ontario Health Team. I'm
00:28:09 Speaker 18: here to provide a brief update
00:28:12 Speaker 18: on some of the the work.
00:28:15 Speaker 18: that we've been doing over the
00:28:18 Speaker 18: past year, and part of this
00:28:21 Speaker 18: is the we've set up with
00:28:22 Speaker 18: the counties and the help of
00:28:28 Speaker 18: Randy and Christine in Bruce County
00:28:30 Speaker 18: a regular regular communication with the
00:28:31 Speaker 18: counties and municipalities over the course
00:28:35 Speaker 18: of the year. So I will
00:28:36 Speaker 18: aim to provide a delegation twice
00:28:39 Speaker 18: a year to both Gray County
00:28:41 Speaker 18: and Bruce. Years both Gray County
00:28:43 Speaker 18: and Bruce County, as well as
00:28:44 Speaker 18: provide continuous quarterly municipal updates, which
00:28:48 Speaker 18: I appreciate the spreading of those
00:28:51 Speaker 18: to your to your council members
00:28:54 Speaker 18: to provide more detailed updates about
00:28:57 Speaker 18: some of the progress and activities
00:28:58 Speaker 18: and initiatives of the Great Bruce
00:28:59 Speaker 18: OHD. So this this slide is
00:29:01 Speaker 18: not in your package, but it's
00:29:04 Speaker 18: one that I shared recently. at
00:29:08 Speaker 18: a a presentation to Bruce County,
00:29:12 Speaker 18: and I just wanted to share
00:29:13 Speaker 18: it as I give a bit
00:29:18 Speaker 18: of an introduction to to what
00:29:19 Speaker 18: OHTs are. And this is actually
00:29:22 Speaker 18: a diagram that one of my
00:29:24 Speaker 18: staff members put together of the
00:29:26 Speaker 18: Ontario healthcare system. And so, as
00:29:27 Speaker 18: you can see, extremely complex, many
00:29:29 Speaker 18: different levels, and over on I
00:29:33 Speaker 18: guess it's on the if you're
00:29:35 Speaker 18: looking at the screen, the right
00:29:38 Speaker 18: hand side. Looking at the screen,
00:29:40 Speaker 18: the right-hand side in the blue
00:29:44 Speaker 18: square—that's Ontario Health Teams. And so,
00:29:46 Speaker 18: Ontario Health Teams were actually started
00:29:48 Speaker 18: in, I think, it was 2019
00:29:50 Speaker 18: as the new way of organizing
00:29:51 Speaker 18: local healthcare. And the previous method
00:29:55 Speaker 18: of organizing healthcare, as many of
00:29:58 Speaker 18: you will probably remember, are the
00:30:01 Speaker 18: Linds. And there were, I think,
00:30:03 Speaker 18: there were maybe 11 Linds that
00:30:06 Speaker 18: kind of divided up the province
00:30:08 Speaker 18: of Ontario. and they were quite
00:30:12 Speaker 18: large. And the Grey Bruce was
00:30:17 Speaker 18: part of the Southwestland, which also
00:30:20 Speaker 18: included Elgin, Middlesex, London, Oxford. So
00:30:23 Speaker 18: a really large and very diverse
00:30:27 Speaker 18: area. And so the way that
00:30:30 Speaker 18: local healthcare and system level healthcare
00:30:32 Speaker 18: is being organized now is in
00:30:33 Speaker 18: the form of Ontario Health Teams,
00:30:35 Speaker 18: and there are actually fifty-eight Ontario
00:30:37 Speaker 18: Health Teams throughout Ontario at present,
00:30:39 Speaker 18: and they're with. And there, with
00:30:42 Speaker 18: these kind of a smaller focus
00:30:47 Speaker 18: on smaller regions, we're able to
00:30:50 Speaker 18: provide a more hyper-local look at
00:30:52 Speaker 18: the needs of a population of
00:30:55 Speaker 18: communities of the providers within a
00:30:57 Speaker 18: a smaller region, and really target
00:30:59 Speaker 18: initiatives and planning that will really
00:31:02 Speaker 18: help meet the needs locally as
00:31:04 Speaker 18: they as they shift and change
00:31:07 Speaker 18: as well. so the Gravers OHT
00:31:10 Speaker 18: has had an evolving structure over
00:31:13 Speaker 18: the past, at least the past
00:31:14 Speaker 18: three and a half years that
00:31:16 Speaker 18: I've been part of it, and
00:31:18 Speaker 18: most recently in this last fiscal
00:31:20 Speaker 18: year, we were able to really
00:31:22 Speaker 18: solidify our collaborative decision-making agreement and
00:31:25 Speaker 18: our our partnerships to form a
00:31:27 Speaker 18: structure that was able to leverage
00:31:32 Speaker 18: leadership from primary care providers, so.
00:31:33 Speaker 18: physicians and nurse practitioners, as well
00:31:35 Speaker 18: as health system leaders throughout all
00:31:37 Speaker 18: of Grey Bruce, so including primary
00:31:38 Speaker 18: care, acute care, mental health and
00:31:42 Speaker 18: addictions, and other levels of home
00:31:45 Speaker 18: and community care, and also involve
00:31:46 Speaker 18: community members, so patients, families, and
00:31:51 Speaker 18: caregivers, and kind of together, as
00:31:53 Speaker 18: you'll see in the center of
00:31:58 Speaker 18: the graphic, that makes up kind
00:32:01 Speaker 18: of the decision-making structure for the
00:32:05 Speaker 18: Grey Bruce Ontario Health team, and
00:32:06 Speaker 18: then we have even. larger networks
00:32:08 Speaker 18: of of partnerships, including those that
00:32:11 Speaker 18: we have with local counties and
00:32:13 Speaker 18: municipalities. So I know this looks
00:32:16 Speaker 18: a bit small on the slide,
00:32:19 Speaker 18: but hopefully you're able to to
00:32:22 Speaker 18: see it on your screen and
00:32:26 Speaker 18: in the slides that were shared.
00:32:30 Speaker 18: So our our strategic priorities are
00:32:32 Speaker 18: dictated by the province of Ontario,
00:32:33 Speaker 18: so the Ministry of Health and
00:32:35 Speaker 18: subsequently Ontario Health, and this. year,
00:32:39 Speaker 18: our strategic priorities focus on three
00:32:41 Speaker 18: different high-level priorities, which are primary
00:32:43 Speaker 18: care access and attachment, integrated clinical
00:32:45 Speaker 18: priorities, and OHT capacity building. And
00:32:48 Speaker 18: what I've done under each of
00:32:51 Speaker 18: these categories is list out the
00:32:54 Speaker 18: specific deliverables. What I really want
00:32:56 Speaker 18: to show by this graphic is
00:32:58 Speaker 18: the kind of the really strong
00:33:00 Speaker 18: attention that's being placed on. primary
00:33:02 Speaker 18: care access and attachment for OHTs,
00:33:06 Speaker 18: and the the focus of the
00:33:08 Speaker 18: province currently on this strategic priority.
00:33:12 Speaker 18: And what's listed in the in
00:33:13 Speaker 18: the small box is kind of
00:33:16 Speaker 18: at the bottom there. Those are
00:33:17 Speaker 18: our KPIs that are associated with
00:33:21 Speaker 18: each one of the strategic priorities.
00:33:24 Speaker 18: So those are the specific metrics
00:33:29 Speaker 18: that we are, as an Ontario
00:33:33 Speaker 18: Health team, being evaluated on. Valuated
00:33:37 Speaker 18: on, and we're being closely looked
00:33:39 Speaker 18: at by the province for us
00:33:45 Speaker 18: to to be successful. And you're
00:33:46 Speaker 18: no, you'll notice that attachment to
00:33:48 Speaker 18: a primary care provider is a
00:33:51 Speaker 18: key one there, as well as
00:33:53 Speaker 18: the drawdown of the Healthcare Connect
00:33:54 Speaker 18: waitlist. So focusing a bit more
00:33:56 Speaker 18: on those, the the primary care
00:33:58 Speaker 18: access and attachment, which is something
00:34:01 Speaker 18: that I know is of interest
00:34:04 Speaker 18: to all of you. plus many
00:34:06 Speaker 18: of those that that you serve,
00:34:08 Speaker 18: back in January 2025, the province
00:34:10 Speaker 18: made a commitment to attaching 100
00:34:13 Speaker 18: of Ontarians to primary care by
00:34:14 Speaker 18: 2029. Additionally, there was a a
00:34:16 Speaker 18: mandate to clear the Healthcare Connect
00:34:19 Speaker 18: waitlist, as it was January 1st,
00:34:21 Speaker 18: 2025, by spring 2026. which, as
00:34:22 Speaker 18: we all know, has passed. And
00:34:24 Speaker 18: and I will say that we
00:34:26 Speaker 18: were successful in doing that here
00:34:28 Speaker 18: in Gray Bruce. It took a
00:34:30 Speaker 18: lot of work by many of
00:34:32 Speaker 18: our partners and a lot of
00:34:34 Speaker 18: collaboration, but we were able to
00:34:39 Speaker 18: draw down from. It was just
00:34:41 Speaker 18: over 5,400 Gray Bruce residents on
00:34:44 Speaker 18: the healthcare connect list, and we
00:34:47 Speaker 18: were able to either attach them
00:34:51 Speaker 18: all to primary care locally, or
00:34:53 Speaker 18: if they had moved or had
00:34:57 Speaker 18: our Or if they had moved
00:35:00 Speaker 18: or had already been attached, clear
00:35:02 Speaker 18: them from that wait list,
00:35:04 Speaker 18: and we now have a list
00:35:08 Speaker 18: that you know is not like
00:35:11 Speaker 18: it used to be, where people
00:35:13 Speaker 18: would sign up and you know
00:35:16 Speaker 18: be waiting years to be attached.
00:35:19 Speaker 18: We are seeing kind of regular
00:35:22 Speaker 18: ebbs and flows and drawdown of
00:35:27 Speaker 18: that healthcare connect wait list as
00:35:31 Speaker 18: we attach more and more local
00:35:33 Speaker 18: residents to primary care. So I
00:35:36 Speaker 18: included this slide just so again
00:35:38 Speaker 18: you can see. the very strong
00:35:42 Speaker 18: focus. These are the the Ontario
00:35:45 Speaker 18: Health kind of KPIs and pillars
00:35:47 Speaker 18: of what they have really committed
00:35:51 Speaker 18: to do. And the mechanism for
00:35:53 Speaker 18: us locally to meet these specific
00:35:57 Speaker 18: KPIs and help the province achieve
00:36:00 Speaker 18: their goals is through an opportunity
00:36:04 Speaker 18: called Interprofessional Care Team (IPCT) expansion.
00:36:06 Speaker 18: So this is where Ontario. health
00:36:09 Speaker 18: teams and their associated primary care
00:36:12 Speaker 18: networks, which are the the network
00:36:15 Speaker 18: of local physicians and nurse practitioners
00:36:17 Speaker 18: that we have built relationships with,
00:36:24 Speaker 18: we're able to collaboratively put in
00:36:26 Speaker 18: proposals when their province to apply
00:36:27 Speaker 18: for funding to increase capacity and
00:36:30 Speaker 18: attachment to primary care, and so
00:36:35 Speaker 18: the way that this is structured
00:36:39 Speaker 18: is that. proposals can be put
00:36:40 Speaker 18: in for the expansion of current
00:36:44 Speaker 18: primary care organizations. So that includes
00:36:49 Speaker 18: family health teams and community health
00:36:51 Speaker 18: centers. And we're able to look
00:36:53 Speaker 18: at adding base funding for salaried
00:36:55 Speaker 18: health human resource positions to help
00:36:58 Speaker 18: increase capacity for the physicians to
00:36:59 Speaker 18: attach more patients. And this funding
00:37:02 Speaker 18: also helps us. increase the number
00:37:05 Speaker 18: of funded provincially funded positions for
00:37:06 Speaker 18: nurse practitioners, which are also able
00:37:08 Speaker 18: to increase capacity for attachment of
00:37:11 Speaker 18: the physicians, but also attach patients
00:37:14 Speaker 18: themselves. This is a slide that
00:37:16 Speaker 18: shows progress as of the end
00:37:18 Speaker 18: of February. I'm happy to report
00:37:20 Speaker 18: that I have very, very up-to-date
00:37:23 Speaker 18: data as of. Up to date
00:37:24 Speaker 18: data as of this morning. That
00:37:27 Speaker 18: this number actually. Let me get
00:37:28 Speaker 18: this here. So we actually have
00:37:30 Speaker 18: now attached over nine thousand local
00:37:33 Speaker 18: residents to primary care, so a
00:37:35 Speaker 18: physician or nurse practitioner, and we
00:37:39 Speaker 18: are now forty percent of the
00:37:42 Speaker 18: way there to our larger goal
00:37:48 Speaker 18: of attaching over twenty three and
00:37:51 Speaker 18: a half thousand Gray Bruce residents
00:37:53 Speaker 18: to primary care. That metric was.
00:37:56 Speaker 18: the metric the twenty three thousand
00:38:00 Speaker 18: five hundred and sixty two the
00:38:03 Speaker 18: metric that we were given January
00:38:05 Speaker 18: first twenty twenty five of how
00:38:07 Speaker 18: many unattached patients there were within
00:38:10 Speaker 18: our region, and so it's what
00:38:14 Speaker 18: we built a master plan a
00:38:18 Speaker 18: master attachment plan based off of,
00:38:20 Speaker 18: and when we did this last
00:38:22 Speaker 18: year with all of our partners
00:38:24 Speaker 18: it was estimated that we would
00:38:26 Speaker 18: require an additional eleven million dollars
00:38:28 Speaker 18: of base funding annually from the
00:38:30 Speaker 18: province, in. order to have enough
00:38:32 Speaker 18: capacity locally to have everyone attached
00:38:36 Speaker 18: to a physician or NP close
00:38:38 Speaker 18: to home, we have received as
00:38:41 Speaker 18: of this this April, so
00:38:43 Speaker 18: April twenty twenty six confirmation that
00:38:44 Speaker 18: we have as a region an
00:38:48 Speaker 18: additional seven million dollars of base
00:38:49 Speaker 18: funding locally, and our target for
00:38:52 Speaker 18: this year. specifically, is to attach
00:38:54 Speaker 18: an additional 9,000 Grey Bruce residents
00:38:56 Speaker 18: to primary care, and as of
00:38:58 Speaker 18: this morning, since April 1st, 2026,
00:39:00 Speaker 18: we've already attached almost 1,700 individuals
00:39:02 Speaker 18: to primary care. So we're 20%
00:39:05 Speaker 18: of the way towards that goal,
00:39:08 Speaker 18: and that goal, the target for
00:39:09 Speaker 18: that goal, has now been pushed
00:39:15 Speaker 18: a little bit to the end
00:39:16 Speaker 18: of June 2027, since the actual
00:39:18 Speaker 18: funds have not flowed yet. so
00:39:21 Speaker 18: we've been able to attach 1,700
00:39:23 Speaker 18: people already without actually that additional
00:39:25 Speaker 18: funding. Just with the
00:39:27 Speaker 18: promise of that funding coming,
00:39:30 Speaker 18: we are also anticipating two additional
00:39:33 Speaker 18: opportunities to apply for more funding
00:39:36 Speaker 18: for our region. We had estimated
00:39:38 Speaker 18: again that we probably need at
00:39:40 Speaker 18: least an additional four million dollars
00:39:41 Speaker 18: to attach everyone to primary care.
00:39:45 Speaker 18: That will likely shift with kind
00:39:46 Speaker 18: of population changes and as we
00:39:49 Speaker 18: engage partners. to understand a little
00:39:52 Speaker 18: bit better the specific needs of
00:39:55 Speaker 18: the individuals that remain unattached
00:39:58 Speaker 18: to primary care, but we do
00:40:02 Speaker 18: anticipate that there will be two
00:40:05 Speaker 18: more calls for proposals before 2029.
00:40:07 Speaker 18: That's all I have for you
00:40:09 Speaker 18: right now, based on on my
00:40:10 Speaker 01: slides and the time I was
00:40:12 Speaker 01: allotted. I I do want to
00:40:13 Speaker 01: say that I've had the opportunity
00:40:14 Speaker 01: to give quite a few presentations
00:40:17 Speaker 01: recently to. different municipalities and different
00:40:18 Speaker 01: groups from municipalities on primary care
00:40:22 Speaker 01: specifically, I have developed a very
00:40:23 Speaker 01: comprehensive primary care presentation that gets
00:40:25 Speaker 01: into a lot of the complexity
00:40:26 Speaker 01: of it, which I do think
00:40:29 Speaker 01: is very important for decision makers
00:40:31 Speaker 01: to understand. So, I would be
00:40:34 Speaker 01: more than happy to again speak
00:40:35 Speaker 01: to your council separately or answer
00:40:37 Speaker 01: any specific questions on the OHT
00:40:39 Speaker 01: on. primary care specifically, or upcoming
00:40:42 Speaker 19: funding opportunities. So, thank you. Thank
00:40:44 Speaker 19: you, Executive Director Johnson. It is
00:40:46 Speaker 19: very helpful, and we appreciate the
00:40:50 Speaker 19: fact that you've been able to
00:40:53 Speaker 19: distill it into something that that
00:40:55 Speaker 19: people can first of all have
00:40:59 Speaker 19: a look at, and then ask
00:41:01 Speaker 19: if they want to dig deeper.
00:41:03 Speaker 19: That's very helpful, and and certainly
00:41:04 Speaker 19: walking us through that first slide
00:41:06 Speaker 19: that you showed is is complex
00:41:09 Speaker 19: as things have been changing, and
00:41:12 Speaker 19: you are ever so. nimble to
00:41:13 Speaker 19: be able to adapt to the
00:41:15 Speaker 19: the new approaches, the new organization,
00:41:17 Speaker 19: and those are indeed some good
00:41:19 Speaker 19: celebratory numbers about attaching people to
00:41:21 Speaker 19: doctors where we need them here
00:41:24 Speaker 19: in the county. So, with that,
00:41:27 Speaker 19: we will go to questions. So,
00:41:29 Speaker 19: we'll start with the deputy warden.
00:41:32 Speaker 19: Thank you, Lindsay, for the the
00:41:34 Speaker 19: work that you do. It's important
00:41:37 Speaker 19: for all of the residents in
00:41:39 Speaker 19: Graveroos. Before I ask my question.
00:41:40 Speaker 19: I can't help but observe the
00:41:44 Speaker 19: irony of the present provincial government
00:41:46 Speaker 19: increasing the number of Ontario
00:41:47 Speaker 19: health teams from the number of
00:41:50 Speaker 19: limbs, and at the same time
00:41:51 Speaker 19: shrinking the number of conservation authorities.
00:42:00 Speaker 19: It's kind of ironic, nonetheless. Whatever,
00:42:02 Speaker 18: maybe they'll make their mind up
00:42:06 Speaker 18: eventually. What I'm what I'm curious
00:42:07 Speaker 18: to know is, given the tremendous
00:42:10 Speaker 18: growth in various parts of the
5.a County Council and Committee of the Whole minutes dated July 9, 2026
Speakers identified Southgate and Dundalk as critical pinch points for healthcare access where a lack of physical office space prevents service delivery despite improving provider recruitment from local academic facilities like Georgian College. A specific funding barrier was noted where one-time proposals are capped at $100,000, effectively disqualifying Primary Care Organizations and OHTs from applying for necessary infrastructure support due to a lack of provincial guidance on how to proceed without it. Residents expressed significant mistrust in the Healthcare Connect registration system fearing they would lose their primary care teams if registered which has resulted in low enrollment numbers despite available providers. To address these issues, speakers recommended that municipalities shift focus from financial incentives like loans for doctors toward providing physical office space and collaborating with trusted organizations to rebuild community trust.
00:42:11 Speaker 18: of the county, and I'm thinking
00:42:14 Speaker 18: specifically of of Southgate and Dundalk
00:42:18 Speaker 18: in particular. where are the real
00:42:21 Speaker 18: pinch points in providing more
00:42:25 Speaker 18: healthcare to people? Is it physicians?
00:42:28 Speaker 18: Is it NPs? Is it physical
00:42:30 Speaker 18: space to look after the customers?
00:42:32 Speaker 18: Where are the pinch points, and
00:42:35 Speaker 18: how do we get how do
00:42:39 Speaker 18: we get a positive response from
00:42:41 Speaker 18: the Ministry of Health to the
00:42:42 Speaker 18: various suggestions that you know? I'm
00:42:44 Speaker 18: thinking of Southgate again. We've made
00:42:46 Speaker 18: different approaches to the provincial government,
00:42:50 Speaker 18: and we're getting zero. buy-in to
00:42:54 Speaker 18: this point. Where do we go
00:42:55 Speaker 18: from here? Please. Okay. Thank you
00:42:57 Speaker 18: very much for your for your
00:43:00 Speaker 18: question. And I think that all
00:43:02 Speaker 18: of the things that you mentioned
00:43:04 Speaker 18: are pinch points. So sorry that
00:43:05 Speaker 18: I'm not doing a great job
00:43:06 Speaker 18: answering that, but definitely the HHR.
00:43:09 Speaker 18: But I will say that. the
00:43:13 Speaker 18: anticipated constraints of having these additional
00:43:15 Speaker 18: positions funded and finding providers to
00:43:18 Speaker 18: fill them isn't as great as
00:43:22 Speaker 18: we anticipated. With a lot of
00:43:24 Speaker 18: the work that's been done throughout
00:43:28 Speaker 18: the province in increasing NP positions
00:43:32 Speaker 18: in different academic facilities, as well
00:43:34 Speaker 18: as even locally at Georgian, all
00:43:35 Speaker 18: the work that they've been doing
00:43:38 Speaker 18: to increase the number of like
00:43:41 Speaker 18: RN and RPN and MOA graduates,
00:43:43 Speaker 18: we're actually finding that the positions
00:43:48 Speaker 18: are being filled. In some areas,
00:43:50 Speaker 18: it takes more time, but we
00:43:52 Speaker 18: are able to find those individuals.
00:43:54 Speaker 18: Infrastructure is and continues to be
00:43:57 Speaker 18: likely the biggest constraint that we
00:44:00 Speaker 18: have. And I did have it
00:44:01 Speaker 18: in my slide, and I didn't
00:44:02 Speaker 18: actually talk to it, but the
00:44:04 Speaker 18: funding cap for one-time funding for
00:44:08 Speaker 18: any of these proposals is one
00:44:10 Speaker 18: hundred. Proposals is a hundred thousand
00:44:13 Speaker 18: dollars, so there is no opportunity
00:44:17 Speaker 18: as like as an OHT or
00:44:20 Speaker 18: as like primary care organizations to
00:44:21 Speaker 18: actually apply for any infrastructure funding,
00:44:24 Speaker 18: and so we have consistently asked
00:44:25 Speaker 18: the province like what what do
00:44:28 Speaker 18: you expect us to do then
00:44:29 Speaker 18: essentially, and there has been no
00:44:31 Speaker 18: answer to date unfortunately, and I
00:44:32 Speaker 18: think to your question about how
00:44:33 Speaker 18: to actually get some movement from
00:44:35 Speaker 18: the province in terms of you
00:44:36 Speaker 18: know infrastructure funding, and I know
00:44:39 Speaker 18: specifically the the issue in Southgate,
00:44:41 Speaker 18: I actually think it's it's alignment,
00:44:42 Speaker 18: and you know alignment on the
00:44:45 Speaker 18: understanding of you know where they're
00:44:48 Speaker 18: going and what they're trying to
00:44:51 Speaker 18: do, and then aligning the ask
00:44:54 Speaker 18: with that. And so, you know,
00:44:55 Speaker 18: to to just kind of summarize
00:44:58 Speaker 18: it to some degree in Southgate.
00:45:02 Speaker 18: if that infrastructure like is not
00:45:07 Speaker 18: there, like the services cannot be
00:45:09 Speaker 20: provided locally and close to home,
00:45:12 Speaker 20: so those unattached residents cannot be
00:45:14 Speaker 20: served close to home, which is
00:45:16 Speaker 20: what the commitment has been from
00:45:19 Speaker 20: the province. And so I think
00:45:24 Speaker 20: you know again, and I'm not
00:45:26 Speaker 20: super, I'm not exactly sure how
00:45:28 Speaker 20: to do it, but I think
00:45:31 Speaker 20: there's you know enough people to
00:45:34 Speaker 20: come together to figure it out.
00:45:38 Speaker 20: But I think it is you
00:45:40 Speaker 21: know you know collaborate. You know,
00:45:46 Speaker 21: collaborating like if there's a way
00:45:47 Speaker 21: for us to collaborate with you
00:45:50 Speaker 21: know counties, municipalities, the primary care
00:45:52 Speaker 21: leaders, and all align on you
00:45:55 Speaker 21: know the advocacy, I think that
00:45:56 Speaker 21: is the best approach, and hopefully
00:46:01 Speaker 21: one that will be effective.
00:46:05 Speaker 21: But truly, the mandate cannot be
00:46:07 Speaker 21: achieved if there's not that infrastructure
00:46:10 Speaker 21: to support it. Thank you. We'll
00:46:14 Speaker 21: go to Councillor Dobrin. Thank you.
00:46:16 Speaker 21: We'll go to Councillor Dobrine and
00:46:17 Speaker 21: then to Councillor Keen. Thank you.
00:46:20 Speaker 21: Good morning. Thank you, Warden, and
00:46:23 Speaker 21: through you, thank you, Deputy Warden,
00:46:25 Speaker 21: for the questions specifically about pinch
00:46:27 Speaker 21: points. There, we're hoping that we
00:46:31 Speaker 21: will have a delegation at AMO
00:46:33 Speaker 21: in August. We love for you
00:46:37 Speaker 21: to join us, but in the
00:46:40 Speaker 21: meantime, what I am hearing from
00:46:42 Speaker 21: residents, not specifically. to Southgate, but
00:46:45 Speaker 21: but residents is that they're still
00:46:47 Speaker 21: concerned about registering, I, because they
00:46:54 Speaker 21: don't want to take the risk
00:46:55 Speaker 21: of losing the physician, the primary
00:46:58 Speaker 21: care team that they have in
00:47:00 Speaker 18: place, and they're commuting hour and
00:47:03 Speaker 18: a half, two hours when they're
00:47:06 Speaker 18: unwell, and so the numbers while
00:47:08 Speaker 18: are great achievements. Congratulations, great work.
00:47:10 Speaker 18: but I don't think that they're
00:47:11 Speaker 18: reflective of our community's need or
00:47:13 Speaker 18: the lack of attachment. So, how
00:47:16 Speaker 18: do we? Perhaps we would love
00:47:18 Speaker 18: for you to come to our
00:47:20 Speaker 18: local council to share that. Perhaps
00:47:22 Speaker 18: we can elevate that the need.
00:47:24 Speaker 18: We have said on numerous occasions
00:47:26 Speaker 18: that you will not be detached
00:47:28 Speaker 18: from your primary healthcare provider if
00:47:31 Speaker 18: you register, and the importance. of
00:47:33 Speaker 18: registering. I'm just wondering how we
00:47:37 Speaker 18: can communicate that so that people
00:47:39 Speaker 18: actually do register. Because I think
00:47:41 Speaker 18: the number is significant. The number
00:47:43 Speaker 18: that you're working toward is not
00:47:46 Speaker 18: reflective of reality. Yeah, thank you.
00:47:48 Speaker 18: Thank you so much for that.
00:47:51 Speaker 18: And it was interesting. We were
00:47:53 Speaker 18: actually going through Healthcare Connect registration
00:47:55 Speaker 18: numbers today and noting. that
00:47:58 Speaker 18: Southgate was very low in registrants,
00:48:01 Speaker 18: and we were like just brainstorming
00:48:04 Speaker 18: how we could actually do that.
00:48:06 Speaker 18: And there is a lot of
00:48:09 Speaker 18: mistrust for the healthcare Connect system
00:48:10 Speaker 18: because, like, because of the history.
00:48:13 Speaker 18: And you know, people had been
00:48:16 Speaker 18: on it for years. Don't think
00:48:21 Speaker 18: that it works very well. And
00:48:23 Speaker 18: yeah, up until I think last
00:48:26 Speaker 18: fall, you would be de rostered
00:48:28 Speaker 18: from your provider if you and
00:48:29 Speaker 18: and you know, people really like
00:48:31 Speaker 18: that. Really like that's not something
00:48:33 Speaker 18: that anybody wants to do. So
00:48:34 Speaker 18: I I think that you know
00:48:36 Speaker 18: I would welcome the opportunity to
00:48:38 Speaker 18: come and speak to people. I
00:48:39 Speaker 18: think also leveraging the CHC and
00:48:41 Speaker 18: its trust in the community. I
00:48:44 Speaker 18: know there's a lot of individuals,
00:48:45 Speaker 18: especially in Southgate, that are accessing
00:48:48 Speaker 18: CHC services, but they may be
00:48:51 Speaker 18: attached to primary care elsewhere. So
00:48:56 Speaker 18: perhaps leveraging the relationships like with
00:48:57 Speaker 18: a trusted organization, and with this
00:48:59 Speaker 18: new funding, the CHC actually will
00:49:01 Speaker 18: be rostering a significant number of
00:49:03 Speaker 18: people in addition to what they
00:49:05 Speaker 22: have right now. So perhaps just
00:49:08 Speaker 22: seeing that will entice some other
00:49:10 Speaker 22: people to to register. That just
00:49:12 Speaker 22: hasn't the movement hasn't been there
00:49:14 Speaker 22: yet because the funding hasn't flowed
00:49:15 Speaker 22: for this year. So I think
00:49:17 Speaker 22: yeah, any you know anything that
00:49:18 Speaker 14: So anything that we can do
00:49:20 Speaker 14: to help kind of build not
00:49:21 Speaker 14: only the trust in healthcare connected
00:49:22 Speaker 14: itself, but in like the system
00:49:23 Speaker 14: and where it's going, and perhaps
00:49:27 Speaker 14: it is sharing some of these
00:49:28 Speaker 14: things, right? To of you know
00:49:29 Speaker 14: the drawdown we've been able to
00:49:31 Speaker 14: achieve, the increased attachment, and that
00:49:33 Speaker 14: confidence that you know people aren't
00:49:36 Speaker 14: going to be left without a
00:49:39 Speaker 14: provider if they do get on
00:49:42 Speaker 14: the the healthcare connect system. Okay,
00:49:45 Speaker 14: thank you. And anything that we
00:49:47 Speaker 14: can do. to help with that
00:49:49 Speaker 14: education to get that message out
00:49:53 Speaker 14: because it is a fairly recent
00:49:55 Speaker 14: change, given as you mentioned the
00:49:57 Speaker 14: history, so that people need to
00:49:59 Speaker 14: trust the new rules. So, okay,
00:50:01 Speaker 14: we're going to go to Councillor
00:50:04 Speaker 14: Keaveny next. Thank you, Madam Warden,
00:50:06 Speaker 14: and Lindsay. I really appreciate you
00:50:08 Speaker 14: being here today, and would extend
00:50:10 Speaker 14: an invitation to you to come
00:50:12 Speaker 14: to speak to me for it
00:50:17 Speaker 18: as well. I just wanted to
00:50:20 Speaker 18: share that we have one new
00:50:23 Speaker 18: doctor in Meaford and two more
00:50:25 Speaker 18: coming. So, thank you for your
00:50:26 Speaker 18: participating. participation in that, and I
00:50:29 Speaker 18: just wanted to ask to pick
00:50:31 Speaker 18: your brain a little bit in
00:50:34 Speaker 18: terms of advice for municipalities, because
00:50:39 Speaker 18: I think through your response to
00:50:41 Speaker 18: Deputy Warden Mill, I'm hearing that
00:50:44 Speaker 18: infrastructure office space for doctors is
00:50:46 Speaker 18: is a key concern. So perhaps
00:50:49 Speaker 18: if municipalities gave thought to moving
00:50:51 Speaker 18: away from the Hunger Games of
00:50:53 Speaker 18: doctor incentives and focused more on
00:50:56 Speaker 18: providing space for new potential doctors.
00:50:59 Speaker 18: would. Would that be your recommendation
00:51:02 Speaker 18: as the key thing that municipalities
00:51:03 Speaker 18: could do? I mean, in Mefford,
00:51:06 Speaker 18: we now offer one hundred thousand
00:51:09 Speaker 18: dollars at one percent interest loan
00:51:10 Speaker 18: from the municipality to support doctors
00:51:15 Speaker 18: with space. But just wanted to,
00:51:16 Speaker 18: as I say, get your thoughts
00:51:17 Speaker 18: on other areas of advice for
00:51:19 Speaker 18: municipalities to participate. Thank you very
00:51:20 Speaker 18: much. Yes, I think that that
00:51:24 Speaker 18: is it. I. I do um
00:51:29 Speaker 18: yeah I think it's great to
00:51:31 Speaker 18: kind of look at that and
00:51:33 Speaker 18: reevaluate based on the new context
00:51:34 Speaker 18: where we are now and and
00:51:38 Speaker 18: shifting away potentially from, um, you
00:51:40 Speaker 18: know some of the um
00:51:43 Speaker 18: recruitment um focus and towards kind
00:51:45 Speaker 18: of the areas where um the
00:51:46 Speaker 18: system that the system can't support
00:51:47 Speaker 18: right now which is the infrastructure
00:51:50 Speaker 18: um I know with um something
00:51:55 Speaker 18: that is. we recently did some
00:51:58 Speaker 18: work with the South Bruce Peninsula,
00:52:01 Speaker 18: and this this new funding for
00:52:02 Speaker 18: every new position that is funding,
00:52:06 Speaker 18: it does also fund twenty five
00:52:09 Speaker 18: percent in terms of offer operational
00:52:12 Speaker 18: costs. So you know municipalities, if
00:52:14 Speaker 18: they're in a position that they
00:52:15 Speaker 18: may be able to kind of
00:52:18 Speaker 18: support the kind of, and again,
00:52:21 Speaker 18: I'm probably not going to say
00:52:23 Speaker 18: this right, but the leasing of
00:52:27 Speaker 18: a space or you know, they
00:52:30 Speaker 18: have a space to provide those
00:52:32 Speaker 18: operational funds. Are kind of committed
00:52:35 Speaker 18: to that, like the rent or
00:52:37 Speaker 18: whatever that is. So, if a
00:52:39 Speaker 18: town owns the building and they're
00:52:41 Speaker 18: renting it to a primary care
00:52:46 Speaker 23: organization, you know, there's that kind
00:52:52 Speaker 23: of commitment that with those additional
00:52:56 Speaker 23: positions, that operational funding comes along.
00:52:58 Speaker 24: So, we were able to do
00:53:00 Speaker 24: a bit of a business case,
00:53:02 Speaker 24: like with the South Bruce. Peninsula,
00:53:04 Speaker 24: to help the the physicians there,
00:53:06 Speaker 24: kind of get the support for
00:53:07 Speaker 24: moving into a new space. With
00:53:09 Speaker 24: them knowing that there was this
00:53:13 Speaker 24: confirmed, like there would be kind
00:53:14 Speaker 24: of confirmed funding to support the
00:53:15 Speaker 24: the rent of the additional space.
00:53:17 Speaker 24: So I think, like, kind of
00:53:19 Speaker 24: if there is opportunity to look
00:53:21 Speaker 24: at, you know, spaces that the
00:53:23 Speaker 10: municipalities may own or potential to
00:53:24 Speaker 10: support, like new spaces or leasehold
00:53:28 Speaker 10: improvements. I think that's a great
00:53:29 Speaker 10: opportunity to to explore. And again,
00:53:31 Speaker 10: it it likely will be. You
00:53:34 Speaker 10: know things will take time to
00:53:35 Speaker 10: to shift and change, but just
00:53:37 Speaker 10: being kind of open to understanding
00:53:40 Speaker 10: what this new kind of funding
00:53:43 Speaker 10: and these new structures look like,
00:53:44 Speaker 10: and how that potentially changes needs.
00:53:46 Speaker 10: for for primary care. Okay, thank
00:53:49 Speaker 10: you. We'll go to Councillor Greg.
00:53:51 Speaker 10: Thank you for the presentation this
00:53:53 Speaker 10: afternoon, Lindsay. And thanks, probably, for
00:53:54 Speaker 10: not including that complex or that
00:53:58 Speaker 10: slide that shows the complexities of
00:54:00 Speaker 10: navigating the Ministry of Health. The
00:54:03 Speaker 10: flip side of that is, I
00:54:05 Speaker 10: do have a couple questions, just
00:54:07 Speaker 10: for a little bit more framing
00:54:08 Speaker 10: around the the value. The the
00:54:11 Speaker 10: values that are in place right
00:54:13 Speaker 10: now, like to say seven million
00:54:16 Speaker 10: dollars in base funding increase since
00:54:18 Speaker 10: August twenty twenty five. What's that
00:54:20 Speaker 10: up against? Like, what what does
00:54:22 Speaker 10: seven million dollars increase in base
00:54:25 Speaker 10: funding mean? I I have no
00:54:33 Speaker 10: idea what your your starting point
00:54:36 Speaker 10: was. Because I was going to
00:54:38 Speaker 10: ask the question like, how much
00:54:40 Speaker 10: funding did each FHT get? Is
00:54:42 Speaker 10: that something you know, or is
00:54:44 Speaker 10: that some are details like that
00:54:46 Speaker 10: that you can report in an
00:54:49 Speaker 10: email back to council just because.
00:54:52 Speaker 10: I'm, yes, we're representing the county,
00:54:53 Speaker 10: but I'm most familiar with Owen
00:54:55 Speaker 10: Sounds Family Health Teams, and I
00:54:57 Speaker 10: can't help but wonder how many
00:54:58 Speaker 10: people were actually connected with a
00:55:01 Speaker 10: doctor at each FHT. Like, is
00:55:04 Speaker 10: there a resource where we can
00:55:08 Speaker 10: locate that information? The third question
00:55:10 Speaker 10: I would ask is: You mentioned
00:55:12 Speaker 10: over nine thousand attached to primary
00:55:14 Speaker 10: care, which was up from about
00:55:16 Speaker 10: seventy-three hundred in the one slide,
00:55:18 Speaker 10: and that was as of this
00:55:19 Speaker 10: morning. seventeen hundred as of April
00:55:21 Speaker 10: was a number you utilized. Is
00:55:23 Speaker 10: that the same number? That seventeen
00:55:24 Speaker 10: hundred increase as of April is
00:55:28 Speaker 10: that what drove it up to
00:55:29 Speaker 18: nine thousand? As of that information
00:55:32 Speaker 18: this morning, okay. I just when
00:55:34 Speaker 18: a doctor may retire, individuals that
00:55:36 Speaker 18: may be at risk of being
00:55:38 Speaker 18: de-registered or or needing to find
00:55:39 Speaker 18: another physician, they're not counted twice,
00:55:41 Speaker 18: are they? Like, just if you
00:55:43 Speaker 18: could explain in terms of that
00:55:46 Speaker 18: process to me, and and I'm
00:55:48 Speaker 18: glad for Councillor Millen's question or
00:55:52 Speaker 18: Councillor Debrine's question. I, I'm concerned
00:55:54 Speaker 18: that there is a lot of
00:55:56 Speaker 18: gap out there because I think
00:55:57 Speaker 18: the old list or a new
00:56:02 Speaker 18: list was started in January of
00:56:04 Speaker 18: 25, and you as you commented,
00:56:05 Speaker 18: changes were made last fall, and
00:56:06 Speaker 18: your And you're working with a
00:56:08 Speaker 18: list that's somewhat dated and more
00:56:10 Speaker 18: reflective of people that were hesitant
00:56:15 Speaker 18: to to put their name forward
00:56:16 Speaker 18: at the risk of losing their
00:56:18 Speaker 18: their primary care provider at the
00:56:25 Speaker 18: time. So, a couple questions that
00:56:28 Speaker 18: if you're able to guide me
00:56:30 Speaker 18: to where I can find those
00:56:32 Speaker 18: resources, or perhaps further them back
00:56:35 Speaker 18: to counsel in the future. Thanks.
00:56:41 Speaker 18: Yeah, for sure. I'll do my
00:56:45 Speaker 18: best to answer as much of
00:56:49 Speaker 18: that as I can. I also
00:56:51 Speaker 18: when I when I do that
00:56:52 Speaker 18: more in depth presentation that I've
00:56:56 Speaker 18: developed, a lot of that is
00:56:58 Speaker 18: answered, and I think, you know,
00:57:01 Speaker 18: as you noted at the very
00:57:04 Speaker 18: beginning, that like this system is
00:57:08 Speaker 18: probably the most complex I've ever
00:57:14 Speaker 18: encountered in systems, and it is
00:57:15 Speaker 18: not logical and it's not straightforward,
00:57:17 Speaker 18: and so it makes answering a
00:57:21 Speaker 18: lot of these questions and understanding
00:57:24 Speaker 18: it all like very difficult. But
00:57:28 Speaker 18: in terms of just going back.
00:57:33 Speaker 18: to, and I'm going to try
00:57:35 Speaker 18: to remember this properly, the first
00:57:40 Speaker 18: that you asked about the amount
00:57:43 Speaker 18: of funding and the attachments at
00:57:46 Speaker 18: each organization. So, the first round
00:57:49 Speaker 18: of funding was a bit different.
00:57:50 Speaker 18: There were regions because of the
00:57:52 Speaker 18: way that they structured it that
00:57:56 Speaker 18: were eligible to apply for funding.
00:57:57 Speaker 18: The first round was specific to
00:57:58 Speaker 18: postal codes, so the N0H and
00:57:59 Speaker 18: N. The N zero H and
00:58:00 Speaker 18: N zero G postal code were
00:58:01 Speaker 18: eligible to submit proposals, and other
00:58:03 Speaker 18: regions were not eligible. And we
00:58:05 Speaker 18: had immense difficulty here because, unlike
00:58:07 Speaker 18: many urban centers, we have huge
00:58:12 Speaker 18: FSA's. Like N zero H is
00:58:13 Speaker 18: the peninsula; it's part of the
00:58:14 Speaker 18: Blue Mountains. It's like you know,
00:58:16 Speaker 18: it's a huge Soggy Shores, and
00:58:17 Speaker 18: Slogging shores, and so we put
00:58:21 Speaker 18: together proposals for that, and the
00:58:25 Speaker 18: funding, like the asks, were constructed
00:58:27 Speaker 18: by, like they were based on
00:58:32 Speaker 18: data, so data that showed us
00:58:39 Speaker 18: how many unattached patients there were,
00:58:41 Speaker 18: and also what the organizations themselves,
00:58:43 Speaker 18: so the the family health teams,
00:58:45 Speaker 18: what they saw as feasible, within
00:58:47 Speaker 18: a year to recruit in terms
00:58:51 Speaker 18: of like the staffing and also
00:58:55 Speaker 18: onboard and attach. So the we
00:59:00 Speaker 18: had to submit both an ask
00:59:02 Speaker 18: and the proposed target attachment. And
00:59:05 Speaker 18: then what happens? And I don't
00:59:07 Speaker 18: know if this happens in other
00:59:08 Speaker 18: areas when you put a proposal
00:59:10 Speaker 18: into the province. You ask for
00:59:12 Speaker 18: something and say this is what
00:59:15 Speaker 18: we're going to do, and they
00:59:17 Speaker 18: come back and say, actually, we're
00:59:20 Speaker 18: going to give you twenty percent
00:59:21 Speaker 18: of what you asked for, and
00:59:23 Speaker 18: this is now your target, which
00:59:26 Speaker 18: is like half of what you
00:59:27 Speaker 18: said you could do. Yeah, so
00:59:29 Speaker 18: that's kind of like that's what
00:59:31 Speaker 18: we ended up with. So we
00:59:32 Speaker 18: ended up in the first round
00:59:33 Speaker 18: getting, I think, I want to
00:59:35 Speaker 18: say two and a half million
00:59:37 Speaker 18: to attach about twenty five hundred
00:59:39 Speaker 18: people, and what they ended up
00:59:40 Speaker 18: coming. out with a bit later
00:59:42 Speaker 18: is targets aligned to specific positions.
00:59:46 Speaker 18: So, a nurse practitioner. If I
00:59:49 Speaker 18: was going to, let's say, I'm
00:59:51 Speaker 18: a primary care organization, I'm applying
00:59:53 Speaker 18: for a nurse practitioner position. The
00:59:57 Speaker 18: funding for it that comes along
00:59:59 Speaker 18: with a target of 800 patients.
01:00:02 Speaker 18: So, and then a. another health
01:00:06 Speaker 18: service provider, let's say like a
01:00:08 Speaker 18: social worker, that number is 250.
01:00:11 Speaker 18: Okay, so let's say I'm an
01:00:14 Speaker 18: organization. I ask for a nurse
01:00:18 Speaker 18: practitioner funding for a nurse practitioner
01:00:21 Speaker 18: and a social worker. My target
01:00:23 Speaker 18: then has to be 1,050 patients.
01:00:25 Speaker 18: So that's kind of how it
01:00:28 Speaker 18: works right now. We all know
01:00:33 Speaker 18: in like that's not actually how
01:00:37 Speaker 18: it works in any way, but
01:00:40 Speaker 18: that's how the funding is being.
01:00:43 Speaker 18: allocated, but it also has to
01:00:45 Speaker 18: be thought of in okay, like
01:00:46 Speaker 18: if I'm, you know, the executive
01:00:49 Speaker 18: director of an organization, what is
01:00:55 Speaker 18: possible for me to do in
01:00:57 Speaker 18: one year? Do I have space
01:00:59 Speaker 18: to bring these people on? Do
01:01:01 Speaker 18: I think I can actually hire
01:01:03 Speaker 18: a nurse practitioner in a year
01:01:09 Speaker 18: to meet that target? Because that's
01:01:12 Speaker 18: what I'm going to be accountable
01:01:14 Speaker 18: for. So, the um, you know,
01:01:16 Speaker 18: the numbers again, and the so
01:01:19 Speaker 18: the organizations that received funding in
01:01:22 Speaker 18: that. first round were Kingardon Family
01:01:24 Speaker 18: Health Team and the Brockton and
01:01:29 Speaker 18: Area Family Health Team, but the
01:01:31 Speaker 18: Kingardon Family Health Team, their funding
01:01:41 Speaker 18: actually went to support physician groups
01:01:42 Speaker 18: in Soggin Shores, so two of
01:01:45 Speaker 10: them, as well as the Meaford
01:01:46 Speaker 10: Thornbury and Fleischerton physician group. So
01:01:48 Speaker 10: it really was like, you know,
01:01:51 Speaker 10: quite complex in terms. of where
01:01:54 Speaker 18: funding flowed because of where it
01:01:58 Speaker 18: could only flow and where that
01:02:01 Speaker 18: money actually went to support attachment.
01:02:02 Speaker 18: So, the numbers, like we have
01:02:04 Speaker 18: them, whether they give you a
01:02:06 Speaker 18: lot of information that is helpful,
01:02:09 Speaker 18: I'm not sure. But that is
01:02:10 Speaker 18: kind of you know what we're
01:02:13 Speaker 18: working with and the targets this
01:02:15 Speaker 18: time around. So actually, every every
01:02:18 Speaker 18: primary care organization and physician group
01:02:20 Speaker 18: in the entire region was involved
01:02:21 Speaker 18: in our second proposal that we
01:02:24 Speaker 18: put in last November, and that
01:02:27 Speaker 18: was approved in April of this
01:02:30 Speaker 18: year. And so, all organizations have
01:02:32 Speaker 18: targets that are aligned with the
01:02:35 Speaker 18: amount of funding, which align with
01:02:36 Speaker 18: the the like eight hundred and
01:02:38 Speaker 18: two fifty that. that I was
01:02:40 Speaker 18: was speaking to, so that's the
01:02:43 Speaker 18: way that we kind of sorted
01:02:47 Speaker 18: it out. So I hope that
01:02:50 Speaker 18: sorry, it's really really difficult to
01:02:51 Speaker 18: explain, but yeah. Thank you for
01:02:53 Speaker 18: that. And just the last piece
01:02:56 Speaker 18: was patients who could be at
01:02:59 Speaker 18: risk of de rostering. How Risk
01:03:06 Speaker 18: of de-rostering? How's how's the counting
01:03:10 Speaker 01: process there? Just to ensure there's
01:03:12 Speaker 01: no double counting. Yeah. So the
01:03:13 Speaker 01: way that the numbers are counted
01:03:14 Speaker 01: for this funding is that when
01:03:15 Speaker 01: they establish like the start of
01:03:17 Speaker 01: the funding. So for this second
01:03:19 Speaker 01: round of funding, the start was
01:03:21 Speaker 01: April first, twenty twenty six. And
01:03:23 Speaker 01: so what each organization has to
01:03:24 Speaker 01: do is take their baseline roster.
01:03:25 Speaker 01: So let's say, Owen Sand Family
01:03:29 Speaker 01: Health Team. thirty thousand, let's say,
01:03:30 Speaker 01: and then any like you have
01:03:31 Speaker 01: a target of okay, your target
01:03:32 Speaker 01: based on the funding you're
01:03:34 Speaker 01: getting is two thousand net new
01:03:36 Speaker 01: patients. So it's like by the
01:03:38 Speaker 01: end of that, you know, when
01:03:39 Speaker 01: their target the by the deadline
01:03:41 Speaker 01: to hit the target, their roster
01:03:42 Speaker 01: has to be thirty two thousand.
01:03:44 Speaker 01: So whether they lose a physician
01:03:45 Speaker 01: and there's a thousand that are
01:03:47 Speaker 01: de rostered, like it has to
01:03:48 Speaker 01: be. like net new attachments. So
01:03:50 Speaker 01: yes, if you know if we
01:03:54 Speaker 01: end up losing a physician, then
01:04:00 Speaker 01: that's a lot of extra work
01:04:01 Speaker 01: that has to be done in
01:04:03 Speaker 01: order to actually hit that net
01:04:05 Speaker 01: new attachment number. Okay, thank you.
01:04:07 Speaker 01: Any further hands or questions? Not
01:04:12 Speaker 01: seen any. So thank you. It
01:04:14 Speaker 01: is always very helpful that you
01:04:19 Speaker 01: come to us on a regular
01:04:21 Speaker 01: basis, as you have been doing,
01:04:22 Speaker 01: because then hopefully then the questions
01:04:24 Speaker 01: won't be insurmountable. So we very
01:04:26 Speaker 01: much appreciate that update and all
01:04:34 Speaker 25: of the information and the follow
01:04:36 Speaker 25: up information that you've offered as
01:04:39 Speaker 01: well. So thank you for coming
01:04:43 Speaker 01: today. Okay. So what we're going
01:04:45 Speaker 01: to do at this point in
01:04:49 Speaker 01: time is I'm going to put
01:04:51 Speaker 01: a call out for the determination
01:04:52 Speaker 01: of items requiring separate discussion, so
01:04:56 Speaker 01: that staff will be aware if
01:04:57 Speaker 01: there's anything pulled from the consent
01:04:59 Speaker 01: agenda, and once we have voted
01:05:01 Speaker 01: on. the consent agenda, we will
01:05:03 Speaker 01: do our morning break, and at
01:05:05 Speaker 01: that point time, we will be
01:05:07 Speaker 01: doing the annual photo. So we're
01:05:09 Speaker 01: going to ask during the break
01:05:11 Speaker 01: time that we all gather for
01:05:13 Speaker 01: the photo first, before going off
01:05:14 Speaker 01: for refreshments, etc. So with that,
01:05:17 Speaker 01: it is there are eight. Looks
01:05:19 Speaker 01: like five, six, seven, eight. Yes,
01:05:21 Speaker 01: eight items on the consent agenda.
01:05:24 Speaker 01: Are there any that any committee,
01:05:26 Speaker 01: the whole members wish to pull,
01:05:28 Speaker 01: Councillor Eccles? Yes, thank you, Warden.
01:05:31 Speaker 01: Through you, six E and six
01:05:32 Speaker 01: F. Okay, so six E and
01:05:35 Speaker 01: F are polled. Councillor Carleton, and
01:05:37 Speaker 01: then I'll go to Councillor McKay
01:05:38 Speaker 01: after that. Thank you, Warden. I
01:05:40 Speaker 01: would like six B and six
01:05:42 Speaker 01: D. Okay, Councillor McKay. Thank you,
01:05:44 Speaker 01: through you, Warden. Six A, please.
01:05:45 Speaker 01: 6A, please. Want to get them
01:05:54 Speaker 01: all removed. Okay, so we've got
01:05:55 Speaker 01: 6C, G, and H left. Anyone
01:05:57 Speaker 01: want those ones pulled? Okay. Don't
01:05:58 Speaker 17: see any other hands raised. So
7 Reports
Staff recommends authorizing a loan from Infrastructure Ontario to finance two paramedic bases located in Durham and Beavercam by consolidating applications to reduce administrative burden while utilizing current year advance payments. Council members debated switching the paramedic base loan term from twenty years to fifteen years, noting that although upfront capital budget costs would increase by approximately 44000 dollars due to higher principal repayments ineligible for provincial grants, the faster amortization reduces long-term interest expenses and accelerates debt elimination. Staff clarified that paying off more principal results in slightly less grant reimbursement because only interest is eligible, but the net financial position remains favorable with significant total savings over the loan horizon.
01:06:12 Speaker 26: in that case, then it's recommended
01:06:15 Speaker 17: that the following consent agenda consent
01:22:35 Speaker 27: items be received, and that staff
01:22:38 Speaker 27: be authorized to take actions necessary
01:22:40 Speaker 27: to give effect to the recommendations
01:22:42 Speaker 27: in the staff reports, and that
01:22:44 Speaker 27: the correspondence be supported or received
01:22:47 Speaker 27: for information. as recommended in the
01:22:51 Speaker 27: consent agenda, and this will be
01:22:54 Speaker 27: we will be voting on six
01:23:00 Speaker 27: C, G, and H only. So
01:23:01 Speaker 28: may ask for a mover and
01:23:03 Speaker 28: a seconder. Moved by Councillor Dobrin,
01:23:06 Speaker 28: seconded by Councillor Patterson. It's on
01:23:09 Speaker 28: the floor for any discussion. All
01:23:12 Speaker 28: those in favor, and that motion
01:23:13 Speaker 28: is carried. So after the break,
01:23:15 Speaker 28: we will continue with the two
01:23:19 Speaker 28: items for discussion on section seven,
01:23:23 Speaker 29: and then we will return to
01:23:25 Speaker 29: the pulled items for section six.
01:23:26 Speaker 29: before going into closed close meetings,
01:23:30 Speaker 29: which is scheduled for later in
01:23:33 Speaker 29: the committee of the whole. So
01:23:36 Speaker 29: let's take our break. We will
01:23:37 Speaker 29: be doing the photo as well.
01:23:39 Speaker 29: So, Madam Clerk, what time would
01:23:41 Speaker 29: you like everybody back? Okay, so
01:23:43 Speaker 29: we're going to do eleven twenty,
01:23:45 Speaker 29: a little longer than usual because
01:23:47 Speaker 29: we do need to do the
01:23:49 Speaker 29: photo first. Okay, thank you. It's
01:23:52 Speaker 29: in the lobby, and Olivia from
01:23:54 Speaker 29: Communications will meet you there. Okay.
01:23:55 Speaker 29: The the warden has been. She
01:23:57 Speaker 29: is away to a community event
01:23:58 Speaker 29: in the. Blue Mountains, so she's
01:23:59 Speaker 29: asked me to take the chair
01:24:01 Speaker 29: for the balance of the meeting.
01:24:03 Speaker 29: So, sorry for your luck. West
01:24:04 Speaker 29: Gray is no longer a member
01:24:06 Speaker 29: of Gray County Council. Excellent. All
01:24:10 Speaker 29: right. Well, we'll start off with
01:24:13 Speaker 29: items for direction and discussion. The
01:24:14 Speaker 29: first is report FRCW seventeen twenty
01:24:16 Speaker 29: six financing for paramedic services based.
01:24:20 Speaker 29: For paramedic services bases in Durham
01:24:22 Speaker 29: and Beavercam, Garrett is here to
01:24:23 Speaker 29: give us this report. I need
01:24:25 Speaker 29: a mover and seconder, please. Councilor
01:24:28 Speaker 29: Pringle, Councilor Mackey, thank you, Garrett.
01:24:30 Speaker 29: Welcome. Floor is yours, sir. Through
01:24:31 Speaker 29: the Deputy Boarding. Thank you and
01:24:34 Speaker 29: good morning. The report in front
01:24:36 Speaker 29: of you is requesting staff to
01:24:39 Speaker 29: have the authorization to apply for
01:24:41 Speaker 29: a loan with Infrastructure Ontario and
01:24:42 Speaker 29: to bring back a buy. And
01:24:45 Speaker 29: to bring back a bylaw to
01:24:49 Speaker 29: the next meeting of council that
01:24:51 Speaker 29: is required for that loan. Staff
01:24:54 Speaker 29: have had an initial meeting with
01:24:56 Speaker 29: Infrastructure Ontario, and they've actually recommended
01:24:58 Speaker 29: that the two capital projects that
01:25:00 Speaker 29: require financing be rolled into one
01:25:03 Speaker 29: application. They likened it to applying
01:25:04 Speaker 29: for a personal mortgage, where there's
01:25:07 Speaker 29: a credit application and a background
01:25:09 Speaker 29: process, and they really prefer that
01:25:14 Speaker 29: you only do one a year
01:25:18 Speaker 29: because it does take quite a
01:25:20 Speaker 29: bit of time. We still can
01:25:22 Speaker 29: do separate draws on the projects;
01:25:23 Speaker 29: we don't take all the money
01:25:26 Speaker 29: at one time. but packaging them
01:25:28 Speaker 29: under one joint application is the
01:25:30 Speaker 29: recommendation of Infrastructure Ontario. So the
01:25:31 Speaker 29: two projects that we'd be looking
01:25:33 Speaker 29: to finance are the Durham Paramedic
01:25:35 Speaker 29: Base, which was substantially completed in
01:25:36 Speaker 29: September, but there were some final
01:25:38 Speaker 29: items that needed to be cleaned
01:25:39 Speaker 29: up, and then we're just receiving
01:25:43 Speaker 29: the final invoicing now, which was
01:25:44 Speaker 29: expected to be based on the
01:25:46 Speaker 29: update or based on the award
01:25:49 Speaker 29: report PSR CW ten twenty. four
01:25:52 Speaker 29: to be approximately two point nine
01:25:54 Speaker 29: three three million, but based on
01:25:56 Speaker 29: not using all of the project
01:25:58 Speaker 29: contingencies, is going to come in
01:25:59 Speaker 29: at approximately two million seven hundred
01:26:02 Speaker 29: fifty thousand dollars. The second project
01:26:03 Speaker 29: is the Feversham Paramedic Base, which
01:26:05 Speaker 29: has been awarded through PSR CW
01:26:07 Speaker 29: oh six twenty five and is
01:26:08 Speaker 29: anticipated to have an overall project
01:26:11 Speaker 29: cost of two million three hundred
01:26:13 Speaker 29: ninety two thousand dollars. and is
01:26:15 Speaker 29: expected to be completed in late
01:26:16 Speaker 29: 2026. But similar to the Durham
01:26:19 Speaker 29: base, final invoicing and wrap up
01:26:22 Speaker 29: could could bleed into 2027. The
01:26:24 Speaker 29: two projects are now under budget,
01:26:26 Speaker 29: or sorry, are under budget. What
01:26:29 Speaker 29: we need to finance as well
01:26:31 Speaker 29: as we were able to use
01:26:33 Speaker 29: the current year's planned adventure payments,
01:26:34 Speaker 29: which total three hundred and sixty-two
01:26:37 Speaker 29: thousand six hundred dollars, and apply
01:26:40 Speaker 29: them against the amount we. have
01:26:42 Speaker 29: to borrow. So we're basically making
01:26:44 Speaker 29: our first adventure payment to ourselves,
01:26:46 Speaker 29: and then going out for the
01:26:48 Speaker 29: net. And then with the Chatsworth
01:26:50 Speaker 29: base, there was also some development
01:26:52 Speaker 29: charges and previous year reserve contributions
01:26:56 Speaker 29: that we're able to use as
01:26:59 Speaker 29: well, bringing that required borrow down
01:27:00 Speaker 29: to just under two point two
01:27:01 Speaker 29: million dollars. The budgets were built
01:27:03 Speaker 29: on the assumption that these bases
01:27:05 Speaker 29: would be financed over twenty five
01:27:08 Speaker 29: years at a five percent borrowing
01:27:09 Speaker 29: rate, and that's how we come.
01:27:12 Speaker 29: to the one hundred ninety-two thousand
01:27:15 Speaker 29: eight hundred dollars that's in the
01:27:16 Speaker 29: current budget for the Durham Deventure,
01:27:18 Speaker 29: and one hundred sixty-nine thousand eight
01:27:21 Speaker 29: hundred dollars that's in the Beaver
01:27:23 Speaker 29: Sham Deventure. These numbers carry forward
01:27:25 Speaker 29: throughout the ten-year capital plan, and
01:27:27 Speaker 29: if we had a twenty-five-year capital
01:27:30 Speaker 29: plan, they would continue for the
01:27:32 Speaker 29: next twenty-five years. Staff are recommending
01:27:33 Speaker 29: that we change the plan slightly.
01:27:35 Speaker 29: Instead of amortizing over a twenty-five-year
01:27:36 Speaker 29: loan, that we secure a a
01:27:38 Speaker 29: twenty-year loan instead. The reasons that
01:27:40 Speaker 29: we're recommending that is it comes
01:27:41 Speaker 29: at a slightly lower borrowing rate
01:27:43 Speaker 29: based on the current rates offered
01:27:45 Speaker 29: by Infrastructure Ontario, and it allows
01:27:48 Speaker 29: us to use the project savings
01:27:50 Speaker 29: that we've seen to eliminate five
01:27:53 Speaker 29: years of mortgage payments at the
01:27:56 Speaker 29: end of the loan, and will
01:27:59 Speaker 29: save the county approximately eight hundred
01:28:01 Speaker 29: and twenty-one thousand dollars over the
01:28:02 Speaker 29: term of that loan in interest
01:28:04 Speaker 29: payments. It's still within the approved
01:28:05 Speaker 29: capital. budget of three hundred sixty-two
01:28:07 Speaker 29: thousand six hundred. As based on
01:28:09 Speaker 29: current rates, would be at about
01:28:10 Speaker 29: three hundred and forty-four thousand. Would
01:28:12 Speaker 29: be the total mortgage payment, but
01:28:13 Speaker 29: that will be dependent on what
01:28:16 Speaker 29: the rates are when we actually
01:28:17 Speaker 29: draw the financing, as Infrastructure Ontario
01:28:19 Speaker 29: updates them weekly. And then the
01:28:20 Speaker 29: only other thing, or two other
01:28:22 Speaker 29: things I want to highlight is
01:28:24 Speaker 29: we haven't the Chatsworth base. We
01:28:25 Speaker 29: finance internally, and typically, and same
01:28:26 Speaker 29: with the administration building, typically. loans
01:28:29 Speaker 29: of this scale, we've decided to
01:28:31 Speaker 29: borrow against our own reserves, charge
01:28:35 Speaker 29: ourselves interest, and pay ourselves back
01:28:37 Speaker 29: the interest because we can do
01:28:38 Speaker 29: it at a slightly more competitive
01:28:41 Speaker 29: rate. But you still want to
01:28:43 Speaker 29: charge yourself the interest because you're
01:28:46 Speaker 29: losing out on the opportunity cost
01:28:48 Speaker 29: of having that money in your
01:28:50 Speaker 29: bank account or investing that money
01:28:52 Speaker 29: while you're paying yourself back. For
01:28:55 Speaker 29: these paramedic loans, we're recommending to
01:28:57 Speaker 29: go external for the purpose of
01:29:00 Speaker 29: maximizing provincial funding. So the interest
01:29:02 Speaker 29: cost. on these ventures are eligible
01:29:05 Speaker 29: for fifty-fifty funding from the Ministry
01:29:09 Speaker 29: of Health. So if I take
01:29:10 Speaker 29: a simple number and say that
01:29:12 Speaker 29: we can borrow at five percent,
01:29:13 Speaker 29: the province is then going to
01:29:18 Speaker 29: give us back two point five
01:29:20 Speaker 29: percent in grants. So our our
01:29:22 Speaker 29: net borrowing cost is two point
01:29:23 Speaker 29: five million dollars. We can then
01:29:25 Speaker 29: go out and take that money
01:29:26 Speaker 29: that we we might have used
01:29:28 Speaker 29: to finance it ourselves and invest
01:29:30 Speaker 29: it. And even if we're earning
01:29:32 Speaker 29: a rate of three percent, there's
01:29:36 Speaker 29: a point five percent that the
01:29:37 Speaker 29: county is now making. on that
01:29:40 Speaker 29: money, so it really does make
01:29:42 Speaker 29: sense based on the grant structure
01:29:44 Speaker 29: to finance these externally. As internal
01:29:46 Speaker 29: interest is not an eligible expense
01:29:47 Speaker 29: with Infrastructure Ontario, and then I've
01:29:50 Speaker 29: highlighted that under the Municipal Act,
01:29:52 Speaker 29: we do have the authority to
01:29:54 Speaker 29: borrow, but it is limited. We
01:29:56 Speaker 29: can only go up to 25%
01:29:57 Speaker 29: of our own sourced revenues, and
01:30:00 Speaker 29: that's calculated through our annual FIR
01:30:02 Speaker 29: filing. As of 2026, that amount
01:30:04 Speaker 29: that we could have in annual
01:30:05 Speaker 29: debt repayments before exceeding that threshold
01:30:07 Speaker 29: is twenty-four million one hundred and
01:30:10 Speaker 30: ninety-six thousand nine hundred fifty-seven dollars.
01:30:12 Speaker 30: However, Gray County has its own
01:30:22 Speaker 31: internal threshold that annual debt repayments
01:30:27 Speaker 31: shall not exceed ten percent of
01:30:31 Speaker 31: the own-source revenues. So that means
01:30:36 Speaker 31: that we can go up to
01:30:39 Speaker 31: nine point nine million eight hundred
01:30:41 Speaker 31: thirty-eight thousand seven hundred eighty-two dollars.
01:30:45 Speaker 31: Currently, after last year's budget. process,
01:30:50 Speaker 31: the county has no debt, so
01:30:51 Speaker 31: this would be the only debt
01:30:53 Speaker 31: on the books. But as we
01:30:56 Speaker 31: know, we are going to be
01:31:00 Speaker 31: having debt payments for the new
01:31:04 Speaker 31: Rockwood Terrace redevelopment project, and those
01:31:06 Speaker 31: are expected to be approximately three
01:31:08 Speaker 31: point six million dollars per year.
01:31:10 Speaker 31: However, that full amount does not
01:31:18 Speaker 31: go against our annual repayment limit
01:31:20 Speaker 31: because we have a dedicated provincial
01:31:21 Speaker 31: grant. So you take the net
01:31:23 Speaker 29: of one point nine million dollars.
01:31:26 Speaker 29: So you take the net of
01:31:29 Speaker 29: those two numbers. and the Rockwood
01:31:30 Speaker 29: Terrace project will consume one point
01:31:32 Speaker 29: seven million dollars of our annual
01:31:34 Speaker 29: repayment limit. So, when you combine
01:31:36 Speaker 29: that with these loans, we will
01:31:40 Speaker 29: have about two million dollars of
01:31:42 Speaker 29: annual repayments of debt in our
01:31:46 Speaker 29: budget, which would leave about seven
01:31:48 Speaker 29: point seven nine million dollars for
01:31:51 Speaker 29: any future projects. With that, I'm
01:31:53 Speaker 29: happy to answer any questions. Thank
01:31:55 Speaker 29: you, sir. Very comprehensive. Are there
01:31:56 Speaker 29: any questions from council? Councillor Apples,
01:31:57 Speaker 29: please. Thank you, Deputy Warden. Through
01:31:58 Speaker 29: you, so going forward, we certainly
01:32:00 Speaker 29: have a very robust build out
01:32:03 Speaker 29: of stations, and I take it
01:32:04 Speaker 29: that staff best feeling is in
01:32:06 Speaker 29: building out the number of ones
01:32:07 Speaker 29: done. Dundalk, Holstein, Aten, Cobble Beach.
01:32:08 Speaker 29: How many other ones am I
01:32:12 Speaker 29: missing that we're going to be
01:32:16 Speaker 29: developing? There's six more. We will
01:32:17 Speaker 29: be looking at financing those ones
01:32:20 Speaker 29: instead of ramping up some of
01:32:23 Speaker 29: our tax revenues. Obviously, ramping it
01:32:25 Speaker 29: up a little bit to pay
01:32:27 Speaker 29: off the mortgage and not to
01:32:31 Speaker 29: directly pay it off. Through the
01:32:32 Speaker 29: deputy warden, yes, that's correct. The
01:32:36 Speaker 29: way our ten-year capital plan is
01:32:39 Speaker 29: built right now is all the
01:32:42 Speaker 29: future bases will be debt financed
01:32:44 Speaker 10: as well. With the Durham base,
01:32:46 Speaker 10: it was in the capital plan
01:32:49 Speaker 10: before the enhancement plan came along
01:32:50 Speaker 10: because we knew we needed more
01:32:52 Speaker 10: space. But the enhancement plan made
01:32:55 Speaker 10: that base bigger as we needed
01:32:58 Speaker 10: a operational base at the south
01:32:59 Speaker 10: end. of the county, the other
01:33:03 Speaker 10: bases, there's simply not enough time
01:33:06 Speaker 10: to build up that reserve so
01:33:08 Speaker 10: that we could finance it all
01:33:10 Speaker 10: ourselves. In a perfect world, yeah,
01:33:12 Speaker 10: if we knew we were building
01:33:16 Speaker 10: it in 25 years, we would
01:33:19 Speaker 10: start putting away money now. Or
01:33:22 Speaker 10: 10 years, even you would you
01:33:24 Speaker 10: would you could potentially increase your
01:33:26 Speaker 10: levy now, transfer to reserve, and
01:33:28 Speaker 10: then when it comes to actually
01:33:31 Speaker 10: build it, you're just paying for
01:33:32 Speaker 10: it outright, and your interest costs
01:33:36 Speaker 10: are zero. But with the deployment
01:33:38 Speaker 10: plan coming and the immediate need
01:33:40 Speaker 10: for additional ambulances and the additional
01:33:41 Speaker 10: need to put those ambulances somewhere,
01:33:43 Speaker 10: and then the benefit of having
01:33:45 Speaker 10: these rural bases built, there just
01:33:47 Speaker 10: wasn't enough time to build up
01:33:50 Speaker 10: those capital reserves that we could
01:33:52 Speaker 10: fund it. Councillor Gregg, did you
01:33:54 Speaker 10: have a question? Thank you. I
01:33:56 Speaker 10: did have a question. I I
01:33:58 Speaker 10: just. I'm intrigued with the option
01:33:59 Speaker 10: of the 15 years. The report
01:34:01 Speaker 10: notes the savings from going from
01:34:04 Speaker 10: 25 to 20 years, but there's
01:34:06 Speaker 10: substantial savings in going to 15
01:34:08 Speaker 10: years. I was talking to Garrett
01:34:10 Speaker 10: in advance, and Garrett could expand
01:34:11 Speaker 10: upon the the response provided to
01:34:16 Speaker 10: myself. But when I look at
01:34:19 Speaker 10: the just the core numbers, your
01:34:20 Speaker 10: borrowing cost is is 38 of
01:34:25 Speaker 10: the actual amount required to borrow.
01:34:26 Speaker 10: if you were to invest in
01:34:29 Speaker 10: in a mortgage over fifteen years,
01:34:31 Speaker 10: as opposed to fifty five percent
01:34:35 Speaker 10: over twenty years. There t here
01:34:37 Speaker 10: is an upfront cost, but I
01:34:39 Speaker 10: think you know it does get
01:34:40 Speaker 10: it paid off. It's nice. We're
01:34:46 Speaker 10: in a great position right now
01:34:51 Speaker 29: with zero debt. That's the best
01:34:53 Speaker 29: place to be, and I am
01:34:57 Speaker 29: I am a little bit more
01:35:00 Speaker 29: intrigued, certainly to to. look at
01:35:03 Speaker 29: a fifteen year mortgage that gets
01:35:04 Speaker 29: us back to that position, and
01:35:06 Speaker 29: it's a position where we can
01:35:08 Speaker 29: make, and you can make those
01:35:11 Speaker 29: contributions back into your capital fund
01:35:13 Speaker 29: after you've paid it off. Because
01:35:14 Speaker 29: after thirty years, that's you know
01:35:16 Speaker 29: frankly a time period that you're
01:35:17 Speaker 29: going to start having to reinvest
01:35:19 Speaker 29: back into your your typical building.
01:35:20 Speaker 29: So it gives you more opportunity
01:35:23 Speaker 29: as opposed to a twenty or
01:35:24 Speaker 29: twenty five year when you're still
01:35:26 Speaker 29: making capital payments or debenture payments
01:35:27 Speaker 29: on the capital. cost to be
01:35:28 Speaker 29: able to have it paid off,
01:35:30 Speaker 29: and be looking a little bit
01:35:34 Speaker 29: more forward in terms of making
01:35:37 Speaker 29: reserve contributions to support the the
01:35:40 Speaker 29: required capital needs after after thirty,
01:35:44 Speaker 29: thirty five, forty years that so
01:35:45 Speaker 29: many of our buildings require.
01:35:48 Speaker 29: But I guess that's my position,
01:35:50 Speaker 29: Garrett. If you want to expand
01:35:53 Speaker 29: on the difference in the capital
01:36:09 Speaker 29: budget requirement up front versus the
01:36:11 Speaker 29: ultimate. savings over that reduction from
01:36:13 Speaker 29: twenty years to fifteen years. I
01:36:14 Speaker 29: think I'm I kind of find
01:36:16 Speaker 29: it favorable the fifteen year option.
01:36:18 Speaker 29: Thank you through the warded deputy
01:36:20 Speaker 29: warded. Yeah, staff are happy to
01:36:22 Speaker 29: take direction from council on whatever
01:36:26 Speaker 29: term most suits your needs. A
01:36:31 Speaker 32: shorter borrowing period. You're correct. Results
01:36:35 Speaker 32: in lower cost over the term
01:36:37 Speaker 32: of the loan because you're paying
01:36:42 Speaker 32: it off faster. So, you know,
01:36:43 Speaker 32: if you look at the horizon
01:36:45 Speaker 32: of a 25-year mortgage, at the
01:36:46 Speaker 32: beginning, almost the entirety of your
01:36:49 Speaker 32: payment is going towards interest, and
01:36:51 Speaker 32: then as it goes along, it
01:36:53 Speaker 32: kind of drops off like this
01:36:55 Speaker 32: as as the as the payments
01:36:56 Speaker 32: are become more and more principal.
01:36:59 Speaker 32: If you shorten the term, you're
01:37:00 Speaker 32: increasing your payment. As so, at
01:37:02 Speaker 32: the beginning, your interest cost is
01:37:03 Speaker 32: the exact same, but you're paying
01:37:10 Speaker 29: off more of the principal, and
01:37:12 Speaker 29: that cascades every year. So, correct.
01:37:14 Speaker 29: If we want, if council directs
01:37:16 Speaker 29: us to go towards a a
01:37:18 Speaker 29: fifteen year mortgage, that'll certainly save.
01:37:21 Speaker 29: It'll save approximately seven hundred and
01:37:22 Speaker 29: fifty thousand dollars compared to the
01:37:25 Speaker 29: recommendation that's that's currently before you.
01:37:27 Speaker 29: But it will require an increase
01:37:29 Speaker 29: to the twenty twenty seven capital
01:37:29 Speaker 29: budget of. So currently, there's three
01:37:32 Speaker 29: hundred and sixty-two thousand in the
01:37:33 Speaker 29: in the budget. We would have
01:37:37 Speaker 29: to increase that to four hundred
01:37:40 Speaker 29: and six thousand, so about forty-four
01:37:41 Speaker 29: thousand dollars additional to what was
01:37:42 Speaker 29: in the twenty twenty-six budget and
01:37:44 Speaker 29: what was in the twenty twenty-seven
01:37:48 Speaker 29: capital forecast onward. Again, there's benefits
01:37:49 Speaker 29: to both options. Thank you, Garrett.
01:37:50 Speaker 29: Councillor Nielsen. Thank you very much,
01:37:52 Speaker 29: Deputy Warden. And just for clarity,
01:37:55 Speaker 29: on on Councillor Greg's idea there,
01:37:59 Speaker 29: switching over, would we have to
01:37:59 Speaker 29: actually increase the full forty four
01:38:01 Speaker 29: thousand because the province kicks in
01:38:02 Speaker 29: the grant? So I guess my
01:38:03 Speaker 29: question is, the three hundred sixty
01:38:05 Speaker 29: two thousand we're already putting away,
01:38:08 Speaker 29: the payment increases, but part of
01:38:09 Speaker 29: that payment is that. interest. Do
01:38:11 Speaker 29: we know, you know, what is
01:38:12 Speaker 29: the actual increase? It might not
01:38:14 Speaker 29: actually be the forty-four thousand dollars
01:38:15 Speaker 29: increase to the capital because the
01:38:17 Speaker 29: provincial grant kick it kickups through
01:38:18 Speaker 29: the deputy warden. Paying it off
01:38:19 Speaker 29: faster actually results in slightly less
01:38:22 Speaker 29: grant because you have less interest
01:38:29 Speaker 33: expense. So the principal repayment is
01:38:33 Speaker 33: not eligible for grant, but that
01:38:35 Speaker 33: grant was calculated already as part
01:38:36 Speaker 33: of the twenty twenty seven budget.
01:38:39 Speaker 33: Part of the 2027 budget because,
01:38:40 Speaker 33: and that's why we included it
01:38:42 Speaker 33: in the 2026 budget to make
01:38:45 Speaker 33: sure that the grant was there
01:38:48 Speaker 33: for 2027. So that grant is
01:38:52 Speaker 33: now going to be received next
01:38:54 Speaker 33: year. But then, if this decision's
01:38:56 Speaker 19: made, the interest in 2027 won't
01:38:59 Speaker 19: change because you're paying it on
01:39:01 Speaker 19: the same principal. We can't change
01:39:03 Speaker 19: that number now, but the interest
01:39:09 Speaker 19: in 2028 budget will be slightly
01:39:11 Speaker 21: lower because we paid off more
01:39:13 Speaker 21: of the debt and we're paying
01:39:18 Speaker 21: interest on less of the debt.
01:39:20 Speaker 21: So we'll be getting. reimbursed less
01:39:23 Speaker 21: on that that interest expense. So
01:39:25 Speaker 21: it's it's you're you're saving on
01:39:27 Speaker 21: one hand, but then you're slightly
01:39:29 Speaker 21: losing the grant on the other.
01:39:33 Speaker 21: But but the net, you're still
01:39:34 Speaker 21: you're still saving, but you're saving
01:39:38 Speaker 34: at fifty percent. the The provincial
01:39:41 Speaker 34: grant for paramedic services is a
01:39:49 Speaker 35: is a funny one to budget
01:39:54 Speaker 35: for because you find a savings,
01:39:59 Speaker 35: but then in the next year
01:40:01 Speaker 35: that uses loses you a little
01:40:04 Speaker 35: bit of grant. You add a
01:40:07 Speaker 35: cost, and it hurts upfront, but
01:40:08 Speaker 35: then next year the grant catches
01:40:09 Speaker 35: up. It's it's a tricky one
01:40:12 Speaker 35: aligning. our budget with with their
01:40:15 Speaker 35: grant timelines. Any other questions, Councillor
01:40:16 Speaker 35: Mackey? Thank you, Warden. I've always
01:40:19 Speaker 35: been in favor of not paying
01:40:22 Speaker 35: any more interest than I had
01:40:25 Speaker 35: to. So, if Councillor Greg is
01:40:27 Speaker 35: willing to put forth a motion
01:40:28 Speaker 35: to move it to fifteen years,
01:40:30 Speaker 35: I'd be happy to second it.
01:40:36 Speaker 35: Councillor Greg, any thoughts? Well, I
01:40:39 Speaker 35: will make that amendment. Okay, Councillor
01:40:40 Speaker 35: Greg has moved an amendment to
01:40:43 Speaker 19: the motion to change the payment
01:40:45 Speaker 19: repayment period to 15 years. Is
01:40:49 Speaker 19: that yep? And Councillor Mackey is
01:40:50 Speaker 19: willing to second that. Any discussion
01:40:53 Speaker 19: on the amendment, Councillor Dubreuil? Thank
01:40:57 Speaker 19: you, and through you, Deputy Warden,
8 By-laws
Council members approved converting the Green Development Program Coordinator role from a short-term contract to a permanent full-time position effective summer 2027, leveraging grant funding to reduce anticipated expenses from approximately $196,000 to roughly $124,000. The committee also supported stricter county rules for invasive species sales in pop-up markets to address issues like giant hogweed and directed staff to deploy radar trailers on Gray Road 1 instead of permanent signs due to high costs while forwarding speeding enforcement matters to the OPP. A review confirmed an increased need for special needs childcare, recommending consolidation into one provider to ensure consistency after reallocating provincial funding from other areas.
01:40:59 Speaker 19: to the point. I have
01:41:02 Speaker 19: no objection to changing the amortization
01:41:07 Speaker 19: period. I guess my question is
01:41:10 Speaker 19: more skepticism. Is there in writing
01:41:12 Speaker 19: that the funding from the government
01:41:13 Speaker 19: on the interest payment will continue
01:41:15 Speaker 19: for the period or term of
01:41:17 Speaker 19: the loan, or could we be
01:41:22 Speaker 36: in a situation where we have
01:41:24 Speaker 36: the loan and they cancel the
01:41:25 Speaker 36: funding formula? Sort of the same
01:41:27 Speaker 36: question as Santa Claus real. Garrett.
01:41:28 Speaker 36: The deputy warden. That the answer
01:41:33 Speaker 36: is no. We do our grant
01:41:35 Speaker 36: on a single year basis. The
01:41:39 Speaker 36: grant formula hasn't changed in the
01:41:43 Speaker 36: last six, seven years. I believe
01:41:45 Speaker 36: at seven years ago, we used
01:41:48 Speaker 36: to get an inflationary increase on
01:41:50 Speaker 36: the previous year's expenses. That was
01:41:51 Speaker 36: removed. So the grant hasn't changed.
01:41:53 Speaker 36: but in theory, yes, the Ministry
01:41:55 Speaker 36: of Health could change their eligibility
01:41:57 Speaker 36: criteria or their funding model for
01:41:59 Speaker 36: paramedic services as a whole and
01:42:00 Speaker 36: disqualify interest on borrowing. And these
01:42:03 Speaker 36: would become an ineligible expense, and
01:42:05 Speaker 36: now we'd be paying 100 of
01:42:08 Speaker 36: the the interest. Any further discussion
01:42:09 Speaker 36: on the amendment? Not seeing any.
01:42:11 Speaker 36: I'll call the question. All those
01:42:14 Speaker 36: in favor? That is carried. So
01:42:17 Speaker 36: now we're back to the original
01:42:19 Speaker 36: motion as amended. Any further discussion?
01:42:21 Speaker 36: I'll call the question. All those
01:42:23 Speaker 36: in favor? That is carried. Thank
01:42:28 Speaker 36: you, Garrett. Moving on to the
01:42:31 Speaker 36: next item, which is CW twenty-two
01:42:34 Speaker 36: dash twenty-six Green Development Program staffing
01:42:35 Speaker 36: issue. The update. Sorry. Sorry. Update.
01:42:37 Speaker 36: The the deputy CEO will
01:42:38 Speaker 36: be taking this one. Welcome, Nile.
01:42:41 Speaker 36: Taking this one, welcome, Niall. The
01:42:44 Speaker 36: floor is yours. Oh, we need
01:42:47 Speaker 36: a mover and seconder, please. Councillor
01:42:51 Speaker 36: Pringle, Councillor Nielsen. Floor is yours,
01:42:54 Speaker 36: sir. Good morning. Thank you, Deputy
01:42:57 Speaker 36: Warden. Good morning, members of Council.
01:42:59 Speaker 36: I will keep my comments fairly
01:43:00 Speaker 36: brief on this one. This is
01:43:03 Speaker 36: a good news, bad news, good
01:43:06 Speaker 36: news story. So, congratulations to our
01:43:08 Speaker 36: manager of climate change initiatives, who
01:43:10 Speaker 36: is moving on into an educational
01:43:12 Speaker 36: leave to. to complete some some
01:43:14 Speaker 36: further education in terms of of
01:43:16 Speaker 36: climate science and environmental sciences, which
01:43:18 Speaker 36: is which is fantastic when somebody
01:43:22 Speaker 36: moves on into into great things
01:43:25 Speaker 36: in their career. That of course
01:43:28 Speaker 36: leaves us with a vacancy in
01:43:30 Speaker 36: that role. The good news that
01:43:33 Speaker 36: we have is we have a
01:43:34 Speaker 36: coordinator who has been with the
01:43:36 Speaker 36: county for a number of years
01:43:39 Speaker 36: and who is agreeable to and
01:43:41 Speaker 36: keen to step into an interim
01:43:42 Speaker 36: capacity as manager to be able
01:43:45 Speaker 36: to see us through. certainly the
01:43:47 Speaker 36: next few months as we go
01:43:50 Speaker 36: through the budget process and understand
01:43:53 Speaker 36: the the future of Climate Change
01:43:54 Speaker 36: Initiative Going Green and Gray as
01:43:57 Speaker 36: per the conversations we've had over
01:44:00 Speaker 36: the last few weeks here
01:44:02 Speaker 36: at County Council. So congratulations to
01:44:04 Speaker 36: to both individuals in in those
01:44:05 Speaker 36: moves. That does leave us short,
01:44:07 Speaker 36: however, in the coordinator role, and
01:44:10 Speaker 36: that coordinator role is currently working
01:44:11 Speaker 36: on the green development. standards. The
01:44:13 Speaker 36: green development standards, as you are
01:44:15 Speaker 36: aware, is a tri-county partnership between
01:44:18 Speaker 36: ourselves, Dufferin and Wellington, recently launched
01:44:20 Speaker 36: and in the early stages of
01:44:21 Speaker 36: implementation, supporting the counties and developers
01:44:23 Speaker 36: within the counties to advance green
01:44:25 Speaker 36: development projects in their their areas.
01:44:27 Speaker 36: The interest has been high so
01:44:28 Speaker 36: far, and we're at the very
01:44:31 Speaker 36: early stages. Grey County hosts a
01:44:34 Speaker 36: coordinating A coordinator role on behalf
01:44:36 Speaker 36: of the tri-county partnership to both
01:44:39 Speaker 36: develop that program and to support
01:44:41 Speaker 36: it through its implementation. The agreement
01:44:42 Speaker 36: for supporting it through its implementation
01:44:43 Speaker 36: is fully funded through the partnership
01:44:45 Speaker 36: between the three counties and an
01:44:48 Speaker 36: NRCan Natural Resources Canada grant aid
01:44:49 Speaker 36: package. That program wraps up is
01:44:51 Speaker 36: anticipated to wrap up in summer
01:44:52 Speaker 36: of 2027. At which point the
01:44:54 Speaker 36: program is embedded within the three
01:44:56 Speaker 36: counties as part. of their core
01:44:57 Speaker 36: program. However, we have that gap
01:45:00 Speaker 36: between now and summer 2027, where
01:45:01 Speaker 36: the role of the coordinator was
01:45:03 Speaker 36: being relied on to help take
01:45:04 Speaker 36: the counties through that program. With
01:45:06 Speaker 36: the changes internally, that coordinator is
01:45:09 Speaker 36: is is shifting into the manager
01:45:12 Speaker 36: capacity, and and does not have
01:45:14 Speaker 36: the capacity to be able to
01:45:16 Speaker 36: deliver both the green development program
01:45:18 Speaker 36: and the role of of manager
01:45:20 Speaker 36: of of climate change, climate and
01:45:21 Speaker 36: environmental initiatives. here at the county,
01:45:24 Speaker 36: so that leaves us with the
01:45:26 Speaker 36: vacancy, which we'd like to backfill.
01:45:28 Speaker 36: The backfilling of that vacancy is
01:45:30 Speaker 36: relatively easy in terms of process,
01:45:32 Speaker 36: and we don't need council authorization
01:45:33 Speaker 36: for that. It's already something which
01:45:36 Speaker 36: you've approved. It's fully funded, has
01:45:37 Speaker 36: no no impact. The challenge is
01:45:40 Speaker 36: we require a skill set to
01:45:43 Speaker 36: do that work, which may be
01:45:45 Speaker 36: challenging. We anticipate will be challenging
01:45:49 Speaker 36: to find for a relatively short
01:45:52 Speaker 36: term contract of the order of
01:45:54 Speaker 36: probably nine to ten months in
01:45:56 Speaker 36: length. Given the conversations we had
01:45:58 Speaker 36: last month around the horseshoe and
01:46:02 Speaker 36: the appetite that County Council expressed
01:46:03 Speaker 36: around the the direction you provided
01:46:06 Speaker 36: in terms of coming back to
01:46:08 Speaker 36: budget with both the request for
01:46:10 Speaker 36: a full time permanent position and
01:46:11 Speaker 36: a contract position to support the
01:46:13 Speaker 36: original implementation of going green and
01:46:16 Speaker 36: grey, we thought it was prudent
01:46:18 Speaker 36: to come back to County Council
01:46:19 Speaker 36: at this point and say and
01:46:23 Speaker 36: see whether they're with appetite in
01:46:25 Speaker 36: us changing that from being a
01:46:27 Speaker 36: short term contract role to a
01:46:29 Speaker 36: permanent role. that would allow us
01:46:31 Speaker 36: to apply for a greater pool
01:46:33 Speaker 36: of candidates to be able to
01:46:36 Speaker 36: apply for the position, probably a
01:46:37 Speaker 36: more competitive recruit, and probably greater
01:46:39 Speaker 36: success in terms of identifying a
01:46:41 Speaker 36: candidate. If we were if council
01:46:45 Speaker 36: county council was supportive of this
01:46:47 Speaker 28: approach, we would have that role
01:46:50 Speaker 28: undertake the green development standards work
01:46:53 Speaker 28: for the for the initial term
01:46:55 Speaker 28: of their contract, and then step
01:46:57 Speaker 28: into the coordinator role supporting the
01:46:59 Speaker 28: going green and grey at the
01:47:01 Speaker 28: conclusion of that. and so that
01:47:05 Speaker 28: does have a positive budget impact,
01:47:11 Speaker 28: and this is the last piece
01:47:12 Speaker 28: of good news: a positive budget
01:47:15 Speaker 28: impact in terms of the proposals
01:47:17 Speaker 28: we have for the 2027 budget.
01:47:21 Speaker 28: So, when we county council saw
01:47:24 Speaker 28: the draft 2027 budget, had a
01:47:26 Speaker 28: single permanent position in for about
01:47:29 Speaker 28: 122,000 in in that year, based
01:47:34 Speaker 37: on the decisions and discussion we've
01:47:38 Speaker 37: had over the last few months.
01:47:40 Speaker 37: The impact, as I'd The impact,
01:47:43 Speaker 37: as identified in that report, was
01:47:46 Speaker 37: 196,000. This would actually allow us
01:47:48 Speaker 37: to rejig the budget because we'd
01:47:52 Speaker 37: be offsetting some of that full-time,
01:47:56 Speaker 37: that one year of that permanent
01:47:59 Speaker 37: position against the grant, and so
01:48:04 Speaker 38: it would actually allow us to
01:48:05 Speaker 38: bring the 2027 budget in at
01:48:07 Speaker 38: about 124,000, so a little bit
01:48:09 Speaker 38: less than we were anticipating, be
01:48:12 Speaker 38: able to bring this in. So
01:48:15 Speaker 38: we're seeking council's council county council
01:48:17 Speaker 38: support to to go for a.
01:48:21 Speaker 38: permanent role rather than a contract
01:48:22 Speaker 38: role to enable us to hopefully
01:48:26 Speaker 38: attract a better pool of candidates
01:48:28 Speaker 38: for the green development standard work
01:48:31 Speaker 38: over next next few months. And
01:48:36 Speaker 38: with that, Deputy Warden, I'm quite
01:48:37 Speaker 38: happy to take any questions. Very
01:48:40 Speaker 38: good, thank you, Sir. Are there
01:48:43 Speaker 38: any questions from Council? Not seeing
01:48:44 Speaker 38: any questions. I'll call the question.
01:48:46 Speaker 38: All those in favour? That is
01:48:50 Speaker 38: carried. Thank you, Sir. So with
01:48:53 Speaker 38: that, we. have finished our items
01:48:55 Speaker 38: that need direction beyond. So we'll
01:48:57 Speaker 38: go back to the pulled items
01:49:00 Speaker 38: from the consent agenda. The first
01:49:03 Speaker 38: is six A, which is correspondence
01:49:06 Speaker 38: from the Honorable Minister Robert Flack.
01:49:09 Speaker 38: I forget who wanted to pull
01:49:12 Speaker 38: that, Councillor McKay. You'll move that
01:49:15 Speaker 38: to receive. Is there a seconder
01:49:19 Speaker 38: for that, Councillor Keaveny? Go ahead.
01:49:21 Speaker 38: Oh wait. Scott, you want to
01:49:23 Speaker 38: say anything regarding this item, or
01:49:24 Speaker 38: first, or just be available for
01:49:25 Speaker 38: questions? Okay, Councillor McKay, please. Thank
01:49:28 Speaker 38: you, Deputy Worden. I just want
01:49:29 Speaker 38: to get Scott's opinion on explaining
01:49:31 Speaker 38: a bit more about what's going
01:49:33 Speaker 38: on here. Whether we're going to
01:49:34 Speaker 38: lose municipality, will lose any of
01:49:36 Speaker 38: its parkland dedication? or funding that
01:49:39 Speaker 38: we do now get. So just
01:49:41 Speaker 38: to explain what's going on. Okay,
01:49:42 Speaker 38: Scott, do respond to that, please.
01:49:46 Speaker 38: Yeah, thank you, and through you
01:49:49 Speaker 38: to to Council McQuay. Thanks for
01:49:50 Speaker 38: the question. So this one is
01:49:52 Speaker 38: is a little bit complicated. Basically,
01:49:54 Speaker 38: what's happened is is a couple
01:49:57 Speaker 38: years ago through Bill Twenty Three,
01:49:59 Speaker 38: and again through Bill Ninety Eight,
01:50:02 Speaker 38: early. 98 earlier this year, the
01:50:03 Speaker 38: provinces made some changes with respect
01:50:06 Speaker 38: to parkland dedication in Ontario, and
01:50:07 Speaker 38: essentially what it does is allows
01:50:09 Speaker 38: for developers to dedicate a broader
01:50:11 Speaker 38: range of parkland to municipalities that,
01:50:14 Speaker 38: in some cases, perhaps in the
01:50:15 Speaker 38: past, municipalities would have been reticent
01:50:17 Speaker 38: to receive as parkland. So, some
01:50:19 Speaker 38: of those new changes that were
01:50:22 Speaker 38: passed through the legislation include allowing
01:50:23 Speaker 38: for developers to to use already
01:50:27 Speaker 38: encumbered land as parkland, privately owned
01:50:28 Speaker 38: public spaces as parkland, or what's
01:50:30 Speaker 38: the acronym on that one is
01:50:32 Speaker 38: is POPS, and and other lands
01:50:34 Speaker 38: that the developer may identify, and
01:50:37 Speaker 38: then so through the the recent
01:50:40 Speaker 38: regulations that have have now passed,
01:50:42 Speaker 38: it sets out criteria for
01:50:43 Speaker 38: for sort of how that parkland
01:50:46 Speaker 38: could get dedicated. The legislation also
01:50:50 Speaker 38: gave greater ability. for the the
01:50:52 Speaker 38: developer to appeal the decision of
01:50:53 Speaker 38: a municipality if they chose to
01:50:56 Speaker 38: say no to that parkland. So
01:50:58 Speaker 38: let's just say you were
01:51:01 Speaker 38: dealing with a subdivision application. The
01:51:03 Speaker 38: developer said, "Hey, we'd love to
01:51:06 Speaker 38: give you these lands in the
01:51:09 Speaker 38: northeast corner." And the municipality said,
01:51:10 Speaker 38: "Absolutely, we don't want those lands
01:51:13 Speaker 38: in the northeast corner." The developer
01:51:16 Speaker 38: could now appeal that that decision.
01:51:19 Speaker 38: So through the legislative changes, and
01:51:22 Speaker 38: then soon we'll get to the
01:51:24 Speaker 38: regulations. Apologize for jumping around here.
01:51:26 Speaker 38: Through the legislative changes, staff had
01:51:28 Speaker 38: flagged, and it doesn't impact the
01:51:30 Speaker 38: county as directly because we don't
01:51:31 Speaker 38: deal with parkland dedication. But it
01:51:33 Speaker 38: doesn't impact our nine-member municipalities. That
01:51:35 Speaker 38: you could end up with with
01:51:37 Speaker 38: higher legal costs in terms of
01:51:38 Speaker 38: the agreements that might be needed
01:51:40 Speaker 38: in terms of accepting some of
01:51:43 Speaker 38: these already encumbered lands, or you
01:51:45 Speaker 38: could end up with higher legal
01:51:47 Speaker 38: and administrative costs if you were
01:51:49 Speaker 38: in a situation where a developer
01:51:51 Speaker 38: was pushing. you know, that fictional
01:51:52 Speaker 38: lands in the northeast corner, and
01:51:55 Speaker 39: the municipality otherwise didn't want them,
01:52:01 Speaker 39: and it went to the the
01:52:03 Speaker 39: Ontario Land Tribunal, and then so
01:52:06 Speaker 40: fast forward to to the actual
01:52:10 Speaker 40: regulations, the regulations sort of further
01:52:12 Speaker 40: enshrined some of this. The one
01:52:16 Speaker 40: thing it it did do through
01:52:26 Speaker 40: the regulations was it gave a
01:52:27 Speaker 38: further list of lands that are
01:52:29 Speaker 38: otherwise ineligible, so the developer can't
01:52:33 Speaker 38: even propose these lands, and and
01:52:37 Speaker 38: that included some common sense things
01:52:42 Speaker 38: that municipality. Common sense things that
01:52:45 Speaker 38: municipalities typically wouldn't have taken anyway,
01:52:49 Speaker 38: things like contaminated lands, has hazard
01:52:50 Speaker 38: lands, certain sensitive natural heritage lands.
01:52:51 Speaker 38: In that regard, the final thing
01:52:54 Speaker 38: I'll say, then happy to take
01:52:56 Speaker 38: any questions, is the the the
01:52:57 Speaker 38: regulation also speaks to community benefit
01:52:59 Speaker 38: charges. Community benefit charges aren't something
01:53:01 Speaker 38: we've seen adopted in Gray County
01:53:04 Speaker 38: per se. They were a replacement
01:53:06 Speaker 38: of the former bonusing provisions under
01:53:09 Speaker 38: Section 37 of the Planning Act,
01:53:11 Speaker 38: but community benefit charges only apply
01:53:14 Speaker 38: to to developments of five stories
01:53:17 Speaker 38: or greater, which exceed ten or
01:53:17 Speaker 38: more residential units. So, generally speaking,
01:53:19 Speaker 38: for most of our municipalities, we
01:53:21 Speaker 38: don't have a lot of five-story
01:53:23 Speaker 38: or greater buildings. And and even
01:53:25 Speaker 38: in those municipalities, perhaps like City
01:53:27 Speaker 38: of Mount Sound, where we do
01:53:29 Speaker 38: have some, you know, maybe it
01:53:31 Speaker 38: wasn't worth the time and effort
01:53:32 Speaker 38: to to institute those community benefit
01:53:35 Speaker 38: charges. So, if anything, was more
01:53:37 Speaker 38: impact. If anything, what's more impactful
01:53:38 Speaker 38: to to the nine member municipalities
01:53:40 Speaker 38: is is the parkland dedication. But
01:53:44 Speaker 19: like I said, the the legislation
01:53:47 Speaker 19: was already passed, and and this
01:53:50 Speaker 19: is just sort of the implementation
01:53:52 Speaker 19: tool through the the regulations. But
01:53:56 Speaker 19: certainly happy to take any questions
01:53:57 Speaker 19: if there are any. Thank you,
01:54:01 Speaker 19: Scott. You good, Councillor? You have
01:54:04 Speaker 19: any further questions? No. Any other
01:54:07 Speaker 19: questions from any Councillor Dubrein? Please.
01:54:09 Speaker 19: Thank you, and through you. to
01:54:12 Speaker 19: Scott, if you could elaborate on
01:54:14 Speaker 19: how a developer could require a
01:54:20 Speaker 41: municipality to assume privately owned parkland,
01:54:21 Speaker 41: POPS. Sure, through you, and and
01:54:26 Speaker 41: thank you for the question, Councillor
01:54:27 Speaker 41: Debrine. I'm certainly not an expert
01:54:30 Speaker 41: on this. Typically speaking, in the
01:54:32 Speaker 41: past, these these pops, as as
01:54:36 Speaker 41: the acronym is, were often associated
01:54:38 Speaker 41: with with a condominium development, or
01:54:41 Speaker 41: in some cases, you picture a
01:54:43 Speaker 41: you know a large skyscraper in
01:54:45 Speaker 41: downtown Toronto where they might kind
01:54:48 Speaker 41: of have an outdoor plaza. Anybody
01:54:50 Speaker 41: from the public can come and
01:54:53 Speaker 41: you know sit by the fountain
01:54:56 Speaker 41: or have their lunch or whatever
01:54:57 Speaker 41: else. But it is technically private
01:55:01 Speaker 41: land, and and so essentially what
01:55:04 Speaker 41: this does is it. it gives
01:55:05 Speaker 41: my understanding is it gives more
01:55:08 Speaker 41: flexibility to count that privately land
01:55:11 Speaker 41: private land that's sort of in
01:55:12 Speaker 41: the public realm as as part
01:55:14 Speaker 41: of your parkland dedication per se.
01:55:17 Speaker 41: I don't I don't know that
01:55:19 Speaker 41: it's necessarily saying and again I'm
01:55:21 Speaker 41: not research this in great detail
01:55:24 Speaker 41: that it's necessarily saying that the
01:55:26 Speaker 41: municipality would assume ownership. It just
01:55:27 Speaker 41: means it it counts against your
01:55:29 Speaker 19: five percent total, so it brings
01:55:33 Speaker 19: down the developer's needs to either
01:55:36 Speaker 19: pay cash in lieu to the
01:55:38 Speaker 19: municipality. of Parkland or or dedicate
01:55:42 Speaker 19: land directly, but if it's something
01:55:44 Speaker 19: council is interested, I could do
01:55:47 Speaker 19: some more research and give a
01:55:49 Speaker 19: more fulsome, long-winded answer, but just
01:55:52 Speaker 19: not today. You're good. Okay. Any
01:55:56 Speaker 19: other questions? I'll call the question.
01:55:59 Speaker 19: All those in favor? That is
01:56:00 Speaker 19: carried. Moving on to six B.
01:56:01 Speaker 19: Correspondents from the town of Halton
01:56:02 Speaker 19: Hills. The recommendation is to this.
01:56:04 Speaker 19: Correspondence be supported by Gray County,
01:56:08 Speaker 41: Councillor Carlton. You'll move that. Thank
01:56:11 Speaker 41: you. Is there a seconder, Councillor
01:56:13 Speaker 41: Debrine? Scott, you just want to
01:56:15 Speaker 41: be available for questions, okay? Councillor
01:56:16 Speaker 41: Carlton, please. Thank you, Deputy Warden.
01:56:18 Speaker 41: The reason I asked to have
01:56:19 Speaker 41: this supported is I spend a
01:56:22 Speaker 41: lot of time in the spring
01:56:23 Speaker 41: visiting different plant pop up. Pop-up
01:56:24 Speaker 41: sales places, and I see all
01:56:26 Speaker 41: these invasive species still being sold.
01:56:28 Speaker 41: And I know that in Georgian
01:56:30 Speaker 41: Bluffs, last year we allocated twenty
01:56:32 Speaker 41: thousand dollars, ten thousand of that
01:56:35 Speaker 41: to be used to map the
01:56:37 Speaker 41: invasive species within the township, ten
01:56:40 Speaker 41: thousand dollars for eradication. We had
01:56:41 Speaker 41: another ten thousand dollars this year.
01:56:44 Speaker 41: I reached out to Gray Sable,
01:56:46 Speaker 41: and they are doing a lot
01:56:48 Speaker 41: of mature. Are doing a lot
01:56:50 Speaker 41: of removal there for wild chervil
01:56:51 Speaker 41: and fragmites. Georgian Bluffs, one of
01:56:53 Speaker 41: the issues that we have is
01:56:55 Speaker 41: with the giant hogweed. So there's
01:56:59 Speaker 41: a lot of money being spent,
01:57:01 Speaker 41: and I'm using the example of
01:57:03 Speaker 41: Grey Soblen, Georgian Bluffs. I would
01:57:05 Speaker 41: imagine every municipality throughout Ontario is
01:57:06 Speaker 41: facing that same thing. So I
01:57:08 Speaker 41: think we need support for that
01:57:09 Speaker 41: to get stricter rules in place
01:57:12 Speaker 41: around these plants being sold in
01:57:13 Speaker 41: the future. So I'm just asking
01:57:15 Speaker 41: for county council support there. Thank
01:57:19 Speaker 41: you. Thank you. Any other speakers?
01:57:21 Speaker 41: Questions? Not seeing any. I'll call
01:57:26 Speaker 41: the question. All those in favor?
01:57:31 Speaker 42: That's carried. Thank you. Moving on
01:57:33 Speaker 42: to six D, which is correspondence
01:57:39 Speaker 43: from Liza Ireton. I think I
01:57:42 Speaker 43: said that right. Gray Road One
01:57:44 Speaker 43: concerns. Councilor Carlton, you're prepared to
01:57:45 Speaker 43: move that as well. Support. Seconder.
01:57:48 Speaker 43: Councillor McQueen. Thank you, Councillor Carlton.
01:57:50 Speaker 43: You wish to speak to it,
01:57:52 Speaker 43: or Pat? Do you want to
01:57:53 Speaker 43: speak first, or do you want
01:57:56 Speaker 43: to be available for questions? Questions,
01:57:59 Speaker 43: okay. Councillor Carlton. Thank you, Deputy
01:58:01 Speaker 43: Warden. Again, this one yesterday, I
01:58:02 Speaker 43: went for a drive to just
01:58:04 Speaker 43: see what the speed limits are,
01:58:05 Speaker 43: and is it is a sixty
01:58:07 Speaker 43: kilometer all the way through there?
01:58:08 Speaker 43: I know there is an issue
01:58:09 Speaker 43: with people speeding, and there are
01:58:12 Speaker 43: a lot of residents along the
01:58:15 Speaker 43: side. Now, the one thing I
01:58:17 Speaker 43: didn't notice was what are the
01:58:19 Speaker 43: pavement markings there. So, I guess
01:58:20 Speaker 43: what I'm asking is, could we
01:58:21 Speaker 43: take a look at that? Even
01:58:23 Speaker 43: some the black cat speed change,
01:58:25 Speaker 43: just to notify people you're going
01:58:26 Speaker 43: too fast, slow down because we're
01:58:28 Speaker 43: seeing so much of this near
01:58:30 Speaker 43: accidents with people driving so fast.
01:58:32 Speaker 43: And I'll use an example of
01:58:33 Speaker 43: recently. I was down to Markdale
01:58:34 Speaker 43: on a Sunday morning, and on
01:58:36 Speaker 43: the way down, and on the
01:58:39 Speaker 43: way back. both times I was
01:58:40 Speaker 43: passed by somebody when I was
01:58:42 Speaker 43: on a double line, and approaching
01:58:43 Speaker 43: a hill. So dangerous situations. And
01:58:45 Speaker 43: is there any way we can,
01:58:47 Speaker 43: I don't know, highlight this? And
01:58:48 Speaker 43: I think we're already doing what
01:58:50 Speaker 43: we can, but I didn't pay
01:58:52 Speaker 43: attention to pavement markings. So I'm
01:58:54 Speaker 43: just asking if somebody can speak
01:58:55 Speaker 43: to it, or if there's anything
01:58:57 Speaker 43: we can do to alert drivers
01:58:58 Speaker 43: to this. Thank you. I might
01:58:59 Speaker 43: think the obvious solution would be.
01:59:01 Speaker 43: that you guys. Did somebody say
01:59:03 Speaker 43: take it over? No, sorry, just
01:59:04 Speaker 43: just thinking out loud. Pat,
01:59:06 Speaker 43: do you want to speak to
01:59:08 Speaker 43: that, please? Yes, I guess first
01:59:09 Speaker 43: thing I'd like to thank Ms.
01:59:11 Speaker 43: Ireton for bringing this to our
01:59:12 Speaker 43: attention. We get requests like this
01:59:13 Speaker 43: pretty frequently, and I don't have.
01:59:17 Speaker 43: a data directly in that area
01:59:20 Speaker 43: on speed, but I I don't
01:59:21 Speaker 43: doubt she's correct. 99% of areas
01:59:23 Speaker 43: have speeding issues. People don't necessarily
01:59:25 Speaker 44: adhere to the signs. It is
01:59:29 Speaker 44: a 60 along there, but the
01:59:35 Speaker 44: visibility is quite good, so it's
01:59:37 Speaker 44: not a surprise that people are
01:59:41 Speaker 44: probably going faster than the posted
01:59:42 Speaker 44: speed. So what we typically do
01:59:43 Speaker 44: in a in a request like
01:59:45 Speaker 44: this is we would take up
01:59:47 Speaker 44: our our variable or our radar
01:59:50 Speaker 44: trailer that tells people how fast
01:59:51 Speaker 44: they're going. As far as that
01:59:53 Speaker 44: would give us just a little
01:59:57 Speaker 44: more thorough data, which I'm sure
01:59:59 Speaker 44: will save people from speeding. And
02:00:02 Speaker 44: as far as a permanent sign,
02:00:06 Speaker 31: I think the county has four
02:00:08 Speaker 31: now, but they've all been paid
02:00:09 Speaker 31: for by community groups. They're just
02:00:12 Speaker 31: so cost prohibitive. People tend to
02:00:19 Speaker 45: want them everywhere. I think the
02:00:21 Speaker 45: people that want them probably pay
02:00:22 Speaker 45: attention to the sign, but it
02:00:24 Speaker 45: seems like anordinate amount of people
02:00:26 Speaker 45: don't. So we would take
02:00:28 Speaker 45: our trailer up there, get some
02:00:30 Speaker 45: more speed. We would forward on
02:00:33 Speaker 45: the OPP about the enforcement piece,
02:00:35 Speaker 45: since that is not you know
02:00:36 Speaker 45: in our duty. You know, in
02:00:38 Speaker 45: our duties, and then we'd get
02:00:46 Speaker 45: a hold of Miss Ireton and
02:00:49 Speaker 45: see what she has to say.
02:00:52 Speaker 46: But again, even passing no passing
02:00:57 Speaker 46: zones, you know, in Ontario, you
02:00:58 Speaker 46: can you can pass, you know,
02:01:01 Speaker 46: against the line unless you have
02:01:02 Speaker 46: another bylaw. So we'll look into
02:01:05 Speaker 46: all the warrants in the area
02:01:06 Speaker 46: just to see there is paved
02:01:11 Speaker 46: shoulders there, which you know have
02:01:13 Speaker 46: a little more safety for cyclists
02:01:15 Speaker 46: and pedestrians theoretically than other places.
02:01:17 Speaker 45: But we'll have a look at
02:01:19 Speaker 45: it and talk to Miss Ireton
02:01:21 Speaker 45: and just get some more feedback
02:01:23 Speaker 45: on what we could possibly do
02:01:25 Speaker 45: there if anything. Thank you, Pat.
02:01:27 Speaker 45: Good. Any other questions on that
02:01:30 Speaker 45: one? Not seeing any. I call
02:01:31 Speaker 47: the question. All those in favor?
02:01:41 Speaker 48: That's carried. Thank you. Moving on
02:01:43 Speaker 48: to six E. Award of special
02:01:44 Speaker 48: needs resourcing. Councilor Eccles, you're prepared
02:01:49 Speaker 48: to move support of that. Okay.
02:01:52 Speaker 48: Is there second, or Councilor Bordignon
02:01:56 Speaker 48: and Marie? Do you want to
02:01:58 Speaker 48: speak to that first, or all?
02:02:02 Speaker 48: Speak to that first, or oh,
02:02:03 Speaker 48: okay, Tara. Tara's going to speak
02:02:05 Speaker 48: to that. Excellent. The floor is
02:02:08 Speaker 48: yours, Tara. Welcome. Thank you. Good
02:02:10 Speaker 48: morning, Council Three Warden, or sorry,
02:02:15 Speaker 48: Deputy Warden. I'm happy to take
02:02:18 Speaker 48: any questions about this report. Very
02:02:20 Speaker 48: good. My kind of report. Councilor
02:02:22 Speaker 48: Ackles, did you have a specific
02:02:26 Speaker 48: question? Uh, yes. Through you to
02:02:30 Speaker 48: Tara. So the operational funding is
02:02:33 Speaker 48: 1.4 million. How much is that
02:02:35 Speaker 48: added on to our budget, or
02:02:38 Speaker 48: is To our budgeters, that flow
02:02:40 Speaker 48: through funding. Through Deputy Gordon, that
02:02:43 Speaker 48: is completely within our existing budget,
02:02:45 Speaker 48: so there's no impact. We have
02:02:48 Speaker 49: just had some savings in other
02:02:52 Speaker 49: budgets last year, so we prioritize
02:02:55 Speaker 49: supporting the special needs resourcing funding.
02:02:56 Speaker 49: So I believe this year was
02:02:59 Speaker 49: 1.2, based on community need. We
02:03:02 Speaker 49: had the surplus funding in our
02:03:03 Speaker 49: local priorities funding from the province
02:03:05 Speaker 49: to support this increase and go
02:03:07 Speaker 49: to the single source. So we've
02:03:08 Speaker 49: got a bit of a reserve
02:03:10 Speaker 49: to cover it for 2026 or
02:03:12 Speaker 49: 2027. Will that continue? 1.4 million
02:03:13 Speaker 49: is a fairly large. We've got
02:03:15 Speaker 49: some surpluses. I guess I thought
02:03:17 Speaker 49: was adding it. And how are
02:03:18 Speaker 49: we going to? Is it totally
02:03:19 Speaker 49: funded, or is it funded from
02:03:22 Speaker 49: the taxpayers of Gray County? Of
02:03:23 Speaker 49: Grey County. So this is completely
02:03:25 Speaker 49: funded through our provincial budget. We
02:03:28 Speaker 49: actually returned funds in 2025, and
02:03:31 Speaker 49: we would like to maximize our
02:03:34 Speaker 49: utilization of those provincial funds. So
02:03:35 Speaker 49: again, we haven't had to decrease
02:03:37 Speaker 49: any programming. This is just allowing
02:03:39 Speaker 49: us to stabilize and increase our
02:03:43 Speaker 49: activities through the Special Needs Resourcing
02:03:47 Speaker 49: Program as part of what we
02:03:49 Speaker 49: found through our review of the
02:03:50 Speaker 49: program. I think we just had
02:03:52 Speaker 49: a conversation a few minutes ago.
02:03:54 Speaker 49: It was a question from Councillor
02:03:59 Speaker 49: Debrine. This is absolutely written in
02:04:03 Speaker 49: stone that we'll continue to get
02:04:05 Speaker 45: these. I'm thinking a number of
02:04:07 Speaker 45: years ago we got into something
02:04:09 Speaker 45: called long-term care that was going
02:04:11 Speaker 45: to be totally funded. It wouldn't
02:04:15 Speaker 45: be on the taxpayers and. today,
02:04:18 Speaker 50: what north of nine million dollars
02:04:20 Speaker 50: of Gray County taxpayers' money that
02:04:22 Speaker 50: flows into that? No question, you
02:04:23 Speaker 50: know, it's it's a need, but
02:04:25 Speaker 50: it goes back to that philosophical:
02:04:28 Speaker 50: is it something that the property
02:04:30 Speaker 50: taxpayers need, and the thought of
02:04:32 Speaker 50: getting into it, and then ending
02:04:34 Speaker 50: up, no way of getting out
02:04:36 Speaker 50: of it, and continuously putting a
02:04:38 Speaker 50: burden on the rural taxpayers of
02:04:39 Speaker 50: Gray County. I can see that
02:04:41 Speaker 50: Miss Shaw has her hand waving
02:04:43 Speaker 50: over there, willing to jump in.
02:04:45 Speaker 50: Emory, you want to respond, please.
02:04:47 Speaker 50: Through you, Deputy Board. So special
02:04:49 Speaker 50: needs resourcing. So we have a
02:04:51 Speaker 50: number of children in our daycare
02:04:53 Speaker 50: centers, childcare centers that require assistance,
02:04:56 Speaker 50: and so we run a. program
02:04:59 Speaker 50: on behalf of the province in
02:05:01 Speaker 50: order to provide that assistance in
02:05:02 Speaker 50: the classroom for people for children
02:05:04 Speaker 50: with special needs. We've been doing
02:05:06 Speaker 50: it for years; it's not a
02:05:09 Speaker 50: new program. What we did do
02:05:12 Speaker 50: is we had a review done
02:05:15 Speaker 50: of the program to determine what
02:05:17 Speaker 50: where we were lacking, what we
02:05:20 Speaker 50: needed, and we know that there
02:05:23 Speaker 19: has been an increase in need.
02:05:24 Speaker 19: So we were able to, as
02:05:29 Speaker 19: Tara said, take some funding from
02:05:32 Speaker 19: other areas within our provincial budget
02:05:35 Speaker 19: or provincial funding and put it
02:05:40 Speaker 19: towards more towards. special needs, and
02:05:42 Speaker 19: then we were also, as part
02:05:44 Speaker 19: of the review, it was recommended
02:05:46 Speaker 19: that we go to one provider
02:05:53 Speaker 19: versus multiple, just for some consistency
02:05:54 Speaker 51: and some, you know, better outcomes.
02:05:58 Speaker 51: Hopefully, within it, so it's something
02:05:59 Speaker 51: that we are mandated to do,
02:06:01 Speaker 51: and it is part of our
02:06:06 Speaker 52: early learning and childcare services that
02:06:11 Speaker 52: we provide for Gray County. Thank
02:06:13 Speaker 52: you, Emory. Good. Oh, two. Good.
02:06:15 Speaker 52: Oh, Tara, go ahead. Just to
02:06:16 Speaker 52: add on to Ann Marie's comments
02:06:19 Speaker 52: as well, the contracts are annualized,
02:06:22 Speaker 52: so we do review our funding
02:06:23 Speaker 52: availability annually, and the service providers
02:06:27 Speaker 52: aware of that too. Very good,
02:06:31 Speaker 52: Councilor Gregg. Just want to thank
02:06:34 Speaker 52: Councilor Eccles for actually holding this
02:06:37 Speaker 52: item so that you could ask
02:06:41 Speaker 52: a question. This is in sitting
02:06:44 Speaker 52: on the Community Services Committee this
02:06:46 Speaker 52: year. This highlights a service. that
02:06:49 Speaker 52: the county provides that I didn't
02:06:50 Speaker 52: know anything about until sitting on
02:06:53 Speaker 52: community services. So this is a
02:06:57 Speaker 52: report here that I'm glad you
02:06:59 Speaker 52: pulled because it's a heightened opportunity
02:07:01 Speaker 52: for council to become more familiar
02:07:03 Speaker 52: with various levels of service that
02:07:07 Speaker 52: we provide, whether it's the tax
02:07:09 Speaker 52: levy or whether it's flow through
02:07:14 Speaker 52: provincial funding like this. But certainly,
02:07:16 Speaker 52: I've learned a lot just in
02:07:18 Speaker 52: the last couple meetings after going
02:07:19 Speaker 52: through a think a consultant in
02:07:22 Speaker 52: place to examine the service provision
02:07:26 Speaker 52: levels that we. were going with,
02:07:30 Speaker 52: and the opportunities for improvement. So,
02:07:33 Speaker 52: thanks for being able to speak
02:07:35 Speaker 52: to it today, Ter, and to
02:07:36 Speaker 52: Councilor Echoes for pulling it and
02:07:38 Speaker 52: heightened awareness of Council of the
02:07:39 Speaker 52: work that's done here. Thank you,
02:07:41 Speaker 52: Scott. Any other questions? I'll call
02:07:43 Speaker 52: the question. All those in favor?
02:07:46 Speaker 52: That is carried. Thank you. Moving
02:07:48 Speaker 52: on to the final poll item,
02:07:50 Speaker 52: which is six F. It is
02:07:52 Speaker 52: a report on Gray County Official
02:07:54 Speaker 52: Plan Amendment Thirty Two, Wilton Sanitation.
02:07:57 Speaker 52: Cassandra, Cassandra is here, Dilman, to
02:08:00 Speaker 52: speak to it. Councilor Ackles, you'll
02:08:03 Speaker 52: move. What is the recommendation? Be
02:08:05 Speaker 52: received for information. You're moving that.
02:08:07 Speaker 52: Is there a seconder, Councilor McQueen?
02:08:09 Speaker 52: Thank you, Cassandra. Please. Thank you,
02:08:11 Speaker 52: and I think it's afternoon. now,
02:08:19 Speaker 52: so I'll say good afternoon. As
02:08:21 Speaker 52: mentioned, my name is Cassandra Dolman,
02:08:25 Speaker 52: and I'm the county planner assigned
02:08:27 Speaker 52: to this file. OPA 32, Wilt
02:08:30 Speaker 52: and Sanitation. The lands are located
02:08:32 Speaker 52: on the north side of Gray
02:08:35 Speaker 52: Road 4. I think I might
02:08:38 Speaker 52: have the wrong property address, and
02:08:41 Speaker 53: there, apologies for that. The property
02:08:51 Speaker 52: is 33 hectares. The agent is
02:08:55 Speaker 52: Ron Davis. The agent is Ron
02:08:57 Speaker 52: Davidson, and that is the correct
02:09:00 Speaker 52: proposal. So apologies for that. So
02:09:02 Speaker 52: we are located approximately 650 meters
02:09:07 Speaker 52: west of Sealand, if that makes
02:09:09 Speaker 52: sense there. And the property, 33
02:09:12 Speaker 52: hectares, or about 81 acres in
02:09:21 Speaker 52: size. On the property, the there's
02:09:22 Speaker 52: a the applicant has their house
02:09:25 Speaker 52: and a detached garage, along with
02:09:28 Speaker 52: a workshop and the outdoor. storage
02:09:31 Speaker 52: area associated with the existing business
02:09:34 Speaker 52: on site, Wilton Sanitation. There's a
02:09:36 Speaker 52: buffer area of trees. It's a
02:09:38 Speaker 52: little hard to see here, but
02:09:42 Speaker 52: if you've driven past, there is
02:09:44 Speaker 52: a pretty thick mature trees that
02:09:47 Speaker 52: run along the entire property frontage
02:09:48 Speaker 31: of Great Road Court. I can
02:09:52 Speaker 31: also mention here that there was
02:09:54 Speaker 31: a local official plan amendment received
02:09:56 Speaker 31: and a zoning bylaw. amendment received
02:09:59 Speaker 31: by Grey Highlands, and there is
02:10:04 Speaker 31: a public planning meeting scheduled for
02:10:06 Speaker 31: the end of August. In terms
02:10:13 Speaker 31: of the site plan, so we
02:10:15 Speaker 31: have a couple different colors on
02:10:17 Speaker 31: the screen. I've tried to outline
02:10:20 Speaker 31: some of that on the side
02:10:24 Speaker 31: there. So there is in green;
02:10:26 Speaker 31: those are the agricultural uses currently
02:10:30 Speaker 31: on the site, and the lands
02:10:33 Speaker 31: are actively in cultivation. Then there
02:10:35 Speaker 31: is also And there is also
02:10:37 Speaker 31: that blue and orange area. So
02:10:40 Speaker 31: some of that being outdoor storage,
02:10:41 Speaker 54: and then the orange indoor storage.
02:10:48 Speaker 54: That's where the office and things
02:10:58 Speaker 52: like that are. Then there's also
02:11:00 Speaker 52: the pink, which that is the
02:11:04 Speaker 52: proposed expansion area. And I'll get
02:11:10 Speaker 52: into the details of that official
02:11:11 Speaker 52: plan amendment, but just to show
02:11:14 Speaker 52: you what's existing and the area
02:11:16 Speaker 52: that is proposed there. So, the
02:11:18 Speaker 52: proposed official plan amendment would facilitate
02:11:21 Speaker 52: the construction of a holding tank
02:11:24 Speaker 52: for hauled sewage and waste from
02:11:26 Speaker 52: septic system holding tanks, and it
02:11:31 Speaker 52: would recognize that existing on-farm business.
02:11:34 Speaker 52: So, the property is designated agricultural
02:11:35 Speaker 52: in the county official plan, and
02:11:37 Speaker 52: it the proposal is to add
02:11:39 Speaker 52: a site-specific exemption to that property.
02:11:42 Speaker 52: The property right now, an on-farm
02:11:45 Speaker 52: diversified use, is permitted to occupy
02:11:47 Speaker 52: up to two percent of that
02:11:53 Speaker 52: property size. So that's about that
02:11:55 Speaker 52: six thousand six hundred meters squared.
02:11:57 Speaker 52: Proposed is that eight thousand six
02:11:59 Speaker 52: hundred figure on the screen. So
02:12:01 Speaker 52: that's about two point six percent.
02:12:02 Speaker 52: 2.6% of the total property size.
02:12:05 Speaker 52: The wording of the official plan
02:12:10 Speaker 52: amendment, but I will just go
02:12:14 Speaker 52: forward to the recommendation. And at
02:12:18 Speaker 52: this stage, it is recommended to
02:12:21 Speaker 52: receive for information. Please let me
02:12:24 Speaker 52: know if you have any questions.
02:12:25 Speaker 08: Thank you, Cassandra. Councilor Nichols, your
02:12:28 Speaker 08: question or comments, please. It was
02:12:31 Speaker 08: a question. It's a question that
02:12:31 Speaker 08: was noted in here that, and
02:12:33 Speaker 08: I'm sorry I can't find the
02:12:34 Speaker 08: exact page right now. That the
02:12:37 Speaker 08: road allowance that goes off there,
02:12:38 Speaker 08: obviously at six corners, and the
02:12:41 Speaker 08: road allowance that goes north. That
02:12:44 Speaker 08: the applicant owned the road allowance,
02:12:47 Speaker 08: and I know that in Grey
02:12:49 Speaker 08: Highlands there was quite a. dispute
02:12:51 Speaker 08: on the road allowance and everything
02:12:52 Speaker 08: a little while ago with the
02:12:54 Speaker 08: applicant and a couple of other
02:12:57 Speaker 08: individuals on ownership, and and just
02:12:58 Speaker 08: that's what sparked my reasoning for
02:13:00 Speaker 08: this was who I will I
02:13:01 Speaker 08: will correct in determining that the
02:13:04 Speaker 08: road is owned by or the
02:13:06 Speaker 08: portion of the road that is
02:13:06 Speaker 08: following along on the Wilt. Along
02:13:09 Speaker 08: on the Wilton property on the
02:13:11 Speaker 08: west side is owned by the
02:13:13 Speaker 08: Wiltons. Has that been totally set
02:13:15 Speaker 08: aside, Sandra? Do you please? Did
02:13:16 Speaker 08: that? That sounds much better. There,
02:13:19 Speaker 08: the thank you for the the
02:13:22 Speaker 08: question there on. the the intersection
02:13:24 Speaker 08: that we're talking about, it's a
02:13:27 Speaker 08: little bit difficult when there is
02:13:29 Speaker 08: six corners. Is how the the
02:13:30 Speaker 08: prop how that intersection is known
02:13:32 Speaker 08: locally. There are five, but the
02:13:34 Speaker 08: six being this unopened road allowance.
02:13:35 Speaker 08: So if you can sort of
02:13:37 Speaker 08: take a line there through. I'm
02:13:38 Speaker 08: trying to orient myself here. Can
02:13:41 Speaker 08: anyone see? I can't even do
02:13:42 Speaker 08: this on my on. my mouse.
02:13:43 Speaker 08: There is a road allowance there
02:13:45 Speaker 08: on the west side of that
02:13:47 Speaker 08: entire property, going straight going north.
02:13:49 Speaker 08: As far as I understand, it
02:13:52 Speaker 08: is in the the same ownership.
02:13:54 Speaker 08: The Wiltons also own the lands
02:13:55 Speaker 08: to the to the west, so
02:13:59 Speaker 08: that entire parcel as well to
02:14:01 Speaker 08: the west. They have they have
02:14:02 Speaker 08: not, as I as far as
02:14:03 Speaker 08: I understand, merged on title, but.
02:14:06 Speaker 08: those two properties are separate. There.
02:14:07 Speaker 08: Let me let me zoom in.
02:14:08 Speaker 08: Then. Any other, Councillor McQueen. So
02:14:11 Speaker 08: thanks to you, Mister Deputy Warden,
02:14:12 Speaker 08: following up with Councillor Eccles. So
02:14:14 Speaker 08: there was a file that came
02:14:15 Speaker 08: to the Committee of Adjustment on
02:14:17 Speaker 08: the on the back portion road
02:14:20 Speaker 08: allowance. Should we slide it down
02:14:22 Speaker 08: a little bit? You see how
02:14:23 Speaker 08: the Down a little bit, you
02:14:27 Speaker 08: see how it goes further north.
02:14:29 Speaker 08: There's just a little strip, and
02:14:30 Speaker 08: that actually was that that road
02:14:34 Speaker 08: allowance is in private ownership. It's
02:14:36 Speaker 08: been sold a couple times, and
02:14:37 Speaker 08: then this previous owner was doing
02:14:40 Speaker 08: a minor variance to put a
02:14:41 Speaker 38: house. That that's beside the point.
02:14:44 Speaker 38: I sort of wonder though if
02:14:45 Speaker 38: the road allowance that goes beside
02:14:46 Speaker 38: Mr. Weldon is owned by him.
02:14:48 Speaker 38: I'm trying to go back to
02:14:49 Speaker 38: the file of the committee of
02:14:51 Speaker 38: adjustment to give me that information.
02:14:53 Speaker 38: I'm just trying to. search it,
02:14:55 Speaker 38: and but I so I find
02:14:57 Speaker 38: that I can't tell it because
02:14:59 Speaker 38: it would have been on the
02:15:00 Speaker 38: application of that particular road allowance.
02:15:03 Speaker 38: But I I sort of feel
02:15:05 Speaker 38: that it stops at the Wilton
02:15:07 Speaker 38: property because see what happened was
02:15:08 Speaker 38: back in Ardemisia days in 1975
02:15:09 Speaker 38: or thereabouts. Somehow in the wisdom
02:15:12 Speaker 38: of Ardemisia, they decided to deem
02:15:13 Speaker 38: that surplus and they sold it
02:15:15 Speaker 38: off, right? And so I I'm
02:15:18 Speaker 19: sort of thinking that that portion
02:15:20 Speaker 19: that. goes besides the lot and
02:15:23 Speaker 19: property is in their ownership, but
02:15:24 Speaker 19: like I said, I will do
02:15:27 Speaker 19: some time to do a bit
02:15:32 Speaker 19: of research on that file. I'm
02:15:34 Speaker 19: trying to think that committee adjustment
02:15:37 Speaker 19: file came up. I went through
02:15:40 Speaker 19: June. I went through July, so
02:15:42 Speaker 19: I'm just sort of going through
02:15:45 Speaker 19: that because if I could find
02:15:46 Speaker 19: that file, then it would tell
02:15:48 Speaker 19: exactly what the other piece was
02:15:49 Speaker 19: through the application through the committee
02:15:51 Speaker 19: adjustment for minor variance. So, so
02:15:54 Speaker 19: I can say at
02:15:57 Speaker 19: this point until I determine that,
02:16:00 Speaker 19: but. my my opinion is
02:16:02 Speaker 19: I think he probably
02:16:04 Speaker 19: owns it because it was deemed
02:16:06 Speaker 19: surplus, so it's not owned by
02:16:08 Speaker 19: the township or the municipality. I
02:16:11 Speaker 19: say township, I didn't mean at
02:16:13 Speaker 19: the time. They deemed it surplus,
02:16:16 Speaker 19: so so it's not the municipality. I guess the one in question is, and I don't think that actually, if I could find that application, it would it would determine how far that application was of that application for minor variance on the application of that road allowance that is north of. Mr. Wilton's property, but I can't determine that till I find that file. So, for the purposes of the application, I'm not sure it has any bearing who owns that unopened road allowance, does it? Scott, do you want to comment? I saw your hand there. Sorry, through you. I was just going to say that staff can do some more research into this and and get a more definitive answer. We'll work with Grayhound staff prior to bringing back a final report, as Cassandra said that the the landowner does own. sort of what you see on on the screen there, highlighted in teal, and the larger property to the west. If if if that road allowance was owned still by the municipality or someone else, then it might be more of an issue in terms of are there any of the the landowner's operations on that former road allowance? But we're happy to look into this further and bring it back. Okay, because the motion is just to receive for information at this point. Any other questions? Call the. question. All those in favor? That's carried. Thank you so much, everyone. So that concludes those. So we have the closed meeting matters. Lunch is going to be here at twelve fifteen. So no, no pressure. But we'll move her along here. So the motion is that the committee of the whole does now go into closed session pursuant section two three nine of the Municipal Act two thousand one as amended to discuss. advice subject to solicitor-client privilege, specifically legal advice on a bylaw, and two litigation or potential litigation, including matters before administrative tribunals affecting the municipality or local board, and this is specifically an OLT matter. Someone move that, Councillor Mackie, seconded by Councillor Pringle. All those in favor? That is carried. And I'm not sure what staff.
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