Owen Sound Committee - Corporate Services Meeting Transcript — May 8, 2025

00:00:15 Speaker 02: And I will call the Corporate Services Committee to order this evening.

00:00:20 Speaker 02: Number two, we have a call for additional business.

00:00:22 Speaker 02: Does anyone have any additional business?

00:00:25 Speaker 02: Seeing none.

00:00:27 Speaker 02: Number three, declarations of interest.

00:00:29 Speaker 02: Does anyone have any declarations this evening?

00:00:32 Speaker 02: Seeing none.

00:00:33 Speaker 02: At number four, we have confirmation of minutes.

00:00:36 Speaker 02: It is the minutes of the Corporate Services Committee meeting held on April the 10th, 2025.

00:00:41 Speaker 02: If I can get someone to move that, Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:00:45 Speaker 02: If there's no questions or comments, I will call that question.

00:00:48 Speaker 02: All in favour?

00:00:50 Speaker 02: And that carries.

00:00:52 Speaker 02: At number five, we have no deputations and presentations.

00:00:55 Speaker 02: At number six, no public forum.

00:00:56 Speaker 02: No. Public forum number seven correspondence received.

00:01:00 Speaker 02: We have none, so that brings us to the reports of city staff.

00:01:04 Speaker 02: And at eight a one this evening, we have a report from the deputy clerk regarding animal control two thousand and twenty-four year in review and dog bylaw update.

00:01:14 Speaker 02: So we welcome Allison.

00:01:17 Speaker 02: Good evening, Chair and members of the committee.

00:01:19 Speaker 03: This report provides a comprehensive review of the city's animal control services provided in two thousand and twenty-four and recommends updates to the dog bylaw to improve dates to the dog bylaw to improve service delivery

00:01:27 Speaker 03: and enforcement effectiveness.

00:01:30 Speaker 03: In two thousand and twenty-four, staff undertook a review of the dog bylaw in advance of issuing a request for proposals for a new animal control agreement.

00:01:37 Speaker 03: The updated bylaw was passed by city council in October two thousand and twenty-four.

00:01:40 Speaker 03: In December, city council awarded a new five-year contract to Todd and Renee Robbins, continuing their longstanding service through the Owen Sound Animal Shelter.

00:01:48 Speaker 03: Following the award of this contract, the contractor requested minor amendments to the dog bylaw to enhance their operational effectiveness.

00:01:53 Speaker 03: Their The report proposes the following amendments to the dog bylaw: an updated definition for attack and dangerous dog for clarity, removal of the maximum leash length requirement for non-dangerous dogs,

00:02:07 Speaker 03: a change in wording to allow for flexibility in accepting witness statements during investigations, and a reinstatement of the animal control provider's authority to issue leash and muzzle orders.

00:02:17 Speaker 03: Also, in 2024, the city launched its partnership with DocuPet to streamline animal licensing.

00:02:23 Speaker 03: This service provides online licensing renewals, lost pet support, and generally helps reduce staff time spent on administration of the animal licensing programmememememe.

00:02:30 Speaker 03: A future report will assess the outcomes of DocuPet implementation.

00:02:36 Speaker 03: As a general overview of the services provided in two thousand and twenty-four, I will highlight that two hundred and thirty-three cats and one hundred and ninety-four dogs were brought to the shelter.

00:02:43 Speaker 03: Nine cats and fifty-five dogs were reclaimed by their owners.

00:02:46 Speaker 03: Two hundred forty-five cats and one hundred thirty-five dogs were adopted.

00:02:48 Speaker 03: Additionally, twenty-one cat licences and twenty-one cat licences and five hundred forty-two dog licences were issued.

00:02:55 Speaker 03: The contractor handled a total of four thousand nine calls, emails, and complaints throughout the year.

00:03:01 Speaker 03: I will provide also a brief financial summary.

00:03:03 Speaker 03: So, in twenty twenty-four, the city paid the contractor about fifty-eight thousand dollars directly for their services.

00:03:09 Speaker 03: With respect to revenue generated through animal control, I'll note that the contractor retained seventy thousand seven hundred twelve dollars and the city retained eighty-five thousand seven hundred eighty-nine.

00:03:18 Speaker 03: This also includes donations collected by the city.

00:03:20 Speaker 03: So, donations to the animal shelter in two thousand and twenty-four totaled fifty-eight thousand seven hundred thirty-seven dollars, significantly exceeding the budgeted twenty thousand dollars, largely due to a major bequest.

00:03:32 Speaker 03: Finally, with respect to community-oriented events, the contractor provided numerous educational sessions with schools and community organisations, media programmememememes to promote pet adoption, events including rabies clinics, food drives, fundraisers, and more,

00:03:44 Speaker 03: and maintained an online presence that generated twenty-three hundred website interactions and almost three thousand interactions and almost thirteen thousand Facebook interactions monthly.

00:03:51 Speaker 03: With that, I'll accept any questions.

00:03:55 Speaker 03: Thank you.

00:03:56 Speaker 03: Does anyone have any questions for Allison?

00:04:00 Speaker 03: No questions.

00:04:00 Speaker 02: Does someone want to move the recommendation in the report?

00:04:07 Speaker 02: I will just.

00:04:08 Speaker 02: I'll move the recommendation.

00:04:09 Speaker 02: I'll just thank Allison for the report.

00:04:10 Speaker 04: It's actually quite insightful reading through it.

00:04:13 Speaker 04: A ton of data and stats in there, so I appreciated reading through it and getting such a fulsome update.

00:04:20 Speaker 04: So thanks.

00:04:23 Speaker 02: Okay, so Deputy Mayor Greig has moved the recommendation.

00:04:27 Speaker 02: If there's nothing further, I'll call the question.

00:04:28 Speaker 02: All in favour?

00:04:30 Speaker 02: And that carries.

00:04:32 Speaker 02: Thank you, Allison.

00:04:34 Speaker 02: Next at 8B1, we have a report from the Manager of Corporate Services regarding the 2026 to 2030 multi-year capital plan.

00:04:43 Speaker 02: So we welcome Brady.

00:05:00 Speaker 02: All right.

00:05:00 Speaker 05: Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the committee.

00:05:04 Speaker 05: It's hard to believe that it's been a year since we last did this, and some of you are probably looking forward to some of the conversation.

00:05:09 Speaker 05: Probably you or some are looking forward to hearing me talk about the benefits of multi-year capital budgeting again, or capital planning, so that we have a group that's consisting mainly of councillors tonight.

00:05:22 Speaker 05: So, if Member Meekins is comfortable, I'll kind of just speed through the presentation on the multi-year capital plan, and then we can allow that time to have conversations about projects.

00:05:32 Speaker 05: So, tonight we will go through quickly the multi-year capital plan process, capital plan highlights, focusing on the two thousand and twenty-six top ten projects for the division.

00:05:43 Speaker 05: that report through the Corporate Services Committee.

00:05:46 Speaker 05: We'll talk about unfunded projects, and then we'll also talk about or have projects from the committee discussed at the end.

00:05:52 Speaker 05: I think it's best that we leave the conversation about the projects until the end, because it'll allow me to walk through the funded projects as well as the unfunded projects,

00:06:00 Speaker 05: so you can get the entire picture of all of the projects, the prioritization, and the constraints on each of these.

00:06:07 Speaker 05: The feedback that will be taken from the committee will be provided to Council for the June 23rd special council meeting on the multi-year capital plan.

00:06:17 Speaker 05: This is my first presentation of three.

00:06:19 Speaker 05: So tonight we are here with the corporate services committee.

00:06:22 Speaker 05: Next week, I'm with the operations committee, and the following week is our community services committee.

00:06:26 Speaker 05: So we're doing this presentation with these different groups just to solicit additional feedback.

00:06:31 Speaker 05: This was something that we started in 2024 because we found we weren't really getting public feedback at our regular meetings for it.

00:06:37 Speaker 05: So we thought by adding it to the committee, it would just add.

00:06:40 Speaker 05: a few more sets of eyes on the plans and identify some of the priorities.

00:06:47 Speaker 05: The multi-year capital plan process is really broken out into two kind of important meetings.

00:06:52 Speaker 05: The June meeting is where we establish the plan for the next five years.

00:06:58 Speaker 05: That includes all the feedback taken from these meetings and kind of an update on the previous year's plans, if there's been any adjustments between June and December.

00:07:07 Speaker 05: This allows staff to start working on projects for 2026 and further along.

00:07:11 Speaker 05: And as we are going along, if we're noticing cost savings, additions, project scope changes, any additional grants,

00:07:18 Speaker 05: we bring that information back in December to council just to update it so that we're not waiting until the last minute to award a project.

00:07:26 Speaker 05: Some of these cases would be an example of the Downtown River Precinct.

00:07:29 Speaker 05: A couple years ago, we went through the process.

00:07:31 Speaker 05: We tendered, we got through, we found a funding programmememememe, but council was not satisfied with it at that time and gave us direction.

00:07:37 Speaker 05: So we're just trying to get that direction more upfront, so that's not during the tendering process after we've gone through that.

00:07:45 Speaker 05: The multi-year plan allows for long-term planning horizon and prioritizes projects over several years.

00:07:50 Speaker 05: So as things come up, we can adjust those.

00:07:53 Speaker 05: We can be responsive to changes.

00:07:56 Speaker 05: An example of that in the question might be the tariffs.

00:07:59 Speaker 05: We haven't necessarily seen that in effect on us too significantly yet at this point, but it could be something that we will discuss at our December update.

00:08:08 Speaker 05: It allows us to allocate our resources over time.

00:08:12 Speaker 05: Municipalities and cities are like the private or public sector as well, and private sector in that there has been some turnover.

00:08:18 Speaker 05: So as we've gone through some of those blips with some staff turnover, we've had new staff come in with different approaches to projects.

00:08:25 Speaker 05: It allows us to adjust our project schedule a little bit to reflect those, or just if we don't have enough staff to execute projects,

00:08:32 Speaker 05: we can recommend pushing some of those down the line or bringing them further up based on the skill sets, but more importantly, this allows us to tender projects earlier.

00:08:42 Speaker 05: So for 2026 projects, once they are approved in July, we'll continue to work on them this fall.

00:08:47 Speaker 05: We'll work on the tenders so that they're going out in January, February, or March of next year.

00:08:52 Speaker 05: Whereas some municipalities combine their capital planning process with the operating budget, and they don't have a budget approved until March.

00:08:59 Speaker 05: So we're trying to get our budget and tender documents out early in the process so that we get more competitive bids before all the contractors are committed to projects elsewhere.

00:09:10 Speaker 05: The flexibility that we gain as staff is also two-way.

00:09:12 Speaker 05: This also allows council to review projects now in June and again in December, so they can take any feedback from the community over those six months.

00:09:21 Speaker 05: If there's something that's changed that they've seen, they can ask staff about those questions at that time too.

00:09:26 Speaker 05: And finally, in the June review with council, that's where we'll provide them with updates on our annual grants.

00:09:30 Speaker 05: So you'll hear me say OSIF, so that is the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund.

00:09:35 Speaker 05: The CCBF is the Canada Community Building Fund, which is formerly the federal gas tax, and some of the other acronyms we even get so confused with them.

00:09:44 Speaker 05: I think there's HEX and HOFS and everything like that.

00:09:47 Speaker 05: So we try not to use acronyms as much as we can.

00:09:51 Speaker 05: And then also in December we provide an update on the status of the projects that were completed in that year.

00:09:58 Speaker 05: So the corporate services plan.

00:10:00 Speaker 05: So that includes projects for the city manager's office, corporate and facility services, and the fire services.

00:10:06 Speaker 05: That's what's included in here.

00:10:07 Speaker 05: So in the five-year plan, there's 12.1 million dollars in funded projects.

00:10:12 Speaker 05: There's an additional 1.2 million dollars in unfunded projects, and there's a total of 94 capital projects.

00:10:18 Speaker 05: So compared to operations, next week we have a lot of projects in this group, but they're just smaller, smaller projects.

00:10:25 Speaker 05: A lot of these smaller projects do get wrapped up into adding three or four of them, such as garage door replacements, window replacements.

00:10:32 Speaker 05: So it probably brings that number down, probably closer to the sixty range by the time we bundle some of those together.

00:10:37 Speaker 05: And that's the benefit of allowing us to have this flexible capital plan.

00:10:41 Speaker 05: Is in order to move those projects.

00:10:42 Speaker 05: So an example of that is some years we'll move some roof projects closer together, and then schedule them again for another two years,

00:10:48 Speaker 05: and then that will allow us to save on mobilization and demobilization costs.

00:10:54 Speaker 05: The Asset management plan is currently under development for July approval this year, but it is heavily reflected into this capital plan.

00:11:05 Speaker 05: The asset management related activities are typically replacement, rehabilitation, maintenance, or assessments and studies, and that makes up about ninety percent of the overall multi-year capital plan.

00:11:15 Speaker 05: In this particular group, there's not a lot of additions or new assets being added, but in other areas such as operations to coincide with development,

00:11:24 Speaker 05: that is where a lot of our expansion and enhancements are.

00:11:27 Speaker 05: It's also an important note for council committees that the multi-year capital plan is supported by approximately three and a half to four million dollars of tax-supported funding each year,

00:11:36 Speaker 05: which goes up by one percent of the prior year's tax levy, less any debt repayments and contributions to reserves that have generated over the year.

00:11:45 Speaker 05: So, in the past, that one percent contribution was dedicated to our core assets, which are roads, water, wastewater, stormwater, and bridges, and with the July update for the asset management plan,

00:11:58 Speaker 05: there'll be some conversation about what we should do with that one percent, because we've been also kind of including that in some of our non-core assets, but we need to address those on our own.

00:12:13 Speaker 05: So the next five years capital projects are going to be listed on here.

00:12:18 Speaker 05: They have been identified in Attachment One, which is the list summarises the projects.

00:12:22 Speaker 05: Attachment two of the report is the individual capital detail sheets, which I'll explain a little bit further along on the prioritization scores and how those are generated.

00:12:32 Speaker 05: So as I go through them, if there's anything that a committee member wants to flag for our conversation at the end, I'll give about a ten second pause on each slide.

00:12:41 Speaker 05: We'll flag it for a conversation in a few minutes, and then towards the end of the presentation,

00:12:46 Speaker 05: I'm supported by our great management team back here that will also be able to provide details on the projects.

00:12:55 Speaker 05: So you're starting off with the 2026 capital projects for corporate and facility services.

00:13:00 Speaker 05: So those are a lot of the buildings, like such as city hall, the fire hall, and then those other facilities that the city either leases out or has some sort of arrangement with,

00:13:08 Speaker 05: such as the Olentangy Police.

00:13:10 Speaker 05: So the Olentangy Police are responsible for the operation of the police and their cars and all of that, whereas the city is responsible for the building.

00:13:17 Speaker 05: So we lump that in with this group.

00:13:20 Speaker 05: Similarly, for the Waterfront Heritage Centre, the Billy Bishop Museum, and the McQuay Tannery are another examples of where we lease out the operations of the building,

00:13:33 Speaker 05: but we're responsible for the capital items at those locations.

00:13:36 Speaker 05: So I'll just pause here.

00:13:37 Speaker 05: If there's anything for the group to flag, Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:13:45 Speaker 06: Probably about the time for me to ask the only questions I really had, and they're both demonstrated on or shown on this slide here.

00:13:55 Speaker 06: Can you expand on window and door replacement at the library?

00:14:02 Speaker 06: One hundred twenty-five thousand dollars.

00:14:03 Speaker 06: We're quite familiar with the sixty thousand dollars for the entrance door, but how expansive is that project?

00:14:10 Speaker 06: And the second question is regarding the Billy Bishop Museum: the accessibility upgrades.

00:14:16 Speaker 06: When you get into these types of buildings, it's hard to make them fully accessible, and we all recognize that.

00:14:22 Speaker 06: So, what is what's the scope of that project?

00:14:26 Speaker 06: I guess where are we trying to accommodate in undertaking those upgrades at the Billy Bishop?

00:14:35 Speaker 06: Thank you, Deputy Mayor Greig.

00:14:36 Speaker 05: Because these are both kind of simple answers, and you're not looking to debate the merit of them at this time, I can answer that.

00:14:43 Speaker 05: So, at the library, the window and door replacement is a lot.

00:14:45 Speaker 05: It's not actually the heritage windows; those were rehabilitated, I think, around 2020-2021, prior to me starting here.

00:14:53 Speaker 05: But this is the aluminum-framed windows that are around the 1970-ish construction.

00:14:59 Speaker 05: If you walk by, you're starting to see a lot of deterioration of those windows, and it's including water leaks into the building.

00:15:05 Speaker 05: So, if you're inside the stairwell, you'll see where water has got into the building and caused the paint to delaminate.

00:15:11 Speaker 05: So, we're doing that.

00:15:12 Speaker 05: The door project is similar.

00:15:13 Speaker 05: It's replacing the door, but we haven't necessarily funded the ramp in front of it yet, because there is a service review project looking at combining that ramp with the Tom Thomson Art Gallery.

00:15:24 Speaker 05: But we can't really ignore that door for the time being.

00:15:27 Speaker 05: So we'll have some clarity by the end of the year whether that's going to be a door with accessible operators on it or not,

00:15:34 Speaker 05: or whether it's simply going to be a fire exit or a delivery type door.

00:15:37 Speaker 05: And then if there's any surplus funds in that, we would dedicate them towards the larger project.

00:15:46 Speaker 05: Oh, sorry, Billy Bishop.

00:15:48 Speaker 05: The Billy Bishop.

00:15:49 Speaker 05: Thank you.

00:15:50 Speaker 05: The accessibility upgrades.

00:15:51 Speaker 05: Some of that is actually outside of the building and lack of an accessible parking space.

00:15:57 Speaker 05: Right now, the majority of the parking is on street with a not clear path for people to get into the rear of the building.

00:16:03 Speaker 05: The rear of the building is where there is the accessible lift, but not necessarily the path to get there is fully accessible.

00:16:09 Speaker 05: So we would be upgrading that with minor work out in the parking lot area.

00:16:19 Speaker 05: The next group is our fire and emergency services, and you'll see throughout.

00:16:23 Speaker 05: There's kind of annual programmememememes such as the bunker gear replacement.

00:16:26 Speaker 05: Similarly, with IT, a lot of it is annual programmememememes.

00:16:30 Speaker 05: So I'll give another couple seconds here to see if there's a specific project that we can pull.

00:16:36 Speaker 05: Councillor Dodd.

00:16:39 Speaker 07: And I've already made my perspective on this, but it should be noted.

00:16:45 Speaker 07: So we've got the fire station renovation expansion year one: $1.8 million dollars.

00:16:48 Speaker 07: Can you just kind of explain what that's entailing, just for the general public?

00:16:58 Speaker 05: Yes, to Councillor Dodd, that $1.75 is just the expense for 2026.

00:17:02 Speaker 05: The total project is about $5.4 million plus an additional $500,000 dollars that has been set aside for the architectural, engineering, design work, and everything like that.

00:17:13 Speaker 05: So, and I'll explain a little bit further along in the presentation about the kind of detail for 2026.

00:17:20 Speaker 05: But the quick summary is that in 2024 we did a pre-design study that evaluated the current condition of the fire station and to look at the future of the building and to accommodate the future

00:17:33 Speaker 05: of that building.

00:17:34 Speaker 05: The options at that time were high-level, looking at replacing the building at a much higher cost, whereas this would be about a four-thousand-square-foot addition onto the rear of the building to accommodate the apparatus bay,

00:17:45 Speaker 05: to provide individual sleeping quarters, and some small upgrades to the remainder of the building, and trying to use as much of the existing building, existing roof, land to avoid those costs.

00:18:02 Speaker 05: Sorry, and I guess maybe is it at the end of this presentation?

00:18:11 Speaker 07: Do you want to have the discussion again about the four thousand square foot addition, or that's when you'd like me to have that discussion?

00:18:16 Speaker 07: Okay.

00:18:23 Speaker 07: Thank you.

00:18:24 Speaker 05: So I'll move on unless there's any projects about fire and emergency services or the IT projects.

00:18:31 Speaker 05: The next one is moving into our strategic initiative.

00:18:31 Speaker 05: Moving into our strategic initiatives and general government projects, and one of those, the digital sign, is included in more detail further along in this presentation.

00:18:45 Speaker 05: Moving on to 2027, back to the corporate and facility services.

00:18:48 Speaker 05: So similarly, you'll see a lot of the police station, Billy Bishop, the animal shelter, and just general facilities.

00:19:00 Speaker 05: Back to the fire and emergency services, and those annual programmememememes.

00:19:11 Speaker 05: 2027 IT.

00:19:12 Speaker 05: Similarly, a lot of replacements, and a few software transformation projects.

00:19:17 Speaker 05: But those are both identified further along in this presentation as well.

00:19:24 Speaker 02: I did have a question about the 2027 A1: the computer/mobile replacement at $147,800.

00:19:34 Speaker 02: Because in the 2026 summary that you just showed, there was also one for $60,400.

00:19:40 Speaker 02: So why are we spending $60,000 and then $147,000?

00:19:44 Speaker 02: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:19:47 Speaker 05: I can give the high-level summary of that, and then the manager of IT is here if you want to go into it a little bit further.

00:19:55 Speaker 05: But this is based on a replacement schedule.

00:19:57 Speaker 05: So rather than buying $x hundred thousand dollars computers once every five years, there's a replacement schedule where a lot of these assets are replaced on a three, four, five-year cycle.

00:20:07 Speaker 05: So laptops are a group, and they'll be kind of split over time.

00:20:11 Speaker 05: The desktops will be split over time.

00:20:14 Speaker 05: So this is based on the assets that are coming due at that time.

00:20:18 Speaker 08: And then the equipment that we are replacing, like for instance, my iPad.

00:20:24 Speaker 08: If I run again and get elected, I'm going to get another iPad.

00:20:27 Speaker 08: Is that correct?

00:20:29 Speaker 08: And then, do you sell these?

00:20:31 Speaker 08: Because there's nothing wrong with them.

00:20:34 Speaker 08: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:20:36 Speaker 05: Yes, I believe at that time you would be given the option for a replacement.

00:20:41 Speaker 05: A lot of that is based on making sure that the iPad can do what council needs to do at that time.

00:20:47 Speaker 05: The surplus assets would either be absorbed into the operation for outside work if there was still some life in it, and without us having to acquire another piece of equipment.

00:20:58 Speaker 05: Sometimes we give those things to summer students or those short-term, and then we do have the option to sell surplus assets through a government website or GovDeals.ca, a surplus website.

00:21:10 Speaker 05: In some of those cases, and as we're moving more towards software as a service, I think that might be easier for us to do versus us having a lot of stuff stored on those computers.

00:21:18 Speaker 05: The cost for our staff to wipe them and prepare them most likely outweighs the cost, so they end up going through a recycling programmememememe.

00:21:32 Speaker 05: Move on to the 2028 corporate and facility services projects.

00:21:39 Speaker 05: Once again, starting to see some very significant construction costs at the police station for air handler unit replacement.

00:21:48 Speaker 05: You're starting to see some of city hall aging, as the city hall will be ten years at that point, and as you can see around the walls and the corners,

00:21:56 Speaker 05: it's starting to show that we're kind of five years into fully occupying the building.

00:22:00 Speaker 05: The carpet, as you can see, when you're walking through some of these areas, are starting to come up, so we'll start to replace those assets.

00:22:12 Speaker 05: Then, for fire and emergency services, similar replacements; IT, similar replacements, with the software transformation being discussed further along in today's presentation.

00:22:26 Speaker 05: For 2029, it's the other half of the air handler unit replacement, which is the big ticket item for that year,

00:22:32 Speaker 05: and pretty much all of the work will just be at Billy Bishop and Old Town Police Station because that is committing the majority of the tax-supported funding for that year.

00:22:41 Speaker 05: Fire emergency services is brought into here again, once again with the replacement.

00:22:49 Speaker 05: Then for 2029, for IT, that we're starting to finalize some of the significant software transformation projects.

00:22:57 Speaker 05: There'll be some host server updates, and then a couple of small projects in the strategic initiatives and general government division. 2030, you're seeing continued investment at the Olmstead Police Station,

00:23:13 Speaker 05: and then we're starting to do a project at the library to look at their detailed electrical and mechanical assessments.

00:23:19 Speaker 05: That building it will be about close to fifty years since that 1970s renovation.

00:23:26 Speaker 05: Some of the assets have been replaced, but there's a lot of wiring and things like that that will need to start to be replaced at that time.

00:23:39 Speaker 05: The big difference here than compared to what council may have seen in the past is that the council chambers equipment replacement is now being funded.

00:23:47 Speaker 05: A lot of that investment was done kind of during COVID to add the cameras that we're on right now and the sound systems.

00:23:53 Speaker 05: Those assets will start to be about ten years old, and they will be at the end of their life.

00:23:59 Speaker 05: IT has planned for pretty much a like-for-like replacement, understanding that technology could change significantly in that time, or the way council operates.

00:24:09 Speaker 05: Some municipalities still operate completely online, but we're planning as to keep this as is for right now, and as we get closer to the time, we can make those necessary adjustments.

00:24:21 Speaker 05: And then another significant project, although fifty thousand dollars is a lot, or not a lot when you're looking at some of these larger projects.

00:24:28 Speaker 05: It'll be our corporate website refresh.

00:24:30 Speaker 05: So our website is updated about every five years to keep current with information sharing, but also a lot of the accessibility standards.

00:24:44 Speaker 05: All right, so we'll get into the top ten projects.

00:24:46 Speaker 05: So there's going to be a little bit more detail because these are the ones that members of the public are going to actually see out and about, or they have big ticket items.

00:24:53 Speaker 05: But they are driven by the prioritization that's on page two of the capital detail sheets.

00:24:58 Speaker 05: So there's eleven different categories that go into the calculation of that.

00:25:02 Speaker 05: So the first category is people, and it represents ten percent.

00:25:06 Speaker 05: How many people will be directly impacted by the project?

00:25:10 Speaker 05: This is one where I have to keep an eye on staff filling out these sheets, because as much as there are twenty thousand residents here in the city,

00:25:18 Speaker 05: not all twenty thousand are going to use the council chambers.

00:25:21 Speaker 05: So I wouldn't consider that this would do something here would impact twenty thousand people.

00:25:26 Speaker 05: I would put it would impact a couple hundred people over the course of a year, the low thousands.

00:25:29 Speaker 05: So it would be the lowest amount.

00:25:31 Speaker 05: Similar with our parks.

00:25:33 Speaker 05: Once again, twenty thousand people or the eighty thousand people around us can use Harrison Park for that, but we part for that,

00:25:40 Speaker 05: but we actually use some of the data that is collected by their by the staff at those locations to determine the prioritization for that.

00:25:47 Speaker 05: Another two high priorities are the health and safety: what is the impact on staff or the public if the project does not proceed, and legislation: is the project required for compliance.

00:25:58 Speaker 05: When we do the presentation to council in June,

00:26:03 Speaker 05: probably all of the ten projects will either be out of the engineering and public works portfolio because the big ticket items we are water and wastewater plants and the lack of redundancy in those facilities,

00:26:13 Speaker 05: so we need to keep those buildings going in order to deliver the services that we need to deliver.

00:26:20 Speaker 05: Asset management is also included, and that's basically what is the probability of failure and what is the consequence of the failure of that asset.

00:26:27 Speaker 05: Operational performance is worth 20%.

00:26:29 Speaker 05: What is the impact on the performance of the asset and what is the impact on ongoing costs?

00:26:33 Speaker 05: An example of that has been added is the police station lighting.

00:26:36 Speaker 05: We've added that project in at one hundred and forty thousand dollars for the two projects because it's right now their current lights that are not LED and they are constantly burning out because that building

00:26:47 Speaker 05: is a twenty-four hour,

00:26:49 Speaker 05: seven-day-a-week operation.

00:26:50 Speaker 05: So by switching to LED, it'll help us offset our increasing energy costs.

00:26:54 Speaker 05: So it's not necessarily going to go right back into the capital pot, but it'll offset any operating increases at that time.

00:27:02 Speaker 05: Another category is financing: is there grant or third-party funding towards a project?

00:27:06 Speaker 05: Obviously, if we have a chance to get third-party funding,

00:27:08 Speaker 05: we're going to give that project priority so that we can get the fifty-cent dollars or the seventy-three-cent dollars that we're getting from some of the provincial grants at this time.

00:27:17 Speaker 05: And then there's a couple smaller categories: the socio-economic, the environmental, and the aesthetic value.

00:27:22 Speaker 05: We don't put a lot of weight necessarily into the aesthetic value of things.

00:27:25 Speaker 05: A lot of these projects are behind the scenes.

00:27:28 Speaker 05: The IT projects score very low.

00:27:30 Speaker 05: Facility furnaces, lights; those all relatively score low, so they don't carry a lot of weight with them.

00:27:37 Speaker 05: Strategic plan is another big category, and council is currently working through that.

00:27:41 Speaker 05: So we'll likely have to go through and update these capital sheets after council develops their next strategic plan.

00:27:48 Speaker 05: And then public input, and it basically comes down to has the public said anything about this project?

00:27:54 Speaker 05: Have they said anything informally about this project?

00:27:56 Speaker 05: So have we garnered interest, or has it been documented through a master plan or a council or committee meeting?

00:28:03 Speaker 05: So we factor that into the prioritization.

00:28:08 Speaker 05: So that leads us to the top ten projects for next year.

00:28:13 Speaker 05: Similarly, you'll see a lot of fire and IT.

00:28:17 Speaker 05: The fire is that health and safety, performance, legislation requirements that scores those higher.

00:28:23 Speaker 05: And then as you get down, it's same with IT.

00:28:25 Speaker 05: We need these items to continue the operations of the city, so they're a very important piece.

00:28:31 Speaker 05: We need to make sure that we have an ERP to make sure we're collecting taxes and water billing and processing payments and everything like that.

00:28:41 Speaker 05: So I'll go through the projects to my best that I can, and then as I said, we've got some of the managers in here behind me that can answer these in more detail.

00:28:51 Speaker 05: The first project is the fire emergency bunker gear replacement.

00:28:55 Speaker 05: It is based on a twenty-five year replacement schedule, and it has annual contributions from the operating budget to replace this equipment,

00:29:02 Speaker 05: knowing that this is probably one of the most used items for our fire services staff.

00:29:11 Speaker 05: Similarly, with the water rescue suits, they are on a plan.

00:29:16 Speaker 05: There's six suits; two were purchased in 2011, four were purchased in 2014, so they'll be replaced on a fifteen-year cycle.

00:29:30 Speaker 05: The next project is the digital signs at the Julian MacArthur Regional Recreation Centre.

00:29:35 Speaker 05: Which, if you're wondering, is it digital or not?

00:29:38 Speaker 05: We can't answer that question because they are turned off.

00:29:40 Speaker 05: So, as much as they're digital, they are not currently working.

00:29:43 Speaker 05: I think they've been out of service for the last couple of years.

00:29:45 Speaker 05: And at the Bayshore, it's a sign that has the manual lettering, requires staff to get up on ladders to change those signs.

00:29:52 Speaker 05: The important piece of this project is that at this time, the city would not proceed with this project without having third-party sponsorship-type funding.

00:30:02 Speaker 05: This is one of the projects that may require that flexibility because there is a service review project that's talking about sponsorship and those policies.

00:30:09 Speaker 05: So, the strategic initiatives team and communications team won't necessarily move forward with that project until that policy has been established,

00:30:17 Speaker 05: so that it's implemented on a large ticket item like this that has a relatively longer lifespan for it.

00:30:27 Speaker 04: Deputy Mayor Craig, just on the back of the last slide on the signs, and I'm glad to see that you're holding on until another sponsor can be located.

00:30:41 Speaker 04: And probably a little bit of my questioning comes from bad taste in my mouth because of the one at the rec centre.

00:30:47 Speaker 04: The sign was bloody well new just a couple years ago, and then it's mothballed.

00:30:54 Speaker 04: Is there kind of a range in terms of the signs that you consider and you look at, and if there is, like,

00:31:01 Speaker 04: where are you kind of placing the signs that you would like to see?

00:31:07 Speaker 04: There are we talking something that's at the low end of the market, medium market?

00:31:11 Speaker 04: I mean, there are two sites, so maybe it's thirty-seven and a half thousand each.

00:31:15 Speaker 04: I don't know, but what's is there a little bit more about this project and the?

00:31:23 Speaker 04: I guess the grandeur of the signs, maybe, or where they might be placed in the market, and in terms of what's available, and the other thing is, I guess,

00:31:33 Speaker 04: if you're going to electronic display it, someone in-house has to be operating it.

00:31:39 Speaker 04: That's the flip side of it.

00:31:42 Speaker 04: So, what's the internal plans for dedicating someone's staff time to putting the messaging up and making a difference in the way that we're not captivating an audience right now.

00:31:55 Speaker 04: If it's the old sign is looking bad at the Bayshore, I would say it's not going to make things look better until the bankrupt condo gets done.

00:32:07 Speaker 04: I mean, that's just if you want to make the corner better, fix the eyesore, and the sign that's there is adequate.

00:32:16 Speaker 04: So a little bit more, perhaps, on that project.

00:32:25 Speaker 09: Through the chair, I can't really speak of the project itself, but I can speak of sort of the history behind it.

00:32:32 Speaker 09: So, in particular, when it comes to Gina MacArthur, that sign originally went in through an RFP or a tender in 2016.

00:32:42 Speaker 09: We, when the tender went out, it came with a five-year warranty.

00:32:47 Speaker 09: The company warranted it for exactly five years, and it died within that five years.

00:32:54 Speaker 09: And that's sort of what happened from a historical point.

00:32:58 Speaker 09: And it's been sitting there non-functioning because you can't actually get support.

00:33:02 Speaker 09: It's completely obsolete at this stage.

00:33:05 Speaker 09: Most modern systems for signage have dramatically changed since that time, and the ability to do updates and stuff like that has been dramatically simplified.

00:33:18 Speaker 09: Before the sign went off-line at Julie MacArthur, updates were being done by Carly within City Hall and done remotely.

00:33:32 Speaker 09: And most of the modern systems allow you to remotely manage those systems and do those updates relatively simply, as well as being able to schedule those in.

00:33:44 Speaker 09: So as far as overall costs, the costs have come down, but it really is going to depend on what they're really looking at,

00:33:53 Speaker 09: whether it's text or whether there's other stuff that they're looking for as far as the overall costs.

00:34:09 Speaker 05: The next project is the computer capital, so that is the replacement programmememememe.

00:34:13 Speaker 05: Kind of going back to the response I gave a couple minutes ago is that equipment ages vary from laptops to desktops to phones.

00:34:23 Speaker 05: They have varying life cycles, so IT has a database that tracks that, and then they adjust that accordingly if items break or deteriorate quicker.

00:34:33 Speaker 05: They move that schedule around.

00:34:34 Speaker 05: So these are one of the numbers that they also update kind of annually to reflect the current prices of computers at that time and other technology.

00:34:41 Speaker 05: The next item is the fire and emergency services fire station renovation and expansion.

00:34:54 Speaker 05: So it summarises the 2024 pre-design study that recommended the addition to the existing space that was needed for additional apparatus equipment storage.

00:35:02 Speaker 05: The big one being the decontamination to reflect current standards for firefighters.

00:35:10 Speaker 05: It involved kind of facility staff and fire staff in the initial study.

00:35:15 Speaker 05: The next step of the project is to move towards retaining the architect to move forward with the design.

00:35:21 Speaker 05: So that RFP will go out sometime here in the next couple months.

00:35:25 Speaker 05: The dollar figure will be big enough that it'll have to come back to council for that.

00:35:29 Speaker 05: And then imagine a project of that scope here at the city would have multiple updates as we're going along.

00:35:34 Speaker 05: But a key part is just scoping that project appropriately at the start so that the architect is working towards the same goal as the city right off of the start,

00:35:42 Speaker 05: rather than dealing with a series of changes and different directions throughout the project.

00:35:50 Speaker 05: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:35:52 Speaker 07: So I guess you know when we did City Hall, it was what ten million dollar project or eight million dollar project.

00:35:58 Speaker 07: We actually had a subcommittee that actually oversaw that.

00:36:01 Speaker 07: Members of council who were a part of that process made decisions about hey, are we going to do a green roof or we?

00:36:07 Speaker 07: Hey, are we going to do a green roof?

00:36:07 Speaker 07: Are we not going to do a green roof?

00:36:08 Speaker 07: What's going to come back in here, and how do we make modifications to it to ensure that it fit with what council was expecting to pay?

00:36:15 Speaker 07: When I go back a year and I think about how this got on here, the motion was to put it into the five-year capital project,

00:36:22 Speaker 07: and I guess where my confusion or my maybe misunderstanding is when does council get another look or committee get another look at saying what design we're actually settling on?

00:36:30 Speaker 07: Because it's one thing to say it's in a five-year plan; that's where you put the number in as.

00:36:35 Speaker 07: using that exact design that came previously.

00:36:40 Speaker 07: When does council get the opportunity?

00:36:41 Speaker 07: Is that in June?

00:36:42 Speaker 07: When we say that's not the square footprint that we're looking for, or what are the next steps where council has input on to what that actually looks like,

00:36:50 Speaker 07: not just what was provided to us eight months ago?

00:36:56 Speaker 07: Yes, to Councillor Dodd through you, Madam Chair.

00:36:59 Speaker 05: The project is in the capital plan with the existing engineering funds that were allocated to last year's budget, but we didn't start the project without doing the pre-design study to give council that opportunity.

00:37:12 Speaker 05: So that's why we did that additional step to bring the report back.

00:37:15 Speaker 05: Because even we as staff said, "Okay, we're spitballing a number out into the future.

00:37:19 Speaker 05: What do we really need to do?"

00:37:21 Speaker 05: So we undertook that exercise with a third-party architect to do the conceptual pricing, the Class D, just based on space.

00:37:27 Speaker 05: They didn't detail it right down to exactly where everything was going to go, and that's what determined that.

00:37:31 Speaker 05: That's what determined that in order to meet the needs of the fire department, they need that additional four thousand square feet.

00:37:38 Speaker 05: So, without having any sort of direction on a subcommittee or to bring back reports every so often from council, the next step for approvals would be staff would issue an RFP for an architect.

00:37:49 Speaker 05: Right now, we know that that will be over two hundred fifty thousand dollars.

00:37:53 Speaker 05: So, we would come back to council at that time to say that we issued an RFP to retain an architect at a cost estimate of around the five hundred thousand dollars that we would have,

00:38:04 Speaker 05: and it was based on the pre-design study at renovating the existing eleven thousand square feet, and with an addition of four thousand square feet,

00:38:13 Speaker 05: and that our estimated cost at that time would be five point four million dollars for the construction.

00:38:19 Speaker 05: So that the architect would know during the RFP process not to go and design as a thirty million dollar one,

00:38:24 Speaker 05: but they would also make sure that they are working with the character of the building and incorporating the decon.

00:38:28 Speaker 05: And incorporating the decontamination and everything like that, so that would be the first chance for council to say, if it's not held for further discussion in June, that would be council's first opportunity to say,

00:38:39 Speaker 05: okay, we want to stop this project.

00:38:42 Speaker 05: But I'm really trying to avoid that because the process of developing the RFP, getting architects to bid on it, getting to that stage, and then cancelling that,

00:38:52 Speaker 05: I was really hoping to avoid a lot of that at that stage by doing this pre-design study last year, taking it through this committee,

00:38:57 Speaker 05: and then taking it through council as part of the December update.

00:39:01 Speaker 05: So I think if this is something that needs to be discussed further,

00:39:05 Speaker 05: I think this is an excellent opportunity for this meeting to say we think that council should take a look at this project again,

00:39:11 Speaker 05: so that I don't work with my team to issue an RFP for an architect with goals that aren't aligned from day number one.

00:39:18 Speaker 05: If that doesn't necessarily happen tonight, we will issue the RFP with the five point four, taking all this into consideration.

00:39:25 Speaker 05: If council agrees to award the R.

00:39:25 Speaker 05: If Council agrees to award the architect, at that point the next checkpoint.

00:39:30 Speaker 05: If we aren't required to do any sort of updates, which I don't believe we have any sort of internal policy that says for projects over X dollars bring this many updates,

00:39:38 Speaker 05: the next opportunity for Council to see that would be the tender process.

00:39:44 Speaker 07: So thank you for those comments, and so clearly I misunderstood from what happened prior, and I'm maybe other members of Council have a better memory or better idea of what happened that last time.

00:39:54 Speaker 07: I specifically remember having the idea of saying that Council was going to have further discussion,

00:39:57 Speaker 07: further input on what that design and what that facility looked like prior to us going to the stage where you're already speaking.

00:40:05 Speaker 07: I don't think all of Council was set on a 4,000 square foot addition.

00:40:10 Speaker 07: I think Council was set on the fact of adding it because they knew that there was a need to have it in the five-year budget, the five-year capital section.

00:40:18 Speaker 07: I don't think Council provided, and maybe that's my misunderstanding.

00:40:22 Speaker 07: Maybe someone else can correct me.

00:40:23 Speaker 07: I don't think Council said, "Yeah, that's the design we want."

00:40:26 Speaker 07: That was the design that was presented to us and argued to us about why it was needed.

00:40:30 Speaker 07: And I don't know if that's still.

00:40:33 Speaker 07: I will tell you right now.

00:40:34 Speaker 07: I don't agree with that design.

00:40:36 Speaker 07: So I'm not sure.

00:40:38 Speaker 07: It's challenging, and I'm sorry to put you on the spot, because this members, mostly members of Council, and maybe other members of Council have a different perspective from me.

00:40:47 Speaker 07: But I'm not in favour of that current design.

00:40:51 Speaker 07: I don't agree with the extension, the addition of it.

00:40:54 Speaker 07: I don't think it is properly needed.

00:40:57 Speaker 07: I think there's modifications that could be done through it.

00:40:59 Speaker 07: So I don't know what is going to happen at the end of this meeting and what is required, but I would like Council to have another review of discussion,

00:41:07 Speaker 07: whether it's just another report that comes to Council here on the actual physical design.

00:41:13 Speaker 07: I'm little, you know, like I said, when there was we had this discussion about City Hall, it was a pretty immediate focus of being that Council was involved in that process,

00:41:25 Speaker 07: not just someone dropping this off.

00:41:27 Speaker 07: You provided another report, said this is what it is.

00:41:30 Speaker 07: Elmira or Elma could do it for thirty million.

00:41:32 Speaker 07: You guys don't want it for thirty million.

00:41:33 Speaker 07: This is what you want.

00:41:35 Speaker 07: I get what you did, but it was almost like a rubber stamp.

00:41:38 Speaker 07: And now we're saying that we're going to spend five and a half million dollars on the design that was already done from last year.

00:41:42 Speaker 07: So I don't, not a fan of that.

00:41:45 Speaker 07: I would like another opportunity at some point.

00:41:47 Speaker 07: So I don't know how staff wants to work that, or what you need from me to make that happen, but I think Council needs to have a maybe Council needs to say that,

00:41:59 Speaker 07: or maybe I'm misunderstanding, and someone else can help me.

00:42:02 Speaker 07: But is that the design that Council is actually going for, not just that we added it to the capital five-year plan?

00:42:12 Speaker 05: Yes, two Councillor Dodd, Madam Chair, I think that's kind of exactly where we're at with this, and I can relate it to other projects that we've done similarly.

00:42:21 Speaker 05: So we have a Harrison Park Master Plan that says we went through the process.

00:42:26 Speaker 05: The Harrison Park Master Plan says we will do this, this, this, this, this, this, this.

00:42:31 Speaker 05: Once Council adopts that plan, we start to put those projects into the multi-year capital plan.

00:42:36 Speaker 05: So you'll see those spread out.

00:42:37 Speaker 05: Kelso Beach, you'll see that at one time there was talk about volleyball courts and additional lighting and things like that.

00:42:43 Speaker 05: So once that master plan gets approved, staff start to build those projects into the capital plan because they've been endorsed.

00:42:48 Speaker 05: But then doing this twice a year gives Council that opportunity to speak to the specific projects in there and determine whether or not they want to do them at that time.

00:42:56 Speaker 05: So, I think the pre-design study would be something similar to a master plan.

00:43:00 Speaker 05: We've done the consultation.

00:43:02 Speaker 05: This is what the fire operations and facilities team determine are the need for the facility.

00:43:08 Speaker 05: But then Council does have that opportunity to provide other direction with the design of it.

00:43:13 Speaker 05: That doesn't necessarily mean what's there isn't going to be exactly designed that was a conceptual drawing, but I think if Council wants to have this opportunity to discuss it further,

00:43:23 Speaker 05: I think we need to determine is it based on certain function of that building,

00:43:28 Speaker 05: is it a cost that we should be working towards to give better direction to staff and consultants to if we need to look at that again,

00:43:36 Speaker 05: is it simply saying like just do everything that you think you need to do within the existing footprint, or is it more the cost that is the concern going forward?

00:43:45 Speaker 05: To move forward with that, taking tonight's meeting, I think then a motion would be that the Committee direct staff to bring a report back to Council included in the budget with whatever you think.

00:44:01 Speaker 05: If it's something you don't like, the five and a half million dollar price tag, and you think we should do it for five, or if we should be determining what are legislated and non-legislated ideas.

00:44:12 Speaker 05: I know one of the items that was discussed previously was the vestibule area where the antique fire truck could go.

00:44:18 Speaker 05: So if that was something that Council didn't want to see, I think now is the time to say we don't want to see that, or we don't want to see the tower come down.

00:44:26 Speaker 05: The plan suggested the tower going down.

00:44:28 Speaker 05: If we get that direction from Council, or we say we wanted to come in at four and a half million dollars, then that's the direction we would give to an architect.

00:44:35 Speaker 05: And if we can do it within that, we would come back in Council and say we can do it with it.

00:44:40 Speaker 05: If we can't possibly do that, then the next checkpoint would be: we would bring another report to Council through something like a capital plan, or a project update to say we tried to do this.

00:44:48 Speaker 05: We can't do it within that.

00:44:49 Speaker 05: Does Council want us to abandon the project?

00:44:51 Speaker 05: Give us another direction, or do we want to up the budget back up to a higher number?

00:44:55 Speaker 05: So I think if we're going to bring this back, I think the best for everybody would just be to determine what exactly we don't like about that pre-design study,

00:45:03 Speaker 05: and get staff to focus in specifically on that.

00:45:07 Speaker 05: Sure.

00:45:09 Speaker 05: I don't disagree with what you're saying.

00:45:10 Speaker 07: I think it's just really unfair to say that's where we're going to have this discussion tonight, when members of the public, and we don't have that pre-designed study attached to this agenda.

00:45:19 Speaker 07: So I'll let Kate talk.

00:45:23 Speaker 10: But I was just going to say maybe the best motion is to recommend that staff bring back to this committee a report that gives Committee an opportunity to discuss this item further at a future

00:45:36 Speaker 10: meeting,

00:45:36 Speaker 10: and then we can aim to do that.

00:45:40 Speaker 10: Go to Councillor Hamley.

00:45:43 Speaker 11: I think my concern is like I, I hate to throw out calling a special meeting for something, but like I just don't think a report at another meeting is going to be good enough.

00:45:53 Speaker 11: Like I think this is going to need an entire meeting, all on its own.

00:45:59 Speaker 11: So I just throw that out there for consideration.

00:46:18 Speaker 05: All right, to Councillor Hamley, through you, Madam Chair, in consultation with the Director of Corporate Services, there are well.

00:46:26 Speaker 05: There's actually two opportunities for that too.

00:46:28 Speaker 05: On June 2nd, I believe there is a special Council meeting that day for some training.

00:46:33 Speaker 05: I know I've got some asset management training planned in the morning, and I think there's availability that if there was a motion for staff to bring back the existing report,

00:46:43 Speaker 05: like I think it's a tight turnaround to draft a new report.

00:46:45 Speaker 05: But if we brought back the existing report to that meeting for further conversation, that would be attainable.

00:46:50 Speaker 05: And then if not, we could potentially tag it on to the June 23rd meeting and just simply bring that report back at that time.

00:46:56 Speaker 05: But it does make that day very, very busy.

00:46:59 Speaker 05: So I think if the Committee would be happy just bringing that existing report from last fall back on June 2nd,

00:47:05 Speaker 05: somehow we'd have to work with the Clerk's Office to determine how exactly that would work.

00:47:10 Speaker 05: Then I believe there's ample opportunity and limited conflicts for reviewing that that day.

00:47:18 Speaker 05: Deputy Mayor Greig, good questions.

00:47:21 Speaker 05: So I went back and I can see you know where staff are at tonight.

00:47:27 Speaker 05: In November we postponed it.

00:47:28 Speaker 06: Then it went to a December meeting.

00:47:31 Speaker 06: The recommendation was to include the construction component in the five-year capital plan.

00:47:36 Speaker 06: There is a line in there, which states staff are proposing that detailed design be completed during 2025.

00:47:43 Speaker 06: Construction commence in late spring 2026, and substantial completion by the end of 2027.

00:47:50 Speaker 06: I can see your concerns with when do we get to see that detailed design?

00:47:56 Speaker 06: That's right out of the report from last November, because everything—that's the trigger for everything that happens after.

00:48:03 Speaker 06: It's one thing to put in the budget, but I see your concern.

00:48:07 Speaker 06: There is, we have what's in place to precipitate bringing that back.

00:48:13 Speaker 06: So yeah, we, I would support some type of a mechanism that triggers it coming back to see what that detailed design looks like beyond just that initial five-year.

00:48:27 Speaker 06: Hey, here's the construction component.

00:48:29 Speaker 06: It's now in the budget, and see you for the ribbon cutting in 2027.

00:48:37 Speaker 06: So, how would that work?

00:48:39 Speaker 08: Because you don't have the detailed design, and you won't by June 2nd.

00:48:43 Speaker 08: But you need further input from us, I think, before you go to the RFP to get the detailed design.

00:48:50 Speaker 08: I think we just need a lot more time to talk about this.

00:48:53 Speaker 08: I think we put this in the budget.

00:48:55 Speaker 08: Like I believe, in the budget, like I reluctantly put my hand up that day to put it into the budget,

00:49:01 Speaker 08: but I thought I was going to get more input on where we're going with this, because I don't want the vestibule with the antique truck.

00:49:09 Speaker 08: And it's, it was a needs versus wants conversation, and I want to focus on the needs, not the wants.

00:49:15 Speaker 08: So I don't know where we go with this, but if someone wants to put a motion on the table to, I would move that the Committee recommend that City Council direct staff to bring forward.

00:49:43 Speaker 08: What do we want to bring forward, Kate?

00:49:44 Speaker 08: Exactly.

00:49:54 Speaker 08: Yeah.

00:49:56 Speaker 08: Thank.

00:49:57 Speaker 08: That's okay.

00:49:58 Speaker 08: I'll give you a few more seconds to think.

00:50:00 Speaker 08: To you, Councillor Hamley.

00:50:01 Speaker 08: Through you, Madam Chair.

00:50:02 Speaker 05: Kind of having an extra five seconds to think about it.

00:50:06 Speaker 05: I think for that June 2nd, if we determine that's the date,

00:50:09 Speaker 05: then we will be able to prepare a very simple report that calls this a project status update or something like that to say that here's the direction that we are prepared to issue the RFP

00:50:21 Speaker 05: for the architect.

00:50:21 Speaker 05: The RFP for the architecture.

00:50:22 Speaker 05: Here is the basic design parametres that are being provided to the architect through the RFP process, based on the design study.

00:50:31 Speaker 05: And if there's any changes on that pre-design study or anything that we would want to give direction to an architect, whether it's items that to be considered or not considered, financial constraints to be considered,

00:50:42 Speaker 05: timelines, we would hash that all out at that time, and then that would allow us to draft the RFP for the architect.

00:50:50 Speaker 05: And then at least at day one of the project, staff and Council are all kind of on the same page of where we're going, and then at that same meeting,

00:50:59 Speaker 05: Council could then determine if they want specific checkpoints on that project because it's a high value project.

00:51:06 Speaker 05: We could say we want a report back quarterly when there's a significant milestone.

00:51:13 Speaker 05: We could have those discussions on that day.

00:51:18 Speaker 05: Okay.

00:51:21 Speaker 11: Maybe I'm just going to ask the recording secretary where I was.

00:51:27 Speaker 12: So what I think you're saying is that I have a motion here that, in consideration of staff report CR-25-058,

00:51:38 Speaker 12: the Corporate Services Committee recommends that City Council direct staff to bring forward a project status update regarding the fire station renovation and expansion pre-design study to the special Council meeting on June 2nd.

00:51:58 Speaker 12: Yes.

00:52:04 Speaker 12: I would make that motion.

00:52:12 Speaker 12: Well done.

00:52:12 Speaker 12: Well done.

00:52:15 Speaker 12: Okay.

00:52:16 Speaker 12: Do we have anything further on this?

00:52:20 Speaker 12: I will call the question.

00:52:22 Speaker 12: All in favour?

00:52:24 Speaker 12: And that is carried.

00:52:26 Speaker 12: Back to Brady.

00:52:27 Speaker 12: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:52:28 Speaker 05: The next project is the Information Technology Services Software Transformation Project for a Human Resources Information System.

00:52:36 Speaker 05: So there's the acronyms HRIS system.

00:52:39 Speaker 05: This was determined as a need in the 2022 IT Needs Assessment,

00:52:43 Speaker 05: and it was backed up by the HR strategy as well as an important piece of being able to modernize and keep current with our current HR practices.

00:52:53 Speaker 05: I believe a lot of our operations are spread out amongst different pieces of software, so this would be able to bring it all into one platform and tie it into other City software as well.

00:53:05 Speaker 05: And if you need specific details about this project, the Manager of Human Resources is also with us today.

00:53:16 Speaker 05: Following on the software transformation theme, the next software is a fire records management system.

00:53:24 Speaker 05: Once again, the City has, I think, multiple pieces of software.

00:53:28 Speaker 05: I believe the intention of this would be to wrap it up into kind of one software platform that would allow staff to operate out of that.

00:53:36 Speaker 05: It would also help them meet the regulatory requirements for training and document all of that process.

00:53:42 Speaker 05: So that project would start in 2026.

00:53:52 Speaker 05: Next one is another software transformation for an enterprise resource planning software.

00:53:56 Speaker 05: Basically, that is the brains of the operation.

00:53:58 Speaker 05: It's our kind of centrepiece of the financial puzzle, and I think it's one that a lot of the software will ultimately end up tying into.

00:54:05 Speaker 05: We know that by 2020 or 2030, the City's current platform will no longer be supported, so that would leave us in very poor shape.

00:54:13 Speaker 05: If there was no updates, it would impact our ability to process all of our financial information, water billing, tax billing, all of that.

00:54:21 Speaker 05: So we're trying to be kind of not necessarily a leader in municipalities making the transition, but we also don't want to be the last ones out.

00:54:29 Speaker 05: So a lot of this is the prep work going into making sure that this is successful and determining our needs in 2026 and moving along further with the project.

00:54:40 Speaker 05: The next project is network equipment replacement.

00:54:42 Speaker 05: So that is firewalls, UPS, so battery backups.

00:54:45 Speaker 05: As much as we have a generator here at City Hall, you need something just to kind of buffer that sharp on and off, so that we don't blow all of the stuff up very quickly.

00:54:56 Speaker 05: The next project is the front door replacement.

00:54:58 Speaker 05: I touched on it a little bit earlier.

00:55:00 Speaker 05: That the front doors are in need of replacement.

00:55:03 Speaker 05: There's a lot of movement in them, and they're becoming almost a security threat.

00:55:07 Speaker 05: So we would move forward towards the latter half of this year to start the planning exercise and do the work.

00:55:14 Speaker 05: Once we do know what the plan, it would be on the potential to combine the Tom entrance with the library entrance.

00:55:20 Speaker 05: But these doors need to be replaced regardless.

00:55:23 Speaker 05: But we'll try and do that so we don't have to replace them twice in short order.

00:55:30 Speaker 05: The next slide is just a top ten projects update.

00:55:32 Speaker 05: So these were the top ten projects that were identified as last year, and eight out of ten are already in progress.

00:55:41 Speaker 05: One has been substantially completed at the Billy Bishop Museum because we've done that during their slow times, and then the community engagement survey was deferred because the strategic plan project is still going on.

00:55:52 Speaker 05: So there's no sense going out for another round for a survey at this point.

00:56:01 Speaker 05: The next part is the unfunded projects.

00:56:01 Speaker 05: So there are 14 capital projects, and they are generally related to expansion activities, enhancement activities.

00:56:13 Speaker 05: They have a lower priority score.

00:56:15 Speaker 05: They're dependent on a third party or dependent on the completion of other projects.

00:56:19 Speaker 05: So in the case, an easy example would be the Billy Bishop Museum.

00:56:22 Speaker 05: There's a desire from that group to renovate the side porch, but we said that the City is focused on the asset management activities, replacing existing assets there.

00:56:31 Speaker 05: Fixing existing assets there, and there's significant investment in windows, doors, and mechanical that we can't support adding that project.

00:56:37 Speaker 05: So we said, if you want to proceed, the expectation is that they would fully fund that project.

00:56:42 Speaker 05: So that project sits as unfunded; it's on our books, so we don't forget about it.

00:56:46 Speaker 05: They don't forget about it, and it helps us remind them that if a grant opportunity or sponsorship opportunity comes up, if somebody came and said,

00:56:52 Speaker 05: "I have thirty thousand dollars for the Billy Bishop," what could you do?

00:56:55 Speaker 05: Well, we have this project that we could put it towards.

00:56:59 Speaker 05: In the summary of all of the unfunded projects, summaries of all the unfunded projects are listed in Attachment Three to the report,

00:57:03 Speaker 05: and I think another probably big ticket item would be determining at one point: there was a desire to put a green roof on City Hall.

00:57:11 Speaker 05: We can't fit that into our schedule right now.

00:57:13 Speaker 05: The existing roof is satisfactory, but once we start into 2030, we're going to have to determine at that time: Are we going to green that roof?

00:57:20 Speaker 05: Are we going to replace it with a similar roof?

00:57:23 Speaker 05: So we just keep these projects on the books to have those conversations at that time.

00:57:30 Speaker 05: So the next steps is we will take the feedback from any of the projects that have already been pulled or going to be pulled at the end of this presentation.

00:57:39 Speaker 05: We will provide a summary of the feedback to Council for the June 23rd section or session for their consideration.

00:57:46 Speaker 05: On the 23rd, we'll go through a similar presentation with Council summarising all the different departments, and then we'll make the necessary adjustments for a meeting in July.

00:57:55 Speaker 05: And in July, then Council approves the 2026 to 2030 multi-year capital plan and allows staff to start working on the projects that are included in that plan.

00:58:05 Speaker 05: And as I mentioned earlier in the presentation, between July and December, something is likely to change.

00:58:10 Speaker 05: It'd be really nice if it didn't, because it would make record keeping and meetings short in December.

00:58:15 Speaker 05: But there's always the odd project that changes, and hopefully it's more good news than bad news.

00:58:18 Speaker 05: It gives us an opportunity to come back and have that conversation with Council again.

00:58:21 Speaker 05: So with that, that brings it towards the end of the presentation.

00:58:25 Speaker 05: I don't think we penciled down any specific projects other than the ones that we had dealt with.

00:58:30 Speaker 05: But if there is anything from the list that needs to be discussed further, now is that time.

00:58:37 Speaker 02: Does anyone have any further discussion on any items?

00:58:41 Speaker 02: No. There is a recommendation that the Committee recommend City Council direct staff to bring forward a report on the draft multi-year capital plan and incorporate the feedback from the Committee regarding the proposed projects.

00:58:55 Speaker 02: If somebody was interested in moving that motion, Councillor Dodd.

00:58:59 Speaker 02: If there's nothing further, I will call the question.

00:59:01 Speaker 02: All in favour?

00:59:03 Speaker 02: And that is moved.

00:59:06 Speaker 02: So we have to speed through the next couple.

00:59:09 Speaker 02: So we are going right to Christine with report CR 25-055 regarding 2025 fees and charges update, Corporate Services Division.

00:59:21 Speaker 02: Okay.

00:59:23 Speaker 02: Through you, Madam Chair.

00:59:24 Speaker 13: So this report details the 2025 recommended changes for the fees and charges update.

00:59:29 Speaker 13: This is part of our annual spring review.

00:59:31 Speaker 13: With any changes intended to take effect July 1st, so this is a transition year under the service review project for C3, which aims to standardize and improve the fee update process across departments.

00:59:44 Speaker 13: So new this year is that each standing Committee will review fees relevant to their portfolio.

00:59:49 Speaker 13: Similar reports will be presented to Community Services and Operations report later in May.

00:59:55 Speaker 13: This hopes to support transparency and ensures all departments receive Committee-specific feedback before the bylaw is finalized.

01:00:02 Speaker 13: So all proposed changes, including those from other Committees, will be consolidated and brought back to Council in one report on May 26th.

01:00:10 Speaker 13: The updated fees and charges bylaw would then be presented for adoption in June 2025.

01:00:16 Speaker 13: Key fee changes just include some additional options to provide cost recovery, and then some add some additional fees that we had not previously been charging to capture those possibilities for cost recovery.

01:00:29 Speaker 13: Other than that, there haven't been any significant changes in our divisions.

01:00:33 Speaker 13: And if you have any specific questions on them, I'm happy to answer those.

01:00:37 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:00:38 Speaker 02: Does anyone have any questions or comments on the fee changes?

01:00:42 Speaker 02: There weren't that many.

01:00:44 Speaker 02: None.

01:00:45 Speaker 02: So there is a recommendation that we receive the report for information purposes.

01:00:49 Speaker 02: Did someone want to move that, Councillor Hamley?

01:00:55 Speaker 02: Thank you.

01:00:56 Speaker 02: And I will call the question.

01:00:58 Speaker 02: All in favour?

01:00:59 Speaker 02: And that carries.

01:01:02 Speaker 02: All right.

01:01:02 Speaker 02: So now we are on to the Director of Corporate Services with the 2025 T1 financial update.

01:01:11 Speaker 02: So we go to Kate.

01:01:15 Speaker 02: Ah, thank you, Madam Chair.

01:01:16 Speaker 02: I won't add too much to this report.

01:01:18 Speaker 02: This is our regular.

01:01:20 Speaker 10: We do it in three terms, reporting as to our financial position.

01:01:24 Speaker 10: It was a punishing winter, and so we were anticipating having a deficit as related to winter control.

01:01:29 Speaker 10: There are still some outstanding invoices, especially as they relate to like third-party lot maintenance and some of our facilities that utilise a third party.

01:01:39 Speaker 10: The impact of winter and the runoff on parks maintenance.

01:01:44 Speaker 10: So there was some flooding in the parks.

01:01:45 Speaker 10: So all the costs associated with flooding in the park, so a lot of the costs associated with that cleanup isn't entirely captured at this point in time.

01:01:50 Speaker 10: But I do estimate that the deficit associated with winter control so far this year is around $600,000.

01:01:55 Speaker 10: Offsetting that, and fortunately, we did ultimately get our WSIB rebate issued in March, and the amount of that rebate was significant.

01:02:07 Speaker 10: The timing is great; it's a one-time, unanticipated amount of funds, so that certainly helps take the pressure off this year.

01:02:15 Speaker 10: I wouldn't say though that the pressure is off.

01:02:18 Speaker 10: Our forecasts are very much built on okay, what happened up until this point, and then for the next eight months or nine months of the year,

01:02:26 Speaker 10: we're using last year as and previous years as our sort of forecast basis.

01:02:31 Speaker 10: But we are so dependent on the weather, so depending on what happens with winter in November and December of this year certainly can change our forecast.

01:02:40 Speaker 10: However, as of right now, despite the fact that we were significantly over budget on winter control, we are trending to be close on budget at this point in time.

01:02:52 Speaker 10: Thank you.

01:02:53 Speaker 10: That is a good news story.

01:02:55 Speaker 10: It's nice to get little gifts like that every once in a while.

01:02:59 Speaker 02: Does anyone have any questions or comments on the update, Travis?

01:03:05 Speaker 02: Thank you, Madam Chair.

01:03:05 Speaker 07: I would also just like to note within that report that there was some other positive growth related revenues of about just under two hundred thousand dollars, which is also a very positive surprise.

01:03:14 Speaker 07: So, although we love getting rebates from WSIB, it's always great to hear that our City is growing as well and helping to offset some of those deficits.

01:03:23 Speaker 07: But I'll be more than happy to move the recommendation.

01:03:26 Speaker 08: Okay, so Travis has moved the recommendation in the report that we receive it for information purposes.

01:03:33 Speaker 08: If there's nothing further, I'll call the question.

01:03:34 Speaker 08: All in favour?

01:03:36 Speaker 08: And that is carried.

01:03:39 Speaker 08: So we go back to the Deputy Treasurer for a Council Expense Policy Report, Christine.

01:03:48 Speaker 08: Okay, perfect.

01:03:49 Speaker 08: Through you, Madame Chair.

01:03:50 Speaker 13: So this is an update to a policy that was last reviewed in 2004.

01:03:57 Speaker 13: This report presents an updated Council Expense Policy, which, just for reference, it was previously titled the Council Budget Policy.

01:04:04 Speaker 13: The policy has been renamed to clarify that it governs individual Council expense reimbursements and not the broader Council operating budget.

01:04:13 Speaker 13: So I have left the annual per member allocation of $3,750 per member in there.

01:04:20 Speaker 13: This is Council's or sorry, Committee's opportunity to adjust that annual allocation if you desire to do so.

01:04:27 Speaker 13: This is being brought forward as part of the policy rather than a budget, so that the expected service level can guide the budget, not the other way around,

01:04:34 Speaker 13: and that it's not something that has to be brought up every year.

01:04:39 Speaker 13: For Council, the policy does also allow the opportunity and the process if Council were to exceed that budget and what is allowed to do so by resolution,

01:04:51 Speaker 13: and then the policy just has some clear definitions of eligible and ineligible expenses, structured submission and documentation, exceptions as I mentioned can be processed through Council resolution,

01:05:02 Speaker 13: and then just to confirm the annual public reporting for transparency.

01:05:06 Speaker 13: So the recommendation in this report is that, in consideration of staff report CR-25-056,

01:05:13 Speaker 13: that the Corporate Services Committee recommends that City Council direct staff to bring forward a bylaw to approve the updated Council expense policy, substantially in the form attached to the report,

01:05:22 Speaker 13: and rescind the existing Council budget policy CRS-HR-40.

01:05:28 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:05:29 Speaker 13: Any questions, comments?

01:05:30 Speaker 13: Yes.

01:05:33 Speaker 13: If there's no questions, then Trish is going to...

01:05:38 Speaker 13: Oh, question from Councillor Dodd.

01:05:42 Speaker 13: Thank you, Madam Chair.

01:05:42 Speaker 13: I have no questions.

01:05:44 Speaker 07: Just want to make a comment because maybe I missed it, and I'm sorry.

01:05:49 Speaker 07: This is going to be reviewed every five years.

01:05:51 Speaker 07: Is that what the report said?

01:05:54 Speaker 07: And the only reason I bring that up is just the cost of going to conference now is starting to escalate more and more.

01:06:02 Speaker 07: I know.

01:06:03 Speaker 07: Councillor Middlebro and myself went to Ottawa last year.

01:06:06 Speaker 07: Didn't do anything else.

01:06:07 Speaker 07: All we did was go to Ottawa, get in the hotels that they tell you to stay at, registration, your per diem, and it's $3,000.

01:06:15 Speaker 07: So you know, I think $3,750 is still adequate for what we're doing.

01:06:21 Speaker 07: But I'm glad to hear that you're going to review this regularly because as that cost increases,

01:06:27 Speaker 07: it's going to start having an impact on whether all members of Council can be going to these conferences each year, or does it have to rotate, or what it is.

01:06:36 Speaker 07: I know the County used to allow you to go to two conferences a year, and I think they've cut it back to one.

01:06:41 Speaker 07: Oh, now it's back to two.

01:06:42 Speaker 07: Well, must have been a good year last year for them.

01:06:46 Speaker 07: They're downloading their roads, so they've got some extra money.

01:06:48 Speaker 07: But but but I'm glad to hear that.

01:06:53 Speaker 07: I just think that's definitely something that needs to be kept in the back of everyone's mind that that is the cost to go to those conferences.

01:07:01 Speaker 07: So if someone's a new Councillor and you try to go to AMO and you try to go to Good Roads or something like that, you're definitely getting up close to that maximum limit.

01:07:10 Speaker 07: So, but I'll be...

01:07:12 Speaker 07: I'll move the recommendation.

01:07:16 Speaker 07: Okay.

01:07:17 Speaker 07: Anything further?

01:07:18 Speaker 07: Nothing.

01:07:19 Speaker 07: I will call the question.

01:07:20 Speaker 07: All in favour?

01:07:22 Speaker 07: And that is carried.

01:07:24 Speaker 07: Okay.

01:07:25 Speaker 02: So we have no matters postponed this evening.

01:07:28 Speaker 02: We have no motions for which notice is previously given, no correspondence provided, no discussion of additional business.

01:07:37 Speaker 02: And does anyone have a notice of motion?

01:07:40 Speaker 02: Seeing none, it is 6:42.

01:07:44 Speaker 02: Good meeting, everyone, and we are adjourned.