Owen Sound Committee - Corporate Services Meeting Transcript — February 12, 2026

00:00:09 Melanie Middlebro: Okay, so hi everyone.

00:00:11 Melanie Middlebro: It is five thirty-one, and I will call this meeting to order.

00:00:16 Melanie Middlebro: So I would like to welcome everyone to the first meeting of the new term.

00:00:19 Melanie Middlebro: There's a lot of new faces around the horseshoe tonight, with new public members.

00:00:25 Melanie Middlebro: So let's start by going around and just introducing ourselves.

00:00:28 Melanie Middlebro: And I will note that we have Councilor.

00:00:29 Melanie Middlebro: I will note that we have Councillor Kukrajia virtually on Teams, so maybe we'll start with you, Councillor Kukrajia.

00:00:36 Melanie Middlebro: Thank you, Christina.

00:00:37 Melanie Middlebro: Can you hear me clear?

00:00:39 Melanie Middlebro: We can.

00:00:40 Melanie Middlebro: Yes.

00:00:41 Melanie Middlebro: Okay.

00:00:42 Melanie Middlebro: This is Councillor Sunil Kukrajia.

00:00:48 Greg Gibbons: I am Councillor Melanie Middlebro, first term councillor.

00:00:55 Greg Gibbons: I am Daniel Fletcher.

00:00:56 Greg Gibbons: I am a public member here.

00:01:00 Greg Gibbons: Hi, my name is Monica, and I am also a public member here.

00:01:05 Greg Gibbons: Hi, my name is Neil McCutcheon, and also a public member.

00:01:10 Greg Gibbons: Hi, my name is Greg Milburn.

00:01:12 Greg Gibbons: I'm also a public member.

00:01:15 Greg Gibbons: Hi, my name is Franklin Morice.

00:01:17 Greg Gibbons: I am also a public member.

00:01:20 Greg Gibbons: Councillor Dodd, this is my twelfth year.

00:01:24 Greg Gibbons: Councillor Merton, second term councillor.

00:01:28 Kate Allan: Second-term counselor, Tim Simmons, not a public member or an elected official, but rather a staff member, city manager.

00:01:35 Kate Allan: Lauren Stewart, purchasing and claims coordinator.

00:01:39 Kate Allan: My name is Kate Allen.

00:01:41 Kate Allan: I'm the director of corporate services and the city treasurer.

00:01:47 Melanie Middlebro: Perfect.

00:01:47 Melanie Middlebro: Thanks, everyone.

00:01:48 Melanie Middlebro: So the first order of the business of the agenda tonight is election of a chair.

00:01:54 Melanie Middlebro: So we're going to go ahead and start with. that.

00:01:55 Melanie Middlebro: I will open the floor for nominations, and if you have any questions throughout, feel free to let me know.

00:02:07 SPEAKER_317: Through you, I would like to nominate Melanie Middlebrow as chair of this committee.

00:02:14 SPEAKER_317: Councilor Middlebro, do you accept that nomination?

00:02:19 Greg Gibbons: Well, I would love to.

00:02:20 Greg Gibbons: Procedurally, I can't because I've been two years in a row.

00:02:25 Greg Gibbons: So I would like to nominate Sunit Kukreja as chair.

00:02:31 Greg Gibbons: Councillor Kukreja, do you accept that nomination?

00:02:34 Greg Gibbons: Yes, I accept it.

00:02:38 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

00:02:39 Melanie Middlebro: Any other nominations?

00:02:44 Melanie Middlebro: Okay.

00:02:44 Melanie Middlebro: Seeing none, so Councillor Kukreja will be acclaimed as the chair for this committee.

00:02:50 Melanie Middlebro: She won't be chairing this meeting since she's here virtually. so we'll move ahead and do the election of the vice chair, opening the floor for nominations for the vice chair.

00:03:01 Travis Dodd: Thank you.

00:03:01 Travis Dodd: I would nominate Melanie Middlebro for vice chair.

00:03:06 Melanie Middlebro: Councillor Middlebro, do you accept that nomination?

00:03:09 Melanie Middlebro: I accept.

00:03:12 Melanie Middlebro: Any further nominations for vice chair?

00:03:17 Melanie Middlebro: Seeing none, Melanie, you can assume the position of chair for the rest of the.

00:03:45 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

00:03:46 Greg Gibbons: Thank you, everyone, and welcome to all the new members.

00:03:49 Greg Gibbons: This is exciting.

00:03:51 Greg Gibbons: So, we've elected the chair and vice chair.

00:03:55 Greg Gibbons: So we are now at number four, which is call for additional business.

00:03:58 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have any additional business this evening?

00:04:02 Greg Gibbons: Seeing none.

00:04:03 Greg Gibbons: At number five, declarations of interest.

00:04:05 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have anything to declare this evening?

00:04:09 Greg Gibbons: I am seeing none.

00:04:10 Greg Gibbons: And you can always declare later in the meeting if you realize that you do have a declaration.

00:04:16 Greg Gibbons: At number six, we have confirmation of minutes.

00:04:18 Greg Gibbons: These are the minutes of the Corporate Services Committee meeting held on January fifteenth, twenty twenty-six.

00:04:23 Greg Gibbons: Can I have someone move those minutes?

00:04:27 Greg Gibbons: Neil is going to move the minutes.

00:04:29 Greg Gibbons: If there's no further discussion, I'll call that question.

00:04:31 Greg Gibbons: All in favor?

00:04:34 Greg Gibbons: And that carries.

00:04:37 Greg Gibbons: So at number seven, we have deputations and presentations.

00:04:40 Greg Gibbons: At seven a, we have a presentation from the committee and executive support coordinator, and director. of corporate services regarding committee orientation and introduction.

00:04:51 Greg Gibbons: So, are you going to take it, Christina?

00:04:53 Greg Gibbons: We'll turn it over to you.

00:04:56 Melanie Middlebro: Perfect.

00:04:57 Melanie Middlebro: So, starting us off, we just have a short presentation on committee introduction and orientation.

00:05:02 Melanie Middlebro: I know that all of the new members were here a couple weeks ago for a more fulsome orientation.

00:05:06 Melanie Middlebro: So, this is just a pretty quick overview.

00:05:11 Melanie Middlebro: So, here's an overview of the city's committee structure.

00:05:14 Melanie Middlebro: This.

00:05:15 Melanie Middlebro: The city's committee structure.

00:05:17 Melanie Middlebro: The city has three standing committees, one advisory committee, and currently there's one ad hoc committee.

00:05:21 Melanie Middlebro: Each of the standing committees and the advisory committee are made up of a mix of public members and council members, such as this committee tonight.

00:05:31 Melanie Middlebro: So council ultimately makes the final decision on all matters.

00:05:35 Melanie Middlebro: So minutes of all of these committees go to council for final approval, as they have the ultimate decision-making authority.

00:05:41 Melanie Middlebro: So that's why in reports, the recommendations you'll see wording such as "the corporate services committee recommends that city council do X, Y, or Z."

00:05:50 Melanie Middlebro: And while city council holds this decision-making authority, committees do have an important role in providing advice and recommendations to council, hosting public meetings or open houses, and monitoring and evaluating financial and operational performances.

00:06:08 Melanie Middlebro: So this is just the meeting dates, times, and locations for this committee.

00:06:12 Melanie Middlebro: In locations for this committee, typically the second Thursday of the month, here at five thirty in the council chambers.

00:06:18 Melanie Middlebro: And note that there are no meetings currently scheduled for the end of the year, due to the municipal election, which is in October.

00:06:30 Melanie Middlebro: Agendas are published to the city's website the Friday before the meeting, and I will send out a notification that the agenda has been published, such as I did last week.

00:06:39 Melanie Middlebro: And agendas are to be read. prior to the meeting.

00:06:41 Melanie Middlebro: And please let me know if you're not going to be able to attend a meeting to ensure that quorum will be met.

00:06:47 Melanie Middlebro: Also, if you're going to be attending virtually, let me know as soon as you can so I can set you up with the Teams link.

00:06:58 Melanie Middlebro: So the mandate of the committee and why we're all here tonight is to provide advice and recommendations to council.

00:07:06 Melanie Middlebro: Provide a forum for the exchange of ideas and act.

00:07:09 Melanie Middlebro: The exchange of ideas and actions on policies, programs, and initiatives to implement and support the work of council in achieving the vision, goals, and objectives of strategic plans and other plans; engage, support,

00:07:19 Melanie Middlebro: and work with partners; review and provide feedback on annual work plans; and to monitor performance of work plan implementation.

00:07:27 Melanie Middlebro: So now I'm just going to turn it over to our director of corporate services, Kate Allen, and she'll provide some information on the background of the department's staff and operations.

00:07:41 Melanie Middlebro: Thank you, Christina, and I have to give Christina full credit for preparing this presentation that we're providing tonight.

00:07:49 Melanie Middlebro: So I'll stumble my way through the slides that she created for me.

00:07:53 SPEAKER_656: So the divisions that are currently in corporate services and that this committee will oversee are accounting and finance.

00:08:03 SPEAKER_656: We'll often bring our year-end financial statements. and periodic financial updates, actuals to budget comparisons through this committee.

00:08:14 SPEAKER_656: Capital planning, procurement, asset and risk management, and facility services.

00:08:18 SPEAKER_656: Lauren is here tonight, representing this division.

00:08:20 SPEAKER_656: She'll be presenting our procurement report on procurement made within the policy.

00:08:28 SPEAKER_656: Clerks, legislative services, and bylaw enforcement report through this community committee.

00:08:33 SPEAKER_656: Excuse me, human resources. and Human Resources and Payroll, and Information Technology.

00:08:39 SPEAKER_656: Typically, fire services and communication reports, as well as sometimes reports directly from the City Manager's Office, also come up through Corporate Services Committee.

00:08:49 SPEAKER_656: The next slide will help you put a face to some names.

00:08:53 SPEAKER_656: I'm the director.

00:08:55 SPEAKER_656: Brianna's not here this evening.

00:08:56 SPEAKER_656: She's our City Clerk.

00:08:57 SPEAKER_656: Brady's photo is on the slide, but it will be coming off soon.

00:09:02 SPEAKER_656: And we're actually in the process right now of interviewing for the manager of corporate services role, which we'll hopefully have filled within the next month or two.

00:09:11 SPEAKER_656: Jani Dashfield is our manager of human resources.

00:09:13 SPEAKER_656: Mark Guybrson, manager of IT, and David Crane is relatively new at the city.

00:09:18 SPEAKER_656: He was actually formerly a member on this committee.

00:09:21 SPEAKER_656: He's our deputy treasurer.

00:09:27 SPEAKER_656: The next slide is our org chart, and it just shows. the positions that report up through each of, of those managers.

00:09:38 SPEAKER_656: Some of our accomplishments from 2025, and this committee will have seen reports and updates on several of these.

00:09:47 SPEAKER_656: We participated in the WSIB Excellence Program.

00:09:49 SPEAKER_656: This is an ongoing program that we participated in every year, and as long as they are approving of the projects that we submit, we generally receive a rebate in the neighborhood of thirty thousand. dollars.

00:10:01 SPEAKER_656: We developed a new onboarding toolkit for new hire engagement, and I know from experience, David Crane recently went through the new onboarding process as well as Tulasi,

00:10:10 SPEAKER_656: and both of them had very positive things to say about their experience coming on and and having the resources that they needed in those first few weeks of work.

00:10:21 SPEAKER_656: We launched a new employee choice awards program with forty nominations, and I didn't know this, but we're receiving requests from other municipalities that are looking to implement the same thing in their own municipalities.

00:10:34 SPEAKER_656: This was part of our Christmas holiday lunch, where staff nominated different other employees to receive awards that fall within our core values, and then those were handed out to everyone at the holiday lunch.

00:10:48 SPEAKER_656: So I know from my own experience, I thought it was received very well.

00:10:53 SPEAKER_656: We developed leadership competencies and provided two in-house leadership training.

00:10:57 SPEAKER_656: To in-house leadership training sessions for all people leaders.

00:10:59 SPEAKER_656: Anyone that's on or pays attention to our service review ad hoc committee, that report actually just came through this week.

00:11:06 SPEAKER_656: And we finished some capital work: completed Tom Thompson Art Gallery HVAC and building automation upgrades.

00:11:12 SPEAKER_656: We completed our asset management plan for core and non-core assets, and that kept us in line with provincial legislated milestones.

00:11:19 SPEAKER_656: We received a clean audit opinion for our 2024 financial statements, and we'll look forward to getting another one as we complete. our 2025 year end right now,

00:11:27 SPEAKER_656: the water meter replacement project is very much a cross departmental initiative.

00:11:33 SPEAKER_656: We've got a lot of people, a lot of staff from the works department and water department working on that, but definitely our water billing division is heavily involved as well, and that is nearing completion.

00:11:44 SPEAKER_656: We're continuing, we're always continuing, to add online service options for existing city services.

00:11:51 SPEAKER_656: Virtual City Hall will allow you to come online. and see things like your tax statement, how much you owe in taxes, what your payments are, are your water bill if there's anything owing,

00:12:01 SPEAKER_656: and with the water meter replacement project, there'll actually be an additional, more enhanced customer-facing portal that will allow people to see in real time what their usage is.

00:12:11 SPEAKER_656: We've completed capital projects in IT, and we finalized our first operating budget under the strong mayor powers framework,

00:12:20 SPEAKER_656: and that was certainly a learning experience for all of us. to make sure that we were on side with that process.

00:12:26 SPEAKER_656: There are several interesting facts, statistics for corporate services.

00:12:30 SPEAKER_656: I'll let you read those and retain them as you'd be interested in.

00:12:34 SPEAKER_656: And then some upcoming projects.

00:12:37 SPEAKER_656: As I go through some of these, the first report on tonight's agenda is our organizational work plan.

00:12:44 SPEAKER_656: The projects that are listed here are those that are specific to corporate services.

00:12:49 SPEAKER_656: So I won't go into a lot of detail. once we get into that report, but I'll walk through just a few of these,

00:12:54 SPEAKER_656: and these will be projects that you can anticipate getting updates on through this committee and other budget updates as well.

00:13:02 SPEAKER_656: Digital timesheets using Pearl is a software upgrade that will allow us to move from using paper timesheets, which we still do in many divisions,

00:13:11 SPEAKER_656: to allow staff to enter their time directly into our payroll system.

00:13:16 SPEAKER_656: Unibudget software is a project that I am very heavily involved. in.

00:13:19 SPEAKER_656: I was actually just working on it for the majority of today, and it will allow us to have a software platform that develops both our operating and capital budget,

00:13:29 SPEAKER_656: moving away from the Excel spreadsheets that we're currently using, and make it more dynamic and allow for more staff to have direct input into the budget, as opposed to having multiple versions of Excel documents.

00:13:43 SPEAKER_656: Software transformation is a huge project that will just be kicking off towards the. end of this year.

00:13:49 SPEAKER_656: We have to replace our ERP.

00:13:51 SPEAKER_656: We call it Dynamics Great Plains.

00:13:54 SPEAKER_656: It's a Microsoft product.

00:13:55 SPEAKER_656: They're no longer going to be supporting it in twenty thirty.

00:13:58 SPEAKER_656: So we have about five years left to figure out what we're going to use instead, procure it, and the biggest phase of that will be implementing an entirely new ERP system.

00:14:10 SPEAKER_656: We have our financial audit, which happens every year.

00:14:12 SPEAKER_656: That's underway now.

00:14:14 SPEAKER_656: I believe the next council. meeting agenda has the review of the board and committee structure returning, including some feedback that we've received from each of the committees.

00:14:25 SPEAKER_656: We will be hosting and having a municipal election in October, as Christina just mentioned.

00:14:31 SPEAKER_656: We're always doing policy reviews.

00:14:32 SPEAKER_656: We've recently enhanced how we look at policies and making sure that we don't let them become redundant or or out of date.

00:14:40 SPEAKER_656: So we'll be bringing those policies through this committee as we work on updating them.

00:14:45 SPEAKER_656: Lauren will be tasked with our purchasing policy update, and you'll look forward to seeing that in a couple months.

00:14:51 SPEAKER_656: IT is working on a disaster recovery plan this year.

00:14:54 SPEAKER_656: Every year we do an emergency management exercise, sort of a mock tabletop type thing, and this year we did one based on a cyber attack.

00:15:03 SPEAKER_656: And one of the deliverables or action items that came out of that was the development of this disaster recovery plan for IT.

00:15:12 SPEAKER_656: Our work order management. system is also part of the PURL upgrade.

00:15:15 SPEAKER_656: We talked about digital timesheets.

00:15:17 SPEAKER_656: This will also allow us to enhance how we use work orders.

00:15:21 SPEAKER_656: Beyond Share is a project that I'm working on as well.

00:15:24 SPEAKER_656: We implemented SharePoint as our sort of file storage platform when we moved back into City Hall, so about four or five years ago.

00:15:34 SPEAKER_656: And now looking back, there's always things that you would have done differently now that we're actually using that software.

00:15:41 SPEAKER_656: So we have an initial.

00:15:41 SPEAKER_656: Software, so we have an initiative that's sort of going back and looking at data governance, how we use the system, when we use SharePoint, when we use other file storage platforms,

00:15:52 SPEAKER_656: and then a big piece of that is retention as well.

00:15:56 SPEAKER_656: We will be having collective bargaining for our QP unions.

00:15:59 SPEAKER_656: We have two QP unions.

00:16:01 SPEAKER_656: We call them inside and outside to differentiate them, just because of the where the majority of staff within each union work.

00:16:09 SPEAKER_656: Our inside QP union agreement expires at the end of December of this year, and then the outside union will expire at the end of April, to sort of coincide with the winter control season.

00:16:22 SPEAKER_656: Is why there's this is mid-year and not year-end.

00:16:25 SPEAKER_656: So we'll definitely be bringing through council.

00:16:29 SPEAKER_656: I'm not sure that these will come through committee, but that's something HR will be working on this year.

00:16:33 SPEAKER_656: Core competencies for leaders and succession management deals with how we are recruiting.

00:16:39 SPEAKER_656: Our recruiting, and another HR policy would be how we deal with overtime.

00:16:43 SPEAKER_656: Working closely with Public Works.

00:16:47 SPEAKER_656: So, if there's any questions, I'm happy to take them now, and I might just sort of jump right into the first report as well, since it's it's related to this presentation.

00:17:01 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have any questions for Kate at this time?

00:17:04 Greg Gibbons: No. Okay.

00:17:07 Greg Gibbons: So. at number eight we have public forum.

00:17:10 Greg Gibbons: There are no public members in attendance this evening in the audience.

00:17:13 Greg Gibbons: At number nine, correspondence received for which direction is required, we have none.

00:17:18 Greg Gibbons: So we will move on to the reports of city staff at number ten.

00:17:22 Greg Gibbons: A one, we'll go back to the director of corporate services regarding committee orientation and 2026 annual work plan.

00:17:30 Greg Gibbons: We'll go back to Kate.

00:17:33 SPEAKER_656: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:17:34 SPEAKER_656: So this is tied. quite closely to the information that I just provided you.

00:17:40 SPEAKER_656: We've got our organizational work plan document attached, and this has been a bit of an evolution.

00:17:47 SPEAKER_656: Over the last couple years, we've brought work plans to committees, but they've been focused on just the departments that this committee oversees.

00:17:55 SPEAKER_656: Whereas now we're moving towards this more organizational work plan.

00:18:00 SPEAKER_656: So that's what's been provided in the attachment for you today, and that was put together by our committee.

00:18:04 SPEAKER_656: That was put together by our communications team.

00:18:06 SPEAKER_656: One thing I would highlight is that the work plan is really focused on our projects that we're undertaking as a corporation this year.

00:18:15 SPEAKER_656: What it does not necessarily highlight or emphasize are those core services that we're providing every single day, whether it is going through our budget, setting our tax rates, issuing tax bills, collecting taxes.

00:18:31 SPEAKER_656: You wouldn't see that in the work plan.

00:18:32 SPEAKER_656: Our five.

00:18:32 SPEAKER_656: See that in the work plan.

00:18:33 SPEAKER_656: Our financial audit is a huge project that involves staff from multiple departments.

00:18:38 SPEAKER_656: But because we do it every year and it's part of just our day-to-day work within the finance, you wouldn't see the financial audit in our organizational work plan.

00:18:48 SPEAKER_656: We're focusing here on sort of one-time, defined start and end date projects that generally involve interdepartmental participants in it.

00:19:00 SPEAKER_656: So.

00:19:01 SPEAKER_656: I won't go through it in a lot of detail.

00:19:03 SPEAKER_656: I do appreciate that Christine emailed you yesterday, I think,

00:19:08 SPEAKER_656: and actually Melanie prompted it to say we don't expect you to go through and read this organizational work plan and and know every single report off the top of your head or to be able

00:19:17 SPEAKER_656: to discuss them today either.

00:19:19 SPEAKER_656: But I would strongly encourage you to hang on to this as a resource that you can refer back to throughout the year as we bring projects forward,

00:19:27 SPEAKER_656: or even as you hear about projects out in the community.

00:19:30 SPEAKER_656: You'll have this sort of resource to look back on and understand what the scope is and the benefits and the purpose of these projects as we undertake them and bring back updates to this group.

00:19:40 SPEAKER_656: So, like I said, I'm not going to go through it in great detail.

00:19:43 SPEAKER_656: But if you have any questions, we'd be happy to answer them.

00:19:50 SPEAKER_656: Franklin, go ahead.

00:19:53 SPEAKER_656: I just have a question: Is how will the the progress on the work plan?

00:19:58 SPEAKER_656: The progress on the work plan—we monitored and reported throughout the year.

00:20:06 SPEAKER_656: Through you, Madam Chair, might not be the best person to respond to that, and our in-house sort of expert or the person that's holding all of this together, Michelle Palmer, she's not here,

00:20:15 SPEAKER_656: and she's actually enjoying some vacation time, which she's well deserved.

00:20:18 SPEAKER_656: But we have recently implemented a new project management system that will help us all use the same platform for. updating projects, what their status are, and communicating internally about how those projects are going.

00:20:32 SPEAKER_656: That system also has reporting functionality that we'll be able to bring back to committees, not just on individual projects,

00:20:39 SPEAKER_656: but our total sort of dashboard of how we're doing as a whole when it comes to all of these initiatives.

00:20:49 SPEAKER_656: Any other questions from committee members?

00:20:52 SPEAKER_656: Neil, go ahead.

00:20:54 SPEAKER_656: First, I want to thank Christine.

00:20:55 SPEAKER_656: First, I want to thank Christina for the email she sent out yesterday.

00:20:57 SPEAKER_656: Really appreciate it.

00:20:59 SPEAKER_656: I just want first thing.

00:21:01 SPEAKER_656: This document's really well done.

00:21:03 SPEAKER_656: Like, there's a lot of information here, and if you want to get real picky, there are typos and grammatical errors, but not very many.

00:21:09 SPEAKER_656: It's really, it's really a thorough document, and congratulations to Director Allen and the rest of the staff.

00:21:16 SPEAKER_656: I do have a question.

00:21:17 SPEAKER_656: There's always when you make plans like this.

00:21:18 SPEAKER_656: There's always exceptions.

00:21:19 SPEAKER_656: You don't know what's going to.

00:21:21 SPEAKER_656: You know, you plan on this, but that happens.

00:21:23 SPEAKER_656: So I'm just wondering. how do you deal with something that you've planned to change in two thousand and twenty-eight, and something happens in two thousand and twenty-six, and you have to deal with it.

00:21:31 SPEAKER_656: How what's the process to deal with those exceptions?

00:21:34 SPEAKER_656: Through, Madam Chair, I think that that's actually one of the benefits or the wins that the city has had when it comes to our multi-year planning, especially how it when it comes to capital. planning,

00:21:53 SPEAKER_656: with our multi-year capital plan, we have funded out five years.

00:21:58 SPEAKER_656: So if there is a project in two thousand and twenty-eight, and we realize that it has to be done sooner, we know that there's funding allocated to that project two years out.

00:22:09 SPEAKER_656: And if it just means we have to temporarily sort of hold that project as unfinanced until the funds are there, we're able to be flexible with it that way.

00:22:19 SPEAKER_656: And that's definitely been one of our ways.

00:22:20 SPEAKER_656: That's definitely been one of our wins.

00:22:22 SPEAKER_656: We raise a stable amount for capital every single year, and we know by the capital budget policy that we aim to increase that total investment by a dedicated 1% every year.

00:22:33 SPEAKER_656: So that's the foundation that our five-year capital plan is built on, and because we have that somewhat sense of certainty around those funds, we are able to plan ahead.

00:22:46 SPEAKER_656: And if you were to look at our true capital spending, it wouldn't look the same.

00:22:51 SPEAKER_656: Our true capital spending looks like this, but we smooth it out over time.

00:22:56 SPEAKER_656: So we might have a really heavy capital year in two thousand and twenty-six, and then it would slow down over the next two years.

00:23:02 SPEAKER_656: But that allows us to be a lot more flexible too and responsive when it comes to spending capital dollars.

00:23:08 SPEAKER_656: So if a project today runs over, we're not just looking at oh,

00:23:13 SPEAKER_656: where are we going to get the funding or or the capacity for that project from this year. we're able to look at that entire five-year plan and move things around,

00:23:21 SPEAKER_656: especially as they're further out on the horizon, to make sure that we can sustain those.

00:23:26 SPEAKER_656: So certainly, that exercise and not looking at things on a one-year basis has really helped us do just what you were talking about.

00:23:36 SPEAKER_656: Anything else?

00:23:39 SPEAKER_656: Seeing none.

00:23:40 Greg Gibbons: Just more to what Franklin was asking about in our agenda. there's always at number 14 discussion of additional business.

00:23:51 Greg Gibbons: So if there's ever something you know that you're you're wondering how is a certain project that we're you know overseeing at this committee proceeding, or if you have any questions about it,

00:24:01 Greg Gibbons: you can always ask it during additional business.

00:24:04 Greg Gibbons: And it's best to always give the staff kind of a heads up if you do have something that you're going to be inquiring about, so that they can be prepared to answer that.

00:24:12 Greg Gibbons: You can just shoot an email, you know, either to the chair or. to to the staff, but that's a good time to to ask about those things as well.

00:24:21 Greg Gibbons: Okay, so we, if there's nothing further at ten a one, there is a recommendation that committee receive the report for information purposes.

00:24:35 Greg Gibbons: So if I can have a mover of that recommendation, anyone, anyone, Neil, thank you.

00:24:43 Greg Gibbons: And if there's nothing further, I'll call to question.

00:24:45 Greg Gibbons: All in favor?

00:24:48 Greg Gibbons: And Sunitha as well, so that motion carries.

00:24:52 Greg Gibbons: So at 10B from the Clerks Department, we have 10B1 report from the Information and Privacy Coordinator regarding Freedom of Information 2025 Year in Review.

00:25:04 Greg Gibbons: So we welcome Desiree.

00:25:12 Greg Gibbons: Good evening, everyone.

00:25:14 Greg Gibbons: Just as a quick summary of my report, in 2025, the city processed 95 Freedom of Information requests, and they are also known as FOIs.

00:25:27 Greg Gibbons: This is an approximately a 24% increase over the previous year, and continues the trend of year-over-year increases in the number of FOI requests that the city receives.

00:25:41 Greg Gibbons: The types of requests vary from year to year, with the bulk of requests in 2025 about 73 percent coming from Owen Sound Police Service.

00:25:53 Greg Gibbons: The city continues to complete most requests within the legislated 30-day timeframe.

00:25:59 Greg Gibbons: Any requests last year beyond that timeframe were due to affected party notice requirements, which extend the timeline to allow affected parties. to make representations about the potential release of records, as I mentioned,

00:26:17 Greg Gibbons: every year FOI fees continue to represent only a fraction of the costs associated with administering the Freedom of Information Program.

00:26:27 Greg Gibbons: Last year, significantly more costs were recovered than in previous years, as the city is now invoicing the Oxnard Police Service for costs related to FOI requests. that were previously waived.

00:26:40 Greg Gibbons: However, no significant changes have been made to the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act in quite some time.

00:26:48 Greg Gibbons: The provincial FIPPA legislation remains woefully outdated.

00:26:54 Greg Gibbons: In the meantime, changes to federal legislation last year now require institutions governed under FIPPA, which is the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, to conduct privacy impact assessments.

00:27:09 Greg Gibbons: For your interest, privacy impact assessments, also known as PIA's, are a risk management tool used to identify and reduce privacy risks before implementing or changing programs, systems, technologies, or processes involving personal information.

00:27:29 Greg Gibbons: In short, the PIA is a process for managing privacy risks to both individuals. and institutions,

00:27:37 Greg Gibbons: we anticipate that Ontario and municipalities will also be required to conduct privacy impact assessments at some point in the future.

00:27:49 Greg Gibbons: With that, I would recommend that the committee move to receive this report for information purposes, and I'm happy to take any questions that you may have.

00:28:00 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have any questions?

00:28:02 Greg Gibbons: Franklin, go ahead.

00:28:08 Greg Gibbons: Are there any notable trends that you have noticed in the requests that comes in, that's affecting the the response timelines or the staffing?

00:28:24 Greg Gibbons: Through you, Madam Chair.

00:28:27 Greg Gibbons: I would say that every year we we don't.

00:28:31 Greg Gibbons: Here we we don't know what we're going to get, and that that never changes.

00:28:36 Greg Gibbons: Sometimes we get very straightforward requests.

00:28:40 Greg Gibbons: Sometimes we get quite complex requests.

00:28:46 Greg Gibbons: Sometimes they involve a large volume of records, and sometimes it's not very much, not very many records.

00:28:57 Greg Gibbons: So it really fluctuates.

00:28:59 Greg Gibbons: It's always a. surprise, and if you like surprises, that's great because that's what you're going to get.

00:29:08 Greg Gibbons: Any further, sorry.

00:29:10 Greg Gibbons: Any further follow up?

00:29:11 Greg Gibbons: You're you're good.

00:29:12 Greg Gibbons: Okay, Greg, go ahead.

00:29:15 Greg Gibbons: I just had a question.

00:29:16 Greg Gibbons: I don't know if you know the answer or not.

00:29:18 Greg Gibbons: When I read the report, I was interested in the comparison between our municipality and others, and the differences.

00:29:26 Greg Gibbons: And is there any?

00:29:27 Greg Gibbons: Do you know anything?

00:29:28 Greg Gibbons: about the differences, the reason behind that, or is that even something you can know?

00:29:36 Greg Gibbons: Through you, Madam Chair, one of the differences, and I think you'll see in the chart.

00:29:41 Greg Gibbons: The I forget who the municipality is at the top, but they had a number, and then underneath I put how many police requests they had, and I suspect in many cases,

00:29:54 Greg Gibbons: and I know in some cases, they. other municipalities don't receive requests from police services because they they they don't have that, and the requests just for people to know are for video surveillance cameras.

00:30:13 Greg Gibbons: So that could be traffic camera.

00:30:16 Greg Gibbons: We have video surveillance cameras in the river district, and then we also have some video surveillance cameras at. some of our city facilities, such as the Bayshore.

00:30:29 Greg Gibbons: So smaller municipalities, and particularly our neighboring municipalities, don't have that kind of infrastructure.

00:30:37 Greg Gibbons: So they would receive fewer requests.

00:30:40 Greg Gibbons: Having said that, I did take away those requests from police services and just looked at other requests that we would receive from the public, and we still have. you know,

00:30:54 Greg Gibbons: a relatively large number in comparison to our our other municipalities, but it it does look a little bit skewed.

00:31:03 Greg Gibbons: The reality is that those requests are still requests, and they still take time, and they still can vary in how much time it takes us to process them, depending on the nature of the request.

00:31:17 Greg Gibbons: So we are counting them as freedom of information requests.

00:31:24 Greg Gibbons: Yes.

00:31:24 Greg Gibbons: Anything further?

00:31:27 Greg Gibbons: I know it mentioned it in the report that there was the the MOU or memorandum with the police, so that they'll have access and they won't have to.

00:31:37 Greg Gibbons: So will that completely erase this process?

00:31:40 Greg Gibbons: That they won't have to to file a request and they they'll just have access and it'll cut down on on all of these.

00:31:49 Greg Gibbons: The MOU is. dealing with the River District video surveillance cameras.

00:31:54 Greg Gibbons: So any request that we get for traffic camera or for city facility camera would still come through us.

00:32:04 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

00:32:06 Greg Gibbons: If there's nothing further, go back to the beginning.

00:32:11 Greg Gibbons: So there is a recommendation that City Council receive the report for information purposes.

00:32:16 Greg Gibbons: If we can have a mover of that, Franklin. thank you.

00:32:20 Greg Gibbons: And if there's nothing further, I will call the question.

00:32:22 Greg Gibbons: All in favor?

00:32:25 Greg Gibbons: And that carries with Sunit, also with her hand up there.

00:32:30 Greg Gibbons: So we will move on to ten C. It is a report from the Purchasing and Claims Coordinator regarding awarded tenders and proposals between fifty zero and two hundred and fifty zero from July one st

00:32:44 Greg Gibbons: to December thirty one st,

00:32:46 Greg Gibbons: two thousand and twenty five.

00:32:47 Greg Gibbons: So we will.

00:32:48 Greg Gibbons: 2025.

00:32:48 Greg Gibbons: So we will turn it over to Lauren.

00:32:50 Greg Gibbons: Good evening, committee, and through you, chair.

00:32:53 Greg Gibbons: Section 270 of the Municipal Act prescribes that municipalities must maintain a policy on the procurement of goods and services.

00:33:01 SPEAKER_318: This ensures municipalities maintain transparency and accountability related to procurement.

00:33:07 SPEAKER_318: For contacts for the new new members, I know you've probably read the purchasing bylaw and have it memorized, but our purchasing bylaw does include standards Purchasing bylaw does include standard procurement options.

00:33:17 SPEAKER_318: So that would be a direct purchase for up to ten thousand dollars.

00:33:21 SPEAKER_318: So that would be one vendor they would select.

00:33:23 SPEAKER_318: After you get to the ten thousand to fifty thousand mark, you're reaching out to three vendors for an attempt at three quotations or open competition for a value of over fifty thousand.

00:33:35 SPEAKER_318: Non-standard procurement include includes limited and non-standard procurement, also known as single or sole sourcing.

00:33:43 SPEAKER_318: The bylaw delegates the authority of. approval of standard purchases from fifty to two hundred and fifty thousand from council to the director of corporate services.

00:33:53 SPEAKER_318: The authority for the purchase of the approval sorry of non-standard purchases from fifty to one hundred thousand is also delegated to the director of corporate services.

00:34:03 SPEAKER_318: This delegation allows for an efficient and timely award process and reduces overall project timelines.

00:34:09 SPEAKER_318: Attached to this report is a summary for the awards. between fifty and two hundred fifty thousand, from July first to December thirty first, twenty twenty five, we'll do this twice a year.

00:34:22 SPEAKER_318: Just for summary, these included a non standard procurement, a single source for professional engineering services for water main cathodic protection from twenty twenty six to twenty twenty eight.

00:34:34 SPEAKER_318: This was awarded to WSP for a value of over sixty seven thousand.

00:34:40 SPEAKER_318: A non standard procurement.

00:34:41 SPEAKER_318: Non-standard procurement through the OECM Buying Group for the annual renewal of M three hundred and sixty-five licenses.

00:34:47 SPEAKER_318: This was awarded to Softchoice for a value of just over eighty-seven thousand.

00:34:52 SPEAKER_318: A request for proposal for engineering consulting services related to the design and contract administration for Sixteenth Street's pedestrian tunnel.

00:35:01 SPEAKER_318: This was awarded to Pearson Engineering for a value of one hundred and seventy-five thousand.

00:35:06 SPEAKER_318: We had a request for tender for tree removal services.

00:35:10 SPEAKER_318: This was. awarded to Mulmer Tree Services for a value of just over eighty-eight thousand,

00:35:15 SPEAKER_318: and a request for proposal for professional landscape services related to the design for a playground renewal at Council Beach at Nawash Park.

00:35:25 SPEAKER_318: This was awarded to Crozier for a value of just over sixty-seven thousand.

00:35:30 SPEAKER_318: That is kind of the summary.

00:35:32 SPEAKER_318: The recommendation is just that the corporate services committee receives this report for information purposes, but.

00:35:39 SPEAKER_318: I'm happy to take any questions.

00:35:41 SPEAKER_318: Does anyone have any questions for Lauren?

00:35:45 SPEAKER_318: Carol, go ahead.

00:35:47 SPEAKER_318: Through you, Chair.

00:35:49 SPEAKER_318: I'm not sure if this is for you, Lauren, or for Kate.

00:35:53 Carol Merton: The delegation of authority.

00:35:55 Carol Merton: How often is that amount looked at?

00:35:58 Carol Merton: Recognizing prices continue to go up, I'm wondering, Lauren, do you have the answer to that?

00:36:06 Carol Merton: Through you, Chair Brady and I, manager of corporate services, have been working on a policy update for about probably a year now.

00:36:16 Carol Merton: It takes quite a bit of time.

00:36:18 SPEAKER_318: What we do is take a comparison of all other municipalities.

00:36:22 SPEAKER_318: Typically, we'll look for our comparators.

00:36:25 SPEAKER_318: Our thresholds are quite low, I'd say.

00:36:28 SPEAKER_318: So we're kind of looking at that.

00:36:30 SPEAKER_318: That'll be presented most likely through committee with kind of some options. and some recommendations, there's flexibility in how we do that.

00:36:40 SPEAKER_318: We could report more frequently for those delegated authorities versus twice a year.

00:36:45 SPEAKER_318: So those are kind of different options we're looking at.

00:36:47 SPEAKER_318: But yeah, it's definitely being investigated.

00:36:52 SPEAKER_318: Anyone else?

00:36:54 SPEAKER_318: I had a question on the tree removal services.

00:36:58 Greg Gibbons: I know that as council, we approved the one hundred eighty thousand dollar. instead of going into the reserve, I believe we assigned it to the tree removal, and I'm seeing eighty-eight thousand.

00:37:11 Greg Gibbons: So, are we getting what we thought we would get for one hundred and eighty for eighty-eight, or how's that working?

00:37:25 Greg Gibbons: It's through you, chair.

00:37:27 Greg Gibbons: So, with with tenders, I'll just give a background.

00:37:29 SPEAKER_318: Sometimes staff will ahead of time get it.

00:37:32 SPEAKER_318: Staff will ahead of time get a get a budgetary number, so that's when we would approach council with that.

00:37:37 SPEAKER_318: Tenders will see it could be an aggressive vendor that's looking looking for business.

00:37:43 SPEAKER_318: They might have staff up here, for example.

00:37:46 SPEAKER_318: So with respect to that number, that's why there's kind of a discrepancy.

00:37:51 SPEAKER_318: I'd say I might turn to Cape with the difference between the one hundred eighty thousand approval and the tender value of eighty eight thousand.

00:38:00 SPEAKER_318: I believe that would go. back into reserves, but I will pass that over to Keith.

00:38:05 SPEAKER_318: Through you, Madam Chair, the award was to or the recommendation from Council was that we sort of earmark those funds from our two thousand and twenty-five year end.

00:38:16 SPEAKER_318: I haven't finished the year end, but my intent is to continue to earmark the one hundred and eighty thousand.

00:38:20 SPEAKER_656: Make sure that gets set aside.

00:38:23 SPEAKER_656: The work being done in two thousand and twenty-six will be drawn against that.

00:38:26 SPEAKER_656: We can assess whether or not it met the requirements that we were looking. for, and make sure that we still have the rest of council's recommendation.

00:38:34 SPEAKER_656: Should we need more funds, and then it would become sort of a decision of next year.

00:38:39 SPEAKER_656: If we don't fully utilize that one hundred and eighty that council approved, it will be up to council as to whether you do more tree work or that that get moved into some other initiative.

00:38:50 SPEAKER_656: Okay, great.

00:38:53 SPEAKER_656: If there's no other questions on that, the. recommendation is that council receive the report for information purposes.

00:39:03 SPEAKER_656: If I can have someone move that report, Travis.

00:39:09 Greg Gibbons: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:39:09 Greg Gibbons: And just before I do that, so just Kate, go back to that question.

00:39:12 Travis Dodd: Though that one hundred and eighty was because we were anticipating a surplus for the year.

00:39:17 Travis Dodd: So ideally, at the end, if there's still a generalized surplus, it's just going to go into our overall reserve.

00:39:23 Travis Dodd: Yeah, cool.

00:39:25 Travis Dodd: Okay, thank.

00:39:26 Travis Dodd: Through you, Madam Chair, I'll move.

00:39:27 Travis Dodd: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:39:27 Travis Dodd: I'll move the recommendation as noted within the report.

00:39:31 Travis Dodd: Okay.

00:39:31 Travis Dodd: So, Councillor Dodd has moved the report.

00:39:33 Greg Gibbons: If there's nothing further, I will call the question.

00:39:35 Greg Gibbons: All in favor?

00:39:37 Greg Gibbons: And that carries.

00:39:39 Greg Gibbons: With Sunith also voting in favor.

00:39:42 Greg Gibbons: So that moves us on to 10D with the fire.

00:39:46 Greg Gibbons: We have a report from the fire chief regarding 2025 fire and emergency services annual report.

00:39:52 Greg Gibbons: And it looks like the chief is not here tonight, so we have.

00:39:55 Greg Gibbons: Greg.

00:39:56 Greg Gibbons: We'll turn it over to Greg.

00:39:58 Greg Gibbons: All right.

00:39:59 Greg Gibbons: For those who don't know me, my name is Greg Nickel.

00:40:02 Greg Gibbons: I'm the administrative assistant for the Owens County Fire and Emergency Services.

00:40:06 Greg Gibbons: I've worked for the city for 28 years and do a number of roles with the city.

00:40:10 Greg Gibbons: And one of them is sometimes speaking on behalf of the fire department.

00:40:14 Greg Gibbons: I've got a pretty good history there.

00:40:15 Greg Gibbons: So what I'll do is say thank you to allowing our department to present our 2025 and report on behalf of Chief Eagleson.

00:40:23 Greg Gibbons: I really want to thank Kate and Carly and the communications team to making the report pop.

00:40:28 Greg Gibbons: We've done it in house, and they really helped us out a lot.

00:40:31 Greg Gibbons: Also, want to thank my in-house team, our in-house team that helped us with it: Training Officer Redmond, Fire Prevention Officer Given, our mechanic Brad Taiti, and Phil Eagleson, the chief,

00:40:43 Greg Gibbons: for his input into the annual report.

00:40:45 Greg Gibbons: Some of the highlights from two thousand and twenty-five include one thousand and sixty-nine calls for service.

00:40:50 Greg Gibbons: Of those, there's thirty-seven different.

00:40:52 Greg Gibbons: Those there's thirty seven different types of calls that we do attend to within the year.

00:40:56 Greg Gibbons: Within those one thousand and sixty nine calls, we had thirty six days where we ran more than five calls.

00:41:02 Greg Gibbons: Our busiest call volume day, we ran eleven calls over the twenty four hour period.

00:41:07 Greg Gibbons: So that it works out to an average of about two six calls per day over a twenty four hour period, and depending on the day, some days are more, some days are less.

00:41:15 Greg Gibbons: Interesting stat stats through there.

00:41:17 Greg Gibbons: Between eleven and noon is our busiest hour of the day when we look at all our. calls from one thousand and sixty nine, between eleven and twelve is our busiest day.

00:41:25 Greg Gibbons: Interesting, also is that ten addresses in the city of One Sound account for fourteen percent of our calls, and those can depend on that building and its various calls within that building.

00:41:35 Greg Gibbons: It's not just certain calls at that building and certain types.

00:41:39 Greg Gibbons: In two thousand and twenty five, our crews responded to twenty five fire calls.

00:41:42 Greg Gibbons: Three of those were for vehicles that were on fire, and they're still deemed a fire call.

00:41:48 Greg Gibbons: Forty two percent of our calls.

00:41:49 Greg Gibbons: are medical related.

00:41:51 Greg Gibbons: Very similar numbers, very similar percentage.

00:41:53 Greg Gibbons: Pardon me, to two thousand and twenty-four.

00:41:55 Greg Gibbons: And also interesting to note is that in two thousand and twenty-four, we responded about seven percent of all Gray County EMS calls.

00:42:02 Greg Gibbons: We don't respond to them all, so we respond to a very small amount, depending on our agreement and when they are requiring our assistance.

00:42:10 Greg Gibbons: Our fire prevention department responded and did about fourteen hundred inspections over the two thousand and twenty-five.

00:42:16 Greg Gibbons: Including that is. 3,100 visits or meeting with 3,100 people throughout the year, doing public education sessions, whether that's in schools, nursing homes, or at people's apartment buildings.

00:42:27 Greg Gibbons: So we do a lot of public education.

00:42:29 Greg Gibbons: That crew does that.

00:42:31 Greg Gibbons: We did 100 of all care facilities.

00:42:33 Greg Gibbons: It is a provincially mandated, the only inspection that our fire departments required to do is a provincial mandated inspection at care facilities.

00:42:40 Greg Gibbons: So we have 14 care facilities in our community, and our inspectors also will witness a fire drill at that.

00:42:46 Greg Gibbons: Also, a witness a fire drill at that time to make sure that the department and that building complies with the requirements and timeliness.

00:42:52 Greg Gibbons: Our training department did over twenty-three hundred hours in call and training a year, and a lot of our staff also did extra courses on top of that.

00:42:59 Greg Gibbons: So we're doing a lot of training every day.

00:43:02 Greg Gibbons: Firefighter mechanic Brad Taiti continues to maintain our vehicles very, very well and does a lot of preventive maintenance on our equipment, and he's there on a full-time basis.

00:43:11 Greg Gibbons: I want to congratulate and thank the Onondaga Professional Firefighters.

00:43:15 Greg Gibbons: The Ohio National Professional Firefighters Association.

00:43:15 Greg Gibbons: They're working hard in our community, offside outside of regular business hours, doing a lot of things, including our toy drive.

00:43:22 Greg Gibbons: And we want to thank our corporate sponsors.

00:43:24 Greg Gibbons: We've been lucky enough to have Georgia Bay Fire and Safety, JTS Fire Safety, and Boston Pizza, been longtime supporters of a lot of the public education programs that we do at the fire department.

00:43:33 Greg Gibbons: We really appreciate their support.

00:43:35 Greg Gibbons: Also, this year we have updated the the signs at our lightring stations.

00:43:42 Greg Gibbons: There's about two dozen lightring stations.

00:43:43 Greg Gibbons: There's about two dozen life ring stations throughout the city.

00:43:44 Greg Gibbons: We've updated those to say, "Hey, you are here."

00:43:47 Greg Gibbons: There's what three words, and what three words is basically a neat online addressing system down to nine square meters, and we can very clearly find it where that person is.

00:43:57 Greg Gibbons: Our police dispatch understands that and can relay that information to us.

00:44:02 Greg Gibbons: With the report, we we did attach all our call volume, and so every call that we logged, that we submit on a monthly basis to the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office for statistics, is in. there.

00:44:12 Greg Gibbons: If there's any questions, please feel free to ask.

00:44:15 Greg Gibbons: And on behalf of Chief Eagleson, I want to thank Council and staff for their ongoing support of our department, and I want to thank my coworkers and our coworkers for their dedication to the community.

00:44:30 Greg Gibbons: Thank you.

00:44:30 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have any questions for Greg Franklin?

00:44:33 Greg Gibbons: Go ahead.

00:44:34 Greg Gibbons: Through you, Madam Chair.

00:44:36 Greg Gibbons: Were there any changes in call volumes or emerging service?

00:44:40 Greg Gibbons: pressures in two thousand and twenty-five.

00:44:48 Greg Gibbons: Okay, if we look at our last five-year call volume, I think the average is around nine hundred and eighty-four, and so we're up a little bit over last year, percentage-wise.

00:44:58 Greg Gibbons: Trends very similar.

00:44:59 Greg Gibbons: If we look at the graphs within the report, the numbers are staying the same, whether it's medical calls, car crashes, that kind of thing.

00:45:06 Greg Gibbons: Very similar trends in our community.

00:45:08 Greg Gibbons: Carol, go ahead.

00:45:13 Greg Gibbons: Through you, Chair.

00:45:15 Greg Gibbons: I'm wondering if you'd mind elaborating a little bit.

00:45:17 Carol Merton: There were the report is excellent, but there's a junior firefighter club, and there's also a high school co-op education.

00:45:25 Carol Merton: I think it's really important that that aspect of what you do with youth in our community.

00:45:31 Carol Merton: So, wondering if you could speak to that for a moment, please.

00:45:35 Carol Merton: Well, personally, I was lucky enough to. be a co-op student with the Inter-Township Fire Department in the early '90s, and it got me to where I am today.

00:45:42 Carol Merton: And so we've had co-op students my entire career in the building.

00:45:46 Carol Merton: Sometimes they're high school.

00:45:47 Carol Merton: We have had college program students through as well, depending on if there is a program that needs mentorship and into the building.

00:45:55 Carol Merton: And our Junior Firefighter Program it it runs every year.

00:45:59 Carol Merton: It's open to kids in grade five and grade six in the City of One Sound.

00:46:02 Carol Merton: They come to the station.

00:46:03 Carol Merton: They spend four or five nights with us.

00:46:05 Carol Merton: They go through a number. of things, including auto extrication, rope rescue, hoses, and we do a lot of fire prevention and public education.

00:46:12 Carol Merton: We explain them fire alarm systems and that kind of thing.

00:46:14 Carol Merton: And this year, it's even going to be better.

00:46:16 Carol Merton: We've got a new corporate sponsor, and I'm going to let my fire prevention officer, Matt Given, release that information in the future.

00:46:22 Carol Merton: But we're really excited about this year's program.

00:46:24 Carol Merton: And yeah, our co-op program has got over 10 of our staff is now they were co-ops in our building, and now they're full-time employees.

00:46:36 Carol Merton: Anything on this end of the table?

00:46:39 Carol Merton: No questions this way.

00:46:41 Carol Merton: I had a few questions.

00:46:42 Carol Merton: I was interested about the ten addresses that account for the the one hundred and fifty calls.

00:46:50 Carol Merton: Are are these medical calls mostly?

00:46:53 Carol Merton: Are they fire related?

00:46:55 Greg Gibbons: What what are those ten locations and the one hundred and fifty calls for?

00:47:01 Greg Gibbons: They range. like I say, that a lot of them they're forty-two percent are least medical.

00:47:05 Greg Gibbons: Some of them are if within those fourteen addresses would be a higher percentage of medical, depending on the location, and then other ones maybe a fire alarm system that is being used not appropriately,

00:47:18 Greg Gibbons: or the residents aren't understanding how the their devices in their in their apartments are going to send a signal to everybody in the building,

00:47:26 Greg Gibbons: and we end up getting to go to it a few more times a year than we should,

00:47:29 Greg Gibbons: and we've done some education in a couple of buildings to. try to decrease those fire responses that are not necessary because of cooking practices, lifestyle practices in the building.

00:47:41 Greg Gibbons: Okay, so I'm a little curious on the 42 are medical related calls that you go to, but you're saying that you only respond to 7 of the Gray County calls.

00:47:55 Greg Gibbons: Is that number the same?

00:47:57 Greg Gibbons: Like, so I'm.

00:48:00 Greg Gibbons: I'm I'm wondering how how are you being sent to these 42 of the the calls the medical calls are is it an EMS triggered or police like who who is calling you to come to

00:48:12 Greg Gibbons: these?

00:48:14 Greg Gibbons: So there is a tiered response agreement, and within that tiered response agreement, I don't have all the exact call types off the top my head and ready at my the ready.

00:48:24 Greg Gibbons: So somebody will dial nine one one.

00:48:26 Greg Gibbons: They'll explain to the dispatcher what their call.

00:48:28 Greg Gibbons: To the dispatcher, what the call is or what they're requesting for help is.

00:48:30 Greg Gibbons: If it hits certain requirements, then we will be we will be requested to attend the call.

00:48:35 Greg Gibbons: On top of that, Gray County EMS can ask for assistance outside of that.

00:48:39 Greg Gibbons: It might be somebody for a small lift assist.

00:48:41 Greg Gibbons: It could be for something somebody's can't get into their in their apartment.

00:48:45 Greg Gibbons: That kind of stuff.

00:48:46 Greg Gibbons: We we we do have access to that.

00:48:48 Greg Gibbons: But for those forty-two percent of calls, that means so that that forty-two percent and six point eight percent are the same.

00:48:55 Greg Gibbons: So we're only attending six point eight. percent of all the calls the Gray County EMS goes to.

00:48:59 Greg Gibbons: I want to say we're about let's say, off top my head, about four hundred and fifty medical calls a year.

00:49:04 Greg Gibbons: So that would be seven and a half percent.

00:49:06 Greg Gibbons: That's four hundred and fifty of all the calls Gray County operates, which I want to say somewhere in the sixty six hundred number.

00:49:11 Greg Gibbons: Don't quote me on that, Neil.

00:49:12 Greg Gibbons: But probably able to challenge me on how close I was in the math.

00:49:18 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

00:49:18 Greg Gibbons: Do we receive any funding from Gray County for?

00:49:25 Greg Gibbons: From Grey County for the calls that you attend on that are theirs.

00:49:30 Greg Gibbons: I have not seen any income from any of the calls that we attend on behalf of Grey County EMS or to support Grey County EMS.

00:49:37 Greg Gibbons: My other question is: Are you aware of any Ontario municipalities that run a fire EMS model where fire and EMS are combined,

00:49:49 Greg Gibbons: and like the fire would would do EMS calls as well as their fire calls.

00:49:56 Greg Gibbons: Are you aware of any in Ontario?

00:50:00 Greg Gibbons: I am not aware of any in Ontario.

00:50:01 Greg Gibbons: I'm going to say twenty years ago, twenty twenty-five years ago, we we made some movement towards that, and it failed for a number of reasons.

00:50:11 Greg Gibbons: But I'm not aware of any in the province of Ontario right now that has a dedicated combined fire EMS model.

00:50:21 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

00:50:21 Greg Gibbons: I'm just curious whether we could go to staff maybe and request like a report back on the number of medical calls that were were attending and how many, like where the calls are generated from,

00:50:41 Greg Gibbons: the the calls that we're going to on behalf of Gray County and what the cost value is to to the city for those calls and whether or not there. is room for us to go

00:50:53 Greg Gibbons: to Gray County with an ask to recoup some of those costs,

00:50:58 Greg Gibbons: if if the number would would deem, I don't know who we would ask that of.

00:51:05 Greg Gibbons: Tim, maybe you have some insight.

00:51:09 Greg Gibbons: Through you, Chair, I I think I know what you're getting at.

00:51:12 Greg Gibbons: Yeah, you're more than welcome to ask for a report back.

00:51:16 Kate Allan: I don't timing wise, maybe just at some point before the. end of the year, type thing, but need help with that motion.

00:51:24 Kate Allan: That staff report back on the specifics of Owen Sound Fire Services with regard to medical EMS calls and the outline the associated costs.

00:51:43 Kate Allan: That I don't want to say burdened, but the cost of But the costs associated with that, with the within the Owen Sound, within the fire service operating budget, annual operating budget, identify those costs.

00:51:57 Kate Allan: Something I think you're wanting that sort of nature, at least as a first step.

00:52:01 Kate Allan: Back, get that report back.

00:52:03 Kate Allan: Let's see what the the magnitude of that is, the scale of that is, and then determine next steps out of that report.

00:52:10 Kate Allan: So, Christina, help on the actual wording of a motion, but.

00:52:16 Kate Allan: Of emotion, but I think that's what you're wanting.

00:52:17 Kate Allan: Is that correct?

00:52:19 Kate Allan: Yeah, I'm just interested in in the cost to the taxpayer of you know the fire service using the vehicles and responding to the calls, and you know,

00:52:31 Kate Allan: there's there's a you know there could be fuel costs, there could be you know personnel costs,

00:52:36 Greg Gibbons: or if they're responding and then maybe there's something another call comes in and we have to call in overtime people to to cover other calls.

00:52:43 Greg Gibbons: I just want to know if there is. an actual cost burden to to the Owen Sound taxpayer.

00:52:48 Greg Gibbons: What that cost is, and whether or not there's room to to have a discussion, you know, either at the Shared Services Committee at Grey County or or what about how we go about doing this.

00:52:59 Greg Gibbons: So I don't know if any of the other councillors have anything to add.

00:53:05 Greg Gibbons: Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:53:05 Greg Gibbons: I'm just going back, like, with our intergovernmental policy.

00:53:11 Travis Dodd: Have we updated?

00:53:13 Travis Dodd: anything for what our twenty twenty five twenty twenty six initiatives are going to be, or is it still consistent with our prior ones?

00:53:20 Travis Dodd: Because I know before I was looking about trying to make partnerships and working with our partners on at the county, but because I think you're going to expand on that even further about,

00:53:29 Travis Dodd: and and not that this is probably going to jump off topic slightly with your motion, but there's lots of things that we do,

00:53:35 Travis Dodd: a lot of services that we do provide that could be saying that that is a outcome of county issue, whether that's forms of policing, whether that's forms of bylaw, whether that's from parks department.

00:53:51 Travis Dodd: There's lots of different sections within our within the corporation that would be able to say that would probably align to that.

00:53:57 Travis Dodd: So I know that this is just one portion of the budget, but I think if we were going to open that discussion of saying, Gray County, here are some things that we have.

00:54:08 Travis Dodd: I wonder if there could be more. added to that discussion besides just EMS calls that they are responding to.

00:54:18 Travis Dodd: Go ahead, Tim.

00:54:20 Travis Dodd: Through you, Chair, to Councilor Don, it's a great point.

00:54:23 Travis Dodd: I think on this, this would form part of something else to go into that larger discussion.

00:54:29 Kate Allan: So back to the the intergovernmental relations plan.

00:54:32 Kate Allan: Yes, and through service review, we had highlighted looking at certain services shared. services that could be potentially investigated further, waste, police services.

00:54:46 Kate Allan: We looked at even the courthouse security costs sort of fit into that also as a one-off.

00:54:51 Kate Allan: The EMS cost to Owensound Fire or what Owensound Fire is expending on on sort of the EMS aspect could play into it.

00:55:01 Kate Allan: I think this report would form a basis to go into that other discussion though.

00:55:05 Kate Allan: On a report back, one of the things that went through service review also was requesting the county to set up a joint services review committee, and they have done that now.

00:55:19 Kate Allan: So they've got that going, which has a number of elements that we'll be looking at it not just from an own sound perspective, but from all of the lower tier municipalities.

00:55:28 Kate Allan: I know they were looking more recently at library services.

00:55:31 Kate Allan: Waste is on that list.

00:55:33 Kate Allan: I'm not certain what else is on their work plan for that committee. this year, but we did update the intergovernmental relations plan that is still on there.

00:55:41 Kate Allan: Though, as always, looking at what opportunities there there are with the county, not just with the county too.

00:55:47 Kate Allan: There may be separate opportunities with our neighbors, immediate neighbors in George and Bluffs and Miford.

00:55:52 Kate Allan: That may not be a full countywide cost sharing opportunity, but more of a localized sort of the the northern side of Gray County to look at.

00:56:01 Kate Allan: But we're and we we try to. do that, I guess, less officially when we're looking at services and service levels and things like that through CAO conversations.

00:56:13 Kate Allan: Or many of the directors have groups that get together on a quarterly basis.

00:56:18 Kate Allan: They'll be talking with the other heads of community services or chief planners, building services.

00:56:26 Kate Allan: For instance, we're doing our building services with Meford right now.

00:56:30 Kate Allan: Just finished doing a lot of the building services.

00:56:32 Kate Allan: A lot of the building service work with George and Bluffs, but we've we've been doing that now with Meffert as a shared service.

00:56:37 Kate Allan: So, it's created a revenue stream for the city and that department to help offset costs.

00:56:42 Kate Allan: So, again, I think the report for EMS would play into that.

00:56:48 Kate Allan: And when we get those results, let's see what that order of magnitude is of of what that is impacted, how many calls, what the costs are, what the cost is for that equipment, the personnel,

00:56:59 Kate Allan: et cetera, and what go into it.

00:57:00 Kate Allan: If that's fifty thousand dollars a year, or whether it's a million dollars a year, we don't know.

00:57:05 Kate Allan: But having that then could help educate and inform into either a separate ask or into a larger ask of additional Gray County shared service costs.

00:57:17 Kate Allan: Travis, go ahead.

00:57:18 Kate Allan: Thank you, Madam Chair, and Christy and I know you've been working really hard over there to figure out what Tim just said there to write that motion.

00:57:26 Kate Allan: Could you just please read to me what you have, and then just have a follow-up question from that. again.

00:57:32 Travis Dodd: So I have a draft motion here that, in consideration of staff report CR twenty-six zero zero one,

00:57:40 Travis Dodd: the Corporate Services Committee recommends that City Council direct staff to bring forward a report respecting medical and EMS calls responded to by On-Sound Fire and Emergency Services, including associated equipment and personnel costs,

00:57:53 Melanie Middlebro: to a future meeting of the Corporate Services Committee.

00:57:58 Melanie Middlebro: Thank you.

00:58:01 Melanie Middlebro: Sorry, my like.

00:58:03 Melanie Middlebro: I guess my question is: Is the highlight going to be on, or your intent to be more on the usage of the unit that going responding to the call?

00:58:11 Melanie Middlebro: The firefighters are already being paid to be there, whether they respond to a call or they are at at the station.

00:58:19 Travis Dodd: So we're not calling in overtime to have them respond to an EMS.

00:58:23 Travis Dodd: So they're already being paid hourly for their services while they're. at the station, whether they respond or not.

00:58:28 Travis Dodd: So I guess my real question is: Is this report intended to be bringing in the fact of that they're doing something outside of what we want?

00:58:39 Travis Dodd: Just a fire orientation, or is are we really trying to highlight more on the actual equipment cost or the you know mileage that's going on to a seven million dollar truck?

00:58:53 Travis Dodd: Just for further clarification, Greg.

00:58:55 Travis Dodd: When you attend on behalf of the county, you are there in addition to the county EMS.

00:59:01 Greg Gibbons: The EMS is is always there in addition to you, or are you there instead of sometimes?

00:59:10 Greg Gibbons: Most of the time, we would attend in addition to.

00:59:13 Greg Gibbons: There may be situations where they're delayed.

00:59:16 Greg Gibbons: There may be situations where they're busy.

00:59:19 Greg Gibbons: We will attend.

00:59:20 Greg Gibbons: We do not transport.

00:59:22 Greg Gibbons: We do not have. the ability to do that, and under the, I believe it's called the Amilus Act, we can't do that.

00:59:28 Greg Gibbons: And within our internal policies, we're not driving people to the hospital in the back of a fire truck.

00:59:33 Greg Gibbons: That's for sure.

00:59:35 Greg Gibbons: We would, in certain situations, be there to support until they arrived, and our and our competent staff are offering first aid, oxygen, that kind of stuff.

00:59:46 Greg Gibbons: Those would be the things we would provide until a qualified paramedic got there or a qualified supervisor got there. or on the flip side of that, we may get to the call and say,

00:59:55 Greg Gibbons: "Thank you, we've got this.

00:59:57 Greg Gibbons: We're on.

00:59:57 Greg Gibbons: We've got things under control, and you can continue on your way."

01:00:02 Greg Gibbons: Okay, thank you.

01:00:03 Greg Gibbons: So, I think I think the report I'm asking for is just any and all of the costs that would be associated.

01:00:11 Greg Gibbons: There could be materials.

01:00:12 Greg Gibbons: There could be anything: bandages, wipes, antiseptics.

01:00:17 Greg Gibbons: I I don't know because I don't know what. is happening, and and I think, you know, how many calls we're going to, how many are Gray County related,

01:00:29 Greg Gibbons: what is the the actual cost for time, materials, fuel, any and all costs, and I think that once we get the report back,

01:00:39 Greg Gibbons: it will lead into another discussion about shared services and what we can go to the county with.

01:00:47 Greg Gibbons: I know that we have one of the most trained fire. departments in Ontario, from what I understand, and that you know the chief has talked about you guys training other departments in the area,

01:00:59 Greg Gibbons: and whether that could be something that we could talk to the county about, like taking up and offering these courses to other municipalities that are are around us.

01:01:09 Greg Gibbons: I don't know; it's a discussion to be had.

01:01:12 Greg Gibbons: So I'm just I'm looking for a report on the costs and the number of calls. get that back, and then we'll have another discussion once that report comes.

01:01:22 Greg Gibbons: Carol, go ahead.

01:01:24 Greg Gibbons: To you, Chair.

01:01:25 Greg Gibbons: It appears that there's there's additional learning that we require as a committee to really understand more about the service.

01:01:35 Carol Merton: Cost is always important, but for me, the gap for my learning would be the service agreements.

01:01:44 Carol Merton: How how often are they?

01:01:46 Carol Merton: reviewed?

01:01:47 Carol Merton: What's incorporated within those?

01:01:49 Carol Merton: Because those are agreements, and I think it would be really helpful as part of a total picture to understand how that works.

01:02:01 Carol Merton: And second of all, the tiered response,

01:02:06 Carol Merton: because I think how responses are dispatched to determine the percentage that you respond to is really important. for us to understand the times that you you are called to assist.

01:02:22 Carol Merton: I think to me there's an opportunity for additional learning about this.

01:02:27 Carol Merton: In addition to cost, I'm not sure if that's a separate agenda topic where that discussion can occur.

01:02:36 Carol Merton: I think information helps us move forward and certainly would lead towards a broader discussion. point as well, but I wanted just to add that to the cost factor.

01:02:49 Carol Merton: Very good point, and I'm glad that you brought that up because there are these agreements in place, and we we really haven't seen them, and we have no idea what it entails.

01:02:59 Carol Merton: So I would love that to be part of the report as well.

01:03:03 Greg Gibbons: So we'll go to Tim.

01:03:04 Greg Gibbons: I see your hand up.

01:03:06 Greg Gibbons: Just through you, Chair.

01:03:07 Greg Gibbons: Hearing that, I think we can capture that with.

01:03:10 Kate Allan: I don't think that part of it. necessarily needs to be part of the actual motion, but it will play into the context,

01:03:19 Kate Allan: and we'll make sure that that through this discussion that staff will go back and watch this portion too to make sure we capture that.

01:03:24 Kate Allan: But that will play into the learning or the context of how we get to whatever.

01:03:31 Kate Allan: Almost supposing like, are we subsidizing Gray County paramedics?

01:03:35 Kate Allan: Really, is maybe the underlying question.

01:03:41 Kate Allan: That is that is where we're going.

01:03:43 Kate Allan: Okay, is there anything further from anyone regarding this?

01:03:48 Greg Gibbons: We all understand the motion.

01:03:50 Greg Gibbons: Go ahead, Neil.

01:03:54 Greg Gibbons: Not to do with the motion.

01:03:56 Greg Gibbons: Okay, I cannot move the motion and chair, so I'll have to.

01:04:05 Greg Gibbons: Okay, Neil is going to move the motion.

01:04:07 Greg Gibbons: Thank you.

01:04:08 Greg Gibbons: Good catch.

01:04:12 Greg Gibbons: Is there anything further to do with the motion?

01:04:16 Greg Gibbons: Any further discussion?

01:04:18 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

01:04:19 Greg Gibbons: Do we want to read the motion one more time, just so everyone's clear what we're voting on?

01:04:26 Greg Gibbons: Okay.

01:04:26 Greg Gibbons: So we have that in consideration of staff report CR twenty six zero zero one,

01:04:31 Melanie Middlebro: the Corporate Services Committee recommends that City Council direct staff to bring forward a report respecting medical. and EMS calls responded to by Onsound Fire and Emergency Services,

01:04:41 Melanie Middlebro: included including associated supply equipment and personnel costs to a future meeting of the Corporate Services Committee.

01:04:50 Melanie Middlebro: Great.

01:04:52 Melanie Middlebro: With that, I'll call the question.

01:04:53 Melanie Middlebro: All in favor?

01:04:56 Melanie Middlebro: And Sunit also has her hand up, so that motion carries.

01:04:59 Melanie Middlebro: Thank you, everyone.

01:05:01 Greg Gibbons: So I'll go to Neil for your other question.

01:05:04 Greg Gibbons: Not sure what I've done, but I. can't get this to work.

01:05:07 Greg Gibbons: There, there we go.

01:05:08 Greg Gibbons: Good, I'm back.

01:05:09 Greg Gibbons: I'm just curious.

01:05:10 Greg Gibbons: One of the items I noticed was the false alarm calls for carbon monoxide.

01:05:14 Greg Gibbons: So my curiosity is that a growing, shrinking, or status quo issue from prior years.

01:05:24 Greg Gibbons: Yeah.

01:05:25 Greg Gibbons: So that's a very consistent, pretty consistent number if we look at year over year, and you know, very similar.

01:05:32 Greg Gibbons: And strangely enough, so you'll see that there is. 36 in there, but there's actually five that are actually considered responses,

01:05:38 Greg Gibbons: and I noted that in my report because it's funny how when we send our report to the OFM, they want to talk about the calls we go to, but not the actual CO ones.

01:05:46 Greg Gibbons: It's in a different section, so there was actually five, five of the basically 41 calls did have carbon monoxide at them, and we were able to solve the problem and prevent further issues there.

01:05:59 Greg Gibbons: So this very similar amount of numbers.

01:06:01 Greg Gibbons: There has been some. changes in the last couple of months, with regards to the requirements for carbon monoxide alarms in residential only.

01:06:09 Greg Gibbons: And I got to qualify that's residential only.

01:06:12 Greg Gibbons: That's where the carbon monoxide alarms are required.

01:06:14 Greg Gibbons: They're not necessarily required in every occupancy in Ontario.

01:06:17 Greg Gibbons: They are required in residential and in garages and parking garages.

01:06:21 Greg Gibbons: But that's not an alarm.

01:06:22 Greg Gibbons: What you're going to get there is a ventilation system that, as soon as it gets to a certain part per million, it'll click on, basically clear the carbon monoxide out.

01:06:31 Greg Gibbons: Clear the carbon dioxide out, shuts the shuts the fans off, and we continue on.

01:06:33 Greg Gibbons: We don't necessarily attend to that, so we did go to forty one calls in total last year.

01:06:38 Greg Gibbons: Very similar.

01:06:39 Greg Gibbons: I didn't see a dramatic spike.

01:06:41 Greg Gibbons: That's for sure.

01:06:45 Greg Gibbons: So, Greg, since you're here, and I did hear on the radio an add from the fire service on the new carbon monoxide regulations.

01:06:54 Greg Gibbons: Why don't you just remind everyone as to what the the regulation is currently that Is currently the responsibility of the homeowner.

01:07:04 Greg Gibbons: All right.

01:07:04 Greg Gibbons: So, carbon monoxide alarms are required in all residential occupancies.

01:07:08 Greg Gibbons: They're required in a single fam.

01:07:10 Greg Gibbons: Let's start with single family, and then we're going to move on to a couple of different styles.

01:07:13 Greg Gibbons: Single family residence.

01:07:14 Greg Gibbons: It's required on every level of your house where you have sleeping on it.

01:07:18 Greg Gibbons: So, if you have two levels of sleeping, you require at least two carbon monoxide alarms to come up to the Ontario Fire Code standards.

01:07:25 Greg Gibbons: If you are living in an apartment building and you are Apartment building, and your unit is adjacent to a fuel-fired appliance.

01:07:32 Greg Gibbons: You need to have a carbon monoxide alarm in there.

01:07:34 Greg Gibbons: If you are renting, it is the landlord's responsibility to install and maintain the carbon monoxide alarms.

01:07:40 Greg Gibbons: It is your responsibility as the tenant to let the landlord know that hey, there's a problem with the device.

01:07:47 Greg Gibbons: If there's an actual alarm that goes off because of carbon monoxide, or the device is starting to beep, you call our guys.

01:07:54 Greg Gibbons: They come and they do an assessment, and we'll do a reading of the. building.

01:07:58 Greg Gibbons: There are also requirements for residential care facilities, which we do have in our community.

01:08:03 Greg Gibbons: And if you are fed or your your room is heated directly from a fuel-fired appliance, then you are required to have a CO alarm in that unit and in the common corridors.

01:08:16 Greg Gibbons: So we'll have some buildings in our community that are boiler heat.

01:08:19 Greg Gibbons: Let's go with boiler heat, and they have forced air gas in the hallways.

01:08:23 Greg Gibbons: Carbon monoxide alarms are required in the hallways. in the service room, and in the dwelling units adjacent to the service rooms.

01:08:30 Greg Gibbons: Not in every unit.

01:08:31 Greg Gibbons: So, because it could be quite onerous on the costs, it's been a good change.

01:08:37 Greg Gibbons: When the legislation came out, I want to say let's say fifteen years ago, approximately, there was some holes in the requirements and locations,

01:08:44 Greg Gibbons: and that has been updated to mimic and replicate the Ontario Building Code.

01:08:49 Greg Gibbons: We're doing a lot of education on it.

01:08:51 Greg Gibbons: We're working with the building owners, our Fire Prevention Office. has sent information out to the multifamily building owners to make sure that they're up to speed.

01:08:58 Greg Gibbons: We have additional devices, so if somebody can't afford a device and/or they don't have a device, or we get a call to somebody's house,

01:09:06 Greg Gibbons: we won't leave that house without a working carbon monoxide alarm and/or smoke alarm.

01:09:13 Greg Gibbons: Okay, that's very valuable information.

01:09:15 Greg Gibbons: Thank you for that.

01:09:17 Greg Gibbons: Okay, any?

01:09:19 Greg Gibbons: Go ahead, Tim.

01:09:21 Greg Gibbons: Sorry, through you, Chair.

01:09:22 Greg Gibbons: I was wondering, Greg, if you could just comment.

01:09:24 Kate Allan: I know it's it's a line in the fire prevention aspect of the annual report, but it ties into this.

01:09:30 Kate Allan: I don't think people realize how much door to door residential work the fire department does about fire alarms, and I assume now with carbon monoxide, you do that.

01:09:40 Kate Allan: And what?

01:09:41 Kate Allan: So maybe you could just educate the committee a little bit on that work that you do as a fire service.

01:09:47 Kate Allan: All right, through your chair, the fire prevention. office is staffed by two two competent guys, two great guys.

01:09:54 Kate Allan: They're they're they're there every day of the week.

01:09:57 Kate Allan: They're there to answer questions.

01:09:58 Kate Allan: They do routine fire inspections of all of our commercial occupancies.

01:10:01 Kate Allan: So basically, anywhere that a public can walk into, they're in and doing a routine fire inspection on an annual basis to make sure that it meets the requirements.

01:10:09 Kate Allan: We have a couple of buildings in our community that we go through more than once a year because we're going to that building a lot.

01:10:15 Kate Allan: We see the risks and we see the concerns.

01:10:18 Kate Allan: We act on. complaint-driven inspections.

01:10:21 Kate Allan: If there is a concern in an apartment building, we make sure we're in there in the next 24 to 48 hours.

01:10:26 Kate Allan: Our guys are very prompt to get in to make sure that hey, if there is an issue, then we can get in and take a look at it.

01:10:31 Kate Allan: We do a every four years, we do one quarter of the city through our, and this goes back to former fire chief Gord Woods started in the 1990s, where we do a home visitation program,

01:10:43 Kate Allan: and that's the on-duty shift.

01:10:44 Kate Allan: It's not the fire prevention staff that does it; it's the on-duty shift.

01:10:47 Kate Allan: They go out starting in the spring, and they work right to the summer in a certain area where they are going door to door, knocking on doors, answering questions,

01:10:55 Kate Allan: offering to install and check smoke alarms, and now carbon monoxide alarms, and doing some education there.

01:11:01 Kate Allan: And we do important.

01:11:03 Kate Allan: We do inspections, of course, also of multi-family buildings to to a certain extent.

01:11:07 Kate Allan: We do all the large buildings.

01:11:09 Kate Allan: We do all the care facilities, all the industry in our community, all our gas stations, we're in on an annual basis.

01:11:14 Kate Allan: And it gives the the. fire prevention officers an opportunity to go hey something changed from year to year it gives an opportunity to make sure that people are in compliance that they're not doing things

01:11:23 Kate Allan: that are dangerous and we see great results from that if we look at the last let's say fifteen twenty years of inspections from our crews the numbers of fires in those commercial establishments because of

01:11:36 Kate Allan: our I'm going to say all we cause but but it was very very low our business and personal services which would be an office a doctor's office like I think So,

01:11:44 Kate Allan: doctor's office, kind of thing.

01:11:45 Kate Allan: Where you look at fires in those buildings in the last fifteen years, you probably look at zero to one kind of thing for sure.

01:11:53 Kate Allan: And we do a lot of education, a lot of partnerships with Gray County Housing on education.

01:11:58 Kate Allan: If they have an issue with a tenant, they call our offices, and either Doug or Matt will go and meet with that tenant, educate,

01:12:04 Kate Allan: and work with that tenant to maybe improve their conditions and improve their housing and decrease the life safety for the rest of the people that live in the building,

01:12:12 Kate Allan: not just the occupant of that tenant. or that unit.

01:12:17 Kate Allan: That's great.

01:12:18 Kate Allan: Thank you for all the hard work.

01:12:21 Kate Allan: If there's anything further, nothing further for Greg.

01:12:25 Kate Allan: Thank you for coming.

01:12:28 Kate Allan: All right, so that completes our reports from city staff at number eleven this evening.

01:12:34 Kate Allan: Matters post.

01:12:35 Greg Gibbons: Sorry, Melanie.

01:12:37 Greg Gibbons: I just cut you off quick.

01:12:39 Greg Gibbons: So we have that recommendation for them to bring back another. report, but I would still recommend moving the recommendation in the report so council can receive the annual report for information through that.

01:12:51 Greg Gibbons: Did we skip over that?

01:12:53 Melanie Middlebro: Okay.

01:12:55 Melanie Middlebro: So we need a mover of the recommendation.

01:12:58 Melanie Middlebro: Travis is going to move the recommendation of the report 10D1CR26001 from the fire chief.

01:13:06 Greg Gibbons: So if there's nothing further, I will call the question.

01:13:08 Greg Gibbons: All in favor of moving that report?

01:13:11 Greg Gibbons: and that carries with Sunet also voting in favor.

01:13:15 Greg Gibbons: Okay, so now we are done with the reports, and we have no matters postponed at number twelve.

01:13:20 Greg Gibbons: Motions for notice previously given, we have none.

01:13:23 Greg Gibbons: At thirteen, we have correspondence provided for information.

01:13:27 Greg Gibbons: There was correspondence from the Association of Municipalities of Ontario regarding governance changes for Omer's and Bill C sixty or Bill sixty eight.

01:13:38 Greg Gibbons: Do we need Bill sixty-eight.

01:13:39 Greg Gibbons: Do we need to receive that?

01:13:45 Greg Gibbons: We do.

01:13:47 Greg Gibbons: So we need a motion to receive that correspondence.

01:13:48 Greg Gibbons: Daniel, thank you.

01:13:49 Greg Gibbons: And I will call the question.

01:13:50 Greg Gibbons: All in favor?

01:13:52 Greg Gibbons: And that carries.

01:13:54 Greg Gibbons: At number fourteen, a discussion of additional business.

01:13:58 Greg Gibbons: There was none.

01:13:59 Greg Gibbons: Does anyone have a notice of motion for next meeting?

01:14:03 Greg Gibbons: Seeing none.

01:14:05 Greg Gibbons: Then we are adjourned.

01:14:07 Greg Gibbons: Thank you, everyone, for your cooperation and valuable input.

01:14:13 Greg Gibbons: And we will see you at next month's meeting.