Owen Sound Committee - Operations Meeting Transcript — May 15, 2025

00:00:06 Speaker 02: It's 5:31, and at this time, I'll call the May meeting of the Operations Committee to order.

00:00:12 Speaker 02: We're all gathered in the chambers here, and we are expecting Councillor Hamley to join virtually.

00:00:18 Speaker 02: And we see that he may be on the line now.

00:00:20 Speaker 02: So, okay, so we are all attending the meeting.

00:00:24 Speaker 02: First item is a call for additional business.

00:00:27 Speaker 02: Is there any items from committee members?

00:00:30 Speaker 02: Member Krohn, go ahead.

00:00:38 Speaker 02: And Member Krohn is just noting an update on the status of spring cleanup around the city.

00:00:44 Speaker 02: Are there any items from staff?

00:00:46 Speaker 02: Oh, before I go, staff, Member Anderson, go ahead.

00:00:59 Speaker 03: I'll add some information at the end of the meeting about GAAD.

00:01:02 Speaker 03: This is the Global Accessibility Awareness Day.

00:01:09 Speaker 03: Thank you, Donald.

00:01:10 Speaker 03: Are there any items from staff?

00:01:13 Speaker 03: Not seeing any.

00:01:14 Speaker 03: Okay, declarations of interest.

00:01:16 Speaker 03: Are there any declarations to be noted at this time?

00:01:20 Speaker 03: Not seeing any.

00:01:22 Speaker 04: Confirmation of the minutes of the meeting held on April 17th, 2020.

00:01:25 Speaker 04: April seventeenth, two thousand twenty-five.

00:01:27 Speaker 04: These were passed by council without any comment or changes.

00:01:32 Speaker 04: So I'm just looking for a mover for receipt at this time.

00:01:36 Speaker 05: And who's going to look at me?

00:01:39 Speaker 02: Member Hawkins has looked at it, so she's moved receipt.

00:01:42 Speaker 02: Are there any questions to anything contained within the minutes?

00:01:47 Speaker 02: Not seeing any.

00:01:49 Speaker 02: All those in favour?

00:01:51 Speaker 02: That's carried.

00:01:51 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:01:54 Speaker 02: We've got no deputations or presentations this evening, and it is less than a full house here for public forum.

00:02:04 Speaker 02: Okay, we've got no questions being asked this evening, and there are no correspondence items under item seven to be received for which no direction is required.

00:02:15 Speaker 02: So we are right down to reports of city staff.

00:02:19 Speaker 02: The first one is a report from the Supervisor of Environmental Services regarding the Green Bin Project public engagement.

00:02:27 Speaker 02: So, welcome to the meeting at this time, Heidi.

00:02:31 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:02:32 Speaker 06: So, this report was for information purposes only.

00:02:36 Speaker 06: City staff have been working hard to coordinate communications and community engagement in support of the Green Bin programmememe.

00:02:44 Speaker 06: So, in April, we launched a dedicated website, owensound.ca/greenbins.

00:02:51 Speaker 06: So it includes a full list of what's accepted, sets out instructions, FAQs that we regularly update based on public feedback.

00:03:02 Speaker 06: We've also created a QR code and placed links on the city's main web waste management page to direct residents.

00:03:12 Speaker 06: We have these banners and samples of a green bin and a kitchen catcher, as well as brochures.

00:03:20 Speaker 06: There is one at the SOS counter at City Hall, and right now we have one featured at the library.

00:03:32 Speaker 06: Beginning this week, some of you may have already received your green bin.

00:03:36 Speaker 06: Each eligible household will be receiving the green bin, and inside the green bin there is a kitchen catcher, plain language printed brochure with visual guides, a sample compostable bag, and a two-dollar coupon from Clorox.

00:03:52 Speaker 06: We will also be introducing the Recycling Coach app later on in May.

00:04:01 Speaker 06: So it's free, user-friendly, and it's integrated into our website.

00:04:06 Speaker 06: So you don't have to download the app in order to get the information.

00:04:12 Speaker 06: So the key features are the Waste Wizard, which helps residents identify how to dispose of specific items, so you're not confused if it would be green bin or the leafy yard waste site,

00:04:22 Speaker 06: and it's got image recognition.

00:04:25 Speaker 06: That was just the app that has that, and residents can take a picture of the item, and then they can get the disposal guidelines for it.

00:04:36 Speaker 06: We have extra brochures at city facilities, and we've been handing them out at events.

00:04:44 Speaker 06: Green bin information was also included in recent tax bill inserts and will be appearing in an upcoming water bill.

00:04:53 Speaker 06: So, on April eleventh, we issued a media release and we have radio and digital ads, including Spotify.

00:05:03 Speaker 06: We had an on-air interview, Lara and I, with Cefos, and I had one with CKNX, and we have an upcoming feature on Zoomer Radio.

00:05:15 Speaker 06: We have print ads in the Owen Sound Sun Times and Grey Bruce this week, and we have ongoing social media tips, reminders, and FAQs.

00:05:26 Speaker 06: We've been also engaging with the public at various events.

00:05:30 Speaker 06: So far, we've been to the Earth Day Grey Bruce, as well as the Owen Sound Home and Cottage Expo.

00:05:36 Speaker 06: We are planning to also attend the Hotest Street Sale, Canada Day, Summerfolk, Salmon Spectacular, Owen Sound Attack Games, any other climate and waste-related community events, and the Youth Climate Action Conference later this fall.

00:05:56 Speaker 06: We also have been trying to engage the youth, so we have right now a colouring contest: What Goes In?

00:06:07 Speaker 06: We also have a game called What Goes in the Bin; it's one that we take to events.

00:06:16 Speaker 06: So the colouring page was distributed to local schools.

00:06:19 Speaker 06: They're also available at City Hall, at the library and the Art Gallery.

00:06:23 Speaker 06: And the Tom Thomson Art Gallery featured the contest in their newsletter.

00:06:33 Speaker 06: So all O&S students are eligible to enter by May 30th, and the prizes include a city swag bundle, Harrison Park pool season pass, a composting starter kit for their school,

00:06:47 Speaker 06: as well as artwork featured on the city's green bin webpage.

00:06:52 Speaker 06: So this will be a random draw; we're not choosing preferred colouring pages.

00:07:01 Speaker 06: And that is about it.

00:07:03 Speaker 06: Does anybody have any questions?

00:07:06 Speaker 06: Okay, thank you very much.

00:07:07 Speaker 06: I'll go to Member Anderson, then Member, then Councillor Merton.

00:07:12 Speaker 06: Through you, Mr. Chair.

00:07:14 Speaker 06: Heidi, I'm curious about two things.

00:07:16 Speaker 03: One, I did go on the website, and it works very well with my accessible technology.

00:07:21 Speaker 03: So I applaud the efforts there.

00:07:24 Speaker 03: The other question I have is around the green bins.

00:07:26 Speaker 03: The past day or two, my dog and I have played zigzag down the street because we keep going around these bins.

00:07:32 Speaker 03: They seem to be placed on the sidewalks rather than in the driveways.

00:07:36 Speaker 03: It's been interesting, sort of ping-ponging our way down the street.

00:07:39 Speaker 03: Is there something we can do about changing that delivery system?

00:07:45 Speaker 03: Thank you, Member Anderson.

00:07:46 Speaker 06: The third-party contractor that is delivering them was to place them three to five metres, three to five feet from the end of the sidewalk or the curb.

00:07:58 Speaker 06: So I will follow up with them.

00:08:00 Speaker 06: They only have a couple more days left, but I'll make sure that they know that they have to keep them at that distance.

00:08:08 Speaker 06: Thank you.

00:08:10 Speaker 06: Thanks, Donna.

00:08:10 Speaker 06: Councillor Merton.

00:08:12 Speaker 06: Through you, Chair.

00:08:14 Speaker 07: First of all, amazing rollout campaign.

00:08:18 Speaker 07: There's such a positive buzz about this.

00:08:21 Speaker 07: From, I think it's a great example of when the city received the input and people wanted the green bin, right through to the approval and now to the implementation.

00:08:33 Speaker 07: So job well done.

00:08:36 Speaker 07: This is amazing.

00:08:38 Speaker 07: And my question is, because it would appear that the green bin is now on everyone's wish list.

00:08:48 Speaker 07: We're getting—I know I've certainly had a request from a group that wasn't necessarily on the first rollout.

00:08:56 Speaker 07: And I'm anticipating as the bins are distributed, the questions maybe will be: where's mine?

00:09:03 Speaker 07: So, I know that the city has responded positively to the request that I received.

00:09:08 Speaker 07: But can you advise us if people approach or send emails on your phased-in approach, and if they have questions, obviously they also need to contact you.

00:09:20 Speaker 07: But this is phase one, correct?

00:09:24 Speaker 07: So maybe you could just discuss how the phasing in will potentially happen and how people can be patient for their green bin.

00:09:37 Speaker 07: Thanks, Heidi.

00:09:39 Speaker 07: Thank you, Councillor Merton.

00:09:41 Speaker 06: So at this time, we're lucky that Council did approve the six-and-less units for properties.

00:09:52 Speaker 06: So right now, we don't include any homes that are on private roads that have multiple units, such as maybe Bayfield or Ordinance Park, unfortunately, and also in the River District, we don't either.

00:10:09 Speaker 06: Multi-residentials as well.

00:10:13 Speaker 06: It's more of a complicated service, I would say.

00:10:18 Speaker 06: I know I'm part of a group right now, Waste Group, that does meet to discuss how they would go forward with multi-residential.

00:10:30 Speaker 06: So at this time, I think I'll just continue to participate in there.

00:10:34 Speaker 06: And if something comes up, ideas for more multi-residential, then we can discuss that for approval going forward with Council.

00:10:43 Speaker 06: But at this time, for units of six-and-less, we will be providing them as long as it's not on a private road that we currently do not provide curbside garbage to.

00:10:57 Speaker 06: Thanks, Councillor Member Krohn.

00:11:01 Speaker 06: Thank you.

00:11:02 Speaker 06: Through you, Mr. Chair, Heidi.

00:11:04 Speaker 06: Just I have one question.

00:11:06 Speaker 08: In your report, you talk about there being inserts in the water bills and the tax bills.

00:11:11 Speaker 08: So for people that get their bills electronically, will a PDF be attached to that?

00:11:17 Speaker 08: Okay, that will be.

00:11:19 Speaker 08: Okay, thank you very much.

00:11:23 Speaker 08: Yeah, Member Councillor Kukreja, go ahead.

00:11:25 Speaker 08: Thank you to you, Chair.

00:11:28 Speaker 08: Just a quick question, Heidi.

00:11:29 Speaker 09: First of all, thank you for taking the lead on this, and I'm sure it is one of the much-awaited projects.

00:11:37 Speaker 09: You mentioned that we do have the banners installed at the library for awareness.

00:11:43 Speaker 09: Are there similar kind of banners aware at other city facilities often visited by groups of people till 1st June, right?

00:11:51 Speaker 09: The Bayshore or anywhere else, or just—Well, at this time we have three banners.

00:11:54 Speaker 09: One is at City Hall.

00:11:59 Speaker 06: One is at the library, and one we kind of take to events.

00:12:04 Speaker 06: And we do plan to go to the Beja when Attack Games are on.

00:12:10 Speaker 06: But we may consider purchasing some more and placing them like throughout other facilities.

00:12:20 Speaker 06: But right now it's just at the library for it's being featured at the library at this time.

00:12:30 Speaker 06: Okay, not seeing any further questions.

00:12:35 Speaker 02: We've just got a motion in front of us to receive the report for information purposes this evening.

00:12:40 Speaker 02: Do it, Councillor Kukradas.

00:12:42 Speaker 02: So moved.

00:12:44 Speaker 02: Again, just echo.

00:12:45 Speaker 02: Great job with the rollout campaign here, Heidi and accompanying city staff; it's certainly got here in a hurry.

00:12:55 Speaker 02: So a lot of the community is definitely looking forward to it, and it's kind of amazing how fast it got upon us.

00:13:02 Speaker 02: So great job!

00:13:03 Speaker 02: All those in favour of that being received for information, and that is carried.

00:13:09 Speaker 02: And Councillor Hamley, in favour.

00:13:14 Speaker 02: Thank you.

00:13:14 Speaker 02: That's carried unanimously.

00:13:17 Speaker 02: We are to item eight.

00:13:18 Speaker 02: We are to item 8B1, which is a report regarding the 2025 fees and charges, and I believe Christine has given us.

00:13:25 Speaker 02: Over to you.

00:13:27 Speaker 10: Thank you, and through you, I'll just start by introducing myself.

00:13:30 Speaker 10: I'm Christina, the corporate services facilitator, and our deputy treasurer, Christine, was unable to be here tonight, but I worked pretty closely with her throughout the fees and charges review this year,

00:13:42 Speaker 10: so I'm presenting the 2025 operations fees and charges in her absence.

00:13:47 Speaker 10: This is part of our annual spring review, with any changes intended to take effect July 1st, as done in years prior.

00:13:56 Speaker 10: So, some key points here: this is a transition year under a service review project, which is aimed at standardizing and improving the fee update process across departments.

00:14:08 Speaker 10: So, going forward, each standing committee is reviewing only the fees relevant to their portfolio.

00:14:14 Speaker 10: So, you're seeing only the operations fees tonight, and similar reports are going to the other standing committees as well.

00:14:22 Speaker 10: This approach supports transparency and ensures that all departments receive committee-specific feedback before the fees and charges bylaw is finalized.

00:14:33 Speaker 10: Additionally, you'll note that all departmental fees and charges have been divided into review cycles beginning in 2026.

00:14:40 Speaker 10: This is to ensure that all fees are looked at at least once every three years, while also ensuring that no department has to review their entire fee schedule in any given year;

00:14:50 Speaker 10: this also aims to promote a more in-depth review of each fee as they come up for review.

00:14:56 Speaker 10: So, all proposed changes that are in this report, including those from other departments, will be consolidated and brought to council on May 26th, with the fees and charges bylaw being presented in June.

00:15:10 Speaker 10: So, some of the key fee changes for operations include a number of new fees to allow for improved cost recovery.

00:15:18 Speaker 10: This includes staff time, materials, and legal fees.

00:15:21 Speaker 10: For a number of items, there is the addition of a septic dumping fee of $25 per square metre of septic.

00:15:30 Speaker 10: The increase of the garbage bag tag fee from $2.50 to $3, which is to support waste diversion, including the new green bin programmememe that we just heard about.

00:15:42 Speaker 10: Since the initial report in 2023, other Grey County municipalities have also increased their bag tag fees, and comparable bag tags range between $2.25 and $5 dollars per tag.

00:15:52 Speaker 10: Now, there is also the addition of notes to the water and sewer rates in Schedule K to amend current practice.

00:16:01 Speaker 10: So, all rate payers will continue to pay the applicable fixed service charges, regardless of if the water service has been turned off at the curb.

00:16:10 Speaker 10: So that's just an overview of some of the key changes in there.

00:16:14 Speaker 10: And with that, we have a recommendation to receive this report for information.

00:16:18 Speaker 10: And if there are any questions regarding the fees and charges process, I'll do my best to answer those.

00:16:23 Speaker 10: And any regarding specific fees, I will defer to the departmental staff that we have here tonight.

00:16:30 Speaker 10: Okay, Christina.

00:16:31 Speaker 02: And just before I throw it to the committee for questions, the recommendation is to receive for information, but in doing so, this is an endorsement of the changes that are contained within.

00:16:44 Speaker 02: So, just so everyone's comfortable, that's how the language is actually going to be interpreted.

00:16:51 Speaker 02: Any questions, Member Indo?

00:16:56 Speaker 02: Go ahead.

00:16:57 Speaker 02: Through you, Chair.

00:16:59 Speaker 11: This has maybe been discussed before my time, but on the bag tags, of course, it's the source.

00:17:05 Speaker 11: Fifty cents isn't too bad, but was there ever any discussion about you know having one free bag that would probably have to go through the taxes and what kind of increase?

00:17:18 Speaker 11: Like now with the green bins, I'm wondering if people maybe encouraged you know to put not put out more than one bag.

00:17:26 Speaker 11: It should cut the garbage in half, I'm sure, though using the green bin.

00:17:31 Speaker 11: But I just was curious about that.

00:17:36 Speaker 12: I can go to city staff for response, and Heidi maybe Carol Merton, Councillor Merton wants to take a swing at how if we've discussed this one before too.

00:17:45 Speaker 12: Perhaps while I give her time to think about, I'll go to Heidi.

00:17:50 Speaker 12: Through you, yeah.

00:17:55 Speaker 06: So we do have the full user fee, and the reason that we want like with the increase of bag tags in the increase of bag tags,

00:18:04 Speaker 06: and the purpose of having each bag tagged is so that people will consider diverting their waste.

00:18:11 Speaker 06: They'll really look at what they're putting in their garbage because it's easy to fill one bag and then put out another bag.

00:18:17 Speaker 06: And another thing is the waste contractor; they don't know how many people live in a household, how many units are in there.

00:18:25 Speaker 06: So you could have a large house and claim that there's three units in there and put out three bags every two weeks.

00:18:32 Speaker 06: but really is just one person.

00:18:34 Speaker 06: Like there are multiple reasons why, yeah.

00:18:40 Speaker 06: And those are the ones that I can think of.

00:18:42 Speaker 06: Maybe there are others, but good question, good response too.

00:18:51 Speaker 06: Anything further?

00:18:54 Speaker 06: Okay.

00:18:56 Speaker 06: Councillor Merton, go ahead.

00:18:58 Speaker 07: Through chair, just to add on.

00:19:01 Speaker 07: And it's always good to ask the questions, even if it's been reviewed in the past.

00:19:06 Speaker 07: I'm wondering for the public members who are new to our committee, whether it might be we might be able to attach the report that came to council several years ago,

00:19:19 Speaker 07: where there was a fulsome assessment of bag tag fees,

00:19:23 Speaker 07: because I think having the background information is helpful and may help understand the comprehensiveness of that and what was looked at and some of the rationale.

00:19:36 Speaker 07: So I would make that request that even with the minutes, if it's possible, to attach the report that did go to council previously, just for information.

00:19:47 Speaker 07: We're always learning, and it's always great to have the questions asked.

00:19:51 Speaker 07: Thank you.

00:19:53 Speaker 13: And I see Tim just willing to respond to that, so just go to Tim.

00:19:56 Speaker 13: Are you?

00:19:58 Speaker 14: Through you, Chair, to committee and to those that might be watching this committee meeting, if you take a look at your committee reports, there's all there's a section called previous reports or authority,

00:20:09 Speaker 14: and within there, those are live links to previous reports.

00:20:13 Speaker 14: There is a live link to the 2023 garbage report that you're speaking about.

00:20:17 Speaker 14: So, if anybody wants background information, click on that live link.

00:20:20 Speaker 14: It takes you immediately to that report with all the insight.

00:20:25 Speaker 14: Okay, thank you.

00:20:26 Speaker 02: I'm just going to throw it your way, Councillor Hamley.

00:20:29 Speaker 02: Should you have any questions at this time?

00:20:34 Speaker 02: Just on the dumping of the septic, where exactly does that take place, and how much of that occurs?

00:20:48 Speaker 02: Through the chair to Councillor Hamley.

00:20:51 Speaker 15: So we have a receiving station at our water wastewater treatment plant, and it isn't used very often.

00:21:00 Speaker 15: The other place that you can dump is at Harrison Park, and that's primarily for RVs.

00:21:08 Speaker 15: So we've looked at the fee schedule and made sure that we're accounting for costs for both of those types of dumping services, I guess, because for the RVs we weren't charging nearly enough,

00:21:29 Speaker 15: and for the septic I don't think we had a fee for it at all.

00:21:36 Speaker 15: So it was important to capture that potential lost revenue for user-pay type services.

00:21:49 Speaker 15: Anything further, Councillor?

00:21:51 Speaker 15: Well, I'm just wondering like is there any danger in now that there's a fee for the spot at the wastewater treatment facility?

00:22:02 Speaker 16: Is there not a danger in businesses becoming aware of this now and maybe overusing that?

00:22:12 Speaker 15: Through the chair, that's why we chose a fee that matches Chatsworth's fee for the biogester, so that we weren't in competition.

00:22:23 Speaker 15: It's not intended to be a line of business.

00:22:27 Speaker 15: It's just to capture if companies are choosing to use us instead of like because you can only spray on licenced fields in the summertime.

00:22:40 Speaker 15: So if somebody needs their septic pumped out and there's nowhere else for them to take it at that point in time, or we happen to be closer than the biogenerator,

00:22:52 Speaker 15: or the biogenerator is down for service, or some other unforeseen reason.

00:22:59 Speaker 15: We're not taking away their business.

00:23:01 Speaker 15: We're just providing an alternative, and it's to make sure that we're at least capturing some revenue from providing that service.

00:23:12 Speaker 15: Okay.

00:23:13 Speaker 15: Thank you.

00:23:15 Speaker 15: Okay.

00:23:15 Speaker 15: Thanks, Councillor Member Krohn.

00:23:17 Speaker 15: You had a question.

00:23:20 Speaker 15: Through you, Mr. Chair.

00:23:21 Speaker 08: Just being nitpicky, it should be per cubic metre, not per square metre.

00:23:26 Speaker 08: Okay, just you know how things, fees, and how these bylaws get their own legs, and just to follow up on Councillor Hamley's point.

00:23:39 Speaker 08: So, are the city's wastewater treatment plant servicing outside the municipality from private contractors bringing septic?

00:23:45 Speaker 08: Private contractors bring in subsidies from outside the municipality.

00:23:47 Speaker 08: Thank you, Chair.

00:23:52 Speaker 08: There is the potential for that.

00:23:54 Speaker 08: We would like to.

00:23:56 Speaker 17: So all point-of-sale purchases are being directed, or going to be directed in the future, to City Hall as the means to collect the funds.

00:24:04 Speaker 17: And hopefully, at that point, you know we are hoping that they are being honest about their location.

00:24:11 Speaker 17: I'm not sure how what level we're going to screen them to ensure that they are residents of Owen Sound, as in like proof of ID or driver's licence.

00:24:19 Speaker 17: We haven't really seen the volume that would concern us that much.

00:24:23 Speaker 17: That we are getting that sort of traffic using it before.

00:24:27 Speaker 17: We did have a fee, or a fee that was reasonable.

00:24:31 Speaker 17: We did see that though, like people would drive for miles to come dump their septic here.

00:24:38 Speaker 17: So, having a moderate fee does help deter those people, right?

00:24:46 Speaker 17: Okay.

00:24:47 Speaker 17: Any further questions?

00:24:50 Speaker 17: Not seeing.

00:24:50 Speaker 17: Would any member be willing to move the recommendation?

00:24:54 Speaker 02: Member Indo has so moved, as stated in the report, which is, and it was noted earlier, the operations committee recommends city council receive the report for information purposes.

00:25:07 Speaker 02: Any further questions?

00:25:09 Speaker 02: And all those in favour.

00:25:13 Speaker 02: Councillor Hamley, in favour.

00:25:17 Speaker 02: Thank you, and that's carried unanimously.

00:25:22 Speaker 02: Thank you, Christina, for presenting that.

00:25:25 Speaker 02: And we are to item eight B two, which is introducing Brady Carbert to the meeting this evening.

00:25:31 Speaker 02: Brady doesn't get to attend too many operations committee meetings, but welcome this evening for a look at the multi-year capital plan.

00:25:54 Speaker 02: All right.

00:25:55 Speaker 02: Thank you, Chair Greg.

00:25:56 Speaker 02: Yes, I am Brady Carbert.

00:25:57 Speaker 18: I'm seeing a couple different faces around the table than the last time that we did this presentation about a year ago.

00:26:03 Speaker 18: So I am the manager of corporate services here at the city, working in facilities, purchasing, risk management, asset management.

00:26:11 Speaker 18: But tonight, I'm here with my capital budgeting hat on, and I lead that.

00:26:17 Speaker 18: I collect a lot of the information from the supporting departments, including the directors and managers that are here tonight.

00:26:22 Speaker 18: So, this process is the city has a multi-year capital plan, being a five-year capital plan for all city departments.

00:26:32 Speaker 18: We have been coming through or going through to the individual committee, similar to what just occurred with the fees and charges.

00:26:38 Speaker 18: I did a presentation last week to the Corporate Services Committee.

00:26:41 Speaker 18: I'm here tonight for Operations, and then next week is the last night and going to Community Services.

00:26:50 Speaker 18: The agenda that we'll go through tonight is just I'll quickly touch on multi-year capital planning and process.

00:26:55 Speaker 18: As I said, some of you have participated in this with me before.

00:26:59 Speaker 18: Some are new faces, so I'll quickly touch on how we do it here at the city.

00:27:02 Speaker 18: Will I highlight the capital plan projects for the five-year period?

00:27:06 Speaker 18: We'll do a review of some of those projects, specifically for the 2026 top 10 projects.

00:27:12 Speaker 18: We'll identify quickly the unfunded projects and explain what they're there for, and then we'll save projects for discussion at the end.

00:27:20 Speaker 18: So it's my hope that as we're going along through the presentation, that we can document a project number, a project name, and save that conversation for the end.

00:27:30 Speaker 18: That'll allow me to present the funded projects, the unfunded projects, and identify some of the funding constraints, funding programmememes, and tools that are available.

00:27:38 Speaker 18: So it'd be nice to deal with those at the end when we can relate it back to other parts of the presentation.

00:27:45 Speaker 18: The feedback from tonight, the preferences that the committee members bring forward a motion if they want a project added, deleted, or any sort of change.

00:27:58 Speaker 18: We will then take that feedback to council on June 23rd for them to review the feedback from the committee.

00:28:05 Speaker 18: So that's once again while kind of waiting towards the end, it'll allow us to collect our thoughts and not put Christina on the spot to draft some motions and resolutions for us.

00:28:17 Speaker 18: So the multi-year capital plan process occurs twice a year.

00:28:22 Speaker 18: The June is the biggest update, and that's where we add an additional year to the plan to create the full five years.

00:28:27 Speaker 18: A lot of work starts in January as staff are proceeding through projects, reviewing master plans, building condition assessments,

00:28:35 Speaker 18: and other types of documents that are related to asset management and dealing with addressing needs that come up over this time.

00:28:43 Speaker 18: Similar to what we do tonight, we go for feedback with the committees.

00:28:47 Speaker 18: Then we have a day-long session with council in June to review it, and if everything goes well, we then finalize the capital plan in July.

00:28:57 Speaker 18: That doesn't end the process; it just starts the second half of the year.

00:29:00 Speaker 18: Staff can then start to proceed to work towards the projects for future years.

00:29:05 Speaker 18: Doing the background research, working with my purchasing team to get documents put together, soliciting a few more marketplaces, looking at what other municipalities are doing to get some pricing.

00:29:16 Speaker 18: If we notice that over that time a priority has changed based on legislation, something occurring outside of the city, if prices go up, if prices go down, if there's a potential for alignment,

00:29:27 Speaker 18: we then bring those updates back to December.

00:29:29 Speaker 18: So we've been really working as a group with staff to only bring adjustments or updates to the December.

00:29:35 Speaker 18: We're trying not to add new projects unless there's a need for that project to be added.

00:29:40 Speaker 18: This allows us to decouple the capital planning and capital budgeting process from the operating budget.

00:29:47 Speaker 18: As you're all aware, I believe this is the first year that the operating budget is also going to start coming through committees.

00:29:52 Speaker 18: So there's just additional information that you need to process at that time, similar to council.

00:29:56 Speaker 18: So we try to make sure that we address this really in June and allow council and the committees to work on the operating budget towards the latter half of the year,

00:30:04 Speaker 18: rather than trying to digest thousands of pages of information.

00:30:08 Speaker 18: The benefits of the multi-year capital plan also allow us to put that long-term planning horizon on.

00:30:13 Speaker 18: We can start to identify projects for future needs.

00:30:18 Speaker 18: It allows us, as we deal with staff turnover, to have those documents and projects planned out in the future, so that if somebody new to the organisation came in,

00:30:26 Speaker 18: or we have a new council coming down the line, it's not something that they have to start off with.

00:30:31 Speaker 18: It allows us to be more flexible and responsive to market trends.

00:30:35 Speaker 18: One of those right now that you may ask about is the tariffs, and I can say that we're not seeing significant impacts at this time.

00:30:42 Speaker 18: We've seen a little bit here and a little bit there, and a lot of it has been related more to the China and U.S. relations,

00:30:49 Speaker 18: and then items that are coming from the U.S. up into our area by some of the smaller companies.

00:30:52 Speaker 18: By some of the smaller components.

00:30:54 Speaker 18: So, an example of that was the paint for the new snowplows that we ordered, but they said it was minuscule enough at that time that it didn't impact the price changes.

00:31:03 Speaker 18: But I think that's where we're going to see kind of the initial tariffs being applied.

00:31:08 Speaker 18: But we, as staff, are working with many of our different associations and groups to follow those.

00:31:13 Speaker 18: I think there's a seminar or a webinar every week on this, and we're continuing to participate in that and work with our counterparts and polling neighbouring municipalities to see how they're addressing those.

00:31:25 Speaker 18: It allows the multi-year capital plan also allows us to allocate our resources for project management.

00:31:32 Speaker 18: So, an example I used last week with Corporate Services was that we can look at a few roof projects down the line, and if it's a similar product going down, if it's a shingle roof,

00:31:40 Speaker 18: we can grab a shingle roof from a couple years, bring it forward, and bundle those projects together.

00:31:45 Speaker 18: And that gets us to save mobilization and demobilization charges, and allows staff to only write one tender package and administer one contract at a time, rather than a series of smaller contracts.

00:31:57 Speaker 18: And then, by approving this proposal or this budget in June for projects next year, staff can start to work with the consultants and put those tender packages together.

00:32:07 Speaker 18: With the goal that we are one of the first municipalities in the area to put these tenders out for bidding.

00:32:13 Speaker 18: So while other municipalities are still going through their capital budgets in January, February, and March, our goal is to be kind of the first one out, so we have lots of competition.

00:32:22 Speaker 18: If we find that we're issuing tenders later on in the year, we're finding that two or three contractors have already got their summers fully booked.

00:32:29 Speaker 18: So then that competition pool is much smaller.

00:32:31 Speaker 18: So this is an advantage to us, already having done all the approval and the legwork, and we're ready to go once the new year rolls around.

00:32:39 Speaker 18: We have talked about even tendering in the fall for the following spring,

00:32:42 Speaker 18: but it's something that we have to be mindful of with the pricing structures because a lot of price lists aren't out for those contractors,

00:32:48 Speaker 18: so they're not necessarily able to estimate four to five months in advance.

00:32:52 Speaker 18: But they have no problem, kind of, once the new year comes around.

00:32:56 Speaker 18: The flexibility that is given to staff through the multi-year capital plan is also returned to Council in that twice a year they have an opportunity to review the projects.

00:33:06 Speaker 18: So, if there is a priority that the community is identifying, if there is something that they felt comfortable with a year ago, but maybe not necessarily now,

00:33:15 Speaker 18: it allows Council to ask staff those questions to circle back to them, as long as we haven't issued a contract that we would need to terminate.

00:33:22 Speaker 18: So if we've ordered the new snowplows, it would be ideal if we didn't cancel that order because there would be termination costs for a lot of those items.

00:33:31 Speaker 18: And then also in June, we'll provide Council with the update on our grant funding.

00:33:35 Speaker 18: We use you'll hear the acronyms OCF—that's our Ontario Community Infrastructure Programmememe.

00:33:41 Speaker 18: The CCBF is the Canada Community Building Fund, which is the former federal gas tax, and a variety of other funding programmememes.

00:33:49 Speaker 18: So we'll bring that information and show to Council in June where those funds are going for the duration of the five-year plan as well.

00:34:00 Speaker 18: Now looking specifically to the Operations Department, or sorry, the Operations Committee tonight, the plan includes approximately sixty-two million dollars in funded projects, fifteen million dollars in unfunded projects,

00:34:13 Speaker 18: and I'll discuss those a little bit further along.

00:34:16 Speaker 18: And the 62 million dollars is broken down into 93 capital projects.

00:34:20 Speaker 18: So we're approaching almost 20 projects a year, which can be very simple replacements of some streetlight components, or it can be a very significant project such as the water main looping that we've done,

00:34:32 Speaker 18: or an Alpha Street, or the Fourth Avenue West project that requires a couple years of engineering and then some construction.

00:34:42 Speaker 18: The determination of the projects that are funded are based on prioritization matrix that I'll discuss in a few minutes.

00:34:50 Speaker 18: But what we really want to note here is that each year the City contributes just over three point five million dollars in tax-supported funding,

00:34:58 Speaker 18: and that amount increases by one percent of the prior year's tax levy every year, minus some reserve adjustments and debt or debt repayment.

00:35:06 Speaker 18: So if we need to issue more debt, that one percent can be eaten up by that.

00:35:11 Speaker 18: Likewise, if some of our debt funding, our debt is going down, the loans have ended.

00:35:16 Speaker 18: We return that money to capital, so that money continues to go towards the City's capital projects.

00:35:21 Speaker 18: The one percent contribution was based on the 2013 asset management plan for the City, and at that time, it was dedicated to the core assets, which are roads, water, wastewater, stormwater, and bridges.

00:35:34 Speaker 18: But over time, we have had to use some of that increase to offset our non-core assets.

00:35:37 Speaker 18: Are non-core assets, parks, facilities, and fleet, just to deal with competing needs and to deal with price increases, particularly around the kind of COVID-related times.

00:35:50 Speaker 18: The projects that are also funded in today's plan, over ninety percent of these are related to asset management activities of existing assets.

00:36:00 Speaker 18: So that is the replacement, rehabilitation, maintenance, or assessment and studying of those assets.

00:36:06 Speaker 18: So there's not a lot of new assets being added, and if they are new assets, it's related to a master plan that has understood the growth of the City,

00:36:15 Speaker 18: or they are development projects being led by a third party and the City having to contribute towards that.

00:36:26 Speaker 18: So going through the next five years of plans, I won't touch on every project in there.

00:36:30 Speaker 18: I think I'll give about a ten second pause on each screen if somebody is.

00:36:34 Speaker 18: If somebody has jotted some notes down while they've been reviewing the documents, we'll flag those numbers for Christina to let me know at the end, and then we can discuss them.

00:36:43 Speaker 18: If there's something that we can't necessarily get past because it is such a significant item, we do have the members of the Operations, Engineering, and Public Works team here with us.

00:36:54 Speaker 18: So the funded projects are listed in Attachment One to tonight's presentation.

00:36:59 Speaker 18: Attachment Two is the capital detail sheets, and I think it's well over one hundred and fifty pages for all those. 150 pages for all those various projects.

00:37:05 Speaker 18: So the first page describes the project.

00:37:07 Speaker 18: The second page provides that prioritization matrix.

00:37:13 Speaker 18: So going into, we'll start with our 2026 projects, and I'll just pause.

00:37:17 Speaker 18: And if there's anything that the Committee wants to flag at this time, we will flag it for the end.

00:37:23 Speaker 18: Member Cron, go ahead.

00:37:25 Speaker 18: Through you, Mr. Chair.

00:37:26 Speaker 18: Thanks, Brady.

00:37:27 Speaker 18: Very detailed report, by the way.

00:37:29 Speaker 18: Just I just have a question or concern about 26P data.

00:37:31 Speaker 08: Concern about twenty-six P dash three and or dot dot three.

00:37:35 Speaker 08: It's more the description of it.

00:37:37 Speaker 08: I believe the description is incorrect.

00:37:41 Speaker 08: Says six hundred metres east of Eighth Street East to Twentieth Avenue East.

00:37:44 Speaker 08: I think that should be like an avenue or something, maybe Eleventh Avenue or something.

00:37:49 Speaker 08: Just for to better define that.

00:38:00 Speaker 08: Thank you, Member Krohn.

00:38:02 Speaker 18: I think if we can put that one to the end, I'll get the Manager of Engineering just to double check.

00:38:07 Speaker 18: Sometimes this is a copy and paste from prior years, and we'll make sure that we have copied over the correct title or project title.

00:38:15 Speaker 12: And I know it's in the County's book, spread over a couple years.

00:38:18 Speaker 12: It's going to fall off with the potential Urban Roads Exchange, but it's sliced into about four different segments.

00:38:25 Speaker 12: Work on Eighth Street, so that's kind of probably following their budget, but budget allocations.

00:38:33 Speaker 12: Any further questions from Committee at this time?

00:38:36 Speaker 12: Anything there jump out at you?

00:38:44 Speaker 12: Okay, go further along, Brady.

00:38:46 Speaker 12: Thanks.

00:38:47 Speaker 12: Yes, thank you, Chair.

00:38:49 Speaker 12: Yep.

00:38:49 Speaker 18: Moving on to the next one.

00:38:52 Speaker 18: Once again, pause here briefly to see if there's any projects.

00:38:59 Speaker 12: And oh sorry sorry cut you off I'm just going to reach out to Councillor Hamley you've disappeared off the screen at this time so I'm just going to is there any projects you want to

00:39:11 Speaker 12: call out no I'm okay thank you okay thanks go go ahead Brady yes thank you yeah and I can speed this up if the group has already gone through and flagged some projects.

00:39:26 Speaker 18: I'm not, as I said, typically we have members of the public here, but it's pretty quiet tonight, so we can just push through these.

00:39:36 Speaker 18: And if you want to just ask the committee if there's any projects to pull right now, we can just pull those and move on to the next part of the presentation.

00:39:46 Speaker 13: Yeah, did any members have any line items highlighted or flagged at this time?

00:39:52 Speaker 13: Go ahead, Member Cron.

00:39:55 Speaker 13: Through you, Mr. Chair, just a general comment.

00:39:57 Speaker 08: Just picking up on the chair's comment about the transition of county roads back to the city, back to the way it used to be.

00:40:08 Speaker 08: So that's going to significantly change some projects on here.

00:40:12 Speaker 08: So I guess there's no sense either commenting on them or perhaps there should be a qualifier in that the funding model is going to have to change for these projects.

00:40:22 Speaker 08: Whether or not the county is going to fork money over ahead of time to do those, Scott, or how that exactly works.

00:40:29 Speaker 08: But I just wonder if there should be a qualifier on all the county road projects.

00:40:35 Speaker 08: I can state that, and I can be corrected.

00:40:37 Speaker 12: There's approximately ten million dollars that's going to be provided in transitional funding to the city, with the download that takes place, and it's going to occur over ten years.

00:40:47 Speaker 12: But we are yet to sign memorandums of understanding with each lower tier municipality, so it's probably a little premature yet to get into the actual specifics of funding each item yet,

00:41:02 Speaker 12: but it probably will be something we'll be discussing a year from now.

00:41:07 Speaker 12: Go ahead, Brady.

00:41:08 Speaker 12: Yeah.

00:41:09 Speaker 18: Yes, to Member Krohn through you, Chair Greg.

00:41:13 Speaker 18: That's exactly how we operate in the development of these plans, and you'll see in comparison to last year, we removed some of the development-related projects.

00:41:19 Speaker 18: The development-related projects, under the same kind of premise, and that until we have a signed development agreement or servicing agreement, we don't include those projects.

00:41:30 Speaker 18: We know that there's potential with the county coming down, but as the Deputy Mayor said, there's nothing that's been approved, so we're operating as if that may not happen at this time.

00:41:40 Speaker 18: The only ones we generally do assume are those connecting link projects with the Ministry of Transportation.

00:41:45 Speaker 18: We do put those in with that funding model because we wouldn't otherwise pursue the project without securing that funding,

00:41:52 Speaker 18: but we as staff know that we do not proceed to committing to complete those projects until those grant programmememes have been approved.

00:42:03 Speaker 18: Just before you proceed and fly out to these types of sheets here, Brady.

00:42:08 Speaker 02: Further to that, if you could just expand upon some good news that council was provided with about two meetings ago through the provincial housing enabling Central Housing Enabling Fund.

00:42:18 Speaker 02: We secure some significant grant funding, and it's related to a project in the books here from Twenty-Third Street to Twenty-Third Street, Ninth Avenue East.

00:42:27 Speaker 02: It's been on our books in the past, but currently, now with this good news, you've somewhat prioritized that as a higher needs project.

00:42:38 Speaker 02: I just wondered if you could expand or further inform committee on the details of a nine million dollar project.

00:42:49 Speaker 02: Thank you, Chair Greg.

00:42:51 Speaker 18: Yes, I'm going to look to the director to confirm because we have so many acronyms.

00:42:55 Speaker 18: As I mentioned before, that this is the Housing Enabling Core Services programmememe, so HACS.

00:43:04 Speaker 18: You hear us call it HACS programmememe.

00:43:06 Speaker 18: That is the programmememe that we received.

00:43:08 Speaker 18: I believe about seventy-three percent funding from the province on eligible costs.

00:43:14 Speaker 18: That project we brought to the committee last December as a project that we flagged, saying that if successful, we would be able to get this funding.

00:43:22 Speaker 18: But at the end of the day, the city would still have to come up with approximately three million seven hundred thousand dollars in order to fund that project.

00:43:29 Speaker 18: The good news is that we, as staff, have been able to find that using a combination of development charges for a small amount, reserve contributions from development that has previously occurred in that area,

00:43:42 Speaker 18: some water reserves, and then the remainder coming from our Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund, which is permitted to allow us to stack that money on top of the province.

00:43:51 Speaker 18: So, really, at the end of the day, adding in that OSIF funding is that the province is almost entirely funding that project, or a good chunk of that project, for us.

00:44:02 Speaker 13: And just before we carry back forward, I'll just go to Tim for comment there.

00:44:06 Speaker 14: Thank you, Chair, and I'm glad you brought that up because I wanted to just say, and I think it's a more convenient time over the past year and a half or so,

00:44:13 Speaker 14: staff in Public Works has worked extremely hard on grants, and between three or four grants that have been approved,

00:44:21 Speaker 14: it totals in the neighbourhood of five million dollars of grant money that's come in for projects.

00:44:26 Speaker 14: So, I just wanted to say congratulations to them and for keeping their eye open for grant opportunities.

00:44:32 Speaker 14: And then the amount of time and effort to actually prepare a grant is significant, but they've been successful and they're doing a great job.

00:44:42 Speaker 14: Thank you.

00:44:42 Speaker 18: And further, I'm not sure how many people have had an opportunity to look at today's provincial budget, but I don't think you want to search the word infrastructure.

00:44:51 Speaker 18: It's not mentioned a whole lot in there.

00:44:53 Speaker 18: But some of the programmememes that are of interest to the municipality continue to be that housing enabling fund.

00:44:58 Speaker 18: They are going to increase the connecting link funding, and that's in part because we, as a city, continue to put projects into that grant funding programmememe every year,

00:45:08 Speaker 18: even if we don't feel like we're going to be successful, we've continued to show that need and that it wasn't going to disappear.

00:45:14 Speaker 18: So even if we got it last year, there's no guarantee we're getting it next year.

00:45:17 Speaker 18: We're still putting a grant in, and the result of that has been, I believe, they're increasing it from thirty to forty-five million dollars per year.

00:45:23 Speaker 18: So that should suit us well going forward.

00:45:27 Speaker 18: And then there's just some vague words about municipal roads and some sort of pothole task force.

00:45:34 Speaker 18: So it'll be interesting to see how that comes out.

00:45:38 Speaker 18: Unfortunately, there's not a lot of wording on water, wastewater, but it may be wrapped up into those housing enabling programmememes, which we have been successful for over the past few months.

00:45:51 Speaker 18: So, if there's no kind of projects to pull at this time, I will move forward to the top ten projects.

00:46:08 Speaker 18: So last year, I reviewed quickly just how the projects are prioritized.

00:46:12 Speaker 18: So I'll give a very quick update on how that occurs.

00:46:16 Speaker 18: There are eleven different categories on that prioritization sheet, the second page of the capital detail.

00:46:22 Speaker 18: Ten percent of the marks go to people, basically how many people are impacted by the project.

00:46:26 Speaker 18: We, as staff, monitor that.

00:46:27 Speaker 18: Although we know we have just over twenty thousand residents here, not every asset is used or impacted by all those residents.

00:46:38 Speaker 18: So we adjust that accordingly down.

00:46:40 Speaker 18: Health and safety is a significant component, as is legislation.

00:46:43 Speaker 18: And you'll see in our top ten projects, a lot of our projects are water and wastewater oriented, only because of that people content, health and safety, and legislation under the Clean Drinking Water Act.

00:46:55 Speaker 18: The next couple categories are related to asset management, operational performance.

00:47:00 Speaker 18: So that's about thirty percent of the mark, and if we upgrade this asset, rehabilitate it, will it bring our operating costs down?

00:47:07 Speaker 18: Will it make the level service better for the residents of the city?

00:47:11 Speaker 18: There's other categories, including the financing, which is basically: is there a third-party funding source?

00:47:15 Speaker 18: If we have an opportunity to get a grant, we'll try and prioritize those projects because we see grants come and go from time to time.

00:47:23 Speaker 18: And then there's a smaller grouping of items like socioeconomic environment, aesthetic value, public input, and public input in connection to the city strategic plan, so that's kind of the last fifteen percent of the scoring.

00:47:37 Speaker 18: So as you'll see, you'll see the various comments.

00:47:38 Speaker 18: Those are reviewed by staff on the second page.

00:47:42 Speaker 18: That gets us to the top ten projects for 2026.

00:47:47 Speaker 18: I will kind of just give the quick update on what they are.

00:47:50 Speaker 18: However,

00:47:51 Speaker 18: it is an opportunity where we do have the project managers here in the council chambers with us if we do need a bit more detail because these are the ones that are probably the ones

00:47:59 Speaker 18: that the public will see the most in two thousand and twenty-six occurring,

00:48:04 Speaker 18: especially with the first project being the asphalt and concrete replacement or our road rehabilitation annual programmememe.

00:48:11 Speaker 18: That programmememe is led by our engineering team, and they bring a report forward every year stating which roads are going to be rehabilitated.

00:48:19 Speaker 18: They've been able to join on with Grey County on last year's tender and this year's tender to get the economies of scale of having a larger programmememe.

00:48:28 Speaker 18: So it worked out successfully for the city last year, and I think it's something that we'll continue to do into the future for these basic road rehabilitations.

00:48:36 Speaker 18: So these aren't the projects where we're replacing any infrastructure.

00:48:39 Speaker 18: This is simple kind of pulverizing and repaving road sections.

00:48:46 Speaker 18: The next project is at our wastewater plant in replacement of some electrical equipment, particularly in the case of some variable frequency drives at the wastewater plant.

00:48:57 Speaker 18: Similar to some of the other buildings that we show people, you'll say these buildings are relatively new or we did a significant upgrade.

00:49:05 Speaker 18: But we have to remember that these are twenty-four-seven operations, three hundred and sixty-five days a week.

00:49:10 Speaker 18: So these pumps put on thousands of hours a year as they go through, and are utilised.

00:49:17 Speaker 18: The next project is the clarifier rehabilitation at the wastewater plant.

00:49:21 Speaker 18: So this is remediation of concrete expansion joints and safety railings, just to ensure that those assets are in good condition and able to function, and not so much from an aesthetic standpoint,

00:49:32 Speaker 18: but just making sure that there's no issues with that.

00:49:38 Speaker 18: The next project is the condition assessment of the municipal reservoir, which is completed every eight years.

00:49:46 Speaker 18: There's a remote-operated vehicle that goes inside the reservoir to do that inspection, and then it generates a report for staff and identifies any projects.

00:49:54 Speaker 18: that are required to remediate, repair, or replace certain functions of that asset.

00:50:04 Speaker 18: The next project is another leak detection survey, so it identifies if there's any leaks in our water distribution system, and similarly, that allows staff to identify problematic areas.

00:50:14 Speaker 18: As many of you have seen the asset management presentation last year, we don't fully fund our water distribution rehabilitation or replacement,

00:50:23 Speaker 18: so we have to focus on the areas that are the highest concern to us.

00:50:27 Speaker 18: So, doing studies like this allows us to spread those limited dollars and make sure we're getting the best bang for our buck in being able to deliver our levels of service for water.

00:50:39 Speaker 18: The next project is at the water treatment plant and some piping rehabilitation.

00:50:45 Speaker 18: These pipes were probably installed in the maybe 60s and 70s, so they haven't been maintained over the years.

00:50:49 Speaker 18: So they have been maintained over the years.

00:50:51 Speaker 18: The staff have done a great job of painting and keeping them clean and everything like that.

00:50:55 Speaker 18: But as you get the materials going underneath, there is deterioration, which will require certain pipe segments to be fully replaced.

00:51:06 Speaker 18: The next project is at the wastewater treatment plant with process mechanical replacements.

00:51:11 Speaker 18: This is just to add an additional small effluent pump in order to be able to make repairs to the existing pumps, so you notice in a lot of water and wastewater plants,

00:51:23 Speaker 18: the aim is to try and have a lot of redundancy in those because if one of those facilities stops operating, it's a significant concern to the city.

00:51:33 Speaker 18: The next project is the cross connection programmememe, which is the backflow prevention.

00:51:40 Speaker 18: It's continuing on with the kind of annual upkeep of that programmememe moving into the future.

00:51:49 Speaker 18: The next project is at the water treatment plant with valve replacement.

00:51:53 Speaker 18: So similar to the piping upgrades, there's a series of valves that keep those pipes all connected to be able to open and shut.

00:51:59 Speaker 18: The more you utilise those, the more they deteriorate.

00:52:02 Speaker 18: So this would be replacing some of those valves within the plant.

00:52:10 Speaker 18: And then the last of the top ten projects would be instrumentation replacement.

00:52:14 Speaker 18: So that is a lot of the instruments that read through to our SCADA system.

00:52:19 Speaker 18: So it's the processors, the cards, the cabling, the fiber optics, all of those relays that kind of allow it to speak to the computer system, so that the plant can operate.

00:52:28 Speaker 18: So these are just those replacements as those age assets age.

00:52:32 Speaker 18: I imagine it's very similar to our information technology, in that the more computerized things are, the shorter the lifespan on some of those assets, or the shorter the support period for those.

00:52:46 Speaker 18: This is a feature that we didn't bring forward last year, but we're adding this year.

00:52:50 Speaker 18: It's just an update on the 2025 top 10 projects.

00:52:52 Speaker 18: So last year we went through a similar exercise and identified those projects, and you'll see that over half of the projects are currently in progress.

00:53:00 Speaker 18: A couple have been; one has been deferred, just waiting for the county to finalize the direction that they're going to go on that project or wish for us to go on that project.

00:53:10 Speaker 18: And then a couple that haven't been started, but they are kind of easier projects for us to tender out.

00:53:15 Speaker 18: We are still only at May, and we have seven more months to go.

00:53:18 Speaker 18: So it's—I don't think we're behind in any of those.

00:53:22 Speaker 18: We'll do a similar exercise with council in December when we do our update to identify the status of the 2025 projects at that time,

00:53:28 Speaker 18: and hopefully we'll see a lot more of those change to completed by that time.

00:53:38 Speaker 18: Sorry, we'll see if Councillor Hamley's flagging anything.

00:53:40 Speaker 18: Christine will be able to see that.

00:53:43 Speaker 18: I'll check in with you at this time, Councillor.

00:53:45 Speaker 18: Any questions, comments?

00:53:48 Speaker 18: No questions.

00:53:51 Speaker 18: Any further questions from committee?

00:53:54 Speaker 18: Not seeing any, so go forward.

00:53:57 Speaker 18: Oh, I'll go to Member Anderson first.

00:54:02 Speaker 18: Through you, Mr. Chair, Brady.

00:54:04 Speaker 18: I have a question.

00:54:06 Speaker 18: It's sort of a sensitive question, and I've discussed this before.

00:54:10 Speaker 18: Are you reading everything that you're presenting visually to the people present?

00:54:15 Speaker 18: Because I'm not seeing it, but am I hearing it?

00:54:27 Speaker 18: To Member Anderson through you, Chair.

00:54:32 Speaker 18: No, I am just summarising what's on.

00:54:33 Speaker 18: I'm not reading the line by line.

00:54:35 Speaker 18: I'm summarising this.

00:54:37 Speaker 18: The presentation reflects that; even it's a summary of the capital detail sheets that have been provided.

00:54:44 Speaker 18: We just don't expect the public or even some of the committee members to fully read each of those in detail.

00:54:50 Speaker 18: So we're just sharing it as a summary of information.

00:55:01 Speaker 03: Just to clarify, so I understand, everyone in this room is seeing what you're presenting, correct?

00:55:07 Speaker 03: But are you reading everything that they are reading to me?

00:55:10 Speaker 03: If not, then I'm...

00:55:16 Speaker 03: Oh, sorry, I cut you off.

00:55:18 Speaker 02: I thought I was going to go to Brady, so I'll go back to you, Donald.

00:55:24 Speaker 03: I would be concerned that we're not being equitable or fair to me as a member of this committee if everyone else can access the information and I can't.

00:55:34 Speaker 03: That's being presented visually to us, Mr. Chair, maybe you could address this as well and resolve the question I have.

00:55:44 Speaker 13: Yeah, I think what I'm understanding is Brady's just covered the presentation, which is almost or the slide deck, which is almost a brief overview or an executive summary of three appendices attached to the report.

00:56:04 Speaker 13: I'm not sure what the volume of pages would be, but it would be pretty considerable.

00:56:17 Speaker 13: And there was one report aside from the presentation that was attached.

00:56:21 Speaker 13: So we did have the presentation as part of the package in advance.

00:56:27 Speaker 13: And Brady's just going through that presentation briefly.

00:56:31 Speaker 13: But there's no new information that Brady's providing that is outside of what was in the agenda published deck.

00:56:40 Speaker 13: Does that help?

00:56:44 Speaker 13: Thank you, Chair.

00:56:45 Speaker 03: I'm probably not making my question very clear, but am I hearing everything else that you are reading as a chair, as Brady, reading those documents that are appearing on the screen?

00:56:58 Speaker 03: Okay, I'll just go to Brady.

00:56:58 Speaker 03: He's able to respond to that.

00:57:01 Speaker 03: There you go.

00:57:07 Speaker 18: To Member Anderson through you, Chair.

00:57:11 Speaker 18: No, I'm not reading the lines or the wording line by line.

00:57:15 Speaker 18: I'm even summarising my presentation, which is a summary of the information that has previously been provided.

00:57:22 Speaker 18: If that helps, it's...

00:57:23 Speaker 18: I guess a short answer is no. Through you, Chair, this is a sensitive point, and I'm sure that we are all understanding the issue I'm raising.

00:57:37 Speaker 03: In that, everyone else in this room is seeing what you're presenting; they're reading it, if they wish.

00:57:42 Speaker 03: I can't do that.

00:57:44 Speaker 03: I am not seeing the information.

00:57:47 Speaker 03: I am not receiving the information that everyone else is receiving.

00:57:50 Speaker 03: I am concerned that, as a community member and as a person with a disability, I'm not perhaps being treated equally.

00:58:00 Speaker 13: Okay, I get that, but I'm interpreting there is when we publish the agenda, all the materials are not in the accessible format.

00:58:13 Speaker 13: Is that correct?

00:58:15 Speaker 13: I'm going to go to Lara for comment.

00:58:17 Speaker 13: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:58:19 Speaker 13: I'll try to explain.

00:58:23 Speaker 19: I think what Member Anderson is trying to articulate.

00:58:29 Speaker 19: In order for him to feel like he is fully participating in the meeting, he would like presentations to be read verbatim from the slides.

00:58:41 Speaker 19: Because while he has them in his package and he can read them just like everybody else can with his screen reader, he wants to have the same experience during the meeting as everyone else,

00:58:54 Speaker 19: and that can only happen if the presenter can read every word that's on the presentations.

00:59:03 Speaker 19: Does that capture the sentiments?

00:59:05 Speaker 19: I'll go to you, Donald.

00:59:07 Speaker 19: Thank you.

00:59:07 Speaker 19: Yes, Laura has done a fine, very articulately.

00:59:12 Speaker 19: Okay, I'll go back to you, Brady.

00:59:15 Speaker 18: Thank you, Chair, and absolutely, Member Anderson.

00:59:19 Speaker 18: We're happy to do this and facilitate this, and we're always open to feedback after tonight's presentation.

00:59:25 Speaker 18: If there's something that we can add to a future presentation, as I said earlier, I have to do this multiple times, so it's good feedback that can be incorporated into future presentations as well.

00:59:36 Speaker 18: So the current slide is our unfunded capital title page, and that will move me into the next page, which this was a prior version,

00:59:47 Speaker 18: which has been updated for the one that will be published with the minutes.

00:59:51 Speaker 18: It is the operations unfunded project highlights for the 2026 to 2030 programmememe.

00:59:57 Speaker 18: So as it says, they're 2025 to 2029.

00:59:59 Speaker 18: It will be updated with the next one.

01:00:01 Speaker 18: There are a couple bullet points on this slide that identify that the City's Public Works and Engineering departments have $15.5 million in unfunded projects.

01:00:14 Speaker 18: These are spread across 21 capital projects.

01:00:18 Speaker 18: The unfunded projects are generally not funded because they are an expansion activity, and as I said, 90% of our programmememe is dedicated towards the asset management and rehabilitation/replacement of our existing assets.

01:00:34 Speaker 18: So, as we're struggling to maintain what we currently have, we don't have as much of an appetite for adding to that.

01:00:41 Speaker 18: It's an enhancement of an existing asset that might not necessarily be supported by growth or a level of service or a community need.

01:00:50 Speaker 18: They're projects that have a lower priority score, so they might not impact as many people or have the operational performance or the grant funding.

01:00:57 Speaker 18: Some of these projects are dependent on a third party, and then, or they're dependent on the completion of other projects.

01:01:05 Speaker 18: So, a summary of the unfunded projects can be found in Attachment Three to the report that was provided on the agenda.

01:01:12 Speaker 18: Not included on the slide and in my notes is that this amount should actually be higher as you will see through our asset management plan.

01:01:19 Speaker 18: Last year, we have a significant funding deficit in almost all of our asset classes.

01:01:27 Speaker 18: To further add to this, there's some items that are unfunded here that need a bit more information that will likely make them worse.

01:01:36 Speaker 18: Some of those are on our conventional and downtown streetlight pole replacements.

01:01:40 Speaker 18: We've done a great job replacing the lights on them, but we are seeing significant deterioration on the poles.

01:01:45 Speaker 18: So I believe in a future work plan, the Public Works and Engineering team will bring forward a report that identifies kind of a long-term replacement project,

01:01:54 Speaker 18: or they'll work with us through Asset Management to identify that programmememe, so that we can try and justify the funding of it.

01:02:00 Speaker 18: Similarly, there is no money in the 2026 to 2030 plan for the replacement or rehabilitation of sidewalks outside of what is being reconstructed under a construction project.

01:02:11 Speaker 18: So, we're not doing any specific sidewalk programmememes.

01:02:15 Speaker 18: And I've identified in the last couple presentations.

01:02:19 Speaker 18: The city is currently heading towards the final stages of a stormwater management master plan, and that will identify a series of projects that will need to be funded into the future.

01:02:30 Speaker 18: We're fully aware of the needs, but we suspect that this report will help us prioritize those and determine funding sources for them.

01:02:44 Speaker 18: So the next presentation, which is there, were some issues with formatting again.

01:02:52 Speaker 18: It identifies the multi-year capital plan presentation that will be presented to council on June 23, 2025.

01:02:59 Speaker 18: The multi-year capital plan follow-up report to council will be presented in July 2025, and depending on the feedback from council on June 23, it may be the first meeting in July,

01:03:10 Speaker 18: but it might be the second staff meeting.

01:03:12 Speaker 18: We'll need to potentially make some adjustments, and then the third bullet would be the next multi-year capital plan update, which is scheduled for December 2025,

01:03:20 Speaker 18: and I believe that will be usually in early December and the day after operating budget, just to give kind of a close the book for council.

01:03:32 Speaker 18: The second last slide is our projects for discussion, and Member Krohn asked us to pull the project from or I can't remember which one it is,

01:03:41 Speaker 18: and the manager of engineering was going to confirm the project title and description for it.

01:03:46 Speaker 18: And then, if there's any further projects for discussion, we'll add those at this time.

01:03:54 Speaker 13: Okay, so I'll go to committee at this time first.

01:03:57 Speaker 13: Was there any funded or unfunded projects that leapt out at anybody that you had questions on?

01:04:06 Speaker 13: Councillor Merton, go ahead.

01:04:09 Speaker 13: Through you, Chair.

01:04:11 Speaker 20: Not a question about a specific section.

01:04:16 Speaker 20: More overall, we know that we have significant millions of dollars unfunded for what we need, and we've chatted in previous years about one percent.

01:04:29 Speaker 20: Again, the concern is: at what point do we say?

01:04:33 Speaker 20: When do we make a change to that one percent, knowing that there's a wide gap, and you're referencing maybe even wider gap, and I'd like your opinion.

01:04:44 Speaker 20: When is the right time to really look at that?

01:04:48 Speaker 02: Actually, I'm just going to jump in before Brady responds to that.

01:04:52 Speaker 02: That question was raised in the form of a motion at a budget meeting earlier this year, and that motion was postponed, and that discussion will be held by head by council at the June meeting.

01:05:03 Speaker 02: So, that's where that sits at this time.

01:05:09 Speaker 02: Councillor Kukreja.

01:05:12 Speaker 21: Through you, Mr. Chair, and not exactly relating to the projects, but somehow relating to this, throughout the projects, funded and unfunded,

01:05:21 Speaker 21: like we see a lot of changes with water/waste management and a bit of engineering, but there is no discussion of the traffic signals or the traffic lights.

01:05:34 Speaker 21: So we often hear the concern associated with the traffic lights all across town.

01:05:42 Speaker 21: So I don't know if this is the right time to ask that.

01:05:47 Speaker 21: Is there any discussion or possible look at the lights?

01:05:52 Speaker 21: Because we are talking about projects and budgets.

01:05:56 Speaker 21: So when can we expect to see some change in the lights?

01:06:03 Speaker 19: Through the chair to Councillor Kacrisia, this year we're going to be doing traffic counting, which will give us data to determine if the signal timings can be fixed and how.

01:06:22 Speaker 19: But once that is done, it's not something of significant cost that it would be reflected in the capital budget; it would generally fall under our consulting fee budget that we carry in our operating.

01:06:42 Speaker 18: And to Member Kacrisia, through you, Chair, this was the first year,

01:06:47 Speaker 18: and this is where one of the projects that had been previously unfunded has now been added in 2030 with the replacement of the traffic control system at 10th Street West and Eighth Avenue West.

01:07:02 Speaker 18: So that project had been on the unfunded list for the last couple of years.

01:07:04 Speaker 18: It has now worked its way in.

01:07:06 Speaker 18: Chris was able to bend my arm.

01:07:09 Speaker 18: No, it was just finally met through with us being able to find a funding source and find the prioritization of other projects as we expand this project into the future.

01:07:19 Speaker 18: Through the asset management plan for non-core assets last year, we identified that we should be spending $250,000 a year on our traffic signal replacements,

01:07:28 Speaker 18: and we were spending I think about $38,000 per year just on components of them.

01:07:34 Speaker 18: So it's something that this $250,000 will hopefully be built into future iterations of the multi-year capital plan because it's been supported by the asset management plan for non-core assets,

01:07:46 Speaker 18: and that's basically saying that a traffic signal or a signalized intersection has about a lifespan of about 25 years for kind of everything wrapped up into it, and we have about 25 of these intersections,

01:07:56 Speaker 18: so we should be doing one of those intersections each year.

01:08:02 Speaker 18: Thank you, Brady.

01:08:02 Speaker 18: That answers my much awaited question.

01:08:07 Speaker 18: I'll just go to Tim for anything further.

01:08:10 Speaker 18: Thank you, Chair.

01:08:12 Speaker 14: I just wanted to make a quick administrative correction.

01:08:15 Speaker 14: Earlier, I talked about the amount of grants that the team had gotten, just over five million.

01:08:20 Speaker 14: They were quick to point out that the amount of grants we've gotten is just over ten million, not five.

01:08:24 Speaker 14: So we've had just over ten million dollars in grants in about the past year and a half.

01:08:31 Speaker 14: Okay, thank you.

01:08:32 Speaker 14: I'll go back to Brady, or did yeah?

01:08:34 Speaker 14: You've got a little bit just to complete it.

01:08:37 Speaker 14: Yeah, I'll go back.

01:08:38 Speaker 02: We haven't identified any further projects, so we'll go to the ones that were noted earlier.

01:08:47 Speaker 22: So you, Mr. Chair, there was a question about 26 P3, Eighth Street East.

01:08:53 Speaker 22: There's kind of two ways to describe it, but the 600 metres east of Eighth Street East is where the project would start.

01:09:00 Speaker 22: So it's not actually at 11th Street.

01:09:04 Speaker 22: It starts 600 metres, approximately 600 metres east of Eighth Street East, and it's actually the City portion of the project.

01:09:15 Speaker 22: The County would be doing the road upgrading.

01:09:17 Speaker 22: And by the way, that's approximately where the existing curb and gutter ends on the south side of the road, so from there easterly to 20th Avenue,

01:09:25 Speaker 22: it's intended that that road will be urbanized on the south side, with curb and gutter, and then there'll be a multi-use path.

01:09:34 Speaker 22: So the City will be responsible for any street lighting upgrading in the multi-use path construction, and that will be done in coordination with the Greystone Village development.

01:09:46 Speaker 22: So the project won't proceed until Greystone goes ahead, and they've got a phased development, so it's shown theoretically in 2026.

01:09:58 Speaker 22: It may not actually happen in 2026.

01:10:00 Speaker 22: It's the City's contribution through the subdivision agreement.

01:10:04 Speaker 22: I hope I didn't confuse everybody.

01:10:08 Speaker 22: That's a good response.

01:10:09 Speaker 22: Appreciate anything further, Member Krohn.

01:10:11 Speaker 22: Not seeing anything.

01:10:13 Speaker 13: Not seeing any other questions or items being raised by any member.

01:10:18 Speaker 13: Being raised by any members of Council, I'll just reach out to you one last time, Councillor Hamley,

01:10:24 Speaker 13: and I will just note before providing you the mic that there is a motion for consideration at the back of the report.

01:10:32 Speaker 13: That, in consideration of staff report CR25064, respecting 2026 to 2030 multi-year capital plan operations committee,

01:10:42 Speaker 13: the operations committee recommends that City Council direct staff to bring forward a report on the draft multi-year capital plan and incorporate the feedback from committee regarding the proposed project.

01:10:52 Speaker 13: So, that's not yet on the floor.

01:10:54 Speaker 13: Just providing you that backdrop before giving you the mic.

01:11:00 Speaker 13: Anything you would like to comment on?

01:11:04 Speaker 23: Nothing to comment, but I maybe move the recommendation, Deputy.

01:11:10 Speaker 23: Okay, thank you.

01:11:12 Speaker 23: Any last questions, comments?

01:11:14 Speaker 23: Everyone's aware of the recommendation there.

01:11:16 Speaker 13: That any comments provided today were just to be collected by staff and in form of follow-up report.

01:11:24 Speaker 13: Not seeing anything further, all those in favour, and that's carried unanimously.

01:11:29 Speaker 13: Thank you.

01:11:31 Speaker 13: Thanks, Brady.

01:11:36 Speaker 13: We are complete through our reports.

01:11:43 Speaker 13: We've got no further reports tonight from Engineering, Public Works, Transit, or Water and Wastewater, and have no matters postponed.

01:11:52 Speaker 13: We've got no motions for which notice was previously given, so we are at item 11A, which is correspondence from the Supervisor of Environmental Services regarding Ghost survey results.

01:12:03 Speaker 13: Any questions to those survey results from committee members, or would Heidi like to just speak to those?

01:12:13 Speaker 13: Provide a brief overview.

01:12:18 Speaker 13: Interesting information to have that data.

01:12:22 Speaker 13: Go ahead, Heidi.

01:12:23 Speaker 24: Thank you, through you, Mr. Chair.

01:12:28 Speaker 24: So this information is being brought forward because the County is exploring more regional transit system, as well as Wellington County is looking at different opportunities as well.

01:12:42 Speaker 24: So I wanted to make sure that they had the full information from the Ghost ridership.

01:12:53 Speaker 24: It's a lot of information, so if anybody has any questions, I could maybe go from there.

01:13:02 Speaker 13: Are there any questions from committee members regarding the information survey results collected?

01:13:10 Speaker 13: Not seeing any, and we don't have to take any action on this.

01:13:14 Speaker 13: It's just for information.

01:13:16 Speaker 13: So, thank you very much, Heidi.

01:13:19 Speaker 13: We've completed everything before us this evening, so we are down to discussion of additional business under item 12.

01:13:26 Speaker 13: And I'll first go to Member Krohn before Member Anderson.

01:13:31 Speaker 13: So, go ahead, Mike.

01:13:35 Speaker 13: Through you, Mr. Chair.

01:13:35 Speaker 08: I'm just looking for an update or some information on where the status of the spring cleanup is on the roadways?

01:13:43 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:13:46 Speaker 08: Through the chair to member Krohn.

01:13:48 Speaker 19: So spring cleanup is well underway.

01:13:53 Speaker 19: Sweeping is more or less done, and was touched up today.

01:13:57 Speaker 19: As the centreline painting contractor is scheduled to come tomorrow.

01:14:01 Speaker 19: Catch basins have been getting cleaned out in order of descending priority.

01:14:06 Speaker 19: We start with the ones on the main roads and the ones that are critical for preventing flooding, and then we go down from there.

01:14:16 Speaker 19: Sod repair is still underway, despite having a list of locations that have been sent in by residents.

01:14:26 Speaker 19: There was so much sod damage this past winter that we actually have a crew full time that's just going street by street.

01:14:33 Speaker 19: So if anybody has submitted a sod repair request, rest assured that they will get to it.

01:14:41 Speaker 19: It's just taking a bit longer because there's a lot of work to do.

01:14:46 Speaker 19: We have teams constantly patching potholes, repairing catch basins, and hauling away the mountain of street sweepings.

01:14:52 Speaker 19: And by mountain, I mean mountain of street sweepings.

01:14:55 Speaker 19: It was almost as big as the sand dome the other day.

01:15:00 Speaker 19: Any pavement washouts are also being repaired.

01:15:04 Speaker 19: Most are caused by defective catch basins that allow water to leak out of the catch basin and they wash away the gravel underneath the pavement.

01:15:11 Speaker 19: But we check them to make sure that it isn't a pipe that's in need of repair.

01:15:16 Speaker 19: Downtown maintenance is getting done this week.

01:15:19 Speaker 19: Parks was applying weed control and removing the winter decorative lighting and hanging the banners.

01:15:24 Speaker 19: I don't know if any of you noticed, but then Public Works was washing and sweeping off the sand from the boulevards and the roads, and the lawns in the road,

01:15:32 Speaker 19: and it's not really a spring clean-up item.

01:15:35 Speaker 19: But we also have the traffic signal contractor coming next week to do the safety inspections.

01:15:41 Speaker 19: So, if there was a particular service that you didn't hear about, please ask me.

01:15:48 Speaker 19: Thank you.

01:15:49 Speaker 19: I was curious about the line painting.

01:15:52 Speaker 08: That was my primary question, my primary concern.

01:15:55 Speaker 08: So, all is in hand.

01:15:57 Speaker 08: Thank you.

01:15:59 Speaker 08: What lines?

01:16:01 Speaker 08: I have a quick question.

01:16:04 Speaker 13: Further to that, because lo and behold, one of us will be moving around this community in the next few weeks, and someone is likely going to ask us,

01:16:13 Speaker 13: "Where does all that residual sediment and sand go?"

01:16:18 Speaker 13: We get asked where we store salt or snow in the winter, but lo and behold, someone's likely going to field that question sitting on this committee at some point.

01:16:28 Speaker 19: To the chair, we use it to level out the grade on the mothballed landfills, but even there,

01:16:39 Speaker 19: we're starting to run out of room because there's only so much that you can level out the ground.

01:16:46 Speaker 19: So, you know, there is something to be said about having an open landfill, even if it was for something like that.

01:16:53 Speaker 19: So, we'll have to explore options of whether or not we can get approval, even just for use as excess fill or some kind of holding area, because we're really running out of room for it.

01:17:10 Speaker 19: Oh, and before anybody asks, we've looked at trying to reuse it, and it's not really viable.

01:17:16 Speaker 19: It's full of garbage, and the grittiness of it is worn away after being on the road for the winter.

01:17:25 Speaker 19: Okay, thanks for that, Member Anderson.

01:17:27 Speaker 19: You had an item.

01:17:27 Speaker 19: Go ahead.

01:17:29 Speaker 19: Thank you, Mr. Chair.

01:17:31 Speaker 03: I just want to draw attention to our committee and the staff that are present.

01:17:34 Speaker 03: That today is Global Accessibility Awareness Day, and that is sort of a global recognition of persons with disabilities that may request or require or ask about accessibility, whether it's an environmental accessibility,

01:17:47 Speaker 03: whether it's a built or constructed, or if it's a digital or electronic.

01:17:51 Speaker 03: So it's an interesting day for some of us.

01:17:56 Speaker 13: Okay, appreciate that heads up and information.

01:18:00 Speaker 13: I have not got any further items noted at this time.

01:18:05 Speaker 13: So, we are there any notices of motion under item 13?

01:18:10 Speaker 13: Not seeing any.

01:18:12 Speaker 13: And at six forty-nine, we are adjourned.

01:18:15 Speaker 13: Thank you very much, everyone, for taking part.