City Council requests that Infrastructure Ontario repair the damaged stone wall at the Ontario Reformatory.

54:44and then after the delegations, I'll turn to Councillor Downer to ask you to place the recommendation

54:50if you could do that. So go ahead, Councillor Downer. Thanks, Chair Grisichel.

54:55So at the Heritage Guelph meeting earlier this month, this motion came forward to request the

55:05Council, request that infrastructure Ontario to restore the wall that was recently damaged.

55:15There's some question. A lot of people do not believe that it was done by,

55:25was done through natural erosion, but was done actually through the, through vandalism. So,

55:36but I mean, you know, that's, so to be determined, but you know, I think that can be determined. And

55:42we can ask them to restore the wall to the way it was. Thank you. So we have three delegations on

55:51this item. If you're here in person, I'm going to call up Susan Ratcliffe, please, first, if you

55:57would like to come up to the front. You have five minutes for your presentation. There will be a chime

56:04signal at the 32nd mark and a chime to signal the end of your delegation time. Susan, if you can

56:10then just remain there in case any Councillors have any questions of clarifying nature to your

56:17presentation. So as soon as you start the clerks will start the clock.

56:26Mr. Mayor, far away, Ms. Acting Mayor and members of City Council, the poet Robert Frost has

56:34important words to consider in his poem, Mending Wall. Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

56:43that sends the frozen groundswell under it and spills the upper boulders in the sun

56:49and makes gaps even to compass. The gaps, I mean, no one has seen them made or heard them made.

56:58Something there is that doesn't love a wall that wants it down. I could say elves to my neighbor,

57:05but it's not elves exactly. And I'd rather he said it for himself.

57:10Infrastructure Ontario would have us believe that if not elves, then Mother Nature has suddenly

57:17decided that she does not love that particular four metres of stone wall that has stood in its

57:23place for at least 103 years. Perhaps a freak storm struck those four metres. Perhaps it was the

57:31finger of God that pushed it over. Robert's Frost's suggestions of elves wanting to wall

57:39down may be the best one after all. We have seen this pattern before from infrastructure Ontario.

57:47The large stone chimney has to come down because it has some damage. The trestle bridge has to come

57:53down because it has a broken bit. And now a solid stone wall has fallen over by itself

57:59and scattered itself all over the ground. Oh, and too bad about those Indigenous paintings left

58:06to rot for 21 years. They are probably only graffiti after all, and so we don't need to save them either.

58:13It is interesting that the infrastructure Ontario spokesperson who rejected the Indigenous

58:20paintings as unsalvageable graffiti is the same spokesperson who called the damage to the wall

58:28natural erosion. I support Councillor Downer's resolution because at some point we have to call

58:39the provincial government on their 22-year neglect of this amazing property and ask them to make it

58:46right. All of these elements have been identified by the HCD study as worthy of designation and

58:53preservation because they are outstanding features of a landscape that is unique in Canada.

59:00I lead the walks for the stone structures on the York, on behalf of the York lands. I'm a member

59:07of the York lands board and visitors are always amazed and love to take selfies at those walls.

59:14And I believe that you as City Council must urge the provincial government to do their part to

59:20preserve and restore this landscape. The walls were built by young men who were doing the job

59:27to train and prepare themselves for a better future. We honour their legacy by preserving their hard

59:34work. We benefit our city present and future by keeping this landscape in its structure in good

59:41shape. Because of their unique features they will provide our citizens with a beautiful landscape

59:47for recreation. And again because of these unique features visitors will bring tourism dollars to

59:54our city. As Robert said, something there is, Robert Frost said, something there is that does not love

1:00:01a wall and wants it down. Let's show that the City of Guelph wants this wall and wants it up again.

1:00:10Thank you. Thank you. Are there any questions from Council for Ms. Ratcliffe?

1:00:19Seeing none, thank you very much. Next I have Lynn Vestari. Same thing, if you would like to come

1:00:29down you have five minutes for your presentation. There will be a chime at the 32nd mark and a chime

1:00:35to signal the end of your delegation time. And if you could just remain at the end for any questions

1:00:42from Council. Welcome. Thank you. Mr. Mayor and City Councilors, I'm here today to talk about the

1:00:55collapse walls at the former Correctional Centre Ontario Formatory Lands. I am the current Chair

1:01:02of York Lands Green Hub and come as a representative to speak with you all. At this point in time is

1:01:08there is no conclusive evidence that it was an occurrence of vandalism or if it was a natural

1:01:14event. There are different opinions on that. To our knowledge no formal assessments of the

1:01:21damages have occurred to determine the cause. However, given that these field stone walls have

1:01:27stood there for most of the last 100 years or over 103 years actually, there are a very unique

1:01:34heritage feature that exists within the city limits. From my understanding the longest known

1:01:40field stone wall in Ontario. The other significant stone wall site is on Amherst Island near Kingston.

1:01:49The island won the Lieutenant General Award for Heritage Conservation in 2015 with the drystone

1:01:56festivals that helped to preserve the walls and also received a significant tourism

1:02:01dollars from the Ontario Tourism Development Fund, exactly $73,000 to make the island a heritage

1:02:11tourist destination. If the City of Guel formally asks Infrastructure Ontario as part of their duty

1:02:19of care for the property to secure funds for the reparations of the wall, it could become an

1:02:25opportunity for the City in partnership with York Lands Green Hub and Infrastructure Ontario

1:02:30to hold a drystone building festival in collaboration with Drystone Canada who organizes them.

1:02:38This would present a great opportunity for a large tourist attraction for Guelph over several days.

1:02:47I am in support of Councillor Downey's motion. Please. Thank you. Thank you very much. If you

1:02:56could just remain. Are there any questions of a clarifying nature of the presentation for the

1:03:02delegation? Seeing none, thank you very much. Thank you. Next I'm going to call on John Fisher,

1:03:13not that you don't know the instructions just in case. Five minutes for your presentation.

1:03:18There'll be a chime at the 32nd mark and then a chime to signal the end. And John,

1:03:23if you can please just stay at the end. Okay, thank you.

1:03:32To the Mayor, the Acting Mayor, Councillors and City staff,

1:03:34my name is John Fisher. I'm the President of the Guelph Hiking Trail Club.

1:03:40The club has license agreements with Infrastructure Ontario and Fusion Homes

1:03:45to manage and maintain trails on land that they own on both sides of the Aramosa River.

1:03:54We want to thank Councillor Downey for continued support of heritage properties in the City.

1:04:00We also thank past and present members of the Heritage Committee for their work,

1:04:05particularly on the OR file. The Guelph Hiking Club supports this resolution,

1:04:11but feels it may need to go further. We thought it might be helpful to share the club's bridge

1:04:17experience in considering this resolution, which requests IO repair the damaged stone wall.

1:04:24The club worked actively with IO to reach an agreement to repair and repurpose the historic

1:04:30Woodin-Tressel Railway Bridge as a pedestrian cyclist connection to link the OR and GID properties.

1:04:38In 2022, the club applied for federal active transportation and tourism relief grounds

1:04:45to repair the bridge. We secured letters of support for our applications from the Mayor,

1:04:52Property Owners Fusion Chamber of Commerce. One of those letters was from Mike Shreiner,

1:04:59MPP for Guelph, who wrote directly to the President and CEO of Infrastructure Ontario, Mike Lindsay.

1:05:09On April 6, 2022, Mike Shreiner received a reply from President Lindsay, which included this paragraph.

1:05:19There is no Ministry Program requirement or need for the decommissioned bridge,

1:05:28and therefore no available provincial funding for restoration or future maintenance.

1:05:34However, IO does appreciate the community's interest in the Woodin-Tressel Bridge,

1:05:41and if the GHTC's funding application is successful, we'll continue to work closely

1:05:47with the GHCC in support of their efforts. This reply is entirely consistent with the IO mandate

1:05:56to mitigate liability on behalf of the province. They don't restore. But CEO and President Lindsay

1:06:03also said, show me the money and we will work with you. One positive thing you can say about IO

1:06:12is they don't send out mixed messages about the fate of iconic features on their property.

1:06:19Their position is clear and transparent. Things may have changed over the last 18 months

1:06:25between IO and the city. In March 2023, Council unanimously passed this motion.

1:06:34The staff continued discussions with Infrastructure Ontario regarding options for conservation of the

1:06:41Tressel Bridge on the reformatory property and report back to Council. At this point,

1:06:49I don't know what conservation options have been presented for Council to consider.

1:06:56I do know a decision to include restoring the wall and the bridge in the upcoming multi-year

1:07:03budget would have huge community and organizational support, and I urge Council to make sure they

1:07:10are included. Thank you. Are there any questions for Mr. Fisher? Seeing none, thank you very much.

1:07:21Now I'd like to call on Councillor Downer to place the recommendation and then I'll look for a

1:07:26seconder. Okay, I would ask staff to put up the motion that City Council request the Infrastructure

1:07:32Ontario repair the damaged dome wall at the Ontario reformatory. Of course, making this work

1:07:38request will initiate some discussions as well as has done with the Tressel Bridge and my

1:07:47understanding that's ongoing. So I appreciate what Mr. Fisher has said and that's something for us to

1:07:56consider a budget time or one screen from Infrastructure Ontario. Thank you. I saw

1:08:04Councillor Caron. I wasn't sure. Are you seconding the motion? Yes, thank you. Councillor, did you

1:08:09want to speak to that at all? I treat Infrastructure Ontario as a property owner as we would treat

1:08:19any property owner and if we have an identified heritage feature, a cultural asset, on any property

1:08:25in the City of Guelph, we would expect a duty of care and stewardship and in the event that

1:08:32a cultural heritage asset was destroyed in any way or compromised in any way,

1:08:37we would ask for it to be repaired. So this treats everyone equally and IO has a responsibility

1:08:45to the people of Ontario to protect our assets. That's a bad example if they don't, so happy to

1:08:50support the motion. Thank you. Councillor Caton, I saw your hand. I wasn't sure if that's for

1:08:55comments or seconding. It was for seconding, but if you're going for comments then I can do that.

1:09:01Thank you. It's through you, Chair. I definitely support this. This is a very important heritage

1:09:09piece in Ward 1. If you've ever walked through, it's like going through Hobbit land with all of the

1:09:16walls and the stone. It's really quite gorgeous, so if you've not been yet, then I highly recommend

1:09:21it because this is something that we should definitely get them to preserve and potentially,

1:09:27if they don't want to, they can always give us the property and then we can maintain it.

1:09:31That would be great too. Thank you. Thank you. I know I'm mixing comments and questions.

1:09:38Councillor Allt. Thank you very much, Chair Busuttil. I think I will second Councillor Caton's

1:09:44motion to require the province to give us that land. I think that's a great motion.

1:09:51With regards to this particular motion though, and quite a serious vein, I think that it's very

1:09:56important that we do show that this land matters to Guelph residents. Historically, this land, no

1:10:03joke, has been land upon which many people have got their wedding pictures taken. I always thought

1:10:10that it was somewhat ironic that people were getting them done in front of a reformatory,

1:10:14but nonetheless they were the most beautiful lands in Guelph. Similarly, there have been many people

1:10:19that have been working very strongly on behalf of preserving the York lands. I think that this

1:10:25requires council to stand behind the community of Guelph and show that not just the buildings,

1:10:32but every blade of grass and every stone and every stone post matters.

1:10:39Thank you. Is there anything further on this item? Mayor Guthrie?

1:10:49I just had a question. It looks like this is the direction here in the recommendation

1:10:59it doesn't specifically state like the mayor to write the letter and it doesn't specifically state

1:11:05that the administration write the letter. I was just wondering what the mover wanted to do.

1:11:14There is is it fully left with like intergovernmental to send a letter or would you like me to do it?

1:11:23Councillor Downer? I would actually ask staff. Thank you. Good question. What is the better protocol

1:11:38for this, whether it would be from the mayor and the administration or just through the

1:11:44intergovernmental? Through the chair to Councillor Downer, intergovernmental staff will likely

1:11:52reach out personally to make a connection to the folks at IO before we send the letter and get

1:11:57some guidance from them about who it is most appropriately best directed to and based on that

1:12:02we will make a decision on whether or not it is best to come from staff or from the mayor.

1:12:07So if you leave that with us, we are happy to navigate that with IO.

1:12:11Thank you. Is that okay? Councillor? Mayor Guthrie?

1:12:17That is fine. I personally would like to write the letter because it has a little bit more

1:12:25oomph to it that it is coming from council and I am the head of council. It might be an opportunity

1:12:31for me if there is advocacy work in the future, like if I run by somebody at the province about

1:12:38the issue, then it is an easier door open for me to say like, hey, I sent you a letter.

1:12:45So I just would mind that but I will leave it up to intergovernmental to decide.

1:12:51But my second question and my last question is, do you think that there is some validity in

1:12:56including the part about the dry stone tourism sort of opportunity? Because I think that is a

1:13:04great idea and maybe could that please be embedded into the letter? Yeah, through the

1:13:14chair to the mayor, we are happy to take that direction and include it in the letter. No problem.

1:13:19All right. I am not suggesting we have to do a motion about it but I think it is a good idea.

1:13:23So I thought I would just throw it out there. Okay. That is all my comments. I am supportive.

1:13:27Thank you. Thank you. Any further comments or discussion? Seeing none, I am going to call the

1:13:35vote. Is anyone opposed to the recommendation? That carries unanimously. Thank you. The next

1:13:43item is the downtown parking master plan. I would like to acknowledge that the staff prepared a