Guelph City Council respectfully requests that the Minister of Environment…

3:33:10calling the meeting back to order so thank you so much for uh for coming back we do have this item

3:33:18is the grand river conservation authority bill 68 which is a plan to protect ontario act and because

3:33:27this was uh asked to be brought for by councillor billings all this allow councillor billings to

3:33:32speak to the item uh just to kind of set the stage and we have a couple delegations that have

3:33:38also signed up as well and so councillor billings i will turn it over to you thank you mr marrick

3:33:47do you want me to put the motion down first before or or what what is your preference for order

3:33:56no i i'm giving you the opportunity to kind of the grace just to allow um you to you know table what

3:34:03you're looking to try to do to set the stage and then we'll allow the delegations to go any questions

3:34:09and then and then we'll we'll come back to you to formally put it on the floor at that point

3:34:14okay okay mr marrick okay so the the province announced a new provincial body intended to

3:34:20strengthen and the coordination and oversight i.e governance and and this body is called the

3:34:25Ontario Provincial Conservation Agency and the province is proposing to consolidate 36

3:34:32conservation authorities into seven larger regional bodies and many uh c.a.s and municipalities

3:34:42have passed motions with respect to this matter um and essentially uh part of their their motion is

3:34:50they're rejecting the seven larger regional bodies that are being proposed so in summary which is

3:34:58from the attachment mr marrick uh the g rca is unique in that they're offering an alternative

3:35:05to the provincial proposal and the g rca board believes the the province's modernization and

3:35:12goals can still be achieved more effectively through a refined right-sized regional model

3:35:18aligned with the scale of the existing source protection regions that we have so i asked

3:35:28for this motion to be placed on the agenda for council's approval to support the g rca's bid

3:35:34to have the source protection regions be the boundaries instead of the proposed seven larger

3:35:41bodies so okay that's that's the stage okay thank you very thank you very much and uh

3:35:53uh just so you know like from a emo point of view with me being on the emo board and such

3:36:00there's a lot of municipalities that are passing these types of support motions in various similar

3:36:04fashion so i think it is important that we look at this and uh it's also timely we sort of have to

3:36:10get get these things done prior to the break so thank you councillor billings and we do have two

3:36:17delegations as i said the first is susan watson and the second one is dr. hu whiteley

3:36:22and susan is here in person and then dr. whiteley will join us online

3:36:28and i think you would both know but just because i always say it it's up to five minutes with the

3:36:34chime at the four minute and thirty second mark and just stick around in case any of my colleagues

3:36:39or myself have any questions i do want to just reiterate that we are speaking to what's been

3:36:47tabled by councillor billings and in regards to bill 68 as much as possible please okay thank you

3:36:54very much susan over to you yeah mayor guthrie and members of gulf city council i'll start by saying

3:37:00that i completely support the resolutions brought forward by councillor billings and i encourage all

3:37:05of council to vote in favor of them it's clear that bill 68 is going to have a massive impact on

3:37:11levies governance and accountability but bill 68 also appears to have very serious implications

3:37:17for current g rca assets including infrastructure financial reserves and land in his letter to

3:37:25you john chaloner says the following the g rca maintains significant watershed specific infrastructure

3:37:33reserves and land assets including infrastructure financial reserves and land

3:37:42sorry the g rca maintains significant watershed specific infrastructure reserves and land assets

3:37:47built through decades of watershed investment key concerns include the potential redistribution

3:37:52of well-developed g rca reserves to support capital needs in other watersheds that have not made

3:37:58comparable investments clear assurances are required to ensure these resources remain dedicated to

3:38:04the watershed communities they were intended to serve so the g rca is clearly concerned about what

3:38:10is going to their happen to their assets i want to speak about the implications of bill 68 for the

3:38:17eight hectare field which was once part of the former frank court right waterfowl center which is

3:38:22at risk of being sold off and developed back in july of this year staff and the mayor were assuring

3:38:29the public that they were on this file there was supposed to be a public report back in the fall of

3:38:34this year and it's now december 16th but just a couple of weeks ago the mayor stated in a ctv

3:38:40interview that the ultimate fate of this land is not up to the city the g rca determined that it was

3:38:46deemed surplus they will control the process on what happens with those lands this is a complete

3:38:52abdication of council's responsibility in the 1970s the city of guelph contributed hundreds of

3:38:59thousands of tax dollars towards the assembly of land for the future handland creek conservation

3:39:04area part of which was the purchase of the former frank court right waterfowl park i've provided you

3:39:10with a historic documentation that proves that guelph contributed 30 to 40 of the purchase price

3:39:16the mnr 50 to 60 percent and the g rca only 10 percent that original investment is now worth millions

3:39:26former civic leaders norm jerry ken hamill and eileen hamill advocated for this contribution so the

3:39:32g rca could hold these lands in trust for the city of citizens of guelph in perpetuity i obtained a

3:39:41copy of the mnr grant letter via an foi and it contains this statement please refer to the

3:39:48attached copy of the report to management board for further particulars and conditions of approval

3:39:54the g rca was unable to locate this document in their files and at the july 16th council meeting

3:40:01councillor billings asked staff if they were going to try to obtain that document from the archives

3:40:07of ontario and the answer was that the legal department was working on it it's now five

3:40:12months later has that document been retrieved what does it say because that document could have

3:40:18potential legal implications around the ability of the g rca or any other conservation area to

3:40:24sell those lands and you also need to fix the problem that you created i would not advise depending

3:40:32on any assurances from the province margoth reasserted in his ctv interview that the city

3:40:39understands the importance of parkland how is it then that in 2017 under margoth re's leadership

3:40:46the city removed open space parkland zoning for eight hectares of conservation land within the

3:40:52city's boundaries i still don't have a clear understanding of how or why that happened and

3:40:59and this is in a context where we're on track to incur a massive parkland deficit by the year

3:41:052051 a shortage of 174 hectares relative to projected population by riverside parks

3:41:14whilst city council changing the zoning of this land jacked its value into the stratosphere

3:41:21and the temptation was simply too much for the g rca they fabricated a false acquisition narrative

3:41:28about the he spler dam project to justify declaring it surplus and cashing in with the looming

3:41:35conservation area amalgamations as anyone's guess now what could happen to that land in a couple of

3:41:40months you will have the opportunity to correct this historic error and protect this land when an

3:41:46official plan update comes to council in february 2024 you need to act on that opportunity and

3:41:53change the zoning back to open space parkland thank you thank you very much for your opinions

3:42:00and uh is there any questions at all for the delegate no seeing hearing none thank you very

3:42:06much thank you and now we have uh dr. Hugh whiteley going to join us by video looks like he's joining

3:42:13us now just got to turn on your video if you can hear all right we do see a hue we just need you to

3:42:22unmute i unmuted once so i'll do it again all right we can we can hear and see you so your

3:42:34five minutes will start whenever you're ready thank you thank you mr. Guthrie and council members

3:42:41for this most important issue being presented to council for some action i want to focus attention

3:42:52exclusively on bill 68 because it represents an extraordinarily

3:43:00lead damaging act by the provincial government to remove local involvement in conservation

3:43:10activities and i want council to be aware of how extensive is the background of the city of

3:43:21guelph in the formation of the original conservation uh authorities act the record is clear that it was a

3:43:311941 conference held in memorial hall at the university of guelph that triggered off the

3:43:39recognition that southern ontario conservation depended on the formation of conservation authorities

3:43:48um the motion from that 1941 meeting pointed out that deterioration in the natural resources

3:43:58in southern ontario was so severe in the 30s and early 40s that the future sustainable

3:44:08prosperity of the communities of that area were at risk and to answer that difficulty

3:44:17the meeting called for the formation of voluntary municipal coordination on a watershed basis as the

3:44:31way that governance could properly give attention to conservation of natural resources

3:44:38this call was taken up by the provincial government under the leadership of george true i'm

3:44:45interested to learn that he's a favorite of one of the council members as the only

3:44:52wealth-based premier of ontario anyway george true recognized the importance of forming these

3:45:00communities led municipally coordinated conservation authorities and the essential

3:45:10feature of them is that they are voluntary the province did not force municipalities to form

3:45:18conservation authorities it allowed them to recognize the wisdom of gathering together

3:45:26and operating on a watershed basis to produce good conservation policies

3:45:33this was further strengthened by another conservative premier leslie frost in his longest

3:45:43period of leadership in ontario leslie identified himself as an environmentalist

3:45:51and quite properly strengthened conservation authorities activities

3:46:00the overall outcome from this is that it's been an outstanding success and the city of

3:46:07gulf in particular has benefited more the probably than any other municipality

3:46:13were having conservation authority basis for natural resource management we not only have

3:46:21outstanding conservation areas in gulf lake and rockwood and i would point out that the reason

3:46:30that there is a rockwood conservation area is that a gulf leadership personality or a smack

3:46:42was strongly in favor of forming it and created it in addition the gulf gulf has benefited from

3:46:55a huge amount of natural area retention there's the 775 acres of the

3:47:06hanneland creek conservation area that has developed from gulf-based

3:47:14operations within the conservation authorities framework to acquire that land and i don't know

3:47:22that council members are aware that two other very important conservation areas in the vicinity of

3:47:32gulf starkey hills and the smith property on the aramosa river both of those were reached

3:47:42hi hi hu it's it's maric gothree and i'm sorry that you just went over your five minutes there and

3:47:48so the the time stopped for you my apologies but thank you for your your presentation let me just

3:47:55ask if there is a follow-up question from any of my colleagues uh yeah councillor Caron please

3:48:03i think we were about to get information on the history of the smith property and how it parallels

3:48:09with the g rca land uh history and i just wondered if we could give another 30 to 60 seconds to

3:48:18dr whiteley or i'll ask it as a question dr whiteley what is the history of the smith property

3:48:24as it relates to this agenda item okay just so everyone knows we don't usually allow that anymore

3:48:34to use a question to help someone continue on on a delegation but i'm charitable and it's the

3:48:41holiday season so i'm going to allow it right now as the chair i'm going to make that ruling

3:48:46but please in the future we shouldn't use this as an opportunity to allow people just to continue

3:48:50on just from a process point of view dr dr whiteley go ahead and answer that question for

3:48:55councillor Caron okay and us thank you hey dr whiteley i'm going to give you your time back here

3:49:04you just you're still muted could you unmute for us can can our clerks unmute for him yeah okay sorry

3:49:24yeah dr whiteley did you want to try one more time after i was all charitable there and letting

3:49:29answer the question uh it's not working darn it sorry dr whiteley it's it's just not working

3:49:42another another five seconds give it a try i'm so sorry dr whiteley it's just not working

3:49:54by all means we know you're good with email if you want to maybe just send a

3:49:58council a quick quick email with that story i found another lucky i kept talking there you go

3:50:04another section okay keep going you answer that question for councillor Caron the city of

3:50:11gulf undertook with the g rca the gulf valley lands project the first three pieces of land that were

3:50:19on city of gulf request list bought by the g rca were the smith property the very first property

3:50:28the second was the hanlon creek um estate property and the third was the starkey hills

3:50:37200 acre urches all right you got a thumbs up from councillor Caron and all of us here

3:50:48thank you very much and thank you for your delegation okay yep thanks dr whiteley have

3:50:54a good holiday bye bye all right councillor billings i'm going to turn it back to you if you want to

3:51:01state anything uh and i know you would love to move the the motion as well so i'll turn over to you

3:51:09so mr maro i'll move the motion and it's seconded by councillor chou do you do you want me to read

3:51:17the entire motion i really don't um but we're gonna ask we're gonna ask uh the clerks to throw it up

3:51:26on the screen at least just maybe uh just as you speak about the importance of this we can have it

3:51:34at least up there for everyone to see okay so so essentially mr maro you know the g rca board

3:51:42believes that you can still modernize like the province wants us to do while preserving local

3:51:49responsiveness and using the source protection regions would be in my mind uh well it would make

3:51:58sense and it would be more effective and and manageable uh where i feel that what the province

3:52:05is proposing would be nonsensical under the now therefore be it resolved which is the third clause

3:52:13i i added that clause because well stated in the attachment municipalities are to fund all or a

3:52:21portion of this new agency's operation so it really means municipalities pay and have no say

3:52:30but by the way this is a precedent setting method for funding a provincial agency which in my view

3:52:37is just wrong on so many levels so hold on okay so so you're saying i don't have to read them the

3:52:51entirety of the motion no you can if you wish just that there's a lot of a lot of one too there's a

3:52:59lot i think everyone could read it yeah okay i'm seconded by councillor Chew and you still have the

3:53:08floor go ahead yes and just quickly uh ceo samantha lawson uh i believe is uh in the in the gallery

3:53:17and she's here um to answer any questions from from members of council with respect to this matter

3:53:26actually i'm going to invite you to the microphone for a moment because you have been here

3:53:30would you like to just validate or clarify speak to the importance of what you think

3:53:37gulf council is looking to vote on sorry if you hope that's okay everybody give me the

3:53:42ability to do that you've been here thank you okay thank you very much for the opportunity

3:53:48i think just to um further highlight the recommendation from the provinces to

3:53:54basically consolidate 81 municipalities so that would be the number of municipalities

3:53:59that would be in the new proposed regional conservation authority that the g rca would

3:54:03be included into so that's going to run basically from guelph right to winzer so it's a fairly large

3:54:11landscape and i think most of the municipalities can recognize that the the success of conservation

3:54:17authorities is because of the local focus and the local input that happens to create the programs

3:54:24and services that we provide so the g rca is proposing um recognizing um as cancer billings

3:54:32had mentioned that there are some needs to modernize the system um and that can come through consolidation

3:54:39but at a much smaller scale so the g rca is proposing um the source protection regions which would

3:54:45consolidate four c a's into one but it's already a proven governance model and it um is at a size

3:54:53that we feel can still um it doesn't dilute the local input or opinions or programs and services

3:54:59that it would provide um the other item too um that was mentioned was the new provincial agency

3:55:07and that is something new for the province and so that is to provide greater provincial oversight

3:55:13to whatever the new conservation authorities um are and that would include governance as well as

3:55:19operational items it's also a tool the province is using to help standardize um and advance some

3:55:25of the tools that the conservation authorities um could utilize so increasing greater capacity for

3:55:30permitting and managing the variety of programs and services that we have so um really appreciative

3:55:37of the opportunity and and the support from the city as well as the other watershed municipalities

3:55:42and happy to answer any questions thank you very much i'm going to go to alton busatil and then

3:55:49up to ferron please thank you very much mayor guther and thank you to the delegate for or

3:55:55standing here in front of us to clarify some things um with regards to the 81 municipalities

3:56:00and the various conservation authorities how many of them are expressing similar concerns to what

3:56:07we are discussing here um through you mayor to council all of them there we go that's a great

3:56:14answer nice and short um the other concern that i have is with regards to uh i think it was a comment

3:56:20by uh councillor billings and also clause three about um uh downloading of costs to municipalities

3:56:27could you unpack that this is a big concern to me we can't afford any more downloading

3:56:33i'm through you mayor to council so um the amendments to the conservation authorities act

3:56:38that were tabled in bill 68 have been enacted so the bill was passed the one part of the

3:56:44amendments that was not enacted was the ability of the agency to levy the conservation authorities

3:56:50for costs associated to their operations so the province has is still doing consultation on the

3:56:57amalgamation or consolidation of the conservation authorities and at those sessions they've said

3:57:02that the first term of the agency will be funded by the province so the first term is three years

3:57:09starting uh effectively i think uh 2026 um and that they won't be utilizing their powers to levy

3:57:17the conservation authorities in that time i will put heavy caveats around it that's what they've said

3:57:24so uh they also mentioned too that in the spring they will be issuing regulations to more formalize

3:57:31the responsibility of the agency relative to um the new proposed conservation authorities because

3:57:37the relationship is still not clear either how much oversight and input they will have

3:57:43into the management of the new conservation authorities but yes they have put in there the

3:57:48ability to levy the conservation authorities for the costs and operations of the agency

3:57:53thank you very much so what i understand just to try to break it down is from 2026 to 2029

3:57:59this might be revenue neutral from 2029 onward which is a year before uh the the the next municipal

3:58:09election after this one it would be incumbent upon uh the conservation authorities and the

3:58:16municipalities to fund further the conservation authorities therefore putting a a greater

3:58:23tax burden on the municipalities is that a correct assumption um through you mayor gut three i yes i

3:58:30think so because the um agency has the ability to levy the conservation authorities who in turn

3:58:36apportion the municipalities and just to follow up and it also sounds like without any

3:58:44significant oversight over the the the new uh whatever they are conservation authorities

3:58:50whatever is that correct yeah so through you mayor the um legislation states that they will

3:58:55be provincial appointments to the board that governs the agency sounds like fun thank you very

3:59:01much thank you and then spooce atil and then karan and then shoot thank you and through the mayor

3:59:12thank you for for staying thank you for staying so i want to first acknowledge and thank uh

3:59:18councillor billings for raising the governance concern and putting it into emotion it's a huge

3:59:24concern about the centralization of decision making um and to councillor absolutely about

3:59:30the downloading on the local residents i just he asked a number of my questions just a quick

3:59:35question around has this resolution uh similar resolutions been shared with you know public

3:59:42health ontario other kinds of bodies and agencies uh to kind of raise the concerns um through you

3:59:50mayor a g r c specifically hasn't shared it with other public agencies but we have shared it um

3:59:57with the local m p p's first nations and all the watershed municipalities thank you thank you

4:00:04very much uh karan then shoot uh thank you through you mr mayor and thanks to the delegate for

4:00:13sticking around as well um two of the previous delegates talked about the risk of um land

4:00:22acquisitions over a long period of time that were funded in part by the city of guelph being at risk

4:00:29with this consolidation plan is that is that a risk that you the g r c a is talking about and a risk

4:00:35that you share uh and then the second question is about the the document from the 1970s that that is

4:00:43still being um searched for just wondered if you had an update on what that document might contain

4:00:52okay so to answer the first question about the concern what will happen under consolidation to

4:00:59all of g r c a's assets uh yet that is a significant concern of the g r c a um again it's it's not

4:01:07clear what the process is for the consolidation or how that's going to happen um g r c a is seeking

4:01:13legal advice um to best prepare us um for that um from the g r c a's perspective i think it's it's

4:01:21fairly similar that we don't um necessarily want you know the authorities been around for 80 years

4:01:29and has built up reserves and has a very sophisticated program particularly in terms of our management

4:01:34of our water infrastructure and our concern is that that similar sort of longevity of the organization

4:01:40but also approach is not matched with some of the other ca's that potentially could be consolidated

4:01:46with the authority and our concern is that g r c a priorities would not surface as high

4:01:53based on a regional context so there's a lot of concern around a number of assets that the authority

4:01:58has um in regards to the 1970s document um i think the delegate mentioned we didn't find a copy of

4:02:07that report um uh in our files um and we have not asked for it um from the province but um

4:02:18my understanding is the city has okay thank you councillor crown two please

4:02:26thank you through you mr mayor uh sam thank you for coming to gulf council on this matter

4:02:31i'm just curious uh based on the working group conversations uh at g r c a um how much emphasis

4:02:38in advocacy has there been around preserving the source water protection regions uh in the

4:02:43administrative boundary changes um so g r c was one of the first conservation authorities to formally

4:02:50table detailed comments um to the province as well as our other um agencies um i think the province

4:02:59has been clear in some of the roundtable discussions that we've had that uh we will not have 36

4:03:05conservation authorities after 2027 um they're flexible in the the seven or appear to be flexible

4:03:12in the seven um i think uh around the table with other um conservation authorities considering that

4:03:20there is already a framework in place and a governance model in place at the source protection

4:03:24level um i think some of my colleagues would agree that that's a more of a logical step versus

4:03:31the large-scale regional consolidations okay and we are one of the largest

4:03:36c a's in ontario is that correct um geographically yes we're the largest okay and can you very quickly

4:03:43speak to some of the i guess cultural and governance issues uh perhaps some of the smaller c a's and

4:03:49rural c a's compared to the structure and culture that we've had here at in southwestern ontario

4:03:57yeah so i think the province actually highlighted at one of the sessions that

4:04:02the toronto regional conservation authority has a budget of 177 million and that there are a number

4:04:08of c a's that have budgets of less than two to three million so you know i do think that there

4:04:14are capacity issues when it comes to offering programs and services um i think that the province

4:04:20is recognizing and some of the municipalities in the province have also requested that there needs

4:04:26to be uh more capacity in certain areas and some of the conservation authorities and the programs

4:04:32and services that they deliver given the importance of natural hazard management so the flood

4:04:37mitigation management as well as source protection and some of the other programs that the conservation

4:04:42authority offers um i think one of the other items too that the province is really concerned about is

4:04:50is also the consistency in terms of standards across um conservation authorities and i think

4:04:55that speaks again to some of the capacity of the smaller conservation authorities um to have more

4:05:02modern policies in place um you know the ability to have digital systems in place for for managing

4:05:09permits and that sort of thing so i think um you know there is some agreement around the table that

4:05:16there is some benefits to consolidating and modernizing the programs um and yeah i'll probably

4:05:23leave it at that yeah i just bring that up because uh there are conversations that you guys have within

4:05:30like eerie um source protection regions and perhaps that could be maximized further from a

4:05:37governance lens to kind of address uh the consistency component uh moving beyond just

4:05:43source protection conversations but also operational issues um and maybe that could be a takeaway as well

4:05:51and i'm finished thank you thank you councillor shoo that's it i think for questions to you thank

4:05:58you for sticking around as well thank you we appreciate your work too thank you it's i must

4:06:02be trying times with with the whole announcement and everything when the province so we wish you

4:06:08all the best okay thank you for what you do yeah thanks okay uh councillor downer has a question

4:06:15for uh staff and i do see councillor gibson and okay you can do questions or comments just so we

4:06:22can get to the end of this item are you miss me yeah and thanks to council rulings for bringing

4:06:26this forward i think it's a like a really important issue um the one i have a question for staff and i

4:06:34notice jody's not here but uh in the information items that we get uh under intergovernmental

4:06:42consultation it says on this issue um that staff may prepare a letter for submission via the

4:06:49environmental registry of Ontario did we do that so through the mayor to councillor downer so staff

4:06:57are working on that right now so the idea is to have that posted uh this friday in the information

4:07:01packages and so that that work is to come but what i can say um is certainly staff overall are

4:07:07fundamentally aligned with with what's in front of you today um you know our perspective in that

4:07:12water is paramount and with golf being a drinking water uh groundwater based drinking water community

4:07:17the the watershed work here is is imperative it's of utmost importance to us and so you'll see that

4:07:23type of commentary reflected in the staff um documentation perfect thank you yeah because

4:07:28i know the deadline i think is the 22nd for this consultation so that's perfect um the other thing

4:07:34i would add i wonder if councillor billings would mind if i added one uh amendment to number four

4:07:41which would be to include amo in this circulation the association of municipalities of Ontario

4:07:50okay so could i move that as an amendment do you need it you don't need it in writing to you

4:07:55no and councillor billings will second that and i'm going to call the vote on amo if that's okay

4:08:01are we talking about the amendment councillor crown number four who the circulation is

4:08:10uh yes i had an amendment to the amendment so i do that now i're waiting for this to pass

4:08:15because i was going to add the other other g rc a member municipalities i guess that would

4:08:20be covered in amo if amo circulates it to everyone well i think that you can do that too

4:08:27i amo won't be circulating it yeah circulating it to okay so i'll add an amendment and other

4:08:34g rc a member municipalities hope it's okay and it's seconded by councillor chou on the amendment

4:08:50okay councillor chou uh just through you to um councillor um caron i i just wonder if that

4:08:57would be redundant to add g rc a member municipalities because virtually all the

4:09:03municipalities are doing a similar form as we are today and they're tabling their own motions so

4:09:08i'm just saying they're already doing that so i wonder if we need to add that piece

4:09:13um you know what as the chair i will just say that it doesn't hurt so i say we support councillor

4:09:19crowns amendment to the amendment and we move on okay can i yeah can i uh can i call the vote on

4:09:27the amendment to the amendment of adding g rc a member municipalities good is anyone against that

4:09:34nobody good we're back to the amendment now of councillor uh councillor downers about adding

4:09:41amo it's already been seconded any questions on that no i'm going to call the vote anyone against

4:09:47adding amo as an amendment nobody that's unanimous awesome we're back to the main motion as amended

4:09:57now and on my list i did have billings and then Gibson and then that is it so through you mr mayor

4:10:06i mean uh the question i had uh councillor downer asked it so to staff when the staff do the posting

4:10:15is it going to be clear that we are like the city of Guelph is supporting the source protection

4:10:22regions and to make that extremely clear through the mayor to council of billings i can tell you

4:10:30certainly that staff's um position and perspective so as a takeaway we'll make sure the language is

4:10:35reflective of the comment thank you thank you so much thank Gibson please yeah thank you

4:10:43not a question comments i just wanted to applaud the conscription 30 and everyone who works with them

4:10:48i think aligning with source water protection is a logical approach as an alternative to the

4:10:52province i know in working with um advocacy with the province like you don't always appreciate the

4:10:58direction the province wants to go but you acknowledge that they have the ability to do that so you have

4:11:03to offer them alternatives and i just want to say it's a sound argument i'm glad that um the

4:11:10conservation authorities seem to be broadly adopting it um and i think it's wise the one thing that i

4:11:15have observed from this government over the last eight years is that he's the premise famous for

4:11:20saying i'll put water in my wine sometimes if he if he gets too far ahead of his skis and sometimes

4:11:24they want to move the ball you know they want to move the ball 20 yards down the line but they

4:11:28realize they can really only get five or six and still achieve what their objectives are but it's

4:11:33not what they first proposed so i've seen that in multiple times and i just again i applaud the

4:11:40the advocacy because it's it's worthwhile and i think it i think it would be successful okay thank

4:11:47you i'm gonna call the vote then okay everybody this is on the main motion as amended okay is anyone

4:11:54against nobody okay that's unanimous too awesome okay motion to adjourn just kidding

4:12:09come on a little a little a little levity right just just a little levity okay by the way my council

4:12:19colleagues uh online i there's a few people in the audience that's who i was speaking to there

4:12:24there's a lot to see if you can't see them okay um just just one second everybody just one second

4:12:29i was actually in the middle of just doing something okay um we are at the bylaws probably the most