Special Council Meeting - Budget

11:15Okay, good morning everyone. If I could just have my colleagues online, maybe just throw their cameras on for us. That would be great

11:21Thanks so much everybody and I did receive regrets from

11:30Koran and

11:32Richardson

11:33Just to start that right off the top just so it's captured in the minutes

11:38but with that

11:39Thank you for joining us and I will now ask us to stand if you're able, please as we recognize our national anthem

11:47All right. Thank you everybody and now let's have a moment of silent reflection

13:29Thank you and now our territorial acknowledgement as we gather let us take time to reflect on our privilege to live and work here in Guelph

13:35A city that's built over rich indigenous histories as guests here

13:40We should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land and the people who live here today and the generations to come

13:46If our actions today can move us towards reconciliation

13:49We should take pause and make those decisions with intention and gratitude

13:53This place we call Guelph is served as traditional lands and a place of refuge for many peoples over time

13:58But more specifically the Anoan Rock and the Honanashoni

14:01This land is held as the treaty lands and territory with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation

14:08Guelph lies directly adjacent to the Haldeman track and is part of a long-established traditional hunting grounds for the six nations of the Grand River

14:16Many First Nations Inuit and Métis people who have come from a cross-turtle island called Guelph home today

14:22And with that is there any disclosure of pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof for the items that are in front of us today by any of my colleagues or me?

14:33Hearing and seeing none so consider that matter closed. Okay

14:37Here we are. We are at the final chapter the final countdown of

14:42the budget for 2026 and

14:46This section is the local boards and shared services

14:51We are going to have a

14:55Few presentations we're going to kick one off by our own city staff

14:59Shannon is going to come up here general manager of finance our city treasurer chief financial officer

15:06To give us a little bit of an overview set the stage for what we're about to have here today

15:10And then after that there is a few more presentations from some of the outside boards

15:15Some of them are not necessary

15:18Or they are unavailable, but we do have I think three that will be doing presentations. Okay

15:24Once that is done, I just want to

15:27I'll go back to my councilmates here and just ask if there's anybody that has any questions for

15:33And I'll sort of fill in the blank for some of the outside boards because if if there isn't any questions for some of the outside boards

15:41then we can say thank you very much and they can get back to work and and go about their way and

15:47For some that do you have some questions of clarity or whatever we can keep them around and and answer it at that time. Okay

15:53So with that

15:55Thank you very much, and I'll turn it over to Shannon

16:00Thank you and good morning mayor Guthrie and council

16:03We're here today as you said for the final step in the 2026 budget confirmation process

16:09This is the second year that the city services and local boards and shared services budgets are being confirmed separately

16:15And because local boards and shared services is a lengthy term

16:19I'll refer to this group of organizations as LBSS throughout these remarks

16:25So before we move on to the presentations from local boards, I have a few brief

16:31remarks and

16:34We'll provide an overview to remind you of golf spread budget structure

16:37The city's budget includes both municipal services as well as specialized services delivered by seven

16:44LBSS agencies as shown on the slide

16:46The city funds all are part of each of those local board operations through though each one has its own

16:53Governance structure that defines its relationship with the city most of the city funding for these organizations comes from property taxes with the exception of the Grand River

17:02Conservation Authority which is funded through water and wastewater utility rates

17:06While council does not have direct oversight of these agencies city counselors do serve on the board of governors for each organization

17:17So historically a little more than two-thirds of Guelph's tax levy has supported city city services with just under one-third

17:24allocated to the LBSS

17:26Over the past several years this ratio has shifted in

17:302019

17:3167.6 percent of tax revenue went to city services and 32.4 percent to local boards

17:37By 2026 this distribution has shifted with the LBSS portion increasing and the city portion decreasing by

17:45three just over 3.5 percent

17:48And that's how you get to the close to 36 64 split that you're seeing today

18:01This chart illustrates how the tax supported budget has grown over time the blue bar represents city services tax levy increases

18:09And the orange bar represents the LBSS increases in recent years

18:13LBSS increases have often exceeded the one-third share of the overall tax or overall increase that they historically represented

18:20That's why over time we've seen that allocation of tax funds between city services and LBSS shift

18:31The city support for the organizations listed on this slide is the general property tax levy

18:36The collective impact of the 2026 budget update on the tax levy is 4.40 percent an increase of 1.68 percent

18:44from the previously adopted increase of 2.72

18:48All LBSS agencies were asked to submit a letter outlining their 2026 budget update and the letters we received are attached to the council report for you

18:57In just a few moments Guelph police service Guelph public library in the county of Wellington will present their budgets to you

19:03This chart shows the year-over-year percentage increases in gross tax funding for city services and each of the local boards before assessment growth

19:15Well, the percentage changes are helpful for comparison the impact on the tax levy varies significantly depending on the size of each

19:22organizations budget

19:24For example a 16 percent increase for the library represents about 1.9 million dollars

19:29While a 9.9 percent increase for police represents nearly 6.6 million

19:34So that's why we use that levy impact as a baseline comparator for all

19:40It's also important to highlight that the social services increase is about 1.4 million higher than the county's increase

19:47And that's because of the phased-in approach that was taken to the significant 2024 increase

19:52drawing down contingency reserves in 24 25 and 26 to take a longer-term approach to adding this impact to the tax levy

20:01And so I will now provide a brief overview of the budgets for which a council presentation wasn't required

20:07The DGB a or downtown Guelph business association is a business improvement area in downtown Guelph that levies an additional

20:17Special tax on those businesses within their boundary area

20:21The 2026 budget update has been approved by the DGB a board with a total levy of

20:27742 thousand 836 dollars which represents a 3% increase over 2025

20:36Wellington Dufferin Guelph public health is the regional public health authority serving Guelph Wellington County and Dufferin County

20:42responsible for delivering mandated public health programs and services the city contributes to a portion of its operating cost after

20:49Provincial grants based on relative population

20:51The public health board has finalized its 2026 budget update confirming a levy increase of seventy thousand 142

20:58Which represents a point two percent levy impact?

21:03Point zero two rather

21:05The Elliott community offers a continuum of care for older adults including life lease units retirement living and long-term care services

21:14It's the city's designated long-term care home and the city's financial contribution only supports the long-term care portion of the operation

21:22The Elliott's annual budget request supports both day-to-day operations and ongoing capital needs required to maintain safe high-quality

21:29Resident care the Elliott's approved 2026 budget fully aligns with the amount that was adopted for 2026

21:36and

21:37As you can see on the side, it's an increase of twenty six thousand two hundred and forty one dollars

21:47Next is the Grand River Conservation Authority, which I will refer to as the GRCA

21:51The city's contribution to the GRCA is funded from the water and wastewater rates and there are no changes to the 2026

21:58amount in our budget for the GRCA from what was adopted

22:01The GRCA's budget is still in draft and it's expected to be approved by their board later this month

22:07And so with that before we move into the presentations from police library in the county

22:16We would like to pause to turn it back over to the mayor to invite any council questions for the LBSS agencies

22:22That are not presenting today, and we have representatives available online or in the room from each of it from from the

22:29Elliott public health and

22:32GRCA and we want to make efficient use of their time today by taking any questions for them now

22:38Thanks, Shanna, and thanks for that overview

22:41I'll just quickly go through. Does anybody have no, I'll just stay stated up front

22:46There is no representative from the DGB here, although we have some

22:50Of our councilmates that maybe could jump in if they have to but is there any questions for DGB a?

22:58Nope, okay. Is there any questions for the Elliott? Nope hurry go

23:05Go

23:09Is there anything for GRCA at this time nope

23:16Okay, we're good there. I think that leaves the final three am I right?

23:23I don't have my glasses on

23:26That was the final three I believe did you ask about public health?

23:29Very if I missed it. No, I was just testing you to see if you remembered. What about public health anyone for public health?

23:38No, we're good. Okay, so

23:41That was easy. Thank you very much

23:44And we we accept those those budgets, so thank you very much

23:48And we'll move on then to the presentations from the three that are remaining

23:55And so we're gonna start

23:57with the police and so if you want to come up and

24:09You know what? I'll just I'm sorry. I'm just gonna say this as you get ready as you come up

24:12I just really want to thank all the outside boards just off the top for

24:17Taking the extra time to actually go and review these these these budgets, you know back before

24:24Christmas is when you're supposed to be here and

24:29You know we I asked

24:32respectfully for you to go

24:34back and please sharpen the pencils as much as you could and

24:39I know for the for the three that are about to present they they did that work

24:45I'm very glad that we had had given you some more time

24:49There's some money that was actually realized and saved from an affordability perspective, so I just really want to thank

24:58Everybody for the work that they did in taking that extra time

25:01I know that we're still here with an overall impact that is

25:06That is a little bit trying for for people, but it would have been

25:10It would have been much higher if this extra time had not been taken. So thank you very much for doing that

25:16And we so with that I'll start with the police and I'll turn it over to the two of you Ajay and our chief

25:24Ajay is on our board for the police services as the vice chair and so is coming

25:31Today just because our chair for the police was not available. So Ajay, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Thank you, mr

25:38Mayor, mr

25:39Mayor and counsel good morning

25:40My name is Ajay Sharma. I'm counsel's appointed community member on the Guelph police service board and proud to be our vice chair

25:47Our board has a responsibility to ensure adequate and effective policing for our citizens

25:52We are deeply committed to providing our community with the service they need

25:55And deserve in a way that is safe and sustainable for our members

26:00The 226 budget represents year three of our four-year budget process

26:05This long-term plan has developed after extensive research and consultation with our community

26:11As you've heard previously our service was shown to have

26:14significantly under

26:15resourced

26:16Over the last several years

26:17We have been working hard to ensure that critically needed investments are made while being mindful of affordability consideration for our residents

26:25This has resulted in a phasing in or catching up investments while also addressing new and emerging priorities

26:32I will leave it to the chief to discuss in more detail. However, it's important to note

26:37the exceptional

26:39Progress we have made in recent years

26:41This includes considerable and consistent improvements in our crime severity index rankings

26:46And the important impacts being seen in relation to our intimate partner violence

26:50human trafficking and internet child exploitation units

26:54Governance accountability and demonstrating a return on the investments made by our community are critically important

27:00The chief's presentation will highlight both the results of investments made and how we will continue to ensure

27:05Our service is well positioned to support the needs of our growing city

27:09In addition to the information you heard today, I encourage you to review our detailed annual reports

27:14Which provide a variety of metrics with respect to how work

27:18Is being done by our members and the service they provide

27:20I would like to close by thanking you for the important work you do and for the support you provide our citizens and the members of our service

27:28Finally, I would like to express my most sincere thanks to our gulf police service members

27:33For the incredible work they do and the sacrifices they make for their families and our service to our city. Thank you

27:39Good morning, everyone. I'm just clicking through because I'm assuming we're going to get there

27:55Okay, morning everyone. I assume I'm going to do my very best

27:58I've promised terra. I'll be brief because I believe this is the third time

28:02You've seen this budget because as aji mentioned

28:06It's it's the third year of the four-year budget. So

28:11Obviously everything we do is rooted in our mission vision and values

28:15And we work very hard to make sure there's alignment not only with that our strategic plan

28:19But your strategic plan as the city of gulf

28:24our fte growth

28:26for

28:282026 remains unchanged from what you would have saw in our original budget projection when we first presented this budget to give you a frame of reference

28:36The six sworn and two civilian member fte ketchup package represents about a 2% fte growth

28:43So for our community who's watching if we were an organization of 100 next year

28:48We'll be an organization of about 102

28:50at a 2% fte growth rate

28:53I'm going to touch on some things in more detail. This is going to include some new and urging

28:58Service enhancements based on legislative changes and things like that that we are absorbing into the originally projected fte growth package

29:06As well as two permanent canadian mental health association clinicians

29:10We had piloted that for a couple of years within our reserves

29:15We were doing that one more time in 2026 and with the board and your support

29:20Uh formalizing that to go into base in 2027 and beyond

29:24I think the whole community knows mark and kim the outstanding work they've done and and we want to

29:30Make that permanent that support

29:32You'll note as we go through the package the vast majority of the increase over the projected budget last year and the final

29:40One that you see before you today is the result of our recently ratified collective agreement and other contractual obligations

29:50I am not going to well. I have a binder here full of stuff

29:53I'm not going to go through the kpmg reports and all those types of things we've talked about

29:58Needless to say

29:59This is the third year of a catch-up plan to get us back to where we had spoken about

30:05Three years ago where we needed to be

30:07Long story short, we've tried to mitigate the risk of that slower catch-up

30:13In uh while being respectful for affordability

30:15I'm also not going to read you this quote that was part of the budget package. I see the mayor smiling because he's happy

30:23I'm not going to read this quote

30:25This was part of the original budget package in fall of 23 for the multi-year budget

30:30We talked about

30:32That at the time saying essentially we knew that we were phasing in these point-of-time recommendations

30:38But they were required to be respectful of affordability

30:42for our citizens

30:48You've also seen this many times this police to population

30:52Graph as you can see the line in blue our community continues to grow at a rapid rate

30:58Despite the growth that we've had over the year as a service

31:01We just we've not been able to keep up with that and that alludes to what I just mentioned

31:06We're trying to catch up, but we have to be respectful of affordability. That is where we're at

31:11We had a obviously you can see there we peaked a bit in 2020

31:14But the service we just can't keep up with population growth

31:18So we'll always be playing a bit of a catch up

31:21As I said, we have to be mindful of affordability, but also making sure to uh, Mr.

31:27Sharma's point we need to provide service that's safe and sustainable

31:30But also the level of service that our community wants and deserves

31:35So that's the trajectory. I suspect will be on for quite some time managing those two growth curves

31:41Uh, we had a record number of calls in 2025

31:45So just shy of 86,000 calls to give you a frame of reference

31:50When I sat before you here about seven years ago, we were at around 75 72,000

31:56So we've obviously had pretty significant growth rate that aligns with population growth

32:03That's about a 19 percent increase. I think from 2022

32:072025

32:11I think this graph is very important because we have said many times we would be mindful of affordability

32:18This demonstrates that well, yes, we have had significant growth

32:22Our overall percentage of the city's overall budget has in fact declined

32:28Over the last several years

32:30So 11.5 percent in 2020 to 11.2 percent in 2024

32:36That's while we take on service enhancements legislated by different levels of government

32:42That's while we manage growing

32:45All volumes and populations, etc

32:53Again, as we have been mindful of that affordability consideration, we have made very significant gains

33:0119th to 6th, I think is very very respectful as a community. I think we can all be proud of that

33:06Our members have worked very hard, but you as a council you have supported that work and I think that

33:14That tells a pretty a pretty special story for our community how far we've come

33:18We're hoping that that improves again next year. We're certainly on the right trajectory and it's consistent consistent steady improvement

33:25So I think we can all be proud of that

33:30ROI

33:31We should make sure that we are always mindful that ours is a tax-supported budget

33:35So what are we returning on our community's investments? We talked a lot the last

33:4018 months about its partner violence human trafficking and the importance of supporting your unanimous

33:47motion declaring ipv and epidemic in our community and these numbers since january

33:54I know you've all read the package, so I won't go through them all but you can see

33:58We've created an early intervention program to support folks

34:02many high-risk compliance checks

34:05we've also had

34:07a lot of

34:09Human trafficking and youth safety ongoing safeguarding

34:12We are particularly proud of point number three our community outreach just before christmas

34:17myself

34:18Mel Hugh whom you met last year and inspector goody

34:22We in one day we gave proactive education sessions to nine approximately 900 members of the wellington catholic district school board

34:31Both teachers and staff in to a morning session in an afternoon session approximately 900 people

34:38This is the kind of supportive proactive work that we need to be doing

34:42We hope to be doing that in the near future with our upper grand partners. We have some

34:50sessions scheduled in the spring with parent councils etc

34:53But this is how we want to support our citizens by preventing things

34:57Helping parents teachers and our community members have the information they need

35:01To protect their safety and that of their children

35:06our downtown

35:07Safety initiative again, you've heard me talk about this many times when we invest we show results on those investments for our community

35:15And you should expect that of us and me

35:17So I think these bullet points which again i'm not going to read to you

35:21But we are working very hard to demonstrate our commitment to that roi on your investments

35:30We've increased from a few hundred to a few thousand proactive initiatives both in our downtown and our community over the years

35:37Again our serious and organized crime types of work. You can see there

35:42Um 180 search warrants record numbers of seizures as far as drugs firearms, etc

35:49The mayor's proud of me on how fast i'm going through this aren't you mr. Mayor?

35:53um

35:55We also with respect to our break enter an auto theft unit

35:59another example

36:03Now we get to the critically required investments. So this year we are going to have to absorb

36:09So what i'm about to talk about now? This was not planned

36:12However, we are absorbing these legislated service enhancements with the existing catch-up package that we had already planned

36:20first um the ministry of the attorney general mag has requested that we increase our court security

36:27Presence in our three court locations

36:29It is our job to provide security to both our court partners the the individuals who work in courts and our citizens who attend our courts

36:38Right now we are we are not providing the level of security that the court is asking for

36:43So that will be a very significant investment for us

36:47Next year well this year actually

36:50Um this just went backwards

36:52Sorry about that

36:55Also bill 33 and bill 56 we talked a lot about these two things in the fall bill 33 is the legislation

37:02which basically

37:04means that

37:06We will have more engagement with our high schools with respect to high school resource officers

37:11We have always been for many years in our catholic board

37:15This bill will envision us going back to have more engagement with our upper grand board

37:20We have already had excellent discussions in relation to that

37:24An example as I said about the 900 staff that we were proactively able to meet with

37:30On the catholic board is an example of the work we want to do

37:33But this will take resources

37:35To support our high schools as well bill 56 talks a lot about the removal of traffic cameras

37:42Things like that

37:43We talked a lot about the safety of school zones and how that's important to our community

37:48We will be working to fill that gap that will be achieved

37:51We don't have the resources to just have a school unit to just have

37:55Um to increase our traffic

37:57We're going to have to absorb all of that by having a more robust community response unit

38:02To then provide those the best we can again while absorbing those service enhancements that are

38:09required

38:12and that

38:14This is our summary slide as I say

38:16The vast majority of the difference you saw is a result of the recently ratified collective collective agreement

38:24I think it's about 2.1 million is the difference 1.9 million of that is a result of the

38:31Collective agreement that was recently ratified. So I believe 98 percent of the projected that you saw last year versus what you're looking at today is that

38:39collective agreement

38:44Again, I know we found to the mayor's point earlier

38:48We were able to find some savings in the from our first presentation to the board to the second

38:53Our goal we wanted to have the two

38:56dedicated impact positions in base for 2026. However

39:00We have made the decision the board has made the decision to put those positions into reserves

39:05for 2026 to mitigate the growth

39:09somewhat

39:10And then we'll return that to base in 2027

39:15And with that I will conclude by saying

39:19All of these attachments

39:22I have not you've read them many times so I won't go through them at the end of the day

39:26The original catch-up package we had for this year that is essentially going to be absorbed by

39:31court security

39:33The school the crew the community resource officer enhancements. We're going to have to make to support these legislative service enhancements. I just outlined

39:41Essentially I said in 23 we'd be in 27 where we should have been in 23 by absorbing that that essentially that growth package is

39:48Take it up. So we've kind of pushed that out that phasing in by another year to 2028

39:53But we are trying to demonstrate a commitment to the affordability discussions

39:57That we've had with you our board and that I know you have with our citizens

40:01And with that mr. Mayor

40:03I look forward to any questions

40:05Well, thank you very much chief and to vice chair. Thank you very much and to all of the all of the officers and

40:13Our members with the police. Is there any questions? I know counselor alt has one

40:19We'll start with you counselor alt. I think that that's it. So thank you very much, mayor Guthrie

40:24And it is through you to chief cobyl ago

40:27I do wish to thank vice chair shana for presenting

40:31In the absence of the chair

40:34Chief cobyl, uh, one of the things that I appreciate about what the golf police services

40:39Is doing is is that we we aren't afraid to talk warts and all and so I'm going to talk warts as much as

40:46anything else

40:48As along with compliments you had made reference to bill 33 and bill 66 and the collective agreement

40:55And I would perhaps identify some of this as being warts and I would compliment golf police services

41:02On having passed a motion to address the fact that the province has downloaded

41:08financial responsibility for services that the province has directed police services to assume

41:15So I was wondering if you could please comment on the

41:18community officers related to the school services and to the court services a bit more

41:26I'm not going to guilt the lily here

41:28We're able to use reserves this year, but having been involved in this year's budget

41:34I know that this is not going to last forever and that next year we could be coming back with an increase

41:39So if you could comment on on anything that that you think we need to see that I would identify as a ward

41:46I would really appreciate that that I'll come back to another question or comment

41:51Sure, so I'll start start with the court security request essentially as a community

41:54We're responsible for ensuring the safety of our courts right now

41:58We operate three court locations and the level of security that meg has asked for is significantly enhanced from what we are currently providing

42:06so

42:08That is going to be a significant resource straw that in and of itself could be

42:14Before fte's just there and you'll correct me if I'm wrong. That's a high level

42:18What we're trying to do though is mitigate that how we're going to do that

42:22The schools and why we're going to be supporting so the original school program we used to have

42:28Resource officers assigned to each school rather than taking that approach

42:32We're trying to have our community response unit

42:36So they can also support a school, but they're holistically supporting the same neighborhood

42:40So that officer might be able to do traffic safety and school zones in the morning

42:45Well, then support a high school

42:49But then also be mindful of the community groups. So some some more synergies. So one there's more

42:54consultation and as we build our

42:57our

42:58Or rebuild our hsro program in the public board. Those are the kind of discusses we're having right now

43:04We don't have the resources to assign one officer just to every school

43:08So we're going to have to come up with a way to to absorb that responsibility

43:12In a way that finds synergies between all the different different roles and responsibilities we have

43:18Well, thank you very much. Um now some people are concerned that that

43:24Policing budgets are out of control and I was wondering if you could please comment on the fact space that we have with a

43:32um a population of approximately 150 000 and also the

43:38Population for which we actually police and why there is a disproportion there that we we need to address

43:45Sure. Um, so that is I think we're gonna that's about that our heads in beds levy in the university

43:51We have a population of approximately

43:53150 000 we're growing significantly faster than many

43:57Many are all of our comparators, but that does not include the 30 000 or so approximately at the university

44:03So we are essentially providing service to a much higher number than

44:08150 000 and I again, I'm not

44:12Particularly mindful of what that heads in bed beds levy is to the dollar

44:16But I know it hasn't been normalized in quite some time and so the 150 000 that we police is actually more like 200 000 councillor

44:26And thank you because I don't want anybody to to go away believing that this year dipping into the reserves is a long term solution

44:34The reality is uh police services will come back in future years because that's just the reality

44:40But now I want to flip to uh, not the warts, but some of the roses as well

44:45I think what's important for the community and for council to to hear is

44:50GPS as a role model for other police services as well

44:53and I was wondering if you could talk about the

44:56The work on ipv human trafficking and mental health support on the street because we often hear about

45:03concerns about police

45:05being enforcers

45:07But it goes far beyond that and this I think is very important for the public to hear how we're taking a very proactive role

45:14in what I'd identify as

45:17uh socially progressive

45:21Sure, thanks for that. So I'm going to start with our impact unit

45:24We were one of the earliest adopters of a dedicated integration between our members and training mental health workers

45:31Hell and fishburn and her team have had people embedded in our office for many years

45:36So we've been doing that for long before I got here most recently

45:40We've provided a lot of increased support to our downtown

45:43Which is a health-centered approach which brought in supportive services as well as enforcement

45:49And we saw in the last 12 to 18 months. I think a very significant change in our downtown

45:54And even more recently than that the board and your dedicated investment of having a trained mental health worker

46:02Partnered with mark o'Connell whom we all know that has had a a dramatic

46:07I would argue a transformational difference on being able to provide more supportive

46:11health-centered

46:14Attention so not just in crisis that has been so successful that the board has made the decision to add another one of those

46:21And uh, helen has made the commitment to have that position filled as soon as possible

46:26So that is our impact as well as our downtown

46:29In relation to our intimate partner violence unit you passed a unanimous unanimous motion in 2023

46:36We spent a significant amount of time making sure we understood that issue and have very

46:41significantly changed our posture with respect to how we're supporting our community

46:46We will be hosting at the end of march

46:48Um a workshop with many other partners to bring people together for a day to have a lot of discussions

46:53But operationally we now have an integrated

46:57Human trafficking and intimate partner violence. We now have a proactive unit to support folks

47:03Um before things get even more difficult in a family and there are some we have we have other larger services

47:10That are looking to us to get some ideas on how we're doing things. I'm going to stop there

47:16Mel did I capture the essence?

47:18Okay, and then finally, um another thing that our community can be very proud of is our

47:24integration with the city and our community safety and operation center

47:28We're obviously building a very

47:30supportive structure downtown for our community

47:33integrating technology and leveraging community investments to to really make a difference in our downtown and throughout our community

47:41We've had several other services come in and want to have a conversation about some of those initiatives

47:46So councillor Allt I could go on but I suspect that probably covers it

47:51That was pretty darn good. Thank you very much. I think if anybody is concerned about such things as

47:56presumed trauma and so on you would be willing to talk to them and how we've been quite successful

48:02With reducing their compensation and our overtime numbers as well. So, uh, thank you very much for everything

48:08And I'm going to take that invitation. We add a significant increase in overtime

48:12From 23 to 24 and we're anticipating another

48:16Decrease 24 to 25. Obviously, we're finalizing year in numbers

48:20So we're on the right trajectory reducing overtime because it has both a monetary

48:24Consideration but also a health and wellness consideration for our folks. Thank you

48:30Great. Thanks councillor Allt. Is there any more questions at all for

48:34Okay, we'll go to katin uh Gibson and chew

48:40Thank you. Mine isn't really a question, but it's more of a comment. Uh

48:45Just through you to uh, the police chief. I just wanted to say

48:49Thank you for adding in the extra mental health workers. I know that a lot of other police forces don't do that

48:56And I think that that is a positive step forward in providing

49:00Um appropriate help even though that's not

49:04Your mandate because you're all put in a position where you have to answer a lot of those calls that aren't really relevant to you

49:10Um, and I agree that the provincial downloading is a large portion of this and if folks really have concerns about these budgets then

49:20That's where they need to be looking and if you have problems with property taxes and these budgets

49:26Then consider the governments that you're voting for

49:29Thanks

49:33Thank you. Councillor Caton. Uh, I think I said Gibson next and then chew please

49:37Yeah, thank you. Three mr. Mayor compliment and then a question

49:41um, I appreciated your stats chief on the the violent crime incidences and sort of how wealth is tracking

49:50If you and I had been having a coffee and and you had said, oh, we're performing well on this this and this

49:54I could have told you that because we feel it

49:58On the council side like my emails and my phone calls and my direct messages and and people stopping me are

50:04They're not burdening

50:06At least me anymore with those kind of concerns anymore about safety in the neighborhoods break-ins

50:12Carthage, I'm sure it's still happening, but it seems to me on the outside looking in to be

50:18Getting under management. I still hear so obviously I still hear concerns sometimes about the downtown

50:22But in terms of our neighborhood streets, I'm seeing that from from just anecdotal evidence

50:27I don't make decisions based on data, but anecdotally I feel that

50:32So that's appreciated. Thank you

50:35I wanted to

50:36touch base a little bit further on councillor alts comments questions about the

50:41returning to the high schools

50:44Just unpack that a little bit for me. Are you returning to the high schools?

50:48Based on something that the province has asked of you

50:53So we have so first of all, I want to clarify we have never left our catholic board

50:57We have been there for many years. I've always been there

51:00Bill 33 that I referenced is recent legislation that essentially

51:05indicates

51:06That school boards that where there is a police service who has an hsro program who is willing to provide

51:13an hsro program school services will essentially

51:19They'll essentially welcome those programs. So we will be working with upper grand working with our community

51:25Looking at how we can support our high schools

51:29It won't look exactly the same as it used to like I said our 900

51:35Students and staff or sorry staff and teachers that we spoke with at the wellington catholic board about human trafficking

51:41And internet child exploitation. That is a perfect example of things

51:46We must be doing to proactively support our youth and our families and yes, so we will be returning to

51:55My question is it's it's the perceived

51:59Like a download question because I I understand the perception it may be a download the province is telling us to get back

52:04But you weren't

52:06You the service didn't remove yourselves from the high schools. You were asked to leave by the by the school boards, correct?

52:14Yeah, there was a decision made to discontinue the program

52:18Several years ago. That's right. That's right. So in essence, we're just the province is giving us direction to

52:24Re-institute some presence and on the merits alone of the human trafficking piece. I full wholeheartedly agree with this this decision

52:32So I'm glad you're being hopefully welcome back into the high schools

52:36I always found it to be a great program when I was in high school and I think that it serves a good good purpose

52:41So, um, I just want to make sure we're not calling that sort of a download

52:44It's not even an expansion. It's almost like a return to normal and I appreciate that. Thank you

52:54Yeah, well it is it's no matter how you look at it when we left the schools those resources had to be reallocated to different

53:02operational priorities, of course

53:03Yeah, it is a return an evolution. I suspect also

53:08It won't look exactly the same, but there's a resource requirement. No doubt

53:11Right to sort of for my own narrative to like when we when we were asked to leave the high schools

53:17Those resources were allocated somewhere else that mitigated the increase in taxes in those years because those resources were given away

53:23Now that we're putting the service back in place

53:25provincially requested off obviously

53:27Um, that has to become as an almost as it appears as an expansion

53:31But it's simply just savings from past years

53:33Um, that's my narrative not yours. I I appreciate it. Thank you

53:39All right. Thank you. Councillor Gibson. Uh, chew within billings

53:44Thank you through you mr. Mayor, uh chief coby. Good to see you again

53:48Thank you for indulging me in my Mandarin, uh, a few days ago

53:53Uh, I just have a series of questions just really for the public in my constituency

53:58um first

54:00I just want to say that chart for uh, showing the police the population

54:05Is a really great visual for me because it really highlights, um

54:09The amount of staff that we have in our police force compared to the population and

54:16So this is really good. Um

54:18And so I just on that note, I just wanted to confirm. Do you know how many?

54:22Police officers we roughly have in the service at this time?

54:26Yeah, we have approximately 350 members one third of that civilian two-thirds sworn

54:32Okay, and how many are dedicated to investigative services versus frontline services because I'm sure the investigative team

54:40Um, there's a it's a core dedicated team that's focused on that if I'm not mistaken

54:47I'm going to ask Andrew that ballpark the distribution between frontline and is

54:52Or mel you might know that better

55:03So about 50 and then frontline and other uniform roles would be more like 120 130 those numbers obviously ebb and flow

55:11Um, as we navigate things like wsi b things like that, but that would be a rough high level number

55:16Okay, and the violent crime unit is that part of frontline or investigative services?

55:22Yeah, so our our major crime serious crime investigation unit would be part of our is which which maybe our detective units

55:30And that is a much smaller unit. Okay, and I'm just curious because obviously

55:39The population to uh front officers is significantly

55:44Lower, um, I'm guessing you have to have

55:49Officers kind of triage throughout the city

55:51um, do you have

55:53some kind of geographical

55:55distribution for some of the officers and how they're signed or

55:58Do they kind of rotate throughout the week? Um

56:03Yeah, so short answer we have pros old patrol zones our frontline members

56:07patrol each of these patrol zones when they come

56:10And then our specialized services support the whole city as operational demands necessitate that

56:16Okay, and the reason why I ask these series of questions is

56:19Like for me the the biggest question that I get is you know, what what what is the presence?

56:25of

56:2612 police service officers throughout the community and

56:31Uh, I think the schools are quite nice the community engagements the community events are quite nice as well

56:37um

56:38But I just wonder um, if there's a way in which we can start to build more

56:44relationships from a neighborhood scale

56:48for officers and community members and if

56:51There'd be a possibility if that

56:54Officers are kind of geographically located in in fixed areas compared to

56:59kind of going all across the board

57:02And if there's a way in which we can kind of work towards that

57:07Sure and to give you so I've had I've been asked many times for example, I'm just gonna interrupt chief

57:11I'm sorry to do that and and councillor too. I'll allow this question, but we're getting into sort of like

57:18operational

57:19questions

57:20And we're here for a budget discussion. So I just want to make sure we don't continue down a pathway about

57:26operational

57:28No, no, it's okay councillor too. I'm gonna I'm gonna allow it. I'm gonna allow it

57:31I just want to make sure I'm just calling it out now though that we don't

57:34For all of our members that are going to come forward for all other budgets that that we we stick to what's in front of us

57:40It's about a 2026 budget

57:43Um, and the operational sort of high level questions for no matter what department comes for here

57:48Where service comes forward that we maybe try to take some of those more operational

57:52What if kind of questions, uh, maybe offline a little bit so we can focus

57:56On the budget, but I'll allow this question. Okay, go ahead. Okay. So very short answer

58:00We have much more presence than our downtown than many of other neighborhoods

58:03That's part of that risk versus affordability equation. We've been talking about for several years

58:07part of increasing that community resource officer unit is to see

58:12Um, the level of care and support we give to the downtown

58:15We want to start to be able to provide that kind of support to other neighborhoods and that we hope to get there over time

58:21But that's part of that that push and pull that we have right now with phasing in of those catch-up investments

58:28No, I appreciate that. Thank you

58:32Great. Thank you councillor Chew

58:34Billings busitil and then goller and I that's it

58:40So through you mr. Mayor, I'll try to frame this for a budget question then

58:44So are are we putting more?

58:47financial resources towards addressing the

58:51PTSD issue and that's bringing down the overtime

58:55um hours or or have we not changed that line item in the in the budget and you're just seeing

59:02Um overtime decrease if you could explain that a little bit better

59:06Sure a big part of our

59:0822 the multi-year budget was the discussion we had about supportive staffing

59:12Where people can be off for quite some time

59:14So the supportive staffing program that we've implemented now if a member is off for a long time

59:21on a like with a say for example post-traumatic stress that type of an injury

59:27After a lengthy period of time with no prognosis for return

59:31We can now staff that spot what that is doing is helping folks have the time away from work they need

59:36But it's also helping the members who are here

59:39To have the support the resources to actually do the the work that continues to grow

59:44So that the two work together. So it's it's more support for those who are off but by not having

59:51So many thousands of hours in overtime. That's reducing the impact on that overall. Is that helpful councillor billings?

59:58It's a two thing to say. It's a two to approach

1:00:01Okay, I would and I was just wondering in the budget. Are we putting more dollars towards the help?

1:00:09Yes, so we have consistently increased our wellness programs

1:00:13Are full we have obviously as you recall a full-time mental health

1:00:17Support worker who's on staff now to build wellness programs. So we are seeing favorable trends in overtime and a number of other wellness areas

1:00:25We'll never be done this work. Right. We're seeing positive trends. Okay. Thank you chief

1:00:32Thanks councillor billings. It's over to boost it till and then goer

1:00:36Thank you. Good morning chief and through the mayor. I have a comment and then a question

1:00:41I just want to thank

1:00:43Around the police and schools haven't been part of that process

1:00:47Just you know the the collaboration with the many communities that have different views and police in schools and different safety feelings around that

1:00:56and the mutual kind of

1:00:58outcome of that

1:00:59Then the province came and said if it is offered the hrso in the schools the school boards must participate

1:01:08My question is around the budget. Does that include any

1:01:12funding for resources staff

1:01:14Cars any of the things to do that kind of programming at the local level

1:01:22Funding from the province

1:01:24Yes, sorry. Yes funding from the province

1:01:27This was a direction from the province regardless of what the conversations

1:01:32And the mutual understanding and the agreement at the local level again

1:01:36Multi stakeholder and everything and the agreement with the in particular the upper grand district school board

1:01:41And now the province is saying where it's offered it must

1:01:45School board must participate. So when when it comes with must or shall I always look for well, okay

1:01:51The province is mandating this so are there any resources for dollars for staff or dollars for cars?

1:01:58And the short answer to that is no we obviously get lots of grants for different areas

1:02:02But no dedicated funding for this this this initiative or this requirement

1:02:07Thank you very much

1:02:11And thank you. Uh, councillor Busuttil

1:02:14Guller and I think let me just ask right now. Was that going to be it?

1:02:19All right, I'll have a wrap up comments

1:02:22Thank you and through your worship. Thank you so much jikobi. I'm really really proud of the work that your team has been doing for our community

1:02:30I'm really grateful

1:02:32One of the questions that I've had from some of my constituencies

1:02:36You know, we're putting all of these resources to fight something like like human trafficking. We'll acknowledge it. It needs to be

1:02:42Eradicated and I found that in you know in Niagara

1:02:47There was a news article that said that in 2023

1:02:49They

1:02:52They supported six victims of human trafficking and then in 2024 that went up to 48

1:02:57So a 700 increase from one year to the other

1:03:00What I've been able to find in guave is

1:03:02relates to to the number of people that have been charged

1:03:06Is there some information you could share with us about the number of victims of human trafficking that the service has supported to

1:03:12to to

1:03:15You know in the last year or two so that we understand really what that volume is of people were supporting

1:03:20You good

1:03:22Sure, I'm going to invite mall up

1:03:26To have a to answer that to do that question justice

1:03:30Thank you. Thank you. Thank you mayor and thank you council

1:03:49budget related

1:03:51I'm trying to think we're investing

1:03:53Staffing into this, you know, what what is the return that we're seeing for for that investment in so of the people that we're supporting

1:04:00Yep, not an easy question to answer honestly because of the collaboration and the partnerships that we

1:04:07Work with to support victims

1:04:09So our victim services women in crisis

1:04:11Their numbers are significantly higher than ours because a lot of times the victims will start with them and get referred to us

1:04:18so

1:04:19Those numbers I can't comment on Niagara's numbers, but I can

1:04:23Maybe assume that victim services numbers are involved in that

1:04:26Um, but I can tell you our numbers have increased significantly as far as supporting the victims because we didn't have the resources before

1:04:35But I can't provide exact numbers. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. And and no no ballpark figures

1:04:40So I'm just you know, I've heard you say before that at any time point in time there is you know

1:04:46There are people being trafficked in in wealth

1:04:48Uh different hotels and if we had more police resources, I think I'm just starting to get a sense of

1:04:53You know, what what are we looking at? How many people are actually being trafficked through wealth or or how many people are

1:04:59Gough police officers supporting to to exit human trafficking

1:05:04Again without getting into the exact numbers. I can tell you that

1:05:07Um last year alone this unit specifically so not service-wide this unit specifically

1:05:13arrested 35 like high risk intimate partner violence

1:05:18offenders and a lot of times there could be elements of human trafficking

1:05:23in within that investigation as well, right, so

1:05:29Just in speaking to victim services, I know they're over 40 that they in the last time I spoke to them that they are supporting

1:05:36currently

1:05:37As far as our unit goes again not speaking to numbers, but we have

1:05:42Ultimately arrested

1:05:44Many more offenders

1:05:45So we're we are supporting those victims as well. A lot of them are out of province as well

1:05:49So it makes it a little difficult, but we are still supporting them, right?

1:05:53Do we report does the police service report the number of victims that are supported on an annual basis?

1:06:00We would report the number of offenders arrested

1:06:04Um, I could get that number to you as far as because it's constant

1:06:09Our our members are constantly in contact with

1:06:12victims that maybe haven't come forward yet

1:06:15officially

1:06:16But are we're trying to gain their trust to get them to come forward

1:06:20So I can get those numbers for you. I just don't have them right now. Okay. I would appreciate it

1:06:24At some point just so that we understand how many people are being supported

1:06:27I understand that it's easier to report on the on the arrest made on them on the people

1:06:32But I think the other side of the question is important for a community to understand

1:06:35The people that are being supported. Yeah, that's a great question and I'll get that for you

1:06:38Thank you

1:06:39And there's also a recent stats Canada report that indicated we have we're the highest centers metropolitan area

1:06:45I would suggest that's and if you look to the footnote of that that

1:06:49article

1:06:50It'll say should be noted that Guadalajara police. This is probably impacted this number by recent

1:06:55Investments with respect to support services in this work. So I would suggest to you that while we may have the highest number

1:07:02As a CMA. It's probably because of all the work we're doing not to say the work doesn't exist in many other areas

1:07:08The more we do this work the more work we're going to find we have to do. All right chief

1:07:17Police members. Thank you very very much for your presentation

1:07:21um

1:07:23Yeah, no no real comments from me. Uh, I'm good

1:07:27I might

1:07:28My councilmates have expressed everything appropriately. So ditto. Thank you very very much for the work that you do. Thanks. Okay

1:07:36um next for presentation

1:07:40Is

1:07:43Our library come on down Dan

1:07:47So Dan Ackins or chief executive officer of the Gulf public library

1:07:53I'll have a presentation from you and again if there's any follow-up questions, and I'll go to my colleagues

1:07:59See if there's anything that needs to be discussed

1:08:02Green button to advance. I believe so. I'll get welcome Dan. Thanks for coming

1:08:07Well, good morning mayor and members of council. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today

1:08:13I am pleased to present our 2026 operating budget

1:08:16capital budget

1:08:18And multi-year financial forecast for the gulf public library

1:08:21I will begin with an overview of the operating budget

1:08:25followed by the capital budget and our long-term forecast

1:08:32Before I get into the numbers. I want to take a moment to ground us in the bigger picture

1:08:37Our guiding framework the bridges the barriers to bridges strategic plan

1:08:41This plan was developed for the board in 2024 and launched last year

1:08:49It sets out our shared priorities for the years 2025 to 2028

1:08:54At its core it's guided by four clear cornerstones

1:08:59strengthening the library as a pillar of public value

1:09:03investing in our people

1:09:05telling our stories more boldly

1:09:07and building libraries that are ready for the future

1:09:12The budget before you today brings these priorities into action by delivering equitable service through improved access

1:09:19and inclusion

1:09:20building capacity for the new central library through targeted investments in people and systems and maintaining

1:09:27fiscal responsibility

1:09:29while sustaining service excellence

1:09:32It also ensures strong alignment with both the library strategic plan and the city of gulf's future gulf strategic plan

1:09:43In response to the mayor's request and as amendment as an amendment to the budget that the board approved in september

1:09:50The library board has reduced the original operating budget by

1:09:55594

1:09:58821

1:10:00As an exercise in responsible stewardship

1:10:03This was achieved by carefully adjusting the timing of staff expansion for the new central library

1:10:10These investments have not been eliminated

1:10:12But partially deferred and will be carried forward into 2027 to ensure readiness

1:10:19Aligns with operational need

1:10:23The board also removed a major it infrastructure project resulting in a further 500,000 reduction

1:10:30in the 2026 capital budget

1:10:35for 2026 the library is requesting 14,329,053

1:10:40And 53 dollars in operating funding which represents a 16 percent increase over the 2025 net operating budget

1:10:49As shown in the graph the library's operating budget has increased gradually over the past decade with an average increase of approximately 4

1:10:59variations in certain years reflect one-time capital reserve investments

1:11:04The 2026 budget was developed based on board endorsed service delivery levels

1:11:10The board approved staff expansion plan

1:11:13existing collective agreements and historical expense trends used to model inflation

1:11:19As the library prepares to relocate to the central library

1:11:23Into a facility that is approximately three times the size of the main branch

1:11:28This budget reflects the necessary transition from stable year-over-year increases

1:11:34to a new operating baseline

1:11:36That baseline is expected to stabilize after 2027

1:11:41This increase reflects the scale of the transformation ahead

1:11:45Where every additional square foot creates opportunities for connection and inclusion

1:11:54The primary driver of the 16 percent increase in the operating budget is staff compensation

1:12:00This reflects onboarding of new positions required to operate the new central library

1:12:04As well as costs associated with recently ratified collective agreements including updated wages and benefits

1:12:11Inflationary pressures continue to affect operating costs across the organization from supplies and service contracts to maintenance

1:12:19While some maintenance costs will decrease once the library relocates

1:12:25These are offset by new city imposed facility maintenance costs associated with a new building

1:12:32looking ahead

1:12:35Annual operating growth is expected to stabilize at approximately 3 percent

1:12:41Going forward

1:12:43Staffing is the single largest component of our operating budget and is a critical investment in public value

1:12:50Library staff deliver welcoming

1:12:53responsive and increasingly specialized service to thousands of patrons each week

1:12:58With the demand expected to grow significantly once the new central library opens

1:13:03In addition to traditional reference service

1:13:06staff support early literacy

1:13:09English language learning digital access and one-on-one technology assistance to help close the digital divide

1:13:20The Evaluing Ontario Libraries toolkit developed by the Ontario Library Service

1:13:26Gives us a clear incredible way to measure the impact of public libraries

1:13:31And when we apply this lens to Guelph the return is undeniable

1:13:36For every dollar invested in the Guelph public library seven dollars are returned to our community and economic impact

1:13:43This is not an abstract benefit. It is a tangible return on public investment

1:13:49Through our public consultation that informed our strategic plan

1:13:53Residents told us exactly how that value shows up in their lives

1:13:5859 percent reported that the library gives them access to technology they would not otherwise have

1:14:05For many that access is the difference between participation

1:14:09and exclusion

1:14:12And we are seeing that need translate directly into use since 2024

1:14:17Attendance at library programs across all age groups has increased by 28 percent

1:14:22People are not just telling us that the library matters. They're showing us every day by walking through our doors

1:14:33Community investment is already translating into real measurable growth

1:14:39The expanded space at the new central library combined with targeted staff investments in our archives has allowed us to keep a significant cultural asset in Guelph

1:14:48As a result the Guelph public library will become home to the official Robert Munch archives a gift we are greatly

1:14:56We are deeply grateful to steward on behalf of the community

1:15:00This archive will include drafts of his stories notes from publishers fan letters photographs and publish works in multiple formats

1:15:08This is what smart public investment makes possible the capacity to preserve locally produced

1:15:15nationally significant

1:15:17cultural heritage

1:15:19Bring it into public stewardship and ensure it is accessible to residents researchers

1:15:25educators and future generations

1:15:28This community investment is not sitting on a shelf. It's building lasting value

1:15:33and cultural impact for Guelph

1:15:38For 2026 the library is also requesting

1:15:42$300,000 in capital funding to advance projects that are directly aligned with the board approved strategic plan

1:15:48And our facilities master plan

1:15:51These investments are focused on making our library stronger more accessible and more resilient

1:15:57Land projects include branch renovations that improve

1:16:00AODA compliance and ensuring our spaces are welcoming and usable for all residents

1:16:07We're also investing in critical IT infrastructure upgrades work that supports secure

1:16:14Reliable service delivery today and positions the library to meet growing demand in the future

1:16:21This request is not about expansion for expansion's sake. It's about protecting past investment

1:16:26addressing known gaps and ensuring our facilities and systems continue to serve the community safely

1:16:33equitably and effectively

1:16:37the 2026 to 2035 type other 2035 capital forecast

1:16:43Is focused on financial stewardship. It prioritizes maintaining our existing infrastructure

1:16:50advancing modernization

1:16:52where it is most needed and preparing

1:16:55for continued growth in our community

1:16:58At the same time, it is carefully designed to manage affordability for taxpayers

1:17:02balancing long-term planning and fiscal responsibility

1:17:05This forecast is about making deliberate forward-looking investments that protect what we have

1:17:12respond to changing needs and ensure the library remains reliable and sustainable to the public well into the future

1:17:22Thank you for your time this morning. Thank you, Dan

1:17:25Thank you for your your leadership and the board as well

1:17:30And for your presentation, we appreciate that

1:17:34I will I will just say before we go to questions

1:17:39When in the in the late last year when it was asked for the outside boards to

1:17:45Go back and sharpen the pencils a bit you and the board chair Danny

1:17:50Williams

1:17:51Came to my office the next morning

1:17:53And that was on you you guys proactively reached out and

1:17:58We I could just tell right away that you were you understood

1:18:03You understood the issues you you empathize with with people the affordability side of things

1:18:10and

1:18:12You know like the library like the police ahead of us that reduced their budget a bit

1:18:16You you did exactly the same and so I just want everyone to know that it's much appreciated

1:18:22It's much appreciated

1:18:24By still maintaining the services required and looking ahead. I get all that

1:18:28But just thank you to you publicly to you and the board leadership and

1:18:33And everyone that that took the time the extra couple months to to see what could be done

1:18:37So thank you very much for for leading in that way

1:18:41Well, you're very welcome and thank you to the city team who supported that as well

1:18:44We couldn't have done it without their their support

1:18:47Um, both finance and as well as the baker street project team

1:18:51They they really helped us get together in december and sort of refine our budget

1:18:55And we couldn't have done it without them. Okay. Well team effort. So thank you very much

1:19:00Um with that though, is there any questions on this budget at all?

1:19:05All right, we'll go to uh Gibson and your award mate kate

1:19:09And I see nobody else Gibson. Thanks. Mr. Maher. I'm still just writing down my questions, but I'll I'll I'll go forward here

1:19:15Thanks very much

1:19:18To the cio of the library appreciate your presentation and your openness about

1:19:22The budget and what you've done quite frankly with your budget since the end of last year

1:19:27I I'm gonna ask the same question. I ask our own staff. So on the funding for

1:19:322026 one of the strategies that uh, the city employed

1:19:37Almost at the end of last term. No, sorry the beginning of this term

1:19:41I remember councillor or work and I worked on this was to look at when the

1:19:46employment

1:19:47Needs were going to be in place in the new year and then kind of drafted our strategy for hiring in accordance with that. So

1:19:55I I know I'm speaking for everyone who knows this but the library is intended to open in the fall of 2026

1:20:01So putting the full funding for staff employment into 2026

1:20:05We may be able to employ a strategy to say only fund at 50% this year knowing that we're not going to need all that staff

1:20:12Compliment for the whole year. I guess my question is has the library employed this strategy? And is there any consideration for that?

1:20:20Uh through you to uh through you mayor to the councillor

1:20:23Yes, we have in in fact in our original budget that went forward to the board

1:20:27we had staff funded at um half a year six months and uh through the refinement process

1:20:33We move hiring those staff into the fourth quarter of 2026

1:20:37That's terrific. That's a great answer. Thank you. Um, my next question you mentioned branch expansions for aod a purposes

1:20:44Uh, I completely sympathize with wanted to increase and update our branches

1:20:50my question is

1:20:53Where is the balance between uh, what we are responsible for and what the property owner is responsible for?

1:20:58I understand that we lease a lot of our branch

1:21:01Um

1:21:02a sat branch site so has the board explored the responsibility of the library to create that aod a compliant space or the actual lease

1:21:12The the property owner, you know, we are just the leasy

1:21:17Yeah, uh through you mayor to the councillor. Yeah, we always work with our with our landlords

1:21:22With regard to capital improvements in in the locations

1:21:25Yeah, so I guess my question is has there been a is there just an assumption that we are responsible for at our capital investment

1:21:32That you've asked for for 2026 that will be what will be used or is there some kind of shared cost with uh with the landlord in those situations

1:21:39Depending on the lease, there's occasionally some opportunities for shared cost, but but for the most part

1:21:46The library is responsible for for the space inside

1:21:49those facilities

1:21:51Okay, thank you. Um

1:21:53I will start with a comment and then with a compliment. Um

1:21:57the the

1:22:00Long since I've been talking with us for years the operational budget the library is very big in come

1:22:05You know when we compare to our compared our communities we are and

1:22:09We are an outsized abnormality when it comes to the size of our library budget compared to compared our cities

1:22:14I'm not begrudging that anymore. This is the will of council. This is what we've been doing as a community for a long time

1:22:19I have my opinions, but that's not that's not shared amongst the majority. That's fine

1:22:24My compliment to you is that the the near 600 000 reduction that your board and yourself made

1:22:31From last year to now should be complimented and it should be acknowledged that that's a lot of hard work

1:22:36I really appreciate it that is um refreshing a new tone of leadership and a focus of the board and willingness to sort of

1:22:43work with um all of council is a terrific um

1:22:48Leadership tone. So I just want to say thank you for that and I appreciate you coming today

1:22:52Thanks very much

1:22:54All right. Thank you councillor and then over to councillor uh, kateen, please

1:22:58Thank you through you mr. Mayor

1:23:00Uh, I was just first of all love the library. Thank y'all do a great job. I think that the library is

1:23:08um

1:23:09not only a community gathering place, but it is a social service and

1:23:14When we need to invest in affordability

1:23:17I think that you provide affordability and I was just wondering in terms of the new library

1:23:23um for things that are not because a lot of people are not readers and that's fine

1:23:28um

1:23:29But what what is going to be costed in this new library?

1:23:33That people can offset their own expenses with what other things do you provide in this new branch?

1:23:38Through you mayor to the councillor um, really great question. Um, you know, we have a whole library that we call library of things

1:23:47Uh, we loan mobile hotspots for for for people that might not have an internet connection

1:23:53We have a partnership with the upper grand district school board where

1:23:57Um, a family might only have one computer in the home

1:24:00Or no computer in the home, uh, and we loan uh, chromebooks on behalf of the school board

1:24:06Our new library will have a maker space

1:24:09In a creative space where people can come and uh, perhaps kickstart a business or develop a prototype

1:24:16We're we're we're building out um a teen area

1:24:20It's one of the things that our our current library does not have is a dedicated teen area

1:24:25You know, we've used space in the children's department for a for a teen area, but um,

1:24:29I know with my own children

1:24:31The last place they want to go is teenagers is a space where children are

1:24:35And so we've been really deliberate in uh, in in building out a teen space and

1:24:40We'll have some video games there for kids to come and hang out after school and and and uh, make some new friends and um,

1:24:47Work on their homework. Um, and so, you know, the sky's the limit really we're here to respond to community need

1:24:53Whatever the community needs

1:24:55Is what is what the library is here to provide

1:25:00thank you, um as

1:25:03A lot of teens in in ward one don't have a lot to do

1:25:07I really appreciate that this is going to be a lot closer for them to access for that teen space and those video games

1:25:14and um, I just appreciate also

1:25:16In in the facebook mom groups that i'm in

1:25:19There's always asks about where you can find cheap or free tutoring

1:25:23And so the the online tutoring program that the library offers for all families to be able to offset that cost

1:25:28I think is is a really great program. So thank you very much

1:25:34Great. Thanks. Councillor Caton. Is there anything further on this budget?

1:25:39proposal

1:25:41None, okay, you get comments from me then you get to go away

1:25:44So again, thank you very much. I do really appreciate it again. Thank you very much for reducing the budget a little bit

1:25:51I I appreciate that

1:25:54Looking at the trend, uh, you know, i'm a i'm a little bit concerned still around sort of operating costs

1:26:02And that you know, I would just ask maybe ask like what are you what are you doing at the board level?

1:26:08to look at

1:26:10operating costs um overall

1:26:13and uh

1:26:15You know, I yeah, I'll stop there just

1:26:18Yeah, can you can you help help me and maybe the citizens understand what you're looking to do?

1:26:23Especially come when the the new library opens sure

1:26:28Uh, thank you for the question. Um, mr. Mayor

1:26:31so, um, you know, we know that the new central library is going to have a significant impact on the way

1:26:38The community uses the library system. And so one of the things that we've put into

1:26:43Our long-term plan is is a library master plan

1:26:46And so once sort of that library gets off the ground

1:26:49And and sort of use patterns have shifted a little bit. We're going to take a look at our branch network

1:26:56To really evaluate that

1:26:58Great, thank you. And then um, the other part about operating and or capital costs for me. I always

1:27:05Think of this as is sponsorship, right? Like is there is there either grants or is there private sponsorship?

1:27:12I think you're having a lot of success in that

1:27:14I want to point i've heard over the last couple of years

1:27:18Especially with the excitement around the new library

1:27:20But can you just maybe just tell everybody about how things are going instead of

1:27:24Things always being sort of on the property tax base that there is work being done through the library around sponsorship

1:27:32Even volunteerism other donations and things like that that can help

1:27:36Offset some of the both capital and operating that you're working with. Thank you for the question

1:27:41So most most definitely, um, you know, we we apply for every grant

1:27:46Whether provincial grant federal grant or through local community groups that

1:27:50Apply to the work that we do and so, um, you know, we've you know, we apply for every single one that crosses our desk

1:27:57We were some occasionally successful and in other times not so much

1:28:02But certainly uh, every every single grant we apply for

1:28:05We are doing a capital fundraising campaign for the new central library and have been very successful on that front

1:28:13We did a fundraising feasibility study a few years back

1:28:17In that feasibility study identified an approximate amount of 3.5 million

1:28:23And so we exceeded that

1:28:26The board increased our totals to five million and we've actually exceeded that

1:28:31And so we're still sort of working on final numbers for 2025

1:28:36But in the near future we'll be issuing a press release to

1:28:39To talk about the success that we've had with fundraising

1:28:41But certainly we've exceeded our goals on that front and we've actually been working with the city as well on

1:28:48They they have a new sponsorship

1:28:51Department I guess for lack of a better word and and we've been working with our city colleagues to

1:28:57Sort of ramp up that as well to see if there's some opportunities for for the library but also for the city in terms of

1:29:03sponsorships

1:29:04Thanks for saying that I think it's important to get actually that information out like at this time

1:29:09I think it's important that there's there's other ways that you're working on this

1:29:14And I I think I really appreciate that a lot too bad the police couldn't fundraise, you know, that's gonna

1:29:19That's illegal

1:29:21um, but uh, I appreciate uh, I appreciate that um, I uh, I thank you again

1:29:27For your leadership and that of the board and yeah, I have nothing further to add and uh, thank you for the service you're providing to

1:29:34Appreciate it. Thanks for your time this morning. All right. Thank you

1:29:37All right, our final presenter today is the county of Wellington the social services

1:29:44Come on down

1:29:56and we have with us here both uh, louisa and shana from uh from the county of Wellington

1:30:03uh, our social services

1:30:05Manager or the administrator from Wellington county and manager of finance from the county of Wellington as well

1:30:13so, um, thank you to the both of you for coming

1:30:17This is a another another bigger a bigger budget as well really it's kind of kind of the three that are presented

1:30:24Are the ones that are a little bit bigger

1:30:25So, um, I think it's nice to have the presentation and to kind of walk us through some of the the impacts that are happening

1:30:32And in the why behind some of it too

1:30:35So really appreciate you being here and taking the time to kind of walk everybody through this

1:30:39So I'll turn it over to you. Good morning

1:30:45Mayor Guthrie and members of council. Thank you for inviting us to present the social services budget

1:30:51I'm here as you said with shana calder our manager of finance

1:30:56As we've done in recent years, I'll provide an overview of the social services programs

1:31:01So people understand where our over just over two million dollar a year budget is going

1:31:06And then shana will provide the budget information

1:31:10So as most people know

1:31:12Sorry, okay, there we go

1:31:14As most people know the county is the consolidated municipal service manager by the province of Ontario

1:31:20For the delivery of provincial and federally mandated services

1:31:24The department over has excuse me three divisions the children's early years, which is legislated

1:31:30By the child care and early years act 2014 reports to the ministry of education

1:31:35the Ontario works

1:31:37Division legislated by the Ontario works act in 1997 reports to the ministry of children community and social services

1:31:44And housing services is legislated by the housing act and the residential tennessee act

1:31:50And they report to the ministry of municipal affairs and housing as well as other federal ministries

1:31:55Each division is legislatively required to report to the respective ministries

1:32:01According to their ministry's program mandates funding allocations

1:32:05Directive guidelines and services targets

1:32:08Social services itself is governed by the county of wellington

1:32:12county council who receives recommendations from the joint social services and land ambulance committee

1:32:18And as you know that committee is comprised of four county council members and four city council members

1:32:24Including the warden and mayor chris white and his worship mayor Guthrie

1:32:30We will begin with our little ones

1:32:33It is in the child's first five years where

1:32:36Where the trajectory is set for their youth and adulthood

1:32:40The division aims to support parents caregivers and educators to provide children with high quality learning environments

1:32:46And enable parents to participate in the workforce and education programs and as well

1:32:52Access to child care supports the economic viability of every community

1:32:57We cannot underestimate how the work of this division helps mitigate the impact of the other two social services divisions

1:33:05So at a high level, um, the uh, division is mandated to plan and manage the child care and early year system

1:33:12Implement the canada wide early learning and child care system otherwise known as the 10 a day child care

1:33:18Which currently sits at 22 a day in ontario

1:33:22Administration of child care fees subsidies for parents who need financial support for the child care rates that cannot afford

1:33:29special needs resourcing to improve

1:33:31Access and optimal participation in licensed child care authorized rec programs and early year settings

1:33:38As well as improving the level of quality of child care services across the service delivery area

1:33:43through offering professional learning and developmental

1:33:46resources

1:33:50Additionally responsible for the management in planning for all early on and

1:33:57child family centers

1:33:59And that offers a welcoming program for all families and child care

1:34:04providers throughout ontario

1:34:06And we also directly operate for child care programs one in gual three in the county as well as a home child care agency

1:34:16so the magnitude of

1:34:19People that we touch in this division is mostly through licensed child care. So you can see here that the

1:34:28You know most of the spaces are in the city of guelph sitting at 2100

1:34:33And there's about 552 licensed child care spaces for children birth

1:34:39Birth up to age four

1:34:40And these programs are eligible for the canada wide early learning and child care agreement

1:34:46The ministry has set an access benchmark rate of 37 percent

1:34:50You can see that guelph is uh, they're actually there when you add the home child care agencies

1:34:55Which are on the next slide and you can see that wellington county from a center base perspective is sitting at about 13 percent

1:35:05Licensed home child care. Um, we do use these numbers as well as far as our total number of spaces. However

1:35:12because providers are

1:35:15You know, they come in on and off the program

1:35:18Their own children are included the ages that they care for. They're a little bit more

1:35:24less stable when it comes to the data

1:35:26But you can see here that in guelph there are 68 total home child care providers and 19 in the county of wellington

1:35:37So while service offers

1:35:39Through the children's early years are mostly funded through federal and provincial

1:35:42Sources with minimal municipal contributions. We're in a deficit of child care spaces due to lack of funding

1:35:49Which is a common theme you'll hear throughout this presentation

1:35:52And this lack of funding leads to financial insecurity, especially for low-income families

1:35:57Especially those who are the have-nots

1:36:00In the have-nots category of the child care early learning and child care system

1:36:10I think I bypassed

1:36:13Going back to school age programs

1:36:15So this is mostly for children four to 12

1:36:19There's just over 2,000 spaces in guelph and 826 spaces in the county

1:36:27So for all of these programs

1:36:29The early years budget includes the prevention the provision of enhanced supports for children with special needs that are birthed right up to the age of

1:36:3913 years

1:36:41And that includes resource consultants who support operators and meeting their legislative requirements for individual support plans

1:36:47As well as purchase service contracts that we have for occupational physical and speech therapy

1:36:53Provided by kids ability and the and the canadian mental health support services

1:36:58Through the canadian mental health association waterloo wellington

1:37:02And then to support the high quality child care and early years services

1:37:05The division is responsible to provide ongoing professional development to all staff who work in child care centers

1:37:11Offer home child care and work in early on centers

1:37:14On average our team organizes approximately 200 professional learning and training events per year

1:37:20Not including independent online training modules

1:37:26And you can see here. These are the early on centers. This is mostly funded 100 provincial

1:37:32Um, and in 2024 earlier centers provided services for over

1:37:3712,000 unique children and parents or caregivers

1:37:39With just over 68,000 visits in one year

1:37:44So it is a very well used and critical program of our community

1:37:48So you can see here in the budget

1:37:51majority of the children's early years budget is federal

1:37:54followed by provincial and then municipal and then there are some

1:37:58Uh, additions through parent fees and other

1:38:03fees that we collect

1:38:07Maybe if you don't mind I might divide this presentation up

1:38:10It might make things flow a little bit better if you don't mind sure I'll stop there

1:38:15Is there any questions on the early? Yes

1:38:19Just on this particular part. Okay, then that way we can just kind of do it a section at a time

1:38:24counselor claustin

1:38:26Yes, thank you through you mayor to delegates

1:38:30um

1:38:31Thank you for the presentation so far

1:38:34there are some

1:38:36I sit on the joint social services and land ambulance committee and so

1:38:40I've become really deeply aware of the deficits in child care funding

1:38:44And so I was hoping that you could elaborate a little bit more

1:38:48We had a slide that showed

1:38:50How much of a deficit we have as far as spaces

1:38:54But what about funding right now you mentioned that you know, we're aiming for $10 a day child care

1:39:00But it's 22 so other than that

1:39:03What is needed to get enough spaces for for families who need child care?

1:39:12Um through mayor to the counselor

1:39:16Simply put I think that what we need to do is to advocate for the federal government and the province

1:39:22to come together and

1:39:25reach an agreement

1:39:26To sustain the current system that we have had and that we will

1:39:31Have have grown to by the end of 2026, which is a significant number of spaces

1:39:37So we need to sustain the funding to sustain those spaces and then we need more capital and infrastructure funding

1:39:44and

1:39:45I think that it has been great that the seawalk allows for community based programs

1:39:52Previous to this we were limited to that when a school board was applying for a capital grant

1:39:58we could join that application and

1:40:01Request a child care center as well

1:40:03And that we were fairly tied to just that was the only way that we could get capital investments for child care

1:40:09The canada wide and early learning agreement allows for startup costs and infrastructure funding

1:40:14which allows for

1:40:16renovations new builds and so I think

1:40:20You know encouraging the governments to come together and continuing that program

1:40:25Whether or not that actually results to ten dollars a day in Ontario

1:40:30It's more of a capacity issue and an availability issue that I think would

1:40:36Be most beneficial for our community

1:40:39There are several parents that do not have

1:40:41licensed child care

1:40:43And you know, it makes it harder for them to go back to work, especially young families

1:40:49And feel comfortable and being able to be at work and being present and focus on their job instead of really worrying about

1:40:56You know

1:40:56Whether the safety of their children because they're not really too sure who's checking up on the person that's looking after their children

1:41:04I really appreciate the um the elaboration week so

1:41:09whoever's listening

1:41:11province and federal government

1:41:13We need continued and sustained funding for both operating capital dollars for our child care program

1:41:20And and I you know, I'm literally just echoing everything that you said. So thank you, Louisa

1:41:25And and thank you for continuing. You know, I hope everyone around the horseshoe too when you have the opportunity to advocate

1:41:32This is something that I'm hearing strongly. Obviously. I am a new parent

1:41:36So now a lot of new parents are also speaking to me about their challenges

1:41:41with with child care and so

1:41:44Thank you for for giving me the opportunity to echo the needs of our community

1:41:51And I think that's my that's that's it. I could continue but

1:41:55I'll pause there. Thank you

1:41:58And I just have a follow-up question from councillor Allt

1:42:01And then boost it till

1:42:04Thank you very very much. Mayor Guthrie through you to

1:42:09uh, minzar too, so um, I think that

1:42:13Councillor Klassen has raised a very important issue and I want to get it down to the practical reality for parents

1:42:20Could you please?

1:42:23identify what the waiting list is for

1:42:27child care

1:42:28in wealth and wellington county today

1:42:33Do you may read to the counselor?

1:42:36on average a wait

1:42:38A wait list at a child care center from what I'm told generally it's about two to three years before a parent

1:42:45receives a child care space

1:42:48we have

1:42:49Transitioned into a one list

1:42:51so now parents in wellington county and wealth can go on to

1:42:56One wait list management system. So we are getting

1:43:00more up-to-date information

1:43:02on how many

1:43:04Families are actually waiting for child care and how long they're doing that so we can have we will have those numbers presented in our

1:43:112025 year-end wrap-up an activity report

1:43:15But the wait lists are long

1:43:17If I may take an opportunity to say that

1:43:21Since c-welk has started

1:43:24wait lists have

1:43:26increased

1:43:27Parents are more willing to leave their current child care

1:43:31arrangements

1:43:33in order to get into a center that is

1:43:37participating in the c-welk so that they can bring their

1:43:41You know their fees down to twenty two dollars a day

1:43:44what we've noticed is that parents who are

1:43:48Eligible for or in receipt of fee subsidies the ones that cannot afford not even two twenty two dollars a day

1:43:55Are really really having a hard time finding a space in the child care system now?

1:44:01And we are looking at measures to ensure that there's some spaces dedicated in our system

1:44:07for children who are at risk involved with family and children services or

1:44:12Are in receipt of a fee subsidy?

1:44:15And making sure that those children

1:44:18Do acquire a space

1:44:21And because right now what we've noticed is that they are falling behind

1:44:24and out of the system and

1:44:27We understand that it's really important to ensure that those children have

1:44:32You know access to a high quality early learning environment particularly the ones that are most vulnerable

1:44:38Thank you, and I want to I do want to keep this to budget, but this this is a huge issue for family budgets as well

1:44:46so

1:44:47What we're looking at you said ironically the provincial

1:44:52Program the ten dollar a day program is actually at twenty two dollars a day at at the present time and

1:44:59So it's it's not lost on me that the council of classes quite correct the provincial and federal governments

1:45:05Truly do need to step up in this area. So again, we're back to

1:45:10To where wealth and where well in can counties problems actually lie

1:45:14What do we need to bring it down to ten dollars a day because every parent that is using the

1:45:21the

1:45:23Supported daycare system

1:45:25Must earn over a hundred dollars a week before they even begin to bring anything home

1:45:31Uh, so what do we need to to offset that twenty two? So it comes down to a more manageable number

1:45:41Have you uh, mayor um to the counselor?

1:45:44That's a great question

1:45:45And I'd like to be able to take that back if you're looking for like a figure like a number sure

1:45:50You know, it would be twofold one is to bring the current system that's being subsidized heavily and it is a federal program

1:45:59But it does not negate the need for the province to continue their investments in in the early years child care and earlier system

1:46:06And then so it's bringing the current system from twenty two down to ten

1:46:10And then the addition of the new spaces that are going to be needed

1:46:14Um, and then bringing them down to ten dollars a day. It has been achieved in other provinces

1:46:21And that's when there's more investment from the province and the municipal governments in order to make that happen

1:46:27Um, but there

1:46:28Ontario is we have to you know, understand Ontario is a very different province to the others

1:46:34Um, and we have a much higher density population. We have one of the highest standards of uh, you know

1:46:40Living and so all of those factors need to be considered when you know, they're receiving money from the federal government

1:46:48using the same formulas other provinces

1:46:51The dynamics and the demographics in Ontario are different and I and I believe that's why we haven't achieved that just yet

1:46:58You're very kind to the provincial government

1:47:01Um with with regards to that, however, I do have two other questions

1:47:04That twenty two dollars a day

1:47:07Is there any tax deductibility for parents?

1:47:12Do you uh, mayor, I'm not sure I quite understand Canada's parent right any of that twenty two dollars a day off

1:47:18Or is it because it's already subsidized not

1:47:22available as a write-off

1:47:25Any parent fee that a parent pays?

1:47:27They should be receiving a receipt and it is tax deductible

1:47:31And the last question i'm sorry, america three steps outside the budget bit, but uh, do we have any idea what a parent who's

1:47:38Children are not in this program actually paid per day

1:47:44Uh through you mayor, uh, they would be paying the regular rates. Um, so for an infant space it would be about um

1:47:50At last time I I I checked at the numbers because we've been more in the seawalk space

1:47:55And you know years ago an infant space was running at about 65 dollars a day

1:48:00pre-schooler like about 40 dollars a day, uh, and then you know, um, sorry

1:48:04A toddler would be about 40 45 dollars a day maybe even 50 dollars a day

1:48:09By now and then a preschooler would be about the same rate

1:48:12So it is quite significant. Thank you very much. I think that we do need to appreciate those

1:48:17Thank you. All right. Uh, it's going to be busitil and then uh, katon

1:48:23And this is just a gentle reminder like I did before

1:48:27We really need to make sure that we're talking about budget that's in front of us the budget that's for 2026

1:48:33Um, I understand that maybe operational questions always tie into the budget

1:48:37But if we could just make sure that we're trying to focus as best as we can on what's in front of us, okay

1:48:43busitil then katon

1:48:46Thank you and through the mayor, uh, this will be budget. Uh, thank you to uh, louisa

1:48:51I do remember the days of 60 dollar infant care. Um, and so

1:48:56I appreciate all of this work and investment in child care

1:49:00I do have a question around because you talk about the actual kind of market fee

1:49:05These are licensed but non-c welc centers

1:49:10And so my question is similar to what uh, uh, counselor alt was asking around subsidy. I hear a lot. Um, I am with whatever a market based

1:49:20Non-c welc center does that parent? Um

1:49:25Are they eligible for subsidy? I know this is more on on

1:49:29Social assistance side, but are are they eligible for subsidy to bring that 60 dollars down?

1:49:36Because i'm in school i'm looking for work and then I have a follow-up on that

1:49:42after you mayor and uh to council busitil you bring up a very, um

1:49:49Negative I think unintended gap in this in that if you are a family

1:49:55And you would qualify for fee subsidy and your child is between the ages of birth up to age five

1:50:02Which is what the c welc agreement?

1:50:04uh, um encompasses

1:50:06um

1:50:08And you're accessing a child care program that is not enrolled in c welc. You are not eligible for

1:50:16To use that fee subsidy in that program

1:50:18Uh, if you have a child who is five and up and you're in a licensed school age program or an authorized unauthorized rec program

1:50:27You can use um because those

1:50:30Programs are not eligible for c welc. We can continue to have a fee subsidy agreement with those with those with those

1:50:36providers

1:50:37But the non-c welc birth to five

1:50:40They those families are not eligible for fee subsidy and that is what you'll see in our advocacy report

1:50:46From november and an update of that will be provided and released on friday

1:50:51Is that that is something that we're advocating for a shift in the policy to ensure that all families that are in recede fee subsidy can access

1:50:58licensed child care spaces to the fullest potential

1:51:01Thank you. Um, and so my question is in your planning and your budgeting around early years

1:51:09Is there advocacy at the local level to those agencies that are not c welc?

1:51:16And addressing whatever barriers and so on because my understanding is if you're not c welc you are also not eligible for a number of

1:51:22Provincial grants and subsidies wage subsidies and so on

1:51:26And so it's if we can do this here around child care, it saves around

1:51:32providing

1:51:34I don't know where families are are paying for market child care, but it's just that whole affordability and a concern that

1:51:42Um, you know, I have means so I'm going to get to the

1:51:46C welc spots before

1:51:49Some other individuals and I appreciate your hold back kind of thinking that can we reserve some spots for

1:51:56Families in that way because it's all one big plot. It's all one budget

1:52:02So three three mayor to council boost atill. Yes, we have spent our team has spent

1:52:08Um countless hours

1:52:11understanding the parameters around c welc

1:52:15ensuring that all

1:52:17Um providers in our community were well aware of the opportunities and the benefits of being in that program

1:52:25Um, ultimately it is that service providers choice and um for those that

1:52:31Are not in agreement with the rules and and reporting requirements of uh of those

1:52:36That of the of the federal program as well as other

1:52:41You know decisions that they're making on a personal level. We cannot force them to do this

1:52:46But they have been strongly encouraged and we continue to reach out to them

1:52:50Thank you. So finally that first I think was the first slide of the total number in guelph and the county of licensed spots

1:52:57That is cumulative of c welc and non c welc. Okay. Thank you very much

1:53:04Thank you councillor boost atill and finally is katin. Thank you. Thank you through you mr. Mayor

1:53:11um, so with the $22 a day jcare

1:53:16Um to achieve that goal what percentage of the funding is coming from federal versus provincial versus municipal

1:53:25A three mayor to council katin

1:53:28Most of it is federal

1:53:30What's happened um since the introduction of c welc and as as we've had a few years of this program

1:53:37You know the budget has been the provincial and federal budgets

1:53:41And financial

1:53:42allocations have kind of been morphed together

1:53:45So it's very difficult to pinpoint exactly how much of one funding line is provincial and what what what is federal

1:53:51Um, so I don't know shawna if you had any other comments about that

1:53:56Sorry

1:53:57Through you mayor to the uh, councillor so the the percentage that we have in this slide. Sorry. I'm just going to go back

1:54:07We're we're on we can't see it. Okay. Um

1:54:10It does indicate the federal and provincial split and this is the best of that

1:54:15We are able to break down based on the schedule that we receive

1:54:18So we are showing that uh 82 percent is federal and I believe it's 12 percent is provincial

1:54:28Thank you. And I I know that um through

1:54:32the the updated social services committee, um

1:54:37That we've increased the number of um housing stabilization fund

1:54:43And the the people that we can help there. Um, can you

1:54:49Are most of those people that we are helping on provincial

1:54:54Programs like o w and od sp

1:54:58I think you may or to councillor Caton in in early years. Uh, no early years is more. It's more of a public service

1:55:06Sorry, I was talking about that the housing stabilization fund. Oh, um

1:55:11Is it possible to maybe wait till we get to that? Um division. Oh, yeah, okay. No worries. Okay. I'm thinking in advance. Thank you very much

1:55:22Oh, okay. Is that good for you councillor Caton then thumbs up. Yep. Okay

1:55:27I hear and see nothing more on this one. So

1:55:31Let's go to the next section. Okay. Thank you

1:55:34Okay, so the anterio works division

1:55:39Uh, so unlike uh children's early years and housing services, Ontario works is not required to develop a five or 10 year service plan to plan and manage their system

1:55:47Um, they are this program is mostly a transfer payment agency

1:55:52Uh to administer financial assistance with the rates eligibility requirements and program delivery

1:55:58heavily regulated by the province

1:56:01Beyond monthly assistance the division provides the emergency financial assistance for residents who do not meet

1:56:07Ontario works eligibility criteria and are experiencing a crisis or an emergency situation

1:56:13Uh, we provide discretionary vent benefits and we also manage a discretionary program

1:56:19Which is made up of 100% municipal

1:56:22Funds for residents who do not meet the criteria again, but are eligible for financial supports towards

1:56:29Things like funeral costs and medical supplies

1:56:32In keeping with the theme of insufficient funding

1:56:36You will see on the right hand side of the slide that shows that recipients are expected to live off a month

1:56:41So if you're a single individual

1:56:43In the province of Ontario and you are relying on Ontario works to make ends meet you're expected to live off of

1:56:50$733

1:56:53$343 if you're unhoused

1:56:56If you're a single parent with two children, uh, you're expected to

1:57:01You know meet your financial needs both your basic needs and your shelter costs with a thousand and 57 a month

1:57:09Just as early years can influence the Ontario works assistance and future years

1:57:14One can safely say that insufficient Ontario works benefits rates are heavily and negatively impacting

1:57:20The housing affordability

1:57:22crisis

1:57:23Driving the need for more affordable housing and rent supports for at least

1:57:274100 people in Wellington and Guelph who are receiving and relying on

1:57:32Ontario works benefits

1:57:34Not to mention the human cost of these individuals and their children leaving in deep poverty for long periods of time

1:57:43This is a sneak peek to our 2025

1:57:46activity report is that our caseloads in 2025

1:57:50We're at about 40 just over 4100 people

1:57:54Of these individuals 78 are

1:57:57Reside in Guelph and 22 reside in Wellington County

1:58:03What's heart breaking about this is 32 people

1:58:07Of those of that number are children under the age of 18

1:58:16And these are the caseload details for 2025 this slide shows

1:58:20That households fund uh the types of households that are eligible for Ontario works

1:58:27It also shows that people are living in this deep poverty for an average of two and a half years before securing some type of employment

1:58:35Um, one thing I'd like to highlight is that in 2024 the highest need identified by our Ontario works recipients was mental health

1:58:43However in 2025 financial needs became the highest identified need for these individuals

1:58:48This is not to suggest at all that mental health that there are less people experiencing mental health

1:58:54It is a sign of increase struggle for people to meet their basic needs access to food or a place to call home

1:59:04You'll see here in the Ontario works budget. This is a provincially funded program

1:59:08There are no federal dollars in the Ontario works program. The majority of the funding is provincial

1:59:14With municipal cause mostly going towards administration

1:59:19and that's

1:59:22Thank you very much. We're about to go into the housing

1:59:25Services division, but before we do was there any questions? Okay. Yep councillor Busuttil. Please go ahead

1:59:33Yes, thank you for

1:59:35For the details on ow

1:59:38I did have two questions

1:59:40I think was on the the first one on the ontario works discretionary benefits

1:59:46Due discretionary benefits in the scenario I described earlier about childcare

1:59:52Someone who is

1:59:54Has a child at a non-c welk agency for childcare

1:59:59Is that something and receiving ontario works for returning to school or returning to work some kind of assistance?

2:00:05Is that something that discretionary benefits could be used and I understand it's 100 municipal

2:00:13You may or at council busatil the discretionary benefits are for

2:00:19Families that it's more of a one-time cost

2:00:22If they have a need then they would approach our staff who would do an

2:00:27the the

2:00:28the formula to actually

2:00:31Determine what their

2:00:33Amount they're eligible for is very different than that of fee subsidy

2:00:37I will say that there is there is sufficient funding in the child care budget for fee subsidies

2:00:42It's the inability to use it and for those families to find the child care space

2:00:48More than it is a funding issue

2:00:50Thank you for that. Just

2:00:52Just hearing a little bit more of that kind of story

2:00:55Kind of on the street. My second question is about it was on the slide with the case low details

2:01:01Um

2:01:03Thank you the 30 months on average and you said that people go, you know, this is more or less

2:01:07They go on to employment. Do you also track the number of individuals who go from o w who go to od sp?

2:01:16Which would be provincial

2:01:18funded

2:01:20At the you may or to council that busatil yes

2:01:23We do track how many individuals get referred on to an employment agency for that person to

2:01:31Obtain employment and we also track how many of those people are unsuccessful and return back as well as a number of

2:01:40individuals or family individuals that we refer on to on a low dsp

2:01:45Thank you. And my last question and thank you. None of this is a surprise me some of I'm asking this is

2:01:51Uh, I think it was your first slide. It was on the chart of what a single individual receives for shelter and

2:02:00And so on just so I'm clear and I hear this out loud if I'm a single individual with no fixed address

2:02:06Am I eligible to receive shelter because this feeds into your next presentation around?

2:02:13housing

2:02:15Through mayor Guthrie to council busatil

2:02:18You will need an address in order to get

2:02:21The shelter rates so you could access that if you're in a transitional housing placement

2:02:27Or if you are in supportive housing

2:02:32But unfortunately or being subsidized in a market based unit

2:02:36But unfortunately if you are unhoused

2:02:40You are expected you you would only get the basic shelter the basic needs allowance, which is 343 dollars

2:02:47Thank you. Thank you. And we got one more question from councillor all please

2:02:53Uh, thank you very much. Mayor Guthrie through you to miss our too so

2:02:59Um, is our too so the statistics that you put up with regards to percentages in the county and the city?

2:03:05I think are pretty glaring and

2:03:07It raises a couple of questions for me

2:03:10number one

2:03:14Are we able to track

2:03:18migration from the county to the city and

2:03:22relative to

2:03:25Numbers within the city. What are the comparable?

2:03:30populations in wealth versus the county that that will help me to to make sense of that huge

2:03:36discrepancy, how many people come

2:03:38From the county to the city do we know

2:03:42A few mayor to councillor Allt. Yes, we do track that. Um, and we um

2:03:49When we do the cost share it goes by the person's last address

2:03:53Thank you, but what is that percentage?

2:03:57That I will need to

2:03:58Get more statistics and and provide you with uh with uh with the numbers

2:04:02I'll need to take that back and I can provide that later. Okay. And thank you. Uh, one last point on that

2:04:09Only because I'm a I'm a statistics nerd

2:04:12Um, when we look at the county numbers, are we able to assess

2:04:16The difference between those in a rural

2:04:21Area versus a more urban area like furgus arthur mount forest

2:04:28A few mayor to council. Yes, we can determine we have the addresses of all the recipients so we can determine

2:04:36Where the recipients are are located?

2:04:39I will share that we do have an ontario works office

2:04:42In furgus and we are opening up a new social services office in mount forest

2:04:48Just to try to be present more present in the rural communities

2:04:52And ensuring that people understand and have easy access to the supports that we can provide them

2:04:57By having a visible presence in all three divisions

2:05:01You know across the county as as much as we can I think in these times

2:05:05It is much needed and it's serving the residents of the county as well

2:05:10And it also hopefully will support people to stay in the place that they choose to which is normally that you know their hometown

2:05:18Finally um related to

2:05:21To that is it fair to say that within those urban centers that deep poverty is more prevalent

2:05:31Or are we finding it in rural settings as well? In other words, are we having people on farms and so on facing hardship?

2:05:39That we might have identified with being an urban phenomenon

2:05:4334 years ago

2:05:46Through the mayor to councillor out there. That's a great question. I would say that the need is

2:05:51equal in

2:05:53urban and rural

2:05:54The reasons for for that need

2:05:57might differ

2:05:59But you know, for example when amo came out with her updated report

2:06:03They're finding that experience and experiences of homelessness is actually risen 37 in rural areas

2:06:11So, you know the hardship is falling on the rural areas very much. So

2:06:15As well as urban areas

2:06:17But always coming from a different demographic for sure

2:06:21Thank you for those answers

2:06:25Thank you

2:06:27Thank you very much to our our

2:06:31in-house

2:06:32Stats nerd as you said councillor all

2:06:36So we appreciate that

2:06:38Anything else for anybody? No, okay. We're on to the the next part here

2:06:43Thank you

2:06:56So the mandate of housing services is government funded and subsidized housing and homelessness

2:07:02Like children's early years the division is responsible for planning and managing the housing and homelessness system

2:07:07Which includes a delivery of a 10-year homelessness housing and homelessness plan for our service delivery area

2:07:13The county is also the community entity for the federal homelessness strategy reaching home

2:07:19On the screen are the three pillars

2:07:21That we work with within housing services prevention emergency responses accommodation and supports

2:07:28It's important to note that the intersectionality of health and housing

2:07:32And that and the access to primary mental health and addiction services fall outside of our mandate

2:07:38Individuals that present conflict security needs

2:07:42Can move back and forth through these pillars, especially if they do not receive the adequate

2:07:48Supports

2:07:49You know to help them with their mental health and addiction challenges

2:07:53for an example for example of the individuals on the bay name data from january to june 2025

2:08:0181 of those newly identified people that are experiencing homelessness

2:08:07They were newly identified. They were unique individuals entering the system

2:08:132012 returned to homelessness after being housed in our community

2:08:19And seven returned from being inactive

2:08:22The old housing continuum that we we still use but less often

2:08:27Makes a little less sense in our current world as people's journeys are not linear

2:08:32These three pillars allow us to better define our system values of centered

2:08:36person centered and holistic approach and

2:08:39Respectfully supporting people in their unique journey

2:08:43And that is identified by their unique complex situations and needs

2:08:50The housing services team also are mandated to administer homeless prevention supports manage and plan emergency responses to experiences of homelessness

2:09:00provide financial support to community

2:09:04Previously called social housing and government funded affordable housing services providers

2:09:09They manage the centralized waiting list for community housing stock for both county owned and housing service provider owned

2:09:16And we maintain the county owned community stock and provide support to our tenants

2:09:25So to set some context our mandate which is to end chronic homelessness relies on the availability of sufficient funding for the outer two

2:09:32Pillars which are prevention accommodation and supports

2:09:36With the intent that the experiences in the middle of emergency responses are short in nature

2:09:43Once a person has been unhoused for six months, and that's when we deem them chronically unhoused

2:09:50The required budget increases in the last few years have been to ramp up the emergency responses

2:09:56Given that we've seen a significant increase of experiences of homelessness since 2023

2:10:02More recently we have endeavored to maintain the increased emergency responses

2:10:07As well as needing to increase the funding on the two outer pillars

2:10:11We are not there yet at the crossroads of moving some of the funding from the middle to the outside

2:10:16But we continue to monitor the the ability to do so

2:10:24So on the prevention side

2:10:26Our team provides

2:10:29housing

2:10:31supports through utility arrears

2:10:34Uh rental arrears first and last month's rent and other housing stability expenses. These are typically

2:10:40one-time

2:10:41opportunities or allocations

2:10:44to residents in order to help them sustain their current housing and that way to avoid eviction

2:10:52Also on the prevent prevention side we have the housing rent

2:10:56support program

2:10:58And this provides flexibility for rent supports for households experiencing homelessness or at risk of

2:11:03facing homelessness to maintain or obtain safe stable and affordable housing

2:11:10It is to note that this has been the key driver of our community's success in the reduction of homelessness

2:11:15By moving people off the by-name list out of the emergency shelters

2:11:20preventing them from being overloaded and increasing unsheltered homelessness

2:11:25And increases to unsheltered homelessness

2:11:30So in this prevention space, you'll see that

2:11:35Most of the funding has now risen to be municipal

2:11:39With some provincial dollars as well 29%

2:11:43and

2:11:44Very little federal funding on the emergency responses to homelessness

2:11:53Emergency shelters is an important part of our homelessness system

2:11:56They provide necessary crisis response and housing focused supports

2:12:01Including outreach and diversion to adults youth and families experiencing homelessness

2:12:06The goal is to limit the amount of time that a person is in the emergency response space and move them to a permanent housing solution

2:12:14as quickly as possible

2:12:20And this slide shows the increase to emergency responses that we've needed to take since 2023

2:12:27We have 23 gordon

2:12:30Which they are about to open a second floor offering 24 additional beds

2:12:37As well as 12 within an addition of a third floor onto 23 gordon to offer 12

2:12:43Transitional housing units that's expected to open in the next month or so

2:12:49We opened highway 6 one water loo and

2:12:53You know back in 2024

2:12:56To reopen those spaces to provide substance-free site as well as a family shelter

2:13:01Unfortunately, the highway 6 has needed to be used for a family shelter due to the significant increase of families experiencing homelessness

2:13:09And so we currently do not have a substance-free site in our system

2:13:13The norwich street is a youth shelter offering 14 beds and five overflow cots

2:13:19We have sustained the temporary accommodation at 128 norfolk at least for the next two years

2:13:26We've introduced the winter response program a couple of years ago

2:13:30And that is now built into the budget on an annualized basis

2:13:34This year we needed to go to council in september

2:13:38To increase the funding due to the

2:13:40increase of people that were experiencing unsheltered homelessness in our community

2:13:45We've also have transitional housing units. They are temporary. So that's why they are in this space

2:13:51Uh 28 units at delhi that we opened last year and then the 23 units that are going to open up in gourd on gordon street

2:14:00In the next month or so

2:14:04Oh, do you want me to go back?

2:14:06There you go

2:14:19So you can see in the space of emergency responses to homelessness again

2:14:23The municipalities are the ones that are coming to the table with funding in order for us to

2:14:28Ensure that people have a space to go to

2:14:31if they're experiencing homelessness and doing

2:14:35outreach to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness

2:14:38Followed by the federal government and then the provincial government

2:14:43And take a picture of that one too

2:14:48Then we move on to our permanent housing. Um, so

2:14:52We are now calling social housing community housing. There's been a shift in in the provincial government in that name

2:14:59So this is the housing stock that we currently

2:15:03either provide funding towards

2:15:05Also in these numbers are our county own stock to which we are

2:15:11responsible for managing

2:15:13You know the facilities and ensuring that people from the centralized waiting list are matched to a unit when it becomes available

2:15:22A lot of work is being done by our maintenance team to

2:15:26Get a unit ready once somebody moves on

2:15:30And then get it ready for the new tenant

2:15:33And then there's ongoing

2:15:35Operational costs that go with with those buildings as well

2:15:42The other part to support permanent housing that is sometimes when a person goes into an affordable housing unit

2:15:47They also qualify for a rent subsidy. So we have a number of rent subsidy programs in this space

2:15:54Um, they're found on our website. There's housing allowances rent supplements and the Canada wide housing Ontario

2:16:03Housing benefit which is separate than the

2:16:07How's the housing support rent support program in the prevention space

2:16:14You can see in permanent housing once again municipalities are funding this at 70 percent

2:16:22followed by

2:16:24Rent and other revenues at 18 percent

2:16:28And then the province at 8 percent and the federal government at 4 percent

2:16:38And this is the overall so combining all three of those

2:16:41pillars

2:16:44Our municipality for 2026 is coming in at funding 68 percent of of this budget and i'm going to move it now over to shana

2:17:03Any questions here first or just oh do i mean

2:17:06No

2:17:08Um, I think I just see councillor Caton just for one second and boost a till

2:17:16Uh, so if you don't mind, I'll just go to councillor Caton before you go to this last section here

2:17:22Thank you through you mr. Mayor. Um, so

2:17:26We we recently had a lot of folks in city hall

2:17:30Using the space as a warming center and some of the things that I kept on hearing were that

2:17:35um

2:17:36A certain number of people just weren't able to be at the one emergency shelter and so I can see that

2:17:43Uh, because the other shelters are kind of taken up now by families

2:17:47What in this new budget?

2:17:49Uh, is going to be put towards addressing having just the one location

2:17:54Because if you're banned from one

2:17:58What is in this budget that deals with the alternatives

2:18:01Uh, if you may or to councillor Caton, um, there are individuals that have service restrictions

2:18:09With uh with the organization that provides that we fund

2:18:14To provide emergency shelter on our behalf and that is what we do is we have it built in the budget

2:18:21To work with those individuals and what we can do is find alternative solutions for them

2:18:27And that's where we rely on hotels and motels for those people to be able to have a place to be

2:18:33Should they not be able to?

2:18:35Access 23 gordon in particular

2:18:39Something I feel that is important to note that at no time during

2:18:44This winter was 23 gordon at capacity

2:18:47So for all the individuals that were coming to the shelter here at city hall or the warming center here at city hall

2:18:57Had they if they had gone to 23 gordon there would have been space for them

2:19:01The only exception would be that there was a handful of individuals that have service restrictions and then therefore our team would

2:19:08Intervene and work with that individual to provide them with an alternate space to be

2:19:14Thank you through the mayor. Um, if someone doesn't have a service restriction, but they have a mental

2:19:20Uh health issue that makes it unfeasible for them to be

2:19:24In a room like that. Do we have

2:19:28alternatives for them too because I've been hearing a lot of different use cases

2:19:32And the feedback that I got was that those other options weren't offered to them

2:19:39Um, at least not initially took a lot of battling. So I'm just wondering within the funding

2:19:45Is this a plan because

2:19:47Being at capacity regardless, right? We know that some people that's just not going to work out for them for various reasons

2:19:55So I'm just wondering is that accounted for

2:19:58in this budget

2:20:00Through you mayor aga 3 2 council katin. Yes. I mean it is it is within this budget to accommodate those special circumstances

2:20:08um

2:20:10Depends on what that is. I mean like within the resources that we have by using hotels and motels and

2:20:17The shelter and norfolk

2:20:20You know, those are our spaces where we can provide

2:20:24You know that individual with a place to be especially in the winter response plan

2:20:29Those individuals are offered their own space

2:20:3324 7 so it is not that they need to be

2:20:37You know

2:20:38At the emergency shelter, um, you know, uh, you know

2:20:42Taking a bed on at the um on a bunk bed or something like that in a room full of individuals

2:20:49Those areas are much smaller and more individualized for that person

2:20:53So, um, it is basically up to the individuals

2:20:57You know needs and what they need and what would work for them

2:21:03Thank you. And through the mayor

2:21:05What what would the cost be because I heard that norfolk has a

2:21:08long waiting list

2:21:10so what would be the cost to

2:21:13Clear everybody off the waiting list on norfolk who would be on there

2:21:17For them to be in that situation

2:21:20Uh through you mayor to council katin, I'm not sure that I that I've uh, I've understood it that there is a wait list for that

2:21:27Um, norfolk is used by stepping stone and what they do is they

2:21:33interchange people from the

2:21:36Shelter to 128 norfolk. I think there needs to be a readiness to be housed in order for them to

2:21:43Um have a person and offer them a space at norfolk the units go

2:21:48Down a little bit during the winter response plan because we dedicate 20 units for people that are experiencing unsheltered homelessness

2:21:56The answer to that is to simply permanently house them

2:21:59Uh, and this is where if we can, you know

2:22:03Have more options than the availability to permanently house individuals

2:22:07That would be the the reason to reduce

2:22:10You know the the wait list into norfolk. Um, but again, my understanding is that there's not a wait list

2:22:15I think there's a desire to go there

2:22:18but um at the end of the day, uh, it is up to stepping stone to um try to manage

2:22:24Where where individuals are between?

2:22:27The emergency shelters that they operate as well as 128 norfolk, which we deem a temporary accommodation

2:22:35Thank you through the mayor. I I was told that people were being signed up to the wait list, but I'll follow up with you

2:22:40After thank you

2:22:44Okay, uh, thank you. I think it was only boosted till uh as the

2:22:49Last one here go for it. Thank you and through the mayor. Thank you for the presentation

2:22:54Also, thank you for the new language of community housing from public housing social housing deeply affordable, you know, kind of

2:23:02subsidized housing a new a new term which I deeply appreciate

2:23:06I heard about the by name list. Can you you know, um

2:23:10We hear about eight to ten years on the centralized wait list and this is for

2:23:16community deeply affordable not not provincially defined affordable housing

2:23:22Can you give some some idea of what that wait list looks like and then I have a follow-up

2:23:28So through you mayor to council boosted till as of December 31st, 2025

2:23:34There were 3582 individuals on that centralized wait list

2:23:39um

2:23:40There's over 900 families on that wait list

2:23:44and there's about 160

2:23:46high priority individuals who are

2:23:50exiting domestic violence and sex trafficking on that wait list

2:23:55And the number of seniors is also increasing

2:23:59Close to about 400 on that wait list

2:24:02Thank you. I appreciate that and so my follow-up to that. I think it was your last pie chart was about

2:24:09the housing kind of department as a whole

2:24:14And I want to ask the question about the community housing

2:24:18And you know the option obviously is we we want

2:24:23Permanent housing for individuals and you and I've talked about this a lot

2:24:28Is about how do we how do we grow community housing? So my question is in your budget?

2:24:34Is there a plan? I know we're coming up on the 10-year plan

2:24:38You know, how are we growing community housing?

2:24:42And what is the share of federal provincial and municipal in community housing capital as well?

2:24:48I understand the operating is is through income support and rents and market rents in the mix of those

2:24:54But it's more around the capital

2:24:56Because you and I have shared there's a dearth. There's a deep need for more how permanent housing community housing stock

2:25:04Can you tell me where it fits in that pie chart?

2:25:07Where it is

2:25:09A few mayor Guthrie to counsel boost a till

2:25:13I think this is an area where there is some misunderstanding in that

2:25:20Basically housing services gets about a 1.5 million dollar allocation a year to go towards capital projects new capital projects

2:25:29And then we go through an rfp process

2:25:31For service providers to apply for that funding and they need to have a project that is

2:25:36Ready to go and meets all the requirements of receiving that funding allocation

2:25:41uh, other than that

2:25:44It is

2:25:46Our staff working with municipal councils to try to see how we can encourage more not-for-profit

2:25:53In for-profit if they choose

2:25:57You know to invest in offering deeply affordable housing to our community

2:26:02It is very much like the child care system. It is at the will of

2:26:07The not-for-profits and the for-profit sector

2:26:10And municipal government to to create these new bills

2:26:16or

2:26:17You know purchase a building and renovate it to certain standards

2:26:21um, and that is due to the fact that the province and the federal government has um,

2:26:27You know really scaled back on the capital

2:26:30There is a new canada homes build canada homes now

2:26:34federal grant applications

2:26:36So we are working with the community to see if there's any projects that can go

2:26:41And apply for that funding

2:26:44But there is no

2:26:46Large budget that we receive on an annual basis to go towards capital

2:26:53Thank you

2:26:56Okay, we got one more here

2:26:58And thank you for sticking it out here. Uh, it is councillor Goller who has a question

2:27:02Thank you through your worship. Thank you so much mr. Tizzo for coming and

2:27:07Presenting this this this difficult

2:27:10presentation

2:27:12I I'm really really struggling with

2:27:15What the overall impact to our community and and I know it's the same for for the county

2:27:20Looking at at this significant increase one year to another

2:27:25I I'm I'm really trying to understand, you know, we are making these investments into

2:27:32housing retention into into

2:27:34diverting people from the the emergency shelter system

2:27:39What would be the impact to to our community so that I can understand if we did not have that additional money going into

2:27:46homelessness prevention

2:27:47What would we be looking at an overwhelmed?

2:27:50Um emergency shelter system would be looking at

2:27:53You know, many dozens more people

2:27:57Unhoused on the streets. What what would be the reality?

2:27:59Do you may or to councillor Goller that is an excellent question?

2:28:04What I can tell you is that in 2025 on average every month

2:28:08We had 20 new individuals new unique individuals enter the by name data

2:28:14Those are the individuals that volunteer

2:28:17For their information to be put on the data list

2:28:20There are other people that are in our community mostly in unsheltered homelessness who?

2:28:25You know don't want to be noted on that list. So that's the bare minimum

2:28:30and so

2:28:3220 new people every month

2:28:3512 months and

2:28:38You know in the last quarter of 2025

2:28:42What we were able to do

2:28:44Was house all but

2:28:46All but four of those individuals

2:28:48So this is why our community is one of the most successful communities in this province and I would say even nationally of keeping that monthly average down

2:28:58And and we're trying to keep up with the increases to experiences of homelessness

2:29:04Which unfortunately just does not seem to want to give us a break

2:29:08And I think that you know as the affordability keeps increasing and people are not able to meet up with the demands

2:29:14What we're seeing now more and more

2:29:16Are that your low-income working families that used to be able to if they tried really hard?

2:29:21Make ends meet and pay the rent and when now we're seeing that people cannot do that either

2:29:25So it's not only for the very low income and marginalized and and and people that are you know

2:29:33Typical clients of social services

2:29:36The the cost of where we're actually now needing to provide services is growing

2:29:41um, so

2:29:42Those investments are extremely important for us to keep that monthly average down

2:29:47So within the monthly average that we have right now

2:29:51We do for the most part have space for all those individuals

2:29:55And we have you know supports to people that are on sheltered. We go out we provide them with tangibles

2:30:01We're looking at food security for those individuals

2:30:05You know to try to keep them healthy and safe

2:30:09And build those relationships so that we can try to you know eventually get them housed

2:30:15But when you do not invest in those two outer pillars

2:30:20Your middle will grow and our middle has grown

2:30:24But now what it is is that we are working really hard to maintain a budget that we're holding that line

2:30:30And need we need to invest on the other other two because other than that the middle is just going to keep growing because

2:30:37There's nowhere for those individuals to go

2:30:39So it's it's a fine balance and understanding that this is a provincial program

2:30:46so, you know

2:30:48But we have to do what we can because we look at the human cost

2:30:52And and we look at um, you know the impact that it's having on the greater community by having these individuals

2:30:58That just have nowhere to go and they're not getting the services that they need

2:31:02No, I really appreciate that

2:31:04Um, could you could you remind me?

2:31:07What is the the volume of people that are being supported by the prevention programs?

2:31:12In in in guelph and wellington county

2:31:14I see that the breakdown of the cost of how much each group is paying but in terms of number of people that we're helping

2:31:21Through mayor got through to council goaler like that will come out in our 2025 activity report

2:31:26We have those numbers for 2024 that was released in a report in the fall of 2025

2:31:33Uh, and so we're working on our 20 25

2:31:352025 report and we we don't have those numbers ready just yet to be released. Okay. I'll I'll be will by june

2:31:42Okay, thank you

2:31:43And and just so that i'm clear if if we were to cut down

2:31:47On the funding for the prevention then we would be paying more on the shelter system and on the emergency services, right?

2:31:53So this is really cost savings for for our

2:31:57Wellington county and guelph, right?

2:31:59to through the mayor

2:32:01To council goaler absolutely correct. Um, it's cost savings

2:32:04But it's also the human cost of those individuals not staying in that space and that to me is priceless

2:32:11Thank you. Appreciate that. Thank you worship

2:32:13Great. Thank you. I don't see anything further on that. So

2:32:17Uh, please feel free to continue on to the next portion. Is this the last portion? I think it is. Okay. Go for it

2:32:25Wonderful. Thank you again for having us here today

2:32:28I will start off with some background information on the budget process before we get into the numbers

2:32:34So the preliminary 2026 budget and 10 year plan was brought to the joint social services and land ambulance committee. Sorry, Louisa

2:32:41um

2:32:43on uh

2:32:45I'm very distracted. Oh, no. No, that's okay on november 12th 2025 at that time

2:32:50We were projecting a 17.7 percent increase for the city and a 12.2 percent increase for the county

2:32:57Following that meeting our annual cao and department head reviews were completed

2:33:02And budget adjustments were made where needed to reflect any new information that was received

2:33:07The updated budget package was presented to the joint land ambulance social services and land ambulance committee on january 14th

2:33:142026 at that time the budget proposed a 16.9 percent increase for the city and a 15.3 percent increase for the county

2:33:22This represented a decrease of 274 thousand in cost for the city

2:33:27committee members reviewed the budget and a motion was made and passed to increase the level of service to provide rent supplements

2:33:35To a total of 240 households in 2026 rather than the 120 households that were budgeted in the uh original budget presented

2:33:45This increase in service levels was incorporated into the budget and presented to county council

2:33:50January 29th where it was adopted

2:33:53This is the budget that is being presented here today with a tax levy increase of 18.5 for the city and 16.4 percent for the county

2:34:02So this slide starts us with a high level overview of the budget

2:34:07This summary combines both operating and capital costs for 2026

2:34:12and each year of the 10 year forecast

2:34:15Overall total budgeted expenditures are 202.9 million in 2026

2:34:22This represents an 11 percent increase or 20.2 million

2:34:27Nearly half of this increase is in the children's early years funding

2:34:32And it is all funded through senior levels of government

2:34:36The other half is in relation to social housing

2:34:39As mentioned on the previous comments the tax levy

2:34:43Percentage increase is 18.5 percent for the city and 16.4 percent for the county

2:34:49I will point out that the city's costs do not do not sorry the city's costs do include operating and capital

2:34:56Whereas the county costs are operating alone because the county does fund their capital through reserve

2:35:02So if you're wondering about differences, that's often the case

2:35:07I'm going to click it. Thank you

2:35:09Now we can talk about some of the highlights in the budget delivery areas

2:35:13So the housing services budget proposes an increase to the tax levy of 6.5 million or 22.5 percent for the city

2:35:21And 1.8 million or 30.3 percent for the county

2:35:26For the city this increase is a combination of 1.4 million in capital

2:35:31And 5.1 million in operating

2:35:34From the slide you can see that the most significant increases to the 2026 operating budget are in the areas of homelessness prevention and supports

2:35:43Reports approved at the joint social services and land ambulance committee in september of 2025

2:35:50Increased service levels for both rent supplement and the winter response plan

2:35:55Further increases to service levels for rent supplement have been approved during the 2026 budget process

2:36:01These two items account for 3 million or almost 60 percent of the city's operating budget impact in 2026

2:36:10The remaining budget increases relate to previously identified and budgeted supports to community partners

2:36:16We have new staffing and we also have inflationary impacts across all of our service delivery areas

2:36:24Exploisa

2:36:26In children's early years overall we have a cost increase of 7.2 percent

2:36:31Or 270 thousand dollars for the city and a decrease of 6.7 for the county

2:36:38Although not as significant as in previous years our funding from upper levels of government continue to increase

2:36:46Significantly and quickly

2:36:48An 8.3 million dollar funding increase has been included in the budget

2:36:53Of this increase 39 000 was allocated to administration

2:36:58Updated benchmarks for child care operators

2:37:01Have been included in the provincial guidelines. These will help to offset inflationary pressures felt by the child care community

2:37:09For willowdale, which operates in the city this formula update resulted in a projected surplus

2:37:15Which flows through this budget and offsets offsets other cost

2:37:19Staffing changes are summarized on the slide

2:37:22All of these positions are fully funded through the seawalk funding allocation. There is no municipal cost

2:37:30In ontario works the budget projects a 2.5 percent increase for the city and a 5.4 percent decrease for the county

2:37:38This amounts to 100 000 dollar increase for the city

2:37:42The budget includes a 9 percent adjustment to projected caseload, which is in line with the provincial estimates

2:37:49Ontario works caseloads are provincially funded and there is no municipal cost for these this portion of the program

2:37:57The province has not provided an increase to administration funding for 2026. It is frozen at 2025 levels

2:38:04Staffing changes are again shown on the slide. We do have the addition of a service continuity case worker

2:38:10That is being offset by the removal of a contract position

2:38:19I didn't mean to go that far

2:38:21So the total social services budget for the city of 43.5 million can be seen in column three of this chart

2:38:29In column four, you will see that the proposed 2026 budget for the city is

2:38:349.7 percent higher than the 2026 projections made during the 2025 budget process

2:38:42And in column five, we see that the budget is 18.5 percent higher than the approved 2025 budget

2:38:48In summary, the majority of the increases are in housing

2:38:52As we discussed, um, we've got the rent supplement to winter response

2:38:56A lot of that was improved approved in 2025 and being carried forward into the 2026 budget

2:39:02The budgets for ontario works and children's early years are much smaller in nature

2:39:06And those are the high levels. I am happy to take any questions

2:39:10Thank you very much and thanks for going through it step by step there for us to be able to interject with any questions

2:39:18One question. Uh, councillor Caton, please

2:39:22And or comment, I guess if you want at the same time, uh, then after you councillor Allt

2:39:27Thank you through you, mr. Mayor. Um

2:39:31When when you made your yearly projections to those account for the current

2:39:35increases of homelessness like the percentages of folks who are

2:39:39becoming

2:39:40unhoused or have precarious housing

2:39:45Through you mayor to the councillor. Yes, our budget does include projections

2:39:51To the best of our our knowledge and ability. Obviously those do change during the course of the year and we have to adapt

2:39:58And do they also include projections on, um, increases in

2:40:03Disability from things like long covet. I just see like yearly. We've got about 600,000 people across canada who become permanently disabled

2:40:13newly from

2:40:15the situation

2:40:17Through you mayor, um, our projections wouldn't break it down in that level of detail. I wouldn't be able to tell you specifically

2:40:25What may be in relation to long covet or other illnesses?

2:40:29But we are looking at the trends, uh, provincially as well as in our own community and doing our best estimates

2:40:36Thank you through the mayor. Um, so

2:40:39Just because this was such a large jump

2:40:42This year compared to what we've we see in the the next budget increases. I'm just wondering like how

2:40:49um

2:40:51How secure do you feel in those projections?

2:40:53Through you again for 20 27 and future years we have looked at, um

2:41:01The data that we know as of today, so we have built in some increases while also following direction from, um

2:41:09Our our joint committee on on what kind of budget restraints we need to work with so the budget projections right now do include

2:41:16an increase of 120 individuals in the rent support space in

2:41:2220 27 in 20 26 the budget includes 240 individuals. So there is an assumption that at some point, um

2:41:30The the number of individuals individuals that need assistance will decrease as increases in supports

2:41:37Help to offset the emergency as louise was talking about the pillars. So we have built in, um, a number of factors

2:41:44while also trying to, um, be in line with the requests on a fiscal responsibility

2:41:50Well

2:41:51Thanks and through the mayor final question. Sorry. I know you're hearing a lot from me today. Um

2:41:56I I was just wondering

2:41:57within those projections

2:41:59Do you have an estimate of how many people would remain in unsheltered?

2:42:04uh homelessness

2:42:06each year

2:42:08how many people

2:42:13to be mayor to counsel kate and what we

2:42:15What we do is uh as we're tracking individuals like we do track unsheltered homelessness and we have a robust system in order to do that

2:42:24Um

2:42:25This year was one year where we needed to pivot because we saw a sudden increase

2:42:30So we can predict based on what we have seen in past years or in the current year

2:42:34uh to we we do not

2:42:38Uh have that crystal ball to say that this is what's going to happen two or three years from now

2:42:42unfortunately

2:42:44So, okay, let me rephrase it then

2:42:47I know that the amount of funding that you need to solve the problem

2:42:52Is more than you're gonna than you're asking for it's more than we're budgeting for

2:42:56So I just want to set a realistic expectation

2:42:59For folks who think that putting this large amount of money in

2:43:03Is going to solve everything and then we're going to have no more unhoused people and why didn't this solve the problem, right? So

2:43:12Will the problem

2:43:14exist

2:43:15At similar levels to today with this budget

2:43:20Uh through you mayor to councillor Caton. It's it's highly likely

2:43:25Uh unless the provincial and the federal uh

2:43:28Governments come in with some significant funding. It's highly likely that we are just holding the line

2:43:34As I had mentioned before

2:43:36Again, we we are now starting to see that more and more people are not being able to afford

2:43:42their rent uh when they typically have in past years

2:43:46That is uh very concerning and I think that is a factor that we need to keep in mind in future years

2:43:53Thank you. And so just just a comment

2:43:56um

2:43:58You get what you pay for you get what you vote for

2:44:00um

2:44:02We are doing our best to to try to help

2:44:06With what we can but we need

2:44:09The upper levels of government, especially the upper level of government that's actually responsible for this

2:44:13Which is the province to to fund things properly

2:44:17Thanks

2:44:20Thanks, councillor Caton alt and then busitil

2:44:24Thank you very much americat three

2:44:27More comments than anything. I I do want to be thankful

2:44:32Is uh councillor Allt and i'm just going to interrupt for one second

2:44:36Let me just seek just because our our presenters are just kind of standing there

2:44:39So is there any questions of our presenters at all because if not, I'm happy to continue with comments

2:44:45But I also want to give them a the they need to have a seat. So is there any questions further

2:44:52Okay, so just busitil can I just jump to busitil first then on a question that'll come back to you for a comment, okay? Oh

2:45:00Thank you, boost still

2:45:02Yes, thank you and through the mayor and thank you to the presenters for standing there

2:45:05I'm hoping that you can kind of break down just very high level kind of grocery level

2:45:12Grocery list the rent supplements. I understand there are rent supplements that are tied to agencies that they control

2:45:20Can you just say this is what is in the basket of the?

2:45:25service system managers basket what it is and if it's 50 50 federal provincial 100 percent municipal just very high level

2:45:40through you mayor to

2:45:41Councillor busitil

2:45:43So there are several programs and I'm I'm going to start by apologizing because there are some smaller ones that I'm certain

2:45:49I would won't be able to give you a lot of details on

2:45:53So the largest portion and the the rent supplement program that's affecting the budget today

2:45:58Is in the homelessness area we have our

2:46:03I'm horrible with the acronyms our

2:46:05HSRS, thank you. I'm going to get it wrong and that

2:46:10is

2:46:11Nearly entirely funded municipally and the reason for that is that the funding that comes through the province for that portion

2:46:18is

2:46:19Our hbp our homelessness prevention funding and that funding has remained static for a number of years

2:46:24So we usually receive that funding in blocks

2:46:27I believe it was a three-year block

2:46:29Actually, I think it was a five-year block and for three years of that we did receive a one-time funding increase

2:46:35We have no idea if that will continue currently our base hbp funding is 4.8 million dollars

2:46:41But that funding gets allocated across all of our homelessness support programs

2:46:46So depending on where the expenditures are the amount that goes towards rent supplement or goes towards utility

2:46:53Areas and rent supports or goes towards the shelter will shift because it is it is a base pot

2:46:59So every time costs are added to the budget they fall on the municipal tax levy in that area

2:47:05So that's why we're talking about it today. That's why it's it's impacted the budget

2:47:11Most significantly we do receive I shouldn't say we receive we do administer the cob funding and allocation

2:47:19the canada ontario housing benefit while we do the administration the individuals that are approved it to that rent support program

2:47:26are

2:47:27Funded directly by the province and we just receive a very small amount

2:47:31per application that is approved

2:47:34We have a program that was originally called our regular rent supplement

2:47:40At one time it was provincially funded to date. I would say less than 10 percent of the funding we receive for that program is

2:47:49Provincial that funding has decreased over the last 20 years to to next to nothing and it has fallen on the tax levy as well

2:47:57I'm sure I'm missing a number of smaller pots, but those are kind of the three larger areas

2:48:02And an idea of what the funding looks like in each of them. I hope that answers

2:48:08Yes, thank you. That's that's exactly what I was looking for and maybe when that report comes in june

2:48:14Just kind of an overview of the the drawing down of each of those categories and

2:48:20You know how it's funded so that we as a municipality too can say okay

2:48:25Advocacy and other things, but thank you very much

2:48:30Thank you councillor bis to so to to you. Thank you very much. Please have a have a seat now

2:48:35We've been standing for a long time. So thank you. But uh to councillor Allt

2:48:40Comment go ahead. Thank you for letting me jump back to you. Thank you, mayor guthrie. Um, hopefully the the

2:48:46Uh, delegates will not have to get up again. I do want to thank miss our two so miss calder for a very thorough presentation

2:48:53and a suggestion

2:48:54Mayor guthrie is is that this should be something that we consider to have semi annually

2:48:59Um, this is an incredibly complex area and becoming more and more so

2:49:06Uh, and dare I say it's got a 30 year history since the beginning of mike harris's

2:49:13Common nonsense revolution. Um

2:49:16I'm not optimistic about next year. Uh, despite the numbers that I looked at I think that uh, that sure the data is there for today

2:49:24But I think that the trends have been showing us that things are going up

2:49:27And that's why I think a semi annual report is necessary. I do appreciate both what

2:49:33Uh, the the county staff are doing in these areas and also what the uh, the joint

2:49:40social services land ambulance committee

2:49:43Is addressing. Um, I will point out that I think just a couple of metaphors. I think that uh

2:49:49From classical literature, it's sort of like sycophus putting a rock up the hill

2:49:53I mean, it's a bigger rock coming back down

2:49:55You got to put up again and um, really this is in so many respects. It is

2:50:01Uh, the lord's work if you want from christianity

2:50:05We are dealing with the poor and the impoverished and those who are finding it more difficult to deal with

2:50:10Um, I do not expect that we are going to get a better report next year

2:50:15I think we're going to be in it again and again. Thank you to all who put together

2:50:21these presentations today and

2:50:24Uh, let's move forward to city building

2:50:28Great. Thanks. Thanks councillor Allt

2:50:31So, uh, that's the end from our presentation point of view and so it is back to us now

2:50:37um

2:50:38For the main motion to be tabled to accept I do have

2:50:42Councillor hauser and councillor downer that's willing to move in second the the motion

2:50:48Is there anything further at all before I call the vote on this?

2:50:55No

2:50:56All right. Well then everybody you get me

2:50:59I don't normally

2:51:00I could probably count on one hand the amount of times I've actually

2:51:04pre-written something

2:51:05That I would actually say like literally in 12 years

2:51:08Uh, but for this one I kind of did a little bit because I was really thinking about this moment

2:51:13So I know I only get five minutes. So just don't worry everyone. I'll try to be under that

2:51:18Or the clerks will hit the button to give me the 30 second warning

2:51:22um

2:51:24so

2:51:26the city already

2:51:29Finished our portion of the budget last year and we ended up at 3.36

2:51:35and

2:51:37Originally it was supposed to be 4.59. I think in that range somewhere in there. So, um, we finished ours at 3.36

2:51:46And we can't forget as well that we've had a commitment to our hospital as well. So we had an additional

2:51:52independent levy

2:51:54For this year as well. That's at point one one. Okay

2:51:59um

2:52:00It this is a concerning trend that has arisen over the last years

2:52:06With the number of these outside boards combined eating away at the historical ratios

2:52:11That we were normally expecting. So as an example when we saw it in the chart

2:52:162019 these outside boards made up 32 and today

2:52:22They're making up 36 percent. It's it's a it's a trend that we can see and feel

2:52:30And we need to haul it out so that we can have conversations

2:52:34About that trajectory and so although it is concerning to me and I'm sure it's concerning to all of us

2:52:41It's important to remember where these pressures are coming from

2:52:45And I'll be straightforward. It's the provincial government mostly downloading or underfunding

2:52:52In key areas like social services housing and homelessness like in policing that we heard today and others

2:53:00And legislation

2:53:02Has been done

2:53:04Where there's no corresponding resources or funding to help at all in these areas

2:53:14It reminds me

2:53:16Of the great late mayor of mississauga

2:53:21hazel mccallion

2:53:23Who coined the phrase the federal government has all the money

2:53:27The provincial government makes all the rules

2:53:30And the cities get all the problems

2:53:33Never has that been more true than over the last five years

2:53:38It also rests on the provincial and the federal government for getting out of housing deeply affordable housing in the 90s

2:53:46And it's all come home to roost right now

2:53:49This is not a glove thing. This is an everywhere thing

2:53:53So do we want a safe city one that has increased

2:53:57Focus and resources on intimate partner violence human trafficking child exploitation

2:54:03And using police funds to help with mental health issues

2:54:07Of course we do

2:54:09Do we want to help those experiencing homelessness?

2:54:12and housing

2:54:14concerns, of course we do

2:54:17Then we have to provide the appropriate resources

2:54:19Do we like increased property taxes like what we're experiencing this year to accommodate these outside boards?

2:54:26Maybe not

2:54:27But the alternatives nobody would like those either

2:54:32And so these outside boards are going to add

2:54:364.4

2:54:39To the budget and so that means it's a total

2:54:44Of the three things the city the levy and the outside boards

2:54:49Of 7.87 percent

2:54:53Okay, now i've done the math

2:54:56I'm sure our media partners will like this

2:54:59On the average assessed household

2:55:02For gulf it equals one dollar and ten cents a day

2:55:07And that's taxpayers money. So don't i'm not saying that flippantly at all

2:55:13But that is that is what the impact is going to be one dollar and ten cents

2:55:18a day

2:55:20So late last year I directed the outside boards to go back and sharpen their pencils as best as they could and they did that

2:55:27The library reduced their budget by almost 600 000 the police

2:55:31235 000

2:55:33We even heard that there was a reduction originally

2:55:36The county of wellington as well for the social services

2:55:40And so we thank you for doing that

2:55:43Council, thanks you the taxpayers. Thank you for doing that

2:55:47And so although I understand the importance of all these outside board services

2:55:50We all do 100 the trajectory that the taxpayers are on is not sustainable

2:55:57So I am already exploring i'll just give everyone a heads up. I'm already exploring taking further governance action

2:56:03Or other oversight measures to ensure that as we work towards the 2027 budget and beyond

2:56:10That we are looking to try to figure out how we can strengthen the partnership between the outside boards and the city

2:56:17to try to help with taxpayer relief

2:56:20While at the same time acknowledging that strong air powers do not allow me to direct

2:56:25Nor do they allow me to interfere with any of the operations of any of these outside boards same applies to us here as well

2:56:33And to allow their

2:56:36obligations to their

2:56:38legislative acts that they have to adhere to as well to make sure that they're

2:56:43Operating their entities

2:56:46Appropriately for the service that they need to be doing as well too

2:56:49But we can't have this trajectory continue. This is unsustainable

2:56:53And we have to at least acknowledge that and so now now we got to figure it out together and we're we're good like that

2:56:59We'll figure it out. We're good like that

2:57:02And so, uh, this is the budget that is in front of us for the outside boards today

2:57:09And it's the conclusion of really the 2026 budget cycle. So

2:57:15Um, with this I am supporting all of this here

2:57:18Because as I said the alternatives would be worse

2:57:23Worse off for people

2:57:25For people we heard all about the impacts to people

2:57:29Today and we can't we can't let the let us forget that as well. It's a tough

2:57:34Very very tough year. We all understand it

2:57:38And I think brighter days are ahead of us

2:57:41Um on how to figure out how this trajectory will not continue and we can have things come back down to what I would call more reasonable levels

2:57:49for our for our city so

2:57:52With the help of city staff and all of the outside entities and my council colleagues

2:57:58We have a lot of heads in the room that will figure stuff out as we move forward

2:58:02And I I'm feeling very confident about that very confident about that

2:58:07So thanks. Thanks for letting me say that everybody. I appreciate that

2:58:11And with that I will call the vote then is anyone against any of these outside board budgets

2:58:19Nobody. Okay. So that's unanimous

2:58:22Thank you very much everyone and I just would like to take a extra time here to say thank you to our city staff

2:58:29So this has literally been

2:58:31Uh

2:58:33Yeah, it's basically a year a full year of work

2:58:36Okay, what they thought was going to be done by the end of december

2:58:40Uh, or not the end make first week or two of december

2:58:44Has now pushed us all the way to here

2:58:46Taxpayers are glad that happened because it did save a little bit of money

2:58:50But the consistent and constant work that our staff have done here. We even heard from even the library

2:58:56of board and

2:58:58The ceo of the library that

2:59:00There was a lot of help from our own staff to help with the outside board

2:59:03Like there's a lot of that help help coming

2:59:06And so I think just on behalf on behalf of council

2:59:09I I want to just acknowledge the finance team

2:59:13Shanna your leadership

2:59:16Was amazing. This is like really the first time that you've really grabbed this budget and I just I want to

2:59:22Acknowledge you and your whole team

2:59:24Tara your leadership as the ceo was also very very helpful through a very difficult year

2:59:31For a budget and so

2:59:33Please please know that we thank you both very much and everyone

2:59:37involved

2:59:40With that thank you again and um

2:59:44I think we have bylaws now

2:59:47And I have councillor Klassen looking to move those for us, please

2:59:54Yes, that bylaw 2026 21 206 be approved subject to section 284 114 of the municipal act

3:00:04And by a councillor Goller. Thank you anything on the bylaws anybody

3:00:10Okay, and so that's nothing. I will just call the vote. Does anyone against the bylaws?

3:00:18Hey, that's unanimous. Thank you

3:00:20And I bet you any money councillor billings would love to move adjournment

3:00:25And uh boost a till the word meet boost a till is going to go with seconding that

3:00:31And no one's against that right?

3:00:35Nobody I have a great rest of the day. Thank you very much everyone. Bye. Bye