Committee of the Whole

7:57All right. Good afternoon everybody.

7:59It is Tuesday, May the 6th, 2025.

8:02It is 1.30 and I'm just going to call the meeting to order

8:05with right off the bat looking to move

8:08into a closed session of council.

8:11I do have official regrets from councillor Chu.

8:15With this off the top,

8:18is there any disclosure of pecuniary interest or

8:20any general nature there of for the one item that is on

8:25the agenda which is titled potential disposition part of

8:28Grange Road?

8:30Nope. Nope. Not hearing or seeing anybody.

8:33So I'll just look for council to potentially move second

8:39and pass this motion to go

8:41enclosed which is section 239,

8:432C of the municipal act regarding

8:46a proposed or pending acquisition or

8:49disposition of land by the municipality or local board.

8:53Richardson will move that.

8:55Glosson will second.

8:57Is there anything further on that?

9:00No. Okay. I'll call the vote.

9:02Is anyone against moving into closed on that item?

9:05Nope. That's unanimous. That's great.

9:07All right. We'll have a closed meeting on that.

9:09We'll come back out, do a high level summary when we're done

9:11and start our open meeting. Thank you.

9:13Okay. Good afternoon everyone.

37:20It is May the 6th, 2025.

37:23It is 2 o'clock and just before we go into the open session,

37:26as I normally do, I just want to give the update,

37:29the high level summary of council going into

37:34a closed session earlier at 130 today.

37:36It was only on one item.

37:38It was on the agenda listed as

37:40potential disposition part of Grange Road.

37:44In regards to that issue,

37:46we did give direction to staff.

37:49So council heard information and gave direction to staff on that.

37:52Okay. With that then,

37:55I'd like to ask us to

37:57stand if you are able as we recognize our national anthem.

39:32Thank you so much.

39:34As we continue, just a moment of silent reflection.

39:37Great. Thank you everybody.

39:49In our territorial acknowledgement,

39:51as we gather, let us take time to reflect on

39:53our privilege to live and work here in Guelph,

39:56a city built over rich indigenous histories.

39:58We're guests here and we should reflect upon

40:00the responsibility to care for

40:02this land, the people who live here today,

40:04and the generations to come.

40:06For actions today can move us towards reconciliation,

40:10we should take pause and make

40:11those decisions with intention and gratitude.

40:14This place we call Guelph has served as

40:16traditional lands and a place of refuge for many people over time,

40:20but more specifically,

40:21the Aniwanderach and the Holonoshoni.

40:24This land is held as the treaty lands in

40:26territory with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation,

40:29and Guelph lies directly adjacent to the Haldeman Track,

40:33and as part of a long established traditional hunting grounds,

40:36for the six nations of the Grand River.

40:39Many First Nations, Inuit, and Métis people who have come from

40:42across Turtle Island called Guelph home today.

40:45With that, is there any disclosure of

40:48pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof,

40:52on the items in front of us for committee today?

40:55Hearing and seeing none,

40:57I do have formal regrets from Councillor Chu.

41:01To kick us off, we are going to have staff recognitions.

41:06We have one today,

41:07which is the Road Safety Professional Designation,

41:10and Vice Chair Klassen is going to take that up and tell us all about it.

41:17I'll turn it over to you.

41:18Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

41:20It's my pleasure on behalf of Council to

41:23recognize Lauren Short for her recent achievement

41:28in getting her Road Safety Professional Designation.

41:32Lauren is a certified engineering technologist,

41:35and she works with our engineering and transportation services.

41:39The goal of the RSP certification is to recognize

41:43road safety as a profession,

41:44establish a standard of practice and knowledge,

41:48and in-sense safety education.

41:50The certification is administered by

41:52the Transportation Professional Certification Board,

41:54which is the TPCB.

41:56The certification provides professionals involved in

41:59an array of safety-related disciplines to

42:01establish their competency in providing for

42:04the safety of the traveling public.

42:06Those achieving level one certification,

42:09which is what Lauren has been working towards,

42:11have demonstrated proficiency in

42:13the foundations of road safety principles with

42:16more than 40,000 lives lost annually on

42:18highways in the United States and Canada,

42:20and the growing attention on improving public safety through

42:23initiatives such as towards zero deaths,

42:26vision zero, and the road to zero,

42:28the RSP represents an important step forward for the safety profession.

42:33I had a minute to connect with Lauren last week,

42:37actually, and one thing that I just wanted to mention is that

42:41this designation is not a requirement,

42:44and it's something that professionals have to actively maintain.

42:50It's exciting when our staff is working towards

42:53maintaining these certifications and keeping our roads safe.

42:59Lauren also told me that changes are hard to make,

43:04especially with vision zero in place,

43:06and she's ready to fight the battle uphill.

43:09So congratulations, Lauren, and thank you.

43:17Let's do a photo. Come on down.

43:21Thank you, and congratulations again.

44:42Before we continue on with the rest of the agenda,

44:47I am adding something to our recognition portion,

44:52and for those in the gallery,

44:54and I know my colleagues online know what's about to happen right now.

44:59Counselor or work, or I guess past counselor,

45:03or work is here joining us today.

45:07Dominique, I'm going to put you on the spot,

45:10but why don't you come up to the microphone there,

45:14just so we can really embarrass you.

45:17I just wanted to take a moment to recognize on behalf of counsel,

45:23and really on behalf of our entire city,

45:25Counselor Works final days here on counsel,

45:29because as everyone knows,

45:31she has been elected into Parliament for Guelph,

45:36and it will be joining the federal government now in this upcoming term.

45:41I'd just like to say a few brief words,

45:43but the first words I want to say is congratulations, Dominique,

45:47on your incredible success.

45:49So congratulations to you.

45:54Counselor or work has served as award six Counselor now for seven years,

45:59first elected in 2018.

46:02And during this time, she has served on several boards and committees,

46:05including her time as the vice chair and the chair of the city's

46:10infrastructure development and environment committee.

46:14Also a member and on the board for the Elliott Community Board of Trustees,

46:19and a member of the Elliott's Finance and Audit Committee, and many more.

46:24Counselor work has also maintained throughout her entire time

46:28an active, entrepreneurial, and community-focused presence,

46:33just not just within counsel, but outside of counsel with her work,

46:37with a Masters of Administration in leadership from the University of Guelph.

46:42She actually owns her own consulting and communications business,

46:46served as a session instructor at Conestoga College,

46:50and served as the vice chair on the board for the Ontario French Language

46:54Educational Telecommunications Office, did all of this, and being a counselor,

47:00and being with her two wonderful children, and Mike, her husband as well.

47:06Dominique, you have always been a fierce advocate for the residents of Ward 6.

47:11And throughout the entire city, you have been tireless for the South End Community Rec Center,

47:18which will finally open next year.

47:20You are invited to the ribbon cutting for that.

47:24You have championed initiatives to shine a spotlight on things like intimate partner violence,

47:30and inspired counsel to unanimously declare an epidemic in Guelph.

47:35You always challenged the status quo.

47:38You always encouraged good public policy.

47:42And your resident outreach and your communication skills are second to none.

47:49I'm sure I speak for everyone on council when I say that you will be dearly missed

47:55around this horseshoe and in the hallways.

47:58And we wish you all the best in your new role in Ottawa.

48:03And for me personally, I look very much forward to continuing our close working relationship

48:09in the years to come, and hopefully that includes checks coming to our city, and to help us out.

48:17So with that, I think I speak, as I said at the beginning,

48:20on behalf of my colleagues on council and the entire city, and I'm sure our staff as well.

48:27And we wish you nothing but the very best, and we know that you will do an excellent job

48:31representing our city as our new MP.

48:33So thank you, Dominic.

48:47Again.

48:49So I'll come and give you a couple things.

48:52One will be some flowers.

48:56So yes, the mayor knows how to pick out flowers.

48:59And I figure this would be something good for you to take home and put up somewhere,

49:06just to remember your roots in the city.

49:09And so I'll come and give that to you now on behalf of everybody.

49:50Go ahead.

49:52Staff will be relieved to know I did not send a list of 14 questions before this meeting.

49:58Just thank you so much, Mr. Mayor, council, staff, all of that.

50:04And to residents award six in the City of Golf, it really has been the honour of a lifetime to serve.

50:10We represent our wards, but of course we serve everyone in the city.

50:14My intention is to continue to do that.

50:16My intention is to continue to work with you.

50:19Thanks to all of staffs.

50:22Reports and answering those questions.

50:24I have a good understanding of the work that goes on here.

50:28I think I'm in a good position to advocate for Guelph in terms of housing,

50:32in terms of infrastructure, in terms of growth, and in terms of the need for climate change,

50:37funding for adaptation and initiatives.

50:41And so I am when I left the cooperators, I said to somebody on my team,

50:46do you miss me yet?

50:47Because I kept having contracts with them and he said, how can I miss you if you never go away?

50:52So my intention certainly is to continue to serve the residents of Guelph just in a different way

50:57and to work with all of you just in a different way.

50:59And I just thank you so much for the knowledge and the collaboration

51:04that you've shared with me over the past six years.

51:07And we will see you again shortly.

51:09So this is really lovely.

51:10I really appreciate it.

51:19Well, thank you very much.

51:22Please leave your pass behind.

51:25And there's a box waiting for you in the hallway.

51:30No, it's kidding.

51:31We will miss you and thank you for joining us today.

51:35OK, and we'll talk soon.

51:39Thank you, Council, for letting me push that into the agenda a little bit.

51:42I think that was that was great.

51:45OK, getting back to our agenda, though,

51:48it is me, as the chair of governance and the office of the Chief Administrative Officer.

51:55So we have a consent agenda.

51:59And that the first one is the addressing gaps in daytime sheltering options

52:05for persons experiencing homelessness.

52:07Does anyone wish to have that that pulled at all?

52:10OK, Councillor Goller.

52:12And then the other one is the Committee of the Whole Terms of Reference Update.

52:17And is there anyone on that one?

52:20No. Could I have someone move the consent just for that one?

52:24Report Richardson will do that and Alt will second for us on that one.

52:28So I'll call the vote on that consent item.

52:30Is there anyone against that?

52:34Nobody. OK, so thank you.

52:36So moving further, we have the twenty twenty four year end financing

52:44report with a presentation and.

52:48Also one for the Code of Conduct for Council and local boards.

52:54So why don't we do the two presentation ones first

52:58and then we'll loop back to the one that was just pulled by Councillor Goller.

53:01So we'll kick things off with the twenty twenty four year end financing reporting.

53:08Shannon O'Dwyer, our general manager of finance, city, treasure,

53:11chief financial officer is going to walk us through that presentation

53:17whenever she's ready.

53:23Thank you very much and good afternoon, Mayor Guthrie and members of council.

53:27I'm pleased to be before you today to provide the first of two presentations

53:32on the twenty twenty four year end financial results.

53:35The reports presented today are budget variants focused and in June,

53:39we'll be back in front of you to present the audited financial statements

53:43and you'll hear from our auditor, KPMG, at that time.

53:46This presentation provides an overview of the three twenty twenty four year

53:51end financial reports included in your agenda package, covering capital,

53:56operating, budget monitoring results and reserve and reporting.

54:02Oh, and I am not thinking of slides.

54:05Thank you very much.

54:08OK, so we'll begin with capital.

54:12In twenty twenty four, the city had just over five hundred

54:15open approved capital projects at the end of twenty twenty four.

54:19These projects had a total uncommitted value of two hundred and forty million.

54:23A total of seventy six capital projects were closed out in twenty twenty four,

54:28releasing seven point eight million back to reserve funds,

54:31resulting in a final uncommitted budget of two hundred and thirty two million

54:35still to be executed.

54:37Looking at the capital budget monitoring results,

54:39we can see that our annual spending represented by the dark green line

54:43has reached our annual budget and that's shown in orange for the first time

54:48in five years with total twenty twenty four spending of one hundred and eighty one million.

54:54You can see the spike in the orange line in twenty twenty one,

54:57which represents the approval of three major tier one capital projects,

55:02the South End Community Center, the Baker District and FM Woods.

55:06These projects progressed significantly throughout twenty twenty four,

55:10contributing to an overall increase in spending of forty five percent above twenty twenty three.

55:15The light green line at the top of the chart is the committed yet to be executed budget.

55:21You can see that the issuance of P.O.s for those three large projects

55:25are reflected in that drop of that line from twenty twenty two to twenty twenty three.

55:30And there are a few larger projects budgeted in twenty twenty four

55:33that were tendered late in twenty twenty four with issuance of the purchase order

55:37occurring in early twenty twenty five and that's reflected in that slight uptick

55:41at the green line at the end of twenty twenty four.

55:46In twenty twenty four, we also found real savings through moving work in house

55:50and finding efficiencies by applying a corporate lens,

55:53such as using surplus vehicles in one department to fulfill the new need

55:57in another department instead of purchasing new.

56:00Our budget monitoring process is intended to flag and report on project risks

56:04and one risk we have been communicating through the budget monitoring report

56:08since the fourth quarter of twenty twenty three is the budget risk related to the NG

56:12nine one one project. So the CRTC has mandated the transition to a next generation

56:18nine one one system and the deadline for completing that transition was originally

56:23March fourth twenty twenty five, but it was extended to March thirty first twenty twenty seven

56:29as most providers, including wealth, had not completed the transition by that original deadline.

56:34The work was intended to be fully grant funded, but an extension to align the grant spending

56:39deadlines with the revised project completion deadlines has not yet occurred.

56:44Providers across the province are advocating for the grant extension,

56:48and if it's not extended, the estimated cost to the city is approximately one

56:52million in outstanding work to be completed.

56:58So delving a little more deeply now into the progress on the execution of the approved

57:02capital budget.

57:04So following up on the extensive capital prioritization work that was undertaken

57:08in twenty twenty two to ensure capital budget funds are aligned to the year

57:12in which procurement will be undertaken in early twenty twenty four.

57:16Staff initiated a comprehensive review of all uncommitted capital budgets

57:21and introduced a target of having 80 percent of all capital budgets of open projects

57:26committed or spent by the end of the year through this work and other in your budget

57:31adjustments, a total of twenty four point five million was reduced from the available

57:36budget and that was all included as part of the updated twenty twenty five budget

57:40as adopted by council.

57:43There continues to be an increased focus during budget development on aligning

57:47budget with the planned procurement year, as well as increasing staff capacity

57:51through the continued implementation of the capital program resourcing strategy.

57:56These strategies have contributed to drawing down our uncommitted capital budget

58:00and have allowed the city to once again end twenty twenty four, hitting this target

58:04of 80 percent of approved budget being committed or spent.

58:11So from that high level overview for which there is much more detail included

58:15in the capital budget monitoring report will highlight the recommendations

58:20including included in the report for council today.

58:23Recommendation one is the approval of tables four through six on attachment

58:28two to the report.

58:29Those are budget adjustments that require council approval.

58:33Recommendations two, three and four are requests to advance project budgets

58:38from twenty twenty six to twenty twenty five so they can be actioned ahead

58:42of the previously planned timeline.

58:44This includes advancing the budget for Parkland dedicated Parkland dedication

58:49bylaw update, the affordable housing demonstration project and the replacement

58:54of bunker gear for the fire department.

58:57Recommendation five is a required increase for the OBC file digitization project

59:03from the OBC reserve fund.

59:05This is a separate recommendation as the unique funding source limits the ability

59:09to carry out a reallocation from another approved project.

59:17In twenty twenty four, Guelph pursued a number of grant opportunities

59:20and were successful in being awarded several capital grants.

59:25This slide is not an exhaustive list and there is additional grant

59:29related information provided in the capital budget monitoring report.

59:33However, we wanted to highlight here the three categories of capital grant funding.

59:38First is sustainable grant funding streams.

59:41So the two grants in that category are the Canada Community Building Fund

59:45or the federal gas taxes we frequently call it and the provincial gas tax.

59:51Those grants are key funding sources for infrastructure renewal

59:54with the provincial gas tax being focused on funding for transit.

59:59The second category is multi year grant funding.

1:00:02And there are three significant grants in that category

1:00:06that are the investing in Canada infrastructure program or ISIP grant,

1:00:10which is providing funds for transit, active transportation

1:00:13and electrification projects over several years.

1:00:17Also in this category are the housing accelerator fund,

1:00:20which is a four year federal grant with the fourth installment

1:00:23contingent upon meeting specific outcomes and the building faster fund.

1:00:28A provincial grant link to provincial housing targets,

1:00:31which we received in 2024 based on twenty three housing starts.

1:00:36The third category is one time grant funding for specific projects.

1:00:40And that category includes the Green and Inclusive Community Building

1:00:43or GICB grant for the new library funding from the zero emission

1:00:47vehicle infrastructure program, electric charging initiative

1:00:51and a green municipal fund grant for the food waste initiative,

1:00:54as well as a grant for preventing auto theft

1:00:56from the Ministry of the Solicitor General.

1:01:00So late twenty twenty three and twenty twenty four

1:01:02saw numerous grant programs introduced by the federal and provincial governments

1:01:06focused on advancing housing supply and we pursued all possible opportunities.

1:01:12Many of the grant programs are infrastructure focused

1:01:15and this funding is very helpful in advancing growth enabling infrastructure work,

1:01:19particularly given low D.C. collections because of low building activity.

1:01:25However, these grant programs have been very competitive application based grants

1:01:30that take a substantial investment of staff time to apply for, administer and report on

1:01:35with different requirements for each grant opportunity.

1:01:38So our advocacy with upper levels of government around growth,

1:01:41enabling grant funding is shifting to emphasize the importance of and value

1:01:46of grant funding in the first category, long term,

1:01:49stable and predictable funding streams that can be planned for

1:01:53and included proactively in our financial forecasts.

1:02:00So shifting gears now to operating, the city's overall year end

1:02:03operating position compared with budget in twenty twenty four

1:02:07was a deficit of zero point zero one percent or sixty four thousand dollars.

1:02:12And I'll just note that that top bullet point on the slide is missing a zero.

1:02:15So it was zero point zero one.

1:02:18This overall deficit is split between tax and non tax supported departments

1:02:23with the net operating result for tax supported departments being a deficit

1:02:27of three hundred and ninety seven thousand or zero point one percent

1:02:30of the twenty twenty four total tax supported gross expenditures

1:02:34and a non tax supported surplus of three hundred and thirty four thousand.

1:02:39Breaking this down further, the tax supported deficit includes a combined surplus

1:02:44of four point seven million from the city and a surplus of two hundred and fifty seven thousand

1:02:49from local boards and those surpluses substantially offset

1:02:53the shared services deficit of five point two million.

1:02:57The twenty twenty four budget marked the first year of our city's four year multi year budget.

1:03:03This process involved a thorough review of historical trends in both revenue

1:03:07and expenditures to address inflationary pressures

1:03:10and mitigate historical year end surplus results.

1:03:14The surplus in city tax supported services is largely offsetting

1:03:18the deficit for the county social services, meaning that the plan developed

1:03:22during the multi year budget process has largely borne out.

1:03:26That plan leveraged temporarily higher investment income due to higher than normal interest rates

1:03:32and lower tax reassessment expenditures resulting from the deferred property tax assessment cycle update

1:03:39to offset the phase in of significant increases to the county social services budget

1:03:44over the four years of the multi year budget.

1:03:50This slide highlights key corporate operating variance drivers impacting both tax

1:03:55and non tax supported services in twenty twenty four.

1:04:00Overall favorable revenue collections are the product of surplus revenue

1:04:04in some areas offsetting revenue shortfalls in others.

1:04:08The current economic conditions continue to negatively impact the rate of new construction

1:04:13affecting building permit revenue and OBC, which was four point four million lower than budgeted.

1:04:19Site plan application fees and planning and subdivision application fees and engineering.

1:04:24This trend is expected to continue in twenty twenty five.

1:04:29Corporately we ended the year with a compensation surplus of seven hundred and twenty three thousand,

1:04:34which is point three percent of the budget.

1:04:36Several departments including planning, OBC, engineering, finance, legal courts, water,

1:04:43waste, water and operations continued to experience high vacancies

1:04:48and industry wide labor market challenges in recruitment.

1:04:52Parks, culture and recreation faced overages due to increased contract staff

1:04:57and extended part time hours required to cover service delivery needs in twenty twenty four.

1:05:03Despite the overall surplus over time and part time costs exceeded the budget in twenty twenty four.

1:05:09This was partly due to recruitment challenges and vacancies,

1:05:12which required existing staff to work additional hours to maintain service levels,

1:05:16cover mandated leaves and meet minimum staffing regulations in the emergency services area.

1:05:23While the city remains slightly below the overall compensation budget,

1:05:26costs associated with longer term leaves continued to be a budget pressure.

1:05:31WSIB costs increased significantly in twenty twenty four

1:05:35and trends show that cost steadily increasing since twenty twenty.

1:05:40Long term multi year mental stress injuries or MSI's continue to exert significant pressure

1:05:46on incurred costs both in terms of loss of earnings,

1:05:49benefit payments and ongoing health care benefit costs.

1:05:53Over eighty five percent of lost time hours in twenty twenty four were due to new MSI claims.

1:05:59Staff continue to monitor claims and support return to work plans

1:06:03to address these challenges additional resources budgeted for twenty twenty six

1:06:08have been approved for advanced recruitment in twenty twenty five.

1:06:11This will support our growing staffing compliment and the pressures faced in managing claims,

1:06:16including short term disability, long term disability and WSIB.

1:06:21Trends in escalating building and equipment maintenance costs

1:06:24and the associated budget pressures continued in twenty four.

1:06:28We extended the year with a building maintenance deficit of nine hundred and twenty five thousand

1:06:33due to higher than anticipated costs related to aging facility assets.

1:06:37As we extend asset life cycles, there is an increased risk of unforeseen critical

1:06:42failures and emergency maintenance.

1:06:45Additionally, vehicle repairs and maintenance ended the year in a deficit of one point four million.

1:06:50This deficit is primarily due to inflationary impacts on the costs of parts,

1:06:55third party labor and an increased need for maintenance as ongoing supply chain issues

1:07:00have delayed the replacement of vehicles at the end of their useful lives.

1:07:04This trend is expected to continue as facility projects are deferred into future years.

1:07:10Staff are developing mitigation strategies to prioritize essential work and manage budgets effectively.

1:07:17Corporately, fuel budgets ended with a favorable variance of four hundred and eighty thousand,

1:07:22although gas prices averaged sixteen percent higher than budgeted,

1:07:26the stabilization of diesel prices fully offset that deficit in twenty twenty four.

1:07:32The city's budget for social services ended the year with a deficit of five point two million,

1:07:37which was the driving factor behind the overall year and deficit position for the local boards and shared services.

1:07:45The twenty twenty four social services budget was developed to better align with the county of Wellington's budget and forecast,

1:07:51moving away from the historical practice of under budgeting to accommodate a previous trend of annual surpluses.

1:07:58As noted on the previous slide, the significant twenty twenty four budget increase from the county was phased in over four years.

1:08:06The Guelph public library

1:08:08concluded the year with a surplus of twelve thousand dollars and the Guelph police services ended the year with a surplus of two hundred and forty five thousand and

1:08:15further commentary on those results can be found in the reports to their respective boards.

1:08:24So the year end operating budget monitoring report includes several recommendations.

1:08:29This slide provides an overview of the tax supported budget recommendations, which are the transfer to the libraries of the libraries,

1:08:39twelve thousand two hundred and seventy one dollar surplus to the library operating contingency reserve as requested by the Guelph public library board.

1:08:47The transfer of the police's two hundred and forty five thousand seventy two dollar surplus to the police operating contingency reserve in accordance with an expected request from the Guelph police services board.

1:08:59That board meets May 15th and the formal request is expected following that meeting.

1:09:04And to transfer six hundred and fifty four thousand nine hundred and forty eight dollars from the tax rate operating contingency reserve to fund the overall remaining tax supported deficit for city services and local boards and shared services in accordance with the reserve and reserve fund policy.

1:09:24On the non tax supported side, there are six recommendations of which

1:09:29three are recommended in accordance with the reserve and reserve fund policy,

1:09:34including transfers to fund the deficits in parking of sixty two thousand two hundred and seventy three dollars and water services of two hundred and seventy six thousand seven hundred and fifty six dollars from their respective operating contingency reserves.

1:09:49The transfer of the wastewater surplus of one set one million seven hundred and five thousand four hundred and fifty two dollars

1:09:56to the wastewater operating contingency reserve and a transfer of one million seven hundred and fifty two thousand nine hundred and ninety five dollars from the OBC stabilization reserve fund to fund the Ontario Building Code administration deficit.

1:10:11The three remaining non tax supported recommendations deviate from the reserve and reserve fund policy by recommending a transfer of the surplus to the services capital reserve fund instead of the contingency reserve.

1:10:23Given the sufficiency of the balances in those specific contingency reserves for those services.

1:10:29So those recommendations are the transfer of the stormwater surplus of five hundred and sixty six thousand seven hundred and forty seven to the stormwater capital reserve fund and the transfer of one hundred and fifty three thousand six hundred and thirty nine dollars to the court capital reserve fund.

1:10:48So moving into our last report reserve and debt this chart shows the overall reserve and reserve fund balances before commitments at the end of twenty twenty four.

1:10:58It is notable that twenty twenty four was the first time the balance is overall decreased since twenty fifteen.

1:11:05Well the balance of five hundred and eight point six million at the end of well the balance is five hundred and eight point six million at the end of twenty twenty four.

1:11:14When capital funding commitments from the reserve funds made through twenty twenty four and prior capital budgets are factored in the uncommitted or available balance is one hundred and forty two point five million.

1:11:27And then that is indicated by the green line on the twenty twenty four column in the chart.

1:11:32It's a little dotted line there.

1:11:35The decrease in the balance was expected as major capital projects were in the execution phase during twenty twenty four including Baker district and the South End Community Center facilities.

1:11:49Contingency reserves provide flexibility to adapt to the changing environment and minimize vulnerability by providing resources to deal with the unexpected.

1:11:59Looking back at the past five years and considering what is ahead of us in the current environment economic environment.

1:12:05If there's one constant that we can count on it's that things will change and that we will respond to our communities changing needs.

1:12:13The tax supported contingency reserves as a group had a year and balance after commitments of twenty two point nine million or sixty percent of target down slightly from the twenty twenty three funded status.

1:12:25This figure includes the year and deficit transfer funded from the tax operating contingency reserve that I mentioned earlier in the presentation.

1:12:34The tax contingency reserve balance is expected to continue to be drawn down in twenty twenty five through twenty twenty seven as impacts continue to be phased in over time and staff will continue to recommend prioritizing replenishment of these reserves toward target balances with any future year and surplus funds available in the coming years.

1:12:55The non tax supported contingency reserves as a group ended the year at one hundred and fifty five percent of the target balance or six point eight million a substantial increase from the twenty twenty three year end percentage of target.

1:13:08As the courts contingency balance is significantly above target staff are recommending transferring one million to the courts capital reserve fund which will bring that contingency reserve balance down to target and provide a needed boost for the capital reserve fund.

1:13:24The utility contingency reserve balances will also be drawn down over twenty twenty five and twenty six to support the work of bringing utility billing in house which is well underway.

1:13:39The tax supported capital reserve funds have a negative available balance at your end and there's two primary drivers for that.

1:13:46First is a temporary reduction from holding off on debt issuance while interest rates were higher throughout twenty twenty three and twenty four.

1:13:54Expenditures for capital projects in the execution phase with planned debt financing have been temporarily funded from the capital reserve funds which is approximately twenty point six million at the end of twenty twenty four.

1:14:06The other major driver is DC exemptions and discounts which are funded from the tax supported growth reserve fund and for which we took a long term approach to phasing in increases tax increases for that.

1:14:19DC exemptions and discounts totaled fifteen point three million in twenty twenty four and approximately sixty three percent of that was funded from the tax supported capital reserve funds with the remainder funded by the rate supported the utility rate supported reserve funds.

1:14:33DC exemptions and discounts represent a major draw on the city's fiscal capacity for infrastructure renewal work and updated tax supported capital reserve fund positions will be reviewed through the twenty six budget update to determine if capital project deferrals are required.

1:14:51The available balance in the non tax supported capital reserve funds increased in twenty twenty four.

1:14:56Partially as a result of reduction in commitments from the water and wastewater capital reserve funds from the capital work in progress review undertaken in early twenty twenty four as well as eight point five million and interest income being added to the balances.

1:15:11There is substantial capital budget investment plan for these services which will draw down the balances in the non tax reserve funds in the coming years.

1:15:23This slide focuses on the city's development charge reserve funds with a high level overview of twenty twenty four activity in the table on the right hand side and some key balances and other spending highlights on the left.

1:15:36The main takeaways to be aware of with respect to DC reserve in twenty twenty four are the following.

1:15:42Collections were down by a lot less than half of twenty twenty three collections and just under twenty two percent of the projected collections for twenty twenty four.

1:15:52A significant portion of the money that went into the DC reserve funds came through transfers from the tax and rate supported reserve funds to fund DC exemptions and discounts.

1:16:03A total of fifteen point three million or three point three million more than DC collections in twenty four came from that source.

1:16:11Interest earned on DC reserve funds was also quite significant at nine point two million in twenty twenty four due to higher than normal investment returns.

1:16:21There was major capital spending from the DC reserve funds in twenty twenty four of sixty six point seven million with the South End Community Center project leading the way with forty three million in spending.

1:16:32This is a large increase from the DC supported spending in twenty twenty three which was eighteen point five million.

1:16:38After DC funding commitments from twenty four and previous capital budget approvals and outstanding DC supported debt are factored in the year and balance in the city's DC reserve funds.

1:16:49Was four point four million dollars.

1:16:52This will be boosted after debt issuances in twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six as approved by council in April of which thirty three point seven million is for the South End Community Center project.

1:17:04However, given the substantially lower than projected DC collections which are continuing into twenty twenty five so far.

1:17:11We will be reviewing the twenty twenty six capital budget as part of the twenty twenty six budget update to determine if deferrals are required.

1:17:19There is a lot of speculation out there about municipalities collecting but not spending DC's and we just wanted to highlight that this is not the case in Guelph.

1:17:28We are actively spending our development charge funds to get infrastructure built.

1:17:36This slide shows the status of the parkland dedication and community benefit charge reserve funds.

1:17:42Overall, the balances have increased slightly over twenty twenty three.

1:17:46We've recommended that the parkland dedication bylaw update be advanced to twenty twenty five.

1:17:51It's currently budgeted in twenty twenty six and we'd like to advance real aligning the bylaw with the legislative and policy changes that have been made over the past few years and to get an updated understanding of the sufficiency of this revenue source to fund the park plan.

1:18:07It's also worth noting that the city did not collect any CBC's in twenty twenty four.

1:18:12The acquisition of parkland is the major expenditure planned over the next ten years from CBC's and the ability to move those acquisitions forward will be dependent on future CBC collections.

1:18:26This slide provides information about the city's outstanding debt, which totaled one hundred and two point three million at the end of twenty twenty four.

1:18:34In the chart on the right hand side, the twenty twenty to twenty twenty four columns depict actual debt outstanding as of the end of the year with the dark blue representing existing tax supported debt.

1:18:46Dark green showing existing rate supported debt and dark orange showing existing DC supported debt.

1:18:53The twenty five and twenty six columns add in light blue, light green and light orange sections that represent the debt to be issued through the debt issue and authority approved in April.

1:19:03The table on the left hand side shows the key debt metrics with the legislative maximum debt servicing costs as a percentage of own source revenue on top and our debt policy metric of direct debt outstanding to operating revenue on the bottom.

1:19:17As you can see, Guelph's current debt load is well under the maximum and we have capacity to issue more debt in the coming years to support our capital plan as outlined in the approved debt strategy.

1:19:28To wrap up this overview of the twenty four year end results, I want to leave you with a few key takeaways.

1:19:39Through the multi year budget process, we analyze trends, we forecasted positive but temporary budget impacts, and we leverage them to phase in new expenditures over time.

1:19:50We've closely monitored and mitigated fluctuations throughout the year.

1:19:54This proactive and responsive financial management has resulted in an overall year and position that is within 0.01% of budget.

1:20:04That phase in strategy that we took on represented a higher level of risk, but ultimately phasing in increasing social services costs with temporary temporarily higher interest income was successful in twenty twenty four.

1:20:18We're closely monitoring this strategy in twenty twenty five given the interest rates have come down quickly over the past six months.

1:20:25Capital strategies related to managing inflation and project execution are working.

1:20:31We continue to have 80% of approved capital budget spent or committed at the twenty twenty four year end and we will continue this momentum to ensure every available dollar is activated.

1:20:42Reserve and reserve fund balances are decreasing with multiple large caps capital projects in the execution phase, low DC collections and high DC exemptions.

1:20:53Staff are monitoring these impacts and will recommend any required updates through the twenty twenty six budget confirmation process.

1:21:02And with that, I will thank you for your time today and we're happy to take any questions from council on these reports.

1:21:10Well, thank you for walking us through all of that and just so council knows like it that addressed all of the reports here.

1:21:19Okay. Just just everyone knows.

1:21:21Councillor Allt, I know you have a question, but before I go to you, would you mind putting on a spot, but would you mind moving the motions for for all of that?

1:21:32Would that be okay? Okay.

1:21:33And Councillor Goller, you're okay with moving all of them.

1:21:35So just for the clerks perspective, we've got eight point one, one eight point one, two and eight point one, three all moved and seconded. Okay.

1:21:47Okay. Councillor all over to you. Please.

1:21:50Thank you, Mayor Guthrie. Can you hear me all right?

1:21:53Yeah, you're coming through great.

1:21:55Perfect. Thank you, Mizzow through you to Mizzow Dwyer.

1:22:00Thank you very much for an incredibly thorough and very dense report.

1:22:05I have three or four questions.

1:22:08And I hope that they're relatively simple. I hope I didn't miss anything.

1:22:12The first one you'd made reference to aligning the budget with plan procurement over the year.

1:22:18Is this a significant shift in how we develop a budget and how we align it?

1:22:23Or is this just something that is a new standard or a new procedure?

1:22:31Thank you through the mayor to Councillor Alts. It's not a new standard. It's the way we've always done it, but it's the work in 2022 of capital prioritization was a really deep dive into making sure that that timing was aligned.

1:22:48And then we've carried that through into our 24 multi year budget and our 25 update. And we'll continue to make sure that we take a look and closely examine that as we do future updates.

1:22:58Thank you. That answers my next question. So I'll go on to the next one after that.

1:23:04Are there with our reserve and our reserve funding decreasing? How significant is this? And are there any significant cautions that you would like to express at this moment?

1:23:18So that's a complicated question through the mayor. So our reserve, the funding flowing into a reserve comes from several different sources.

1:23:30So there's tax supported capital funding that's approved through the budget process and non tax supported capital funding as well approved through the budget process.

1:23:39And those both increased through 2024 and 2025, though lower than initially planned.

1:23:46And then where there's really been a decrease is the funds flowing into the development charge reserve funds with those collections being down quite a bit in 2024.

1:23:57And so I think with the development charge exemptions represent a draw on our tax and non tax supported capital fiscal capacity.

1:24:07So that's taking money from taxes and rates and moving that into those development charge reserve funds.

1:24:14But those tax supported reserve funds then end up being the constraint for projects that have multiple funding sources because many of our projects are funded from both taxes, rates and development charges.

1:24:27Thank you.

1:24:29Then again, I'm going to skip again.

1:24:30You'd made reference that in in 2024 that there the reserve was beginning to decrease and I looked at that as a trend line.

1:24:40Is it too soon to predict whether this trend will continue or are we at a point where we should be recognizing that we will be seeing decreases in our reserves over the next couple of years.

1:24:54Thank you through the mayor. Yes, we will expect to see decreases in our reserves as we execute the plant capital projects from them.

1:25:04So there was three really large capital projects approved back in 2021.

1:25:09And those are well into the execution phase now.

1:25:13So we'll continue to see our reserve funds drawn down for those and the other capital projects that we are that have been approved by the reserve.

1:25:24Okay. Thank you. The last one's a very broad question.

1:25:28Quoting you. He said things will change. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Or is there some good and some bad that we can expect over the next few years?

1:25:40Through the mayor. I don't have my crystal ball here with me, but I think probably a little bit of both.

1:25:48Okay. Well, thank you very much for having a crystal ball. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:25:52Thank you, councillor old. Is there any further questions or would I be able to call the vote? Okay. Clawson and then to Gibson and then Billings.

1:26:04Yes, three. Mr. Mayor to staff. I just had a question with regard to the grants and the DC collection. I'm just wondering if the infrastructure grants that were currently we received in 2024 are making up for the reduced collections in DCs.

1:26:22Because I'm seeing it went down quite significantly. So I'm just wondering if, you know, I know that it's probably not apples to apples, but is there, you know, a few million dollars short or over or I'm just curious about that.

1:26:37Sure. Through the mayor. So I don't have a position to tell you today of where we in on a net basis ended between grants and DC collections. Definitely the grant funds are helping move those projects forward in the absence of DC collections.

1:26:54But in the next couple months, we will be preparing for the 2026 budget update and we will be preparing those updated for reserve forecasts and looking at the impact of that grant funding on on those reserve fund overall projected balances.

1:27:13Okay. Thank you.

1:27:15Thank you. Gibson and Billings.

1:27:17Yeah. Thank you through Mr. Mayor. So thanks very much for the presentation. I really did take in the report and the presentation as sort of a solidifying of what we predicted in 2021.

1:27:35We were on council and we voted for large infrastructure projects. We knew that these reserves would be impacted. We knew that that would be incurred to undertake the project.

1:27:47So respectfully, I understand the questions around like the reserve trends, but this was all well understood and and and for those of us who have been on council for more than one term.

1:27:59Um, was we were well informed that this is the trend that was going to occur.

1:28:03Uh, while we undertook these large infrastructure projects. So no, no question for me. Mr. Mayor, just just another voice of understanding here. Thanks.

1:28:12Okay, and Councillor Billings, please.

1:28:15I'm going to ask a question under the compensation. Um, it was WSIB.

1:28:24And the MSI and you've got the pressure on the incurred costs, 85% of lost time hours.

1:28:32Uh, in 2024 was the MSI and then WSIB went up 120%.

1:28:38My question is, is this just our fire and paramedics or does that those numbers include the police and communicators as well?

1:28:52Through the mayor. Um, I'm going to probably have to get back to you on the detailed part of that.

1:28:58Answer, but it is primarily our fire and paramedics.

1:29:02Um, police also, I'm not prepared to comment on police's right now.

1:29:08Okay. And the other thing I wanted to ask through your worship.

1:29:13Um, our staff going to be bringing forward a report, whether open or closed on this issue.

1:29:19Because it is an issue and it is a huge financial impact to our budget.

1:29:26Um, through the mayor, I'll, I'll step in here. Um, we are planning on bringing some information related to our employee engagement overall and have our HR team discuss a number of related compensation and employee policy direction.

1:29:51And so, uh, that report is planned to come in June at this point. I don't know if we were fully planning on WSIB. So we'll just take that away. And, uh, and maybe that'll be a separate report post June.

1:30:04Okay. And then also through you, Mr. Mayor. Um, do we know how much is in the police operating contingency reserve currently?

1:30:15Through the mayor, we can get that answer, but I do not have it at hand right now. Okay. So then.

1:30:24So then my follow up question is that.

1:30:27City staff has cautioned council many, many times about the use of our tax rate operating contingency reserve.

1:30:35So, I was just wondering, it's just a question. I was just wondering, because the reason why you're recommending the transfer to the local boards.

1:30:43You've put that in the report, but I was wondering, did staff have any thought with respect to tweaking the reserve fund policy that when we are in a deficit position.

1:30:57With our tax supported budget that maybe a recommendation wouldn't be to transfer from the consent contingency reserve to the local boards.

1:31:10Through the mayor, I know those individual police and library contingency reserves were set up to give the library and the police services the same sort of flexibility and autonomy to manage within their budgets that the city has.

1:31:26And so I did get the answer to your question earlier about the police contingency. It's 2.7 million. We do monitor those,

1:31:36those library and police contingency reserves in comparison with target as well. And if we saw those were going up well in excess of the target for those organizations, we would consider having a conversation about whether a surplus be deposited into the city's tax operating contingency reserve.

1:31:57Okay, but through you, Worship, the question was just the thought. Was there a thought with respect to when we are in a deficit position?

1:32:07Not to recommend the transfer.

1:32:12Through the mayor, not at this time. There was not. No.

1:32:15Okay. Thank you.

1:32:19Thank you, Councillor.

1:32:22With that, I think I'll call the vote then on these several motions.

1:32:28And I'll do that now. Is there anybody against 8.18.2 8.3?

1:32:41Nobody at this time.

1:32:44I think Councillor Caron is okay.

1:32:48Not quite sure what's happening there.

1:32:50Good. Yeah, my camera's acting up. Sorry. That's okay.

1:32:53Good to go. No objection.

1:32:56Looks like death, death, a sickle, you know, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

1:33:04Thank you. That's unanimous then.

1:33:07I think we'll go to you next for the code of conduct for council and local boards presentation.

1:33:18And then we'll swing back around to the shelter addressing gaps and daytime sheltering options.

1:33:34Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor, members of city council.

1:33:38You will recall that in March there was a revised version of the code of conduct presented by the integrity commissioner.

1:33:44At that meeting, the committee referred the code back to staff for changes based on council's feedback.

1:33:49I'm just going to walk through the changes before you today so you get a sense of what is different in this version of the code versus what was presented in March.

1:33:57There are two provisions of the code which had been removed entirely.

1:34:00There is no longer a prohibition included on any sort of political endorsements at any level of government.

1:34:05And there is no prohibition, no prohibition, sorry, on the promotion of any third party interests included in the code before you today.

1:34:13Rules regarding the use of social media during election campaigns and the need to clearly distinguish between communication from a sitting member of council and communication as a candidate in an election do remain in code.

1:34:25However, there are some slight changes to how titles may be used on social media during campaigns.

1:34:31As originally presented titles may not be used during election campaigns in social media account handles, user names or profile descriptions if that account is being used as an election related account.

1:34:43However, titles can be used on those accounts to say things like reelect councillor Smith in Ward 2 or as the councillor for Ward 6.

1:34:51I've supported following types of policies.

1:34:54So there is a little bit more clarity in the code in that regard.

1:34:57We do think these rules are important.

1:34:58We want to ensure that members of the public can discern when they're viewing communications from a sitting member of council communicating in that role versus when they're looking at election or campaign related materials.

1:35:11Generally speaking, all other provisions in the code remain the same as presented in March.

1:35:16That includes clarification that the code applies regardless of whether a member considers a social media account to be public, professional or private.

1:35:25The code applies to councillor behavior regardless of the medium you are communicating in.

1:35:30There is no distinction between different types of accounts or different communication channels.

1:35:33The code applies to online electronic communication.

1:35:36It applies to internal communication.

1:35:38There's no distinction in that regard in what's before you today.

1:35:42The proposed code also indicates that councillors should exercise restraint when blocking members of the public or users on social media to ensure that the user's right to freedom of expression is not infringed.

1:35:53But that blocking is absolutely permitted when required to protect a member or other users from harassment or abuse to preserve the utility of the social media account from things like spam or bots and to prevent the dissemination of abusive, hateful or insightful communication.

1:36:10If members of council have concerns about a specific social media user, they may choose to contact the integrity commissioner to seek advice before blocking them, but that is not a requirement.

1:36:21Obvious cases of abuse, bots, inappropriate content, spam, that can always be blocked at a member's discretion.

1:36:30At committee of the whole, there was also questions about the applicability of the code to members of advisory committees.

1:36:36The code before you today does apply to all advisory committee members, chairs and vice chairs.

1:36:42We don't believe that the proposed code creates an undue level of restriction or hardship for those members.

1:36:48And we believe it's important to recognize that they do occupy positions of significant privilege within Guelph's system of governance.

1:36:55These privileges come with the expectation that all advisory committee members will conduct themselves to the same ethical standards as members of city council.

1:37:02Other transparency programs like the lobbyist registry also apply equally to members of council and advisory committees.

1:37:10Finally, since publishing this report, the provinces reintroduced the municipal accountability act.

1:37:18That act gives the provincial government the ability to impose a code of conduct, a single code of conduct for all municipalities in Ontario following the 2026 election.

1:37:27So it's a reasonable expectation that any changes we make here today will be in place from now until the end of this term of council.

1:37:33For the new term of council, we're very likely to have a code that's been mandated by the provincial government.

1:37:38Thank you and I'm happy to answer any questions.

1:37:42Thank you. Is there anyone that I would at least be willing to move the code? Okay, caller and Richardson. Okay. Thank you.

1:37:50And then is there any questions at all at this time?

1:37:54All right, we'll start with, uh, Kate and then alt.

1:38:00Through you, Mr. Mayor.

1:38:02I'm a bit confused why the blocking provision would be included for ACOC members.

1:38:10Why, why would the public have a reasonable expectation to view any post made by an ACOC member?

1:38:21Through you, Mr. Mayor. So I can, I can think about a situation where a chair of an advisory committee is using X for example,

1:38:27and regularly communicating about things that happened at the recent committee meetings.

1:38:31So, you know, the committee today, the committee gave the following advice to council or we approve the following motion, whatever it may be.

1:38:37Maybe next month we're considering bringing this type of item forward.

1:38:41We believe that by posting that as the chair, you are creating a public forum for discussion and then to say,

1:38:48oh, you disagree with my content. I'm going to block you would be an inappropriate use

1:38:53and an inappropriate block to a member of the public as far as their access to that public forum.

1:39:00Through the mayor, but this information is all available elsewhere, right?

1:39:05So that's not actually stopping them from having access to the information. We have the meeting minutes online. We have the whole meeting

1:39:12videotaped each time. So

1:39:15if it was the only source of information about that meeting, I could imagine that. But

1:39:23my concern is that a lot of these groups, and what we're trying to do with our

1:39:30services is to increase the amount of diversity that we have in membership. That's one of our active components of the policy that we just

1:39:39redid. And I feel that this may

1:39:43prevent people from who are marginalized from wanting to do this because it creates an undue burden

1:39:49when you block someone to have to prove it should someone go to the integrity commissioner.

1:39:55How

1:39:57would we make that

1:39:59not an onerous process for those volunteers?

1:40:07Through you, Mr. Mayor to Councillor Caden,

1:40:10I think members of advisory committees and chairs especially

1:40:15need to

1:40:16think carefully before blocking a member of the public because that is reducing their access to content that

1:40:23is being put out publicly by a local board member appointed by city council.

1:40:28I think there is privilege in that in that position and that means that they've got to be wary of

1:40:33preventing members of the public from accessing that. You're certainly right that we post agendas,

1:40:39minutes, reports, video content,

1:40:42but that is different than hearing directly from a chair or directly from a member on social media in the same way I

1:40:47believe it is for a member of council where likewise we post agendas and minutes and reports and that kind of thing. So if there is a question about

1:40:56whether a block is is reasonable if it is in a bit of a gray area,

1:41:01it's not maybe clearly abusive or it's not clearly spam,

1:41:04then certainly the integrity commissioner is in a position to support and the clerk's office is always happy to work with all of our advisory committee members

1:41:10to connect them with the integrity commissioner to help them make those types of decisions.

1:41:15Through the mayor, so this is just basically provided that someone is is posting that content,

1:41:20but otherwise someone who's posting pictures of their kid and their dog and their garden

1:41:25is also subject to blocking and someone can go to the integrity commissioner

1:41:30and make a complaint that they've been blocked even though they're not posting anything that is of use. And this is the same thing with

1:41:36personal accounts even though we're not

1:41:38breaking out personal versus private for counselors.

1:41:42Through you, Mr. Mayor, I'm not sure that's that's exactly right. So there is a distinction in the code when it comes to the creation of a public forum.

1:41:50So I'm a big Blue Jays fan. If I was a member of city council and I had a Facebook group devoted to, you know, Guelph Blue Jays supporters

1:41:57and we just talked sports and Blue Jays,

1:42:00it's reasonable that I could restrict public access to that to that group. So

1:42:05there is a distinction to be made about is that a public forum in my official role as a as a counselor?

1:42:11That that's an easy cut and dry case. No, it isn't. So if you're just talking about

1:42:15your your family and kids and sharing photos of pets or whatever, that's that's never going to apply.

1:42:20But I think that line can be blurred very quickly if you have an account where you are doing some sharing of, you know,

1:42:27gifts or pets or whatever. But then you also add in a little bit of political commentary

1:42:31maybe related to your role on council. If you're a counselor or related to something going on at an advisory committee, if you're an advisory committee member

1:42:38and you've got comments

1:42:40enabled and that's an open account. Then what you're doing is telling the public,

1:42:43this is a way I'm going to communicate about some of the official duties I have in this role. And then they have a right to access.

1:42:49And we believe that

1:42:51unwarranted attempts to limit that access

1:42:54may in some cases represent an infringement upon that other individual's right to express themselves freely.

1:43:02Through the mirror. So I'm a bit confused now because before it seemed like every account if it was public

1:43:07would be subject to this. But now you're saying that the content within the count is

1:43:12matters. So I'm a bit confused because anything can be public and have comments open on it.

1:43:18Right? Like I've got pictures of my wedding and such.

1:43:23So

1:43:25that doesn't seem to be broken out in the code currently.

1:43:29That there are those distinctions between posts and accounts that are posting things

1:43:33that could be considered public forum versus other. It just says any of your accounts are subject to all of this.

1:43:40And I am,

1:43:41uh,

1:43:42I think that some of the political endorsement

1:43:45things and the third party interests that we had in there prior were very valid if we're talking about

1:43:51uh council specific accounts versus accounts that

1:43:55because people own businesses and because they have their own personal

1:44:00kind of endorsements and things like that. So it seems like we are making a difference

1:44:05between them, but it's not very clear to me right now.

1:44:12Through you, Mr. Mayor. So the code of conduct applies

1:44:16regardless of how or where you're communicating. So for example,

1:44:20abusive communication, whether it's in person, whether it's online, whether it's done in a public venue or perhaps in a private venue,

1:44:28that type of abusive content or behavior could always be investigated.

1:44:33So when we say the code applies everywhere, we mean regardless of the environment, regardless of how you're communicating. It applies

1:44:39when we're talking about specifically blocking members of the public, for example on social media,

1:44:45we have to think about whether we have created a public forum. That's the language that the code uses.

1:44:50So if we are posting publicly on matters related to your role as a member of city council or an advisory committee member,

1:44:57then we are creating a public forum and that's where those

1:45:00limitations or considerations related to blocking would apply.

1:45:05So there is context here that matters, but I think broadly speaking the code applies everywhere and that's an important principle that

1:45:14behavior is not just limited in this room or on official social media accounts. It is limited everywhere through all channels and all means.

1:45:22Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have no problem with most of it, right?

1:45:25It's just with the blocking that I find it creates more of an issue with marginalization.

1:45:29And I understand what you're saying, but I don't think that that's reflected necessarily in the language in

1:45:35the code right now. So

1:45:38I'll be working on some amendments to

1:45:41create that clarity so that it's kind of more known,

1:45:47that it's specific to

1:45:49creating the forum for posts related to the council rather than necessarily for the blocking specifically,

1:45:57rather than the whole account.

1:46:00Thank you very much.

1:46:02Thank you, Councillor.

1:46:04I think Alt was my last one.

1:46:07Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

1:46:09Through you to Mr. McMahon and Clerks. First of all, thank you very much for taking into consideration some of the concerns.

1:46:18I think it is

1:46:20significantly better than what we had presented in front of us before.

1:46:24I do agree with you about the higher standard of ethical behavior. There are many

1:46:28careers where that is an absolute expectation. And so consequently,

1:46:33I think for all intents and purposes at this point, I will be supporting this,

1:46:38but I have one very naive question for you.

1:46:42And that is if there's a provincial municipal accountability act that is forthcoming in

1:46:492026, and this is only for one year, arguably,

1:46:57why we're not even necessarily going to be getting out of the the dock

1:47:04on this before it becomes

1:47:06essentially a moot point.

1:47:13Through you, Mr. Mayor, to Councillor Eld,

1:47:16I think there's two reasons. The first is that staff, the integrity commissioner and hopefully council believes these are the best rules to have in place

1:47:25to govern

1:47:26the behavior of elected officials, especially going into an election campaign where we know social media is going to be a feature.

1:47:33So we believe in it. That is part of it.

1:47:35The second part, quite frankly, is that we largely had this work done when we found out that the provincial government was going to be

1:47:41implementing these changes and we think they're worthwhile. So we brought them forward.

1:47:45Yeah, okay. That makes complete sense.

1:47:47Both parts of it, actually. I do appreciate the work on that. And I think it is incumbent that for us to recognize that we might not have got this

1:47:57perfect. But I think the concept of a code that does establish that there are

1:48:04expectations of a higher standard of ethical behavior does matter to the public. And we should be very mindful of that.

1:48:11I do look forward to Councillor Kate and bring possibly back some

1:48:15amendments that might improve what you've done. But thank you very much. I think it's been a good effort.

1:48:21And who knows, it might be better than what the province brings in anyway.

1:48:27Thank you. I was going to call the vote, but Gibson, did you have your hand up?

1:48:32I'll just comment on this file too. Thank you to Council and thank you to staff for working through this

1:48:39file. I guess I'm getting half a sum of longevity on Council. Four years ago, three years ago, I guess just before the last term of

1:48:48Council ended, I did try to move a motion to bring some more accountability through our Code of Conduct to local boards and

1:48:56outside boards. And Council wasn't ready for that decision or wasn't ready for that conversation at the time.

1:49:03I'm very appreciative that we are able to get this finished and get this achieved

1:49:09because I do believe that there's privilege and I do believe that there is a responsibility

1:49:14when members of the public are put in charge of governance, governance decisions,

1:49:20taxpayer money, where they are allowed to bring forward recommendations to Council and in some cases make decisions on

1:49:27behalf of Council. I do believe that there is a level of ethical conduct that we should expect

1:49:33and we should be willing to enforce. Sometimes we can all go on social media and see a lot of ugly things,

1:49:41but it's a really disappointing and really sinking feeling when you see an appointed member that you have

1:49:49supported joining an outside board or joining a local board or joining a committee,

1:49:54running down our police, running down our civil servants, running down our municipal employees.

1:50:00Those are people that we are in charge of protecting when it comes to public discourse to a certain extent

1:50:08and I believe that when we put people into these positions, they should be held to a same ethical

1:50:14conduct that we are and we welcome that scrutiny, we welcome those challenges.

1:50:19I've always said that I appreciate the integrity commissioner because I think in many ways it

1:50:23protects us when complaints come forward. The integrity commissioner is that arbiter that comes

1:50:27in and says no, they did behave fine or they didn't, but I do appreciate Council, maybe it just didn't

1:50:35need my name associated with it for it to pass, but I won't take that personally. I appreciate

1:50:41Council engaging in this conversation. I appreciate staff working through it because

1:50:47quite frankly, everything I wanted achieved has been achieved. I'll take that as a moral victory,

1:50:53even if Council didn't want to have this conversation four years ago. Thank you.

1:50:59All right, thank you. With that, I will call the vote on the update of the code for Council and

1:51:06outside board. Sorry, am I saying that right? Yeah, code of for Council and local boards.

1:51:18I'll call the vote. Is anyone against? Okay, just Kate is against at this time. So that passes.

1:51:27Thank you. Okay, we're circling back to the last thing under governance, which was the addressing

1:51:33gaps and daytime shelter options for persons experiencing homelessness. Councillor Gower,

1:51:40you asked for this to be extracted. So I'll turn over to you. Thank you, your worship.

1:51:48I wanted to first of all thank staff for putting together this report. I think it's

1:51:54very much needed. I think providing the services is extremely important. I'm given that the county

1:52:02has deemed that a discretionary service. It is up to us to fund it. So fully on board with this.

1:52:08I have heard some concerns from my constituents who live in the downtown area and folks that live

1:52:15in the surrounding neighborhoods of the downtown area, as well as from the downtown wealth business

1:52:21association about locating these services in the heart of the downtown. So I just wanted to

1:52:30give a heads up that between now and the end of the month, I'll be reaching out to staff to have

1:52:34a conversation about possibly putting some guidelines about maybe we ask for the service,

1:52:42but maybe we ask for it not to be in the main strip in the downtown and seeing how we can do

1:52:48it in a way that is flexible, that still gives an opportunity for organizations to provide the

1:52:53services in the vicinity of the downtown because we all acknowledge that the services that folks

1:52:59access are in our downtown core. But I would like to see back a few years ago when the

1:53:07Guelph Dropping Center was providing data and shelter space, it was just a couple of blocks

1:53:11outside of the downtown. And I think that provided for a healthier environment than what we've seen

1:53:18over the last couple of years. So just wanted to bring that as a point to let the public know

1:53:23and that I'll be working with staff on those issues. Okay, thank you. A busatil please and then

1:53:33alt and then clock. Thank you and thank you for the heads up there Councillor Goller. I would

1:53:40hope that when you bring something forward if you can define what main strips are because for me,

1:53:47you know, main strips are where Ontario Works is, where housing services are on Windham Street,

1:53:53main strips are Baker Street and so on, which is, you know, I volunteered at Royal City Mission

1:54:00doing taxes for two months for individuals there. So main strips to me is quite a broad brush and

1:54:08I have a lot of concerns with that. Thank you. Thank you. Alt and then Colasa and then King.

1:54:17Thank you very much Mayor Guthrie. I won't get into the possible amendments as they are just

1:54:24possible. They don't exist right now, but one thing that does exist, I was wondering if staff

1:54:29could please comment on the 10% County discretionary support for this. What if they say no?

1:54:43Through the mayor to Councillor, Alt, thanks for the question. Sorry, it took us a minute to get

1:54:46down here. We did discuss the 10% with the county. It is in keeping with the historic way that we

1:54:52have split this discretionary service in years previous and it is discretionary. So if they

1:54:59say no, 100% of the service would fall to the city, but our early indications from staff are that

1:55:04it's a reasonable request of the county at this time. Thank you for the clarity. Thank you. Colasa

1:55:12and then Kate. Yes, thank you. Through you, Mr. Mayor, I just wanted to thank my Councillor Goller

1:55:21for bringing this forward. I sit on the Downtown Golf Business Association and this is something

1:55:26that came up at the meeting earlier this week. I just want to comment that I think it's great

1:55:32that we are exploring options for daytime shelter. So thank you for bringing this forward. It is

1:55:39paramount that we look at all options for supporting people in need and I think that I want to underline

1:55:44that as I go forward. The second part with regard to Councillor Goller's points about identifying

1:55:53places where a potential shelter may or may not be, I would just like to acknowledge that the

1:56:01Downtown Board also added that they want to consider where we're putting places, but also

1:56:10just that we are also being good neighbours to whomever we're suggesting that a daytime shelter go.

1:56:18And this is something that came up at the O B I A, the Ontario Downtown Boards. We have over the

1:56:28last, I think, 20 years been putting more and more social services in our in our cores, which is

1:56:33which is great because they're centralized and they provide a really important place for people to

1:56:38come and and and get those services that they need. But our downtown cores are also places where

1:56:45people in our communities live and work and I think that we need to make sure that people are

1:56:52working together and that people feel safe and welcome no matter no matter who they are. So as we

1:56:59go forward it would be great if staff could look into potentially if we if we do consider putting

1:57:04this into the downtown. Are we also looking at line items for security and other safety measures?

1:57:11I hope that this can be something that's considered as part of the RFP process. Thank you.

1:57:19Thank you. Kate and then I'll just go to Gibson and circle back to Bousatil. I see you as well.

1:57:27Thank you. Through you Mr. Mayor to staff. Do we have numbers on how many bars we have downtown?

1:57:40Through the mayor. I don't believe staff have that number at this time.

1:57:43Okay. So if I reach out to staff and ask about the number of bars versus the amount of police

1:57:54time and money spent on folks after the bars for safety for downtown is that something I would

1:58:00be able to get through staff or should I have to go through the police ward? So through the

1:58:07mayor to Councillor Caden we can get the numbers for you about the number of bars because we track

1:58:11that through our business licensing and so Mr. Godfrey's team can get you that information

1:58:15in advance of the council. We don't have it today in terms of policing response that would

1:58:20need to come directly from Guelph police services. Okay. Thank you. Similarly with the number of

1:58:28social supports and services that currently are provided downtown so folks who are already going

1:58:33there is that I can ask all that and get that for the next meeting. Okay. And the final question

1:58:43is through the mayor. Is this consistent? I remember we had a contract group come in and talk

1:58:49to us about our response to homelessness and my memory is not the best but I'm just trying to

1:58:56remember I thought that they had said that keeping all of the service together was the best way to

1:59:02help that population. Am I remembering that correctly? Through the mayor to Councillor Caden

1:59:09the report that you're remembering is from collective results I believe and I'm certainly

1:59:14happy to share a link to that report. That report talked about generally speaking where people that

1:59:19were requiring social services were geographically and the distance of travel that a person could

1:59:25make on foot for example or using transit if they didn't have access to personal other modes of

1:59:30transportation so we can make that available for you if that's helpful. Great. Thank you very much.

1:59:39Thank you. Gibson and then Boussatil and then Ault. Yeah thank you through you Mr. Mayor.

1:59:47Just a comment. Again I think we're perhaps debating something that may happen in the

1:59:52future. We haven't seen the letters of the motion yet however I will say this. It's a long time

1:59:57sitting board member of the GDBA as well. I think it's it's it's literally just voicing the

2:00:02representation that we're hearing on council from Councillor Goller and Ploson that these are we need

2:00:11to be sensitive to both sides of the spectrum here. It is a it is an area of our city that we do support

2:00:17vulnerable populations but we also want to promote commerce and we want to promote

2:00:21placemaking and we want to promote that downtown spirit so I don't on the outside I'd like to

2:00:29explore what that looks like to locations but I do think that in an honest moment we're just

2:00:35speaking to the concerns that are being expressed by our downtown as well when we're asking about

2:00:39where the location goes so that's that's why we're here so I welcome that conversation when it comes.

2:00:48Thank you. Boussatillian Ault. Thank you. Did you want me to go after Ault? I have already spoken.

2:00:56Okay it's okay thank you. I'm sorry I apologize the DGBA letter I must have missed that. I don't

2:01:02know if it was included in the package could it be included the next round in the package?

2:01:09Oh okay sorry I didn't see that yeah so if we could have that in in the public package next time

2:01:17oh sorry got it so maybe you can communicate with the DGBA that it become a public document thank you

2:01:25and then just to Councillor Klosson's about the security measures

2:01:28not only the future costs it would be helpful to know how much investment has already been done

2:01:33in the downtown area so that we know all the initiatives and so on so that there's a balance

2:01:38there thank you for clarifying collective results because in my mind I was thinking about

2:01:45the lived experience report that comes from the health and housing table that had staff

2:01:50implement the February 14th porta potties in neighborhoods and so on that as Councillor I

2:01:56know I'm receiving a lot of pushback on so thank you for if you if you can include that link that

2:02:03would get me to the right report that's it thank you. Thank you and then Ault please.

2:02:09Thank you Mayor Guthrie a couple of questions for staff or requests

2:02:15the first one would it be appropriate right now to explain to Council what the character of a

2:02:22competitive procurement process contains does it contain geographic inclusions or exclusions

2:02:32because I think in in some senses this is problematic if we're doing something that's

2:02:39competitive about a drop-in center it could be anywhere in the city and if we're not careful

2:02:47we're going to be in a position where we are going to be creating many exclusions based on

2:02:53proximity to a particular neighborhood rather than dealing with the issue of a competitive

2:02:59process so I'd like to ask that first if I could please. Sure thank you through the mayor

2:03:07Councillor Allt is correct that and we've not drafted the RFP yet so I think feedback for

2:03:14example if council were looking for us to evaluate the RFP based on criteria with more points or

2:03:20fewer points we could take that we could take that advice and and implement it obviously if

2:03:28if we're imposing additional constraints location as an example that's come up this afternoon

2:03:33that will potentially make the pool of people who are eligible to compete in our RFP smaller

2:03:38the process does look like an open expression of interest through the RFP for a number of weeks

2:03:44where proponents can take the plan ask questions and submit something that then staff will review

2:03:50there's an opportunity often for us to have an interview with the submissions that are at the

2:03:56top of the pile and then make a decision and and it is likely in this case as you've seen

2:04:01in previous cases that we would be looking to include someone from Wellington County

2:04:05on our on our evaluation panel as well. Just a follow-up to that one before I go to the next

2:04:13concerns would that potentially delay this process if we started getting into the the

2:04:20various restrictions and constraints on what we consider to be appropriate to a drop-in center

2:04:26competitive procurement. Through the mayor working through the timelines staff hope to have the open

2:04:34RFP in the public by July 1st in order to meet a deadline that brings us back here for council

2:04:39decision in accordance with the budget and so so really we're in front of you in May with time for

2:04:45us to work on an RFP in June for it to go out in July so I would say addressing it this cycle of

2:04:51council is helpful to keep us on time for the budget. Okay thank you with regards to all of that

2:04:58if it could be considered whether we need to factor in such costs as welcoming street impact

2:05:04and policing it would certainly be appreciated because those could be significant costs in terms of

2:05:10this. Thank you. Is there anything further at all? And I'm really sorry to the clerks I just

2:05:23I forget has it already been moved in seconded I think it was but I can't remember it has been

2:05:31yeah it has been. Through you Mr. Mayor I don't have a mover in second. Oh okay would someone be

2:05:37willing to move okay Guller and Gibson the two G's all right so I'm just going to give my comments

2:05:44then just before I call the vote thank you for everyone else with their comments. I know this

2:05:50is this can be and I recognize a difficult kind of conversation perhaps and I think where I think

2:05:58where everyone might be aligned what I'm hearing is that a daytime shelter system is something that

2:06:04I think we're all kind of behind. The question is where and there are things that are you know our

2:06:13downtown cores are I say the word cores is because I speak to mayors and I speak to others across

2:06:20the province and I'm sure it's outside of the province where they're wrestling with these issues

2:06:24of the social service agencies social service drop-in centers always in the downtown cores and

2:06:31it it begs the question really at the fundamental part of it for me is what what are our downtowns

2:06:39supposed to be for and for me it is supposed to be an economic driver for our community is supposed

2:06:47to be a thriving business entrepreneurial center of public space and tourism and and and events and

2:07:00what's happening not just in Guelph but across many other communities is social services tend to

2:07:08to be attracted to downtown cores and they start really taking up a lot of space because there

2:07:17is a need so I'm not suggesting there isn't a need but a lot of space and if you think about our own

2:07:22downtown core there there's a lot of them and they're they're doing good work by the way I'm not

2:07:29suggesting that they're not but you know I I can off the top of my head like Hope House

2:07:36Royal City Mission, Tomers United, The Bench, you know all of the county social service buildings

2:07:46administration and I could go on there's more and and so when it comes to using and a lot of those

2:07:54are funded by charitable giveings and and other maybe other government grants what I like about

2:08:03where staff are bringing us to today is to say like this piecemeal sort of one off $450,000 here

2:08:10and $100,000 there and we're taking from this reserve at this time and trying to trying to

2:08:15figure it out as we go is to say like let's just be focused on actually providing the service

2:08:22putting the money behind it and let's figure it out I like that the where and the location is an

2:08:29honorable discussion I think to be had and I just want to just say that I personally would not want

2:08:38to have something like this in our downtown core I'm just going to say it out loud and when I say

2:08:44our downtown core for me that means Wyndham and Cork and Douglas and Quebec and McDonnell and Cardin

2:08:53sort of those main streets and we're not the only council or only BIA that's talking about this

2:09:01the City of London Council in November had an exact conversation as we are having right now

2:09:10and their council voted nine to six to not allow resting shelter spaces on any of their

2:09:18main streets in their BIAs so we're not the only ones having this discussion and there is now some

2:09:27friction between staff and council in London around the implementation of that but these types of

2:09:34conversations aren't new and my my bent my personal bent is to try to make our downtown core those core

2:09:43streets for economic thriving businesses entrepreneurial type of events and public spaces and so that

2:09:55that's where I'm at on it right now so I'm appreciative Councillor Gull or Councillor

2:09:59Clawson some of your comments about maybe bringing something forward around limiting the RFP

2:10:06to a type of option where we can get some feedback and some responses to the RFP that might

2:10:13not be in those areas these other institutions and social services can be provided through

2:10:21charitable giving but if we're going to be using the taxpayers money and I think we

2:10:28should at least have the conversation about where the location can be that is the best for all

2:10:33and that's just my perspective at this point willing to hear from people for the rest of

2:10:37this month and find out what happens at the end of the month but I think it is an important

2:10:44conversation and we shouldn't shouldn't dodge it and I know there'll be more opinions on this

2:10:50but there's my opinion I just thought I would throw it out on the on the floor right now

2:10:53so with that I'll call the vote and we'll see what happens between now and the end of the month

2:10:59so is anyone against moving forward at least at this point with an RFP at the committee level no

2:11:06okay so that's unanimous thank you very much we are going to take a break right now as we have

2:11:14our vice chair Klosson come up to take us into our last item and our last item is the

2:11:24Guelphs community call to climate action there'll be a presentation that will kick that off but

2:11:28I'll turn it over to vice chair Klosson it is 3 34 we're going to meet back here at 3 45

2:11:35okay and we'll do that last item so thank you very much it is 3 45 and I am calling

2:22:56the next item to order we are receiving a report from anti-villico and Brian Ho-Yen who will be

2:23:05giving us a presentation on Guelphs community call to climate action so I'll hand things over to them

2:23:11for a presentation and then we'll hear a delegation from David Douglas before we start our deliberations

2:23:18over to you great good afternoon I'm anti-villico general manager for facilities and energy management

2:23:26I wanted to share some introductory comments to get us started here so the community call to

2:23:30climate action provides key areas of focus and priority climate actions to reduce greenhouse

2:23:35gas emissions throughout the community that work towards Guelphs community race to zero targets

2:23:41this work is aligned with the city's strategic plan theme of the environment

2:23:46and empowering the community to help create a sustainable city as well as the CAO's objective

2:23:51around relationships we are stronger together the community call to climate action is exactly

2:23:57about being stronger together reporting on race to zero target progress and how the city

2:24:03convenes the community towards community climate action given the magnitude complexity and shared

2:24:08ownership of the race to zero targets a single entity cannot be expected to solve a community

2:24:13wide challenge of fighting climate change implementation of action is needed by all

2:24:19the community called climate action is a stepping stone to a significant amount of collective work

2:24:23that will be needed for the long term the purpose is to bring focus for all of the different players

2:24:29in the community on what needs to be done so there's a role for everyone to play here that

2:24:34includes us as individuals corporately as the city of Guelph as well as not for profit organizations

2:24:40and businesses in the community on how we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in our daily lives

2:24:46and operations and help the community to be more sustainable so the city is looking to work with

2:24:52the community as a member of the community to bring greater focus on community climate action

2:24:57and work collectively towards race to zero goals so I'll just hand it over here to Brian O'Yam

2:25:03manager of energy and climate change to run through the rest of presentation thank you

2:25:18looking for the clicker thing

2:25:20was that okay great okay good afternoon uh so my name is Brian O'Yam and I am the manager of the

2:25:27energy and climate change team so the energy and climate change team has built up capacity over time

2:25:34and is a dedicated team of doers that consist of myself and five other talented individuals

2:25:40that project manage different energy and climate change initiatives the variety of work that we

2:25:45do pushes us to wear many different hats one day managing the design and construction of a

2:25:51zero carbon building the next supporting sustainable policies and then over to working with community

2:25:57members to promote and share information about the Guelph-Grenard Homes residential energy retrofit

2:26:03program that said having this wide exposure to different challenges allows us to leverage

2:26:10our interdisciplinary skill set today I'm here to present Guelph's community called to climate

2:26:16action what is the community called the climate action simply put it's all about collective action

2:26:27because that is the only way we can address climate change at a community scale no single entity can

2:26:33do it alone the first step to getting collective climate action is to get everyone in Guelph

2:26:39to have a shared understanding of the climate change problem which is our wasteful use of

2:26:44energy and fossil fuels and how that generates greenhouse gas emissions with a solid understanding

2:26:51we can gain more focus on what we all have to work towards to really affect change the call to

2:26:59community climate action clearly defines how we can fight climate change and the priority climate

2:27:04actions to meaningfully achieve carbon reductions and with this focus on what is needed we can

2:27:10figure out real ways to gain more momentum and support more in the community to join in on the

2:27:15action let me be clear on what the community called to climate action is not it is not the

2:27:23corporation of the city of Guelph shirking responsibility and dumping this on everyone else

2:27:28it is about coming together and working together we don't have time to waste although it feels like

2:27:34climate change has been forgotten we must remember it's still here and it affects everyone and

2:27:45everything these images around town are evidence that Guelph is seeing these impacts every day

2:27:50think of the extreme heat waves and the cooling centers that open up around the city

2:27:56the ice storm that went through here a few weeks ago or the windstorm last week

2:28:01and the amount of property damage power failure and felled trees that came from it

2:28:07with Guelph being the largest groundwater community in Canada we are vulnerable to floods and drought

2:28:12and how they impact water quality and groundwater supply historical data is telling us that global

2:28:21temperatures are climbing and at the fastest rate than ever before this is because of human

2:28:26activity our activity namely our excessive use of fossil fuels because the earth is

2:28:33because the earth is warming at such a rapid rate in such a short time whether events are

2:28:38becoming more and more extreme and this impacts health security cost it affects the social fabric

2:28:46that connects everyone here our families and our neighbors the damage we've seen from forest fires

2:28:53in jasper flash floods in toronto heat dome in bc are jarring and we need to take collective ownership

2:29:00and do what we can to lower emissions to break this ongoing cycle of disaster rebuild

2:29:07disaster rebuild and so on and so on the science is telling us that to stop climate change from

2:29:19getting much worse we need to hold global temperatures to not increase by more than 1.5 degrees celsius

2:29:25to keep this temperature limit we need to really slow down how much greenhouse gas emissions we're

2:29:30putting up into the atmosphere that is what the paris agreement is where countries around the world

2:29:35signed up and committed to reducing emissions from the international stage to the federal to the

2:29:41provincial there are commitments that line up it's realized that cities have a huge play in the

2:29:48climate change fight concentrated in cities our major our majority of our populations buildings

2:29:56industries cars cities like guelph are a hive of activity and where many emissions are generated

2:30:03and with this concentration is the potential where collective action across many sectors can take

2:30:09place as such the city of guelph joined the united nations race to zero campaign where we have committed

2:30:17to rally the community to reduce community emissions per capita on a per capita basis by 63

2:30:25percent against the 2018 baseline by 2030 and to become a net zero carbon community by 2050

2:30:38here's the latest data that shows the progress that has been made the brown graph on the left

2:30:44is looking at emissions on a per person basis in guelph we have seen some reduction about an

2:30:50eight percent drop when comparing 2023 to 2018 emissions sorry per capita emissions but we still

2:30:58have a massive chunk to take out to get to the 2030 race to zero target which is only five years away

2:31:05the more concerning thing is that after the drop during covid in 2020 emissions are climbing back

2:31:10up and going in the wrong direction the colored graph on the right is the same information but

2:31:17shown in total emissions by using population projections the different colors represent the

2:31:23different sectors in the community from where the emissions are coming from starting from the bottom

2:31:29and going up in dark blue is residential orange is commercial and institutional green is industrial

2:31:37light blue is transportation and purple is fugitive emissions from waste and waste and wastewater

2:31:45so i live in guelph i work in guelph i've studied at the university of guelph my kids go to school

2:31:52here i drive around town and i buy stuff and generate waste so what i'm getting at here

2:32:00is that many aspects of my life adds to every single one of these colors and how big that bar

2:32:06and ends up and it just it it it just isn't me the same applies to everybody here and the

2:32:15rest of guelph we can find ourselves contributing to many of these colored uh colored blocks in the bar graph

2:32:22so the take home message we need to come together and figure out how we can lower our

2:32:26emissions and get to the 2030 target which works out to eliminating about 500 000 tons of carbon

2:32:32emission carbon dioxide equivalent to give perspective burning 400 liters of gas which

2:32:39can be used to drive about 4 000 kilometers makes about one ton of emissions now that we've seen the

2:32:49data and have a better understanding of where emissions are coming from what can we do to drive

2:32:54those bar graphs down these are key focus areas that reduce emissions we can do better with our

2:33:01buildings new and old and we can think about how we design and construct them but also how we use

2:33:07them every day we can lower costs to run businesses by decarbonizing deep carbonization being more

2:33:15energy efficient on how we manufacture things or provide goods and services we can use cleaner sources

2:33:22of energy and use more sustainable ways to get around we can right size our lives and rethink

2:33:28how we can do things in a more circular way to be less wasteful and we can maintain and invest in

2:33:34guelph's natural environment as it sequesters greenhouse gas emissions and as a natural defense

2:33:39against climate change looking at these focus areas there's something for everyone there are

2:33:49everyday climate actions for anyone or any organization who works plays studies or visits guelph

2:33:54whether you're a storm fan taking a bus to the game or you've g-student renting a place with

2:34:01classmates and looking to lower their energy bill or if you're working in the handland business park

2:34:06and have ideas on how to optimize a manufacturing process or a contractor installing insulation

2:34:11on a building these all add up to the collective action towards guelph's race to zero targets

2:34:22i like to go back and take a deeper look at the sectoral breakdown of where the emissions are coming

2:34:26from we see that the emissions are pretty evenly spread out amongst the residential

2:34:31institutional commercial and industrial sectors transportation has the largest chunk and fugitive

2:34:38emissions from waste and wastewater come in at around five percent by taking a sector-based

2:34:44approach we can hone further in on the key focus areas and determine priority climate actions that

2:34:49will drive emissions down and help meet the 2030 target remember we're looking for 500

2:35:00500 000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent these priority climate actions across the different

2:35:06sector across the different sectors can get us there for the residential sector we need to get

2:35:1340 000 households to change over to heat pumps this will be a reduction of 80 000 tons and for all

2:35:19new buildings we want them to be net zero carbon so we aren't adding more emissions to the problem

2:35:23the industrial sector must look at optimizing processes and equipment and reduce emissions by

2:35:28100 000 tons the commercial and institutional businesses similarly take a look at their

2:35:34operations and reduce emissions by 100 000 tons as well for transportation replacing 60 000 gas

2:35:41guzzlers with sustainable transportation alternatives or electric vehicles eliminates

2:35:45around 190 000 tons of carbon dioxide and managing the fugitive emissions that come from processing

2:35:52waste and wastewater will reduce emissions by another 30 000 tons adding these all up get us

2:35:59the 500 000 tons that we need to get to 2030 with these sectors sorry with these sector focused

2:36:08climate actions we can also think about how to tap into what motivates the different sectors

2:36:14for example the way we talk with residents about installing heat pumps is completely different

2:36:20from how we talk with plant managers we're installing variable speed chillers

2:36:24to cool their the plastic extrusion machines we need to understand the audience and figure out

2:36:32where the pinch points are to really get at emissions reduction you're probably wondering

2:36:40how does the corporation in the city of guelph in all this when it comes to community-wide emissions

2:36:47municipalities are in a unique position since they have different connection points with varying

2:36:51levels of influence the federation of Canadian municipalities articulated quite well with the

2:36:57diagram on the screen the city owns and operates a bunch of infrastructure this is where a lot of

2:37:03the direct control can happen as we invest more into infrastructure to get corporate emissions down

2:37:09but also build out infrastructure to help others get their emissions down too so when you think of

2:37:14bike lanes or public transit and helping the community out that way moving to the indirect

2:37:21control there these are things like plans and policies that can be developed to help encourage

2:37:26community members to reduce emissions from their activities a good example is the work going on

2:37:31with the green development standard finally there's the limited or no control and these are things

2:37:37like having residents or businesses actually reduce their energy use and greenhouse gas emissions

2:37:42from their operations the corporation currently does a lot of work in all of these levels and will

2:37:51continue to do so and evaluate new effective ways to work alongside the community to get community

2:37:57wide emissions down by understanding these levels of control we can be more effective at designing

2:38:04appropriate methods to activate other members in the community that may be sitting on the fence

2:38:12here are some real actions where the corporation is leveraging its relationships finding meaningful

2:38:16ways to contribute to the community called the climate action and provide support to the community

2:38:23we're working with utilities to gather up data up-to-date data on the emissions and sharing it

2:38:29with the whole community so they can know how things are going administering the youth climate

2:38:34action fund and awarding those aged 15 to 24 and how that will help grow new climate leaders

2:38:41working shoulder to shoulder with industry and businesses learning about their climate work

2:38:47their climate work and sharing lessons learned through the new local ici and institutional

2:38:53commercial industrial stocktake climate change summit that we held last year and continue and

2:38:58will continue to do so building climate knowledge throughout the community by working with strong

2:39:04and passionate community groups that are trusted by their members and networks and i'd be remiss for

2:39:11not mentioning the gulf greener homes program and supporting real action taken on by hundreds of

2:39:16gulf households we recognize that climate change is extremely complex and it can be daunting the

2:39:24energy and climate change team is positioned to convene the community and work together as part

2:39:28of the community to help navigate towards our race to zero in closing climate change is here

2:39:42and there is no time to waste in getting community emissions down we need to work together and answering

2:39:47the community call to climate action thank you thank you mr. hoyan for your presentation

2:39:55we have one delegate um and we're going to go to him before we hand things over to us um so

2:40:03mr. david douglas if you could come up david mr. douglas is from gulf climate action network

2:40:10mr. douglas you've been here before you know you know the rules you've got five minutes

2:40:15um over to you thank you thank you thank you madam chair and members of council for this

2:40:22opportunity well once again you've seen the scale and the urgency of the tasks ahead of us ahead

2:40:31of all of us and what i would like to do is to remind council that there is now a very active

2:40:37cadre of community organizations and individuals selflessly working on the challenges associated

2:40:45with the climate crisis as they apply to our community i'd like to remind you that these

2:40:52constitute a major grassroots nonpartisan informed and active resource that the city as our community's

2:41:02local government should look to as a partner collaborator to work towards our common net

2:41:10zero targets and i would like to encourage city council and your staff to actively reach out

2:41:17and to connect and co-invest with this cohort of dedicated and committed community organizations

2:41:26among these organizations with the climate crisis as their central focus we have e-merge

2:41:32well known to you we have now seniors for climate action or scan the gulf chapter of this national

2:41:39organization and the gulf climate action network or gcan of which i'm proud to be a founding board

2:41:46member there are others that are addressing the challenges of the crisis and these include for

2:41:52example the gulf wellington coalition for social justice opyrgic university get involved with gulf

2:42:00or gig and happily green drinks there are several others of course active in many aspects of

2:42:08environmental issues water local food systems and other facets of sustainable development

2:42:14but those that i've listed here are the main ones with the central focus on the climate crisis

2:42:21and especially important they are focusing on community-based bottom-up participatory approaches

2:42:28to to the climate crisis mitigation and adaptation as an example of gcans current roster of activities

2:42:37i can highlight the climate circles and i'll elaborate on these if you've got questions

2:42:43the frescs another initiative we're undertaking continuing input to the community plan

2:42:50design management and implementation of community forums like last year's at the italian

2:42:56canadian center ongoing community communications through the media and her own newsletter heat pump

2:43:04social events community films earth day community activities a community climate survey that we

2:43:12conducted last year and more recently input to the current green development standards process

2:43:20that the city is thoroughly involved in and there's more to come city council as a council has

2:43:27already successfully implemented a progressive approach to city community collaboration via

2:43:33as just one example the partnership approach with the gulf hiking trails club of which i'm a member

2:43:40this is one where the city does not have to be in charge where powers funding capacity to implement

2:43:47and actually get concrete actions underway are shared and devolved it's a wonderful example

2:43:55of what really is community-led city partnered initiatives own investing together and i want

2:44:04therefore to strongly recommend that city council continue to encourage and direct staff

2:44:11to work with us in gcan and other community organizations so that together we can address

2:44:18the challenges of the climate crisis the challenges of mitigation and adaptation please assign staff

2:44:28time provide meeting facilities make critical information available provide convener and other

2:44:35support functions contribute financially and actively partner with us in addressing these

2:44:42community-wide challenges and opportunities thank you thank you mr. douglas for your delegation

2:44:51and thank you for your service um and the work that you do in our community um with uh with gcan

2:44:58i'm going to look to council and mr. mayor for questions i see um councillor Goller with your

2:45:04hand up councillor busetel councillor Caron let's start with councillor Goller thank you for your

2:45:10presentation mr. douglas and thank you for the work that you do with our um environmental groups

2:45:14here in the city i wanted to go back to the the list of requests that you had for the city on how we

2:45:20can work better with the organizations um i heard you mentioned that uh asking staff to work with

2:45:27organizations i believe they're already working uh with you um provide meeting facilities that was

2:45:33very clear after you said provide meeting facilities you mentioned something about a convener could you

2:45:38talk a little bit about what you meant by that yes i can give you a concrete example in our work

2:45:45on the community plan which is happily a community plan separate from as you well know the official

2:45:51plan uh we've been meeting with the community group that sits around the table and talks about

2:45:59community issues social development issues mental health issues economic development issues

2:46:05land use issues environmental issues and so on so we meet with them on an as required basis

2:46:12but it's also part of that work we've been working in moving the community plan document from its

2:46:18aspirational uh edition where it's at at the moment and helping to move from goals to concrete

2:46:27objectives as action plans that takes a lot of work but it will remain as a report on the shelf

2:46:35like so many reports unless we move from goals to action plans that will identify precisely

2:46:42what should be done to move the community in in our particular contribution towards successful

2:46:51community led uh mitigation and adaptation measures in the climate crisis so that's a specific example

2:46:59and what the city does there besides working with us through staff is providing rooms where we can meet

2:47:08the community with the community members so that's a very practical example the city can also look

2:47:15after some of the paperwork and the grunge work that goes with organizing 25 or 35 people in the same

2:47:22room on the same day at the same time and more or less together that takes a lot of work so the

2:47:28convening facilitating work that the city has done there is very constructive and very important

2:47:34and I think that's the sort of thing that can help community organizations who are running very thin

2:47:41on scarce volunteer time okay okay thank you so so to clarify it's when you say a sign a convener

2:47:48you're asking for the city of wealth to provide administrative support so that these groups can

2:47:53can work better together okay yes okay that is clear and um were there any any other um

2:48:01any other supports or requests that that you're asking for today that that that you haven't covered

2:48:07we've talked about time facilities convener was there anything else that the that you need to

2:48:14like like you said it is a significant shift going from goals and the staff presentation was very clear

2:48:19you know for example we need 40 000 homes to go into heat pumps and that will help us that is a

2:48:24target we need x number of vehicles um are there any other supports that you see from your groups

2:48:29perspectives that are needed to get us from to achieve those those targets well the current

2:48:38collaboration that is going on across a number of staff members and departments the sharing of data

2:48:46is and current research is very useful community organizations don't have their own research arms

2:48:53their own research bureaus we're all running fast and furious picking up what we can we can pick up

2:48:59case study information which is very very important from other communities what has been done what has

2:49:05been tried what has been invented or reinvented uh staff are often very aware of these things

2:49:12through the FCM through a UMA through AMO through roma other municipal organizations also professional

2:49:19organizations so ready access to information and intelligence on innovative ways of addressing these

2:49:28issues the sharing of that is is very important uh as it is going on and I think we are encouraging

2:49:36you to extend and expand on that thank you for that and and through the chair my last question

2:49:43we've talked about what the city can do to provide support and I think a big part of this is also the

2:49:48responsibility on community members to take this up and to to work with it um is there

2:49:54something else that needs to happen from the community side to actually have widespread

2:49:58understanding that this is a priority if I understand the question correctly councillor

2:50:06what we are doing and what other community organizations are doing are spreading information

2:50:13what's this all about uh being clear we're not trying to try and change the chinese government's

2:50:18policy or the american government's policies or so the mitigation we're doing like emissions reduction

2:50:24is something we can do in our own backyard in our own households and in our own businesses so

2:50:30we're sort of focusing on that the adaptation is trying to find ways as to how we might adapt

2:50:38and how neighborhood organizations how communities how streets how uh community subgroups how faith

2:50:46based organizations whatever they might be might not just talk about it and share their concerns

2:50:52and their very fears their anxieties about this issue but also try and identify ways

2:50:59by which we ourselves can do something about this retrofitting houses as one of our organizations

2:51:07that I mentioned is doing it's addressing the question of fossil fuels in schools a very tangible

2:51:15project that can be undertaken so we're working on a variety of fronts

2:51:22and we believe that greater collaboration operational collaboration with the city

2:51:28is a very good way to go and just overdo thank you thank you so much thank you chair

2:51:34thank you and I just wanted to give staff the opportunity to respond to anything that you

2:51:38heard from the delegate and the counselor in that last exchanger through you madam chair to

2:51:49counsel so we've had actually had an opportunity to have a few discussions with mr. Douglas in the

2:51:54past so we appreciate the support that he has shown us in our work I think all the things that

2:52:01mr. Douglas has mentioned are things that we are actually looking forward to

2:52:06doing more formally I think in the past we've done things and it hasn't been as formal as

2:52:11we would have liked but given the the budget discussions that we had last year and the

2:52:18commitment of this council to to the hundred re budgeting that's certainly something that we

2:52:25would like to take to take back with us and make something a little more formal on all the things

2:52:30that mr. Douglas had said so I think in short I think we're in full agreement thank you um

2:52:38counselor boosted help please thank you and through you madam chair nice to see you David

2:52:45I just have a question about G can I'm less familiar with G can you mentioned the community

2:52:50climate survey I'm not as familiar with the community climate survey just very briefly

2:52:55can you tell me what the objective of of the survey was and kind of briefly what the results were

2:53:03okay thank you through you madam chair the the central objective of the survey was just to

2:53:13get a reading as to where wealth residents were at in this issue of the climate crisis

2:53:22what do you know about it how do you feel about it on a scale of one to five what's your response to

2:53:29you know a variety of questions very simple one largely a pulse taking exercise

2:53:36the response was good the response was not statistically significant and you you'll recall

2:53:42some of those parameters in our previous lives so it can be taken as representative of the

2:53:50respondents and and the majority of the respondents expressed grave concerns about the issue of

2:53:58climate grave concerns about the lack of direction as to what we do and how we do it and how we do

2:54:04it together and these sort of things so that was the the response I suppose you might be said to

2:54:11have have confirmed what we might have intuitively expected I think concerns out there

2:54:20yes thank you and and through you madam chair my second question was

2:54:25you talked about street adaptations and I seem to recall somewhere in my brain reading about

2:54:31street climate change collective kind of efforts and the reason I raise this is not too long ago

2:54:37we talked about a tree canopies and mitigating you know heat areas and so I'm curious does G

2:54:45can or any of the other organizations have plans conversations green drinks around street adaptations

2:54:56good question thank you it would be it would be the sort of thing that would come up I mean maybe we

2:55:03would work through the folks in 10c the the neighborhood support coalition

2:55:12that might be the group you might work through but it might be something that happens organically

2:55:18in a particular neighborhood where a street gets together and they say what can we do about tree

2:55:24planting as you say the the the the the canopy we know that the city is well behind its target

2:55:31its earlier target in the question of the tree can canopy and if my recall is correct

2:55:36the the target has now been moved out to 2070 I think to reach the 40 percent canopy coverage

2:55:44so that might be an example where a group of people informally get together have a barbecue

2:55:50talk it up and say okay we're going to try and plant 50 new trees on our street the question is

2:55:57how do we do it who wants the who wants the public right away where is the city's land start and end

2:56:03and then there will be cognizant of the recent bylaw that you addressed in city council here about

2:56:09the private trees so what's the latest and greatest there but so we might we might facilitate with

2:56:18others that type of discussion and that type of initiative in some respects it's analogous to

2:56:23the community gardens we see in two rivers and now up in the st. George's park area and a number of

2:56:29other areas where all of a sudden local folks are growing local food and as I say it's no way it's

2:56:36organic but with city colleagues and others we might find a way to spark the discussion

2:56:43and encourage those types of initiatives thank you very much I think I kind of tainted your response

2:56:49I was looking more for the concrete kind of street adaptations and actions in homes and

2:56:54roofing and other things but it's a question I'll ask staff as well thank you thank you I'll have

2:57:02Karan then alt and then I'd like to get the recommendations on the floor Karan please

2:57:08Karen it's great to have this stuff again Karan I'd like to interrupt you for a moment if I can

2:57:16could you turn off your camera we can't hear your audio hear me now yes okay thank you

2:57:32thank you madam chair thank you doctor like us I know you have a long history of climate

2:57:40action activism in the community and I'm looking way way back there's gel 12 environmental leadership

2:57:48there was community energy climbing exercises we did we had our energy wells there's climate

2:57:59action at the youth level there's so many entities from the past and the present and

2:58:05potentially the future and so my question is there isn't one organization doing all of this work

2:58:16and so what I'm worried about is that we're back to where we were 20 years ago where there's a whole

2:58:23bunch of groups doing doing multiple amazing things but there isn't coordination and whether

2:58:31that's a factor of funding or whether that's a factor of leadership or whether that's a factor of

2:58:38that the climate file the climate action file is just too large we need people working on

2:58:44reducing you know residential building on the lips we need people working on active transportation

2:58:50people working on on forestry and urban planning that there's just too many files and folders

2:58:57climate action portfolio to have one singular coordinating effort just wondering if you can

2:59:05wrap that all up in a three decade long ribbon for me nicely put it is a dog's breakfast

2:59:14so that's that's well said and you're right that's the thing about the climate crisis it touches on

2:59:20everything homelessness and uneven access to wealth there are undoubtedly gender cultural

2:59:28dimensions age dimensions so you're right it bumps against everything and no one community

2:59:38organization can take the whole thing under its its belt and it likely shouldn't do it that would

2:59:45be I think quite unhealthy the distinction I would make between let's say somebody's an organization

2:59:51like GCAN wealth climate action network let's say as against opyrg our colleagues in opyrg is

2:59:57that they are looking at quite a number of other things as well issues of social justice distribution

3:00:04gig like involved wealth are very much concerned about what they might describe as the democratic

3:00:11deficit in our community voter turnout political participation and other issues and not surprisingly

3:00:20some aspects of the climate crisis and the challenges you know end up on their portfolio

3:00:27and I could continue but you're you're right there's a small number of organizations that don't own

3:00:34file never will never should but we have purposefully taken the climate crisis and the issues of

3:00:42mitigation and adaptation as our centerpiece so we're not going to talk directly about water

3:00:49as such we're not going to re-engage on the river systems discourse which is another 10 to 15

3:00:56years we're not going to talk about relevant matters like residential densities and the

3:01:02changing profile of this urban community that has a direct impact on sustainability on energy

3:01:10use on the walkable neighborhoods and other things but most certainly directly a direct impact

3:01:16on how we respond to the climate crisis we bump against these but we'll try and keep as our focus

3:01:22the question of community-based mitigation and community-based adaptation

3:01:31having said that there's always an ongoing conversation in the community about do we need

3:01:36an apex organization do we need a sort of a hub that pulls all of these pieces together and that

3:01:43conversation comes and goes and it's a balance between expending scarce energies on constituting

3:01:50you know the apex organization as against getting on with the work at hand which itself is overwhelming

3:02:01thank you um Councillor Caron does that answer your question you still have a floor

3:02:07great okay and next up and lastly is Councillor Allt over to you thank you very much chair

3:02:13clonson through you to mr. Douglas mr. Douglas I appreciate your comments about the enthusiasm

3:02:20of the community but regrettably and I'll ask more complicated questions to staff but on the same vein

3:02:27I'm somewhat cynical of our capacity to actually meet these aspirational goals so I have a simple

3:02:33question for you when I look at the charts that are presented have we missed our 2030 aspirational goals

3:02:41I in a way I can come through I can't answer that I give you my my guesstimate uh my my my

3:02:53personal guesstimate not speaking from my colleagues in G can or other colleagues

3:02:58is that no I think we are way behind where we should be quite significantly behind where we

3:03:05should be in emissions uh reduction and in other facets of this of this challenge uh

3:03:15mentioned was made of the Paris Agreement you know 10 years old plus and and other commitments and

3:03:22Canada as a whole local government or municipal Canada as a whole and ourselves in particular

3:03:28in my view uh are moving very very very slowly we're slow learners and as one of our previous

3:03:39activist community colleagues used to say we're awaiting the kick in the head before we get the

3:03:46message that's rather putting it rather bluntly but that's my view we have more than a more than

3:03:55enough work to do quickly thank you very much hopefully that will not lead to a permanent concussion

3:04:06thank you councillor art and thank you mr. douglas for your delegation um so it's back to us now

3:04:12we have two recommendations can I have a mover and a seconder I see downer and um uh dollar

3:04:20and I will go to questions to staff on the presentation I'll start a list Bucitil downer alt

3:04:28Koran Galler thank you um this question is for uh through you madam chair uh through uh to mr

3:04:37Ho Yan just about the presentation I really like the sector-based approach I think that is a logical

3:04:43way uh to organize this and I you know I take to heart the sphere of influence as well and I

3:04:50I asked this a long time ago to the mayor but I'm going to ask it to staff um for me it's a low hanging

3:04:57fruit it's the broader public sector which you've kind of put in with institutions institutions

3:05:04and companies industry and so my question is uh we already have deep relationships with a

3:05:10broader public sector and I'm thinking of university college school boards and hospitals

3:05:15around things like purchasing and all those kinds of conversations um and to what councillor

3:05:22Koran and I believe mr uh douglas also said what is missing for me is the who leads who convenes

3:05:29who plans who holds you know accountable who is the one that holds up the report card and I'm not

3:05:36suggesting for the big slice of that cake all the layers but even just for the broader public

3:05:42sector where we have common public interests and values as a starting point so can you explain

3:05:49to me the sector-based approach and where the broader public sector fits into that and is there

3:05:56an opportunity through the systems that already exist for leadership you know convening planning

3:06:04holding accountable and that report my background is 16 years in the upper grand district school

3:06:10board is the school board and through education we have our own accountability it feels to me

3:06:16that the broader public sector has had conversations is there a way to you know roll up the impact

3:06:24just even for the public sector in this approach sorry for the long question um to you chair uh

3:06:33to the councillor um I'm just going to clarify on that on the graph so the data there are some

3:06:40constraints as to how how we receive the data as it comes from the utilities so that was the

3:06:46reason why in terms of institutional and commercial being grouping grouped that is why the resolution

3:06:53of that data that said though um understanding that the broader public service uh does is a big

3:07:01contributor to that that piece of the pie um and that's what we did and that's what we continue to

3:07:08do so back in november through our local stock take we actually broke those two groups up more on

3:07:15the industrial side as as as an event to meet and talk and speak kind of industrial speak

3:07:22look at particular projects in the nature of work that they do similarly with the institutional

3:07:26commercial it was more focused on those institutional um partners so we had folks like

3:07:32connoisseur college university of guelph we had the upper grand district school board and we had the

3:07:38wellington catholic school board uh we invited uh guelph general hospital and others to also

3:07:43participate the county was also there as well um aside from that formal event there's ongoing

3:07:51conversations that we have as well so i regularly meet with dilip and the team at upper grand district

3:07:56school board and really talk about how we lack of a better word share battle scars in terms of what

3:08:04what we're doing with projects bringing it down to kind of that ground floor level um there are

3:08:09things that we can share in a real in a real way you know we're dealing with air handling units in

3:08:16our facilities they are also as well and so that's where that sector-based approach also really

3:08:23helps because and and and also the team that we have with the energy and climate change team

3:08:29is that we're talking shop and we're talking from experience and doing projects and we can

3:08:36provide those parallels to those say if it is in in the institutional sector

3:08:42so i hope that that helps councillor i'm going to infer then therefore the the response to my

3:08:51question through you madam chair is who leads convenes plans holds accountable is it you and

3:08:57your team and the city that leads convenes and pulls together i'm just speaking about broader

3:09:02public sector not you know in its entirety is it you and your team because as i said there are

3:09:09you know everyone does um uh utility audits all sorts of things you know it is is that your team

3:09:16that's doing it for the broader public sector through you chair to councillor busattel um there

3:09:24are elements that we are convening we are committed to having that local stock take every year um and

3:09:31to that point too every year we're putting up what we're terming as our report card that community-wide

3:09:37emissions and the sectors and saying how are we moving the needle folks and let's get all around

3:09:43together and come up with opportunities to do this and action to do it um there are there are

3:09:51more informal interactions as well so the other day i was at wellington catholic school boards

3:09:56more on the programming side of it but they're looking at their sustainability plan so there's

3:10:00a real sharing of information and seeing about how we're approaching the different tactics and

3:10:06getting uh working with our communities and engaging and engaging the the patrons for for um

3:10:13for our buildings and our services so again that local stock take is intended to be that convening

3:10:21for at that broader scale but it can't just stop there it has to happen through the daily work that

3:10:27we're doing as well and that's where those interactions are happening and that sharing of

3:10:32skills and experiences thank you i appreciate that and you know my former professor would

3:10:39appreciate the economies of scale that if you're working with universities college school boards

3:10:44hospitals there are you know staff students patrons that come through those institutions and if you

3:10:51can have that culture change kind of permeate and those conversations that would be great

3:10:56just one final question and i asked it to the delegation to the delegate is about street

3:11:01adaptations and i thought i read somewhere in a report maybe it wasn't a city report about

3:11:08municipal effort to work with streets around behavior changes changes to home kind of improvements

3:11:17and things like that um does that exist in the city not so much the tree planting that was i kind of

3:11:22took him off tangent a bit but it has that is that part of the plan at all at more the residential

3:11:28street kind of area uh through you chair to councillor busotel the intersection of climate

3:11:39change mitigation and climate change adaptation are very complex so through some of our existing

3:11:47programs like the gulf greener homes program um you know we look at heat pumps and we look at how

3:11:52they're so energy efficient they get us off of fossil fuels um they're fantastic in terms of reducing

3:11:58emissions the benefit of the the the shared benefit on the adaptation side though is it provides

3:12:04households with not only a secondary source of heat and a cleaner source of heat but it also

3:12:09provides those those households that may have not had cooling in their houses and it functions as an

3:12:16adaptation measure uh and a very strong one given that heat heat um heat waves are are big big risk

3:12:23within our our adaptation file so elements like that are brought in similarly with the insulation

3:12:30similarly with those those that's where those cross sections are so um historically like i i

3:12:36are focused with the energy and climate change team is looking at that more that mitigation side

3:12:40moving towards our targets and how reducing emissions but we're not overlooking you know the

3:12:46benefits that we provide and and that we need to adapt since climate change is here um and so then

3:12:52looking at broader measures to expand that out um similarly say through programs like the gulf greener

3:12:59homes you know outside of the city of gulf there are movements to look beyond just mitigation and

3:13:05and seeing about things about you know are there measures that can be included so these are some

3:13:11of the things that we're always looking at and and seeing if we can expand uh programs accordingly

3:13:17thank you thank you downer please thank you through you madam chair yes thanks for bringing

3:13:26this report forward i too like the the sector approach reminds me of the initial community

3:13:32energy plan which was was very much sector back when um one of the this presentation sort of

3:13:41brought me back to a tour we did with the gulf junction railway with um was it pdi yeah out on

3:13:50wood lawn and we sort of went there and we thought well you know they wanted to tell us about what

3:13:56they were doing but most of what they told us was about how they were working on greenhouse gas

3:14:02emission reductions and it was so impressive they were spending a million dollars a building to put

3:14:09on solar they were uh changing up their fleet to become much more energy efficient they were just

3:14:16all over it and that's what their presentation was and they had all the stats about their reductions

3:14:21and everything and we were all kind of blown away sitting there that that they were doing this on

3:14:26their own initiative there was no you know um nobody pushed them to do this and there was james

3:14:32gudrum's not here tonight but he was there was a take up of doing some kind of a mentoring program

3:14:39with other industries in the city and james was going to follow up on that and has that ever happened

3:14:45or is that something that we could look at with possibly the chamber of commerce involved and and

3:14:52and taking industries like that that are in the forefront of doing this uh to

3:15:02to to do those kind of mentoring programs within the city uh through chair to councillor downer

3:15:14rick at pdi is fantastic it just happened to see you know we're all impressed a real champion

3:15:21actually um and and and i mean that in every way so he presented uh shared his information at our

3:15:29local stock take in november and and these are the things that i'm saying about a few things

3:15:37we have to understand with this sector-based approach that not all sectors are created equal

3:15:44and even within the sectors they aren't so as you're saying that through say a mentorship program

3:15:48you know there is a journey that that companies have to take and and whatnot so we'll we'll take

3:15:53that back and we'll have to talk with um mr gudrum about that and and whatnot but it really

3:16:00speaks to that kind of that knowledge sharing um that's really the intention of that stock take

3:16:06and then also the seeing is believing you know they're not going to listen businesses are not

3:16:10going to listen to john q public servant they're going to listen to their industry partners

3:16:17and their competitors and that's the intention of that it's those textured communications that

3:16:22we're having in that engagement with these different sectors to get people to motivate each other and

3:16:28have have community members support community yes it would be good to he was quite interested in

3:16:34this mentorship program on on that it would be great to see that sort of move forward um

3:16:40something like that and rick was very interested as well at the time the other question i would have

3:16:45is around the waste part of um action so to reduce material waste and property sort waste

3:16:54now that we've sort of lost control of i'll call it the blue box program you know because that's our

3:16:59the blue waste um is that going to be more difficult for us to control and manage or to collect data from

3:17:13um through the through the chair to council downer so um i think whenever anything um is not

3:17:19within our control it is a little bit harder um to to manage that um we are um and as you can imagine

3:17:27we are in constant contact though um with our other municipalities and with those who now have

3:17:32taken over that um that business so we can get data from them there are other areas though that are

3:17:39our solid waste team is very active in whether it be food waste um textiles um things like that

3:17:46that they are still very much involved with um so that is how we keep keep plugged into that and

3:17:53all those um all those activities across the city whether it be through solid waste um things that

3:17:59we might be doing through engineering or planning or which tree tree planting was mentioned earlier

3:18:05so through our forestry partners um there's an opportunity now to try and um and coordinate

3:18:13all that and convene the community to make sure that those activities are are properly connected

3:18:19within the city thanks that's helpful but so with whether being out of our sort of more out of our

3:18:27control and hopefully we'll be able to collect data and eventually like sort of there there's nothing

3:18:32stopping the city though from still promoting that kind of sorting like you know um you know not

3:18:40okay that doesn't mean we just sort on that doesn't mean we just deal with garbage and and and um

3:18:48and um compost we're still going to be advocates and along and educational on the blue box

3:18:56part of it are we not um through the chair that's exactly what we would be doing so while we don't

3:19:01actually perform um the collections that doesn't mean to say that we wouldn't be actively involved

3:19:07in trying to make sure that everybody's doing what they can to sort properly through the but that

3:19:12reduces the waste that goes to waste as well so for us that's a saving yeah 100 percent yeah

3:19:19through you chaired a councillor down and I just I would like also add a bit of clarification as well

3:19:25um in the background or uh document it goes through how we've conducted our inventory for the greenhouse

3:19:31gas emissions not to get into too much detail it does look at scope one and scope two emissions

3:19:38and that being what we're burning on site using natural gas also what we're using for electricity

3:19:44scope three is very complex and that's when we're starting to get through kind of life cycle impacts

3:19:49so we're looking at you know the amount of energy it takes an amount of emissions that it generates

3:19:54to extract resources make things and then send it over to say gulf households and then the waste

3:20:02side of it as well transporting it and dealing with that so those aren't necessarily in those

3:20:08bar graphs to some degree there are some elements of it but not fully so I just wanted to make that

3:20:14clarification that bar that five percent ish bar where it's talking about waste and waste water

3:20:21um those are fugitive emissions from that so with our Eastview landfill um there's work that's

3:20:27being done to constantly to manage that upkeep of that landfill so that it's not um just spewing

3:20:34out gases and that would be a lot more harmful to the atmosphere so there's a lot of good work that

3:20:39has to be happening there and a lot of investment to to maintain and upkeep that and then similarly

3:20:45you know as we're still taking on the organic waste and and whatnot too but broadly speaking at

3:20:50an overall society perspective that's what we're saying the key focus areas is is you know we do

3:20:56have to look at our consumption it's still a problem it's not going to go away regardless if it's

3:21:00you know hitting those that that inventory directly um it's still causing emissions somewhere

3:21:08right and so that's that's why it was included in there okay great thank you thank you

3:21:14all please thank you very much chair fawson uh through you to the staff um uh just to caveat

3:21:23first of all i i truly do appreciate all of the efforts of staff on this front i i really think

3:21:29that it's a task that's worthy of some of the greek god sisyphus or uh pamethius in some sense as

3:21:35although pramesh brought us fire um i'm trying not to be despairing on this but when i look at the

3:21:42bar graphs it shows me that we clearly miss our 2030 targets uh without extreme action and there's

3:21:51a number of points that i want to ask on this but first of all on that broad question it strikes

3:21:59me that it's clear we're me we're missing 2030 am i correct or have i misinterpreted the graphs

3:22:11through chair class and to councillor Allt um many hands make late work right and there is an

3:22:24opportunity and that's why we need focus the 2030 targets are there if we hit 62 percent

3:22:35if we hit 10 percent it's better than nothing so i think the take home with the with this is

3:22:42we've got to get our butts in gear and we really have to move towards this and not be frozen by

3:22:48whether or not we're going to make it past the line or not we just got to finish this run here

3:22:53and so we have to reduce emissions and we have to work together and again focusing on that

3:23:00i do like i i dodged that question

3:23:04well in a way you did but i appreciate your camera on that as well i but i do think it is

3:23:08incredibly important for the public to hear precisely what you said that uh there is a

3:23:16significant difference between zero and 100 percent and that we are going to meet something

3:23:21at some point uh but then it gets down to the detail made reference to 500 000 tons of greenhouse

3:23:29gases when i did that i came up when i divided that by the number of people in wealth and that

3:23:33includes kids and university students i came up with approximately each person in wealth produces

3:23:39over three tons of greenhouse gas per year so the important question is how would i know how i end

3:23:49up producing or consuming three tons of gases and what can i do to to alleviate that i mean i bought

3:23:56a heat pump um you know i've got an electric car um i don't use public transit as much as i should

3:24:02but my purchasing is an aspect of it how do we deal with that in a fashion that motivates 150 000

3:24:10people to recognize that three tons of greenhouse gas is a lot of gas that we are all responsible for

3:24:22through chair to councillor Allt to that point you know and it's fantastic to hear that you've

3:24:29put through so many measures uh and and you know are reducing your personal footprint

3:24:35but we've seen it through through the delegate you know the work that g-can is doing the work

3:24:41that others are doing as well uh other other NGOs the fact that we're talking about this the

3:24:48fact that we're bringing institutional commercial industrial together to discuss this it's how do

3:24:52we help get those other 149 999 people to kind of do the same thing and so that's where we really

3:25:02need to to take it that further step in i know it again it is it is daunting um i lose a lot of

3:25:10sleep over it um but again we can't we can't stop having these conversations and that that's the

3:25:16intention of this is this is that stepping stone to be able to help those that are kind of that that

3:25:25sitting on the fence position and not sure about how to do it this now allows wherever you are

3:25:31whatever sector you're from to understand hey this means that you know if we've got workers maybe

3:25:37we should think about how they can use different ways to get to work or we can think about you

3:25:42know gaining ideas about how we're going to optimize our business or if it's if it's students how do

3:25:47we you know how do we help them reduce their ways play a role right so all of those those aspects of

3:25:54it um the priority actions are the things if we just said greenhouse gas emissions and reducing

3:26:01that 500 000 tons these are some of the things that we can do and these are the ones that are going

3:26:06to be the big reductions to get us there um i'm sorry i'm asking you the hard question and my

3:26:14cat has decided to weigh in on this uh but i think that this is really important uh when we're

3:26:21dealing with those actions one of the actions of course is getting involved with with the

3:26:25the uh guave creamer homes i think it's a great initiative and you'd make mention that there are

3:26:30hundreds of homes that uh that have bought into this and i think that's great true but when i started

3:26:35the factor this in by councillor Goller's 40 000 i'm looking at in the city of guave whether it's ggh

3:26:42or whether it's something else we're looking at a 600 million dollar investment in the community

3:26:49just for retrofitting houses and putting in heating systems that are greener is that a

3:26:55correct number or have i missed it even by a factor of 100 or something because i think i've got the

3:27:01right number uh through you chair to councillor Allt um to give perspective i'm you know the guave

3:27:13creamer homes right now has over 700 people that are that are in the program so yes it is a drop in

3:27:20the bucket um this also speaks to i guess the other discussion and we said to dinner speaking

3:27:28points this doesn't belong with one entity uh this is a community thing that everybody has to do and

3:27:34really the spirit of the the call to climate action and and thank you for all of that for all

3:27:39those statements all those comments all of the the admissions that it goes well beyond the city to

3:27:45deal with this it's it's a huge huge issue what doesn't fill me full of enthusiasm is that 3.3

3:27:52tons of greenhouse gases that we somehow need to relieve each individual in guave of i appreciate

3:28:01absolutely everything you and those who are engaged in this are doing uh and it doesn't

3:28:07matter whether it's in the city of guave or it's opyrge or mr. douglas anybody that's engaged in

3:28:11this action um is doing the tough work and thank you very very much thank you uh next is goller and

3:28:19then we have uh merigoth three oh excuse me um i'd like to correct myself uh it's actually

3:28:26ron then goller then merigoth three so my apologies thanks i think i written i happened to wait

3:28:36to the end um so i have a combination of comments and questions and um mr. hoyan you were you said

3:28:44it's okay for you to evade a question so it's okay for you to evade some of these as well

3:28:48because i'll tie you right up front that some of my questions and comments

3:28:51predate the time that you were here um but those of us who work here um in 2007 when we had our

3:29:00first award-winning first of its kind community energy plan was 18 years ago so i thought in

3:29:06preparation for the meeting today i would i would guess off the last 18 years and we've had some

3:29:12pretty incredible again award-winning initiatives where we were leaders in all of north america

3:29:19um we our cep led to our district energy um and i know for some of you that's a that's

3:29:26that's a bad word but it's not um i shouldn't be um which morphed into our community energy

3:29:33initiative which morphed into our our energy wealth action plan and i look at those talking

3:29:39and just feel good really really like bold measurable uh actionable um not ideas but but

3:29:48statements of of fact and and we really haven't gotten very far on them so again not commentary

3:29:56are you or or the staff work here because many many of those a lot of circumstances have changed

3:30:01in the in the meantime but to quote you it's time to get our button gear it's time to go back to

3:30:08those plans pick out the boldest and most measurable and impactful actions and get them started

3:30:14because the crisis is only getting worse and as again quoting you now is the time so when i look

3:30:21at what you have in the report that residential buildings are about 20 percent you add the ic

3:30:27and i sector it's up to 65 percent of our locally generated greenhouse gas emissions are buildings

3:30:33and we just voted two weeks ago to put massive 24 story buildings in our downtown quad and i

3:30:44mentioned at the time and i'm going to mention it here again but one of the boldest most impactful

3:30:48things we can do is make sure that every single one of those buildings is attached to and getting

3:30:55its energy from a combined heat and power or distributed energy district energy thermal energy

3:31:01system no matter what you call it one you know low carbon energy system that's all integrated

3:31:10and yet i don't i don't see anything in the presentation today that talks about de and

3:31:17again i don't want to use that word because it locally it means something completely different

3:31:22than what it is working working profitably in other municipalities so a combined heat and power plant

3:31:29for all of the new infrastructure that we're building downtown i don't see that and that is

3:31:34in your in your slide where you talk about what's what we have the ability what limited or no control

3:31:41i can't remember what slide that was so series of influence and one of the things that that you put

3:31:45in your presentation was of limited and no control was generation and distribution well combined

3:31:52heat and power is generation and distribution that we can control and then the second is that

3:32:00we can't control building codes but we can control green development standards which we are working

3:32:05on right now and from from what i understand that that a combined heat and power system could

3:32:13save 18 to 50 percent in building emissions and green development standards can save between 25

3:32:22and 50 percent in emissions just some of the brief reports that i've read why isn't that in this

3:32:30climate action presentation through chair to councillor Caron um so the the priority climate

3:32:43actions that are listed within the call to the community called the climate action they are

3:32:53practical measures that can be accomplished within wealth we have more than 40 000 households

3:33:03it's a matter of us coming together and doing it similarly you know moving vehicles to more

3:33:13sustainable modes of transportation that's 60 000 vehicles we have 100 000 vehicles more than

3:33:20that are registered in the city of guelph these are practical things that can be done and not

3:33:26necessarily borne by the city itself but there are market factors that play into this there

3:33:33are technology factors and not and i and i don't use the term technology in in terms of a shiny

3:33:38silvery thing like the the the tech is there i i i own two eves and so the intention of the actions

3:33:47that were listed there are things that can be done within within reason and back to councillor

3:33:55alt's point and the reason why i evaded that question is is it is in the realm of possibility

3:34:01and and so these measures were chosen from that fragment pragmatic lens as things that can be done

3:34:12um in terms of the past reports you know the the community energy initiative are in wealth those

3:34:21were remarkable bodies of work that have fed into things like this again you know there was mention

3:34:29of those like heat pumps and looking at renewable energy and those things are there

3:34:33and so there were there were elements that were definitely and this is a building on that we're

3:34:38not looking to um to blow up and forget the past we're looking to build upon and through through

3:34:47the called the community climate action um and so i just i i i i that so these these again those

3:34:57are the measures that have been chosen and and kind of put out there so that again bringing it in

3:35:02that realm of possibility and then again sharing that all hands on deck approach okay and i

3:35:09appreciate that i i do i i know that today's presentation is the community called action

3:35:16and that's really the operative word is community and by putting it out into the community these are

3:35:23our requests we through education and through incentivization we are asking the community

3:35:31to help us meet our goals i guess what i'm getting at is that there are other ways that we can

3:35:41move the community along and that's through the one thing that we do have power in and that is

3:35:46regulatory policy again like community development standards like changes to

3:35:55plans of subdivision that limit what types of heating and cooling systems get developed

3:36:03like building combined human power capacity and thermal energy plant but so there are

3:36:09policy and regulatory decisions that we as a city can do to help the community help us

3:36:16so when do we get to that if it's not here today it's not in the community call to action

3:36:22and you can tell that there's some impatience in my voice but when do we get to the big stuff

3:36:30like the really big stuff like building those 24 story downtown

3:36:385000 person densities using combined heat that's the big stuff really going to make the difference

3:36:52through the big stuff from damn chair to council cron yeah one of the bold actions that will be

3:37:01coming to council later this year it's a workshop on council workshop on June 17th and it's combines

3:37:09a number of initiatives but primarily it's about the future ready action plan about transit

3:37:16and the bold decision around the gulf transit fleet services facility that unlocks a number of

3:37:21initiatives um growth of transit the electrification of transit and how do we operationalize not only

3:37:31growth given that we're out of space but also having that infrastructure to charge those electric

3:37:37buses so there's a lot of I'd say when I heard the the term bold action I think that really comes

3:37:45to my mind in terms of bold action that the city can take that really enables the community to

3:37:52work towards these climate change goals through the electrification of our largest as a city our

3:38:00largest fleet vehicle that contributes the most greenhouse gases in in operating like one of the

3:38:07statistics that really sticks with me is that every transit bus

3:38:12contribute or consumes about 30 000 liters in a year of diesel so just that metric alone I think

3:38:19everybody can picture what 100 liters is going into a tank roughly and so when you multiply that by

3:38:28you know to get to to get to 30 000 that's it's uh it's quite remarkable per bus per year yeah so

3:38:36and I appreciate that that's that's a corporate action um and I won't I won't be labor that maybe

3:38:43I can have some conversations with staff because again residential buildings I see in our buildings

3:38:50those those are really the big bang for a buck and and I wonder whether I wonder whether after 18 years

3:38:59we need a new and updated community energy whether that policy work is something that

3:39:06that needs to be redone as we we were we were leaders 18 years ago and I want us to stay leaders

3:39:13and and all of all of those corporate actions all of those those things are contributing

3:39:19but we're not going to be at net zero by the 2040 or 2050

3:39:24um and again I appreciate and I don't want to I don't want to make it sound like that kind of

3:39:30work is low hanging fruit but we're running out of the low hanging fruit um and and don't get me wrong

3:39:36that low hanging fruit is is delicious and it's it's working um but it's time to move up to the

3:39:43middle level orchard and the top level orchard and I don't know how to get there I guess you know

3:39:50you're my frustration at at planning meetings that led light bulbs and low flush toilets just

3:39:56it that just doesn't have it anymore um so is another cep the way to go I just don't know how

3:40:04to get to this really this next step so I was hoping that today we would be talking about that and

3:40:11if this is the wrong place and I need to take it somewhere else I'd appreciate your guidance um

3:40:22thank you Councillor Caron I think is that something perhaps that you could take away

3:40:26and work with on staff as we approach our oh sorry excuse me um yeah through thank you yeah through

3:40:33the chair to Councillor Caron I think what we're what's before you here with the the background

3:40:38or document and the community called the climate action document that really is the plan forward

3:40:43it's really it's recognizing that it's not one individual it's every individual every

3:40:51organization everybody needs to do more and you know the documents have a lot of detail

3:41:00ones less detailed the others very much detailed with lots of links and resources in terms of

3:41:05what can be done what needs to be done and so really we're we're calling this out now for the

3:41:14community that this is the stuff that needs to happen in the community to make the progress

3:41:19that's needed to to reduce the greenhouse emissions across the board uh from individual

3:41:24behavior to business operations and a lot of this has been mentioned before but the local

3:41:30stock take event bringing those organizations together learning from each other that's all part

3:41:36of the you know if I if I won't going to use the word plan that is the plan um that's what's

3:41:44been developed here um okay thanks I'm sure I'll uh maybe develop a series of questions and and

3:41:54between now and the next meeting perhaps in a minute okay thank you Councillor Caron I'm

3:42:00going to move on to Councillor Goller now please um thank you and through your chair to to staff

3:42:06first of all thank you so much for this report um I I really appreciate all the work that you've done

3:42:12and and I really appreciate hearing that you're already doing a lot of the things that the delegate

3:42:16was requesting um I just wanted to touch base on what Councillor Caron was asking just in plain

3:42:23language does the municipality have any way to compel developers to build beyond the building code

3:42:28and can we require them to build to the standards um through the through the chair to Councillor Goller

3:42:34at this point we do not um I think you've heard that at every planning meeting um um I channel

3:42:40Councillor Caron when I'm talking to the developers because um we try to encourage them to um look at

3:42:47climate change and look at the things that they can do I will let you know though that you know

3:42:51there is a lot of work happening I don't want to take away from the work that we've done um I I I

3:42:57everybody when they say for the 18 years we've been working on this but we have done a lot of work

3:43:01so I don't want to take away from the work that this council has approved and that staff have

3:43:05have managed to do um we are working on green building design standards we're working on those

3:43:10right now you're going to be seeing those and a draft probably by the end of the year um so

3:43:16I think that's exciting for us um and we continue to advocate with our with our developers to um

3:43:24build as um as energy friendly as as they can I I think the challenge is is that the developers

3:43:31have a bit of the same challenge that we have is that they don't have the the luxury of looking

3:43:36through their budgets and their performers with one lens neither do we um so when we um come to

3:43:42budget we have to take everything into account and I think uh the commitment that this council has

3:43:48has shown particularly last year when uh we were having a difficult budget discussion and this

3:43:53council approved getting um some of that 100 RE budget back in we're able to do some of this

3:43:58work now going back out to the community so um but I hear the frustration but I do want to make

3:44:05sure that uh we do celebrate the wins that we have you see the graphs that are in the report

3:44:10uh they are going down even though our our our population is going up so we are making progress

3:44:16and we've just got to continue to keep doing that thank you for that I I appreciate that um I

3:44:22if if I could I wanted to go over the actions that we're going to be approving today uh the first

3:44:27one the collecting emissions data I really appreciate that that is very clear to me

3:44:32I I wanted to get a little more information about the partnering with community groups

3:44:36Mr. Douglas asked for the city to become a convener I would just want it to be clear because I

3:44:41didn't see that that language specifically in the report but are we actually going to have

3:44:45that convener role and is there like uh city staff you know time allocated to doing that

3:44:52convening for those groups um through the chair to council galler so um as as part of your discussions

3:45:03last year um with the with 100 RE budget one of the things that we um needed that budget for was

3:45:10to get an additional resource to help with some of that convening and so yes that's what we will

3:45:15be doing we've had that in the past and I think Mr. Douglas mentioned the community plan um so we've

3:45:21had that in the past in in various ways I'm hoping as we go forward with this with this resource and

3:45:26with this budget will be more organized um than perhaps what we've been in the past but um certainly

3:45:32that's a focus for us as we go forward perfect thank you so much I really appreciate that the

3:45:38next target is the enabling the household efficiency upgrades everything that I've read

3:45:44makes sense to me I love the targets that we have specific numbers of vehicles and homes

3:45:48what I struggle with every you know when I've gone and campaigned on my elections most people

3:45:56are busy with their day-to-day lives and they're not aware of what the city is doing um and I've

3:46:01been part of Wellington water watchers I was with Transition Guelph and it's it's all great having

3:46:07conversations but it's almost like it's a section of the community that talks to itself how can we

3:46:13support to to get out to the rest of the city of Guelph that may not be aware and and may not see

3:46:21that they have a personal responsibility to take those actions so so how you know what is our role

3:46:28to actually get to the rest of Guelph um so they're aware that you know we're asking them to play a

3:46:34role to meet these goals through you chair to councillor Goller um exactly we have to get the

3:46:42word out uh and and that is as part of us convening is bringing people into under the tent as well

3:46:52so I'm just going to say this there there's some really good work by some other groups

3:46:55where they are looking at what they call the five candidates and and you know there's we always talk

3:47:02about the extremes you know you have the deniers you have the the militant uh tree huggers but

3:47:07there's always the middle and we're always forgetting about that so that's part of this work in terms of

3:47:12you know as we have the resources as we're convening groups as we're hearing from them

3:47:16then we can develop strategies as to how we get more people to come in and then and then have the

3:47:21resources to to to kind of pull them in as well so that's the intention okay and and I I would assume

3:47:29that the annual reports would tell us what we're doing uh well are there specific tangible things

3:47:35that we'll get to every household like are we including information on tax bills or are we

3:47:39doing other things to make sure that every wealth resident is aware of this call to action

3:47:47do you chair the councillor Goller not yet um but I mean we are picking up tactics that we're already

3:47:53doing with the gulf greener homes program so you know working with say electro and their energy

3:47:58bills and then putting in um kind of sleeve inserts as well for promoting that so we would be looking at

3:48:05similar measures to to get the word out with this and then as well you know word of mouth is always key

3:48:10so it's a mutual benefit in my opinion you know all every conversation that I have with David Douglas

3:48:16I learn a lot from him he works his networks and he can help spread as well through the g-can

3:48:21g-can networks and their their membership so through those efforts as well things like that

3:48:27okay okay thank you I I really appreciate that and and I think there was also it was a tool asked

3:48:31about working with the school so I look forward to that information I know that uh when when uh as a

3:48:36society we transition to recycling it really did take a generational approach for that to happen

3:48:42I wanted to thank you for the work that you have been doing with our institutional commercial

3:48:46partners that is fantastic and the work with the youth climate leaders I look forward to

3:48:53seeing more of that on that specific the youth climate leaders I believe that that came to us

3:48:58as a grant that mayor got through was able to secure for the city part of the request for

3:49:03budget what will it be to provide future funding for projects like that I'm just trying to understand

3:49:09which of these will you know are we asking for the city to step up and start funding on an ongoing

3:49:15basis um so through the through the chairs of council gov so I think um I don't think we're

3:49:23prepared to answer that just yet but I think I think you're right as part of as as we go through

3:49:28the process as we start to learn more and get more ideas about where the this what the city can do

3:49:33versus what the community can do that will that will inform the future future budget asks so

3:49:40we'd want to take that away and make sure that we're very solid in our ass and that it's going to

3:49:45make the impact that we wanted to before we before we come to council so I won't forget though don't

3:49:52worry thank you thank you so much and and the last question that I have through your chair with

3:49:58regards to using policy to to guide climate action are we going to see start seeing on our reports

3:50:05the section that talks about climate action I'm just trying to understand how that policy will

3:50:11play itself out on our day to day every time we get a master plan or every time we are approving

3:50:15something through the chair to council gov so I think we do try and weave that in I think you're

3:50:23right though I think perhaps that's something we can take back maybe it's just a separate section

3:50:27on the report but if you if you could allow us to take that back and take a look at it then we

3:50:31could come on to on a later thank you for that and the last part of that much of this is outside

3:50:37of our control as you mentioned we cannot direct how industry operates that's at the federal level

3:50:42we cannot direct how homes are built that's the provincial level but you know is is there some

3:50:50advocacy on what other levels of government need to do to achieve this goal because I feel that a

3:50:55lot of this is talking around it without saying the province of Ontario needs to do this and this

3:51:01to help us meet the goals is there a place for that or as a municipality are we do we actually

3:51:07not have a role to say and it then falls to the community to go and advocate to the other levels

3:51:12of government through the chair to council gov so we work very closely with our intergovernmental

3:51:20staff so if there any times there are opportunities to advocate for something that is important to us

3:51:25and that would include climate change we're all in you can I think you can appreciate the fact that

3:51:32we are very active in trying to get grants that help us with some of our climate change goals but

3:51:39we also look to the community I think it's the strength in numbers so the you know we always

3:51:44try to for instance the developers for instance if if there's an opportunity with with the community

3:51:52or our developers to go and advocate to to the province or to the federal government

3:51:59or something that we both want that was an opportunity that we would actually take so

3:52:03we'll look at that a little bit more closely but we already do a lot of advocacy in that regard it's

3:52:09usually tied into other things though and I would point out you know our ISIP grants for instance

3:52:14those are very much tied into some of our climate change goals thank you so much I'm really looking

3:52:20forward to supporting this now and at the end of the month and to seeing those reports come on an

3:52:24annual basis thank you thank you chair thank you councillor Goller um mayor got three well thank

3:52:30you chair and through you and some of some of my questions have been asked already so I appreciate

3:52:34my colleagues doing that um but I just wanted to pick up a little bit more where councillor Goller

3:52:39left off in regards to the communications and education point of this so um what I'm hearing

3:52:47is that there is some convening going on great and I'm hearing that there's some really great

3:52:52discussions especially around the ICI sector and stuff like that then and sharing great

3:53:00is it too far for me to ask that those types of things be elevated to a meeting schedule

3:53:08where they are video recorded and then archived so that other people in the community can

3:53:17watch that and learn from rick from pdi um learn from the others that are sharing their struggles

3:53:26or sharing their successes and so that we have we start a database of archived meetings where

3:53:37it can be sent out through the chamber network or through these other community networks where

3:53:41people can start to watch and listen and learn instead of only being with certain groups where

3:53:47they can only come and sort of hear what's kind of going on uh I'll stop there with my first question

3:53:59through you chair to the mayor um yeah I mean we we would explore that definitely um we would

3:54:06just want to ensure that you know that the dynamics in the room you know it's a safe space and and

3:54:11things are flowing but yes definitely at the root of it is this how do we share this knowledge and

3:54:15how do we amplify that definitely okay that's great thank you I think that would be wonderful if it

3:54:21can work I think that'd be wonderful to do that um and then the next piece is just on the on the

3:54:27awareness side of things so uh you know when I read the the report and I saw like the the kind of the

3:54:34the flyer if I could call it that or the brochure about it like I thought it was really well done

3:54:40as sort of a state of affairs when it comes to what is is happening in the city and then sort of

3:54:46where we need to go um it's about getting it out there more than you know this room and a little

3:54:55bit of media thank you to our media partners that might that might push it out but like other than

3:55:01that it's it's my fears it's not kind of going to go anywhere and I appreciate the word of mouth

3:55:07and all that like I think that I won't discount that but I'm just wondering like is there

3:55:14internal budgets that would allow for a tax uh the tax bill that same brochure going to every

3:55:23single household can we print off 5 000 of these brochures and put 500 of them in each of our library

3:55:34branches can we have them available to all of the outside community groups where they can be given

3:55:42500 each and they can spread spread it out so I'm just wondering if there's an an opportunity for us

3:55:50to to really start to actually spread this information out more than just sort of

3:55:57within the confines of sort of city hall and government speak and that it can get out to the

3:56:02community a bit more is any of that planned through the through the chair to uh Mr. Mayor um

3:56:12absolutely I think one of the things that you've heard in the past is that we do a lot of great

3:56:17work but we haven't necessarily been really great at communicating it out so I think that's something

3:56:24that we want to take to heart that is partly why you see those those attachments in the report

3:56:30that's a starting point for us to tell the community where we're at and what we'd like to

3:56:34do and some resources on how to get them we worked with our communications partners on those and

3:56:41they're fabulous so we need to be able to do more of that going forward as each of our initiatives

3:56:46hit in terms of do we have budget the hundred re budget will help with some of that but that

3:56:51is something that we'll have to take into account as we go forward as we come up looking at our

3:56:57future budget asks all right thank you and then my last question and if it's a takeaway that's fine

3:57:03is is there any role or can the city have a role in bulk purchasing or bulk incentives

3:57:17so I'll this I'll pick the the heat pumps as an example

3:57:21can we be a can we be a leader in doing a group purchase for x amount of households in the city

3:57:33of Guelph look let's say we had an open call to the community that said hey for all the members

3:57:42in the community that are looking to replace their their their furnaces and you can get heat pumps

3:57:48let us know if you're going to be doing that and let's say you get 600 households that say yeah

3:57:54we're we're actually thinking about doing that could we take a leadership role to do like a bulk

3:58:01buying purchase and install deal with an installer and a provider for that where the community

3:58:12actually saves a little bit of money but but because we're taking a leadership role and

3:58:18sort of advertising the bulk buying option we're getting more uptake on that and we're trying to

3:58:24meet then you know under the sector the residential goals even more I'll leave leave the question at

3:58:30that is there a role that the city could play in in in bulk purchasing and organizing those types

3:58:36of options for people through the chair to to the mayor that's a really interesting concept

3:58:42something that we can take away to some initial thoughts that come to my mind

3:58:47from a logistics perspective is not every house is the same size and so you have different

3:58:54sizes of equipment um there's a lot of risk that the city would be taking on and then how

3:59:01do we cover off some of the legality so we might be saving money on the equipment from the bulk

3:59:06purchase but we might be you know the little savings might be spent on legal contracts with the

3:59:13with the houses and managing then warranties or installation deficiencies that type of thing so

3:59:21it's an interesting concept though you know I appreciate that sort of how do how do we save

3:59:27the community some money we just have to think through some of those logistics

3:59:31all right thanks for taking it away I mean it is I try to be an ideas guy

3:59:37uh so maybe it's a pilot like maybe it's 50 and you trial it and and get learnings from it you know

3:59:47I just I think there's an opportunity I really think there's an opportunity there and

3:59:53anyways I'll leave you as the experts uh to it those are my three questions thank you madam chair

4:00:00thank you margathri that's all I had for questions just looking at my council colleagues here

4:00:08if there's nothing else I just will say one thing and then I would like to call the vote

4:00:14and it's just what just one comment that I heard from Brian which is we can't stop having these

4:00:22conversations so this is an important you know step in our continued leadership in climate action

4:00:29and no we are not perfect and and yes there is a lot of work to do to meet our goals but that

4:00:34doesn't mean we stop um and so I'd like us to continue these conversations in in in a in a

4:00:41hard and constructive way um and with that I would like to call the vote on the two recommendations

4:00:48clerks can I put them up or do I want me to read them okay so the first recommendation is that

4:01:01council receive the community the guals community call to action report and the second that council

4:01:07approved staff actions to support the community in taking collective climate action as described in

4:01:12guals community call to climate action are there any one is anyone opposed I see no one um so that

4:01:23motion those two recommendations pass unanimously

4:01:32thank you very much and that is all from me and with that Mr Guthrie may I um no mayor

4:01:38and may I move adjournment okay may I have a mover and a seconder for uh yes thank you mayor

4:01:45Guthrie and I need a seconder Richardson um and with that we are adjourned for today thank you very much