Council Orientation and Education Workshop

6:56Okay, so this is your 30 second warning.

15:01Okay, just before I officially call the meeting to order,

15:03I just want to recognize Councillor Abusatil,

15:06just for a second to just welcome some guests

15:09just for a moment, go ahead, Councillor.

15:11Thank you, I just want to welcome Nick,

15:13if you can stand up.

15:15And the four young people at the back of the room

15:18are from the summer work exchange, student exchange program.

15:22They're from Quebec, coming to visit City Council.

15:25They may not stay for the whole time, but welcome.

15:32All right, thank you, Councillor.

15:33Okay, I'll officially call the meeting to order.

15:36This is, it's July 11th, 2023.

15:38It's just after 7.15, 7.16, I think it is.

15:41And this is our Council orientation and education workshop.

15:47And it is in regards to housing and wealth.

15:51And right off the top is there any disclosure

15:53of your pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof.

15:57Okay, hearing none, I'll move on.

16:00We're gonna kick things off with a presentation.

16:04I'm gonna turn it over to you, Gwen.

16:08Yeah, I'm sorry, I was gonna go to, okay.

16:11I'm gonna go first, just to set the stage.

16:14Then I'll go to our facilitator for the night, okay?

16:18So I just wanted to set the stage for this a little bit,

16:21just a little bit of context of where my thinking has come from

16:24and in regards to this issue and kind of next steps as well.

16:29And by all means, staff, you can validate or correct me

16:32if you need to right away or later on.

16:36There has been a lot of talk, rightly so, about housing, okay?

16:41And I hear it from Councilors, new and old,

16:46and I hear it from the community.

16:49And a lot of it revolves around, like, what's going on?

16:54Like, what are you doing?

16:56Or who does what?

16:58That is a big part of this as well.

17:01And so, you know, we all see it,

17:07and I hear and see it in the hallways here

17:09because I'm here more often.

17:11And I know our staff are doing good work.

17:15And they've done good things.

17:18They're doing good things.

17:21And I felt like it was so important that, yes,

17:25there's reasons why we would all nod our heads in agreement

17:28that there's a housing crisis going on.

17:31But we sort of need this, I would call it like,

17:33this foundational workshop opportunity

17:36where we can have our staff really clearly lay out

17:41what they're doing, what they're going to do.

17:43At the same time, there can be opportunities

17:46like we've done in other workshops

17:47where we can throw our own ideas or suggestions

17:49out into the floor too.

17:51But this isn't just for us, it's for the community.

17:55So we have this sort of launching pad to go from

18:00where there's this common understanding

18:02of what's happening and who does what.

18:05And that way, when we are talking to people

18:08and there's people asking questions,

18:10we can point them to this 65 page presentation if they want,

18:14or we're more knowledgeable on what's happening

18:17so that we can respond to people as well.

18:21So there's that part.

18:23Secondly, right up front, I do wanna really thank council

18:27for wanting to meet here for this.

18:31That says a lot.

18:32And I really wanna thank staff as well.

18:35I know that they've been working on this.

18:38And I've been hearing that they wanna do this too.

18:39Like they want to get this out in the public realm as well.

18:43So then there's next steps after this.

18:45So just so I can say this,

18:47and this is where I might need correction

18:48if I'm, cause I am going off the top of my head,

18:50but this is like a first step of many.

18:53And I've been saying that

18:55and staff have been saying that for quite a while now.

18:57This is a first step of many.

19:00And tonight, if we can kind of educate ourselves

19:02and get that foundational information, great.

19:06And then in August, staff are looking to release

19:10some sort of an information report or another report

19:13that can encapsulate what they've heard.

19:16And it would just be more information

19:18to digest for everybody.

19:21Then in September, it has already been planned

19:26that we are gonna finally get the results

19:28of the council approved consultants report

19:32called collective results that will come to us.

19:36And that will be a moment, a public meeting

19:39where people can have engagement

19:41and everything there for them around that as well.

19:46And then in October,

19:48staff are thinking that they would bring sort of

19:51what they've heard here,

19:53what the collective results September report will be,

19:56and it will come together in a nice fashion.

19:59Again, public meeting, delegations, engagement,

20:03correspondence, whatever you want

20:05for that meeting in October.

20:08So first step of many,

20:11as we kind of journey through everything

20:13in regards to housing.

20:15Now in setting the stage for tonight,

20:17staff wanted me to make sure I kind of made this

20:19as clear as I can, which is,

20:22and this gets into the who does what.

20:24There is the housing continuum.

20:27And unfortunately, it starts with homelessness

20:31into supportive housing into rent gear to income,

20:36social housing, maybe nonprofit or affordable housing.

20:39And then it gets into a different type of affordable

20:44and then into market rent, market ownership.

20:47That's the continuum.

20:49We are here tonight to try to be focused

20:53on this part of the continuum,

20:56this part of the things that we is under our jurisdiction,

21:00knowing that in September, the other part is going to come.

21:05I understand that there's a gray area in the middle, right?

21:09Then it totally is.

21:10And staff understand that too.

21:11There's this partnership of stuff we do

21:15because we're still the planning authority

21:17and how can we help with this side of the continuum?

21:22So yes, of course, we're gonna have questions.

21:24I would hope that we would have some questions

21:26in regards to that or some suggestions and ideas.

21:29But I think it's important to get this lay of the land here

21:32that tonight is one step of many.

21:34We're gonna have one sort of puzzle piece tonight,

21:37another when the collective results comes in September,

21:41more opportunities for the community

21:43and anyone to engage and more opportunities

21:46in both September and October for full some engagement.

21:52And with that, I hope,

21:53let me first of all ask a question.

21:56Did I say anything incorrectly there?

21:59No.

22:00Okay.

22:02I'm going to turn it over to Glenn Lombar,

22:05who is our engagement expert.

22:08This is a workshop.

22:09So it's over to you.

22:12And because it's a workshop as a reminder,

22:14we do not need to, it's a bit more informal.

22:17So you can forego the through you, Mr. Mayor business.

22:21Let's let Glenn sort of be in charge tonight.

22:25And we can just go through, I'll help when needed,

22:27but we'll go through through with Glenn.

22:30And I'm really excited about this.

22:31I really truly am from an information point of view,

22:35but trying to dig down on probably the biggest,

22:38one of the biggest crisis outside of a pandemic

22:40that has hit our community

22:42and we need to try to find solutions to it.

22:44So over to you.

22:46Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

22:47I'm gonna stand just cause it's a little bit easier

22:49and I can spin and see folks.

22:50So thank you for that introduction.

22:53As the mayor said, we're dealing with a complex issue here.

22:57Many stakeholders, multiple levels of government,

23:00intricacies of market conditions, multiple time horizons,

23:04countless uncertainties.

23:06To say the very least, it's a dynamic

23:08and evolving body of work.

23:10We've designed tonight to be three things.

23:12The first part is about providing the history facts

23:15and context about the city's role related to housing.

23:20The second part is to answer your questions

23:24on this file, on this body of work.

23:26And we've collected those questions in advance

23:29and we're gonna do our best to get

23:31to the most pressing ones tonight

23:33and the others in the coming days, weeks and months that follow.

23:37The third thing that we're trying to accomplish tonight

23:39is some collaboration.

23:40So collectively folks in this room

23:42own the challenges and solutions that exist

23:44and we wanna begin to talk about this group's vision

23:47for what different looks like.

23:49So before we get into those three parts,

23:51maybe a little bit about my role tonight.

23:53The mayor introduced this,

23:54unlike a traditional meeting,

23:55I'll be facilitating, call me a quarterback.

23:58It's probably the closest I'll ever come to being a quarterback.

24:02Clerks, would you mind just sharing that agenda slide

24:05real quick, please?

24:08So in a moment you'll see on the screen our agenda.

24:12So I'm gonna spiel for another minute and a half

24:14and then we're gonna move into a presentation

24:17from our staff that goes into that history

24:20and context that we talked about.

24:22And I'm gonna try as much as possible

24:25to move us through that agenda.

24:26We know it's gonna be a long night

24:27but there's a lot to cover here.

24:29And so I'm gonna be the sort of pesky facilitator

24:32that tries to move us along

24:33and pulls us out of the weeds when we get into the weeds.

24:35And that's just my job

24:36and I'm gonna do my best to do that tonight.

24:39I know that folks have a lot to say

24:41and they have lots of questions.

24:42And so as much as possible,

24:43we've tried to make space for that tonight

24:46by curating those questions in advance

24:47and collecting those.

24:48Anything we don't answer, again,

24:50we will get to in the days and weeks that follow.

24:53As folks have questions and they have answers,

24:57sometimes it's gonna feel like

24:59we don't neatly stitch everything back up together again.

25:01And that's the nature of us just moving through this

25:04and trying to get through it.

25:05Okay, so start us off.

25:08Staff led by our deputy CAO

25:11of Infrastructure Development Enterprise, Jane Holmes,

25:13are going to share critical context,

25:15provide clarity and get some facts straight.

25:17The presentation is about 70 minutes in length.

25:21So there's lots of critical information in here

25:24and it reflects the incredible volume of work

25:26that our interdisciplinary teams

25:28are doing to make headway on this file.

25:30And in the words that live between the slides,

25:32as you'll see, are answers to many of the questions

25:35that you did submit in advance.

25:36So get comfy and I'm gonna turn it over to you.

25:40Thank you.

25:41Thank you, Mr. Lombard.

25:42And good evening and thank you, Mr. Mayor,

25:44members of council for joining us today

25:47for the special council meeting has mentioned.

25:48My name is Jane Holmes

25:49and I'm the deputy CAO of Infrastructure Development

25:52and Enterprise Services.

25:54So I'd like to start out by thanking our staff,

25:56some of whom that you'll be hearing from tonight

25:58who have put together an excellent presentation

26:01to explain what's at play in this housing crisis

26:03that all municipalities are facing

26:06and to share some of the significant work

26:07that we've been doing to help increase housing and Guelph.

26:12As Mr. Lombard mentioned, this is a long presentation

26:15and we're gonna be here for over an hour,

26:18snacks, stretch if you need to,

26:20because we have so much to share with you.

26:23We've been doing so much work along with you, of course.

26:26So efforts are far reaching from financial contributions

26:29to the county and other service providers

26:32to investing in critical infrastructure

26:34and unlocking land for development

26:36while improving internal processes

26:38and upgrading technology to expedite development approvals.

26:43Our council approved vision for council for Guelph

26:46is to be inclusive, connected and a prosperous city

26:49where we look after each other and the environment.

26:51We take that vision and our responsibility

26:54to achieve it seriously.

26:57We want a variety of housing.

26:59We want enough housing and we want people

27:03to live in homes that they can afford.

27:05So you'll hear tonight on how we're doing everything we can

27:08to make that happen, to care for the people

27:09who live here now and the people

27:12who may live here in the future.

27:15I ask that you keep an open mind,

27:16listen carefully to the information

27:18that we're going to share with you

27:19and then bring that positive energy

27:22to the meaningful and creative conversation

27:24that we'll have after the presentation.

27:26So with that, Mr. Mayor, I'm gonna turn it over

27:28to DCAO Clackbush to start the presentation.

27:36Thank you and good evening.

27:38As I think you all know, I'm Colleen Clackbush

27:40and I am the Deputy CAO of Public Services.

27:43So to start off this evening's workshop,

27:45we thought it was really important

27:46to re-familiarize ourselves with the housing continuum

27:49and you can see that on screen here.

27:51At one end on the left, there are individuals

27:53and families who are in crisis

27:55and who are in emergency shelters or who are living rough.

27:58At the other end, on the right-hand side,

28:00are homeowners or renters who bought

28:02or rented through the private market.

28:04And in the middle are independent renters

28:07who pay their rent with assistance.

28:09And I'd like to draw your attention

28:11to the pink line, which you can see there.

28:13In Guelph, the responsibility for making all of this happen

28:16is shared between the County of Wellington

28:18and the City of Guelph.

28:20Under provincial legislation,

28:22the County of Wellington is designated

28:24as our Consolidated Municipal Services Manager or CMSM.

28:30This means that on behalf of the City of Guelph,

28:32the County is primarily responsible

28:34for providing housing that's left of that pink line

28:38with some administrative and financial support from the city.

28:41The city, on the other hand, is responsible for facilitating

28:44but not building housing supply

28:47that is primarily to the right-hand side of the pink line,

28:49mainly private market.

28:52Within Guelph, as of 2017,

28:54about 96% of the housing supply is private market housing,

28:5965% ownership and 31% rental.

29:02And we'll have updated numbers by the end of the year

29:04through our update to the Housing Affordability Strategy.

29:08Our next slides are gonna break down the roles

29:09and responsibilities of the County in this city a bit further.

29:14So municipal housing services falls into three categories.

29:18Homelessness prevention, social housing,

29:21or as it's noted on this slide, rent geared to income,

29:25and affordable housing.

29:27The County of Wellington as our CMSM for social services

29:31administers social housing

29:32and homelessness prevention programs

29:34on behalf of the city and the County.

29:38The County also administers affordable housing grant funding

29:41in both municipalities

29:42on behalf of upper levels of government.

29:46Homelessness prevention is support provided to shelters

29:49and other organizations within the community

29:51that support people experiencing homelessness

29:54and is mostly funded by the province

29:55with a relatively small contribution

29:57from both the city and the County.

29:59And it mostly supports shelters and programs

30:02that help people experiencing homelessness.

30:05Social housing is rent geared to income housing

30:08and has service level targets set through legislation.

30:12The net cost of meeting service level targets

30:15is legislatively required to be funded by municipalities.

30:19It's important to note though

30:20that the County's role as our CMSM

30:22extends beyond the provision of housing.

30:25The province legislated the creation of Ontario's 47 CMSMs

30:29in 1997.

30:31And since that time, they have maintained responsibility

30:34for providing three streams of social services

30:36at the municipal level.

30:38Housing, Ontario works and childcare.

30:42Our focus this evening just happens to be

30:44on the housing portion as a subset

30:46of the CMSM's overall legislated responsibility.

30:50So in addition to what the city funds

30:52for those other social services streams

30:54of childcare in Ontario works,

30:56we're providing $17 million of annual funding

31:00to the County as our CMSM to deliver housing programs

31:04that address homelessness.

31:06Similarly to the city's responsibility

31:08to set service level and budget for paramedic services

31:11on behalf of the County,

31:13conversely, the County sets the annual budget

31:16and provides the expertise on the necessary services

31:18to address housing and homelessness on behalf of the city.

31:23So as we look at the housing continuum,

31:25on the far left hand side are emergency shelters

31:28and transitional housing.

31:31So by definition, emergency shelters are facilities

31:34that provide temporary short-term accommodation

31:37for people experiencing homelessness

31:38or for those in crisis.

31:40Basic supports like meals and hygiene supplies are offered.

31:44Transitional housing, just moving a little bit over

31:46towards the right, provides time-limited access

31:49to housing and promotes housing stability.

31:51This housing is an intermediate step

31:53between emergency crisis shelter and permanent housing.

31:58So on top of the $17 million in funding

32:01provided to the County as our CMSM for housing,

32:05the city made several other recent contributions

32:08to local projects that are specifically focused

32:10on emergency shelter and transitional housing.

32:14First, we provided the former Delhi Community Centre

32:17to the County of Wellington

32:19to create 28 new beds of transitional housing space.

32:23The City of Guelph also owns the property

32:25at 18 Norwich Street,

32:27and through a community benefit agreement,

32:29we fund the Wyndham House Youth Shelter

32:31with almost a half million dollars a year in annual funding

32:34to operate this much needed 14-bed shelter

32:37for youth experiencing homelessness in our community.

32:40And additionally, in the 2023 budget,

32:43Council approved funding for three other important

32:45social programs addressing broader issues

32:47connected to homelessness in our community,

32:49just over $200,000 to the Guelph Community Health Centre

32:52to make the Welcoming Streets Program permanent,

32:55$260,000 for a special downtown police program

32:59for the summer months,

33:00and one time funding of $250,000

33:03to extend daytime shelter hours at Royal City Mission.

33:08So as we transition along the continuum,

33:11we move to supportive housing and rent-geared-to-income housing.

33:15Supportive housing is long-term housing

33:17for people experiencing homelessness

33:19that then is combined with cross-sector supports

33:22like medical, substance use, and mental health supports.

33:26It combines independent housing options with common spaces

33:29while also providing access to individualized,

33:31flexible, and voluntary supports.

33:34These supports are typically provided by onsite staff

33:37and can be accessed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

33:40Supportive housing is recognized to be superior

33:43to the shelter system because it provides people

33:46the supports that they need to enable them

33:48to move forward towards stable housing.

33:51Rent-geared-to-income, as we move more towards the middle,

33:54is often referred to as social housing.

33:56You'll hear those two terms interchangeably.

33:58Rent-geared-to-income, social housing,

34:01we're talking about the same thing.

34:02As the name suggests, the rent is determined by income.

34:07This is also a requirement of the County of Wellington

34:09as our CMSM to provide,

34:11and social housing is a unit for which the tenants pay

34:14no more than 30% of their household income in rent,

34:17and their income must be below limits set by the province.

34:22Through their housing office,

34:23the County maintains the centralized waiting list

34:25for social housing, and the average wait time is five years.

34:30Some have waited longer than eight years

34:33to be housed through our social housing program.

34:37The minimum number of rent-geared-to-income

34:39or social housing units that must be supported

34:41in any municipality is actually prescribed

34:44under the Housing Services Act.

34:47It's a lot more complex than I'm gonna try

34:49to get into tonight, but in simple terms,

34:51the County of Wellington, which includes Guelphs,

34:54minimum number of social housing units

34:56is approximately 2,500 units that must be provided annually.

35:01This hasn't changed since housing was devolved

35:04from a provincial to municipal responsibility

35:07in the late 1990s.

35:10So the minimum number of social housing spaces

35:12has not grown since that time,

35:15as the population of Guelph Wellington has grown.

35:19Social housing levels are achieved for the County and City

35:21through a mix of housing strategies.

35:24The County owns and operates

35:25almost 1,200 rent-geared-to-income units.

35:28They also contract with local nonprofit

35:31and co-op housing providers,

35:32and provide financial supports for the units.

35:35And lastly, the County contracts with private landlords

35:38to whom they then provide a rent supplement.

35:43The City of Guelph has invested money

35:45through our affordable housing reserve

35:47into several community-based projects in recent years.

35:50Before 2019, this housing reserve was used

35:53to fund the interest on DC deferrals

35:55for Habitat for Humanity.

35:57In 2019 and 2020, as you may recall,

36:00the city contributed a total of $1,164,000

36:05to the St. Joseph's Health Center Silver Maple

36:08Seniors Community Project.

36:10These are traditional affordable housing units,

36:12but they're specifically targeted to seniors,

36:15but they're part of a broader mixed income project

36:17built adjacent to St. Joseph's Health Center.

36:20More recently, we've provided over $2.6 million in funding

36:24from the city's affordable housing reserve

36:27to three urgently needed supportive housing projects.

36:31Opening in 2023, we provided funding of $884,000

36:36to the Stepping Stones Project at 721 Woolwich Street

36:40for the Grace Gardens Project,

36:41and approximately $384,000 to Windham House

36:45for the recently opened Bellevue Supportive Housing Project

36:47for Youth.

36:49Still under construction, but opening later this year,

36:52we also provided almost $1.4 million in funding

36:55to the Kindle Supportive Housing Project

36:57that will be located on Shelldale Crescent.

37:00City Council also committed up to $500,000

37:03in matching funds for the Homes for Good campaign,

37:06coordinated through the United Way

37:07and the Guelph Community Foundation,

37:09which is also providing capital funding

37:11to these three projects.

37:13A follow-up report on the Homes for Good campaign

37:15will be coming to Council this fall.

37:18And lastly, we have another $500,000 in additional funding

37:22that was allocated in the 2023 budget

37:25into this affordable housing reserve,

37:27but at this time it's unallocated.

37:29And I just wanna note that separate from our relationship

37:32with the County of Wellington as our CMSM,

37:34we have contracted, Council gave direction

37:36and we contracted the County,

37:38they provide services to us to issue and vet those RFPs

37:42out of our housing reserve

37:43because they have such great expertise in this area.

37:49And while not specifically noted on the housing continuum,

37:52we did wanna note and just remind everyone

37:55that long-term care beds also form,

37:58are also a form of supportive housing

38:01that the city does support and funds within the community.

38:04In addition to our annual operating

38:05and capital contribution to the Elliott community

38:08for their operation of our city licensed long-term care beds,

38:11Council recognized that there is an overall deficit

38:14of suitable units in Guelph,

38:15and so approved the expansion of our long-term care facility

38:18at the Elliott by an additional 29 beds.

38:21That city funding for this bed expansion project

38:23includes 862,000 in capital contribution,

38:27as well as debt financing

38:28about to an additional $6.2 million.

38:32As the mayor mentioned, and as you know,

38:35coming out of the 2023 budget deliberations,

38:37Council directed staff to undertake an assessment

38:40and gap review on the urgent homelessness,

38:43substance use and mental health crisis

38:45being felt in our community.

38:47Following the Fulsom RFP process,

38:49local firm collective results was chosen

38:51to undertake this work on behalf of the city.

38:54The scope of their work includes an analysis

38:56of current state gaps and recommendations,

38:59consideration of a system-wide approach to these issues,

39:02including all three levels of government,

39:04jurisdiction for both discretionary

39:06and nondiscretionary funding at the local level

39:08between the city and the county,

39:10as well as service provision by other agencies,

39:13not-for-profit and community organizations.

39:16It also includes consideration of how we define the issues,

39:19determination of the current state of who is doing what

39:21within the community and how the activities are funding,

39:24an identification of any overlaps or gaps in the system,

39:27and finally, recommendation to address those gaps

39:30or overlaps as part of a future state,

39:32including specific recommendations

39:35that will include potential reallocation of funding

39:38for the city of Guelph Council to consider

39:40as part of our multi-year budget considerations.

39:42As the mayor mentioned, that final report will be provided

39:45to Council in the public in late August,

39:47with the presentation coming to Council in September.

39:51So I wanna stop here and emphasize

39:53what the mayor has already mentioned,

39:55this is actually a multi-part housing workshop.

39:58Tonight is the first part.

40:00That's...

40:00second part. So tonight we're presenting that full continuum for you because we

40:05want to give the full picture. But as was mentioned, we're encouraging you to

40:08hold your discussion and questions on that left hand side of the continuum

40:11until our September 12th special council meeting. Because on September 12th,

40:16you're going to be presented with three really important agenda items. First,

40:20you're going to receive that report from collective results on the work that

40:23they've done, studying the gaps and opportunities within our community

40:26connected to issues of homelessness, mental health and substance use. Next,

40:30you're also going to hear from the County of Wellington social services

40:34director, Louisa Artuso, as she's going to bring you the county's housing and

40:38homelessness plan. This is an important presentation for you to hear from the

40:42county as our CMSM on their plans as our social services provider. And thirdly,

40:48our planning team is going to be initiating the housing affordability

40:52strategy project that evening and seeking your approval of that project

40:56framework. So with that, I'm going to turn the presentation back over to DCO

41:00Holmes to speak to the next sections on our continuum. Thank you, DCO

41:07Clarkebush. So the city is responsible for facilitating primarily private

41:13market housing, housing that is bought and sold through a realtor or directly

41:17from a developer or private market rental, as noted on the right side of that

41:22pink line. The city has considerable authority over land use and can lay the

41:26groundwork for how many units are needed, the kinds of units and where they

41:30can go within Guelph. The city does not have authority, in most cases, to ensure

41:36that a developer will build housing that is affordable, according to the

41:39accepted provincial definition, which is 30% of pre-tax income. The city does

41:45not have authority to force a developer to build within a certain time frame or

41:50at a certain market rate. The city can and does use financial incentives to

41:57encourage development of rental housing and nonprofit housing through

42:00development, through development charge exemptions, for example. The city can

42:06and does use policy tools to promote the availability of a full range of housing

42:10types, including policies to enable additional residential units on a

42:14property and greater flexibility around increased densities throughout the

42:18city. The city also consistently advocates for increased legislative

42:23flexibility to meet local needs, increased financial support through

42:27incentives, for example, and enhanced partnerships and collaboration between

42:32all levels of government to bring more housing on stream. The city cannot change

42:37current provincial or federal legislation to make this happen faster, and the city

42:42cannot influence whether either the price a developer decides to list a new

42:47housing unit for or resale housing prices within the private market. But as you'll

42:52hear tonight, the city is doing everything it can within its control to make it

42:56easier for land to be available and ready for housing development. Municipal

43:05affordable housing funds are provided to the community at the discretion of

43:09council. Housing ownership is considered to be affordable when a household spends

43:14less than 30% of its pre-tax income on adequate shelter. Affordable housing

43:19rents are set at less than or equal to the most recently released average

43:24market rent as published by the Canadian Mortgage Housing Corporation. Affordable

43:29housing is not managed through the centralized waiting list that is

43:32operated by the county for social housing. It is managed by each affordable

43:37housing provider directly. There are different approaches to developing

43:43to developing housing affordable housing units. The counties and cities approaches

43:48in the provision of affordable housing are not the same. The county is developing

43:52and operating its own affordable housing stock in the county. It owns and operates

43:56131 affordable housing units throughout Wellington County. Whereas the city's

44:02approach to developing affordable housing within Guelph has been to allocate funds

44:06to a reserve that are allocated to community developers to make requests to

44:10the city for these funds in support of their affordable housing developments.

44:14Recently we contracted the county of Wellington to provide oversight

44:18of the RFP process for allocations out of our affordable housing reserve

44:23given their expertise in this area. This is above and beyond their requirements

44:27as our CMSM. This difference in approach makes sense when you consider that the

44:33county is already in the business of operating residential housing with staff

44:37expertise and a fully resourced housing office where the city does not have these

44:41resources. Next on the housing continuum is market rental. This type of housing

44:49includes all non-ownership rental situations where income is not a consideration.

44:54Part of the free market economy rental rates are set by market supply and demand and often

45:00when the free market economy drives rental rates higher and individuals struggle to find

45:04attainable rental accommodation this puts additional pressure on other types of housing

45:09including affordable and social housing. We cannot require that particular development

45:15be a rental development. While not included in the housing continuum the pressures from

45:21student housing were noticed in our and our housing pledge calling for other levels of

45:25government to support programs that would assist our post-secondary institutions to build more

45:30and different types of student housing. Together we continue to advocate for partnership with other

45:35levels of government for opportunities to get more student housing built in Guelph.

45:41The University of Guelph has a housing study underway right now and the city is a stakeholder

45:45in that work. This work is a housing analysis to understand the demand from their student

45:51population as they start thinking about future needs and student housing projects.

45:56We look forward to hearing them share more about that work later on this year.

46:01Conestoga College has also indicated to staff that they understand the importance of building

46:06student housing to support their new downtown campus and we are encouraged by the work that we see

46:11underway in that regard. As previously mentioned the definition of affordable is based on a

46:17household spend less than 30% of its pre-tax income on adequate shelter. As of 2022

46:25about 387,000 is considered an affordable house price in Guelph which is the equivalent to a

46:31household income of 111,616 dollars for less and about $1,575 is considered affordable monthly rate.

46:43Based on a signal from the province through the introduction of more homes built faster Act 2022

46:49otherwise known as Bill 23 and as of April 6, 2022 when the definition of affordable was proposed to

46:55be removed from the provincial planning statement a market-based definition of affordable introduced

47:01through Bill 23's Development Charges Act may soon apply. This would increase the home ownership

47:07affordability threshold from 387,000 to approximately 640,000 for home ownership.

47:16The last stop on the housing continuum is home ownership. This type of housing is private ownership

47:23with a free market economic framework. This can be in the form of apartments, townhouse units,

47:28semi-detached units and single-detached units. And with that I will now turn the presentation

47:34over to Ms. Wauke, our general manager of planning and building services. Thank you DCAO homes.

47:43I'm going to take you through some slides related to our current capacity for housing.

47:48So what is our capacity for housing and what we have we done to support our capacity?

47:53The city's guiding policy documents have been comprehensively updated over the past three

47:57years to support a population of 208,000 people by 2051. This means that our official

48:04planning and zoning bylaw provide the framework for the development of approximately 33,600 units

48:10by 2051. While this is our growth target, the housing and residential intensification analysis

48:17that was completed as part of our municipal comprehensive review says we have capacity beyond

48:22that. We are planning for growth in our downtown and our secondary plan areas like the Guam

48:29Innovation District and Claremont B lands as well as other strategic growth areas that are identified

48:35in OP80. Downtown is planned to accommodate a density target of 200 people and jobs per hectare

48:43by the year 2051. That's a target of additional 5,500 new housing units which is above and beyond

48:51the provincial's provinces target. And this is going to further increase with the provincial

48:57changes to OP80 which allows a height to go to 23 stories. The Guelphin Advasion District

49:04was planned to accommodate 3,400 housing units and with the provincial modifications we are

49:10anticipating 7,100 units thus increasing our overall capacity in the city. Claremont B secondary plan

49:18is planned to accommodate 7,150 housing units. While the official plan provides a policy framework

49:25to achieve our population targets, the zoning bylaw sets out the regulations for housing to be developed.

49:32The comprehensive zoning bylaw review was approved by council in May with a focus on

49:37ending exclusionary zoning allowing three units as of right on low density residential properties

49:43and reducing the need for zoning amendments where proposed development aligned with the official

49:48plan. As part of the comprehensive zoning bylaw review we also increased the number of bedrooms

49:54in basement apartments and we allowed supportive housing as of right and we up zone many areas

50:00throughout the city. As council is aware this is under appeal so at this time those permissions

50:06are not in place and we saw an example of that earlier this evening. Staff have updated policy

50:13documents to provide for an appropriate mix of housing and a full range of mix of housing to meet

50:19our targets to our current and future populations. So here's a slide I think you've seen before on

50:26our historical building permits across the city. On this side you'll see our building permits over

50:37the past 20 years with an average of about 1,017 units per year. The most permit Sqelf has ever

50:43seen was in 2004 which was 1483 units. Over this time frame we've also seen a significant shift

50:52in the type of housing form. You can see the bottom or the blue line which was that single

50:58detached dwellings drop and the purple the apartment line increase. We've also seen a

51:04significant increase in the top line of the chart which is the basement apartment units

51:11and it's about 25 percent of our annual building permits or about 250 units per year.

51:19So the short-term housing supply there is a lot of talk on this slide on exactly how many units

51:27we are available. Every year we publish an annual growth monitoring and housing report. This slide

51:32comes out of it. It was in the May 5th information reports the full the full report and we have

51:40nearly 6,000 units by 1892 to be exact and this represents a 6.2 year supply of housing which

51:50exceeds the provincial minimum of three years. The short-term supply is for site zoned for development,

52:02sites and draft planned approvals and sites and registered plans. The short-term supply summary

52:07includes sites that do have a holding provision but it is unrelated to water or wastewater.

52:14For example, 361 White Law Road which was recently approved by the Ontario Land Tribunal

52:20requires that the energy the owner complete an energy strategy report that addresses how it meets

52:27our community energy initiative. So that has a holding provision which unless the OPA is approved

52:34will be delegated to staff but that's the type of holding provision but it's not related to water

52:39or wastewater. So just to be clear on what those provisions are. So if we take all the holding

52:45provisions out for something minor like that there's 4,700 units that don't have any any other

52:52approvals or requirements on it and that represents a five-year supply of housing units

52:59and it's important to note that in that 5892 that number it does not include basement apartments

53:07or units that do not require site plan approval. Our basement apartments as I said about 250 units

53:13per year so that just adds to the capacity that's available. It also does not include any of the

53:19up-zone plans that were done for OP80 so there's some additional developments as of right. So next

53:26year in our report we will expect that number to be higher because of OP80. So site plan what do

53:35we have in the in the hopper right now? Since January last year we've approved over 1388 units

53:43and we have another 788 that are active 1788 that are active. This does not include some of these

53:52singles basement apartments or developments that are 10 units or less because they are not required

53:58to go through site plan approval. So our short-term housing supply this map again is in that report

54:06and you're going to see it a little bit later this evening as well but we've highlighted just a

54:10couple of examples of sites that have been zoned and ready for development for over 30 years.

54:17Tavill Drive on the west side of the city will erode another 50 units. We do have and keep a

54:25comprehensive spreadsheet of everything that's available and we'll go through that a little

54:29bit later on this evening. So what are we doing to increase supply? In the coming slides we're

54:38going to share updated policy and capital actions that are increasing the supply of housing and wealth.

54:44So let's first look at our policy responsibilities. Implementing the comprehensive zoning by-law.

54:52So as I mentioned earlier council approved the comprehensive zoning by-law however various

54:57developers and the developers association have appealed it to the Ontario Land Tribunal.

55:02Our next step, steps pending the OLT decision is to implement this body of work which includes

55:08the items listed here on the slide. There is a lot of work and we were ahead of the curve

55:15in the province on ending exclusionary zoning and that was pretty exciting for us. Prior to

55:20bill 23 we had already allowed accessory apartments and that happened through this council in 2020.

55:27The comprehensive zoning by-law also pre-zoned many areas of the city for increased heights and

55:32densities and we are actually seeing pre-consultations by some developers on those sites. However,

55:39at this time the zoning is not in place. We did reduce parking in some areas of the city

55:47and amendments were made to make it much easier especially for those one to three units

55:53and that is an important part of our growth and a large part of our annual building permit

55:57activity. Until the comprehensive zoning by-law is repealed however we will still see these type

56:02amendments come before council. It slows down the process and does cost time and money for

56:07the landowners. Licensing short-term rentals. So in March of this year council directed staff to

56:16create a new schedule under the city's business licensing by-law to regulate the licensing of

56:21short-term rental accommodation and this came into effect on July 1st of this year. Short-term

56:28rental is temporary accommodation for in all or part of the dwelling provided it's for 30 consecutive

56:34days or less in exchange for payment or services. These rentals generally serve visitors of wealth

56:41and are not intended to be permanent housing solutions. The important part of the short-term

56:46licensing by-law is that wealth has seen a 28% growth in short-term rental properties in the

56:51last two years with over 200 properties listed online. What council did with the new limits on

56:58the by-law really does help our rental supply so we require that it only be the property owner,

57:06the principal resident and one other so we're not doing a lot of properties across the city

57:12which helps with our overall supply. What are we doing to contribute to market housing?

57:20To help answer that question we are doing a lot. We talked about the basement apartments and secondary

57:28residential units. We currently do not charge development charges on that so at 250 units

57:35per year that's an annual contribution of about 5.5 million that we're not collecting for the

57:40accessory residential dwellings. But with bill 23 as was mentioned earlier and the change in

57:48definition from an income-based affordability to a market-based that contribution could increase

57:55to 23.5 million dollars a year. So to answer your question yes we are already contributing to market

58:03housing especially those secondary market rentals. In the past year we have been improving our

58:11processes. It's a constant state of change for us and we're continuing to change our processes

58:17every time a new piece of legislation comes into effect. We've been looking at our internal

58:21processes with the help of the street lining the development approvals fund. This includes an online

58:28building permitting system, updating our planning applications and planning processes.

58:34We've updated our typical comments in a process to break it down between requirements and

58:39recommendations based on changes to what we can and cannot comment on in the planning act.

58:44We have been digitizing our corporate building records. We have been through two yellow belt

58:51processes and are currently in a green belt process for the condominiums. We have made

58:57demonstration plans so that once the comprehensive zoning by-law is approved it does make it easier

59:02for someone to come forward. And just a couple hours ago or an hour ago council delegated additional

59:09authority to staff so that we don't have to go through the process and write reports to council

59:14and come to the chambers. We are also implementing tech solutions, a lot of tech solutions.

59:23We have about 30 existing planning, building and zoning digital processes that we're looking at

59:30and are underway. We have a plan to integrate major corporate software applications related to

59:35mapping, building and planning. Planning and IT meet regularly to improve our processes,

59:42to ensure we're moving towards a digital system. We have accelerated our plans review with a new

59:48software to accelerate our digital reviews by overlaying plans and we have an online booking

59:54software for appointments in building services and there are more digital transformations in the work.

1:00:02And with that I'm going to call on Mr. Gaiman to continue the presentation.

1:00:11Thank you Ms. Wachee. Good evening everyone. My name is Terry Gaiman. I'm the city's general

1:00:15manager of engineering and transportation services and city engineer. I have to say I'm

1:00:21excited to be part of this presentation tonight as I've been with the city since 2014 and throughout

1:00:25that time I've been fortunate to work with an amazing group of staff who have been focused on

1:00:30growth and housing and one of the ways we do that is through our capital program. One reason I like

1:00:37to talk about our capital delivery is because there are so many tangible actions that the community

1:00:42can see in the city as we support housing and growth and wealth. Over the past few years staff

1:00:48and council have worked hard to plan for growth through completion of over four million dollars

1:00:52in studies. That's a significant investment in due diligence. We've also been hard at work balancing

1:00:58all the requirements of professional components to delivering infrastructure that services growth.

1:01:04We've completed dozens of environmental assessments and engineering designs for things like roads,

1:01:09water and wastewater services and we've collectively worked with the community and council

1:01:14to establish a series of master plans focused on the next 30 plus years. These master plans cover

1:01:19important things such as transportation and water supply. When compiled altogether council you have

1:01:24contributed and committed to the future of wealth and you've approved plans that call for roughly

1:01:29three billion dollars in future investment over the next 30 plus years for the city.

1:01:34And while we do the prudent planning work and prepare for future investments we also continue

1:01:38to improve around the edges. We've updated our capital revenue tools to pay for infrastructure,

1:01:44advocated and applied for funding from other levels of government, strengthened our relationships

1:01:49with a number of partners who help us deliver infrastructure that the city needs. And of

1:01:53course beyond plans and designs there's the construction of the infrastructure itself.

1:01:59Over the past two years staff have prepared strategies and for resources and for handling the

1:02:06volatility of inflation post COVID so that we can ensure we can continue to deliver and council

1:02:12approval of these strategies enabled wealth to keep going over the past few years during periods

1:02:17of high levels of uncertainty. It's allowed staff to execute on the growth work needed but also

1:02:22balance the infrastructure renewal work required to keep our roads and pipes in a state of good

1:02:27repair. We've been able to manage things like flooding risks, water quality and infrastructure

1:02:33levels of service while ensuring we strategically build a future ready city. And over the past

1:02:40five years council you have invested roughly 150 million in growth related linear reconstruction

1:02:45alone which has provided 37 kilometers of roads and pipe network for growth needs.

1:02:52And that doesn't include all the other investments made in community building that you used to

1:02:55service a growing community. So let's have that sink in for a moment 150 million in the

1:03:00past five years for growth related needs. Said differently we've been up to a lot to help have

1:03:05housing and wealth. Now much like delivering capital work needed to support housing and

1:03:10wealth there are a number of initiatives and strategic investments happening that help lay

1:03:14the groundwork for the future. Of course to start there is the housing pledge that was approved

1:03:20earlier this year. The pledge outlines Gullf's commitment to deliver over 18,000 units by

1:03:252031 and explains the work that Gullf is doing and will do that is within our control to deliver.

1:03:31The pledge also encourages other levels of government and our development partners to

1:03:34push forward on their commitments as well so that we can collectively deliver on this important work.

1:03:40And since the pledge was approved we're already taking action.

1:03:44Staff have led the continuous improvement of our policies if you've heard from Ms.

1:03:47Wauke for our development review. We've increased resources to approve our plans

1:03:51for development applications faster including through a predictive hiring approach that ensures

1:03:56Gullf competes in the job market and attracts top talent to do the work that is required for housing.

1:04:01We've identified our needs to meet this pledge and we are using a future focus view to recruit

1:04:05eight new roles this year to facilitate development application approvals and delivery of growth-related

1:04:09capital. These staff will help deliver our streamlined development approvals process

1:04:14and execute our master plan requirements faster to ensure we are staying ahead of the curve.

1:04:18And with a full complement of staff we can continue to keep our attention locked in on the

1:04:22strategies that we've laid the groundwork for. We're unlocking key growth areas in Gullf so

1:04:27our city can continue to thrive. We're focused on downtown which we'll speak about in a moment.

1:04:31We're focused on the Gullf Innovation District where we've completed all the detailed and award

1:04:35winning planning studies and are well on our way with servicing through the York Road and York

1:04:39Road trunk projects. And we've done the heavy lifting on major planning files like Dole-Lime

1:04:44which is starting the secondary planning process in 2024 and Claremontview where staff are actively

1:04:49working hard on the appeals process to ensure Gullf is built according to Council's vision.

1:04:54And to tie this all back to capital we continue to build and present Council with a balanced budget

1:04:59that focuses on the investments needed to deliver growth in these strategic areas while managing

1:05:04risk and maintaining assets infrastructure and services for our existing community.

1:05:10Now back to downtown for a moment myself and the city's downtown advisor Stacy Laughlin presented

1:05:14the status of the downtown renewal project to Council just in June of this year. And during

1:05:19that presentation we showed the image that is on the slide as you see now. This is our downtown

1:05:23renewal journey. And I really love this image because it shows you exactly what it takes to

1:05:27ensure we are properly investing in growth and renewal of the heart of the city. It's been over

1:05:3210 years since the city started to prepare for this upcoming reconstruction of downtown.

1:05:36It's a process that has fully engaged the community and that has brought a vision of

1:05:43prosperity for the next 100 plus years to come. And that's the exact work we should be doing to

1:05:48unlock more housing in Gullf's core. When the work is done millions of dollars will have been

1:05:53invested to ensure we have a downtown that is walkable, that is transit supportive,

1:05:57that supports businesses and that people want to live, work and learn in. And because we've

1:06:02been preparing for this for decades, Gullf is in prime position to deliver on the housing needs

1:06:07and the intensification approved by the province. We are in really good shape. So that's it for me.

1:06:13I'm now going to turn it over to our city treasurer, Ms. Baker. Thanks, Mr. Gaiman. So while we're

1:06:21doing a lot to lay the groundwork and build infrastructure, we are navigating some real

1:06:26challenges that are impacting our progress. So before we get into those challenges, let's talk

1:06:31about the capital revenues that pay for our growth infrastructure. The infrastructure that was just

1:06:36discussed by our city engineer is very expensive. The primary way that the city pays for growth

1:06:41related infrastructure are development fees directly paid by the developers or homeowners

1:06:46when they build or add to their homes. These fees are collected at the time of building permit and

1:06:51include development charges, parkland dedication, cash and lieu, community benefit charges and then

1:06:57the soon to be a new cash and lieu fees under development for parking and possibly storm water.

1:07:05More and more as legislation continues to reduce the amount that can be recovered directly from

1:07:10new development, the city also funds funds growth capital from property taxes, water, wastewater,

1:07:17stormwater rates and parking fees. The other large source of capital growth funding are grants from

1:07:23other levels of government. But this type of funding is variable and unreliable, especially

1:07:30when it comes to growth. The only secured long-term grant funds in place are for infrastructure renewal.

1:07:36More recently, new grants that come in are for more strategic service enhancements like our

1:07:41environmental goals. We are hopeful that the housing accelerator fund that you'll hear more about later

1:07:46will provide some much needed core growth funding, especially with the reductions that we've seen on

1:07:51the development charges and parkland. So in Ontario for decades, we have been operating under the

1:07:57principle that growth populations should pay for growth infrastructure. So in other words, growth

1:08:02should pay for growth. This means growth capital is paid by development fees and then any new taxation

1:08:09revenues or rate revenues from these new populations are then used to pay for the expanded operating

1:08:14costs like water distribution, more garbage collection, more winter road maintenance and more

1:08:19park and trail maintenance on that expanded growth infrastructure. The challenge has been that the

1:08:25development fees are highly legislated and have been a target time after time as a reason for the

1:08:30rising cost of housing in Ontario. The province has reacted to this and consecutively has been

1:08:36reducing the amount of revenues mis-palities can collect at the time of development to cover those

1:08:41capital costs needed to support that growth. And effectively, the province has been slowly

1:08:46shifting away from the core growth pace for growth principle. And with the changes last year with

1:08:51Bill 23, I think it's now safe to say that everyone is paying for growth. The reduction in

1:08:58development charges and parkland dedication cash and lieu has left a significant gap in revenues

1:09:03that will need to be made up in order to actually build the infrastructure that is needed to enable

1:09:08more housing. Next week at the special council meeting to review the draft development charge

1:09:13study, we will discuss this in a lot more detail. But we are estimating that the total loss DCs alone

1:09:18over 10 years will now be in the range of 227 million with 193 million of that due to Bill 23 alone.

1:09:27This does not include the impact of the parkland dedication loss revenues, which could add another

1:09:32million per year to the tax base. The infrastructure cost doesn't get cheaper because we can't collect

1:09:38this revenue. This is real cost that has to be paid by some other means. And more than likely,

1:09:44that's from property taxes, water, wastewater, stormwater, and stormwater rates that will have to

1:09:50rise. Not only do we have this issue to contend with, but we also have the cost of inflation,

1:09:56though it will be very present in the updated capital plan. The non residential construction

1:10:00price index for Toronto area increased by 20.6% from 21 to 23 with the increase in some

1:10:08commodities exceeding that level in those commodities specifically to our capital program.

1:10:13As you will recall from the year end reporting and our budget confirmation this year,

1:10:17the city was able to accommodate inflation in 22 and 23 by deferring a number of capital projects

1:10:23in total about 88 million was deferred. Well, that future is here and inflation in the capital

1:10:30plan will be a reality for us in 2024. We also now are in a high interest environment

1:10:38where issuing debt is not as favorable as it has been. And it's going to be needed to help get

1:10:44infrastructure in the ground before development starts. This cash flow misalignment is not well

1:10:50timed with interest rates, and we'll add to the cost of capital overall. And so finally,

1:11:05we don't just have a housing growth need. We also have an aging infrastructure need.

1:11:11And it would be one thing if we could say 100% of our capital money can just be redirected

1:11:17and go to growth for the next 10 years. But that's not a reality. The replacement value of the city's

1:11:23assets was estimated at over 4 billion in the 2020 asset management plan. And at that time,

1:11:29over 30% of our assets were identified as nearing end of useful life due to the replacement and

1:11:35due for replacement. These are significant facilities in the city, major roads, pipes,

1:11:40and bridges. We cannot just push this investment off indefinitely. There are going to be some

1:11:46really tough decisions ahead of us this fall that council is going to have to consider against all

1:11:52the priorities in light of overall affordability. So major investments in providing growth can be

1:12:00held up by appeals. And we have spent a lot of money and people time defending the decisions

1:12:07this year rather than moving to the next substantive project. This year we have had to divert

1:12:14up to four city planners plus engineering and city lawyer time to address the new appeals.

1:12:19This is taking away from responding to applications and creating more supply.

1:12:24Between the comprehensive zoning by a lot and the Claremont B secondary plan, there are total of

1:12:2827 appeals filed despite very extensive consultation prior to council approval.

1:12:34We also invested our resources in successfully defending an appeal of 65 Delha zoning and our

1:12:40legal and planning resources supported the county in achieving that result. We've been very forward

1:12:46thinking with our planning policies, but now that progress is stalling while we divert our

1:12:52specialized staff time away from what is really the community priority, which is more housing.

1:13:00This feels like that proverbial red tape that the province is actively trying to reduce and why

1:13:06there should be a call for the developers to also sign a housing pledge to document their

1:13:12accountabilities in this goal. We cannot build more housing if we are tied up in the court system

1:13:17at odds with each other. So on that note, Ms. Wachie is now going to come back and talk

1:13:24about what more we can do to increase housing supply. Thanks Tara. So the question out there

1:13:34is what more can we do? So I'm going to share a little bit about what we are doing.

1:13:40So our ongoing advocacy, the pace of change over the past several years from a housing policy and

1:13:46intergovernmental perspective has been intense. Legislative changes has come one after the other,

1:13:52bill 108, bill 109, bill 23 and more. In 2022, Intergovernmental Services coordinated more than

1:13:5912 strategic meetings with ministers and coordinated order over 40 consultation pieces. 40 consultations

1:14:07is almost three times more than we would normally do in any year. That takes time and organization

1:14:13from across the corporation. In 2023, that has continued again and really significant changes

1:14:22were proposed including the provincial policy statement and policies adapted from a place to

1:14:27grow. Proposed changes to the environmental assessment process and more. With the Association

1:14:34of Ms. Palli's Ontario Delegations, we expect this summer much of these conversations will focus

1:14:39on housing and the associated conversations regarding infrastructure, municipal finance

1:14:45and community well-being. I will also note that Guelph is not alone in this. Through association

1:14:51like the municipal finance officers association, the Association of Ms. Palli's of Ontario and our

1:14:58Ontario big city mayors were united in our efforts to partner with other levels of government to

1:15:03address housing supply and that's really what we need, partnerships from other levels of government.

1:15:10We're also advocating for infrastructure grants. I was previously mentioned,

1:15:16grants are a way that the city is trying to help pay for needed infrastructure to support more housing.

1:15:22The grant process though is also quite involved and takes multi-disciplinary staff

1:15:27and many years to make it happen. The city does everything possible to ensure that we are successful

1:15:32and winning grants to lower the tax rate impacts to the community. In the last two years alone,

1:15:39we have submitted nine strategic grant applications tolling over $200 million

1:15:45and many are still waiting a final decision. But recently, we were successful in the green

1:15:50inclusive community building grant for the HVAC upgrades at the West End Community Center

1:15:55and the zero emissions vehicle infrastructure program for 28 EV charges tolling $2 million in

1:16:02funding. While these grants are not solely growth related, they do still create capacity to redirect

1:16:10tax dollars and talk dollars towards other growth priorities. While most of the city capital grants

1:16:17need to be done through a competitive process, there are a couple of permanent sustainable

1:16:22capital infrastructure streams and the largest has been the community, the Canada Community

1:16:27Building Fund, previously the Fed Gas Tax that supports infrastructure renewal. It's a federal

1:16:35program that is allocated to us based on population and Guelph receives approximately $8.7 million

1:16:41annually through that program. The province also has similar dedicated transit grant stream

1:16:47that the city uses for bus replacement which is approximately $3 million annually.

1:16:53We need more grants like this, the reliable, sustainable funding that allows us to efficiently

1:16:59plan projects and not be forced into competitive progress that leaves us uncertainty around putting

1:17:07shovels in the ground. As mentioned by Ms. Paker, the Housing Accelerator Fund, which we just often

1:17:16call is half, is a new $4 billion federal program administered by Canadian Mortgage and Housing

1:17:23Corporation and the city is currently working towards a submission which must be done before

1:17:28August 18th. Funding will be provided directly to municipalities to incent 100,000 net new permanent

1:17:35housing units across the country. Funding must support initiatives to accelerate housing that

1:17:43would result in the development of complete low-carbon and climate resilient communities

1:17:47that are affordable, inclusive, equitable, and diverse. A suite of draft initiatives and associated

1:17:54actions form an action plan which we are required to submit and we have drafted ours in consultation

1:18:02with the County of Wellington, the Guelph and District Home Builders, and discussions with our

1:18:07post-secondary institutions and we're working with Dylane Consulting to help us put this together.

1:18:14As part of this application, the initiatives that will score the highest

1:18:19take, have to be implemented quickly and achieve units quickly. We have to demonstrate the number

1:18:25of new units by 2027. That's not a lot of time considering the planning process.

1:18:30So the seven initiatives that we are required, out of the 25, we have to meet seven and the ones

1:18:35that we're looking at are understanding our future housing needs, identified opportunities to expand

1:18:41housing options, accelerate housing through system improvements in service delivery,

1:18:47unlock growth opportunities through expediting infrastructure improvements,

1:18:51incentivize the creation of new housing units, expedite the delivery of affordable housing

1:18:57through the approvals process, understanding opportunities to optimize city and county-owned

1:19:02land for affordable housing, and develop bylaws to facilitate growth. The complexity of this

1:19:09application is considerable and there's been a lot of time and a significant time that has to

1:19:16be put into these competitive processes. When a different approach, if money could just quickly

1:19:22flow through municipalities, we'd probably produce the same results without as much paperwork and

1:19:28effort. We're also looking at draft policies internally to create more housing and what can

1:19:36we do faster. So we're bringing forward the downtown parking master plan in September of this year

1:19:42and one of the recommendations, spoil alert, is that we'll be looking to explore moving forward

1:19:49with a downtown cash and loot parking program. We know it's difficult if you have a small

1:19:54intensification in the core when there's not an easy opportunity to build parking. So that is

1:20:00Going to come down as a recommendation to move forward in the fall.

1:20:05We're also looking at a downtown secondary plan and the heights as a result of P80 and what we can do and where we can increase sites and densities.

1:20:11So, we'll be looking at that and that's definitely going to put us over the 200 units per hectare.

1:20:15Resolution of our comprehensive zoning by law.

1:20:19We are hopeful a resolution can occur,

1:20:21especially in the short term for the exclusionary zoning, the supportive zoning, the basement apartments.

1:20:28And those that are really impacted by the smaller investment,

1:20:31the not for profit sector and individual homeowners as they make up a significant percentage of our annual permits.

1:20:38We're going to link infrastructure investments to housing outcomes. So what can we do?

1:20:48We can prioritize capital investments where the greatest housing supply can be built the fastest.

1:20:54Mr. Gaiman already talked about the downtown and the capital revitalization program to bring on more units in the downtown.

1:21:02This is a great example of where our work has been working to maximize our limited financial resources,

1:21:09taking care of our critical aging infrastructure and creating capacity for growth.

1:21:15It's the perfect win-win where we should be prioritizing our investment.

1:21:19The York road improvements are another great example as we'll be helping to service the GID lands.

1:21:27And internally, we're overlaying our strategic growth areas and our known infrastructure gaps

1:21:33so that we can quickly accelerate development in these areas.

1:21:39We are also updating the affordable housing strategy.

1:21:43Our original affordable housing strategy was in completed in 2017.

1:21:47A lot has changed since then.

1:21:49So given the challenging economic and legislative landscape,

1:21:53we are going to identify it and look at future options for advocacy partnerships

1:21:58and approaches to address housing affordability on the right-hand side of the spectrum

1:22:04and the private market housing and rental as well.

1:22:08And this is coming to council in September of this year.

1:22:12So what else can we do to increase affordable housing?

1:22:16We can continue to incent as we itemized earlier,

1:22:21but perhaps with a community improvement plan to incent more.

1:22:25We can also facilitate the building of affordable housing.

1:22:29For reference, a community improvement plan is a tool that allows municipalities direct funds

1:22:34and implement policy initiatives toward a specifically defined project area

1:22:39to encourage revitalization initiatives and stimulate development or redevelopment.

1:22:44And was noted earlier, we have a posting out for a development advisor

1:22:48to help us accelerate affordable housing projects.

1:22:54So we're going to lean on the community improvement plan.

1:22:57They're not new to wealth.

1:22:58We are instilled in the midst of managing our previous agreements.

1:23:02It was a large program of $33 million and it contributed to over 1,050 units overall,

1:23:09which is a great testament to its success.

1:23:12And now we're looking at the future of what our CIP can do.

1:23:15And we'll be bringing that back.

1:23:17It was delayed, but we'll be bringing it back in 2024.

1:23:21So at this point in time, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Jefferson

1:23:24to talk about strategic real estate.

1:23:34Thank you, Ms. Wauke.

1:23:36My name is Luke Jefferson and I'm the city's strategic property advisor.

1:23:41Strategic property is a new function and it covers a broad range of activities.

1:23:46But fundamentally, it has one specific objective, making sure that the city is using land effectively

1:23:52and to its best potential.

1:23:54Or more simply, we're making sure that our land is working for us.

1:23:58You've heard from Ms. Wauke, Mr. Gaiman and Ms. Baker about our capital growth plans

1:24:04and the actions and projects that are necessary to meet the needs of a growing city.

1:24:09Strategic property works with staff across departments

1:24:12to make sure that we have the land needed to support our capital plan.

1:24:16This work is also supported by the Guelph Strategic Property Committee,

1:24:21which is a multi-department committee set up to ensure that decisions are not siloed.

1:24:30The Guelph Strategic Property Committee provides corporate-wide guidance on decisions

1:24:35to ensure that we are using land effectively and supporting our growth plans.

1:24:40The objective is to get maximum value out of our assets.

1:24:43The committee helps identify underused assets where new land is needed

1:24:47and where existing sites can be repurposed to meet growing facility and infrastructure needs.

1:24:54We maximize value to the city by identifying strategies to market or improve sites

1:25:00adding additional uses to existing sites and explore partnerships,

1:25:04joint ventures and potentially selling property to meet housing and employment targets.

1:25:10These all represent value to the city and benefit the community and our growth objectives.

1:25:16Lastly, the committee applies a corporate lens by collaborating,

1:25:20guiding and offering centralized decision-making around land use issues.

1:25:24It reduces silos, creates opportunity to develop land acquisition strategies

1:25:29and develop funding and revenue streams to support acquisition and disposition of real estate.

1:25:38So how does this work with housing?

1:25:41And here's where we're taking action now.

1:25:45We're looking to turn underused land into opportunities for growth and development

1:25:49through partnership and disposition.

1:25:51We have sites that staff will recommend to council for sale

1:25:55that will benefit housing supply and potentially other strategic initiatives

1:25:59like downtown parking and rental market housing.

1:26:02This will help supply the housing market with development sites

1:26:06and this act this is actively being pursued on commercial street downtown.

1:26:11We're actioning master plans, the official plan and strategic plan commitments

1:26:16and will be bringing strategies to council in September around the downtown secondary plan

1:26:20and the riverfront park.

1:26:23While this does not benefit housing directly,

1:26:26these actions will provide the service level requirements to facilitate growth.

1:26:31In this case, this will be focused on meeting downtown park commitments.

1:26:35This benefits housing by ensuring we are improving access to open space

1:26:40and reducing the need for parkland conveyances on redevelopment sites.

1:26:46Lastly, we're working with other public agencies to explore how their land strategies

1:26:51could benefit wealth residents.

1:26:53In this case, I'm highlighting the ongoing work on the Nisca property owned by the

1:26:57Grand River Conservation Authority and the work we are doing with GRCA staff

1:27:01as they advance their land management plan.

1:27:07Strategic property and the Guelph Strategic Property Committee also provide

1:27:11departmental guidance on land use.

1:27:14We're introducing funding flexibility by repurposing our industrial land reserve

1:27:19into a strategic property reserve with oversight from the property committee.

1:27:24This will broaden the scope of how the city can invest or improve sites

1:27:28beyond strictly employment lands, which could include residential growth opportunities.

1:27:33We're investing in city-owned sites to improve marketability

1:27:37and introduce new uses for underused land such as the work that has been completed

1:27:42at 200 Beverly Street or the Imico site and on Baker Street

1:27:46with the intention of transforming these sites from underused assets

1:27:49into dynamic development opportunities.

1:27:53Lastly, we're exploring how a municipal corporation could benefit the city

1:27:57and improve our ability to action strategic initiatives.

1:28:01We will be engaging KPMG to provide guidance on this.

1:28:09So I'm just going to close with future opportunities we are exploring to help

1:28:13residential growth.

1:28:15As you've heard, the city has commitments to grow.

1:28:18We can create more opportunity for growth and residential development by recognizing that we

1:28:22own real estate that may not align with our own facility needs.

1:28:27We are actively reviewing inventory to ensure we have the sites we need to build

1:28:30city facilities and examining how property sales or joint ventures, partnering with agencies

1:28:36or developers, can benefit the city's growth plans by increasing housing development sites supply.

1:28:43We can also enter the market to help improve the use or marketability of the sites that we do own.

1:28:49This will require investment, but we will examine the value of acquiring,

1:28:53amalgamating underused sites into one unified whole or improving

1:28:58unusable sites into something marketable that can be an opportunity for future homes.

1:29:04We are evaluating how to maximize value by dispositioning with purpose.

1:29:08We are looking at using tools like agreements and partnerships and evaluating how this helps

1:29:14the city achieve value.

1:29:16This may require trading off, maximizing revenue versus adding in conditions to meet other corporate

1:29:21objectives like below market rental units and additional parking on development sites.

1:29:28Lastly, we're exploring how land use or disposition creates an opportunity to increase

1:29:33land supply for development and creates revenue for the city to fund supportive programs to meet

1:29:38other service level needs.

1:29:40This is a growing body of work.

1:29:43Recent changes such as OPA80, the housing pledge and density and building heights are

1:29:47changing how staff evaluate value and its effective use.

1:29:50It's exciting and we are happy to be here to discuss it.

1:29:54That ends my portion of tonight's presentation, so I'll turn it over to DCI Holmes.

1:30:00Thanks, Mr. Jefferson, and I'm jumping back in here just one more time

1:30:04just to share some quick updates related to communications and reporting.

1:30:08So as we've mentioned throughout our presentation, we are responsible for creating the conditions

1:30:13to encourage housing development.

1:30:15We are also accountable to this Council and the province and will continue to report on our progress.

1:30:21Currently, we provide Council with annual growth management and affordable housing

1:30:25monitoring reports and a monthly building permits report.

1:30:29We also, at the province's request, submit a quarterly stats report, which I'll get to in a moment.

1:30:36All these reports contain different types of information and are published with different

1:30:40degrees of frequency, however they all focus on housing in-growth and our commitment to

1:30:44increasing housing supply.

1:30:46We also indicated on the slide here our plans to communicate our progress towards this commitment.

1:30:51We are updating gulf.ca with a new content that includes an interactive

1:30:56story map that we'll be sharing with you shortly.

1:30:59We will also use CAO Stewart's monthly email to Council to share more timely updates.

1:31:04Tomorrow, we are going to share a summary of tonight's workshop with the Gualt community

1:31:09through a news release and social media, and we plan to continue the conversation and

1:31:13action over the next several months.

1:31:15In August, you'll see an information report that summarizes the results of tonight's workshop.

1:31:20As noted earlier in September, you'll learn more about the left side of the continuum.

1:31:25In October, our staff will compile all the results from both workshops and various reports

1:31:32and present a report to Council for consideration of future actions.

1:31:36And finally, in January, we will start reporting every six months to provide the next housing

1:31:41continuing update.

1:31:45And now back to that provincial report that I mentioned a moment ago.

1:31:48Here are the first quarter stats.

1:31:51In Q1 2023, applications were summarized in an information report released on June 30, 2023.

1:31:59We are required to submit a quarterly report with our statistics for the previous quarter.

1:32:03Q1 was slow for development applications as there was uncertainty in the market and interest rates.

1:32:10And uncertainty if the comprehensive zoning bylaw would be approved.

1:32:14You will see these numbers increase in the Q2 report, which will be published in September.

1:32:20As part of the quarterly reporting, we are required to report on the status of any MZOs

1:32:25that have been issued in our municipality at any time.

1:32:28The MZO referenced is the Dolheim MZO, and at this time we do not have a planning application.

1:32:34And with that, I will now turn it over to CAO Stewart, who will close out our presentation.

1:32:43Thank you very much, DCO Holmes and team.

1:32:46So, Mayor and members of Council, as you know, municipalities are required to adapt and respond

1:32:51to legislative and regulatory changes by other levels of government.

1:32:55Quite honestly, that's the norm.

1:32:57But I'm sure you'll agree that the speed at which this province has handed down these

1:33:00recent mandates has tested teams across this organization.

1:33:04And yet here we are.

1:33:05I want you to look around, and I know we've shared a lot of information with you tonight,

1:33:09but look around at the staff who have joined us here in the front row,

1:33:14but also the staff that are in the audience tonight.

1:33:18These are staff that are who are guiding this work.

1:33:20These are our leaders, and their teams are spending countless hours advancing this work,

1:33:24doing what it takes to increase housing.

1:33:27People from every corner of this corporation have been working together for years.

1:33:31And I want to emphasize, this is not a new thing this year, but for years,

1:33:36analyzing provincial legislation, reviewing the impacts on our organization and our community,

1:33:41and working hard every day to meet provincial housing targets.

1:33:46We are committed to this work, and we're committed to doing what is in our control,

1:33:51to increase housing for people who live here now,

1:33:53and for those that will choose to go off as their home in the future.

1:33:57So if I can recap what you've heard, holy moly.

1:34:01We are busy, and I mean royally we, taking action.

1:34:06And so a lot of tonight, what you are hearing from staff is because of your direction and wisdom.

1:34:13And I mean that.

1:34:14So holy moly, doesn't really cover it, but holy moly, you're all over it.

1:34:18And I hope you've noticed that over the last few years,

1:34:21we're moving away from regulator to approver.

1:34:24And this cultural shift, it means that when applications come to us,

1:34:28they have to be creative, they have to be functional, they have to be timely,

1:34:32and they have to be easy to approve.

1:34:35And that makes being an approver so much easier than being a regulator.

1:34:40And I think we are seeing that in our staff.

1:34:42But let's face it also, without infrastructure,

1:34:45we cannot support the province's population growth targets or housing.

1:34:49And you heard from our CFO tonight, as well as others.

1:34:52So as Mr. Gaiman mentioned earlier, the money we're spending here,

1:34:55over 150 million in the past five years.

1:34:59So 150 million in the last five years to get yourself to tonight.

1:35:04And then about 3 billion over the next 30 years to support our master plans.

1:35:09This is the kind of investment in action we need to help get us there.

1:35:12And you're doing it.

1:35:13But that's not all.

1:35:15And I know we split the segment of the continuum on purpose,

1:35:18because you need to hear everything to get us to our budgets.

1:35:21But as DCO Clark Bush shared,

1:35:23we're making huge investments in social services, not type of housing.

1:35:27$17 million per year to our county as their CMSM.

1:35:32And CEO Scott Wilson over there, his gang are doing good work.

1:35:36We'll just have to come back to that in September, where you'll see some things.

1:35:39$500,000 in base budget in affordable housing reserve each year.

1:35:44Over $800,000 in direct funding, $6 million in debt funding for additional long-term care beds.

1:35:49And almost $6 million for supportive housing projects.

1:35:52And our downtown that we're matching our resources and matching funds.

1:35:58Wow. You are doing lots.

1:36:01It is not fair to suggest that this city council is not you are.

1:36:05It's impressive.

1:36:06And it's impressive across this province.

1:36:09And I can't wait for September 12th,

1:36:10for all the three big updates that you are going to get from ourselves.

1:36:13Of course, you'll hear from us.

1:36:15And what does the affordable market housing report look like from our planners?

1:36:19Of course, the county of Wellington will be here that day.

1:36:22And the results from collective, from collective results.

1:36:26In addition to our financial contributions to non-market type housing,

1:36:30we're doing the work requested of us by you as council to review the gaps and opportunities

1:36:34related to homelessness, mental health and substance abuse in our community.

1:36:38And we'll be back with recommendations on September 12th.

1:36:42So I can't wait for that.

1:36:43It feels like it's slow because it's detailed time consuming work.

1:36:48If we just flipped it on and off,

1:36:51I don't think you'd appreciate the type of work and you wouldn't have the ability to make decisions.

1:36:55And as the mayor mentioned at the beginning of this evening,

1:36:58July 11th gets you to July 19th on DCs, that gets you to August 12th on report and back,

1:37:03that gets you to September 12th, that gets you to October 19th,

1:37:07oh, that gets you to budgets November and December.

1:37:11We have got to line ourselves up this way to get to these things.

1:37:15You can't be expected to make decisions if your eyes aren't fully wide open to it all.

1:37:19And you will be fully wide open to it all.

1:37:23So as a municipality, we're doing everything we can to create an environment where sustainable

1:37:27growth can occur that aligns with our community's vision and follows provincial direction.

1:37:32And I say those things should be equal.

1:37:34Our community's vision, following also provincial direction.

1:37:38And you know that vision best.

1:37:40You are elected for lots of reasons and it's caused your connectivity to the community.

1:37:45And I think staff are doing an incredible amount of work to accelerate the pace of development.

1:37:49Ms. Waukee walked us through, streamlined the development approval.

1:37:51So thank you very much to the province.

1:37:531.75 million has helped us go a long way.

1:37:56We have moved on many files to digitize and do other things.

1:38:00But the other things are predictive hiring.

1:38:04I never get that right, but I think I've got it right tonight.

1:38:06We're looking to over hire so that when we get to the new year,

1:38:11we're not waiting for budget approvals.

1:38:13We're going to manage to the bottom line,

1:38:15but get staff in now that we need next year,

1:38:18not next summer, but next January.

1:38:20So you'll see things like that.

1:38:21We'll have an advisor expediter role so that we can be fully resource to manage all kinds of applications.

1:38:28But you heard the applications that we're talking about.

1:38:30You heard Ms. Gamin, Mr. Gamin talk a little bit about the big places that we're going to invest.

1:38:36GID, Doleline, downtown, Clermont B.

1:38:40Where do should we invest public dollars for greatest private sector investment?

1:38:46Not to be held up.

1:38:47So all of that is really helpful when you think about the pace of development.

1:38:52But what we don't do is we don't build private market houses,

1:38:55and we simply don't have the authority to force developers to build once they've received approvals.

1:39:01Early in the presentation, Ms. Wachee clearly established that we've got land

1:39:04that is already available for ready for houses.

1:39:07We are sitting on a six year supply ready for almost 6,000 units to be built.

1:39:13At our pattern, let's get at her.

1:39:15Like the land is zoned in service, so just waiting for shovels to get things done.

1:39:21It is not complicated, or I wouldn't understand it.

1:39:24We have got to get through this.

1:39:26So on our plan for Clermont B, just one of the blocks of land that we're prepping for

1:39:31future growth has been appealed by the developers to the OLT.

1:39:35What you heard earlier, what that means is our approval staff are tied up with the OLT

1:39:40trying to work on compromise, but they're not approving applications.

1:39:44It leads me to crazy talk like, do we even need OLT anymore?

1:39:49Perhaps, perhaps not. We wouldn't solve that tonight.

1:39:52Maybe we will when we brainstorm.

1:39:54But in your housing pledge, you did ask the province to waive all appeals.

1:40:01It's not an unreasonable request.

1:40:03We're not approving things if we're just at the appeal board.

1:40:07I think it was a reasonable request and the magnet is still a reasonable request here in

1:40:11July from this council to the province.

1:40:14And as per your housing pledge, this is where we need to work collaboratively

1:40:18with the development community because without them, we'll not meet the housing targets.

1:40:23And lastly, we do need to, the province, to actually make us whole.

1:40:27In terms of the right side of the continuum tonight,

1:40:31but equally important is the left side of the continuum as well.

1:40:34So on September 12th, you'll have a clear understanding of the dollars and cents.

1:40:39You've had a good understanding tonight of what our CFO has got to tell you.

1:40:43And I think that puts good ammunition in our hands so that when the province does come to

1:40:46make us whole, we can say this is by how much.

1:40:50We don't have to guess. We don't have to be audited.

1:40:53We can tell you exactly because we deal in facts.

1:40:56And you could write a check that day and we would be made whole.

1:40:59So like the mayor, I'm holding out hope that they arrive and they make us whole.

1:41:03But if they don't, you know exactly the size of the whole.

1:41:06Because we've walked you through the right side of the continuum tonight.

1:41:10So that wraps up our presentation tonight.

1:41:11And I'm going to hand it off to Ms. Reed because she's going to show you her housing story map.

1:41:16And I think that will bring the energy levels back up in the room.

1:41:19But I want to leave you with this.

1:41:20We understand that despite our best efforts, progress seems slow.

1:41:25But there are many players involved here and we all have a role tonight.

1:41:30But we're ahead of the curve.

1:41:33It doesn't completely sound like it.

1:41:34We have to figure out our dollars and cents.

1:41:37But because of all this good work, you didn't start from scratch this year.

1:41:41You're not at scratch.

1:41:43That work, 150 million in the last five years.

1:41:45Good investments.

1:41:46Good stuff.

1:41:48Look where we are with York Road.

1:41:50There's a great example.

1:41:51We're talking about traffic congestion because the work is happening.

1:41:56That's how you open up lands and GID.

1:41:58Our challenge will be to work with our developer partners to say,

1:42:01you have to do more than you've ever done.

1:42:04We're ready, are you?

1:42:06You saw that stat 2004 I think was our peak year.

1:42:10We got to do better or not if we're going to hit these stats.

1:42:13And we can't do it looking at each other saying it's your fault.

1:42:15I agree with that sentiment.

1:42:17But we do have to step into space and say,

1:42:20one party can't lead at all.

1:42:23We're doing our share.

1:42:24So Mr. Mayor, I believe that part with you.

1:42:26There's no single solution.

1:42:28But we owe it to our community to figure it out together.

1:42:31And we're committed to the work.

1:42:33And I hope that you recognize that tonight.

1:42:35We're clearly demonstrating that to you.

1:42:37I'm excited about the next part of this as well

1:42:39because the brainstorming is exciting.

1:42:41And plus we get Glenn to come back up and do his thing as our facilitator.

1:42:44He's been there too quiet chomping at the bit.

1:42:47So with that, I think I'm handing it off to Ms. Reed.

1:42:51Mr. Lombard, I am.

1:42:52Well, I'll do that.

1:42:53I will go and sit down.

1:42:54And here comes Ms. Reed.

1:42:57Thank you.

1:43:15Hi.

1:43:17That's a hard act to follow.

1:43:20Um, I better get out of here.

1:43:23I won't take and I won't take long.

1:43:26Mayor and council, my name is Shelly Reed,

1:43:28and I'm a strategic communications advisor with the city.

1:43:32And I support the IDE portfolio.

1:43:35And you've heard mention of the story map a couple of times tonight.

1:43:37So I'm here to just give you a very quick preview of what we've built.

1:43:42And we thought that this would be a nice visual compliment

1:43:47to the presentation that you've heard and received this evening.

1:43:51It gives our community maybe a different way to receive the information.

1:43:57Visually, there's some interactive things that they can do on this story map.

1:44:01And it really echoes the information that was shared today,

1:44:04just packaged a little bit differently.

1:44:07So I'll give you a very quick preview.

1:44:10Our nice aerial shot.

1:44:13What we're doing to facilitate an increased housing supply and Guelph.

1:44:17If you look across the top, these are our navigation menu items.

1:44:22You can click on those and bounce around whenever you want,

1:44:25but I'm just going to go through sort of in a logical, logical way.

1:44:29So we all want the same thing.

1:44:31This is a bit of a preamble talking about our responsibility,

1:44:34what we're here to achieve,

1:44:37what the province has mandated as its housing target.

1:44:41A link to letter to the editor that talks about balanced approach

1:44:46to facilitating housing and Guelph.

1:44:49And then we spend some time talking about that housing continuum

1:44:53that we shared this evening to give the community that same sort of context

1:44:57that we shared today.

1:45:00Talk a little bit about that left side of the continuum, the non-market housing.

1:45:05Talk about how the county is primarily responsible as our CMSM.

1:45:11Or CSM, no, yes, CMSM.

1:45:14Thank you.

1:45:14We have some descriptions and examples of how they support that non-market housing,

1:45:22brought in information about student housing,

1:45:24even though it's not on the continuum we thought it was important to include here.

1:45:27And a little bit about what the private market is.

1:45:32And then we move into the city's role, what we do and what we don't do.

1:45:38So people can read through that.

1:45:41I hope I'm not scrolling too fast, but.

1:45:43And then we get into the financials of how we support our community partners.

1:45:47So this really drops a lot of the dollar amounts that we're shared today.

1:45:52And a bit of a timeline.

1:45:55So people can see exactly how council is approving this money for our community partners.

1:46:02And then we get into the groundwork.

1:46:05This is a bit of an interactive component of the story map,

1:46:10where people can scroll through the left and link back to our website.

1:46:15Watch some video to learn more about, in this case, our growth strategy, OPA80,

1:46:24our strategic growth areas.

1:46:25This video focuses on Claremalpy.

1:46:29How we talk about our master plans, why they're important,

1:46:33our comprehensive zoning bylaw, infrastructure upgrades, and so on.

1:46:41And then we come down, just identifying on a map where our future growth areas are,

1:46:47and providing a bit of an update on what we've done in each of those areas.

1:46:52And then we talk about that infrastructure that Mr. Gaman talked about this evening,

1:46:56including some monetary values there on a nice infographic.

1:47:02And some of the more maybe boring things, environmental assessments, engineering studies,

1:47:09and whatnot. Sorry. Sorry to all the folks who are responsible for those.

1:47:18You know you're good.

1:47:21And then we get into removing barriers.

1:47:23So we talked about recruiting, improving technology.

1:47:26We list our advocacy efforts in here.

1:47:29We get into the finer detail about housing numbers.

1:47:34And so we talk a little bit about how do you get there?

1:47:37What happens when you want to build a house?

1:47:39A little bit about the process in case the community doesn't know.

1:47:43How we can't mandate or tell developers and builders to build faster or in certain time frames.

1:47:52We talk about that current short-term housing supply,

1:47:55bring in some of the graphics that we're already shared today.

1:47:59And then what we need. So we need those shovels in the ground.

1:48:03On this map, you can actually click on the pins and it will pop up.

1:48:08I hope it does it for me.

1:48:12So this 118 units apartments approved in 2015.

1:48:17So you can kind of click through that map and see exactly where we're waiting for some units to be built.

1:48:25Sharing a little bit about why maybe the units haven't been built.

1:48:29Lots of reasons. Maybe they haven't submitted a site plan application or

1:48:33they're we're waiting for developers to meet certain requirements, things like that.

1:48:38Link to an article about construction labor shortages. That could be it.

1:48:44And then we talk about more cooperation.

1:48:46So mentioning the appeals and how they tend to hold us up in various ways.

1:48:51How we could use more funding.

1:48:54As Ms. Baker so eloquently said, we're losing some revenue with DC charges being reduced.

1:49:02So also populated some grant information in here visually.

1:49:06And then wrapping it up with a call to action.

1:49:09Let's work together. Let's get our housing units built so that we can meet those targets and

1:49:16and facilitate that housing supply that we need.

1:49:19So that's the end of the very quick tour. It's going to live on our website.

1:49:25It will be linked in our news release. We'll be able to share it on social.

1:49:29You'll be able to share it with your constituents if they're interested and you can look at it at

1:49:34your leisure. And if you have any questions, you can certainly let us know. Thank you.

1:49:39And so I think it's time for Mr. Lambert to come back. Thanks.

1:49:44Thanks, Ms. Reed. And thanks to all the staff to manage some of the work.

1:49:48And I hope that that helps give a bit of a fuller picture of what's what's what's at stake and what's

1:49:54been happening. So in about a minute, I'm going to send everyone to a break with the mayor's permission.

1:50:03I think everyone probably needs to stretch a little bit and let some of that soak in.

1:50:07When we come back from the quick break, we'll say about eight or nine minutes to about nine o'clock.

1:50:13We're going to get to those other two parts of the night. So the facilitated curated Q&A,

1:50:17so we collected your questions as advance. We'll pose that to some of the staff and then the brain

1:50:20starting. Okay. When you return from the break, we're going to do a bit of a set change. So you

1:50:27likely won't be coming back to the exact same spot you're in now. Pause for applause. When you come

1:50:36back, see staff that are around the horseshoe and they'll tell you where you will sit. Okay. So if

1:50:42you wouldn't mind just sort of anything that you've got with you, just sort of setting it aside,

1:50:45and then we'll collaboratively be sitting around here. Okay. Back around nine.

1:50:49Yeah. Well, just this is the one minute warning before we come back. Please one minute.

1:59:17Okay. Everybody, I'll call the meeting back to order. Please make sure you find your seat.

1:59:33Closer to me. I didn't even know that. All right. How are we for quorum? Are we good?

1:59:44Yep. Kate is here. Okay. We will start and if I could just have everyone's attention because

1:59:53we're getting into the evening. So back to Glenn.

2:00:00Thank you, Mr. Mayor

2:00:02So we're gonna get started. So like I said, we're gonna manage our Q&A a little bit differently today

2:00:08I'm probably gonna get dizzy because I'm gonna do a lot of this, but that's all right

2:00:13So for the fact the second part of our evening, we're gonna address your questions

2:00:18and

2:00:20Again, we designed this a little bit differently with two goals in mind the first we wanted to maximize the chance staff

2:00:26Could provide full some meaningful responses to the questions that you submitted in advance

2:00:30That was the first goal the second being

2:00:33Just sort of streamline things

2:00:35We're hoping to kind of get these questions through most of these questions in about 20 25 minutes

2:00:41Okay

2:00:42We're not gonna read out each question as it was received

2:00:45but rather get to some get staff to respond to some of the high-level themes and then some of the specifics that are contained within that

2:00:53You'll also hopefully have noticed as you listen to the presentation that some of your questions

2:00:57Hopefully were answered in the space between the slides as I said

2:01:01So here's how this is gonna work

2:01:02I'm gonna frame a question theme area and then throw to a city staff person to provide a response

2:01:08They may throw to a few other staff to top up. Okay

2:01:12We're not gonna jump in with follow-ups again with the interest of keeping things on track

2:01:17Any unresolved questions when we get to the end of the night

2:01:21We will collect those and as part of that report back in August

2:01:26We will make sure we address any unresolved questions that you sent in advance that we didn't have a chance to get to or anything

2:01:32Additional that you're able to send us in the next couple of days. Okay, so please do send those questions

2:01:38if if

2:01:40If and when you have them, okay?

2:01:43All right, we're gonna jump in

2:01:45The first theme around the questions we received was about city processes

2:01:51And how we can speed things up

2:01:53So we we receive questions about what the city might do to speed things up that relate to functions and processes

2:01:58That are within our control things like planning processes that can help things move at a swifter pace

2:02:04measures that make it easier for developers to get approvals for to build accessible residential dwelling units and

2:02:11Offering concierge service for those building truly affordable housing in other words

2:02:18I'm asking staff now

2:02:19Can you say a little bit more about what is being done to help speed things up?

2:02:23And if there are resources required ahead of the next budget cycle that would help and I'm gonna throw to miss walkie to start us off

2:02:31Thank you Glenn

2:02:33So we do have a fair bit on the go to

2:02:35Accelerate housing beyond what we have done with just the land use permissions now for us. It's the next phase

2:02:40What we what we can do? So if you're on LinkedIn and see a posting by the city well for a development advertiser

2:02:47Please like it. Please forward it to people, you know and get someone to

2:02:52Become our development advisor to help us accelerate especially the priority will be affordable housing units

2:02:58And then we'll go go from there and help us with that

2:03:02We also are trying to make it easier for for someone to build so right now

2:03:06We're working on a glossy for accessory residential dwelling units accessory residential dwelling units are you know as we said

2:03:1425% of our current building permits every year

2:03:18But they take a lot of work for staff because often it's you know the smaller investor or a mom-on-pop trying to do something in the basement

2:03:24So they're a bit more

2:03:26Handholding and intensive for us. So we're trying to put together a glossy so planning and building working together

2:03:32with some inputs from engineering on what's required to

2:03:36Construct an accessory residential building permit and have it all one nice package. So there's a couple of examples of what we're doing right now

2:03:47That's great. Thank you miss Wucky

2:03:51Mr. Fisher, I was wondering if you could share a little bit about any of the technology

2:03:57Related processes that we're working on to speed things up. Yeah, for sure. Thank you Glenn

2:04:02So I'll just first reference like slide number 30 from the presentation

2:04:05It listed a lot of the great things that we had ongoing for technology things and I'll just like high level look at a couple things

2:04:11We currently have on the go which are close to completion

2:04:14So we have a major application upgrade going for our Amanda system which deals primarily with our building planning licensing permitting systems

2:04:21This will really unlock a lot of features and functionality helps speed this process up

2:04:25We're targeting October completion on that

2:04:28We're also undertaking kind of like holistic planning review in regards to the planning processes and how it relates to

2:04:34Digital technology platforms and digital services. So we're really looking to you know eliminate duplication provide efficiencies focus on automation

2:04:41And the delivery of digital services around those planning services. Thank you

2:04:46Thanks a lot. So related to that question about processes and functions and what we're doing to expedite things

2:04:53We also know that there's a staff of human resource side to this

2:04:57So I'm gonna maybe ask DCA or homes to start us off on this one

2:05:03Can you speak a little bit more about the staffing side of things? Thank you. Sorry

2:05:09Our current staff capacity to meet legislative timelines additional contractor permanent FTEs required to help expedite project expedite projects

2:05:19current vacancies and then maybe costs associated with having a dedicated housing commissioner expediter type of role

2:05:26Thanks Glenn and it's so funny because everybody gets calling and I mixed up even we're not sitting next to each other so

2:05:33So you'll recall that part of the 2023 budget

2:05:37With the effects of bill 109 we did ask for some additional resources

2:05:41As part of that budget ask and then also when we came and gave you a workshop similar to this actually in length

2:05:48For the effects of bill 109

2:05:51Council you approved a million dollars in order for us to be able to get appropriate staffing some permanent resources as well as

2:05:58consultant to talk to to

2:06:01Take us through a planning and development fee study in 2023. So that is underway

2:06:07What you've also heard

2:06:08CAO Stewart had mentioned we're doing predictive hiring

2:06:11So there's eight positions that the executive team has approved mainly in engineering and in planning

2:06:16to get those

2:06:18To get those positions on board now rather than get approval for budget and wait until later

2:06:23So that we're up and ready to go at the beginning of

2:06:272023 part of that as miss walkie had mentioned one of those positions is a development advisor that's posted on the website right now

2:06:35But we'll be honest

2:06:37It is very hard to get resources in these areas where all the municipalities are looking for

2:06:43The same people and we're in competition with everybody

2:06:45So even if you get somebody you're not guaranteed that you're going to keep them

2:06:48So we're trying our best being an employer of choice is important to us

2:06:53So we're making sure that we're doing everything we can to attract the appropriate staff and make sure that we can

2:07:01Keep them in here, but we are

2:07:03we're hiring a

2:07:06Headhunter to help us with some of the most senior positions. Those are the ones that are hardest to fill

2:07:12And we're having some luck with those but again everywhere you go whenever we talk to our professional

2:07:19Organizations, everybody's having the same

2:07:22Pressures and the same concerns with trying to get staff in order to be able to help us

2:07:27Meet our objectives. So

2:07:29Maybe what I'll do is I'll see if miss Baker wants to talk about the budgeting part of how we're going to deal with the

2:07:37The budget impacts of the predictive physicians

2:07:43Sure, so I for for 2023 like was said during the presentation

2:07:51The we're managing to the bottom line this year and so we'll be

2:07:57Looking at staff complement and compensation overall and as you know over the past year

2:08:02We have had a lot of vacancies and so this just is kind of you know for this year working within that that

2:08:11Kind of vacancy gapping

2:08:14Surplus to make sure that we've got the right people in place to take care of these priorities

2:08:20You will then see those

2:08:23Physicians coming forward in the 2024 budget for

2:08:28Consideration and through that process and so so that's really I would say the process in which you'll see

2:08:35The budget impacts coming back

2:08:42Thanks, miss Baker and miss Holmes

2:08:45The next area of questions are really around

2:08:49Incentivizing action to increase supply

2:08:51so sort of two or three parts of this question the first one's around incentives and

2:08:57Maybe just to give folks a heads up. I'm gonna ask miss Baker to start us off here on this one general manager of our finance team

2:09:07Some of the ideas we receive from counselors were things like a tax discount

2:09:13To those renting units in their in their primary homes at affordable rates or waiving fees for specific building types such as nonprofit charitable faith-based

2:09:21Or those that want to build social housing

2:09:24Examining municipally owned property or assets that can be developed redeveloped or leveraged to implement affordable and or supportive housing

2:09:32trade-off packages for developers

2:09:35Can you maybe speak or start speaking and then we can pass it along

2:09:39Around ideas or anything else that's being done to incentivize others to help us get to that

2:09:452250 building permits per year required over the next eight years

2:09:49I'm sure so at this point where we've really not looked at

2:09:55waiving of property taxes or providing property tax

2:09:59discounts, that's a really legislative process and so

2:10:03but what we are doing on the property tax front is doing a review of

2:10:08The vacancy tax so we've had a lot of questions about that

2:10:11And so we are looking at that and we're gonna report back this fall in terms of what the impacts of that vacancy tax could be

2:10:19There's been a lot of other municipalities looking at it too

2:10:23some have chosen to move forward and others haven't because of the

2:10:27the situation in in each municipality, so we are looking at at

2:10:32those

2:10:34And then I'd really I guess I'd hand it over to Krista to see if you've got any other

2:10:41Comments on that

2:10:43Yeah, so the the way be waving a fees, you know, certainly is a challenge to our operating budgets

2:10:49We'd have operating impacts if we were under to take something like that

2:10:54We do if there it's an affordable housing unit then there are existing

2:10:58DC

2:11:00Exemptions for example for basement apartments or a separate

2:11:03Accessory residential dwelling unit in the rear yard. So those are already DC exempt. So it's kind of like an incentive

2:11:09for building those type of units

2:11:11And that's kind of currently what we're looking at

2:11:13We're also going to be starting the CIP and that'll come forward in 2024 which may look at other options

2:11:19Including affordable affordable housing incentives potentially

2:11:24That's great. Thanks miss Wacky

2:11:27There's also a part of that question around incentives and disincentives thank you miss Baker for talking about

2:11:33the vacancy tax a little bit

2:11:35But around property and I'm wondering if mr. Jefferson you wouldn't mind just sharing a little bit about what we're actively doing around properties

2:11:43Mr. Jefferson our strategic property advisor

2:11:47Sure

2:11:49Thanks, Len. So what again so the strategic property sort of a new body of work

2:11:53But what we're doing maybe I'll back up a step but the housing pledge and op 80 sort of change our perception of of how

2:12:01The city can generate value on the sites that it owns

2:12:04and so what we're looking at in order to

2:12:09You know benefit housing development or how we can how we can explore

2:12:13Incentivized development is acknowledging that we have a role in land supply and that we first want to look at our lands and make sure that

2:12:19We have the land needed to support our own

2:12:22Capital plan our own master plans official plan etc

2:12:26And from there we can recognize that we have growth targets. We have employment targets and how can we utilize those lands?

2:12:32that perhaps don't fit that vision into and how we leverage them into opportunities for growth and expansion and

2:12:40Yeah, we're actively doing that there's a CIP program that

2:12:43That helps fund cyber mediation and then from there we're exploring we're actively exploring partnerships

2:12:49And and how we can leverage disposition things like that to achieve that maximum value and unlock that development potential

2:12:56Thanks, Mr. Jefferson

2:12:59One sort of other nuance in this question about incentives disincentives a little bit more technical but was around

2:13:05More clarity around how lowering density along arterial roads helps us achieve our housing and density targets

2:13:12Miss walkie general manager planning and building services. Would you mind just taking a moment on that one?

2:13:17Sure so through op80 a lot of the areas we increased heightened density

2:13:24In strategic growth areas, but in the some of the other areas density was lowered

2:13:28So it was kind of a balance, but overall we increased our our numbers. I think as I said earlier to 33,000

2:13:35New housing units by 2051 and then it's increased since there as a result of the minister's modifications to op80

2:13:41So generally the street strategic growth areas that were identified in the OP

2:13:47Increased height and density, but there were some other areas that weren't within the strategic growth areas that were reduced

2:13:53But those were minor compared to the increases. Awesome. Thank you

2:13:58The next batch of questions we received was around infrastructure acceleration

2:14:03So I'm gonna throw it a mr. Damon our general manager of engineering transportation services to K. Kostoff here, but

2:14:10We heard questions around

2:14:12Accelerating development of the GID lands

2:14:14Accelerating the sanitary sewer along the Hanlon to service CMSP more quickly

2:14:19Front-ending infrastructure work to allow for accelerated development and what it would take financially to unlock housing ball types through required

2:14:27infrastructure in the downtown core

2:14:28Do you mind?

2:14:30Taking a kick at that one. Sure. Thanks Glenn. So I

2:14:33Think one thing you kind of heard tonight is in part we've we've been working on it

2:14:37And we've been working hard to kind of start the long-term processes that is infrastructure construction to get at

2:14:44Unlocking some of these areas. So many think GID for example

2:14:46We talked a little bit that's York Road and the York trunk and all the things that go back to our

2:14:51Sort of wastewater treatment or water supply all the all those factors

2:14:55At the same time what our staff bringing forward from a multi-year budget perspective. We're bringing a balanced budget

2:15:00We're bringing something that says this is the stuff that we need to do from a growth perspective to get at downtown to get at

2:15:07GID those types of things

2:15:09to get at Claire Mulpey from a

2:15:11Hanlon trunk sewer perspective. So those things are all all fit into the budget at the same time

2:15:16We can't lose sight of all of our other asset management based obligations. We've got our state of good repair work

2:15:21We've got our infrastructure renewal work. We've got to make sure we're managing all of those risks at the same time

2:15:27So you can't really accelerate without

2:15:29Decelerating unless we make a massive impact to sort of budgets and staff resources

2:15:33So we've really got to balance that and that's what you know, you'll see later on this fall

2:15:37So that's kind of the main way we're getting at that

2:15:39But we certainly have prioritized, you know, those growth areas where we're inching closer and closer to

2:15:46Being ready from an infrastructure perspective

2:15:48From a you know affordability or a funding perspective

2:15:51I'll turn to miss Baker in a second, but I'll just say from a you know front-ending

2:15:55As an example that is the type of tool that's in the toolkits

2:15:58We are interested in those types of arrangements, but they're a bit new for Guelph doesn't mean that we can't do them

2:16:04And certainly through something like Claremalpy where where there's a lot of infrastructure to to bring online

2:16:09You know, those are the types of things we're certainly going to want to explore

2:16:15Yeah, so just um adding on there just about the front-ending agreement. So that's something that we are absolutely looking at

2:16:23But like mr. Gamin just said not something we have in place right now

2:16:28They're really sophisticated

2:16:31kind of front-ending loan agreements with developers and so we need

2:16:36We need time to work through that and we need to work with

2:16:39larger municipalities that have been

2:16:42involved in this type of financing arrangement and so that is on the work plan and and you'll hear more about that as we

2:16:50Work through the development charge study and we'll be we'll be talking about that more later this year as well

2:16:59Thank you, mr. Gamin miss Baker

2:17:02I might just ask mr. Jefferson if you wouldn't mind

2:17:06Strategic property advisor to just talk a little bit about brownfield lands and

2:17:11You know what might be done from the perspective of remediation to accelerate some of that

2:17:16supply

2:17:18Um, yeah, thanks. I probably just pick up on what kind of what Tara said like it's it's it's a new area

2:17:23I think that what we're what we're looking at is how can we

2:17:26Basically partner up or how can we create a market for these sites and and and so we're looking at what's going on

2:17:31we're looking we're talking to

2:17:33public agencies or developers in the area and

2:17:37With a specific lens to how again how we can add value to the site and and I think it boils down to is recognizing that

2:17:44in particular with the housing pledge that we now have

2:17:47You know something that's more ingrained that that that's something we're moving towards and but but it is about exploring

2:17:52how these agreements are going to look and how

2:17:54Hearing from what the market is telling us that it is the best way to incentivize or get that growth going and that can include agreements

2:18:01That can include potentially built form

2:18:03and a number of other metrics that that

2:18:05terry and and Tara both mentioned

2:18:08Thanks, mr. Schaffersen

2:18:11Our next cluster of questions and I think this might be our last one that we can get to again what we don't answer tonight

2:18:16We'll get to afterwards but was around partnerships and relationships with other organizations. So

2:18:22It was a key theme that came out specifically

2:18:24Are there opportunities to work with organizations like habitat indwell options for homes and other community partners to explore affordable ownership home ownership?

2:18:33To develop relationships with cooperatives charitable organizations and other agencies

2:18:39To help us to help get us where we want to go. Maybe I'll throw to dco homes to kick us off on that one. Sure. So I'll get started

2:18:46So we do have regular meetings actually

2:18:49With the development group and where there are home builders mr. Mary

2:18:52You and I meet with them on a fairly regular basis to talk about high level issues associated with

2:18:57Some of the planning concerns that they might have with the city

2:19:00I know our planning staff as well have

2:19:03Regular meetings with those groups to talk about the more detailed planning processes

2:19:07And of course we have regular meetings with them for project specific

2:19:12items so in terms of meeting with the development community

2:19:15And home builders because I know that was a question that was we did there as well

2:19:19We do that on a fairly regular basis

2:19:23In terms of habitat for humidity humanity we do understand that there was a

2:19:27Was a memo that is in 2017 that that did expire

2:19:33They were working on a land trust working group

2:19:37Had a lot of progress but had to be paused due to covet

2:19:40But my understanding is that we did have a meeting actually with them today

2:19:44Through through luke's group. So we were able to reestablish that connection and we are I understand we have some follow up meetings coming up in the next

2:19:52In the next couple of weeks

2:19:53I do also want to mention again about the development advisor

2:19:57role

2:19:58That role is intended not only to connect the dots internally between all the different departments

2:20:04but also

2:20:05You know to reach out to all the different external partners that we have as well and other levels of government

2:20:10So to connect the dots externally as well for us and to reach out to those groups such as

2:20:16You know towards common ground or the poverty tax force to to make sure that they are partners

2:20:21And we are working with them to help move some of our

2:20:24Our housing projects forward. So I'm just checking over. I know we do that through our public services partners

2:20:30So I'm just checking over with

2:20:32thumbs up so

2:20:34nailed it

2:20:35great

2:20:36Anything to add on that one dco club push. No, okay. That's great. So

2:20:42again, I realize sometimes questions begot more questions

2:20:48and

2:20:49We could probably spend all night answering questions and going down rabbit holes

2:20:53And we want to try to elevate the conversation tonight. So again, anything that's unresolved

2:20:57We will take away and we will make sure that we're responding to any of those questions in the coming weeks and months

2:21:04We do have a unique opportunity to get past those questions. Like I said

2:21:08So with the context that you've gained over the last nearly two hours

2:21:12We want to get folks to roll up their sleeves and put their creative minds to work

2:21:17As ceo stewart said earlier, we collectively own the problems and the actions we take to tackle them

2:21:22So we want to talk about legacy for a moment to take some time to think about

2:21:27What we want to be able to say we collectively accomplished over this council's term related to housing

2:21:34so

2:21:35Over the next about 45 minutes, we're going to do some small group brainstorming and then we're going to zoom out and do some

2:21:40whole group discussion

2:21:42I want you to find those in your immediate vicinity. There's a group

2:21:46There's a group. There's a group. There's a group. I think that's everyone. There's a group. Did I say that already?

2:21:52And you're going to work with those groups

2:21:54to address

2:21:57This prompt

2:21:58So in a minute, we'll just get this up on the screen here

2:22:05We want you to imagine it's september 2026 in the end of this council's term

2:22:10What do we want to be able to say we collectively accomplished as it relates to the right side of the housing continuum?

2:22:17You're noticing that we're focusing on the right side of the continuum again because on september 12th

2:22:22We'll get more information and more context about the left side

2:22:25So tonight we're really going to focus on that right side

2:22:29So as a group you have a predetermined scribe that'll identify themselves to you in a moment

2:22:34You'll have about 15 minutes, which I know doesn't seem like a ton of time

2:22:38But we want you to have a conversation about this prompt and your scribe is going to help

2:22:43collect that information and document it in a digital whiteboard

2:22:47And then I'm going to give you about a two minute warning

2:22:50And then we'll bring everyone back and we'll share what the individual groups

2:22:54talked about with the whole group and we'll

2:22:57Ask questions and get clarity at that point. Okay

2:23:01So this is a workshop. So I want to just remind folks that

2:23:05You know, this isn't about direction. This isn't about motions

2:23:08And we want it sometimes maybe it can help to think about what we want to accomplish

2:23:12Not necessarily how we're going to accomplish that

2:23:15That framing might help

2:23:17And again staff will take this all of this away and collect the brainstorming and bring that back to council in a subsequent

2:23:23meeting so

2:23:25Help your scribes capture all the good things you're talking about and I'll turn it over to the groups

2:36:44I'm going to give a one minute warning get those last ideas down and then we're going to come back to the whole group. All right

2:38:32We're going to bring it back

2:38:34Sounds like lots of great conversation

2:38:40Lots of ideas flying back and forth. So here's what we're going to do

2:38:46Again, this won't be the last opportunity to contribute ideas

2:38:50But I'm going to start with group number one

2:38:53Which is this group over here. I'm going to work counterclockwise

2:38:57Okay, and I'm going to ask group number one

2:39:00What was one of the ideas you wrote down on one of those sticky notes that you can share with us as a group

2:39:07We'll be sure and we have nominated Carly as our spokesperson for the group fantastic

2:39:12counselor class

2:39:15I did not consent

2:39:18Just joking I'm building I'm building relationships and to segue. Um, I think

2:39:25Um, one of the things that we that we agreed upon

2:39:28Lastly was that we want to build and strengthen our stakeholder relationships

2:39:33So we want to work with our development community

2:39:37Because they will be building with us for the next

2:39:3920 25 years and potentially onward

2:39:44And I deleted the sticky note. I'm sorry. I don't know where it went. Um

2:39:48No, you didn't it just got moved on you. That's okay

2:39:51Okay. Yeah, so can we go over to the communal area there where we have the themes?

2:40:03Alright, so improving stakeholder relationships,

2:40:07if I got that right.

2:40:08Did someone else have something similar?

2:40:12Yeah, so I'm seeing group four, if my math is right.

2:40:16There's a similar sticky in group four,

2:40:22group three as well, improving stakeholder relations.

2:40:32I'll throw to the group over here,

2:40:33there was a question about what we mean by stakeholders.

2:40:39We said nonprofits develop the development community,

2:40:43whether that's for profit or non-profit specifically.

2:40:48That's great, thank you.

2:40:51I'm gonna go to group number five over here,

2:40:53something different than stakeholder relationships.

2:40:59One of the things we identified is to find a way

2:41:02to have a full complement in the planning team,

2:41:04and to do that we need to explore compensation packages

2:41:07and bonuses to be more competitive in the market.

2:41:14So, recruitment, retention, I'm seeing some head nods.

2:41:20Did we get that was that similar in all groups?

2:41:23Would I had something like that?

2:41:27Yes, okay.

2:41:29Our staff are doing the magic in the background

2:41:31and moving these across here, so thank you.

2:41:36Something different than improving stakeholder relations

2:41:40or a full complement of staff.

2:41:41Things we wanna be able to say are true in 2026.

2:41:46Let's go to group number three.

2:41:51Okay, we picked this one because it's pretty actionable.

2:41:53We've come up with double or triple

2:41:56the number of RDo's or basement apartments

2:41:58in that form of development.

2:42:00Double or triple the number of ARDUs.

2:42:06Something similar or connected to that.

2:42:10Did another group have something similar

2:42:12or connected to that?

2:42:14Yeah, did you care to share?

2:42:16Group number two?

2:42:18So, it's kind of sideways related,

2:42:21but we had two kind of concrete projects

2:42:26that we were hoping to get shovels in the ground in the GID

2:42:29and to see a development at 200 Beverly.

2:42:36So, sort of connected to that idea of additional units,

2:42:39or sorry, yeah, okay.

2:42:42Others similar to that idea of additional units,

2:42:45did you care to share group number four?

2:42:46One of your sticky note that you had

2:42:48that was similar to that?

2:42:52Well, sorry, Ms. Reed, microphone.

2:42:54Sorry, thank you.

2:42:55It wasn't so much of additional units,

2:42:57but more about action on Beverly Street, right?

2:42:59Is that what we're talking about?

2:43:00Action on Beverly Street.

2:43:01So, are those different, the action on Beverly Street?

2:43:04Is that a little bit different than accessory units

2:43:06and basement apartments?

2:43:08Yeah, okay.

2:43:10So, maybe we'll move that to a separate cluster.

2:43:13Yeah, Councillor Goller.

2:43:14We had a, having a tangible plan

2:43:16to achieve our housing targets

2:43:18when we get the report for the number of rental units,

2:43:21that we are actually meeting it on a year-by-year basis.

2:43:24Okay, so a tangible plan and then targets

2:43:26and reporting back.

2:43:29That was group number five, Kelly.

2:43:32Awesome, thank you.

2:43:34Something different that we haven't heard yet,

2:43:36and if there's a group I haven't called upon,

2:43:39let me know.

2:43:40Yeah, sure, go ahead.

2:43:43Calling on other levels of government

2:43:45to come back to the table and talk more about housing

2:43:48in terms of a realistic plan.

2:43:50And in addition to that, updating their legislation

2:43:53regarding the social housing units

2:43:55that are currently required.

2:43:58So, calling government back to the table

2:44:00and then updating some of those numbers, yeah.

2:44:03Great, something similar?

2:44:05Yes, Councillor Gaiton.

2:44:08We had, we wanted aspirational.

2:44:11This one's very aspirational.

2:44:14The for-profit developers voluntarily build housing

2:44:17on the left-hand side of the continuum

2:44:19as part of doing good for the whole community.

2:44:23For-profit developers building on the left side,

2:44:25benefit of the community.

2:44:26Yep, Councillor Chew.

2:44:27This is also very aspirational,

2:44:30but get the minister to get rid of all of our appeals

2:44:34would be nice as well.

2:44:36Seeing lots of...

2:44:37Thief.

2:44:40Good ideas are like that, yeah.

2:44:42So maybe it's a separate idea.

2:44:44We had around getting government back to the table

2:44:50an aspirational idea around,

2:44:52I'm sorry, I've already lost the thread,

2:44:54specifically around...

2:44:56Having the developers on the right side.

2:44:58Right.

2:44:59Voluntarily building stuff on the left side.

2:45:01Yeah, great.

2:45:02Okay.

2:45:05Yes, Councillor O'Rourke.

2:45:06Well, just further to Councillor Gaiton's recommendation

2:45:08or that group's recommendation,

2:45:10we had something similar in that,

2:45:11how can we facilitate a partnership with organizations

2:45:14that can still make the developer whole,

2:45:16but then still achieve either affordable rental

2:45:18or affordable ownership, right?

2:45:22So I think that's possible,

2:45:24and that would be a great accomplishment.

2:45:26Multiple partnership to get to that, yeah.

2:45:32Yes, Mr. Gaiton.

2:45:33Yeah, I get it.

2:45:34I wanted to pick up.

2:45:34So we had a discussion item around sort of the middle

2:45:38of the continuum where that line,

2:45:39the dividing line is specifically around affordable rental.

2:45:41We had a lot.

2:45:42And so yeah, just an emphasis,

2:45:44I think what Councillor O'Rourke was mentioning,

2:45:46yeah, just a focus on retaining what we have

2:45:48with regard to affordable housing,

2:45:51yeah, and potentially facilitating or expanding

2:45:53and like sort of over here.

2:45:54Yeah, facilitating, expanding Councillor Goller.

2:45:56I saw your hand up.

2:45:58Along those lines, we had a community plan

2:46:00to achieve our housing targets.

2:46:02So we involved the developers and everyone else

2:46:04in the community to help us figure out how to get there.

2:46:07Collective, yeah.

2:46:10Great.

2:46:11Something we haven't heard yet.

2:46:16Yes, Councillor Cossum.

2:46:19We put down, we wanted to meet the new affordable housing

2:46:22strategy that's coming out in the fall by a year or two in.

2:46:27So we want to be actually achieving those targets

2:46:30and not falling short of them.

2:46:32Yeah, great.

2:46:35Yes, Councillor Gaiton.

2:46:38We were thinking about implementing time limitations

2:46:41and expires on permanent approvals.

2:46:44Time limitations and okay, expirations on approvals.

2:46:48Yep.

2:46:50Sorry, Councillor Downer, did you want to?

2:46:53Sunset clauses.

2:46:54Yep.

2:46:55Okay, seeing lots of head nods.

2:46:59Yes, Councillor O'Rourke.

2:47:01So we discussed, we'd like to see in the next several years

2:47:04a significant increase in purpose-built rental.

2:47:07Golf's been historically sort of below rental availability

2:47:10averages nationally and we'd like to see that number improved.

2:47:13So increased to purpose-built rental, yeah.

2:47:16Seen some head nods over here, similar, similar.

2:47:20Lots of head nods, that's a good sign.

2:47:24Something wildly different, yes.

2:47:27That the province make us whole.

2:47:31Province make us whole.

2:47:32Feels like other people maybe had that same conversation.

2:47:35Someone stole your thunder, Miss Baker.

2:47:40Okay.

2:47:43What else is on your list that we haven't had a chance

2:47:45to talk about yet or that we haven't heard?

2:47:47Councillor Keating.

2:47:49We like the idea of having different housing options

2:47:52like co-op and freehold versus just condos

2:47:54in our high density.

2:47:56Yeah, other options, yeah.

2:47:59Great, Councillor Kloss.

2:48:04We want complete communities with reliable infrastructure

2:48:08in our existing neighborhoods with good servicing,

2:48:10not just building without what we need first.

2:48:14Well thought out, connected.

2:48:17Yep, other ideas?

2:48:25Yes, Councillor K.

2:48:27There, we had a lot of sticky notes.

2:48:29That's okay.

2:48:30So we'd also like to see the downtown Riverside Park

2:48:33come to fruition to support the intensification

2:48:35in the downtown.

2:48:36Okay, so more intensification, parkland to match, yeah.

2:48:41Head nods.

2:48:45Yes, Councillor Oroch, sorry.

2:48:46No problem.

2:48:48So totally different is we talked about,

2:48:52we'd like to see the conversation in the community

2:48:55shift to something more positive

2:48:57that we are all working together.

2:48:59We are understanding one another's roles

2:49:01and we are actually making progress.

2:49:03Right, so if it's in the conversation

2:49:06that creates some positive momentum.

2:49:09Yeah, shift in narrative, yeah.

2:49:12Lots of head nods.

2:49:14This group looks like they're, they got something.

2:49:21Councillor Goller.

2:49:24DCI homes, yeah.

2:49:27We had an item on asking the province

2:49:30to expedite their approvals for like for EAs, for instance,

2:49:33to expedite those approvals for some of that

2:49:36major infrastructure that we need to get built for housing.

2:49:40Yeah, expediting approvals, yeah.

2:49:43So you're gonna have nods, yes, Mr. Mayor.

2:49:47One we had is just an encouragement to continue

2:49:51with the get to yes attitude,

2:49:55where possible within the regulatory framework,

2:49:58but just sort of an attitude around get to yes,

2:50:00and especially with the fact that we are having

2:50:04some turnover within staff

2:50:05and we're hiring all these people as well,

2:50:08that really training them on that attitude of,

2:50:12you know, you gotta work within the realm that you can,

2:50:14but within that realm, there's this positivity

2:50:17of working to getting to yes on things

2:50:20is important as well.

2:50:22So just that by 2026, there's this revival

2:50:26and continuation of a great attitude

2:50:30in working with other stakeholders and citizens

2:50:33within the community to get approvals done.

2:50:37Yeah, yes, and yeah, great.

2:50:42Yes, Councillor Aurel.

2:50:44I'm going rogue.

2:50:45I am thinking a bit about the left side of the continuum

2:50:49and our role in that, but this council

2:50:53will have understood what the gaps are,

2:50:55understood what the roles are and understood

2:50:57where the most important levers are to improve

2:51:02our contribution to that left side of the spectrum.

2:51:05Yeah, so yeah, a greater understanding of the terrain

2:51:09and which things might activate movement on either side.

2:51:13Yeah, and have a plan for that.

2:51:14Yeah, okay.

2:51:17Councillor Coller.

2:51:18Along with that, we heard today

2:51:20that Wellington County builds affordable housing

2:51:23in the county.

2:51:24It would be great if they also build affordable housing

2:51:27in the city of Guelph.

2:51:28So we made that happen.

2:51:30Right now, we only give incentives,

2:51:31but then we have no way to compel developers

2:51:33to actually make that affordable on the long term.

2:51:36I would love to see the city actually being involved

2:51:38in building housing in Guelph

2:51:40so that we can ensure that on the long term,

2:51:42it remains affordable.

2:51:44That's great.

2:51:45And we can, as we transition to that September 12th,

2:51:48that's one of those ideas that we can definitely,

2:51:49we have a parking lot somewhere here

2:51:51and we'll kind of add those.

2:51:52Looks like there's an idea here.

2:51:53No, yes.

2:51:55See you, Stuart.

2:51:56The facility here, we would just question

2:51:58these folks that were on the left side.

2:52:00We spend our time on the right side.

2:52:02We're just laying that out.

2:52:02That's good.

2:52:06Little dabbling, yeah?

2:52:09Mr. Jefferson.

2:52:28I just sort of picking up what Councillor Goller was saying.

2:52:30We had a quick cheat session and thought of another one.

2:52:34We're just perhaps incentivizing the left side

2:52:36with this position.

2:52:37Incentivizing the left side with this position.

2:52:40Okay, yeah.

2:52:43Again, we're dabbling over on the left side a little bit.

2:52:45That's okay.

2:52:46Councillor Katelyn.

2:52:49We have a reach goal of achieving zero active OLT files.

2:52:54Stretch goal.

2:52:55Great stretch goal.

2:52:56Councillor O'Rourke.

2:53:02We've worked with the university and Conestoga College

2:53:06to achieve accelerated on-campus housing for students.

2:53:10Accelerated on-campus housing

2:53:11with Conestoga and University of Guelph.

2:53:14Yeah.

2:53:14What's on your digital whiteboards that we haven't heard?

2:53:20Yeah, Councillor Chew.

2:53:23Let's better digitize our services,

2:53:26in particular building permitting.

2:53:28And approvals and inspections.

2:53:30Digitizing whatever we can.

2:53:31Yeah, Councillor Bruce-Till.

2:53:37Yeah, this is around the affordability,

2:53:39but that matches the need of families,

2:53:43mainly our refugee, our large families.

2:53:47So the housing type is affordable and matches the needs.

2:53:51Matches needs, yeah.

2:53:52That kind of other side of it, based on need.

2:53:55Yeah.

2:53:57Okay.

2:53:57Yes, Councillor Katelyn.

2:53:59We're thinking that having the province revisit

2:54:02bonusing as a tool, as requested in our housing pledge.

2:54:06So some more advocacy around bonusing

2:54:08and revisiting that at the provincial level.

2:54:10Yeah.

2:54:11Councillor Klassen.

2:54:13And accelerate infrastructure on lands,

2:54:16not on appeal and require developers to double their capacity.

2:54:21Okay.

2:54:22Is that advocacy work or is that

2:54:25Councillor Katelyn,

2:54:27or is that council's work or step?

2:54:33Yes.

2:54:34Okay.

2:54:35Just wanted to clarify.

2:54:36Yes.

2:54:41I think, you know, to build on that then,

2:54:43we didn't say this one,

2:54:44but I think it's in relation to what Councillor Katelyn said,

2:54:47which was just see the developers at the table,

2:54:50having collaborative discussions with staff,

2:54:53with council, rather than through legal channels.

2:54:57Yeah.

2:54:58So that's a signal of change.

2:55:00Yeah.

2:55:08So I'm sorry to my group.

2:55:09I just came up with this idea now.

2:55:11I hope you don't mind.

2:55:14But just, I would love to see us try to use different

2:55:18legislative tools that are available for us

2:55:21under the Municipal Planning Act.

2:55:23So like a community permitting system,

2:55:26there's lots of communities are trying that out.

2:55:30There's like capital financing under the Municipal Act

2:55:33that can maybe help to leverage for nonprofits

2:55:37or co-ops to be used.

2:55:42There's accelerated approvals through,

2:55:44I forget what it's called, community,

2:55:47it's like a community housing accelerator initiative

2:55:50or something.

2:55:51Like there's, so there's these available tools to us

2:55:55as staff and as council.

2:55:57They're already available.

2:55:58They're in the toolbox.

2:56:00Why can't we align those up to whatever comes to us

2:56:04to help accelerate options for housing?

2:56:07Yeah.

2:56:08And so I'm here in that sort of explore those innovations,

2:56:10explore what other municipalities are doing,

2:56:13staffing, we have to get there

2:56:14and all of those pieces are connected.

2:56:18So we can use those tools in the toolbox.

2:56:20Yeah.

2:56:22Yes, Councillor Bruce-Tia.

2:56:24I'm gonna discuss this with my group.

2:56:25I'm going rogue.

2:56:27But just things like a new school development

2:56:30when new schools, public sector

2:56:32is working with public sector, public sector

2:56:34around like Toronto building housing

2:56:38with school on public property.

2:56:40So partnerships with different sectors.

2:56:44Yeah, yeah, public sector, yeah, specifically.

2:56:49Okay. I'm looking at the time.

2:56:51I'm realizing that it's almost 10 o'clock.

2:56:53Yeah, it's Councillor Caron.

2:56:55Yeah, that's important.

2:56:55I'm going rogue by group.

2:56:58Affordability is also about being able to pay utilities.

2:57:03So one of our goals was to have more net zero homes

2:57:06being built in our community to address affordability.

2:57:09So the connection between affordability

2:57:11and sustainability for net zero homes.

2:57:13Crisis climate crisis.

2:57:14Yeah, yeah, okay.

2:57:19All right.

2:57:20I'm not seeing any like anxious hands to get up.

2:57:24Yes, Councillor Chew.

2:57:26I'm gonna put my colleagues under the spotlight,

2:57:29but it seems like there are regular meetings

2:57:33that take place with the Home Builders Association.

2:57:35Perhaps some of our council colleagues

2:57:37can take part in those conversations, maybe quarterly.

2:57:41I think that would be nice as well,

2:57:43just to put faces to name and also be able to engage

2:57:46at a high level.

2:57:48So Explorer, who else may make sense to be around the table?

2:57:51Yeah.

2:57:54I'm gonna throw it out for one final one.

2:57:57Yes, Councillor.

2:57:59I think that as we're focused on this near term

2:58:01that we're also making infrastructure progress

2:58:04on the medium and longer term,

2:58:07so that when those lands are ready to be developed,

2:58:10the infrastructure is ready to go.

2:58:11So I think we miss that sometimes

2:58:14about all those years of background work you saw

2:58:16in the chart and appreciate the staff who do that.

2:58:21Great, so working on the short term,

2:58:23but also creating some runway.

2:58:26Locking the future land.

2:58:27Yeah, Councillor, it looked like maybe you had one other.

2:58:32A little different by 2036,

2:58:34we get to 30% canopy goal

2:58:36so that people see wealth as a place to move to.

2:58:4030% canopy goal.

2:58:41Yeah, yeah, urban canopy, we're at 22,

2:58:44so just another 8%.

2:58:54Awesome.

2:58:56I'm gonna cut the brainstorming off there.

2:58:58Oh, I'm sorry, Councillor Downer,

2:58:59I think just had her hands up there.

2:59:01We'll give her a lot.

2:59:02You kind of left it, but I was just thinking,

2:59:04how can we help facilitate,

2:59:06and this is something Councillor Curran and I talked about today,

2:59:10facilitate, you know, the densification of property

2:59:13rather than the demolition to build large monster homes,

2:59:18which is happening in a lot of part of the inner city,

2:59:21rather than making triplexes

2:59:23or putting in accessory apartments,

2:59:25they're being demolished and large,

2:59:28they're not really being densified from that way as well.

2:59:32What other options?

2:59:33Yeah, because, and I'm hearing from developers

2:59:35that that's easier to do that.

2:59:37It's they make more money.

2:59:38I mean, the profits more to them.

2:59:41So how do we facilitate that happening rather than

2:59:45them being advertised as tear down houses

2:59:47when they're not, they're just need paint,

2:59:51and a few things, that's that missing middle thing

2:59:54that we're losing through that is in the neighborhoods

2:59:59in the older neighborhoods.

3:00:00Understood, yeah.

3:00:01Okay.

3:00:04Thank you for playing ball and for participating.

3:00:08That was a lot and we moved pretty quickly

3:00:10and everyone cooperated and that was great.

3:00:13Like I said, staff's gonna take that away

3:00:15and we're gonna do some further discernment.

3:00:17We're gonna look at all those ideas,

3:00:18even the ones that we didn't get to, you know,

3:00:20we'll look at what was contributed online

3:00:23and we'll make sure that we explore those.

3:00:26We're gonna look at what's out of scope.

3:00:28We're gonna, you know, look at what is building on

3:00:30what's already in progress, what's new

3:00:33and warrants exploration, and then again,

3:00:36any unanswered questions, we're gonna get to those as well.

3:00:39So you can expect us to return again

3:00:41in the coming months.

3:00:44Before I wrap up and throw back to the mayor,

3:00:45I do, I hope you can indulge me in a quick reflection

3:00:49question and I'll throw this out to the group

3:00:51and whoever wants to respond, feel free.

3:00:54Do you have a key takeaway or insight after tonight

3:00:58or can you share a little bit about

3:00:59how your thinking has shifted as it relates to housing?

3:01:05Councillor Allen.

3:01:08I guess my key insight is gratitude truly

3:01:11for the work that staff did on this.

3:01:13I think that what we have seen here tonight

3:01:16is something that I'd like to see in other areas as well

3:01:20where we do a comprehensive examination

3:01:23of what the needs of the community are,

3:01:26whether it's parks or whether it's housing

3:01:29or whether it's something else.

3:01:30And it doesn't need to be an invented crisis

3:01:33like the legislation coming from the province to do it.

3:01:37I think we can do it in-house as well.

3:01:39But most importantly, I think staff,

3:01:41you've done a fabulous job tonight.

3:01:43And I think you've refuted many of the mythologies

3:01:46that we've been addressing over the last few months.

3:01:49Thank you very much.

3:01:50Thanks, Councillor Allen.

3:01:52Others, key takeaways, insights.

3:01:56Councillor Downler, I'll repeat that.

3:01:58Holy moly.

3:02:02Peter Patter, let's get at her.

3:02:04Okay, here.

3:02:12I'll say my comments then maybe just for the wrap up.

3:02:14Is there anybody else that has a takeaway

3:02:15to Gwen's question or before I,

3:02:20or did Councillor Alta say it well enough

3:02:23that we could all say ditto?

3:02:25Yeah, there's a lot of heads nodding, okay.

3:02:29Back to you, Mayor.

3:02:29Are you okay with that, Dan?

3:02:31Okay.

3:02:32Okay, well, I think the first thing,

3:02:34I don't know, I just feel like Gwen and staff

3:02:36have done such an awesome, this is the best workshop

3:02:39I've ever been to in my years on Council and as Mayor,

3:02:43the best.

3:02:45And so I just wanna publicly thank you

3:02:47and let's just give our staff a round of applause for you.

3:02:54So I started at the beginning with sort of what I thought

3:02:59was the timelines of the next things that are happening.

3:03:01This is the first step and the next steps that are coming.

3:03:04And then that was reinforced by Glen as well and staff.

3:03:07So there's more to come.

3:03:09And especially for the community watching

3:03:11or wanting to be involved, we want that

3:03:15and you have these chances coming up at meetings

3:03:18as we put the puzzle pieces together

3:03:20over the next few months.

3:03:21So I think that's great.

3:03:24I just, yeah, that's it.

3:03:28I just think that this was very collaborative.

3:03:30I really, I mentioned to the CAO,

3:03:34I kind of whispered to the CAO,

3:03:35I liked how we were all up here as equals.

3:03:38I felt like this is a really awesome way

3:03:41of just even visually part of a partnership

3:03:43of all of us working together hand in hand.

3:03:47I think the community needs to see that too.

3:03:51Too often there's just like this power imbalance

3:03:53that's even optical, just optics of like council

3:03:56and then staff.

3:03:57But it's us all sitting together,

3:04:00it just sends a message as well that we're actually united

3:04:03about trying to deal with this issue

3:04:05and that we're open to hearing new ideas,

3:04:08which we just did in the last 20 minutes or so as well.

3:04:11I think the takeaways are really important,

3:04:14which I appreciate staff wanting to get back to us on,

3:04:16the ones that we're talked about tonight

3:04:17or ones that weren't.

3:04:18So I think that's great.

3:04:20And I think I'll end on what Councillor Klossin said,

3:04:25which is just like it's about relationships internally,

3:04:29externally and moving together as a community

3:04:33just to get on top of this housing crisis as best as we can.

3:04:37And I really and truly believe

3:04:40that this is the city that can do it

3:04:41and we can have a great attitude to get us there.

3:04:48And we'll make complete communities on the way,

3:04:51just what you were saying too.

3:04:52So thank you very much with that.

3:04:55I will just look for adjournment.

3:04:58Can I go to you, Councillor Richardson?

3:05:00And Klossin will second that.

3:05:02And is anybody against adjournment at all?

3:05:05Staff aren't allowed to vote.

3:05:08I see no hands up.

3:05:09So I call it a night and thank you for this workshop.

3:05:12It was excellent.

3:05:13Thank you so very much.