Municipal Property and Building Commemorative Naming Committee

0:05If you want, I have the Indigenous acknowledgement.

0:12If you want me to read that, I can do that.

0:15So as we gather, let us take time to reflect on our privilege to live and work in Guelph,

0:20a city built over rich Indigenous histories.

0:23We are guests here, and we should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land,

0:28the people who live here today, and the generations to come.

0:31If our actions today can move us towards reconciliation,

0:34we should take pause and make those decisions with intention and gratitude.

0:39This place we call Guelph has served as traditional lands and a place of refuge for many people over time,

0:45but more specifically, the Atawanda Ranc and the Haudenosaunee.

0:52This land is held as the treaty lands and territory with Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation.

0:59Guelph lies directly adjacent to the Haldeman Tract

1:03and is part of a long-established traditional hunting ground for the six nations of the Grand River.

1:08Many First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples who have come from across Turtle Island call Guelph home today.

1:15I can move on to 1.3 as well if you want.

1:26Approval of minutes.

1:30I guess there's only two of us, there's only Megan and myself, right?

1:34Megan, do you approve the minutes from our last meeting?

1:38Yes, I approve them.

1:40And I will second it.

1:42And then the next one is, I guess we'll pass it over to you, Winnie,

1:55for the item of discussion, advisory committees, governance framework updates.

2:00Yeah, thank you, Niam.

2:02Yeah, I would like to share my thoughts back.

2:08I hope that I can do this. I think I could.

2:11Do you see the PowerPoint?

2:14Okay, thank you very much.

2:16So I would like to introduce myself first.

2:21I'm Winnie Chan, the board and committee coordinator at the city.

2:24And basically that today we will bring a kind of like a proposal arrangement for these committees in, I would say,

2:34225 onwards, how these committees move on.

2:40So basically I am working for this position just like five months, I would say.

2:49But actually I worked for this project already two years.

2:52Previously I was a post-doc scholar working in the university, working on this project.

2:58Actually I know Niam because we are on a working group together to work on this project.

3:04And basically this is, we finish all research and also we will say,

3:11actually that we move this project to the city now to improve the project and also the proposed governance framework

3:20against what exactly we find out in the research.

3:23So I move on with a very brief presentation.

3:27I would like to bring the project background.

3:30Actually is the city collaborate with the growth like growth like is kind of like

3:36collaborative unit between the university and also the city.

3:40And we launched this project actually to around two years ago, January 2023.

3:47During the phase one, I would say in 2023, actually the whole year we are, we were doing the governance framework.

3:54And this governance framework already approved by the council in November 2023, the last year.

4:01And now from 2024 this year we are reviewing the current ACOC.

4:10There are 14 ACOCs and how they can move on against the framework that,

4:17and also we need to consider, also consider about the allocated resources,

4:22what exactly we have to execute, what we have against the framework.

4:28And we engage with a lot of people after the city council approved the framework.

4:36Actually we went to meet ACOC members.

4:41We met with the chairs.

4:43We have some information sections.

4:46We will be able to mandate together.

4:48We will be able to distract those together.

4:50And then we go to the city council that to work with the council together to reveal all the findings from the engagement or the fundings from the discussions.

5:00What exactly that we could do that for the ACOC.

5:04And then we go back to the city staff that to be able to draft proposal from growth like because growth like handling a very good proposal to answer how we can move on from the AC for the ACOC.

5:15And then we review this proposal with the city staff together.

5:20And then we go back to you that to talk to you what we propose for each ACOC and would like to receive some feedback from you that for your ACOC.

5:32The current ACOC will be actually we have 14 ACOC.

5:38We would like to be used to seven of them.

5:41And these is the lease of ACOC that we propose that the next year we will propose to do the council and to get the approval then we will just and or the ACOC around June.

5:58And then we will have this lease of ACOC new ACOC on board.

6:03So basically the accessibility the first one accessibility of our service companies and also the irritation one.

6:10They are being maintained that means it continues to be here that we update the terms of reference.

6:16And we have four we call recommended new or the first the ACOC actually they are combined by a few ACOC for example like Austin culture actually in debt is including growth.

6:32Museums ACOC now and also art public art ACOC together we merge together.

6:38So all of these have a very good alignment with the strike goals that adopted by the city council.

6:48And I would like to move on to the most important things to naming committee that we propose that is transitioning to an alternative form of community engagement.

7:01Because the committee is not required by provincial legislation is not directly linked to any priorities in the strike plan.

7:10And because the committee not meeting very frequently and not a lot of a lot of opportunities for the committee to be up to to have some kind of advice about the council.

7:26Because it's really depending on on the applications and also we heard that the committee expressed some concern regarding reviewing naming applications in the public.

7:37And also we we heard that actually that the committee support to transition their responsibility to an alternative form of engagement.

7:47So this is our proposal for naming committee is like we propose that recommend to the city council transition the committees to an alternative form of committee engagement.

8:02In this meeting, we hope that the committee could pass this motion.

8:09Thank you for that. If you do not like this motion you can just let us know how to revise it or what exactly that you want to pass for the upcoming proposal for the naming committee.

8:21Yeah, so yeah I finished my presentation very short one and welcome all questions.

8:28I'll ask a quick question just.

8:34Yeah.

8:35Do you have any idea what the alternative sort of format could look like or.

8:42Yeah, thanks for that. This is the questions actually, Rory you may jump in.

8:48Actually that we we have meetings regarding this questions how would be what would be the alternative form of engagement.

8:57At this moment we do not have a definite answers for that because we need to communicate with actually across the department and also viewing or the existing resources and also what exactly will be the best community

9:12engagement strategies for this committee so at this moment we do hope we do not have an exact answer.

9:19So Rory do you have any anything to join me. Yeah, just sure thanks buddy. Yeah, so we have we're we're we haven't obviously we've only just sort of start to think about this but.

9:32You know the the discussion so far is that it would be like a community working group sort of format and it would be made up of members from other advisory committees.

9:45So we wouldn't have to necessarily appoint someone to the naming committee but we could pull other committee members from other advisory committee so it could be you know, one or two people from the public arts and culture advisory committee and it could be a person from the

10:00planning and environmental committee.

10:02And it may be someone from the heritage advisory committee that would make up a group of people who would obviously meet when necessary to go through applications and I should say that the application process would be the same.

10:18So we would go out and ask the public to submit names for a new asset or an asset that we would like to name and then and then those those recommend those proposals would then go to that that newly formed working group who would be able to obviously have

10:36discussions amongst themselves and and then make a recommendation to to counsel through the the normal sort of report writing process so.

10:49And obviously through this this this new process to Liam, we would obviously be reviewing the policy itself and ruin the reviewing the terms of reference.

10:59So that we could update it and make it more modern and more inclusive as we've we talked about before. So there's there's I think there's some good opportunities here to.

11:10To make the the naming policy.

11:17More inclusive and better equipped for obviously 2024 and beyond. Did you have any questions beyond that, Liam.

11:28So, and when I don't want to step on your feet, but we've also just talked about the transitioning process to Liam so obviously right now this committee yourself and Megan are.

11:42Still, we're still sort of in the process of naming an existing.

11:45Park in the court right area. I can give you a little bit of update on that. The letters have gone out to our indigenous.

11:56Colleagues so that process is in the works and hopefully they'll we'll get a response sooner than later.

12:02And I'd still like to I've asked Dylan and Winnie if we could continue to hold this group accountable for for that naming and continue to work together on that.

12:13And then sometime in 2025 there would be the transition. So I think that would be a good way of dealing with it.

12:25And of course, hopefully we can do that sooner than later as well.

12:29It's taken a bit of time to craft the craft the letter to our indigenous.

12:36The indigenous groups with our indigenous staff members so took a bit longer than I was hoping but I think we've we've got something there that hopefully they will respond to quickly.

12:50Any other questions or concerns we got we was there anything else when you that I forgot.

13:03Maybe is that actually that we have one word representative from here rotation growth right and he is his camera right so he resigned and so that we will I already are actually to upon another member in January to be one of the members of the

13:35naming committee so it will you know we will not stop doing this because we will just have need to have a very good transition name from naming committee to art a form of community engagement but we still to have need to have a HG representative here.

13:52Yeah, yeah, I know yeah he's a camera's I'm from the Heritage Committee so he's no longer part of this committee either so yeah I guess we'll have to talk about that when he has to if there'll be any more naming requests.

14:08That come through in the next few months.

14:11Yeah.

14:12And, and obviously the wheels already in motion in terms of naming the court right park.

14:21So, I'm not sure if we would bring that new member into the mix halfway through the process or we would just ask them to hold off.

14:31So they had to bring themselves up to speed as to the discussions we've had that Megan and Liam have had about the naming of that park so we'll decide to sort of see what the timing's like.

14:45Yeah, yeah.

14:47Agreed.

14:53So, and do you want to formal.

14:57Yeah, before that I will like to ask if we have any other questions that I'm, yeah, I can answer.

15:08I think I asked questions I was wondering about so I'm good as well.

15:14Thank you Megan.

15:15Yeah, so, yeah, we would like to have a so called formal voting or like some kind of past motion activities here to pass this recommendation so the end if you don't mind you can read this and to see who can move and also second that motion.

15:37Sure. Do you want me to sit like I yeah, yeah, the approve the recommendation that the municipal municipal property and building commemorative naming committee transition into a alternative format of community engagement going forward.

15:57Thank you.

15:59Do you are the first one so I'm the second one is that right.

16:05Yes. Okay, I was second the motion. Thank you Megan. Thank you for that.

16:10I don't know what else is on there. Yeah, sorry.

16:29Chair and staff announcements. I don't have anything. Did you have anything else for you to.

16:39Not at this point time. Like I said, I'll keep you guys abreast as to what the reaction is from our indigenous group. Hopefully in early in the new year and and if we.

16:54If we don't hear back for them Liam.

16:58Within a certain timeframe.

17:01Maybe what we'll do is we'll I'll ask you to reconvene this committee and we'll look at alternatives.

17:08That makes sense so that we can sort of try to close the chapter on this one and not wait around for months on end.

17:14I know it's it's a tricky situation and subject.

17:19So I don't want it to labor on too long and for the park to be built without a name so.

17:26We will see how I'll keep.

17:29I'll keep an open ear to Kimberly who's the manager of indigenous relations and see if she can just keep on checking up on them and see what sort of response we can get.

17:41Ace up and if there isn't anything then maybe I'll just touch base with you and you can we can meet again.

17:50In a formal setting to talk about other options.

17:54Okay, I guess I will.

18:02A germ limiting. I don't know when he do I need to have a second to adjourn the meeting or.

18:08Yes, yes.

18:11I will second that motion.

18:13Thank you very much for your time guys.

18:18Yeah, the next meeting, I think we'll just leave it at as we're already sort of said if.

18:24Once we have some more information.

18:26That'd be great.

18:30Thank you so much for for this meeting because it's just one item is our item. Yeah, especially for this having a special meeting for that. Thanks so much for that. Yeah.

18:39Thanks for putting it together.

18:41And if I don't see all of you happy holidays. Yeah, happy new year. Yeah, happy holidays everyone.

18:49Thank you.