Special Council Meeting

3:28All right, good evening everybody. It's Wednesday, July 22nd, 2026. It's six o'clock,

3:35actually it's 6.04, my apologies. And we are calling the meeting to order for our Special

3:41City Council meeting. And we really appreciate everyone being here. This is dedicated to what's

3:47called the Future Guelph Progress Report, which we do every year. It's actually a really important

3:52presentation and so we appreciate not only our staff but everyone here that's going to come and

3:57kind of bring everything home in one spot, one presentation, so that everyone can see

4:03what is going on within the city. And with that, to start things off, if you could stand please.

4:10If you're able, as we recognize our national anthem, thank you. Thank you everyone and just a

5:42moment of silent reflection as we continue with our agenda. Thank you everybody and we have our

6:01territorial acknowledgement as well. And as we gather, let us take time to reflect on our privilege

6:07to live and work here in Guelph, a city that's built over rich indigenous histories.

6:12And as guests here, we should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land and the

6:16people who live here today and the generations to come. If our actions today can move us towards

6:21reconciliation, we should take pause and make those decisions with intention and gratitude.

6:26This place we call Guelph has served as traditional lands and a place of refuge for many people's

6:30over time, but more specifically the Anuannarok and the Honoshoni. This land is held as the treaty

6:36lands and the territory with the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. And Guelph lies directly

6:42adjacent to the Haldeman track and is part of a long established traditional hunting grounds for

6:46the Six Nations of the Grand River and many First Nations Inuit and Métis peoples who have come

6:51from across Turtle Island called Guelph home today. So thank you again and right off the top.

6:58Is there any disclosure of pecuniary interest or any general nature thereof for the items in

7:02front of us today by any members of council? No. Okay. I don't see any. So consider that matter

7:09closed. We are going to turn things over to see here much of our staff, Tara, Jody, Erin, etc.

7:21kind of internal to set the stage for us. And then after that's all done, we're going to go through

7:28sort of each individual outside board and such that will come forward as well. So I'll turn things

7:36over at this time to our CAO, Tara Baker. And thank you very much for putting this all together.

7:43Great. Thanks so much, Mr. Mayor and members of council and all of our guests here today.

7:51Really pleased to be able to be here to present the progress made in 2025 under the Future Guelph

7:58strategic plan. This report highlights many accomplishments from the year and this is our

8:04second full year of implementation of the strategic plan. Reporting on progress is one way we lead

8:14with accountability and having meaningful conversations backed by good data is instrumental

8:19as we continue to work towards the goals in Future Guelph. In an environment of increase in global

8:26uncertainty, this continues to be a high priority. Our update this evening will speak honestly not

8:32only about the great work that we continue to move forward, but it also includes the challenges that

8:38we face in balancing our goals with the rising affordability pressures facing the city and the

8:43community. We've also invited our local board and shared service partners to share their progress

8:49today. All but the county of Wellington are here and I'd like to thank them for being here. The

8:56county shares their progress at the Joint Social Services and Land Ambulance Committee in June

9:02and that report is attached for your reference. To get us started, I will hand the mic over to

9:09Jody Sales, our manager, general manager of strategic initiatives and intergovernmental services.

9:15Over to you. Thanks, CAO Baker and I think Marga 3 did a good job of teeing up the agenda,

9:22so I won't spend any more time on this slide. Before we get into the results, I want to take

9:30just a quick moment to talk about why we do this. The role of data in decision making has never been

9:36more critical. To plan for our future, we need to build a solid understanding of where we're at,

9:41how much we're doing, and the impacts we're having on our community. Good quality data can

9:45allow us to have confidence in the decisions we make every day and it allows us to find efficiencies

9:51and allocate resources where they're needed most. By grounding our decisions and evidence,

9:56we not only improve outcomes but also build greater trust with our community through transparency.

10:02We are committed to continuous improvement of our performance measurement practices as well.

10:07We're laying the groundwork to move our progress reporting to a real-time model where we don't

10:12have to wait for our annual performance reporting meeting to share results with you. While we continue

10:17to believe it's important to create moments like tonight where we can reflect on our annual performance,

10:23we will also be updating our measures going forward on the website as data is available.

10:27For example, we recently completed the satisfaction survey, which informs two indicators within the

10:33future wealth strategic plan. Instead of waiting until next year's progress reporting workshop

10:38to publish this information on our dashboard, you can find it online today.

10:43So I'll hand it over to Erin to take us into the data. Great, thank you. So it's my pleasure to be

10:57here today to share the results for 2025 and while I'm here speaking to the results, the work outlined

11:02here represents the hard work of staff across the entire organization and our DCAOs are here to help

11:08answer questions related to specific projects and measures following the presentation. So I'm going

11:13to start with foundations and foundations is really about our internal investments that we need

11:18to position wealth to provide excellent services and programs and maintain both fiscal responsibility

11:24and accountability. So a few highlights to talk about from this theme. The city began its first

11:34full year of implementation of our Indigenous Relations Framework in 2025. Throughout this period,

11:39the city advanced a range of initiatives including the Indigenous Awareness Resource Hub,

11:44which offers self-directed guidance, information training, and other learning supports.

11:49Council also approved the 2025 Corporate Asset Management Plan in last June.

11:54An asset management maturity has increased to approximately 66%, which is a 9% increase since

12:002024. So as you see here, the overall under foundations, two-thirds of strategic initiatives

12:11were on track at the end of 2025 and almost three-quarters have met KPIs of metatarget.

12:17And speaking about KPIs, we wanted to look at our fiscal responsibility and accountability,

12:26which I think you can see from this slide. We've been positively impacted based on this focus.

12:32We've maintained our credit rating as AAA or level 10, and our property taxes and utility

12:37rates as a percentage of income remains within the average range of our competitor municipalities.

12:42Well, we have a long way to meet our target of having a fully funded infrastructure renewal.

12:46We are making progress at expected rates over the past two years, and we have a strategy in

12:51place to return to target by 2031 for tax-supported services and 2044 for non-tax-supported.

12:58So this year, we thought we would do something different, and we'd also provide an opportunity

13:06to look at one of the KPIs with more of a long-term approach. This one is about our

13:13staff voluntary turnover rate. So it shows the historical view, and it's one way we measure

13:19to have the right people, our ability to have the right people and the right skills. If you look over

13:24the last six years, we can see the disruption in employment caused by COVID-19 with turnover

13:29first dropping dramatically than rising before returning to more healthy levels in 2024 and 2025.

13:35We are now performing at target on this KPI, and we continue to implement retention strategies,

13:40including actioning our employee engagement survey recommendations and inclusive workplace

13:45efforts. Just to note, this KPI is based on permanent full-time and part-time employees,

13:50and doesn't include temporary contract, part-time casual, or seasonal workers.

13:58So we're going to move to the next theme, which is all about city building, which focuses on

14:04housing growth and investing in city infrastructure and programming. In 2025, the city continued to

14:12remove barriers to increasing housing. The city's housing ready efforts have advanced all eight of

14:17the city-led housing pledge actions, including the development of the Stone Road and Burl Community

14:22Planning Permit System. This is an innovative planning tool that will support affordable housing

14:27and help more housing units reach the market quicker. And evidence of this came recently with

14:31the announcement of the first approved build under the CPPS. Under this theme of city building,

14:41half of the strategic initiatives were on track at the end of 2025, and 60 percent of the KPIs met

14:47their target. And in our KPIs, you can see the evidence of the challenging environment for housing

14:54construction that we continue to operate in. Rising costs in the construction industry, as well as

14:59larger trends in political and economic uncertainty, have driven the level of construction of new units

15:04to the lowest level in several years in Guelph and many other places across the province.

15:09Despite these market conditions, the city continues to act on the housing affordability

15:13strategy and through direct actions has supported the creation of 26 affordable units in 2025.

15:23So to illustrate another longer-term example and our investment in community spaces, we can look

15:29back on progress of two of the city's major projects, the South End Community Center and Baker

15:34Library. So following strong project management principles, both projects have remained on track

15:39with steady progress year over year. Both facilities will add to the portfolio of community spaces

15:44available for community members for years to come after they are completed this year. Our next

15:55theme as we move through is the environment, which speaks to our role in environmental stewardship

16:00to reduce corporate greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, protect and improve our green spaces

16:05and support community climate action. So we've continued to invest in electrifying our fleet

16:13and we're keeping on track to reach our goal of 15% electric fleet vehicles by 2028.

16:18Significant progress also continues to be made on Guelph's One Water Plan, which will make us one

16:23of the first municipalities in Ontario to pursue a progressive, fully integrated One Water approach

16:28that values all water resources. Once completed, this plan will provide a long-term framework

16:33to work alongside our community to conserve and protect this crucial resource for current and

16:38future generations. Overall, under the environment theme, half of our strategic initiatives were

16:46on track and 44% of our KPIs met their target. And when you look at our KPIs, well, we have not

16:57reached our targeted levels of greenhouse gas emissions reduction based on the Race to Zero

17:01campaign. We are still lower than the 2018 baselines and the city continues to make investments

17:07that are having positive impacts such as supporting electrification and energy retrofits to

17:12facilities. And it will take a concerted effort from all levels of government,

17:16as well as community members to make progress in this area. And just to note that you can

17:20check out more environmental indicators through the Environmental Sustainability Report that was

17:24published this month on Guelph.ca. So one such indicator that we are seeing some great progress

17:34in over the last three years is our Guelph Greener Homes Program. We have over 400 households have

17:40completed energy retrofits by the end of 2025 under this program. The projects completed

17:46have helped many households to make their homes more energy efficient, comfortable,

17:50climate friendly, and will help to reduce our community GHG emissions. And we've reached the

17:59final theme, which is people in the economy, which are all about supporting our local economy,

18:04businesses, and people around Guelph. And it's probably no surprise to anyone, as you can see

18:11by the construction downtown, that the city is making significant investments through the

18:15downtown renewal program to create a more welcoming, functional, and people focused environment in the

18:20heart of Guelph. These renewal efforts will create the foundation for future prosperity,

18:25sustainability, and well-being for the next several decades. As of the end of 2025, the city

18:30has made progress by completing the design and tendering of phase one to allow construction to

18:35begin on Windham Street, as well as finalizing the plans for St. George Square and the McDonnell

18:39Street Bridge and Allen Stam. Under this theme, 57% of strategic initiatives were on track at the

18:49end of the year and 56% of our KPIs method target. And looking at our KPIs, we have seen that progress

18:59on our circular economy project has stalled as staff are pursuing external grant funding to

19:04proceed on this work. However, the remaining KPIs shown are green because we have seen a

19:10noticeable increase, for example, in the land assessment volume for downtown, where it's now

19:16over 973 million at the end of 2023. And recent city policy work, such as the height study and

19:22community planning permit system, will continue to contribute to making downtown an even better

19:27place to invest. Under this one, we thought we spotlight the municipal accommodation tax revenue.

19:37As you can see, it continues to increase year over year. And this revenue is used to develop a

19:42suite of resources and supports for businesses and organizations in our community. And on that note,

19:51that concludes our progress update for the year. As you can see from the link here, all of this is

19:56now live and available on progress.golf.ca. And I'm going to hand it back to Jody Sales to wrap up

20:03and talk about future plans. Thanks, Erin. Earlier, you heard me talk about continuous

20:10improvement. And as we look towards the refresh of our strategic plan, yep, that's happening already.

20:16For the next term of council, some improvements that we're looking at include

20:20increasing the connections between our major planning documents, including the multi-year

20:25budget, our master plans and comprehensive plans, working with council to develop clear

20:30objectives with measurable outcomes that we can report on annually. And lastly, we want to make

20:35sure that there's an ability to balance our shared goals in the strategic plan with the ability to

20:40adapt to changes that will no doubt come our way. An information report with information about the

20:462027 budget update, the 2028 to 2031 multi-year budget, and the strategic plan refresh process

20:54will be in the information items on Friday. So please have a look. And with that, we're happy

20:59to take any questions. Great. So council, this portion, it would just be questions only on the

21:06presentation that was there. And the report obviously attached, but because all the other ones

21:11the presentations are going to come up after. Is there anything of questions? And maybe actually

21:16what I'll do is I'll ask for the recommendation for this part to be tabled first and then see if

21:21there's any questions. If not, we can move on. But council Richardson, would you move the recommendation?

21:26So this is just to have the report received. And then council Pusatil will second. Okay, with that

21:33on officially on the floor, is there any questions of staff right now or can we move on? Looks like

21:40move on. So I can call the vote, everybody. Okay. Is there anybody against receiving the report

21:47and presentation today? I see and hear nobody. So that is unanimous. And I think on behalf of

21:53council, I will just say this is a maturing thing that happens every year. And you're already looking,

22:00as you just said, Jody, maybe some changes evolving into the next one and the next one. So

22:08this is a very, it's actually a very good document and all the information that's online, like this

22:14was just kind of touching the surface a little bit. We really do want council and the community to

22:20actually dig deep a little bit into there to see what's going on. It is a very transparent

22:24way of telling everybody the story of what kind of happened in the last year to what our goals

22:29and aspirations were compared to what we got done. And some of the reasons why it did or did not

22:34happen and such. So we really appreciate the work that staff did. Okay. With that, we're going into

22:41all of our outside boards or shared services. And so right off the top, I want to say thank you for

22:47everybody that came. We really appreciate that. And secondly, I will be timing you. You can't talk

22:56long. So no, we know that you've prepared your presentations and we're looking forward to them.

23:03And the first one actually is the Downtown Guelph Business Association and Chuck Nash is the

23:10Downtown Guelph Business Association chair is here to give us a little high level presentation

23:16of the year in review for 2025. So Chuck, thank you so much and team. I can see you in the audience

23:22for coming down and I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor and hello to Mr. Mayor and

23:29Council and staff and guests. The DGB is proud to give this presentation and let Council and

23:39everybody know that we've continued to deliver added value not only to our membership but to our

23:45downtown and to our community as a whole. Some of the highlights from last year. How do I go back?

23:52As we added our first CRM database to the organization, a centralized database for the

24:00DGB membership information which tracks current and past business operations, tendencies, property

24:06ownership, organizes businesses and property owners by street location and allows for more

24:13targeted and effective communication. We've eliminated the need for multiple databases and

24:18systems and it's created a more streamlined and cost effective tool for us to engage with the

24:26membership and the participants in the downtown. So that's been a welcome additional tool that we've

24:35added. We've also continued to add programming. Last year we had our first Big Heart contest for

24:44Valentine's. Had hundreds of participants come downtown and help drive the economic benefit

24:50to our stores and it was a fun event with a Golden Egg hunt. In addition to that last year we also

25:00had our first annual garage sale. We had 70 vendors. 70 vendors along Wyndham Street. Some of you

25:09might have saw that. This event in its first year we couldn't meet the demand for vendors and

25:17it brought an estimated 4,000 people downtown. All businesses noticed an uptick in sales and

25:25participation and awareness of their stores. So that we're very excited about the potential for

25:32its future especially when Wyndham Street gets done. We think that this event could be

25:37of real significance. I mean it already is of real significance fortunately but we think it has a lot

25:44bigger legs to grow and we're very excited about the potential of it.

25:54Growing on some of the tenants through the municipal act, the board in general is really

25:58focused on the municipal act and the two tenants and that of promoting the downtown

26:03and beautifying the downtown. And last year was the first year that we started to add to the

26:09used budget money to actually beautify the downtown. We started to phase one of it which was

26:15Quebec Street and the square. I'm sure most of you have seen it. The feedback from this was phenomenal.

26:22Everybody was raving about how pretty Quebec Street and the square looked especially during those

26:27winter months when it gets dark so early. Stores on Quebec Street definitely noticed an uptick

26:33in business and commerce because everybody was coming out to see early in early evenings to see

26:39those lights and experience it. And it really set off the spirit of the season two weekends that we

26:46had for spirit of the season which I'll talk about as we go along here. Spirit of the season and review

26:56we said from the beginning that if our neighbor too that's a half hour north of us could do this

27:02we could do it bigger and better as we had better we have better proximity to the GTA

27:07and the millions of people that are within an hour of us and we also have more to offer.

27:12That really bared fruit this year and came to fruition. As this season we had the largest parade

27:19ever. As many of you would note that we used to have the parade on Sunday afternoons three years

27:26ago we moved that parade to a Saturday and made it an evening parade and made it a requirement

27:30that all floats light up. We had 52 floats this year and the quality of the floats were outstanding.

27:38Probably had close to 20,000 attendees just for the parade and we think again that this is going

27:46to continue to grow. One of the concerns when we moved the date was that we would lose a lot of the

27:51marching bands because they'd have other dates booked with other municipalities. This year we saw

27:58that they were leaving those municipalities to participate in our event because it's an evening

28:04parade and was fun for all. So we had eight marching bands this year which is the most we've ever had

28:10so we're thrilled with that. Overall the estimated attendance for the two weekends was 30,000 attendees.

28:23We had people drive from Aurora, Ajax, Fort Erie, London, Toronto,

28:30Barrie that saw our reels and our ads which I'll talk about in our social media program

28:37but this has really become a significant event for our downtown. Vendors reported not only did the

28:45outside vendors and inside vendors grow many of them sold out many of the shops in Quebec street

28:52sold out of inventory. The cafes sold out of ran out of paper cups. Everybody was so overwhelmed

29:01and so underprepared for the growth this year. Well that might be the negative it was also a positive

29:08in that this event really has exploded and we're very proud of it. Just some pictures

29:17to show the crowds. A little comparison from when we started year one inside Quebec

29:25street mall. You can see year one to year three the attendance was really phenomenal.

29:35Social media we've had a huge success for our social media and that's been really a big key for us

29:42to allowing us to drive new events and new programming for the downtown as our social media

29:48has exploded as well. If we just kind of go through some of the highlights and stats.

29:56When we started out three years ago an average reel that we would put out had 3,000 views.

30:04We are now the last 10 average reels in 2025 received over 100,000 views each.

30:13And this has gone province wide. We've really put downtown Guelph on the map

30:21within an hour of this community. You can see when we started three years ago we had 16,000

30:27followers. At the end of last year we had 48,500 followers. That's an overall view

30:41of how many but last year we had 19.7 million views in total.

30:50408,000 engagements and added an additional 18,600 followers. Some of the highlights from the

31:00spirit of the season social media. We had reels. This particular reel here had over 500,000 views.

31:12Another reel with almost 500,000 views 476,000 views. The influencers that we hired created

31:232.2 million views. We shared 60,000 times received 38,000 likes and was saved 15,000 times.

31:33Our own social media program in total we had 7 million views so our own basically drove 5 million

31:41views. We shared a total of 96,000 times received 70,000 likes and was saved almost 22,000 times.

31:51It's been that that's really been the driver of us to be able to create new programming

31:56and more added value to our membership. And that's essentially our highlights from 2025.

32:03Well thank you very much Chuck and to the entire board and your staff at the DGBA.

32:09Sincerely thank you for sharing all of that. I'll just ask if there's any

32:13follow-up questions from my colleagues or we can move on to the next. It looks like we can move

32:19on to the next. Go do your next reel or something. All right. Thank you again for what you guys do.

32:28The Elliott community is coming up next and we got Alvin Lewin who's here and Martin is

32:36am I saying this right? Is it roaks? Rural. Okay I'm sorry. That's all right. My apologies.

32:42Both from the Elliott here and thank you very much for joining us. Your presentation's on the

32:46screen. I'll turn the microphone over to you. Thank you. Good afternoon Mayor Guthrie,

32:52members of council and city staff. Thank you very much for the opportunity to be here today to

32:57represent the Elliott community with our community annual performance report. Before we begin I do

33:05want to just take a second to really thank and acknowledge the support of the mayor and the

33:10members of council over the course of the last year and your entire term. The Elliott community

33:16and the people we serve greatly appreciate that. Your support enables us to continue providing

33:22high quality service and housing for older adults in Guelph and we value the partnership that we have

33:28with the city. Today's report highlights our performance of the past year, our accomplishments,

33:34our challenges that we've navigated and the progress we've made towards our strategic priorities.

33:39None of this would be possible without the dedication of our board of trustees, our staff,

33:43our volunteers, physicians and community partners all working together to provide exceptional care

33:48and service. Al and I are pleased to share some of the highlights with you today and we're happy

33:53to answer any questions at the end of the presentation. Technology to me. So as council knows

34:05the Elliott is a non-for-profit seniors campus of care serving the community of Guelph for over

34:10123 years. Today we provide four levels of care, independent living through our life lease,

34:17supportive living in retirement, assisted retirement living and long-term care. In 2025,

34:26we provided care, housing and services to 526 people across our campus. Today's presentation is

34:36organized around our four strategic initiatives beginning here with our first priority which

34:41is enhancing the resident experience. This year's performance demonstrates our commitment to

34:46delivering exceptional care while investing in the people, innovation and partnerships that

34:51will sustain the Elliott into the future. Safety and emergency preparedness continues to be one

35:02of our highest priorities. Working alongside our partners to get ready, this slide essentially

35:08maps out our journey and working in partnership with them to ensure that our organization is

35:13prepared to respond to unanticipated events. We're strengthening our emergency preparedness to

35:20ensure that people who call the Elliott home remain safe while also ensuring that our staff

35:24have the knowledge, training and confidence to respond effectively to any situation. This work

35:29will remain a priority for the coming years. As you know we also continue our journey with the

35:38butterfly approach, a person-centered emotion-focused philosophy of care that transforms the experience

35:44for people living with dementia. Following the successful accreditation of the third floor of

35:49our long-term care facility, neighborhood in 2025, we're on track to become Ontario's first fully

35:55accredited long-term care butterfly home at the end of this year. This is about more than meeting

36:00standards, it's about leading the way in redefining and refining dementia care. One of our most

36:09significant clinical achievements over the past several years has been through the reduction of

36:13anti-psychotic medication through our person-centered care approach. Our work has been recognized

36:19nationally with the Elliott being one of only 12 organizations across Canada to receive three

36:25healthcare excellence awards. This is a reflection of the dedication of our clinical team and the

36:30innovative approach that they're taking toward improving residents' quality of life. There's no

36:39better endorsement than the confidence of the community we serve. This year the Elliott was

36:44once again named Guelph today's readers favorite for retirement care. We're honored by that

36:51recognition because it reflects the trust of our community and the trust that they place in us

36:56to provide exceptional care and service. This trust is also reflected in our annual resident

37:03and family satisfaction survey. We're proud of the consistently high satisfaction scores that we

37:08receive particularly in response to the question would you recommend the Elliott community to

37:13family and friends as a great place to live and for us that's the most meaningful measure of success.

37:23Our next strategic imperative is bringing out the best in everyone

37:26where we focus on supporting developing and recognizing our people. Investing in our team

37:36continues to be one of our highest priorities. This past year we invested nearly $250,000 in

37:41orientation, education and professional development to ensure that our staff remain well prepared

37:47as the standards of care continue to evolve and the needs of those we serve become increasingly

37:51complex. That investment is reflected in the remarkable commitment of our team.

38:01Today we have 19 employees who've served the Elliott for more than 25 years, 24 employees who just

38:06passed a five-year milestone and three employees who have a combined service level of 120 years.

38:13This kind of experience and dedication is one of the Elliott's greatest assets. Finally I can't

38:18leave the podium without talking about our incredible volunteers and the commitment that they make to

38:27our organization. Over the past year they donated more than 3,100 hours supporting our general store

38:33or cafe, resident programming, special events, direct care initiatives and campus tours.

38:40I'd like to specifically just recognize a few individuals for their outstanding contributions.

38:46Aina Davis for 14 years of service, Denise Freyzon for contributing more than 2,400 volunteer hours,

38:55Dominic Scorziello recipient of the Ontario Volunteer Service Award for 10 years of service

39:00commitment and Willie Deschuter recognized for five years and Lassnie Susan Schillinger

39:07as the recipient of the Spreading Joy Volunteer Award. To each of them and to all our volunteers

39:12we couldn't do what we do without them so I want to acknowledge them all today. And with that I'll

39:20turn things over to Hal and after I get to do all the nice warm and fuzzy stuff he gets all the hard

39:24stuff. Thank you so our next strategic imperative is creating community partnerships with purpose.

39:33This is about developing and nurturing partnerships, widening community awareness of our work,

39:38the great work that the Elliott does, expanding our volunteer base and building multi-generational

39:44support while continuing to grow. In 2025 we hosted 141 student placements through partnerships

39:55with the following institutions and more. In 2025 we also welcomed our first corporate volunteer day

40:06with Electra Cares participating in our annual planting day. And then here's a list of some of

40:18the partnerships that the Elliott depends on to do the great work that we do. So these are folks that

40:22play an active supportive or enabling role with regards to the Elliott and of course number one

40:29City of Guelph. And then the next strategic imperative is focus on financial sustainability.

40:39This is about looking at potential revenue and cost-saving opportunities to support the

40:43short and long-term sustainability of the Elliott. And so on our fundraising side in 2025,

40:53fundraising totaled $147,000 and it was led by the Enhanced Living Fund and our signature

41:00Great Harvest Event. We also received a Varadia grant and one of the strategic grants we received

41:07was the Dementia Care Programming Funding Grant which was $315,000 and that was in support of

41:13the butterfly work that was being done at the Elliott. We also received grants from High Rock

41:19to cultivate for $13,000 for the emergency preparedness and $20,000 to expand the butterfly

41:27approach. The Ballinare family supported us by providing $34,000 and that also was invested

41:35in the Hub Cafe to bring that back to life. And then Health Care Excellence Canada supported

41:41the Elliott by providing $17,000 in recognition of the anti-psychotics work that was being done.

41:52And so as we mentioned we're a not-for-profit organization. Government funding reaches only

41:57the long-term care side of the organization. Assisted living, supportive living and independent

42:02living receive no government funding. Many people in the community and abroad come to us for other

42:08levels of care simply because they cannot access long-term care space. So we care for seniors and

42:14get in a setting that the public system does not pay for. And so that we need your support,

42:21a gift of any size for the people who call the Elliott community home today and for the seniors

42:26who will need us tomorrow. So with our expansion to 114 long-term care beds that became operational

42:38at the end of 2024, long-term care provides the largest portion of the Elliott's budget at 63%

42:46while accounting for approximately 47% of future capital needs. Retirement and life lease

42:53comprise 37% of the budget while requiring 55% of future capital needs. In looking at the Elliott's

43:04budget 70% of the budget is made up of salaries and benefits and 30% are operating costs. Our sources

43:15of funding include 40% from the Ministry of Long-term Care, 7.8% from the City of Guelph and then

43:22revenue from other services and accommodation mostly funded by individuals. And this slide just

43:31gives you a sense of the total dollar amount from each of the areas. In 2025 our occupancy in

43:39long-term care was 98.8 exceeding our 97% target while retirement fell slightly below our target.

43:50One-time revenues and pickups contributed to a modest surplus in 2025 but capital needs driven by

43:57aging infrastructure continue to exceed available funds contributing to working capital pressures

44:03and future operating challenges. Looking ahead we focus on expanding the butterfly approach to

44:11our second floor home areas Aramasa and Paisley and working towards accreditation by the end of

44:17the year 2026 which would be one of the first long-term care homes of our size in Canada fully

44:25accredited in this model. We're also focused on refreshing and improving our spaces, building

44:32partnerships that extend care and connection beyond our walls and as we move forward together

44:38we're grounded in the 120 years 23 years of service reaching toward a future where every

44:43older adult in Guelph Wellington can live with dignity purpose and belonging. Thank you.

44:52And thank you both very much for walking us through that. We really appreciate it.

44:58Thanks for highlighting the volunteers too. So thank you to your staff and to the volunteers.

45:03Is there any questions as a follow-up from any of my colleagues? I have one from Councillor

45:07Caighton please. Thank you through you Mr. Mayor. I'm just so proud of all of the work that you've

45:16all done. I think it's really fantastic. The butterfly approach is tremendous. I love that

45:21you're expanding it. The fact that we created more beds. I just had a question. Is there a relation to

45:28the ability to have a decline in use for antipsychotics and the initiation of the butterfly

45:35approach? Is that something that helps? Yeah absolutely. So the butterfly approach because

45:43it's very individualized in terms of how we approach residents and meet them where they're at.

45:50It does show a definite reduction in expressive behaviors which means we can

45:59support people in de-escalation through verbal contact and engagement rather than through medication.

46:08Thanks. I really appreciate that. That's a huge huge accomplishment. So well done everybody.

46:13Thanks Councillor Caighton and that's it. There's no further questions. So thank you very,

46:21very much. Thank you. We appreciate it. Okay and next I think joining us by video is Samantha Lawson,

46:27the CAO for the Grand River Conservation Authority and we'll just wait for a moment for Sam to come

46:33on. Hello Sam. It's Mayor Guthrie. Can you talk for us just so we can see you. Just want to make

46:43sure your audio is working. Yeah good evening everybody. Yep we can hear and see you. I'll

46:48turn it over to you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for the opportunity to present GRCA's

46:542026 budget and strategic plan priorities and actions over the past year. Next slide please.

47:04The Grand River Watershed is the largest in southern Ontario. The Grand River Conservation

47:09Authority operates a range of programs in engineering, planning, water and land management,

47:15outdoor recreation and environmental education. Our strategic mandate is to develop and

47:22implement watershed-based programs that protect people and property from flooding and erosion,

47:28improve the health of the watershed and connect people with the environment through outdoor

47:32experiences. Next slide please. Our first strategic priority is to protect life and minimize property

47:42damage from flooding and erosion. That begins with investing in infrastructure that helps reduce

47:48flood risk and keeps our watershed communities safe. At the Guelph Dam we completed significant

47:53maintenance upgrades to the electrical and monitoring systems. These improvements help

47:58ensure the dam continues to operate safely and reliably and allows us to better monitor conditions

48:03during flood events. We also worked closely with the City of Guelph on emergency preparedness and

48:09planning for a potential Guelph Dam break emergency. And while we hope these types of events never

48:15occur, it's important that emergency plans are regularly reviewed and updated so that both

48:20organizations are prepared and coordinated. Another significant initiative was the completion of the

48:26hydraulic modeling for the speed and aramosa rivers. This work finalized in 2026 provides

48:33updated information on how water improves, sorry how water moves through the watershed,

48:39and will support flood forecasting, emergency planning, and flood infrastructure and land

48:44use decisions. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2026 will be undertaking major maintenance

48:51at the Wellington Street Dam. This includes repairs to the retaining wall and erosion

48:56protections to ensure the long-term integrity of the structure. In terms of investment, the Guelph

49:02Dam maintenance upgrades are estimated at approximately 190,000. The emergency preparedness

49:09work was funded through the category one operating budget, and the Wellington Street

49:14Dam project represents an investment of approximately 900,000. Next slide please.

49:23Another aspect of minimizing flood damages is our role in planning and development.

49:28For as long as development exists and people live in the floodplain, we must actively work to protect

49:33their lives and property. GRCA staff undertake review and comment on planning act applications

49:39and planning documents such as official plan updates, block plans, from a natural hazard

49:45perspective, which includes flooding and erosion hazards, wetlands, and stormwater quantity control.

49:52Next slide please. The primary objective of the source water protection program is protecting

50:00drinking water sources from contamination and depletion. This program supports the updating

50:06and implementation of policies to protect the city's drinking water sources in wide geographic

50:11areas that extend beyond the city limits known as wellhead protection areas. Next slide please.

50:21The GRCA maintains two continuous water quality water quality stations on the Speed River with

50:27real-time data available to the public on the GRCA website. The GRCA also collects monthly samples

50:35from sites on the Speed and Aramosa rivers up and downstream of the city as part of the provincial

50:40water quality monitoring network. This program collects information on chlorides, nutrients,

50:46and metals. Next slide please. The GRCA's watershed wide wastewater optimization program

50:56promotes data-based decision-making and operational practices to achieve performance

51:01targets that go beyond compliance. This allows the city to better understand the capability and the

51:06capacity of its facilities and get the most out of these important assets. The city's wastewater

51:12treatment plant is an active participant in the program contributing data to the annual reporting

51:17that helps track how municipalities are working towards achieving GRCA's voluntary effluent targets

51:23that go above and beyond provincial requirements to improve the health of the Speed and Grand River.

51:29Next slide please. The GRCA delivers a voluntary rural water quality program on

51:38behalf of six upper-tier municipalities in the watershed to help farmers implement best practices

51:43to improve and protect surface and groundwater quality. Each program is locally developed with

51:49input from the farming community and variation in grant rates and eligible projects are tailored

51:54to reflect local priorities and budgets. The GRCA's reporting for some of these programs extends

52:01beyond the city's municipal boundaries into the wellhead protection areas for the city's drinking

52:06water wells as well as the catchment areas upstream of the city which extend into neighboring

52:11municipalities. Work in these areas directly benefit the city of wealth through protecting

52:17its drinking water sources and improving the water quality of the speed and arimosa rivers

52:21as they flow through the city. This program helps farmers undertake projects with cost-sharing grants

52:28from Wellington County and federal sources to protect and improve water quality. This includes

52:34tree planting, cover crops, erosion control measures, nutrient management planning, manure

52:40storage, as well as well projects. Over the last five years in the city's wellhead protection areas,

52:47the GRCA has supported 104 projects with 163,000 in grant funding for a total investment by land

52:55owners, the county, and federal programs of 310,000. Next slide, please. We know that spending time in

53:06nature has a positive effect on people's physical and mental health. At the GRCA, we connect people

53:12with the natural environment by providing environmental education programs and access to

53:16outdoor spaces. Located within Guelph Lake Conservation Area, the new Guelph Lake Nature

53:22Center opened this past September and has since welcomed more than 9,000 students and community

53:28members. In 2025, more than 180,000 people visited the Guelph Lake Conservation Area

53:36and just some of the special events that we had there included triathlons and the hillside festival.

53:41Next slide, please. A new pillar added to the strategic plan is to ensure our organization

53:50is thinking about and ready for the challenges of the future. As part of this priority, we have

53:55included goals related to fostering sustainable and efficient operations, developing and implementing

54:01a comprehensive asset management plan, exploring digital solutions to improve service delivery,

54:08developing a plan to measure, evaluate, and reduce our environmental impact,

54:12and continuing to focus on responsible and sustainable management of our land holdings.

54:17Next slide, please. So I wanted to provide counsel with a brief update on the Niska land holdings.

54:26So Niska is a 65-hectare natural area owned by the Grand River Conservation Authority and it's

54:31located along the Speed River on the west side of Guelph, extending into the township of Pluslunch.

54:38It includes forests, wetlands, meadows, agricultural lands, and has long been recognized as an

54:43important natural area. In January 2026, the city of Guelph and the GRCA announced a partnership to

54:50help secure approximately 51 hectares or 126 acres of the property for future public parkland and

54:58the protection of its natural features. To support this, the GRCA board declared two of the four

55:05Niska parcel surplus so that they could be transferred to the city. As part of that decision,

55:11the board also committed up to 350,000 from the Master Plan Reserve Fund for trail construction

55:18and ecological restoration, reinforcing our commitment to the long-term vision set out in the Niska

55:23land holdings management plan. The transfer includes the lands north of Niska Road and the

55:30second parcel immediately south of the road, east of the Speed River. It does not include the

55:36agricultural parcel south of Niska Road or the lands west of the Speed River which are located in

55:41the township of Pluslunch. The remaining eight hectares, the eight agricultural, sorry, the eight

55:48hectares that are the agricultural parcel south of Niska Road will be considered separately by the

55:53GRCA board at a special meeting next week on July 27th, 2026. Next slide please. As many of you are

56:06probably aware, the province has directed Ontario's 36 conservation authorities that we will be

56:11consolidating into nine regional conservation authorities effective February 1st, 2027. So for

56:17our area, the Grand River, Catfish Creek, Kettle Creek and Long Point Region conservation authorities

56:24will come together to form the Eastern Lake Erie Regional Conservation Authority. A transition

56:30committee has been established to guide this work and includes the CAO and a board representative

56:35from each of the participating conservation authorities and is responsible for developing the

56:40transition plan. It's important to note that these committees are advisory only. Each conservation

56:46authority board continues to govern its organization until the new Regional Conservation Authority is

56:51officially established and the province has confirmed there will be no changes to governance

56:55during the transition period. Financial planning is underway. The province has indicated that the

57:02goal is to maintain both financial stability and the continuation of services. So existing

57:08levy apportionment methods will remain in place for 2027 and each conservation authority will

57:13continue to develop and approve its own 2027 budget before amalgamation. So for the GRCA,

57:20our draft 2027 budget will be presented to the board later this month with the levy apportionment

57:26consideration in September and the final budget approval is scheduled for October.

57:33Next slide please. So just to highlight some of the budget challenges with the 2026 budget,

57:42the GRCA is impacted by the current economic climate so that includes inflation, supply chain

57:48issues, cost pressures from the arising impacts of tariffs and a skilled labor charge. Projection of

57:55conservation area revenue can be challenging as it's largely impacted by consumer demand and weather.

58:02A few other notable challenges worth mentioning are that the environmental education program is

58:06still in transition. We have aging infrastructure and we are faced with increasing demands on land

58:12management and as with many other organizations we face keeping pace with the digital innovation

58:18and technology advancements. Next slide please. So this slide illustrates a summary of the

58:27changes in the operating capital and special projects as compared to the 2025 approved budget.

58:34I will speak to each of these categories in the next slides. The overall budget increased in 2026

58:40as compared to 2025 is approximately 1.8 million. Next slide please. So this slide highlights our

58:51operating budget which was 33 million for 2026. So broken down that's 11 million in category one which

58:59are the prescribed programs and services through regulation. So that's where the levy or apportionment

59:04for the municipal contribution goes. Five million in general operating expenses.

59:111.1 million in category two and those are the MOU agreements that we signed with all of our

59:16participating municipalities in the watershed and they focus predominantly on the water quality

59:21programs that we offer. And then 15.9 million in category three operating expenses and the category

59:28three programs and services are really GRCA or board initiatives programs. Next slide please.

59:39So for capital we budgeted 6.7 million in expenses and that's made up of 4.2 million in category one

59:46for water management infrastructure, major maintenance, gauges and hardware. 500,000 in

59:54motor pool and information capital expenses and 2 million in conservation area capital expenses.

1:00:00Next slide please. So special project expenditures incorporate a budget of 2.1 million so that's

1:00:10made up of 575,000 for floodplain mapping and ecological restoration projects.

1:00:171.2 million for the rural water quality grants and species at risk funding. And then 191,000 for

1:00:25the completion of the Guelph Lake Nature Center project, the Mill Creek work and the Brant Brantford

1:00:31Water Festivals. Next slide please. So this slide illustrates the revenue by category so you can see

1:00:40that approximately a third of our revenue is from the levy or apportionment in participating

1:00:46municipalities. Approximately 50% is self-generated revenue and then government grants and reserve

1:00:53contribute about 10% each. Next slide please. So the final 2026 budget incorporates a 3.5

1:01:08increase or a total of 481,000 in the overall budget. So when you prorate that for Guelph it's a 2.8

1:01:18increase over the 2025 levy which turns out to be about 51,475. So with that I'm happy to take any

1:01:32questions. Thank you. Thank you so much Sam and to you the board and all your staff that work at the

1:01:40GRCA. Thank you for going over that for us. Is there any follow-up questions for the GRCA to Sam

1:01:47right now? You can't uh oh I got one from Councillor Allt right now go ahead. Thank you Mayor Guthrie

1:01:57hopefully my video and my sound will work. Thank you Ms. Lawson for the presentation.

1:02:04Through Mayor Guthrie to you there has been discussion about the the the excess lands at the

1:02:11Niska Cartwright property and some of the concerns have been reflected as per whether this might be

1:02:18perhaps dedicated to affordable housing and I was wondering if you could please comment on that.

1:02:25Um sure so through the Mayor to Council um the consideration for that is happening on July 27th

1:02:32and we did receive correspondence from the Mayor which the GRCA board will be taking into consideration

1:02:39so this time I can't really comment on that but I can say that we have noted that that has been a

1:02:45request from the city and it'll be part of the package that the GRCA board receives on the 27th

1:02:51when they're considering the lands for surplus. Thank you. Great there's no more questions Sam just

1:02:59a comment from me on behalf of really on behalf of Council in the in the city I just want to actually

1:03:05thank you very much to you and to everyone that was involved with the sale of the of those acres to us

1:03:12for the open space parkland the natural heritage area um that was that is such a great thing and

1:03:22sometimes things just can kind of get glossed over with other issues and so I just wanted to make

1:03:27sure I publicly really said thank you to you the board chair and everyone that got that together

1:03:33we're we are thrilled about that and I just I just didn't want you to think it was ever ignored so

1:03:39I think it's important to publicly state it right now and um no notes here to say I just kind of

1:03:46going off the cuff but um we just yeah just can't wait to see that that done and uh and um looked

1:03:54forward to seeing what we can do together on those lands as we move forward but uh thank you again

1:03:59just on behalf of Council in the community it's just awesome really appreciate it and with that

1:04:06I see nothing further so thank you again Sam have a good rest of the night thank you you too

1:04:11all right hey Dan uh Dan Atkins is here who's our CEO of the Guelph public library is coming down

1:04:21for the look back on 2025 welcome Dan thank you very much thank you for coming

1:04:30good evening everyone mayor and council um thank you for the invitation today to talk about some

1:04:35of the great things that the Guelph public library is doing uh the Guelph public library is essential

1:04:47community infrastructure that delivers one fundamental promise the empowerment of our community

1:04:55before I speak to our strategic objectives and performance I want to provide some context for

1:05:01why libraries matter right now first as the cost of living continues to rise free access to service

1:05:10programs and resources is more important than ever every day residents come to the library to

1:05:17borrow materials attend programs learn new skills and create at no cost second our community

1:05:28continues to experience a digital divide not all residents have access to reliable internet

1:05:34devices or the skills to navigate an increasingly digital world tens of thousands rely on the

1:05:42library for this access and we help close the gap through technology support and a safe place to

1:05:49build confidence and finally libraries play a critical role in reducing social isolation

1:05:57and supporting community well-being we're one of the few places in the city where people can gather

1:06:03freely and feel a sense of belonging together these realities highlight the library's important

1:06:10role as essential responsive service in 2024 the library board approved our strategic plan

1:06:22from barriers to bridges to guide our work through 2025 to 2028 at its core is a simple

1:06:30but powerful vision expect empowerment the library provides spaces resources and support

1:06:38to overcome barriers this plan was shaped by extensive community research and engagement

1:06:45which told us that residents need better access to inclusive spaces stronger digital skills

1:06:52support for development and opportunities to connect and participate in community life

1:06:58in response our work focuses on removing barriers and building bridges to access opportunity and

1:07:07belonging the plan has three key objectives invest in our team amplify our stories and build future

1:07:17focused libraries on the following slides i'll share success stories from the past year that move

1:07:24us toward a stronger more empowered community under our invest in our team objective we focused on

1:07:36strengthening service excellence staff engagement and future ready skills through collaboration with

1:07:43service canada staff gained a deeper understanding of the challenges patrons face when accessing

1:07:49federal services this insight led to the launch of a monthly mobile clinic at the library demonstrating

1:07:56how agile our teams are responding to emerging needs in the community we also conducted an

1:08:03employee engagement survey to better understand the staff experience and guide our targeted

1:08:09improvements from that survey we learned that 96 percent of library staff believe their work

1:08:17contributes meaningfully to the community in which they live at the same time we invested in training

1:08:23in emerging technologies including artificial intelligence to support a more efficient workflow

1:08:30and enhanced services that we provide to the community this ensures that we have a skilled

1:08:36responsive team ready to meet the evolving needs of the community under our amplify our story objective

1:08:49we strengthened relationships with key audiences and improved how we share the library's impact

1:08:55in 2025 we developed our youth programming strategy that creates a clear and system-wide approach

1:09:02to serving young people and positions us to take full advantage to expand youth and teen services

1:09:11in the new central library we also built new media partnerships to reach beyond our existing

1:09:18audiences including the participation in five podcast episodes that helped us share our story

1:09:24in new and accessible ways and we significantly elevated our profile at a national level coverage

1:09:32of the munch archive reach major news outlets like cbc's the national and the toronto star

1:09:38with one social media post reaching over 500 000 people together these efforts are strengthening

1:09:46awareness of the library's value across the community and beyond under our build future

1:09:57focus libraries objectives we and we focused on modernizing service enhancing learning environments

1:10:05and preserving our community's history we modernized our digital experience launching a new website

1:10:12catalog mobile app and a room booking system this this improves efficiency and makes it easier for

1:10:21residents to access library service we also expanded early literacy through play by installing

1:10:28kibby play stations in children's areas at all five branches creating a more engaging space

1:10:34for our youngest patrons and caregivers and we made significant progress in preserving

1:10:40guelph's history our archives team completed a full inventory of our collection and is advancing

1:10:47a multi-year digitization project to ensure long-term access together these initiatives

1:10:54position the library to meet the evolving needs with accessible future ready services

1:11:00that we can scale with community growth in 2025 the library delivered strong and growing impact

1:11:12across the community we welcomed over 800 000 in-person visits and saw nearly 1.9 million

1:11:19online visits reflecting our continued importance of our physical spaces as well as our digital

1:11:27use demand for collections remains high with over 2.1 million items borrowed and increased

1:11:35from the previous year and we saw strong engagement in our programs with more than 36 000 attendees

1:11:42participating in learning literacy and community building events and importantly we welcomed over

1:11:517700 new library card holders demonstrating continued growth in reach and relevance across the city

1:12:00these numbers reflect a service that is widely used growing and delivering meaningful value

1:12:06to residents every day library services are cost effective high impact that advance city

1:12:13council's priority in equity well-being and economic resilience looking ahead our focus

1:12:29is on continuing to deliver on our strategic plan while preparing for the next phase of growth in our

1:12:36city a key priority is opening the new central library which will expand access to collections

1:12:45programs and services and create new opportunities for community connection at the same time we will

1:12:53continue to evolve our branch spaces and digital services to meet changing community needs and

1:13:00expectations we are also implementing our youth programming strategy and expanding partnerships

1:13:07to better serve a growing and diverse population as demand continues to increase our focus remains

1:13:16on ensuring the library is positioned to scale its impact delivering accessible responsive

1:13:22and high value services for all residents in closing i want to return to a simple idea

1:13:37the library is a central community infrastructure our annual report shows that golf residents are

1:13:44using the library at a very high level across our spaces programs and digital services beyond that

1:13:51usage what's important is the impact recent national research from the canadian urban libraries

1:13:59council social impact study confirms that libraries deliver measurable outcomes across four key areas

1:14:07learning well-being creativity and social connection the study shows that libraries like ours

1:14:16help reduce barriers strengthen mental well-being and create more equitable and connected communities

1:14:24whether it's someone gaining digital skills a newcomer finding language and social supports

1:14:30or a resident simply having a safe place to belong the library is helping people participate

1:14:36more fully in community life the library delivers high impact measurable value that aligns with city

1:14:45council's priorities of equity well-being and economic resilience as our city continues to grow

1:14:53and evolve demand for these services will only increase our commitment is to continue removing

1:15:00barriers building bridges and ensuring that every resident has the opportunity to explore connect

1:15:08and thrive thank you for your support well thank you again dan for coming and presenting for us as

1:15:16well and let me just see if there's any follow-up questions for you kate in please and then maybe

1:15:24galler yep kate and then galler thank you it's not really a question it's more of a comment

1:15:29um but i just want to say that i appreciate so much uh how many events that you put out

1:15:36in ward one the library is one of the only places you can go to do stuff and and there's so many fun

1:15:42things that that you put together for our community i'm looking forward to the the foam party in

1:15:48september especially that seems like a good time and i drove by a bullbuffet talking to a bunch of

1:15:53people on the weekend so i like the comic con and everything so i just i really wanted to give you a

1:15:59good shout out for that because for a lot of people that's that's what they can afford to do is

1:16:04what's at the library and you make sure that there's a lot of fun things to do great thanks

1:16:10counselor kate and counselor galler please thank you through your worship thank you mr

1:16:15harkins for that wonderful presentation uh the numbers are really impressive and in particular

1:16:21both the visits the the online visits the borrowers could you help me understand the new

1:16:26leverage holders we were just having a little a little chat on the side here because it just it

1:16:31seems like a lot of people could you break that down a little bit for us uh the the 7,764 new card

1:16:38holders last year is yes uh through you uh mayor to the counselor uh those are new registrations

1:16:50they might be newcomers to guelph they might be uh people who are getting a library card for the

1:16:56first time who have been lifelong guelph residents um uh you know to speak a little bit more um uh

1:17:04transparently about the numbers um we there's 150,000 residents in guelph um approximately 80,000

1:17:12of those residents have library cards and the province considers an act of borrower to be someone

1:17:19who has used a library card in the last two years that number fluctuates but it's usually around 55,000

1:17:25of those 80,000 members uh so from the 80,000 people who have cards to the 150,000 people who

1:17:33are in guelph there's a lot of opportunity for us to grow our membership uh we also provide

1:17:37membership to University of Guelph students who um maybe here temporarily for their for their studies

1:17:45yeah that is wonderful thank you so much great count thank you thanks for asking my question

1:17:53and counselor corona please thanks i know it is and thank you for your presentation excellent and

1:17:59the numbers really speak volumes um i've it's not your stat but i recently uh read that a one

1:18:07percent increase in literacy uh translates into a 1.5 percent increase in GDP nationally do we measure

1:18:16literacy rates of our patrons do you i know you work with action read and there's reading and

1:18:22homework clubs do we measure literacy locally and if so uh what would those numbers look like

1:18:29we don't really uh as a library measure those literacy rates i mean we know from stats Canada

1:18:34that guelph is a highly educated community and literacy rates are are are high at the national

1:18:41average or above and i think that that number is reflected in the circulation that we see

1:18:47the guelph public library per capita circulates more material than virtually every other library

1:18:54in the province including including Toronto um and so i think that is reflected of our our

1:19:00high literacy rates thank you so i i had two questions and counselor goller asked one of them

1:19:09and i want to preface this that i think uh i think the guelph library is doing an excellent job

1:19:15in the area that i'm about to ask about a couple of months ago maybe three months ago tops i wrote

1:19:23i read an article out of Hamilton library that was having major issues with addictions

1:19:33overdosing in the libraries and then from that there was kind of a wider than articles about other

1:19:43libraries that are experiencing this same thing and i will say if several years ago i was receiving

1:19:50some complaints i haven't i have not had any and and a while which is why

1:19:55i think it is an opportunity for you at the microphone to maybe speak about

1:19:59that issue that because you do you have implemented some things within the library that are positive

1:20:06for these types of scenarios and i know that we're here about 2025 but if you could explain

1:20:13if you've seen any type of correlation to the last few months where we've also had the daytime

1:20:20space opened up compared to maybe some that were continually using the library um do you understand

1:20:29my my question okay i do yes thank you thank you thank you mayor um so um i mean i can answer that

1:20:35question by saying that guelph is a very different community from hamilton and uh does not have the

1:20:40same challenges that hamilton has we're a long way from the situation that that hamilton is in

1:20:49i can say that things have significantly improved at the main library over the last number of years

1:20:55and a lot of that is our our partners shout out to the police who are here who are doing a great

1:21:00job downtown there are usually our first line of contact welcoming streets is a huge a huge

1:21:09support for us and in many ways we're able to get out in front of challenges before they become

1:21:16real challenges at our doorstep we have implemented brave sensors in our all of our washrooms downtown

1:21:23which flag us in the event that there's a lack of movement in the bathroom which also allows us to

1:21:29get to these problems before they become critical we've done a host of staff training

1:21:34um with our partners with welcoming streets we've done some work with the paramedics as well

1:21:40and we've done a lot of resilience training with our staff as well so that when they encounter

1:21:45these issues they feel more supported so um things have have really improved uh over the last

1:21:52number of years and um i can say that this summer has actually been relatively incident-free

1:21:59okay and that's sorry and thank thank you very much for stating that out um and just a tail

1:22:04part of my question was have you seen anything in correlation to the new daytime space that opened

1:22:10up down the street um that we invested $800,000 in um because there were a lot of people that were

1:22:18using the library and now that we've got this daytime shelter space opened up i'm just wondering

1:22:25if you've seen any correlation with that opening yeah i mean it's only been a few months yeah i mean

1:22:30yeah that's a hard question for me to answer um you know i can only speak to to the library

1:22:37and you know we have an acceptable use policy at the library which is very broad

1:22:41uh which you know has a lot of words in it but really what it says is uh you're entitled to use

1:22:46the library provided that your actions are not interfering with someone else's ability to use

1:22:51the library um and so as long as people are following those broad rules um we don't tend to

1:22:57intervene um and i can say that this summer you know there's been been fewer and fewer incidents

1:23:02i think you could make a correlation to to the opening of the the daytime shelter um

1:23:09i i just can't speak authoritatively on that no i really appreciate it thank you thank you very

1:23:14much for answering that and it was on the fly completely on the fly so i appreciate it i see

1:23:19and hear nothing else from my colleagues so thank you very much thank you very much appreciate you

1:23:23um let's keep moving along we got the Guelph police services that are coming down here and

1:23:30we have our chief of police gord coby and team in the audience welcome and you know just uh we've

1:23:36had this before in the past but there may be some topics here talked about you know especially

1:23:41around human trafficking or other matters that might be distressing to some people so

1:23:45within the presentation and we do need to sort of hear them out and i know our chief and and

1:23:51the leadership team here and uh is going to you know be sensitive about that but we want to

1:23:56make sure we had that warning there just in case someone is either in the room here watching online

1:24:01live or might come and look at this later on just so that they're aware about the presentation in

1:24:06front of us and maybe the topics that we're going to be discussing so chief thank you very much i'll

1:24:10turn it over to you thank you mr mayor now i have promised our cao that i would be crisp

1:24:19and i even have a timer for myself mr mayor so now miss sales taught me that there's a laser

1:24:25pointer on this remote so i'm going to resist the urge to try it out tonight but anyway before i start

1:24:31um it i say this all the time but you get to hear from from me i am but the face of the work of

1:24:38hundreds of people so there's a few people with me tonight that you've seen before but they're

1:24:43probably in new roles since they were here last so just some quick introductions our new deputy chief

1:24:50of of administration andrew goodie just give away vandru you have seen mel many times before but mel

1:24:58is our new inspector in charge of executive services um so mel so mel got promoted since we

1:25:05were here last folks um calleen collins at the back calling is our new manager of community

1:25:11engagement and strategic initiatives and uh we all work for miss milson jackie who runs our office

1:25:18the chief's office in legal so um in addition to that before we start um the uh i want to thank all

1:25:26of you um some of you have chosen not to run for council next year and i want you to know how much

1:25:32our members appreciate your support over the years now mr mayor i've just started my timer so

1:25:38i've given myself nine minutes and 50 seconds so um with that said obviously our year end review

1:25:46you've all seen our annual report our strat plan so i'm going to stick to some high level things

1:25:51and then look forward to any questions um a key thing you've heard me say this many times before

1:25:57is we are very mindful of the investment our community makes in policing and it is that

1:26:04we're job to ensure quality return on that investment in 2025 we continue to experience

1:26:12ever increasing volumes of calls for service so change under 90 000 calls i am very happy to report

1:26:20that uh as the work level grew we saw a almost 11 000 or a 30 percent reduction in overtime hours

1:26:29last year and our priority one response time was the best response time we've had in about a decade

1:26:37so these are all um one one data point does not a trend make but they are clearly favorable trends

1:26:45and they are the results of years worth of collaborative work both by our members our

1:26:50board and your support so we're very grateful for that um the key to our ability to serve our community

1:27:03is to earn the trust of our citizens last year we continue to have more and more positive proactive

1:27:09engagement with our citizens um 60 plus individual requests for us to attend community events

1:27:18we had this year 80 citizens who who participated in our citizens police academy and what that is

1:27:24is essentially an eight to ten week session where members of the community can spend time with our

1:27:31different units and more importantly more importantly than learning what our members do

1:27:36is getting to meet the members who do the work and and meet the people and understand that our

1:27:41members um they are quite uh literally members of our community and uh they get to spend a lot of

1:27:47time with them over that eight to ten week period in addition uh for the third year in a row we got

1:27:52to host our family fund day this year we had well over 400 folks who attended and many aspects of

1:27:59our positive engagement with our community have continued to increase our youth engagement our

1:28:05youth in policing our kick soccer and uh many other areas have grown year over year in the last

1:28:12several years last year we had approximately 50 individuals who requested sept head or crime

1:28:19prevention through environmental design assessments and i'm told today mel how many did we have today

1:28:25uh over 200 individuals at the arboretum who uh got those similar types of assessments so

1:28:33those are just proactive engagements with our citizens investigative excellence so we have

1:28:40talked a great deal about this and what i'd like to do is to give council a high level understanding

1:28:48of where we've come obviously um in support of your 2023 motion in relation to intimate partner

1:28:56violence we've done a tremendous amount of work in relation to uh ipv human trafficking um we have

1:29:06eight dedicated people now last year we had 80 human trafficking related calls and over 25 human

1:29:12trafficking related charges many of these are proactive investigations so what that means we

1:29:19are quite literally now reviewing our intimate partner violence cases to look for human trafficking

1:29:26indicators because they are so uh closely linked that is not something that was ever happening before

1:29:33nor is that something i believe that happens um everywhere as far as every every police service

1:29:39we've expanded bail compliance checks public educations and proactive victim supports to

1:29:44give an example of what we've been able to achieve with your support on one day we got to spend an

1:29:50hour with 900 wellington district catholic school board staff in relation to human trafficking and

1:29:57online safety these are the adults who probably spend more waking time with our children than

1:30:02anyone else in our community um teltzer galler got to attend a similar session with our public

1:30:09board a few months ago um i want to give uh council an indication of what that proactive work has done

1:30:16so in december of 2025 stats canada released a report to give you an idea our rate of human

1:30:25trafficking reported was 10.7 per 100 000 to give you an example toronto's was 2.3 the national average

1:30:35was slightly under two we don't believe there was that large year over year increase we believe the

1:30:41extensive investments made means that we are proactively finding and addressing the magnitude

1:30:47of that problem that exists um fortunately not only do we believe that but in the report one of

1:30:54the footnotes from stats canada said the high rate of human trafficking reported by the guave

1:30:58police service in 2024 could be explained by their intensified efforts to address human trafficking

1:31:04the introduction of new initiatives in the establishment of specialized teams and partnerships

1:31:09to respond more effectively moreover guave was close to highway 401 a common trafficking corridor

1:31:15connecting it to other census metropolitan areas where trafficking networks may operate

1:31:20so i tell you that for two reasons one to to recognize the commitment you and we have made

1:31:26to this issue but also we need to calibrate expectations now today new data dropped that

1:31:33we haven't had a chance to look at yet um in a meaningful way about statistics canada at crime

1:31:38severity indexes and things like that this are this is very these are very serious files we should

1:31:43expect that the proactive work that we're doing to have six times the average compared to some other

1:31:51places this will probably have an impact on our crime severity index rankings but this is these

1:31:58are serious crimes and this is work that has to be done and as i said i don't believe the work has

1:32:02increased but rather we now know the magnitude of the work so moving on downtown safety uh we've

1:32:15talked a great deal about this we now have two service supported impact workers we continue to work with

1:32:22hellen fishburn and cmha to uh to support our downtown community downtown is the heart of

1:32:29our downtown and we will continue to to put forth a lot of efforts towards our downtown community

1:32:36our community safety and operations center is doing a lot of work to support our downtown

1:32:41and uh this is this is a commitment that will be foundational for us is the heart of our community

1:32:47in our downtown moving forward innovation and modernization last year was the first full year

1:32:55of our community safety and operation sensor i know some of you have seen it um we now have the

1:33:01ability to ingest our community city video feeds that you have already invested in in other areas

1:33:10this includes both our downtown cameras as well as other cameras throughout the city our connect

1:33:17golf system is a volunteer camera registry we do not we can't see these cameras but if citizens

1:33:24have cameras they can tell us about them so we know where cameras exist so if a loved one goes

1:33:30missing it helps with neighborhood inquiries and things like that last year our communications

1:33:36unit answered about 127 000 calls rough math i think don't quote me on this but that's about

1:33:43a call every four or five minutes that our communication is taking in whether that be

1:33:48administrative or non administrative phone calls and uh we are the first police service in the

1:33:54province to have a fully embedded ministry of the attorney general crown attorney who works

1:34:00to support quality evidence-based investigations and we could have an hour presentation just on

1:34:08that but we're very proud of that and as i say we are the first that implementation was led by

1:34:15deputy chief goody over the last several years but that has been three years in the making and

1:34:22has been a big a big success for our service and our community road safety last year we had

1:34:28approximately 57 percent increase in traffic enforcement resulting or correlating to a

1:34:36approximately 13 percent decrease in personal injury accidents so road safety is a priority

1:34:43for our citizens vision zero is in a priority for all of us and so that will continue to be

1:34:49an important area of focus i've only got 40 seconds left mr. mayor so i'm moving along here

1:34:59stewardship accountability and looking ahead as i have said for many years now

1:35:04our goal is to be the safest and healthiest community in the country um again i want to

1:35:10calibrate expectations the proactive work that we are doing to uncover very serious

1:35:15crimes that were not being uncovered before that should you should expect that to have an

1:35:21impact on those on those crime trends our commitment to constant improvement whether

1:35:30that be seven years ago we were the first service to commit to a fully hybrid that's my timer mr.

1:35:36mayor to a fully hybrid fleet but we will continue to be at the front edge of investment whether

1:35:43that be um environmental whether that be operations innovation to assure alignment with our strat plan

1:35:51and your strat plan and ultimately the safety and health of our community with that i want to

1:35:57end again how i started thank you so much for your support for all of you we could not we're all in

1:36:03this together as a community supporting our community we are so grateful for your support

1:36:07for the support of our board and to our members who are the approximately 400 unsung heroes in

1:36:14this city when it comes to looking after the safety of our residents a very large thank you

1:36:20with that i was about 20 seconds over mr. that's okay that's okay thank thank you so much chief

1:36:25we appreciate it and everyone that put the presentation together for everyone to be here

1:36:29as well and is um i do have a couple of questions uh i'll just start with the counselor alt and then

1:36:37did i see another hand on the screen was it counselor gibson no did i miss that no and then

1:36:42and then counselor caron okay alt and caron go ahead uh thank you very much marigot three

1:36:49you to chief coby um uh and full disclosure chief coby and i did discuss some of these issues but

1:36:55i want to uh flesh some of them out um chief coby with regard to human trafficking uh the way

1:37:02that we are addressing guava versus other jurisdiction i appreciate your statement about

1:37:08reporting out as for the crime severity index um and and i think it's important that we uh we don't

1:37:16guilt the lily on this um it what i i think is important i hope your comment is is that

1:37:22clearly what you're stating is is that we're doing the work um and what i'm concerned are we

1:37:27actually getting the credit or are we being faulted because of statistics being reported out

1:37:33in in what i'd consider to be in any incorrect fashion uh that's an excellent question thank you

1:37:39for that counselor alt i think first and foremost our priority is the safety of our citizens

1:37:45we cannot address the problem we don't talk about and if we uh the more we've learned about this

1:37:50problem the greater magnitude we realize it is we've uh when the results first came out a few

1:37:55months ago we got phone calls from media outlets who wanted to ask us about why our numbers were

1:38:01higher than others and i believe that is an opportunity to draw attention to the magnitude

1:38:07of the problem and the proactive work that we with your support are doing um the uh it's

1:38:15this is a a devastating issue for so many people and i think all of us around the province have a

1:38:22responsibility to talk about it and highlight it so counselor alt i could talk for a long

1:38:27long time i could bring mel up here and we could have a lot of conversations about this but at a

1:38:32high level um we need to draw attention about it and talk about it and like i say we are proactively

1:38:38examining our ipv intimate partner violence cases to find indicators of human trafficking

1:38:44so that we can then proactively address those thank you um i have two other questions i hope

1:38:51i get through apparently having terrible connection um the the question really has to do with with

1:38:56nomenclature as well uh when we're referring to human trafficking and intimate partner violence

1:39:04i'm hoping that maybe you can help to to clarify what it is we mean and how this actually correlates

1:39:11to the the quote sex trade uh human trafficking and intimate partner violence

1:39:18are never in my opinion acceptable the sex trade in certain uh jurisdictions might be considered

1:39:25consensual and so consequently i do not want those those definitions to get confused maybe um

1:39:32officer brown can can also inspector brown can comment on this as well but um there are people

1:39:41that uh have presented the idea that human trafficking is occurring

1:39:46dominantly within the the homeless population and encampments and i would beg to differ i think it's

1:39:52also a similarly intimate partner violence so i just wanted to get get that out okay i'm gonna let

1:39:59inspector clark talk about that clark sorry i said brown that's okay thank you uh counselor and

1:40:06through you mayor um yes that's a that's a big question um but ultimately as human trafficking

1:40:14and the sex trade there are individuals that do it voluntarily and it is legal to do that

1:40:20but it is illegal to buy it so again it's it's a maybe for another conversation offline but it's

1:40:27it is very confusing um but ultimately it is vulnerable populations but as you mentioned

1:40:36it can happen anywhere to anyone um we recently without getting into details had a great conviction

1:40:42on a human trafficking case and the victim was a university student so it happens everywhere to anyone

1:40:51for the human trafficking piece i'm not sure if that clarifies what you were saying

1:40:57nope that certainly does um i appreciate your comments on the sex trade and as i said human

1:41:02trafficking and interpartner in treatment partner violence are never acceptable uh the other one

1:41:08whether i like it or not it exists and as you said there there are elements of it that

1:41:14that go on well within the economy i'll leave it at that um i have a separate question but not

1:41:21for you for chief kobi and that relates to room safety uh while we talk about these um these tragic

1:41:29issues of intimate partner violence and human trafficking uh the biggest complaint that i always

1:41:35get is road safety and i just have to ask you i think this is a lot um uh what is the correlation

1:41:42between police services and um and our our own staff when it comes to road safety and how do we

1:41:51address that i have people constantly asking me why aren't the police setting up uh more um

1:41:59uh radar traps and spot checks and so on and so forth uh so yeah so i will draw your attention

1:42:06back to the one slide so last year we had a 57 percent increase in proactive traffic enforcement

1:42:14so we went from 400 so 4881 to over 7700 engagements with respect to traffic enforcement so that

1:42:24could be a ticket it could be a warning um we do a a great deal of work um obviously subject to

1:42:31resourcing levels to proactively support vision zero distracted driving to address all of those

1:42:37priorities um we that's that'll be again that's another foundational priority is road safety um

1:42:44whenever we have the ability to do that then subject to resources we always do that we have

1:42:48road safety ride programs at different times of the year and and then ad hoc throughout the year

1:42:55on a regular basis and if somebody is concerned about a road uh and uh dangerous driving speeding

1:43:04on a on a chronic basis uh do they call wealth police services and if they do what actions might be

1:43:12taken uh yes so when in doubt i think uh i bet you i i could say i've said this hundreds of times

1:43:20in our community when in doubt call us there is no concern that is too small um if there is a high

1:43:26priority area a concern with respect to whether it be noisy vehicles speeding vehicles intersections

1:43:34please call us a two four twelve twelve if it is a traffic emergency like someone is following

1:43:40and someone believed to be an impaired driver obviously that would be more of a 911 type of

1:43:44thing but when in doubt call us and then that will be prioritized we have a host of those types of

1:43:49requests that we receive and then our traffic unit prioritizes those throughout the city on a very

1:43:54very regular regular basis thank you very much okay thank you councillor oh councillor caron please

1:44:04thank you some of my questions have been answered thank you chief copi and your team for being here

1:44:08when uh contrary to the library presentation when your numbers are down that's a good thing

1:44:13and when your numbers are up that's a bad thing so it's a reverse statistics um you noted the work

1:44:19that you're doing on septed and uh with existing residents are you also part of the process of

1:44:28reviewing all planning applications in the city uh no no okay do you know if you have some of your

1:44:35other police services do that work um in say waterloo region or other jurisdictions i'm not sure

1:44:42i don't know if we do or not um and i don't even think like even for a situational awareness i'm

1:44:50not sure they they arrive to our office do we see those jackie no okay i'll follow up on that okay um

1:44:58i had a question about the traffic the red the the red light cameras uh in the vision zero and the

1:45:04great work you're doing one of the things we heard during the red light camera phase was that people

1:45:08preferred a human interaction uh at the window which surprised me because most people would rather

1:45:14not be stopped on there on the oh sorry yes this sorry the automated speed cameras yes thank you

1:45:22thank you um do you think that your numbers uh are reflective of that transition um this past year

1:45:31from going from an automated speed enforcement to human enforcement no i think it'd be too early to

1:45:36tell as you say because so what we were trying to do we were trying to augment our community resource

1:45:41officers to proactively patrol school zones and things like that i think these numbers are more

1:45:48kind of a real proactive engagement by our frontline and our traffic officers probably

1:45:54that engagement as far as school zones and things would be more reflective we'd have to wait till

1:45:58next year to see what that looks like andrew you were kind of part of the pro pro okay thank you

1:46:03last question i remember when i was on the board diversity of your workforce was a significant part

1:46:08of the strategic plan because policing should represent the diversity of the community and

1:46:14i see that happening and i just wondered whether that's something that you're measuring is it something

1:46:19that you're still actively doing or have you found that uh that workforce balance at this

1:46:24no i think that's work that will continue for sure we have a lot of uh important initiatives both

1:46:30internally and externally within the community and i think so much of that is the positive

1:46:35proactive interactions with our youth so that from from youth through to um our adults we want people

1:46:44to see themselves and us and vice versa and so that's just ongoing work i don't think will ever

1:46:50be done that'll be work that we continue throughout yeah that's great news thanks so much great well

1:46:59that's it so thank you very much before i finish i want to apologize counselor

1:47:06clausen has a question for you and my apologies go right over to you thank you and thank you

1:47:13chief kobe for the presentation um i had a question with regard to something that i know

1:47:20that we see in ward two but i think other counselors also receive these types of emails where

1:47:26um a resident will have witnessed a legal activity often it's related to drugs um and they're

1:47:34emailing us and um it's not just about drug it's about a variety of different things and often

1:47:39we send these these on to staff who help us but i just wanted to ask you a little bit about when

1:47:46people see those things what you recommend they do you know what the answer is going to be don't

1:47:52you but you want me to i do but i just i was hoping that you could elaborate a little bit more so

1:47:58there if it is a concern for our citizen it is a concern for us and while it is helpful after

1:48:05it is marginally helpful after the fact for me to find out us as a service to find out after

1:48:12it is so important in the moment if there is a concern that a member of our community has

1:48:18with respect to their safety just call or dispatch and we will do our best our priority

1:48:23one response times were five minutes and 59 seconds last year so if we know about something in the

1:48:29moment then we can address it if it's issues in our downtown in our parks on our streets

1:48:34please call our dispatch 911 and emergency a two four twelve twelve if it's not so it can be in the

1:48:41moment prioritized and dispatched with the resources that are on the road because i do get those emails

1:48:48sometimes i'm the third person to get them and if it's five days later it makes it very difficult

1:48:54to support those citizens concerns in the moment so when in doubt call us thank you very much i know

1:49:01that it's difficult for some people to pick up the phone but it certainly is the right thing to do

1:49:06so thank you thank you and so sorry i forgot to go to you that was a good way to end the

1:49:12the question so thank you um so for real this time thank you very much and to you and the team and

1:49:20we really appreciate all that you do in the community so thanks again thanks so much um

1:49:27wellington defferin gulf public health is our last presentation today and read aizley's here

1:49:37vice president community health and chief nursing officer with the wellington defferin gulf public

1:49:41health reida hi how are you good thank you for having me thank you for coming and yeah over to you

1:49:47so thank you uh mayor Guthrie counselors and members of the public i appreciate having the

1:49:53opportunity to come in and present tonight on the work of wellington defferin gulf public health

1:50:03there we go okay um so who is our who what does public health do and um as you can see by the

1:50:10slides we protect and promote overall well-being of our population improve access to care and

1:50:16services and reduce health inequities so everyone can thrive wellington defferin gulf provides

1:50:22services across the city of gulf the county of wellington and the county of defferin and a lot

1:50:29of our services focus on protecting and um preventing illness in the community so we

1:50:36inspect the pools that your children and family members swim in uh we inspect the food premises

1:50:43in which you go out to eat with uh your colleagues we also um respond to infectious diseases we work

1:50:50in our long-term care facilities or retirement homes we work in collaboration with our primary care

1:50:56facility primary care offices as well as our hospitals and other care agencies in the community

1:51:02we also offer services in all of our sites that include vaccinations actual um access to sexual

1:51:08health counseling and support and um we work with young families and children those are just a few

1:51:14of the programs that we offer but all of that work is to promote the health and well-being of

1:51:19of our communities so um looking at some of our numbers from 2025 um particularly uh it was an

1:51:31interesting year because we had our measles outbreak and we were able to connect with nine

1:51:359800 families about measles vaccination and i'll speak more about what that look like in a future

1:51:42slide but we also did over 3000 food safety inspections and we um worked in our schools and

1:51:50did over a 11 000 dental screenings with our young children and we responded to 1390 infectious disease

1:52:01cases in our community we also worked with a chat bot program to help answer questions after hours

1:52:09and we were able to use some innovation to be able to produce over 50 000 custom immunization

1:52:18notices per hour and i'll speak to that in a little bit later as well so i want to talk about

1:52:28measles so in 2025 we had a measles outbreak in our community but we also had a measles outbreak

1:52:33across canada and in ontario and across north america a measles outbreak resulted in canada

1:52:40losing its elimination of measles which is a very important um status that we were going to work

1:52:47very hard to regain in our community when we first learned about the measles outbreak we worked

1:52:54with our community partners our primary care providers our hospitals other medical institutions

1:53:00to understand how do you recognize the signs and symptoms of measles how do you

1:53:06test for measles how do you treat measles and how do you support the families that are dealing

1:53:12with measles that was the first step that we did in our community before we got our cases

1:53:17the second thing that we did is we connected with various areas of the population so some of our

1:53:23high-risk populations but also with our schools and other organizations to ensure that they had

1:53:29the safe practices in place to to keep our our children safe in that same section under connecting

1:53:37we utilized some of our innovative services to create thousands of letters to send to families

1:53:45where we knew the vaccination status of their young children wasn't up to date during that period

1:53:50of time there were some changes across canada to eligibility for the measles vaccine to help

1:53:57protect our children because we had situations where children were not fully vaccinated even

1:54:03though they were eligible to be fully vaccinated but we also had a lot of young children who weren't

1:54:07fully vaccinated because according to the current guide for vaccinations in canada and in ontario

1:54:14they were too young to get the full series and we um in canada shortened the series to protect

1:54:20our children because we knew that this is a very highly contagious disease and it has um a lot of

1:54:27impacts that that can occur with children and with people who aren't vaccinated and then finally

1:54:33we were able to reorganize our our nursing staff to be able to respond to the letters that we sent

1:54:41out saying you can get vaccinated come and see us and we'll vaccinate so we supported our community

1:54:46partners particularly primary care who bears the burden of vaccinations by offering vaccinations

1:54:53within our our area that's really important because measles being one of the highest contagious

1:55:03diseases in our vaccine preventable disease pool slowing and stopping the spread of that

1:55:10particularly when we had a lot of sections or pockets within our population both in the city

1:55:16of guelph but out in the counties as well that were not vaccinated at all and the risk of um

1:55:23the disease beyond just children was pretty significant that being able to respond and to

1:55:28quickly make notifications to those that we knew weren't vaccinated really did help to prevent um

1:55:36the disease in a larger portion of our population than what we actually saw so something that uh

1:55:48public health does is that um we provide dental services so for families and for children under

1:55:55the age uh 18 and under we provide um screenings and assessments and recently in this year we uh

1:56:03implemented doing some um more extensive dental care in our offices we also provide a full um

1:56:12scope of dental care for seniors over the age of 65 in addition to those services we go out to

1:56:19our schools and we provide screening in our schools and identify children who have um either mild

1:56:26medium or severe dental issues and then help them attain the care that they need and so um

1:56:33some of the things that we focus our attention on is addressing the barriers to dental care so

1:56:38providing awareness if they qualify for for several of the programs that are available

1:56:43in Ontario and across Canada but also to help them with eligibility for different types of

1:56:49insurance plans and and then finally with provider access secondly we do responsive outreach so we

1:56:56have a lot of community partnerships we um are one of the first health units to go into day care

1:57:01settings and do screenings and and supporting children in the day care settings all health

1:57:06units um screen in the school system but we want to catch them younger the younger we can catch

1:57:11them the more um opportunity we have to change behaviors to improve um their oral health and

1:57:18then we also um found that sometimes our locations um as much as we try to have them in easily

1:57:25accessible places it's not always accessible and so we do do portable clinics in some of our schools

1:57:32as well as out in the in the community where um where we see children that have children and

1:57:37families that are having challenges to access their services we have seen five percent of our

1:57:42children that we screen having urgent needs and what that means is they have significant dental

1:57:47carries or cavities in their teeth that could be impairing their ability to eat because it's painful

1:57:53to chew it could also be impairing their ability to fully function in their school system because of

1:58:01pressures bullying and um and just the appearance of of their teeth in those settings and that

1:58:10we were able to service 276 kids in our portable clinics with all the work that we do in dental

1:58:18there's so much more to do and so we're looking to find ways to address the remaining gaps

1:58:25trying to look at how we can support impacted populations and also trying to change and

1:58:30modify our programs to to meet the local needs and so we've been going out into different settings

1:58:37to screen people and to help them register for the Canadian Dental Program if they don't um qualify

1:58:43for the age-wise for the programs that are offered through the health unit but also looking for

1:58:49different ways to support them to access dental care in the community okay so this is the fun stuff

1:59:02this is the invisible work that um that we're trying to um modernize and and automate as much

1:59:10as possible so that we can spend less time sitting behind a computer looking at papers and um entering

1:59:19data into the system and spend more time connecting and engaging with the people that were were here

1:59:25to serve so um I'm going to give you an example here with this with this slide every year we run a

1:59:32an assessment in our schools to understand what is our vaccination status of our children in

1:59:36schools the purpose of that program it's called the immunization school pupils act or ISPA is the

1:59:42short form for it the purpose is for public health to understand what is the vaccination status of

1:59:47all children in school in the event we have an outbreak we know who is safe and who isn't and

1:59:52then we can respond accordingly through that process we receive thousands not hundreds of records

1:59:59we receive hundreds of records a week but we receive thousands of records during that period of time

2:00:05prior to this modernization we would spend weeks and this is public health nurses spending weeks

2:00:11upon weeks looking at records entering them into the system and then assessing whether or not that

2:00:17record now entered into the system is fully up to date or is there something else that we we need to

2:00:22do with our new modernization utilizing AI technology and a whole bunch of other technology I can't

2:00:30speak to um that is out of my uh purview but um what I can tell you is is the outcome is is that

2:00:38we are able to um bring those records in sort them very very quickly and upload them into appropriate

2:00:45database and then run the reports to see who is and who isn't vaccinated accordingly and then

2:00:53and then respond according to who's not vaccinated what this has done for us when we don't look at

2:01:00the technology behind it because I can't speak to that is that the nurses that were previously

2:01:06spending weeks upon weeks looking at records entering data sitting behind a computer we're

2:01:11now engaging we're talking on the phone with our families we're meeting them in our offices we're

2:01:16providing vaccinations we're supporting them when they're afraid to get vaccinated COVID really

2:01:22provided some real challenges for us around vaccine hesitancy and our nurses are able to do that

2:01:28instead of standing behind a computer and entering data this has been really significant

2:01:35so significant that we've been able to divert our resources to things like ensuring that

2:01:41people understand and have awareness about the importance of vaccine and I'm really proud to say

2:01:46that uh Wellington Duffering wealth has the highest vaccination rate for 17 year olds for the HPV

2:01:52vaccine in Ontario we were at 75 percent last year for 2024-25 school year we are looking like

2:02:01we're going to be topping 77 percent for 25-26 and to give you an appreciation of the importance

2:02:08of that all vaccines are very important HPV is a unique vaccine because it's one of the few

2:02:14vaccines that we know that prevents cancer cervical cancer oral pharyngeal cancer the impact today is

2:02:22very low on the cost of the vaccine the impact in 20 years from now is that we're going to have much

2:02:28less cervical cancer much less oral pharyngeal cancer we're going to have improved lives because

2:02:34of that and we're going to save lives because of that really important so now we're going to go to

2:02:42the challenge so fiscal pressure we all face fiscal pressures I'm not going to spend any time talking

2:02:49about it I don't think I need to explain that here we are seeing population growth and so we're

2:02:56trying to figure out because of the fiscal pressures we know we can't say well we need 10 more staff we

2:03:01need 20 more staff it's just not realistic in today's age we have to do things differently

2:03:06and so we're going to have to look at how we will be addressing population growth

2:03:10and ensuring that we're able to continue to deliver the services that we need to

2:03:14and then finally we have rising complexity so we're not just dealing with people with diabetes

2:03:22and heart disease which is very very challenging and very difficult but we're also adding other

2:03:28diagnosis is on top of that so we're dealing with mental illness we're dealing with co-morbidities

2:03:33meaning they have multiple illnesses that are that are that are sort of playing against each

2:03:40other and so working in an environment where we're trying to improve the health while we're

2:03:44dealing with that type of complexity is very challenging so better data workflow standardization

2:03:56automation and cost and value measurement that's going to talk about next so in our traditional

2:04:05way we would always count widgets count numbers how many inspections did we do how many vaccines did

2:04:10I minister and use that as the mechanism to say do I need more resources do I need less resources

2:04:17and we sometimes would ask and I say that sometimes we'd ask our practices consistent I

2:04:23identified we have offices across three locations years ago I would say I don't know what they're

2:04:30doing in Fergus or I don't know what they're doing in Orangeville I know what they're doing in Guelph

2:04:35we need to change that and we need to improve that so what we're looking at is what is it that we

2:04:41have to do and how do we have to do it to do it well and what time does it take or what resources

2:04:47does it take to do it well and then understanding what we're spending our time on and why we're

2:04:54spending our time is this actually meeting the end result that we're looking for we're looking for

2:04:59outcome measures not just widgets to count and then looking at the data to both understand the

2:05:07services that we're delivering but also to understand what services we need to deliver

2:05:12and then finally standardization across the work that we do to ensure that we improve quality and

2:05:19efficiency and ensure that doesn't matter where you go or who you see in our organization the

2:05:24service you see is going to be the same for everyone so we're going to use innovation so faster

2:05:35responses so some of the things that we're doing now and that we're looking to improve on is we're

2:05:40using AI throughout our workflows so we have a team that answers our phones day in and day out and

2:05:50it's hundreds and hundreds of phone calls a day and that includes voice mails we now don't have to

2:05:55have a nurse answering or listening to the voicemail documenting the voicemail and then handing the

2:06:01voicemail off to someone else to respond to you or for them to respond we have a program that listens

2:06:07to the voicemail documents it and prioritizes it and also gives us tone and other cues to understand

2:06:16if this person's an angry person that's calling or that they're upset or that they're inappropriate

2:06:22so that we can actually escalate the call to the appropriate person

2:06:28yeah we also have better access with our chatbot working 24 hours a day some people we know that

2:06:37our population is very connected and so now they can go online and they can ask the questions

2:06:42through our chatbot at the time in which they have the question and not wait for the business hours

2:06:47that we have for for live personnel and we have digital services to help navigate

2:06:55some of the programs and services that we offer we are looking into and working towards AI assisted

2:07:02documentation to increase our time of our staff with the population and decrease the time they're

2:07:09doing administrative work and the automation of letters so I talked about the measles letters that

2:07:15we sent out and I talked about ISPA in both those scenarios we were able to produce the letters

2:07:21that were customized to the person and send them via Canada Post for the measles component because

2:07:30we weren't working through the school boards but this year we were able to customize all of our

2:07:35ISPA letters which were over 12 11,000 letters and send them via email register whether or not they

2:07:45open the email registered whether or not they use the QR code that we embedded in a protected

2:07:53letter in the email to register and update their child's records so we were able to do all of that

2:07:59without putting a person in place and then we were able to divert the resources that we would

2:08:03normally do to that to actually go out and meet with our our population and provide better services

2:08:09that way and then we're looking at consistent standardization which will be my next slide

2:08:19oh they did not put it on there so I'm gonna just speak to yeah so just speak to the standardization

2:08:27we are looking to improve all of our services and so we're using data and other measurement tools to

2:08:37ensure that all the work that we do so if it's about you coming in and getting a vaccine from us

2:08:43that we're ensuring that we follow the same standard to ensure we are maximizing our workforce

2:08:50in in a way that delivers the care that you need but also the efficiency that we need to be able to

2:08:55respond like I said earlier to the growing population that we're dealing with but we're doing that across

2:09:02all of our areas to better deliver the services and to find the efficiencies that we need to to work

2:09:10and with that I thank you for the opportunity to share that information and welcome questions

2:09:15wow really really interesting thank you very much and thank you yeah thank you for coming

2:09:20and doing the that presentation and is there any follow-up question let me guess uh councillor Allt

2:09:27and then councillor Caton thank you very much well that was an easy guess thank you very much

2:09:32margithry and thank you very much to to the health unit for the presentation a question I have is

2:09:41actually I was fascinated by what you stated about the HPV vaccination we have some fairly

2:09:48cloistered communities with very particular values I'll be as oblique as that the 75

2:09:55percent uptake on the HPV in my opinion is is incredible um

2:10:03a how do you do it and b how do you convince people that the the health unit is not promoting

2:10:12uh sexual activity amongst teenagers and and quite serious about that absolutely thank you

2:10:19through you mr. mayor and uh councillor thank you for your question it is a very important question

2:10:25um HPV vaccine is uh the stigma and the acceptance of it is evolving so when it first came out

2:10:33several years ago for it was only offered to the female population in school and was not offered

2:10:39to males even though males can get uh HPV infections they can get cancer from HPV and they can give

2:10:45HPV to um their partners their sexual partners this vaccine does not protect you from any

2:10:53sexually transmitted infections it does not protect you from pregnancy it is a vaccine that

2:11:00prevents uh a communicable disease that is um highly linked to cervical cancer and so we use

2:11:08facts and we share facts in different ways with different populations so we go into the school

2:11:14our nurses speak to the students themselves we um have um parent town hall meetings we have parents

2:11:23engage we work with physicians to teach to have physicians speak to the families about HPV

2:11:29and actually the last couple of years we've received some significant amount of money from

2:11:34grants from different universities in canada to work on enhancing and improving um uptake of the

2:11:42HPV vaccine through health promotion activities and so right now we're working on that and we're

2:11:48building champions in our schools and our high schools for the kids themselves to be able to

2:11:54speak to the importance of vaccination and particularly HPV vaccine and um so that's one

2:12:01thing that's one part of it the second part of it is um how do we get the rates that we do so we

2:12:07do a couple things that are different um and then we do a couple things that are the same as other

2:12:11health units we offer HPV vaccine every year when we go into the schools to our grade seven students

2:12:17we do HPV catch up with our grade eight students and then when we do our ISPA campaign that's that

2:12:23big immunization assessment we go into the high schools when we go into the high schools we offer

2:12:29HPV to everyone that's not been vaccinated and we do all of the catch up and then finally at the

2:12:34end of the school year we reach out to every student who is in grade 11 and grade 12 leaving the

2:12:40school system if they're not up to date on their vaccine or if they haven't started the HPV vaccine

2:12:46and have and educate them we actually reach out to the student themselves and educate them because

2:12:51at that point they are in a position where they can provide informed consent and you get the vaccine

2:12:57on their own and it's really important we spend a lot of time talking about getting it before you

2:13:01leave high school because once you're out of high school it's no longer publicly funded and that's

2:13:06when it becomes a very expensive vaccine um those are some of the strategies but we also do other

2:13:13strategies in individual communities but also with individuals in our offices to help promote that

2:13:21vaccine. Thank you very much I think probably the lesson we all learn is vaccinations save lives

2:13:29and the HPV is no exception. Thank you. Okay thank you. Councillor Caton please.

2:13:35Thank you through you Mr. Mayor. Just to echo what Councillor Allt was saying as a cervical cancer

2:13:43survivor the vaccine is a much better path than going through cancer treatment and I'm so glad

2:13:53that my daughter is within the age group and cohort that is now getting that regular vaccination.

2:13:59I just wanted to give kudos for all of the the tech improvements as well as the policies that

2:14:05have been put in place I wanted to kind of call out the fact that public health created an ethical

2:14:10use and an environmental use policy for AI so making sure that we're using programs that are

2:14:18vetted making sure the background of the corporate culture and I wanted to ask you a question a little

2:14:29bit about health inspections because there was an issue with once once you get a call

2:14:37do you have to respond to the health inspection you can't like overlook things just because of

2:14:42who certain people are. So through you Mayor Guthrie and thank you Councillor Caton for your

2:14:51question you are correct we do have to respond how we respond and what we do can vary depending

2:14:58on the circumstance but at the end of the day our responsibility is to ensure that any food that

2:15:04if you're speaking to food inspection or different type of inspection food inspection yeah really

2:15:11any inspection our goal is to ensure that the people that are utilizing the service that we're

2:15:16inspecting on are safe and and that the services that are being rendered in that in that situation

2:15:24are done so in a way that meets the standards that are set out in Ontario and in Canada.

2:15:31And if I'm correct they you don't just give somebody a report you kind of offer help

2:15:39on how to improve the situation. Correct so we we can we can just give a report we can

2:15:48issue tickets it all depends on the circumstance but at the end of the day our goal is not to

2:15:55be in a situation where we are issuing tickets and not really trying to support whatever

2:16:03organization or where we are wherever the service is being rendered to support them in delivering

2:16:10safe and appropriate services to the community and some of that can be education so we may just go

2:16:16in and give them some education we may share some tools with them and we may bring them in for

2:16:23education on site in our facility but we also will help them make the changes that they need and

2:16:31and then follow up and ensure that they have the support they need for the continuation of services

2:16:36to be within the parameters that set out. Great and I just can't stress enough how top to bottom

2:16:44every department public health is just amazing you all do such good work and I've been very very

2:16:51proud to be on the board. I appreciate your compliments thank you. Thank you counselor

2:16:58and I see nothing more so next year we'll put you at the top okay so you don't have to go to the

2:17:06bottom okay all right thank you all right so thank you say thanks to everybody we appreciate it.

2:17:12Okay uh council I think we're good to wrap up yep because yeah we're good okay uh counselor

2:17:25claus and you're gonna help me with the bylaws please help us with the bylaws.

2:17:33That bylaw 2026 21 284 be approved subject to section 284.114 of the municipal act

2:17:41and counselor goller is going to move that second okay perfect second that okay um

2:17:54and is there anything further on the bylaws anybody no okay I will call the vote is anyone

2:18:00against the bylaws no just before adjournment I forgot to do this at the beginning I promised her

2:18:07I would and so I just want to make sure it's captured on the record uh counselor hauser did

2:18:12send official regrets so I just want to make sure that's captured for for her um with that we're

2:18:20about to go to adjournment but I would just like to say this is our last council meeting we might

2:18:27have something quick maybe in August or something but we'll see uh but really it's the it's the last

2:18:33and um we're not back here for a bit so I just want to say thank you to staff and

2:18:42to all my colleagues on council just to have a good a good little time here uh well for some of

2:18:48us anyways good time over the next few few weeks and uh and wish you all you know health and safety

2:18:54over over a little bit of the break some of us are going to the AMO conference and still you know

2:18:59working up we're all working away to be honest with you but uh just from a council meeting

2:19:03perspective uh it's going to be a little while so thank you and uh with that I hope you have a

2:19:08good night after we adjourn and I would say Guller and Richardson are going to uh move in

2:19:15second and is there anybody against that nobody that's unanimous as well thank you again and have

2:19:22a great rest of the night bye bye