Transcript: Committee of the Whole - 2026-06-15

Speaker A · Sam.

Speaker B · Welcome, everyone. I'm going to call the June 15 meeting of committee of the Whole to order. We have Council Boardman on the phone and we have regrets from Councils Armour and Helliwell. So it's just the four of us on this side. We're not gonna tip over that way. I'm gonna ask. And as is normal in our community of the whole, we rotate through the chair both to give those of us on council practice chairing the meeting, but also to allow the mayor to speak more freely, which hopefully she will use this evening. So I'm going to ask the mayor to do the territorial acknowledgment.

Speaker C · Thank you very much, Chair. Before we begin, I want to acknowledge the Lekwungen speaking peoples on whose territory this township building stands. We recognize and respect first nations governments of both Cosapsum, also known as Esquimalt nation and Songhees First Nation. And as you are aware, on June 21 we celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day. And across B. C.

Speaker C · indigenous communities are playing an increasingly central role in the protection and stewardship of natural areas. And so it is fitting to acknowledge their contribution tonight as we are having discussions. Thank you.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Are there any late items for introduction? The

Speaker D · late correspondence.

Speaker B · Oh, the correspondence, yes. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda with the introduction of the ladies?

Speaker E · Second.

Speaker A · Approval with the additions. Thank you.

Speaker B · Okay, any discussion? All those in favor? Motion passed on to adoption of the minutes. We have the minutes of the committee of the whole meeting of May 11 and the special committee of the whole meeting on May 25. Can I get a motion to approve?

Speaker E · Move.

Speaker F · Adoption.

Speaker C · Second.

Speaker B · Second. Any changes or omissions? Seeing none, I will call the question. All those in favor?

Speaker G · All.

Speaker B · Any opposed? And now we come to public input section of the meeting where we can. Anyone who wishes to address any of the presentations and delegations that are on the agenda and that would include a delegation on 903 Admirals Road, short term rentals, the Victoria Regional Transit Plan, the West Bay Residents Association, Habitat for Humanities. Sorry. The interpretive platform and pollinator park, as well as the committee chair updates. Is there anyone who wishes to address. Come up to the thing. You'll have two minutes to speak. Just a reminder that we want to keep this at a policy level and there's a lot of things that may be controversial on the agenda. And so we want to speak to the policy and not to the individuals.

Speaker B · And if you could give your name and your address for the record.

Speaker H · Thank you, Mr. Chair Committee, for having me this evening. My name is Rachel Sansom of 1498 White Pine Terrace. However, I'm here tonight as the agent for Mr. Vijay Bangu, who's the owner of 903 Admirals Road. And we'd like to speak to Agenda ITIS 6. 1. We have a little bit of a concern about procedural fairness in this case. We have applied for a development permit which is supposed to come before council in the very near future. And we've not yet had the opportunity to present our project to council. Council, we've done a lot of work over the last several years. The project was rezoned in November and we've received a lot of very good public support for this project. And since the development review committee, Mr.

Speaker H · Bangoo spent considerable time and resources refining his project. And we're really looking forward to showing council all the positive changes. So we don't have any issue with people addressing policy and wishing to make changes. We just think maybe it's a little bit cart before the horse in this case. And we would have liked to have presented our development permit prior to our project, kind of being an example of some policy change that people might like to see. Thank you so much.

Speaker B · Thank you. Anyone else who would like to address council? Yep. And if anyone else wishes to speak, if you line up, we can make this a little bit faster, but thank you. And just your name and your address for the record.

Speaker D · Yes.

Speaker I · Hi, It's Nancy Payne, 1036 Monroe Street. Good evening, Mayor and council. I am here tonight to respectfully urge you to permit secondary suites and garden suites to be used for short term and medium term rentals in Esquimalt. Esquimalt has very limited hotel capacity, creating a significant gap for visitors, temporary workers, families, military personnel and essential service providers who require flexible home like accommodations for periods ranging from a few days to several months. Secondary and garden suites. Does this sound funny?

Speaker F · Okay.

Speaker I · Secondary and garden suites are ideally suited to meet this need. They provide privacy, full kitchen facilities and an authentic neighborhood experience that traditional hotels cannot replicate. In our own suite, we regularly host family and friends and when it's available, we offer it on Airbnb with a 30 day minimum stay consistent with current zoning. Most guests stay between 30 and 60 days for extended visits. Hotels are often prohibitively expensive and frequently do not accommodate pets. Moreover, many suites like ours, featuring a Murphy bed, compact appliances and no en suite laundry, are not practical for long term tenancy. A ban or a six month gap on rentals will not convert these suites into year round housing. Instead, it will simply remove them from the Market entirely.

Speaker I · Esquimalt has already far exceeded its provincial housing targets, delivering more than four times the required units in year one. Restricting secondary and garden suites will not meaningfully increase long term housing stock, but will harm tourism, reduce local economic activity, diminish tax revenue and eliminate a valuable source of supplemental income for homeowners. We therefore respectfully ask council to align with the existing provincial short term rental framework, allowing secondary and garden suites located in primary residences to provide short term and medium term accommodations year round. This is the most cost effective solution in terms of bylaw enforcement and the balanced approach addresses real community needs while protecting neighborhoods character. Thank you.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Anyone else who wishes to speak?

Speaker J · Good evening, mayor and council. My name is Valerie Hostetler. I leave at 273 Sea Terrace. I wanted to address the West Bay proposal for the interpretive pollinator park that would overlook Matson lands. I thought I was going to be able to do this after the presentation, but I understand I should do it now.

Speaker K · Okay, great.

Speaker J · All right. As a former educator, one of the things that I'm passionate about is providing schools with learning opportunities. And right now I've actually been on walks offered through the township about the Matson lands and there isn't actually a place to gather and discuss that. The small interpretive platform that we're proposing would be sufficient that schools could walk over to the Matson lands and learn about the incredible unique environment that is there. So that was a part that I don't think has really been addressed, but I wanted to encourage you to think about it from an educational point of view and that if we are hoping that young people will take on some of these spaces, we really need to provide a place to have the education.

Speaker J · The second part that I wanted to say was that literally two blocks away there's a nine story senior citizen building going up and this little park will be accessible for anybody in a wheelchair or a walker. It doesn't have any hill going to it. So it will be a public space for people that live nearby who are in the senior residence and they can't make it down to Bernard park or they can't make it down the Dunsmere Hill. So I think that that's another really important part and it really links in with our need. If we're having, we have what you know already. Well, we're going on 500 new units in the West Bay alone and we need to provide more public spaces for those people to be outside. Thank you very much.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Anyone else who wants to speak, I call a second time and a third time. Anyone else want to speak? Okay, we'll move on to the next portion of the agenda, which are delegations and presentations. I just wanted to remind everyone what community the whole is and what the restrictions we have in terms of our Council priorities procedures bylaw about how we can respond to delegations. So in our Council procedures bylaw, this is a time for us to hear from the public and to hear from presentations, not really to engage. We can ask questions and we're not even supposed to start making decisions at this. We can, we can receive your presentation, we can discuss it and we can ask questions, but we're not going to be making decisions tonight.

Speaker B · Two of the things tonight are coming up in the very short order onto a council meeting. Both this one here, 903Eschemel, Admiral's Road, as we heard, but also the short term rentals. And that's going to be the time when we're going to discuss the issue more fully as a Council. If it looks like we're just not engaging or we're not being as enthusiastic as you might hope, it's simply because this isn't really the format for it. This is really a time for you to speak to us, us to listen and for us to consider when it comes to us properly at the Council meeting at that term. So I just want to create expectations.

Speaker B · So if we could skip the group for the ninth, this presentation, and this is a five minute presentation, the light is going to change to amber when there's one minute remaining and we'll start flashing at the end of the five minutes.

Speaker L · Thank you. My name is Graham Tarling and I'm representing ECO for this delegation and we would like to thank Council for this opportunity to present on 903 Admirals Road development proposal. 903Admirals is not your typical lot. Firstly, the tree canopy coverage is extensive. I've not found a specific number in any report, but we can see from this picture that it's in the region of 60 to 70%. Secondly, the majority of the 32 trees that are slated for removal are ecologically significant. Garry oak and Douglas fir. What is squamot would be losing? Mature trees provide the following significant benefits. Shade and heat protection, stormwater management, air purification, physical and mental health, support, biodiversity and connectivity and community character.

Speaker L · With climate change impacts worsening due to more extreme and frequent weather events like heat domes, these benefits become more and more valuable each year. Replacement trees will take decades to achieve. The performance of mature trees that are lost. The City of Halifax has realized $8 of benefit for every $1 that they put into trees. Not a bad return on investment. Esquimort residents really care about trees. I created this petition in March and forwarded it to council in April. As of two weeks ago, there were 708 total signatures, of which 175 or 25% are Esquimort residents. These results clearly show that Esquimort residents agree that this development proposal in its current state is fails to sufficiently meet our OCP environmental guidelines.

Speaker L · Why the current design is not appropriate the design totally ignores the numerous transportation benefits of this location. Admiral's Road has four bus services running on it. It has bike lanes in either direction. It's only 300 metres to get to the E N rail trail and only 500 to walk to the CFP Esquimault Naden entrance. Ironically, the developer touted these same benefits when presenting to council and committees, so the question is why have they included a two car garage in each unit? Additionally, the size of the units does not align well with the township's demographics. Where 75% of Esquimaughc households are less than three people, a thoughtful design can achieve both density and better tree protection.

Speaker L · The illustrated concept removes one of the two garage spaces. The remaining space becomes a bike and general storage area. The reduction of overall unit size then frees up enough lot area to provide one surface parking lot per unit plus a visitor space. The original wide paved driveway between the blocks is replaced with a narrower permeable space with pathways so each block moves in about 2 meters from the lot line and that way you could save somewhere around eight additional trees. How can we do better in the future? Currently, the main issue is that natural assets are not considered until the development permit process, by which time rezoning has already defined where the developer can build.

Speaker L · They are then reluctant to rework their design to accommodate optional OCP environmental guidelines. We suggest addressing tree protection from the start of the process, limiting parking near high transit areas, managing natural assets in the same way as grey built assets, strengthening the tree protection bylaw and turning some environmental guidelines into bylaws. In closing, when this application comes to Council, ECO implores you to take heed of the many residents who signed the petition as well as the advice of the Development Review Committee and Parks Department. Irrespective of the result of this application, ECO looks forward to collaborating with ESQUIMOC to help improve the process for the future. We have another option to also consider.

Speaker L · Will Council pause the development permit application until the Urban Forest management plan renewal project is completed later this year so that it can then provide additional context and information for input to council's review of this development. Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Are there any questions from council Councillor

Speaker A · Morrison, thank you very much for the presentation this evening. So just kind of you've got outlined in your closing as to spoke to them. Could you go back to the slide where you outlined the five tools that you recommend?

Speaker L · I'll try.

Speaker A · I think it was just. Was it the previous. There it is, yes. So those five tools there at the bottom, you also referenced that we have language in our current OCP guidelines that you feel were not necessarily being followed in this case. We also have an OCP major review that's going to be happening with 2027 in the next term, I suppose, with council. Are you wanting to see these five tools as you word them here, you know, with the goal of what you intended with these five tools, you want them implemented into that new OCP revision.

Speaker L · Not particularly into it. I mean the tree protection bylaw exists in its own right and you could do things like it seems it quite low the amount that's required for a security deposit, for instance. So it doesn't necessarily make the developer focus on tree protection. And then the suggestion is, I mean the ocp, as I've learned over this last six months learning about this project, is that OCP is guidelines where feasible, do X, Y and Z. It's not a bylaw. So I also understand, I've heard comments from developers in the past where they don't like guidelines because they don't know how much am I supposed to do to meet these guidelines. It's like a very gray area.

Speaker L · So where, I mean the example I had on a previous slide or that slide actually is you could implement potentially a bylaw saying pick a number like 30, 40% native landscaping, then the developer knows exactly what they're doing and they'll do it as opposed to where feasible, use some native landscaping.

Speaker L · So that kind of approach on those two.

Speaker A · So the point being that the OCP is not good enough because it's just the guidelines and what you'd seen with these five approaches, you need bylaw.

Speaker L · I think, yeah, essentially that the OCP is guidelines. That's what I've had explained to me. I didn't appreciate that initially. So in order for something to happen, it needs to be a bylaw.

Speaker M · Okay.

Speaker L · And the other like the major issue here is with this process, the rezoning happened and during that rezoning process. I remember, I can't remember who. Somebody, one of the councillors asked, one of the members of the development review committee asked can we talk at this point about trees? And they were told no, that waits to the development permit. And it seems odd to me that you're setting, setting setbacks where they can build, but there's no consideration about what the lot contains at this point in time. So you get to the process that we're at now, the development permit application and it's really hard to get it changed because the developer has been told you can build wherever based on these setbacks and now potentially we're saying, oh, could you please change it from that what we told you before to, to try and preserve more trees.

Speaker L · So it seems too late in the process and it's hard to change.

Speaker A · So just final question through the chair. So you've got cause in your presentation you talk about two things. The case study of 908 Admirals and you've made a request about that specifically. But the bigger picture is these five tools and that's really what you want more importantly to happen for the township

Speaker L · is quite mall if you rate them. Yes. It's more important to long term sort things out. It would be nice if, I mean it's a fair comment from the representative earlier that we don't know how this is going to turn out with the existing process, but I can't imagine that too much is going to change. I'll be interested to see and I would be pleasantly surprised, but I don't know that there's the impetus there to make big changes now.

Speaker A · Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Speaker B · Anyone else have any questions? I just have one which is following on Councillor Morrison's question. Is there a municipality that you think does a better job that we should be looking to either regionally or given

Speaker L · that there's 12 other municipalities? I'm not entirely sure. I've heard that Esquimalt is one of the few, if not the only, that has separate rezoning and development permit application stages. But I don't honestly know. I spent all my time just finding out what was happening here, so. But you know, I'm sure they're doing it differently, whether it's better.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. We'll move on to the next delegation which is Christina Sack.

Speaker N · Good evening Mayor and council. My name is Christina Stack, homeowner and long term resident of Esquimalt. I'm an award winning realtor based in esquimalt for over 16 years. I'm also a managing Broker of my own firm, licensed in property management and a general contractor by trade. I'm here tonight to talk about short term rentals as an expert in Esquimalt real estate. The intent of short term legislation at the beginning of this year was to create more long term housing. I wanted to start with this image on the first slide because effect we've seen the market correct, to quote the B. C. government. We have thousands of new housing rentals coming to market and our rental housing market has cooled considerably. Average rents have dropped between 2. 1% and 5% year over year. In fact, we hold an occupancy rate of 3. 3%.

Speaker N · We're at the highest rental market rate since 1999. So the residential Tenancy branch is already there for our policies and guidelines protecting long term housing. Municipal involvement is not needed to protect existing long term rentals. The Residential Tenancy Board already enforces legislation that protects long term renters. For example, if I wanted to take off a long term rental and turn it into a short term, I couldn't do that. There's already things in place that protect the long term renters and the township of Esquimo economic drivers. There we go. Every year we're attracting thousands of people to local events, Rib fest, jazz fest, curling events. And these people have nowhere to stay. By shutting down short term rentals, we're limiting these visitors to staying in other parts of Esquimalt. Driving the money out of Esquimalt. I'm really here to talk.

Speaker N · Sorry, I get the shakes when I do public speaking. Forgive me. I'm really here to talk about the 30 day rentals. Currently Esquimalt allows 30 day furnished rentals. The proposed 180 days would make it impossible to operate furnished midterm rentals that are desperately needed. Secondary suites are not standalone Airbnbs. They are not investor condos or rentals that are rented from afar. They're suites that exist in our personal residences and we live close, in close contact with these people. So protecting long term housing. We've been hearing that we're short on rentals for a long time and that has changed. It's not up to homeowners to come up with long term housing. It's up to provincial legislation. And B. C. has been adding so many rentals that we're about to experience too many rentals.

Speaker N · Rental prices have been driven down as a result and so many are coming to the market. And supporting current homeowners is supporting long term housing. Talking about 30 day furnished rentals. This is my Niche. So supporting local is supporting midterm furnished rentals. Locals are the number one renter of 30 day furnished rentals, not tourists. Locals. Locals are renting furnished rentals for the following reasons. Fire and flood are the number one reason that locals need a furnished rental. They don't want a hundred square foot hotel room when they have to operate as a family or professional in the area. They want a kitchen, parking, laundry, facility facilities and a place for their pets and hotels cannot provide this.

Speaker N · Other reasons locals need short term and midterm rentals include people who are coming from up island that need to be close to Victoria for radiation therapy or other medical reasons that are not provided that are provided in the capital. We have hosted many people who have needed a suite for this reason and many people who operate a short term rental in their suite need the flexibility to host their own family members. And that flexibility 180 days is simply too long for someone looking for a home between home for fire, flood, renovation, rental while looking for their long term or medical procedures, radiation therapy and we've got part time renters want to stay while they're also looking for long term housing.

Speaker N · In the past 18 months as a realtor I have placed five medical professionals in long term housing in Esquimalt because they were able to stay in my short term suite while they look for housing in my suite alone. I've helped attract and bring to Esquimal a doctor, a nurse, two healthcare informatics specialists and a sonographer in just the last 18 months alone. I have one in my suite right now looking for a home. In fact they've all purchased or now rent an Esquimalt. They all came from out of province and they couldn't do that without a 30 day rental. Esquimalt Progressive in development not so progressive in protecting homeowners.

Speaker N · We've seen Esquimault allow development in hundreds of new homes in the past couple of years, bringing to the market infill buildings that affect current existing homeowners. The infrastructure has been strained. There's no parking as a result of the new condos, not because of short term rentals in existing homes. Furnished suites are needed to house the people displaced from building competition completion dates as well. Protecting existing young families and homeowners. Giving us a reason to protect existing housing stock is by allowing us to afford our homes. And in closing I feel the council is using short term housing as a red herring to distract from the rampant over development. Even the short term rental questionnaire put forward by council felt biased.

Speaker N · We do not have the infrastructure or parking in place to sustain the level of growth that council is approving. Even Wayne, the bylaw officer has told me that he is not called out for short term rental issues. He's being called out for all of the illegal parking going on from the new developments encroaching on existing homeowners. Lastly, my question for council is what are we to do and where are we to place people from the community who need to come and need a 30 day rental? I know the township is understaffed and I would love to offer and volunteer my time to help Esquimo implement and regulate short term and midterm 30 day rentals.

Speaker B · Thank you. Any questions from council?

Speaker L · Sure.

Speaker C · First of all, when is the short term rental topic returning to council?

Speaker G · Next Monday.

Speaker F · All right.

Speaker C · And when does council hear with regard to the destination Greater Victoria information around hotels, hotel development? I guess it is.

Speaker G · I'm not certain. I'll have to ask Ms. Finnegan and we'll get back to you.

Speaker A · Sorry, through the chair there is a presentation coming from the downtown Victoria hotels. I believe this next Monday.

Speaker B · Okay.

Speaker C · And my third question is that if council wish to make a change in the direction that we set earlier and make it less restrictive, what would would next Monday be the time to do that or can you provide some some

Speaker G · thought around that next Monday would be an excellent time to do that.

Speaker C · Okay, thank you very much.

Speaker G · Other.

Speaker L · Sorry, sorry, just a correction.

Speaker O · We're looking at the calendar now.

Speaker A · The downtown Victoria hotels is due to

Speaker O · present on the July 13 Committee of the whole.

Speaker A · Thank you. I'm going to ask you a similar question that Councillor Cavins asked the previous presenter around other municipalities and I'm guessing you're familiar with the consultants report that was done. We saw in that there was quite a variety of how people have approached STRs around in terms of the municipalities around us. And I understand you're asking for more like you just simply adopt what the province is.

Speaker N · Yeah, we need at least a minimum. I am highly regulated by bcfsa so I have to go by those regulations. I'm doing 30 days minimum and it works and it's attracting those locals for those reasons. It's not tourists and we need that. And it also it creates a housing stock in Esquimalt that I can sell. If you were to restrict it more. I'm not going to sell as many homes in Esquimalt. Period.

Speaker A · And so just in terms of what the other municipalities have have done or looking at doing. We know I think from our last discussion Colwood was looking at pretty much adopting the province's guidelines as you're requesting, but all the other misspells are sort of doing different things. So other than Coalwood, is there anything out there that you could point to that you think would work well for.

Speaker N · I think you should look at Kelowna because they've just overtoned, overturned everything. They had a problem with people not being able to stay in short term housing. And like I said, it's not. It's not American tourists coming for a week. This is locals who need at least the bare minimum, the 30 days. Victoria allows 30 day rentals. Yeah. I mean, even if we could do it, if we were to open it up even further, to actually allow short term rentals in suites, our housing stock would be. It would cost more and more. It would be better. I mean, not better for people who don't have houses, but better for the existing people. In Esquimalt, we're actually still the most undervalued part of the core. So that would be an argument for homeowners and especially suites.

Speaker N · There's not a lot of insulation in between there. It's not an investment condo. We're looking at people who come and go, and it's nice when they come and go.

Speaker A · Okay, thank you. So I guess a question through the chair to staff. Could we have some of that information about Kelowna's approach included with the items we get?

Speaker G · I believe Kelowna asked the provincial government to exempt them from the program.

Speaker L · Yeah.

Speaker G · So that's a different situation.

Speaker A · Oh, I see. As a sort of a destination.

Speaker B · Yeah. They.

Speaker G · They have large vacancy rates. So the intent of this legislation was to combat the low rental rates. So once you have large rental rates, you can ask to be exempted from the program, which I believe is what Colonial did.

Speaker N · Yeah. And we're at 3. 3%, which I was saying is the highest occupancy rate since 1999. Like we got. We've got rentals. They're here.

Speaker G · Yeah.

Speaker A · Right. Thank you very much for that additional information.

Speaker K · Thank you.

Speaker F · You touched at the beginning and it's something I've heard a few times, and maybe you can expand. So, because a lot of people are concerned if we allow short term rentals, that we're kicking out the long term rentals. And you said that there's some.

Speaker N · Yeah.

Speaker F · And I'll tell you what I heard and you can tell me how accurate it was. What I heard is that you can't kick anybody out to turn it into a short term rental. It would have to sit vacant for like a year.

Speaker N · Yeah, six months to a year. So that's not happening. And there's lots of legislation from the Residential Tenancy Board. I'm a licensed property manager, so I have to deal with this. I deal with evictions. I've seen this before. If you kick somebody out and you're turning it into a short term rental, the person can prove it and instantly gets paid and it's a huge deal. And that doesn't really happen. Nobody's kicking people out to do that. It's not a thing. It's usually people buying an existing vacant house with a suite and then they're turning it into that. And most of the people who are sort of backing me tonight, they've got families from abroad who need to stay in that suite for a small portion of time.

Speaker N · So we don't hate long term renters, but we want to have that flexibility. And for me, I'm ushering in doctors into your municipality and nurses and I'm proving it and it's happening. And that's only happening because I can do that 30 day minimum, right? Yeah.

Speaker B · I just have a question. This is for staff and maybe I'm just confused by something here, but my understanding is that there's no restrictions under current bylaws. And on what we talked about for anyone wanting to do longer than 30 days, if you want to do for 60 or 90 or 120 or 270, that's still all completely legal under our current bylaws. As I'm a.

Speaker G · That's how we are interpreting the current bylaw.

Speaker F · Yes.

Speaker B · Okay. Any other questions? Seeing none. Thank you very much.

Speaker N · Thank you so much.

Speaker B · Okay, on to the presentations, which are 10 minute presentations and the first one is from BC Transit on the Victoria Regional Transit plan. Go ahead.

Speaker O · Excellent. Thank you so much to Mayor and council for having me here tonight. My name is Levi Megganbur. I'm the manager of Service planning with BC Transit and I'm joined by my colleague Elise Ren, manager of government relations in the audience as well, hoping to provide an update on the draft Victoria Regional Transit plan and get some feedback and input from council at this stage. And then as well we want to introduce some of the big moves associated with the plan, some of those core features of the plan that we hope to unfold over the following 25 years. So what is the Victoria Regional Transit plan and what are we hoping to accomplish with it? I think the first is we're looking to update the 25 year vision for the Region.

Speaker O · We've seen significant changes within the region over the last 15 years since we last did a long range plan, and we've seen significant changes in development travel patterns. And we just need to revisit what that future vision looks like. Beyond the vision, we need to develop comprehensive network and route design guidelines. The goal for this is really to reflect the fact that the region has been very dynamic and changing very rapidly. And so this will provide a flexible framework for us to continue to adapt and adjust the network as the region continues to grow and develop. And then finally, the plan needs to provide a roadmap for infrastructure investment both with respect to operations and maintenance facilities, to expand the fleet, as well as significant on street investments to move rapid transit initiatives forward within the region.

Speaker O · There's also been a seismic shift in terms of the policy landscape around transit within the region, starting with the province's recent bills 44 and 47, drawing a much more significant connection between land use and transit, the CRD's recent regional transportation Service and the update of their Regional transportation Plan, needing to adjust and reflect for some of those changes within the region, and then finally acknowledging that every municipality within the region has updated their official community plans within the last year.

Speaker O · And it's created a really unique opportunity for us to account for those changes to planned future land use with respect to our future transit plan. Before talking about the specifics within the plan, I think there's value in just reflecting briefly on some of the significant milestones that transit has made over the last five plus years. So first of all, our electronic fare collection technology, UMO has been implemented over the last several years with our debit and credit tap of course, which we just launched over the last three to four weeks, which is really exciting. Work continues on the Highway 1 Rapid transit lanes and we've continued to see benefits to the region from the work there. Battery electric bus rollout continues.

Speaker O · We now have 25 battery electric buses operating within the region and more coming in the coming years. We launched our first rapid bus route within the region with the 95 downtown to Lankford route. We implemented the Kids 12 and under ride Free in collaboration with the province and we've seen a significant increase in the youth riding our bus over the last several years. And then finally the new Handy DART facility was opened last year within View Royal, allowing us to finally invest in our Handy DART services for the first time over a decade, which is very exciting. In terms of the current system, we operate almost 60 routes. We delivered over 26 million rides last year and we're seeing the ridership numbers continue to grow year over year. We had some significant public engagement through the process.

Speaker O · So we had an online survey, we had, I believe, nine open house events. We had almost 1,900 people respond to our online survey. We Talked to over 350 people in person through our open house events and had some great conversations. And we had significant conversations with stakeholder groups, including local neighborhood and community associations, major regional employers like CFP and others. And what did we hear? We heard a lot. But if I can summarize it really succinctly, given the time constraints, improved frequency, improved service reliability, people really want to see more rapid transit. They want to be able to travel more quickly and reliably throughout the region and really an overall desire for simplified routes and more direct service with respect to the network and route design guidelines.

Speaker O · I'm not going to go into it in too great detail because we have very limited time. But ultimately this is looking to develop a demand based framework for prioritizing transit investments in the future and how the network will be pieced together longer term. Really the goal of this is to provide clarity to the public, local governments and our key stakeholders around. Hey, if you build a community of this type, this is the kind of service that you'll receive in terms of transit. So we're treating all of our communities equitably across the region. That really brings us to the big reveal, the big moves within the plan. So we've got 10 of them.

Speaker O · I will say we heard a lot about rapid transit and you'll see that very strongly reflected here in the big moves. Half of the initiatives are directly rapid transit oriented with another two, the uptown and six mile mobility hubs, largely supporting rapid transit initiatives. So that's almost 7 out of 10 right there. And then beyond rapid transit, we've identified the modernization of the transit network and build it of the frequent transit network. Modernizing the handy DART system and improving inter regional connections between Victoria, Nanaimo.

Speaker F · Now

Speaker O · I'm going to go into a little more detail on some of these because some of them have additional complexity. So what do we mean by modernizing the network? So this particular initiative involves really building out a frequent transit grid within the network where we're anticipating the most density, ridership and development. There's some supplemental regional express and express type services that we'll be looking to unfold throughout the region. And then in lower density and rural areas there's the ability to consider a digital on demand service which is a new service that we've Piloted in Kelowna, Powell river and Squamish. And now we have the opportunity to potentially bring that to the Victoria region as well.

Speaker O · In the short term, even as we have limited expansion capability until our next operations and maintenance facility is completed, we have the opportunity to look at how we're using our existing resources within the system. So another component of modernizing the network is just really looking at how the system's designed and where we're distributing service across the region. So the first component there is looking to reduce service duplication. So, for example, we have about 20 routes that operate on sections of Douglas street, and many times a lot of those buses are partially empty. So is there a way we can spread the peanut butter a little more evenly across the region, so to speak?

Speaker O · And we also heard through public engagement that people are willing to walk a little farther to transit on average if it means the bus is going to come a little more more regularly and frequently. So an opportunity on our major corridors to look at some minor adjustments to stop spacing to speed things up. In terms of the Handy Dirt modernization, as I mentioned, the new Handy Dirt facility was opened last year, which is very exciting development. We're in the process of launching the Custom Transit Solution, which is a digital booking software to improve the customer experience and the efficiency of how we deliver our Handy DART service within the region.

Speaker O · And this will also involve implementing updated service standards and performance guidelines to improve the customer experience. Moving into the future as well, one of the key rapid transit initiatives outlined in the plan is evolving the downtown to Lankford rapid transit into higher order transit. What do we mean by higher order transit? Ultimately, this is large vehicles. So beyond a double decker, so whether that be light rail or trackless trams, based off recent modeling from the ministry, by around 2050, we're going to need that additional capacity on Douglas to ensure that we have operations and we're not creating bus platoons and challenges boarding the lighting. I will note the alignment between downtown and the Six Mile area is pretty clear within the plan, but that connection between Six Mile and Lankford will need to be revisited as Lankford and Callwood and other West Shore municipalities have significantly changed their official community plans.

Speaker O · And there's going to be some pretty significant changes from when we originally developed this proposal in 2011. So what are the key priorities and opportunities within the township of Esquimalt? So the first thing is we're identifying a transit exchange within the core that's required to continue to build service in Esquimalt long term. There is opportunities to prioritize transit in a different way, queue jumpers, et cetera, that we look forward to continuing to work with the township of Esquimault on and continuing to build out the frequent transit network. Now I see I'm running short on time. So where are we at in terms of next steps? We're presenting this draft plan to all municipalities in the CRD right now.

Speaker O · I think we have two or three more after this evening. And then we actually just recently updated key stakeholders and rights holders at the end of May and into early June. So we got final feedback there as well. And ultimately we're taking all this feedback in, we're making some tweaks and adjustments, and then we're going to be presenting the revised draft plan to the commission in July. So with that, I want to thank the committee for having me here tonight and happy to answer any questions you may have.

Speaker B · Thank you very much.

Speaker A · Just curious of demographics of ridership. Like, I actually use the bus myself because it's convenient and I don't have to worry about parking and whatnot. But I'm always kind of fascinated, just as a sort of municipal councillor, just to observe everybody else that's on the bus as to what demographics are using the bus. And it seems to be quite a variety, especially during the more busy times of the day. But I've used it in the middle of the day as well, and you do see a real variety of users. So do you have that data, like, as opposed to what percentage are workers, students, seniors, disabled, and, you know, by age group? Do you have that for the region?

Speaker A · And then it'd be really nice to be able to compare it with each municipality, how they match up with the region, demographic wise. But is that information something that you have?

Speaker O · Great question through the chair. There's a few different sources of data that we could look at for that. I think the first is really the census data does indicate the proportion of people within any municipality that take transit. And so if we compare demographic, Population, demographic information to usage, that's one tool we have. In terms of stuff that BC Transit collects ourselves, we do have the umo, the. The electronic fare collection technology. Unfortunately, we only collect so much information about the people who create accounts. So we don't have a lot of detail that we can unpack there. But we do know, for example, the number of people who are purchasing discount passes.

Speaker O · So whether they're seniors or students, for example, from a broader subset, I think that's probably about as much detail as we have at this time.

Speaker A · And I guess just a follow up question through the chair, then my colleague

Speaker O · has some additional info.

Speaker A · Fantastic.

Speaker D · We also do a voice of the

Speaker K · Rider survey and it's quite comprehensive and

Speaker D · it doesn't split up by municipality, but

Speaker K · it would give you more than more of what you're looking for.

Speaker D · So I'm happy to share that with

Speaker K · you if you like.

Speaker A · Okay, sure. Thank you. Yeah, I guess my question through the chair was going is that we constantly hear that demographics are shifting in our urban settings now away from car dependency and more towards public transit and other car sharing and other cycling is a big one, obviously other modes of transportation. And so it'd just be interesting to see if we could show that the demographics of young users is carrying on into that same, you know, the numbers are matching up with the older ages like professionals and workers and adults depending on transportation for getting to work and whatnot and getting around. Just be interesting to see because we know anecdotally that young people are probably more likely students are more likely to be bus users, but are they continuing to be bus users as adults later on in life?

Speaker A · So I don't know if that would be something that you could ask through that voice survey or not, but it'd be interesting to find that out. Thank you.

Speaker B · I have a question from Council Boardman and I'm going to do it because I forgot to ask her for the previous presentation. So Council Boardman, go ahead. Thank you very much. I'm curious as to where you might

Speaker N · locate the esquimalt exchange that you mentioned

Speaker A · a few minutes ago.

Speaker O · Yeah, great question. So through the chair, we have had initial conversations with staff over the last several years based off previous conversations. Once again, this would be subject to further planning and discussion, probably in and around where the country. Grocery store is in the center, but it really could be anywhere central within the township of Esquimalt. Really. The goal is to better connect local services in the future and create capacity for for better transit connections within Esquimault longer term.

Speaker B · Okay, thank you, Mayor.

Speaker C · Thank you so much for the presentation. I've sat at a number of tables now and heard the presentation and at these other tables there's always a question around BC Transit and the work with Reconciliation corridor initiative. And as you didn't mention it, I want to ask you where are things at in terms of working with that initiative as well?

Speaker O · Yeah, great question. So I'll start and I'm sure Elise will want to chime in. I did actually. I intended on the big Moves slide to indicate that we have represented The ENN corridor on, on the map, it is not specifically called out as one of our big moves, recognizing there's a lot of diverse conversations unfolding right now within the region and we're not quite at the point where there's a really clear direction. What I will say is that with the work that the RCI is doing and the subsequent work the CRD is doing through the regional transportation plan, there is an opportunity, once we get broader regional consensus, to make some adjustments to this plan in the future.

Speaker O · So I'll say that and then I'll

Speaker K · turn it to Elise through the chair to the mayor. So the Victoria Regional Transit Commission has

Speaker D · asked that staff write to the RCI

Speaker K · to recommend that the VRTC and BC Transit be represented at the steering committee in some capacity. So what we heard was that the

Speaker D · RCI hasn't developed their steering co framework yet or their governance framework yet. But now was the time the VRTC

Speaker K · wanted to make sure that BC Transit

Speaker D · was at the table for that discussion. So we sent that off to the rci. The RCI discussed it and then has sent back to us asking, inviting us formally to the table. So we're happy to continue those conversations.

Speaker C · Thank you. In full transparency. I sit on the commission and I sit on the rci, so I just wanted to connect us all. Thank you.

Speaker B · The Mayor had one of my questions about the ENN corridor there, but also I was just curious if the what I'm hearing is that this transit exchange is really dependent on redevelopment or finding land and something like that. I'm just curious, that could be five, 10, 20 years away. We don't just curious, is there things in the interim that we should be looking at from a planning perspective to facilitate the changes that you want to see, or is it really a significant amount of land that's required that we don't have right now?

Speaker O · Yeah, great question. I will say in the shorter term we will be looking at some network restructuring opportunities once this plan is completed. And there may be a need to chat with staff at esquimalt to see, hey, is there some layover capacity in and around the core with existing curb space? So there may be an opportunity for some shorter term creative solutions to be found so that we can continue to move service forward within Esquimalt, recognizing that, you know, there is more time likely required for this redevelopment to occur and for us to get the full transit exchange that we'll be including within the plan.

Speaker O · So I would say not necessarily, but depending on what the needs are through the restructuring process, we would be working very closely with Esquimault staff to see how we can accommodate changes to the network and support it with layover and recovery closer to the Esquimault town core.

Speaker L · Much.

Speaker B · Any further questions? Seeing none. Thank you very much for the presentation. Always informative.

Speaker O · Thank you for having me.

Speaker B · Thank you. Okay, next we have the Bring my thing back up, the interpretive platform and Pollinator park from the West Bay Residents association and the Habitat Acquisition Trust.

Speaker A · The star was forward. How do you go back?

Speaker E · Hi, everyone. My name is Vanessa Brownlee. I'm the Habitat Restoration Coordinator with Habitat Acquisition Trust. Before Rosalind here gets into some of the details of our project proposal, I just wanted to say a few words about the context and background of this project and the connection between our two organizations. So the West Bay Residents association, which Rosalind is the head of, was involved in many years of advocacy work which resulted in the creation of Mattson Conservation Area, which is just down the road here in Esquimault. And as a result of that, that piece of land was then donated to hat, and we've been overseeing its management since then.

Speaker E · Over the past year, since I've been in this role, I was able to connect with Roslyn and we were able to kind of restart the conversation of this project idea, which is something that had been in the works between our two organizations for several years. And a small committee of us formed, including myself and Rosalind and Val Hostetler, also with the Rest Bay Residents association, who's here with us, and Robbie Young from Esquimo Parks. So this project idea aims to contribute conservation area while creating a community green space in its location. Thanks. So a bit about the piece of land matson that we're talking about. It is 2. 5 acres.

Speaker E · It's located here in Lokwungen territory in Esquimalt, as I mentioned, and it is the last intact garrioke ecosystem in the Inner Harbor. And why that's important to mention is that garrioke ecosystems are, first off, very culturally significant for Lekwangan and Wasanish people here on southern Vancouver Island. They are, at their core, indigenous food systems, and they're also very at risk. There's only 1 to 5% of these ecosystems remaining. They're home to over 100 different species at risk. So all of that is to say that this piece of land is very ecologically significant in the area. And part of hat's management goals for this site is to connect the community with this area. You can see some pictures here of us leading some tours and workshops.

Speaker E · But we want to do this in a safe way that doesn't damage the sensitive ecosystems there. So we do deal with kind of ongoing issues of people walking through the site and walking through really sensitive areas and trampling and damaging some plants. So this project, we're really hoping would both increase the awareness and signage around mats and conservation area and also kind of provide space for people to gather and kind of naturally walk to and prevent them from walking through the space. So I will pass along to Rosalind.

Speaker P · So Esquimaut and West Bay are experiencing growth and increasing density. There's a need for new parks and green spaces. We believe this proposal helps the township add green space, all while protecting the Matson lands. And it's on land that is already owned by the township. So hat, together with the West Bay Residents association are proposing the township of Esquimalt establish an interpretive platform and pollinator park at the south end of Garrett Place off Dunsmere Road overlooking the Matson lands. The circled area at the bottom of Garrett is the proposed site overlooking the Matsungiri Oak forest. The railing and public pathway beside Swallow's driveway goes up to the top of the metal staircase, then down to the West Bay walkway. We're asking to reclaim some of the space at the bottom of the street.

Speaker P · The current size of the boulevard is east to west, 60ft with a width of approximately 23ft going to 35ft. We would like an additional 12ft. So it would be 60ft by 35ft. So the concept drawing is it would consist of three different types of interpretive signage. One type would be the indigenous routes, another would be the community conservation and land donation. And another would be the ecological teachings. It would have seating areas and raised garden beds. It would have a sorting and storage area for matson management work. And there would be a small gate to the Matson Forest area. Pollinator plantings that are indigenous to the area would be planted. It would be wheelchair accessible as well. We're recommending a scalable model that can be added to over time and as funding allows.

Speaker P · Initially, it would include clearing the site, getting rid of the cement bullards, putting in seating and some signage. Once the area is cleared and the cement removed and the area is more maintained, it becomes a beautiful little community. Pocket park. Engineering has advised that they have some extra roadway planters that they use for traffic calming on the end of Delisle Street. They're available for the site. We've undertaken a lot of consultation. We've met and been working with Esquimalt staff, including Parks Engineering. We've met with Development Services and others. We've talked about this plan with the Matson Management Advisory Group of which we're part of. We've communicated and consulted with the community. We've had open houses for the adjacent condo and rental tower residents. We've communicated with the community at large.

Speaker P · Esquimalt residents and we presented to the Esquimalt Parks and Rec Committee who supported our idea. And we've met with different council members. It was decided that discussions with local first nations would come later when we have something more concrete to talk to them about. The feedback received Engineering Department Emergency turnaround and apartment Garbage bin considerations we got a few parking concerns from an adjacent building, but the huge majority fully supportive of the IPP concept. So the garbage containers on the roadway are a big issue with the community. They're corralled on Garrett from all over the place and they fill the streets in the boulevard for days at a time.

Speaker P · There needs to be a place for sure for them, but not in this public roadway. That's not the place. Apparently it's an issue that is being worked on. Emergency turnaround this issue has been reviewed by the Fire Department. The fire chief advised us that it's absolutely achievable and he's not expecting it to be an issue at all. There's a number of different turnarounds at the Sally Ann and the Dunsmere Road apartment. Parking concerns yes, all of West Bay does have significant parking issues. Engineering can look to see if we could get some additional spots as an option. But only one local residence has mentioned this is an issue and written a letter. This pocket park is not a destination for people to come from afar. It's a community resource and walkable.

Speaker P · So we do not anticipate an additional strain on parking resources. So based on council approval when we go forward, the proposal has the support of Park Engineering and the Fire Department. Staff has been involved up until now but cannot be further until they receive direction from council. So the proposal it provides green space for community as it continues to grow. It protects the fragile conservation lands and ecosystem. It will be a place to foster learning and ecological stewardship. It will be a place to meet a friend or take a child. It will be accessible to all. The land is unused and is owned by the municipality.

Speaker P · So our ask to the committee of the whole. I'm a little confused as to what this committee can do, but we can talk about that. So we're asking council to approve in principle the IPP proposal to Request part staff report back with a feasibility impact assessment based on the short term cleanup and more immediate use and the longer term platform development with options for construction. And finally, it's important that the proposal be included in the new council's 2027 annual priority project review. The building of the platform itself will take geological and engineering reviews by staff and this can't be done until they get some direction for the actual feasibility and impact study.

Speaker P · So they've been very helpful up until now, but that's as far as the work that they can do can go. So moving. So that I wanted to thank you to mayor and the chair and council members here of the committee. We're good to hear any thoughts that you have on. On our proposal and how to. How we can move this forward.

Speaker B · Thank you very much for the presentation, Councillor Morrison.

Speaker A · Yes, thank you. So my question perhaps through the chair of staff, just on the. What the. Thank you again for the presentation. It's a very interesting project. I was able to have a tour of that site and it's an interesting location because it is one of the. People forget that it's one of the entry and exit points points to our waterfront walkway. So it is a key location for sure. But my question is similar to the question that the presenter put forward is how can we get this to council? Would it be simply that Committee Hull refers these asks of this slide here to council for discussion? Since we can't discuss presentations in this venue,

Speaker B · my understanding is that we need a motion to. Yeah, to do that. But also being cognizant of the fact that we're kind of ending the term, do we want to put a motion so that it gets considered next in the next council priorities process?

Speaker A · Right, okay. So maybe if there's other questions, you could circle back to me and I'll put forward a motion. Thank you.

Speaker C · Thank you for the presentation. It's not clear to me at this time if there is funding required.

Speaker P · Do you want to take it or shall I? Yes, once it goes ahead in the shorter term, there's work that could be done on a less monetary basis for sure, cleaning it up, et cetera. That's why we're talking about a scalable approach. But if we are going to get into a platform itself and the raised gardens and looking after that. Yes, there will be funding required from the township. But we had an original proposal and it was quite a bit bigger proposal than this is and this one now fits on the land and it's not expected to be those huge monumental costs that the Other one was.

Speaker C · Okay, thank you. So if council moves this to the priority project review for the new council, then there from there there is also that budgetary process. And so I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you.

Speaker F · No, most of my questions have been asked and answered. It's a really interesting project. I always love a good pocket park because those are the things that I worry that we lose with development. So I'm interested to see what this would look like cost wise. And so I will wait to see what Councillor Morrison puts forward as a motion.

Speaker B · I also have a question, although it's for staff. Just that. And I'm not sure that anyone here can answer. That's the problem. But right now we're in the middle of a recreation master planning process as well as a parks master planning. And I'm just, just I was curious if to know whether or not this kind of project is the scale at which they're going to be included in that or is it going to be a bit more high level than that. But I will follow up and find that out because I think that's really important as we're doing that parks planning process. I think it's really important to make sure that we look at all of the proposals.

Speaker B · There's some great ones that are out there, but this is one. Councillor Morrison, did you want to try it?

Speaker A · Sorry, it's on the fly here. But I, I'll keep it as general as possible so that the committee, the whole refer the proposal to council for discussion and consideration of future inclusion in strategic priority planning. Is that general enough for, for the next council, this council, whatever it ends up being. Okay, thank you. So. Okay. Okay. And I think. Well, I think there was motivation in the presentation that really this is a fantastic idea. It's a very. I think it's actually a proposal that already fits with our current strategic priorities. But unfortunately we are at the tail end of our current council term and this, as the mayor said, there would be some budget considerations as well to align with this becoming a success and realization.

Speaker A · So I'm happy to just put this forward so that it does get that formal consideration by either this council or the incoming council.

Speaker C · Yes, I think this motion helps to keep this in play as we're moving

Speaker Q · through

Speaker C · one council to the next. But it also gives us that opportunity to find out what is happening within the park strategic plan. So this way it's still in the process and it's highlighted so that it will continue to move. Thank you.

Speaker P · Thank you.

Speaker B · We haven't yet. I was just going to say similar things. Also just wanted to mention this came to the Environment Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee where it was enthusiastically received as well as another couple other small little proposals like this. And so it's always great when community members come forward and propose something that we can look at and consider. So yeah, I'm very much supportive of this and I really want. Hopefully this will be considered by the next council as a potential priority. So I'm going to. Any of the questions? Comments? I'm going to call the questions. All those in favor? Council Boardman, I'm assuming you're in favor.

Speaker C · Yes, I'm in favor.

Speaker K · Thank you.

Speaker G · Perfect.

Speaker B · That's carried. Thank you very much.

Speaker P · Thank you. We're very heartened by that. Thank you.

Speaker B · Okay, on to the next item on the agenda which is the council discussion with chairs of advisory bodies. So we have the Advisory Planning Commission, we have the Design Review Committee and the Environment Planning, Environment, eprec, Recreation, Parks.

Speaker B · And that's your committee. Do you guys prepare? Sorry, sorry.

Speaker Q · Sorry I wasn't faster on the ball with that.

Speaker D · But per your the terms of reference for the last item, we can only refer that direct staff to provide a report to council. And also per our council procedure bylaw, that motion needs to be changed to be that you refer directed to staff to provide a report to council.

Speaker A · So could I just self admin.

Speaker B · Yes.

Speaker A · Okay. So it basically would be the committee, the whole refer the proposal to staff for council discussion, direct staff to meets an actual report report to council. All right, so. And that can simply be like a summary of the presentation and optimization options for going forward. Okay, thank you. Okay. So that the committee will refer to the. Refer the proposal to staff for a staff report for council for discussion and consideration of future inclusion and strategic priority planning

Speaker N · and.

Speaker A · I don't remember exactly what I just said. Okay.

Speaker G · Okay.

Speaker B · All those in favor and opposed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. I did. Yes. So back to the council discussion with chairs. I assume each of you have a presentation or speaking notes. Do you want to start?

Speaker M · Evening, counselors. Your worship.

Speaker B · So sorry, was there some other.

Speaker E · I apologize through the chair.

Speaker Q · We also have a Squamont citizen representative on the Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee with us.

Speaker G · Okay, perfect.

Speaker B · That's new. So thank you. Yep, go ahead.

Speaker M · Okay, cool. So thanks for having me.

Speaker B · Yeah.

Speaker M · Convening us. Yeah. So I think I won't get too much into the communications piece for the Advisory Planning Commission because we had our joint meeting with council earlier this year in which we addressed a lot of the communication challenges that I think we were undertaking from the volunteer perspective. However, I think there's a couple of key points that have come up over the last, I'd say six months as we get closer to the end of the term for the current council and as we go into the OCP revamp. So I think the first piece is with regards to the role of the Advisory Planning Commission.

Speaker M · And so I know we talked with Bill and you folks about how some municipalities don't have an APC and how we're trying to figure out kind of what the best way forward is for council to interact with the Advisory Planning Commission. And I think there's an opportunity for the new council and even though going want to have a conversation around the official community plan and that kind of the litmus test from community members as to what they're hearing from different perspectives. And I think it's important as we go forward and continue to fill vacancies on the Advisory Planning Commission that we reflect all the different demographics within the community and not just primarily whether it's architects or developers, et cetera.

Speaker M · And I think we've been good about that, but I think it's important for the next council to consider that as some terms come up for renewal and some vacancies come up this summer. The second piece is with regards to conversations between council and the Advisory Planning Commission. So that joint council meeting was a good opportunity for us to understand where council's heads were at. And we have the ongoing relationship with our two council representatives here who have been gracious in providing feedback in terms of where certain decisions are going as permitted within the meetings. However, I think what we've heard is there's an opportunity as we go forward for broader kind of policy conversations that reflect on kind of the adjacent of the housing challenges.

Speaker M · And so whether that's development cost charges which have been brought forward, I understand that staff is investigating. But other conversations around whether it's rent control, vacancy control, those kind of things, conversations around affordability like at large really affect the APCs understanding of whether or not to push for certain developments or to push for conditions, etc. And I think that's linked in with the the official community plan conversation around what are the objectives, what are the underlying benefits of the community, those kind of things. I know we've had those conversations about the the smaller proposals from Vancouver developers versus things that seem more natural for those climal area that come with a park design, those kind of things.

Speaker M · The third piece is with regards to involving the Advisory Planning Commission in conversations around what's the future linked to the official community plan, around commercial development within the community. So quite often we have proposals coming forward that we ask ourselves the question of like, okay, well, what's the commercial capacity here for not just employment, but also groceries, banking, those kind of things. I know we've seen changes at the Squamil town square here slash Country Grocer hub over the years of access to banking for folks that may not have other branches. And those kind of conversations I think are important to understand maybe some of the concerns beyond what you're hearing in your own demographics from the APC perspective as well as DRC parks, et cetera, of just those broader forums.

Speaker M · And it might be a good opportunity to bring together all the commission members with a conversation with council, just so everybody's understanding also what's going on on in the other commissions. Because we often times ask ourselves what might DRC's conversations be on this proposal? And I know that's not necessarily our role, but those questions do arise when the broader considerations of a rezoning application, et cetera. And the last piece with regards to linked to kind of the policy challenges is the broader community shift conversation. So obviously the official community plan will deal with the vision of Esquimo in a chunk. But as we're all familiar with, there's a significant investment in funding with regards to Canadian Armed Forces and the development of CFB Square Malt.

Speaker M · And so with that comes not just folks living on the base in military housing, but folks that are living off base and that are living in the surrounding area and the needs that come with that. Again, linked to the commercial development pieces as well as like family care, childcare, school, etc. It's the broader conversation, I think we need to understand of where's the military going as one of the anchors of Esquimal. And that's I think, a unique distinction that we've all been recognizing on the APC in contrast to Victoria and elsewhere. So that's the Coles Notes of this year from the APC beyond what we've already talked about at the joint meeting. And I'm happy to take any questions or provide any answers.

Speaker B · Are there any questions from council?

Speaker C · Thank you very much. I was speaking with the Ed of Squamilt Chamber today and he was reflecting on their challenge of when proposals come forward and how they can provide input on the need for commercial space. One of the things that came to my mind, but I have no understanding of whether it's actually able to occur in the past We've had designated people on commissions. Is there an opportunity to make sure that there is a designated person that has a focus on commercial in some way so that they can provide that perspective to the whole group and give some. Give that input so that we can make sure that when development is coming in at the ground level, which is apc, that they're being peppered with that information and those questions?

Speaker M · Yeah. So through the chair to your worship. I do think that's something that maybe staff can explore, even just as a volunteer applying for the committee or even a solicitation of a box on the. The application of what industry or sector do you represent? So we obviously have two lawyers on the apc, but maybe one of us needs to be filled by an industry representative or somebody that's representing community care, those kind of things. So I do think there's an opportunity for that, especially as you go into kind of a new mandate and some of the vacancies that are going to be coming up to intentionally look for those kind of that representation.

Speaker M · I also don't think there's a, a limitation in terms of the Scramwell Chamber of Commerce or anybody else attending the APC meetings or anything else and presenting kind of the habitual feedback of this is what we need, this is a consideration. Obviously that's part of the broader conversation with council as well. Right. Of like what are the needs and where are these interplays going? Because all we're doing is recommending those rezoning applications, et cetera, in a kind of a silo. And I think that gets to what we were talking about earlier this year at that joint meeting of understanding the broader picture of where are we going as a community from both the elected representative perspective, but also from the community stakeholders.

Speaker B · The thought that came to mind was just how typically boards outside of these commissions actually do an assess, a self assessment as to what kind of people are required for in order to recruit new members for that. And I'm wondering if you are seeing a turnover coming over the summer that might be something useful to talk about as a commission to give us the feedback back to say, well, we would love to have someone, whether it be from the Chamber or from a commercial perspective or we need more young people, we need more what the demographical needs that you feel as a commission.

Speaker B · That would be quite useful feedback to us because we get applications and we have to kind of estimate that.

Speaker M · But it would be great to hear from the committee. Yeah, no, I think that's a great opportunity for Victoria and the Staff to work with the new iteration of the Commission executive going forward. So my term is finished as of tomorrow, so I won't be joining the team. But I do think that's a great opportunity for them to self identify. We do the same thing on the Victoria Esquimo Police Board, identifying those gaps of governance, legal, for financial, et cetera. I do think there's an opportunity there, as you're alluding to, to identify those missing pieces.

Speaker P · Perfect.

Speaker B · Okay, well, thank you very much and thank you for all your time.

Speaker G · Oh, sorry.

Speaker C · Thank you. I just want to follow up with staff. Are there any restrictions to being able to have a skills matrix for any of our committees?

Speaker G · There already are restrictions for design Design Review Committee for the Advisory Planning Commission. You could do that as long as the person lives in Esquimo.

Speaker C · Okay. So at this point it's unfortunate you're not there for the next meeting, but if the group that are there now could put together what they're. Maybe we have to come up with a list of skills that we want. Anyways, thank you. That's a great idea. And that's a great idea.

Speaker A · We actually did. The Advisory Planning Commission previously did have designated seats. One was for an environmental lens, one was disabilities and accessibility. There was never been a commercial one. So that's excellent that you brought that up. I think that would. That's something that's never been included before but should be. I. I can't remember if there were any other designations. I think that it was environmental and accessibility and heritage. Oh, there was a heritage as well. That's right. Yes. Yeah. And for some reason we just kind of went away from that. It's funny because I can never figure out the best way to describe Advisory Planning Commission duty.

Speaker A · The best thing I can come up with is jury duty because it's taking citizens not so much randomly, but it's taking citizens who don't really necessarily know each other. When they first join the Advisory Planning Commission, they're presented with evidence of a case about what they want to either approved or denied. And then they have to make a decision or a recommendation on that. And then so there is some value in just sort of having general population, you know, just our own residents being there to deliberate on the future planning of our. Or not future, but the current planning planning of our own community. So it'll be interesting where the next discussion goes on on the makeup of the Advisory Planning Commission in the future. So thank you.

Speaker B · I do think we have to have a little better marketing than jury duty because I personally enjoyed My time on APC a lot, and it was a lot of fun. Some people enjoy jury duty, I think. Point taken. But I think we might want to frame that a little better. I just want to say thank you, Nate, for the presentation and for the discussion, but also for your time on APC in his chair. I'm sad to hear that you're being aged out, I guess.

Speaker M · Yeah. It's moving over to greener pastures of Victoria. It's, ironically enough, the affordability question. I wasn't able to find something that worked for my family in the sky malt, so ironically, Victoria had things that were available. So, yeah, just something to think about.

Speaker B · Thank you.

Speaker L · Perfect.

Speaker B · Okay. I think we'll start with the Design Review Committee next. Tara, if you want to.

Speaker C · Hi.

Speaker Q · Thank you.

Speaker D · Yeah. I'm here to share some observations and themes that we experienced this year. My name's Tara Tedesco. I'm chair of the Design Review Committee. I've been on the committee for, it turns out, four years now, and it's been an incredible experience. Really great. I wanted to say first thank you to the staff. I know part of the comments today are meant to point back to how well supported we feel, and I feel like we have great support from staff in terms of our committee work. So I have three areas that I wanted to touch on. One is an ongoing theme at DRC has been the role of development permit guidelines and I would also say the OCP and how they should inform our review process.

Speaker D · So the committee obviously doesn't just assess whether a development is attractive or technically well designed. We also consider how it aligns with the broader vision established in the OCP and the objectives embedded in the DPA guidelines. This includes considerations such as neighborhood fit, livability, pedestrian experience, tree canopy, biodiversity, landscaping, green space, and overall quality of the public realm. This has come up in projects where, especially when we see a significant gap in DPA guidelines being met, it can come up in various ways, but sometimes when we see a really big gap, I find the discussions will come from a place of expertise and best practice, but also a reference to, wow, there's actually a long list of.

Speaker D · Of guidelines that don't have check marks next to them. A recent example was actually spoken to earlier in today's meeting, which was the Property on Admirals, where the committee had extensive discussions around tree canopy loss and environmental impacts. And those were all aligned where there was, again, a very long list of DPA guideline objectives that weren't being met. Ultimately, when projects with substantial departures from DPA guidelines With OCP move forward, additional context around the rationale would be beneficial, including at our review phase. An example would be we made a recommendation to NYE for example, which doesn't happen very much and then it came back as an approved project.

Speaker D · I think at that point it would be really great to know maybe more about why that decision was made and why we should consider the priorities that were considered by council. Possibly the ask isn't that every DPA guideline be met of course in every instance, but greater clarity around how they're being a weighed along other priorities would be beneficial. Secondly, the planning for growth, the development capacity document. I thought I would just touch on that. It is I'm sure in notes from that meeting discussion, but I thought it was an important conversation that we had around it. So the DRC was asked to review and discuss the development capacity document. We had a presentation from the person behind that project and it generated quite a bit of discussion.

Speaker D · Overall, members recognized the value of the exercise in showing the theoretical absolute build out potential under current regulations. But at the same time there were questions about whether it reflected a broad enough planning lens. Members noted that many of the development planning factors in the OCP or current DPA guidelines, including around especially climate resilience was a very big topic that we discussed and connected to that. Urban forests and tree canopy and watershed impacts, neighborhood livability were not treated as constraints to development in the document. Should this document come back to guide or influence DRC review, we felt the document should acknowledge these other considerations even with a preamble.

Speaker D · Yeah, so I just wanted to summarize that here and then lastly this is more of my personal reflection, but I do foresee it becoming more of a question for the committee and it has to do with the provincially mandated housing challenges. So I've been reflecting on the provincially mandated small scale multi unit housing and what they mean from a drc. From the DRC perspective, many if not most projects from that space will not come to us. It's not because they are fast tracked, but based on comparable projects. There are a few observations I think that are worth sharing should such a large footprint development come through.

Speaker D · I believe strongly the committee would have no issue with the heights like two to two and a half stories. I don't think the committee would also have issue with the addition of units. I do though, based on four years of watching people review developments as they come forward, think that would be much bigger and probably significant conversations around the site design, site coverage and the long term neighborhood impacts of these developments. Or developments like those in particular, sorry, as site coverage, loss of green space and the ability to retain or replace large canopy trees. I'm sure those would be very important considerations and would come forward as recommendations.

Speaker D · I think this raises a question about consistency. The DRC regularly applies the OCP DPA guidelines and best practices from the member's expertise and background in reviewing developments. But there may be a question of consistency as we do that in parallel to the fast track provincial process. Thank you.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Any questions?

Speaker A · Councillor Morrison, thank you for the presentation, Terry. But I had a question maybe for staff just, just so we know, because I agree. I think there would be value in having the DRC have the ability to look at some of the small scale multi home projects and provide their expertise because we're seeing that so far some of those projects aren't fitting too well and that kind of additional lens of review. But with the fast tracking, is that in the actual Bill 44 mandate that they cannot go to any. I guess the question is, does the municipality have any flexibility as to what the process can be around the fast track?

Speaker G · The provincial guidance is that it should not go to the. Doesn't say it cannot.

Speaker A · It's guidance.

Speaker G · It's guidance.

Speaker A · So just like we're seeing with municipalities such as ours looking at, you know, design guidelines, we could also look at modifying the, the fast tracking process to allow for DRC to review them.

Speaker G · I believe so. I don't have a legislation that would

Speaker A · require a motion from council to do

Speaker G · that, an amendment to the procedures bond.

Speaker A · Okay, thank you. Because that's, that's a very good recommendation, I think, very timely as well. So thank you, Terry.

Speaker D · And I should clarify, although I'm not against that idea at all, it's more, I think the point I was drawing a line to is that. But in a normal DRC meeting, should a development like the ones we're seeing through the fast track process come through, I feel pretty confident in saying that we would have recommendations for changes. So it's more that while these projects are being fast tracked and allow for these very large footprints that impact green space and tree canopy frontages, those are all things we weigh in when we look at developments. We have this potentially really parallel process where we might see a small unit development and be applying a very different set of recommendations than the ones that are being fast tracked. So it's more about.

Speaker D · That could mean going through the DRC or it could mean just about addressing or even just noting that I feel like is valuable in this current stage of what we're facing in terms of development.

Speaker F · A comment and then a question just to follow up. I agree. I feel that I've even learned a lot from what I see at the drc, having sat on it over the years, just the little nuances that have changed some of the developments to make them fit within the neighborhood better. I've always applauded some of the things that I've learned from the drc. One question, though, and it's kind of like what, what Nate was saying. DRC has been around for a while. We haven't really looked at it in any different capacity since it was first kind of established, having sat on it. Is there any areas of expertise that we should be maybe adding?

Speaker F · Or do you feel that we've got all of the bases covered there when it comes to looking for landscape architects and all that stuff?

Speaker G · Stuff.

Speaker D · It's an interesting question because I think it actually connects back to my DPA guidelines question and how much those should and do either do or should inform our review process. I feel like it's not always clear and I think part of that is maybe influenced by the fact that it is so architect and landscape architect forward. So from that lens, you're going to look more at design quality, I mean, and you'll start to look at other things. But people aren't necessarily bringing the full perspective of the DPA guidelines to that conversation. I come with an environmental lens, so I bring that conversation forward. But I'm certainly not the only one. But yeah, it's an interesting question.

Speaker D · I think it's really, really valuable to have architects and landscape architects look at these developments. It's amazing what they see and how they can be. We do want to see good development happen in Esquimalt, but we are compelled to ask what could be improved in this development and that's our role. So depending on how much more you want to add, I think it could possibly extend into your conversations about the APC and membership.

Speaker K · Thanks.

Speaker A · Just on that issue of the membership, it's interesting because the Design Review Committee is something that actually does come from provincial legislation regarding the makeup and whatnot. And it is the professional architects and the professional landscape architects alongside of a few of you that are actual Esquimo residents, just like the Advisory Planning Commission members are. And we have had some iterations where the just so happens that the architects or landscape architects were also Esquimalt residents. Typically they're not. Typically they're just nominated by their professional association and council can decide whether we want to accept the Nomination or not. But I guess my question was does it make any difference from your perspective as chair when you have professional architects who are actually also just like you and Esquimo, resident or fellow resident.

Speaker A · And same with landscape architects work, as per your last comment, about how much value you get from their perspective. Does it really matter or. I'm not trying to give you a leading question, but I'm just wondering if there's a difference that you've noticed in the quality of the.

Speaker D · Yeah, I think this question came up at the last presentation.

Speaker C · Actually.

Speaker D · It's an interesting one. I'm not 100% sure how I answered this question. I think the last time was it wasn't like the precise question, but it's a related question to the last time. I think it would totally depend on the person. I think of course people will bring a different lens if they live in the community. But I would say I find, and I don't want to put architects all in one box by any means, and I deeply respect and value the fellow members who are architects. I do find that there's a propensity, I believe, to look very individually at the development from an architect's perspective.

Speaker D · And I think that's why it's important to have other voices there and also just diversity of backgrounds to pull it back and look at how does it fit within neighborhood, how is it interacting with DPA guidelines? Because like the large 26 story building that was approved, that was recommendation, that was a recommendation to approve that involved local architects. And I feel like the conversation really swirled around the individual building and not necessarily its place both in time and space and the community.

Speaker A · So I don't know.

Speaker B · Thank you very much and thank you for your time on the committee. And now we're going to go to the Environment, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, which I got right that time. Thank you, Shona, if you want to.

Speaker K · Thank you. I have trouble saying it myself and it was two committees, which is why it's more of a mouthful now. So, yeah, thank you for having me here. Good evening, mayor and council and staff. My name is Shona Athy and I serve as chair of the Environment, Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee. I've been on this committee for I believe it's about three years and then prior to that, three years on approximately three years on both committees which ended up making up this committee. So it was separately Environment and Parks and Recreation. I would like to begin by acknowledging and thanking the committee members that sit on this committee.

Speaker K · Everyone has been very devoted and really brings a lot to the committee and does a fantastic job and comes prepared and knowledgeable and brings a lot of. Lot of great insight and input and are really great to work with. It's a fun committee to be on. And then also our youth representatives have been fantastic as well and staff liaisons and council liaisons have. Have been amazing to work with and the whole committee. Our meetings are great. They're really fun, you guys.

Speaker D · More people should come.

Speaker K · So yeah, just in terms of how the committee is functioning and fulfilling its role as an advisory body. Overall, I feel the committee is functioning very well and is fulfilling its role as an advisory body. Committee members are engaged and prepared and bring a wide range of perspectives and expertise to discussions. Members consistently provide thoughtful comments and constructive feedback. And there's a strong culture of respect and collaboration around the table. We definitely work really well together. Over the past year, the committee has had opportunities to provide input on a variety of topics including recreation planning, park design, development, environmental initiatives and community projects such as the pollinator project that was discussed here this evening, which was well received at our committee and we're supportive of it as well.

Speaker K · And we're also seeing really interesting projects come to us such as things like proposals around Sonnet Asana business that could potentially go at the gorge, things like that. Really just fun and interesting ideas that really bring a lot to the community and that's really exciting to see. And these presentations often lead to excellent discussions and help strengthen connections between the township and the broader community. In terms of communication between council staff and advisory bodies, the communication is also going very well. I want to commend our staff liaisons. They do an excellent job. We receive a staff report, the parks and recreation staff report at most meetings or pretty much every meeting. And it's very thorough and really helpful in the staff. Staff do an excellent job.

Speaker K · So we're very, very thankful for that. And then let's see. Throughout the year we have received updates on recreation and planning, climate action work, facility planning, asset management and other key township initiatives. Similarly, our council liaisons have been supportive, engaged and accessible, helping create a strong connection between the committee and council council. If there was one area where I would recommend some enhancement, it would be creating a slightly stronger feedback loop between council and advisory committees perhaps. And I don't know if in terms of the mandate and how this goes, but if in similar to how we receive a staff liaison report, it might be interesting to have a council liaison, just a very brief report so that that it's more of a loop so that when we may Give advice on something, it may go to council and then the council liaisons can give a little report back to us.

Speaker K · I think that would help to create, instead of just a sort of a line of communication, more of a flow that circles back, and then we can kind of know a bit more about where things went and how it went. So I think that would be useful and very helpful. And then when matters come before the committee and recommendations are provided, it can sometimes be difficult for members to know what happened afterwards. And so that's why I'm making that suggestion. Even brief updates on how an issue progressed, evolved or was ultimately considered by council would help close the loop and allow committee members to better understand the impact of their contributions.

Speaker K · And then in terms of future enhancement and opportunities to add further value in terms of this committee, one opportunity to continue building on that success would be to maintain and expand opportunities for community organizations and partner groups to present to the committee.

Speaker K · I think that's going really well. And so just at a minimum, maintaining it or even expanding, we received excellent presentations from the community and businesses as well, and great proposals. And the committee really gives a lot in terms of asking really interesting questions of these groups and trying to dig deep and sort of figure out how this will fit with within the community, how things will flow, what demographics, different projects are serving, things like that.

Speaker K · So very insightful questions from the committee, and that's going really well. And perhaps we may want to look at more opportunities to look at how these potential projects fit within the overall, the official community plan. And also in, I know the official community plan, there will be some review there. And so looking at Parks and Recreation and Environment, specifically within the official community plan, and kind of having a little bit of that loop going on as that's happening. And I'm sure that's potentially on the table for future. But just thinking about that as well, the continued inclusion and support of youth representatives, that's gone really well. We've had some great youth representatives on board.

Speaker K · I think I mentioned this last year, but perhaps some further training for the youth. I think often they come to the committees, they participate and it's wonderful, but their voices tend to be less heard. I think they're, you know, they're younger and perhaps maybe feeling a little bit new to the process and with, you know, the rules and the way things. It's a formal process and it can be a little bit intimidating. And I think a little more training could go a long way to help them find their voice, because we aren't often hearing their Voices, they're present, they're engaged, they're listening, and they are bringing their presence, but we aren't hearing that much of their voices.

Speaker K · And so I'm wondering if just a small amount of training for them might help with that. And then finally, where appropriate, there may be opportunities to involve advisory committee members earlier in some planning or engagement process. So if. Yeah, if there's opportunities to. With development projects or different projects to engage with this committee earlier, that does happen frequently. But there are some instances where things come to us and it's already been narrowed down to only say there were four options for a park and it's already been narrowed down to one or two. On occasion, bringing things a bit earlier would be helpful, but generally that's not a big issue. But occasionally that has happened. Then, let's see. I think that's about it.

Speaker K · Overall, I'm very pleased with how the committee is functioning and appreciate the support we receive from staff and council. The Environment Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee is very fortunate to have dedicated members who care very deeply about the community and are committed to providing thoughtful advice in support of council's work. I thank you for the opportunity to participate in this discussion today. Thank you.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. I also just wanted to comment how I thought you've been doing a very good job as a chair of getting the youth voices to participate. And I think it's always looking at helping them a little more. But you've been very good at that, so thank you. Any questions? Thank you very much.

Speaker K · Thank you.

Speaker E · Take care.

Speaker B · Now, next, on to the Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee. Apologize for not mentioning at the beginning, but you guys are relatively new and this is the first time I think you've been here, so.

Speaker Q · Yes, yeah, no problem. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. So, good evening, Mayor, council staff. My name is Madison Sutcliffe and I am indeed the elected citizen, or rather nominated. What are we saying here? Nominated citizen representative for Esquimaltz on the Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee. Newly appointed, I should say. And yes, this is my first kind of update, participating in dialogue with council. So I'm really grateful to be here tonight. Maybe I'll start by setting the stage

Speaker D · a little bit to make sure we're

Speaker Q · all on the same page. This committee was established under the Accessible BC act to help member municipalities identify and address barriers to accessibility. The committee brings together staff and citizen representatives from seven municipalities. Makes us a little bit unique. Of course, there's Esquimalt, Colwoods, Highlands, Langford, Machosin, Sooke and view Royal As a newer appointee, I want to acknowledge that Esquimalt staff have been amazing out the gates to ensure that I am kind of well onboarded and kind of getting comfortable in this process.

Speaker Q · They've been supportive and available and I appreciate again the opportunity to share some of my observations from my experience thus far with you. Turning to how the committee itself is functioning, it's I would say, still in an early stage of development and progress is incremental. The terms of reference have been updated and endorsed by the participating municipalities and importantly, I would say a joint accessibility plan across all seven municipalities is nearing completion. One important area where the committee has room to grow is the citizen representation itself. The terms of reference calls for one representative from each of the seven municipalities, but as of the May 2026 meeting there were only two representatives present.

Speaker Q · Having a fuller complement of citizen voices, particularly people with lived experience of disability, would of course strengthen the committee's ability to fulfill its advisory role. Significantly, that gap in representation points directly to the need for stronger recruitment and community awareness. Recruiting citizen representatives to accessibility advisory roles can be challenging and it benefits from a thoughtful and proactive approach. The City of Vancouver offers one example worth noting at the moment where they're recruiting through partnerships with disability organizations. They offer application support for people who need it and they hold community events to raise awareness about what their accessibility community does and how people can participate. The committee, pardon me, recently added a public participation component to its terms of reference, which I think is notable and important.

Speaker Q · It's a positive step to actively and continuing to promote meeting dates and making it easy for community members to attend and engage, which could also help build a pipeline for future committee members. When the Joint Accessibility Plan was circulated for feedback in the last meeting, I raised the question of whether a recruitment strategy component could be included. The committee noted that timing was not ideal given the upcoming municipal elections, so this remains something to revisit in the next planning cycle. In addition to continue developing, this committee standardized onboarding support, which again Esquiremont staff have been very supportive of so far, but across all member municipalities will be of utmost benefit.

Speaker Q · One example Looking ahead National National Accessibility Week, held annually in late May, could serve as a natural opportunity for a coordinated, region wide awareness and recruitment effort. The February 26 roundtable touched on this idea. It was my first meeting as well, and in that case it was too late to act on for this year, so I'd suggest across municipalities and across the committee's work that planning ahead for 2027 would be beneficial. But it would of course, require support from each of the seven municipalities to make it a meaningful campaign that bolsters the committee's mandate and moves our agenda ahead. Recruitment strategy and marketing strategies for committees also brings up a related question worth raising. Compensation for city citizen representatives. While recruiting voluntary service on advisory committees can be challenging, it's also extremely valuable, as is clear here tonight.

Speaker Q · At that same time, it's worth recognizing that unpaid roles can unintentionally and reproduce, you know, can unintentionally favor those with financial flexibility to participate, which often pushes people who are already marginalized further to the fringes of these processes. For people with disabilities in particular, the time and energy involved to attend meetings, review materials and contribute meaningfully is significant often and may come with additional costs that other participants don't face. Exploring some form of recognition or compensation as a part of our broader recruitment strategy could significantly help ensure that the committee reflects a wider range of our community's voices that we need so desperately. This doesn't need to be complicated. Options might include a municipal rec pass or a modest cash honorarium or even a gift card to a local business.

Speaker Q · I'll also just note on how community how the committee connects with the broader community. Communication between the committee, councils and staff is still underway and again, I understand across municipalities it's a complex project, but I hope to see it grow as more time and items come forward for the committee's input given that we are so new, including updates to that quack accessibility plan that I mentioned earlier.

Speaker Q · Another just kind of practical note. As I was preparing my notes for tonight, it became clear that some committee meeting minutes are not always available online, which of course is a barrier to members and the public to staying informed and engaged with our work. Finally, I'll just say for the public record that the next Capital West Accessibility Advisory Committee meeting is scheduled for September 23, 2026 at 2:00pm and of course we invite council members and members of the public to attend. So yeah, thank you again for this opportunity to engage in dialogue and I look forward to working together in the future.

Speaker B · Thank you very much. Are there any questions?

Speaker A · Councillor Morrison, I'm just curious in terms of the like agenda items that you would look at, do you ever delve into things like if they like you would have on its own of say our rec center or our library or our public parks or what have you for accessibility lens and then that's reported to the committee and the committee could make recommendations back to one of the member municipalities like we looked at an audit of Your accessibility of certain facilities.

Speaker A · And you didn't necessarily pass. And here's why. And here's what you need to do to make it better, more accessible. Is that something that. That falls onto the agenda that you look at?

Speaker Q · Yeah. So through the chair, I've attended two meetings so far, and one example that I think will be most relevant for this room tonight is through the. Correct me if I'm wrong, the recreational strategic planning process. We reviewed that plan as a committee and were able to comment and provide feedback back to staff. And so, yeah, thus far I've seen municipalities come forward of looking for feedback from the committee, depending on what other kind of planning that they're doing.

Speaker A · Yeah, that's very good to know. Okay, so when they come to you, do they present. Here's the accessibility portions of our. Of our plan, or is it that they're asking you for input as to what the accessibility portions of the plan should be or maybe a mix of both.

Speaker Q · So in the case of the Esquimalt, is it called the strategic Rec plan? Is that. Am I getting that right? Okay. We looked at what I believe was the whole plan and then we were able to ask questions that we felt were relevant to the committee. But I can imagine based on other items that I've seen brought forward, it can be both items that the community has brought forward for the committee to be addressed by municipalities and then vice versa, where a municipality is coming. Coming to us for feedback. But correct me if I'm wrong, staff on any of that, but that's my understanding so far. Yeah, for sure.

Speaker F · Sort of for staff and for reference. But, you know, so things like to follow up on Councillor Morrison's like our active transportation plan would have been a good one to go forward there because I know there were some issues with some of the bike lanes in Victoria that. But they.

Speaker K · Floating bike lanes.

Speaker Q · Yeah, they.

Speaker F · They kind of bus stops. Yeah, 100%. So it's things like that that would be good to have that go to

Speaker D · as well as would OCP go to

Speaker F · a committee like this as well for conversations about accessibility?

Speaker G · Well, perhaps a portion of it in the same way a portion would go to parks and Recreation.

Speaker B · Okay, excellent.

Speaker F · So stay tuned.

Speaker Q · Looking forward to it.

Speaker G · Go ahead.

Speaker C · I just want to say thank you for taking this position and this is our first opportunity to get feedback and I hope that that is continuous. We get the minutes, but it's not quite the same. So we need to make sure that we include you in our loop of listing.

Speaker Q · Yes, please. Couldn't agree more. Thank you. For having me.

Speaker B · Yes. Thank you very much. I don't see any other questions, but also just. It's great having you here and hearing the first time. And also feel free to always reach out to any of us if you need something or questions or how things are going. Being a new committee, I'm sure there's a lot of teething issues as well, also just being new on the committee, but going on to a new committee, it's always. I guess it's exciting as well.

Speaker K · Yeah.

Speaker B · Thank you very much.

Speaker K · Thanks for your time.

Speaker B · Now we're on to Agenda Item 7, which is the public comment period. And this is a time when you can address council on any topic that impacts Esquimalt, excluding agenda items. So things that have already been covered tonight or matters that will be or have been the subject of a public hearing, so does anyone who wishes to address council on something else other than what we've talked about this evening,

Speaker F · I'll

Speaker B · call a second time. I'll call a third time. Seeing none, I will ask for a motion to adjourn.

Speaker F · So moved.

Speaker B · Second, all those in favor, thank you very much for coming, everyone.

Speaker F · Thank you.

Speaker E · You.

Speaker F · There's some. Is that Marcus?

Speaker B · I don't know who that is.

Speaker A · He's coming to our council.

Speaker F · Yeah, probably is.

Speaker A · Thanks, everybody.

Speaker B · I was not.