{"videoId":"3ae1595e-3c08-4ec5-be80-2f4920975213","source":"assemblyai","segments":[{"t":0,"text":"Sam.","speaker":"A"},{"t":240,"text":"Welcome, everyone to the special committee of the whole. On Monday, September 28, I will call this meeting to order. And there are no late items to add to the agenda. We do have regrets from Councillor Boardman.","speaker":"B"},{"t":255,"text":"I will look for a motion to approve the agenda.","speaker":"B"},{"t":259,"text":"Seconded or you choose.","speaker":"C"},{"t":263,"text":"I'll leave that to you, Ms. Hopkins. All those in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. Motion is carried. All right, we are on the last period report for this council and I will look to the CAO. Mr. Horan.","speaker":"B"},{"t":281,"text":"Thank you, Your Worship. Just a quick intro brief here, just for the overall. Typically, I would go through the full Council Priorities Plan page by page just to update, because there's a ton of updates, usually every month.","speaker":"D"},{"t":293,"text":"But this is one of those times where I'm happy to say all the updates are new completions.","speaker":"D"},{"t":299,"text":"And that Council Priorities Plan is, for the most part, either all the projects that were meant to be done at this time are done, or at the stage that they need to be at this point.","speaker":"D"},{"t":311,"text":"So it represents a significant body of work for council and for staff.","speaker":"D"},{"t":315,"text":"It is the target they were meant to achieve and it represents some flexibility as there was change externally imposed, plus reacting to the world throughout the process. So happy to answer any questions on that, but just.","speaker":"D"},{"t":327,"text":"And there we are.","speaker":"D"},{"t":329,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"E"},{"t":330,"text":"Thank you. Are there questions for Mr. Horan? I have one, and that is under the partner and develop turf field for Esquimold High School. And it speaks to the grant funding opportunities.","speaker":"B"},{"t":349,"text":"So are there grants that we are actively pursuing at this time?","speaker":"B"},{"t":358,"text":"Thank you for the question, you, Worship. I will call up Mr. Knoke and he can give us the latest and greatest.","speaker":"D"},{"t":362,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"F"},{"t":367,"text":"Thank you for the question. So the Parks Recreation Department did submit a notice of interest for the Building Strong Canada Fund. We have yet to hear back from them. We did send another inquiry last week.","speaker":"G"},{"t":380,"text":"Our hope is that our application would be accepted. For a full application, they were looking for expressive expressions of interest.","speaker":"G"},{"t":387,"text":"And the timing of us finding out about not winning the last grant and the gap between applying for the new grant was very close.","speaker":"G"},{"t":396,"text":"So we're continuing to pursue grant funding, but at this point, we're in limbo where we haven't heard back from the most recent application or the most recent expression of interest.","speaker":"G"},{"t":408,"text":"Thank you very much. I wish us well in succeeding next time. No further questions for the cao. We'll move on to Corporate Services. Services.","speaker":"B"},{"t":421,"text":"Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'm pleased to be here this evening to present the second period report on behalf of Corporate Services. We have a diverse set of portfolios under our umbrella.","speaker":"A"},{"t":432,"text":"And I want to start by recognizing the staff, their hard work and their dedication to delivering quality services really fundamental to the goals and objectives that we've achieved this period.","speaker":"A"},{"t":442,"text":"I'm excited to advise that we've reached a reporting milestone for the first time. We can now share period over period comparisons, drawing on internal metrics and time tracking data since period two of 2025.","speaker":"A"},{"t":454,"text":"This gives us a much clearer picture of our operational trends and how our collective capacity is being used. This period was marked by two really significant drivers.","speaker":"A"},{"t":464,"text":"The first, of course, involves substantial preparations for the upcoming local government and school trustee elections.","speaker":"A"},{"t":469,"text":"And I'll take the opportunity for a shameless plug to encourage all eligible Esquimault voters to cast a ballot by attending an advanced voting opportunity on October 7 or 14, voting by mail ballot, or voting on general voting day on October 17th.","speaker":"A"},{"t":483,"text":"And the second driver really relates to a surge in FOI requests, which included a high volume of responsive records and significant complexity.","speaker":"A"},{"t":491,"text":"And responding to these requests required a really impressive level of coordination across multiple municipal departments to ensure that we met our statutory obligations.","speaker":"A"},{"t":499,"text":"And while the data shows the hours spent, I also wanted to highlight a couple of achievements that don't seamlessly fit into a spreadsheet. Like having our archivist represent us on on a national stage at the Canadian Archivists Conference.","speaker":"A"},{"t":513,"text":"And our communication staff reaching over 32,000 people through a single collaborative post with VIC PD.","speaker":"A"},{"t":518,"text":"And in response to your feedback from the first period report, we've enhanced attachment three, which is the Granicus analytics dashboard, to now break down the viewership by meeting type.","speaker":"A"},{"t":528,"text":"So that's providing you with the more detailed insight that you requested. And I'm happy to take any questions from council.","speaker":"A"},{"t":537,"text":"Thank you, Councillor Helliwa, thank you very","speaker":"B"},{"t":540,"text":"much that Granicus one. Up in the top left it says 5-1-26 to 8-31-26. So is the table on the bottom like the number of live viewers, archive viewers and total viewers that's for that time period?","speaker":"E"},{"t":554,"text":"Yes, that's correct.","speaker":"A"},{"t":555,"text":"Okay. And because there'd be sort of several meetings in there, like you know, for example, the council meeting, the 212 live viewers, that could be, you know, the same 60 people each meeting throughout that period","speaker":"E"},{"t":570,"text":"through your worship? It could be, but at the top there it tells us that our unique visitors are 529.","speaker":"A"},{"t":577,"text":"Okay, perfect. Thank you, that's helpful.","speaker":"E"},{"t":580,"text":"Councillor Morrison, this will probably be data that we'll get the next period coming up, but because you put the plug in about advanced voting, it made me wonder about do we have any information so far about how many mail ballots have been requested?","speaker":"C"},{"t":592,"text":"Because I believe we tried it for the very first time last election and I seem to be hearing from a lot of people when outdoor knocking that oh yeah, I've got my mail ballot already which is very different this election.","speaker":"C"},{"t":602,"text":"Curious if we have any data on","speaker":"C"},{"t":604,"text":"that so far through your worship, the last time I checked in, which was I think the end of last week, we were around 150 mail ballots, which is already higher than our total for 2022, which was 113.","speaker":"A"},{"t":619,"text":"Any other questions?","speaker":"B"},{"t":621,"text":"Councillor Cavan, thank you very much and","speaker":"H"},{"t":623,"text":"this is as always a great report. I really appreciate the detail.","speaker":"I"},{"t":626,"text":"One question you mentioned the FOI requests and I was just wondering, I think I asked this every time and you say you can't answer because it changes every time but we see a big spike in the number of hours.","speaker":"I"},{"t":638,"text":"I'm just wondering is there any trends in terms of types of requests or anything that we could be preemptively releasing in order to avoid so many hours through your worship?","speaker":"I"},{"t":648,"text":"Nothing that's like a shared interest. Most of them are individual requests either relating to fire or fire incidents or bylaw cases for the majority of them.","speaker":"A"},{"t":666,"text":"My question is, I understand you do have a significant workload with the election coming. Is there any impact of the provincial election on staff and or facilities?","speaker":"B"},{"t":683,"text":"Your worship, that's to be determined. We do know that some of our elections officials have been reached out to by the province to inquire about working for their election and there is overlap.","speaker":"A"},{"t":695,"text":"The advanced voting for the provincial election starts on October 16th. There will be voting on October 17th, which of course is our general voting day. We have not yet.","speaker":"A"},{"t":705,"text":"I think we've lost one election official, but we haven't lost a lot.","speaker":"A"},{"t":709,"text":"But we're still of course waiting to see because we do know that there's a pay discrepancy and so there's a bit of a motivation to go to that provincial election.","speaker":"A"},{"t":722,"text":"Thank you and thank you for all the extra work that is being incurred. We will now go down to Development Services. Mr. Brown.","speaker":"B"},{"t":733,"text":"Your Worship, members of council, thank you very much. Nothing to add. I will note that last time council asked me to put in number of bedrooms for all our applications. That's not in this report.","speaker":"J"},{"t":748,"text":"We didn't have any rezoning applications in the past period that are related to multifamily rezonings. But we are tracking number of bedrooms in our.","speaker":"J"},{"t":759,"text":"We have a housing database and we hope to make that public so that anybody will be Able to have access","speaker":"J"},{"t":768,"text":"to it in the future.","speaker":"G"},{"t":769,"text":"So happy to answer any questions.","speaker":"J"},{"t":771,"text":"Thank you. Questions, go ahead.","speaker":"B"},{"t":774,"text":"Yeah, I have two questions, if I could. When we see the to be determined in the housing matrix, does that mean that there are will be some affordable housing units or is it a maybe some affordable housing units?","speaker":"K"},{"t":793,"text":"It's typically being negotiated so there should be some.","speaker":"J"},{"t":798,"text":"We just don't know how many.","speaker":"K"},{"t":799,"text":"Yep.","speaker":"J"},{"t":800,"text":"Okay, that's good to know. My other question is I know some people have been asking, you know, usually it's a two year development permit. We gave an extension to the one the Marin on Carlisle.","speaker":"K"},{"t":812,"text":"I'm directionally challenged over there. Do we know how much like is there a year left on that? What are we looking at?","speaker":"K"},{"t":822,"text":"They will be coming back in December with another request for an extension.","speaker":"J"},{"t":826,"text":"Okay, thank you.","speaker":"K"},{"t":831,"text":"I'll go to Councillor Cavins, then Morrison.","speaker":"B"},{"t":833,"text":"Just a question about trends. It looks like we're seeing quite a fewer applications and I just wondered if you could comment on what you're seeing out there in terms of inquiries as well as applications.","speaker":"I"},{"t":844,"text":"So inquiries are also down. I think it's the market. Developers just cannot make the performance work. So it's very quiet in all municipalities, not just ours.","speaker":"J"},{"t":858,"text":"Thank you, Councillor Morrison.","speaker":"B"},{"t":860,"text":"Just back to Councillor Bram's question about the Carlisle. When you said they'd be coming back in December for asking for another extension.","speaker":"C"},{"t":867,"text":"So last December they were insistent that because they could have done a two year extension, but they asked for a one year extension insisting that they would be in a position to.","speaker":"C"},{"t":877,"text":"A one year would be more than enough time they needed. So is that it sounds like that narrative has now changed. Are they saying it's indefinite now or.","speaker":"C"},{"t":887,"text":"Nope, absolutely not. But they will be here in December and they can explain everything that's happened.","speaker":"J"},{"t":895,"text":"And so is there any limitation on how many times you can get an extension?","speaker":"C"},{"t":901,"text":"No, council controls that.","speaker":"J"},{"t":903,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"L"},{"t":904,"text":"Council can say when they feel it's enough, council just stop extending.","speaker":"J"},{"t":910,"text":"Just not speaking directly about this property but just academically speaking. So if council were not to extend it, what happens to their rezoning at that point?","speaker":"C"},{"t":919,"text":"Rezoning is always in place. So we're talking about.","speaker":"J"},{"t":922,"text":"But they can't proceed without a permit, right?","speaker":"C"},{"t":924,"text":"Yeah. So they apply for another development permit as long as it's consistent with the zoning and consistent with the development permit guidelines. As I've said before, council has very little discretion not to approve a development permit.","speaker":"J"},{"t":937,"text":"If you're going to refuse a development permit, you have to tell the applicant which design guidelines it doesn't meet and how they can meet them so the zoning is in place.","speaker":"J"},{"t":948,"text":"So whether they do it as an extension request or whether they do it as a reapplication for a development permit, it's pretty much the same end result.","speaker":"C"},{"t":955,"text":"One's quite a bit more.","speaker":"J"},{"t":957,"text":"Yeah. Okay, thank you.","speaker":"C"},{"t":959,"text":"Great.","speaker":"L"},{"t":960,"text":"Any further questions? All right, thank you very much, Mr. Brown. And we move on to engineering and public works.","speaker":"B"},{"t":971,"text":"Thank you. Your worship, I'm actually on the phone here.","speaker":"L"},{"t":974,"text":"I'm here for any questions.","speaker":"G"},{"t":976,"text":"Your Worship, just Mr. Clary is at. Is is remote so we can hear him barely. So we're going to wait till we can turn the volume up here.","speaker":"D"},{"t":990,"text":"Is that better? Can you hear me?","speaker":"L"},{"t":991,"text":"Yes, thank you.","speaker":"B"},{"t":994,"text":"Yeah, sorry. I was just saying here for any questions that you might have.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1000,"text":"Questions. Council. Council Bream.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1003,"text":"I have a couple questions if I could. How do you feel the tariffs are affecting any of our upcoming projects or current projects, do you think? Are we feeling them yet","speaker":"K"},{"t":1020,"text":"through the chair? We have it like on our larger capital projects. I would say we haven't felt them specifically yet.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1028,"text":"We have our recent tenders have been competitive with multiple bids, which is more probably the state of the current market.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1037,"text":"I know I've heard of, you know, kind of one off purchases or certain purchases that we might be considering maybe trying to get in before certain changes happen or might be affected.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1050,"text":"But on the whole it hasn't been a significant thing that we've noticed.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1055,"text":"Okay, thank you. And I have another one if that's okay. The yard and garden waste disposal area. Viewroyal uses that with us and I know we charge them, but how their usage seems to be going up.","speaker":"K"},{"t":1070,"text":"Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like we're almost more on par. How do we charge that out to them? Municipality to municipality","speaker":"K"},{"t":1083,"text":"through the chair. That is through the last time we did it actually I believe was through the census data. So through the population and we'd look to be doing a similar approach.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1092,"text":"We actually in the process of posting that RFP soon because the contract is is expiring at the end of this year. So we will be looking to do a similar approach. We'll look at those numbers then.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1104,"text":"Okay, thank you.","speaker":"K"},{"t":1107,"text":"Councilor Morrison, this is a topic or just a general topic question, but it's regarding trucking routes because as you're probably aware, engineering department and council receive correspondence from Ellery street residents.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1120,"text":"Which of course is a school zone in that it lines parallels Esquimo High School and the playing field and whatnot. Is there any rules or regulations, controls whatsoever about trucking routes going through school zones.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1134,"text":"My understanding is that we don't have designated trucking routes in Esquimalt. But it sort of seems silent on terms of school zones. Do you have that information","speaker":"C"},{"t":1148,"text":"through the chair? There isn't anything specific to my knowledge. The municipality has the ability to limit tracking through like designating the weight designations on roads, which is how truck routes are determined and designated. We don't have any.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1164,"text":"As you spoke to in Esquimalta at this time. I guess in this the school zones is kind of around the industrial park. I'll say we have a few elsewhere to clarify.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1177,"text":"There are some but not in school zones that I'm aware of.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1186,"text":"Councillor Cavins.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1191,"text":"Sorry, I'm just trying to find the thing. On my notes here there was a mention of the major sanitary sewer work that there's going to be going out. I believe it is.","speaker":"I"},{"t":1202,"text":"Is that the work that's going underneath the ischaimalt field as well and sounds like there's a large project coming. And I just was curious what that project was and what the scope was going to be.","speaker":"I"},{"t":1216,"text":"I'm missing through the chair. That is. That is the project. It is the top priority project in that area actually around the school and where the municipal main connects to the CRD trunk main on Devonshire. So the.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1232,"text":"The project is from that tie in point going back through the industrial park, through the school field and actually through Lamson Park. So it'll probably be multiple years and it'll be phased.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1245,"text":"Those are all high priority projects in the storm are in the sanitary sewer asset management plan.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1252,"text":"So this is to determine the detailed design and the right approach to that because it is a large project that will be phased.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1264,"text":"Just a follow up question to that is how will that work in terms of scheduling that in relation to the turf field project? Does it make sense?","speaker":"I"},{"t":1273,"text":"Obviously I think it would make sense to have it all done at once. But are we going to be able to.","speaker":"I"},{"t":1280,"text":"I guess I'm trying to understand what's going to happen if we don't get a grant for the turf field.","speaker":"I"},{"t":1287,"text":"Are we going to be digging up the field multiple times in order to address the underground sewage before the underground pipes, before we get the pipe get the turf field going","speaker":"I"},{"t":1300,"text":"through the chair. This will consider that. We have been considering that in the grant applications.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1306,"text":"We have included in recent, in some of the applications sewer work which is a portion of this project directly under the field to I guess have those synergies and avoid multiple excavations of the field.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1319,"text":"Getting the design done for all of these phases will allow us to plan and maybe move one of the phases, the phase that is directly under the field, higher in priority should the field go ahead sooner.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1334,"text":"One more follow up and I guess the follow up question is how long? Seeing as this is your number one priority sewer project, how long can we wait before you feel we have to do this? Regardless","speaker":"I"},{"t":1349,"text":"through the chair. It's always difficult to say with certainty when a sewer is will fail. It is this pipe is at capacity. The area here is very flat.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1360,"text":"So that is part of the challenge with the current capacity there, but also with the condition. So it is definitely at or very near to end of life. When it'll actually fail is difficult to say.","speaker":"L"},{"t":1376,"text":"Thank you,","speaker":"I"},{"t":1380,"text":"Councillor Helloell.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1383,"text":"Sorry, my question is actually for the next one. I got lost of what I was looking at on my screen. Thank you.","speaker":"E"},{"t":1389,"text":"Any further questions? All right, seeing none, we go on to Financial Services. Mr. Ervin.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1398,"text":"Thank you, Worship. Nothing to add.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1400,"text":"Questions?","speaker":"B"},{"t":1402,"text":"All right, Councillor Helliwell, apologies for the momentary confusion there. I was curious. The last few we've looked at here related to the PILT were slightly below what our application was.","speaker":"E"},{"t":1413,"text":"I think that's been a trend that we've seen for the last few years.","speaker":"E"},{"t":1417,"text":"And I was curious if there's anything in particular that drives the fact that we're not quite right in our application or if there's any specific trend there","speaker":"E"},{"t":1427,"text":"that we should be aware of through the chair. So the discrepancies are typically one or two smaller folios where there's a discrepancy either in the assessment value that BC Assessment has and the Public Works Canada or.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1440,"text":"Or the property class itself. Sometimes they'll see it as a Class 5 as opposed to a Class 6, so light industrial as opposed to just their general business class. So they're all agreed on the actual properties themselves.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1454,"text":"It's just there's a couple of small folios when we extrapolate with the mill rate turns into 40 or $50,000 difference when we're looking at a $23 million payment.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1464,"text":"The 40 or 50,000 that we're talking about is minor in the sense and we would be paying if we were going to appeal that much more significant than the discrepancies. So we acknowledge that it exists.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1478,"text":"Both parties acknowledge that there are differences, but they're kind of holding steadfast in their position and so we just have to deal with the shortfall.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1487,"text":"Okay, thank you. No broader trend. That's good to hear.","speaker":"E"},{"t":1490,"text":"The second is you made mention here about the AI usage Policies been released as a staff and I was just curious what you're seeing there both in terms of potential opportunities or risk to","speaker":"E"},{"t":1500,"text":"the organization through the chair. So what we've done is we've formalized, much like other municipalities permitted applications.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1506,"text":"We know that it is being used, but we're trying to mitigate the risk to the township by providing tools that are approved by the township as well as are included in our current software package and have the firm that provides them has monitoring and other security built into it.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1525,"text":"So we've tried to mitigate the risk of using external where some of the personal data or some of the other data from the township could be used on something that is transmitted or communicated outside.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1538,"text":"So we've really tried to put a corral around the information that we're going to be using on but providing tools that we know are safe and that we can have more control within the township itself.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1555,"text":"Does MIABC provide cybersecurity insurance and do we receive it from them or others through the chair?","speaker":"E"},{"t":1562,"text":"Yes, they do. They actually get it through a third third party. But we do work with MIA to fulfill the needs that we need from a cash standpoint as well as from a policy standpoint.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1574,"text":"So crime as well as the cybersecurity. We've had it for about three years now and quite happy with it. And we review it every year to make sure that we're covering any new risks that may.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1586,"text":"May emerge, as well as making sure that we feel that the coverage for any premium or any deductible is, is adequate given the current circumstances.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1596,"text":"Councilor Brain, thank you.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1598,"text":"So, two questions, if I could. One is, did we get. Did the two properties pay their.","speaker":"K"},{"t":1605,"text":"Their taxes today through the chair? Actually, the last property paid on Friday afternoon. So the. It is, it is a. An administrative task that we do take under finance. We are required under the community charter.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1617,"text":"But at the same time we don't want to see any properties come to that.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1622,"text":"So we try and make a significant amount of effort, myself and my staff to try and contact these people and try and have it prior to the tax sale deadline.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1632,"text":"We do get kind of close, but for this year we were able to get those collected. So happy to say there was no tax deal today.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1640,"text":"Excellent. My other question is how broadly do we announce that? Because I didn't know this until budget time last year, where you mentioned that you can pay your property taxes basically in installments to the township.","speaker":"K"},{"t":1658,"text":"How broadly are we announcing that? Should we. How many people took us up on","speaker":"K"},{"t":1665,"text":"it through the chair? Well, as council's aware, they approved, you approved a bylaw that allowed us to focus that program onto tax prepayments. Previously we had two types of prepayments being done.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1676,"text":"One is the pause, the pre authorized withdrawal which is over 10 months, an equal amount with the remaining balance to be collected on July 2, typically the tax deadline date.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1687,"text":"There were also a number of individuals or taxpayers who were making random payments or irregular payments to bring down the amount, but they weren't enrolled in the program itself.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1698,"text":"So what we've done since the bylaw was adopted is we've contacted those that were doing the irregular payments and notified them of the shift that we were only going to be the pre authorized and had gave them the option of either opting into it or ceasing and allow them to just do their payments through their online banking whenever they wish to do so.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1722,"text":"So we have in the area about 400 individuals or 400 taxpayers that are currently enrolled in the pre authorized. The information is on the website if anybody wishes to enroll.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1733,"text":"We will prorate the amount given when they apply because typically we started in August, but if they come in in the middle of the program, we will prorate so they still July 2nd they will have their taxes fully paid as well on the tax notice.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1749,"text":"It also provides information in regards to the pause program. So anyone with a tax notice can also be notified of what they could do in future years.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1761,"text":"Thank you, Councillor Cavins.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1765,"text":"See, I have one question just about property taxes here. It mentions that on July 2, the deadline, only 71. 3% had fully paid off their taxes.","speaker":"I"},{"t":1774,"text":"My understanding is that there's an automatic penalty and I'm just curious how much does that penalty end up being in comparison to the total amount of property","speaker":"I"},{"t":1783,"text":"taxes were through the chair? So yes, there is provincial regulation that any unpaid amounts after the tax deadline receive a 10% penalty that gets applied on July 3rd. The 71. 3% that's included in the report folios fully collected.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1799,"text":"So there are some who make partial payments reduce that amount. So it's not directly correlated to the 71%. But we budget in the area about 200,000 and anticipate that amount of penalties.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1812,"text":"And it's been pretty consistent year over year. Last year was a little bit higher. The total amount of 2026 penalties was about 246,000.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1822,"text":"So it equates to the total municipal revenue of a little less than 1% of that amount.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1828,"text":"And that fluctuates as well because there is the alternate tax scheme where council approved through A bylaw that we can also reverse penalties relating to homeowner grants that were claimed between July 3 and the first business day in September.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1845,"text":"So it does play around with that number a little bit, but it's typically around 1% of the municipal tax revenue that we also collect in penalties.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1856,"text":"Thank you, Councillor Morrison.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1858,"text":"So just further to that, so you said we can, we have the ability to reverse the homeowner grant being late or not late being claimed late.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1866,"text":"And so there's no penalty as a result, but in terms of the late payment, there's no ability to reverse that. Is that what you were saying through the chair.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1874,"text":"So under the alternate tax scheme, strictly only the homeowner grants.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1877,"text":"So those people who are those taxpayers who have nothing outstanding with the exception of a homeowner grant, if they have forgotten to claim it for whatever reason, they have a grace period or a window where they can claim it, it's about two months long where if they claim it prior to the first business day in September, then that homeowner grant will be claimed and the penalty that applies to the homeowner grant will be reversed.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1901,"text":"The amount, if there is any outstanding outside of the homeowner grant will still remain outstanding and that penalty will not be waived.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1908,"text":"Okay, and that's because of the provincial regulation that you created, it's not in the control of the municipality.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1913,"text":"That's correct.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1913,"text":"Okay, thank you. Just another question regarding the pre authorized payments. So is there also financial benefit to the municipality? Because I assume we collect interest as soon as we receive money.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1926,"text":"So we're getting a cumulative interest rate on top of every month that we're Getting earlier than July, July 2nd payment","speaker":"C"},{"t":1934,"text":"rate through the chairs. So the interest on those deposits that are placed in there are actually credited to the account of the taxpayer. So the township does not collect that amount.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1945,"text":"Well, provides the the interest calculation and adds it to the folios. So it actually reduces the amount of","speaker":"H"},{"t":1952,"text":"their final payments would go down a bit by the time they're done. Oh, I see.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1955,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"B"},{"t":1956,"text":"So there's no financial difference to us whether you pay all at once or pay in installments through the chair.","speaker":"C"},{"t":1962,"text":"So I think that the benefit from this would be a providing some certainty around taxpayers of having some regular payments.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1968,"text":"But it also alleviates some of the administrative work for staff because we know that those people enrolled in the program, unless they have insufficient funds or non NSF that comes back, we know that we're going to be collecting 10 payments and we also know that we're going to be collecting the remaining balance on July 2 or the 1st, whatever the tax deadline day is in a given year.","speaker":"H"},{"t":1990,"text":"So it provides some certainty to us to know that we're not going to have an outstanding account as long as those deposits are made regularly.","speaker":"H"},{"t":2001,"text":"Any further questions? Thank you very much. And we go on to Fire Department.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2007,"text":"Chief Good evening, Mayor and council. I have nothing further to add to the report.","speaker":"H"},{"t":2011,"text":"Happy to receive your questions.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2014,"text":"Questions? Yes, Councilor Bream,","speaker":"B"},{"t":2019,"text":"I don't know what will the Fire Smart Coordinator do. I feel like I should know this, but for some reason I don't.","speaker":"K"},{"t":2027,"text":"So through chair, the Fire Smart Coordinator is a new position that's grant funded through the Fire Smart grant and it's a term position.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2039,"text":"It's only approximately four months and in that time there's community outreach, community awareness, some education campaigns and some home assessments that are free to the community that helps bring awareness and education around fire hazards that the urban wilderness brings to their home.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2063,"text":"Okay, thank you. Other questions? Seeing none. Thank you very much, Chief. We are down to human resources. Thank you, Mayor.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2079,"text":"Council, through the chair, nothing to add. However, I would just like to highlight on page number two just the reduction in our lost days under Occupational Health and Safety as it was a 22.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2092,"text":"6% reduction and that helps with our overall premium rate for WorkSafe.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2099,"text":"Thank you. And that's significant. Well done. Questions. Councillor Cavins, I was going to ask","speaker":"B"},{"t":2105,"text":"a question about that. Is that likely to be a one off thing or are we expecting to see more declines over time","speaker":"I"},{"t":2113,"text":"through the chair?","speaker":"H"},{"t":2114,"text":"Good question. We do hope that this is a number that we'll be able to continue to reduce through some of the strategies we can't predict, obviously lost time.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2124,"text":"But we are putting some policies in place, we're putting some processes in place that we're hoping will either prevent injury or at least when we do have an injury, return people quicker.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2134,"text":"So hard to hard to give an answer prediction, but something that we're working very actively on to try to keep this number low. Those two numbers there are both important, of course work days lost.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2146,"text":"But the other one underneath is the more important number is the active claims because that's how many people were injuring but hopefully we can bring them back early or that the injury was not severe enough to keep them off for a longer period of time.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2161,"text":"So we're working on both of these","speaker":"M"},{"t":2166,"text":"questions. All right, we're a quiet bunch tonight. Thank you very much.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2173,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"M"},{"t":2173,"text":"And we now go on to parks and recreation. Mr. Kanoki.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2177,"text":"Thank you, Mayor. I have nothing else to add but I'm happy to answer questions.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2183,"text":"Councillor Morrison.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2185,"text":"It's good to see that because as you know, swimming lessons is always a big issue with aquatics. So it's good that we were able to increase a bit the number of community lessons in your report there.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2199,"text":"But that made me wonder about. So the prime. Just looking at prime time, which would generally be 5 to to 9pm do we, I know we always try to have one lane available for general swimming lakes.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2212,"text":"Do we try to keep the number of programmings during number of programs within aquatics during those prime times fixed or do they actually. Do they go up?","speaker":"C"},{"t":2222,"text":"Is there more programming taking up more of the pool during prime time, swim time, or is it pretty much uniform","speaker":"C"},{"t":2231,"text":"so through the chart? So the question is, does the volume of activity change during time basically like","speaker":"G"},{"t":2239,"text":"a ratio of programming versus just free","speaker":"C"},{"t":2243,"text":"use of the pool?","speaker":"H"},{"t":2245,"text":"So that's actually a really good question.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2247,"text":"We try and balance that and it's difficult sometimes because it's a drop in activity length swimming and you can have a lot of length swimmers show up and there's a lot of different things that compete for that time.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2260,"text":"Aquifer classes are quite large and swimming lessons can take up space. So the staff do a job of trying to balance everything. But we do commit that we are open to the public.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2271,"text":"So the hot tub is always open. There are features in the leisure pool that stay open but the amount that we control that varies and it depends on the season.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2282,"text":"And I would say that if you're seeing more use during those times, it's just a part of our business increasing.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2288,"text":"We've also increased the fee for individuals to swim with swimming lessons and that's to help manage the pressure that's being put there. But no, I think we are pretty static in our service.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2299,"text":"We provide a lane for the public and the hot tubs open the sauna, steam room. So we are open. But our lessons are obviously increasing and we're trying to provide more services.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2312,"text":"It feels like there's more programming going on, but maybe that's just when I'm going or something. But yeah, but I'm guessing a lot of the programming does happen during that 5pm to 9pm window as well.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2323,"text":"Yes, that's of course everybody wants to use the pool at the same time obviously. So thank you.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2330,"text":"Councillor Kevin just noted that the Gorge Park Pavilion bookings seem to have dropped overall. But you see the increase. I'm just curious, is that related to just changes or.","speaker":"I"},{"t":2341,"text":"I believe we also adjusted the fees we were charging last year. I'm just wondering how that's being received and what we're seeing in terms of trends there.","speaker":"I"},{"t":2351,"text":"So with the pavilion numbers. Sorry, through the chair, we have to be mindful that a lot of the program numbers are based on the size of the rental.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2360,"text":"So we are often getting larger and larger rentals, which actually has less number of rentals because it's one large rental. So revenues are tracking positively. We are still seeing increased business. More and more people are using the facility.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2373,"text":"However, the reason why I think we're seeing less individual rentals is because the rentals become larger in scope. And that that is something that we've had to balance.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2382,"text":"Just like the pool, we will open up a full facility booking prior to individual bookings. And that's just for efficiency of space.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2389,"text":"Larger events use the entire facility where a single event might use one room and restrict the use of facilities. So we do manage that.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2398,"text":"Perfect.","speaker":"L"},{"t":2398,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"I"},{"t":2402,"text":"Councillor Hellua.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2404,"text":"My other question was asked and answered, but at the top there it says publicly owned trees. We removed 20, but we didn't plant any. I'm curious if that's just a timing difference or.","speaker":"E"},{"t":2414,"text":"Yes, yeah. The summer is not the time for us to plant. We do in the fall and spring.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2419,"text":"Thanks.","speaker":"E"},{"t":2422,"text":"I just want to come back to the Gorge Park Pavilion booking. And given that it's an event space, what kind of feedback are we hearing? Are there any areas that we're hearing that require improvement?","speaker":"B"},{"t":2442,"text":"That is a good question. We have heard, we've had a variety of different feedback and we are working on some of these things. We have heard the floor is wearing individuals who want to do fitness classes or dancing.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2454,"text":"The floor is.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2455,"text":"It's.","speaker":"H"},{"t":2455,"text":"It's.","speaker":"L"},{"t":2456,"text":"It's a lower end floor and it's required work. And you can see in our maintenance report that we have been doing significant amount of work to that. So that's something we'll likely be investing in.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2467,"text":"Outside of that, we have worked diligently to try and improve parking. We do have an overflow parking space and we've made some adjustments on managing that. So we actually have an attendant now that manages it.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2479,"text":"So there are things that are improving. The sound system's improved. Yeah. And overall we've been continuing to get feedback, so it has been positive.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2488,"text":"Thank you, Councillor Morrison.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2491,"text":"Just back to programming in Quadex again.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2493,"text":"I think a while ago when we were talking about our budget, we had a big of discussion about the number of users that are actually non Esquimo residents, which is great because we get that revenue which helps reduce the subsidized amounts that Comes from taxpayers.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2509,"text":"But just back on the programming, do we know everything from swimming lessons to the scuba diving group or like I said, there's a lot of programming use of our pool. Do we ever.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2521,"text":"Are we able to track the number of purchases? Who are Esquimalt residents versus, for example, if there's a scuba diving club and they might be all Saanich residents for all we know.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2532,"text":"Like is there any way to track that? Do we ask the programming bookers or what have you, the user groups to provide us the list of how many Squamil residents participate in that programming?","speaker":"C"},{"t":2544,"text":"Okay, so through the chair there's a few nuances. The first one is we don't ask where you're from when you book the facility, so we're not actively tracking.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2554,"text":"The second is that we do allocate our facility based on our fees and charges policy. So youth and seniors, they have the opportunity to access.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2563,"text":"So we're not looking at residency for that, but we are regional in nature, so everyone's accessing these facilities.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2570,"text":"So to answer your question, we are not currently tracking who are where our booking, who is booking or where they're from.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2578,"text":"So theoretically, I mean, I'm not saying this is the case because we're local and most people want to go to a local place for swimming lessons, but theoretically our swimming lessons could be booked up by all non Esquimo residents or the scuba diving group could be all non Esquimo residents, et cetera, et cetera, for all the different programs.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2595,"text":"We have no way of really knowing.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2597,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2598,"text":"No, the staff, staff aren't directed to track that.","speaker":"G"},{"t":2603,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"H"},{"t":2603,"text":"But we had that motion last week and we'll see if that produces some interesting stats around that. But thank you very much, that's helpful.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2612,"text":"Any further questions? All right, thank you. And last but not least, it sounds kind of appropriate even though it is alphabetical, but we have strategic initiatives.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2629,"text":"Nothing further to add. We just had our one year anniversary of our department, so learning a lot and working on a lot of things as per our report. But happy to answer questions.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2637,"text":"Thank you. Questions, Megan, Councilor Brain.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2653,"text":"So the unpaid fines, if people don't pay, can you remind me again? They go to collections or. And then if they still don't pay, what happens with the limbo there?","speaker":"K"},{"t":2666,"text":"Yes, through the chair. So we do submit and have a contract with advanced collection agencies.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2671,"text":"So we've been working with them on our 20, 22 unpaid tickets and just the last month we've been working on 23 and 24 and 25.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2680,"text":"So we expect to have all of those submitted and then we hope to be on top of it and be submitting for late penalties or unpaid tickets, you know, within six months or something like this.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2692,"text":"We'll try to work out a procedure for our timeline. If the tickets go unpaid, there is steps we can take through the community charter, I believe, to follow up further.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2703,"text":"But I did do a poll on our repeat offenders to see if there was a great volume that we should maybe look into.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2711,"text":"And after looking at our, you know, the, the penalty fees and the number of infractions, I, I couldn't at that point. We did. We haven't investigated that further.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2721,"text":"I think there would have to be a real need and a real offense to take it to that next step, given the workload.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2729,"text":"Okay, so to me it sounds like once it goes to collections, they do tend to get paid.","speaker":"K"},{"t":2734,"text":"And the few that, yeah, we're early in, in the process through the chair because on 2022, but we are seeing some of the penalties be paid through the collections agency and we'll probably be able to report out how they went after 22 and 23, 24, 25 are submitted and I'll be able to see if we do in fact show penalties being paid through that process.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2753,"text":"Okay, thank you. Yeah.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2755,"text":"Councillor Cavan.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2756,"text":"So also on parking, we are seeing a big increase in the limited time parking zone fines that are going out, which is great.","speaker":"I"},{"t":2764,"text":"But one of those, the goals of that I think is to, I think we all know, but we is to encourage turnover and availability for our commercial spaces. And I was just curious, are we.","speaker":"I"},{"t":2775,"text":"And this may not be your department, this may be engineering. Are we tracking if they're seeing any differences in the availability of parking in","speaker":"I"},{"t":2782,"text":"those spaces","speaker":"C"},{"t":2787,"text":"through the chair? I don't believe. We're not tracking that, no.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2790,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"L"},{"t":2793,"text":"Councillor Morrison, thank you.","speaker":"B"},{"t":2796,"text":"In your report you talk about after hours enforcement. Says Vic PD continues to provide after hours by law enforcement and is working with the township to enhance service through clearer metrics and reporting.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2808,"text":"So I'm guessing we'll get that information at the next Vic PD report. But are you anecdotally seeing more after hour fine revenue being produced by enforcement","speaker":"C"},{"t":2818,"text":"of through the chair? No. Vic PD doesn't always open up a file when they investigate bylaw complaints after hours.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2824,"text":"So they might just do that independently, but they're starting to track that more through their system so that they can report out to us at the quarterly reports.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2833,"text":"I would probably leave that to Inspector King to update you next quarter on how that's been. But our Communication between our bylaw team and VICPD is really strong.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2842,"text":"We're transferring files at the end of the week in the event that we think there could be an incident that might arrive over the weekend or that continues into the weekend.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2852,"text":"And so most of my report here is anecdotal information about the work that we're doing together and feeling like we're on the right path with that.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2861,"text":"Okay, so just continue with the example of parking. Like you. You can't say with any certainty whether VPD has been issuing a more notable change in the volume of parking tickets.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2875,"text":"Through the chair, I can speak to that, because if they write any bond tickets, those bond tickets would be brought to our licensing clerk for processing.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2883,"text":"And I think a while ago I reported out that VICPD does not issue many bond tickets. You know, in a year it might be five or six that I've seen over time.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2894,"text":"So they're not often going and issuing tickets. But that's not to say they're not doing, you know, proactive patrol or addressing issues without issuing a bylaw offense notice.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2902,"text":"Yeah, but we would be able to see those tickets that they issued through our licensing clerk.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2908,"text":"Okay, so more. It sounds like they're just doing more intervention. If there's a noise complaint or a car blocking somebody, they just try to intervene to resolve it.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2918,"text":"I believe so.","speaker":"F"},{"t":2919,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"H"},{"t":2920,"text":"Okay.","speaker":"L"},{"t":2920,"text":"Thank you.","speaker":"C"},{"t":2922,"text":"Further questions? Just have a couple EC dev questions when we might see some results from the industrial park market study and land use plan. Ms. Finnegan?","speaker":"B"},{"t":2938,"text":"Yeah, thank you. Through the chair. So we are continuing to work with Royal Roads and putting together an industrial park business walk and survey.","speaker":"N"},{"t":2947,"text":"So I'll be working with those students doing the walkabout on November 30, and we will be inviting councillor and mayor to attend on that day if they so wish.","speaker":"N"},{"t":2958,"text":"We will be through partnership also with the development services team, working with one of their team members and presenting at Royal Roads the month before and just using the cohort of BBA students to help us with data collection and analysis thereafter.","speaker":"N"},{"t":2974,"text":"So we're just in the prep of putting that project together, putting together PIAS and some of the VAC admin work that needs to be done.","speaker":"N"},{"t":2983,"text":"So in terms of reporting out on that, I expect we'll see something in January.","speaker":"N"},{"t":2990,"text":"Thank you. Those of us that have been around the table for a while know that this has always been something that's been on the back burner. So. So it'll be exciting to see what information comes forward.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3003,"text":"And just while I have you there, can you speak a little bit about the economic nutrition program and what you're seeing and hearing.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3012,"text":"So in partnership with SureFast, we are leading one of the first regional cohorts on the West Coast.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3018,"text":"So what the economic nutrition label is, it's a marketing tool that businesses can use to show where their money goes and where it's spent. So the primary objective behind that is to show where local.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3031,"text":"Well, to encourage local procurement. So it really ties in with those big issues that we're seeing out there in terms of our sovereignty and buying Canadian.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3041,"text":"So much like you see on a nutrition label on a product they've done, they've copied, not copyrighted, they've trademarked a similar process where it looks like like a label and it'll give a business an opportunity to analyze their data and to do an economic nutrition label that better explains where their money goes and how they spend their money.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3063,"text":"So if a local business says all of our, all of the money that we receive in our revenue is spent locally on their nutrition label, they can say X percentages spent on wages, X percentage on goods and services.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3077,"text":"And there'll be a geographical indicator. So it's really linking procurement to place and helping businesses tell a better story.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3084,"text":"It is in the initial stages of the program, so I think it will take a few years to get a lot more businesses on board.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3094,"text":"But it's something that I believe strongly in and I'm happy to support sure fast and get as many businesses through as possible.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3102,"text":"So this first cohort, we've got three businesses that have signed up and we hope to improve that next year with more uptake.","speaker":"N"},{"t":3111,"text":"Thank you very much. And I just want to go Back to you, Ms. Kitts, First Nation engagement. I see that we've been able to set a time with Kasapsum so around our mou. So that's wonderful.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3130,"text":"When is that going to be again?","speaker":"B"},{"t":3133,"text":"On Wednesday, October 14, we'll be meeting with Cosapsum Nation to sign our relationship agreement.","speaker":"F"},{"t":3139,"text":"Thank you. And the other that I'm happy is chugging along a little bit again. Another one that's been on the books for a while is the midden.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3149,"text":"Yes, yes. We have a place making working group with the Graving Dock Squamilt Graving Doc in D and D. We meet every about six weeks to talk about our joint placemaking projects.","speaker":"F"},{"t":3161,"text":"And the Gorge midden is on that list along with a number of projects that D and D and Squamil Graving Dock have for bringing more Lekwungen culture signage, welcome signs, interpretive signs into the township in the region. Great.","speaker":"F"},{"t":3176,"text":"Yeah.","speaker":"F"},{"t":3176,"text":"Thank you very much, Council. Any more questions?","speaker":"B"},{"t":3180,"text":"I just have a general comment, if I may.","speaker":"K"},{"t":3182,"text":"Please.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3184,"text":"You know, it's the end of the term, and I just want to say we got a fair bit done, and it's not on us, it's on staff. And so kudos to staff.","speaker":"K"},{"t":3195,"text":"They've worked really hard in the last four years, and I just think that that should be acknowledged.","speaker":"K"},{"t":3202,"text":"Thank you. And yes, thank you for the reports. And as Councillor Bram said, we sit here and look good because of the work you've done, so. So with that, I will look for a motion to adjourn.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3218,"text":"So moved.","speaker":"H"},{"t":3220,"text":"Thank you. All those in favor? Any opposed? None opposed. 25 minutes, audience for break or walk or whatever you wish. Thank you, staff.","speaker":"B"},{"t":3240,"text":"It.","speaker":"L"}],"words":7940,"fetchedAt":"2026-10-03T04:15:26.627Z"}