Transcript: Committee of the Whole - 2026/05/14

Today we have for our consideration two sets of minutes, one presentation, one land use item, a staff report, and one council member motion. But of course, before we begin, we always want to take a moment to ground ourselves and our work in our acknowledgement. And in the opportunity to pay our respects to the two nations on whose territories our city sits in its entirety, of course the nations of the La Quangan people, the COSAPSum Nation and the Songhees Nation. And we continue to enjoy their generosity in taking the time to work with us on a variety of different programs and policies and projects and endeavours where we together learn from one another, but also have an opportunity to discover new things every time we do work together, about both the history of the lands and the waters that surround them, as well as the opportunities and potential of the land and the waters and the people here who occupy both indigenous and non - indigenous.

We always want to take a moment to remind ourselves and the people who are listening and the people that we serve, that we are here as partners in trying to reflect the history that has gone before us and address head - on, the challenges that are right in front of us and the present, but also keep an eye to what needs to be done to ensure that there is a future that all those who come after us can enjoy, certainly to the extent that we have, the privilege of enjoying here today. When we think of all that has been done over the years by the nations to preserve these lands and waters, it is indeed daunting, but it is also very inspiring and hopefully it is a context in which we do our own work and hope that whatever the decisions we make today and in the coming weeks that those are decisions that will be long - lasting and they best interest of the

people who will live here and who do live here. And perhaps inspiring to someone as any individual may consider their own version of public service. We say hi tricusium to say thank you, but also sometimes we say hi to Casey McUlea to say thank you and to offer our respect to all of those people who are here in our community as individuals, as groups, families, leaders, whatever endeavour they choose to place their time, because we know that they do so in the best interest of all who are around them. I actually guess you have Nick William. Chair's remarks on it just briefly today, brother. Today is Moosehead campaign day. And for those of you who are aware of this or for those of you who are not, you will see very often through the community in different places, this little cute little brown card beige card. Not sure what colour that is. And it talks a little bit about the campaign and I believe most

of us today are wearing a moose HUD square. This is indeed a representation of a particular program that was started about 15 years ago. And this is a campaign that was originally initiated by a variety of indigenous communities to bring attention to violence against women and children. It is now a campaign that has moved broadly throughout all communities in the country, and you will see these small squares of moose - hide in many, many different areas. They are available free, and they are here at City Hall. If anyone wishes to pick one up, they're also throughout the community in a variety of different organisations. And in fact, you can get them directly from the moveset campaign just by writing to them. And they do have, of course, a website, which is simply moosehead campaign. ca.

It's an important opportunity for us to wear something that is pretty simple and which often always, in fact, draws attention and creates an opportunity for a question. And an answer, and most importantly, a conversation about these critical issues that affect all of our community. So I would urge you to investigate a little bit and to find a location where you can choose to take one of these small squares. And it's a simple action, but it's an action of remembrance, an action that prompts conversation and an action that gives us all a chance to speak clearly about our own roles and responsibilities and stopping all violence.

So I urge you to check out the Moosehead campaign. ca. With that, I'm not aware of any late items that need to be added to committee today. And so I would look for a motion to approve the agenda as published. Thanks Councillor Coleman, seconded by Councillor Chopson. Any discussion of the agenda? Not seeing any, all those in favor. Anyone opposed. That is unanimous. That does take us on to proposals for the consent agenda at Committee. There are four. Just for the information of the public. This is item F1. The minutes from the Committee of the Hole meeting held April 9th. Item F2, the minutes from the Committee of the whole meeting held April 16th. The item H1, which is a heritage designation application for the property at 1784 Denman Street. And item ION, an endorsement of funding and award applications on behalf of City from City staff. Now, would anyone like to remove any of those items? Not seeing any interest in removing anything anyone

would like to add. Not seeing anything there either. So without someone like to move the consent agenda, I think it's Councillor Coleman. I second my councillor Cardona. All those in favor. And I'm going to pose. That is unanimous. Thank you for that. That would take us on usually to the consideration of minutes, but of course we've just placed both F1 and F2. The minutes from the Committee with the whole meetings on April 9th and April 16th on the consent agenda. So those will return to us for final consideration at a future daytime council meeting, which takes us right on to item G, and we have one item under item G, G1. And that is our regular update from staff on the work being undertaken under the rubric of our Community Safety and Wellbeing Plan. I believe this is ADM Web. And or, and direction. Just, and oh my God, and ADM CARE, we've got the whole crew right on. Come on up. When you're settled.

Yes, bring your own chair. We're going to make your work extra. And when you're settled, then, uh, take it away whenever you are ready.

And as usual, we know who you are, but when you do begin to speak, you can introduce yourselves for the interest of the public. Good morning, Mayor and Council. I'm pleased to be here today to provide you with a progress update on the Community Safety and Wellbeing plan. My name is Sarah Webb. I'm the assistant director of corporate planning and strategic partnerships. Here along with Director Peter Rantucci of the Community Safety Wellbeing and Partnerships Department, an assistant director, Carrie Lee Jones, of the Community Safety and Bilef Services team. Before we begin the presentation today, and for those listening at home, we typically commence these updates with a reminder of what we are trying to achieve.

Community safety is a collaborative multi - sector approach to creating a secure, inclusive, and supportive environment for our entire community. When we speak about community safety, we're extending efforts beyond traditional law enforcement to a shared responsibility for overall well - being, quality of life and social supports in our community. Community safety requires collaboration and commitment from all orders of government, residents, businesses and organisation who make up our community today for generations to come. In July 2025, council endorsed the Community Safety and Wellbeing Klan. The plan focuses on prevention, intervention, and response with 99 recommendations across eight sectors. During the same month, council directed the implementation of 11 priority actions to support a range of interventions, fill gaps, and contribute to solutions as a part of the first phase of implementation. Between October 2025 and February, 2026, the city took on an enhanced role to deliver actions under a new department as well working across collaboratively with teams from public works, engineering, parks, economic development, and

planning, working to deliver both upstream and downstream solutions in line with the plan's objectives. In March 2026, staff provided a comprehensive update of the program actions and identified several initiatives planned for 2026 that align with the recommendations within the plan. As council will recall, the leavened priority actions covered a broad range of activities, including shifting municipal service delivery, increasing capacity to respond to community needs. Creating additional housing and sheltering solutions. Making targeted capital investments and expanding partnerships on on - the - ground solutions. While in the past, we have used these updates to cover a wide range of topics and projects. Today I will be focusing our work, focusing in on our work to expand partnerships and deliver on the ground solutions. In January of 2026, the city announced a partnership with the government of Canada to deliver the spark program for enhanced youth safety and well - being. The program recently wrapped up on April 1st, 2026. I'm pleased to take the opportunity today

to share some of the highlights and outcomes of this initiative. The SPARC program for enhanced youth safety and well - being was made possible by a 750, 000 - dollar grant through the federal crime prevention action fund. The fund supports evident space models and promising practices associated with upstream interventions to improve public safety and prevent crime. With funding secured in December of 2025, the city embarked on a three - month multi - partner initiative focused on strengthening protective factors, for a children, youth, and young adults, under the age of 30 in the City of Victoria. The focus of efforts were to support crime and violence prevention, increase sense of belonging, and address root causes of vulnerability. The program delivered activities in five key areas spanning case management and counseling services to increasing access to sport recreations, science and art and cultural opportunities. Data collection and community engagement conducted between 2023 and 2025 through the development of the Community Safety Wellbeing Plan, identified that children, youth,

and young adults are vulnerable populations within our community. We heard that there are opportunities to strengthen well - being among this demographic by supporting all dimensions of health, including mental, community, social, emotional, and physical health. Research demonstrates that upstream interventions in well - being at an early age can help to address structural causes of social disorder and reduce long - term risks to safety in the community. This might include school disengagement, substance abuse, gang involvement, and even homelessness. Strategic interventions at different ages can help de foster individual resilience and has the potential to reduce future pressures on health and justice systems. The program objectives for Spark or were based on five key areas. First, to reduce risk factors, address youth and family violence, family disorganization, community fear, substance - related harms, school disengagement, and justice involvement. The second to protect its strength and protective fact factors, build cultural identity, support family stability, provide new options and activities that build life, offer employment skills, and increase

well - being at different ages. Advanced equity and inclusion by delivering tailored services for youth and families coming from diverse backgrounds, including indigenous youth, newcomers, gender diverse, or youth experiencing poverty or homelessness today. Improving service access by reducing weightless and access to mentorship and counseling services, and expanding access to resource in the community to help youth lead their best lives. And finally, the pillar of building system can capacity. Using this program to enhance collaboration and build capacity, through training and education for those working with youth in the field. In order to deliver this rapid implementation program, the City partnered with 16 diverse community organisations shown on the screen. To collectively, along with three city departments, we focused on delivering a series of projects, initiatives, and activities that would contribute to program objectives. We are pleased to report that more than 17, 000 children youth and young adults were involved in the SPARC program between January 2026 and April 1st, 2026. The City and its partners

directly served more than 5, 000 individuals through services and programs and engaged more than 12, 000 children youth and young adults through outreach, events, and activities. The Spark program was able to support more than 200 employees and volunteers who work in youth and family serving organisations. And through creative partnerships, all of our partners and the city engaged in additional 26 organisations and six schools here in Victoria to help reach youth in different places across our community. So before we get into some of the detailed outcomes, we thought we would share some of the ways in which help spark help to create stories of change in such a short order of time. First, we targeted outreach by removing barriers to engagement and initiating diverse connections to meet youth where they're at here in the city. We built readiness, developed trust and strength and conditions for positive outcomes through case management, counseling, and education. We increased access to food and basic needs so that youth and families

could attend programs, focus on learning and engage in skill building. We enabled learning through diverse workshops and providing access to culture, recreation, science, and art to build skills and strengthen sense of belonging. And finally, we strengthened service - COBITRI provider capacity by offering training to staff and volunteers, improving systems and materials, and updating equipment to sustain youth services beyond the project period. Collectively, these helped to build stories of change, which I'll feature just some of the outcomes and accomplishments across the organisations over the last three months. The City is currently preparing its final reports for the federal government and a comprehensive summary will be available at the end of June. So I'd like to start by featuring some of the 16 partners. The Aboriginal Coalition to End Homelessness held the land - based healing camp and cultural experiences for at - risk indigenous youth. They focused on traditional customs, dancing, and the arts. They held a blanketing ceremony to honour a youth who had completed

three months of treatment supporting their healing journey and strengthening connections with family and community. The AVI community services Circle program increased their service capacity over the past three months to provide direct support for 100 young adults experiencing mental health emergencies in crises. They also supported 30 of their program staff to attend training workshops on working directly with indigenous youth focused on client - centred practices, cultural safety, and crisis response. Beacon Community Services supported 41 youth to connect them to employment councillors, participate in job fairs, and explore opportunities to re - enter education, training, and employment. This may be KDA - 12 education, and it may also be post - secondary. The also provided art therapy for 61 young adult males experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Big brothers and big sisters led the BU Healthy Bodie Bodies Healthy Minds Workshops. Focused on helping to provide increased sense of confidence and belonging and skills for 33 youth age 9 to 15 in three different schools here

in Victoria. They also initiated 15 new in - school mentoring matches for youth facing systemic barriers such as trauma or lack of stable adult presence in their lives. Capital Bike expanded their youth bike lending library. And served 23 new households lending requests. This included providing an adaptive bicycle for a neurodiverse child, which was their first experience being able to work with adaptive bikes in their lending library. The Cringe Centre for the family delivered a month - long program for 15 mothers with 19 children focused on healing from family violence. Families also received take - home toolkits and hampers and increased access to counseling supports over three months. Good night out in Victoria expanded their workshop on sexual violence prevention and education, focusing in on the entertainment and restaurant industry. And the Victoria Street Team operated late night until 3 a. m. on Friday, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, focusing on areas where they could intervene to help assist people with distress, de - escalate conflicts, and

support wellness check - ins. The interocultural association of greater Victoria delivered a series of integrated programs for 42 newcomer youth and their families. Offering inclusive recreational programs, volunteer activities. Cultural connections and community are rootings. The John Howard Society expanded their outreach and recruitment and training to support a kid's start volunteers, resulting in 33 new recruits and 21 volunteers trained with five partner organisations. They hosted 55 skills - building meetings and made 17 new kid - start and mentor matches within schools. Power to B, Adventure Therapy hosted two wilderness trips to support 18 vulnerable youth from Victoria to learn technical skills while building resilience and teamwork and developing healthy peer relationships and conflict resolution. Restorative justice focused on turnly to update their practices to better serve 24 youth in their family, interacting with a criminal justice system, including remote conferencing system, physical space improvements, and internal process improvements. Thrive Social Services delivered the rise up employment program for 18 youth who face barriers to employment, an

upscaled their social media presence to have a better and ongoing sustained youth engagement, both post - program. The umbrella society expanded hours of recovery - oriented outreach and drop - in services and provided detox and treatment options and peer support for 60 individuals under the age of 30 over the last three months. They also deliver recovery - oriented school educational programming to 120 youth. The Victoria Youth Empowerment Society provided custom case management support for 11 youth who have justice involvement involving system navigation, education to improve understanding, compliance with probation, and reduce breaches of probation. They strengthened their youth pantry program, providing supplies and food for at - rescuth youth, and hosted cooking and baking workshops for 75 individuals under the age of 30. Mustard seed society played a support role providing fresh food and catered meals for eight of our spark partners, reaching 150 youth and their families, and created volunteer experiences at their food distribution hub for 12 youth through portner organisations to gain

hands - on practical experience volunteering for the resume. The make space society delivered 145 hours of programming within 17 sessions focused on equipping youth with design, repair, building and fabrication skills, and engaged 130 unique participants through a several workshops in the month of March. The city itself hosted our Victoria at Dusk event with more than 80, 000 people attending with an estimated 10, 000 attendees under the age of 30 at the festival. We also provide sponsored admissions, passes, supplies, and learning opportunities to 18 different youth and family serving organisations and 11 classes in public schools here in Victoria. And finally our recreation team introduced a new inclusive swim lessons and water safety education program to over 170 children youth and caregivers with a focus on newcomer immigrant and refugee participants. Truly these all make up many stories of change and are only just a sample of the kinds of impacts that the spark program had within the first three months. Spark was focused on rapid

deployment and targeted investments to support children, youth and young adults in our community. Direct benefits include new and strength and relationships between organisations, individuals, and schools. More efficient referrals pathways improved system and service coordination. Additional capacity to serve priority populations, additional capacity to reduce waitlists. The ability to test out new systems, models, or programs, and increased awareness of city services and the broader community safety and well - being plan. We could have easily continued this program for years to come with the success that was given through this grant from the government of Canada. Participants in Spark achieved greater stability, increased life skilled resiness, and had an opportunity to be supported through diverse activities over a three - month period. Activities supported healing, resilience, and greater community connections for children, youth, and young adults. An interventions helped to increase sense of belonging will addressing unmet needs related to mental health, substance use, family stress, isolation, and access to care, culture, and recreation. We are continuing to

make progress towards desired outcomes in the community safety well - being planned through innovative programs like Spark. We're staff are looking to leverage investments from other orders of government, working with trusted and established organisations in our community. Delivering on established solutions and piloting new approaches. Focusing in on specific population demographics and responding to community needs. Our teams will continue to listen, reflect and act with all members of the community as we continue plan implementation. While this is a little bit different than our regular reports on Community Safety Wellbeing, this was such a short and impactful program that we wanted to come and present the outcomes to you. Our next progress report, which will be a comprehensive one - year implementation review and launch of several new initiatives that are helping to deliver on the city's community safety and well - being plan will take place in July. At this point, I'll close the presentation and welcome any questions for today. Thank you, Aedium. It was

very comprehensive and interesting example of one particular approach. I'm sure there will be a few questions. I'll just remind folks that there are no decisions today. This is an information update for public and council. And so one of the things I think that we are expecting is at our June evening council meeting. I believe that is one of our opportunities to focus in on a particular theme. And if I recall correctly, we have invited all of the organisations who received funding either through Spark or through the Community Safety Wellbeing plan as a whole to join us in the evening and give us their own updates on the impact of that funding and support and partnership.

So that will be another thing for us to hear in June. With that, any questions for yes, Councillor Thompson. Go ahead. Thanks Mayor. And through you, thanks very much for all the work that you do. And for this presentation. I guess the big benefit of Spark is that it's a prevention measure. And what I understand from the presentation was that there was a temporary period where organisations got a boost, but there may be long - term impacts of that with those organisations, as well as long - term impacts. For the youth that they served. I imagine that those will decline over time. And I'm wondering if you see any prospect for more federal funding. Is there, have you been in touch with them? Do they have an ongoing program. Through the mayor, this particular program was one stream of funding from the government of Canada, but we do know that youth continue to be a focus area for the government and also again, the broader

emphasis on crime prevention, um, and vulnerable populations. Um, whether it be youth or elders and seniors in our community, one thing that the city continues to do is identify and look for a funding partnership opportunities like this. Um, on the consent agenda today was a report seeking endorsement for grant applications. The City continues to look for every opportunity. And what we will continue to do is take that lens of community safety well - being and whether it be delivered through our department or through other parts of our organisation. We will actively pursue funding opportunities to help deliver on plan objectives. Okay, thanks. And mayor, um, do you want us to go, are we okay going broader than Spark into Community Safety and Wellbeing, or do you want to keep it focused on the presentation? Would be good if we could prioritize any questions or comments on this, but yes, staff are willing to answer any questions you have. Before I go off on another topic

related to CSWB than maybe I'll see the floor in my comments. I'll come back to you. Any other questions just on this presentation and then after we exhaust those, we'll open the floor to broader questions to staff. On this room, Councillor Goleman, Council Gardner. Thank you. Um, thank you fabulous work. Um. Do we have an understanding of how many youth 30 and under. That haven't yet. Been caught into the ambit of these programs. Yes, what? Through the mayor, I don't have the, uh, the demographics from our last census update on hand, but, you know, I think one thing that we do recognise is that children, youth and young adults in our community or an area that we want to continue focusing on. Um, across our organisation, many programs touch on this demographic, whether it be migrate neighbourhood grant or the local champions program, uh, whether it be a recreation, arts and culture programming. I think we would, we would, uh, be able to give you

a percentage of, you know, what does 17, 000 out of our total, uh, city demographic. I just need to be able to get back to you on that. That's, that's fair. Thank you. Um, are we allowed broader comments or just questions? Let's focus on this presentation first and then we'll give everybody another one. It deals with this. And I, um. You've hit into, I think the critical theme of where we need to invest. I was at this council table when the community at large had to deal with the rena verk issue. And there was a lot of assessment at that point on the number of non - parental adults involved in a youth's life. And if you had one non - parental adult, it could be a relative. It could be a music teacher. It could be a sports, whatever. Um, the chances of being involved in youth violence dropped by 83 percent. And if there were six non - parental adults, it dropped by

99. And then they did the scan of inner cities in the US. And most youth couldn't identify one adult. These organisations have become those adults. Um, and it's critically important that we try and invest more time in this. Because there are some organisations out there that, um, teach loyalty, teach team ethic, but they're criminal. And so this is the counterpoint to that. So. You've given us a number of, uh, organisations that could be involved. How many more would you like. Muhaha. Through the mayor. Please excuse the decorum change there. Um, tomorrow we take over and perhaps in anticipation of, of recognising just how, um, significant a program like this, uh, while we work directly with, with 16 organisations. And we again had a rapid deployment to be able to apply for this funding and secure it in a matter of days. Um, we did use this as an opportunity to build relationships beyond, um, so I had mentioned six schools and 26 partners. I just

wanted to take a few minutes to share with you on three slides the names of these organisations. Um, threshold youth housing society, sanctuary youth bridges for women's society, COMOS and college. Canadian mental health association of BC. The compost education centre. The crisis in trauma resource institute. Life cycles project society. The headstart program within the Song He's Nation. Volunteer Victoria. Swan Lake Nature Sanctuary, Emily Car House, Victoria Tool Library. Foundry Victoria, the Justice Education Society of BC, the community arts hub in quadra village. The Yvette CARSA program, Vancouver Island Mental Health Society, Victoria Immigrant Refugee Centre Society. Victoria Women's Transition House. One up single parent resource centre. The women in Need Society, the African art and cultural community centre. The central middle school, George J, James Bay, Quadra, and VicUest Elementary Schools, as well as Victoria High Schools. So these additional organisations were touched through the Spark program, led through either city or any of our 16 partners. And so where we see as an opportunity

is to recognise that each of these organisations play a different role in the continuum of solutions on safety and well - being. Sometimes they're providing the mentorship kind of supports and programs. Sometimes they're delivering, counseling, or case management. And sometimes it's being a place where children and youth can increase and find their community so that they can be a part of Victoria. So, uh, how many other organisations many more? But I think this gave us an example of how the city using federal funding leveraged direct impact for quality of life for children, youth, and young adults in our community. Thank you. Please, please carry on your devious plotting. Yes, Councillor Gardner, just on this presentation, we'll come back for another round. Um, thank you. And thank you for the presentation. As the organization's contacted other organisations and you've read 26, didn't you have a bigger number earlier that are actually linked into what you called in at work at one time or you networked? Or

was it just 26? Did I miss here in earlier number. So we worked with 16 organisations directly. And then within the program we worked with another 26 organisations and six schools. Okay. So that's 32 plus 16. Okay. Thank you. That's, that was it. 48 quick math. Yeah. And I think I was going to actually ask almost the same questions that, uh, comes from Commander, which is how many youths are we dealing with here. And 17, 000 in what age group. And how many, cause when I look at some of these programs, they're not actually in the city of Victoria or the programs might be, but the people may not be. In other words, do we know how many of the people reached were actually Victoria residents versus other municipalities and did other municipalities also have any funding? Or is this again using Victoria. Through the mayor, we designed this program for Victoria residents. So with the exception of schools, which of course draw, um, on

a broader catchment area that may include residents from a squy multer sanitch, but they're in Victoria school district 61, the intention was to support Victoria based children, youth, and young adults. We very much intended that. We worked with the partners to be able to look at and work directly with an impact our community. My colleagues and Community Planning are pulling up some data from the last census and updated forecasts around youth between the ages of five and 30. Be happy to share that with you. But to your point, Councillor Gardner, we emphasize, um, a focus in on Victoria residents, um, and this was funding through the government of Canada. So if other municipalities, um, may have benedited benefited, uh, with let's say a child who attended us school at George J, but lives in San Anch, for example, um, the catchments for those schools are relatively, uh, local. So I think we have a high confidence that many Victoria children were included. I was thinking

more of the nat program. And their outreach were like, how many of these, I wasn't thinking of the schools as much as how many of these other people are actually, you know, that's what I was thinking of. Um, through the mayor, the, the good night out program is a great program of targeting a very specific audience. There are many people who go out to enjoy a vibrant nightlife, uh, nightclubs, bands, entertainment. And that would be an example where we may have people from other communities coming into Victoria. They did not track where people were coming from. The focus of their efforts is on the people who are attending nightclubs events and activities in downtown Victoria.

Yeah. Thank you. Cause I know some that I, a couple of particular that I financially contribute to myself aren't of course on the list, but they do, I'm not going to say job training. They take real people at risk. And some, shall we say living it rough and give them skills training. And so I have a feeling that we have many, many, many groups. In the city and some not identified because I'm worried that we're going to start in it with a huge administrative load as opposed to actually on the kid. So that's why I'm really looking forward to see how many kids and five to 30 is wide range. But I would think that here we're dealing more with late elementary school or middle schooling up or all ages. Through the mayor, the government of Canada determines youth as the age's children, youth and young adults up to the age of 30. And so that was included in the scope of our, our work.

Um, the breakdown of, uh, ranges, we can pull together as a part of our final report. But we were intentionally trying to, uh, include, uh, five to 10 year olds, um, 10 to 17 year olds, 18 to 30 year olds in a variety of different projects. Great. No, that's great to hear. And so will you have some result in that by age bracket. Or situation, shall we say later? Uh, through the mayor, we can provide an estimated breakdown proportionately. Yes. Yeah. I'd like to see that cause I'm just worried about job creation to provide services versus the kids, not kids. Young adults whomever who perhaps could benefit from the services. So thank you. And a lot more questions later. Yes. Thank you very much. Councillor Loton on this presentation. Good morning. Thanks and through you mayor like everyone else. Very impressed by this. Of course we all know that prevention is a huge part of the solution here. And that's what we're seeing. So incredibly

hopeful. I know you mentioned this and I think there was a slide, but I'm just curious about how we keep this going or what the opportunities are to keep it going. And then I have another question about education, but maybe I'll separate them. And start with how do we, how does this keep going? Uh, through the mayor, while the federal funding grant has been expended, um, one of the, you know, fundamentals here was building and sustaining relationships. So for some of these organisations, they work directly with each other on a regular basis already, uh, for others, this was a chance to make new relationships and forge new partnerships together. So part of our goal is that lasting impact of being able to bring organisations, um, to meet each other, to help work together and to find opportunities to work together again in the future. Um, I think that one of the things as we look to phase two as a part of the city's community

safety wellbeing plan could include continued focus on different demographics, um, of vulnerable people. And that may include children, youth and young adults. Yeah. We'll just have to figure it out to find the money to support these things. Um, you also mentioned education, including post - secondary education. So I'm curious if there was opportunities for people to get their GED or what that post - secondary education looks like. I know that kids in care, um, I think they have opportunity to free education. So if you could just comment on what you know about that and maybe just as an add - on to that, how many kids in care were involved in this program. Because we know that a lot of, uh, homeless people, the, it's a funnel into homelessness. The foster care system. Idiom Webb through the mayor, I would have to get back to you on the number of kids in CARE in Victoria.

Don't have that at my fingertips, but we do have access to that data. Sure. Um, both beacon community services as well as, uh, thrive social services, had different employment program focuses and skills training. And one of the focus components is, uh, for people to either help complete their high school education, um, through the South Island distance education program, or also potentially who've graduated high school, perhaps, um, haven't found a pathway and it got a chance to introduce to Camoson College. So both of those were kind of employment and school readiness programs. Fantastic. That's it for me. I just want to kudos to all of you for the work you've done on this. It's incredible. It's very good stuff. Thank you very much. Anybody else want this presentation? If not, we'll go to a second round more generally. Okay. So Councillor Thompson, I believe you said you had some broader questions. Let's start with you. Thank you, Mayor. Um, I was listening to the radio this

morning and there was discussion of FIFA and the increasing potential for increasing cost of it. But I've, um, also been, uh, in conversations with service providers, uh, and they're worried about, uh, folks coming over being displaced from the two kilometer radius around FIFA, uh, and going up the valley, but also coming over to the island. And here, do we have any reliable information about what's going to be happening with folks displaced for FIFA. We would like to venture a comment on that. Idiot. Through the mayor. Um, we have also heard that. And we have not been able to, um, although we have heard that there's a bit of an uptick in, uh, folks from outside of our community, um, we have not been able to source with any accuracy that they have actually come from FIFA. And, um, same with Nanaimo just had a conversation with our colleagues there, uh, and they have not been able to source that either. Okay. And I guess that'll

probably coincide with what I've heard is the normal seasonal change in the visibility of people, uh, on the street. Are we seeing the seasonal uptick now and how long does that generally continue. Through the mayor? Yes. We are seeing our normal seasonal optic in folks that are coming out with a nicer weather that will generally lead into the fold. And again, it really just depends on the weather. So we should start to see a decline probably in October. Okay. Um, I also have been paying attention to some social media accounts profiling people who actually live on the West shore. And among others, but folks who live on the West Shore and come into Pandora, um, uh, because of the social scene and other attributes. I'm wondering, do we have any sense of how many folks showing up on the street on a general day are actually from outside of Victoria. Ms. Jones. Through the mayor, I think the bigger picture is that it is a

transient, uh, community. And so yes, we do see on a regular basis, um, folks that are coming from our local communities, but then some of, um, our folks that were previously, uh, in the corridor in the downtown core, um, are now also insani and the West shore. Interesting. Glad you brought that up. Um, we have heard, uh, well, I guess we've, we've received the information from, uh, the housing ministry that Victoria hosts over 80 percent of supportive housing units. In the region, uh, most of the other municipalities in the region host zero, uh, although, uh, they do have homeless folks, uh, for instance, Callwood hosts zero, but has 47 homeless folks according to their own count. Uh, are we hearing anything about those other communities developing shelter bids or supportive housing. Swep. Through the merit.

This time we're in regular contact with the ministry of housing, BC housing as well as other municipalities. Um, while there may be some future opportunities for supportive and affordable housing, I'm not aware of currently any plans for new shelters in other adjacent municipalities at this time. Thanks. I haven't heard of any either. Very disappointing. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Councillor Gardner. You had some subsequent questions beyond the presentation. Yes. Thanks before you do that. Um, Ms. Webb, I believe you do have now the demographic data on the younger age cohort. Is that right? Uh, yes. Through the mayor to answer Councillor Gardner and Councillor Coleman's previous question about the total population in Victoria, uh, of, of, of people between the ages of five and 29, because that's the census, um, is just over 23, 000, um, in Victoria in the last year.

Thank you. Go ahead, Council Croater. Thank you very much for that information. And I hope you can give us another breakdown later. What age groups are reached in the programs? So thank you very much. Um, now onto the broader questions. And following up on what has just been asked, what is your estimate? I know it's transient. So it's very much a sec of people now, um, either sheltering or not sheltering, but in the parks and on the boulevards and streets at this point. Is Jones. Through you, Mayor, just to go back to the point in time count, there were 811 folks that were unsheltered. In the downtown core, um, and parks we're seeing about, uh, 200 or so, uh, and along the corridor, just under a hundred. And that would be inclusive of the 200.

Okay. And the point in time was remind me. It's regional. And about what year 2025. 2020. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Uh, and what was our count then? Cause I think you also had account then. Did we not for the city a year ago. Through the mayor, I don't have our count, uh, for a year ago, um, but our current numbers are within the City of Victoria about just over 200. Okay. Um, thank you. And again, I know we ask this question each time or someone does. How many are now, uh, situated in either support of housing or in shelters within the City Victoria. How many people.

Stranducci, do you have this one? Through the mayor. We'll go by our count of units. We have just over 481 shelter units. And, um, I'm just going by memory here approximately 1100 supportive housing units. So in total, uh, you'd be in the 1500 to 1600 range. Again, as I've, uh, point out in the past, the definition of support of housing is a bit fluid. There are forms of senior housing. For example, that are considered that. And I'm focused more on the, uh, traditional general population supportive housing site. So when you're talking 1100, did that include the senior ones? No. No. Thank you. That's what I thought. Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. And, um.

Can you give us an update? Cause I'm getting emails now about the bridge pathway. Through the mayor council. We'll recall that, uh, as a part of the direction that you provided us to introduce new housing and sheltering solutions in Victoria as a part of the first phase of implementation, one of the projects that we initiated was the new Bridge Street pathway shelter. Referrals started for that shelter on the week of April 27th and the shelter is now operational and welcoming people. This is a referral - based shelter. So it per councils direction the intent is to be able to help provide a bridge and opportunity to bring people off the street, living in emergency situations and help connect them with housing and support services and resources. Thank you. So is it now, it was 34 units, I believe. Through the mayor, up to 34 bits.

And how many are occupied at this point? Uh, through the mayor, I'm unable to tell you that, uh, until tomorrow, uh, we just started the referral process on April 27th. So, uh, there will not be a 34 people moving in one time. So I'll be able to provide counsel with an update, um, July, um, progress to talk about kind of occupancy overall and trends that we've been able to find for the first few months. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Lotton. You had another question? I do. Thanks. And through you, Mayor. I'm just wondering if you could give us an update on how Johnson Manor is, um, unfolding thus far. Is what? Uh, through the mayor, um, again, setting the context for those listening at home. One of the housing and sheltering solutions that we just talked about was Bridge Street pathways shelter and the other one was the Johnson Street Manor Recovery Housing. Uh, so this development, which is already existing, um,

hosts 20 units of, uh, dedicated recovery housing for individual adults. Um, the occupancy started on, uh, in April and all units are full. Uh, we are anticipating to get our first kind of major progress report, uh, in July around how the programming and services going, particularly because, um, part of the role in helping to support people through their recovery journey is giving them opportunities for employment and volunteer, um, and so this is an exciting area that I think we'll continue to emerge. But, uh, as it stands, the Johnson Manor, um, recovery housing is full. That's great news. Do you, this is probably too much, but do you know if the wait list there yet or what kind of demand, um, there is for this sober recovery based housing. This web. Well, I couldn't tell you what the wait list, uh, status is for the Johnson manner. We do know from many of our service providers that there's an ongoing demand to be able to support

this type of transitional housing to help improve, uh, skills and ability help to create that positive flow and give independent living opportunities. So I would say that while I don't have a wait list number, we do know that this is an area of particular interest. I will flag that this was a very creative and innovative partnership with BC housing and the Ministry of housing. And part of the program model with Johnson Manor is to do detailed analysis and research associated with individuals moving in and out of and through the program. So, uh, part of it is to be able to help create the basis for understanding what are the success outcomes? How do we manage the kinds of needs that will continue to, uh, be present in communities like Victoria, but potentially across British Columbia?

I just want to send just my most heartfelt kudos to all of you for making that happen because I don't believe that without the community safety and wellbeing plan, Johnson Manor would have come to fruition. So thank you all for your forward thinking and making that program happen. Thank you very much. And either a general questions. Well, not general questions, but questions on City Safety while being planned. All right. Uh, as everyone has said, thank you so much for your work. We know how much we don't see. But the proof, I guess, is in what we see in the changes in the People's Lives that are being touched by this plan. So thank you very much for all of your work and continued. Good luck.

That would take us on to the next item on our agenda, which would be land use matters. But as you will recall, we placed the one land use metre, which was the Heritage Designation application for 1784 Denman Street on the consent agenda. And so that will again, appear before us in the future at both for preliminary readings and then ultimately the scheduling of a public hearing, the only part which we are allowed to do public hearings book, heritage applications sometime in the future. That would also then usually take us on to the next item, which would be staff reports. And this as was referenced in our previous presentation, uh, the approval for applications for a variety of different grants and funding supports, which was also placed on the consent agenda. So that will also return to us at a future council meeting, which takes us on to our one item of new business. And this is a council member motion on strategies and resources to

require cooling in Victoria's rental buildings. This was put forward by three different council members. I think they have been listed alphabetically. If I'm guessing. So which of councillors Cardano Dell and or Thompson wished to move and second this? Dell is moving. Thompson is seconding. We'll start with councillors Dell and Thompson and then go to the rest of the console. Councillor Delwould like to introduce this? Uh, sure. I'm going to provide a bit of a lengthy introduction. So bear with me. So I want to start by thanking the Canadian association of nurses for the environment to help bring this issue to our attention and for advocating for the health, the residents of BC. I also want to thank the City of newestminster and councillor Nadine Nakagawa who supported us in drafting this motion and took leadership on this issue a number of years ago. The background for this motion starts with the 2021 Extreme Heat event.

Extreme heat events are also described as heat waves or heat domes. Heat dome occurs when an area of high pressure stays over the same area for days or even weeks trapping very warm air underneath like a lid on a hot pot. It definitely, the definition of extreme heat event varies based on many factors, including geographic location, weather conditions, et cetera. During this type of event, the temperature is much hotter than average for a particular time and place. In late June, 2021, British Columbia experience an unprecedented heat dome, which resulted in record temperatures across many parts of the province. Temperature started to rise on June 24th, which is about a month from now. We'll continue to increasing to the peak on June 28th and 29th. At the peak, temperatures reached over 40 degrees on many parts of the province. Overnight, temperatures were also uncharacteristically high. During the week of the heat dome, the BC corner service responded to the setting and significant increase in deaths. More

than 800 deaths were investigated by the coroner service during that week with 619 of these deaths later identified as being heat related. Corner investigation found that those who died were predominantly older adults with chronic health conditions and relatively compromised overall health. These conditions may have impacted their ability to seek assistance or cooler environments. The majority of those who died lacked access to cooling or ventilation are often living in areas of higher material and social deprivation. Um, since the 2021 Western Canadian heat dome and the subsequent trend towards hotter summer temperatures, cooling and rental departments have become an area of concern. Climate projections for the region indicate a continued rise in temperatures with the hottest days and nights becoming more frequent and severe and cooling degree days, uh, increasing 12 fold by 2080. Most multi - unit residential buildings in our area were designed for mild their climates and lack mechanical cooling systems, making them susceptible to overheating. Additionally, the growing incidence of wildfire smoke events poses compounding risk

to indoor air quality and health. While BC building code updates in 2024 set maximum indoor temperatures for new buildings, many existing buildings urgently need retrofits to address these challenges to protect public health. So why 26 degrees? Human body maintains a core temperature of approximately 36. 6 and significant changes in core temperature are hazardous to health. A maximum indoor temperature is widely of 26 degrees as widely recognises a critical threshold for human comfort and health with temperatures exceeding this level posing risks, particularly for vulnerable population. Health Canada and various municipal bylaws such as those in new S and Toronto Aftenus 26 degrees is a standard for safe, livable conditions during heat waves. Research from the university of Ottawa indicates that 26 degrees is the highest indoor temperature the human body can sustain without excessive strain, particularly when cooling system do not presence. Also new building cones and standards are incorporating a 26 degree into design requirements.

Um, so what to do? Retrofitting existing buildings to add cooling measures is not as simple as it might sound. There are myriad of barriers and challenges that owners attendance can and do encounter when trying to keep their units cool. These range from simple lack of awareness of the problem and opportunities to address it. The cost association with upgrading an existing building or unit to complex decision - making structures, um, various authorities are beginning to explore means of removing some of these barriers and encouraging incentivizing life - saving retrofits. Clear direction for local government remains lacking. So what this motion is intended to do is to start this process for the City of Victoria. It's not asking for something right away. This is a big project.

It's asking staff to start the process of looking into tools that can address this serious health hazard. Um, so it has staff to look at potentially adopting a bylaw or modifying existing bylaw that does a couple of things. First it restricts landlords from prohibiting cooling. So from prohibiting air conditioners, blackout blinds or anything else that is using cooling, which is one problem. But also looking into a bylaw that prevents at least one rumour unit from an apartment from exceeding 26 degrees. So that in the next heat wave, which will be coming at some point everyone has access to a room that can keep them, keep them alive. Um. Newest minister was the first municipality of British Columbia to do this. Although many around North America and my research are now doing this, including Toronto and places in Ontario where it does get even hotter. Um, so this just mentions really acknowledges new us work. And if there's things to learn there, obviously, uh, please look

into that. The third provision here is about ensuring that because these are rental units at any type of renovations used to, um, hit the 26 degree threshold cannot be used to renovic people or, or implement rent increases. That's one of the taken from newest MSNSTR, one of the main concerns that they had is that we didn't want to create a loophole where, you know, we do an landlord, doesn't HVAC system, but uses it as an excuse to renovict people. Um, so if that, that would be the mayor to write a letter to the Minister of Housing on this issue, which I'm sure the minister is aware of. Um, so yeah, I'm just putting this on the floor. I'm sure the robust discussion, but, um, I think this is something that Victoria should take a leadership on. Again, maybe this summer will be fine. Maybe next summer will be fine, but we know these, these events are going to be coming more often down the future.

We've already committed to updating our older building rental stock. We have a, uh, we have a tax exemption program for updating, um, converting from oil to electricity for doing seismic renovations. And so this is something that could be incorporated to that work. Um, I think we are, uniquely positioned to make sure that we don't lose another 600 or so of our residence. I believe in Victoria area. It was 18 people, uh, which is still too many for something that could be prevented. So, um, hopefully council is able to support this. And I'm looking forward to a good discussion. Very much, Councillor Thompson is the secondary.

Thanks Mayor. Yes. The 2021 heat dome, uh, killed 619 people. The medical officer of health wrote to us, uh, saying that the number in greater Victoria was actually 24. I had heard that, that estimate before as well. Uh, as my colleague mentioned, most were in their homes elderly living alone, uh, and the large majority in older rental stock of which we have much in Victoria. So that was 2021. Will a heat dome happen again? The answer is yes. It's not a question of whether it's going to happen. It's a question of when and how often. And with climate change, we have been told by the experts that they will happen more often. And they will be more severe. Uh, if anyone wants to get a vivid description of a heat dome and a wet bulb event, I would recommend the book, Ministry for the Future.

It is not an easy read. That's the, uh, that's the warning. Um, we currently have requirements about temperature in rental buildings. We require by law that landlords provide heating. Uh, cooling is now this under the same principle. It's about keeping residents safe. And I will support the, uh, I will note the support from the medical health officer in the letter she sent to all council. The new West bylaw allowed for different options for landlords to, um, to meet the requirements. And this motion also mentions that, uh, it mentions cooling equipment or passive means, uh, it's really a direction to staff to explore the options for achieving the outcome. I'll note that landlord BC wrote to us. Uh, wanting to make sure that they were consulted.

I responded saying, uh, I'm sure that staff are going to have a range of consultations with a range of stakeholders. Uh, and staff have probably already heard from a number of stakeholders. This isn't going to be done rationally. We're going to do this the right way. Assuming this goes ahead. Will we have maybe a different approach from what happened in new west? Maybe. Um, we've got a is Victoria different from new west, yes. So we'll see what staff recommend. My colleague has spoken about the renovictions and unusual renting creases. So I won't speak to that. I will just say that this is a first step towards protecting our residents. And I think it's important that we do it because, uh, the most dangerous place to be in a heat emergency should not be in someone's home. So I'm hoping that council is going to support this unanimously. Thanks Mayor. Thank you very much. Councillor Gardner.

Thank you, Mirror. I'd like to postpone consideration of this motion until June 11th. Is properly in order. A motion to postpone. Is there a seconder for that. I'll second it for discussion. Go ahead. Thank you. Perimantary worked by staff will inform the motion before us and add value to that motion. And emotion directing this work is forthcoming in two weeks. Because this motion is directed towards creating a bylaw as opposed to actually, you know, really looking into it in a different way. Thank you. Thank you very much. Postponed this for discussion. Is there any other discussion on the motion to postpone. Councillor Hemingway. Go ahead.

Sorry. Um, can the mover of this most truth postpone explain again what exactly is coming to us from the, from the staff. I think my understanding was that the mover indicated that there would be a further emotion coming. I think he referenced a couple of weeks. That would be on the same matter. So not a staff motion, but another motion from another council member. And Mayor, do we know anything about what that motion will entail. Um, that would be up to the mover. To discuss. Perhaps the mover of the postponement motion could speak briefly to what might be forthcoming. It's provide summaries of how the impact of the 2011 heat dome on the city of Victoria. The number of properties that may be involved in this, uh, if there is a bylaw and it would be actually perhaps involved all existing pre 2024 built rental buildings and others, because of course the condo is a great source of the secondary rental market. So there's a lot going on here. And also to deal

with the legal issues. All right, thank you for that. I'll think I would summarize that and saying further work before the bylaw is considered. Is that sent okay councillor Thompson. On the motion to postpone? Just on the motion to postpone, uh, staff have heard what the, um, considerations might be coming forward. Would these be things that would be included in the staff report back in any event? That's a great question. Is that perhaps for our fire chief? I'm not sure what let's ask a question differently. For the motion that, um, is on the screen and now is proposed being postponed. Can you talk a little bit about what information would be shared with council if you were to begin the work that's described in the motion on the screen? Oh yes. All right, Mr. Johnson.

Thank you Mayor. Alec Johnston acting director of planning and development department. Um, I might just hand it over to, uh, assistant director Hudson to provide a response. We have been, uh, having some preliminary discussions about this topic. Very good. Idiom Hudson, what were you? Uh, Through the mayor, um, staff have already started doing some preliminary research on this topic. So in response to this motion, I think what we were envisioning is that we would come back to council with some preliminary findings of what others are doing around this, what tools are available in municipal authorities. Um, we would reach out to the City of New Westminster staff and find out from them how, um, administration of their bylaw is going. And so I think we would envision coming back to council with some initial recommendations on potential strategies that the City of Victoria could explore.

Um, we do envision that, you know, should council want to go down this road and explode some strategies that we would probably need to do a follow - up report because, um, as councillor Dell mentioned, it is a very complex matter. Um, we would need to consider the implications to the city. And we would likely want to engage with some organisations that are directly impacted. So, um, I think we could do a preliminary report back to you in early July, um, but further work would be needed depending on, uh, what council decides to do. So just as a follow - up, thank you very much for that. Um, is there, are you aware of work that you would want or need to do that is not described in this particular motion for which you would need more time. In advance of beginning the work in this motion? You've indicated you're already starting on research. So you must have some idea of what you're inclined to

do. Do you need more time before you get this direction. Yes, Mr. and Tucci. Through the mayor, I would, uh, I would in coming back want to be able to provide some estimates of resource impacts. These programs can be extremely intensive because of the need to be on site. So, um, if it involves, for example, by law enforcement, uh, it will involve, um, an impact to our resources. Okay. Thank you for that. Any other stuff went away in? Nope. Okay. Uh, so I have now, uh, no other speakers on the postponer. And then councillor Thompson. A question through you, your worship. Probably to Mr. Rantucci, but I don't know. Does the postponement actually curtail doing some of that work. Mr. Rantucci. Was directed at you.

I'm not sure that's the right. I'm not sure that's, that's fair. Great. We'll also be 8am Hudson. Or director Johnson. What would like to weigh out of that? What would be, if any, what would be the impact of postponing this. Understanding that there appears to be likely another motion related to this coming soon. I'm interpreting that from the earlier comments. Is there an impact to postponing this. Through the mayor? Maybe I'll start. I, you know, as I mentioned, staff have already been doing some initial research on this. And we've already reached out to staff at newestminster to chat more and have a meeting soon. So I think we would continue sort of to look into this behind the scenes. But definitely having council direction about what specifically, you know, you are wanting staff to look at and to achieve and to report back on is always helpful. Okay. Thank you, Rivan. Just to clarify. So you've already begun this work prior to council making a

decision. Uh, through the mayor, I wouldn't say we've been doing, um, it would be a light touch that we've been doing just in anticipation of our upcoming housing strategy, um, as you know, our current one is coming to an end. And we're going to be thinking forward about what our next housing strategy looks like. It's also something that we're considering as part of the city's adept climate adaptation plan, which will be coming too shortly. So, um, it's, it's just been on our radar and staff have been sort of learning about, you know, and keeping up to date on what others are doing in this space.

So that's really what we've been doing. Thank you very much for that. Councillor Coleman. You still have the floor? Well, thank you. You postponed something if you're not sure of direction or you're changing direction. I'm not sure that the postponement helps because staff are already looking at this and it's not that they need direction from us. Um, it's happening across the country. It's coming to be C. New est the beginning of it. I have, I think it's a very tricky area, but I don't think the postponement helps. Councillor Thompson on the motion to postpone. Yeah. I'll, I'll just say that I don't see value in postponing this. It seems like staff, uh, understand the motion, uh, are prepared to do the work acknowledge that it's complex. There's a lot of considerations. I have full confidence that they're going to take this forward, uh, in the right way, uh, and so I'll oppose the motion to postpone. PENNE Thank you very much. Anyone else on the

motion to postpone. Checking cancer Kim. Not seeing anyone else in the motion to postpone. So we'll call a question on the motion to postpone all those in favor. Okay. That would be Councillor Gardner. All those in opposition. That'd be Councillor Dell. Councillor Kim, uh, Councillor Cardona, Councillor Loton, myself, Councillor Coleman. Councillor Hammond and Councillor Thompson. So the motion to postpone is not supported. That would take us back onto the main motion and councillor, uh, Gardner, you still have the floor. On the main motion. Thank you Mayor slides, please, to staff. The matter before us, and the City's response is to extreme heat events is very important. And what is missing in the motion is the information specific to the city. And I appreciate the staff has, of course, uh, started work on this since they had two weeks notice of this. Whereas we were only given a few days. And, uh, but I don't want the general public to think the staff hasn't been dealing

with it because the staff has. And what is needed is a city program to address extreme heat events. No question. Does the City already have one and how extensive is the heat threat to city Victoria residents? And what is doable and what is not. June 22 slide please. The office of the chief corps and the released report about the heat related death during the 2021 heat dome. Slide the report tells us of the 73 percent of deaths in private housing, which means both rental and ownership housing. 39 percent were multi - unit residential buildings and 34 percent in traditional housing corner investigations found that those who died were predominantly older adults with chronic health. While health problems may begin with indoor temperatures, uh, above 26 degrees sustained indoor temperature 31 are classified as dangerous. Next slide. How did greater Victoria compare to other areas of the province? The report shows that new Westminster fared the worst with a death rate of nearly 42 for 100,

000 population. Greater Victoria near to the water had the lowest death rate. New Westminster being seven times higher than Victoria. This report does not separate our city from the greater Victor Victoria area. Next slide. What is the city doing? The fire department is responsible for emergency management. Engineering is responsible for looking for solutions. Planning is responsible for adherence to the 2024 building code for new housing and proximity response for the tree canopy, which is very important. For public respite and heat areas. This council has at least two reports from engineering or from emergency management about the heat dome impacts on a residence and ongoing respite during heat events. The CRD has provided heat maps, which indicates those demographic and building vulnerabilities. Note how the buildings from 20, 000 to 2000 onwards tend to compensate for the demographic vulnerability. This tool aids municipalities in extreme heat event responses. Health link PC has provided guidance to residents and two municipalities. If you are at risk and you

live in a building or residents that gets very hot with unsustained internal temperatures of 31 degrees or higher, you have to plan to go elsewhere during heat event. Sustained temperatures of 31 degrees can occur when the outdoor temperature is significantly lower. Last week we're heard of the 30 degree temperatures in a coldwood school when the outdoor temperature was lower. We have heard of the desire for requirement for a room to be held at 26 degrees or lower. But also we've heard about the fear of the loss of tenancy. We've also heard from landlords that work has been done to address the heat problem. But the fix is not clear. We have also heard over the past years of the electricity capacity limit of buildings with electrification of vehicles and phasing out of old heating systems.

We are how much time to have left. 555. Thank you. I want to read part of a letter that came through to us all, uh, a few days ago. And it said at a time when British claimings are facing record baking financial distress, local governments must exercise extreme caution before imposing new high cost mandates for extreme heat. In this fragile economic environment, the proposed mandate for mandatory air conditioning in existing billing is not in practice, just in practical, it's a direct threat to housing stability. The mandate creates a dangerous financial double whammy for our community, financial burden on tenants, while intended to protect this policy as a higher potential, but people on the street. Air conditioning units are significant hydrohogs. For a chain is already choosing between groceries and ranch, an additional 50 to 75 dollars may make a unit effectively unaffordable for that person.

Landlord renovation costs. In a highly regulated industry, already struggling with high interest rates and craft revenues, the capital expenditure required for these retrofisses astronomical. These costs will inevitably lead to applications for additional ret increases or worse renovictions. Bürocratic weight and director W and she was already mentioned this infection, such a bylaw requires a new layer of administrative oversight and a complaint during enforcement model that really protects the most vulnerable. And we can't fix every problem through legislation. How much time do I have mayor. 410. Pardon 410. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. We have time for staff. And they may or may not have the answers. I realise that now that they're looking into it. Just staff yet have the actual data for the City of Victoria. Uh, if we look at the data that was provided through this report that was provided by the Chief Corner, it suggests of course the number of deaths. And if you look at proportionally, it could

be six in Victoria. What I don't believe that the actual location of the desk that occurred in the City of Victoria or the number of deaths has been released. Do we have that information. Very good. Through the mayor, yes, we have that information through health emergency management BCE and island health. Could you introduce an introduce yourself please for the public? Oh, I'm Tanya CLLANS, the emergency program coordinator. And what is that information. I don't want to be quoted here because it is through island health, the data, but I believe it was six in the City of Victoria during the heat dome. Sorry? Six. Yes, but do you know what props about areas? Cause I know when they presented to us, I guessed particular streets just because of my knowledge of, uh, really old buildings. The information that I recall from health emergency management BC is six deaths in James Bay. All six. But I don't want, I don't have the data in front of me

to be quoted exactly. Um, but that's what I recall. Thank you. And can you describe the city's extreme heat event program as carried out by your department now. Uh, yes, we do have quite an extensive extreme heat response plan. Um, we implemented that since the heat dome and learned lessons from that. So we do, um, as you mentioned, the heat vulnerability mapping that we conducted with the CRD to understand our risks. So we know where our vulnerabilities are and what our risks are. We follow the BC HARS system, which is the BC heat alert response system developed that, um, they set the triggers for what constitutes a heat emergency. And heat alerts. So the temperature thresholds where we need to activate that's based on when they see illnesses and deaths in people. And we'll activate our plans when that BCR is alerting system gets triggered.

So during a heat emergency, there will be a broadcast intrusive alert sent out through the provincial alerting system. And for an alert, the city will activate our additional resources. The number one, um, response mechanism that we focus on is people checking in on their neighbours. The most vulnerable population, as we know, is the seniors who are socially isolated living alone that can be difficult to reach through our regular response measures. Uh, so we've created heat health check kits. And we work with service providers and organisations across the city to put the health check kits at their organisation. So at libraries and community centres and service providers. And we put out public messaging and through our internal communications, uh, reach out to all the organisations who can support, um, educating the public and communicating out that there is a heat alert in effect. Please check in on your neighbours. You can go to these centres and basically check out one of the kits like a library

book and go in and check on, um, it tells you exactly what science to check for. Um, in addition to the heat health checks, we have keep cool kits, which we provide a service providers. Um, and those are like water sunscreen electrolytes items for people to keep cool. Uh, we have also installed, we have 13 misting stations and we've received a grant through our resilience hubs program for an additional nine, which are being built and will be put out in the next couple of weeks. So that'll be 24 misting stations in addition to the water fountains and spray parks. And then the community cooling spaces.

So on our VIC map and Victoria, I readied Osee webpage. We have a resource map of all of these. So there's also community cooling spaces listed on there where people can go to cooldown. Thank you. What is your communication mechanism for many of these elderly living alone who are not going out or aren't on the internet, et cetera? Will you be going through property managers when there are large buildings or how will they be reached? The people who aren't on the internet. We go through the service providers that we know of. So, um, James Bay knew horizons and those organisations that worked directly with seniors who do have outreach programs, um, we recognise we can't reach everybody. And that's why we do a call out to the public if you do have a neighbour or someone, you know who might be living alone and social isolated. Please check on them. But you don't go through, for example, I'm just going to say Devin property since

they have most rental units in the city. No. That might be something we want to add on. Okay, yes. Through, sorry, through the mayor, um, chief Atkinson just mentioned we do, um, emergency preparedness workshops, um, and we work with those organisations and property managers and multi - unit residential buildings a lot. Um, and educate them on these programs. Okay. And, uh, question, another question is, have staff being consulting with landlords in general and what has been in your experience with the landlords as they're trying to, um, resolve their problems in their own buildings. For emergency response, again, it's through those educational workshops and our public messaging where we reach out through, um, our emergency management community liaison. And he delivers free education and workshops, uh, but we don't reach out directly to landlords to check in on tenants. I guess I'm thinking here of the other department responsible for it in our city, which is the, uh, engineering and the climate change group. Do they

have they've been having discussions at all with land or BC for example on changes and amendments beyond the code. William Hudson. And then I'm going to actually go to chief Atkinson who put his hand up, uh, misled, why don't you go first? Um, so the mayor just with respect to the climate and the housing team, no, we haven't done any formal engagement on this. We would, you know, not do that until we were, um, directed by council. And then of course we would seek some advice as to who you would like us to consult with, um, but no, we haven't done that work. Chief Atkinson, did you want to weigh in on something? Uh, thank you through you. Uh, I was just going to, uh, expand on Tanya's comments previously and just say that, uh, through emergency preparedness workshops, we wouldn't be offering recommendations around engineered solutions. We'd be providing recommendations based on the specific conditions of the individual properties and looking at what resources

are available primarily human resources to make sure that we're taking an appropriate action within the existing conditions. So, uh, misadzan already addressed the engineering portion. Very good. Thank you. Keith, does anyone have know how many buildings or units of housing could be impacted by the motion as it stands for bilabert to come into effect. For that question? Yes. Go ahead, Ms. Teal Jones. Uh, through the mayor with that, um, vulnerability mapping that Councillor Gardner put up that this, that we completed with the CRD. It is down to the address level. So we have had our GIS team poll, the addresses that are the highest risk.

So it overlays the demographics, the building type, um, which way it's facing for the extreme heat risk. Thank you very much. Um. That's a pronom. I didn't have a few more comments if I got two minutes left. You do. Thank you. Uh, Black Stuff Councillor Carora. Thanks Mayor. Yes, I am very happy to support this motion moving head. And I just do want to remind folks in the room and listening online that this would be the beginning of a process. If this passes staff would take it away. There'd be a report back. There might be multiple report backs. If and when we ever got to a bylaw, there'd be multiple readings before that would there be stakehold engagement. This is going to be a process.

Um, I would envision it will take at least a year. Which is unfortunate because I would love to come up with some solutions for this summer, but I just don't think that that's realistic. So I think people do need to temper their expectations that this is the beginning of a process. That said, I do think it's worthwhile to begin that process. Because as, as Councillor Dell noted more extreme heat days are coming in this region. And, and not to overly personalize this, but my own mother has faced this exact issue in her apartment. She lives in a 1970s era fern wood. Uh, apartment four story apartment that does not have great insulation. And it does have a beautiful West facing view, but starting at about two or three o'clock in the afternoon on a warm day, her apartment gets unbelievably hot. She does not have any CU in it. She does not have a heat pump. And even with the blinds closed, it gets quite

hot in there. To the point where she often actually avoids their own apartment. During the hottest part of the day. And she frets quite a lot about the impacts of the heat on her and on her cats. So that's just an anecdote. But there's thousands of other Victorians who are facing similar situations. A lot of the housing stock that we had is pre - 1980. And it was not built with our current climate in mind. It often has really poor insulation. Newer buildings are totally different situation. Newer buildings are built to withstand all of this. It's really the existing older housing stock that's the problem.

And we have a lot of vulnerable seniors. Seniors like my mother who are facing the risk of extreme heat impacts that like we saw in the heat dome. I do want to share just briefly that I had the opportunity to give a talk at the building electrification roadmap launch a couple of weeks ago here in Victoria. The building electrification roadmap is a plan that's been put together by NGOs that work on building electrification. And it was supported by a number of governments, BC Hydro, Vancouver, the province, et cetera. So I gave, um, a talk there on what Victoria's been up to. And that's actually where I got this. Teacher that says I love electric heat pumps. And what was really interesting about that talk is that afterwards civil servant after civil servant came up to me to talk to me about how inspired the R by what Victoria is already doing. And in particular, um.

Sorry, our market rental building revitalization tax exemption, which a previous councillor also referred to. It's flown under the radar, but we have this program at the city. It's a pilot. Where, uh, a landlord of a multi - unit building can receive up to 10 years tax exemption in exchange for a deep retrofit of that building. Didn't really get a lot of attention when we did this last year. Uh, it's still a pilot, but, uh, a lot of civil servants and utilities took note because cost is really the big barrier here. And so I want to focus in on costs for a minute, Mayor. And actually through you, I'm just going to put it to staff and just have a brief conversation about the market rental building RTE, which might seem a bit off topic here, but I will connect the dots. So, um, through Utaff, I just want to confirm that the pilot was limited to only a handful of buildings. And also that there

has been demand for that program. Ms. Hudson. Uh, through the mayor, um, yes, that's correct. The pilot program allows a maximum of five buildings to participate. Of those five, three have to be, um, for greenhouse gas, emission improvements. And two of them could be for seismic retrofit improvements. Um, the purpose of capping it at five was to really, um, take a lessons learned approach and find out the efficacy of this program. And it was very much meant to target buildings pre 2000, I think, um, but it was meant to target older buildings and encourage them to be retrofitted because they are our naturally occurring affordable rental housing in the city. And we wanted to breathe new life into them to date. We have received two applications in the energy retrofit stream. And we do have a list of buildings that are interested in doing energy retrofits. Um, that may apply for the third spot. We have not received any interest to date on the seismic

stream. So we're still in the process of learning from it. And we are gaining some learning so far. And, uh, and our intention is to come back to council fairly soon with just an update on the program and some recommended next steps. Thanks very much. And the reason I wanted to bring that up is because I suspect that the revitalization tax exemption, the RTE could be the ticket here. And, um, the RTE, as noted, is currently focused on two streams. One is on decarbonization. And the other that has had less interest is on seismic. So just setting aside the seismic for a minute because it's kind of a different topic. I think that there's an opportunity here, Mayor, to release two birds from one cage.

And think about a program that might both decarbonize buildings, but also increase climate adaptation and address extreme heat considerations. And a lot of that points towards heat pumps, which is why I'm wearing the t - shirt. I mean, is there any objective reason why that RTE could not be expanded in scope and number of applicants in the future. So that buildings that want to both decarbonize and address extreme heat. Cannot apply to that program. PET you might be preempting what Ms. Hudson described as an upcoming report back. And I think that there's likely a conversation to be had also with finance on this. Sure. But if you can park it. If you'd like to make any preliminary comments, you're welcome too, but I would have taken that from your earlier comments that that could in fact be part of your report, but it may or may not at this point. Yeah. I'm happy to park that question, but, but just, uh, a note to staff

that that's where my head's going. And then I think there's an opportunity to have that conversation. What's particularly interesting about that RTE is that it actually doesn't cause the city anything. I mean, maybe the bit of staff time, but, um, the tax break, redistribution of taxes to everyone else. Let's just be clear about that. Everyone else's taxes went up by three cents. But it doesn't actually cause the city anything. It's not like we're loaning money or something like that. Um, because he's building remediations are quite expensive. If we're looking at envelope remediation, glazing, insulation, heat pumps, that stuff adds up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. I want to avoid a situation. Just bring it back to this topic, Mayor. I want to avoid a situation in which landlords are saying, we can't afford to do this. Therefore, we're not going to do this. Or they take on debt and they just pass the costs onto consumers. Because we have rent control in this province,

but we don't have vacancy control. So we don't want to situation in which we're actually driving up the cost of living. So I am particularly interested in how we solve the cost issue here and how we make this cost neutral so that more buildings could apply to the RTE. And so landlord X who is building is overheating can go to the city and say, you know what? We did the, we look, we crunched the numbers. It's 250, 000 dollars to do the upgrades we need to do. We would love to get that tax exemption so that this is cost neutral for us so that we don't pass the costs onto renters. And so that we're keeping renters safe. So I do, if this does pass, I just really encourage staff to be really thinking about the cost component. And in a couple of weeks when the RTE is reported back to us, be prepared to have that conversation about a potential expansion of scope and

number of applicants so that we can solve multiple problems at once. Thanks Mayor. Thank you, Councillor. Just a question. I have Councillor Loten next. Are there other comments that wish to be made on this topic? Yes. So more than one, then I'm going to suggest that we take a short break now because we are a longer sitting than we usually do. And I think there are several other comments on this motion. So it is now 1036. Let us try and return at 1045. And up next is Councillor Loton. Thanks. And through you mayor, I just wanted to start with the data that came from Ireland Health about the deaths in Victoria. So there was six and they were in James Bay. And I'm wondering if those buildings have been retrofitted or if anything has changed in those specific buildings where the tragic fatalities occurred in 2021. Ms. Hill Jones, do you know that? Through the mayor, I do not know that information. Okay. That might

be a good place for, I got not part of the motion, but we probably should find that out. I don't know if that would need an amendment or something. But I'll leave that for now. I also, in preparation for today, I did quite a bit of research on this and read about the passive first strategy. So my question is things like high quality solar window film or energy efficient windows or exterior shading. How much has any research gone into that? And does that seem like the first logical step? And I'm, cause I'm also interested in the cost neutral of this and different programs that might be able to provide grants for that, both federally and provincially and potentially through the city as well. Like even starting with high quality window films. Does any have anyone have information on that? Seal Jones. Through the mayor, we did receive a grant for our resilience hubs, but those are City owned community centres that we've designated as resilience

hubs where people can go before, during, and after any type of emergency, including heat. And we receive grant money for each vax systems and three of those, including window coverings and awnings. So those measures, they're having studies and they do prove effective, particularly in certain buildings that are exposed and we can shade those areas. UBC has a program as well where they retrofitted their buildings for climate resilience and heat and has some data on that. Okay. It just seems to me like a logical place to start. Do any of those, like any of the shading systems that are on the outside of the building? I imagine window films and windows themselves wouldn't need any kind of permit. But is there any permitting requirements for those passive measures. Senator, Ms. Hudson question. Through the mayor. I may look to acting director Johnston, but, um, I think, you know, we can consider minor exterior changes to buildings without much of a process. But I think it depends

on what's being proposed. Right. I think it out. Okay. Okay. I think that's pretty much it for me. I do have some comments, but I can wait until questions are done or? No, this is go ahead with my comments. Okay. So I'll just, I'll just say, um, I am in support of this. As global warming increases, updating our temperature regulations for rental buildings is a vital step in protecting human life. And I think that ultimately the residential tenancy act should, should govern this. But the province has already set precedent by mandating cooling for new buildings with the BC building CODE. And I understand that this is very complicated. So I'm sure they're watching new West and even this conversation quite closely. Um, the, the work done in the West, I believe is commendable on a national scale. And I wanted to take a second to thank councillors Nadine Nakagawa and Tasha Henderson for initially bringing this forward in 2023 and recently seeing it through to

a formal bylaw. Um, when we've talked about this, but extreme heat primarily threatens the most vulnerable low income ranchers and seniors living alone. And safety in one's home should be a given. We never want to see a repeat of the lives loss during the 2021 heat dome. But I do believe that the practical first step in this is prioritizing the passive measures such as solar window films, heat reflective windows or external outdoor shading to help me that 26 degree target immediately. This would also protect the electrical grid for now. Um, I don't know that air conditioners or heat pumps, although that would be wonderful. I don't know that they're actually necessarily to meet that target.

And this would be more affordable for building owners. And it would ensure that safety upgrades don't lead to higher rent. And just as an aside, I have, um, a window film on my windows. It was for privacy reasons. So it's reflective. So it's mirrored so people can't see in my unit when they're walking past it on the street. And it does block out the light somewhat, not, not very much at all, like a little bit, but it does keep my apartment cooler. And the research that I did, and of course, I would want staff to go dig into this a little bit further. But those window films themselves can decrease temperatures between five and 15 degrees depending on the quality of them. And I think that to me, um, seems really smart. As a place to begin. Um, so I think solutions can be made in an easy as possible way to begin with. And I did find various grant programs offered by the federal

and provincial government as well to fund some of this work. I'll just, um, fly through them really quickly. There's a clean provincial clean BC multi unit residential building, MERB program, which does cover windows and films. There's a provincial social housing energy savings program, which does the same sort of things for nonprofit and social housing. There's the federal green municipal fund that also supports passive cooling focus. And then a federal build community strong fund that does do, um, climate adaptation. So there are places for people to start. And furthermore, I also know about this, um, BC hydro provides and installs free portable air conditioning units for households, meeting medical or income eligibility. And renters are included, but they currently require a landlord signature on the consent form, which under current guidelines I read cannot be unreasonably confused or refused. But this motion helps with that because it puts that critical piece in supporting that process and ensuring that all residents can stay safe during extreme heat

events. So just that knowledge that that program is out there for air conditioning units for under a certain income with medical conditions for people. And then just one more final thing. I also have a little temperature with a high groumeter. So it reads the humidity and the temperature. I'm sure I bought it for less than twenty dollars. I have it on my fridge. Because the humidity can also make a unit feel hotter depending on that humidity level. And I'm just, I'm just going to throw it out there. But when, when the emergency management workshops are happening, it might be a thought to, to hand those out or to hand those out to vulnerable single seniors so they can keep track of how hot it is in their units. And then maybe a number to call for support if it gets up above 26 degrees, just a thought. Um, and I just in closing, I'm really happy to support this. And I want to thank the

authors of this motion for bringing it forward. It's a, it's a really important piece of the evolution of keeping people safe in their own homes due to, um, cooling measures. And, you know, we already obviously already have it for mandates around heat levels. And now we need to move forward with the future to do that on cooling as well. So thanks very much. Thank you very much, Councillor Havend. Thanks, Mayor. Uh, yeah, I also want to thank the movers because everyone's a while you sort of think, what can we possibly do? And yet someone has come up with something that we might be able to do something. Um, if we can protect renters health due to extreme heat events, we want to make sure that we do it properly. As the movers have noted, this is exploratory and I'm in favor of this. Four of us at this table have legal education and experience in dealing with and understanding complex legal issues. Yet all of

us know the impact of creating bylaws that will invariably invite legal challenges so we can't rush anything. Otherwise we spend a short amount of time creating a good intention by law, but potentially spend years inexpensive litigation, hence the importance of not rushing and to make sure it's done correctly. In 2018, the City of Victoria created a bylaw to ban single - use plastic checkout bags. The city was sued by the Canadian plastic bag association. And while the city initially wanted the BC Supreme Court, the city lost at the BC Court of Appeal in 2019. In the end, the city was ahead of its time as there is now a province - wide ban on most plastic bags since 2022. In law, we lost because we ventured into provincial jurisdiction and did not obtain provincial approval under the Community Charter. For those who say we were ahead of our time on plastic bags and therefore it was worth it, I say, let's get it right prior

to losing on an important issue because we didn't do our proper homework and encourage substantial, external legal expenses, as well as the time of our staff and not just our legal department. While I want to support my sisters and brothers in the bar, I don't want to support them at the expense of our taxpayers. Hence, I'm in favor of staff looking into ways to keep Victorian safe. I just want to make sure we don't rush anything that will give people false hope for years followed by years of litigation. If staff were given enough time to report even verbally back by July 2nd, then that's fine.

However, I don't want anything rushed that will be at our peril. And more importantly, the peril of the health of our residents. Thank you very much. Anybody else. Yep, got subscribed. Ahead. Thank you very much. Some were extreme heat events and the impact on our residents are important. We received many emails we've seen in a lot of opinions. And today we've heard from staff some of the work that they are already doing, which I truly appreciate. And we will need more of that work before we actually venture to consider a bylaw. We need to know the real impact that these changes will create. We need to know the consequences, not just to the city or to the residents, but to the landlords so that we can continue to have affordable housing. I don't want the Affordable Housing we have to be threatened. And we have to be very careful of that. We do not want to have more people have to leave the city because

they can't afford to live in a place they've lived in for 10 or 20 or 30 years. So it'd be very careful of that. We did not discuss today the electrical grid issue as to whether or not, um, the capacity is there for so much of our city to become, um, to put in different type of, uh, air cooling systems. We really need to know that. This may impact, uh, all of the buildings built prior to 2024. In the city. And, uh, again, we have to remember that the intent is rental and that includes a lot of condominium buildings since the secondary rental market is quite large in our city. It also includes all of the flatted, uh, very old heritage homes throughout the city that are now, uh, rental accommodations. So I think we have to really look at this very thoroughly. It'll take a long time, but I'm very pleased that staff has really begun looking at the things we need to know

before decisions are made. And I look forward to staff's report, uh, in July. And I, uh, I don't believe it'll be the only report. I think straff will be reporting back on this for quite some time. I said, look and do things further. So thank you very much. Thank you, Councillor Thompson. Thanks, Mayora. And I just wanted to ask staff about, uh, about the wording here. It doesn't expressly mention stratas, uh, with staff feel constrained to not look at stratas here. Or you, are you looking at this and thinking, you know, multifamily buildings. Ms. Hudson, is that a question for you. Through the mayor? I think we certainly took this to be an examination on rental building. So I think that's what we would have pursued in response to this motion. With that excluded strata buildings that were rented. Many stratags are rented out. We might have to give that some thought. I guess, okay, thanks for that response. I guess when we hear a

verbal report back on July 2, we can consider further whether we need to say, you know, restricts landlords and strata corporals from prohibiting cooling equipment. Uh, are not, um, and I think that a lot of the same considerations would apply. So I'm not going to propose an amendment right now. Uh, I think we can wait until July 2nd. Thanks. Very good. Thank you. Anybody else. Oh, yes. Uh, through the mayor, I think maybe the only thing I would want to mention is, um, of course, we would be, you know, discussing this with newestminster. And I believe there's supplies to rental buildings. Um, we would be considering things like provincial legislation like the rental, um, the residential tenancy act, which of course deals with rental. So that may be, um, an expansion of scope. But we can, um, you know, we can certainly come back to you in July and see what we're able to find out. But layering stride of councils and the strata property

act into this may maybe quite extensive at this point, but we can, we can answer that back to you in July. I have not heard any indication that we are asking you to do that now. So I think it is appropriate for your YouTube return with whatever your report might be in July. And if at that time council thinks that there is value added to adding that layer, then that would be the time for us to provide that direction. Anyone else on this main motion. Councillor Coleman. Thank you. Um, it is an incredibly complex issue. I appreciate staff already exploring this. I think that is the right thing to do. In both the preamble to this and in the preamble to the new west bylaw, there is reference to the importance of trees or shade coming from them. Um, that's not specific to this, but I do think there have been a number of comments saying this doesn't apply to buildings built after 2024. We

have had a number of applications that have come before us. And part of the, uh, amenities were trees on site because they gave shade. After the fact, um, those trees didn't appear and they paid payment in lieu. That has an impact. On buildings and the shading. So it would be useful perhaps it's not part of this motion, but if staff are looking at the issue, how are we, uh, achieving our arboreal canopy, the impact to shade. And should the payments in lieu of not providing trees on site actually be higher. Um, because I think the, the impetus or perhaps for this table, part of the charm of some of those applications was the landscaping component.

So I think that that has to perhaps be included in this. But I do think that this is an interesting, exploratory area and a necessary one. My fear is that we become a very, uh, passionate counsel. And we push it forward and we come July 2nd. We go, okay, now we want to buy a lot. We've already made up our minds on that. This is asking Staff to explore. Absolutely supportable. Let's put it in context and I appreciate one member of council saying earlier that this is going to be a year - long, more than a year - long process. Let's remember that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Anyone else on this main motion. Not seeing anyone else. It's been moved to seconded and amply debated. All those in favor. Is anyone opposed. That is unanimous. Thank you very much for that. That does take us on to, um, the item K, which would be a closed meeting if we needed any, but we do not need that at committee today. And so I will look now for a motion to adjourn. Thanks Councillor Coleman, seconded by Councillor Kim. All those in favor. Anyone opposed. That is unanimous. Um, stuff, let's just take as long a break as you need to move us into council and then we'll proceed with our daytime council meeting.