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[00:00:00] Well, good afternoon, colleagues. Welcome back to council after a short council hiatus through the month of August. And we've got a very full agenda. Let's start with some of our presentations before we do that, the scene of the national anthem. Today we're welcoming the A pairs three to seeing our national anthem. It's Hilary Watson, Renee Collin, and Newell Collin. They all grew up together here in London. Excellent, here in London. Their parents were good friends. They discovered that they were both pregnant with a set of twins, only a couple of months apart. This is pretty interesting history. All born in the musical families, camping trips always involve music around the campfire. And after years of experiencing some life adventures on their own, they've rekindled that musical friendship that they had grown up with. Drummer and friend, Steve Plimmer, has now joined the group, grounding the band with a rhythm steeped in varied musical backgrounds. Drawing on their love of choral music, performing arts, an electric mix, electric or eclectic? Eclectic, yeah, it says electric. Yeah. (laughing) Eclectic mix of country rock blues and storytelling folk tunes. This trio has their own unique message to share. Thank you for being here with us today. Colleagues, guests and staff, please stand for the scene of the national anthem. ♪ O Canada, our home and native land ♪ ♪ True patriot love ♪ ♪ And sweet see ♪ ♪ The true north strong free ♪ ♪ Far I oh can't we stand on guard for key ♪

[00:02:08] Impressive, we have a number of recognitions today, and I would like to acknowledge everyone before we begin our evening agenda. Let's start by recognizing that this will be Kate Graham's last council meeting. Kate, you've done incredible work here on behalf of the city. And I know you're going to continue to do incredible work in your new role as you leave the city in this capacity. And we all expect to see you up there demonstrating many times between now and the end of this tournament council. So Colleagues, if you could please join me in a warm round of applause for all of the work that Kate's done.

[00:04:08] Kate's been an exceptional part of the city team for 10 years, I believe, it's been starting in former mayor Joni Beckler's office when she was a city councilor. We're going to miss her, her many contributions, and we wish her the very best as she begins her work in September. So again, thank you, Kate, for everything you've done for the city. It's been a pleasure working with you. I know that I speak on behalf of the entire council. Thank you very much. Now, at this time, I would like to call upon Randy Warden and retired Lieutenant Colonel James Martin to join me up here at the front. And anyone else, Randy, that you want to come up with us? You want everyone to come up and crowd around? Come on up, everybody. These two gentlemen have played a crucial role through their involvement in London Celebrates Canada. Thanks, sir. Come on in. Let's crowd around, everybody. So London Celebrates Canada is a nonprofit organization that's dedicated to the understanding and celebration of Canada's proud history and richly diversified culture. This patriotic vision built the momentum for Canada 150 for our birthday on July 1. And for events that are occurring all throughout the year. For many years, they've been educating the community. They've been engaging the community with programs, with activities, with events, with exhibitions. And of course, massive celebrations down in Harris Park on Canada today. It's instilled a pride, a commitment to Canada on both an individual and a community level. The committee received encouragement and standing from City Council on August 31, 2009. I remember you were here and you were selling us this incredible idea. There were nine founding members. It was then titled Celebrate Canada. In March of 2010, the committee was later renamed to London Celebrates Canada. And the volunteer board of directors

[00:06:01] include proud citizens with skills, influence, experience, the ability to lobby that are all essential to the successful-- to the success of an organization. And since incorporation, London Celebrates Canada has held annual, well attended, free admission municipal level candidate celebrations across the city. And a few of the events to date have included the support of the Kingsman fan, Shaw Sugarbush, a concert celebrating Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee, London's National Day of Honor to commemorate the return of local Afghanistan war veterans, a multicultural forum, the commissioning of the implementation of a time capsule that's buried in Harris Park, and numerous other activities designed to promote the Canadian culture and to engage the London community. Having successfully achieved its objective of building momentum leading up right to Canada 150 and hosting eight consecutive municipal level candidate day events, London Celebrates Canada will stand down on August 31, 2017. During its eight-year tenure, London Celebrates Canada recruited 250 volunteers annually. Cumulatively, there have been over 25,000 volunteer hours and over events that have hosted more than 300,000 guests. All of these events have raised more than $780,000 in support of free admission events and programming within the London area. The city of London, members of council, and I would like to thank you and to take the time to recognize the incredible efforts that your organization has contributed to our community over these past eight years. You've helped London celebrate and learn in so many ways, creating memories they will have for a lifetime. Thank you so much to everyone for joining me here today. I'm going to hand the mic over to Randy. Thanks so much, portion. Thank you very much, Your Worship.

[00:08:00] I'm very pleased to be joined with quite a few of my members of the board and a few of the kinsmen are here with us as well, which have been a magnificent partner throughout this entire process. When we started this journey, people said, that's an awful long ways away. And now it seems like, geez, I went quick. And it has. One of the things that we did on candy this year is we want to make sure that we left a few reminders of all the great stuff that has taken place. And for that brand new can of 150 pavilion that is out there, you'll notice off to the right-hand side flagpole. And during the day, if you're really paying attention, you'll notice that we hoisted a total of six flags during that day. And the reason we did that was so we could present them. And we'd like to present two of those today. The first one, first one, I wish to present to the city of London, to the mayor. And this is the first of the flags that flew that day over the Canada 150 pavilion. And in appreciation for the sport that the city has given us and for the encouragement at the very beginning and the confidence, we want to say thank you. This will go up in my office tomorrow. Thank you. The second presentation is you can't do something like this without a whole lot of support from a whole lot of people. And when we talk about some of the numbers, these are the faces behind those numbers. For that one day of enjoyment down at Harris Park, there's meetings that are taking place all through the year. And at Canada Day of this year, you start the planning of Canada Day for next year. So just a phenomenal amount of work. And I'm very, very honored and blessed to be supported by so many friends and comrades in this project. When we very first started this, two of the original members are with me here today. One is Mark Vanenbosch off to the, you're right. And he's been my vice chair through this entire procedure.

[00:10:03] And the other one standing to my immediate right is Scotty Martin who took on this whole project because he and I did a little project number years ago and he says, yeah, I'll help you out, Randy, but all I'm gonna do is give you advice. So we named him our honorary chairperson and I gotta tell you, if it wasn't for the sage advice that Scotty's been giving us over the years, this would not have ever happened. So of those six flags, we wanted to make sure that we've got one for you, Scotty. So thank you very much. Thank you. So again, thank you very much. I had a chance to speak to Randy Warden, just before we came out to this council meeting. And I said, what are your plans for Canada Day 2018 and involved a doc and a lawn chair? I think far away from Harris Park. Is that right, Randy? Pretty much. Yeah, again, we can't thank you enough for your incredible efforts for your tireless work, for the army of volunteers that you were able to pull together to have such a special day, Canada Day 150, right here in Harris Park. It was a memorable weekend and it was accomplished because of all of your hard work and those people that you were able to motivate and encouraged to get involved and to volunteer. So thank you again. Thank you. (audience applauding) Thank you. Thank you. Okay, colleagues.

[00:12:18] This is the Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Award presentation. It's an impressive annual event that we hold here in Council Chamber. And with us today, we have two recipients who the City of London is going to recognize for, I think, outstanding, doesn't go far enough, just incredibly successful performances in high school. I believe they're just on their way out right now. Please join me in welcoming Brian Edward Yu and Matthew Van Oyschott. Welcome both of you. How are you? Now, get ready for this because Brian and Matthew have been selected as the recipients for this year's Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Award. The Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Awards were established in 1981 to recognize academic excellence among graduating London high school students in the pursuit of post-secondary education. And we need to recognize both of these individuals for their dedication, for their passion, for their hard work, and for just achieving such greatness in high school. Now, a little about these two gentlemen and why they're the perfect recipients for this award in 2017. Brian Edward Yu has just graduated London Central Secondary School and he will be attending Western University in the fall. His favorite school subjects include biology, kinesiology, and French. His dream job is to become a medical doctor. His hobbies include things like traveling and dancing. He's been the recipient of many recognitions, including being on the honor roll for three years,

[00:14:00] having received the French award for three years, the award of excellence for the past three years, and having received the Math Award in grade 10. These are just a few of the great things that Brian has been involved in, and I'm very confident that he will be continuing to strive for excellence during his post-secondary experience for education. And now a little bit about Matthew. Matthew is a recent grad of Catholic Central High School. Matthew will be attending the University of Toronto. He's taking the engineering science and biomedical engineering program. His favorite subjects include mathematics and physics. His dream job is to become a biomedical researcher or a biomedical engineer. Why not both? His hobbies include playing sports. He loves to play hockey, baseball, and badminton. He's also been a member of two choirs for the past four years at CCH. Matthew has been the recipient of many recognitions, which include the Lauren Scholarship nominee, the Shulich Leaders nominee, the Spectra nominee, Shad Fellow 2017, Wall Shot Bursary winner, and the CCH Student Involvement Award. During his time at CCH, Matthew was recognized as the MVP of the varsity hockey team. He was also a member of the Robot Club. Reach for the top and the Math and Science Olympics. These two individuals have put countless hours into their studies and to their co-curricular activities. They both demonstrated hard work and dedication and on behalf of the City of London and all members of council. I'd like to recognize Brian Edward U and Matthew Van Orshot as being the recipients of this year's Queen Elizabeth Scholarship Award. Congratulations. Come on over here, we're gonna do a picture. You stand over here, stand over here.

[00:16:00] I want everyone here to reflect back on high school. Think back to grade 13 or OAC or whatever the final year was called when you went to high school and think about your average. Because I'm gonna share a little information with you. Your average, 98.84. And your average, 98.83. Absolutely incredible, congratulations. (applause) You're welcome. I just wanted to say thanks to the City of London and Mayor Brown for such a generous award and as well as my teachers and especially my GANS Council for Mrs. Wells and Principal Mr. Lamour at CCH this year as well as my family and my sister Mia for everything they've done to support me through this year. I couldn't have done it with any of you guys, thanks. Thank you so much for this award. Thank you to the City, thank you to the Council, thank you to my school, London Central and all my teachers there. And finally, thank you to my family and friends who have supported me. Thank you all. And now colleagues at this time, I would like to ask Councillor Salih to come forward to the podium. (laughing) As employee of the month. (laughing) It's all you. All right, so the next group that we have coming up is actually members of the Nazim Qadri Foundation so the board will be joining us along with NHL star Nazim Qadri himself

[00:18:02] and they'll be coming in very shortly. So I don't want to speak too much until they're in here but. Wait for it. Wait for it. And I was just talking about you. So of course, so the Nazim Qadri Foundation is a local and national organization that has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local and national causes. This year, they actually had a focus on mental health. And as we know, that's a significant concern in our community and across the country. So the Nazim Qadri and his team have been working diligent to be able to make positive impact. Not only does he, not only is he a great hockey star but he's also a great community member who contributes on and off at the ice as well as this year I had the opportunity to attend his golf classic and see what they were doing there. And it was very exciting. And just wanted to introduce you all to Nazim Qadri if you don't know him and bring him up to the mic very shortly. But I didn't want to ask our legal team if it was ever possible to ban any other jerseys other than maple leaves in our city. So we'll work on that. (laughing) So we'll work on that but without any further ado, Nazim Qadri. Thank you. Yeah, it truly is my pleasure to be here. And first and foremost, I just want to thank the City of London because for the recognition, obviously I'm a hometown boy, born and raised in London. And the amount of work that we can do for my community is really the more the merrier. And the Nazim Qadri Foundation is definitely something that I'm very, very passionate about. And along with myself and a great committee and the City of London, all the fans, we continue to get tremendous support. And this is something we want to eventually one day build to a global platform and really make a difference.

[00:20:03] And obviously this year, mental health was something we wanted to focus on because we understand how many people struggle from that. And it really is sad we just wanted to bring awareness. So like I said, the Nazim Qadri Foundation is something that's very dear to my heart and very something I'm very passionate about. And again, the City of London, I have so much respect and so much love for the City and I want to just continue to give back and put my heart and soul into it. So again, thank you for having me and I appreciate the recognition. (laughing) (people chattering) Okay colleagues, let's look for disclosures of pecuniary interest. Mr. Turner, I thank you Your Worship, but I'd like to declare a complex on the 10th report of the Community and Protective Services Committee agenda or a report, items two and four. They both pertain to the Middlesex London Health Unit, who's my employer. Thank you, I'm going to declare a conflict on the 13th report of the Civic Works Committee agenda, item number eight in regards to the OPG proposed nuclear waste repository

[00:22:00] as I own property and the directly affected area. Anyone else? Great, thanks colleagues. Review of Confidence Matters, because they're in public, there are none. Colleagues, let's look for our motion to go. If you're going to look to go into closed session, it's 4/20 now, we'll be out no later than 5/15. If I could have a motion on screen to go into closed session for the reasons outlined on the agenda, any additional items that you want to read, Kathy, okay? Thanks. Can I open up that vote please? Moved by Councillor Van Halmer, seconded by Councillor Helmer, any discussion? Let's call the question, we are voting. Councillor Escher? Housing the vote and the motion carries 13 to zero. Okay colleagues, I think we're in committee room three.

[00:47:36] Okay colleagues, we'll do confirmation in signing, communication and petitions. I'm going to hand the chair over then to Councillor Morgan, and I want to bring forward a motion to change the order of a business we can do with an emergency motion. But let's deal with first things first, confirmation and signing of the minutes of the 20th meeting held on July 25th, 2017. Let's be moved by Councillor Armstrong, seconded by Councillor Ridley, any discussion? Call the question, voting. Councillor Park, closing the vote and the motion carries, 14 to zero. And communications and petitions. Moved by Councillor Usher, seconded by Councillor Morgan. Let's call the question, vote please.

[00:49:12] Closing the vote and the motion carries 14 to zero. Okay colleagues, I'm going to hand things over then to Councillor Morgan. So I'll go to Mayor Brown on a request for a change of order. Thanks very much, Mr. Presiding Officer and colleagues. Pursuant to section 6.4, the Council procedure by-law. I'm requesting that the order of business be changed to permit consideration of emergent motions to be dealt with immediately, as opposed to at the end of the Council meeting. Okay, so we'll bring that up on the screen and then we'll look for a mover and a seconder. Vote on that. So Sleeve and Councillor Helmer and Councillor Usher. Posing the vote and the motion carries 14 to zero. And now Mayor Brown will ask for leave, I assume. Thank you, I'll come up on screen, I believe.

[00:51:12] Okay, we need to mover and a seconder for leave. Moved by Councillor Helmer, seconded by Councillor Hopkins. We'll move to voting. Posing the vote and the motion carries 14 to zero. And with leave, the clerk has circulated a copy of the Mayor's motion, I'll go to the Mayor. Thank you very much, colleagues. This is a motion that I asked the clerk to share with each of you earlier today. I hope that you had an opportunity to review it early this afternoon. Unfortunately, this is a topic that I feel we must discuss this evening. There is a white supremacist nationalist rally that's planned for just outside of City Hall that's coming and Saturday. It's clear that we here in London are not immune to divisive political discourse over race and white supremacy occurring south of the border. This is why I feel it extremely important that as a council, we take a stand against all forms of racism, bigotry, and hatred. White supremacy and nationalist ideologies threaten the security of our community and entirely undermines our commitment to foster a safe and inclusive environment for everyone regardless of their race, their ethnicity, their religion, their gender, their gender identity, or sexual orientation. This council and this community has worked extremely hard over the past 12 months and throughout this term

[00:53:02] to abolish racism and hatred in London. And I believe the motion that I have before you or read it for you in a moment is necessary to let everyone know that we will not and that we do not tolerate things like hatred, racism, bigotry, or violence here in London. I believe I have a secondary in Councillor Saleh. The motion reads as follows, "But the municipal council and the city of London "stand against all forms of racism, bigotry, and hatred, "including white supremacy, nationalist groups, "whose ideology threatens security of our community "and undermines our commitment to foster a safe "and inclusive community for everyone." That would come up on screen in a moment. We're just gonna pause so that it can be moved and seconded and then we can continue on. Nope, the clerk moved it for you and Councillor Saleh has seconded, so. I have to ask questions. I have to just request, you use two minutes. If you wanna continue on, you can continue on justification of the motion if you'd like. Well, colleagues, I think that I've said enough. This is something that's going to occur here in our community just in a few days time. We're seeing issues like this across North America and I think it's very important given the work that we've done as a city council, as a community over the past 12 months in this entire term that we take a stand and that we communicate very clearly to our community, to our province, to our country, and to the world, that things like racism and hatred have absolutely no place in London, Ontario. And I believe I have a seconder in Councillor Saleh. Thank you very much. I have Councillor Park. Thank you, Mr. Acting Chair. I wanna thank the Mayor for bringing this forward. I think it's quite inappropriate and just the plain right thing to do at this point in time.

[00:55:03] I know myself and a few other Councillor, pardon me, Councillors who will, at their own choice, divulge if they're going to participate on Saturday or not to stand against this sort of just absolute hatred, behavior in the city of London. I support this motion, but I wanna ask staff at this point, is there anything further we can do to prevent events like this that are full on hate events happening in our city? Can we ban them from happening on city property? I would just like to know that information. So if we have the opportunity, we can take this a level further. Table Brian or Mr. Card first, lawyer, security, whichever one wants to go first. Mr. Presiding Officer, not on the streets, but certainly in municipal spaces, we can have standards for the use of municipal facilities that precludes activities that would have the characteristics that have been identified here. I'd like to hear from Mr. O'Brien too, Councillor Park. He said he's good, continuing. So at this time, I'd look to the Mayor if you would like to move that amendment forward. 'Cause I, again, I think it's just the right thing to do at this time. If we're gonna set this message, we should go forward on the city property. So at council, we have a motion that's been duly moved and seconded. So it would be appropriate if you were going to try to amend the motion, that would be a formal amendment. So if that's what you'd like to do, then-- I'm happy to formally amend it or like to give the opportunity of the mover to make that amendment. Do you clarify what the amendment is? The amendment is to ban all hate events for happening on corporate land, parks, facilities and that sort of thing. 'Cause this is one of those things you get the language right on. So we're just gonna take a moment to get this correct.

[00:57:00] Yes, go ahead. I thank the Councillor for bringing forward that suggested amendment. I've looked to the seconder of the motion. I see that he is agreeable to that as well. I think this is a really important message for our community to communicate to everyone. I have taken the opportunity to speak with Mr. O'Brien earlier today. He assures me that this would not have taken place on city property, but regardless of that, regardless of the practice of the city of London, I think it's very important to put this kind of language forward and I'm very happy to see it added to the motion that I brought forward in the Councillor Silly a second. Yeah, we're just gonna take a minute to get the language on the screen so all the Councillors can see it.

[00:59:22] Okay, so we're gonna get that up on the screen. Apology, I appreciate the patience because we're making policy. This is Council, it's important to get the language right. And once we get that up, I'll just make sure that the mover and the seconder are good with the language and we'll continue on with the discussion.

[01:00:09] Okay, the mover and the seconder are good with that. I'm gonna continue with Councillor Park who has about two minutes left. Thank you, I just wondered if we could have a legal opinion on the wording here just because it's so broad with anything that's contrary to the opinions of the city of London, I just wanna make sure that we're in a good position. You can see Mr. Carter's reading it very carefully. Yes, Mr. Presiding Officer, that's a satisfactory. Actually, I've been conferring with Mr. Cox that he tells me there's a provision in the Parks and Recreation bylaws PR2. That indicates that facilities are not to be used for certain things that are expressed generically and broadly and this would simply support the exercise of discretion and considering applications to prevent the types of activities that are within the habit of the motion. Again, I wanna thank the Mayor for bringing this forward. I think it's a very timely thing and also the right thing to do at this point. And I just wanna take this moment to express my vehement opposition to any events that wanna participate, those folks that wanna participate on August the 26th in regards to promoting hate and just, I can't, sorry, I'm very emotional about this. It's just simply an inhumane thing that some people just wanna portray our community as and I will stand vehemently against it. Councillor Asher. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I do have a little concern about the way the word is. I'm not gonna fuss about it, but I do have concern about ideologies, the way it is there. I know that within this specific instance that we are talking about something specific, but if something else comes up that has nothing to do with racism and bigotry, I wonder how that will play. That's my concern there. I'm not of a legal mind, I'm an engineering mind,

[01:02:01] so I'm not going to take that further. I just wanted to express that. But what I really wanna say is that I fully support this motion. I wanna say something that the Mayor, I wanna correct something that the Mayor said because he said, for the past year, this council has. I wanna say to you, Mayor, that ever since I've been in City Council and before, this city and whatever City Council has been here has always stand against racism, bigotry. We've always worked towards the elimination of racial discrimination, and we've always worked against this type of supremacy group who come forward, and I still stand on that. And we belong to an organization called CMRD, CMRD, which is a national organization, and I'm sure we're gonna hear from them with respect to this right across the country. But I think that we need to set the example as we are doing here, because we are faced with it right now. Other cities will be faced with it the same way. So we've gotta take the stand. From my perspective, most of you know this, and I'm sure that you all probably feel the same way, is that there's absolutely no place for this type of discrimination, this type of hatred, neither on the line, neither on our property, nor in my heart. And I feel that we must take the stand at this point in time and be very, very forceful about it. So thanks for bringing it forward. Thank you, Councilor, I have Councilor Squire. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. I think it's important when we do this, so we also recognize that the citizens of London are right here with us and recognize this. A couple of, as most of you know, I'm the Councilor for Ward 6, and in Ward 6 is the London Mosque, second oldest mosque in Canada, the Jewish Community Center, where two retired priests live, and many other Christian churches. And I'm really proud of that. But I became even prouder about two years ago

[01:04:02] when somebody put signs of hatred on the church that Councilor Cassidy and I go to, real hatred. And when we went to the church on Saturday, I go Saturdays, and the priest said this to us. He said two things. He said, this week, the leaders of every faith in the city of London called me, and all they said was, what can I do? What can I do? And the second thing he said to us was, we need to pray for these people. We need to pray for these people. So, Londoners are right there with us on this. And I'm so proud of what I experienced that a couple of years ago, and from the different religious communities that live in my ward and how we all came together. And that's how it works in London. We're all back in each other up, and we all know that, and I hope they know that through this. And I wanna thank the mayor for doing this, and I think it's perfect that we do this, but I have no doubt at all that Londoners are right here with us. Councillor Hummer. Certainly, I'm gonna support the resolution. I wanna thank Councillor Squire for those words. I think that was very well said. One thing I would say is I really hope that on the actual day of the event that the turn of is very small, and that almost nobody shows up in support of this agenda. If it's a dozen people, I hope it's like five people. I hope it's zero people, that they'll look at it and say, you know what? There's actually not a lot of people in London, or even in the wider area who actually support this agenda. I'm hoping lots of people turn out to oppose it, and to say, you know, that's not acceptable, and we don't support that here in London. I think Councillor Squire has spoken very well about the kind of resiliency and cross-faith support that exists in the city. I think that exists across a lot of dimensions. I'm glad the mayor has brought this forward, and I think Councillor Sleece for a seconding,

[01:06:02] and I think it sends a very clear message to the citizens of London. Councillor Zabner. Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer. And just before I put my comments just a quick question, I'm not familiar with that. Parks and Recreation related, if it's a by-law. Has that ever been challenged before, just out of curiosity, on levels of free speech or anything of that nature? Mr. Card, Mr. Cox said, no, you're not Parks and Rec, but you probably would have the institutional knowledge. It has been challenged, but never challenged in court. Councillor Zabner. Very much appreciate the mayor bringing this forward, and the comments so far have been, I think, very passionate and incredible, as I would expect, from our city council. It's a very strange thing for someone who's the grandchild of multiple Holocaust survivors that specific religions or individuals are targeted with hate in our community. It's really troubling, and it makes me extremely upset and sad that this could be happening in the modern day, but these issues exist. And frankly, I think the fact that these people want to spotlight themselves is fine with me, because it shows how ignorant they are, and I think it puts a spotlight on them for the rest of our community, and showing how ignorant they are, and that there really is no place for that type of ideology in our community. I think the beginning of my term on council, I don't know if it was the first time, but one of the first times I had actually been able to attend a mosque. Councillor Slion and I have been a great help in welcoming me into the Muslim community here in London, and south into the city with the Islamic center of southwestern Ontario. And every time that I go there, it is one of the most welcoming times

[01:08:00] I've ever had in my life. So the fact that we have an organization which specifically is targeting Islam, and Muslims in our community is disgusting, and I recall one of my favorite times being at the mosque was when the Imam, I can't apologize, I can't recall what the sermon is called, but gave a sermon about charity, and Judaism and Islam share a very similar tradition in that of Sadakah, or Sadakah. And that's largely about giving back and building up the community that they live in, that we live in, and everybody that comes here, that comes to London, comes to Canada, knows they are contributing and living in this country, and want to make it the best place it can be. And I know that everybody in our community wants it to be that way. And so I think seeing these people, I can't understand what it is that they're trying to accomplish with this, because these types of individuals we have in our community, our Muslim community here in London, it's such a backbone of our community, and it's so strong, and I'm so thankful that they are here. And I'm so thankful for all the times that they've welcomed me into their community. And I think it's every right of ours in London to step up and say there is no place for this kind of hatred in our community. Thanks. I have myself, I would like to speak, I know Councillor Silly wanted to go near the end. Is there any other Councillors want to speak? Councillor Ridley. Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer. When I first saw this motion this afternoon, and I saw a press release, my first thought was this isn't enough. What I see here only reaffirms the things that we've already said that we're going to do, or that we believe in, and so why are we doing that? And then even with the amendment today, I said to myself, well we already have that in our bylaws, why are we doing that? And I agree with all of my colleagues here about sending a message, standing strong, showing Londoners what it is this Council and this community believes in. But Councillor Squire said it earlier,

[01:10:00] he says the message that he got was what can I do? And I think the message for me, when I learned about this rally and reviewing the motions today is what can I do, and what can Londoners do? And I know I like Councillor Park will be there on Saturday, showing that there are many Londoners who oppose this kind of hatred in our community. And I think that all Londoners who have the ability to be there should be doing that. Councillor Turner, thank you Mr. Presiding Officer, and thank you to all for this conversation, and I think it's a very necessary one. My concern when this all came forward is that we were giving something that deserves, I was scared that we were gonna give it oxygen. I was scared we were gonna give it attention, the attention that they so seek, because they're driven by conflict, they're driven by trying to create the wedge and the divide in our society. At the same time, I think it's really important that we do show, that we have no tolerance for that, that we won't be divided, that we won't be separated, by misinformation. And this group claims that their goal is to educate people. I think, and if there's a, what can we do moment in this? It's that everyone takes the time, that we completely emphasize the need to understand about our cultures and our communities, and who they are. And as Councillor Zayfmann talked about, his first meeting and his first opportunity to go to a mosque, I mean, that's how we learn. That's how we learn about each other. And the exchange of cultures between Councillor Zayfmann and Councillor Zayfmann is so emblematic of exactly what needs to be achieved across this city every day. And if we have this conversation now, that's what I hope comes forward from this.

[01:12:03] Gives them a little bit of oxygen, but it gives us even more oxygen to say, that we're gonna stand united against this. And I have Councillor Hopkins take the chair so I can speak, and then I'll come back for Councillor Slee. Councillor Morgan. Thank you, I did wanna speak to this, because I'm certainly not one who's the subject of racism or hate, it's not usually directed towards myself, with my background and who I am. But I think it's important for Londoners, and particularly those who are not the targets of this kind of hatred to speak up and join the voices of the other Londoners who speak out against this. And I think, when I came seeing the motion, I wasn't really sure what was gonna happen, but then hearing our colleagues speak, I realized that we have something to contribute here. We have the voices that we add to this discussion. People do look to us for leadership, and this is a way for community leaders to join those voices, to band together, and to speak with one common voice against hatred, bigotry, and racism in our community. And the very, very brave individuals in our society and the best of our society are those who, when they see this, they decide that they're going to stand there and organize and be there standing against this sort of stuff. And it's happening all across North America, for many reasons. But what's happening is people banding together with messages of love, with messages of strength, with messages of diversity, and standing against this.

[01:14:00] And I know that Council of Park and Council really talked about standing there physically with the community, and that is a statement, and that is things that we can do if it's for you. And standing there and putting your body in that position in potentially harm's way in some places, North America is not for everybody, but it is for some. Standing up, speaking, sharing your voice here in these council chambers, sharing it on social media, telling your friends, when you hear comments in the hallway or you hear comments at work, all of those things matter. All of those things are standing up to this. And so this motion today, which I am 100% supportive, is part of that. And there are so many other things we can do. And I want to say what inspires me, and the things that I talk to my kids about, is when we see the images on television of people standing with messages of love and togetherness and standing up against hate. And standing up against these horrible perspectives that have no place in our society in 2017. And that's what makes me proud to just stand here and listen to my colleagues, and proud to be a Londoner, and proud to be a Canadian, and proud to join every other human on this planet who shares that perspective, that that is what we do in the face of these sorts of things. So I wanted to speak today because I was inspired by my colleagues to do so, and I thank you for listening. Thank you, Councillor Morgan. I'd like to go to Councillor Sully. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Mr. Mayor, for bringing this forward. I think this is quite timely, very important, and a very strong message that we all need to hear as a community. I think back to the time when we went to a multi-faith camp, it was a Muslim myself, a Jew, Councillor Zaythman, and a Christian, Mayor. And we all walked in, and we got to all speak and meet with young people. And we were really representative of our community in the sense that we all came from different backgrounds, different faiths, and we're in one room talking to

[01:16:02] the next generations and telling them about the importance of being one and being inclusive. And that gives me hope, because I know today, and I know yesterday, and I know in my history, there has been so much hate, so much division. When I had the opportunity to come into the mosque with Councillor Zaythman, when we were first elected, we went in, and Dr. Munir al-Qasim introduced us together, that was an important step. We came up together as colleagues, but we also, I felt, came up as brothers, and what hurt my feelings after that was, hear me and Councillor Zaythman, and people from my community took a picture, and then people stole that picture, and a lot of people don't know about this instance, and me and Councillor Zaythman had that experience, but hate groups decided to share that picture and say, look at this, a Jewish Councillor, a Muslim Councillor, hanging out with someone who belongs to some sort of terrorist group, and just saying kind of hateful things. And I remember talking to Councillor Zaythman, I said, felt guilty, 'cause I was like, you're being exposed to that Islamophobia, because you decided to come to my community and support my community. The first thing he said was, once the next time I could come in, and that's what London's about, and I'm proud to be working with people around this horse you every day, who are never afraid to challenge hate, to stand up to it. Come from a place where I'm not free to speak as freely as I am here in this country, and I'm proud of that, right? So to the people who don't like me, I say, you're free to hate my faith, you're free to hate my color, you're free to hate the fact that I'm an immigrant, and you're free to hate the fact that I simply exist, but I'm not going nowhere, and anyone who looks like me believes in the God that I believe in, and comes from where I come from,

[01:18:02] is saying the same thing, we're not going anywhere, because you are in the minority, because the majority in this horse you, and in this city, and in this province, and in this country, condemn hate. So you're free to hate us, but we're also free to condemn it. So I want to say thank you all, and thank you Mr. Mayor, to my colleagues, to the city of London for consistently condemning hate, and for consistently standing up for what is right. Thank you very much. That is it for the speakers. Listen to any other colleagues have anything to say. Mayor, you moved the motion, do you want to wrap up? Well, thank you very much, Mr. Presiding Officer. I am moved this evening by the support that this motion is receiving, and I'm not surprised, but I continue to be moved by the passion that this council has for a community that is free from hate, community is free from racism. I recall very fondly, a phone call that I received in the summer of 2015, and I was in my office, and it was Councillor Saleh, and it was Councillor Zafi, and they said, what are you doing this afternoon? I said, well, I've got a pretty full schedule. What do you need? And they said, we need a Christian. And I didn't know what it was about, but I thought I've got to see this. So I canceled my afternoon, and I went to the multi-faith camp, and I saw exactly what Councillor Saleh talked about, which was children of different faiths coming together, recognizing that we are stronger together, and it was a beautiful, a beautiful thing. Councillor Squire, I was reminded of another story here in London from recent history after you shared yours, which was, we all recall, that terrible incident, that act of terror that occurred in Quebec City, and that happened on a Sunday. And leaders from our community stayed up through the night.

[01:20:03] My text messages were full, and by the morning, by the very early morning, multi-faith leaders from our entire community had organized a rally at the mosque in your ward. And there were hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of Londoners that came out and that said, that is not us, that we are Londoners first, that we stand together, and that there is no place for hate, and no place for racism in our community. And it saddens me to know that we're going to have to do this again, and again, and again. But that's a message that people need to get used to hearing, because as Councillor Squire said, absolutely right, London is behind this motion. There is no place for this kind of thing in our community. I want to close by also thanking Councillor Usher for reminding me that it wasn't just this term of council, that's been focused on this. Councillor Usher, you have a legacy of focusing on this through all of your terms on council, and through the time that you served our community in other ways prior to that, and thank you for that reminder. So colleagues, again, I just thank you very much for supporting this motion, and I'd like to leave it at that. I wish we weren't having this conversation, as Councillor Turner pointed out, but it's extremely important that we do. Thank you for the support. With that, we will open this for voting. And I'll hand the chair back to Mayor Brown for the readout of the vote. Councillor Vanholz, closing the vote in the motion carries 14 to zero. Okay, colleagues, let's move on to the next order of business,

[01:22:04] moving into motions of which notice is given, flying the flag September 7th, recognition of the London Township Tree Cassidy. Thank you, Your Worship, and the City Clerk circulated this to members of Council last night, even though it was on the public agenda, I just wanted to make sure everybody was aware. So last year, on September 7th, or on September 6th, we, through Corporate Services Committee, even though it wasn't a requirement, we brought this forward. Councillor Park and I brought this forward to Corporate Services Committee to commemorate the signing of the London Township Treaty, and the very next day on September 7th, but Chief Leslie White, I, herself raised the flag on the community poll. And because we did it sort of last minute, that was seen as a temporary thing that we did that one year. But the motion from last year, as you can see, did everybody get a copy of it? Okay. So as you can see, it was, it was, it talked about flying a First Nations flag, and there is no one First Nations flag. There are multiple nations across the country. And with the London Township Treaty, there are actually five signatory nations, all Anishnabic nations, that signed the Treaty with the Crown. And the non-Indigenous people of the city of London are signatories as well to this Treaty, and the Treaty was signed by the Crown on our behalf. So this is a treaty that's important in the history of London. It led directly to the founding of the city of London and the settlement of London, where it is. And it's, as a contract that's signed between two parties, it doesn't belong to just one party. We are parties to this treaty.

[01:24:00] So it's important for our community to be aware of that. And it's important, I believe, for us to recognize this every September 7th. So what I need to do, because we only flew the one flag last year, and it's more appropriate that we fly the, and we don't, and I say fly, that we display the flags of all five nations. We need to do reconsideration of the actual motion that was approved last year. And because the community flag pole only has room for one flag, on, in consultation with Leslie Whiteye, there's no need to have these flags flying outside of City Hall or on the front of City Hall or anything like that. We can have them in stands and in consultation with the clerk. We decided it would be appropriate to display the flags on September 7th on the second floor in that lobby area outside of the mayor's office. So, because of that, I have to move a motion for reconsideration. We'll look for Lee first. I'll let you first. Reconsideration. Okay. Good, that's been moved by Councillor Park, seconded by Councillor Helmer, voting. Vote, motion carries, 14th, 0. Motion passes. So then I would like to put the following motion on the floor that the City Clerk be directed to undertake the following actions with respect to the record-- One moment, Councillor Scott, sorry. Reconsideration. We have to vote on reconsideration. Consideration will come up on screen in a moment. Moved by Councillor Cassidy, seconded by Councillor Park.

[01:26:02] Any discussion on reconsideration? Provoting. Councillor Ridley. Opposing the vote in the motion carries, 14 to 0. Thank you, your worship. And now I would like to move that the City Clerk be directed to undertake the following actions with respect to recognition of the anniversary of the London Township Treaty. A, to invite the following First Nations to have their flags displayed in City Hall on September 7th of each year, if they so choose, to recognize the anniversary of the London Township Treaty. Chippewa's of the Thames First Nation, Chippewa's of Kettle and Stony Point First Nation, Walpole Island First Nation, Jin Wang First Nation, and Caldwell First Nation. And B, to bring forward an amendment to the Council policy pertaining to flags at City Hall to provide for the displaying of the flags as noted in A above. Councillor, that's up on screen. Moved by Circacity. Look for a seconder, Councillor, thank you. And other speakers, Councillor Morgan. Yes, I did want to speak to this briefly. First off, thanks to the Council for bringing forward the reconsideration and the thoughtful motion to address this in what looks like a very appropriate way. I know we previously had a debate about flying flags and a lot of our colleagues were unsure about how to do it properly and respectfully and inclusively and make sure we recognize things in the right way. So I appreciate that this has been considered in that way. And I had said during that debate that one of the things I thought was important

[01:28:01] was to know exactly what the leaders in our First Nations communities think about the things that we do. And so I was able to contact at least one chief. I wasn't able to, I reached out to a few, but I only got to chat with Chief Henry of the Chippewa's and he described the display of their flag in City Hall as a great honor. And so for that reason, I certainly will be supporting this and thank the Councillor for bringing forward a thoughtful and effective motion that invites the communities to display their flags for those who would like to and for those who don't certainly have the option not to be recognized in that particular way. So I think it's very respectful and very appropriate. And thank you very much for doing so. Councillor Usher and Ridley. Man, it's just a quick question. I certainly support the motion and the thought about it. I think it's very appropriate. What happens if September 7th is on a Saturday or a Sunday? We're gonna take care of it at that point in time or would we like to say the day of the week nearest that weekend? Because it could fall on a Saturday or a Sunday and we're not gonna be here. One of the things that we could do, Councillor, is display on a Saturday or Sunday. We could display it either on the second floor or even on the first floor. Thank you for bringing that up. Councillor Ridley, did you, Councillor Ridley, did you wanna speak to Councillor Hopkins? Thank you, Your Worship. And I wanna thank the Councillor and Councillor Part II for continuing your efforts in bringing this forward. I know when it came, I was fully supportive. One thing I've learned on my time on council is the importance of consultation and partnering with Indigenous peoples. And I was recently at a workshop where I am starting to understand

[01:30:03] that the governments, the federal, provincial, municipal and Indigenous people are all considered. And I think by showing the flag that we are showing our willingness as a city to partner with our First Nations. So I am really supportive of this. We are creating an environment right now as we speak and by displaying these flags of our continuous willingness and support to work with First Nations. So thank you very much. Thank you, other speakers. Thank you, Your Worship and through you. I wanna thank the Councillors, but mostly I wanna thank the members of these nations for signing this treaty. Thank you, other speakers. This has been moved by Councillor Cassidy, seconded by Councillor Usher. Let's call the question. We're voting. Closing the vote in the motion carries 14 to 0. Okay, thank you, colleagues. We're now going to move into the reports. We'll look to the 23rd report of the Corporate Services Committee. And I understand that Deputy Mayor Hubert is away this evening. Councillor Helmer, is that a report that you are able to move? Certainly I'll put the whole report on the floor. Any matters to discuss? All these, no? Okay, it's been moved by Councillor Helmer.

[01:32:03] I have no speakers, so I'll call the question. We're voting very much, Councillor Helmer. Let's then move to the 15th report of the Planning and Environment Committee, Councillor. Sorry, I'm a Civic Works, maybe I'm missing a page. Actually here, goodness, it's four lines down. The 13th report is Civic Works. Thank you, Your Worship. I'm happy to put the whole report. The whole report, save number two. I know that's been pulled. Are there any other? Two and eight. Two and eight. And the others, colleagues. Okay, let's open that vote. We'll call the question. Voting. Councillor Park.

[01:34:03] Councillor. Thank you. Number two, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Habitat Banking Arrangement. And I believe that Councillor Hopkins have an amendment she was just to put forward. Councillor Hopkins. Thank you, Your Worship. And I want to take this opportunity. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it to Civic, so I was not around. And I did want to be able to speak to item number two, which is the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Habitat Banking Arrangement. And I'm very pleased. And I want to thank staff for their report. I understand this is something new, and it is a good news story. It is something that the City of London is taking the initiative in doing. And I also feel and support and principle, the idea of the banking. But I think it's also important that we understand before we endorse something as a council that we understand exactly what we're endorsing. And I have a few concerns and a number of these concerns. I guess really start with how other municipalities and what other municipalities are doing and how we determine these credits and how we monitor these credits. There's many questions here that I think as a council, since we are endorsing this, we should be aware of. So I am, after consulting with staff, I don't want to hold up the credit

[01:36:00] that we're applying for this credit stems from a development that is happening in my ward. And it is something that the City would like to apply for. That credit, I'm not opposing the application of that credit, but I think it is important for us to understand as a council, how this credit and how this banking, this positive good news, credit should be applied for good reasons. And we should understand that and hope to hear back from staff on how this will be rolled out and monitored and reported back to council. So with that, I'm hoping I could have a, I guess for a debate, a second to my motion for my amendment. Thank you, Councilor. It's been moved by Councilor Hopping, seconded by Councilor Turner. Go to Councilor Turner, do a second on the speaker's list. Thank you. Thank you Your Worship. So this one's interesting, I appreciate the council bringing this forward, I think it's important that we have a full some information about this. The part that concerns me and I hope perhaps through Your Worship, I might be able to have my concerns assuaged to some degree, is that the way it reads is that we're banking goodwill against future bad deeds. So I mean, it's like I helped an old lady across the street so that bad thing I do later on while I'll still get into heaven. And the other concern is that it's using somebody else's good deeds to offset the city's damage to the environment during its public works installation.

[01:38:02] So I guess through Your Worship, if I might get some comment on that, is this to offset the damage that we might do as we build a bridge or as we put a pipeline through an ESA or something like that that might disturb a fish habitat and because somebody else made a fish habitat better. Thank you Through Your Worship. I can certainly see how that might be a concern in this particular case. This is a program that was introduced by the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans with the intent of creating more usable integrated fish habitat through the remediation work we do versus some of the fractured habitat that can be created through individual projects. The intent is not to necessarily buy our way out of bad deeds, but to give us some opportunity to be flexible in achieving better objectives in terms of real practical habitat improvement. It will be a federally monitored program. There will be reporting requirements. I wish I could give you all of the details on that now and I normally would like to bring this forward with those details in place, but we are as we are in many things in London and early adopter of a new opportunity with DFO. So I believe the Councilor Hopkins motion would allow us to proceed as intended with earning some credits in the meantime and come back with the oversight mechanism and we can provide both to Council and to the federal government to ensure that this is not an intent to move around the desire for better habitat in our city. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I really appreciate that. So I hope that when the report does come back to us, we get some explanation of how we'll ensure that we still can do our projects to the highest environmental standard and that we're not looking to abdicate that responsibility that we move forward and that these work can and glove. So I appreciate that, thank you. Other speakers? Okay, let's call the question.

[01:40:03] Closing the vote in the motion carries 14 to zero. And now two is amended, Councillor. Okay, any discussion? Let's call the question, we're voting. Closing the vote in the motion carries 14 to zero. So that brings us to item eight. This is the Ontario Power Generation's proposed Nuclear Waste Repository, Councillor Turner. Thank you, Your Worship. I see from here the committee endorsed the recommendation or the request from an outside applicant to state our objection to the proposed Nuclear Waste Repository Evolution Nuclear Generating Station. I'd like our colleagues to reject the motion that came forward from committee. I think there's a lot of misinformation that goes around this. The Nuclear Waste Repository, this isn't high level radioactive waste, this is low to intermediate waste. This is rags and gloves and contaminated equipment. This isn't cooling rods and things like that. The distance beneath the Great Lakes and away from the Great Lakes is significant. A lot of science and research has gone into finding an appropriate spot. I understand the concerns that are raised and its proximity to our Great Lakes

[01:42:00] and our water systems. Myself, I'm hyper aware of how we need to treat our water systems appropriately. I think I've been pretty clear on my environmental stances as they come forward. And we just talked about one a second ago with Fish Habitats. I think there's a lot of, I don't think it's appropriate at our place at this time and the information that our Council has in order to make a resolution saying that we're against this repository. So I'd ask you not to support this motion as it comes forward. Councilor Asher. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Mr. Mayor and Councillors. I just want to bring to your attention that we've already done this. This is not something new when this resolution was passed a while back on all we're doing here. The way I read this is that we are reiterating that position and the part with respect to accepting the resolution by Mr. Fernandez is up to the mayor to decide whether he wants to include that. But to me, all we're doing we're reminding the ministry that we've already passed this resolution and this is our stand. So in order to not do this, I mean, we cannot do anything, but all we're doing we're just reminding the ministry. We're not adding anything to that from my perspective with this, except if we want to add the information from Mr. Fernandez. So I think the resolution is fine the way we have it here personally. Thank you, Councillor, are other speakers? I have Councillor Morgan. Yes, I wanted to talk to this one. This is an interesting one because of not only the way it came through committee, the structure of the motion, but also what's happened in the interim with Mr. McKenna actually providing some additional guidance to the Ontario power generation to go back and update its cumulative effect analysis and engage with the soggy energy coordination

[01:44:01] in further detail as part of their efforts towards reconciliation and ensuring that those voices are heard through the process, which was a request to that nation. At the committee, this passed with two votes because there were three members of committee and one had a conflict. My preference here is given that, given that the motion is almost for lack of a better term, but choose your own eventual motion where the mayor can kind of pick which direction he wants to go. And given that there are only two members voting for this, my preference is just to refer this back to the committee and have them have a robust debate on this. They can consider the new directions of the government. I think it's appropriate if we want to provide a statement, the government is continuing its consultations and writing something to Minister McKenna is highly appropriate. I would prefer that to be a definitive item that this council can support rather than a couple of options that could be done in the form of a letter. If we're gonna do this, let's be very clear and definitive. Let's consider all the things that have a robust debate at committee and people wanna come and participate in that debate should. I don't think two members at the committee voting on something is necessarily the way to go on, this particular one. With the utmost respect for those members who are present in that committee and able to vote, I just think that for something of this high profile, for something that this many learners are commenting on and people in the province Ontario care about and the dynamics of it, I would gladly move a motion to refer this back to the committee for further consideration. And we can have the debate and the discussion there rather than what we're about to engage in here. Okay, we have a referral moved, seconded. Looking for a seconder, seconded by Councillor Hopkins, referral takes precedent. We'll work our way through the speaker's list, Councillor Homer. Speaking just to the referral, I think we should probably deal with it now rather than referring it back. I understand this telling us that Fernandez wants us to take a position on this topic.

[01:46:00] I'm quite happy to defeat the recommendation that's come forward from committee. I think Councillor Turner spoke very well. If we get to the main motion, I'll speak about that. Thank you. Other speakers to the referral, Councillor Van Holst, did you want to speak? Thank you, I'm happy to have this go back to committee for a discussion that's not here at Council. Thank you, Councillor Turner. I'd ask that you would defeat the referral. I think it means Councillor Homer said it needs to be dealt with now and defeated at that point. Thank you, the other speakers. Okay, let's call the question on the referral by Councillor Park, seconded by Councillor Morgan. Is that right? Yep, got it, the referral. Let's call the question, open the vote please. Opposing the vote and the motion is lost, six to seven with one recuse. Okay, on the main motion, Councillor Homer, if you're off on the speaker's list. Thank you, colleagues. I think Councillor Turner covered a number of points, but I also wanted to thank Ontario Power Generation for their submission. As I said at committee, I downloaded the documents for this project from their website and there's something in order of 4,000 pages. I only made it like maybe 150 pages into that material before I realized at least I'm not gonna go through all of it. I think I got the major points from the summary documents. And this is a project that's been going on for a really long time in terms of the planning. And I just want us to understand that. I know some of us have been on Council for quite some time

[01:48:01] and they've dealt with this issue before, but for some of us, it's sort of the first time we're dealing with it and we're coming in frankly, very close to the end of a very long process. I think it's really important, a couple of the points that are made in the material from OPG. Talking about first of all the nature of the waste and Councilor Turner talked about that. So I know radioactive sounds really dangerous and scary. It's certain kinds of low level and intermediate level radioactive waste that's being stored. It has to be stored somewhere and right now it's being stored above ground. And the question is where should be stored on a permanent basis? Because even though it's been above ground for a long time, that's still considered interim in terms of the life cycle of the waste. They have to find a place to have stored permanently and they've looked at a bunch of different places and this is the best spot to do it. I think one thing was really helpful when it came up in the discussion of committee in a sort of indirect way is what can we just put it in Northern Ontario and I think the idea there is like there's fewer people or something so we can just bury it in rock up in Northern Ontario. But as it's noted, there's trade-offs there. Now you have to truck it way further because the reactors are not in Northern Ontario. And so if you're gonna take all that waste and move it, now you have much longer transportation hall roads to move the waste to a new place to store it. The geology is also, obviously I'm not a geologist but I think it's important to note that there's geologists working on this project. The kind of rock is really important and this is actually a very good rock. As it says in the materials from a PG, you'd see that rock has been there for 450 million years. It's sustained all kinds of geological events and still there and it's still well suited to this kind of storage. So I know that the idea, just the general idea, if you just think about the headline, nuclear waste beside Lake Huron, it sounds bad. But there is nuclear waste beside Lake Huron now. It's just above ground. Now we're talking about putting an underground in a safer place. And I think, honestly, you look at the material, this is the best solution that's possible. It's also most responsible. You can't just kind of kick it down the road forever and just leave it above ground.

[01:50:01] And I think that's quite possible on these kind of issues where the headline initial read is that it sounds like a bad idea. Nuclear generation is something that we do. It comes with its own risks. We have to dispose of the waste in a responsible manner. This seems like a very good approach. I think it's important you see in the material the mayor of Concord and the council of Concord and they support the project. And here comes the city of London to say, well, we don't support your project. You know, I wonder why would we do that? I know we have an interest, a shared interest in Lake Huron and we want to protect that water source, of course, that makes sense. But this is something that their council's been working on for a long time. They've had lots of discussions about it. This is something like 300 hours of hearings on the environmental assessment. And we think we do big environmental assessment. That's a very significant undertaking. It's a lot of public feedback. Even as the council of Morgan pointed out, OPG has been very clear that if they don't have the support and they're stuck in a job way first nation, they're not proceeding. You know, they've said that. They said that years ago and that's still something that they're committed to. So I think that frankly, this is a very good process. I think they've come to a very good resolution having looked into it admittedly like in a slightly more than superficial way. I think it's a good idea. And so I would encourage you to defeat this recommendation. I don't think we need to take any action at all on this issue. Thank you, Councilor, other speakers. Councilor Van Halston. Thank you very much. So, oh, I'm sorry. Yes, Chair, Councilor Rasher, go ahead. Thank you. I want to remind council again that all we're doing here, we are reiterating something that we have already passed. From my perspective, we have already agreed to this. And I do respect the argument that it's being placed there, but it's an argument that we are starting all over again. If we don't want to do this, then we have to rescind. The motion was made some time ago, but just remember we've already written a ministry about this and we are supporting that it does not go there.

[01:52:01] I think that that's important that we understand what this motion is. Before we go down that road to reject it. If you reject it, all you're doing, you're rejecting, reiterating it. The fact is that we have already said this to the administrator that we oppose this. So I would much prefer to just remind the administrator that this is our position. Thank you. Any other speakers before we go to the committee chair, Councilor Van Halston. Thank you very much, and I appreciate the, also the information that we received. And this is very difficult. That's a very complicated subject. My, and a few concerns that have arisen. Of course, the plan is to store fairly harmless nuclear waste in this, in terms of gloves and things like that. The question, what if it's decided that well, something of a more major nature should be stored down there since we've got this place to store it, another question. What if another, for instance, waste from the U.S. is there a request to store it here? Or the fact that this exists here should, does that mean that we're saying it's okay for the United States where nuclear waste is much more dangerous. It's okay for them to create one near the Great Lakes too. So those are some, those are some concerns that I don't know, I've seen addressed here, but I might have those, yet that's a bit of speculation. Thank you, I have no additional speakers, so I'm gonna call the question.

[01:54:08] Closing the vote and the motion is lost, four to nine with one recuse. Okay, colleagues, now we'll move then to the 15th report of the planning and environment committee. Thank you, Mr. Marin. With that, I can put the entire report on the floor less number nine. Councillor Sallie. For the record, I voted the other way on that, just by era, but I'm won't ask for consideration. Thank you. So the committee chair is moving the entire report with the exception of clause nine. Any speakers? So Turner? Just quickly with respect to item 11, which is a group home type one use is, so one of the items that we had in our OP before was that there's a minimum distance separation around group homes, somewhat very restricting in order to be able to support small group homes and also somewhat discriminatory. And so I'm glad that we're taking a step to make this correction as well. Group two will be done through a more comprehensive review and that'll be brought forward in a future report. So I look forward to seeing our movement on that as well as we try to figure out how we navigate through these, but I think that's quite appropriate for us to be removing these restrictions at this time. Councillor Turner, Councillor Morgan.

[01:56:00] I wanted to comment on number 12, which is council member submission, I believe it was Councillor Halmer and Zafeman bringing forward some direction to our civic administration to undertake a number of actions related to the Cannabis Act. This was something that came up at AMO in one of the sessions, which I attended. I think a couple of my colleagues were there. And this is a very good motion. I certainly don't wanna pull it 'cause I'm supportive of it, but I want people to realize that there certainly will be municipal impacts. The presentation was very clear that although the province hasn't decided how this will be rolled out at the provincial level, municipalities will be heavily involved in some aspects of the legislation, irrespective of how the province rolls it out. By-law enforcement is likely to be involved 'cause part of the process is being allowing people to grow up to a certain number of their own plants have a certain height restriction. Well, we're probably gonna get into the requests of measuring the height of plants on property and that sort of thing. This is very important and, you know, certainly a decision that has made the federal level that the province will have say on how it's rolled out, but municipalities need to be well prepared because the federal government has a very ambitious timeline for rolling this out to the point where some of the producers were presenting and saying their ability to ramp up production is very limited because the timeframe is so aggressive. So I think municipalities need to be ahead of the curve. I appreciate the work of my colleagues to try to get the city of London on its way. I know Chris Friel, a mayor of Brantford, talked about the preparations that his city has already made for this and they seem well ahead of the curve. And I think that with our staff as they investigate this, there are certainly best practices in other municipalities who are a little further down the path on this that we can look to for guidance as well. Thank you, Councilor Morgan, anyone else or Helmer? Just briefly on item three, glad to see us successful at the Ontario Municipal Board. I think it again, I think it goes to our legal team

[01:58:00] and also our staff for the good recommendations that give us on these issues. I know this one's the difference between three units and four units in the grand scheme of things. Not a huge undertaking, but I think we made the right decision. I'm glad to see the board make a good decision. Other speakers? Okay, let's call the question. Opposing the vote in the motion carries 13 to zero. And with that, I can put a agenda item number nine on the floor, which is an infill project at 150 Dundas Street, 153 Carling Street, and there is an administ, a permanent amendment coming from staff. And I believe Mr. Fleming would speak to that. Mr. Fleming. Thank you, Your Worship. The idea here is to ensure that there's a reasonable expectation of progress that a project will proceed in this case, as has been applied for through the heritage alteration permit. And so what we have recommended here is adding a clause and essentially says the applicant would be required to obtain site plan approval for the property and submit full building permit drawings before that heritage demolition would occur. And so that's a, I believe, a positive link to make sure the project goes forward. And there's been significant investment in the plans to go forward both in terms of time and dollars prior to the demolition actually progressing. Speakers, Councillor Zafiin? Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Through just a quick question to staff on this amendment. I was just curious if we have examples in the past of the consent in terms of when this has been done previously with a demolition permit.

[02:00:03] Your Worship, there's none that I'm aware of, but it is something that as the City Planner, I would recommend that we move forward with in the future. It's an issue where there's a heritage building that Council's evaluating relative to demolition in favor of a new development. And of course, the new development has to undergo that evaluation of whether it's appropriate within the context of the streetscape, what is doing to conserve heritage in some cases, or in other cases, build something new that will be compatible. And so we've seen cases in the past where there have been demolitions and what's expected by way of development doesn't occur. So this suggests, let's make sure we get those plans in place, the site plan approval, the submission of the substantial building permit plans. And again, this would come at a very significant cost in the case of a tower, like as in this case here, before we allow for the demolition to occur. It's a safeguard. And in this particular case, we've got a building that's on Dundas Street. I should say that I've spoken with the applicant and he's pleased to move forward on this basis. Thank you, Mr. Fleming, Councilor Turner. Thank you, Worship. And thank you, Mr. Fleming. That last point is really important that the applicant is satisfied with this condition that it's appropriate. And during the planning committee, I'd raise the questions about how do we gain assurances that what's proposed actually is accomplished. My concern ultimately stemmed from the fact that the applicant has another pretty significant project on the books and hopefully ready to proceed as well. It's difficult to achieve financing to that degree for two fairly significant projects. So I asked at the time what mechanisms can we use?

[02:02:02] There is some debate and it seems that in the time, since then a really good solution has come forward. I'm intrigued to see how that works and I hope it achieves everything that we're hoping it does. So thank you for bringing that forward and I'm happy to support this amendment. Any other speakers? I'll look to the chair to wrap up. Thank you and wearing two hats as the work councilor also. I just wanted to thank staff for a lot of the work that they did with regarding the Bonusing. You'll notice on page five of the committee report, there's a really awesome clause in there regarding Dundas Place and the provision of storage space for any sort of furniture and that sort of thing that the city might utilize on Dundas Place. And I think that that's just a really inventive way of going forward with Bonusing and all in all, there's a lot of positive conversation about the quality of design of this building. It's an art deco throwback and will really integrate well into the Dundas streetscape and again, another great contribution that'll work in tandem with the Fanshawe development on Dundas Street. So very happy to see this kind of development coming forward in the downtown and I think it's just a good news story all around for London. Thank you very much. With that, let's call the question. On the amendment voting. Opposing the motion carries 14 to zero. Thank you very much. We are moving right along. We're now, let's deal with the motion as amended and then we'll move to the next report. Clause nine is amended, moved and seconded. Let's call the question. Voting.

[02:04:00] Opposing the vote in the motion carries 14 to zero. Excellent. Let's move into the 10th report of community and protective services. We're all on the floor unless someone wants something pulled. Yeah, we've got seven, four, four, and there's a conflict on two. Seven, four, two, and that's your parable numbers. Everything within the report with the exception of seven, four, and two. Call the question. You got some comments? Yes. Okay, Councillor Morgan. On everything on the report with the exception of seven, four, and two. There we go. I wanted to comment on number five, which is simply a granting of a delegation request for the purpose of making a presentation with respect to Ontario Works rates. Spoiler alert, he's gonna come and ask for our support in pushing the government to raise them, which has come up at this council a few times through different discussions of different programs and how do we actually help people get lifted up of poverty

[02:06:02] and the Ontario Works rates are a key component of that. So I wonder if, and this is really a question for our staff, knowing that a delegation is coming on this, is it expected that the committee would be prepared to have a discussion about that at the time and would there be any information that staff would be bringing forward? Or are they going to wait for the delegation, wait for the committee recommendation, and then move forward with potentially asking for information? 'Cause I think this is one that I would prefer happen a little quicker, or at least the decision-making come kind of at the same time. And if there's some direction that needs to be provided to do that, I would like to do so, because I think we can have the discussion and make the decision at the same time. Through the chair, thank you very much for the question. We're happy to provide you with information with respect to rates to give you some sense ahead of time. We would take a direction to, from council with respect to whether you want us to make a recommendation to a province as well. We're happy to share with you though the rates and the amount of money which Mr. Utcham has also done in his presentation. It's at council's wish for what kind of information you want from us, we will provide it to you. I will look forward to the debate, and I will be there. Other speakers, I just wanted to say again, just thank the members of the community for helping us with our CDIS strategy as well as Ms. Graham, and as just reiterating your comments earlier to her as well. So thank you. Thank you, councillor. Okay, there are no additional speakers, let's call the question. Councillor Sleeh, Councillor Ripp. Closing the vote and the motion carries 14 to 0. Okay, let's do with clause two. Clause two, that motion please councillor.

[02:08:18] I don't believe there are any speakers on clause two, Councillor Halmer. Just very briefly on the report from the health unit about the funding apportionment. I just want to flag, the next time we have a report like this, we're probably going to be shifting the apportionment upwards so that the city of London would probably be covering 85% instead of 84% which is what's happening now. The trend with the growth rate in population is that the city is outpacing the county in terms of population growth. We're very close to flipping over that number now and that'll be coming forward. I'm sure the next time we deal with this after the next census, it's probably going to be in the order of $25,000 around there depending on what happens with the health unit budget. Thank you. Other speakers, let's call the question. Closing the vote and the motion carries 13 with one more key. Clause four. And I'll ask someone from the committee, maybe councillor, pass it in a moment. Here's to clause four. I have councillor Armstrong and Councillor Zafi. Thank you, Your Worship. And Worship, when I'm rising on this issue, I had many, the director of medical officer of health wasn't available to be at the meeting to speak to this issue before and he sent the deputy director.

[02:10:03] And so I just felt during the meeting that not all my questions were adequately answered. And so I sent some communications to the medical officer of health asking them basically and, you know, when did this crisis happen? Because right now, based on the information we're given, I think we're seeing roughly 50 deaths per year. That's 2017, I believe. And that's sort of what's triggered the need for this establishment of the Opian Crisis Working Group, which, you know, Your Worship, you're going to organize and be involved in. My concern is based on the information I got back. It's led me to a lot of questions that, and because the director was not there for reasons, I really feel I need these questions answered. An example, the crisis didn't happen right now. When did it begin to happen? How far back, and why are we reacting now? You know, the number we were given were around 50 deaths now per year. Well, from my information, it appears that that number peaked a few years ago. And I'm not, and I didn't see any based on the information I was given. I didn't see where there was any reaction. So people were dying, there was maybe a crisis, and a number of years elapsed. And I don't know if that's the case or not, because I didn't get all my questions answered. And I'm confused about the information that I received back. It's not clear enough. And I think I need to know when this crisis started,

[02:12:02] and was there appropriate response at the time? And so I'm not asking that this be referred back, because by doing that, again, there's a crisis, and we're reacting to a crisis. So I don't want to delay one day. But when you use the word crisis, I'd like to be clear when the crisis actually was detected, and when was there a reaction and a response? And was it an adequate response? Because I'm seeing from the information I received, a lot of people have been dying here. And so I just want to be clear that we reacted appropriately and timely, and the health unit did as well. And if everything did happen as quickly and as appropriate as possible, then that's a good thing. But if it didn't, then we need to make sure that we review that issue, make sure that it doesn't happen again. Because this is, I think, the crisis that's going to get much worse than what it is right now, based on what other communities are experiencing across North America. So all I'm asking for your worship, because we do have-- the chairperson here is, could an invitation be extended back to the medical officer of health to come back to the committee again to clarify and answer questions that weren't really dealt with because of his absence? And again, I don't want to slow this down one minute. But I just want to be clear, because a lot of the information I got was not in that report. And I think it should have been in the report. People should know on council. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Armstrong. Your worship, if you'd like to respond to the invitation to have these questions asked.

[02:14:02] Thank you very much, Councillor Armstrong, for the questions. And I'm happy to answer any. I know that this is a little bit unusual, because we're at council. Unfortunately, Dr. Chris Mackie was not able to attend the committee meeting, nor was I. And so I thank you for passing this. What I can tell you, speaking specifically of the crisis, there is historic issues of opioid use and injection drugs being injected right across Canada. And you're quite right. In the mid '90s, there was a massive issue, and it culminated largely in Vancouver. And we're seeing a resurgence of that. It started in the West Coast, and it's working its way right across the country. And I'm sure you recall, I've spoken about my meetings with the big city mayors, caucus through FCM, that we've established a working group, of which I'm a member, to work with the federal government. It was also recognized that this is a crisis across the country. It's a crisis that is moving like a wave across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast. The drug of greatest concern is fentanyl. There's also carfentanyl, which is another drug that is massively powerful. Many, many, many, many times more powerful than heroin. And people are dying. People are dying, beginning again on the West Coast, and now moving their way through a province by province as this drug comes to Ontario. The four top drugs that are injected in London right now don't include that drug. They don't include fentanyl. It's crystal meth, it's morphine, hydromorphone, and also riddling. What this working group is setting up, what this proposed working group would do, would develop a series of terms of reference and a mandate and come back to council and say, this is what we'd like to do for our community.

[02:16:00] I've been asked about some of the various groups that already exist in our community. This working group would serve as a coordinator, as an umbrella organization, to deal with this emerging crisis in our community, to work with those other community partners. And also, and I would subject to you most importantly, it would create a direct connection to City Council. And if you look through the requests that the working group focus on, first and foremost, consultation with the community, exploration of a response to the current situation, including the possibility of supervised injection sites, the development of recommendations as to how best address the opioid crisis in London. And it would be the members that you see within the current working group, Dr. Chris Mackie, John Perry, Chief of Police, Brian Lester, you all know from the Regional HIV/AIDS Center, Scott Cordes from the Inter-Community Health Center, and also Michael Barrett from Berlin. This is not a request that I am making to these individuals. This is a request that came forward from Dr. Chris Mackie, asking for this working group so we can prepare for the crisis to come. The terms of reference will be developed and reported back to Council. But what this would do, if you were to approve this, it would allow these experts to get to work on developing those terms of reference, to liaising with their federal partners. It would allow me to bring some of the work that we're doing at the BCMC through FCM to this group as well. And then it would include all of you in the discussions as well because this would be a direction from Council. And so I'm coming to you at the very beginning stages of this because I want to make sure that there's a good test of Council's resolve on moving forward in this way. It's a request that I brought forward as a member of Council. But again, I'll reiterate that this request was initiated by Dr. Chris Mackie through the Health Unit

[02:18:04] because he's on the front lines dealing with this issue in our community as our partners with the London Police Service. Thank you. And I hope some of those answers have been made to your question, Councilor Armstrong. I'll be brief. I guess the thing is your worship and thank you for clarifying and giving all that information and I understand all that. But the thing is, it's almost the end of 2017 and I'm concerned that back in 2015, it was obvious by information that was out there. In London and available and people were dying. That may be, you know, we should have been looking at this issue 24 months ago. Not now, we're at the end of 2017. That's based on the information I've been receiving and sifting through in China. And so I have to understand if there's been that kind of wizard opportunity earlier on for us to look at this and begin a process of dealing with it earlier on. And if we didn't, I'd like to know why we didn't because people died. I think it was 50 in 2015, 50 this year. Like that's a lot of people, that's a person. That's one person every week dying in our community. So I'm just saying, I'd like Mr. Mackie 'cause I wanna understand this issue. I support what you're doing. We have to move forward, but also, I'd like to also have the questions answered that weren't answered and more information provided to us so we better understand this issue. It is a crisis. We all know that. We don't use that word too often in our community. But I need to go back and be assured that, you know, the ball wasn't dropped earlier on

[02:20:00] and that we could have done something and we didn't. And the results are the problem. May it be much worse than what it is. So in any event, all I'm asking is for an invitation to be extended to the medical officer health to come back to our committee to continue the discussion on this. So would that be possible? Okay, that's your undertaking. I'm good with that. Thank you, Your Worship. Okay, thank you, Councilor Armstrong, for your questions. On my list, I have Councillor Zafeman, Squire, Park and Halmer. Councillor Zafeman. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. Since the mayor brought this forward, I guess I've done a bit of a deep dive myself on this topic because it is such a pressing issue in our community. Going back to the 90s with the introduction and prevalence of oxycodone, that would be part of the initial part of the history. And I would say that I think part of the reason that we're saying and suggesting this is a crisis now versus maybe in the past is because of the mass introduction of fentanyl on the streets of our communities. And that's largely from the research that I've done, but I'm not a medical health professional, have been mass produced in stills and factories, essentially in China for very little money that's being sent over in packages into Canada and then being sentenced, excuse me, I believe the value of something around $20 million for a kilogram of fentanyl on the streets in our communities, which is an astounding number. It's a major issue and I'm glad that something is being brought forward to Council on this, but I wanted to ask the mayor, I guess, of the appropriateness of a working group versus, the plethora of groups that we already have addressing these issues. And specifically that we have two members of Council sitting on the health unit already, which is where Dr. Mackie presides and would be coming from. And wondering if it's not possible simply just to have

[02:22:00] the mayor or other members of Council sit on the existing committees, such as the Safe Injection Site Committee, which I believe Council Helmer sits on. And there are opportunities of that nature, I think, rather than maybe creating a whole new, as much as I understand, it's not meant to be anything of an additional bureaucratic nature. I think when we talk about working groups on a crisis, there's a bit of a sort of, in my mind, a bit of a contrary, if someone said to me today that they wanted to bring forward an expedited proposal for a Safe Injection Site in our community, and whether that be a mobile site or a fixed site, I'd be very willing to take a look at that right now because if it is such a crisis, so many do doing something right now, then I would like us to be considering that. That's not a proposal that I'm seeing today, but if that was something that would seem to me more relevant to dealing with the crisis head-on, so maybe the mayor could speak to some of those questions. Yes, thank you, Councilor Safeman, if you would like to respond, thank you. Appreciate the Chair's indulgence in allowing me to speak twice at Council. Absolutely, Councillor Safeman. This request came from the health unit of which the task force and the working groups reside. The request came from Dr. Chris Mackie, who is our Chief Medical Officer of Health, because he saw the need for us to pull together a group that could help coordinate all of the work, and each of the members that I listed earlier are all willing partners. They see the need for this as well, and these are the experts in our community that are preparing to deal with this crisis. One of the recommendations that may come from this group could very well be a safe injection site, or safe injection sites plural for our community. But it's their sense, and certainly my sense, that we need to do some groundwork right away, bring the terms of reference back to Council, so you have a good understanding of the work ahead, and then allow this group to work with other community partners,

[02:24:00] as well as federal and provincial partners, to come up with that ultimate solution. And so, I'm certainly insensitive to your question, why another group? This really is a group that would connect all of the good work that's happening. It could act as an umbrella for the other organizations, and really provides a direct line to the City of London, and a direct line to City Council as well. I would propose that I sit on this working group, if other members of Council are interested, happy to see this amended, because I really think that this is the situation where all hands on deck is extremely important, and I personally want to see this get moving as soon as we possibly can. Councilor Safer. Through you, Madam Chair, just a thank you to the mayor for those answers, and if I might just indulge, I don't know if staff can answer this question, but recognizing that there is a safe injection site group that already exists, I'm curious if anybody on staff can speak to that, and if there are plans for recommendations to be brought forward to Council at a future time, because if that's already happening, I understand that it's in here, and maybe that group would then get bundled into this group, but if that work is already taking place, I'd be curious to see where that is at currently. Yes, if I could go to staff. Through the chair, thank you for the question. We don't have that information with us this evening, we do have some information, certainly about the work we're doing on the mental health and addiction strategy, and our involvement also with the community drug and alcohol strategy, that we can share with Council as well, but we can get more information back to you about the SIS piece. Thank you for that. I'd like to go back to your worship to respond as well. Thank you very much, Ms. Presiding Officer. This group would be doing that consultation work to which you refer, and this group would be doing provided that Council accepts the terms of reference, that work that's to occur in phase two. As you all know, a study was conducted, and the results were released in January of 2017,

[02:26:04] indicating some really troubling numbers in our community. We interviewed through that study, 199 drug users in our community, specifically talking about whether a safe injection site would be something that they would participate in, and what kind of harm reduction that would present for our community. We know that the HIV rates in our community are on the rise. We know that our hepatitis C rates are on the rise. It's curious and concerning, because when we look across the province, we see that there's a decline in both of those infection rates, but London is different. And again, part of the consultation would be led under the leadership again of Dr. Chris Mackie, and this working group would help see that through, but this working group does not have a mandate at this time. And that mandate would include, I'm sure that process, and we'll come back to Council for direction, ideally as quickly as possible. Thank you, I'd like to go to Councilor Squire. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I was troubled by this at committee when I received the information, and quite frankly, I was confused. I was very confused as exactly what direction we were going, and quite by the end of listening to the acting of sort of health, it was not clear to me what was going to happen. I knew at the end of this, there were six or seven different committees presently doing work in this area. Some went on injection sites, some in other areas. And what I was trying to understand was exactly what Councilor Zapein has brought up. Are we forming a new committee? Are we folding some of the committees into this new committee? What jurisdiction does this committee have to even tell these other committees what to do? And quite frankly, the acting medical officers outside,

[02:28:00] well, this is what the mayor wanted to do this. Those are the words he used. So my challenge as a starting point is that it talks exclusively about opioids. And I had to say it, and I got quite emotional at the end, but I get the opioid issue. But, you know, I deal with so many people on a day-to-day basis where they're suffering terrible things, and opiates are not involved. I just give an example, I did a hearing yesterday with a gentleman, and it was about four hours long, and he has what's called drug-induced psychosis. Meaning he is not psychotic as people are because of an illness. It is induced by the drugs he uses. And the drugs he uses are not opioids. They're amphetamines because most mental patients are down by the drugs that they use to treat their illness. So they want to get pulled back up again. They want stimulants that are not opioids. So for years, doctors have been begging me out of that hospital. They know I'm a counselor, and they say, can't you do something about this? You know, aren't you gonna raise this issue sometime in your political role? So what I did, and just so you understand, this fellow keeps coming back to the hospital over and over again, because he goes back into the community, immediately he gets more amphetamines, and comes back into the hospital. And during the hearing, the doctor was talking about him. And here's what the doctor said. The doctor says, well, he's here. We get him to as good a baseline as we can, and then we send him back out in the community and hope he lasts a while before he gets amphetamines and comes back in here. And the guy just interrupted us and said, don't you get it, I'm gonna add it. Don't you get it, I'm gonna add it. So we're not helping him. We're not helping him out. And he is not opioids at all. He has nothing to do with the opioids. And just to add a layer onto it, because one of the things the acting medical officer of health said to me was, well, opioids, people die from that. Just where this, gets how this guy came into hospital. He was trying to break into a house.

[02:30:02] And when the police said to him, why were you breaking into the house? He said, it was full of imposters, and I was going to kill them. That's dangerous. That's really dangerous. So I met with a doctor the other day after the community and protective services meeting, and he said, yeah, I know what's going on. He said, I followed what's going on. He said, Phil, I'm gonna be honest with you here. We need a drug strategy that includes opioids. Because my clients are going out, yeah, they're using opioids, but they're also using all kinds of non-opioids. The other thing he said to me, and it was a perfectly blunt discussion, he said, Phil, I don't know how we're gonna get anything done. We got all these committees with all these stakeholders on them, having all these discussions, and we're not gonna get anything done. So I would love if we brought some focus to the drug issue in London. I'm just not satisfied or sure that this is it. I'm not sure creating another committee is the solution. And I think some of what Councillor Zafi said is exactly what I said. So it's very difficult for me to stand up and endorse something that I'm not convinced is going to provide a real solution for the people that I deal with every day and the doctors that I know deal everywhere. Now that's very personal because this is actually work I do. So I'm not convinced that this is gonna make a difference in what we're more meetings, more stakeholder groups, but that's where I am at this particular moment. I'd like to go to Councillor Park. Thank you, Councillor Hopkins. A few weeks ago, the media came to me and asked me a question about this letter that had been presented to committee. And the questions were hot off the heels I had with a friend of mine who works in the industry. And we were having a conversation about the community drug and alcohol strategy. And the comments that my friend made was every time we come to the table for one of these discussions, you're taking me away from frontline work.

[02:32:00] And that's the point that Councillor Squire was raising just then. And I've tried my best, I listened to the debate today and I listened to the tape of the committee to get on side with this, but I just can't see how it functionally works to the degree that we need at this point in time. The terms of reference are very simple. Let's get people the help they need when they need it, where they need it. And I don't see that this is going to solve that problem in the degree that we need it, when we need it. I do not think that there's any malice in the intent behind this. I think that the people behind us want to do good work, but I think that we need to get out of the way and let the organizations in the city of London do their jobs and stop letting politicians get in the way of that. We need to adequately resource these organizations. And that's where this council comes to play at budget time, making sure that these organizations have the funds that they need to get the people, the help they need where they need it. Councillor Hellner. Okay, a couple of things. One, I don't want to confuse lack of discussion and lack of understanding of this issue here at council with lack of action and lack of things happening in the community on this issue. Because frankly, there's been a lot going on for a long time. Lots of people have been working on it. It's very clear to me, and I have to take some personal responsibility for this as one of the representatives at the health unit, that we need to do a much better job at the health unit communicating with council about what's happening on this issue. I could send you six or seven reports on the HIV epidemic, which was declared by Dr. Mackie like 18 months ago. The issues we've got with opioids, which we've got several reports on, the kinds of changes we've been making internally, reallocating resources from lower impact, less important things, so we can get people on the street doing street outreach to get people to adhere to their HIV treatment, so they stop spreading HIV as fast as it is spreading now.

[02:34:00] The money we've got from the provincial government and the federal government to expand that again, partnering that's going on with other agencies through the health unit with inter-community health center, the regional HIV/AIDS connection to expand harm reduction services. There's lots going on. The fact that we don't know about all those things doesn't mean it's not happening. It is an extremely difficult problem. So despite all the things that have been happening, we still have to do more. I don't frankly really understand why the idea of creating a working group is getting so much resistance. We create working groups all the time. We have one for the landfill. Are we going to expand landfill that set up a working group? We have one for the governance working group. We have a special thing. We've got to do some work on that front. It's very clear that we don't really get all the different things that are going on and having some kind of formal connection to that work from our council in the city of London to that, I think would be helpful. I can see it right now, why it's needed because we don't have it. It's like, well, who's on this leadership group? We don't know because we didn't set it up. We weren't involved in setting it up. The health unit set it up. If council doesn't want to do something on this front, if they don't want to set up a working group, the health unit will keep doing it. We can set up a leadership group. We can invite people to come to it. We don't need the city of London to do it. I think the city of London should be doing it. I think we need to get involved in this issue. Partly because it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse, right? Despite a lot of the good things that are happening. It is true that opioids are not the only problem. We have lots of problems on the drug front. The community drug and alcohol strategy which we set up in 2015 is still meeting, right? That's a long process. That's a long process that comes with a big plan, with all kinds of stuff we've got to do. We need to do stuff in the meantime. Yes, there's stuff going on with supervised injection sites. Supervised, not safe, supervised. And that's important work and that has to continue as well. And it's not gonna be clean and crisp and organized because it's not a clean and crisp and organized problem.

[02:36:02] We had one of the biggest experts in the entire community come and speak to us about this issue at committee. Dr. Ovenissian is an epidemiologist and she is the person in the city of London who understands what is going on with the HIV epidemic in London. She understands what's going on with the opioid issue. All the people who are working on it, they report up to her. Yes, Dr. Mackey is her boss, but she works on that stuff and she is a very good expert. We'll try and do my best to keep everyone informed of what's happening on this issue, do a better job of trying to communicate from the health unit to the city of London. I think that there's value in this. Maybe it won't make a huge impact, but I think it's worth trying. Is it such a bad idea that we should just stop? No, we're not even gonna try it. I don't think so. I think we should try it. I would encourage my colleagues to just support it. If it turns out that it didn't work, I mean, we can do something else. Just in the nick of time, Councillor Helmer, thank you. I'd like to go to Councillor Van Holst. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. So I'll be in support of this motion. I sit as, you know, on the community drug and alcohol strategy steering committee. And that's the committee that's dealing with all the types of drugs, the alcohol, every drug, except tobacco. But we deal with all those. And we're trying to come up with a very comprehensive plant and it's a slow process. And I'm not great at slow processes. I prefer the quicker thing. So I'm gonna ask to be a member of this committee too, because it's good for us to focus in on things as well. And individually, and I think this is a good one, we were recognized long ago that the opioid crisis is a very complex one and a difficult one to deal with. And so it needs its own push.

[02:38:03] And if our Director of Health suggests that this is what's needed, I think we should just do it. He says, here's what we need for to deal with a crisis. Let's just take that advice and move forward because we need some moving forward and not something else. So thank you. Councillor Cassidy. Thank you, Madam Presiding Officer. I appreciate some of the concerns that have been raised in some of the hesitation that some of our colleagues have. But I just wanna reiterate as forcefully as I can, the importance of this, that this is a crisis. And Dr. Hovanesian was here and she said, this is recognized as a public health emergency. So there are lots of problems in this city. There are lots of things that need our attention. And we have constituents that email us regularly. I know everybody has received these emails where they say, why are you talking about this when there are these other problems? We have to be multifocused. We have to be able to deal with all of the different problems at the same time and this is the one that we're dealing with right now. The opioid crisis is related to so many other things. As Councillor Halmer pointed out, some of the things, but we have some of the highest drug injection rates in the country. We have some of the highest HIV rates, if not the highest HIV rates in the province and the country. We have the highest opioid usage rates and the number of prescriptions dispensed for opioids is in the range of 60,000 and there are 3,200 people. These are all stats that Dr. Holvenosian brought to us at committee, 3,200 people in London addicted to opioids.

[02:40:03] The other problems, the HIV, the Hep C, all of those are related to this opioid crisis. In the city of London, we gave out, I'm not sure what year, last year or the year before, 2 million needles, more, not per capita, more in the absolute number than the city of Toronto. We gave out more needles in London than they gave in the city of Toronto, in absolute numbers. So it is a crisis here and I know that there are good, there are groups out there doing really good work. I don't believe setting up this working group will stop them from continuing that work and we had letters attached to the community and protective services agenda from some of these groups, from London Cares, from the chief of police in support of this endeavor. And when the chief of police writes us a letter that says, this is an absolute crisis in the city of London and something needs to be done and he endorses the idea of this working group, I'm going to listen to the chief of police. And when the chief medical officer of health, who I have the privilege of seeing regularly at the Board of Health meetings and as Councillor Halmer said, we talk about this opioid crisis and the related crises that go along with it all the time. And so this is not a surprise to me and as Councillor Halmer said, it's obviously very incumbent upon us to do a better job of communicating these things with the rest of council. But when the chief medical officer of health, who is in place to advise us on these sorts of issues, when he says that this is the type of response that we should get behind, I'm going to listen to him. As I said, these groups will continue their good work. We saw an example of bringing community groups together through communication and the positive effect that can have

[02:42:01] when we were dealing with the crisis in group homes. So while our staff were working to create a bylaw governing unlicensed group homes, in the meantime, they set up a communication strategy. So that the different groups dealing with people in crisis, needing housing, the groups dealing with them came together and developed a communication strategy to help people find housing that was safe. And we saw a positive effect on that. This, I see, is something similar. We'll have an, if there be an umbrella group and have these other organizations pool their resources, pool their knowledge and their wisdom to try to effectively deal with this crisis. Then I believe that something we have to, we have to move forward with. And all I think we are doing here as City Council is endorsing it and giving our stamp of approval and saying that we recognize that this is a serious crisis in the city of London. And we have to do something about it. Councillor Osher. Thank you, Ms. Madame Presiding Officer. I like the word crisis. I think that I'm not so sure if we're being scared of something or we're being made scared of something, because I seldom hear this word crisis around this horseshoe. And yet we've got a lot of crisis in the city. This being one of them. And I don't want to don't play any other, but I think that this one is important as well as some of the others. But this is a subject we're dealing with at this point in time. And I'm quite in support of this committee or this working group. But I do have some concerns. And I express those concerns at committee. And I want to bring them up here. At least the big one that I was concerned about is the mayor put it

[02:44:01] as an umbrella working group. And I heard Councillor Cassidy mentioned this at committee level also. And I want to be sure that as a working group, as an umbrella working group, that the others are going to respect it. Because when you have an umbrella group, then the others have to accept that umbrella working group. Otherwise, it's not going to go anywhere. I don't want to see a committee that's going to fight against this working group. Or this working group is going to fight against that other committee. So I need assurance from the mayor or someone else that this is going to operate as that working group. And it's going to coordinate the activities and help the other working group. That's one. The other thing is that I really thought that I heard the mayor said that this was something that they originated with the health department. And then I heard that it was originated by the mayor. So I don't want, I don't really care. What I want to know is why is it that we as a city has to have to be this? Why is it that it's not the health department that's asking, that deciding on this and somebody from the health department, doing that position that the mayor is advocating here? I do accept the fact that some of us on council may want to be on that working group, but I'm concerned about that reporting structure, because if the mayor is going to head this group, be on this group, then does that mean that this group is going to report direct to the council? Whereas I feel that it should report directly to the health unit. That's my other. And my last question is to do with this business about the civic administration. When we refer to the civic administration as a second to last paragraph, which civic administration we're referring to? Because I was of the understanding that it's the health unit. But when I read civic administration, that's who I see.

[02:46:01] And I don't see them having anything to do with this. I think that we are dumping some additional work on them. So can somebody explain that to me? Ms. Trujou, Madam Chair, asking for assurance that this umbrella group is going to work coordinated with the other groups. And I'd like to know who they're going to report to. And I'd also like to know why is it that's the mayor who is going to head this up and let somebody from the health department. And I'd like some response to what do we mean by civic administration? I believe I asked this at committee level. And I thought that I was told that what we meant there was the health unit, not our staff, our staff would play a little part, but what we meant there. So I need some explanation on that before I can vote on this. So is there anyone who can help me with answers? If you could give me some leeway, I'd like to go back to the mayor to answer that question. Thank you very much, Ms. Preside and Officer. Councillor, a couple of answers to your questions. Yes, this will be a group that liaises and that coordinates and that works with the other groups in a very positive way. Second question you asked was, why is the mayor sharing it? It's unclear here in the letter, but I'm not. Dr. Mackey is leading this group. Why is the motion written in the direction written in the way that it is? You can't provide direction to Dr. Mackey, you can provide direction to me. I've heard at least one Councillor say that they'd also like to be a part of this. I strongly recommend that as well. I think that the more involvement that we can have, the better. I'll close with this. Councillor Russcher mentioned that there are a number of groups doing this work and will this help coordinate it in a better way. I believe that it will and I also know, and this is a fact, there's great work going on in our community every single day.

[02:48:02] People are on the front lines working as hard as they possibly can to address this issue every single day. But the fact of the matter is, it's not working. HIV rates are going up. Hepatitis C rates are going up. We're going to see fentanyl in our community in big numbers moving forward. We've got to do something else. We've got community leaders here who are asking for an opportunity to work together to do exactly that. The timeline for the work, the terms of reference, will all come back to Council. Community partners will be here to present to the Committee. They'll be able to answer many of the questions that you have. What this direction allows us to do is to get to work right away so we can address this crisis. Councillor Russcher. Follow-up, I quite appreciate all of those answers and I think that those are the answers that I was looking for. I want to go back to the civic administration portion because they may have mentioned that. But it sounds to me as though what the Mayor just said is that it's the city clerk's department that will come up with that development of proposal, terms of reference, et cetera. Is that right? Or some other department? Who is the civic department that will do that? Civic administration. Is it our civic administration? The help. If I could go to staff to answer that, your worship. Again, thank you very much for the leeway here this evening. Civic administration is used broadly. It's our civic administration, again, because we can only provide direction to our civic administration. It could very well be planning, might be involved in some of this work as we work on zoning issues. This data beers section is Livingston's area, could also be involved.

[02:50:00] This is the working group that requires endorsement from council so that then they can reach out to staff for various areas of expertise. This motion would provide that direction. Councillor Ridley. Thank you, Madam Chair. Interesting debate at council. I'm watching. I don't know that I'm actually watching a debate. I'm watching a lot of cross debate and communication and I wonder, quite frankly, how many people picked up the phone in the past two weeks to ask their questions and how many people waited until tonight. So with all due respect, it's been interesting to watch this. Quite frankly, any one of us, including the mayor, can form any working group committee at any time that we like. If I wanted to form a working group to advise me on an issue, I could do that. Quite frankly, the mayor did that a couple years ago and I think he heard a little bit about it. When I saw this motion, I knew exactly why this came forward. The mayor, through the work that he is doing, has identified an issue. In the past, when he identified an issue, there was a lot of pushback from council to say, "Why weren't we a part of finding this solution?" And when I read this, I saw the mayor's identified an issue and he wants to bring council in on finding this solution. Any of the groups that would be invited to this table could decline. They could say, "Quite frankly, I don't have the time. I'm going to invest my time in something else. I have a different philosophy, a different way of doing business and that's their prerogative." So I really don't know why we've debated this for an hour. I don't know why we've asked questions that could have more easily been dealt with on the phone, either to staff to say, "Are you aware of this? Do you have the information on this?" Or to the mover of the motion over the past two weeks. So I see this as something quite simple. It's very clear to me that the mayor would like to pull together some people in the community who can come back to this council and be accountable to this council and not

[02:52:04] just the mayor and that's where the endorsement piece is. So I'm happy to support that and I think I waited until all of the speakers spoke. So I won't be supporting anyone speaking on a second round. Thank you, Councillor Ridley. If I could ask Councillor Morgan to chair the meeting, I haven't spoken yet and would like that opportunity. Thank you. And I really appreciate the comments this evening and what's quite clear to me is that there's a lot of unanswered questions and concerns. I would like to suggest maybe a referral back to CAPS Committee to have the Health Unit come back with a report as to what's being done in the community with the information that we have questions to that have not been answered. And that is my referral. I think it is important that we understand it. It's got nothing to do with the working group or not, but just to refer this back to CAPS. Okay. Can I have a second? Councillor Hopkins is moving a referral that takes precedent. Is there a seconder? Councillor Zafi, are you indicating it second? So we have a referral that will be moved and seconded. I'm going to get that up on the screen, but we can discuss the referral. Councillor Zafi. Thank you, Mr. Presiding Officer and I guess we're seeing some musical chairs. I'm loathe to support typically a referral, however, I've seen the number of questions not just from council members, but also people in the community that are somewhat confused

[02:54:03] about the purpose of this working group. We're having a debate as if at committee tonight. I appreciate that if this is something that's been brought forward of an interest from the Health Unit, that's great. And I would think that we and for me personally just need a bit more clarity as to what this working group will look like and how the establishment will fall out. I'm not looking for anything beyond that really. I think everyone around this horseshoe wants to support something of this nature. I think though that unfortunately that the mayor's letter was not that concrete in terms of details and information. I think simply being able to have additional information as to how this working group and the umbrella will work and what organizations will be a part of it. I think that just helps educate council on what exactly is going to be the nature of this group who will be involved so that we can all have a better understanding of it, why it is necessary, and why the community should also be supportive of an umbrella working group of this nature. Thank you, Councillor Squire on the referral. Thank you. That was the motion that Councillor Hopkins made is exactly the motion I made at committee for the same reason and it was rejected. And so I guess I'm only standing today to say I was begging for to go back to get more information so I would have a clear decision that I could make. But I hope we don't I'm not going to go back over that again. I hope we don't spend another hour debating the referral. Let's just vote on it. I mean it's it's clear we're going to do it if we're not. I'm not going to stop, I can't stop people from talking but I just was hopeful we could move on. Well you can rest assured that I'm going to make sure people speak to the referral given the length of their bait. Councillor Armstrong. I'm glad to speak to the referral. I don't like referrals either but sometimes they are necessary and this this is an important issue. We have to understand that people are out there and in the very end for some of them it is the end. So let's take this very serious. I mean there are other issues in the community where people end up dying but this is a lot of people and it's ongoing and it needs to be addressed and in a serious way we need

[02:56:03] a real plan. And I appreciate the work that's been done on this and some of it some members have said we haven't gotten information so without information you can't have a full picture. So I think that referrals in order but as soon as possible we need to get this I hope the next meeting but maybe if that's not possible we need to deal with this. You know there were some alarming issues that were statements that were made on this issue. I'd like to also look at the major points in the referral or can we just have that. I'll have a chance at committee thank you. Councillor Park. Thank you Mr. Chair to the through you to the mover of the referral. I wonder if they would consider perhaps referring this to SPPC recognizing the importance of the conversation and the level of interaction amongst all council members discussing this. I think it would be worthy to have that discussion at SPPC where we're all present if procedure really allowable. I'm going to ask that you actually make that as an amendment because there's a lot of people who want to talk on this. I got a speaker's list so just amend it if you wanted SPPC people don't have to talk about it very long if there's a seconder for that I'll look for a seconder just a seconder for that so Councillor Park wants to change the referral we're going to do it this way just to just get people to decide. So two people want to do that there's adjusting the referral hold on one second I can confirm it. So I'm going to make a ruling on this. Councillor Hopkins wasn't specific about where she wanted to refer it to so she's nodding

[02:58:04] that she wants she's okay with referring to SPPC the seconder is okay with referring to SPPC so we're just going to change it to that and if someone has a problem with that they can challenge the chair continue with the speaker's list on the referral. Councillor Rossher. Thank you Mr. Chair. I'm not going to support this referral. We spent almost two hours on this committee. We grilled the medical officer. I think that we have enough information here that we need to make a start. We don't need all the details from my perspective to form a working group. I think that the items here consultation with community exploration etc etc are good enough for me to make a start. What we need to do is to decide whether we want this working group or not and we've done that. We've spent almost an hour if not maybe a little over an hour here two hours at council and we want to spend another four hours at another committee meeting no I'm not going to agree with that at all. Thank you. Councillor Zappen the referral is up for a seconder you were interested in seconding it. Thank you. I have nobody else in the speakers list for the referral. Councillor Cassidy and then Councillor Helmer. Thank you Mr. Presiding Officer I'm not going to support the referral. I didn't support it at committee as Councillor Usher said we debated this ad nauseam and we had the acting chief medical officer of health here to answer our questions. It's a working group. We're not solving cancer. We're setting up a working group to get people in the community together to try and find a solution to this crisis in the city of London. I have a point of order from Councillor Squire. I don't appreciate that turn of phrase. I work with people every day who die from this. This is important.

[03:00:00] Really important and it is life and death. More a point of personal privilege but take it I don't know if the Councillor needs a response she doesn't need to respond to anyone. Were you finished? Councillor Helmer. I agree very strongly with Councillor Usher. We talked about this at committee not only for a couple of hours we also dealt with it on August 1st. So so far what we've done on this front is pretty much nothing. So we're, what are we, you know, the 23rd? 22nd. 22nd. So we've got 22 days since we first started talking about it and we haven't made very much progress. The request from the mayor really has two ideas. One is direct the mayor to talk to some people about forming a working group. I mean, who is actually opposed to that? The second one is that group of people come back to us with a terms of reference, make sure you cover off these three things, maybe you cover off some other things, make sure you cover off these three things and then we'll talk about the terms of reference. Is somebody actually opposed to that? I don't really get it. You know, if the terms of reference come forward and you're not, you don't like what's in them and you want to change it, we can change it when they come back. If you come forward and you don't support it, you don't have to support it and it can stop there. But I don't get this interim step of can we just go talk about it again about whether we want to talk about it and whether the mayor can go talk to people about forming a group. I think these two very simple ideas, it really disallowing the mayor, giving him a little bit of a direction to go talk to some people and come back with a draft terms of reference that covers off these three things and we can go from there. I don't think we need to take more time to do this part and we've talked about it many, many times.

[03:02:00] There is some urgency here. You know, if this is going to be useful, the sooner we do it, the better. Councillor Vanholst. Thank you very much. How much will this group accomplish for London? I don't know. How much will we accomplish for London if we talk about this again in front of all these people? Probably be a little. So I think just as betting men, I would go for the go against the referral and just let this move on. Any other speakers to the referral? No? Councillor Hopkins wanted to sum up a lot. Thank you. I think this evening just shows the conversation that we've had around the horseshoe here is that there are a lot of unanswered questions and concerns and this is a referral back to Strategic Planning Council or Committee of the Whole to hear more information, to address the concerns that have arisen here. You could tell it's an important topic for all of us on Council and it will just give us an opportunity to have a thorough presentation, an update and moving forward. So I hope you do support the referral. Mayor Brown, on the referral. Thank you very much. We've got two options that are going to get us to the same place. One's going to take longer and one's going to be more direct and right away. If you defeat the referral and approve the request, then this group of people and I are going to come together. We're going to come up with the terms of reference for the work. We're going to come up with the timeline and we're going to come to Council and we're going to run that by you and answer all the questions that you have and ideally get your endorsement.

[03:04:00] If we refer this back, the same thing is going to happen but it's going to take longer and it's going to take longer and there are people who are using drugs that don't have the time to wait. Your questions will be answered. Councilor Ridley is quite right. It's at the very front end of designing a strategy that we need to deal with locally. The communities they're dealing with right across the entire country and so we'll be sending a message to this group of willing partners that we're not sure that this is the direction that we need to go, that we need information by referring it back. That's the message that will be received or you can have all of your questions answered when step one and step two, developing the terms of reference and the mandate are prepared and this group comes before the appropriate committee. I urge you to not refer this back. Referring this back really is hitting pause on an issue that many of us have described as a crisis. I urge you to keep an open mind, recognize we're at the beginning, we've identified a problem, we want to work towards a solution but there's work that needs to be done and a council endorsement of the principles outlined here will allow us to do that more quickly. I'll leave it at that. Okay. We will vote on the referral and do some interesting musical chairs. On the referral. In the vote in the motion carries, seven to six. That's been referred. It's been referred to an SPPC, I'll endeavor to get that added to the agenda as quickly

[03:06:03] as possible, potentially calling a special SPPC meeting. Sorry. Question? Councillor Sillie. I just wanted just for the record for my colleague. There's one recused on there. This return is recused. I just wanted to make sure. So the, as Councillor Sillie has pointed out, a Councillor has declared a pecanary interest. His votes registered on the system as a no. That will be amended for the minutes because the Councillor did not participate in that vote. Clause seven now. Over to Councillor Sillie. Clause seven was, I'm not sure, clause seven, wait, okay. Do we have speakers on clause seven? No speakers? We'll call the question. Okay. We're voting. Closing the vote. The motion carries 14 to zero. Thank you very much. Chair. Let's move then to added reports.

[03:08:00] Councillor Squire. I would like to move the SPPC. I can bring it over to you promptly. Okay. No, that puts you in a precarious position. Councillor Cassidy. Thank you, Your Worship. I'll put the whole report on the floor unless, what did I vote against? Worship, I voted against Part A. Okay. Looking for a volunteer to move, SPPC, Councillor Helmer. So what items would we like to deal with separately? Councillor Squire. Three. Others? We'll deal with three separately. When we deal with three, can we pull it apart too? Because I only voted an A on A. Thanks. So one, two, and four. All the question. Let's break it out. A to two. Councillor Squire. Closing the vote. The motion carries 14 to zero. Okay. So we have three A to L, I believe it was last night. And we'll deal with three A. First, Councillor Helmer, does that work for you?

[03:10:03] As long as no one moves a referral. Any speakers while we're waiting for three A to come up? No speakers. Let's call the question. Closing the vote in the motion carries nine to five. Okay. This is B through L. Would anyone like anything from B through L pulled? Any speakers? Call the question. Closing the vote in the motion carries 14 to zero. 20th report of the Councillor in closed session. For someone to move that, please. And we'll report progress, Councillor Escher.

[03:12:03] Report progress on four items that we discussed in the month on screen in the moment. And the vote in the motion carries 13 to zero. Let's move through the agenda. Any deferred matters? None. Increase. Emergent motions. Let's move to the bylaws. We have bylaws bill 351 through 362 plus added. Mr. Worship, we have added bill numbers 363 up to including bill number 390. And those are all of the bylaws as a result of the policy manual process that was that section that was approved yesterday. Okay. Colleagues, I'm inclined to move all of those bylaws bill 351 through to 390. Look for speakers on second reading, unless anyone wants one specifically pulled. Nope. Okay. Let's deal with all of them. Moved by Councillor Turner. Seconded by Councillor Morgan. First reading.

[03:14:08] Let's call the question. Voting. Closing the vote in the motion carries 13 to zero. Second reading. Any speakers? Moved by Councillor Van Hoel. Seconded by Councillor Hopkins. I have no speakers. We'll call the question. Voting. Closing the vote in the motion carries 13 to zero. Colleagues, third reading. Moved by Councillor Turner. Seconded by Councillor Helmer. Call the question. We are voting. Closing the vote in the motion carries 13 to zero. Colleagues, we look for a motion to adjourn. Moved by Councillor Armstrong. Seconded by Councillor Cassidy. All those in favor. Opposed, if any. Thanks very much for a couple of long days, colleagues, and we'll see you very soon.