By Staff

April 15th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

This is National Volunteer Week (NVW) – a dedicated week to celebrate the importance and contributions volunteers make in
shaping and impacting our community.

The theme Every Moment Matters, highlighting that the sharing of time, skills, empathy, and creativity is vital to all our organizations and builds inclusivity, strength, and wellbeing in our communities.

The staff at Community Development Halton (CDH) and Volunteer Halton extend their heartfelt thanks to each volunteer in our community as well as to those who lead volunteers, in paid and unpaid roles.  Volunteers are fundamental to meeting this challenging moment.

Volunteers across Halton Region, committing their support to increase our collective efforts and impact, help contribute exponentially to quality of life we all strive for.

This week, CDH and Volunteer Halton will honour some amazing volunteers at events in Burlington and Milton. Today please join us in celebrating the contributions
of volunteers who are receiving a Cheers to Volunteers award!

Cheers to Volunteers Award Recipients:  This award recognizes the contributions of volunteers making a difference in our communities.  A total of 12 volunteers
from across the Region are receiving Cheers to Volunteers awards this year!

HALTON HILLS
Diane Fullerton: Links2Care
Ruth Taylor: Town of Halton Hills
Matthew Key: Halton Healthcare, Georgetown Hospital

OAKVILLE
Luisa Reyes: Acclaim Health
Claudia Cortes: Community Living Oakville
Daniel Nash: Kerr Street Mission

MILTON
Freda Patterson: Town of Milton
Cathie Heirman: Milton Place Adult Day Centre
Brittany Marcijus: Halton Food for Thought

BURLINGTON
Nancy Williams: Acclaim Health
Sharon Collins:  Joseph Brant Hospital
Melanie Daley: Halton Regional Police Victims Services Unit

By Pepper Parr

April 15th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

This is a long article intended for those who want to understand how the city is going to grow and the changes that will take place

There are three development projects that will set a new approach to how the city works with developers and at the same time result in significant development that will change the way the city is seen as a community.

This was presented to Council earlier in the month and started with:

Direct the Director of Community Planning to implement the targeted timeline set out in a of community planning department report to support the development of an Area Specific Plan informed by City objectives, inputs from the landowner/applicant information and City-led public engagement, to define the Urban Structure role, the Growth Framework prioritization and the land use policies for Bronte Creek Meadows.

Direct the Director to engage with all ROPA 49 landowners as one input into the development of the City’s population and employment work and to inform the development of the revisions to the Urban Structure, Growth Framework and preparing supporting timeline and approach to initiate the development of area specific plans or their equivalent.

Alison Enns: Manager of Policy and Community Planning.

The ball carrier in this instance was Alison Enns, Manager of Policy and Community who was very specific, direct and detailed.  This is a whopper of a task.

None of these properties have been considered in the Official Plan, other Master Plans or the City or Regional Development Charges and all have been supported by City Council to form part of the Region’s 2023 Allocation Program.

In December 2023 the city set out four key areas of focus.

Focus Area 1 is: Designing and delivering complete communities. Specifically, the work discussed in this report responds, in part to G:

Deliver on the City’s Official Plan 2020 with an update to reflect growth and needs of complete communities. This update will include the transfer of all Official Plan policies from Halton Region to the City of Burlington, confirmation of additional strategic growth areas (e.g., ROPA 49 decision – Oct 2022), and Burlington’s 2031 Housing Pledge target of 29,000 units. This update will be supported by a proactive communication and engagement plan.

Some background:

After a period of turbulence Bill 162, which is currently referred to a provincial Standing Committee, will, if passed, will reinstate four significant changes with impacts on the BOP, 2020 Urban Structure, Growth Framework and Land Use policies. BOP = Burlington Official Plan

Staff wanted to confirm with Council the approach to planning for three key future growth areas and believe the approach presented can be a model for understanding the role of all of these new areas.

Background and Discussion:

In June, 2023 a number of issues resulted in a need to develop an initial work plan to undertake the necessary work to bring the BOP,2020 into “alignment with the updated Regional and Provincial policy framework”

The overall workplan acknowledged the role for both modifications to the BOP, 2020 at the OLT and statutory official plan amendments (OPAs) to develop a local vision for growth and development to address the range of changes to the planning framework.

While the initial workplan identified a wide range of changes in play some have not been realized as set out in recent Targeted Realignment Update reports.

“The targeted realignment exercise was introduced to Council in mid-2023, and was set out as an initial work plan to advance the Burlington Official Plan, 2020 (BOP, 2020) in a way that ensured alignment with the updated Regional and Provincial policy framework.

“The overall legal strategy acknowledges the role for both modifications through the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT)  as well as statutory official plan amendments (OPAs) in order to develop a local vision for growth and development to address the range of changes to the planning framework since the 2020 Regional approval of the Burlington Official Plan.

“Despite continued uncertainty staff have initiated work on the development of City specific population and employment growth forecasts.”

Regional Structure and Regional Urban Structure Changes

Several land use assumptions of the BOP, 2020 and the work prepared to support the Regional Official Plan Review have changed. The BOP, 2020 established a refined Urban Structure, Growth Framework and revised Land Use policies that together set out the long-term growth management strategy for a largely intensifying municipality.

That long-term growth management strategy did not anticipate the new areas (introduced either through the addition of new community areas within the urban area or through employment conversion).

It was an on, off and then on again process that made it very difficult for the Planning department.  With the Executive Director of Community Planning nolonger with the city there is some scrambling taking place.

On April 22 Hassaan Basit former President and Chief Executive Officer at Conservation Halton will arrive at City Hall and serve as the City Manager. Hassaan started his career as an evolutionary biologist.

Add to that a new City Manager joining the city and you get a sense as to the environment staff are working within.

Initially, the Minister’s modifications to Regional Council approved Regional Official Plan Amendment 49 (ROPA 49) converted several employment areas, and added several new urban areas within the City of Burlington.

Next, legislation through Bill 150 was introduced to rescind almost all of the Minister’s modifications. Subsequently, in response to feedback from the Mayor, with Council support, the initial Minister’s modifications may soon be reinstated almost in their entirety if Bill 162 is passed in the Provincial legislature.

While the effect of Bill 162, if passed would automatically incorporate the physical changes to the Regional Official Plan it is important to note as recently set out in Region of Halton Staff report

… ROPA 49 as adopted by Regional Council in June 2022 directed growth to 2041 to the existing Regional Urban Boundary and identified a framework that would be used to plan for future growth between 2041 and 2051. The Minister’s November 2022 decision modified ROPA 49 to extend its growth strategy to 2051 and to revise the population and employment forecasts for each municipality. The Minister’s modifications related to the planning horizon and growth forecasts were rescinded through Bill 150, but are now proposed to be reinstated through Bill 162. The population and employment distribution to 2051 for Halton Region and the Local Municipalities in  the Regional Official Plan is as follows:

Upper Middle Road looking east towards Burloak is now land that becomes part of the planning domain.  A Ministerial order converted it from Employment to mixed use.

The City has determined it is critical and timely to initiate its own population and employment growth analysis, in advance of Royal Proclamation of Bill 23. In order to prepare this study best information is required to support this analysis, including determining the role and function of several new community areas including new urban areas.

The Local Growth Management Update will require best information and assumptions as inputs as it relates to the new areas, at a minimum the following issues must be considered:

• • • How will the newly converted employment areas and new urban areas fit within the City’s Urban Structure;
    • How will the newly converted employment areas and new urban areas bereflected in the Growth Framework in light of the City’s focus on growth within existing Strategic Growth Areas within the built boundary; and

• • • What the vision, role and function of the newly converted employment areas and new urban areas reflected through the creation of area-specific plans or policies for major growth areas.

The answers to these three questions will be assessed against:

1. 1. 1. Updated Regional and Provincial plans, policies and legislation,
      2. Burlington’s Strategic Plan and From Vision to Focus,
      3. Burlington Official Plan, 2020,
      4. Burlington’s Housing Strategy,
      5. Burlington’s Housing Pledge, and
      6. Other City objectives

The outcome of the work will be to determine how the City of Burlington will be planning to 2051 and beyond for:

• • • Employment, jobs and economic development,
    • New population growth,
    • The creation of diverse housing options and opportunities to welcome new residents to the City,
    • The development of these three key areas from all

Bound by Hwy 403 and the rail lines the land will change how Burlington relates to Hamilton. King Road is at the bottom of the photograph.

Some of the landowners noted above currently hold broad appeals to the Burlington Official Plan, 2020. A critical early priority of working with any of these landowners should be a request to scope appeals to the BOP, 2020 to site-specific appeal. This is an important request as staff have continuously noted that the wide-ranging broad appeals to the BOP, 2020 are impacting non-appellant landowners and developers from moving forward with the creation of new homes and new development. Staff believe this approach to be reasonable as the individual landowners retain their appeal, albeit at a site-specific level.

The three “future” areas have single owners, none have been considered in the Official Plan, other Master Plans or the City or Regional Development Charges and all have been supported by City Council to form part of the Region’s 2023 Allocation Program.

A partnership with the City, landowners and the public to guide the planning work for these areas presents an opportunity to demonstrate, in action, community responsive growth and the opportunity to create vibrant, mixed use, people-oriented communities.More broadly, new assumptions and new population and employment growth along with new policy directions will drive new considerations and requirements that will need to be captured in a whole range of other plans and strategies. As has been previously noted there will be additional costs related to updating critical local master plans and other key documents to appropriately plan for the whole range of local services (in addition to Regional Services). As with all new growth there will be long term costs as well as benefits related to new growth that will be considered in the coming years.

Rendering of some of the development ideas the Alinea Group had for their 1200 King Road property.

Other Resource Impacts
There are significant demands on staff time given critical deadlines, and other associated efforts underway or about to be initiated. Staff will continue to monitor staff and work plans and proactively identify means of addressing any gaps.There may be a need to supplement staff complement to continue to make progress on a wide range of issues.

By Pepper Par

April 13th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward told council in March that she needed time to think about the request Council members had made related to her Strong Mayor powers.  She took the time she needed, got the lay of the land and realized what she was up against and issued three orders that gave council much of what it wanted.

Councillor Angelo Bentivegna: Working through a very hard month.

Kudo’s to Councillor Angelo Bentivegna’s and his insistence that this whole business go to Council on April 16th.  The Gazette has no idea what members of Council will have to say – the Mayor has made public what she has done.  It all comes into effect on April 22nd when Hasaan Basit starts his new job as City Manager.

Councillor Kelvin Galbraith: The decisions the Mayor made get him out of the very uncomfortable position he found himself in. Doesn’t appear to have the kind of grit needed to perform at this level.

The decisions the Mayor made gets Councillor Galbraith off the hook – he was having an awkward time of it.  Now he can vote with the Mayor which takes away the majority the rebelling councillors had.

This is complex stuff, not something a parent trying to get the kids to the soccer pitch has time to think about.  They are nevertheless important decisions.

Earlier in the week members of city Council made the Mayor’s day a very uncomfortable one.  She wanted Council to support her decision to hold a Speakers event that she said was not going to cost the tax payers a dime.   Council members asked how much time would the Mayor’s Staff, paid for the tax payers, be used to get the Speakers event underway?

It should have been a humbling experience for the Mayor but she isn’t paying all that much attention to how a majority of the Council feel these days.  More on that in a seperate news story.

The decisions Mayor Meed Ward announced are:

# 1 Mayor Meed Ward delegated the following duties to the Chief Administrative Officer:

Determine the organizational structure of city hall Staff.
This Mayoral Decision comes into effect on April 22, 2024.

# 2  As Mayor and Head of Council I hereby delegate the following duty to the City Manager/Chief Administrative Officer:

 to hire, dismiss, or exercise any other prescribed employments powers with respect to the head of any division or the head of any other part of the organizational structure.

This Mayoral Decision comes into effect on April 22, 2024.

The following positions, relevant to the City of Burlington, are excluded:

1. the clerk or deputy clerk
2. a treasurer or deputy treasurer
3. an Integrity Commissioner
4. an Ombudsman
5. an Auditor General
6. a registrar for lobbying matters, as described in section 223.11 of the Act
7. a chief building official, as defined in the Building Code Act, 1992
8. a fire chief, as defined in the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997
9. other officers or heads of divisions required to be appointed under the Municipal Act, 2001, the City of Toronto Act, 2006, or any other Act
10. any other persons identified in regulation

# 3
The delegation of decisions regarding existing committees
I hereby delegate the following duties to Council related to existing committees:

1. Establish or dissolve committees
2. Appoint chairs and vice-chairs of committees
3. Assign functions to committees.

This delegation is subject to the following guidance in accordance with the Municipal Act.

1. That any recommended change to chairs/vice-chairs be discussed first with the existing chair/vice-chair, and is subject to their agreement regarding the change, subject to Guidance section 2 below; and
2. That any finding or recommendations arising from an Integrity Commissioner (IC) investigation of a violation of the Council Code of Good Governance overrides Guidance section 1, and would be dealt with in the normal course of Council dealing with an IC report and recommendation;
Decision Number: 07-2024
3. That any establishment or dissolution of existing committees or change to their functions require a reconsideration vote of 2/3 majority prior to tabling the item, per our procedure bylaw for reconsideration of Council decisions.

Decision regarding new committees
Council may wish to create new committees for the balance of this term.

I hereby delegate the following duties to Council related to establishing new committees:

1. Establish or dissolve committees
2. Appoint chairs and vice-chairs of committees
3. Assign functions to committees.

This delegation is subject to the following guidance prior to proposing a new committee in accordance with the Municipal Act.

1. That the City Manager/CAO confirm capacity exists among staff to support any new committee; and
2. That should capacity not exist for a new standing committee of Council, the City Manager/CAO has the option to suggest alternatives to achieve the objectives of the proposed committee(s).

This Mayoral Decision comes into effect on April 22, 2024.

Mayor is pressed by Councillors as to when she will respond to their request that she relinquish some of her Strong Mayor Powers

Full details on the decisions Mayor Meed Ward made that delegated various authorities to the City Manager and Council.

By Pepper Parr

April 13^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

Burlington seems to have a pattern when it comes to electing their City Council.

They elect a council that has more than half as first term Councillors.  When it is time to re-elect four years later – the citizens tend to re-elect all of them.  When that second term ends – the boot out a majority.

Is this what we might be looking at in 2026?

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward speaking at a public event.

We know this – the Mayor is in trouble – but she has close to two years to recover and she will need every month of it if she is to continue to wear the chain of office.

Four of the current council members are at least eyeing the Office of Mayor.  Both Stolte and Galbraith have talked openly about liking the idea of being the next Mayor.

We will talk about the merits of each at some other point.

Right now the question we have is – where do new candidates come from?

Is the city at the point where a group of people – six to eight would be an optimum size, gather and begin the search for new candidates.  They would not be running for office – but they would be tapping people on the shoulder and asking if they might be interested in running for office.

For some reason people wait until about 10 months before an election to begin to create a public profile; look for ways to let the public know who they are and what they think city council should be doing.

Municipal politics doesn’t run on political party lines.

Municipal budgets are much different than the budget process used in the corporate sector. Very few people fully understand the procedures; as a result there is no one to critique how the city is spending the money raised through taxes. The example from 2018.

Municipal government is complex – they are creating policy for a $500 million corporation that doesn’t follow the financial pattern of a corporation in the private sector.

Voters are not shareholders – every question has to be answered and every complaint responded to – quickly.

Municipalities cannot have a loss – they create reserve funds that are in place to cover those situations where the budgeted amount doesn’t cover the actual costs.

They do not a Profit/Loss statement nor is there a balance sheet.   The budget document in the past ten years has run in excess of 700 pages.

Probably the best candidate for public office at the municipal level would be someone at least 50 – that was an upper level manager – better yet a director who has come to realize that he or she is not going to be made a partner in a profession – legal, accounting.

They want something that is a little slower where the focus can be on serving people and not on being riveted to constant demands to increase revenue.

There are times when the demand is heavy but it isn’t heavy all the time.  Lots of time for family, six weeks off during the summer.  Great benefits and if you run for three terms you leave the scene with a 12 year pension that is very comfortable.

You want to learn to be able to give your constituents a polite no – I can’t do that, I don’t want to do that.

Photo ops are the most cost effective way to get your name before the public and unfortunately those people who do bother to cast a ballot settle for a name and picture they have seen again and again.

The public would, we believe, want to hear from people who have ideas, experience and a desire to engage with the public.

Photo ops are the biggest tool used by members of Council. It is an opportunity to put their best foot forward. On this occasion Burlington is being awarded by the United Way Hamilton Halton.

This kind of person is out there.

Someone has to do the asking around.

It is a little like a congregation that is looking for a new pastor or minister.  They advertise – the city doesn’t do that – nor should they.  Finding the people that are interested in running for office is a citizen responsibility – city hall has to butt out and let the citizens work it out.

Burlington has to learn to take responsibility for who runs for office.

That process should have started by now.

By Pepper Parr

April 12^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

A little celebration and a deserved pat on the back for the people who take care of all that code in our Press Room.

The problem was in there some where.

For the past four to five weeks advertisements that we knew nothing about; advertisements that didn’t produce any revenue for us and advertisements that were so out of character with what we publish each day – were popping up.

It took weeks of scrubbing code, checking the various plug ins we use to determine who the ads were coming from – and why were they ending up in the pages of our newspaper.

Earlier today the miscreant was identified and sent to the place in the sky where bad code goes.

There were complaints – more than one and they were justified.  It took far longer than we expected to determine where the problem was and how it came to be.

That experience is behind us.

Your patience was appreciated

By Pepper Parr

April 12^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

The Mayor has had a busy past 30 days – and the hecticness is not over yet.

Hassaan Basit starts his new job on the 22nd. He is far from an unknown entity.

Comment has to be made on the claim that the new City Manager who moves into his office on the 22^nd is the Mayor’s Sock Puppet.  People who make that kind of comment haven’t done their homework

The much anticipated April 16^th Council meeting at which the Mayor committed to telling her colleagues what she would do in terms of sharing her Strong Mayor powers  may not be as exciting as many expected.  She set all that out in an Open Letter to Council members on Thursday.  One does wonder if the Mayor actually speaks to her colleagues on a one-one one basis.

Some comment has to be made on the toxic environment that front desk people have to work within. The reports are more than disturbing – this kind of rot tends to start at the top.

And, with all the political infighting one has to ask: What kind of a council will the citizens elected in 2026?  How many of the current Council members will choose to challenge Meed Ward?

All this will be in the Gazette – some today – more tomorrow.

By Pepper Parr

April 10th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

Mayor Meed Ward had several opportunities to speak to City Council when they met for most of Monday and Tuesday of this week.

She appears to have taken a pass on that opportunity and decided instead to write an Open Letter.

It is all there, for you to read.  Nothing has changed, but that is an opinion you should reach on your own. The complete OPEN LETTER can be reached HERE

The question we have for the Mayor is:

Have you met individually and personally with the four members of Council that are, to date, rock hard in their view that they want you to relinquish some of the Strong Mayor powers you hold. In the news letters that members of Council send out none, other than ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns, have made public comments on what you have done.

In your Open letter you point out that:

Of the 44 municipalities that have received the additional powers and duties under the legislation, 12 Mayors delegated all duties that could be delegated, 16 delegated none of the duties, and 16 delegated some of them.

I read that information, that you made public, to mean that most municipalities have shared the Strong Mayor powers.

Your colleagues are waiting to hear what you have to say at the scheduled April 16th meeting of City Council.

Use the word “reset”.  I can hardly wait to learn just what you mean by that.

That you chose to send the Open Letter suggests you are feeling the heat.

I see that as a good sign.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.

By Pepper Parr

April 10^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

During the two day Council meeting Chris Kroes, Manager, Health, Safety & Wellness reported on Employee Health, Safety and Wellness.  Not much in the way of good news in the document.

Disturbing was the number of public to staff harassment complaints.

There were 58 such reports in 2023 – that’s more than 1 a week.  Of the 58 – 17 required a staff member being away from work.  The 17 lost time incidents in 2023; was up from 10 in 2022

The city is a self-insured employer. What this means is the city does not pay insurance premiums but rather pays for all injury and illness costs plus a WSIB administration fee to administer the claims.

Based on some feedback from senior leaders the City introduced a mechanism for senior leaders to be notified if a WSIB incident occurs in their service area. This allows them to be aware of it and to inquire with their groups. We’ve enhanced our corrective action process for better tracking, trending and ultimately to ensure completion of those corrective actions to ensure that we prevent re-occurrence.

Chris Kroes was reporting on the 2023 Human Resources report said:

“It is important for City Council to have an awareness of Employee Health, Safety and Wellness matters.

“In recent years, we’ve been tracking incidents of harassment and violence more closely. We have successfully increased reporting and follow up on these incidents; this supports compliance with the Occupational Safety Act.

A “citizen” getting something off his chest at a public meeting. Former Mayor Rick Goldring and a now retired staff member Vito had put up with it.

“In 2023, there were 58 incidents reported: a note – this is public to staff interactions and does not include staff to staff cases, that’s handled separately and not tracked here.”

City Manager Tim Commisso later added that 17 of the 58 became lost time incidents.

A general review of the data suggests that around 79% are categorized as harassment in nature, and the majority are verbal interactions. 24% of incidents involve some form of violence.

Kroes continues: “The work done by the legal and clerk’s departments on new public conduct policy has also provided for consistency in dealing with misconduct. It should be noted that management of corporate security has been identified as a resource gap city wide and we are looking to make improvements in this area to ensure risks are adequately mitigated to keep staff and the public safe and secure.

Chair Nisan:  Thank you, Chris for your diligent work keeping us safe. Mayor Mead Ward has a question.

Mayor Meed Ward:  ”I’m very concerned and startled by that number of 58.  I want to clarify that number and follow up

Chris:  “Yes, these are members of public to the staff. That’s the interaction types. We do have a relatively low threshold of reporting, which is which is by it that’s done intentionally and it’s based on our customer service guidelines. Those incidents are members of the public to city staff and there was 58 of those reported.”

Mayor: Can you give us an indication are these and some with violence, which is really terrifying and my heart goes out to anyone who’s experienced that it’s completely unacceptable. So are some of these online harassment or would all of this be? I mean is some of it email? Is it verbal? Or a mix?

Chris: It includes any type of interaction that sort of falls within the customer service guidelines would generally say level two or level two or level three of the customer service guidelines.

Staff who work behind the counters at City Hall are the front line people that are experiencing rising levels of personal abuse.

So those interactions could be in person they could be over the phone that could be via email, just incidents that are conduct that’s harassing in nature. And again, it’s a relatively low reporting threshold and not all of them may actually meet that strict definition in the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

But they are reporting and we are ensuring that there’s adequate follow up and that our eyes are on it from health, safety and wellness as well, to make sure those employees are supported through that interaction.

I will point out that we also focus on how the employee feels after that interaction. So it you know, someone may not have intended something but as we know that that’s not always how it’s received by staff. So again, it’s our primary focus is to look at how they’re feeling and ensuring they’re supported after those incidents.

City Manager Tim Commisso: This is the fourth year we’ve reported out on our safety.  I’m really trying to come to grips with this. I do want to thank Council though, over the last five years for adding more human resources particularly around safety and wellness.

Relative to the number of interactions we have given the work we do every day this is still relatively low, but we will strive to keep that lower. This year, we didn’t do an update on staff turnover. We still have a relatively low turnover level across the organization. And in our management team, our objective is 5% and I’m just waiting to hear back on those numbers.

Mayor Meed Ward: “”I’m very concerned and startled by that number of 58.”

Mayor:  With respect to our front line staff customer facing who may be facing some of us harassment that showed up on the last slide. Do you think there may be more measures that we could take to mitigate reduce that are there some practical steps that you would be able to look into to bring back to us that we might be able to endorse to ensure that we provide excellent customer service, but that we protect our staff at the same time?

Chris:  I think there’s I think it’s a multifaceted approach and it’s based on an assessment of each individual work area, customer facing work area to make sure that they have the training they need in terms of being able to de-escalate and, and sort of, you know, mitigate those interactions from going you know, to a point where it poses a hazard.

Also looking at the customer service counters and making sure that they’re adequately secured and there’s places that people can go to sort of as a as a shelter area so they can get away as needed, obviously there’s emergency protocols like lockdown, hold insecure procedures that we’re looking at improving and enhancing. Ultimately security as a whole and workplace violence risk assessments as a whole.

There’s a lot of work we still need to do and ultimately, there may be some things that we need down the road that we identify and those assessments.  I don’t want to I don’t want to list those out now before we before we get to doing a comprehensive assessment but definitely need to take a closer look and making sure that we’re assessing and controlling these workplace violence risks.

Mayor: Do you have any, do you have an idea how often a like a front line staff would be getting on the on the receipt of bad language for example, or you know, excessive negativity? Do you ever do a line on that? Because of these are not all not all those will be reported obviously.

Chris: This is why we we’ve introduced a very low threshold for reporting. So when interactions are happening that are inappropriate and aggressive and you know, swearing and yelling and that sort of thing.

Chris: We’re definitely encouraging those to be reported and it’s very clear that those need to be reported in our policies and procedures. I would say that, that the lion’s share or the or the majority of the 58, there would be those types of interactions. That would be the majority of it. So it’s verbal interactions that are yelling, swearing, unfortunately, sometimes somewhat threatening. That’s, I would say the majority of the 58 would be would be the yelling and the swearing and that sort of thing.

Mayor: I’m curious around what are processes for reporting. So what you know, somebody feels they’ve been harassed in any way. Whether it meets the OSA definition or not, is there a portal do they come talk to you do they talk to their supervisor what’s what do we tell folks to do or invite them to do if they experience this?

Chris: There is a reporting protocol. It’s handled the same way as any workplace incident, whether it’s a hazard or an injury, incident with injury; our direction has been to report it the same way

It goes to the supervisor first. Again, the supervisor looks at the customer service guidelines and sees you know if the interaction is within those different categories, and then ultimately, there’s an online portal that we have for all incident reports and that the supervisor will log into that portal. They will submit information and particulars about the incident they’ll do a preliminary investigation so that they can report it. That report once they hit submit the entire health safety and wellness team is alerted that something has occurred. And then we have safety advisors that will follow up with the supervisor and dig into it more. Depending on the severity and ensuring controls are placed in place to prevent it. If it if it does, if the activity or the conduct does potentially fall into misconduct as defined under the Public conduct policy, then it’s up to the supervisor and again they consult with us as well to refer for review under the misconduct as misconduct under the Public conduct policy. So that’s sort of the after the initial reporting is done and review is done.

Then there’s a there’s a decision on whether it needs to be reviewed as misconduct under the Public conduct policy and that’s a separate process, as you know, where that gets reviewed by either a director or a committee depending on the department and then steps are taken as a result of that review if needed.

Mayor: Okay, so I’m just thinking about how we because you talked about under reporting, and that notwithstanding some of these might not reach the threshold of what the statute says is harassment.

Nevertheless, they create a very toxic, fearful, degraded environment for people to work in.

You’re asking people to report right so how do we encourage people if you know they’ve got something that is just making them feel threatened, making them feel degraded as an individual? You know, we’ve all seen the we’ve all gotten emails like that personally, our staff certainly have – they take it on the chin more than anyone in terms of very derogatory personal comments, etc. and so forth. So maybe not an  WSIB payable offence, but certainly not a nice way to start your day. So how can we support people to still come forward with those things?

Chris: That’s why we’ve ensured that it’s a low threshold  – so essentially, you know, if you feel uncomfortable if someone was aggressive if someone was yelling someone who was swearing let your supervisor know that’s the first step.

That would would trigger the next steps. We regularly talk about this in safety talks. To say okay, here’s our respect in the workplace policy. Here’s our customer service guidelines. Here’s our incident reporting guidelines. We and supervisors are essentially reminding staff fairly regularly, you know, that if these interactions happen, you need to let me know as a supervisor, and then so I can make sure that’s looked after

So, Mayor, in terms of seeing the numbers increase over the years. I do you believe we’re being effective in encouraging that that reporting and ensuring psychological safety on the part of the staff member to feel comfortable escalating that to a supervisor. I think I think we’re definitely making some progress there. And I’m optimistic that we’re definitely heading in the right direction there.

Councillor Rory Nisan, Chair of the Committee that heard the Wellness report.

Chair Nisan:  Mayor, would you like to move the report?  Do you have any comments?

Mayor: I do. Thank you, Chris for all of your work on this. It ultimately does land on our table as the council as the directors of the corporation. That’s a very significant duty and responsibility on our shoulders to ensure a respectful safe harassment free workplace wherever that harassment is coming from.

And I you know, wheels are turning in my mind around how I can support my own team, because we get this a lot. I say to folks, we’re public servants. We’re not public Punching. Bags. We’re not here for others sport and amusement. We’re here to do a job and serve and that needs to be done in a respectful environment. We all deserve that. The good news is  I read this report and the previous one together. We don’t have any trouble attracting people to come and work for us. So it’s great to see the positions that we funded in the last budget, getting filled and people really wanting to join our team and when they put their trust and faith in us and they come to work for us, and as Tim said, we have a fairly low turnover rate, but we’ll get those numbers. People want to be here and we want to make sure that it’s safe and enjoyable for them to be here and to stay and that they know that we’ve got their back.

Chair Nisan: Thank you, Mayor. I don’t see any other comments I’ll just add my own. I am concerned that it is far more common than the reporting so that the numbers in the report indicating an increase doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s going on on the ground. So maybe you and I can take it offline with the responsible Executive Director as well and talk further about that. I witnessed harassment City Hall, myself late last week.

And it appears to me to be a very common occurrence. So that’s my concern – that there may be an ongoing and an increase in the culture of harassment of a small minority of residents who are not being respectful of people who are here to serve them. I look forward to talking more about the issue and how we can root it out.

With that. I don’t see any other comments. I will call the vote all those in favour. Any opposed?

That item is carried.