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Updates from Councillor Hill on City Hall meetings and policy
February, 14, 2025
A lot happening this week! And a lot of it transit related! While the original focus of Audit Committee on Monday was on several Waste and Fraud Hotline reports, a last minute walk-on audit of the Trillium Line Training Program quickly took all the attention. You can watch my intervention here. The report really reinforced my passion for strengthening our regulatory regime for the LRT. While I am glad that GM Amilcar confirmed that the Trillium line is operating safely, and has been doing so since it first opened, it is frustrating that we are still running into regulatory issues years after concerns were first raised. Needless to say, I will stay on top of this file and have more to say in the weeks and months to come.
The public component of Council this week was fairly short and to the point, but we made up for that with several hours of in camera briefings on a variety of files. As I mentioned in my opening, I had a lot to say about Jeff Leiper’s motion accelerating the Zoning Bylaw review for Shelter locations. As staff confirmed, group homes like Matthew House (1-10 people in transitional housing often operating out of residential units) are not effected by this motion. Which is strange considering making it easier for Matthew House to operate (a program I very much support) was the primary justification for the motion.
At the end of the day this vote for me came down to public consultation. There’s no reason to take shelters out of the process every other file in the zoning bylaw review is going through. What’s worse is that doing so limits the public’s ability to have their voices heard on a controversial topic. You can watch the full debate here
Transit Committee (still getting used to the new name, but at least it’s not PWIC!) on Thursday was a lighter agenda, but we had an opportunity to get an update on a wide variety of topics as part of the monthly OC Transpo update presentation. You can watch my intervention here where I asked staff for an update on how the New Ways to Bus will impact route 75 and those using Fallowfield to connect to Tunney’s Pasture.
Looking Ahead:
Next week two committee’s I sit on are meeting. Environment and Climate Change committee on Tuesday will include an interesting debate on municipal building retrofits (agenda here) and at Emergency Preparedness and Protective Services on Thursday, I will speak to my inquiry on Illegal Dumping (agenda here).