2026 Community Services and Social Grants – Amendment Champlain Heights

Yeah, I'd like to second, Mayor. Great. Councillor Kirby Young.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. Speaking to the amendment, I think it's problematic on a number of levels. And I'll preface my comments by saying that, yes, we all support it in the Champlain Heights Forest Trail Network. And in fact, on the report that council's considering later today with respects to prioritizing work on council motions, that is identified as a priority and work that's continuing on that. So I think there's more to come there. I think, first of all, and, you know, Council Friar and I have sat on council together for two terms now and have often heard from speakers that sometimes folks are disappointed they haven't received a grant. And we know that in order to make changes on the fly, we're, first of all, I don't think giving sort of full weight to the process that staff undertake. There's an adjudication process that often happens. Staff can confirm with this one. If that's the case, and I'm getting nods that we bring in sort of sector-specific adjudicators that provide an additional level of insight and oversight with respect to ensuring people meet grant criteria. There are some organizations in here that I think are more worthy than others. There's some that I wouldn't fund. There's some that I think should get more. If we start adjudicating each one, I think it's a dangerous precedent, and I have not seen us really do this before. I also think the language in this amendment is problematic. It's not suggesting that they be redirected towards an environmental stream. It's not suggesting a source of funding. The language it says here directs the department to award a grant. What type of grant? coming from where uh which stream so i i think that from a governance perspective while i'm very empathetic i think that the big win uh for free the fern and their incredible advocacy was the fact that there is a deep commitment uh with that was unanimous by council support the forest trail network and i'm looking forward to seeing some of that information that comes forward there's other opportunities there's things like we've got a graffiti report here around cleanup programs there's all sorts of other initiatives i think that council or staff i should say really do pay attention to the dialogue around the table here and can take that away and have a conversation with free the ferns and look at potentially options and things and ways to direct them perhaps they can work and do something in terms of a community engagement with the park board you know that would be another avenue is to look at doing sort of community initiatives and cleanups perhaps there's a park board opportunity there because really a lot of the trail network and around in and around so the Champlain Heights here in the community center does overlap sort of with park board jurisdiction so I just think that this is not the most strategic I can use that term approach and how to how to sort of direct it I think it's reactionary to perhaps well-intentioned but I think it opens up a number of issues and if we're going to start adjudicating them then I think we could get into a whole lot of how do we justify this versus another speaker that we heard from for example I just think they're so it opens up a whole number of issues and concerns so I'm not going to support this the way this is framed thank you counselor dominato

Thanks, Mayor. Through you, I have a question to staff, and then I have a question to the mover of the amendment. To staff, could you clarify that with this amendment that it would require two-thirds council support being a proposed grant? Can you just confirm that?

Okay, so two-thirds is required. Okay, thank you. And then to the mover of the amendment, Councillor Frey, could you just comment on, based on your conversations with Free the Firm, what the $30,000 grant would be used towards?

Good question. I cannot clarify.

Good question. I can't specifically quantify what the 30,000, that was just the number that they had brought forward. I will say that the conversation that they related to me was that staff were unaware of council's support of the motion at the time of their conversation just on the weekend. Prior to the weekend, the staff directly involved in the grant process were unaware of the council's unanimous support for the original motion to support this work, so there may have been a communication breakdown.

Okay, thank you, Councillor Frey. And then, Mayor, one more question through you to Councillor Zhou. Councillor Zhou, you seem to be indicating that you had an answer to my question around what the intended use of the $30,000 would be. Could you comment on that?

Yes, I can quickly comment on that. We had a meeting with Grace. I asked Grace to send me a breakdown of all the grants they requested with other details there. They actually request $50,000, so including $34,000 for a part-time staff members. The rest will be all about supplies, plants, soil, and some workshop hosting, accessibility, and some knowledge sharing. And also there's some equipment, some other supplies as well. So that's the breakdown. They were asking actually even more. And this amendment is only providing $30,000.

So it's a portion of what they requested for part-time staff to help with manage the trail network.

Yes, that's right. And I did participate in one of their events with Councillor Maloney. I think they were able to bring a lot of community members together to support that Champlain Trail. It's a very good community engagement organization as well.

Okay, thank you. And thank you, Mayor, that's all my questions.

Thank you.

Before we go to the next councillor, just looking at the time, does someone want to move a motion to extend to complete the business of this item? Councillor Domonato, seconded by Councillor Meiszner. Any conversation? Okay. All in favour say yay. All opposed say nay. Great. We will finish item number five. Thank you very much, Councillor Maloney.

I had a question through you to staff. Is the Free the Fern area in Park Board jurisdiction or not?

Because I'm just referring to the comments by Councillor Kirby-Young that it might be better placed to explore funding through the park board, but how would that work?

Yeah, maybe Councillor Kirby Young could make another comment about this. I'll jump off.

Thank you. Councillor Jewell.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor. So also quickly comment that my understanding is the Champlain Head Trail is within engineering department's jurisdiction. So all engineering department within the city, they does all the regular maintenance work for that trail. It's not under park board's jurisdiction. So that was the reason why that motion passed in the fall last year to ask explore considerations for our permanent park destinations. That's why, you know, I think the organization reached out to the park board, but they said it's not within their jurisdiction. So they have to receive some support from other departments within the city. So just want to clarify that. Thanks, Mayor.

Thank you. Councillor Kirby Young.

Yeah, my comment, and I recognize the jurisdiction, is that the park board has done different cleanup initiatives, for example, such as in Everett Crowley Park, in and around, working with different resident groups in the neighborhood. So not knowing, since council doesn't have fulsome information in front of us, what they wanted the funding for, we're just hearing anecdotally from The council are proposing the amendment and from another council who have had a meeting. And I know that a lot of the efforts are around cleanup. Now we're hearing it's for staff. A lot of this is third-hand. I'll say this is very unorthodox because council are suggesting we're going on sort of anecdotal information from two councils that they want to hire staff to do it. I was operating off of some of the work that we've heard from my comment was made that Free the Ferns has done in terms of doing other work and having volunteer events and cleanups and knowing that the park board's done some in and around the area in Champlain Heights and Everett Crowley. But I think the fact that we're having this discussion actually highlights the nature of this issue. I just think that this is very poor governance. I think that Free the Ferns is an admirable organization. organization I don't think this is a way to do it and I think the staff can have follow-up conversations with them about opportunities hearing this robust conversation without $30,000 for something we're not sure what it's for and if it would make sense and that's the best bang for the buck to hire a part-time coordinator versus other things I don't know at this point because I don't have the information and I just think that this is a this is a I think it's very it's poor governance and I think if I was another grant applicant thinking I would just come and sign up to speak to council and hope that a councillor is going to put an amendment down and it invalidates our granting process in the the external third party adjudication that we do thank you thank you very much Councillor Maloney um I am very appreciative of both the amendment and the the concerns raised um by Councillor Kirby-Young can I ask another question um of staff

And I'm sorry, we've got a lot on today and I apologise if you've already explained this. But can you just talk to me again about near-term opportunities for us to provide this financial support to make sure that the work of Free the Fern can continue given that we all want it to?

Is that all? Yep. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Okay. Seeing no one else in the queue, we can put Councillor Fry's amendment to a vote.

And that fails with myself, Councillor Kirby-Young, Councillor Montague, and Councillor Klassen in opposition.

Okay, I stand corrected. That passes with myself, Councillor Kirby-Young, Councillor Montague, and Councillor Klassen in opposition. Okay. So we will go back. Thank you very much. We will go back to main report. Seeing no one in the queue. Oh, Councillor Fry, did you have any other comments?