Electric Ferry Amendment to Amendment (Add June 30 Deadline)

Yeah, thank you. I mean... I think it's important just to hear from staff. I appreciate Council Dominato's timeline. Interestingly enough, put forward an amendment that I haven't had a chance to move that states a timeline of July 15th. And if unable to meet the timeline, approval will be granted to proceed with the agreement without further council approval. We are in an election year, of course. In October, there will be a blackout period of any decisions of council until after the election. Whatever happens, then there's a budget likely this would not come back until Q1 of next year, which, as I say, I think puts enormous risk on this project. I also have a concern about sort of manufactured timelines, if you will, that are going to accelerate agreements and. and not provide staff the time needed for their due diligence uh legally and otherwise so i wonder if there is uh an opportunity for just a quick legal opinion through the city manager through you chair as a point of information as to whether or not um this timeline works as put forward by council donato in which case if it does i'm happy to support it um and more so for the legal due diligence um in negotiating these agreements i know that they do take some time

So city manager. Thank you. Thank you to the council members.

Realizing the June 30th date, I believe the last and I'm just getting the deputy city manager looking up our last date in June. That timeline might be a little tight. I certainly think council has been very clear that it needs to come back no later than July, but there's no council meetings. I'm just looking at the last one that may exist. I think it's mid-June. So the mid-July date would, in fact, be better just in terms of timing. I will say in practice, just... not via motion, but in practice, if for some reason there were unforeseen circumstances that arose throughout this process, staff would certainly be bringing back an update to council no later than July anyways to probably seek the same sort of assurances that, I see there's two amendments that have been proposed, but if there was unforeseen circumstances, we'd probably seek a similar arrangement to the one that we've just requested as part of the recommendation. I don't know if I've been direct or clear, but we would probably, if something forbid us from getting the terms of reference, sorry, the deal done, we would come back to council in July regardless.

Okay. Well, okay. Well, so yeah, I'm not going to support it only because I think the timeline is too short for it to be as I think helpful as was intended by council dominato. So I do appreciate the intent for sure. I'm not going to support it. And I think it just speaks to the role that we have as council. We've endorsed the proposal. We've endorsed the idea, micromanaging the agreement between the two parties, city of Vancouver, that we, sort of delegate negotiating authority to our very competent city staff that worked through the park board already. And now we've just basically at that finish line, I think what it does is it really tells the proponents and their investors that we're serious about not standing in the way of this project. And, you know, we all sit in, in our realities, but the reality out there is that these are very, you know, difficult times and investments and, and, projects like this can feel, can be jeopardized by just a delay of three months without the certainty. Approving this report without any amendments today both protects the city and also protects the project and provides certainty that come July, there wouldn't be some change of heart or some change of direction, which happens not just at our council, but just happens generally. So yeah, I'm not gonna support amendments i think we should just approve the um i think we should just approve uh the proposal is put forward as i say i think i just really have not heard any sound rationale as to why this is needed okay thanks counselor so seeing no one else on the queue

Seconded by Councillor Klassen. Yeah.

Chair, can I please get a vote of system paper, please?