Daytime drop-in funding and intimate partner violence epidemic

All right. Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call the meeting to order. It's just after 06:00. It's Tuesday, November 28, 2023. Welcome. To our Council meeting, and right off the top. We are. Looking to move into a closed session of Council as described on the Open agenda. It is titled November 2023 Public Appointments to Advisory Committees of Council and Local Boards. It's under section 2392. B. Of the Municipal Act relating to personal matters about unidentifiable individual, including municipal or local Board employees. And I'll just ask before I call the vote on that. Is there any disclosure or pecuniary interest, or any general nature thereof for that item before we go into closed. Hearing. And seeing. None. Is there a motion to go into closed for me. Councilor caller will do that. Councilor clausen will second. And is there anyone against that. Hearing and seeing none that's unanimous. So we're going to have a closing

account. So you don't have to go anywhere. We're going to leave. We'll have a quick meeting, and then we're going to come back. And then we'll continue that I might say this a couple of times throughout the evening, if for any reason there's someone here originally thinking that. Encampments and the bylaw issue is going to be on the agenda tonight. Just want to make sure that everyone in attendance knows that's not on the agenda tonight. So just. I just wanted to make sure I said that out loud. That's been withdrawn. With that, we'll move into closed session and take care of this item. We'll be right back. Thank you.

Okay. I'll just call the meeting back to order here. We did just move into closed session. It was under section 2392 B of the Municipal Act. Related to personal matters about. Identifiable individual, including municipal or local board employees under the title November 2023 public appointments to advisory committees of Council and local boards. So we had a discussion about that topic in camera, and we are here now to rise and report what that discussion was by a motion in the public session. And so I like to ask. Councilor down to bring that forward for us. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So I'd like to bring forward the motion. I put it on the floor. There's a seconder, and then I'll read it. Council. That City Council Rising report and introduce the following motion as part of the open meeting. And that's where we are titled November 2023 Public Appointments to Advisory Committees of Council and Local Boards appearing on the November 28, 2023 City Council Agenda Number One, that Anne balaban be appointed to the Committee of Adjustment for a term ending nove. November. 2026 or

until such time as a successor is appointed, that Alex Zantow be appointed to the Elliott Community Board of Trustees for a three year term effective December 1, 2023, and ending in November 2026. Until such time as a successor is appointed, number three, that Peter Barrow. Be appointed to the elliot Community Board of Trustees for a three year term ending in November 2026, or until such time as his successor is appointed. Number four that Lisa wooley be appointed to the elliot Community Board of Trustees for a one year term ending November 2024 until such. Time or until such time as the successor is appointed. Great, thank you, Council. So anything further on that. If not, I'll call the vote. Is anyone against those appointments. Seeing and hearing none that's unanimous. So thank you very much. And I'll consider that matter. Closed. And what we're going to do now everybody is our open meeting doesn't start till 630. So we got a 15 minutes kind of window. And right now a little bit of a break until we officially start. At 630. So we'll see you back

here in 15 minutes. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Good evening. Everybody like to call the meeting to order the open session. It is Tuesday, November. The 28th 2023, 630. And welcome to everyone. Council and staff. And our citizens and residents. And thank you very much for joining us. I would like to just ask if you're able. We're going to just recognize. Our National Anthem to start the meeting off. Thank you.

Great, thank you and just take a moment for silent reflection before we continue on.

Thank you for our Indigenous territorial acknowledgment. As we gather, let us take time to reflect on the privilege it is to live and work in wealth. The city that has been built over rich Indigenous histories. We're guests here. And we should reflect upon the responsibility to care for this land and the people who live here today and the generations to come. If our actions today can move us towards reconciliation, we should take pause and make those decisions with intention and gratitude. This place we call guelph, has served as traditional lands in a place of refuge for many Peoples over time, but more specifically the Ennuandrock and the holden Ashony. This land is held as the Treaty land. Lands and territory with the Mississaugas of the Credit. First Nation and guelph lies directly adjacent to the Hollandman Track and is part of the long established traditional hunting grounds for the Six Nations of the Grand River. Many First Nations anyway, May T Peoples who have come from across turtle island called guelph home today. With that, is there any disclosure of pecuniary interest, or any general nature thereof, for the items in front of us tonight. Don't hear or see any so consider that matter closed

starting off tonight we do have some awards that we are thrilled to recognize. Right off the top, we have some annual awards for the guelph Barrier Free. The Access Recognition Awards. This is always a really good time for us to recognize people that have made some outstanding contributions. To guelph being more barrier free for all the reasons that it should be so with that, I have the honor of being able to come down and hand everyone awards here. But our city clerk is going to read out their individuals names and recognitions, and we'll get going with that right away.

Thank you so much, Mr. Mayor. I'll begin. The first award is presented to waterloo Wellington aphasia program. The award recognizes the group as an outstanding contribution of a business. The recognition message on the award reads, in recognition of your outstanding work to raise awareness about Aphas. Aphasia through a town hall meeting with the Mayor and hosting a flag raising ceremony at guelph City Hall. The award recognizes the waterloo Wellington Regional Aphasia Program, a community based program managed through St. Joseph's Health Center in guelph. Aphasia is a language problem, often caused by stroke or brain injury. Aphasia can significantly affect conversational. Interactions, talking and understanding as well as reading and writing. This year, the aphasia Program celebrated their 10th year of operation. The aphasia Program participants and care partners are being presented with this award because they went above and beyond to raise awareness about aphasia and strengthen connections with the community through two initiatives, a first ever AP. Aphasia Town Hall Meeting was held with Mayor Cam guthrie and City Accessibility staff to discuss the barriers faced by individuals with aphasia in the community. This event was a collaborative effort between the aphasia program and

city staff, emphasizing the importance of working together to address these challenges. The program participants and their care partners spoke about the barriers they face. In everyday settings, in the community. Following the town hall, the Mayor, with participants. Expressed feelings of empowerment and being heard by a public official, something that they did not think was possible because of their Aphasia. They also expressed that the meeting boosted their self confidence in continuing to advocate for change within their communities. The second initiative was a public flag raising and ceremony during Aphasia Awareness Month. In June, the Aphasia program members raised the aphasia. Flag at guelph City Hall for the first time, this symbolic gesture served as a visible reminder of the importance of aphasia awareness and support. Thank you.

So much.

The next award is presented to the guelph Enabling Garden Board of Directors. The award recognizes them for their outstanding contribution of a business. The recognition message on the award reads as follows in recognition of your outstanding work to create an improved, inclusive and safe environment to host programming in the garden. The award recognizes the guelph Enabling Garden, a garden where all are welcome and is located within riverside park. The garden hosts many horticultural therapy workshops and. Regular events such as the Friday Morning Tea and tails Summer Series. Safe and inclusive seating during these are these well attended events has become a challenge in recent years. The guelph Enabling Garden Board of Directors is being presented with this award because they prioritized accessibility and worked to remove barriers to participation. The Board carries out the garden's man. Mandate to provide the opportunity for the entire community to share in the joy of gardening with people of all abilities. The Board of Directors made the decision to replace the older plastic chairs with safer, stackable, medical grade bariatric chairs. This led to the Board writing grant applications for funding. These bariatric chairs were purchased. Thanks. To the

generosity of a shared grant from rotary Club of guelph, trillium's annual rib fest fundraiser and Service Canada's New horizons for Seniors Grant the board of directors went above and beyond to provide new chairs that are sturdy, accessible, and comfortable. They reduce the risk of injuries. In addition to removing an inclusion barrier for people with disabilities. Thank you.

The next award is presented to Heidi to Reader Heidi is being recognized for an outstanding contribution of an individual. The recognition message on the award is in recognition of your outstanding work and commitment to accessibility and collaboration to remove and prevent barriers for people with disabilities through inclusive programming. Heidi the. Guelph, Enabling Gardens registered horticultural therapist is being presented this award for demonstrating her commitment to inclusiveness, reducing isolation, and engaging clients. Workshop participants, caregivers, parents and volunteers of all abilities to share the communal joy of gardening. Heidi hosts many horticultural therapy sessions and. Community events in the geg throughout both the regular season and virtual winter season, heidi has gone above and beyond, hosting many of the ht sessions and programs in partnership with community organizations, including the Canadian Mental Health Association, Community Living guelph, Wellington Hospice, guelph, Wellington guelph public. Library and the guelph, Wellington Seniors Association. Thank you, Heidi.

The next award is presented to Maddie workman. Maddie is being recognized for an outstanding contribution of an individual. The recognition message on the award reads, in recognition of your outstanding dedication to improving accessibility by advocating for the removal of physical barriers to access at guelph business. Maddie is being presented with this award because she went above and beyond to advocate for accessibility and inclusivity. Maddie wrote a letter to the owner of a local business explaining how physical improvements to their facility would make their building accessible so people who use mobility devices are also welcome. In addition, Maddie was resourceful in recommending alternative ways to create. A physically accessible facility such as the use of portable ramps. Maddie also took the time to meet with the business owner to demonstrate how she could navigate the facility using her own portable ramp. This contribution has created an accessible and inclusive environment for Maddie and people with mobility related disabilities to access the services. Provided by the business. Thank you, Maddie.

And the final word is presented to My Life counseling guelph. The award recognizes them for their outstanding contribution of a business. The recognition message on the award reads, in recognition of your outstanding dedication to enthusiastically improving accessibility by removing physical barriers to access at. My Life Counseling guelph the award recognizes My Life Counseling Wealth, located at 109 Surrey Street East, offers various types of counseling services. They are being presented with this award because they have gone above and beyond to improve the accessibility of their facility by removing physical barriers to access by implementing portable ramps at. Their facility. In addition, while they waited for the portable ramps to be delivered, My Life Counseling understood the importance of accommodation and offered alternative services, which included home visit counseling and virtual counseling. The new ramps provide inclusive access to their business so that all clients feel welcome. Thank you.

Well, we're not done yet, folks. We have three more recognitions to give out here. And I want to just take a moment to recognize some amazing. Young guelph Athletes that are here with us tonight. So I'd like to recognize. The Team Canada under twelve formation for their winning dance routine. At the 2023. World Top Championship, held in Germany earlier this year. And three of those dancers are actually right here from guel, from Emotion Dance Company. And I want to congratulate sevy Brown, penelope Hunt, and kara Parker for achieving this amazing award. And they are here with, I think family, friends and maybe coaches and whatnot. And I would love to give you the City of guelph medals. And I'd like to challenge you to tap your way on down here. So come on down, let's give them a round of applause.

Well, we're about to get into the rest of our agenda. Not that I'm thinking you would love to stay. But if you hear that you've had the awards given to you and the recognition to you, this might be the right time to sort of if you want to get up and. Get to your car or. Get to walking home or bus or whatever it took to get here. Thank you very much for joining us. And we appreciate it. Again stay if you wish. All Right, everybody.

As they're filing out, we'll just get into the minutes. And we have a recommendation here for the open Council meeting, minutes of October 11, 17th, and 24th, and the committee of the whole meeting held September 6, and October 3, 2023, be confirmed as recorded and without being read, would a Council or Council busatill and councilor alt will move and second, that for me. Thank you so much. Is there anything on those minutes? Council. Seeing and hearing none. I'll call the vote anyone against the minutes. Hearing and seeing none that's unanimous. And it's passed. And I'll consider the matter closed. We're going to the committee, the whole consent report. Which is the Mayor and Council expense and Education policy. Update the redesigning advisory Committees of Council the governance framework. Any of those two need to be pulled at all. Which one Council will work. I just have a question on the acoc. Okay. Can we just have a motion, then, to move the first item on consent? Thank you. Richardson clausen is seconding. And anything on that matter further. Hearing and seeing none I'll call the

vote anyone against that item. Just one councilor Billings that passes. Consider the matter closed. Thank you. So you have just a question. I can go to item. Okay, go ahead. I phoned in from the road during our committee, the whole meeting. And my concern was that recommendation. Two talks about that advisory committees should shape the city's strategic goals and indicated that I wanted to follow up so that we change that so that the recommendation or the commitment, rather, is acoc, should help shape the city's strategic goals. I remember the conversation I neglected to follow up, but I feel pretty strongly about that. I'd like to hear from clerks whether that's a significant change, but I don't really want to approve without that amendment. Okay, I'm hearing in the room. Some subtle agreement here and. I'm also weary of the fact that we have delegations as well. I'm thinking that this matter might be actually quite quick to just take care of because I sensed that if it's just a minor issue. So if you don't mind counsel, we'll stay on this topic. Council work. Would

you at least be willing to move the recommendations before you consider an amendment? Sure. That's fine. Okay. Yeah. Seconded by councilor galler. So this item is. On the floor, counselor, or work. Would you like to make an amendment on that, then? Yes, I'm just typing it right now. Why not while you type that we have our staff, maybe just respond to your question. That you posed about that okay. To staff. Through you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor, we don't have any objection or problems with that amendment. In fact, it's reflected in large part in the content beneath the title of that commitment. Okay, great. So councilor o'rourke is sending the email. It looks like adding the word. I believe it's just adding the word help. Yes. Okay. Would there be a seconder for that? At least. Okay. I'll go. Clawson. That's fine. Thank you. Thanks, Margot. So I think this works. I think I need two motions. The first motion to amend commitment number two of the framework. So it reads, acoc should help shape the city's strategic goals. And then I believe we need an amendment. To the series so that the Advisory Committees of Council Governance Framework included as attachment One to Report 2023 413, dated November 6, be approved as amended. So I think

I need two motions. Right. Okay, that will be reflected then both the wording change of the word being added of help and then also just to reflect that in number five of the recommendations. And number one. Okay. Yes. Attachment one as well. Okay. Mr. Marin to councilor roche to clarify. So the. Recommendation number one on the agenda will be amended as councilor work noted, to read, as amended at the end. And then we would make that corresponding change to the actual framework itself and that specific. Recommendation within the Framework itself. Great. You good with that then perfect. I am anything further than on the amendment. Hearing and seeing none. I'll call to vote on the amendment. Only is anyone against that amendment. Okay. No one. So I consider that matter closed. That's unanimous. And so now we're going back to the main motions. As amended? Councilor koran, did you want to speak to that quickly. I don't believe in it. And I'm looking for guidance here. Mr. Mayor, I do have an additional nation related

to the formation. Of a community working group. Because this acoc report is on the agenda, but I don't believe it's an amendment to any of the motions that are before us. So is that an additional motion that I can bring forward at the end of the meeting? Or do I need to pull this item in order to be able to place that on the floor. I'll take care of this motion. Main Nation as amended, I would consider it to be separate. But I would consider it to be under the same agenda item, which you can feel free to bring forward immediately. Okay. Thanks. Okay. So I'll call the vote then on this as amended, is anyone against that. Okay, that's passed. Thank you. So, councilor koran, you are right to raise that now. So if you want to just give me 1 second to confer with the clerk. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And this is just for councilor koran's consideration. I believe the amendment or the motion that you had in place. Was related to a Terms of reference. For a sort of time limited Bicentennial Community Working group. It's really a matter of discussion between yourself, Mayor guthrie and councilor quran. That could be

tabled. Now it's not necessarily part and parcel with the acoc framework. It may be actually. And I'll look to dco Clock Bush. It might be something that's more in line with a motion for budget tomorrow evening. Because there is budget dollars associated with that Bicentennial working work and the potential of a working group. But I will leave that to a discussion. Yourself councilor koran and dcl Clock Bush as well. Let me go to the potential mover here, councilor koran, and which you know, I'll publicly state I'm in favor of what you are bringing forward. Are you okay with maybe just bringing it forward at the end of budget tomorrow. I would be looking for that guidance from you, Mr. Marin. From the clerk. There is no budget impact to my motion. And. It originally came about as a result of the ACOC. Report. But I recognize that the actual motion itself is about a community working group and not an acrc. So budget tomorrow is fine. I'll look to you for guidance. Yeah. I think I'll leave it for budget, because at least. A bicentennial issue is addressed in the budget, so to me it

would be completely in order what you want to do. And table. So we'll just do it for budget tomorrow. Okay. So a little precursor Council for what's coming for budget tomorrow with a thumbs up from councilor cron. Okay, so that's good. So I'll consider that matter closed, then. Thank you. And that's passed. We're into the Council consent, which we already have now, the November 2023 appointments. Of adjustment in the Elliott Board of Trustees, which was already read and voted on earlier when councilor downer brought that forward. So we are now at the items for discussion. Thank you to people that have that have come and waited and we are at that time right now. We have two items that will be discussed tonight with delegations, the first one being daytime Drop in Services update. The second one is coming from councilor o'rourke in regards to intimate partner violence. And so let's start with the daytime Drop in Services update. We have the report. From our staff. But we have three delegations. Morgan, dandy. Are you here in person. You're first. Come on down. And then second, I've just been asked just to do a little reversal here. So, Kevin, you'll be second. Yeah. You're good

with that, right? Yeah. And then Paul is here. So it's Kevin cogill and Paul Costello. They'll just switch as the three. Okay. So Morgan dandy is coming down. Just so all the delegates know no more than five minutes. You get to speak. You'll hear a chime at the four minutes and 32nd Mark to give you a warning that there is only 30 seconds left. And then once you're done, just stick around just in case there's a follow up question from my Council colleagues or myself. Okay, so, Morgan, you know the drill. You've been here before. You have up to five minutes. And you can go right ahead. Thank you. Mayor and counsel. I'm here today. To implore you to please. Make the motion. Give the money for another three months. As I'm sure you all remember, I ran for City Council and I had a focus on the fact that I am a renter. And I spent a lot of time getting to know. The population downtown that accesses services. Probably to my detriment as

far as being able to become a city counselor. Because. The under House don't tend to vote. I serve breakfast at Hope House every single week from July. Until. The end of October. Last year. And I joined in various meals at Royal City Mission. Part of the reason why I did that. Is because. I was on ow at the time. Since then. My physical health and my mental health. I have new diagnoses in both. And I'm now on odsp. I am. Waiting for the letter that tells me when I am evicted. What date? I must be out of my home. I was not able to figure out a way to maintain. Where I live right now. I'm an older adult. I'll be 57 in February. And finding a job right now. As someone over the age

of 55 is difficult enough. I had a great job. And my body let me down. I was not physically capable of sitting in an office for 8 hours a day. I can't do it anymore. If it weren't for RCM. I would be even more despairing than I am right now because I know that at least I can go to rcm and have somewhere to stay warm if I end up on the Street. On October 13, I took in the fourth individual to stay with me in the four years that I've been living in my one bedroom apartment. This individual is a young woman who arrived here as a refugee from Kenya. She's here today in the audience, along with a few of her fellow Kenyans who are all refugees here and have all found their community. Together at RCM. Royal City Mission is more than just. A feeding place and a warming place. It is a place where community is formed. I understand that there

are issues in the Downtown Corps, and at the same time, the vast majority of individuals that access services at Royal City Mission are not part of the problem. We cannot. Allow a small percentage of individuals that. Are the most vulnerable. To sway us from supporting the majority of people that take. The time. To be in community at Royal City Mission when I go in there, people know me, people know my dog. They love to be able to say Hi. I ask people how they're doing. There's specific individuals that I watch out for because I know they're incredibly vulnerable. And when I don't see them, I ask about them. And that's what this community is about. Royal City Mission isn't just a place. It's a community. And if we are not able to find our way clear. To staff appropriately so people can have a place

to be in community together. What does that say about. Our city. Breaks. In being able to provide service is not something that rcm needs. They need our support to support the most vulnerable and. There are more and more of us. That are working. That need the supports of places like Royal City mission. Which is going to be highlighted later this week. That's all I have to say right now. Great. Thank you very much, maureen. Thank you. Thank you for sharing. And let me see if there's a follow up question at this time. Okay. There isn't. Thank you very much. And now. Paul costello is here from I'm sorry. Kevin cockle is coming from Royal City Mission. And then Paul costello from Ontario Public Interest Research Group, or Opurg is going to be next.

So welcome, Kevin. And again, whenever you're ready, the clock will start only when you start. So go right ahead. Thank you, Mayor gatri and Council Members thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. I want to express my gratitude to Council for your dedication and acknowledge your desire. It's probably the same as mine to make gualph a beautiful home for its residents. One of the things that I do in my spare time is I coach wrestling. And last year, I took a team of wrestlers to a local high school. And during that tournament. Two youth were stabbed in the Plaza across the road. And I'm going to spare you the details, but the story ends with me face down on the floor, with swat surrounding me. And their assault rifles aimed at me. And if I said this happened at Real City, you might think, Well, that makes sense. But in my 13 years at rcm, this is never nothing close to this has ever happened. And I'm not here to tell you stories. However, this anecdotal highlights that we are experiencing violence throughout the community, along with fear, anxiety, and desperation. In fact, your next agenda item has to do with domestic violence. A good friend of mine who works with victims of human trafficking, recently told me human trafficking and domestic violence

are the children of poverty. And I agree. And I would add that addictions, sex trafficking, domestic violence are the children of poverty and trauma. These challenges are magnified and become highly visible for the city's unhost population, who are often trying to cope with mental health issues and have no private space in which to hide their coping strategies. At the end of the day, I take my anxiety and my fear home, and I curl up in a nice, warm bed. But many of my friends do not have this luxury. The struggles that we're seeing around the city and downtown are a result of poverty and trauma. Desperation. That's the word that I would use to describe our neighbors who are struggling to survive. Desperation. It's a word I hear over and over again from our colleagues who work frontline against the fight or against poverty. The Wellington County website reports that the average wait time for housing is five years, and some have waited longer than eight years to be housed. No wonder there's desperation. The good news is there have been some incredible successes over the last few years, Grace Gardens has opened the kindle project is almost ready to go and the Delhi Street

facility is being prepared. All of these are incredible efforts in the struggle against homelessness. However, guelph will not be able to keep up with the housing demand until people are given enough income to live. They need a guaranteed basic income and affordable housing. And I know that these issues are way beyond. Our reach much further up the chain than the municipal arm of government. But in the meantime. The city of guelph has left to deal with the consequences of decisions made at other levels of government. Those decisions leave people on the street and dying. I took a quick look at my phone this week and I keep a picture of as many. Of the community members at Royal City Mission that have died. This year I have eleven. And I don't have them all. Of those deaths, only two would I consider to have died from natural causes. The rest were death by poverty. Over this year, we have seen the rcm drop. The numbers increase. More people are struggling to afford rent and food. There's no doubt in my mind that our drop in space is needed for those who aren't housed and for those who are under host. And I'm not suggesting that rcm should be the organization to receive funding to remain open 12 hours a day. But here we are again

at a crisis point in the year, with the weather getting colder and there is still no plan to keep our neighbors out of the elements. In the absence of another option, I can tell you the rcm will fill the gap to allow Council to carefully consider more sustainable tactics. Having a space for people who are struggling takes pressure off other services like health services, hospital and ambulance, police services, and community services like the library. But what it cannot solve is homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Rcm is a stop gap, but a highly necessary one. If we are the ones to fill the gap in services this winter, we will need your financial support. The first mortgage in the report from staff will help save lives, mitigate risk, and help support the most vulnerable in our community. And the second motion would allow for an open process that may lead to a more sustainable solution. Thank you for listening. And thank you very much for delegating. Kevin, let's see if there's some follow up questions. I'll start with Linda. I'm sorry. Councilor Pusatil. Councilor Downer Councilor alt. And then I'll start going Councilor Kate, and I see you as well. But just remind me just in case. Thank you, Kevin, and thank you for the work that you do. And. I just want to, I guess,

reflect back to you. Thank you also for acknowledging that the city is also on the front end of this and that there are other levels of government that haven't come to the table. So thank you for acknowledging that as well. When you spoke, you spoke that you mentioned that. Rcm may not be the organization that takes this forward. Are you seeing other organizations that are stepping up to the plate? That's my first question and my second question is about the ask the amount in there. I will admit it's been years since I've been to rcm to the facility. I don't have a picture of what the service looks like in terms of number, staff. And shifts and things like that. If you can help me with those sure. So can you remind me of the first question. When you were speaking, you were saying that it may not be rcm. That is the one that fills the gap. What are you hearing? This is more of a service provider question. Are you hearing things in the community? No. I actually don't know if anyone else. I'm just saying we don't want to take for granted that we would be the people to fill that and

would welcome other services that would be interested in doing that work. And then the second you were asking questions about kind of operations. So just quick numbers. I did send in a report this year. So far 48,169 visits. 203 is our daily average of drop in numbers. 1867 unique individuals accessing the program. And. 75,600 meals. Okay. So that is kind of the need, and I don't think we're disputing the need if you can help me create a picture because it's been many years since I've been there. So 08:00 A.m. To 07:30 p.m.. What does it look like. In the people, how do you deliver your services. Is it number of staff. What does that look like. So we always have at least three staff on the floor. Managing. The Area and the services. Sometimes four depending on. The amount of people in. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilor Downer than alt is next. Thank you. Through you, Mr. Mayor. I, too. Thank you for the work you do, Kevin. I really do appreciate it. And I don't disagree with anything you've said either. I think completely agree. What I need to know. As a fiduciary, responsibility from Council is the breakdown of your numbers because normally when we do a community benefit agreement, we have a significant amount of data around the financials and how. It's spent so. We've gone from 20,000. A month, 20,900. A month that we were providing for the eight to twelve. And so this first, let me know who is funding. How are you getting funded from the Twelve until 730. So that is individual donors. So that was individual donors. And so now so now. From what I understand, it says it cost 71,000 to run the mission. So is that the shelter part, or is that the whole

mission? That is our drop in program. That is the drop in program. So you're wanting the full 71,000, which is a 300% increase. So. You're not planning to do. Any so the donations will not be going to this program anymore. So if I can respond to that the agreement that we had last year. Was based on 4 hours of time, but it required us to be open for 12 hours. Okay, we cannot guarantee 12 hours when our funding is guaranteed for 4 hours. So it's about being guaranteed to be open. That's correct.

This 71,000. Funds the whole time. And so donations will not be going into the drop in program any. Sorry. We would love for them to go into the dropping program. That's our plan. We just cannot guarantee that we can be open for 12 hours unless we can have guaranteed funding. Our donations have steadily gone down. So the request was for 12 hours to be open. So we think the only way to guarantee an open 12 hours just to guarantee the funding for 12 hours. So if we weren't asking for that guarantee. Then what would it be? Well, it would depend on what we're asking for. What would be a continuation. Of what we had before. So the continuation of what we had before was that we were and I'm not saying that I'm just curious. Right. A continuation of what we had before. So to fund 4 hours. Can I call a friend. Well, I guess this is sort of part of my issue, even. At the 71,000 or the 20,000. As somebody who oversees the implementation of community benefit agreements, our staff would have

to see the breakdown of how many staff. Like any ordinary agreement that we have, I know in the morning that Hope House gives you breakfast. You've told me that before and the rest of the day you get a lot of donations in food is mostly funded through food, but. We don't have those numbers. And I guess you could bring somebody down, but I don't know. Do we want to do that. We're here for a discussion. If someone else has more information that can help you answer that, I'm happy to have that person come down. That's not a problem. And just for the formality's sake, although we know each other. You just got to say your name for the record and then go ahead and answer the question that was posed. Mark Anderson. Managing Director for Royal City Mission Matters Mark. And I think we need the question asked. So the question was for the continuation of the existing program, which we paid. 20,942. What is

that? Cost. So without a guarantee. We have to sit down and look at a realistic what a realistic budget of next year would be like. We haven't been able to do that to be honest, because the funding has been such in question. Kevin said our donations are going down, they're not going down, they're actually stagnated. They're actually keeping the same, which on a charitable level, is actually pretty good right now because most charities are seeing a drop, so our numbers are staying the same, but our costs are going up, the amount it cost. Costs to the staff, for instance, are going up. When we started this, we were kind of outing going into a year long initiative. Right. And when you're going for a year. You run full out, right? We're now talking about when we went back and did a cba application, which we did earlier this year for renewal. It's the question of what we're going to be doing. Long term so our staff. Are extremely underpaid and exhausted, so we have to look at. Looking at ways to maintain their mental health.

And their care. So. Our costing for our staff is growing up. If we're going to involve them in this again. So that's a reality if it's just a 20,000 people are just like that's what we can do. We're willing to add 4 hours to whatever we think we can do, but we have to sit down and figure that out on a quick look. It's somewhere between four and 6 hours. At six days a week, and so. If the decision was just to keep it the funding where it was. We'd like to say we could do 4 hours additional on that funding. Okay. So you could continue. For the 20,900. A lot of our cba agreements get a 2% increase for cost of living by understand that's higher in inflation. But then. You would be able to do four or 6 hours the rest of the day based on your level of donations that you have currently. Totally. And that could improve if you had more

donations. Yeah. And that was part of the conversation. Was that we would look at four so we could offer eight or seven or eight kind of depending. If the cba was to stay the same, okay. But again, we're not looking at an eight hour problem. It's still not a perfect solution. Does that help with numbers? Yeah. I was just wondering if we just did a continuous. Overall to give you a picture so the draft budget. For. Our drop in and meal program together because it's weird because they kind of go hand in hand and for us to separate them is tricky. And we recognize that the money coming from the city is for the drop in program, not for the meal program. Although I can't imagine having a whole bunch of people in a room all day and not feeding them. Grumpy, people. It's going to cost us close to a million dollars to run that for a twelve hour thing for three meals a day. It's going to be about that. So Hope House is still providing the breakfast. No, they're not. The timing

and everything. Just wasn't good. Okay. Great. Thank you. And maybe the two of you could just why don't you stay up just in case there's another question that comes your way. That you can confer on. Alta, and then cayton, thank you very much. Mayor guthrie. Many of my questions have actually been answered in a different format, but I am going to ask a couple of questions, and I apologize if they might seem offensive. But the first question. Do we have access to audited statements. That would show us where the money is going. Yes. So obviously not in 2023 because our books are not finalized. So in 2024, we'd be happy to provide those we would love to give you the budget. Our budget, even for the program for next year. That would be fantastic. We've always worked with city staff on that. So if Council would like to see the budget and all the numbers, we'd be happy to give that to you. So annually, you do have an audited statement and it's clean. Correct. Okay. The next one. And this is the one that could be offensive. I did have. A number of people

that emailed me and were concerned about Royal City Mission receiving funds that were going into capital improvements rather than what we are discussing here. I was wondering if you could outline that I am aware that there have been bathrooms that have been improved there, but I think you might have got that from a grant that it doesn't have anything to do with the city. So if you could please outline whether Royal City Mission is enhancing itself. Through city money. So the easiest answer is no. I can tell you that the bathrooms were actually paid for by another Church that was using our space. We did do capital. Improvements based on Federal grants which was walking fridge freezer. And then. What was the other one. That's it. Okay. Thank you. The next question what I heard you state, is that the donations are actually stable, but the numbers being served has increased significantly. So then I understand that proportionately there is significantly less money being spent from donations per person. Is that correct. Yes. Not simple,

then. Okay. And finally you mentioned something that's been bothering me. Because many of our frontline workers. Have experienced the same thing regardless what the service is. Could you please elaborate on the issue of burnout. Well, surprisingly enough, we have done really well with that. But we do have one staff off on a health leave. Watching people suffer daily is hard. It really is. And so again, Mark brought up. The thought that we need to pair a step better and we have no benefits for our staff. So these are all considerations as we're looking at budgeting. So clarify. So you're saying you don't have benefits when a person's off, they're off without any income. Is that correct. Yeah. Okay. Well, that was a simple answer, too. Okay. All right. Thank you very much. I have no further questions. Finally, councilor cayton, please. Thank you to you, Mr. Mayor. My question was going to be will they be open if we do not provide the funding? And I think that was answered through them saying that they had a certain amount open for donations. So I think

that that's clear now. Okay with that. Kevin, do you want me to repeat that? No. Does it need to be repeated? Or she's captured it, right? She's captured. Okay. Perfect. I got two more questions there. Call her, and then I'll work. Thank you for your worship. Thank you both for all the work that you do for the Sea of Guelph. We definitely want to support our community. I think one of the challenges that. We're trying to overcome is. The increase from 20,000 per month to 63. And I understand that it is the additional hours. It is the adequate pay for staff. Is royalty exploring other funding opportunities from other organizations. Always. Yeah. So is there any opportunity? I know. That the previous daytime shelter used to receive other funding locally. So would there be ways for us to explore how we can help you stay open, at least for the winter or for the rest. Of Next year. And be able to work with other

organizations. What might that look like. It's tricky when the so the ask was for 12 hours. And that's the tricky bit. And so if the ask is for 12 hours. That's a good ask. Right? Like I think that's the right ask. That's what. Our community needs. We can definitely search for funding from other places. We can even look. At. A flexible thing based on income. What we're facing is we're facing a January, February March, which are notoriously low. We have gone into our reserves to stay open this year. We have come out of this community benefit agreement further in the whole than when we started. To be able to provide the services. Not in debt not saying that. We had. A small well, you have a few months of operating in the bank, right. And so we're not functioning with that at this point. So if we're going. Into and we made that

decision as an organization to say, we are willing to spend this. Because we believe this is work worthwhile, and we want to follow through on our commitment to be open 12 hours. It's just if the ask is to maintain that 12 hours. When you look at that $20,000. So that's money that was agreed to for 2022. So those were numbers from 2022. We were coming off of COVID. We had no idea we would be at this numbers now. So if you look at we increased 50% from 2022 from 2021. To 2022. That original Ask was based on a 2021 numbers. So we had a 50% we already were behind when we WENDAT into that agreement. Now we're looking at another 30% numbers increase over last year that we're receiving, that we're feeding, that we're having people present. And so. All that does is times three. So it's like the guarantee it actually doesn't take into consideration the growth and the actual. Number to arrive at than unpacking the whole budget and going because that wasn't what we were asked for. Does that help? Yeah, that

really helps. Now I understand how we go from. 20,000 for 4 hours to 60. What was it? 67. For the 12 hours. Yes, it's just the 20,000 plus 2% times three. Yeah, that's what it needed to be for the guarantee. But. It's not based on our current budget. So it's still only proportional. Okay. We want to sit down and talk about the whole budget for the drop. And that would actually be another conversation. And more. Okay. Thank you very much for that. Thank you, Worship. Thank you. And councilor O'Rourke. Thanks, mcstri. Through you two are delegates. Can you help me understand how the funding landscape has changed over the past several years? Because. We don't essentially fund social Services, right. And then through COVID. I think you were getting funding from the county because of COVID. We stepped in to fill a gap. And now we are. Light years away from what that original funding

was. And as you know, tomorrow. We need to be looking to take an axe to some of our own services. Okay, so that's where I sit tonight, not insensitive to the plight of people who are cold and who need a place to be. But I'm looking at what is our responsibility. What are the costs we can contain? So can you help me understand how the funding landscape has changed for you over the past three years.

We never received Government funding prior to COVID. We actually only got maybe one or two grants a year prior to COVID. Through the course of COVID a lot of organization fellow organizations that were doing drop in style things got specialized in other areas. And so we became. The only place that was open during the day. And so because of that, we definitely did see an increase in our donations. Over the course of COVID, where most organizations and most charities were actually seeing a decrease because of our presence, we did see an increase, which allowed us to expand the programming. The difference was that. We could be front. Well, Kevin and I would usually be in the executive tenant seats. We were able to do frontline work because. There wasn't a lot of executive work to do in the midst of COVID. Right. Your meetings were all very different, so we were able to do that. Now post in this kind of scene. We have received money from the county, which we didn't pursue. That was offered to us. Even this conversation about the cba, it

wasn't something we weren't seeking. It was something that was offered that we were invited into. And we continue to look for grants. So. We're actively looking for grants that will allow us. But those are usually towards capital costs, not operating and. That's where that kind of shifts. So we tend to put most of our donations that come in that are. For the drop in or for the meal program. They go towards it all goes towards operating. And then this would be operating cost. That's kind of the ask, is that kind of answer? Sorry. Partially, but I know there were changes because the county was funding some, and then they reduced their hours. And so we filled that gap. And now we're looking to fill the whole 12 hours. So I am struggling with that to be perfectly honest. I'm wondering. So you mentioned that some organizations really specialize. So. Have you expanded the services that you provide, or are you still providing the same services. Yeah. It's expanded. So we used to do dinner. We dinner and 4 hours of drop in essentially is what it was. It's expanded to three meals a day, 12

hours of drop in. We have a belonging bin storage program. For people. Who have are experiencing homelessness. They can have a bin that we store for them that they can access, anytime that we're open. We're trying to develop recreational programming and all that kind of stuff so that there's more time. More positive times built throughout the day. So those are all things that we've added. It's a lot bigger than it was. Before. Okay. So you may get three last question. Just so when you're expanding those services, are you then also adding staff, right. And I'm asking you the same question that I've been asking our own staff for a month now. Right. Around. These choices of expansion. So with those expansions, are you adding more staff, more cost. No, the belonging the meal program is something we were already kind of doing. Largely fund that do that with our current staff and through agreements with

other organizations to have partnership on kind of the Cooking and the meal Program. So. We provide meals out to the 24 hours shelter at the hotel. And so we send food there every day as part of our kind of thing. So we have a partnership with Stepping Stones that allows us to kind of have mutual benefit in there. We haven't added staffing costs. Since the beginning of the year, basically, when we ramped up to 12 hours and we were able to we weren't doing breakfast. We added breakfast. We weren't doing belonging bins. We added belonging bins. And it hasn't cost us. Things out of this money. We've either got grants for the shelves and the bins and that kind of thing. But it hasn't been. An operating expense increase. Okay. All right. Thanks. Okay, Council, thank you. We're going to go to the next delegate, thanks to the both of you very much. And then after this delegate. I'm going to. Consider Council to move into a closed session. For some further information. So we'll

listen to this delegate first, Paul. Costello from the Ontario Public Interest Research Group. Thank you for joining us. Paul.

Good Evening, Mr. Mayor councilors. The Guelph University Chapter of Opurg strongly urges that the city of Guelph. Continue to fund the Royal City Mission Opurg, which is Ontario Public interest Research group. Is a campus based social and environmental justice group that supports student groups and community groups striving to make a difference. I'm on the Operg board of Directors and we have a partnership with Royal City mission. It has been my honor and pleasure to be trusted with frontline volunteer work at the Royal City Mission doing.

Two plus shifts a week of two to 4 hours for about a year. Around meal time. Between this and dropping into check on folks, I witnessed people with every kind of need. And concern. Family estrangement, Food and Housing challenges. And even addiction. At the mission, they can chat with volunteers who care. Knowing that. Their issues are being heard and not being judged. It is where they can also meet supportive friends. Royal City is one of the only places where housing and income challenged people. Can get this. Being processed at sundown by someone with a clipboard and told to find a cot on the floor does not compare, and it's certainly not sufficient. Police fund is much needed support organization. Thank you very much. Let me see if there's a follow up for you. And there isn't. And thank you for your volunteerism, too. Thank you. Okay, that's it for our signed up delegations. Council. I

think I've asked the clerk. To put up on the screen. A potential motion for us to consider to get some further information in regards to. This through a closed session meeting. And it is that the Council of the City of guelph now hold a meeting that is closed to the public pursuant to the Municipal Act, section 2392, B and K of the Municipal Act relating to personal matters with identifiable individuals, including municipal or local Board employees, and a position plan, procedure, criteria, or instruction to be applied. To any negotiations carried on or to be carried on by or on behalf of the municipality or Local Board to consider daytime dropin services. Update. Councilor galler, you're willing to move councilor clawson is willing to second. Is there anything further on that. Don't hear anything, so I'll call the vote. Is everyone in favor? Is anyone against moving into closed. That's unanimous as well. So we are just going to have a closed session discussion in regards to this matter. We're going to go into another room to have that. And then when I come back out,

I can give a high level summary of the discussion. So just bear with us as we go do that. Okay. Thank you very much.

Okay. I'd like to call the meeting back to order, please. Thank you so much. As I normally do with coming out of a closed session, there would be a summary, which I'm going to give a little bit of that right now. But we actually have an actual motion that will be tabled publicly more than just my summary. So we went back there to talk about contractual agreements. We asked questions. We received information, a lot of back and forth on that topic. And. That resulted in emotion that's going to come forward right now. But there is before we table that motion. There is the motion of receiving the report that's on the agenda today. I'd like to take care of that first councilor Downer is moving that. Boost till thank you is seconding that for receiving information. Can I call the vote on that, please? It looks like I probably can. Yes. Is anyone against receiving this as information. No. That's unanimous. So that's great. Thank you very much. Okay. So now. We are going to table a motion that is coming out of the closed session and that will pop up on the screen. And

I would ask councilor galler, please. To table that thank you through your worship. The motion is that staff be directed to offer an extension of the current pilot program to Royal City Mission to offer drop in services. Six days a week at a maximum cost of 21,322 per month. The pellet extension would be from January 1, 2024 to March 31, 2024, and the total cost of 63,966 to be taken from the tax rate operating contingency reserve. Thank you. Am I have a seconder for that, please. Okay. I'm going to go. Clawson. Thank you. And before I call the vote, is there any further questions only on this. I don't think there's any questions, any comments on this. I'd like to try to keep us focused so we can keep moving through our agenda. But absolutely a time for that Councilor call or you go first. Thank you. And through your worship. Before the Pandemic started, the city. Was not in the business of providing daytime shelter support. It was something that was provided by the community. And it was not a municipal responsibility that has changed. Services changed during the pandemic. And we've spent a

lot of time this year looking at what resources we needed to provide. We have given many directions. To our staff team, and. As a result of some of those directions. The county is hosting a symposium over the winter in January. So we would be looking at that symposium to come up with a better idea of how daytime space should be funded. So this is a stopgaap measure, temporary for this winter. And then our hope is that we would have a better plan for next. Year. Thank you so much. May I call the vote then on this looks like I can. Okay. Is there anyone against. No one that's unanimous. So that's the decision on this at this time. Thank you very much again, thank you for waiting for us to come out of a closed session. And I'll consider that matter. Closed. And before I continue the next item, councilor guller sorry over to you, your worship. I had sent a message to my staff Council colleagues expressing the intent to move the second. Motion contained in the report. But we referred the advice that

we should really wait until the housing symposium is completed over the winter. So can I ask our staff team. Do I need to move a motion now for this to come back at some point, or could we have a commitment that sometime in May, next year, March or thereabouts, we would have an opportunity to bring that direction back to explore what we do with daytime shelter, space. Through the Mayor to councilor galler, I would certainly my advice and recommendation will be that you wait until the housing symposium and seek the recommendations and the advice that comes out of that. I don't want to presume the outcome of that, but I think this matter will be considered and we'll follow up with our county colleagues. And so any reporting back to City Council will flow from that housing. Symposium. I would imagine there's going to be a number of recommendations for you to consider. This would be only one of them. So rather than. A specific requirement that we report back. I would simply say that you know that Housing symposium is coming and you'll be receiving recommendations. And I think that's the most appropriate. Method for this to continue the conversation forward. Okay. Thank you for that. Thank you, Worship. Great. Thank you, councilor. So

this item is closed, and I just do want to recognize our guest in the audience. Also, the chair from the County Services. Thank you, chair for coming and hearing this conversation and being a part of it. Thank you very much. So with that, I'm going to move on to the intimate partner Violence agenda item. This has been requested by councilor o'rourke to bring this forward. We do have. One delegation. What I was hoping to do, Council is maybe. Just to ask if I could have the mover. Introduce the motion have it moved and seconded to allow her to speak to the motion. And then we can invite. Our delegate up just to frame in a little bit better. Councilor o'rourke and Councilor Richardson have both agreed to move and second it. And so I would consider it on the floor. Now let me move to the mover to give some commentary to it. And then Cindy mcmahon is here. Hi, Cindy. As soon as councilor o'rourke has done framing the conversation, I would welcome you to come up to the microphone for your delegation. Okay,

over to the mover. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor guthrie. So as an introduction to this moment, this motion, rather, I won't rhyme off the national or the local statistics from Women in Crisis or guelph polic. Police, you have that information in the motion. And we all know those reported cases are growing and we know they are the tip of the iceberg because it takes a lot of courage for somebody to pick up the phone and phone a local social service. And it is insurmountable for many people to pick up the phone call, please. So what I will tell you is that while I brought the motion forward to declare intimate partner violence and epide. Epidemic. I did it because it is the number one recommendation out of 85 jury recommendations in the coroner's inquest into the murders of Carol culleton, anastasia kuzik and natalie Warmer in renfrew county, and they were all murdered on the same day. Because it is Women Abuse Prevention Month, the 16 days of activism against gender based violence. And we are days away from the National Day of remembrance and Action on Violence against Women. I brought the nation because more than 70 municipalities, peterborough just yesterday have already done so as well as amo and Ontario big city mayors.

And I felt we too, should join this important conversation that has been ongoing. Since June of this year. I wanted to bring the motion forward to raise awareness of the issue of intimate partner violence and genderbased violence. Because there are tangible actions we can take individually as well as the Corporation of the City of guelph, Gulf Police and the Gulf Community and its organizations to prevent intimate partner violence, to support survivors and the organization that help them and to advocate for them. Because intimate partner violence is a largely invisible epidemic. It knows no socioeconomic, age, cultural, or religious boundaries. It touches individuals, usually women and children. And. This. Notion of epidemic is because it also touches their extended families, their friends, their neighbors, their workplaces, their classrooms, and their communities. And I brought the motion forward for the survivors. And hope to reduce additional cases. It was important to work with gul fullington Women in crisis to craft a motion that is meaningful. And I want to thank our staff who worked with us to

bring this motion into their existing and future work plans. I was initially going to table this motion at our October Council meeting. And that same day, a 44 year old man shot and killed a six year old, a seven year old and a twelve year old. Another adult and then himself in Sue St. Marie last month. It's another tragic case of intimate partner violence. And the police chief there says he welcomes an inquest. While that could happen here. But let's not wait for another inquest or a mass casualty Commission or a national report on missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls to take more decisive action on ipv. What I did not expect when working on this motion because all the other municipalities had done it and thought we should too, and we'll pull it together. And what I found really touching over the last several weeks were lots of phone calls and emails from women thanking me for bringing it forward and sharing their stories. It's important to me and to all of us, I think to center them in this conversation. Because I'm just the conduit. This Past Saturday. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, the Ontario Association

of interval and Transition Houses released their annual femicide list. It showed that over the last 52 weeks there have been 62 women and children killed in Ontario. That's more than one fatality each week. And they're not numbers. And they're not only in other places. Just this morning, I spoke with a mom from guelph. Her name is Kate. She asked me to tell you about her eight year old son, Charlie, who was murdered by his dad last may. It's a little boy and is devastated. Mom, right here in guelph. There are many others whose stories are not mine to share, but that I hold in my heart right now. And I ask that you do the same when you vote on this series of recommendations. Great, thank you so much. Councilor. That's very well. Tabled. Thank you very much. And we do have one. Delegate here. As I said, it is cindy mcmahon. And so I welcome you to come on down and be a delegate to this. And I think you've been here all along. So you heard me say, you have no more than five minutes, and you'll hear a chime at the four minute and 32nd Mark to give you a 32nd warning, and then feel free to stick around just in case there is a follow up question. Okay, go right ahead.

Got it. So good evening. My name is cindy mcmahon. I'm the public. Educator at Welsh Wellington Women in Crisis. And thank you very much for the opportunity to come and speak in support of this motion on behalf of Women in Crisis and also on behalf of the Gulf Wellington Action Committee on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence. Our position on this is pretty straightforward. We think intimate partner violence is an epidemic, and we think that the sooner we call it that and treat it like it is, then the sooner we can meaningfully actually address it. The Government of Ontario has so far refused to use the term epidemic to refer to intimate partner violence because I'll quote from them, it is not an infectious or communicable disease, but the Center. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention helpfully remind us that a health issue does not have to be contagious to count as an epidemic. Heart disease is often referred to as an epidemic by the medical establishment. The opioid crisis has been referred to as an epidemic, most notably by the government of Ontario. The word epidemic. And I'll quote here from Columbia University's mailman School of Public health. Quote, can refer to a disease or other specific health related behaviors, such as smoking, with rates that are clearly above the expected occurrence in a community

or region. So what, then, is the expected occurrence of rates of intimate partner violence in guelph, like what number of cases would be commonly acceptable here. We live in a country that values human rights, in a community that cares for and about each other. So the expected and acceptable number of cases, of course, is zero. That is not as you have heard the number of cases that we have here in guelph. So last year at Women in Crisis, we supported 998 clients and 54 children across our programs and took 2452 calls under crisis line. And most people who experience intimate partner violence do not call a gender based violence support organization. They don't call the police. This is the absolute tip of the iceberg, and rates are going up. So in Canada, rates of intimate partner violence were 19% higher in 2022 than they were in 2014. There was a 27% increase in femicides from 2019 to 2022. About 44% of women in Canada experience some form of intimate partner violence in their life. Lifetimes. About 54% of trans folks do so. Last year, 52 women were killed in 52 weeks in Ontario. And this year, as you've heard, that number is 62. Our current

systemic approaches to addressing intimate partner violence are not working. So we need to do better and to do better. We need to do something different. We need to stop thinking about intimate partner violence as just a private matter between couples. We need to recognize that the place to prevent intimate partner violence, to see it, name it, to speak out about it, to step in and step up to take action to support people when they're being harmed. Is the community. This is Community work. And it's work that strengthens the community, too. Each person who survives violence experiences health impacts as well as social and economic consequences that are wide ranging and also uniquely damaging to them. But the impacts of intimate partner violence go well beyond the individual they impact our entire city. The economic costs of intimate partner violence are. Enormous for our criminal justice system, our civil justice system, our health care system, our social service operations, and our employers, the social and emotional costs of intimate partner violence on families, friends, coworkers, neighbors, support, people, community members, children, everyone. These are even higher. So no one knows this better than the county of. Renfrew, where Carol colliton, anastasia kusik and natalie Warmerdom were murdered by a man with a history of gender based

violence in 2015. So the coroner jury's inquest made these 86 recommendations to various offices and levels of government to help prevent femicides resulting from intimate partner violence from happening again. These recommendations are the result of a great deal of research and analysis and a great deal of soul searching from the community in crisis and in mourning. They are a gift to the rest of us. A path forward to a more effective, systemic response to intimate partner violence. And it's time to lend guelph's voice to the growing chorus of calls to enact the Inquest recommendations. We have an opportunity here to take the initiative where the provincial government has failed to lead. We can leverage the strengths of our community to collaborate on effective strategies for prevention and surviv. Survivor supports that turn rising rates of intimate partner violence around. But we can only do that if we put the problem out in the open and name it for what it is an epidemic. Thank you. Well, thank you so much. And thank you for your advocacy, too. On behalf of Council, we really appreciate it. And the work that you do. Is there any follow up question at this time. No. Thank you so much for being here and stating that. Thank you. All right. Is there any questions from Council at all. Before I

go any further. No. Okay. And is there anything further from a commentary in regards to this? It's so well laid out. If I might add a commentary there. Okay. Well, thank you to you, councilor o'rourke and Richardson for tabling. I'm sorry, councilor Kate. I'm sorry. Go right ahead. Go right ahead. Sorry about that. Go ahead. Thank you for you to the mover. I just wanted to thank you for bringing this forward. It's a really important topic. And with every intersection. Of equities. Deserving group that you kind of attach to your risk increases. And I know that I hear from so much in the disability community. That especially with the lack of social support. And the reliance. On finances from marriage, that this is something that really affects that community quite largely. So I just appreciate this. And I'm glad that you drive forward. Great. Thank you so much. All right, I'll call the vote. Is anyone against these recommendations. Unanimous. That's fantastic. So thank you again. We're going to go to bylaws. The Councilor to

my right Councilor. Vusatil. You are up for bylaws tonight. Do you mind bringing those forward for us? Yes, thank you. I'd like to place bylaws number 2023. 28 five, five, and 2023 28 five, eight. Be approved. Subject to section two, eight, four. Subsection. Eleven. Four of the Municipal Act. Thank you. Who's going to help? Second, that for me, Council oroka is great. Anything on these bylaws. Hearing and seeing nobody I'm going to call the vote. Is anyone against the bylaws. Hearing and seeing none that's unanimous as well. Mayor's Announcements Do we have any budget? Town Halls? No, just kidding. So I'll see all my friends here tomorrow bright and early. Yes, councilor busatil is saying Why don't I mention. The tree lighting, and. The. What is it? Councilor? Donner. Spirit of the season, so it's this weekend. And councilor downer is going to tell us

all about it. Spirit of the season. It's new this year, so they've combined a number of downtown events, the markets and the tree lighting and the parade all into.

One fabulous weekend of celebration. And so on Saturday is the Santa claus Parade at 530 that ends up at City Hall for the tree lighting. But there will be curling. In the St. George's Square, there's going to be wooden hut set up with lots and lots of vendors selling things. There's also a market within the Quebec Street Mall as well this weekend. But this all starts on Friday. So the big party starts Friday afternoon at four and I think it goes to I'm not sure if it's eight or ten at night. But the markets are there. And on Friday night, there's going to be a fire circus as well in downtown guelph. And it's going to be very exciting if you haven't seen one, just Google it. A lot's happening in the downtown, and we hope the community comes out and celebrates. I'm on the Downtown Board of Management. This is why. She's normally not that smart. Yeah. Thank you. Councilor downer. That's awesome. And so I hope the whole community comes out to that. And to my colleagues, I am looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Ready to rock and roll on wrapping up

the budget. So can't wait to see you here 09:00. And to staff. I'd like you to show up to. With that, I need adjournment. And I bet you Council billings is going to help me with adjournment. Boom. Councilor chu is seconding to help me. Is anyone against adjournment? Nobody. Have a great night, everyone. Thank you. See you. See you tomorrow. Bye bye.