Further to Thursday night's 1st electronic Oshawa Public Planning meeting: Of the presentations on 3 different matters, 2nd on the list was the Minto/Sorbara developers' application to change Oshawa's Official Plan Land Use Plan for the Kedron Part II Plan "to permit alternative land use designations in the COMMUNITY PARK designation if the Community Park is RELOCATED OR OTHERWISE NOT NEEDED, IN WHOLE OR IN PART".

​I quote that from the application, as spelled out on the signage at 2644 Harmony Rd. N. and on the meeting Agenda, because some listening to the questions I asked and who, like me, didn't hear a clear answer, might think some were avoiding that this in fact was the developer's 'ask'.

Naturally I didn't consider what I was asking to be me 'making a production' as the meeting Chair described it. Interesting that I received an email the next morning from someone I don't know, have no connection to whatsoever, who was listening in, and said they were cheering me on to get the answer to what I was asking.

Imo it was a most extraordinary Public Planning meeting

Public Planning meetings are held under the Provincial Planning Act and are part of the public process that is set up to ensure planning decisions, which determine the future of communities, "are fair by making them open, accessible, timely and efficient".

The meetings have an established framework under the Planning Act with proposals presented to the public and any comments or questions received from the public and elected members of Council. No recommendation or decision on the applications are made the meeting. A staff recommendation report is prepared at a later date and then considered by Committee and Council a later date.

It was very encouraging that seven Oshawa residents took the time to send in correspondence to the Clerk on this issue! Their emails are well written about their concern. (see copies below)

The question is how a planned 27 acre Community Park, at this late stage when sales pavilions for Kedron Part II are about to open, is at risk of not being advanced, as promised for many years, and will Council just not say No to the developer's request?

Community spirit is strong. It is something wonderful when residents are aware and engaged on local issues! Below are copies of the letters, which were added to the June 25, 2020 meeting agenda.

By the way, I asked staff to provide me with a map of the Minto lands (purchased in 2016)  to show what portion are in the Kedron Part II Plan and what portion are outside and still designated agricultural. Hopefully this helps to understand better what Minto's ask involves: relocating the Community Park to their lands outside the urban boundary and wait for a Region Official Plan comprehensive review(which then has to be approved by the Province)... by the way the 5 Ha  to the west of Minto's 6.5 Ha is owned by Sorbara (just purchased 6 months ago).  As I said previously, they want to take the community park off the City's Official Plan Kedron Part II plan, approved by Oshawa Council in 2014, but take it off the calendar to some unknown future date.

​WHEREAS Body-Worn Cameras (BWC) have been adopted by a growing number of police services across the country and the world; widely seen as a real benefit to public trust, transparency, accountability and accuracy, and have been useful in determining what exactly has taken place during confrontations between officers and civilians, aiding in building positive relations with the communities they serve; and 

WHEREAS recent hate-filled and brutal displays of anti-Black racism have resulted in preventable deaths and revived community outcry for more oversight and accountability for officers and police services; and 

WHEREAS on June 17, 2020 the Parliamentary Black Caucus urged all levels of government to act immediately to eliminate the barriers to access to justice and public security for Black Canadians and Indigenous people, including requiring all on-duty police officers in contact with the public to wear BWCs; and 

WHEREAS Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders has said he will fast-track body cameras for all front-line officers within the Toronto Police Service (TPS) due to recent events; and 
WHEREAS Durham Regional Police Service (DRPS) conducted a year-long BWC pilot from June 2018 to June of 2019, using officers from two units in West Division, Regional Traffic Enforcement and members from the Festive R.I.D.E team; and
  
WHEREAS approximately 80 officers were outfitted with cameras during the pilot, resulting in 26,600 videos being collected - of which 52 per cent were categorized as evidence and about 30 per cent have been or will be used in criminal and provincial offences trials - and the project manager has said that “I don’t think we’ve seen very much resistance at all - and the officers fairly quickly got comfortable with the technology”, yet no formal recommendations or go-forward plans have been presented to Regional Council; and 
WHEREAS on April 21, 2020, DRPS informed their Board that the BWC study was on hold due to the pandemic, and all officers were sent back to their original deployments, further delaying a decision;

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT to be responsive to the needs of our community, the Durham Regional Police Services Board (‘Board’) be requested to reconvene the Body-Worn Camera (BWC) team effective immediately as a concrete, tangible action and sign of good faith to the public that DRPS serves; and 

THAT Regional Council request the DRPS Police Services Board, at the earliest possible opportunity, have the BWC team present the Police Services Board with a plan of action for BWC implementation, which shall include funding requirements within the current budget, to start phasing in the procurement and outfitting of front-line officers with cameras to eliminate subjectivity in civilian and police interactions; and
 
THAT Regional Council requests the Board present a delegation to Regional Council by September 2020, or as soon thereafter as is reasonably possible, including a timeline and budget to address this need at the earliest opportunity by September 2020; and 

THAT the presentation include an update by the Board regarding the DRPS officer training plan, addressing how officers are trained to handle mental health distress and de-escalation techniques, specifically within the Black and Indigenous community; and 

THAT this motion be circulated to the DRPS Board, and all Durham municipalities.

After a tie vote to divide the motion 13 Yes and 13 No which meant the motion to divide failed...and then with more than two hours of deliberations and  4 amendments from Clarington Councillor Joe Neal, seconded by Oshawa Councillor John Neal (two in the Whereas recital section -which have not been updated; and two in the operative Therefore paragraphs which are updated above) at 3:10 p.m. the FINAL vote was 27 Yes and two absent Councillors Bath-Hadden and Chapman. 

Somewhere in the discussion it was mentioned that implementation of the Body-Worn Camera will cost upwards of $4 Million.
​

UPDATE: TODAY Oshawa CAO Ralph, who under his delegated power of authority (under the City' Emergency Management By-law), regarding #1 below announced that ALL FEES ARE WAIVED related to outdoor patios related to restaurants.

5 Highlights from Mon June 22nd, 10 hour City Council meeting:

The majority of Council members voted to:

1) implement relaxed guidelines allowing patio pop ups. The two City Staff assisting those wanting to apply can phone the City 905 436-3311 and ask for Laraib Arshad Ext 2395 if it pertains to a business in the downtown (n/s between Brock and John St. and e/w between Oshawa Creek just west of Centre St and Drew St/Ritson Rd.); or David Sappleton Ext 2426 if it pertains to any city business outside the downtown.


2) have the Region begin an analysis of Simcoe St. and Centre St. return to two way streets (that discussion alone took almost an hour and 1/2) The detailed Stantec Report from 2001 is included in the City's Engineer and Commissioner of Development Service's 79 page Report on this CNCL-20-115 http://app.oshawa.ca/…/ci…/2020/06-22/REPORT_CNCL-20-115.pdf





3) request the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks not approve the Environmental Compliance Approval applications for a proposal by the owner of 1515 Thornton Rd.N. to build an anaerobic digestion facility. The City placed an interim control by-law on the property (a temporary 'freeze' on the land use) to investigate the matter further. Deliberations on this also took a fair amount of time.

4) send the Oshawa Generals request for $350,000 to support the teams bid to host the 2021 Memorial Cup in Oshawa, to staff for a detailed report about what the request for cash and in-kind services, including a projected breakdown of both in-kind and financial contributions, project revenues to the City from the event and the response from the Oshawa Generals regarding outstanding financial issues between the City and the Generals.

5) approve a Dust and Mud Control By-law to to control the impacts of dust and mud related to building and development on adjacent properties and a Fouling of Roads By-law to control the impacts of dust and mud related to building and development on City roads, as the Central Lake Conservation Authority wrote in its support letter about all parties being responsible for managing erosion and sediment controls (ESCs) on site: "Establishing clear guidelines and standards for ESCs can result in significant improvements on site and increase the likelihood of compliance " Although there were two other letters from developer/home builders concerned from their perspective the City's practice has worked and did not require any change, the new Oshawa by-laws are straightforward and less prescriptive than comparable by-laws in other municipalities which were included in the Report.
http://app.oshawa.ca/…/ci…/2020/06-22/REPORT_CNCL-20-122.pdf

​GOOD NEWS! Starting tomorrow June 24, 2020, Durham Region Transit is distributing 2,500 PRESTO cards at no cost and with the support of PRESTO, is also working with Durham Social Services to make an additional 1,600 cards pre-loaded with $14.00 available through various non-profit community agencies

Of course Oshawa welcomes new building activity! And Yes, with development, dirt needs to be moved!

Senior staff at the City of Oshawa have delegated authority under the 2006 Site Alteration By-law to approve site alteration permits.

But consider how much has changed in the past 14 years with the massive amount of new construction in Oshawa. Last year the City's Ward One Councillors asked to have the Site Alteration By-law reviewed and updated, but were unsuccessful getting support from Mayor Carter and other Councillors for a majority vote.





When communities are severely being impacted, as is happening this past week, with dump trucks roaring by every 2 minutes starting every early and throughout the day, naturally residents are going to call their elected representative to find out what the heck is going on. When alerted, I went to see and snapped these 9 pictures in 12 minutes.

After phone calls and emails to the Conservation Authority and senior city staff, word was that Oshawa staff had issued a site alteration permit to place 25,000 cubic meters of fill at 101 Raglan Rd. W. on a property that extends to Hambly Rd (a dead end road west off Simcoe St. N. opposite the White Feather Country Store farm)

It is still unclear whether the fill site is a regulated area of the Greenbelt/Oak Ridges Moraine (like most of Raglan) and why CLOCA and the Ward Councillors were not made aware of this permit given it is such a big one.

The permit is until Dec 31, 2020. Figure that with the average dump truck carrying 10 cubic m...that is 2,500 trucks, Divide by 6 months for this almost half a year permit, that is almost 200 trucks a day travelling one way, and since most travel two ways, to load and unload, that is 400 trucks a day...and this is for one site alteration fill site.

Of course, with summer the public has to expect construction noise, traffic, dust and diesel...but figure with dump trucks barreling by your front door, in a convey every minute, every day, in a community with many seniors, children and a daycare, it is entirely reasonable that Oshawa residents would call their elected representative and complain.

Imo the public and Ward Councillors should be better informed - all site alteration applications should be listed for anyone to see where fill is being dumped. Also, the City of Oshawa's site alteration by-law absolutely needs to be updated to better ensure times, non-disruptive haul routes; protection against contaminated fill being dumped; and that fill from outside Oshawa is prohibited.

Oshawa's six page Site Alteration By-law is thin, six pages, compared to the detailed, more closed and community protective Site Alteration By-laws of the majority of Durham Region's 7 other municipalities. An update of Oshawa's needs to happen now!

On the Agenda for Monday's Council meeting is the new Oshawa Information Technology Strategic Plan.

I want to refer it back to staff. I'm on this job to scrutinize City business for Oshawa residents and to help advance improvement...not on the job really as a cheerleader or to compliment consultants.
This was a $100,000 contract and although clearly a lot of detailed work was done by the consultant, it should be sent back to staff to be corrected and tightened. Imo in it's current state it is a document that does not stand out as a satisfactory IT Strategic Plan.
During the Committee meeting June 8 when the Report CORP-20-17 was presented I asked questions which could not be answered at the time. The following week I wrote to senior staff asking if they had been able to confirm the accuracy of the Capital expenses figure and percentage contained on page 19 where the Consultant had written: “In 2019, the IT capital budget was set at $1,445,000, of a total Capital budget of $62,448,000 – representing 2.3% of the City’s total capital budget.”
I received a reply that the numbers were incorrect.
The figure for the City's total capital budget was erroneous by more than double what it should have been. The actual numbers should read: In 2019, the IT capital budget was set at $1,115,000, of a total Capital budget of $26,514,000 – representing 4.2% of the City’s total capital budget.
Although the above causes some concern, imo there are more reasons the document does not seem to me like the final version of the Oshawa IT Strategic Plan:
a) Its length,101 pages with additional 5 appendices of 42 pages, which make regular updates, reviews, and measuring progress more difficult than needed;
b) It is labeled Final “Report”;
c) It reads like a research Report, written from a ‘we’ perspective that seems at odds with a City IT Strategic Plan, for examples, copied below are statements in the Report where the 'we' clearly is not the City, and after all it is the City's IT strategic plan:
“Looking forward, the following areas are the key Corporate Information Technology Strategy themes, the areas of work that we recommend the City pursues”. Page 6 of the plan
“We would encourage the City, as it continues to work on its future iterations of the Corporate Strategic Plan, to embed digital goals and establish metrics to help define and realize success.” Page 13
“The team also met with representatives from all Branches, we met with external partners (e.g., the Library, OPUC) and with arms-length organizations that IT supports (e.g., Airport, Gallery, Seniors), members of CLT and the majority of Council members. We also conducted an online survey with the public to seek their input on future digital service needs.” Page 13
“As we have discussed”, Page 22
“For the purposes of this report, we have extracted some of the information contained within the I&RM Strategy and made recommendations from an “IT lens”. Page 34
I recognize the Consultant’s professionalism and diligent work with city staff on this report. It is interesting and detailed. However, imo further edit would improve the Strategic Plan.

There's a new 300-square-foot garden display with over 1,000 encore red Begonias spelling out the words “THANK YOU” surrounded by a pink and white Begonia border.
This from the City's Twitter feed:
"Oshawa City staff designed the garden to create a display of gratitude to front line hospital workers, healthcare professionals and Lakeridge Health Oshawa staff. The garden honours their dedication to the health of our community members and their tremendous efforts during the coronavirus pandemic."
Although Oshawa City Councillors were not part of this decision, it's nice to see flowers and thank yous as they always bring smiles!