Council News
It's all about the Region of Waterloo this week
The Council updates usually include updates from several local council meetings, and that will arrive in your inboxes in a couple of weeks. However, there was just so much discussed in the March 7th Regional Council meeting, it deserves an entire post to itself. Topics at that meeting included transit, roads, population and housing updates, and much more. I mean, look at this very full agenda! I will do my best to include occasional time stamps for those wanting to dig a little deeper. This post follows the order of the agenda, not the order that items are discussed, so you may need to jump around a bit.
Council heard a presentation from Paula Whitlow (starting at ~44:00), the region’s Truth and Reconciliation director on the ‘Indigenous Space Needs Final Report’ which you can view here.
Paula Whitlow outlined the goals of this work, as outlined in this slide.
You can also click to view the staff report, which summarizes the report’s findings as:
Of the (23 individuals from)18 organizations consulted, “the majority of participants indicated the barriers to access are largely centred around access to land, particularly ceremonial land that is not used for other purposes and does not come with liability issues and/or limiting restrictions.”
Many indicated “a clear lack of accessibility and knowledge of how to navigate city processes, knowing who to call or where to find information, in addition to bureaucracy and “red tape” in accessing spaces.”
As reported in the WR Record, “Groups that participated in the survey include Healing of the Seven Generations, Anishnabeg Outreach, White Owl Native Ancestry, Landback Camp, Crowshield Lodge and KW Urban Native Wigwam Project.”
The majority of respondents suggest the space needs “to be a permanent community hub, adequately sized, near water/nature and easily accessed via public transportation.”
Regarding specific needs around the space, the staff report notes that the space should include:
Accessible physical indoor space
Recreational, cultural and sustaining opportunities on the natural land
Physical space that is inclusive for two-spirited peoples, those with disabilities, and that reflects cultural heritage of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit Peoples.
Space that supports Indigenous gifts, abilities and way of life
Centralized wrap-around services
“Next steps in the region’s Truth and Reconciliation Action Plan involve identifying potential spaces, which could happen as early as this summer, Whitlow said.” As well, additional recommendations state that the document guides future decisions and further engagement is still needed.
Immediately after that presentation, Council heard a staff presentation (starting at ~58:00) on the Charles Street Terminal Visioning Process. The staff report notes that this project “aims to deliver a redevelopment plan based on four (4) community driven guiding principles which have been approved by Council, including Affordable Housing; Climate Action; Equity, Diversity and Inclusion; and, Thriving Economy.”
The staff report states that there are “environmental concerns in both soil and groundwater at the site.” While these are not insurmountable, they may add ‘complexities’ to redevelopment of the site.
Staff outlined the engagement process to date. In particular, they highlighted two surveys: the first (~1000 respondents) served to “validate the priorities, or guiding principles, established by the City of Kitchener and Region which include economic prosperity, affordable housing, environmental sustainability and equity, diversity and inclusion.”
The second survey (~500 respondents) focused on ‘identifying needs’ and “was developed to ‘meet community where they are’.”
That was for ‘information only’ and so no motion or vote was needed.
The Region is hiring ‘community connectors’ as part of their ongoing engagement. These are paid roles, which is great. Unfortunately, today is the last day to apply. You can learn more about the Charles Street Visioning Project on EngageWR.
The next item, ‘Population and Household Estimates for Waterloo Region’, was also for information only (starting at ~1:30:30). The staff report says that the total population of “Waterloo Region is estimated at 647,540 as of year-end 2022, including university and college students who would normally be residing in the Region while they study at our local institutions. This is an increase of 14,950 people (2.3 per cent) from year-end 2021.” That translates to approximately “232,540 households, which is an increase of 5,120 new households occupied since 2021, a growth rate of 2.25 per cent.” If data and charts are your thing, you can check these out.
The staff presentation (you can see the entire slide deck here) outlined the Region’s basic approach to growth over the next 30 years.
Staff also highlighted the housing density in 2021 (first circle below). The third circle represents the expected make-up of housing density in 2051. The middle circle shows the mix of housing density that needs to be built over the next 30 years to get us there.
Council actually started the meeting by discussing the Lancaster Street and Highway 85 Ramp Closure Environmental Assessment Study (starting at ~4:00). This item does actually have a motion attached to it, which essentially asks Council “to endorse the permanent closure of both ramps at the Highway 85 and Lancaster Street interchange in the City of Kitchener.” Staff noted that from an MTO perspective “these ramps are not performing well for either traffic flow nor safety.” In fact, the Lancaster ramps have four times the number of collisions than what’s expected on similar ramps (that don’t have the weaving of traffic). Staff also reminded Council that the Lancaster St corridor is a critical North-South connector for the cycling network. The staff report states, “The free-flow ramps create an uncomfortable condition for cyclists and walkers.”
Lastly, staff informed Council that these ramps have very low usage, saying that we see about ten times the traffic on the other ramps. “About 27,000 vehicles use the Bridgeport ramp every day; about 5,000 vehicles use the Lancaster ramps daily.”
This item generated some discussion. Mayor Vrbanovic said that this is a ‘significant change’ and thinks that much more engagement is warranted, especially from Kitchener Council. He’d like to defer this motion until Kitchener councillors have a chance to discuss it at council. Mayor McCabe was not interested in delaying this any further, claiming, “This has been a months and months engagement process.” The motion is eventually deferred, with the intention that it will return to Regional Council as soon as possible, and no later than April 4th, 2023.
There is still one more major item that was discussed at this meeting - ION LRT Winter Operations (starting at ~2:03:00). Staff informed Council that while there have been a couple of major disruptions for ion riders recently, overall, Keolis is meeting their service level targets (98%) with 95% of trips arriving within 3 minutes of the scheduled time. Although the weather disruptions to ion service have caught the attention of some, collisions are actually the main source of disruptions, with 700+ trips missed due to collisions. Cancellations and delays due to weather account for about half of what we see with collisions. Ion carries more than 450,000 people every month.
Staff stated that the LRT has very good performance in snow but not so much with freezing rain, as we have seen recently. Keolis staff say that the longer the trains aren’t running (such as overnight), the more ice that builds up, which causes more problems. Tactics used this year to address freezing rain included “installing a scraper device on top of the train to cut through the ice and stop ice buildup.” Only about one-third of trains have this currently, with more coming before next season. Wires were also ‘painted’ with de-icer using paint rollers, when trains were not operating. Apparently the TTC also uses this method at times.
Improvements are being made but are not likely to be fully implemented until next winter season. When asked why the weather has been such a challenge when similar trains operate in other cold climates, Richard Dean (general manager of Keolis) explained that many of those countries experience a lot of snow, but freezing rain is far less common than what we are seeing locally.
Councillor Williams asked if running trains more frequently (including overnight) would help keep ice off of the wires and Dean responded that it definitely can. However, he said that may come with additional challenges such as higher costs and challenges around maintenance of the fleet.
Waterloo Mayor Dorothy McCabe reminded Council that “the ion system works really well and two disruptive instances in four years is not a lot compared to the regularity of car crashes and road closures.”
Thanks to everyone who participated in last week’s poll regarding the frequency of Citified posts. Based on the feedback I received, I’m generally going to aim for 3 posts per month (It was a pretty even split between ‘once a week’ and ‘twice a month’. I also want to remind you, that there is a ‘paid subscription’ option for those interested and able to financially support the work that goes into creating this newsletter. Thanks for your support!
Glad to see the Ion service disruptions put in context, and happy to see that they have some solutions that they can put in place. Now, if only we can get people to stop driving cars into the trains....
Thank you for taking this time to keep us informed!!