What did City Council do?

Six Nations Education and Training Session

Council received an education and training session from representatives from the Six Nations of the Grand River.  We learned about several historical treaties and agreements that were agreed upon starting in 1613 with the Two-Row Wampum.  This agreement was meant to represent two paths travelling down the same river.  Essentially acknowledging Haudenosaunee Law and Colonial Laws.  The 1701 Dish with One Spoon Treaty, which ended the fur trade wars was a treaty where both parties agreed to keep the dish clean, leave it better than how it was received and not to take more than was needed.  Other agreements worked with Indigenous Peoples to protect invasion from the French and to promote trade.  In 1784 the Haldimand Treaty agreed to give land six miles on either side of the Grand River.  It is close to one million acres of property, of which today less than 5% of the land is in Indigenous hands.  Subsequent laws such as the Indian Act in 1927 forbade the ability for Indigenous people to raise funds for treaty claims.  Since 1995 there has been a court case arguing that certain funds should have been held in trust for the benefit of six nations since 1784.  That case is ongoing and is between the Federal and Provincial government and six nations.  From a municipal lens, in 1982 the Canada Constitution Act affirmed existing treaty rights of Indigenous Peoples and implemented the legal ‘Duty to Consult’ on Indigenous land.  This authority is delegated down to municipalities by the Crown.  While consultation is a grey area; consultation ensures treaty rights, the Indigenous way of life, helps build relationships and trust and is ultimately the law.  Six-nations encouraged Council to establish a consultation and accommodations team to consult with six nations on every project.  A similar team is currently in progress in discussion with the Region of Waterloo and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to work towards this important reconciliation action.

Fireworks Bylaw Changes

To curb reckless behaviour and to reduce the number of complaints that staff receive, Council adopted a variety of measures to restrict the usage of fireworks in the City of Waterloo.  The three main changes to the bylaw aim to reduce the number of days where fireworks are permitted (only during the day of Chinese New Year, Victoria Day, Canada Day and Diwali), increasing the fines to $1,000 and $2,000 for repeat offenders and banning the sale of fireworks in the City of Waterloo.  Our counterparts in Kitchener implemented similar changes, with the aim for Regional consistency starting in January 2026.  Other municipalities such as Brampton, Caledon, Milton, Woodstock and others have banned the sale of fireworks, with most seeing an overall reduction in complaints over time (noting that it usually takes a year before the number of complaints drops).  Enforcing fireworks infractions can be a significant challenge.  Often the report is general (someone is setting off fireworks in this area) vs. specific (there is an infraction at XYZ address), the number of reports is significant and over a very short window and a number of these charges escalate beyond bylaw to police matters (assaults and improper vehicle usage).  I know that there are many folks for whom fireworks are a cherished pastime and an opportunity for friends, family and community to come together.  For others these dates create significant stress for those with pets, young children, shift workers and folks who suffer from PTSD.  All of that is not to mention the negative environmental impact of fireworks and firework litter, particularly in our Environmentally Sensitive Protected Areas.  Hopefully these bylaw changes encourage respectful behaviour, while still permitting carefully planned firework displays in an appropriate manner.  Staff and Council will continue to monitor the impacts over the course of 2026.

Albert McCormick Community Center (AMCC) Project

Council moved forward with Phase A of accessibility and energy efficiency improvements to AMCC.  These initial improvements will see the roof being replaced, mechanical and electrical upgrades as well as upgrades to washrooms and gender-neutral change rooms.  These improvements (partially supported by grant funding) will cost the City nearly $5 million and in addition to much needed upgrades will see a 100 tC02e reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, representing a 30% savings as compared to current operations.  These improvements will be completed in March of 2026.  Additionally, Council directed staff to come back to Council with options for a more significant improvement to AMCC.  These improvements would see an expanded library footprint, a multi-use community room and a full-sized commercial kitchen.  Currently there is funding set aside for AMCC improvements in the amount of $7.6 million.  In order to enact the full vision for the space, we will need $14.5 million.  Council directed staff to report back with some funding options to enact this vision, as upgrades to the library and community space are sorely needed at AMCC.

Former Kraus Land Disposition

Council approved of a city-owned land disposition at 911 University Avenue East to a local developer (Urban Legend) for $33.5 million.  As part of this land disposition 13.37 hectares of land will be developed into mixed use residential.  1,800 units will be developed in a 3 to 8 storey development, with 14% townhomes and 86% apartments.  Council secured 100 of these units to be developed as affordable units in perpetuity.  Additionally, a number of sustainable initiatives were secured, including passive solar roofs, green roofs, energy efficiency measures, community gardens and more.  A much-needed grocery store will also be built to support the East end of the city.  Council also required enhanced Indigenous consultation on this property, which includes a variety of additional environmental measures, advanced ecological work and a commitment to continue engage between the developer and six nations.  I look forward to seeing this project advance once the developer official takes ownership of the property.

Dearborn Expansion

Council approved a reallocation of $2 million in funding from the West Side Satellite Operation Centre project to help fund the expansion needed at the Waterloo Service Centre at 146 Dearborn.  The improvements to the Dearborn location will help with efficiency of service delivery across the city and will help support bringing this adjacent site to the existing service centre on board.  I will acknowledge that this means taking funding away from a project that was intended to enhance service for snow clearing and grass cutting on the west end of the city.  City staff acknowledge that there is still a need for a mini operations centre on the west end.  That said, the overall efficiency savings do not currently justify the cost needed to action this project.  As a result staff are looking at a variety of options, including short term – expanding the small service centre at Waterloo Park to cut down on travel times to the west end for sidewalk snow clearing and grass cutting; medium term – working with the Region of Waterloo on the potential for a west side salt dome in collaboration with the City of Kitchener, Region and Townships; and long term – performing a proper cost assessment and building this project into our new Development Charge bylaw to support improved service to the west end.

Bill 17 and Bill 5 Advocacy

A copy of the Bill 17 Motion can be found on Page 8, here.

Council advocated to the Province of Ontario on two Provincial Bills, Bill 17 “Protect Ontario by Building Faster and Smarter Act” and Bill 5 “Protect Ontario by Unleashing our Economy Act”.  Bill 5 is an unprecedented Bill that not only guts environmental protections by repealing the Endangered Species Act but also represents significant government overreach and tramples Indigenous rights.  City staff provided comments to the province on the damaging impacts of this Bill and Mayor McCabe committed to bringing some of these comments to advocacy at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.  Environmental protections and Indigenous rights must never be seen as ‘red tape’ to be cut in order to achieve economic development goals.

With respect to Bill 17, this Bill (among other things) targets municipalities abilities to implement Green Development Standards.  The City of Waterloo alongside our counterparts in the Region have been working on the creation of High-Performance Development Standards (HPDS) for the past five years.  Fifteen municipalities in Ontario have implemented similar standards to ensure that future building stock is built in an energy efficient manner.  In Waterloo, 45% of our GHG emissions come from buildings.  It is simply not possible to achieve our collective climate goals without improving building stock.  Moreover, building it right the first time is always the long-term more affordable option.  In this instance, more efficient buildings help conserve water, preserving our groundwater source and delaying the need to build a pipeline to Lake Erie.  We know that rental buildings in our community tend to be more energy efficient because the builder is also the long-term owner of the property and they take into account these operational energy savings.  Implementing HPDS forces condo developers to consider these same costs, not just passing those along to future owners.  While the Province is focused on building code, the Ontario Building Code is highly regressive on this topic.  The OBC is not aspirational, in the way that the BC Step Code is, it also doesn’t even meet Tier 3 of the National Building Code.  The building code represents the worst building that a developer is legally permitted to build, and I believe that Waterloo should aspire to more than that.  This is yet again another example of the province abdicating its responsibilities on climate action and municipalities filling the void and stepping up.  The elements of Bill 17 that remove municipalities right to enforce higher energy efficiency in development must be revisited.

Other Council Business

In other Council business, Councillor Wright introduced a motion related to reducing the amount of road salt that we use as a municipality.  We also received several reports providing Council updates on our Sustainability work, Culture Plan, Joint Services with our neighbouring municipalities, Age Friendly Action Plan and more.  Council reviewed a variety of financial reports, including our investments, progress on grant opportunities and the distribution of our 2024 operating surplus.  Council also received a thorough review of our approach to dealing with the ongoing tariff threat, both Corporately and within the local business community.  Lastly Council approved changes to our noise bylaw based on public engagement within the community.  If you’d like to discuss any of these items in more detail, don’t hesitate to reach out.

In The Community

Outside of the City of Waterloo Council chambers, I have been involved in spreading the word to the community on the revitalization of St. Moritz Park (https://www.engagewr.ca/st-moritz-park).  A community event was held at the park on April 22^nd and I have been out knocking on doors to make sure that residents in the area are aware of the plans.  If you haven’t yet provided your feedback to the City on your visions for this new updated park space, please check out the EngageWR link above.

Clair Hills hosted their AGM at Albert McCormick and it was awesome to see so many community members out, enjoying each other’s company, participating in a free skate and having fun in the community room.  City Council also hosted a community fun day at Waterloo Memorial Rec Centre, where residents had the chance to connect with Mayor McCabe and Council and enjoy a free skate.

Mayor McCabe hosted the annual State of the City event at Wilfrid Laurier University.  It was a wonderful day to reflect on the accomplishments of the City over the past year and look forward to new and exciting projects on the horizon.  Additionally, this event is where our Grade 5 Council for the Day winners get to share their ideas for the City.  This year’s Mayor and Ward 2 Councillor both came from Edna Staebler and it was a really wonderful opportunity to meet them and their parents and to participate in a mock City Council meeting at city hall.

Take care