What did City Council do?

Region of Waterloo Speed Camera Education Session 

Council received an education session on the Region of Waterloo’s speed camera program.  The Region is looking to expand the program by 36 cameras per year until 2028.  Currently there are 4 cameras in use across the Region, rotating amongst 16 locations, including one in Ward 2 (Laurelwood Drive in front of St. Nicholas).  As they seek to expand the program, they are also looking to change the program from a POA system to an AMP system.  This will allow residents to dispute tickets at Regional Headquarters, as opposed to having to utilize the Provincial court system.  This will also allow Regional staff to make decisions around fine forgiveness, particularly in the instance of low income residents.  All funds generated that go over and above the cost to administer the program will be put into the Region’s Road Safety Reserve Fund and could be used to improve traffic safety at high risk areas (for example at the Erb/Erbsville roundabout).

Although this is a Regional initiative, I am a huge proponent of the program, as it has been proven to be an extremely effective tool in changing driver behaviour and is the lowest cost method of improving traffic safety in our community.  Speed cameras are an important tool in our Vision Zero commitment of zero fatalities on city streets.  Studies from around the world have shown that average speeds drop by up to 15 percent, collisions drop between 14 and 25 percent, with corresponding reductions in injuries and deaths.  In particular they have been proven to reduce ‘high-end’ speeders by as much as 70 percent or more.  Lastly, we have also seen instances where a ‘halo effect’ of reducing speeds in nearby areas without the cameras has been proven as well.

On Laurelwood in particular we have already begun to see that behaviour change, whereas this was the street that I received the most concerns around traffic safety in my first term, it has improved dramatically with the reduced speed limits and camera enforcement.  In 2019 the 85^th percentile speed on Laurelwood was over 60km/hr, after the cameras have been installed that speed has dropped to 38km/hr, with no other changes to the design of the road.  Ideally, this behaviour change is long lasting and leads to no tickets actually being issued.  However, when we have some residents driving 80km/hr in this 30km/hr zone at 7:51am on a school day (as Regional staff informed us at Council), the safety of our most vulnerable residents must take precedence.  I am looking forward to having more of these cameras installed across the City of Waterloo in school zones in the coming years.

OP Review

The City of Waterloo is in the midst of updating our Official Plan (https://www.engagewr.ca/waterloo-official-plan).  Currently the City is reviewing land use policies within the Official Plan amongst other elements of the plan.  There have been a number of public engagement sessions over the past couple of months, including a number of public Council delegations.  During these delegations we have heard support for increasing the amount of neighbourhood or ‘convenience’ commercial uses within our neighbourhoods, adjustments to proposals to allow mixed use development in certain areas where it is currently restricted, increases to height permissions being proposed in Major Transit Station Areas (MTSA) and support for eliminating parking minimums within development outside of MTSAs.  Staff are targeting Council approval of these sections of our Official Plan by the end of this year, so please provide your comments through the engagewr platform link highlighted above.

Reconciliation, Equity, Accessibility, Diversity and Inclusion (READI) Plan

Council approved our first ever ‘Get READI’ Plan.  This aspirational plan has a connected implementation plan to be released in 2025.  It focuses on six priority areas over the next five years:

• Improve Indigenous relations and foster reconciliation
• Enhance the built environment
• Cultivate a culture of belonging
• Increase diversity of staff and leadership
• Focus on equitable distribution of resources
• Build trust through systems of accountability

Across these six priority areas there are 26 actions including; Developing a Reconciliation Action Plan, Developing a funding plan for accessibility of interior/exterior spaces, Proactively addressing hate in our community, and many more.  In the City of Waterloo we have a significant percentage of equity-denied groups including; 35% racialized, 1.5% Indigenous, 53% non-Christian, 4% refugee, and 27% immigrant.  The development and implementation of this plan aims for the City of Waterloo to be leaders in cultivating a community with a high sense of belonging, where we speak out against discrimination, advance reconciliation, strive for greater representation and engagement, and focus on equitable resource distribution.

Housing Enabling Water Systems Fund Application

Council approved an application to the Housing Enabling Water Systems (HEWS) Fund for reconstruction work on Beaver Creek Road and Conservation Drive.  This is the second intake for this fund from the Provincial government, intended to help support municipalities with infrastructure funding in support of new housing.  In round 1 of this intake the City was unfortunately unsuccessful.  For the second round we have revised our grant application in the hopes of increasing our chances of being successful.  We are applying for $6.8M through HEWS and additionally are applying to a new Housing Enabling Core Services (HECS) Fund in the amount of $5.1M.  This founding will help assist the City of Waterloo in enabling 3,400 new housing units in the Northwest corner of Waterloo.  The total cost of the infrastructure work needed is $68.3M, with $56.8M being eligible under Development Charges.  Should the City be successful in this grant application it will significantly reduce the financial risk associated with this work.

Fireworks

Council directed staff to work with local area municipalities as they are considering a coordinated approach towards potential changes to our fireworks bylaw.  The City of Waterloo revised our bylaw in 2021, which reduced the times, days and locations in which fireworks would be permitted.  Additionally the City committed to moving our public displays towards drone shows.  In spite of these efforts we continue to receive numerous complaints and concerns related to improper usage of fireworks.  With this Council direction we are seeking to get feedback from staff in 2025 that reviews municipalities in which more stringent regulations have been implemented, to potentially inform further adjustments to the bylaw.

Neighbourhood Splash Pad Tenders

Council approved the final tender for two neighbourhood splash pads, plus washroom facilities in the City of Waterloo.  This includes the new splash pad facility at Blue Beech (https://www.engagewr.ca/blue-beech-link-spraypad).  The total cost for both projects is $1.5M, with construction planned to begin this Fall and completion by June 1^st of next year.  This new facility of course prioritizes water play, but also has shade, seating and washroom facilities as well.  This is going to be a wonderful new gathering space for folks in the neighbourhood and I can’t wait for it to officially open.

Other Council Business

In other Council business, a number of transportation projects had funding released to improve intersections, implement our trails master plan and more.  We also applied for a number of Federal grants related to growing our community tree canopy, improving climate adaptation in our city, improving community sports and recreation infrastructure and improving the climate and accessibility performance in community buildings (those last two relate to Moses Springer, Albert McCormick and RIM Park).  The City ourselves also approved our first ever grant applications for affordable housing in our community to two organizations seeking to increase the number of affordable units within their portfolio.  The City received our 2024 budget projection, showing that we are anticipating a projected surplus of approximately $800,000.  We received an update on the City’s affordable housing project at 2025 University Avenue, with a number of expressions of interest received.  Finally we reviewed a number of informal development applications including; at 20 University Ave, on Woolwich and on Dunbar, while formally approving development applications on Hickory and on Sunview.  If you’d like to discuss any of these items in more detail, don’t hesitate to reach out.

In The Community

I had the great pleasure of attending the opening of a new Indigenous gathering space at the University of Waterloo on National Indigenous Peoples day on September 30^th.  It was a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the meaning of the day, the progress we have made and the incredible amount of Truth and Reconciliation work that still needs to be done.  I had the pleasure of representing the City of Waterloo at the SOCA cricket association gala, where cricket athletes gathered together to celebrate the achievements of their individual athletes and teams in the community.  Public engagement opportunities involved the new proposed Wood Lily park being built in Vista Hills and a broader Community Conversation with Mayor McCabe in Ward 2.  I always welcome the opportunity to connect with community members to discuss specific projects or broader initiatives across the City of Waterloo.  I thank the Mayor for bringing this official engagement initiative to Ward 2.  If anyone would like to get together to chat about anything happening either in your neighbourhood or across the City, don’t hesitate to reach out to connect.

Our neighbourhoods continue to do incredible work in our community, whether officially through their neighbourhood associations or on their own.  In Vista Hills, an incredible Diwali event was held at RIM Park with nearly 300 individuals from Vista Hills celebrating and sharing in this wonderful cultural event.  Laurelwood brought back their annual Halloween gathering at Laurel Heights and Clair Hills hosted a ‘farewell’ event at St. Moritz Park.  It is so wonderful to see everyone gather together, support each other and build community here in Ward 2.  Upcoming events include Laurelwood’s annual Christmas tree lighting at the Fire Station on December 7^th; Clair Hills is hosting an information session on November 14^th for those seeking to keep the neighbourhood association active (https://www.facebook.com/events/570080508768741/?ref=newsfeed) and Vista Hills is hosting their AGM for the neighbourhood association on November 26^th (https://vistahillswaterloo.ca/vistahills/2024-VHCA-Annual-General-Meeting-12cdb166885a804d8885e02d65ccc834).  Take these opportunities to get involved in your community if you can.

Take care