APPROVED MINUTES

 GCA Board Meeting
Tuesday, January 23, 2024
Via ZOOM

 Chair: June Creelman, Vice President
Secretary and timekeeper: Janet Sutherland 

Participating Board members: June Creelman, David Kelly, Janet Sutherland; Elizabeth Ballard, Bob Brocklebank, Dan Chook Reid, Maggie Gorman Velez, Rochelle Handelman, Christina Honeywell-Dobbin, Angela Keller-Herzog, Deborah Long, Angus McCabe, Genevieve McInnes, Matt Meagher, William Price, Catherine Waters, Della Wilkinson.

Regrets: John Crump, Colette Downie; Martha Bowers, Dan Chook Reid, Laurent Carbonneau, Anthony Carricato, Maggie Gorman Velez, Vaughn Guy, Christina Honeywell- Dobbin, Carolyn Mackenzie, Carol MacLeod, Janna Rinaldi, Laura Smith, James Stuewe, Elspeth Tory, Judy Wilson.

Community Members: Robert Bell, Terry Chillibeck, Dave Coyle, John Humphries, Bill & Linda MacGowan, Randal Marlin, Jonathan McLeod (Councillor’s office), Mike Newman, Brenda Perra, Barbara Popel (DLRA), Michael Tiger, Richard Wagner.

Welcome and Opening Remarks

Vice President June Creelman opened the meeting and welcomed Board members and members of the community in attendance. She noted that President John Crump was traveling for work and therefore unable to attend the meeting. A round of introductions was conducted and quorum was confirmed.

Consent Agenda

 The agenda for the meeting was amended to defer the report and motion from the Transportation Committee. The revised agenda and minutes of November 28, 2023 were approved by consensus.

Report from the City Councillor’s Office – Councillor Shawn Menard was represented at the meeting by Jonathan McLeod who provided the following updates:

  • Sound barriers will be in place along the 417 at Bronson and Percy by fall 2024 and at Percy and Kent by the East of Kent is the focus for the next phase of this MOT project.
  • Snow removal crews are out and cleaning the streets after the latest
  • City’s Active Transportation Study – Plans for stakeholder meetings and public consultation are underway to discuss transit and transportation on Bank The GCA is an important stakeholder. Councillor Menard may hold additional public engagement meetings and will take the Glebe’s Active Transportation Study under consideration to inform the City’s process.
  • Aberdeen Pavilion Roof Replacement – portions of the roof are being replaced as part of lifecycle management.
  • Chamberlain realignment – Ministry of Transportation communications have been challenging, and they are not willing to collaborate with City to expand the park, add bike lanes, and improve signage and sidewalks. They see it as the City’s The Councillor will work to push the City to do what needs to be done. Chamberlain and Isabella is the next section to be re-done.

In the discussion that followed, it was noted by a Board member that Bank Street has been a transit priority for the City for 20 years but there has been no investment. Same with Bronson Avenue. When changes are made to the street, it has to benefit transit.

COMMITTEE REPORTS:

The Chair called upon Elizabeth Ballard of the Membership Committee to put forward the motion regarding appointment of new Board members. It was noted that the bylaws make provision for the Board to fill any vacancies in advance of the next Annual General Meeting.

MOVED/SECONDED (Elizabeth Ballard, Carolyn MacKenzie) that the following persons be appointed to the GCA Board of Directors:

  • Brenda Perras as Area Representative for Area 3B (Church District), and
  • Bob Strachan as Area Representative for Area 1 (Dow’s Lake), subject to confirmation of his consent as required by the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations

MOTION CARRIED.

Della Wilkinson of the Environment Committee provided an update on the six workshops planned in collaboration with CAFES Ottawa (Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability) on the following topics:

  1. Homes & Energy – Saturday Jan 27, 2024
  2. Reducing Your Carbon Footprint – Saturday Feb 24, 2024
  3. Greenspace & Water Management – Sunday Mar 24, 2024
  4. Transportation – Saturday Apr 27, 2024
  5. Responsible Consumption – Sunday May 5, 2024
  6. Climate Risk – Basement Flooding – Saturday June 8th, 2024

Bob Brocklebank agreed to facilitate connection with communications directors via the Federation of Community Associations to help promote the workshops.

Deborah Young, Co-Chair of the Health, Housing and Social Services Committee reported on the responses received to date to the letters from the GCA sent to federal government officials on the issue of funding for emergency shelters and housing. While there is no response from the City yet, two letters have been received from respective federal ministers. It was recently announced that the City of Ottawa will be receiving federal funding for emergency housing. On the issue of needle clean up, Public Health Ottawa has responded with a detailed letter. As with reporting crime to the Police, all incidents should be reported to 311 so that the City has data to support future planning and response. A meeting was held with the Glebe BIA and GNAG to develop a community resource to help residents and business owners know who to call to respond to various incidents. The BIA is producing an infographic with this information which should be available in the coming weeks. Additionally, a joint workshop/educational session is being planned for spring 2024 in collaboration with our Ottawa Police Services Community Liaison officer.

Carolyn MacKenzie, Chair of the Planning Committee and member of the Lansdowne Committee, was invited to introduce the motion regarding the Lansdowne appeal. She made the following points regarding the launch of the appeal by the GCA:

  • The GCA is trying to improve the Lansdowne redevelopment proposal – we are not against housing or public attractions at Lansdowne;
  • It is misunderstood that the GCA is against affordable housing on the site – it is not true!
  • The appeal was launched to address the loss of green space and the height of the proposed towers (i.e. the scale of housing);
  • The appeal will not delay the addition of housing stock in Ottawa as the current proposal indicates it will be 2030-31 before the towers would be built;
  • The issue is that the City’s own urban design and policies have not been followed; and
  • The GCA has been able to influence developments through an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal in the past (eg. Amica The Glebe development was improved in response to the GCA’s appeal).

MOTIONS

 1. Lansdowne Committee

Whereas at its November 28, 2023 meeting, the GCA board approved spending up to $5,000 to obtain legal and planning advice on whether the GCA had reasonable grounds for an appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal of Lansdowne’s rezoning and official plan amendment;

Whereas the Board also approved delegating the final decision on whether to file an appeal to the Executive given the filing deadline of December 14, 2023;

Whereas both the Old Ottawa East and Old Ottawa South Community Associations supported an appeal and Old Ottawa East made a financial contribution to the effort;

Whereas after learning that there were reasonable grounds for an appeal, the Executive consented to the GCA going forward with an appeal;

Whereas the GCA filed an appeal of both the rezoning and Official Plan Amendment for Lansdowne to the Ontario Land Tribunal; and

Whereas it is estimated that the costs of an appeal could be in the range of $35,000 to $50,0000 to retain the services of legal and planning experts;

Be it resolved that the GCA:

  • create a separate bank account and launch a city-wide fundraising campaign to raise funds to cover the costs of this appeal, and
  • provide monthly updates to the GCA Board on the progress of the fundraising and the project.

MOVED/SECONDED: Carolyn MacKenzie/Bob Brocklebank. Carried. Motion APPROVED.

SPECIAL UPDATES:

Robert Bell from the Dow’s Lake Resident Association presented an overview of lessons learned in lobbying for the improvement of development plans for 770-774 Bronson and 557 Cambridge Street. The GCA collaborated and contributed to the cost of legal counsel in the process which was successful in making positive changes to the overall project. A summary of learnings included the following:

  • Start early to engage all stakeholders, Counsellor, Community, City Planners, Developer
  • Engage professional help if you DLRA, GCA and Residents funded legal costs
  • Focus on planning issues
  • Influence what will most impact the community
  • Development will happen
  • Bill 23 reduces role of municipal politicians on development City Planning professionals will make the planning decisions.

Barbara Popel, Chair of the Bronson Team (made up of 2 representatives each from the GCA, the Dow’s Lake Residents’ Association and the Glebe Annex Community Association), provided an update on the actions to improve traffic safety on Bronson Avenue. She highlighted a resident survey on proposed solutions that has been distributed through the GCA, Glebe Annex and Dow’s Lake Residents’ Association. The results to date are favourable to the Bronson Team’s proposals. Barbara acknowledged the support from Councillor Menard’s office and asked the GCA to write a letter of support for his request for a red light camera and photo radar on Bronson Avenue. The request was referred to the GCA Transportation Committee.

As Chair of the Dow’s Lake Residents’ Association, Barbara Popel went on to report on The Ottawa Hospital Traffic Monitoring Strategy. There are concerns about the impact of cut- through traffic in the Glebe and Dow’s Lake areas that could result. The advice is to get ahead of this potential problem by asking for ‘no parking’ on streets, similar to what exists near the Civic Campus. She recommended the strategy report be referred to the GCA Transportation Committee.

Bob Brocklebank, representing the Federation of Community Associations, spoke on the inconsistencies of the City of Ottawa’s insurance program for community associations. General liability insurance has been provided to some groups but not all. The GCA buys our own liability insurance (which must supplemented for special projects such as the Sustainability Workshops), but GNAG is covered by the City program. There is some consideration by the City to do away with the insurance program and rethink the insurance requirement for special events. Consultations are underway now and there will be a City staff report on future directions and next steps. Bob will continue a ‘watching brief’ on this issue.

CLOSING REMARKS – In closing the meeting, June made a pitch to recruit a captain and team members for the Capital Ward Cup. Angus McCabe offered to help recruit team members.

June also reported on a meeting with MP Yassir Naqvi who invited members of the GCA Execuitve to discuss a variety of cross-jurisdictional issues (housing, Lansdowne, Queen Elizabeth Drive). He is supportive of getting federal funding for an affordable housing initiative at Chamberlain and Bank Street and will assist in accessing funds. He is also willing to pull together a meeting of federal-provincial-NCC colleagues to discuss such issues with our neighbouring community associations if the GCA will consider organizing it.

June thanked everyone for attending and for their participation in the discussions.

NEXT MEETING:  Tuesday February 27th at the Glebe Community Centre.

 ADJOURNMENT: Moved by Catherine Waters to adjourn the meeting. Carried. The meeting was adjourned at 9:10 p.m.