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Present: John Schitka
Judy Stephens -Wells
Amber Sare
Staff: Laurie Majcher
Regrets: Roberto Villamar
Birgit Heilig
Lori Trumper
Jenn Grein
Jeff Brown
The meeting began at 4:05 p.m. with John Schitka in chair.
COMPASS KITCHENER MINUTES
June 7, 2017 — 4:00-6:00
Schmalz Room, KITCHENER CITY HALL
Leyton Collins
Lynn Gazzola
Josh Joseph
1. Review of March Agenda
On motion by Judy Stephens -Wells, Seconded by Adam Hammoud, it was resolved:
"That the agenda for June 7, 2017 be accepted."
2. Review of March minutes
On motion by Tangul Bilgehan, Seconded by Adam Hammoud, it was resolved:
"That the minutes from May 3, 2017 be adopted."
3. Follow up to Minutes
E Nothing at this time.
Adam Hammoud
TangulBilgehan
Carried Unanimously
Carried Unanimously
4. Community Engagemen
• Josh reviewed information shared on ShareFile for community engagement on the Strategic Plan. He touched on
the overview and background, providing a summary of the work completed by the committee over the last number
of meetings within each of the first three steps: Define the context, purpose and objectives of the engagement;
Understand the whole community and barriers to their participation; and Design and implement the appropriate
methods of engagement and communications. He shared the branding developed by Communications and
Marketing, noting some of the difficulties of past campaigns, and how learnings have been integrated into this new
design.
• Members provided feedback on the branding as outlined. It was suggested that a hashtag or url be included to
encourage action, although this could intimidate anyone who is not active on social media. Further, it may look more
balanced if the word bubble was an outline only, with gradient removed. The committee debated the punctuation
used, and suggested it would look better without the periods.
• Many ideas were considered for ways to engage the public, including simple clean and crisp business card with
logo on one side and a question on the other; sale of shirts with logo to encourage more people to be involved; use
of high school students with volunteer hours to engage public; direct mailing; fridge magnets; advertisements on
social media; engagement of large businesses; share through bill inserts; lunch and learn event at local businesses;
bring food to entice people to engage; and face to face engagement at summer festivals and events, which has
been the most successful approach used in the past.
• Adam to clarify and document suggestion for engaging students to engage the community. This will be considered
further at the next meeting.
• Laurie shared some of the experiences from the last campaign.
September Presentation to Council
• Laurie outlined the requirements for development of a report for council. Overall focus will be on Strategic Planning
process, which includes work that this committee has completed thus far in preparation for engaging the community
on the strategic plan. She advised the presentation may now be scheduled for October due to timelines and the
potential for another survey being considered.
• Leyton to form report content directed to council outlining conclusions of what committee would like to see city
compete. He intends to provide document prior to next meeting for circulation with the agenda and feedback from
the committee.
6. Strategic Action Plan
Open Government
June 7, 2017 2 CITY OF KITCHENER
■ As part of our Customer Service Strategy, our Corporate Leadership Team recently approved a new Complaints
Management Policy and Complaints Management Procedure for staff that is intended to formalize our approach -
across the corporation - for how we deal with complaints from citizens.
■ These new documents help us to make our complaints management practices more consistent across all of our
divisions and departments so that no matter what channel a citizen may come to us through — or what division they
may be reaching out to — they can expect that their complaint or concern will be handled in the same way.
■ The customer is not always right ... but they are always the customer. At the end of the day, it's really less about
whether the customer is right and more about how important the quality of their interaction with us, and how we
choose to handle their concerns or complaints. That always matters.
Strong and Resilient Economy
■ Ontario is taking the next step to build a high-speed rail line that will connect Windsor, London, Kitchener -Waterloo,
and Toronto, which will improve travel options, reduce travel time and create jobs by getting people moving.
■ Some of the key points in the consultants' feasibility study include: A high speed train from London to Toronto
would reach top speeds of 320 km/hr, with two trains running an hour all -day from London to Toronto's Union
Station for a total of 56 trains daily. The high speed rail line would attract about 6 million passengers a year,
offering both business and economy class fares by 2025. Fares would average $40 from London to Toronto. It's not
clear if that cost would include a fare for the Union Pearson Express, the link between Pearson airport and Union
Station.
■ Click here for more information on the role the City of Kitchener plays in municipal advocacy for improved rail
SPrvir.P
Safe & Thriving Neighbourhoods
■ Council endorsed Kitchener's Age Friendly Action Plan, the city's first plan created in collaboration with older adult
community members designed to create an age friendly community through 19 key actions.
■ The Plan focuses on four themes: Accessible and Affordable Neighbourhoods, Access to Information, Belonging,
and Connectedness and Well Being. It includes ideas like the implementation of age -friendly parks, trails and
outdoor spaces, transportation training programs, improving availability and access of information and technological
literacy, inclusive volunteering opportunities and more.
■ Close to 1,200 older adults provided feedback that was included in the report. With council's approval, attention will
now turn to developing a comprehensive implementation plan to address the action and guide staff work over the
next five years.
■ Click here to read the full Age Friendly Community report.
■ Kitchener council unanimously approved new policies that provide incentives to support the development of
affordable housing in the city.
■ The approved local -level development incentives will come into effect on July 1St and are targeted at not-for-profit
housing, providing benefit to private developments where a portion of units are affordable rental housing
units. Specifically, the new policy provides for: A delay in the payment of development charges; and waiving
building permit and planning fees.
■ This is in addition to staff continuing to work on other incentives such as bonusing and reduced parking
requirements for affordable housing. Recognizing that the Region of Waterloo is the municipality with the lead role
in affordable housing, council further directed staff to continue working with the Region on additional incentives that
can be implemented to further improve access to affordable housing.
■ To read more about the new development incentives for affordable housing, click here (Item CSD -17-034).
Sustainable Environment & Infrastructure
■ At the Sustainable Waterloo Region's Evening of Recognition on April 27th the City of Kitchener was honoured with
two awards: the 2016 TravelWise Leadership and Innovation award for the development of a suite of customized
sustainable commuting resources for employees and interactive events that raise awareness about sustainable
commuting; and, the SWR Sustainability Promoter of the Year for our leadership in the development or
implementation of sustainability policies and practices.
■ The second is specifically focused on proposed changes to our zoning by-law to incorporate sustainable
transportation and environmentally friendly initiatives in new development, such as secure bicycle parking, removing
parking minimum requirements, green walls, designing buildings for future electric vehicle charging stations, and
many more.
■ Click here to read the SWR Annual Report which highlights the many ways the City of Kitchener and others are
making progress on sustainability.
Effective & Efficient City Services
■ Digital Kitchener just won the Willis Award for Innovation at the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators
Conference on May 31St. The digital strategy presents a renewed vision to guide the work of the city's Information
Technology Division both internally (corporate facing) and externally (community facing) over the next four years.
Actions that will begin implementation in 2017 include: the development of a minimum standard for access to free
June 7, 2017
CITY OF KITCHENER
public internet; development of a narrowband smart city IoT network; and establishing the Civic Innovation Lab at
the Communitech Hub.
■ The Willis Award for Innovation is presented for programs, projects or services that demonstrate exceptional
innovation or meritorious initiative.
■ http://www.camacam.ca/news/nine-canadian-municipalities-win-national-awards-excellence
■ John highlighted the importance of staying up to date on the information provided within this agenda item monthly.
With a significant amount of information to consume, it will be vital when the Report Card comes up later in the
year/early 2018.
Working Groups Update
■ Report Card Working Group is open to additional members if anyone from the committee is interested. Please let
John, Judy, Laurie or Jenn know.
■ Community Survey Working Group will begin their work in September. Information is already on Sharefile for
consideration of how it was completed in the past and Laurie is happy to provide further information if desired.
Please start considering meeting times, who will play which role, and prepare to begin meeting. Laurie advised
there are a number of members in this working group, as such, it may be wise to consider a standard meeting time
and/or limiting the number of participants in order to be effective.
■ Laurie indicated it may be worthwhile to have a meeting before September for both of the above two committees to
consider the overall process and get a grasp on the amount of work that will need to be completed.
■ Advisory Committee Gathering (fall) will be meeting after the full committee meeting is adjourned.
8. Other Business
■ July/August meeting — send out meeting invite two weeks before, see how many people accept, then proceed with
agenda if quorum can be reached.
■ Neighbourhood Events June 10th! Many free events taking place across the city!
9. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 5:44 p.m.
Moved by Adam Hammoud, seconded by Birgit Heilig.
Next Meeting: July 5, 2017 and/or August 2, 2017
Location: Schmalz Room