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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCompass - 2008-05-07 COMPASS KITCHENER COMMITTEE MINUTES May 7, 2008 CITY OF KITCHENER The Compass Kitchener Committee met on this date, commencing at 4:00 p.m. Present: Theron Kramer, Kim Knowles, Norm Damaren, Pat Doherty, Staff: Shelley Adams, Jenn Walter, Corina Tasker, Abbie Grafstein, Rod Regier, Terry Boutilier, Cheryl York Regrets: Don Bourgeois, Sarah Marsh, Jasminka Klacar, Mike Harris, Susan St. John, Roxana Stanciu, Laura Lee Dam (on leave) Theron welcomed all to the meeting as chair, in absence of Don Bourgeois. One additional item has been added to the agenda as the final discussion topic – a response received from Elizabeth Witmer in response to the letter sent out to MP’s and MPP’s. At the last meeting, the committee reviewed the draft report card, indicating several areas in which clarification would be beneficial. The first three items on the agenda will provide this clarification. 1. Economic Development ? There were two areas that the committee requested additional information on under Economic Development: Manufacturing Clusters and Digital Media. Rod joined the committee to answer any questions and provide info on both items. ? Manufacturing Clusters – Due to many worldly factors, we are at a substantial shift in manufacturing, o municipalities have small amount of leeway, flexibility, or change ability. The City has the ability to facilitate the development of the cluster. It has been o monitored closely, and staff have found that smaller to medium sized manufactures were overall more optimistic, with the majority predicting this year would be positive with increases in jobs, revenue, etc. rather then see a decline as initial thought. The manufacturers are general quite candid in these meetings with members of the o Economic Development Advisory Committee, so results should be credible. One main factor in the manufacturing cluster is to improve connectivity between o manufacturers. This connection will assist with moving forward into the future. Copy of Visitation Report attached: o C:\Documents and Settings\jenng\Desktop\ED_CorporateVisitationPublication_2008.pdf Digital Media The city has been working with Communitech, the University of Waterloo, and a number o of corporate and community partners (eg. Christie Digital) in the development of a proposal to establish a digital media centre. The group is working to promote an evolution of the project to harness the technological o capacity of firms and people in the region to support small and med sized firms in digital media. There are numerous software firms in the area, and the group is working on build a o digital media ‘sandbox’ where many firms can play! 2. Culture Plan II May 7, 2008 CITY OF KITCHENER - 2 - ? Cheryl York joined the committee today to provide an update on CulturePlanII and Arts and Culture with in the city in 2007. ? In 2006 CulturePlanII was reviewed for themes and focus areas for a way to implement this plan. ? The first theme is Arts Cluster Development, with actions taken including hiring of Artscape to do a preliminary study, with final report presented to council in April 2007; and Cultural Mapping Project began, with an application submitted to Department of Canadian Heritage in early 2008. ? The second theme is Community Investment Strategy Study, with actions taken including Phase One (Concepts and Principles) of the study being approved by council very early 2008. ? The third theme is Recognition and Promotion with actions taken including an unsuccessful application to the Department of Canadian Heritage to be considered for a Cultural Capitals of Canada designation; and many other things happening in the planning stages for launch in 2008. ? The fourth theme is Intercultural Accessibility with actions taken including establishment of a Diversity in the Workplace Committee (DWC) to examine human resources policies and other governance documents, this group also established a series of employee diversity training workshops. ? The fifth theme is Community and Neighbourhood Arts with some actions taken, but in 2008, so not applicable to the report card. ? The sixth theme is Networking; Data and Research; Media; Marketing with many actions taken, but in 2008, so not applicable to the report card. ? And finally, the seventh theme is Civic Program and Policy Review, again, with some actions taken, but in 2008, so not applicable to the report card. 3. Brownfields ? Terry Boutiller joined the committee today to provide an update on Brownfields in the city in 2007 ? A Brownfield is defined as a property which contains environmental contamination either in the ground or buildings due to the operational activities of previous land use, where the extent of the contamination renders the property vacant, under-utilized, unsafe, unproductive or abandoned. ? There are many concerns when it comes to Brownfields, and many reasons to push for clean up, however one very important factor is that 80% of our drinking water comes from our ground water, if we have contaminated land, we may also have contaminated water. ? Activities in 2007 include the following Approval and Enactment of Bill 51 by Province of Ontario ? Regional Brownfields Working Group formed, industry consultations completed, and ? new Regional-City Community Improvement Plan Template formed which provides increased and partially advanced funding, common city application and process and increased level of customer service Consultations with Province commenced ? City Brownfield Applications – 0 – this is simply due to people waiting for the new ? program 10 Record of Site Conditions filed with the Ministry of the Environment in Kitchener ? Investigations on gas stations begin ? May 7, 2008 CITY OF KITCHENER - 3 - Kitchener Gas Station Report, approved by Council, sets out approach, committee ? composition, objectives, etc. Commenced relationship with ESSO – Devon Estates, with detailed work taking ? place on two gas stations. Successful solicitation of two key sites – Lang Tannery and Farah Foods and ? conversion for productive use. Conferences – Trade Shows (Toronto, Montreal) – Successful in finding buyers for ? some properties “Brownie Award” recognizing 90 Woodside Avenue as the “Best Small Scaled ? Residential” project in Canada. University mentoring with Shawn Walker, UW (PhD Candidate), Scott Ritchie, UW ? (Undergrad), and Katie Hartoum, UofT (Masters Candidate) University Partnerships – Karen Hammond with two studios including Madison ? Avenue and Pannil Veneer. ? It was suggested after discussion to change metric to numbers of acres cleaned up; this was left with the sub group to decide. ? Additionally, there is no currently inventory of Brownfields. In some other provinces, properties must be registered on public website. This can be tricky, as it is vital that all information listed is accurate, and it can also trouble surrounding neighbours, as the price of their property may change. 4. Community Engagement Strategy ? In January, Abbie shared the continuum and developed themes, since then, they have received a presentation on the Youth Services Strategy, who are looking at youth engagement, and also an update on Ontarian with Disabilities and what is new on that front. Kelly Steiss, Inclusion Coordinator, emphasised that in all the work we do, it is vital to consult with people with disabilities to ensure they can be involved, and barriers are broken down. ? Key findings on best practices will be presented from sub committee to larger group next week. ? The themes initially presented have been turned into guiding principles ? Jessica Soto, as student working with Abbie, was able to identified ways to be more inclusive when we are in different stages along the continuum, essential a checklist on how to be more inclusive in everything we do. ? In the near future, the Community Engagement Strategy will be working with Communications and Marketing to looking at how they currently engage, and identify gaps in engagement. th ? Abbie will return to our June 4 meeting with more information on the Community Engagement Strategy 5. Diversity ? In March of this year, the Region of Waterloo developed a proposal for Citizenship and Immigration Canada to develop a local immigration partnership. The City of Kitchener would be a partner in this project and would be a part of developing a strategy to improve integration of immigrants into the Region. ? There are two components; first Region of Waterloo would work with a number of community partners to develop a Local Immigration Partnership. Next, this partnership would then develop a settlement strategy for Waterloo Region. May 7, 2008 CITY OF KITCHENER - 4 - ? The community partners would include the Waterloo Region Immigrant Employment Network, community organizations working in the area of immigrant settlement, the area municipalities and a number of Regional Departments. ? This partnership will facilitate the development and implementation of solutions for successful settlement and integration of immigrants and refugees in Waterloo Region and will strengthen awareness and the capacity of this Region to integrate increasing numbers of immigrants. ? One of the key components that this group is likely to be most interested in is that all sectors will be involved in a variety of immigrant settlement and integration Task Groups which will explore the issues and gaps and develop action plans around themes related to immigrant and refugee settlement service, language training programs, social and economic integration. ? Another piece that the subcommittee had discussed is the development of a diversity strategy for the City of Kitchener. Best practices in diversity work is complex and a strategy must take into account many elements of an organization: human resources, program and policy development, roles and responsibilities of all staff, training, and all these components must work together to integrate values of diversity into the life of a corporation. ? The Diversity and Inclusion Framework, developed by the City of Edmonton, is adaptable to our municipal setting and includes tools for staff to incorporate diversity perspectives into their work, as employees, as supervisors, as project managers, and as project and services deliverers. It identifies roles and responsibilities of staff at all levels, it is broad in scope and comprehensive. 6. Citizens Report ? Since there is not enough committee members to make quorum, Shelley will meet with member(s) of the working group to make final decisions. The final document will go to thth CMT on the 20, be completed for Communications and Marketing by May 26, and be th presented to council on June 9 ? The rating system produced 3 stars for everything with the exception of 4 on quality of life. A suggestion was made to increase/decrease the stars on the following sections: decrease by .5 stars on both Diversity and Environment as these are areas that can use additional work - even though there is much going on already; and increase by .5 stars to Downtown, as some really great things have been happening! ? Everyone in attendance at the meeting Wednesday was in agreement with the content, with a few minor changes, and the new star ratings, and felt it safe to proceed. ACTION An e-mail will be sent to the committee with the above information, requesting changes/suggestions be made to Kim Knowles by Sunday at noon. Emphasis should be made in this e-mail on how important it is that everyone provides their feedback as the report should reflect the Compass Kitchener Committees decision as a whole. ? An additional piece should be included in the first paragraph, reminding the reader that this is just the first year. It is very difficult to judge, and it is important to indicate this. ? It should also be included that in 2008 there are a tonne of things that are going to be accomplished. ? A sentence will be added about Brownfields under environment. May 7, 2008 CITY OF KITCHENER - 5 - 7. MP & MPP response letter ? Unfortunately, we did not have sufficient time to discuss this letter. Meeting adjourned at 6:00 p.m. Next meeting: June 4, 2008 Schmalz Room – Kitchener City Hall