Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee Meeting

Minutes

Meeting #:

Date:

Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Time:

7:00 P.m. - 9:00 P.m.

Location:

Virtual

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1.

Members Present:

Tim Park (Chair), Mathew McAuley, Susan Mattine, Dave Rokosh, Chris Ariens, Paul Fletcher, Jim Adams, Anne Hammill, Rafiq Dhanji, Sarah Mirriam

2.

Member Regrets:

Tom Krumins, Guy Shepard, Laura Di Paolo

3.

Others Present:

Councillor Paul Sharman, Lynn Robichaud (Manger, Environmental Sustainability), John Stuart (Senior Environmental Planner), Suzanne Gillies (Clerk)

4.

Land Acknowledgement:

The Chair read the Land Acknowledgement

5.

Declarations of Interest:

None

6.

Delegation(s):

None

7.

Consent Agenda (items for approval):

7.1

Meeting schedule for 2023

On motion the meeting schedule for 2023 was approved as presented

7.2

Comments on 1134 - 1167 Plains Road

On motion the comments for 1134-1167 Plains Road were approved.

8.

Regular Items:

8.1

Council and staff updates:

a.

Councillor Sharman

Councillor Sharman provided the following update to the committee:

• provided the committee with an update regarding the heritage designation to a home at Brant and Ghent, now that the location has been designated it is interfering with plans that the applicant had filed with Planning, the owner of the property has objected to the designation, interesting file to follow
• the Official Plan continues to be an ongoing discussion
• Budget meetings are coming up in the beginning of February, potential tax increase

b.

Lynn Robichaud - Sustainability

In addition to the attached written update, Lynn advised the committee of the following:

• the Electric Mobility Study was presented to the Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services Committee in September 2022, some initiatives are underway including the 18 charging stations being installed including one level 3 charger
• Transit staff are pursuing funding for a pilot project for electric busses
• staff are currently working on the details of the Home Energy Retrofit program with a timeline to present the detailed program to council in the Spring of 2023

c.

John Stuart - Community Planning

John advised the committee of the following:

• there has been a lot going on with Community Planning on the policy front, new regulations, Bill 109, Bill 23 and ROPA 49 have staff working on understanding the changes these new policies bring and how to manage the impacts to process and staff
• MTSA's have been affected by ROPA 49, expect an update by the end of Q1
• staff are working on an East Burlington Creek Study, hoping to bring the study to Conservation Halton in March 

8.2

Policy and Development subcommittee update:

At the last meeting John attended and gave similar updates to the ones he provided to this committee, discussion took place regarding 1134 - 1167 Plains Road, and the committee discussed the challenges to review development applications with the new shortened timelines.

8.3

Awareness subcommittee update:

Susan provided the following updates:

• Jim wrote a great blog on melting ice for the Take Action Burlington Blog, anyone who would like to contribute please let Susan know
• Spring webinar is in the works with a tentative date of March 30, 2023 with the topic being eco system restoration, Lynn confirmed that City of Burlington Engagement staff will host the webinar
• trying to organize a tour of the Endress and Hauser facility, they only offer tours during the day, wondering if there is a virtual option, when there is more information we will share the date of the tour with the committee

8.4

Reports from external groups and conferences:

a.

Bay Area Climate Change Council

Dave Rokosh attended the December meeting of the Bay Area Climate Change Council, he feels that these meetings would better suit a member from the Awareness subcommittee to attend, thinks that would be a better fit given his experience from the meeting.  Meetings are held in the afternoons (2-4) virtually. 

b.

Halton Climate Collective (Lynn)

Lynn provided the following updates:

• working with the School Boards on the annual youth conference - Generation Green planned for February 17 in Oakville
• HCC Reads initiative is in the works which is an initiative to promote a book about climate change to the community through a partnership with the Library

c.

ITAC (Tim)

No update, the next ITAC meeting is at the end of this month.

9.

Other Business:

Anne Hammill is resigning from the committee, she is moving out of Burlington so regrettably will not be able be a member of the committee.

10.

Adjournment:

Chair adjourned the meeting at 8:10 p.m.