Mayor's Leaders' Table re: The Nanaimo Accord
Motion
That Council endorse the Nanaimo Accord as a shared framework for partner alignment, coordinated advocacy and collective action.
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda
That Council endorse the Nanaimo Accord as a shared framework for partner alignment, coordinated advocacy and collective action.
you, Council Read. Thank you through you. Thank you for this. I found it very interesting document to read and it was nice to see what I think is a shared vision that I think we've all sort of understood for a while, but to have it concisely written in this way is helpful. Um, I think my feedback in reading it, they're like page four and five, the items with the bolded text and then the item underneath. It wasn't clear to me like how to read those necessarily because there's equal spacing. So I think the bold text and then the, you know, the non - bold underneath kind of putting them together would make it clear that those are like little headings. Just from like an accessibility perspective, um, because you're touching on some pretty different issues there. I just wonder, do you think that it might make sense for council to wait on endorsing it until the other partners have given their feedback just because the cities, the convener of the committee and if changes need to be made that that, that, that could be something that council would then, um, have a chance to review how it went over with everyone else and endorse it.
Great. Uh, thank you, Mayor, through you. Um, yeah, I really appreciate the work that, uh, went into this and you're reading through the values and the, um, principals and the ambitions. I'm like, Oh man, I can use some of this for my campaign platform. And I just reading some of the things like, uh, guiding values rooted and regenerative, restoring ecosystems, circulating wealth locally and creating lasting generational opportunities. Um, also, uh, principle of rewarding coordination, putting shared priorities first and recognising that collaboration achieves more than working in silos. For some of these ambitions like making housing childcare and essential needs more attainable, protecting forest rivers and shorelines as vital community infrastructure and building an entrepreneurial city hall that matches private sector energy with public purpose. And I guess my question is, is that these are all very beautiful things. And then you look at the projects like expanding the hospital and expanding the port, which will bring significant growth. And I think we've kind of moved past growth for growth sake. And these principles and values are really wonderful things. And spoken. I'm just curious, how do you foresee this according accountability between all the appart that we're going to experience? We're doing it in a way, in a good way. That is protecting, you know, these, these shared assets that we have environmentally, you know, funding and supporting the people that live here in the workers and keeping that wealth circulating locally. I'm just curious around how you foresee the accountability and how this accord
Having read the Accord and been, you know, privy to the discussions that have led to it. And I think the values that are outlined in it are very sound. Um, and I think that it is for the benefit of the community and the processes in place around the principles really do lead to a collaborative dialogue on how we go forward and the projects that we choose. And so that I am supportive and I can understand the timing challenges with the, uh, break in August and the election coming up. But it's something that I do stand behind and support. And so I'll be voting in favor.
order Councillor Storpe and then Menley. Thank you very much. Your worship through you. If I may. Thank you, Miss Hayes, for being here tonight and for all the work you do in our community. It's much appreciated. I enjoyed reading this report. And I found very interesting. Um, I suspect Council will be, uh, quite willing to support it. I was especially interested in your comments regarding global supply chains and the dangers that we're seeing there of fragmentation. Uh, the scarcity of industrial land and the systems required to move goods, uh, and you mentioned rail. And I'm, I'm curious in looking forward to reading more detail about that because it's something that we keep mentioning, but we don't seem to be making progress on it. Um, my question to you is this. As I said, I think I suspect Council will be highly supportive. But in terms of governance, there is a saying first heard deferred. And my question is, would it be satisfactory to you for Council to wait and vote on accepting, uh, or endorsing this accord in September. As opposed to immediately tonight so that we have a chance if we wish to hear
are very connected. What would you say before that, uh, if we're going to do a port expansion, we need hospital and health care. Yes. We're going to need workforce housing. Yes. So all of those things are, are integrated. I really appreciate the fact that when you go to Ottawa that you're pitching multiple projects, because I think it's pretty important. And it shows that we have it. That we have it together. And also, um, maybe just comment on the RDN, our commitment at the hospital board to increase taxes. I know people don't really like tax increases, but it's really important for getting these kind of projects communities are just or not doing. I appreciate that. I'm fully ready to support this. I think it's a great document. And I think we're, we're going in a very
Hayes. Thank you very much. Much appreciated. Thanks, your worship. Um, I remember when this came forward, I was skeptical at the time. Uh, I can appreciate a lot of energy. And intention has gone behind it. And I do believe probably the intentions are very good. A lot of other communities have done similar. And I get it. Alignment and frustrations with lack of alignment within the community. However, I will not be supporting it. I'm fairly skeptical of anything that, uh, even if it seems minor at first shifts, uh, conversations to the board room, which I think are more appropriate in the public realm. And if Nanaimo tonight signs on to this, uh, projects can be added and they will be decided upon by folks who are largely have not been elected representatives for the community as a whole. Um, and I can imagine a scenario. I don't think anytime soon, but I could imagine a scenario where an incinerator on lands gets proposed without public debate as part of the portfolio. And I don't, I think had this table, uh, if there is to be projects added or to remove, they should come forward and be known by the community. If Nanaimo is a signatory on
being asked to provide all the funding and all the members will be asked being provided the funding. And it wasn't in a public place. That would be a different situation. But as Ms. Hayes is outlined in terms of how the Accord will work and what is proposed, I
Council Armstrong and Council Eastmear, please. Thank you, through your worship. Um, when you talk about public communication, how are
you going to get that out to the public. Um,
So there will be multiple faucets. We will all, um, how we've talked about it, but still to be determined by boards is we will all share it through our websites, through our social media pieces. Um, and that would include the city of the Nanaimo posting that you signed on to your pieces. Um, we have not planned any community meetings around sharing this, but we will do it that way and through our social media. So the big
consistent messaging through all the partners. Correct. Thank you. Thank
Thank you, worship. And thank you, Ms. Hayes, for being here and all of your work on this. Um, I had, uh, I had the opportunity to attend a couple of these meetings and they were very interesting. And, um, I just want to comment on the point you just made. These are the powerhouses in an animal that are sitting around this table. We have all of the major economic players. It's been fascinating. My question for you, um, it's been, it's wild to know that so many CAOs can coalesce upon three ideas for Nanaimo. Were there any others that were left off that there was a lot of interest in or was it a solid buy -
in for these three. For the transformational projects? Yes. Yeah. So I want to say that every single organisation brought a minimum of one project to the table. And everyone agreed that these were the top three. Now, I do want to say that at previous renderings of the mayor's leaders table where we concentrated on infrastructure, we brought four 23 projects. The hospital and the port projects were the top of that group in that last whole process that we went through as well. And the reason is, is because the huge amount of overlap. So, um, you know, the airport brought forward projects. They need some of the pieces, the ports working on to support their projects. So if the pieces, the ports working on happen, then their pieces will fall in as well. As an example. Um, VIU will have some upcoming projects, but they want to be more recognised as being the education piece as they're transforming right now into the powerhouse that they will be to support these industries going forward. And so one thing that will be attached, in addition to the transformational projects, is a profile of each of the part of each of the partners. To highlight. But as I said, that document is to be living and to be changing. So it was brought up specifically, huge emphasis right now on rail, even though that's part of the port strategic plan. And if you delve into that, you get more information about what the recommendations on rail are. But that's a strategic piece that will become to the head as some of these other pieces get accomplished. Thank you very much.
Pantheon. Just speak to it. No, thank you. Councillor Geselbrock. Thanks, actually another question for the delegation, if that's okay. Uh, thank you. Um, just in terms of, uh, The Hospital Expansion and the port expansion, um, it's going to require a lot of people to work there. And, uh, housing affordability has been, uh, major issue in the community. I think, you know, when we were writing the numbers, like 80 percent of people, you know, pay the rent here or purchase a house, you know, if they're going to spend more than 30 percent of their income And that availability to, to how those people that will be doing the work is a major, uh, choke point in being able to provide the services that we need here. Was that discussed much as a gap and something that in need of being able to be addressed as a core project in the community and to text and project address that a little bit. I guess curious how to, how is addressing affordability to actually like be able to
provide the workers for this growth. So we've actually talked about this at length. Um, I want to say that we are taking a unique perspective on it. And so we already have a project that's going to come forward. Um, you'll probably see some announcements about it over the next six months or so as we get into a little bit more. But I will use the hospital as the example. They're 3, 200 employees who work their currently. The hospital foundation has done a survey about how many of those employees feel that they need access to workforce housing. Um, it was in the realm of 1400 employees felt that they would, if they could access workforce housing, that would help them with affordability. Um, and so, uh, the hospital foundation. And they're not the only foundation of their type. Colonna, I believe has done something similar on a much smaller scale. Um, we have created a strategic partnership working with the school district around two things. One is daycare. Now our project did not get approved in the budget to add 100 seat daycare at the Hospital campus. Um, but that doesn't mean we're not moving forward, uh, with it working on strategic plans for it outside of the box. So the one thing that we found, and you all know this, because you hear me talk about healthcare is we have to get outside of the box on how we fund projects. And so that means employer engagement in what workforce housing looks like. And so the hospital foundation currently, I said on their board as well, we are working on a hundred unit workforce housing as a start and a hundred seat daycare that will go a long ways to supporting currently what's happening with hospital workers. Other large employers in town are going to have to have similar conversations, but now the plan is to move forward in those conversations in partnerships with other groups. So as opposed to taking it on just on your own as an organisation, it's about strategically partnering with
other groups about what that looks like. Great. Thank you. And so it sounds like that conversation is happening within the partners of the Accord. Is that something or a bubbling project that could allow greater collaboration at that accord level as a, as a potential project, um, to help
With that coordination amongst the different groups? Yeah. It is. And actually I will say this, that partnership I just referenced is actually ahead of this accord being signed because both of our boards have already agreed in principle and signed off on us moving forward on projects. So it's the idea germinated during this last year. It's just we're working faster than the Accord process took us to all come to the same place. So yes, I think you're going to find this because we're all talking about it that this housing will be tied to part of this