COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES Monday, September 22, 2008 10:00 a.m. A meeting of the Town of East Gwillimbury Committee of the Whole Council was held on Monday, September 22, 2008, at 10:00 a.m. in the Civic Centre Council Chambers, 19000 Leslie Street, Sharon, Ontario PRESENT: Mayor James R. Young Councillors Cathy Morton Virginia Hackson Marlene Johnston Jack Hauseman STAFF: Chief Administrative Officer Thomas Webster General Manager, Development and Legal Services Don Sinclair General Manager, Community Programs and Wayne Hunt Infrastructure Director of Corporate Services/Municipal Clerk Lucille King Director of Finance/Treasurer Rebecca Mathewson Deputy Clerk Anna Knowles Technical Clerk Hajnalka Hartwick Corporate Strategy and Communications Co-ordinator Licinio Miguelo Manager, Policy Planning Dan Stone Environmental Planner Robin Skinner Team Leader, Revenue & Property Manager, Technical Support Randy Bell [left following item C.1.] By-law and Licensing Co-ordinator Deb McCulloch [left after Item C.1.] Training Officer, Emergency Services Terry Foster [arr. 12:45 p.m.] Director of Building Approvals and Inspections/ Tim Gibson [arr. 10:24 Chief Building Official a.m.] Manager, Community Planning and Development Carolyn Kellington arr. 12:55 p.m.] Manager, Business Plans, Budgets and Reports Loren May arr. 12:55 p.m.] Team Leader, Revenue & Property Taxation Cheryl Weddell arr. 12:55] Committee of the Whole Council Meeting September 22, 2008 Town of East Gwillimbury Page 2 of 20 ABSENT WITH NOTICE: K. Beckett, Fire Chief LATE WITH NOTICE: OTHERS: J. Wellsbury, Canada Post, and K. O’Brien, Canada Post E. Newmann, Bogdan and Associates Inc. (+ 1 staff) M. Pestaluky, Delta Urban Inc. (8) members of the public were present [5 members of the public arrived at approx. 12:50 p.m.] A. CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Young called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. A quorum was present. B. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: There were no declarations of interest. C. COUNCIL WORKSHOP(S): 1. Post Office Issues: Mayor James R. Young, Chair John Wellsbury and Kevin O’Brien, Canada Post [Refer to Appendix 1 attached] L. King, Director of Corporate Services/Municipal Clerk, introduced J. Wellsbury, and K. O’Brien, Canada Post. J. Wellsbury, Manager of Delivery Planning for the G.T.A. (Greater Toronto Area), advised that there are four post offices in East Gwillimbury. Holland Landing introduced an urban postal code a number of years ago. The remaining areas of East Gwillimbury have a rural postal code. He advised that one of the benefits of an urban postal code is that mail can be processed by address only, while rural post offices rely on a great deal of historical knowledge for the sorting of mail. J. Wellsbury further advised that a number of areas in East Gwillimbury receive mail delivery from Newmarket, Cedar Valley or Zephyr post offices. In order to have an urban postal code for the entire municipality, it would be necessary to have all of the sorting for East Gwillimbury located in one facility. This would entail significant costs related to amalgamation of the facilities and increase of the delivery network, as well as re-direction fees. In addition, there is possible negative impact to Canada Post of loss of employees who have the historical knowledge of names and addresses due to relocation. J. Wellsbury advised that past experience has shown that there may be business objections, due to the costs involved in changing their letterhead, business cards, advertising, vehicle signage, etc. In addition, large businesses may be unwilling to Committee of the Whole Council Meeting September 22, 2008 Town of East Gwillimbury Page 3 of 20 change their address from a readily recognized municipality name to a new, perhaps less well-known name. - Councillor Hauseman advised that concerns have arisen as the municipality faces growth, such as the development currently taking place behind Costco. J. Wellsbury advised that the postal address for the Harvest Hills area will be East Gwillimbury, with sorting to be done in Newmarket. - Councillor Hauseman advised that Canada Post employees in East Gwillimbury have expressed that they are not receiving the co-operation of the Newmarket sorting station and are not able to pass along their historical knowledge. As well, concerns have been expressed that the Holland Landing Post Office is scheduled to be eliminated in the near future, as are those in other areas of East Gwillimbury. J. Wellsbury advised that there are no plans to close the Holland Landing Post Office or any of the other area facilities in the near future. Some routes have been moved to the Newmarket facility because there is no room to expand the Holland Landing Post Office to accommodate additional routes. Councillor Hauseman enquired why the approximately 42 addresses located in East Gwillimbury and handled by Zephyr Post Office cannot be incorporated into the Mount Albert postal area, and why the Holland Landing facility cannot be expanded to handle the Harvest Hills development and other growth anticipated to take place in the Holland Landing area. J. Wellsbury advised that if the rural route addresses currently sorted at the Zephyr Post Office are given a Mount Albert rural route address at this time, they will have to undergo another address change when the Mount Albert area moves to urban coding, impacting the customers twice. There will be pushback from customers who do not want to go through an address change. He advised that this could be done, but it may not desirable to do so. - In response to a further question from Councillor Hauseman, J. Wellsbury advised that the location that undelivered parcel or registered mail is directed to for pickup depends upon where the delivery route is. An attempt is made to ensure that the items are delivered for pickup as close as possible to the delivery address, sometimes a franchise location. Councillor Hauseman requested that Mr. Wellsbury take the concerns expressed by Council today back to Canada Post. Councillor Hackson advised that she appreciated the presentation, but did not see the answers that she had hoped would come and enquired what the future steps will be. She enquired whether Canada Post is looking to buy some property in East Gwillimbury, as there is not a large enough facility to handle mail for East Gwillimbury. J. Wellsbury advised that Canada Post has no plans to embark on civic addressing for East Gwillimbury at this time, noting that this is a large decision to be made on the part of Canada Post. He recommended that if this is the desire of the Town’s Committee of the Whole Council Meeting September 22, 2008 Town of East Gwillimbury Page 4 of 20 leadership, East Gwillimbury Council adopt a resolution and forward it to Canada Post. The matter will then be taken up by the Senior Executive level for real estate issues. - Councillor Hackson stated that the R.R. 1 Newmarket postal address area from the southern boundary of East Gwillimbury to Queensville Sideroad, does not make sense and urged that this area be cleaned up. She advised that civic addresses are necessary for Emergency Services and everyone in the municipality has been provided with a civic address. J. Wellsbury advised that the rural route addresses predated the civic addresses and these are large decisions involving truly significant costs. He recommended that East Gwillimbury Council adopt a resolution stating what they wish to have the community known as, and advised that this will be brought forward to the Senior Executive level at Canada Post. - Councillor Hackson enquired as to the anticipated timeframe from when the request is presented to “the powers that be” to receipt of an answer. J. Wellsbury advised that it would take possibly 12 – 18 months to gather individual addressing, then go through the address change process, following which there would be a re-direction period. He indicated that Canada Post may also request East Gwillimbury share the costs of initiating the proposed change. J. Wellsbury added that if the proposal involves a new facility, he does not feel that Canada Post will be willing to accommodate the request. In response to a further enquiry from Councillor Hackson, J. Wellsbury advised that some municipal Councils are interested in moving to urban coding, while others are adverse to it. He advised that the Town of Caledon recently went through the process involving approximately 11,000 addresses, and it is a challenging process, with many people in favour of it and many others having objections. Councillor Morton stated that the concern is that there are people with Newmarket addresses who are located kilometres away from Newmarket. - Councillor Hauseman expressed concern that no sorting is now being done at the Holland Landing Post Office, and stated that with significant growth anticipated, Canada Post should be developing a plan to accommodate that growth for East Gwillimbury. He noted that Peter Van Loan, Member of Parliament for this area and Canada Post had indicated that they would reconsider. - Mayor Young directed that a resolution be prepared outlining the Town’s request(s) and brought forward to this evening’s Council meeting for adoption, in order that it may be forwarded to Canada Post. - Councillor Hauseman advised that snow clearing problems have been experienced on some of the main regional roads, i.e., 2nd Concession Road/Main Street – green boxes by the Hydro right-of-way area, where snow banks of up to six feet accumulate making it dangerous to park a vehicle and to climb the embankment to get to the mail Committee of the Whole Council Meeting September 22, 2008 Town of East Gwillimbury Page 5 of 20 boxes. He added that number of the residents affected in this area are seniors.