Council Meeting - Wednesday, May 14, 2025 - 9:30 a.m. - City of Richmond Hill

Summary

This Richmond Hill Council Meeting on May 14, 2025, covered significant community updates and council interactions. The council discussed several community-focused topics, including local healthcare updates and valuable contributions by McKenzie Health. Important topics like infrastructure expansion, health tech opportunities, and community health initiatives were highlighted during the talks. The meeting also included light-hearted announcements about local events, upcoming federal collaborations, and celebratory notes on local sports and community leaders. A resolution emphasizing in-person attendance for council meetings was adopted, aiming to foster more robust discussions and collaborative decision-making processes.

Highlights

• Altaf Stationwala from McKenzie Health shares updates before his transition to Unity Health. 🎙️
• Richmond Hill hospital focuses on expansion to meet growing demands. 🚑
• Council talks about leveraging health tech for local economic development. 🖥️
• Meeting opens with a delightful land acknowledgment and national anthem start. 🇨🇦
• Resolution to encourage council members' physical presence at meetings for effective dialogue. 🤝

Key Takeaways

• McKenzie Health shares impressive hospital updates with expansions and new strategic focuses. 🏥
• Council discusses intensifying health services and infrastructure needs due to community growth. 🌆
• McKenzie Health's CEO Altaf is leaving, and Mary Agnes Wilson will step in. Best wishes exchanged. 🎤
• Council adopts a motion to encourage attending meetings in person to enhance discussions. 🤝
• Local highlights include sports references, federal updates, and active community member recognition. 🌟

Overview

The meeting began on a respectful note with a land acknowledgment, recognizing the traditional territories of several First Nation communities, followed by the national anthem. These gestures set a tone of respect and community for the subsequent discussions. 🌱

Altaf Stationwala from McKenzie Health delivered an engaging update on the hospital's operations, addressing the substantive growth in demand, the efforts to expand their capacity, and new strategic directives aimed at improving healthcare services in Richmond Hill. Participants applauded his leadership and contributions as he announced his transition to Unity Health. 🏥

Council members discussed several upcoming community events and ongoing projects, while also adopting a resolution to foster robust in-person engagement. The dialogues resonated with a keen focus on improving healthcare infrastructure, community involvement, and local initiatives, highlighting Richmond Hill's commitment to growth and service enhancement. 📈

Chapters

• 00:00 - 02:00: Introduction and Opening Formalities The chapter titled 'Introduction and Opening Formalities' begins with the chairperson calling the council meeting to order on the morning of Wednesday, May 14th. The meeting starts with a land acknowledgement, a customary practice to recognize the Indigenous people of the land.
• 00:30 - 02:30: Land Acknowledgement and National Anthem The chapter titled 'Land Acknowledgement and National Anthem' discusses the recognition of the lands traditionally owned by First Nation peoples. It acknowledges that the area known as Richmond Hill is situated on treaty lands and the territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation and the Mississaugas and Chippewa nations of the Williams Treaty. It further recognizes the traditional territories of the Haudenosaunee and the Huron-Wendat and expresses a commitment to the First Nation, Inuit, and Métis people from across Turtle Island who reside in Richmond Hill, emphasizing a commitment to rebuilding constructive relationships.
• 02:30 - 06:30: Council Announcements The chapter titled 'Council Announcements' includes cooperative relationships, asking attendees to stand for the national anthem accompanied by [Music] and followed by the word Heat, indicating possible continuation or transition.
• 09:00 - 32:30: Presentation from Mackenzie Health The chapter titled 'Presentation from Mackenzie Health' primarily features repeated emphasis on the word 'Heat,' accompanied by musical elements. No specific details or context about the presentation from Mackenzie Health is provided within the given transcript.
• 32:30 - 55:30: Council Discussion on Presentation The chapter titled 'Council Discussion on Presentation' likely involves a conversation or discussion among council members regarding some kind of presentation. However, no specific details or dialogue are available in the transcript provided, as it only contains references to music and applause. It suggests a setting possibly involving a public or formal presentation where music and applause might be cues or transitions between segments.
• 62:10 - 66:00: Discussion on Council Attendance Motion The chapter discusses the council's session, starting with no public forum sign-ups.
• 66:00 - 72:00: Conclusion and Adjournment Last week featured several charity events, including a 5K run for the McKenzie Hospital Foundation held at Wonderland. Additionally, a Mother's Day lunch was organized at the Martne Senior Center, attracting around 80 seniors. The event was well-received and appreciation was extended to the staff involved in organizing this annual occurrence. The sentiment of wishing everyone well concluded the chapter.

Council Meeting - Wednesday, May 14, 2025 - 9:30 a.m. - City of Richmond Hill Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 So, uh, good morning everybody and, uh, welcome to the council meeting for Wednesday, May the 14th. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Uh, and we, as usual, will start with our land acknowledgement. We are ga gathering on
• 00:30 - 01:00 lands that have been home to First Nation people from time immemorial. We acknowledge that what we now call Richmond Hill is on the treaty lands and territory of the Missagas of the Credit First Nation and the Missagas and Chippoa nations of the Williams Treaty. We also recognize that we are on part of the traditional territories of the Hodnachoni and the Hiron Wendat. We'd also like to acknowledge all First Nation, Inuit, and Matei people from across Turtle Island who now reside in the city of Richmond Hill. We are committed to rebuilding constructive and
• 01:00 - 01:30 cooperative relationships. So at this point, if I could, I'll ask you to stand if you can for the national [Music] anthem. Heat.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat.
• 02:00 - 02:30 [Music] [Applause] [Music]
• 02:30 - 03:00 Okay, thank you very much. Um, so we don't have anybody signed up for public forum. Uh, the next item on the agenda is council announcements. Uh, anybody with anything to announce? Uh, councelor tree. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So,
• 03:00 - 03:30 last week we there was a few charity events. So, uh, for the McKenzie Hospital Foundation, uh, I went to the Wonderland round for 5K uh to to support them. And also last week is mother's day. So thank you for staff organized the mother's day's launch as the uh martne senior center. So we have around 80 seniors join that event. Appreciate all the efforts and this is the year and year event. So uh I wish everybody was
• 03:30 - 04:00 majority moms of h uh happy mother's day and that's pretty much from my side. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I just wanted to add that that um, Council Tree is our athletic representative uh, doing a 5K run for McKenzie Health Strides for Stroke in the morning and then shortly after that a 5K walk for Lars Daybreak. So, um, it's good because that means none of us have to do that. So, thank you,
• 04:00 - 04:30 Councelor Tree. Okay, anybody else for council announcements? Okay, seeing none, I have a few. Um uh first of all, I'd like to uh welcome the new uh federal cabinet that's been sworn in. Bunch of new faces and we very much look forward uh to working with the prime minister and also the uh the new members of cabinet and the uh returning members of cabinet. Um there is a lot of work that we need to be doing uh in cities like Richmond Hill
• 04:30 - 05:00 uh with the federal uh government and uh so we welcome that opportunity. uh a number of us on council will be uh attending the Federation of Canadian Municipality meeting uh in Ottawa at the end of this month and uh uh so I look forward to having some real honest uh you know conversations with a number of those uh new cabinet ministers at that time. Uh I'd also just like to say that May the 12th was international international fibromyalgia day awareness day. Uh and
• 05:00 - 05:30 the entire month is dedicated to raising awareness and understanding of this uh invisible and debilitating chronic condition. Uh, Thursday, May the 15th. Um, I will be standing with the nationwide movement of indigenous and non-indigenous Canadians from local communities, First Nations government, schools, colleges, university, police forces, and many other organizations. Uh, all committed to taking action to end violence towards women and children. Uh the moose hide cam campaign began as a a BCborn indigenousled grassroots
• 05:30 - 06:00 movement to engage men and boys in ending gender based violence towards women and children. Uh and I'm certainly very happy to take action that helps to raise awareness and I'm particularly in support of this campa uh campaign uh because it act it in actively engages men and boys uh to be a part a very important part of that solution. So, thank you. Um, and the other I guess the last thing I will say, uh, just an update. Um, Mayor West is still on the
• 06:00 - 06:30 Leafs bandwagon, although I got to tell you, man, this is getting tense. So, uh, good luck to the Leafs in their next couple of games. Um, we uh certainly hope for the best outcome and uh, go Leafs go. All right. So, with that being said, uh we need uh introduction of emergency or time-sensitive matters. Seeing none, uh I need a motion to adopt the agenda. Oh, actually before
• 06:30 - 07:00 I say that, um I did need to give regrets for uh councelor Silvitz is not feeling well, so she is not uh yeah, she's not going to be on screen today. All right. So um sorry disclosure of preary interest or were none uh adoption of previous council minutes. We have two council. Do you want to do that? Okay we can do that. So who wants to move to adopt the agenda? Councelor Shu local
• 07:00 - 07:30 councelor depala. All those in favor opposed carried. Thank you very much. All right back where we were. Um, no disclosure of pecunary interest adoption of council meeting minutes. We have two of them. Council meeting on April 23rd and council public meeting on April 29th. Somebody to move both of those. Councelor Leu, Councelor Davidson. All those in favor oppose. That carries. Thank you. Uh, identification of items requiring separate discussion. Uh, councelor Davidson, you wanted to pull
• 07:30 - 08:00 154. Is there anything else that anybody would like to pull? Uh at the moment we could adopt 151 to 153.6 on consent. Uh we'll leave the bylaws for now. Right. Okay. All right. Anybody else wants to pull anything? Okay. No. So we I need a motion to adopt the everything except 15.4. Okay. Councelor Tree Regional
• 08:00 - 08:30 Council Depollo. All those in favor? Opposed? That carries. We have no public hearings. Uh but we do have today a presentation uh with our special guest uh Altaf Station Walla from McKenzie Health. Um I just I I have to say this that um as most of you on council, I'm sure all of you on council know, um uh Altaf is going to be leaving McKenzie Health uh and going to Unity Health uh
• 08:30 - 09:00 in the next uh few weeks. And um we I was contemplating um moving a bylaw to chain him to his desk so he can't leave. But that's mean so I'm not going to do that. But I do want to wish you Altaf all the very very best in this new endeavor. Uh I've known Alta for quite a long time and uh you sir have done a spectacularly good job at navigating many really really big uh things uh at
• 09:00 - 09:30 McKenzie Health including the building of a brand new hospital which is spectacular and you know that little thing that we had a few years ago with COVID and and getting us through that and I have to say that during that time uh you know when I was on council one of the things that I worried about the most was, you know, how would the health care system um stack up once the the the pandemic started to hit? And McKenzie Health did a great job delivering the
• 09:30 - 10:00 services despite all of the challenges. And uh I you know, I know in many many conversations I've had with uh Alta over the years that uh you you you and your leadership and your team uh had everything to do with all of those great successes uh for healthcare in our community. So, thank you very much for all of your past services and uh and also very very best of luck. Uh Unity Health is going to be very lucky to have you. So, congratulations.
• 10:00 - 10:30 All right. And to the business at hand. Uh no, I think you just turned it off. Okay, there you go. All right. Uh so, Mayor West, thank you and members of council, uh it's a pleasure to come back and give you my annual update on uh some of the activities at Mackenzie Health. Uh I I must say it is hard to uh to leave after 14 and a half years but on many levels the staff are celebrating because I am a Habs fan. So uh um so you know there is a desire to actually uh
• 10:30 - 11:00 lift up the Leafs flag uh on on our flag polls uh if the Leafs get to the to the finals of the Stanley Cup. But I don't think that's going to happen. So that's good. Uh um so as uh as Mayor West has said, I will be leading McKenzie Health at the end of June, starting at Unity Health in Toronto, which is uh St. Joseph, St. Michaels, and Providence Health, three hospitals. Um it has been a pleasure um to be engaged in serving the community for the past 14 and a half years. Uh
• 11:00 - 11:30 we've done a lot and we've done a lot because we've done it together. Um, you know, I know in the early days as the discussion around the new hospital became more and more real, there was always a worry what would happen uh to the Richmond Hill site, there were always rumors, oh my gosh, they're going to shut down that that hospital. And uh I assured council many many years ago that uh the objective was to continue to grow programs and services at both hospitals. And uh you'll hear from my report that's uh what we continue to do
• 11:30 - 12:00 and uh we'll do so um uh even when I'm gone. So I will introduce Mary Agnes Wilson at the end of my presentation who will be uh the interim president and CEO and uh long history with McKenzie Health uh and we have a long history of working together in other settings. So um we'll go to the uh the next slide actually the hospital operations slide one more please. Thank you. So uh as much as we've grown dramatically and literally doubled in size over the past number of years with the opening of the Cordelivon hospital
• 12:00 - 12:30 um we are still very much struggling in terms of capacity. Uh as you know it was a very challenging respiratory season and uh the volumes were unbelievable in our emerge department and in our medical units. Uh we were in surge 42% of the time. So this would have been from late October uh just up until a few months a few weeks ago and that means on any given day we have about 40 50 60 patients in emerge waiting for a bed. So
• 12:30 - 13:00 that's really the canary in the coal mine when it comes to capacity and patient flow and a very challenging situation uh for families and loved ones when they're uh when they're when they're when the patient is waiting that long for a bed. uh we saw 14,500 additional visits compared to last year and um hard to believe that Cordeluchon Hospital after actually being open less than four years will celebrate our four-year anniversary in June is the second busiest emerge department in the
• 13:00 - 13:30 province and collectively the Richmond Hill Vaughn and urgent care center represent the second busiest collective emerge uh emerge departments of any corporation as the second busiest. So just unbelievable volumes that we're seeing and what that really does sort of translate into is a a high number of uh emergency admissions that then actually translates into medical admissions. So we saw,00 additional medical admissions and unfortunately these tend to be the
• 13:30 - 14:00 frail seniors that do get sick during respiratory season and um you know we do our very very best. So we opened 30 additional beds at the Richmond Hill site and that means that there isn't a single empty bed on either site. Now we are at full capacity. Um and in fact at the Von site we had to use the auditorium and equip it to deal with surge. That's that's how challenging it got. So we will continue to advocate for more capacity at both hospitals and there are plans that are underway that I'll I'll share um in the next couple of slides. So we'll go to the next slide
• 14:00 - 14:30 please. Um so in terms of our financial update and uh you're probably reading in the media that hospitals uh collectively are in a bit of trouble when it comes to our operating budgets and our capital budgets. Uh we are fortunately in a much better position. So we have the strongest balance sheet in the province. Um much of that is actually attributed to a fairly efficient uh service delivery model between the two sites. One of the unique things that we have is as we've grown into the second hospital, we've grown with an integrated medical
• 14:30 - 15:00 staff. So many organizations that merge have very differing cultures and differing views of of collaboration amongst the medical staff. In fact, what our medical staff do is move between sites very very freely and if one site needs more support um they will gladly move to support uh patients in emerge or on an inpatient unit. So it does make us um I think a very integrated model of care delivery and does make us very very efficient. Um so we're in a fortunate place now. Uh the surpluses that we've
• 15:00 - 15:30 been running are intended to go right back into patient care and and the real push for McKenzie Health is to get into more specialized care. So one of the gaps that we have is in advanced cardiac services and we are working with South Lake to bring more cardiac procedures to McKenzie Health. Uh the same thing can be said for stroke. Um we are a regional stroke provider but stroke care is advancing. Um and a procedure called EVT which is putting stances in the brain uh which currently gets referred out to
• 15:30 - 16:00 Sunny Brook. We'd like to bring those types of programs and services uh closer to home. So that is the focus of our um good financial position. Um and we don't blink an eye when it comes to opening more beds. We just do it because we don't we don't have those financial constraints. Um but again uh the focus continues to be on being efficient and being very very focused on uh the precious healthcare dollars that we have and not squandering uh this very strong financial position that we have. Go to
• 16:00 - 16:30 the next slide. So this is our strategic plan and I'll get a little bit deeper into the four pillars of patient care excellence. People are our strength growing with our communities and integrated care. And we're adding uh a fifth pin wheel um to this plan as we're refreshing it for another two years going forward and that is education and research. Uh we do a fair amount of education already. We have medical students, we have nursing, allied health going through our environment. If anything, co taught us how important it is to train future generations and get
• 16:30 - 17:00 them into the hospital environment sooner so that they have an affinity and a and a connection to an organization. So we know though know that you know teaching enables us to recruit um the latest talent. Uh with the addition of York's medical school that is intended to open in 2028 and with McKenzie Health being the primary partner um a huge opportunity for us to get deeper into education and research. So we see collaboration uh with York University. We even have strong ties now with York Region School Board where we actually
• 17:00 - 17:30 see some opportunity in developing an earlier curriculum that brings interest into the health care disciplines uh for high school students. So again um lots of opportunity there and I'll get a little bit deeper than that. So we'll go to the next slide. So around patient care excellence um as we say this is our northstar. If we're not excelling in this space then um we shouldn't be delivering health care. Um it's been a long journey. Uh when I arrived in 2010, we were a good hospital, but we could
• 17:30 - 18:00 always do better. And we've been on that path for a number of years, making in incremental gains around um patient safety, around high quality care. The biggest risk for us uh as we made these incremental gains was the massive lift of opening a second site. So uh we did make some early investments. I think one of the best things that we did early on around 2015 is to invest in electronic medical records. So that is the epic system. We were the first hospital in
• 18:00 - 18:30 Canada to achieve MRAM 7 which is the highest designation in the use of digital technology of any acute care hospital uh in Canada and we were the first to go with Epic. Um it's interesting now 65% of hospital records in this province are on the Epic system. So many larger organizations have followed our suit. That really did enable us to deliver better quality, better integrated care. But the real effort really came about in the last three or four years as we became what is
• 18:30 - 19:00 known as a high reliability zero harm organization. We cause harm in healthcare every single day. And part of that harm is caused because we don't have a culture of of ensuring that the errors or the mistakes that happen are linked to processes and systems, not linked to individuals. So how do we avoid errors? We want people to speak up. So we have a no-lame culture that has really driven uh massive improvements in the quality of care. Um and it's really linked to a bunch of
• 19:00 - 19:30 core tools that every single staff member has been trained on. Mary Agnes has been leading the charge on this effort and we've seen massive gains. So you can see from the numbers, our hospital harm rates have uh dro dropped below 23% below the provincial harm rate. Our serious patient safety events dropped by 56%. Employee safety events decreased by 19%. Employee engagement scores, and I'll get a bit deeper than that, have gone up by 18%. And just as important, our patient complaints have dropped dramatically by 42%. So the
• 19:30 - 20:00 program is really based on data. We actually looked at hard data of where we cause harm to patients and hard data where our staff have been harmed as well and and this program has gone a long way to improving our care. So when we think about the fact that we onboarded 2100 new staff to open Cordeluchi hospital hired another 1,200 since then um and grown programs and services gone from being the 22nd um busiest and largest hospital being in the top 10 in the province and our quality got better. You
• 20:00 - 20:30 know if you were thinking about that on any other business dimension of opening another plant you know you worry about diluting the focus of the organization and we didn't do that. In fact, we did the opposite on the outcomes of the services that we provide. Um, and uh, you know, we're fortunate that the world is now watching us. We actually held a international uh, patient safety symposium um, just in the fall and had people from all over the world hearing about the great things that are
• 20:30 - 21:00 happening at Mackenzie Health. We'll go to the next side on people are our strength. So you've heard very clearly um health human resources are a challenge in our environment and uh remember that we opened a second hospital in the middle of the pandemic when it was hard to find staff. So we do have I think the secret sauce which is a great culture. That culture actually is driven by the previous slide around patient safety. Every person who works in healthcare wants to do the best they can. They don't want to hurt patients. They don't want to cause harm. they want
• 21:00 - 21:30 to actually practice to their maximum scope of of of of care delivery and much of what we've done has actually facilitated that. I think one of the proudest things that I feel leaving this organization is that right-hand uh element of 79% engagement score. So we have one of the highest in the province and this is a demonstration of the culture of the organization. We don't compete on wages in this province. We don't compete on benefits. Those are all centrally bargained. We compete on culture. So how do you bring people to
• 21:30 - 22:00 your organization? You have to have a strong culture of supporting your staff. And how do you retain people? You also have to have that strong culture. So we've done very very well. So uh we've reduced our vacancies by 50% since 2022. We've added hundreds and thousands of new staff and we continue to grow to meet the needs. So you know our agency numbers are one of the lowest in the province. So people want to come to McKenzie Health because it's a great place to work and uh our engagement scores I think are a demonstration of the strong culture um that will be the
• 22:00 - 22:30 foundation of this organization uh in the years to come. We'll go to the next slide. So around uh growing with our communities in many ways we thought this priority could take a little bit of a backseat uh with the opening of Cordeluchi lawn hospital. The reality is uh there's unrelenting growth and you as council know what's happening even in the city of Richmond Hill in terms of the intensification. So we're worried and it takes a long time to get capital
• 22:30 - 23:00 infrastructure built in this province. So we have to plant the seeds today for the needs of this community well into the future. Uh the volumes are quite challenging. We've continued to open additional beds. Uh we opened 60 unfunded beds during the surge and some of that was in unconventional spaces like auditoriums. We've opened 22 additional critical care beds. Uh one of the great things that we're doing also building programming in the community. So we've actually opened transitional beds in retirement homes to facilitate discharge and get patients um out of the
• 23:00 - 23:30 the hospital environment into a more homelike uh environment. We've open up pediatric beds. We also continue to invest. Um, so the vacant units at the Richmond Hill site when Vaughn opened, they're all full now. Uh, when they were vacant, we renovated all those units. So, we continue to take advantage of having because you never have free space in a hospital. It's hard to paint something because there's always a patient in there. We actually fully gutted and renovated all those units. And I think some of you who've been by uh the hospital have seen u some of the
• 23:30 - 24:00 improvements that we continue to make. But we have to keep growing. So um we are actively and hoping that this uh budget uh that will be announced tomorrow has approvals for the shell space at Cordeluchon Hospital. So that's floors 9 and 10 that are basically sheld space adding 72 beds per floor uh that can be approved and we have active plans and I'll speak a little bit about it later around what we'd like to do in Richmond Hill and that really starts with engaging the community. The perception in the early days was, well,
• 24:00 - 24:30 we're all fine. We just opened a new hospital. But I'll share some of the results. We've also invested in community based programming. So, a $9 million program called Mackenzie Help. So, we run our own home care program for really hard to reach patients, the the more frail, the more challenging patients. And that really does uh facilitate, you know, upwards of 500 patients receiving home care directly through the hospital. Uh the next side really focuses on the growth and um you know when I when we look at the volumes it's pretty clear that it is manifesting
• 24:30 - 25:00 in the emergency department. Um it's an interesting thing um double-edged sword when your care gets better when your reputation improves more people come to your hospital. So we find that our emergency departments are a good bell weather of how far people are prepared to travel. So we see a large portion of Markham being treated at the Richmond Hill site. uh at the corduchi site we see a large portion of Bmpton and Barry being treated. So people come from afar. Another good example of the growth and
• 25:00 - 25:30 the reputation of the organization. In four years our OB program has gone from 2600 deliveries to 4,500 deliveries. So 2,000 plus deliveries and these are conscious choices people are making to have their babies at Mackenzie Health doing their homework, doing their research. Um so it's a great thing but it puts even more pressure um you know on the volume. So you can see the numbers you know almost 4,500 deliveries this year. Our surgical volumes have gone up by over 5,000 additional cases
• 25:30 - 26:00 and the emerge volumes will hit over a quarter of a million uh this year. The worry we have and you see these numbers yourself um is by 2041 our catchment will grow by 251,000 people. That's bigger than the city of Richmond Hill. That's a scary number. So, we have to continue to look at planning in a collective way. I want to thank Mayor West and council and the staff of Richmond Hill who actually work with us to give us the detail uh planning numbers that you're working with so that
• 26:00 - 26:30 we can better understand how we need to translate that into healthcare needs. Uh the next site speaks to integrated care and uh integrated care is a bit more of a challenging space to work in because it requires partnerships with other organizations and our Ontario health team has done a great job in integrating elements of care. Um and you know we've opened other services. So we actually started what is called the family practice navigation clinic. What we were finding and we still find this is that 25% of our patients coming to the
• 26:30 - 27:00 emergency department are unattached. So they come to the emergency department because they don't have access to primary care. So this navigation clinic has enabled us to give three to four visits uh in the hospital with a primary care practitioner and ultimately find a permanent home for those patients with uh a permanent family doctor. So we placed over 700 patients with a permanent family physician. Uh but the real effort for us is uh the opportunity this government is providing. They're investing $1.8 8 billion into primary
• 27:00 - 27:30 care. We in Richmond, Helvon and King have the lowest percentage of integrated practices. So we have a lot of what we call single shingle physicians, but the integrated family health team type environments don't exist. Only 7%. If you go up to Muscoa, they have 100% of that environment. So there will be a big investment and uh we've put in five proposals in this round for additional primary care and the hope is you know that will a ensure that people have access to primary care but ideally also
• 27:30 - 28:00 reduce the pressures on the emerge department so people are getting better care. The other dimension on integrated care as I talked about our electronic medical record the ideal situation is to have that record integrated with all of the providers in the region. So, we're starting to push uh that record out into primary care, into community care. We actually just launched a partnership with Casey House in Toronto, which is an HIV hospital to push our Epic instance there. So, you know, we want to avoid you being asked the same question a
• 28:00 - 28:30 dozen times when you go from provider to provider and ensuring that that record is there so we don't repeat tests and so that we can accelerate how care is provided. The next side speaks to education and research. We do a fair amount of it already. We have about a thousand clinical placements through a variety of medical schools. We are very deep in all of uh the nursing uh teaching environments and allied health. So we've done a great job. But the next big push obviously will be with York University and uh we see that as as a major opportunity uh opening in 2028.
• 28:30 - 29:00 The focus of this medical school is primary care but also creating more generalist. So unfortunately what happened in medical education is sub subsp specialcialized care which actually doesn't help with the day-to-day running of the hospital. So we need more generalist or general types of surgical uh practitioners general medicine practitioners psychiatrists obstitricians uh to deliver better care and the TMU medical school and the York medical school are both focused on that. So if you think about our region, we're
• 29:00 - 29:30 going to benefit of new medical school in Bmpton and one one in Vaughn that will really lift up the number of of practitioners coming into our environment. And obviously with that, we also see a future in research. We've established a research council and are getting deeper into obviously medical education. Go to the next slide. This speaks to a campaign I think you're quite familiar with called Mackenzie Healthc Cares. Uh there's been a lot of social media on this campaign. It's really driven by trying to understand what the community is saying. And I think we've shared some of these results with you already. What the community is
• 29:30 - 30:00 saying is they're worried about healthcare. 97% of residents are worried and concerned about what may happen in the years to come. And at the end of the day, to create any kind of movement and mobilization for investments in in anything like healthcare, you need an engaged community. So, um, we've committed to working with all of you. We will share the data with you as we continue to get more information. And this is really the grassroots that starts to engage the community to better understand uh what they need, but more importantly than what Mackenzie Health
• 30:00 - 30:30 will do to try to to fill that gap. And as I said earlier, it takes decades to build additional healthcare infrastructure. And we we're focused in Vaughn heavily and we now have to turn our attention to Richmond Hill. We are very worried and excited I guess as you are around the intensification with the young subway line uh coming up to um high-tech and and and young hi-tech and 7 great opportunity to create a city center but we need to invest in social and health infrastructure to to keep pace. Um finally uh we will be launching
• 30:30 - 31:00 a mental health campaign in the next slide. Um we have been uh amazed at how fast mental health has grown in terms of demands. Um we opened 12 additional beds with the opening of Kluchi. They filled up very quickly. So uh we are building more mental health infrastructure and obviously we need to continue to fund raise for that to build out some of that space. So you'll see that campaign launch more officially in the next little while. I want to thank uh
• 31:00 - 31:30 councelor Chewy for participating in strides. I don't know if I beat you or not um in that run. You you look pretty fast that day, but uh it was a great day. nice sunny day and we really do appreciate all the support from um our our local community. So, thank you for coming out um and and supporting Mackenzie Health uh for that strides event. And I think that is it. So, I want to introduce go one more slide and you'll see um you know uh a number of you in these images and I think uh at the podium is is Mayor West celebrating
• 31:30 - 32:00 the 60th anniversary of McKenzie Richmond Hill Hospital, formerly known as York Central. I think that was last year. Um we really do thank you for your support and your participation and your visibility. It means a lot um to the organization but more importantly means a lot to the staff to know that their local politicians are supporting uh this organization. Uh what you did during COVID the parades that you held you know as you drove by on your in your cars on Trend Street and supported our staff. These are very very meaningful things.
• 32:00 - 32:30 Um and I want to assure you that the great things that we've done will continue. Um as any organization we do plan for succession. Um the board has always thought through what would happen if Alough was to to move on. This is an annual discussion that any organization does and uh you know Mary Agnes Wilson who h who has worked with us uh for over seven years as EVP, chief nursing executive and chief operating officer. Uh Mary Agnes and I worked together at Mount China. So we have uh you know deep
• 32:30 - 33:00 roots together and uh she is a solid leader and she is absolutely ready for this job. Um you know we work on all files together. So uh I assure you that we will not miss a beat. Uh that uh McKenzie Al's agenda will continue and uh we will continue to ensure that we're meeting the needs of the community. So to end I'd like to have Mary Agnes step up to the podium and just introduce herself. So, so thank you and thank you for
• 33:00 - 33:30 having me here this morning. It's uh as Mayor West uh acknowledged Altaf's contribution, I think you said to me, big shoes to fill and and absolutely um his leadership has been stellar and I've certainly benefited u by working alongside him for the last seven years more closely and as he said prior to that with at Mount Si. It's been my pleasure to be at uh McKenzie Health and to have seen this organization uh growth through some really tremendous
• 33:30 - 34:00 opportunities and to serve this community in the community of Western York Region. Uh and uh I am committed to a smooth transition and to working with all of you and continuing to deliver uh on our promise which is to ensure that we have excellent patient care and access for the communities that we serve. So, um, that's that's what I wanted to say this morning. I will say, however, that I noticed you had some announcements this morning. Um, I am a proud nurse and I just want to say that this is National Nursing Week. Uh, so
• 34:00 - 34:30 please um, if you know nurses in your life, thank them for their contribution. We are the largest uh, workforce in the health care system. Uh, and as we saw during CO 19, if you don't have a strong nursing workforce, you actually cannot deliver care and service. So, thank you for the opportunity to uh speak with you this morning and look forward to working with all of you. So, at this point, happy to answer any questions. No, that's great. Thank you very much. Um and thank you, Mayor Mayor
• 34:30 - 35:00 Agnes, and welcome. And uh you do have big shoes to fill in. Apparently, they're running shoes, too. So, good luck with that. Um anyway, so is there uh so council tree? Thank you, mayor. Mr. Mayor, so I say uh on behalf of the residence from secret health, thank you so much for your 15 years dedication for our public health system. So I joined this committee members around maybe two or three years ago. So we met a lot of times whenever running together I think you believe me you faster than me but I
• 35:00 - 35:30 think appreciate all the efforts. I know I heard a lot of good stories about our hospital especially from the survey you conducted. uh I think there's only few of them and now this latest one the feedback I got from uh from citizens and also residents I can see our IT infrastructures as you mentioned in the past 10 years 15 years you and your uh management we promote our IT infrastructures and now our hospital is
• 35:30 - 36:00 not only a hospital for the uh public care but also for lot of IT infrastructures that really beat up international level really proud that we do have type of hospital in our system. Also, you mentioned this going to be uh I think we have a new one opened in the the Wayne just last two years ago. Maybe there was some great uh new spaces. Also, I have the chance visiting our uh Kaduchi hospital few times especially for the baby birth area really beautiful
• 36:00 - 36:30 and also the environment amazing. So, we see the babies sitting in lying down on the bed. So amazed about the environment and also as you mentioned so we coordinate with different universities build up our research and ad center this great great opportunity for our you young generation to step into the hospital to service more people's so thank you so much I always your best endorse for new positions also welcome our new CEOs come here to to fit the big
• 36:30 - 37:00 shoes as well best regard thank you so much thanks very much councelor Uh we've got regional co- counselor Chan. Thank you uh Mr. Chair. Thank you. Fantastic uh presence of Mr. President CEO. You like that title, don't you? But thank you very much. I mean on I I can remember uh thank you for the presentation. remembered in the dark days of COVID April 2020. Um I was carrying boxes and
• 37:00 - 37:30 donations with committee members to the back door for the shipping and then continue many times and you and your team have always been very um helping to facilitate during those very stressful times. So I I do uh want to uh uh uh mixed feelings. Good for you. Moving on and carry the uh all the experiences from the McKenzie health uh to your next journey. Um when uh regard to the
• 37:30 - 38:00 presentation initially I have question about on the second slide integrated uh care but I'm glad you have one slide dedicated to it. So I have a a little bit better understanding. Um to the extent that um just you can share on a high level. I guess you try to touch on it. I just don't get it. Family practice navigation clinic would that means somebody don't have a family physician come to your ED and your um when you're
• 38:00 - 38:30 doing a trial you would direct them somewhere. Is that correct? Through Mr. Chair. Yeah. Mr. Mayor actually. There you go. It's not a a dedicated primary care clinic that you would see in your in in a community setting. It's really there to deal with those patients that don't have access to primary care that present themselves in the emerge department. They get referred from the emer so they're treated the emerge department, but then their secondary visit is referred into the family practice navigation clinic. Uh
• 38:30 - 39:00 they're seen a few times by a primary care physician. It's actually run out of the Richmond Hill site on the fifth floor. uh and then we try to place them with a permanent family doctor and 700 patients have been placed over the last year but the real uh the real goal council Chan is to build more primary care. So the the $ 1.8 billion commitment from this province over three rounds of of uh applications will go a long way to ensure that better care is
• 39:00 - 39:30 provided that you know e department is not the best place to get continuity of care. you need a family doctor, you know, helping you, um, you know, man, manage your needs in a comprehensive way. So, I think it's a start. Um, but we have a lot more work to do to build up more primary care capacity in this community. Thank you. And on the same slide, I think I see that a senior village, which is well, we got more and more people uh, age 65 and above uh, more than 15 and under all across
• 39:30 - 40:00 Canada, North America, not just Richard Hill. Now I noted that there 256 bad of long-term care is that privately run owned or is it publicly associated with the hospital? So you so it is connected to Mackenzie Health. So um as you know we run 170 beds in the Richmond Hill site in the A-wing and we're doing a similar model in Vaughn. So it will be built in between the medical school and the hospital. There's a a a 10 acre parcel that we have and uh we're in the
• 40:00 - 40:30 midst of planning and building uh that long-term care facility as the first phase and then the next couple of phases will be both assisted living and retirement to create what is called uh seniors village so that you can and and we have environments like this um actually on Young Street where we have integrated uh environments um very similar what you're seeing with actually I think Schlaggel Village is building a similar model in Young Street. Thank you. Um the reason I brought up is that at York Region actually we had discussion previously regarding the York
• 40:30 - 41:00 Region operated long-term care. So maybe that's something not to be at this table but somewhere down the line is something to talk about. We we we've had discussions with the region around the long-term care facilities they operate. So they would like to consider collaboration with us. So those discussions do happen with the commissioner. Right. Yeah. Now speaking of collaboration, I don't know that's the right term. uh I know it's not in the slide but to the extent that um you could share at a high level what has
• 41:00 - 41:30 been the impact if any of the bill 60 on the system because we know that that I'm not going to mention it you know what's going to happen soon um show through Mr. here. Well, um we've had a discussion um the last couple years I've been here. Um so, Bill 60 is intended to bring in uh integrated facilities that work in a coordinated fashion. Uh as you know, a very large facility is being built uh at uh on Leslie and 16. I just happened to drive by it today. Um the commitment
• 41:30 - 42:00 that we have um from the shorter ambulatoratory center is to work in collaboration with us. um and that is what the legislation mandates that um we do not want to u basically cannibalize other parts of the system to open a new node of service delivery. So um you know we continue to discuss with them in terms of any specific commitments. We have not gotten that far but you know we are assured by the ministry of health, Ontario health and even by Schroeder
• 42:00 - 42:30 themselves that this is intended to be collaborative. So uh we will continue to see how that evolves. I know I think Mary Agnes is actually touring the site in the next couple of weeks as well. So, we'll continue to stay close and and ensure that it's done in a way that actually integrates care, not creates, you know, unintended consequences of capacity. Yeah, thank you for the answer. I'm glad to hear the word collaboration uh is uh in your response uh because I'm not quite sure how that is going to work
• 42:30 - 43:00 out, but we'll see. Um talking about collaboration uh through you Mr. Chair and Mr. Mayor to uh presenter to what extent is the collaboration of the York region paramedatic services because I understand they with the help of the pollins they have introduced a community parame medicine program which is trying to minimize the uh the number that has to be transferred to emergency department. Uh if you can help share some highlights. So, our emergency department leadership meets very
• 43:00 - 43:30 regularly with York Region Paramedic Services. Um, you know, uh, for the past decade or so, the efforts really been about ensuring that the offload times were appropriate. So, we know that other uh, jurisdictions have had issues of not having ambulances on the road and then people being delayed in getting access to uh, you know, uh, an ambulance uh, in a timely way. Uh I'm proud to say that Mackenzie Health kind of led the charge in reducing offload times um well below 30 minutes and uh the what is called
• 43:30 - 44:00 kind of the treat and release program for paramedics is also being explored in Europe region. It's not new. In fact, Nova Scotia did this five six years ago with great outcomes. Um you know we have a very important resource in paramedics. they can do a lot more and I think um you know those models of of care are being explored to ensure that we don't unnecessarily bring someone to the emergency department when uh paramedics can actually provide uh the treatment uh on the spot. So that's that is being
• 44:00 - 44:30 piloted right now with York Region. Thank you so much and uh Mr. Chair, thank you for me to seek some clarification responses. Best of luck and uh I guess which Neil and Mckeny how will we miss you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. uh councelor uh Davidson and then regional local counselor depo. Thank you and through you Mr. Chair. Thank you for the presentation and we are sorry to see you leave but I know a good manager always has staff that come along with them. So looking forward to
• 44:30 - 45:00 working with Mary Agnes if I can use your first name. Um I've always wondered is there room to grow on the McKenzie site in terms of building up or building underground parking and then building in the parking spot? Is there actually physical space on that site to grow in a big way? So this is the Richmond Hill site. Yes. Yeah. So we are uh in the midst and we'll be a bit more public about this in the next six or seven months to actually look at a a brand new master plan for the site and how we can actually add capacity. Uh the objective
• 45:00 - 45:30 is to very clearly grow more services in that area. So there is ongoing discussions around how we can do that and I think in the next little while I think we'll be in a better position to share you know what what the possibilities are on that site but we do feel there's an opportunity there for sure. Thank you. And as there's more intensification on major MAC it just makes more and more sense to look at that site and how it can grow. Right. Thank you. Um through you Mr. Chair. Um, you know, I was recently at a uh
• 45:30 - 46:00 speaking competition for kids who were between the ages of 12 and 17. Well, a and I'm thinking about kids between the age of 12 and 25. Anyway, this speaking competition, I was gobsmacked about how many kids, especially girls, talked about anxiety. They're 12 years old and they're talking about rethinking and thinking in loops. And is there a capacity with the new focus on mental health to deal with things that aren't at the crisis point yet, but help kids cope say between the ages of 12 25
• 46:00 - 46:30 before they need medical intervention? Is that the role of a hospital? And is that something that this council or anybody can help with? Um, so it's it's a great question and we know that this is an issue. So, um, we do have some some outpatient clinics that cater to adolescent, but we're not the regional adolescent mental health program. Uh, that's at actually at South Lake. So, we have limited capacity. That's not our regional mandate. That is
• 46:30 - 47:00 South Lakes. Um, but we do have a number of outpatient clinics that do support children. We actually have partnerships with Alex Mack on that level as well. So I I think um you know it's an early step but uh we could absolutely do more and I think there's absolutely a need for more adolescent mental health care. We we know that in this community. Yeah. Thank you through you Mr. Chair. I'm I'm thinking in terms though of outreach to the schools and working with trustees councils to even have um coping types of
• 47:00 - 47:30 things in schools. Anyway, I only raised that because I mean I have kids too and I know anxiety is a thing, but I was quite shocked at how young kids are that are feeling this weight and I don't think CO helped. So, um anyway, I I it's an open opportunity for me and I'm sure anyone in council if there's any way we can help to facilitate not not full court press with hospital train uh hospital care, but something along the lines of helping. I I'm in. I think we all would be in to
• 47:30 - 48:00 help. No, the school board does have resources, but clearly not enough. Right. Yeah. Um, my next question is kind of we know in the US they're not focusing on research and you mentioned research. Does McKenzie Health have the capacity to Canadians first, Canadian research first, but maybe attract some of the talent that is looking to leave the United States and work elsewhere. So, just to maybe put context around the kind of research that we're going to do. So, we're going to be an extension of
• 48:00 - 48:30 things like existing clinical trials from the larger downtown Toronto hospitals. We will never be, for example, where I'm going, Unity Health, you know, it has $150 million research institute. It's a very competitive space. If uh anybody's going to attract talent from the US, it's going to be organizations like Sunny Brookke or UHN or or Unity. But we will be an extension of of of some of their research. what is interesting. So, you know, when when I
• 48:30 - 49:00 because I came from outside, I said, "Well, we need to do a bit more teaching and research." And when I put that in front of our medical staff more than a decade ago, um I was almost kicked out of the room. Fast forward a decade and the new talent that we brought on over the last three or four years, there's a massive appetite for teaching and research. So, we're going to have to build it in the right way, in a sustainable way. I I can't obviously put, you know, dollars that are intended for patient care into research and we
• 49:00 - 49:30 have to really bolster onto some of the larger academic uh health science centers and and extend their research uh mandates into ours. So, we're into that space. We've created an office and it's going to grow. But are we going to be a UHN, a unity, a Mount Si? That's not a place that we could ever compete in. Right. Thank you. Um and three, Mr. chair. I don't know if you can do this, but as you're partying, can you say in one sentence you wish what for McKenzie?
• 49:30 - 50:00 If there's one thing that you wish McKenzie had, what would it be? So, I I think uh and this is already um embedded in our agenda going forward. So, we have grown dramatically. So we've grown dramatically in primary and secondary level care for a hospital, but that critical mass now can sustain specialty care. So instead of the downtown hospitals taking our patients for specialty care in things like uh a whole
• 50:00 - 50:30 host of surgical disciplines like vascular and thoracics and so forth or in areas like heart and stroke um and and brain, we need to bring those programs and those services here and the new recruits that we brought on board from the larger downtown hospitals also want to deliver that care. So that's really the future of what has to happen. We got to keep growing the base. You know, it's nice to grow merge visits, but you got to grow the other the other piece because otherwise it's not a solid house of a hospital when you
• 50:30 - 51:00 don't have those other levels of care. So, that's really over the next decade um this hospital or this entity called Mackenzie becoming a lot more specialized to ensure that residents don't have to travel to Toronto to receive care. Thank you. Um, and I just want to say when I was elected in 2022, one of the first invitations I got was to come and meet you and not and I was like, "What the I'm going to meet the CEO of the hospital." Um, and what that did really
• 51:00 - 51:30 was plant the idea that this is a community and all levels. Doesn't matter if you're proincially guided or local or whatever, that we all need to work together. So, I really appreciate how much you reach out not just to this council, but to the community. And um, I wish you the best. Sorry. Sorry to see you go, but thank you for your leadership. Mary Agnes likes to reach out too, so I assure you that will continue. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh, regional local counselor depala. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Yeah. I I just
• 51:30 - 52:00 also want to uh thank Al for his service to uh McKenzie Health as CEO for all these years. We've known each other, you know, for a good good portion of your tenure there. and and I like the fact that you've always kept council apprised of what's going on. and we we feel like you know we were we were there along with you along the journey and uh it's it's amazing what what uh the hospital was when you started versus the you know the two hospitals now the volume you're
• 52:00 - 52:30 doing second uh busiest in Ontario you know it doesn't matter what uh specialized medicines you're you're doing you're you're treating more more patients than most and uh that's that's the thing people are coming in out and and um you know they're they're happy and the feedback is awesome and that's that's what it's about. You know the uh the reactions of the patients both you know with a lot of concern about how Richmond Hill was going to u was going
• 52:30 - 53:00 to fare when the all the attention is on this new hospital. Um you made sure that um that same quality of care and you know and even improved care was there in Richmond Hill all the way through. So I just want to thank you. Thank you for your service and uh you know those those other hospitals are fortunate and I don't know why anyone would want to leave York region to work in Toronto but you know I wish you all the best with that and and I'm encouraged that I think maybe your successor will be a little more brief with their uh address to
• 53:00 - 53:30 council. You heard that Mary Agnes you got to be brief. Thank you very much. Just kidding. Like thanks for all your information over the years. All the best. Okay. Is there anybody else? Okay. I'll I'll just make a couple of comments. Um, so it's always a pleasure uh to see you and hear from you uh Altaf and and uh uh Mary Agnes. It'll be a pleasure to hear you as well when when you come to see us. And I would encourage uh the hospital to
• 53:30 - 54:00 continue to come and and give us these updates because it's really important. Um, you know, as mayor, I I I know all too well that there's, you know, there are definitely um very very important uh foundations that any good and dynamic uh community sits on and certainly one of them is is healthcare. I mean there's nothing more foundational or more important than that and you know I too have watched the the hospital grow and evolve and change over my lifetime actually. I mean, ever since uh you
• 54:00 - 54:30 know, having hockey injuries, which there were a few, and you know, to having our our child born, you know, at McKenzie Health to a number of different uh things, and the hospital's always been there and always uh provided great care for myself, my family, and and so many other other people that uh I know and and the rest in the community. So, thank you. Um just a couple of questions. I mean I I I I'm aware of almost everything that was in your your presentation, but I just wanted to to focus on one thing. The education and
• 54:30 - 55:00 research part is really exciting and um it's really exciting from a healthcare perspective and I get all that, but I want to concentrate a little bit on uh that combined with the medical school. the opportunity is there for Richmond Hill to do something from an economic development point of view that I been uh really interested in seeing happen for quite some time. And I I believe that if we uh work together properly with the
• 55:00 - 55:30 hospital and our economic development team, we can really leverage um any research and development that gets done at both sites, frankly, uh to convert that into technologies and innovations that our community is well positioned to deliver, right? Like we have the most highly educated workforce in Canada. um and they're very well educated in science, technology, engineering and math. And that is very much uh parallel to the types of of work that needs to be
• 55:30 - 56:00 done in order to deliver innovations in a healthcare environment. So I would like to see the spin-off from obviously from a healthcare perspective to you know make better care innovations patient um you know outcomes better. But I also think that there's a real opportunity for Richmond Hill to um to really see us leverage that. Um we already have um businesses in Richmond Hill like AMO um and a number of the other businesses that are were pioneered in the innovation suite in McKenzie
• 56:00 - 56:30 Health before Cardelluchon and are now being used in Caluchi Bon. So there's a direct link there and and I Mary Agnes I I would like to sit down and speak to you at some point about that. um in coming back from we just did a recent trade mission to Germany and in coming back from that the number of innovative um businesses and ideas floating around in the economic ether right now that are directly related or tertiary related to health care is astounding and we need to
• 56:30 - 57:00 harvest you know some of those uh to join our our business ecosystem in in Richmond Hill. Um I know did you want to speak to that? So just to comment on that, you know, I think uh Richmond Hill and and York Region as a whole has so much health tech um sort of embedded in in a in a whole host of companies. So you sp you spoke about AMO, but you know even Compuen right uh another you know Harry is is an innovator and we have a
• 57:00 - 57:30 very significant technology contract with CompuGen as well. So I think it's it's it's matching these companies with hospitals and we have an important partner in that which is Venture Lab. Um and Venture Lab obviously finds these startup companies that don't always get access to organizations like Mackenzie Health and tries to match them up around around innovation. So it is, you know, we know that we're the, you know, we are an economic engine for the city. Um, not just in terms of the the direct jobs we
• 57:30 - 58:00 create, but um, also, you know, the other expenditures that we have and and if there was ever a time to buy local, it's now. So, uh, we're we're absolutely committed to that. Agreed. Thank you. And and the only other question I have is um the so you you talked about this uh initiative about matching people with family doctors and clearly that's really really important and it's it's a a crisis right now in Richmond Hill uh well in in Ontario uh to to for people
• 58:00 - 58:30 to find family doctors and I understand the implications of that mean more a ER visits which you know causes a cascading effect. Um, I guess what I'm wondering about though is are there also initiatives that that program could offer our community to help people connect with family doctors before they actually arrive in the emergency room on a more proactive and and I'm puzzled about that because I you know I know my family doctor
• 58:30 - 59:00 ret Oh, okay. Sorry. uh our my family doctor retired a few years ago and and it wasn't easy to find uh a new one. So can maybe just some comments on that. So there's a great book that's been written by Dr. Philpot, Healthc Care for All, I think it's called, and um she's now leading the charge uh for the province around reforming uh primary care. And the concept is pretty simple. You know, when you move to a community and you have a young family, you're not hunting around for a school. you're assigned a
• 59:00 - 59:30 school. So when you move to a neighborhood, you should be assigned a primary care physician. That's, you know, in a very simplified way the concept. It shouldn't be something you're hunting around for. So that's the end point. If you look at or uh other organized um delivery systems in Scandinavia in particular, prim primary care is the foundation. So that's ultimately where we have to end up. Um, we also have to make the environment in which primary care physicians practice a
• 59:30 - 60:00 lot less ownorous. So, you know, why do primary care physicians like to work at our health navigation clinic? Because we take all of the administrative burden away from them. They literally come in and just see patients. They don't have to worry about a whole bunch of documentation issues or or or other forms to fill out. And that is the goal of these integrated practices to ensure that the throughput and the output of this precious resource which is a family doctor is optimized. So the the five proposals that we've put in and the
• 60:00 - 60:30 additional ones that we're going to put in is actually finding a way uh with primary care doctors with other professionals like nurse practitioners and allied health to ensure that you can actually do it in a comprehensive way. I think the days of a what is called single shingle physicians working it's not viable case in point you know if your family physician retires like you're left in the lurch you know that shouldn't happen and that wouldn't happen integrated practice where you'd have 10 12 physicians working together one retires another one comes back in
• 60:30 - 61:00 and you know you're not left trying to figure it out so so we need to have organized primary care and what we have today unfortunately is disorganized primary care and I think that will solve a a lot of these challenges. Okay. All right. Well, thanks very much. That's probably a a larger conversation, but um so we have a motion. I guess councelor tree moved it and uh councelor Davidson was second to speak, so maybe you could second it, but if we get the motion to receive the uh presentation with thanks.
• 61:00 - 61:30 Uh can we also add wishing uh Altaf well in his next adventure and welcoming Mary Agnes to the to the community. So, thank you very much everybody. All those in favor opposed. That carries unanimously. Thank you very much to both of you. Thank you. All right. Uh so moving along then we have one other item that is uh has been uh removed for discussion. That's 154 member motion from uh councelor
• 61:30 - 62:00 Davidson. And I know you've been working on this all week after our discussion last week. So uh take it away councelor Davidson. Thank you. And through you, Mr. Chair. Um, Mr. Clerk, I'd like to make a small, we've discussed this, a small change uh to my original motion in the wording. Um, and if you have a moment, we can put that up. I I want to thank um my my my council colleagues for providing
• 62:00 - 62:30 feedback and being open to figuring out a way to word this. We all agree that there's really no enforcement aspect of coming to council, but I think it's it's agreed upon through this group that we should expect to be here in person. So that's what the wording says and it includes all council meetings. So it's now uh the motion is that it is expected that members of council will normally attend all regularly scheduled council
• 62:30 - 63:00 committee the whole council public meetings and budget committee of the whole meetings in person. Um I certainly got feedback that we're all behind this idea and that's my motion. Thank you. Okay. Uh so I need a seconder for that. So regal counselor Depalo go ahead. Yeah I'm happy to second that. uh as I said a committee um you know I support the notion that uh you know we we make all efforts to attend in person and and but there's still value in in being able to
• 63:00 - 63:30 uh attend meetings when you're sick at home or you know otherwise unable to to get here. So I think this is great compromise. I like this wording and I have to second the motion. Okay. Thank you very much. Uh anybody else? Councelor Thompson. Uh thank you very much through you the chair. Um uh to the clerk I believe I just want so this really doesn't change anything with the policy that uh says
• 63:30 - 64:00 that uh we notify the mayor and the clerk in advance of any particular meeting that we cannot attend in person. Is that correct? Uh thank you through the chair. Uh that is uh correct councelor Thompson. Uh the way the procedure bylaw is written um members would are able to participate virtually. They should provide notice to the mayor and the office of the clerk. This adds a separate provision uh creating an expectation so that rule does not change. Much appreciated. Thank
• 64:00 - 64:30 you. Okay. Uh councelor Shu. Thank you Mr. Mayor and thank you for uh councelor Davidson for proposing this motion. I think uh this is very solid rationale behind and I would like to support this motion. Um if any neighbors are concerned about how often uh council members attend cow meeting and uh council meetings whether in person or by virtual, I would suggest checking the official attendency records and they are
• 64:30 - 65:00 fully transparent to the public. And on the other hand, I also encourage neighbors to attend cow meetings and council meetings in person because I believe having more people in the chambers can encourage council member to show up in person as well. Just a kind of cause and effect dynamic. So anyway, I believe this new approach will help shift the culture in council in a positive direction. And that's all my comments. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. No, thank you. I mean to the public, we are very welcoming here. So, you know,
• 65:00 - 65:30 anybody that wants to come is welcome to come. All right. Anybody else? Okay. I'll just make a couple of comments. Thank you, Councelor Davidson, for your work on this. Um, I do I do think this is important. As I said at at community, the whole um we make better decisions when we are here. Uh I'm quite proud of this council. We've worked very well together and had, you know, very good collaborative discussions. Um, but having those discussions when we're actually sitting across the table from each other actually I think adds value
• 65:30 - 66:00 uh on top of what we've already seen. So I think that's really important that we uh uh that we're able to do that. So if that's all for the discussion uh we've got a firsted and seconded. So uh all those in favor oppose that carries. Thank you very much. Uh carries unanimously actually. Uh so um at this point in time we have I guess we have some do we have bylaws I guess. Okay so we just have the confirmatory bylaw. Councelor Davidson looks like she wants
• 66:00 - 66:30 to do it and councelor Tree wants to do it. All those in favor opposed. That carries and a motion to adjurnn. I see councelor Leu's hand up. So, excuse me.