Council Info – March 28, 2018

August 01, 2025

Council Info is a summary of discussion and the major items presented at Council meetings. It is circulated immediately following each meeting. You are encouraged to quote from and copy this information. Please refer to the minutes for an official record of the meeting.

Child care subsidy program boosted

The Region will hire up to three permanent full-time staff for the Region’s child care subsidy program. These staff will help achieve the Province’s plan to increase access to licensed child care for children aged 0 – 4. Locally, our goal is to help provide child care access for 500 children, either through financial assistance (subsidy) or by creating new child care spaces. The child care subsidy program allows eligible families to access and maintain employment, upgrade their education, attend training programs, and provide early intervention for children with special needs. Families can use financial assistance to access licensed child care centres, licensed home child care programs or before and after school programs.

The Journey Together funds Indigenous-led child and family centre

The Region will partner with Anishnabeg Outreach for the creation and provision of an Indigenous-led child and family centre. Funding will be provided to Anishnabeg Outreach in 2018 ($467,500) and 2019 ($300,000) through the Province of Ontario’s Journey Together reconciliation initiative, which aims to address negative impacts resulting from the legacy of residential schools. Anishnabeg Outreach will be collaborating with the YMCA, Region of Waterloo Children’s Services and other early years’ partners.

Program will help retrofit social housing

Two new programs (SHAIP and GreenON) are available for Social Housing buildings to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The majority of Ontario’s high-rise apartment buildings were developed in the 1960s and 1970s – prior to energy-efficient design. Many of these buildings are now at a point within their lifecycle where major building systems must be replaced. Investing in energy efficiency upgrades in high-rise apartment buildings will help reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, improve the quality and sustainability of Social Housing stock in Ontario and enhance quality-of-life for tenants. SHAIP and GreenON will fund lighting, heating and cooling retrofits that reduce GHG emissions. 

Lutherwood to lead new housing-focused teams

Lutherwood has been named lead agency for both the new Prioritized Access to Housing Support (PATHS) team and the new Portable Home-Based Support (HBS) team. The PATHS team will work to implement the Region’s new PATHS Framework by coordinating access to housing support for people experiencing homelessness who have a greater depth of need related to finding and keeping a home. The HBS Team will work to implement the Region’s new HBS Framework by providing support to people after they have been housed through the PATHS process. This housing support helps people to recover from homelessness, connect to other community-based services and reduce their depth of need so that they can stay housed with an improved quality of life. Both the PATHS Team and the HBS Team provide services region-wide.

Wellbeing Waterloo Region

Community wellbeing is shaped by a wide variety of conditions and systems, in which individuals and communities are born, grow, work, live, and age. Over the past two years, various government organizations, community groups, service providers and citizens have worked together to identify the most pressing needs in our region. Based on these conversations, three “big ideas” have taken shape: affordable housing, healthy children and youth and social inclusion. In order to make a transformational impact in these three areas, actions from individuals and organizations will be developed over the next several months. Visit www.wellbeingwr.ca for details.

Region Transit Supportive Strategy for Cambridge approved

Regional Council approved the 2018 Implementation Plan for the Transit Supportive Strategy (TSS) for Cambridge. This strategy allocates $1 million annually for 10 years to accelerate the implementation of Stage 2 ION LRT in Cambridge. It funds initiatives that will improve transit ridership and encourage transit-supportive development within the Central Transit Corridor (CTC). City of Cambridge and Regional staff identified the initiatives that best meet the program requirements for 2018. The plan for 2018 includes five new initiatives and two cost increases:

  • Enhance three existing Grand River Transit (GRT) routes in Cambridge (routes 53, 75 and 203 iXpress).
  • Upgrade infrastructure and access to existing GRT stops in seven locations.
  • Create a dedicated GRT bus lane southbound at the Delta Station along Hespeler Road.
  • Investigate the feasibility of GO passenger rail service to Cambridge and integration potential with ION.
  • Provide financial support to transit-oriented development projects within Cambridge’s CTC.
  • Increase the Neighbourhood Marketing Plan budget to help highlight new ION buses and promote the integrated transit service between ION LRT and ION bus.
  • Increase budget to maintain Routes 61 and 200 iXpress evening service expansion.

 

Victoria and Westmount improvements moving forward

Regional Council approved road improvements on Victoria Street from Fischer Hallman Road to Lawrence Avenue and on Westmount Road from Highland Road to Glasgow Street, in Kitchener. The proposed improvements include reconstruction/rehabilitation of roadways, sidewalk replacement, new turn lanes, traffic signal modernization, upgraded lighting, new pedestrian islands and cycling facilities. In addition, sections of watermain and sewers will be replaced on behalf of the City of Kitchener. Currently, construction is scheduled to begin on Victoria Street in 2020 and on Westmount Road in 2021. Construction is expected to take two years to complete.

Council supports Communitech True North 2018 event

Council approved a $50,000 contribution plus 18 hours of charter bus service to support Communitech’s True North conference and festival. Focusing on technology, attendees will hear how world-leading thinkers are working to address key social, economic and infrastructure issues from a tech perspective. Communitech hopes to attract about 2,000 attendees – half being from outside Canada. Communitech, and various other public and private sector organizations, believe the event will: attract talented people who might relocate here; attract business; increase hospitality spending in the Region; and support tech-tourism.

King Victoria Transit Hub project moves forward

Council agreed to release the transit hub Request for Proposal, which includes the design, commercial and financial requirements for the project. The developer will have up to five months to prepare a proposal for evaluation by the Region and its external advisors. A final recommendation is expected in November 2018. Council also established a strategy for including affordable housing, agreed to create a Joint Design Review Panel with Metrolinx and the City of Kitchener, and to budget $300,000 for free-standing public art (funded from sale proceeds). The transit hub is a landmark development and will offer seamless access to multiple modes of transportation connecting people to work, home and retail using all commuting options – in addition to promoting our connection to the Toronto-Waterloo Innovation Corridor.

Tenders/Contracts:

The following tenders/contracts were approved by Council:

  • $13,484,014.30 to Capital Paving Inc. for Bleams Road/Ottawa Street improvements from Fischer-Hallman Road to Knechtel Court in Kitchener and Wilmot.
  • $7,518,561.20 to E & E Seegmiller Ltd. for reconstruction of Northumberland, Swan and Stanley Streets in Ayr.
  • $5,640,534.50 to Gateman Milloy Inc. for construction of the Waterloo landfill south expansion area (cell SE-4B).
  • $1,309,960.80 to Ennis Paint Canada ULC for highway traffic paint for a three-year period with an option to renew for two additional one-year terms.
  • $1,264,437.39 to Xterra Construction Inc. for Waterloo Landfill Pumping Station 4 upgrades.
  • $841,855 to Robert B. Somerville Co. Ltd. for connections of new wells to the Region’s water supply systems.
  • $419,845.05 to Everbridge Inc. for an emergency notification system contract for three years, with the option to renew for four additional one-year periods.
  • $279,322 to Pestalto Environmental Health Services Inc. for Public Health west Nile virus larval surveillance/monitoring and larviciding/abatement services for a two-year term with the option to renew for three additional one-year terms.
  • $249,500 in additional funds to WalterFedy for consulting engineering services for the Dundas Street Improvements (Hespeler Road to Elgin Street) in Cambridge, to extend the project limits south from Elgin Street to Franklin Boulevard. 

 

For more information, contact:

Bryan Stortz, Director, Corporate Communications, 519-575-4408
Regional Clerk’s Office, 519-575-4420