Discussion:

Waiver of Fees and Grant Funding Policy (Appendix A)

The current Waiver of Fees and Grant Funding Policy was previously adopted by City Council at the meeting on November 2, 2015 (CR214/2015).

On Feb 24, 2020, City Council approved the addition of Habitat for Humanity-Housing Build Projects to the ‘Waiver of Fees and Grant Funding Permanent List’. CR102/2020 states:

“That Habitat for Humanity Windsor-Essex be APPROVED as an addition to the Grants and Waiver of Fees Permanent list for all future requests for grants-in-lieu of City fees (excluding School Board portion of development charges and refundable indemnity fees) relative to future requests to provide affordable housing and that said amount(s) be funded from Corporate dept ID 0131691 Grants and Waiver of Fee”.

To facilitate consistency and compliance to CR102/2020, administration made some changes to the policy which are generally considered housekeeping in nature. Significant changes are as follows:

Section 4.3.2 – Throughout the year, the City provides waivers of fees and grant funding to various organizations as approved by City Council or the CAO by delegation of authority as granted by Council. In addition, there are also four events/projects included in the permanent listing (i.e. Canada Day Parade, Santa Claus Parade, Victory Parade and the Habitat for Humanity Housing Build Projects). Currently, there are no budgets allocated for the provision of waivers of fees and grant funding. Any approved amounts will affect the City’s year -end surplus/deficit. This section includes additional responsibility for the Chief Financial Officer/City Treasurer requiring that he/she recommend a budget amount for Dept ID 0131691 that will be used to fund the waivers of fees and grant requests.

Section 5.3 – This section identifies organizations which are specifically excluded from eligibility.

Section 5.6 – Currently, the eligibility criteria for addition to the permanent listing are intended to address special event activities only. Habitat for Humanity-Housing Build projects have been added to the permanent listing.

Corporate Gift Policy (Appendix B)

The current Corporate Gift Policy was previously adopted by City Council at the meeting on October 29, 2015 (CR196/2015).

This policy has been formatted, updated to reflect organizational practices, and include streamlined policy language to improve clarity and flow.

Section 4.1 and 4.2 Responsibility – the dollar limit for approving all proposed gifts have been revised for City Council (over $500, exclusive of taxes) and Chief Administrative