A Public Health Bylaw - isn't that a Regional issue ? Might it be related to air pollution?

By Pepper Parr

February 3rd, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

It was one of those walk-on items; a piece of city business that wasn’t on the agenda.

It came from the Mayor who did not appear to have consulted with her peers before the meeting.

There was a certain awkward silence, which is hard to pick up on when the meeting is virtual and you can’t always see all the players at the same time.

It was short; set out as a Staff Direction it read:

Direct the Executive Director of Legal Services to undertake a detailed review of the feasibility of enacting a city wide health protection bylaw to be funded from the Contingency Reserve fund and report back by Q2 of 2021.

My first reaction was – what is this all about? Don’t we have a Public Health Unit at the Region that focuses on public Health?

The motion wasn’t actually ready – Council took a few minutes break while the short paragraph was typed up and put up on the screen.

Kelven Galbraith, Chair of a Standing Committee waiting for the Mayor to complete the writing of a Staff Direction

Kelvin Galbraith who was chair of the meeting asked if there were any questions. Rory Nisan, who seems to be the person that automatically supports whatever the mayor puts forward said he was very interested to see where this could go.

Angelo Bentivegna was next with his standard “two quick questions” approach. He wanted to know more especially about the “detailed” part and just how much of the Contingency Reserve fund was going to be used. He asked “how far are we going to get into this” and added that at this point he could not support the Staff Direction.

Council had just come out of a two hour CLOSED session on the Meridian Aldershot Quarry and were scheduled to do a hard stop at noon – with that hour just minutes away.
They needed to take a lunch break after which City Manager Tim Commisso spoke saying he felt that Bentivegna deserved a more detailed answer to his concerns.

Commisso pointed out that the Legal Services budget was not public. He seemed to be aware of what it was the Mayor wanted to bring forward and pointed out that Council can do whatever it wants to do.

Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman said he had concerns over the scope of what was before Council. He wanted to know who will do the actual work and noted that there is a Public Health Unit at the Region adding that he was not clear on just what was being done.

Nancy Shea Nicol, Executive Director Legal Services

At that point the Executive Director of Legal Services spoke saying she could put together a Terms of Reference document.

Commisso then said that this was something that was dealt with in the CLOSED session. Which CLOSED session?

City Manager Tim Commisso

Commisso was referring to the CLOSED session that had taken place earlier in the day relating to the Meridian Aldershot Quarry where Air Quality issues were part of the discussion.

We were aware that the city had included outside legal counsel with a background in environmental matters.

Commisso said there would be a specific lead role and that “Nancy will provide executive guidance that would provide a “consolidated approach”.

A muddy picture was getting muddier.

Councillor Stolte then spoke saying she wanted more information. She would later vote to move the matter to Council later in the month at which time the City Solicitor would have more information for them.

Councillor Kearns wanted to see a more honed in approach to whatever it was the Mayor wanted done. Reference was made to where this fit into the V2F document (Vision to Focus) by Kearns but not before she could say that she thought the city was lucky to have Nancy Shea Nicol on Staff (she is the Executive Director of Legal Services) because she was “an amazing person.”

Kearns wanted to know if this was an internal look at public health; did it include audio, smells – adding that the wording was obtuse and needed fine tuning and could be the equivalent to opening a Pandora’s box.

She wanted the matter deferred to Council.

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward

Meed Ward then spoke saying that “we are constrained” about what we can say and that the public will not know what we are talking about and what can be shared with the public.

Withholding information is the beginning of a slippery slope that leads to deliberately hiding information from the public.

What the Mayor did not share when she spoke was that previously the Executive Director of Legal Services  had been asked to find lawyers with environmental experience.

Those lawyers are what we at the Gazette believe were speaking to Council in that CLOSED session.

In the fullness of time all the facts will come out. What we don’t want to hear is that the approach the Mayor has taken was what was best for the city.

Weeks before the 2018 election took place we said that of the three candidates running for the Office of Mayor Meed Ward was the only real choice.

And she is certainly in the process of making her mark on the city. She is also creating a profile of being bold and courageous and doing good things.

What is also being left is the view that she always knows best – this is not a view that is shared by most of her colleagues. The collaboration and a collective will of Council is not as evident as the Mayor would like it to be.

A Gazette reader recently made a comment that this Mayor wants everyone to know that She Is in Charge – democracies don’t work that way Your Worship.

What we will learn in the fullness of time is that Council will try and pass a city wide health protection bylaw that will relate to the quality of the air and what corporations will not be able to do when their product or the work they do releases pollutants into the environment.

Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.