By Pepper Parr
February 13th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
At the beginning of each Council meeting, there is a Roll Call to make sure there are enough members of Council present to meet the quorum requirement, and then the Agenda has to be approved. Items can be withdrawn or added.
We often hear a Chair ASK: “Is there anyone who has a hard stop”, by which they mean, does anyone have to leave early.
Members of Council know when meetings are scheduled.
Their job is to be in the room or take part virtually for every meeting.
Attendance exceptions should be very very rare. Your Mother’s funeral would qualify.
It is time for Council members to always be present. Simple, do your jobs.
This is what the public elected and this is what the public expects – every seat filled.
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Mr Muir ,a well respected and knowledgable commentator here made me sad with his comments and we must clearly choose wisely come the 2026 Election . Imagine how the rest of us taxpayers must feel . Turned down or ignored several times via email questions or in person inquiries by Council .
Let Council and our nauseating Mayor know who they represent
Hopefully people like Mr Muir and other regular commentators here are not silenced and keep holding Council accountable
Thank you
Eve, Thanks for the kind words. I never give up, I just told my truth in my point.
It’s not just the Mayor who is hungry for power in my experience, but my Ward 1 Councilor, who needs to go too, in my view. He has refused to communicate, in writing, with me for more than 2 years because I publicly complained about what I thought was was a conflict of interest he has. He told me that he didn’t want to work with me because I said something he didn’t like, and he didn’t want to have to talk to me and maybe be asked questions. This was in November, 2022.
I asked the Mayor about this and she told me that Councilors can do what he did, for no personal particular reason, and she was okay with it. She said her City office didn’t have the resources to look into what interactions led to this.
She has got taxpayer millions for a fools errand providing charity to developers. Keep in mind that they got all the free DCs, but the individual buyers only get the money for one house, if the developers don’t keep it all.
So I haven’t had a Councilor for all that time, for anything. How does anyone think I am voting this time?
Oh yes, keep an eye on who gets the most political election funding donations this time. It was Ward 1 last time, by a very large margin.
Editor’s note: The Gazette went to considerable effort to arrange a meeting for Tom Muir with the Ward 1 Council member Kelven Gailbraith. Muir declined to meet. It is about time for Muir to fess up and tell Gazette readers what is really under his skin.
This is well known, but anyways, it’s another thing killed by Covid – the virtual reality substitute need to go to City Hall for Councilors – the physical need to go for anyone really, but the elected folks always were expected to be there for the obvious reasons Pepper points out.
I remember the tables up front with Joan Little sitting, and guests and delegates could too. I always went, and that could be frequently. It was a good opportunity to meet Councilors, staff, planners, developers, lawyers, and citizens, in various and sorted development and City affairs. I met a lot of people.
Not needed anymore, and the City disdain for real engagement and citizen groups, opinions, and discontent does not encourage personal attendance. Zoom they like I think, and they don’t care. It lets then scroll away with no human presence really.
I don’t go personally anymore. I have got the message that they don’t care. One negative for me is that I have no talent at looking any good using Zoom images and light Oh well, no driving, no parking, no time blown..