By Pepper Parr
August 8th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
When City Council met on Wednesday there was a lengthy discussion on what took place during the July 15-16 flooding. Staff talked about what they were able to do and what they were not able to do.
What the public didn’t hear was as much as a single word from the residents that took to brunt of the damage. Some of the homes that were flooded are reported to be beyond repair and will have to be torn down.
The public knows what they hear from friends and neighbours.
For reasons that I don’t understand – there was no room on the agenda for public participation directly related to the flooding during the Special Council meeting.
There was to be one delegation, who unfortunately was not able to attend. The women had an emotional meltdown and just didn’t show up. That should not be seen as a reflection on the woman.
Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna had what appeared to be some very useful data.
Councillor chooses not to share data.
He told members of Council saying: “I don’t have all the answers. I know we’re going to meet with residents and go through it. The who’s going to delegate earlier today is so stressed out they did not delegate.
“I have a 21 page, I’m not gonna say minute by minute, but certainly half hour by half hour.
“Events of the two days that are unbelievable, and the photos are even more unbelievable.
“That’s my concern right now – it all starts out with that communication and that cooperation that fell through the cracks.”
The Gazette asked Councillor Bentivegna if he would share the information he received. There was no response.
It does all start out with communication Councillor – you appear to have a different definition as to just what it is that should be communicated.
There is, as Gary Scobie mentioned in another comment, a ward 3 resident contemplating a class action lawsuit against the city. There are 97 comments and counting on his post on Next Door. Council, as Anne and Dave have said, may be working hard to shut people down but it’s not working. Most media may be swallowing the spin, but residents aren’t and they are speaking out and getting together outside of council and they are FED up with our supposed leaders.
Every excuse council and the mayor makes, every softball interview claiming she acted on all flood report recommendations, every deflection she does to try to get past this – oh I’ll post about homelessness and asking the province to do something about that – has the opposite effect to what they seem to think it does.
A message to every council member: People.Aren’t.Stupid.
If municipalities such as Burlington were goverened by statutes similar to the Condominium Act, 1998, SO 1998, c 19, that applies to condominium home owners. These people could band together, subject to certain conditions and call an “Owner Requsitioned Meeting”.
Owner-requisitioned meetings give owners an opportunity to voice concerns or present ideas. Non-binding vote of owners in attendance can be held to make sure that the condo corporation or in this case COB, understands the owners’ position.
As it stands COB holds all the cards and can stonewall the affected home owners with impunity.
Source: https://www.condoauthorityontario.ca/condo-living/owners-meetings/owner-requisitioned-meetings/
of course like your website but you have to check the spelling on several of your posts A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very troublesome to inform the reality on the other hand I will certainly come back again
https://www.halton.ca/Repository/A-Guide-to-Flooding-Prevention-And-Recovery
Just something of interest on the Halton Regions website (with pictures) regarding who is responsible for sanitary and storm systems in the City and also the homeowner’s responsibility, it also answers the question, how does the stormwater overload the sanitary system and backup into your basement?
No one said it was easy to own a home, when it rains I’m looking out every window looking for evidence of blocked gutters and pooling of water, I know we are fast approaching a nanny state but jeez you have to sometimes help yourself.
One of the pieces of “unbelievable information” that is also, apparently, being withheld is the fact that the recommended backflow valves are very much a “mixed blessing”. First of all, many according to reports that are admittedly anecdotal, have not been installed properly and have failed. Secondly, and far more to the point, is the fact that the coarsing sewage/water has to go somewhere and if it can’t go into the basement of the houses that have the backflow valves it will only go more heavily into the neighbouring houses that do not. And if all are equipped with the valves, which is totally unlikely, then additional pressure is placed on an already aging conduit infrastructure with resulting long-term and costly damage. The backflow valves are, I believe, a convenient panacea and were identified as such in the research that Meed Ward had at her disposal in 2018.
It should be incumbent on the Mayor and this Council to convene a special public meeting for all homeowners who were affected, and provide them with an opportunity to address their concerns and questions. After the August 2014 flood a public meeting was held at Crossroads Church in North Burlington for this purpose.
Good thing some of us have great memories, and were around back so we can remind this Council of what they have done previously, and should be doing now.
Thank you Strphen
I can believe it, and I do, I believe that we are top-heavy in the running around like chickens without heads department, I just re-read the Gazettes 17th July transcript of the COB council meeting in regards to the 2024 flooding, if I were on the audit team, this transcript alone would be all I would need to wrap this one up and guarantee this would never happen again. But I’m retired.
The other piece in the Gazette regarding warning devices of water level and flow That were installed Is a bit of a head-scratcher, why would you want to be alerted to the fact you are flooding? I would think that would be very obvious. Also If your drainage system is built to handle 200mm of rain all you have to do is to maintain it at that level, and the fact that homeowners could have got their properties inspected for proper drainage for free is another one of those, why didn’t you moments, being proactive in preventative measures is a lot cheaper in the long run.
The city could have heard from the delegation who was in Council on July 19 but chose not to. She had some powerful things to say. She made sure she was registered to speak at this Council but was told in writing all she could speak on was the verbal update.How can one speak on a verbal update that is not given until after your delegation. The verbal update was also not on the agenda until after delegations closed.
Council have been very effective in shutting out the voices of those who are victims of this flood and our media needs to be asking themselves and those responsibl why?. It’s not just Bentivegna who is keeping quiet on the “unbelievable” that occurred.