By Pepper Parr
May 29th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
This is nothing to brag about.
Burlington Residents’ Action Group (BRAG) is in the process of dissolving the not-for-profit corporation.
For some reason, the people of Burlington do not appear able to create a community organization that manages to bring about changes.
Oakville has more than a dozen community organizations that Mayor Burton brags about, even though they are frequently a pebble in his shoe.
ECoB Engaged Citizens of Burlington was created to try and hold the Goldring Council to account.
What they managed to do was hold all candidate meetings in all six wards, which resulted in five new members for a seven-member council.
And then ECoB fell apart – they weren’t able to get to the point where there was strong representation at the ward level.
The BRAG situation seems to be due to philosophical differences -it had a very small four-member board that didn’t meet as much as it perhaps should have.
Some in leadership roles were not prepared to have to cope with some of the limitations that go with corporate titles.
The President of BRAG personally paid for the incorporation. Donations to BRAG were returned to the donors.
We understand that at a contentious Board meeting, two members of the Board were opposed to the dissolution of the corporation – they were apparently told that if they could not vote for a dissolution, then they would have to take over the board. The two chose not to take on that task.
A new organization has been formed by the two members who decided that a dissolution was the only solution. We are advised that the BRAG membership has yet to be advised of these changes.
The biggest issue is reported to be the creation of a policy document that was never created. Members wanted the organization to determine what they were setting out to do.
BRAG tended to focus on taxation matters and holding the civic administration fiscally accountable. We have not used the names of the people involved other than those who released statements. The fear is that this would become a he said she said back and forth.
Bad enough that the city is losing the one community organization that it had. In a statement given to the Gazette earlier today we are told:
“Community groups come and go. People volunteer their time for a cause that interests them. Sometimes, personalities get in the way; some members of the group are passionate about the group going in one direction, while other members may have different ideas. Burlington is certainly large enough to support many community groups.
“The folks at BRAG have arrived at a difficult decision and have decided to dissolve the organization.
Stephen White
Eric Stern
“Eric Stern and Stephen White have chosen to start a new group to carry on some of the work that BRAG was doing. The new group is named Focus Burlington. There are many steps to forming a community group, and Focus Burlington is working through those steps.
“The website is up and running at www.focusburlington.ca
“A not-for-profit corporation is being set up.
“The BRAG website will shut down on June 6th, 2025.
“BRAG accomplished many things, the most important of which was to let the people who work at City Hall, staff and council, know that some residents care about how the city shares information and where our tax dollars go. Burlington’s capital and operating budgets represent half a billion dollars, a huge amount of money, and taxpayers have every right to ask for value for their money.
“Focus Burlington has four main focus areas: Budgets, Development, Safety and Traffic.
“We expect city staff to present their 2026 Financial Needs and Multi-Year forecast in the near future, giving us a glimpse of the 2026 budget. The Focus Burlington budget team / formerly the BRAG budget team, is getting ready for a deep dive into the 2026 City of Burlington Budget.
“Stay tuned.”
Lynn Crosby speaking for what is left of BRAG said:
Lynn Crosby
“We at BRAG are writing to announce to you, our valued supporters, that it has been decided that BRAG will be winding down our operations. Our BRAG website will shut down on June 6, 2025.
“We have accomplished a lot in just over one year, and our dedication to holding elected officials to account; informing the public of what is happening at city hall; demanding true citizen engagement; speaking out for transparency, fiscal prudence and democratic principles, has not wavered. Some of us think that there may be other ways in which we can effect change, some want to take a breather from city politics, particularly in light of what is happening in the larger world around us in these unprecedented and worrying times.
“The next municipal election is in late October 2026 – which means the campaigning begins in less than one year. We believe that Burlington needs new faces around the council table and we each will continue to work towards advocating for change, in whatever ways we are able.
“We would like to thank each and every one of you for supporting BRAG. We had a large number of residents working hard behind the scenes with us: providing advice, doing research, studying those massive budget documents line by line, watching council meetings, and helping to spread awareness to other residents. We wish you all the best, and I’m sure our paths will cross again as we continue to work towards better things for Burlington as we approach the election, despite feeling the same election fatigue as you probably do!.”
How will it work out? BRAG certainly sent a strong signal to City Council. How much of their message actually got through is something that will become evident when Council gets into the debate on the 2026 budget.
This is going to be seen as the ‘election budget’; will it make a difference?
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It’s very unfortunate that BRAG has folded. Frankly, I don’t see much hope for the new group. Focus Burlington sounds a great deal like the city’s “Vision to Focus” name for their strategic vision and we all know how good that’s been.
More to the point it seems that they want to continue BRAG’s strong work analysing the upcoming 2026 budget. Holding council accountable as we head into the election. But there won’t be a budget will there? Unless I’m mistaken council is disbanded in September pending the election and it can’t commit the new council to anything monetary. Surely the 2026/27 budget is a huge fiscal commitment. And the mayor generally starts the whole thing in September. Will she now bring in an election budget in the summer? I doubt that even she would be that crass. FocusBurlington may have lost sight of this.
Editor’s note:
You have your dates a little confused. The budget that will go before the public in the next few months is for the 2025-26 fiscal year. It will not be an “election” budget.
The budget for 2026-27 will go before Council in 2026 and due to the election that will take place in October of 2026 – there will be strict limits on what a city council can do.
Those of us who have taken on the role of advocating for the public interest know too well of the down side of such time-consuming hard work that is not at all appreciated by this council, indeed to the contrary…
Many thanks to BRAG for your work on the budget. I have no doubt that a lot of work went into that effort alone. As citizens we have to ask ourselves this of any elected government, “are you better off now after x years under this administration”? If not why not? If not what are you going to do about it? If you have delegated, did you feel heard?
This is unfortunate. Volunteering is theoretically good for one’s soul, but in practice, it can quickly degrade into a tiresome & fruitless grind. Perhaps we should seek to understand what Oakville is doing to successfully foster community advocacy/ ratepayer groups, that Burlington could learn from?
You’ve got that right, Don. Oakville has for decades been concerned about how its citizens feel on important issues by having an interested and caring Mayor and Council. That is a requirement for any volunteer group to sprout and endure. Unfortunately Burlington’s Mayor and Council have little interest in any of the above, preferring biased surveys and pop-up one-on-one conversations instead of actual live open meetings where opinions are given and heard by all. This policy of poor communication only discourages citizens from forming groups to express views of a number of aligned residents.