By Pepper Parr
November 26th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
It will be a while before the citizens fully understand what BRAG managed to pull off this year when they took City Council and some senior staff members to task on how engagement was limp at best.
Every really engaged community is made of small, dedicated people who work very hard – and get less than a heartfelt thank you from Council or for that matter the Chief Administrative Officer.
Maybe – just maybe the Mayor and the CAO will say publicly that the budget that finally gets approved was better due to the effotrs made by community groups.
Back in 2018 ECoB was formed and was part of what put the current Council in office. Under the direction of Penny Hersh, who did a lot of the work herself – there were people who helped out and Penny was gracious in thanking them.
Few realized at the time that Lisa Kearns, who was part of ECoB from the beginning, – not something she would admit to in the early days. The motivation for Kearns was the chance to win the ward 2 Council seat.
Marianne Meed Ward was running for Mayor – so her seat was available.
What was truly marvellous was the way ECoB captured the imagination of the public – all that was needed was some kind of structure to get things moving.
The New Street Baptist Church was packed. Rick Goldring who was running for re-election chose to stay outside the building.
The United Church on Plains Road was standing room only for the ward 1 candidates debate.
This time around BRAG and its members were the ones to rise to the challenge.
At a budget meeting in 2023, Dan Chapman was delegating and he was mad as hell and didn’t want to put up with any more tax increases. At the end of his delegation, he strode the few steps to his ward Councillor and shoved a copy of his tax bill into the hands if Kelvin Galbraith – who was stunned and didn’t know what to do.
It was the unconscionable tax increase of more than 15% over the previous year that pushed the small group into organizing.
One of the elements of a politically healthy community is the existence of concerned and committed parents.
Parents filled the available seats at a Trustee meeting when the HDSB announced that two of seven schools had to be closed.
We saw something very similar when the Halton District School Board decided to close two of the seven high schools. Parents packed the room Trustees met in.
It is clear now that BRAG has moved the needle. For the first time in my experience with Burlington City Council (all 12 years of it) this is the first time I’ve seen a citizen group produce a well researched document that challenged the city on 25 different budget items and presented them as part of a delegation.
Councillor Sharman made a point of asking CFO Craig Millar to commit to responding to the BRAG delegation.
Councillor Sharman made a point of asking the Chief Financial Officer Craig Millar to commit to answering the questions that were asked.
Millar said that he would do so.
Expect BRAG to be nipping at his heals if the response isn’t in their hands by the end of the first week in the New Year.
Expect as well to see a Draft budget made available to the public sometime early in September of 2025 for the 2026 budget.
Given that 2026 is an election year – Council will look for and find ways to reduce the tax bite.
The City issued a media release yesterday afternoon that was first class public relations spin. In the words of Eric Stern: “From the Mayor’s perspective, the communications team deserves every penny they earn. From my perspective, they should all be fired.”
That Eric, isn’t going to happen – but they will be on their toes going forward.
BRAG managed to move the needle.
It is wonderful to see that a small community group can have such influence. It restores my faith in the power of collective and focused action. Apparently, they were formed around one identifiable community issue – an “unconscionable tax increase” last year – and devoted themselves in a single-minded way to this burning issue. They did not become distracted with any extraneous causes or perceived civic problems that could have weakened their basic message and they brought home telling, forceful delegations that caused Council to listen. Citizens need to remember them and join their fight next year with the 2026 budget.
Many thanks to Eric and the BRAG group. Some of the issues raised on timing, the taxpayer window of opportunity to delegate, as well as the slight of hand communication to have us focus on the blended increase as opposed to how much council increased our tax bills tells me there is more to be done.
Eric Stern and BAG certainly have moved the needle through dedicated hard work, refusing to go away, calling a spade a spade and not allowing Council and Senior Staff to get away with their spin. Their knowledge of how Oakville do it and insisting we need the same (55 days of review time rather than 31 when both governed by same Municipal Act for example) could not be denied as a less than fair opportunity to get the budget down to where it could be.
Thanks for giving them the shout out they deserve.
There is still a long way to go from “words to action”.
Council has many great talkers but falls well short on action as it pertains to community suggestions to cut spend and be more fiscally responsible. I hope you are correct and we see a significant reduction in the proposed COB 2025 budget increase.
Either way, I do appreciate the amazing work that Eric Stern and BRAG have done on behalf of the citizens of Burlington. It educates all of us and raises many questions about how our property tax money is spent. Thank you !!