By Pepper Parr
May 9th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
It took a little doing but Burlington’s MPP Jane McKenna finally saw the light and agreed to make a petition available to the public at her office. The Petition opposes a possible realignment of the Region of Halton as a political entity and merging the four municipalities that make up the Region today: those being Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills.
Citizen groups in Oakville and Burlington created local organizations that set out to get signatures on a Petition as a starting point.
The Burlington people had a difficult time getting a meeting with Jane McKenna the MPP who at first said no to the idea of having the Petition in her office for people to sign.
The Burlington group did manage to meet with the MPP at Queen’s Park .
The group visited MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos who represents North Burlington in the Legislature, at her office. Triantafilopoulos had already supplied a petition for Burlington constituents to sign, similar to the petition she is hosting for We ❤️ Oakville group.
Triantafilopoulos went one further – she said she would read the Petition into the record at Queen’s Park.
The Triantafilopoulos move seemed to spark something in the McKenna office; she is now willing to host the petition in her Constituency Office because she does “not want citizens of Burlington to have to travel to another municipality if they want to sign the petition”.
The We ❤️ Burlington petition will be available in MPP McKenna’s office at 472 Brock Ave., Unit 104 between 9:00am and 4:30pm, Monday to Friday. Make sure to visit and sign this document to indicate your concern with the Province’s efforts to force amalgamation in the Region of Halton.
For those in North Burlington, please visit MPP Triantafilopoulos’ office located at 2525 Old Bronte Rd., Suite 570 between 9am and 5pm, Monday to Friday to sign.
Further good news, MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos has agreed to read the petition in the Legislature. We will advise when we know the date. She plans to stand with Oakville MPP Stephen Crawford and together read the Oakville and Burlington petitions. MPP Crawford previously read the Oakville petition in the Legislature on March 27, but plans to do so again as more signatures are received.
Poor Jane McKenna seems to have been forgotten by her collaugues.
The Petition reads:
To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
Whereas, the Government of Ontario has announced a review of Ontario’s eight regional municipalities, the County of Simcoe, and their lower-tier municipalities, including Halton Region and the City of Burlington; and
Whereas, Municipal governments are responsible for funding and delivering crucial local services on which residents depend; and
Whereas, 97 per cent of residents are satisfied with the quality of services delivered by the Region; and
Whereas, 95 per cent of the City of Burlington residents rate their quality of life as excellent or good; and
Whereas, Halton Region has maintained an AAA credit rating for 30 consecutive years due to effective governance and prudent fiscal policies; and
Whereas, Burlington has a proud heritage that goes back to 1798 and its founding father, Six Nations Captain Joseph Brant; and
Therefore, we the undersigned petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows: That the City of Burlington remain a distinct municipality within a two-tier Region of Halton municipal governance structure.
There is an old maxim in the world of citizens who engage their governments: If you persist there is a better chance of prevailing. That certainly appears to be the case with the matter of the Petition.
Halton could be spared any changes:
In a conversation with a colleague in Hamilton, John Best, publisher of the Bay Observer, a monthly newspaper that has some reach into Burlington, he suggested that Halton and its municipalities will be spared – “it is Niagara and Peel that are going to get the close look. Niagara has 127 elected officials – the Premier has never liked large representation at the municipal level – he made that abundantly clear when he chopped away at the size of Toronto’s city council.
The Premier also has an interest in the Region of Peel where Patrick Brown is the Mayor. Peel is made up of Mississauga, Caledon and Brampton. Mississauga has indicated that it would like to be re-constituted as a single tier government – it is certainly large enough.
What happens to Caledon and Brampton? It would be one way of getting rid of Patrick Brown – wouldn’t it?
THANK YOU TO THE WE LOVE BURLINGTON COMMITTEE FOR THEIR HARD WORK . GOOD LUCK ON MAY 17TH.
We need to understand that Jane McKenna, that of 40.47% of the Burlington vote, has no power or influence over anything. She is not in provincial Cabinet (unlike her Liberal predecessor). Obviously, she is telegraphing that her boss, Ford, will be implementing few changes to amalgamation as it pertains to Burlington. Be clear: she has no voice. she has no cabinet portfolio. The Ford Gov’t will download/offload massive transfers to Burlington and she will smile and tell us it is all in our best interest. Mckenna is an empty suit. Those of us who sat in on her debate performance during the election recall the perceptible boos when she stated she will make ‘Burlington Great Again’. Seriously?
Wow!.
Friends, the folks at WeLoveBurlington are putting a lot of time and effort into ensuring that Burlington and the Region get a fair shake in the review that is going on. It’s up to the rest of us citizens who care about Burlington to get down to MPP McKenna’s office this week and sign this petition. There is strength in numbers and I believe the vast majority of Burlingtonians support our local and regional governments, so let’s add our signatures to something we believe in.
Thank you for your excellent coverage. WeLoveBurlington fundamentally agrees with the analysis of your final paragraphs. Although amalgamation can never be taken totally ‘off the table’, it is more likely to be applied in Niagara and Peel than in Halton. However, this does not mean that the potential affects of the regional government review will be positive for Burlington and Halton as a whole. Our group strongly believes that the real threats are at least twofold. First is the potential restructuring of municipal councils that could result in a loss of sensitivity to local issues and how city and regional councils are elected. Second is the possible rate of program change and the capacity of the municipalities to absorb it. Indeed, there is a distinct threat, as a result of the recent provincial budget and earlier policy announcements, of the review recommendations overloading our municipal governments with dysfunctional change. Even the “good ideas” coming out of the review could have a harmful impact when critical resources are seriously taxed with downloading of new program delivery/funding/regulatory responsibilities such as those with restructured public health, health care and cannabis sales. At the very least, citizens of the target municipalities should have the opportunity to accept or reject the changes – not have them imposed unilaterally. We will be pursuing these dimensions of the regional review when WeLoveBurlington delegates to the review advisors on May 17th.