By Pepper Parr
February 18th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Hassaam Basit had more news than any member of Council when he did an update.
Burlington, as you know, is a city of many communities. And so on January 22nd our incredible community champions were celebrated for their dedication to all of the work that they do within their communities. This includes city programs like Love My Neighborhood, Outdoor neighborhood rinks and the Neighborhood Matching Community Fund.
CAO delivers an update on what his team has being doing at City Hall. Goodies for the people moving the snow are in the works.
January 22 was also a snow- storm. We’ve had many in succession, but despite that, 80 community members showed up and came out for an evening honoring their hard work. We have received 120 centimeters of snowfall in the past week, three storm events with 75 centimeters in total. In quick succession, the city activated its EOC and level two enhanced monitoring, which allowed for all of the communication and operations to be pulled into one stream. And as you would know, members of council, you received those very thorough, very detailed emails from our Director of Roads, Parks and Forestry. The city’s Crews have been working 24 hours a day on 12 hour rotating shifts, non stop without any break.
At some point when this is over, I think I will show up with some goodies and warm beverages for them. Thank you to everybody in the city as well as all the communities, for being patient as they go through and carry out those tasks. Now not to be outdone, our fire crews, two weeks ago, delivered a baby boy, and so I think that’s fantastic news. I don’t know which Ward it was in, but it was a Burlington baby.
Our Medical Director, Dr Sheldon Cheskes, has brought the safe pins to Burlington Fire. Now, the safe pins provide a way for fire services to be recognized for the work that they do. There’s some technical, you know, jargon. It’s called
On April 4, Dr Cheskes will be at Burlington Fire, presenting those pins to individual firefighters; their is a long list of them.
On corporate services, the city’s social media accounts now have enhanced image descriptions. It’s called alt text. It’s a useful way to ensure people who use screen readers can perceive images. It’s part of our accessibility.
Our community panel, which we have put a call out for community members, is growing. We have 60 residents now who have registered to provide feedback on all sorts of important projects, like Ward boundary review, asset management plan and climate change action. This is part of, a commitment from the city to engage in and engage with as many voices as we possibly can on health and safety.
Our year – end data shows that the city achieved its 2024 objective for WSIB lost time. Our goal was to be below 1.97 per 100 FTE, and we’re at 1.57 which is good. It is, of course, something where the work is never done and will continue to make enhancements and push forward with all sorts of safety training and the cultural aspects of, you know, having a safe workplace.
She brought in the volunteers and made sure they were properly trained.
She was pretty good with a hammer as well. She will be missed
A quick shout out to Michelle Dwyer. She was our Manager of Engagement and Volunteers. Michelle retired very recently after 34 years of service to the city of Burlington. You have all had experiences working with Michelle her creativity and helping each of you engage with the community. So I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing her well in the next endeavor, and with that, thank you very much.
Forget the warm drinks and goodies, those who worked A 24 hour shift probably got Triple pay and extra time off later.