It is just an opinion but it is based on significant experience and many years in the real-estate business.
Having said that here is what the Rocca Sisters and Associates have to say about the Burlington real estate market.
When all was said and done, 2016 turned out to be a good year for sellers – prices up 16%, year over year, days on market down by 34.7% – and a not so great year for buyers.
Compared to our other trading areas, however, Burlington was somewhat moderate in terms of wild fluctuations. With the exception of the Orchard, the neighborhoods with the higher increases in prices paid were those that, it could be said, were somewhat undervalued to start with.
Palmer Drive – an older community (most built in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s) has lagged behind in terms of sale price growth.
Aldershot South, Central Burlington, Dynes, Longmoor, Tyandaga and Palmer all older communities (most built in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s) had lagged behind in terms of sale price growth while newer communities like the Orchard, Millcroft and Headon Forest increased exponentially.
These more mature areas, with the exception of Tyandaga offered smaller homes with bigger yards but the absence of modern conveniences such as a bathroom for every member of the household and closet space to accommodate bursting wardrobes made them less attractive to many buyers.
Tyandaga community saw a huge increase year over year – the biggest surprise is that it took so long.
When demand outstripped supply in the newer neighborhoods to the point that the purchase prices were swelling dangerously, these older communities became the next best thing. It’s no surprise that Tyandaga saw a huge increase year over year – the biggest surprise is that it took so long. Large gracious homes on huge mature lots with mature landscaping finally came on buyer’s radar when at the end of last year the average price of a house in Millcroft was over $900,000 and the average price of an equivalent sized house on a bigger lot was just over $800,000 in Tyandaga.
These properties, along with Roseland and Shoreacre properties still tend to take a little longer to sell – we chalk that up to a lot of non- Burlington sales reps not knowing the neighborhoods that well and just a general reticence to buying an older home. All in all, 2016 was not nearly as tumultuous in Burlington as in the rest of the world so Burlingtonians should be quite satisfied with the result.
Predictions for 2017 – many overextended homeowners are going to be re-evaluating their finances and for some, the choice will be obvious – downsize.
The result will quite possibly be a glut of move-up houses on the market later in the year, forcing a minor correction and a continued shortage of inventory in the $500-$700,000 price range.
Notwithstanding, we expect to see much of the same in early 2017 – a seller’s market for the foreseeable future.
On January 12th 2016 at approximately 3:18 PM, a uniformed officer observed several males walking away from a dark coloured Mazda Protégé with a stolen licence plate in a parking lot near Appleby Line and Dundas Street in Burlington.
It was determined that the same vehicle and licence plate was involved in several armed robberies where a firearm was used and as a result, a perimeter was quickly established.
Members of Tactical and Rescue Unit (TRU), Police Dog Services, Community Mobilization Bureau (CMB), Uniform Patrol and the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) worked together and ultimately located and arrested four male suspects inside a Starbucks.
That’ a total of five different police units – much mote to come on this case.
The arrested males were taken to 20 Division in Oakville for further investigation which is being conducted jointly by members of Burlington & Oakville CIB’s and Peel Regional Police Central Robbery Bureau.
A further media release is anticipated with additional information on the outcome of the investigation.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Constable Mike Tidball of the Oakville Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 ext 2275, or Crime Stoppers “See something, Hear something, Say something”at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS) or through the internet at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (CRIMES)
The Halton Regional Police in Burlington are seeking assistance in identifying those responsible for a commercial break and enter.
Sometime between 7:00 PM on January 10th 2016 and 9:00 AM on January 11th 2016, unknown culprit(s) broke into the Pharmasave located 2501 Guelph Line in Burlington.
Row of bottles and pills on a chemists counter
Once inside, unknown culprit(s) entered a safe and stole a quantity of narcotics. Culprit(s) also removed cash from the cash register and a quantity of Tylenol with codeine from a cabinet before leaving.
The exact type, quantity and value of narcotics stolen is still being determined.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Halton Regional Police Service – Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 ext 2216, or Crime Stoppers “See something, Hear something, Say something” at 1-800-222-8477(TIPS) or through the internet at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (CRIMES)
The nightmare is” said Halton District School Board Director of Education Stuart Miller, “for me to decide that the school buses should not run and then see a significant change in the weather hours later.”
Miller was explaining to school board trustees last night how the decision to cancel school bus service when the weather is bad.
Stuart takes those 5:30 am weather report phone calls.
“I got a phone call at around 5:30 (my wife remembers exactly what time the call came in) telling me that the weather reports were not good.
Miller then makes a number of call to other school board’s in the area to see what they have planned. He has to make a decision by 6:30 am and prefers to have made up his mind by 6:00 am.
“There is freezing rain in Toronto but the local spotters report nothing in Oakville or Burlington – but the reports have the weather heading west.
“So I decide that the roads are not good enough for safe passage and I cancel the service.
“And sure enough – it is close to balmy sunshine weather in the southern part of the region and blizzard like weather in the rural areas.”
Miller explained that his decision is based on what he determines to be in the best interests of the students and the men and women who have to drive those school buses.
Winter weather means slower bus service and at times a decision to cancel the service.
Many of the buses he explained have several runs – and if they are late completing one run the students are left standing in the cold for as much as half an hour while the bus drivers work with difficult roads.
So now you know – the decision gets made at the very top – and he gets that first call at about 5:30 in the morning.
It is the Annual General Meeting of the Burlington Progressive Conservative Association that will meet at the Legion branch Saturday morning at 10:00 am. There are a lot of loyal Tories who have some words they want to get off their chest on how their candidate Jane McKenna got herself nominated.
The 41 vote win she got November 26th and the mangled appeal that was filed protesting the way the ballots were handled didn’t help.
A number of people that see themselves as political activists don’t like the look or the smell of the nomination and feel that Jane McKenna has been less than forthright in her drive to win the nomination that gives her another shot at getting back to Queen’s Park.
McKenna lost that last provincial election to Eleanor McMahon ending the 70 year rule the provincial Tories had experienced.
Burlington’s MPP Eleanor McMahon will face a very fractured Progressive Conservative party organization when the next election is called. McMahon is the Minister of Culture, Tourism and Sport.
McMahon was appointed as the Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport and then made a member of the Treasury Board.
While the nomination issue is closed – McKenna is the candidate who many feel is going to have a very difficult time getting people to do the work that wins elections.
The minds of the members are filled with malicious, salacious gossip.
In correspondence that we were able to verify the Gazette heard this:
“Let’s hope that the Burlington PC. members elect a Board Members who will represent the members of the P.C. Burlington riding and not be “puppets” for the Provincial Executive. The Executive in Toronto have had its hand in all aspects of this Burlington Riding for too long and needs to be stopped.
“Hopefully, those elected will speak to the concerns of its members & not run for the purpose of furthering their own political gain.”
In another email that was verified, a reader had this to say:
“With the American Election finally over, as Ontarians we are now at the beginning stages preparing for our next Provincial Election. As a newly registered member of the Progressive Conservative Party I witness 1st hand just how the process works. As the PC Party here in Burlington voted on Nov. 26th to elect who will be the next person to be our leader as the MPP for the PC Party. I was more that shocked and disappointed how this election process took place.
“I felt it was time for me to engage and be more evolved in supporting who I felt was the best party to help fix the mess that the Liberals have gotten us into. A retirement dream of mine one day “was” to move to the country. The Liberals took that dream away as I will not be able to afford the Hydro Bill! “Along comes Jane Michael knocking on my door…She sold me on the PC Party and what she stood for. As she said “Now is the time to take back Burlington and make it blue again” and push out the Liberals. The PC Party was the party to do that…so I signed up.
Two Progressive Conservative party members sharing a difference of opinion.
“After what I watch happen that day I started to second guess my support. Is one party really any better than the next? As a newly joined member of the Progressive Conservative Party here in Burlington I am extremely disappointed in the process I saw personally at the Nomination meeting and election that was held on Nov. 26 recently.
“Not only did I watch the registration desk turn away newly registered members for the PC Party…I watched them turn away a Trustee from the School Board. The Trustee realized that they had lost their Drivers License.
“That person offered up all other ID in their wallet plus showed them their picture on the Board website. Note that all Trustees of school Boards are elected officials. On the website was the trustee name and photo confirming that they were who they said they were. I later was told by that Trustee that they had to go home and come back with a Hydro Bill before they could vote…Turns out the Trustee was a Jane Michael supporter as the trustee had on a Jane Michael pin. There were other similar stories at that point I really questioned my faith in the PC Party. Clearly the registration desk was holding up Supporters for one person.
“So I decided to stay till the end and see how this all played out. Once the voting polls had closed I waited to see how the votes went. The results were in, Rick Dykstra (PC Party President) announced who was elected as the next Leader of the Burlington Party! When the voters asked if we can have the results, we were told by Dykstra that he was not sharing the results with us. It was at that moment, I felt I had made a huge mistake in supporting the PC Party that does not offer full disclosure.
“Clearly transparency is not something that the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party of Burlington Stands for…This is not about who won and who didn’t. It is about disclosure and transparently. It is about honesty!
Progressive Conservative candidate for the Burlington seat in the legislature attended the Silent Auction held by parents who want to keep Central high school open.
“How can a party hold an official election to see which nominee would be voted in as the Leader and not disclose the results! If you are going to do something do it right! What a waste of my time and an insult to ever PC Party Member! I could go on with other questionable activities I have heard about…but I have only hear about the other stories, this is what watch unfold myself…PC Party if you want my support you best fix this, hold a re-vote and this time get it right! Be up front about it and offer full disclosure because you have now set a negative tone for the PC Party moving in to the next election!”
The appeal:
That result and the refusal on the part of the riding association to release the actual vote count led to an appeal being filed with the provincial party association.
The appeal and the hearing that took place was just as messy as the nomination meeting.
The document was a couple of pages long and contained more than 15 appendices.
Colin Pye, a member of the Burlington association board, filed the appeal. Pye who is a lawyer put together a well-documented appeal. He received a phone call from the provincial association and was advised that there would be a conference call very shortly – within a few hours. Pye thought that was to set up when and where his appeal was going to be heard.
Turned out that telephone conference call was the appeal hearing. Pye was told shortly after that the committee had denied his appeal and that the nomination of Jane McKenna would stand.
The hope on the part of the provincial association appeared to be that Jane McKenna could be acclaimed so she could get a running start on fund raising before new rules that would significantly limit what people could contribute came into effect January 1st
In the appeal that was filed; along with more than a dozen appendices, issue after issue was described.
Blank ballots being left on tables with no one in attendance.
No vote figures were released when Ms. McKenna’s victory was announced. Party President Rick Dykstra, as Chair of the Election Meeting, refused to give any figures despite the requests from the voters for the figures. One elderly gentleman, Roy Cummings, who requested the vote totals from the floor was loudly berated and sworn at by Ken Zeise and asked if he would “like to take this outside.”
The encounter was politics at its worst.
Ms. Michael was placed at an insurmountable disadvantage in her ability to promote her candidacy to the Riding Association membership as she had not even been approved as a Qualified Contestant for two weeks after the eligible Membership List had been finalized.
Ms. Michael received notice on November 25, 2016, at about 6:00 p.m., that the PNC had approved her as a Qualified Contestant, and she received the Membership List about one¬ half hour later, leaving her no time to organize or contact the more than 900 members on the List. This list also did not contain e-mail addresses for the members. When Ms Michael asked for the e-mail addresses, Ken Audziss advised Ms. Michael that she did not require these e-mail addresses.
Despite repeated calls and e-mails to the PNC and Party Headquarters, Ms. Michael was not granted an interview with the PNC until November 22, 2016 at 5:30 p.m., by conference call. On the conference call, Party President Rick Dykstra advised Ms. Michael that the PNC would decide on her contestancy and notify her within 24 hours.
People who had paid for memberships being denied a ballot.
People who were not able to properly identify themselves being denied a ballot while others were able to get ballots.
Getting the ballot count was no simple matter. All the people who were running the nomination event would say was that Jane McKenna got 41 more votes than Jane Michael who is reported to have brought in more than 350 new members to the organization.
All this leads up to McKenna now holding her Annual General Meeting in front of a lot of people who feel the vote that nominated McKenna was a fraud.
A new 19 member board will be elected – many of those who served on the board before the nomination meeting took place are finding that the bad taste in their mouths is so strong that they don’t want to run again.
Jane Michael, the defeated candidate for the Burlington Progressive Association nomination.
Others are adamant that they process has to be cleaned up and that decency and honesty are a part of what the Ontario Progressive Party is about and want to see a different kind of organization. There is talk of a reform slate of candidates being put forward.
It is a meeting Jane Michael does not want to miss.
Oh come on! FREE is free. Zero, zip, nada, zilch. What on earth could be better than FREE?
I recently mentioned online that FREE was the most powerful word in advertising. Nothing has changed, it still is.
So what is with the headline of this article? What is better than FREE?
Well before I explain, let’s recap a little first. FREE is the most powerful word in marketing and advertising world because at its very heart lies the secret of ‘risk reversal’. If you make your offer as close to risk-free as possible you will be ahead of most of your competition.
Beyond Risk Reversal
Getting over the risk associated with making the wrong choice, or making the choice and then having the product under deliver or simply not work, is a problem that every buyer struggles with. And for what it’s worth, most people are more afraid of making the wrong choice and looking foolish, than they are of just making the wrong choice.
So if you can negate this fear, if you stack the deck in your favour. If you can get the buyer over that hurdle, they will be one step closer to saying “yes”.
Let’s Dance
In any business transaction there is a silent dance that plays out every time someone offers something for sale, and someone considers buying it. Each party silently tries to maneuver themselves into a position where their risk is limited. As the seller, you can help the buyer get to that place if you assume all or more of the risk, then you will have less trouble selling your product or service. It’s that simple.
“But James, nothing in life is really free.”
Well, that is true to some extent. Even if I gave you something free, what it really means is that you did not have to part with any money. You paid no cash. You may still have spent time and energy on the sales process; you may have invested yourself emotionally in the prospect of owning that flashy newfangled widget.
Therefore, in reality, you have ‘spent’ something – you spent time. And time unlike money is non-refundable. Time is finite and as the old saying goes… “Time waits for no man.”
So if your prospect has accepted your request to explore the possibility of buying something from you, and has even gone so far as to consider making a deal with you, what can you do to clinch it? Well you can let them know you value their time. You can show them you respect them for taking the time to meet with you. You can show them that you appreciated their consideration of your product or service.
And The Answer Is…
And so the answer to your question ‘what is better than free?’ is ‘Better Than Risk Free’ or ‘BTRF’ for short.
Simply put, a BTRF offer rewards your customer for favouring you with their buying decision. In addition, if it does not work out – you compensate them for their efforts. Here is a concrete example:
Whether you sell products or services, give the client something extra as part of the main deal. If the extra premium is free, then so much the better. To make the deal even stronger, make it known that the whole deal is 100% guaranteed and you’ll refund their money if required (or whatever makes sense) and also let them know that regardless of the deals outcome, (and this is the BTRF part) they get to keep the premium item you gave them as your way of saying thank you.
‘Better Than Risk Free’ is better than free.
James Burchill is the founder of Social Fusion Network – an organization that helps local business connect and network. He also writes about digital marketing, entrepreneurship and technology and when he’s not consulting, he teaches people to start their own ‘side hustle.’
Conservation Halton advises that Environment Canada is forecasting 15 to 25 mm of rainfall beginning later this evening and continuing into early Thursday.
Based on the forecast of mild temperatures and rainfall, combined with the partial melt of our existing snowpack, we may experience an increase in flows and water levels in our creeks throughout the Halton watershed.
Widespread flooding is not currently anticipated. Our reservoirs are holding at winter levels which allow for larger storage capacity for circumstances of this nature.
Conservation Halton is asking all residents and children to stay away from all watercourses and structures such as bridges, culverts and dams. Elevated water levels, fast flowing water, and slippery conditions along stream banks continue to make these locations extremely dangerous. Please alert children in your care of these imminent dangers.
Conservation Halton will continue to monitor stream and weather conditions and will issue further messages as necessary.
Conservation Halton will issue an update to this Watershed Conditions Statement –Water Safety message only if significant changes in the forecasts occur. This Watershed Conditions Statement will be in effect through to Friday, January 13, 2017.
Maybe 150 people came out to basically watch a television program, including the commercials, in a high school auditorium.
They do things like that at Central high school.
There was a place to collect cash donations and food for the Breakfast program at the school.
Catching up. From the right – Dania Thurman and Lynn Crosby and an unidentified male
There was popcorn and coffee that the cleaning staff were able to take advantage of. People milled around, got caught up on what was happening.
The occasion was the showing of the CBC’s latest mini-series – Pure.
Shawn Clement, a film arts teacher at Central high, handled the technical side of things while his dog “Buddy” roamed around the auditorium as if he owned the place. It looked like he did.
Jessica Clement – plays the part of a Mennonite high school student in Pure
What the promoters of the screening didn’t say was that one of the female performers was none other than Jessica Clement, Shawn’s daughter, who was an absolute delight.
A maybe 20 something with one of those slim as a rail physiques and eyes that convey all kinds of character and depth, plays the part of Tina Funk, who attends a local high school where she wears a full Mennonite attire including the bonnet.
The program was filmed in Halifax, NS
This reporter wasn’t able to stay for the full screening so can’t comment on the quality of the performance other than to say that many of the television reviewers felt CBC was quite bold in the decision to run the six part series.
Jessica Clement tells us that there is enough script material for several 12 show runs – – let’s see how the television program is received.
An Aldershot high school graduate who went on to earn a degree at the University of Guelph, Jessica started her career as an actress at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton at the age of seven and grew her skill set in that environment. At the age of 12 she began to perform outside Aquarius.
She has done it all: Stage, television, commercials. She was part of a Les Misérables cast; she performed as Marta in The Sound of Music
And there she was on the large screen at Central high school while her Dad, Shawn, looked after the technical side of the evening and his dog roamed through the aisles. He seemed to know or wanted to get to know everyone.
It was as if you were in a small town movie theatre; that is also a community centre that is a little on the run down side with all kinds of character.
No one made any speeches. It was just a community out for the evening enjoying themselves.
There is some talk about the high school being closed. The Board of Education may find that they have to close a few high schools – Central won’t be one of them. The place has just too much community going for it.
Jessica Clement – Pure cast member.
As for young Ms Clement – she has done a lot of work for someone her age.
Pure (TV Series) 2017 Meza 2013 Paranormal Radio (Short) (completed) Casey Hopkins 2012 The Time Traveler (Short) (completed) 2015 Hemlock Grove (TV Series) Damascus (2015) … Cherry Brian’s Song (2015) … Cherry 2015 How to Plan an Orgy in a Small Town 2015 A Christmas Horror Story 2015/I Life 2015 Let Me Down Easy (Short) 2012 Dear Scavengers (Short) Closer to Free: Part 1 (2012) … Naomi 2010 The Man Who Loved Flowers (Short) 2010 Small Town Murder Songs 2008 The Border (TV Series) Like just about everyone in theatre in this country Jessica has done Degrassi: The Next Generation (TV Series)
They never stop – at least three attempt to get personal information come through an email address.
This one catches your eye – and unless you read the complete message you could get snagged.
The first thing we noticed was the area code in the telephone number. Where is area code 410?
We got this today , but i think it’s for you. You should pay it ASAP. PARKING TICKET 78914851 Trey Bradford Phone: 410-955-2226 Fax: 410-955-1314 Trey@kemicalelaw.com
There was no parking ticket but because many of us get the things we tend to respond to a message about a parking ticket. Once you respond you have entered the thief’s web – and like a spider they have you.
The first thing we noticed was the area code in the telephone number. Where is area code 410? Baltimore – I haven’t been to Baltimore in more than 20 years.
While we appear to rank as the #1 mid-sized city in Canada as one of the best places to live – we rank just 5th as the city that most values monogamy which is defined as being faithful to your husband/wife and not flirting with people of the opposite sex.
This conclusion came out of the latest large-scale Canadian study that analyzed anonymous user data from 20,000 EliteSingles members to discover the cities in Canada where people most value monogamy Burlington took the #5 spot!
The top 10 cities where you can find monogamous people, as well as the top 10 cities where you can find monogamous men and monogamous women (and Burlington features on all three lists, coming 5th overall, 7th on the men’s list, and 8th on the women’s).
• Overall, the Canadians most enthusiastic about monogamy are from Aurora, ON • Whitehorse, YT and Port Moody, BC take second and third place • Canada’s most monogamous men are from Port Moody, BC • The nation’s most monogamous women can be found in Stratford, ON
The study, which was conducted by premium dating site EliteSingles, used anonymous user data from 20,000 registered members to determine just how much Canadians prioritize monogamy.
The study looked at the extent to which the randomly selected participants agreed with the statement ‘I believe that monogamy is essential in a relationship.’ These scores were then averaged out by area, revealing the Canadian cities where people are the most likely to be mad for monogamy:
The top 10 cities in which to find Canada’s most monogamous people:
1. Aurora, ON 2. Whitehorse, YT 3. Port Moody, BC 4. Spruce Grove, AB 5. Burlington, ON 6. Airdrie, AB 7. Langley, BC 8. Okotoks, AB 9. Maple Ridge, BC 10. Kelowna, BC
Participants in the study were asked to rank the extent to which they agreed with the sentiment ‘I believe that monogamy is essential in a relationship’; placing themselves on a scale of 1 (do not agree at all) to 7 (agree completely). As it turns out, Canadians are strongly in favour of monogamy: the average result for women was 6.3, while men average 5.7.
As well as determining the averages overall, the study looked at answers geographically, determining an average result for each location and thus revealing the ten cities in Canada that are home to the most monogamous people overall, as well as the cities that are home to Canada’s most monogamous men and most monogamous women.
The organization that did the survey is a dating site that manually confirms the existence of every client.
Something just didn’t’ seem right about this one. Perhaps it is because we don’t understand the world of artists but asking a sculptor to send in an Expression of Interest for a possible $140,000 commission within 10 days suggests that the decision has already been made and the request for those Expressions is released to cover the tracks.
The location for this piece of sculpture is nice – part of the RBG Rock Garden.
We pass this on – and wonder if we are misleading the sculptors in the community
Here are the details. We will watch with interest and see who is awarded the commission.
ROYAL BOTANICAL GARDENS | REQUEST FOR EXPRESSIONS OF INTEREST
Deadline: Friday, January 20, 2017
Budget: $140,000 CAD (maximum)
The Royal Botanical Gardens invites artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create a permanent Thomas McQuesten commemorative artwork to be installed in the Dalglish Family Courtyard at the Royal Botanical Gardens. This competition is open to professional Canadian artists or artist-led teams.
The call: Artist Opportunity
The Royal Botanical Gardens invites artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create a permanent Thomas McQuesten commemorative artwork to be installed in the Dalglish Family Courtyard at the Royal Botanical Gardens. This competition is open to professional Canadian artists or artist-led teams*.
Dalglish Family Courtyard at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
An artwork proposal is not requested at this time. This is a two-phase process: in Phase One, applicants will be reviewed on the basis of artistic merit of past work, professional qualifications and experience. In Phase Two, short-listed artists will be required to submit an artwork concept proposal and maquette. Artists selected for the short-list will be provided with a full Request for Proposals outlining detailed artwork specifications prior to developing their proposals. Short-listed artists will be paid an artist fee of $1500 to develop their proposals.
* A professional artist is an individual who has specialized skills and/or training in his/her artistic discipline (not necessarily in academic institutions), has a history of public presentation and is critically recognized as an artist.
Artwork Goals
This commission will commemorate Thomas Baker McQuesten, one of our nation’s tireless advocates for conservation and founder of the Royal Botanical Gardens. Set in the Dalglish Family Courtyard, this sculpture will stand as a proud reminder of McQuesten’s legacy and the RBG’s long-standing commitment to the stewardship of our land.
The goals of this project include:
• Celebrate an iconic figure in Canadian history in connection with Canada’s 150th Anniversary of Confederation • Enhance the Dalglish Family Courtyard with an inspiring public artwork • Provide a space for contemplation and commemoration • Tell the story of McQuesten and his contribution to local and national infrastructure, conservation and beautification
Background The Royal Botanical Gardens
For over 80 years Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) has been an ecological jewel at the western tip of Lake Ontario. Conceived and founded through the tireless efforts of early conservationist Thomas Baker McQuesten, RBG lands were set aside to create the region’s first botanical garden. Patterned after Kew Gardens in England, RBG was created to serve as both a regional botanical tourism site and an environmental agency. In his book “Garden with a View”, former Executive Director Dr. Leslie Laking explains RBG’s unique role in society:
Hendrie Gardens RBG
“Royal Botanical Gardens puts nature’s beauty on display, but it isn’t a park system. It teaches but it isn’t a school. It protects and preserves forest and marsh, but it isn’t a conservation authority. It collects and propagates botanical knowledge and plant life, but it is not a library, museum, or laboratory. It is all those things and more than their sum”.
Designated as a national historical site, RBG is revered worldwide for its extensive 400 acres of display gardens. What makes RBG unique is that it also protects and stewards over 2300 acres of environmentally sensitive lands and diverse ecosystems that connect the Niagara escarpment to Lake Ontario. In acknowledgement of this crucial environmental role, Royal Botanical Gardens was granted a provincial mandate in 1941 for the development of four areas of focus: Conservation, Education, Horticulture and Science. In the 70 years that followed, RBG has established a national and international reputation as a living laboratory for science, a connecting point for children in their early embrace of nature, a leader in sustainable gardening and the standard-bearer for ecological restoration and plant preservation.
In the face of devastating environmental threats worldwide, RBG is more relevant now than ever before. Its established and evolving environmental programs provide straightforward, workable solutions designed to maintain sustainable biodiversity in Canada, for the world.
Thomas Baker McQuesten
Thomas McQuesten
Thomas Baker McQuesten (June 30, 1882 – January 13, 1948) was born in Hespeler, Ontario (now Cambridge) and received his primary and secondary school education in Hamilton. Following high school, McQuesten attended the University of Toronto and continued his studies at Osgoode Hall, receiving his law degree in 1907. McQuesten served as an alderman on Hamilton City Council and later, a Liberal member of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario (representing Hamilton- Wentworth).
McQuesten, whose family had deep roots in Hamilton was a key player in infrastructure development across Ontario and is credited with bringing forward the Queen Elizabeth Way, Royal Botanical Gardens and many other projects. McQuesten was a tireless advocate for the development of parks and conservation areas. For instance, his advocacy for parks on Hamilton, Ontario City Council earned him an appointment to the permanent position on the Board of Park Management in 1922, where he remained until his death in 1948. In this position, he supported the construction of the Rock Garden and other landscaped areas on the Burlington Heights (Ontario), which became part of Royal Botanical Gardens in 1932. After his retirement from electoral politics, McQuesten resumed his interest in RBG and became an executive member of that organization, active there until just before he died.
Artwork Location
The artwork will be located in the Dalglish Family Courtyard. The courtyard serves as the entry point to the newly rejuvenated Rock Gardens at the Royal Botanical Gardens. The three-year, $20 million project provided the garden with major upgrades in infrastructure, accessibility and landscape design. This included improvements to the garden’s structural integrity, water and sewage systems, visitor accessibility, and architectural landscape. In addition, a new visitor centre was constructed to serve as a year round destination for business and private functions.
Just outside the visitor centre, the Dalglish Family Courtyard is an elegant space that serves as both a welcoming point for guests making their way outdoors and a venue for social occasions and gatherings. Alpine plants representing true rock garden vegetation grow from the beautiful stone walls, and gentle waterfalls creates a peaceful atmosphere.
The artwork will be sited in the eastern portion of the courtyard is the primary location for the artwork. Artists may propose an artwork in series or ancillary piece that makes use of Site B as a secondary location (optional).
Locations for the sculpture in the Daiglish Family Courtyard.
Artwork Design Parameters
The artwork must adhere to the following design parameters:
• The artwork must be an exterior, sculptural installation. • The artwork should contain elements that are representative of Thomas Baker McQuesten. The artwork could be a formal commemorative sculpture or could contain elements that are more interpretive in nature in combination with figurative elements • The artwork should express the passion and commitment of McQuesten to the natural environment and the Royal Botanical Gardens • Fabricated using high quality, long-lasting materials that are highly resistant to theft, vandalism and weathering • Must not pose a risk to public safety (i.e. no sharp points, does not allow climbing to restricted areas, no slip hazards, etc.) • Does not incorporate light, video or sound elements • Artwork does not restrict visitor’s movement within the courtyard or compromise accessibility standards • Meets all Ontario building code standards (https://www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page7393.aspx); • The selected artist will be required to submit drawings certified by a structural engineer licensed to operate in Ontario
Budget
The budget for this project is $140,000 CAD (maximum, exclusive of HST). This is the total amount available for all related expenses of this public art project including (but not limited to): artist fees, materials, site preparation, technical consultation, fabrication, installation, any required above or below-grade foundations, insurance, equipment, permit fees, and travel.
RBG grounds staff will be available to assist in site preparations, general labour and have a significant skillset and available equipment that may be used during installation. To ensure the budget is being maximized an installation consultation will occur with each short-listed artist.
When the flowers and plants are in bloom the RBG is one of the most beautiful places on the planet.
Eligibility
This competition is open to all professional Canadian artists. Artist collectives and/or artist-led teams are also encouraged to apply. The selected artist must be able to travel to Burlington, Ont. for a minimum of two visits: one technical consultation meeting and one visit to manage the installation of the artwork and to engage in public dialogue (i.e. artist talk / public unveiling event).
The selection panel is comprised of the following representatives:
Camilla Dalglish, major gift donor
John Best, author, Thomas Baker McQuesten: Public Works, Politics, and Imagination
Tobi Bruce, Director, Collection & Exhibitions / Senior Curator, Art Gallery of Hamilton
Jeremy Freiburger, Executive Director, Cobalt Connects
Andrew Hunter, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator, Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
Mark Runciman, CEO, Royal Botanical Gardens
Maryella Leggat, resident & RBG supporter.
Estimated Project Timeline (2016-17)
December 2016 Expression of Interest document released
January 20, 2017 Deadline for Stage One: Expression of Interest
By January 31, 2017 Selection committee applications, selects short-listed artists
March 17, 2017 Short listed artists’ Concept Proposals due
By March 31, 2017 Steering committee reviews proposals and selects winning artist Selected artist enters into a contract with the Royal Botanical Gardens
September / October 2017 Artwork is installed
What’s the rush? If they are going to commemorate McQuesten -do it right.
There is always a certain amount of rivalry – call it give and take – between Burlington and Hamilton. The relationship has changed from one where Burlington was basically a bedroom community attached to Hamilton to what is now more of a partnership between the two cities. The Bay Area Economic Summit was a very good example of what the two cities can achieve when they work together.
Burlington city manager James Ridge’s meeting with Hamilton bureaucrats over getting the LaSalle Park water lots into the hands of Burlington might fracture that relationship a little. We are likely to get outsmarted by Hamilton on that transaction. But I digress
With the federal government telling us how they are going to spend our tax dollars as we celebrate our 150th anniversary as a country – that’s what a Sesquicentennial is – all kinds of ideas are popping out of nowhere.
One of the federal ideas is to have a couple of chaps travelling across the country with a red leather chesterfield on which they are inviting people to sit on with them and tell stories about Canada. That one is almost as wacky as some of the Canada Council grants we hear about.
There is one grant application that doesn’t appear to involve very much in the way of tax dollars but might appeal to Burlington’s pride – even though the object of all the attention is located in Hamilton.
These were the ships that fought the Battle of the Atlantic, the longest naval battle in history. Shown here is HMCS Haida, currently tied up in Hamilton.
And that is the Tribal Class destroyer HMCS Haida that is tied up in Hamilton in a place that is not that easy to find. But the good ship Haida is there.
There is a petition sponsored by Project Naval Distinction that they would like you to sign to have the ship named as the “flagship” of the fleet.
This is our opportunity to recognize a Canadian icon of excellence, the last of its kind in the world.
The ‘fightingest ship’ Canada has ever produced, Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) HAIDA served during the Second World War, the Korean War and the Cold War, sinking more enemy tonnage than any other ship in Canadian history.
When you get to the web site just enter E560 for the petition you want to sign and they will take you through the process.
The sponsors of the petition want to see Haida given due recognition during the Canada150 celebrations.
Go to
petitions.parl.gc.ca
While not known as a naval city – Burlington has always had a strong naval pride. A portion of the monument on the Naval Promenade at Spencer Smith Park.
before February 22nd, 2017 and add your signature to petition E-560 to honour the incredible accomplishments of HMCS HAIDA. This is a simple and symbolic way that you, and those you share this petition with, can make the Canada150 celebrations even better.
This is one of the better Canada 150 projects – all they are asking for is your signature.
It wasn’t the best way to end the year but it was what it was.
After more than a year of talking about letting to public see how council members vote at city council meetings some technology was finally acquired and the public was about to see how it worked.
It didn’t – even though staff and city council had been prepped on which buttons to push to record their vote.
At one point the Mayor asked why some of the council members had not logged in to record their votes.
The system puts the issue to be voted up on the screen for the public to see – appreciate that these council meetings are broadcast live via Cogeco TV.
The issue being voted on appears on the large screen and on the iPads the council members use to cast their vote.
After a couple of embarrassing silences the Mayor declared that the vote, which was just to approve the minutes of the previous council meeting, was passed unanimously – they decided to give up on the technology for the evening and move on.
The Mayors iPad screen lets him know when all the council members have voted. He then enters a command and the results of the vote appear on the screen. Quite why there were nine possible votes was never explained – they just gave up on the technology.
Not one of their more glorious moments.
This stuff is not rocket science – it just makes them look a little on the dumb side.
City Manager James Ridge brings a Canadian Army background to his job; more drill needed Captain.
The technology dysfunction isn’t limited to the electronic voting.
During a Standing Committee meeting earlier in the month when there were 11 delegations on one matter – the clickers that allow a delegation to move through a presentation just would not work.
Ken White did his best to make the clicker he was given by the clerk – it just wouldn’t work for him – nor for anyone else who wanted to present some interactive video.
Time and again a delegator would throw their hands up in frustration when the device they were given to use would not perform.
If this were a private company making a presentation to a potential client they would all be fired – and would probably not earn the business they were after either.
These are not difficult problems to resolve – fix them and stop embarrassing everyone.
The production values of the web casts leave a lot to be desired. In a word they are lousy. The images are not crystal clear – put better cameras in place.
We look like buffoons from some hick town where internet access is still via dial up modem
It’s back to school for everyone on Monday – the students show up sometime before 9 am and parents arrive before 8 pm to enjoy a premiere showing of the new CBC drama Pure on Monday, January 9th in the school auditorium.
Doors open for a meet and greet with the cast and crew at 8 pm and the screening will start at 9pm sharp.
Please join the members of the cast and crew to celebrate this captivating new Canadian television series.
The first of six part CBC mini series will be premiered at Central high school Monday night.
This event is free of charge but the school will be collecting non-perishable items for the food bank as well as donations to the Burlington Central breakfast program. This event is open to the whole community.
Central high school is one of two that were recommended to be closed as part of a reduction in the number of classroom seats in the Burlington high schools.
The community has rallied and is in the process of showing the public that the school is more than a collection of classrooms.
Burlington has always choked when it comes to matters that go to the Ontario Municipal Board.
And yet when the Nelson Quarry took the application for an extension of the quarry on Mt Nemo PERL (Protecting Escarpment Rural Land) fought that battle and managed to win.
It took $2 million out of the legal department’s budget to pay for the year long tribunal that decided the Jefferson Salamander was important and that an expansion of the existing quarry should not be permitted. It was rural Burlington residents who were the force behind that battle – they opposed an expansion – shown as the lower part outlined.
The cost to the city was $2.1 million.
Is Burlington’s problem with the way the planners make decisions and write their reports? Or is the problem with the legal department who don’t effectively read the lay of the land?
Whichever, and it might be something altogether different, there is a problem.
The city now faces a local developer, the ADI development Group, on two development proposals – the Nautique that they want to build at the intersection of Martha and Lakeshore Road and the two 19 storey apartment buildings with a collection of townhouse they want to build at the edge of the Alton Community just south of the 407 at Appleby Line.
There is an interesting emergence of events that is worth watching.
The Burlington Planners recommended approving the Alton development after a lot of negotiating and the involvement of a deelopment designer in the process. Anne McIlroy’s group has done some solid work for Burlington in the past, quite why she didn’t say this is the wrong place for this project is difficult to understand. One gets the sense that the planners and the design consultant went into the review exercise committed to make it work – when the community was adamant that is just didn’t work.
Two towers 19 storeys high – in a community made of up two storey homes – being proposed in the name of intensification. Residents didn’t buy it and convinced council to reject a staff recommendation.
The Planning department, after considerable negotiation with the developer recommended that city council approve the requested changes to the Official plan and changes to the zoning that had applied to the property.
The result would be a property that was zoned for a possible ten storey height being increased to 19 storeys – and there would be two of them.
Tammy , planner leading the xxx
The community was incensed.
City council did, in their wisdom, vote against the staff recommendation.
Before the ink was dry on the city council decision the Adi Development Group had an application in to the OMB asking for a ruling – they were cheeky enough to ask for an expedited ruling.
When they took their Nautique project to the OMB they argued that the city had not made a decision on the development application within the required 180 days. When that application did get in front of the OMB, Adi, the developer asked for a delay while the city considered what to do with the abutting piece of property Adi had bought which made it a considerably different application.
Adi then asked for a mediation by the OMB. Are you getting the picture?
With this going on in Burlington, the province is doing a review of the way the Ontario Municipal Board operates. Burlington along with many municipalities that want to see some reform made in what the OMB can and cannot do.
The province is holding a consultation on Ontario Municipal Board Reform that has five key themes.
• Theme 1: OMB’s jurisdiction and powers • Theme 2: Citizen participation and local perspective • Theme 3: Clear and predictable decision making • Theme 4: Modern procedures and faster decisions • Theme 5: Alternative dispute resolution and fewer hearings
The review process details and background can be found here: at:
The Regional government wrote a Joint submission on behalf of City of Burlington, Town of Oakville, Halton Hills, Milton, Conservation Halton, Grand River Conservation Authority, and Credit Valley Conservation that identified three key recommendations, as outlined below:
1. Scoping appeals
Amend the Planning Act to restrict the scope of matters that can be appealed to the Ontario Municipal Board (e.g. municipally-initiated comprehensive and area wide official plan amendments)
Amend the Planning Act and OMB procedures to effectively scope matters under dispute to restrict appeals that are broad and without basis (e.g. require appeal letters to provide a sound planning rationale for the appeal and include specific policy wording and mapping for those changes being requested).
Restrict appeals (especially third party appeals) that implement municipal comprehensive reviews establishing urban structure.
2. Mediation
Amend the Planning Act and OMB procedures to utilize Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a ‘first’ solution to resolve land use disputes rather than OMB hearings.
Service delivery of mediation – improving timelines to expedite resolutions.
Apply a merit based approach to appeals.
3. De Novo Hearings
As a decision making authority, the OMB currently has the ability to hear land use planning matters “de novo” (i.e. from the beginning) even though the matter was previously considered by a municipal council.
Amend the Planning Act to limit the opportunities for de novo hearings at the OMB and give validity to Council’s decisions on land use matters.
The Halton staff report contained a detailed response to the OMB Review Public Consultation. That document was approved November 9, 2016 and is commonly referred to as the “Halton Joint Submission” signed by Region of Halton, City of Burlington, Town of Oakville, Halton Hills, Milton, Conservation Halton, Grand River Conservation Authority, and Credit Valley Conservation.
Burlington added comment of their own to the Halton joint submission in which they said:
City staff concur with the recommendations of Halton report LPS118-16. Staff have also identified the following additional items for the Province’s consideration:
1. The current time frame before an official plan or rezoning amendment can be appealed to the OMB based on “Non-Decision” is inadequate; extension of the time frame should be extended to 12 months for OPAs and 9 months for rezonings.
Currently, an applicant can appeal a development application to the OMB if Council has not made a decision within 180 days of an Official Plan amendment application or 120 days of a Zoning By-law amendment application being deemed complete.
This was the justification the Adi Development Group used when they appealed to the OMB on the Nautique development at Martha and Lakeshore.
While it is acknowledged that Bill 73 has provided the option of extending the timeline by 90 days for OPA’s, the City remains of the position that this is not an adequate extension.
Burlington is a municipality that is accommodating the majority of its growth within the built-up area of the city. The applications being received within intensification areas are increasingly complex, requiring significant public and stakeholder engagement, as well as supporting technical studies. The current 180 day and 120 day time periods are inadequate for processing development applications in this context.
Further, the current time frames do not consider the realities of internal report review processes or Committee/Council meeting cycles typical in municipal government.
To place a report on an agenda for Committee/Council consideration typically means that the report is complete up to 1.5-2 months previous to that date. This shortens the period of “Non-Decision” even further to a 4-5 month processing window, placing the municipality in an even more unrealistic position for processing complex applications.
The existing 180-day and 120-day time frames have a number of impacts:
• It puts more applications before the OMB, when the ultimate goal should be to keep applications within the local decision making authority where best efforts are being made to resolve issues outside of the OMB system.
• It penalizes a municipality for striving to conduct a meaningful public consultation process.
• It penalizes a municipality for striving to ensure that quality technical submissions are received to appropriately assess an application.
• It places the municipality in the position of recommending a refusal to Council, taking an adversarial position with the applicant, when in fact, there could still be the opportunity and interest in working through the issues with the applicant, stakeholders and community.
• It places the municipality in a position of risk and uncertainty for making best effort to continue work through issues beyond the 180-days/120 days with increased risk of appeal for every day that passes.
• It does not recognize that it might be advantageous for some applicants to only fulfill the requirements for a complete application, with the intention of triggering an appeal so that a decision would be made through an OMB hearing rather than by a local Council.
• It places a municipality in an unrealistic position for processing a complex development application as it does not consider the time it takes to: resolve issues with the application; fill information gaps in technical studies; consult with the public; and consult with stakeholders and agencies some of which have their own challenges in resourcing application review and preparation of comments.
2. Alternative dispute resolution should be supported by additional provincial funding, and not downloaded to municipalities.
The City is supportive of avenues that reduce the need for an OMB hearing and that places more decision making authority within the local context, and is therefore supportive of the alternative dispute resolution process. However, the dispute resolution process also requires resourcing which should be supported by the Province and not downloaded to municipalities.
3. The period in which to conduct an interim-control study should be an automatic 2-year period, rather than a 1-year period and subject to renewal.
A municipality typically only invokes an interim-control by-law planning tool when a significant matter arises. A significant matter, is often a complex matter, requiring time to conduct a study.
Components of a study process include: issue identification and project scoping; potentially outsourced procurement for technical assistance; public and stakeholder consultation; research and analysis; policy analysis; formulation of recommendations; and, preparation of a staff recommendation report to Council. A one year-time frame can be aggressive, particularly if outsourced consulting support is required as part of the study due to timelines and requirements of the procurement process. The study period should be revised to an automatic 2- year period, rather than a 1-year period, subject to renewal.
4. The scoping of matters that can be subject to OMB appeal should be further expanded and clarified.
To avoid the necessity of re-hearing of local Official Plan matters which have already been resolved by the Province or the Board at the Senior Plan level, the Province should specify that the following matters are not eligible for appeal:
• Regional official plan conformity through local official plan amendments;
• Any local official plan or amendment which is designed as a conformity exercise to an approved provincial plan (except for those provisions of the local plan that may be more restrictive than the senior-level plan).
5. Further clarity should be provided on the Province’s proposal to restrict appeals of planning applications for development that supports provincially funded transit infrastructure such as subways and bus stations.
Staff support, in principle, the restriction of appeals for applications that support transit infrastructure; however, staff question how such appeal restrictions would be implemented. There are many aspects of local official plans, such as the City of Burlington’s current Official Plan, which support transit infrastructure, and many of these aspects will be continued in expanded in future planning, such as the new impending Official Plan and the Mobility Hub Area-Specific Planning which is currently underway. Staff question how to feasibility separate out those aspects of a Plan which are transit-related, and therefore not subject to appeal, from other overlapping aspects of a Plan which are designed to achieve other objectives, and which would be subject to appeal.
6. The Province’s proposal to require land use decisions to reflect current Provincial policy is strongly supported.
Since 2007, the Planning Act has required that land use decisions on applications made after that time must reflect provincial policies in place when the decision is made, not when the application is made. The Province is proposing to extend this change by requiring that all planning decisions, including those for applications made prior to 2007, be based on planning documents in effect at the time of the decision.
Staff strongly support this Provincial proposal. At the present time, there are some dormant pre-2007 applications in the City that were originally submitted in anticipation of new future planning policies coming into force. These applications were essentially submitted as “placeholders” in order to ensure that the previous planning regime would continue to apply, and these applications could be re-activated at any time. Some of these applications are incomplete and do not reflect current planning policies and practices. This proposed Provincial change would ensure that decisions on these applications, if and when they are re-activated, would be able to reflect the current policies.
There will be changes made to the way the OMB works in the future but it is going to take some time for the process to actually see a change.
Will any of this impact the two matters that has the city and the Adi Development group battling it out before the OMB. Hard to tell.
There is one small tidbit of information that makes this really interesting. The Ontario Municipal Board is part of the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario which is now led by Bruce Krushelnicki who was at one time the planner for Burlington.
Bruce Krushelnicki – former Burlington Director of Planning is now the Chair of the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario that oversees the work done by the Ontario Municipal Board.
The city wasn’t happy with the way Bruce Krushelnicki was doing the job and after ten years with Burlington he moved on.
He now chairs the Environment and Land Tribunals Ontario (ELTO) which oversees what gets done by the Assessment Review Board, the Board of Negotiation, the Conservation Review Board, the Environmental Review Tribunal, and the Ontario Municipal Board.
Burlington lost a fine planner but that is proving to be the province’s gain.
Krushelnicki wrote the textbook on OMB procedures. He will direct the process that reforms the OMB – it will just take some time – but it will get done – properly.
Is there really an opportunity for you to cruise through the aisles of a shopping mall near you and spend hours looking at things but not having to spend as much as a dime – and get paid for just walking around?
There may be jobs like that out there but the email shown below isn’t going to get you one of those jobs.
This isn’t a job opportunity – it is an opportunity for these people to learn all thy can about YOU so they can take much of what you own.
There is no address for the company and there is no way for you to communicate directly with them.
They want you to click on that email and send them some basic information about yourself. Once you do that they will begin grooming you; collecting bits and pieces of information about you and your finances and if they determine that you have anything worth stealing – they will bleed you dry.
Remember, if it looks too good to be true – it probably isn’t true.
Don’t let you greed and you gullibility get the best of you.
It’s one of those old one-room school houses that so many of our grand-parents went to. They had pot belly stoves and an outhouse back behind the building.
Built in the 1870’s the school was closed in 1952.
The Lowville school house – Built in the 1870’s the school was closed in 1952.
Few of them survived but the one in Lowville is still standing, structurally in pretty good shape actually but sort of languishing as a venue. It doesn’t get used all that often.
That appears to be changing.
The Lowville Festival has used the building for each of its events the past two years and plans on using it again this year.
ThinkSpot, a small consulting form that located in Lowville a number of years ago, works at “shifting the way people think and the way they work together. They connect all the various intricate pieces of the puzzle – the people, the process, and the place and create a place where people collaborate, think creatively, and find solutions to complex problems.
Debra Pickfield, the ThinkSpot principle, entered into a lease with the city that allows her to use the space when her own premises are not large enough to handle the size of the group she is working with.
And from there it sort of grew.
Gillian Anderson – known to most as “Scully” – the female lead in the X files. Her film performance as Lily Bart in the film House of Mirth was a surprise to many. That film will be the premiere of the Lowville School House film series.
This winter there is going to be a small Lowville Schoolhouse film series – seating is limited to 40 people. That series of events starts in early February.
Robbie Burns
More immediate is the salute to poetry on the occasion of Robbie Burns’ birthday featuring Canada’s finest spoken word poet, Robert Priest. That event takes place Saturday January 21st. Nothing yet on whether or not there will be a piper and if the haggis will be shared.
The Lowville Festival people are now pretty sure they have an event they can grow and are looking at some long term plans that will see the Lowville Park location used more.
These two events, the film series and the poetry reading are events that came out of the minds of the people in the community – they usually know what works best.
Money can’t buy me love. Well at least that’s what Paul McCartney told us. And money couldn’t win Hillary Clinton the US presidency either, even though she spent almost twice as much as her opponent. In fact that flamboyant and wealthy Trump guy also won the Republican nomination despite spending less than any of the other candidates. So maybe he is as good a money manager as he says – or maybe it just takes more than money to win.
Phone banks cost money – do they get the voteout?
Still, running a campaign isn’t free – advertising, phone banks, brochures, and all that jazz. In the 2015 federal election Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper burned close to a hundred million between them with Justin just topping out Stephen. But it was how the money was spent that took Trudeau to a majority win, according to his staff. And chances are he might have won with even less money.
Of course one never knows these things for sure – so the party people, all parties, keep on sending appeals to the faithful in hopes that the cash keeps rolling in. It’s almost as if raising money has become a fixation, a goal in itself, filling some hypothetical war chest fitted with neither bottom nor lid. Yet, as Trump has shown, one doesn’t need all that money to win a campaign.
Advertising takes up a lot of the campaign money, yet the truth is that fewer people today listen to or watch the expensive commercials on the networks, with the possible exception of live sports broadcasts. More folks are now using their PVR to zip past the commercials, or are switching to Net Flicks, Crave, Prime or public broadcasting to get their programming and avoid those annoying ads. For example, I could have missed all the political ads, had I not been covering this topic.
Tweeting has taken over the way people communicate.
And more folks are getting their news on-line or via Twitter and other social media, rather than the traditional newspapers and networks, where the worst they have to encounter are those annoying but less costly pop-up ads. Even radio listeners can now go to ad-free Sirius or other programming and avoid the attack ads and all that other garbage on the AM/FM stations.
This transformation does place more onus on the reader/watcher/listener to discriminate between fake and real news – but that is another issue. The point is that it shouldn’t cost as much to run a successful election campaign as it once did. And that means the spending limits for the political parties should be falling not increasing. Logically, if the spending starts coming down so will the need for all that money that gets raised.
Politics is largely funded by the government – and that means the tax payer. Half of the costs of all the election campaigns are eligible for subsidy. All eligible donations are tax deductible, starting at 75%, whether raised from spaghetti suppers, rubber chicken dinners or straight cash contributions. And the greater one’s income obviously the more valuable the deduction to him/her making it a regressive tax measure,
Money does not grow on trees.
In the early ‘90s Jean Chretien reduced the influence of money in politics by banning corporate and union contributions and slashing the amount which individuals could donate. With these savings, from reduced tax credits, he established a program to fund political parties on the basis of their popularity at the previous election – the per-vote subsidy. After all, a subsidy is a subsidy from a public accounts perspective. But this measure removed potential influence peddling and corruption from a public accountability perspective.
The federal Conservatives typically raise more money through donations than the other parties. So whether it was a strictly political maneuver or he was driven by ideology, Mr. Harper reversed the course Chretien had set by increasing both eligible contributions and election spending limits, and then he axed the per-vote subsidy. And so it is little wonder enthusiastic fundraisers in the political parties started playing the so-called ‘pay-to-play’ or ‘cash-for-access’ fundraising game.
And it is particularly shameful when it is the party in power selling access to senior ministers. Seriously, why would any business person cough up $1000 or more for a few minutes with a government minister unless they expected something tangible in return? There is no question that cash-for-access flies in the face of the electoral financing reforms that Mr. Chretien had enacted, and should be banned or outlawed.
It is the under the table funding that sets in the rot that destroys much of the political process.
Today there is a growing sentiment among Mr. Trudeau’s members and those of the third parties to re-instate the per-vote subsidy. Of course financing that subsidy would be more revenue neutral were the government to once again reduce individual contribution limits, perhaps even lower than before Harper had elevated them. And another upside would be that members of Parliament could use their time to attend to matters more in the public interest than raising money for the next election?
Finally if we care about our federal deficit, since half of the election expenses get subsidized, it is hard to justify current high election spending limits. This is especially true in light of the hard lesson Mr. Trump has just taught us. Victory is not only a matter of how much gets spent on a campaign. Sometimes ideas are more important than money.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
The gathering of the data from 256 parents who were responding to the 25 questions posed by Kirk Perris of Ipsos, the company hired by the Board of Education to facilitate the public meetings and the meetings of the PARC (Program accommodation Review Committee) was not a particularly friendly event.
HDSB Director of Education Stuart Miller
The parents were expecting a dialogue – with questions asked and answers given. The Board Director of Education chose not to stay for the meeting – he was at the Gary Allan high school greeting people but said he left before the meeting got underway on the advice of staff.
Stuart Miller is not the kind of man to avoid an issue – the public would have been better served if Miller had chosen to follow his own instincts.
The data gathered came from: 58.6% of the responders were from Central high school; 16.8% from Pearson and 16.8% from Hayden; 2.7% from Aldershot ; 2.3% from Nelson; 2% from Bateman and .8% from Robinson.
They were clearly skewed to how parents from Central high school felt.
Questions 1 to 8 were covered in the first part of this three part series.
Question 9: How concerned are you that your child(ren) has access to appropriate learning facilities (ie kitchens, science labs gyms, libraries)? Very, 63.7%; somewhat 22.4%; not very 6.6%; not at all 7.3%
Question 10:How concerned are you that some high schools have large amounts of specialized learning spaces that remain underutilized? Very 7%; somewhat 21.7%; not very 35.7%; Not at all 35.7%
Question 11:How important is it for your home school to have a full range of extra-curricular activities? (e.g. drama, arts, athletics, clubs) for your child(ren).
Very 46.4%; somewhat 35.2%; not very 13.4%; not at all 5%
Question 12: How likely are you to support your child(ren) participating in extracurricular activities at another school? Very 27.9%; somewhat 26.7; not very 19%not at all 26.4%
Question 13: How important is it for your child to have access to the highest level of competition in athletics? Very 7.3%; somewhat 11.5%; not very 26.9%; not at all54.2%
Given the number of people who responded to the question and the fact that more than 50% were from Central this question and the answers given should not be seen as the view for all the high schools. Nelson and Hayden parents would respond quite differently – which suggests there could perhaps be a couple of high schools that would have sports team with other high schools offering a different academic environment.
Central high students outside the provincial legislature.
Does an arts high school, a science focused high school make sense? Is there going to be an opportunity for parent’s city wide have a fulsome discussion about this?
There are all kinds of questions that come to the surface as the data captured is analyzed. Serious question but the schedule set out doesn’t all all that much time for pauses and opportunities for the parents to gather and discuss amongst them selves with their trustees in the room in a less than formal format what they as a community wants. The existing schedule might not really be serving the public interest.
The parents may need some time to be educated on just what is possible and what doesn’t work from an educational point of view.
Question 14: How important is the physical condition of your existing school to you (e.g. environmental sustainability, energy consumption, safety)? Very 31.4%; somewhat 15.5%; not very 13.4%; not at all 39.7%
Question 15: How important is it that the board ensures that schools have an up to date fully accessible learning environment, e.g. elevators, air-conditioning? Very 23.1%; somewhat 15.7%; not very 13.2%; not at all 47.9%
Central high school – the oldest of the seven schools with a rich local history and a community deeply committed to keeping it open,
Do the answers to this question reveal the different realities different high schools face? At Central the students use classroom on the third floor where there is acceptable heat in the really cold weather. Are Occupational Health and Safety Policies going to require elevators or escalators in high schools? And can older high schools be upgraded at an acceptable cost?
Question 16:How important is it to you to preserve existing community partnerships at your child(rens) current school? (e.g. swimming pool. Library, community centre). Very 38.6%; somewhat 14.3%; not very 19.5%; not at all 27.5%
Question 17: How important is it to you to minimize the use of portable classrooms? Very 63.1%; somewhat 10.7%; not very 10.7%; not at all 15.5%
Did anyone expect much in the way of a different response to this question?
Questions 18 to 25 will be covered in the third part of this series.
Everyone likes nature – to be out for a walk in a forested area and suddenly see a young doe standing very still watching you. There is both an intimacy and a magic to it all.
Watching traffic stop while a flock of geese cross the road taking their sweet time aggravates for a moment until you begin to appreciate that we share this planet.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology sent out the following short video.
It will change the way you see the day – less than a minute to view – well worth the time.
By Pepper Parr
Members of Tactical and Rescue Unit (TRU), Police Dog Services, Community Mobilization Bureau (CMB), Uniform Patrol and the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau (CIB) worked together and ultimately located and arrested four male suspects inside a Starbucks.
Whether you sell products or services, give the client something extra as part of the main deal. If the extra premium is free, then so much the better. To make the deal even stronger, make it known that the whole deal is 100% guaranteed and you’ll refund their money if required (or whatever makes sense) and also let them know that regardless of the deals outcome, (and this is the BTRF part) they get to keep the premium item you gave them as your way of saying thank you.
James Burchill is the founder of Social Fusion Network – an organization that helps local business connect and network. He also writes about digital marketing, entrepreneurship and technology and when he’s not consulting, he teaches people to start their own ‘side hustle.’
Widespread flooding is not currently anticipated. Our reservoirs are holding at winter levels which allow for larger storage capacity for circumstances of this nature.
The top 10 cities where you can find monogamous people, as well as the top 10 cities where you can find monogamous men and monogamous women (and Burlington features on all three lists, coming 5th overall, 7th on the men’s list, and 8th on the women’s).
Participants in the study were asked to rank the extent to which they agreed with the sentiment ‘I believe that monogamy is essential in a relationship’; placing themselves on a scale of 1 (do not agree at all) to 7 (agree completely). As it turns out, Canadians are strongly in favour of monogamy: the average result for women was 6.3, while men average 5.7.
By Pepper Parr
The city now faces a local developer, the ADI development Group, on two development proposals – the Nautique that they want to build at the intersection of Martha and Lakeshore Road and the two 19 storey apartment buildings with a collection of townhouse they want to build at the edge of the Alton Community just south of the 407 at Appleby Line.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
