 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON November 20, 2012 A project that has been in the works for more than 20 years cleared another hurdle and is one more hurdle away from applying for a building permit, which the city will have to issue. The Committee of Adjustment approved all 15 minor variances asked for by Mayrose Tyco, the company that has worked to put a “landmark” structure at the edge of Lake Ontario.
 What is now a flat empty lot on the south side of Lakeshore road will become a bustling construction site just about the time city council expects the pier to open. During the next three years, three structures will rise from the site – one 22 storeys into the sky. Burlington will finally have its landmark structure. Committee of Adjustment meets to handle minor variances that a citizen wants made to a zoning by-law, usually for something they want to do with their property.
The committee has a chair and four members appointed to the committee by the city. Each has a vote and the majority prevails. The Committee has to answer four questions in the affirmative in order for the variance being asked for to be granted. Those questions are:
1: Do the proposed minor variances from the zoning by-law maintain the general intent and purpose of the Official Plan?
2: Do the proposed minor variances from the zoning bylaw maintain the general intent and purpose of the zoning by-law?
3: Are the proposed minor variances from the zoning by-law desirable for the appropriate development or use of the land, building or structure?
4: Are the proposed minor variances from the zoning bylaw considered minor in nature.
Get a yes to all these and you’ll probably get what you were asking for – but you have to get that yes from at least three of the five members of the committee.
Last week, we attended our first ever Committee of Adjustment hearing because the Mayrose Tyco Corporation was asking for 15, yes 15 minor variances on the three structure project that is going to be built at the intersection of Lakeshore Road and Elizabeth streets. This one has been a long time coming and except for one more hearing at the Conservation Authority the project will be ready to apply for a building permit and then the digging begins.
It will be the largest construction undertaking this city has seen for some time. A builder hasn’t been appointed yet – the document needed from the Conservation Authority has to be in hand before they make that announcement.
But that Building Permit application is in the process of being drawn up.
The Riviera Motel is now nothing but a memory – the bulldozers were pulling that down last week.
The next step is readying the lot for the construction which is going to take at least three years.
 The rendering needs a really close look to fully understand what the developer had to work with and what is going to be built. Start with the open space in the centre. Due to the grade there is all kinds of terracing necessary to get people from the street level to the waterfront. No one in a wheel chair is going to get down that part of the site. There is a curved roadway to the east of the large condo on the right. There are opportunities for some very upscale commercial on the right side of the Courtyard in the middle. Can Burlington support that level of commercial? All three structures will go up at basically the same time – an eight story Delta four star hotel that will face Lakeshore Road and have an entrance on Elizabeth Street. The building got an additional storey in height to accommodate the 152 rooms that are a must if the hotel is to have a four star rating.
The buzz in the community was that the hotel would be open for the Pan American Games in 2015 – not true.
 The first look for the public at the Delta four star hotel that shaped much of the later design of the project. The entrance to the hotel will be off Elizabeth Street which will be pushed through to south of Lakeshore Road. The 22 storey condo is west of the hotel. An additional seven storey condo will be south of the hotel. The thinking is that the hotel won’t be completed in time and Four Stars in the hotel business that means quality – this one isn’t going to be rushed to completion.
The project is “four to six months behind our original planning” said Ken Dakin, the project planner who has been the project planner since 1999 – he was involved with the project as far back as 1997. He took the committee of Adjustment through each of the 15 variances he was asking for – and explained carefully the wisdom, as he saw it, of the changes he was asking the Committee to make.
There was a couple of what some might call “slights of hand” proposals, such as the decision to treat the hotel restaurant as one of the commercial elements that the Committee agreed to go along with. Another was the decision to convert some of the space on the east side of the hotel into residential rather than commercial. The argument put forward by the project planner, quite persuasively, and we thought correctly, was that commercial just wasn’t going to survive on the east side next to the walkway that leads down to the waterfront.
The 22 storey condo has a slight triangular shape to it; narrower at the south end than the north end which allowed for balconies that will give every unit owner a decent view of the lake. Balconies were not as in vogue when the project was first put forward. At that time the height was a proposed 33 storey structure. That didn’t fly.
 View from Lakeshore Road looking south to the lake – 22 storey condo on the left with the four star Delta hotel on the right. The access to the Courtyard is in between the two buildings. There is also a winding pathway that is already in place on the east side (the left side in this rendering) that leads to the waters edge. The Courtyard will be a series of shortish terraces to accommodate the grade which is actually quite steep. While the public continually said they wanted commercial activity to the sides of the open space that will stretch from Lakeshore Road to the water’s edge the builders are concerned about finding commercial tenants who want to locate and can survive financially in an area where cold winds will roar in off the lake on some of those colder winter days.
The hotel wants the site to be upscale and not have a Tim Horton’s that becomes a 24 hour hangout on the property. Finding the right commercial tenants will be a challenge. The hotel will have a coffee shop of its own but the site could probably support a second one that is part of the open space at the centre of the three buildings. A family restaurant would probably fit in as well – but where does one go from there? Maybe the Art Centre could be convinced to open up a retail outlet – but the rent would have to be a bit of a gift.
The entrances to the three levels of parking space that will serve all three structures will be at the second floor level and there will be just the one entrance which is going to mean some very tight scheduling for vehicles wanting to get in and out of the garage.
The zoning bylaw called for 3 metres of space between the edge of the southern part of the hotel. Given changes required by the Conservation Authority there wasn’t as much room as the planners originally had in mind. But at the early stage the plan was for a 125 room hotel. The need to move that up to 152 rooms – meant something had to give somewhere and that give is at the southern end of the hotel. Look carefully at the illustration to see the challenge the architects faced.
 The pathway to the east of the Mayrose Tyco project has been in place for a number of years. It was part of a land transfer that gave city land to the developer in exchange for the pathway and the walking space along the edge of the lake. The 22 storey condominium will sit beside the pathway. The developer asked that the requirement for 272 commercial parking spaces be cut back to 152 raised some eyebrows. The project planner explained the changes that have taken place since 2006 when the parking requirements were put in place.
In 2006 the property was not within the city’s Defined Parking area. That Defined Parking Area is a part of the downtown core that “shares” parking space in the several city parking lots. Properties within the Defined Parking Area can forgo the installation of on-site commercial parking and instead pay a levy to the city to guarantee access to the municipal lots and parking garages within the Defined Area.
Somewhere between 2006 and today that Defined Area boundary got moved to include the Mayrose Tyco development and with that stroke of a pen – there went the need for all that on-site commercial parking.
The 188 parking spaces for the residents who will eventually live in the condos still stands. What this means is a real tightening of parking space in the area around the site.
Accessible parking spaces also took a hit. There were to be 9 – the developer asked that it be reduced to 5. The argument was that if the commercial space was being reduced by 60% (that was the 272 down to 152) then it would follow that the accessible spaces would also be reduced by 60%. Explain the logic of that rationalization to people who need parking closer to the entrances of buildings.
There were a bunch of other small changes that made sense to the adjustment committee members who spent relatively little time on this application. Much more time was spent on an applicant who wanted to put an addition on a house that a neighbour felt would intrude on their privacy. That one didn’t get Committee of Adjustment approval.
The Bridgewater project will be a welcome addition to the city – it will be a wonderful site to spend time on and will open up a pathway from east of the Waterfront Hotel through to where the pier will be located and on into Spencer Smith Park.
 This picture taken from close to the walkway that leads to the waters edge with the now demolished Riviera Motel in the background give some sense of the rather steep grade the architects had to work with. A lot of terracing was needed to accommodate the drop from the street level to the waters edge. What is missing however is any sense of grandness to it all. The condo towers will soar into the sky and be the biggest thing this city has ever seen but on the ground it will be kind of cramped, small in scale and nowhere near what we see in European cities where public places are grander in scale.
The sad part is that the money behind this project is Austrian in nature. Pity that they didn’t bring the tradition of grand public places to Burlington.
There were four people taking part in the Committee of Adjustment meeting. Their concerns seemed to be related to how the structures would impact on their view of the lake. There are literally hundreds of people in the immediate area who are going to see a hugely different architecture in front of them and many will be very upset. Nothing they can do now – the appeal period is close to ending. Next step is a document from the Conservation Authority and then on to city hall for the building permit – which the city must give them.
 A view of the drop the architects had to work with as they redesigned the site when the larger hotel became part of the project. The hotel will come very close to the concrete pathway. It is a very challenging site. The Riviera Motel has been demolished. The developers have had this property in their hands for more than twenty years during which time they have seen little return on their investment. When the major changes to the original proposal were made in 2006 the thinking was that we would see construction equipment on the site within a year. The recession in 2000 put the bollocks to that plan. It was basically impossible to get anyone to become a partner in the project. Minto, a highly regarded developer in Toronto and Ottawa pulled out around 2010. Mayrose Tyco was then squeezed by the Conservation Authority who advised them that there were some regulatory changes about to come into force that would result in a deeper set back from the edge of the water. That would have changed far more than the developer wanted to even think about coping with.
They landed Delta as the hotel operator and re-worked the site to give the hotelier what they needed and still keep the condominium part of the project financially viable. Now all they need is a robust economy through to 2015 when the condo units will be very much in demand. Getting to this point meant some compromises from the original dream.
They chose to create a tight site rather than go for the expansiveness that we appreciate in Spencer Smith Park.
But twenty years is a long time to wait for a return. And it will be a wonderful place to live if you can afford one of the condo’s – especially in that 22 storey tower. Wonder what they will go for?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON November 19, 2012 It is always interesting when a person who operates a business in the city; one that requires licensing and is overseen by a city department, suggests to the city that they might be able to offer an additional service and would like to try out a new idea.
Scott Wallace, president of Burlington Taxi did that last March when he took the idea of setting up a taxi shuttle service that would get people, who shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car, home once the bars in the downtown core closed and to drive people from bar to bar during the evening.
It worked, sort of, and well enough for Wallace to ask if he could run the same type of service between late November and the first of the new year. After very little discussion council committee said “sure, why not” and moved it along to a full council meeting.
What was disappointing was that the committee didn’t give the idea a lot of attention and no one thanked Scott Wallace for the idea and the initiative he took. The least he deserved was a “thank you”. Maybe he’ll get that at the council meeting.
 Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster chats with Burlington Taxi president Scott Wallace during the Downtown visioning exercise recently. The idea was brought forward last March when Burlington Taxi made a formal request to Community Development Committee to operate a shuttle taxi service for the downtown restaurant and bar patrons. The proposed pilot was to operate during peak times of the year on Saturday nights from 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. after which time the City of Burlington would evaluate whether this would be a long term viable.
Council approved the pilot.
Overall, while the pilot project was not a huge success, the idea that there are options available for people to move about the downtown and to take people home during the peak times was seen as an important move forward in the area of alternative transportation said Manager of By-law Enforcement and Licensing, Tracey Burrows, who has the letters C.P.S.O., M.L.E.O. (c) behind her name; heaven only knows what they mean.
The goal of the Pilot, which ran from May 5, 2012 to September 1, 2012, was to evaluate operating larger capacity vehicles in the downtown core to assist in moving patrons between downtown bar locations during the late evening (11pm -1am) hours and then out of the downtown core in a more timely fashion during the bar rush period. (1 a.m. – 3 a.m.)
The Service Area for this pilot was bordered by QEW in the west, the Guelph Line in the east, Fairview Street in the north and Lakeshore road in the south. All patrons requiring rides outside of this area would use standard taxi services or other transportation of their choice.
Two Multi-passenger vehicles (Ford club vans) between the hours of 11PM and 3AM every Saturday night. beginning on May 5.
One van was used to shuttle people between different bars and began at Emmas Backporch at 11PM and drove a route:
1. Proceed to Pearl Street (Poacher)
2. Proceed to Elizabeth Street (Martini House/Dickens/Honey West)
3. Proceed to Brant Plaza using John Street Access (Joe Dogs)
4. Proceed South on Brant Street to Lakeshore Road. (Queens Head/Rude Native/Pepperwood)
5. Turn East on Lakeshore Road to Waterfront Hotel (Beaver and Bulldog)
6. Return to Old Lakeshore Road (Emmas)
The vehicle stopped for passengers at any point on the route but would not take passengers to any destinations off the route. This bar to bar service ended at 1AM. When the vehicle began to deliver patrons to any destination within the designated Service Area concluding service at 3AM.
 Older Ford club vans, which were technically not licensed as taxis, were used during the pilot with the full consent of the city. The multi-passenger service worked well enough for Burlington Taxi to ask for a second pilot with a view to making this a permanent service. After the first six weeks Wallace found there was little demand for the bar to bar service so he revised the offering to allow both vehicles to be available to transport anywhere in the City of Burlington including bar to bar downtown.
Wallace fully expected problematic behavior to be a major concern. He is “ happy to say that it has not been an issue at all. Our drivers have reported to us that for the most part the passengers have not caused any major issues.”
“The impact on Taxi Drivers Income was a major issue when we debated this type of service”, reports Wallace. “ We closely monitor driver income to ensure they can also make a decent living. When we compared driver revenue per hour from the same time last year there was no significant change. Additionally we had no complaints from our drivers about the vans being on the road.”
The total Revenue for the pilot was $3,425.00. The total Expenses for the pilot was $5,152. This only includes driver wages, fuel and insurance. It does not include vehicle depreciation or repairs and maintenance.
Wallace also reported that the pilot had limited impact on service levels. “They averaged around 80% which is considered good for this specific PEAK period. The use of the service was very limited with less than 5% of all calls using the service while having to be subsidized by Burlington Taxi.”
However the pilot did have some successes. “People were generally satisfied with the service and having another option of getting home at peak times. Additionally while the pilot operated during some peak months a good part of it ran during slower months skewing the ridership volumes. We had extreme high volumes of business during the Sound of Music festival and usage was very high, ” said Wallace
Wallace believes that “ if marketed properly and operated only during the peak months of November, December, May and June that this service could be successful.”
Wallace wanted pricing to be $5 per person anywhere in the City of Burlington.
Wallace likes what he learned enough to advise the city that he is in the process of finalizing a proposal to the city for peak period taxis to operate on Saturday nights throughout the year.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON November 4, 2012 November sort of seems like a lead up to the coming holiday season. The time is busier; work makes more demands of us and our social lives get busier. Life around us is more active; there is so much more to do. That lazy summer weekend seems so long ago.
 It’s a small, independent bookstore that has been in business for more than forty years and continues to draw top level authors. Burlington is one of the few Canadians cities that consistently offers these events. We human being seems to go through these cycles and our friends over at the Different Drummer are adding to the mix of all the things we can do, want to do and would like to do.
Ian Elliott, proprietor at the bookstore on Locust Street has put together a November program you are going to want to take part in.
Globe and Mail writer Doug Saunders, will talk about his new title, The Myth of the Muslim Tide: Do Immigrants Threaten the West? at the Burlington Public Library on New Street Monday, November 19th at 7:00 pm – tickets $10.
Very few Canadians understand the change that is taking place in our society with the immigration influx. Will these new people change our core values; what will they bring to Canada that we don’t already have? It is time for more Canadians to begin to understand what these new Canadians offer – more than you may realize.
 A broadcasting career that ran for more than 40 years during which tens of million Canadians learned what had gone on during the day. Lloyd Robertson was the most popular news anchor of his time. On Monday, November 26th at 7:00 pm Lloyd Robertson, former news anchor with CTV News, and many may not know, a onetime lead broadcaster with CBC will be at Royal Botanical Gardens 680 Plains Road West Burlington, 7:00 pm to talk about his illustrious career as a news anchor and reflect upon his six decades as a journalist. The Kind of Life It’s Been is a personal look at a career we all watched take place. Robertson will offer wonderful insights and some laughs as well. Tickets to the event are $10. The event is being sponsored by A Different Drummer and Bryan Prince, Bookseller.
Clair Carver Dias will be at the Different Drummer Sunday, November 11th at 2:00 pm. An Olympic medal winner Dias will talk about her novel; a riveting chronicle of six athletes staking everything and battling personal and professional odds for the ultimate goal – a chance to compete at The Games. Ian Elliott tells us that Dias is an accomplished writer, a superlative speaker and wonderful company.
 Dr. Neil Turok will deliver the CBC Massey Lecture for 2012. He will be speaking at the McMaster University Club. Neil Turok, the person giving the Massey Lecture this year, at the McMaster University Club, 1280 Main Street West, in Hamilton on November 27th; 7:00 pm. Tickets are $10. The Massey subject this year is : The Universe Within: From Quantum to Cosmos. Turok, Director of the Perimeter Institute, presents a vision of the future based on the workings of the human mind.
This is pretty heavily stuff but highly relevant – tickets will go quickly. The event is being put on by A Different Drummer in partnership with Bryan Prince Bookseller and House of Anansi Press.
All the speakers are informed, highly engaging and well worth the time. A Different Drummer Bookstore.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 30, 2012 The name doesn’t do much for me but the concept certainly resonates – giving young people an opportunity to test their entrepreneurial ideas and raise some of the money they need to get an idea off the ground. Then they have mentors to work with as they make their mistakes and learn that what they thought was a great idea, that was going to make them oodles of money, bumped into the cold hard reality of the market place.
While the idea is a bit of a copy – and a the pinching of an idea from CBC’s very popular Dragon’s Den TV show – the Rotarians have taken it quite a bit further.
 The Pythons’ Pit leadership Team: From the right Dr Melina Head, McMaster University, DeGroote School of Business; Rotarian Fareen Samji with fellow Rotarian Tom McLeod and Joe Pagano, a representative from the Royal Bank. Rotary works from the premise that ‘service is above self’. One of the arms of the organization is vocational service. Fareen Samji, a Rotarian, had in the past been asked to take part in mock Dragon’s Dens events at Alexander Public School where she was really impressed with the ideas the grade 8 students had. So impressed that it occurred to her that this was something Rotary could do.
Fareen is a dangerous woman with an idea. With the idea in her head it wasn’t long before her Rotary Club said – sure, we could do that. Now at Rotary if they go along with an idea you have – it is yours to achieve. So there she was with approval from her Rotary Club to do a Pythons’ Pit.
Why stop with just the one Rotary Club she asked – and thus a Rotary Road show took place where she managed to get all ten Halton Rotary Clubs to get behind the idea.
Fareen knew that while this was her project to get done on behalf of the Rotary community in Halton Region, she also knew she couldn’t do it by herself. Next step was the political level and she got a buy in from all four Mayors: Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills.
Then the other service organizations had to be cued up – Fareen needed to ensure she wasn’t stepping on any toes. The Chamber of Commerce was onside.
 Dr Melina Head of McMaster University saw the Pythons’ Pit idea as a natural for the School of Business. Training people for business in a world that is much more competitive and global as well meant there had to be an academic component – so the people at McMaster University got a call. Fareen got lucky again when Milena Head, who runs the MBA program at the DeGroote School of Business, took to the idea instantly.
Fareen, who is the chair of the Pythons’ Pit project works with Tom McLeod who serves as vice chair. Fareen and Tom McLeod approached McMaster as a team and brought them into the idea.
All this is a long way of getting to the point where we can tell you in some detail how this is going to work. The most important thing we can tell you is that applications to be part of the program must be in no later than December 1, 2012. There is a lot of work to get done – so start now.
There are two categories; a High School students category and a General category which means anyone who isn’t a high school student.
There are cash prizes for the students.
There are no cash prizes for the General.
The entry fees for both categories have been waived.
The Pythons’ Pit web site has all the forms and the metrics on which entrants will be judged. Fareen Samji has no idea how many applications there will be – “we really won’t know until December 1st”, she said. “People will download the forms and begin putting together their applications – and that will take some time” she added.
Here are the links to the forms:
Student application form
General category application form
Next week we will tell you more about how this came together, how it will work and who the Pythons who will invest in the winning projects are and why they are doing this.
To come:
Part 2 The corporate participants and sponsors
Part 3 – The Pythons
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 10, 2012 The lot has been empty for a long time – it sits there next to the Wal-Mart store just south of the GO Station. At a recent council committee Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison suggested the Molinaro Group make one of the buildings an office tower – not a chance, the Molinaro boys know where the profit is.
 While there are just five 20 storey structures – take a look at all those three and four storey levels. It’s going to be condominiums with some rental in all five of the 20 storey towers that were approved for the site some time ago by the Ontario Municipal Board.
The previous owners sold the land to the Molinaro’s who are ready to meet with the community and talk about what they want to put up.
 Bunton’s Wharf – a Molinaro Group project, one of several that created a condo community in Burlington.  Spencer’s Landing – located on Maple and Lakeshore Road – a part of the community that has been good to and good for the Molinaro Group. They have a new project at Brock and Elgin that will see shovels in the ground this month. These guys know how to get a building up. Is there anything in Burlington they didn’t build? Look at the list: The Strata on Maple; 360 on Pearl, The Bunton’s Wharf, Spencer’s Landing and the Baxter; that is an impressive list. And they are about to break ground on the project over on Brock. For the most part the Molinaro Group gets their projects through the community process. The Brock project gave them some indigestion and they appear to have learned something from that exercise and are holding a public meeting at the Performing Arts Centre on October 25th at 7:00 pm.
Now if the Molinaro Group sets out a selection of some fine Italian wine or opts instead for an open bar – this project will just sail through.
But it is located within Ward 2 and that’s Meed Ward territory and she will have something to say about the street scape, the amenities and the impact the five structures are going to have on the local community and the wider community as well. A plaza is planned for the site.
 Sitting to the immediate south of the GO station with a chance that there will be a direct link into the GO station; this Molinaro Group project could become very popular, very quickly. Average unit size is said to be 700 sq. ft. Proposed as a 1000 + condo development the buildings will certainly help the city (if not put them over) the intensification the province is calling for, Many might be quite happy to see a forest of buildings go in as long as they aren’t just plain ugly to keep an infill being done in their neighbourhoods.
The range of units will run from affordable to luxury with the average size coming in at 700 square feet. That suggests this isn’t going to be a building aimed at families but rather singles that want to be mobile and able to get onto a GO train in minutes and be in Toronto.
 The people over at the Molinaro Group are quick to learn the language city hall needs to hear. During Council Workshops on development of the downtown core the phrase “mobility hub” came to the surface – a hub being a place where the various type of transportation come together. And in Burlington transportation is a combination of the GO trains and the highway. With this project the GO station is across the street and the highway is a couple of left turns away. This is a done deal!
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON September 19, 2012 We knew the Zellers store was going to close – we told you that in May of this year.
Now the closing is very real – the signs came down today and the stores have had almost everything taken out of them.
 The Zellers sign comes off the store in the Burlington Mall. Store will get a total makeover and re-open as a Target store in April 2013 During the months ahead there will be a total gutting and then Target, the new store brand, will begin to put their equipment, sales counters, check out aisles and racks to display merchandize in place. Burlingtonians will flood into the new Target store sometime in April of 2013 – which will be a month or so before the pier opens to the public.
Two Zellers stores are closed; the one in Millcroft Centre and the one in the Burlington Mall.
 Not a sales clerk in sight. In April, 2013 the space will be filled with new merchandise in the kind of store Burlington hasn’t seen for some time. All the Zellers staff lost their jobs. Target didn’t buy the Zellers store – they assumed the lease, which means they now pay the rent and can do whatever they want to do with the space. That space is now empty and in the next five or six months the store – two in Burlington, will get new equipment and new staff will be hired and trained.
Target is a very different kind of retailer. They bring a different product line and they operate differently. Tough on the people who no longer have jobs. Some of them may get hired by Target but the betting in the retail community is that Target will not want people with Zellers training.
Zellers is no more – Target is now king. The Bay and Sears along with a number of other retailers in Burlington will see a bit of an uptick in their sales which they should enjoy while it lasts because the moment Target opens its doors – the customers they had will flee in droves to Target who will do everything they can to make them loyal customers.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON September 13, 2012 Two Spencer’s Restaurant Chef’s will duel it out at the Farmer’s Market on Friday. Chris Hayworth and Andrew McLeod will shop from the different vendors at the market and then cook up a meal, using what they bought at the market – all organic, that visitors to the market can sample at the tables Barry Imber, the driving force behind the idea of an organic market in downtown Burlington, plans to set out for people to use.
 It’s not a crowded market but it does have a consistent flow of traffic during the two hours it is open. Great produce, pork offerings are very good and each week someone else shows up with a new product. We got great sour-dough there last week.  Fresh bread – straight from the ovens – but you had to get there while the basket still had something in it. The Farmer’s Market, located off John Street just north of James back in behind Centro Gardens, focuses on local organically grown produce, meat and dairy.
It started up during the early summer and while traffic has not been overwhelming, it is consistent with people drifting in and out during the noon to 2:00 pm window they are open.
 Chef Chris Hayworth shows how he will use his knife at the Chef’s Duel scheduled for Friday just after noon at the Farmer’s All Organic market on John Street. Imber decided to give the location a bit of a promotional boost and challenged the two Spencer’s chef’s to duel it out over their stoves using just the produce available at the market.
 Candace Ivezich, sales agent with LeavoyRowe, purveyors of fine meats just might be Chef Hayworth’s secret weapon. Hayworth plans to play it by ear and see what is on sale- and then use his creative imagination to pull together a meal he is sure will win the day for him.
Hayworth is a full range chef but he tends to like to focus on the appetizer part of the menu – and where he can he goes local.
Could be fun – certainly will be tasty.
Chef Hayworth has a bit of an advantage – he has a supplier that wants him to win; that might tip the scales.
At press time we had not heard from Chef McLeod – maybe he has decided to concede and won’t show.
You be the judge – and see what they serve up.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON August 27, 2012 It is interesting to listen to the views on Burlington`s decision to purchase cars that were not `made in Canada`. Some understand what a world economy is while others are afraid of it.
In the next two days, a distinguished speaker will be in Burlington to talk about his book The Boiling Frog Dilemma. Todd Hirsch, a senior economist with the Alberta Treasury Board asks: WHAT CREATES WEALTH?
The answer to that may be surprising. Economic wealth isn’t created by oil and gas molecules in the ground, nor by an auto assembly plant. It isn’t created by tax credits or subsidies. It isn’t even created by economic development programs. Wealth starts with one thing: an idea.
“The Boiling Frog Dilemma” argues that Canada in the 21st century is at risk of falling behind internationally. We need to seriously “up our game” in terms of creativity, innovation, risk taking, entrepreneurialism, cosmopolitanism, community, and re-thinking environmental stewardship—or risk becoming economically irrelevant on the global stage.
 Hirsch, who will be in Burlington for two days comments on the automotive industry with remarks that are useful for those engaged in the argument as to who the city should have bought new cars from. Hirsch says:
“Consider the automotive industry. It used to be possible to categorize car companies by country. Ford is a US car maker, Toyota is a Japanese car maker, Renault is a French car maker etc. But increasingly this makes no sense. Certainly the head office of the car maker remains fixed to one particular country. But in the 21st century a car could be designed in Japan with computer engineering systems from Switzerland, parts made in Brazil, Mexico and South Korea, an engine built by a German company, marketing campaigns plotted in Japan, the UK and California, environmental and safety testing by a Swedish company and the final assembly in Alabama. The car could then be sold by a retailer in Chicago and run on gasoline made from Alberta`s oil sands.”
Hirsch points out that we are all Global Traders and what we have to do is figure out where in the global chain of production we want to fit.
Many in Burlington seem to feel that the production chain begins and ends at the Ford factory in Oakville and that we have to take care of each other.
There is an opportunity for those people to widen their thinking. Thinkspot! a Burlington creative consulting company has brought Hirsch to the city to talk about his book during four different sessions at the ThinkSpot offices on Locust Street.
Todd Hirsch will be in Burlington next Monday and Tuesday (August 27th and 28th). Debra Pickfield, ThinkSpot head honcho, explains the event: “We are hosting a number of open-invitation events for people to come together at ThinkSpot! , talk with Todd, and hear why he thinks Canada and Canadians could begin tapping into something significant – our ability to create and innovate.”
 ThinkSpot’s Debra Pickfield – wild about Canada’s and Burlington’s economic complacency. “Some of you have heard me talk about Todd Hirsch and the recent book he co-authored “The Boiling Frog Dilemma.” After reading the book it was all I could do not to jump on a plane to Calgary and sit for a day talking with Todd and Robert – here was a book that explained perfectly why I get on my soapbox about creativity, problem-solving and innovation.”
There are a few spots left. Give ThinkSpot! a call and get the details or log into the reservation site. Given the close date – you might just want to take a chance and drop by the ThinkSpot offices.
BURLINGTON, ON August 3, 2012 When a company employee makes an obvious error, who should absorb the cost of that error – the company or the customer? This situation is all too common these days with the customer generally footing the bill for a company’s mistake. Whatever has happened to ‘customer service’?
On July 25th, at 3pm, I went into a ‘full service’ gas station in Burlington Ontario to get gas. The attendant, who I have dealt with over a number of years, said ‘how much?’ As per usual, I said “$20, and can you check all the fluids? Thanks.’. He nodded. I then opened the gas cap lock. He put the nozzle into the tank and walked up to the front of the car. I unlocked the hood from inside the car. He lifted it up and checked the oil, the power steering and the window washing liquid. He came around the corner of the car and said, ‘You need power steering and window washing fluid’. He then quickly switched off the gas. It had reached $61 dollars.
I got out of the car and went to the trunk. I retrieved my left-over stock of steering fluid and washer fluid and handed them to him. He said, ‘You owe $61 for the gas.” I looked at him, and said, ‘No I don’t. I owe $20 for the gas that I ordered.” He stood holding the two bottles, unsure. The nozzle was still in my car.
I took the two bottles from him, went under the hood and added the fluids myself. I then went into the manager’s office. A young man, the ‘new’ manager, was on the phone, so I waited. He put his hand over the receiver and gave me the ‘what’s up’ look. I said, ‘I ordered $20 worth of gas, but the attendant, in error, filled it up to $61.” He gave the ‘one minute’ finger and went back to his call. I waited.
 Twenty dollars was all our columnist Margaret Lindsay Holman was prepared to pay for the $20 worth of gas she ordered.
What would you have done? As I had left my wallet on my car seat, I returned to the car to get it, and said, on route, to the attendant who was soon filling up another car, “I am prepared to pay $40 on a $20 order, but as it was your error, you have to absorb the difference.” He didn’t say anything, knowing full well he was in the wrong.
The young owner/manager came out a couple of minutes later and said to me, ‘You now have the gas in your car, so you have to pay for it.” I repeated, I only ordered $20 worth of gas, not $61 worth of gas. He said, ‘In principal, you have the gas, and you’ve got to pay for it.” I answered, “In principal, the customer ordered $20 worth of gas, not $61 worth of gas”. He said NO, ‘Pay Up’. I said NO. I’ll pay $40 only. He said NO, ‘Pay Up’/ I then said, NO, I did not order this gas, so siphon the extra out’. He said ‘Alright, move your car over to the garage’. This terse dialogue happened in a matter of nano-seconds.
I moved the car and waited to see what would happen next. The owner/manager disappeared into the garage bays.
An older guy came out and tried to argue that ‘everyone’ makes mistakes, and that a reasonable person would understand that and just pay the difference. I said I fully understand the mistake, and that I was willing to pay $40 on a $20 order, but that the attendant had to understand his mistake too.
This guy also said NO. He then took the car into a car bay. I waited. Five minutes later he took the car out and parked it. He said this was going to take more time then he thought to calibrate the exact $41 extra of gas and that this whole business was going to cost them money. I said, yes, this wasted time was also costing me money. I stood by the car. Waiting. He went back into the garage.
Another five minutes passed. He came back out and said, would you settle on $50 for the gas? I thought about it. We’d been at this for nearly a half hour, and it was clearly going to take that long again, so I said ok. I gave him $50 cash and left the lot with $61 worth of gas on a $20 dollar gas order.
And yes, this is very much about the principal of the thing. Customer Service should mean something. I have been a frequent and, until now, very satisfied user of this garage. All has been fine to date with no complaints, and yet, with this error, I am supposed to absorb their mistake? I don’t think so. The likelihood that I will use this garage is very slim. I have no hard feelings toward the attendant himself, it was an honest mistake, and he knew he had made it. Where it went wrong is that his boss, the owner/manager, should have covered his error, instead of ‘forcing the issue’ back onto a regular paying customer.
Here’s the added conundrum. What if I only had a $20 bill in my wallet? What then?
Should I be expected to go to the bank? Should I waste MY time to cover THEIR error?
I don’t think so.
Thoughts welcome.
Margaret Lindsay Holton is both an environmentalist and an acerbic social activist. She is an artist of some renown and the designer of a typeface. She is also a photographer and the holder of opinions she will share with you in an instant. Welcome her as an Our Burlington columnist who will appear once every two weeks.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON August 2, 2012 Every organization goes through a process of social change. The Boy Scouts are not what they once were. The Legions are either ceasing to exist or have changed significantly.
Watching that process of change take place can be fascinating.
Burlington has watched a small group form and suddenly grow topsy turvey. It got to the point where Mayor Goldring thought it significant enough to pay a visit.
 Each meeting Brant Florist donates a bouquet – which James Burchill, founder of Business in Burlington is seen giving to Janet Cockburn The group Business in Burlington was formed electronically and meets once a month, usually at the Waterfront Hotel, where they occupied part of one room and then found they needed all of the room and then the whole floor.
“We were at the point where more than 300 people were showing up for what was basically a networking event”, said James Burchill, a Burlington social media guru.
The participants were those people who don’t feel they fit into the Chamber of Commerce mould. They are, for the most part, all independent operators, looking to expand their network. The events are always packed; they last a bit longer than an hour and are always overbooked.
“People just go on line and tell me they are going to attend – and I then put the total on the web site” explained Burchill, who developed the concept as an experiment that took on a life of its own.
There is now a Business in Oakville that is developing the same way.
People create what they need in terms of social organization. Formal, top down organizations like the Chamber of Commerce, with a bureaucracy that has to be paid for, results in membership fees that many smaller independents don’t feel they need.
“We don’t charge anything; people just show up. If they want to buy a drink, they can buy a drink. We don’t sell raffle tickets, we don’t hold an annual golf game and we don’t have political action groups – just people getting together to make connections and do business”, is the way Burchill explains the organization that has formed.
There are now 550 + people who attend and another 750 who are part of the network through LinkedIn, another social media. Combined the two are greater than the 1100 the Chamber boasts about.
 Donnie on the left and Craig Denby on the right exchanging ideas – maybe Denby is trying to sell him that watch. All part of Business in Burlington meetings at the Waterfront Hotel. By linking together electronically and also being able to make direct contact, members of the BiB (Business in Burlington) get the benefits of both worlds – the older stodgy Chamber of Commerce model and the faster more direct channel.
With the electronic bulletin board they use, BiB members can asked questions and anyone who can help answers.
One woman needed T-shirts made up for a non-profit and asked if there was anyone in the network who could recommend a supplier. Within half a day there were six responses, several from T-shirt suppliers, many from people who recommended a T-shirt supplier.
Of real interest was the recommendation for a supplier who had offered his services. All within a working day.
That is one of the benefits of social networking – the ability to move quickly.
Burchill sees several opportunities to monetize his social experiment. At future events members will be able to set up a table to display what they have to offer. At most events there are door prizes. There was a business card draw for the use of a very high end sports car provided by a car rental company.
It’s all sort of like the old saying: One hand washes the other until they both come clean.
Burchill is having the time of his life – he is at his core an educator and a writer who has learned to do things electronically that pull people together. He handles the technology well and certainly know how to write copy that catches the attention of the reader.
“But it always comes down to people” explains Burchill. “not organizational structure, not social stature – just one person talking to another and exchanging ideas.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 26, 2012 Nothing yet – unless learning that a `tele-handler is on the site. That’s it? A tele-handler is a boom that zooms out and is used to offload material. Problem with the Pier is that there isn’t anything to off load.
How come – and what’s the problem this time? We were told that steel girders would be rolling into the city the week of the 23rd of July.
The large 40 x 10 foot steel plates arrived and went through several levels of testing.
This most recent round of testing – there are three levels of testing done in each piece of steel as it goes through the fabrication process. The problems with the girders being fabricated appears to be at the welding level. The work gets past stages 1 and 2 but doesn`t make it past test / 3 – which means – it gets done again.
 The current contractor isn’t the first company to have problems with steel not passing tests. Original contractor, Henry Schilthuis and Sons Ltd. has beams in his yard that he was ordered to take out by the city because they did not pass tests. The city is doing much more rigorous testing and ensuring steel beams pass tests before they get to the construction site. The city put out a press release with a date line of 2:01 am – that suggests someone was at a keyboard well past midnight crafting words that would give this mess the best possible look. In the world of politics they call this the optics`. There is a lot to be concerned about at the political level. Many in Burlington want this problem solved – and there is no one who wants this done more than the senior levels of the city administration. But they are, as General Manager Scott Stewart put it in an email to council members last night updating them, we are not going to let expediency get in the way of quality. And quality appears to be taking time.
I should add here that Stewart doesn’t have Our Burlington on his email list – that information came to us from another source.
There are 39 steel girders that have to be cut from the steel plate and then bent and welded. They get tested at the bending stage – three times – and then tested again at the welding stage – three times.
 Getting the welds done right so that the pier holds up and lasts its 75 year life span is critical. Welding at this level is not all that easy. When the welds testing is complete they move on to galvanization – which is a process of coating the steel in zinc. There is little likelihood of problems at that level – but with this project – one never knows.
There is a lot of teeth grinding and many trips from Burlington to Kitchener by city staff. Craig Stevens, Project Manager Corporate Strategic Initiatives, was at the welding plant on Wednesday for a first-hand look at the problem. Stevens and Stewart work hand in hand on this project and bring all the experience necessary to ensure there are no embarrassing mistakes made. For these two professionals this project, which started before they became employees of the city, this is all very aggravating and embarrassing.
 Foggy day and foggy view on just what is happening at the pier construction site. Object on the right is not the pier, it is a trestle used to drive equipment along to complete the construction of the pier – which isn’t going to happen this month. Completion in 2013 is the target – let’s hope the weather cooperates. While it is a city project it is really in the hands of the general contractor who has sent the work out to different sub-contractors. Graham Infrastructure, whose head office is in Calgary, is the general contractor. The city has insisted on being in close to daily contact with the president of Graham Infrastructure who recently met with city staff to review and see what could be done to the construction time line.
The city learned a month or so ago that weather could create problems with the pouring of the cement – that kind of work cannot be done if the weather is very cold.
Weather is now another very real concern. There was nothing of note done in June; we have now lost all of July and there is no date set for the delivery of the steel girders. And the city is not going to give out any dates other than to say – sometime in August – which is a smart move on their part. The public just doesn`t believe what comes out of city hall because they have been misled so often in the past. It was only at very recent meeting of Council that the Mayor finally moved from his Sound of Music official opening date. Senior staff are saying it will open when it opens and they want to be left alone to manage the project and make sure that no one cuts corners or looks for a fast way to get something done.
For those of us who live in Burlington and hear news reports of chunks of concrete falling onto the roadway underneath the Gardiner Expressway we can take some satisfaction that the pier is being built with a minimum life span of 75 years. The Gardiner isn’t fifty years old and it’s falling apart.
The Pier will get built, there will be little hiccups and maybe even more delays but when that ribbon is cut and the deck is open to the public there will be immense civic pride and the Mayor will wear a smile that stretches from ear to ear – assuming of course that he is in office when the pier does open.
The city is now talking of a late fall 2013 opening date – next municipal election is December 2014. That kind of calendar would cause anyone to look at the possible election scenarios.
In their press release the city, in its all is well language said: “Construction work continues on the Brant Street Pier while awaiting the arrival of main steel girders that are undergoing quality testing to ensure they meet specifications.”
There are several steps to producing the steel girders, which pass through three levels of quality testing. The steel plate used to produce the 39 main steel girders needed for the pier project has passed quality testing, however, the first four main steel girders did not meet rigid quality control when tested after welding. Seven more steel girders have now been made and are being tested.
“This is the only responsible way to manage this project,” said City Manager Jeff Fielding. “Time is important, but it is not as critical as the quality of the steel.”
“The city is working closely with its contractor, Graham Infrastructure, and other members of the project team to ensure the steel quality meets the city’s stringent specifications through the fabrication and welding processes. The main steel girders that were to be delivered this week will be delivered and installed in August.”
“Work is progressing on the Brant Street Pier. Construction continues on the ramp leading to the sandy beach beside the pier. A piece of equipment called a tele-handler, or zoom boom, is on site this week to help install a temporary steel platform to assist in the construction of the pier node.”
“It is important that the pier management team communicates updates in a timely way,” said Scott Stewart, General Manager of Development and Infrastructure. “We will continue to keep the community posted and share the good news once the steel girders are ready for installation.”
The city does have to be given credit for being much more transparent that it was under both the former city manager and the former Mayor. That is a plus and the taxpayers should respect and appreciate this new approach to keeping them informed.
Much of city council is away on vacation. Councillors Craven and Meed Ward are out of the country. The Mayor is due to head to Newfoundland for a vacation. Councillor Dennison is around, Sharman is believed to
 With no steel to work with construction workers do the small jobs that would normally get done at the end of the project. The pathway that leads to a beach that was formed on the western side of the pier wasn’t even part of the original plan. No one knew the beach would get formed the way it did.. be at his cottage. Taylor and Lancaster are unaccounted for but just look for Taylor’s dog and John will be close by.
The City Manager has a firm grip on the process and is well backed by Scott Stewart who is backed up by Craig Stevens.
Now if we can get the welders to produce welds that pass the tests – we will see flat bed trucks wheeling into town with four or five beams on each load. That’s going to mean more than eight trucks. The city might want to have the Burlington Teen Tour Band on hand to welcome the caravan.
Stay tuned – there will certainly be more on this story.
 HSS continues to operate his construction company while dealing with the legal problems that came out of his decision to walk away from the project and turn the keys for the construction site over to the city. On the legal front, the city is now in the discovery stage of those proceedings – we get to look at their documents and they get to look at what the city has. Henry Schilthuis and Sons Ltd., (HSS) is understood to be using some pretty tough legal counsel to defend himself against the law suit the city filed seeking damages in the millions. Many thought, maybe even hoped, that HSS would declare bankruptcy and that would solve the problem. Those who harboured those thoughts didn’t understand Henry SS.
While senior city hall staff struggle with the problem welders are having, the people over at the Simms building where the legal people do their thing, get daily updates from the outside counsel the city has hired. One can imagine the frustration the construction people are going through – it is nothing compared to what the legal people are agonizing over.
Think of the possibilities here. The Pier doesn’t open until sometime late in the Spring of 2014 and the legal people realize they didn’t have the case they thought they had and they settle out of court. Imagine that happening. There are a number of people doing just that – and trying to figure out how best to approach such a situation.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 25, 2012 Well the price of cherries went through the roof and the peaches aren’t exactly being given away – pears are going to be a bit on the pricey side as well – all due to the nasty little trick nature played on the fruit crops with warm weather and then a dash of cold air thrown around.
 Fresh produce, fresh meats, new customers. Every Friday new faces show up, asking questions, buying fresh from the farm products. Friday 11- 2 on John Street north of James – back in behind Centro Gardens But the Farmer’s Market on John Street – back in behind Centro Garden – adds new offerings each week.
Tree and Twig Heirloom farm that is doing preserves this Friday at the market which is open from 11-2. The Heirloom Vegetable Farm focuses on foods linked to our past which is an exciting way to try new and unusual tastes, shapes and colours. In the last century, we have lost 90 per cent of our vegetable varieties — a tragic loss of diversity and a threat to our food security. It is important to stop this trend and, as growers and consumers, look for alternatives. These vegetables are grown for taste. Sounds interesting
Casteleyn, the Belgian Chocolatier located on Brant will be serving espresso coffee at the market. If you’re not wide awake by the middle of the day – a double espresso will do it for you. Nine year old Andres, son of the Casteleyn proprietor will be doing the serving. Barry Imber, one of the organizing forces behind the market is “ very excited about having these young people be involved – they are the future of our entrepreneurial town.”
Damian Wills, he runs the Farm to Table Meats, will be at the Market again and is offering game sausage on top of his regular fare.
 The current offerings from Featherstone Farms does not include foul or eggs but the pork and bacon they have is superb. Featherstone Farms will also be at the market again – they are regulars, with their pork offerings.
These fresh meat producers can take custom orders and have them on hand for you to pick up. From time to time I like to poach really thick pork chops in orange juice and then lay them on a bed of rice with a ginger sauce I make and pour over the food. That with side dishes of green beans and asparagus and a bottle of chilled Chardonnay – makes a meal for me.
The Cheese Gypsy will be foraging for new and exciting local and regional cheeses and offering tasting notes along with the cheese for folks to take home and share the knowledge with friends. She will be at the market for the first time on August 3rd.
As we get into the fall, Gibbs Honey will be back with the next batch of his product – it sold out in a flash last time. The next batch, his second harvest; will be a lighter but more floral flavored local honey. You might want to go on line and reserve a jar.
The Farmer’s Market exists so that people can connect directly with the people who grow and produce some of the food we eat. Meeting and talking to these vendors gives you an opportunity to create a one-on-one relationship. Featherstone Farms – (289) 337-3375 and Farm to Table Meats could become your personal butcher. Something to think about.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 23, 2012 It came up on the agenda as an employment lands issue but it really is a significant issue for the development of the mid-section of the city and keeping some of the larger business operations in Burlington.
IKEA announced in March of 2011 – that they wanted out of the location they are at in Aldershot. They wanted more store space and they needed additional head office space. They also wanted prime visibility and they really liked the look of the QEW with all that traffic going by. The way you keep an iconic brand alive is to never let people forget it is there – thus setting up shop on the North Service Road west of Walkers Line made all kinds of marketing sense.
 All of the land along the North Service Road between Walkers Line and Guelph Line was described as under utilized.. The two lane road could not possibly handle the traffic IKEA would attract if they were to locate on the land that is adjacent to Walkers Line on the west end. IKEA kept the city up to date on what they were doing in terms of the way the site on North Service Road would be developed, how many parking spots there would be, where the trees would be planted and a look at what the buildings would look like on the lot that is located west of Walkers Line between the North Service Road (NSR) and the railway line that crosses Mainway. It’s a 25 acre piece of land that needed some fixing up.
 Is there enough land in this set back for an additional two lanes of road? The view is just outside the Leon’s warehouse looking west. If there isn’t then IKEA may have to look elsewhere for a new location. Outside Burlington? How did we ever let ourselves get into this kind of a mess? Ask the Economic Development Corporation The project file was on the desk of a General Manager who is no longer with the city and was put in the hands of General Manager Community Services Scott Stewart, who had it on his desk for less than ten days. He didn’t have much in the way of good news for anyone.
 This is the view from the Leon’s warehouse looking west. Is there enough land for an additional two lanes of traffic – and if there is – is four lanes enough for the size of the operation IKEA wants to set up in this part of Burlington. It’s a great opportunity for the city – can we make it happen? Not with some of the thinking some people are doing. Stewart set out in his typical blunt, direct manner just what the problems were. The biggest problem is traffic – the North Service Road is a two lane road. It sits right up beside the QEW so there is no room to expand that way – and while IKEA could use some of the frontage for the property they want to build on for the widening of the NSR – which would allow for a widening of North Service – there are other companies on that stretch of land that wouldn’t be as keen and maybe not even able to give up frontage.
So – there is your first problem.
Add to that mix the fact that Walkers Line will reach its current capacity sometime in 2021 which isn’t all that far out.
Then look at the documents coming out of the Niagara GTA discussions. Among the options is to widen the QEW to eight lanes and a possible ten lane. Where would that widening take place? Not that much room on the south side – unless you got rid of the South Service Road.
Add to the mix some problems with Tuck Creek which is at the eastern edge of the property.
The cost of widening North Service and doing what has to be done to Walkers Line was put at “somewhere between $10 and $20 million – which is a really wide range but as Stewart put it – “we are really ball parking here” – we have nothing to work with in terms of either data or design.
And, the final piece is that the option IKEA has on what is called the Hopewell property expires at the end of August.
There are some serious problems for the parties involved in all this to take a long hard look at. A lot of money is going to be needed to make all this happen and IKEA can only justify so much capital for the move they want to make. The Ministry of Transport people – which is you and I – aren’t going to want to pay for everything.
It was suggested that Hopewell, the owners of the property that is to be developed, might be able to bring some money to the table.
The most interesting comment made during these very, very early stage discussions was that many of the properties to the west of the Hopewell property are very under-utilized and that perhaps developers could be enticed to do some land assembly. Medium rise office towers love sitting alongside roads like the QEW where they have great signage potential, excellent access to the highway.
So – who calls who to make that kind of thing happen? Does our Economic Development Corporation have the kind of lines into the development community that would allow for a conversation? Most people don’t think so. It isn’t believed to have the capacity to work at quite that level. There has to be an economic animator in this play somewhere and because Burlington stands to gain the most – one would assume the initiative would come from somewhere within the civic administration.
City Manager Jeff Fielding now sits on the Executive of the BEDC and will no doubt bring a brighter spark and higher level of experience to this situation. It’s another one that got dropped on his desk which he has managed to slide over to Stewart. Fielding’s experience in London with the university there had him deeply involved in some very sophisticated cross partnership agreements with developers.
 The IKEA problem set out in a single picture – not enough roadway for the traffic that would be generated if IKEA did choose to locate on the North Service Road. Is there enough land to the north of the North Service road to get in two additional lanes of traffic? That was the first question that should have been asked. We know what went wrong, we know who made the mistake – now competent people have to scramble to save a major commercial enterprise. This photograph was taken on a quiet Sunday afternoon. Quite why this problem was allowed to fester the way it has for more than a year is surprising and for the people at IKEA must be very disappointing. The project sits right in the middle of Councillor Dennison’s ward. Quite why he wasn’t riding this one is surprising. He tends to be all over anything that has to do with economic development; it’s almost as if he was asleep at the switch. Councillor Craven took much better care of his best commercial operation in Ward 1; something IKEA must miss deeply.
Stewart set out the issues in a paragraph that had less than 20 words. “Development of a long term transportation solution with MTO (Ministry of Transportation) and IKEA are estimated to require 12 months.” I’m pretty sure Stewart’s fingers and legs were crossed when he made that statement.
This is going to be an interesting one to follow. There is within all this the very real opportunity that IKEA will find a location that meets all their needs – you know they have been looking.
Burlington needs to shape up in a number of areas – quickly.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 19, 2012 We never really were heavy hitters. We aren’t a slick, fast community. Pretty sensible people who prefer not to take risks. Back in 1983, the city got itself twisted into knots to keep the Playboy Channel off cable as a pay per view feature, so when the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG) sent the city a letter asking if we were interested in being on a list of possible locations for slot machines or a Casino – the city council didn’t even bother to ask its citizens how they felt about it.
 City took a pass on slot machines – we could have put a dozen in the Seniors’ centre and solved a lot of the problems over there and then another dozen at the Legion – opportunities missed They instructed the city manager to write back and say thanks, but no thanks – which may have reflected the views of most of the people in Burlington. We will never know. A casino could have been built beside the Pier – that would have been one way to pay for the thing.
On the Pier by the way – steel beams are expected to be trucked into the city next week.
There was a bit of an opportunity missed in the communication with the OLG. The rural part of Burlington does have a couple of farms that raise and train trotters for racing tracks in the western part of the province. We might have said no to the slot machines but we could have put in a plug for the racing people to have the province restore the funding they used to get from slot machine revenues.
Perhaps we can now add “Slot machine free and the second best city in the country to live in” to some of the literature the economic development people send out.
There were less than five words of discussion on the letter being sent to the lottery people.
There was even less than that on the Burlington Hydro item that was on the agenda. Council approved an amount of not more than $100,000 to be spent on legal counsel and or financial expertise to assist in reviewing significant Burlington Hydro Electric Incorporated matters as needed.
$100,000 is not exactly chump change. The public transit advocates would love to have seen that much money put into transit service. There was no discussion on the “significant” matters – which turn out to be pretty good stewardship on the part of the finance people.
Burlington Hydro is owned by the city and it pays a very substantial amount in dividends to the city which reduces the tax levy.
 All that raw power has to be transformed into electricity, homes and office buildings can use. Transformers are not cheap – so Burlington Hydro has to borrow some money to pay for the transformer that will get placed along Tremaine Road. Burlington Hydro created a major mess with the way they failed to adequately inform the city on just what the issues were with feeding wind turbine energy into the electrical grid. Hydro certainly gave Director of Engineering Tom Eichenbaum heart burn, if not ulcers, in the way they jerked him around on the differences between net metering and the Feed in Tariff related to the plans for a wind turbine on the pier.
Given that the city owns the hydro operation one would like to think they would provide the city with excellent technical service and support. Instead they told the city so little that we came away looking like fools. Will $100,000 in legal fees fix that kind of problem?
In a report to council staff said: In order to accommodate growth in Burlington, Burlington Hydro Inc. (BHI) has entered into a capital agreement with Hydro One for a new Hydro One owned transformer station on Tremaine Road. The additional energy capacity made available through this facility will accommodate Burlington’s growth for the next 20 to 25 years. BHI is financing the capital contribution through a 25 year loan of $8 million from Infrastructure Ontario.
Infrastructure Ontario has requested that the City sign a subordination agreement for the $8 million. The purpose of the agreement is to recognize the “subordination” of the City’s position as a debt holder to that of Infrastructure Ontario.
If BHI were to default on the loan payments, Infrastructure Ontario could stop the payment of dividends to the shareholder. Interest payments on the existing promissory note that the City has with BHI could also be stopped if BHI defaults.
 Hydro produces significant dividends for the city. Few people fully realize the relationship between Burlington Hydro and the city. If they knew they might want some of that dividend to come to them in the way of lower hydro rates. Dividends and interest payments received by the City over the past ten years, including proceeds from the sale of the FibreWired division in 2008, total $74.4 million as illustrated in the above chart:
Through the Hydro Liaison team, City and Hydro staff have continued an excellent working relationship, identifying and discussing complex issues important to both the City and the Utility. However, City staff feel that in the interest of protecting the shareholder’s investment it may be prudent for the City as shareholder to have financial and legal expertise available to assist them in dealing with Hydro matters.
And so the city has asked for $100,000 to have our lawyers in the room when they work out loan agreements and possible acquisitions in the future. As can be seen from the bar chart Hydro throws off a lot of cash and the city depends on that money. The agreement to pay for the construction of a new transformer on Tremaine Road means that if Burlington Hydro defaults on that loan the dividends the city has been enjoying can be taken and applied to the loan.
It`s sort of like getting your Mother-in-Law to co-sign your loan, which she does but then puts a lien on the car.
The people who do the deep financial thinking for the city realize that the days of fat revenue flows from development charges on new housing developments are very close to ending for Burlington. We are very close to being built out. New revenue sources are going to have to be found and with an aging population on fixed incomes tax increases aren`t going to be possible – not if you want to stay in office.
Using wholly owned subsidiaries that are not bound quite the way a municipality is when it comes to borrowing and taking financial risks is one possible way of developing new revenue streams. Burlington Hydro could become something of an economic engine for the city.
Some suggest the selling of the fibre optic cable – Fibre Wired – that the city once owned to Cogeco Cable back in 2008 was an opportunity lost. To own the cable that is going to send most if not all the data and information into Burlington homes is a better long range bet than a Casino.
It will be interesting to learn who gets the legal business for papering the agreements Burlington Hydro gets into – will it go to a local firm or to pricier talent out of Toronto?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 17, 2012 Everyone thought it was going to be bigger and better than the Car Free Sunday on Appleby Line back in June but the crowd, if that is what you can call it, on Brant Street and Locust Streets for the second Car Free Sunday was not as large – something was missing.
 Interest group and services tents set up on Brant north of Caroline drew traffic – it was much quieter south of Caroline. Was it too hot; were people away at their cottages, kids off to camp? There was no reason to walk over to Brant Street – other than to be able to walk about with no traffic.
 Bus service was rerouted an cars kept off the street for most of the afternoon. Should it be an annual event? There was no focus to the event – but then there was no focus to the Appleby Line event and it had better participation than last Sunday’s event on Brant Street.
There was live music at the Civic Square but it drew very poor audiences. There was a Country and Western Music event at Spencer Smith Park and some of its traffic made its way up Brant – but there just wasn’t any sense that there was something going on.
The organizers did arrange for various interests groups to have tents on Brant north of Caroline – and they were busy and gave that part of the street the sense that there was something going on.
 There are retailers that get it – and they are the one’s that succeed. The shopping bag that lady is carrying isn’t empty. The folks that run Joelle’s understand retail. There were far too many stores closed. Far too many of the Brant Street merchants were not open – not a good sign. The Downtown Business association needs to get a bit of a burr under the saddles of some of its members. Those that were open did continuous business.
This was the first year the event took place. It’s worth doing the same thing next year, but there clearly has to be some brain storming if there are ever going to be people out on the street for large parts of a day.
Those who were lined up in their cars at Brant and Caroline to get through the intersection didn’t think very much of the idea of people taking over the streets of the city – even if it was only for a couple of hours.
There seemed to be more police presence than was necessary – lots of overtime booked by the HRPS.
 The pavement didn’t seem to be a problem. Get a dozen kids and a soccer ball plus two nets and you’ve got a game. It was pleasant to watch – some benches would have kept people around longer. The Burlington Teen Tour Band was out – they always draw a crowd but the idea was to have people out on the street for a large part of the 2pm to 7pm time frame. The barriers were taken up on Locust close to 6 pm and Brant was wide open to vehicles at 7 pm
During Sound of Music there were different attractions on the street that drew people and kept them around for a while. There were precious few places to get out of the sun and nowhere to sit and have a drink.
There were nets for kids to play soccer at the John and Brant intersection but there was no seating for anyone who wanted to watch the kids play.
 Brian Dean, top toff at the Downtown Business Association was out drumming up business for those of his members that took part in the Red Bag Sale. Too many of his members let the community down last Sunday. Keeping the doors closed while the city works at getting people out on the street isn’t the way the game is played.  There is a soccer player in there somewhere It was suggested that a focus was needed and there are a number of opportunities to bring in close to cost free events that would attract people and keep them around for a while. The antique car club people will show off their vehicles any chance they get. Inviting them to the city and asking if the owners of the cars would drive up along one of the rural roads with a guest passenger in their car – and then choose the guests from raffle ticket winners would certainly draw attention and participation.
A chance to sit in an MG or a Corvette with the top down would keep me hanging around hoping I got a chance for a ride. It would beat being on one of those nasty little ponies that were walking around the cenotaph at the side of city hall.
It is going to take some imagination to make this an event that people want to participate in and one that justifies closing down street for a period of time.
Good effort, they got the idea right now to add some ginger and make it more fun because there wasn’t much fun on Brant Street last Sunday afternoon.
There are a bunch of volunteers – more than 25 of them, that deserve more than the car free Sunday T-shirt they got. There were also half a dozen staff members who gave up half a nice day to make the event happen.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 13, 2012 Burlington is going to pull out all the stop for this second car free Sunday. The first car free day was in the east end of the city where large parts of Appleby Line were closed to cars. Turnout was good – could have been more but it was far from a disaster.
Now that the city administration knows the public can be gotten out of the houses and onto the streets to have fun and mingle – this second effort in the downtown core will leave officials know if this kind of thing can be done more frequently.
There wasn’t all that much opportunity for the retail market to experience all that much of a boost on Appleby Line – but Brant Street has a much different commercial makeup. Merchants can take advantage of larger crowds and perhaps even see more in the way of traffic than they see on a good Saturday with cars on the street. It’s a gamble but something has to be done to get people out on the streets.
 Streets that will be car free Sunday July 15th. Read the detail carefully. Full lane closure on Brant Street between Blenheim Street and Lakeshore Road.The north two lanes on Lakeshore Road between Brant Street and Locust Street will be closed and the northbound lane on Locust between Lakeshore Road and Blenheim Street will be closed.
The stretch of city streets that will be closed on Sunday between 2 and 7 pm will include: full lane closure on Brant Street between Blenheim Street and Lakeshore Road.
The north two lanes on Lakeshore Road between Brant Street and Locust Street will be closed and the northbound lane on Locust between Lakeshore Road and Blenheim Street will be closed.
The initiative came about when Councillors Dennison and Sharman took the idea to Council where the Mayor who is an environmental advocate bought into it and while Councillor Meed Ward didn’t buy into the idea at first she was big enough to admit that she hadn’t gotten it right the first time but knew a good thing when she saw one and dug out her blades and joined the parade.
The Downtown event will feature different groups with their tents out on the street one of which will be the Community Engagement Charter crowd – and they need help. This is a group that has the right idea but has not managed to attract nearly enough people to their cause. If things continue the way they are going this city might find itself with a Community Engagement Charter written by a group of less than 50 people.
The group will have a table and a tent at Caroline and Brant – drop in and hear what they have to say. They are talking about your city and how it can work better.
The Country & Blues BBQ Festival will be taking place in Spencer Smith Park
The Burlington Teen Tour Band will parade during the event.
There will be food and drink vendors out on the street, there will be a Marketplace and Pony rides.
There will be live music from Tori Sutherland, Harrison Kennedy, Michelle Titian, Mary Simon and the Hill Brothers.
One of the Mayors favourite city’s, Portland Oregon, has been doing things like this for years and our Mayor is convinced events like this can work and are good for the city. Let’s see if he is right. What matters most with this event is this – will is draw people from Aldershot and the communities north of the QEW hump? If it does, it will be a great success.
Getting people from all over the city, not just those who live in the core and can ride safely to the stretch of streets that will be closed.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 11, 2012 The first harvest is ready!!! The jars have been readied, the tags are printed and the product is now on sale. There will be between 60 and 70 lbs. available. It will be on sale at the new farmer’s market held every Friday from 11 – 2 on John Street just north of James Street back in behind Centro Gardens.
Of course there is more than just natural honey on sale but let’s let Russell Gibbs tell the story about the honey; it’s quite a tale.
 Russell Gibbs – a beekeeper and a graphic designer – with a sweet tooth. “This harvest is the first bloom of the 2012 season, our bees forage on a variety of plants and this early summer harvest is full-bodied and rich – some of the best honey I’ve had in a while if I do say so myself. It’s a true Southern Ontario wildflower honey. It’s also packaged quite beautifully
 The real thing – from the hive to you in a re-usable Mason jar. Honey is available now through the beekeeper (me) for $10 per 500 g jar. We have 60 jars and this will be available until it’s sold out. There will also be a late summer harvest which will be available in September 2012.
A couple of notes about our honey;
– Our honey is as “straight from the hive” as it gets. We extract the frames, filter, then bottle it.
– All real honey will crystallize over time, if that happens just place the jar in warm water (without the lid) until it softens up – don’t boil or put it in the microwave.
– Our honey is more expensive than others, why? For starters its not mass produced. We’re a small batch/small operation and not only are we focused on the quality of the product we also believe in quality packaging.”
 Russell Gibbs comes from a long line of bee keepers. The family “beeyard” around 1950. Gibbs Honey has been around since the 40′s, maybe even before the 40′s? in various iterations and incarnations. The first beekeeper in my family was my great grandfather Albert Gibbs. He kept a couple of colonies on the farm, which is what most farmers did back then. When my grandfather Michael took over the farm he decided to expand the operation and sell honey. He kept close to 100 hives, that number went up and down throughout his career as a hobbyist beekeeper. My uncles eventually took it over from him and grew it into a commercial operation, they own and operate Gibbs Honey in Dalkeith, Ontario on the family farm. My cousin Jason is researching Sweat bees with Cornell University, last year he discovered 19 new species.
Gibbs Honey in Dundas, Ontario is operated by Russell Gibbs, a 4th generation beekeeper and graphic designer. Russell got into beekeeping, while searching for a deeper connection to his family history and nature. It all started when his Dad gave him his old beekeeping veil and a copy of “The Hive and the Honey Bee” by L.L. Langstroth. After reading lots of other books, taking courses and finding a beekeeping mentor he decided to go out on his own. Russell kept two hives in 2011 and is expanding to 8 for the 2012 season.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 3, 2012 Following the rules and convincing your customers you can be relied upon is part of running a business. Produce Planet did all the things a small independent is supposed to do – except for that following the rules part.
Alex Iabs needed to let people know he had fresh fruit and vegetable from local farms available on his shelves and he put out almost as many signs as an election candidate would along the sides of Guelph Line south of Upper Middle Road to draw traffic to his store on Mount Forest.
One of the bigger supermarkets called the city’s bylaw office to complain. The bylaw office called Alex Iabs and said the signs could not be set up on the side of the road. The city could have fined Alex Iabs but instead just explained the rules and expected him to follow those rules. Alex Iabs then hired young boys to hold up the signs. That was legal.
So far so good.
 City hall told the merchant signs like this were a no, no. Why then would a merchant break the rules? what else would this merchant do? But over the weekend Alex Iabs put the signs back out on the road side with no one holding them up.
Alex Iabs knew that was against the bylaw but he also knew that there was no one at city hall on the holiday Monday to take a complaint call.
Slick you might say.
The message to me was that Alex Iabs would do whatever he had to do to drive traffic to his store. If putting signs out without young boys holding up the signs was something he thought he could get away with – that he would do.
The message to me was that this is a store that wants to sell me the food I am going to put in my stomach; I don’t feel as confident or as supportive as I used to about Produce Planet.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 30, 2012 Friday was the first day for the new fresh produce market in the downtown core. It was put together quickly; it was a little haphazard, it had a lemonade stand and there was value plus fresh vegetables all set out on the edge of a private parking lot steps away from a lush garden – it was Burlington’s latest downtown Farmer’s Market that will be known as Plan B.
 Fresh from the farm, one of the selections at the Farmers Market that will be open every Friday from 11-2 Barry Imber had been thinking about the idea for more than a year and decided it was time to stop thinking and time to just do it. And so there it was – the first of a planned program of having the market open every Friday from 11 – 2 and see what happens.
And they showed up. There were no line ups but there was a steady flow of people inquiring about the cheeses, the fresh pork that was wrapped and in a cooler. Those who are focused on “fresh from the farm” can place their orders by telephone (there will be a web site up soon where you can put in your order) and pick it up at the market on Friday.
For those of you who want a special cut of pork this is about as good as it is going to get. Featherstone Farm hopes to cultivate a clientele within the downtown core that wants that extra freshness and a chance to talk to the people who run the farm.
The market is called Plan B, which is part of a different way of feeding people. It is part of what is known as a CSA model – Community Shared Agriculture, that restores the link between the farmers and city dwellers. Successful in Japan and Western Europe since 1965, CSA today operates on approximately 1000 farms in North America.
With traditional CSA , local households purchase subscription “shares” of the year’s harvest from a local organic farm. CSA “shareholders” pay for their produce at the beginning of the growing season, providing the necessary start-up capital for farmers to purchase seeds, supplies and soil amendments, eliminating their reliance on expensive bank loans and helping to pay for the real cost of food.
 Lemonade stand with a great selection of potted plants as well. The place had a good family feel to it during the first Friday. The market on John Street, right behind Centro Gardens isn’t going to be a traditional CSA, at least not yet. For the immediate future people who live in the city will be able to slip over to a market that has fresh products, organically grown.
Where does the name Plan B come from and what does it mean – and who started it? Three people, working on an urban gardening project in 1996, came up with the wild idea of starting their own organic CSA farm! They convinced Alvaro’s brother Rodrigo to join in and in the spring of 1997 Plan B Organic Farms was born! ‘We thought the name “plan b” really conveyed our intention of providing our community with an “alternative” food source to foods produced through “conventional agriculture” aka plan a. In 1998 we moved to our beautiful 50 acre sandy and rocky piece of land in Flamborough Ontario. The first 5 years we worked the land by hand, learned that there was a lot to learn about growing vegetables, but with the support of family and the local community we made it work. We continue this work still with this mission in mind:
This means that we grow and source the best certified organic produce from 12 farms in Southern Ontario for your shares each week. For you, our shareholders, this means a greater variety of foods in your share each week from many of the best organic growers in the province!’
Plan B Organic Farms is a “multi-farm CSA”: Provides local farmers with an economically viable farm business; Consumers gain access to affordable, fresh, & local organic foods; Consumers learn about what grows in Ontario and how to “eat seasonally”; Strengthens the local economy and builds community and less transportation and packaging makes for a healthier local environment.
 Longer term, Barry Imber, the mind behind the Farmer's Market, has plans for dinner parties in this garden area right next to the market. Chinese lanterns, an Executive Chef preparing a meal using local fresh food. Sounds yummy. The group grows and sources the best certified organic produce from 12 farms in Southern Ontario which means a greater variety of foods from many of the best organic growers in the province!
It’s part of that 100 mile diet; everything you eat is produced within a 100 mile radius of where you live.
Burlington is a city with a significant rural element. That land north of Dundas is good farm land. Many see that location as the place to grow a lot of the food consumed in the city which comes down to fewer transport trucks bringing in lettuce and cucumbers from Mexico and creating a sustainable farm operation that isn’t part of the massive agribusiness approach we now have to feeding ourselves.
Will it work in Burlington? The people behind Plan B have put more than 10 years of their lives into this and Barry Imber has been at it for a year. Last Friday we saw the first short steps. It will take time, it needs nurturing – but when you put that fresh asparagus on the table you know you did something right.
 Cut line revised August 3, 2012
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 25, 2012 Donna Shepherd, Director of Transit, was quite prepared to ride off into the sunset but the city finds they need her skill set and understanding of how the bus system actually works and have asked Ms Shepherd to continue to work, part-time – three days each week, out of City Hall and the Transit Operations Centre for six months on select transit and corporate priority projects to assist the City in achieving its objectives.
Mike Spicer will be acting Director as of August 1st. The city expects a new Director will be in place by year-end.
Donna Shepherd joined the city in 1975 and since that time she has served the City well in leading the City in various roles, her most recent being Director of Transit & Traffic over a 12 year period from 1998 and Director of Transit over the last 2 years.
 Just where was the problems with transit? Senior levels at city hall want Shepherd to stay and help through the transition to a new Director. Was the relationship between the Council member and the Director part of the problem?
“ The really senior “poobahs” at city hall speak very positively and proudly of the contribution Shepherd made while running transit. Her “contributions will continue to have an enduring and positive impact on the City in areas such as the expansion and renovation of the Transit Operations Centre, the introduction of Transit Priority Measures and traffic safety programs, the implementation of the downtown parking financial strategy, various continuous improvement systems and programs, the PRESTO fare card and Metrolinx Joint Vehicle and Inventory Procurement projects and the creation of innovative transit promotion and ridership growth strategies.”
Donna’s leadership in excellence in customer service will provide a strong foundation for Burlington Transit going forward.” Sounds like a pretty strong reference letter to me.
What then was the problem at transit that brought Shepherd to the point where she decided she had had enough and was going to pack it in? Sexism is a very distinct possibility, being bullied a bit could go into the mix as well
The senior people at city hall weren’t cheap in their praise: General Manager Scott Stewart said: “On behalf of all staff and Council, I would like to thank Donna for her strong leadership and management in growing and operating the Burlington Transit system. She has provided persistent commitment to keeping Transit at the forefront of our discussions during the last decade as our City has grown almost to its limits. Council and senior staff truly appreciate the contributions that Donna has made over the years.
I think the city is going to have the steering wheel of a bus bronzed and presented to Donna at her retirement party.
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