 December 29, 2013
By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. Darn – it was a good idea – it’s still a good idea but it isn’t going to happen for 2014
The New Year’s Eve Hoopla held at the Mountsberg Conservation Area has been cancelled.
All Conservation area parks – except for Glen Eden – are closed until January 2 due to damage from the ice storm.
Time to look for something else to do on the eve of the New Year.
 Silent solitude – snow on snow. Why would anyone want to leave this for Florida? The good news from the Conservation people is that the fees for 2014 which includes annual memberships, daily fees, group camping and picnic rentals and fees for education programs at Crawford Lake and Mountsberg Conservation Areas.
The price of a Halton Parks individual membership is being reduced from $90 to $50; while the Halton Parks family membership remains at $115 (plus HST).
The other notable fee change will see Daily Entrance fees at the recreation parks (Hilton Falls, Kelso, Mt. Nemo and Rattlesnake Point Conservation Areas) increase by 25 cents across all categories.
The rates at the Education Parks, Crawford Lake and Mountsberg, are staying the same – $7.50 Adult, $6.50 Seniors and $5 for Children.
The Conservation Authority has taken on some marketing expertise and come up with a catchy new marketing name: 7 Parks, 7 Perks
 There are two types of Halton Parks Memberships available, individual and family, with discounted pricing of 15 per cent off the rates available for Seniors age 65 years and over. A family membership will admit all the people in the vehicle who are traveling with the family membership holder. Your Halton Parks Membership includes the following perks:
- Special member-only invitations and discounts for select Conservation Halton lectures, workshops, and events
- One complimentary Friends and Neighbours special day pass for you to share
- 15% discount at Mountsberg and Crawford Lake gift shops
- 15% discount for rentals, including boats, skis, snowboards, and snowshoes
- 15% discount for camping and picnicking sites
- Monthly eNewsletter and eBlasts
- One complimentary 2-for-1 lift ticket to Glen Eden.
 It’s there – out at the edge of the horizon – the CN Tower. And that is about as much as you ever wanted to know about the parks the Conservation Authority operates. For people new to Burlington – a trip to Mt. Nemo and a walk up to the lookout where you gaze east and realize that you are higher off the ground that the top of the CN Tower which can be clearly seen. It’s worth the couple of bucks the ask for at the gate.
 December 24, 2013
By Staff.
BURLINGTON, ON. All Conservation Halton Parks and Glen Eden are still without power at the end of Monday the 23rd. Due to the loss of electricity in the area, our staff’s ability to communicate via phone and email is limited at this time.
 Great snow – most hills are open Glen Eden will remain closed from December 23 to 25 and is scheduled to reopen on Boxing Day (December 26). Anyone who has missed programming, such as Lessons or Rentals, will be provided with other options.
All other Conservation Halton Parks will remain closed on December 24th, 25th and 26th. They are scheduled to reopen on Friday, December 27. Please note that the parks may have limited services available when they reopen, and they may not all open on the same day – we will post updates.
Special Note Regarding Cancellation of Christmas Town
Unfortunately the remaining Christmas Town programs for December 23 and 24 are cancelled. Staff will offer full refunds as well as provide other options to all our customers who were scheduled to attend on these days. We apologize for this cancellation; however we are unable to offer a quality experience without electricity.
Important Trail Safety Notice
Conservation Halton’s seven parks are also closed for safety reasons as the trails may be treacherous or have downed trees and limbs from the ice storm. Conservation Halton staff are inspecting the trails and doing any necessary maintenance.
We strongly advise everyone to stay out of the parks and off the trails until we are able to safely reopen. Users are also advised not to access trails under ice-covered trees and avoid trails until further notice on other lands that conservation Halton own/manage. These include all seven primary Conservation Areas – Crawford Lake, Hilton Falls, Kelso, Mount Nemo, Mountsberg, Rattlesnake Point and Robert Edmondson – as well as Clappison Woods, Waterdown Woods (Waterdown), Wildflower Woods (Oakville), 16 Mile Conservation Area (Oakville/Milton) and Carlisle Conservation Areas.
It can be very dangerous out there under the current conditions.
 December 19, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. Does a sole source contract fit in with the values of an organization like BurlingtonGreen? Would one not expect a higher degree of transparency from leaders with a strong moral ethic?
Should one expect to see a fully detailed financial statements of the funds BurlingtonGreen (BG) gets and has on hand? And should the public they ask to support them financially get a better look at their financial statements? How much of the BurlingtonGreen funding actually comes from dues paying citizens?
The city is negotiating a two-year sole provider contract with BurlingtonGreen bu the public knows nothing about the finances.
We expect our city Councillors to tell us how they spend the expense allowance they are given and to post the receipts on the city website – but we don’t call for BurlingtonGreen to do the same. Why not?
This issue came to the surface when, at a Standing Committee meeting, Councillor Craven was talking about the plans to add additional community gardens to the existing, and very successful Central Park operation one might add, run by Burlington Green.
The staff report being discussed has BurlingtonGreen as the sole provider for services that could reach $50,000 a year; Councilor Craven commented that he wasn’t all that comfortable with just the one provider being considered.
 BurlingtonGreen is the strongest advocacy group in the city. They have put Burlington on the may environmentally. A number of years ago BurlingtonGreen applied for a provincial grant to open a community garden that is now tucked in behind the Seniors’ Centre north of New Street. In order to get the grant BG needed the city with them as a partner. It took some fast footwork but BG eventually go the city to make the needed contribution as an in-kind offering – the city put in the fences and did the early prep work on the plot of land that has 29 individual garden sites that are rented out for $50 a year.
The city is committed to the idea of community gardens. It had to decide which of several delivery models it would use. The possibilities were: Community based operations; operations handled by a service provider and operations run and delivered by the city. The BG community garden program was designed to be a resource for other community groups that wanted to start a garden.
 The official opening of the Central Park community garden. It was a pivotal point for BurlingtonGreen that wasn’t evident at the time. The provincial grant covered the administration costs and an individual was hired to do the work. We don’t recall ever seeing a “public” call for someone to do the job. It was just given to the person that did all the work to get the grant. Were city hall to do something like that – there would be howls of derision – some of which would come from BurlingtonGreen.
BG has an Executive Director; a very competent individual. We assume this is a paid position but the public has no idea how much the Executive Director is paid. That figure should be a public number and the public should know as well the length of any contract in place.
We don’t have a problem with BurlingtonGreen as an organization. But we do have a problem with the level of transparency they have chosen to settle for.
We covered the BurlingtonGreen AGM recently. They had a very good speaker. We did not hear anyone talk about the financial affairs of the organization nor did we see any financial statements set out on the information table. We covered the previous AGM and was told later that the financial information was not public
There is a cardinal rule for organizations that accept as much as a dime in the way of public funding – the kimono is thrown wide open; the public gets to see everything. It’s called accountability.
The Central Park community garden has been so successful that the city decided to look for ways to do more of them. It developed several models to meet the different situations that were presented.
A group in the Francis Road part of the city wanted a garden but there was a problem getting access to the water needed. Rather than installing a municipal water source at a cost of between $25,000 and $30,000, the city is working with RealStar Property Management who have offered a water source for the community garden. The cost to design and construct the community garden will be $21,500.
In September 2013, ward 3 Councilor John Taylor provided Parks and Recreation staff with correspondence from residents, along with 64 signatures, requesting consideration for a community garden in Amherst Park. Preliminary discussion with the Taylor suggests the group doesn’t wish to form as an organization to administer and operate the garden.
It is becoming clear that there is an interest in community gardens and that the Community Development policy that includes leisure services has merit. Determining how best to actually deliver on the policy is where some thinking has to be done.
City staff along with significant input from BurlingtonGreen has resulted in three different models.
 Michelle Bennett checking out a community group model garden in the east end of the city. Community Group based: An identified group willing to deliver a community gardens leisure service as guided by the Community Development Policy. This model has the group handling the administration and operation of a Community Garden.
The group would work directly with city hall for any help they might need in getting started. There are groups within the city that have been around for some time and operating quite well. The city’s Community Development/Leisure Services Policy was designed to encourage additional groups to come forward and develop new gardens. The objective is to have community gardens in every ward in the city – at least in the urban parts of the city.
The Service Provider model is considered when there is an identified group or organization willing to deliver a community gardens leisure service as guided by the Leisure Services Policy. This approach would be considered when the local community just isn’t able to take on the administrative tasks, may not have the expertise or local leadership to get a project off the ground. At this point in time there is just the one service provider – BurlingtonGreen.
City Direct Operation is an approach used when there isn’t an identified group or service provider willing to deliver a community gardens leisure service as guided by the Community Development Policy or Leisure Services Policy.
This is a situation where the city finds itself in the business of delivering a service that can often best be done by others. It is not likely to be a service we will see much of, especially at a time when the city is looking at everything they do and asking the question: Is this a service we should be providing? The answer to the question will be heavily impacted by where the money to pay for the service is going to come from.
BurlingtonGreen has done much of the early stage work; were it not for their initiative in getting the provincial grant and convincing the city to work with them – there wouldn’t be much, if anything, in the way of a community harden program. That was the purpose of the provincial grant they were given. They developed an on-line registration process to receive gardener’s requests and conduct a lottery to award garden plots then manage the waiting lists. Many of those people became volunteers.
The city reports they did not receive any negative feedback from the 118 applications for the 29 plots that were available in the first year.
BG collected the fees and provided the city with revenues which was used to offset the cost of municipal water. They recruited and trained volunteers. In the first year: 41 adults and 7 children volunteered an estimated 274 hours of time to garden operations. They also pulled in approximately $3,690 was provided through gifts in kind and funding.
BurlingtonGreen provided day to day oversight of the Central Park community garden ensuring adherence to the user agreements and regulations. No reported incidents of conflict were reported, suggesting BG were effective in conflict resolution. They were the primary contact with gardeners handling day to day inquiries, conducted gardeners meetings and website updates. BG proved they could be successful in establishing effective communications with the gardeners.
As the moves forward with its Community Development/Leisure Services Policy the costs have to be considered. Working with the three models it has been estimated that the costs for various numbers of sites would break out as follows:
|
OptionsPresented
|
(2- sites)
|
(3-sites)
|
(4-sites)
|
(5-sites)
|
(6-sites)
|
|
Option 1-CommunityGroup Based
|
$3,410
|
$5,500
|
$6,800
|
$8,900
|
$10,200
|
|
Option 2-Service Provider
|
$31,610
|
$36,075
|
$40,175
|
$45,575
|
$49,425
|
|
Option 3-City Direct Operation
|
$17,660
|
$20,378
|
$22,306
|
$25,536
|
$26,967
|
BurlingtonGreen’s responsibility for the Central Park community garden concludes at the end of 2013. The current budget and capital impacts of continuing to administer, operate and build new community gardens will be part of the 2014 budget.
That pilot was a success, primarily attributed to the administrative efforts, oversight and program provided by BurlingtonGreen. In particular staff believes a presence on site made a significant contribution to the success.
Considering the options in the context of the Community Development/Leisure Services Policies, the following were considered in providing the recommendation:
A group is currently not identified to operate the Central Park garden as a Community Based model
The Warwick-Surrey Community organization have indicated they don’t have the capacity to operate the proposed Francis Road garden under the Community Based model
There is a service provider (BurlingtonGreen) that is interested in providing the service of community gardens
The BurlingtonGreen proposal includes program elements that may not be considered necessary to administer and operate the community garden
There is merit in negotiating the scope of the tasks and costs of working under the Service Provider model with BurlingtonGreen to meet the city’s requirements
The city now wants to consider BurlingtonGreen as a sole source provider within the Strategic Alliances Policy that is in place to establish, maintain, or enhance partnerships with external agencies to ensure a cooperative approach to service delivery.
Does the city want to continue with this model?
City staff recommended the Service Provider model for administering and operating the existing and future Francis Road community gardens for the next two years. They did so for the following reasons: The model is consistent with Community Development/Leisure Services policy; it provides oversight that limits staff requirements along with guidance and customer service. Staff was confident that an appropriate scope of tasks and costs could be negotiated with BurlingtonGreen and that any agreement provides an opportunity to work with other groups who might want to operate under the community based model
 The recommendation had BurlingtonGreen as a single source provider, which is where Councilor Craven voiced his concern. Right now BurlingtonGreen is the only known group that can provide the service the city is looking for and so city staff asked that Council authorize the Director of Parks & Recreation, Manager of Purchasing and City Solicitor to negotiate and sign a sole source agreement with BurlingtonGreen to provide a service to administer and operate city community gardens for the 2014 and 2015 seasons with an option to extend the term of BurlingtonGreen’s services.
If acceptable terms cannot be reached with BurlingtonGreen, staff will request Council authorize them to administer and operate the Central Park and Francis Road community gardens for 2014 and 2015 season, through the City Direct Operation model for the 2014 and 2015 current budgets.
This allows staff to operate the existing garden and undertake the process of Community Development to increase the opportunity of community groups coming forward to operate community gardens. If community interest is not evident, Parks and Recreation will conduct a Request for expressions of interest to provide the service of community gardens for the 2016 season.
 The Central Park community garden was a success because of the site oversight of BurlingtonGreen. It is now clear that an organization with the experience and commitment to community gardens is needed. What is also needed is an organization with a commitment to transparency. BurlingtonGreen has yet to show that kind of a commitment.
Background:
The seed of an idea is planted.
Community garden opens.
 December 16, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. The provincial government has been popping out media releases faster than most rabbits give birth to little bunnies. The latest has some interesting potential for the small but growing Farmers’ Market that operates during the warm weather on John Street just in behind Centro.
 Imagine – maybe a couple of Ontario wine tasting tables set out at the Downtown Farmer’s Market. Province says it could happen. The province wants to make it easier for consumers to choose Vintners Quality Alliance (VQA) Ontario wine by expanding the LCBO’s new “Our Wine Country” destination boutiques and allowing VQA wines to be sold at farmers’ markets through the renewed Wine and Grape Strategy.
I’m certainly on for easier access to provincially grown grapes and I really like the idea of a couple of those wine tasting stations being set up at an outdoor market.
 Is that man on the right about to become the chief sommelier at the Downtown Farmer’s Market next Spring. That would be an achievement. The province is throwing $75 million at a Wine and Grape Strategy to help the sector grow. That chunk of change is spread out over five years. There is going to be a Wine Secretariat to be a one window point for discussions between the province and industry and identifying ways to reduce red tape to help make grape growers and wineries more competitive.
The winery’s would certainly like the LCBO to be at that window and make their lives a little easier.
Ontario has significant winery developments in the Niagara Peninsula, Prince Edward County and Lake Erie North Shore.
Ontario’s wine and grape industry contributed an estimated $3.3 billion to the province’s economy in 2011.
Background
Chef’s battle it out at Farmer’s Market.
Farmer’s Market move to a Sunday schedule.
 December 16, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. The city is having a little difficulty attracting some of those new high-tech, high paying jobs. The arts community has found a way to help – they are going to move a theatrical production along the QEW from Oakville to Burlington and bring a truck load of Leading Ladies to the city
The Burl-Oak Theatre Group (BOTG), which is presenting Leading Ladies by Ken Ludwig, at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Thursday, January 23 and Friday, 24 – show time for both days is 8:00 pm.
 Fun, light hearted comedy – great way to start the New Year. This is a new venture for BOTG, they tended to like the climate in Oakville but the digs at the Performing Arts Centre were just too good to pass up. Now of course they need to sell tickets for each performance.
Jim Clemens, who usually spends his spare time on Heritage matters explains this production as a “hilarious comedy, in which we meet an elderly lady on her deathbed who is looking for two relatives, Max and Steve, whom she has not seen since they were children. She plans to bestow her fortune upon them, to be shared with her one remaining niece, Meg.”
Clemens goes on to explain: “Enter Jack and Leo, two down-on-their-luck Shakespearian actors who plot to pose as the missing nephews and arrive in time to claim their inheritance.”
For the rest of the story – you need a ticket and Clemens has come up with an angle that he believes can’t miss. He wants to see a full house and explains that BOTG has a special Yuletide ticket price for their friends and colleagues. You can purchase any number of tickets to Leading Ladies at $18.00 each directly from Clemens who will look after the box office hassles.
Here is how it works. Jim Clemens has figured out a way to let his vast circle of friends in on a bit of a deal. There is a group discount available. Clemens had a brain storm and came up with the idea of forming a group, buying the tickets for that group and giving them all the benefit of the group discount. Jim’s price is $18 per ticket. The Box Office price is $25 – the difference will get you a decent glass of wine at the theatre which will put you in just the frame of mind you want to be in to fully enjoy a lark of a play.
You have to let Clemens know that you want in. Email him by December 30, 2013, Email Me and tell him which date you wish to attend and the number of tickets you wish to purchase. He will order the tickets and send you an e-mail confirming the order.
You have to pay Clemens – make your cheques payable to Jim Clemens, and not the Burl-Oak Theatre Group or the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. Mail cheques to 1296 Knights Bridge Court, Burlington, or pay either Miki or Jim when you see either of them. Clemens adds that he knows where his vast circle of friends lives and doesn’t expect to have any problems collecting.
BOTG has taken a huge leap of faith in the Burlington market. They have arranged for billboard ad signs in four locations in Burlington in the next few weeks along with a mail drop to selected postal code locations around town.
 Jim Clemens has a deal for his vast circle of friends – take him up on the offer and use the money he saves you for a decent glass of wine at the Performing Arts Centre to watch the Leading Ladies. Clemens has found the new administration at the Performing Arts Centre to be more than accommodating. A number of months ago there was to be a BOTG production mounted in Burlington that just couldn’t get off the ground. Brian McCurdy, Executive Director at the Performing Arts Centre, used his experience and understanding of the problems small theatre groups have and found a work around some of the problems the group was having and for them into the Centre for the January dates.
We are seeing much more community use of the Performing Arts Centre. A church group is going to be holding a Christmas Eve Candle Light service in the Main theatre, in January Tony Bewick is going to produce the first Poetry Slam to be held at the Centre and now the news that the Leading Ladies are going to be on stage as well.
One of the complaints many people had, was that the Centre was not catering to the local needs – that all we were seeing was groups who were passing through the city, and while Roseanne Cash was nice, the public thought there would be more local material. We appear to be seeing that change – refreshing.
 Keith Strong had his guiding hand behind much of the Magic Moments event that added to the Halton Heros fund. The re-establishing of relationships between the Centre and some of the people who did that “in the trenches work’ when the place was not much more than an idea are coming along just fine. Keith Strong, who was a major player in getting many of the early donation cheques in, has had a chance to meet with Brian McCurdy; those two should get along very well. The Mayor, city manager, Strong and McCurdy had a meet which we are told went very well.
While Strong doesn’t always get it right – when he does – it is both right and strong. The kind of guy the Performing Arts Centre wants on its side.
The BOTG appears to be going all out on this their first event at the Performing Arts Centre; like every smart marketer – there is a clip on YouTube. Go for it.
 December 12, 2013
By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. All that cold weather we have been experiencing will begin to pay off for us Friday afternoon.
The pond at Spencer Smith Park will open at 4:00 pm where the skating is free to everyone.
 Pond opens to the public Friday afternoon. The pond is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. with patrollers working on Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and on weekdays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.
The holiday schedule includes:
Christmas Eve, December 24th : 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.
CLOSED Christmas day
New Year’s Eve December 31st 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
New Year’s Day January 1st 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Please remember that you must wear skates to be on the ice and children 6 years of age and under must wear a helmet.
You can call the Pond hot line for ice conditions – 905-634-7263 or visit the web site for temporary closure information, updates on pond conditions.
 December 12, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. They weren’t exactly made welcome at the city council Monday night. At one point it looked as if it was going to be just the one person speaking about the Chilly Half Marathon that is run on Lakeshore Road every March.
Diane Leblovic was before city council to follow up on her Standing Committee delegation over the route used for the Chilly Half Marathon that runs along Lakeshore Road every March – some 4000+ strong.
 A popular race that brings thousands to the city; Unpopular to some of those who live south of Lakeshore Road. Ms Leblovic had asked if the Marathon portion of the Festivals and Events could be deferred to a date she was available and Council agreed to do so. Last night was to be her opportunity to deliver some additional “significant” information. It wasn’t going to be quite that easy for Ms Leblovic.
The list of delegations had three names of people who were to speak about the Marathon which is not the way Councillor Dennison saw things playing out. He took the position that it was Diane Leblovic who asked for the deferral and it was Diane and Diane alone that was to speak.
That brought out the liberal in John Taylor who was close too aghast that a city council would limit the right of a person to delegate to their city council.
Much toing and froing on that issue with the Clerk being brought in to read through the various pieces of correspondence and the decisions made at previous council and Standing Committee meetings. Taylor managed to get in several Points of Order and told Council he was going to challenge the Clerk’s decision. Mayor Goldring finally brought the matter to a close: Diane Leblovic, her husband Nick and Donald Belch were to each get their five minutes at the podium.
It was worth listening to; both the Leblovic’s dumped on just about everyone.
Diane was there to tell Council that the concerns they had raised were valid and that changes to the marathon race were both possible and reasonable without affecting the integrity of the event..
Ms Leblovic reminded council that on May 21st, Council, without prior notice or discussion, reneged on its earlier commitment to hold a public consultation on this event.
Ms Leblovic explained that their group needed to clearly understand the reason for this unexpected reversal of position. She asked the Mayor to meet wither and he did so along with Councillor Dennison on May 28th.
 As race directors, the VR Pro people are good at their job. Working with difficult situations – perhaps not as good. At that meeting Mayor Goldring said he had been told by Kelly Arnott, a principle in VRPro, the company that organizes the race that they were about to get a new name sponsor for the event and that the sponsor, who turned out to be Trillium College, would not sign on if there was going to be a public meeting or any controversy relating to the race.
It was at that point that an offer was made, according to Diane Leblovic, for another meeting which would involve the Mayor, Councillor Dennison, Kelly Arnott and Peter Peebles, a staff member who knows the most about setting up this kind of race event.
Ms Leblovic said she had two concerns with any ‘next’ meeting. She apparently didn’t like the idea of an “open agenda which would permit consideration and discussion of all aspects of the race”. Ms Leblovic sent the Mayor a list of proposed agenda items and the Mayor provided a detailed response in which “he either rejected or put limitations on many of our suggested agenda items”.
The second issue was to determine the reason for Trillium’s sensitivity over a public consultation about the race. Ms Leblovic explained that her husband Nick, who was to delegate later, called the president of Trillium College and learned that the College had never heard of the Leblovic group and their efforts to have a public meeting held and denied ever putting pressure on VRPro.
The cat was now out of the bag.
Ms Leblovic explained that the working group was “very unhappy with the outcome of these two events and “concluded that any meeting would be a waste of time” – it would allow the Mayor to “check the box” saying he had met with the group and “that would be the end of the discussion”.
Ms Leblovic wasn’t done yet.
“We are deeply disappointed that the Mayor and four members of Council and city staff supported a process that was flawed and unfair and that there was an appearance of favouritism to a for profit private business over the legitimate concerns of residents which Leblovic underlined by telling Council that Kelly Arnott was the first name on the list of delegations and should have been the first person to speak at the Standing Committee meeting but “I have it on good authority” she said “that Councillor Sharman who chaired the meeting directed the Clerk’s office to move Arnott’s name to the bottom of the delegation list thus giving her an unfair, tactical advantage to listen to and rebut the presentations of prior delegations.”
Ms Leblovic still had more arrows in her quiver. She advised the Council meeting that Councillor Dennison sponsors the Chilly Half Marathon and that his place of business is used for another VR Pro event.
More yet: Ms Leblovic told Council that VR Pro sponsors the Healing for Woman’s Cancers of which Kelly Arnott is the race director. The race, according to Ms Leblovic benefits Breast Cancer Support Services whose Chief Executive Officer is Blair Lancaster. Councillor Lancaster had advised the Mayor at the beginning of the Council meeting that while she did not believe she had a conflict of interest she was nevertheless not going to take part in the debate and would not be voting on the matter. And she didn’t.
Wow! Diane Leblovic had done her homework and did a very impressive scorched earth exercise. Council had yet to hear from her husband Nick.
Nick and Diane Leblovic have been “players” in the political life of the city for some time. Diane served on the school board of trustees and Nick was the chair of the Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee created by former Mayor Cam Jackson as the city was heading into the 2010 municipal election.
That committee had its life cut short when city council sunset the thing in December of last year. At the time it didn’t look as if that committee, which many felt wasn’t all that effective, was going to have anything in the way of a legacy. Some of the material they pulled together on possible uses for the Beachway Park and the excellent work that was done by Les Armstrong and his sub-committee on public access to the lake and the Windows on the Lake program, proved to be useful during the debate on the waterfront property on Lakeshore Road between St. Paul and Market streets. The city has not heard the last of that matter.
Of the two, Diane Leblovic is the better speaker but the lawyer in Nick Leblovic came across strongly when he pointed to what he called a fundamental flaw in a report put out in 2009 when the race was being proposed. At that time, according to Nick, the report had the eastbound lane of Lakeshore Road closed for 90 minutes – from 10 am to 11:30 am. while the race was run. Leblovic released email that confirmed this information and added “as we all know now the eastbound Lakeshore road has been closed each year since 2010 for between 4 and 4.5 hours” – which Leblovic maintained was not some kind of a “rounding error” but it almost 300% longer than estimated.
Leblovic wanted to know: “How did this occur?” Was it incompetence? Or was there a subsequent change to the event that required a significantly longer closure period? Or was the time intentionally underestimated in order to get the new route by Council?
“Given the size of the discrepancy” asked Nick “one would have thought this issue would have been raised in the post-race evaluations…”. Nick Leblovic could find nothing in any of the documents he was able to read.
Leblovic asked some leading questions: “Would you have approved the route change in 2009 if the report had contained an estimated closure of Lakeshore Road east of over 4 hours rather than 1.5 hours?”
Nick wanted Council to do two things. Find out why the 1.5 hour race time grew to 4 hours and require than in future Lakeshore be closed for no more than the 1.5 hours in the original plan.
The length of time Lakeshore Rod as closed is not the only issue for the Leblovic`s and their working group. The Community Care access organization (CCAC) people who meet the care needs of people who are unable to get out f their homes for the care they need, work to very tight schedules. They drive from location to location with next to no wiggle room in the schedule. Nick Leblovic pointed out that there are people who have to go without the care they need for a full day because the CCAC people are not able to double back to drop in on a person just because the road id closed.
Leblovic maintained the one situation they brought forward was not an isolated one and that there is a high concentration of seniors in retirement homes and multi-residential buildings in the east end. Like most lawyers Nick was able to see the potential liability to the city were someone to suffer an injury because their care givers were not able to get to their residence. “You are now on notice of this problem and cannot ignore it” he intoned.
Nick had one last suggestion for Council: “One obvious solution would be to eliminate the back and forth aspect of the race which would permit a normal traffic flow along Lakeshore during the race.”
 They come by the thousands. Well that didn’t happen. Council which had approved all the other Festivals and events at a previous meeting – they had agreed to defer a decision on the Chilly Half Marathon to meet the interest of the Leblovic’s – voted to proceed with the race based on the route used in the past. Councillor Lancaster had advised earlier that she would not be voting on the matter. Mayor Goldring, Councillors Sharman, Dennis and Craven voted to follow the Staff recommendation and keep the race route for 2015. Meed Ward and Taylor voted against the Staff recommendation. It was a recorded vote – expect Meed Ward to use that as she campaigns for re-election in Ward 2 and sets herself up for a run as Mayor in 2018.
In comments made before the vote Meed Ward was passionate about what the Leblovic’s had had to put up with and applauded them for having the courage to come back to Council again and again to argue their concerns.
What we did learn was that the Ms Leblovic met with City Manager Jeff Fielding who is apparently going to arrange a meeting with Arnott and Ms Leblovic – that should be fun after the mudslinging Ms Leblovic did in her delegation.
Why this issue has ended up on the City Managers desk does raise several serious questions. The Lakeshore residents had real issues that needed to be dealt with. One cannot hold people hostage in their homes while several thousand people run a race.
Yes, the date of the race is known well in advance, and the average person should be able to make other arrangements but there are people who are not average in that part of the city; there are people who have special needs.
Imagine for a moment there were e death that a Coroner’s Inquest decided was preventable if a care giver had been able to get to a residence. Do you want to guess how fast that race would be cancelled forever and would you like to guestimate what the lawsuit might be?
The city has general managers who have direct oversight over how the various departments work. It does not require a degree in rocket science to figure out ways to get help to people who cannot leave their homes or who have other sound reasons for being able to get out of their streets that are on the south side of Lakeshore Road.
Someone at city hall hasn’t been doing their job on this one. The race is a hugely popular event, brings in thousands of visitors who spend their money in the city and has to be hugely profitable for the race organizers. Good for business and good for the city – now find a way to manage the problems of a small group of people. It’s just a matter of better communication and being sensitive to the real needs of people who need help. .
At the same time let us not see a situation where the genuine needs of a few people are used as a ruse to bring to an end an event that benefits thousands because a neighbourhood does not want to give up a portion of one day in the year.
 December 8, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. It will be the last time this city council meets this year. Along with the usual reports from the Standing Committees there is an item that was deferred from the last Council so that a delegation can appear to urge the city to re-review the decision to have the Chilly Half Marathon run along a different route.
Nick and Diane Leblovic delegated at the November 13 meeting of the Community Services Committee.
After considerable discussion on November 13th the Standing Committee decided to stick with the staff recommendation which was to continue to have the race run along Lakeshore Road. The Leblovic’s provided extensive written material in the form of a petition, emails and letters. Councillor Meed Ward put forward an amendment to the Staff Direction that would create a committee to “organize discussions between City Staff, VRPro and members of the Lakeshore residents working group to consider changes to the Chilly Half Marathon to, among other things, minimize the negative impact of the race on Lakeshore area residents.”
 It is a hugely popular event. It takes place on a Sunday morning every March – and it is in all probability going to take place in March of 2014 along Lakeshore Road. It was pretty clear at that meeting that city staff saw no need for a meeting with any working group – they had done their homework and advised city council Lakeshore Road was the best route.
The Meed Ward amendment was defeated and at that point the Leblovic’s left the meeting. Discussion on the issue however continued during which time Mayor Goldring mentioned that he and Councilor Dennison had offered to meet with the Leblovic’s but that they were turned down. In their request to have the vote on the Chilly Half Marathon deferred the Leblovic’s said the took exception to “the Mayor’s action in making this statement after we had left the meeting. The Mayor could have raised this issue in questions to me which would have provided me with an opportunity to provide important background and context to his statement.”
The Leblovic’s went on to say “the Mayor failed to disclose significant additional information concerning to an earlier meeting with him and Councillor Dennison and to related discussions and communications which took place during May and June of this year.”
The Leblovic document went on to say that: “ If the Mayor had made his statement when questioning me I would certainly have provided this additional information in my responses which would have provided a clearer and more complete understanding of the positions of the parties and the reasons for the decisions that were taken.”
What one wonders is why this “significant additional information” was not given during their 10 minute delegation.
City staffs were very clear in their recommendation – the Lakeshore Road route was the best location for an event that draws well in excess of 4000 people.
It was evident that more attention needs to be given to handling the individual problems that crop up. Some people have care givers that need to be able to get into their property – surely such situation can be managed.
The Leblovic’s said the “actions of the Committee in having this debate in our absence is not only un-parliamentary, unfair and inappropriate but provides a limited and one-sided picture of the events and circumstances in question.” They asked that the final vote be deferred – and it was. That final vote will take place Monday evening at which time there is no reason at this point to expect anything other than to see the Staff Recommendation approved.
The Chilly Half Marathon dates are known close to a year in advance; it should be possible to organize one’s personal life to accommodate a major sports event. New Street gets shut down for several hours every year for the Santa Claus parade and some people are locked in – admittedly not as many as during the marathon.
A slight change of subject:
 The current council set itself a goal of not more than a 10% tax increase during their four-year term. For 2011, 2012 and 2013 the total tax increase on residential property amounted to 8.65% – this included the hospital levy.
When you add in the 4.66 that is a preliminary projection to that total, citizens are looking at a 13.31% tax increase over the four-year term. That is going to take some explaining as this Council heads into an election year. The preliminary numbers were in a report on “economic drivers” discussed at a Council Standing Committee last week. Council meetings at times appear to be a races to get through the Standing Committee reports. Within those reports are some critically important documents that need both public attention and discussion. There are problems on the not so distant horizon that need attention.
The report from the Committee of the Whole that met on Thursday will get all of two minutes – but tucked inside that document was the suggestion from the city manager that Burlington residents could be facing a 4.66% tax increase in 2014 – which would blow the promised 10% increase for the term of this council right out of the water.
The significant seven are heading into an election year and this is not something they want to talk about – not at this time.
More on that later.
Background:
Lakeshore Road area residents delegate to council for a different route for Chilly Half Marathon.
 December 8, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. “Talk about a one issue candidate” was the first comment I got when I asked a colleague what she thought of the announcement Katherine Henshell made of her plans to run for the ward 1 council seat in the October 2014 municipal election.
Many see Henshell as a Beachway community advocate who owns property in that part of the city and didn’t like the plans the Region made to eventually buy up all the property and turn every square foot of the space into a park.
Henshell published an idea to turn another part of the city into a park and set out a decent social and economic argument for turning a piece of property into a place where people could observe the birds that call Royal Botanical Gardens home. What some didn’t realize was that the piece was a very tongue in cheek poke at the current ward Councillor – the land Henshell was suggesting being turned into a park was the home of Councillor Craven.
 Katherine Henshell trudging along to a practice on a Saturday morning. The idea managed to get some traction in other media – the Toronto Star carried the story and a friend suggested to Henshell that she should run for Council. That planted the seed that has a woman who is a mother with a 15 month daughter, a lawyer with an active practice, a regular hockey player as well as a Seminary student gearing up to run for public office.
 Henshell once played as goalie – she now plays defense. Now wants to run interference on city council A native of Sault St. Marie Henshell has been active in sports all her life. Highland dancing, volleyball, basketball – anything physical had her out of the house. When she graduated from high school it was straight into university and then on to graduate work. Henshell wasn’t sure if she wanted to do religious studies or law. The legal profession won out. It was while she was studying law at Osgoode – York University – that she decided to live with her sister who lives in Burlington that she got to know this city.
It would be reasonable to describe Henshell as competitive and probably a type A personality. During her high school sports years she played at the all Ontario level in several sports.
She appears to be a joiner as well. Active in both the Burlington and Hamilton bar associations Henshell served on the Regional Crime Prevention committee where “we talked quite a bit about appropriate behaviour for young people today”. For Henshell it is about being responsible for your own behaviour. Her view that “We each have responsibilities we need to meet, budgets that we need to live within” comes through very clearly. Politically Henshell describes herself as conservative but she has not been active politically.
What she does appear to have is an incredible energy level and a capacity to soak up ideas quickly. It doesn’t take Henshell long to drill right into an idea and ask questions.
If she doesn’t understand something – she asks questions. Actually she doesn’t ask questions – she peppers a person with questions.
Henshell doesn’t come from a family of means. As a kid she didn’t get to enjoy the trips to Disneyland – when she and her husband were first married they took a trip to Disney in Florida. “No kids” she said “we didn’t have any yet.”
There are no pretensions to this woman. What you see is what you get.
Henshell seems to be able to connect with people easily. Why politics – why now – and is she a one issue politician?
 Weekends and some evenings on an ice rink keep the mother of a 15 month old with an active law practice in shape. Henshell wasn’t comfortable with her delegation to city council. “I had the sense that they weren’t listening and their understanding of the “willing buyer/willing seller” line the Region was using made absolutely no sense. The people in the Beachway are being robbed of the opportunity to earn the 5% to 7% annual appreciation of their property that most people in Burlington realize. They are being held hostage by a set of rules their municipal government put in place – Henshell wonders how many other situations where people are not being treated fairly by city hall.
This woman will be a formidable candidate. The race in ward 1 will not be a cake walk this time around for Councillor Craven. He might want to take a close look at the provincial seat should there be a provincial election before there is a municipal election.
Background:
Henshell proposes new park for east end of the city.
 December 4, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. Isn’t working out quite the way it was supposed to.
The people who work on making downtown a better place for shoppers worked very hard to have December be a FREE parking month within the downtown core. The belief was that people objected to paying for parking when it was free at the malls – so they made all of December a free parking month in the downtown core.
The city came up with a really smart promotional piece that set a great tone. The city even advanced the free parking plan by a day to tie in with an additional marketing program that was brought to the city by the Yellow Pages people.
So – how is it working so far? Are people coming downtown in droves to shop? They must be – you have to look to find a parking spot – especially at the Brant and Elizabeth street parking lots.
On my way to a Standing Committee meeting at city hall when there are usually dozen of spaces available I had to drive around to the far side to find a space. There were six spaces left in the Elizabeth lot. Great I thought – then I paused – it’s just 9:10 am – no one is downtown shopping yet.
 The plan was to have the parking spaces as free for shoppers – not for the merchants or service providers on Brant Street. I picked up my car at just after 4:00 pm – the lot was still full but I’d walked along Brant and there was not much in the way of street traffic. Then I figured it out – the people who work downtown were using the parking lots – they could stay there all day and not spend a dime. The people from the Buzz barber shop had figured that out and obviously a lot of other people as well.
Brian Dean, General Manager of the Burlington Downtown Business Association (BDBA) figures the people working downtown knew the rule was a two-hour limit on the street so they would park in the lots. Someone needs to have an up close and personal; one-to-one conversation with the people who work downtown. Use the parking garage on Lotus. There were 120 spaces available when I passed the building at 3:20 pm.
For retail and service provider staff to use popular parking lot space for personal reasons is akin to shooting yourself in the foot. A lot of work has been put into making downtown an attractive, welcoming place to shop. Free parking was meant for the people they want to attract.
 December 2, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. The weather worked – you could see your breath when you exhaled. The rain held off but that little flutter of snow that would have made it a ”real” Christmas parade just didn’t appear. Other than that I t was fine 48th annual Christmas parade through the streets of Burlington.
This time there were live animals as well – ok so they were a pair of bedraggled looking ponies – they were there.
 This picture sums up the season. It is about a birth.  Do you know how cold that pavement was? 
 There is a reason for the season – and it isn’t shopping until you drop or your credit card gives up. A Christmas Eve service at the Performing Arts Centre.  What do you call it – a bi-directional vehicle? It was quite the thing to watch the way the cab got steered. The Rocca Sisters cosponsors sign at the head of the parade told of the shift in who is putting up a good chuck of the money – there are still Rotary noses that are out of joint; justifiably so one might add. It will take a bit of time to unravel that mess and perhaps make changes to the parade’s organizational structure.
 Its official when the Town Crier comes marching down the street – Santa follows.  A standard in any parade for kids. Other than that all the “usual suspects” were in place. The city’s Town Crier led the event and the Old Boy himself brought it all to a close.
Lots of hot chocolate consumed after this parade.
 December 2, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. It was her third show in her career as an artist. This time Cheryl Miles- Goldring was exhibiting the work that came out of her trip to Newfoundland last summer. Water, particularly steams and falls, are a challenge for the artist but she clearly caught the sense of the out ports that are bed rock of Newfoundland cultural history. There is something about a clothes line with items flapping in the breeze that has Newfoundland written all over it.
 Everything about Newfoundland somehow gets summed up in a painting of a clothesline flapping in the salt air wind. Miles-Goldring has a tendency to create small triptychs. She has done this in the past to wonderful effect and did it again with her Newfoundland collection.
Earlier in the week we crossed paths with the Mayor and asked how he was going to cover both the Santa Claus parade and be at the exhibit on Sunday – they were being held on opposite sides of the city. “I know where my responsibilities lay” said the Mayor who added that the parade is not something that requires his attendance. Well he got that one wrong – the Mrs. made it clear that the Mayor will be in the parade and he can scoot over to the exhibit when his day job is done.
We saw the Mayor at close to 3:30 in the afternoon trudging along James Street with Burlington Old Timers Hockey League paint can collecting donations within sight of city hall. It was going to be a bit of a dash to get to the Seaton Gallery out by RBG before the exhibit ended.
 The Seaton Fine Arts Gallery has created a space where artists can hang their work during exhibits. Teresa Seaton, head honcho of the gallery does her stained glass work in the gallery as well. The work that Miles – Goldring does is always shown at the Art in Action Studio Tour but is has a greater reach than just art shows and the walls of the people who buy her art.
Miles – Goldring makes small prints of some of her work and has ‘hasty notes’ made up with some of her art on the front.
As you can imagine her art adorns a large portion of the walls in the Mayor’s office as well. There is a tradition in the municipal world for small gifts to be given to visitors who call on the Mayor in some official capacity. Miles-Goldring came up with the idea of giving the Office of the Mayor a selection of framed prints and boxes of hasty notes that he could give as gifts to visitors. She pays for the framing and the printing and keeps meticulous records should anyone even suggest she is being paid for the gifts. The pity is that Miles-Goldring feels she has to keep records at all. If she said she pays for the work done that should be more than enough.
 The Friends Wall featuring the Cheryl Miles-Golding Outport Tour collection. The exhibit at the Seaton Fine Arts Gallery seems to be part of an initiative to make that location the place to exhibit local and visiting artists. The announced closure of the Artists Walk in the Village Square doesn’t leave too many locales for artists. The Village Square by the way is no longer for sale – was it ever really for sale?
What baffles many is the difficulty in booking the Fireside Room at the Burlington Art Centre. We hear far too many artists complaining about that problem. Is it just a scheduling problem?
For Miles Goldring the question is – what will she schedule next?
 November 29, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. Every Council member does everything they can to meet with their constituents. They take telephone calls, the use email and every other communications tool they can find. While I’ve yet to see a member of this Council walk around wearing a sandwich board – you never know.
 Smart politicians create a brand for themselves – Lancaster, who has always had a smart sense of style, appears to have gone for the “red bag look”. Might work. Members of Council hold meetings in their wards and they go to events. The Mayor has gone to more than 300 events so far this year. Meed Ward holds what amounts classroom sessions in Ward 2 while Jack Dennison holds meeting at the sports club her operates n a room with a fireplace and bowls of popcorn set out.
Last weekend the Alton Campus opened and we wondered when the Ward 6 council member would hold a meeting in the spanking new campus. It didn’t take long – Blair Lancaster invited her constituents to meet with her in one of the community rooms.
There she was, patiently waiting for someone, anyone from the community to show. After waiting for an hour a constituent did show up. We left at that point.
 Started as a model and kept the ability to talk to the camera. Lancaster explains that in Alton people are busy, they are commuters and they have families to feed – and she added, she did meet a lot of people at the Campus Open House.
Lancaster finds that she gets an audience when there is an issue an on at least one occasion she has had people lined up outside a meeting room waiting to get in.
Each council member has their own style, approach and relationship with their Council member. John Taylor gets a good turn out from what is to a large degree a rural community. His meetings are almost like a crokinole game being held in a church hall. They know him, they like him, they respect him and they trust him.
 Former model charms reporter into showing her latest fashion statement. Lancaster is still working out her relationship with her ward – with Alton being as new as it is it will take some time for them to get to know her and her to get to know them.
With an election less than a year away – Lancaster does have her work cut out for her in Alton. She has a Carol Singing event planned for the middle of December – the 16th – but wait for confirmation on the date and time. Hot chocolate and cider are on the menu.
Background:
John Taylor’s type of ward meting:
 November 28, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. The city advanced the FREE PARKING in December by a day to give the downtown merchants a chance to get it on the Black Friday craze.
This year – look for this decal in the windows of stores in the downtown core.
 if you were a member of the BDBA attending the Awards night – you didn’t get to leave without a couple of dozen yellow bags to use as part of the shop the Neighbourhood promotion. Jenn Walker – head of the Marketing Committee hands them out. The merchants in those stores might put your purchase in a small yellow shopping bag. And, if you choose to stroll along Brant Street swinging that bag someone might approach you and pop a small gift item into your bag.
 The downtown merchants have used special shopping bag promotions in the past. Last summer we all got to see BDBA General Manager Brian Dean in shorts that must have been on sale somewhere. It’s part of the Burlington Downtown Business Association’s Shop the Neighbourhood – a promotional tie in with the Yellow Pages people who piloted in Oakville recently. Shop The Neighbourhood is an initiative of Yellow Pages Group (YPG), a company with a century-long legacy of working with Canada’s small businesses, helping them attract customers and contributing to the growth of local economies.
BDBA has done this sort of thing in the past – quite successfully.
This season with free parking for all of December the major push on the part of city hall to get people downtown adding an additional promotional consideration won’t hurt.
 It’s a one day push – the idea is to get people to be downtown and not be ticked off with having to pay parking.
Burlington has let itself get charmed into that free parking at the malls – which isn’t free but rather a cost built into the rent merchants in mall locations pay.
 November 28, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. It was a natural! With a men`s clothing store and a golf tournament – you can just imagine how wild the guys are going to get with those brightly coloured trousers.
 Scrivener’s and Jeff’s Guy Shop organized a golf tournament that raised $55,000 for the hospital. This was their 3rd tournament. Women can wear bright colourful clothing almost any time they wish – men get stuck with the blue suit – with stripes if you think you`re really important, and maybe a snappy tie, but that`s about it for the guy side.
Mix in a golf tournament fund-raiser for the hospital – and you add another $55,000 to the $60 million the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation has to come up with.
Scrivener`s, the more sedate side of clothing men and Jeff`s GuyShop have raised a total of $135,000 during the three annual golf tournaments they have sponsored.
 November 28, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. It has been a banner week for BurlingtonGreen. They held their annual meeting, installed a very strong board and heard a stirring story about how a quarry proposal in Dufferin County was defeated. Later in the week after a very bumpy ride through several Standing Committees they got a sole sourced agreement with the city to continue developing the community garden concept that has done so exceptionally well.
 Gloria Reid, on the right with her husband – a welcome addition to the BurlingtonGreen board. Let’s take this one step at a time: The new board is made up of: Todd Mooney, Gloria Reid, Neil Sentanie, Vanessa Warren, Ken Woodruff, Chuck Bennet, Colin Brock, Susan Fraser and Paul Haskins who will serve as president.
 Vanessa Warren will add to the already impressive delegation skills BurlingtonGreen takes before various levels of government. BurlingtonGreen has become the go to community organization you want to be part of in this city. This year two of the impressively active community leaders joined the board: Vanessa Warren who formed the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition that brought the landfill dumping in north Burlington to a grinding halt when she delegated to Burlington and Regional Council and Gloria Reid who brought some impressive thinking to the creation of a Community Engagement Charter. We wish Ms Reid had stayed with that project and gotten it out of the clutches of the upper reaches of city hall where is will suffocate from the dust on the shelves it sits on.
The BG AGM brought in Donna Tranquada to talk to them about the successful effort to stop the application for a quarry permit in Melacanhom Township which is north of Caledon and south of Collingwood.
 Monte Dennis in conversation with BurlingtonGreen guest speaker Donna Tranquada. Dennis was part of the Pickering airport battle more than 25 years ago. He could tell Tranquada some real horror stories. What was really interesting and odd was that Ms Tranquada made no reference to the PERL success with the Nelson Aggregate fight – that win paved the way for the change in the way the public reacted to any expansion of quarries and their development . The Nelson win was the first time a quarry looking to expand was turned down. The Food and Water First people knew a good thing when they saw it though: they had Sarah Harmer out to their events as well
 Donna Tranquada had a great story to tell. A year to the day of the BG AGM, a group that was formed to protect thousands of acres of farmland from a planned massive quarry operation learned that the company had withdrawn its application to develop a quarry. It took more than a year to beat back the proposal put together by an American, Boston-based hedge fund, that was buying up property in the township.
When that company began buying up farm land they said they wanted to create a large, world-class potato farming operation. Property by property they told farmers what they were doing and got to the point where they had purchased more than 30 farms. “It didn`t take long” Tranquada explained “for word to get out in that rural community that something was going on.” The company, called Highland had been incorporated in Nova Scotia, and had begun using pressure tactics on some of the holdouts – meeting with farmers and putting a cheque for more than $1 million on the table and saying the offer was good for just 24 hours. The community began to get uneasy.
Then came the announcement: Highland had filed an application with the province for the largest quarry in Canadian history on some of the best farmland in Ontario and at the headwaters of five river systems. The mega Quarry would have sprawled across 2,316 acres and would have plunged 200 feet below the water table on a 15,000 acre plateau of Class 1 farmland. The massive open-pit limestone quarry would have put rare agricultural soil and precious water resources at risk in Melancthon Township.
One of the studies showed that the quarry would have to pump out 600 million litres of water a day forever. You had to be in the room when Tranquada used the word forever. She is a bit over 5ft 5 inches and she literally spit out the word.
 You start with a great location for a public gathering. Donna Tranquada`s talk was “meat and potatoes” for the protest movement crowd – it was a crowd like this that stopped the Spadina Expressway in Toronto; that stopped the extension of the Gardiner Expressway in Toronto through the Beach community and parts of Scarborough. The same demographic stopped the first attempt to put in an international airport in Pickering.
When Burlington was threatened with a highway being rammed through the Niagara Escarpment close to 400 people showed up at the Mainway Arena on Walkers Line – and the province eventually backed off. The province will have another go at an Escarpment highway and it will take a different generation to fight that battle.
The Melancthon Township battle used ideas that pulled together the interests of the rural communities with the needs of the urban dwellers – then used food as the bridge between the two.
Chefs from Toronto and other urban centers made soup, thousands of bowls of soup that was both a fund-raiser and the way to connect farmland where food is grown and the stomachs of the people in cities who have to eat. The event became known as SoupStock and it drew crowds in the tens of thousands.
It was a magnificent collection of ideas and dedicated people who showed once again that the public can prevail. Highland had employed one of the biggest public relations companies in North America who knew they were up against a public that was driven and focused – rarely can that kind of energy be beaten.
 That draws great crowds. Tranquada said that on one Saturday there were 40,000 people who dropped into a large park in the east end of Toronto to hear the story about the quarry application. If you believe in an idea and you can get your troops out – you can prevail.
Burlington has a fight on its hands that is critical for the city and relevant to every municipality that has a small airport and problems with landfill sites. While many expect the city of Burlington to prevail through the several levels of appeal that can be expected of the decision that decided the city had the right to have its site bylaw adhered to, the bigger question is – what des the city do with that property once the Court issue is resolved. There are hundreds of tonnes of landfill in the more than 100 + acres of property and a runway that is in the process of being paved.
Tranquada, surprised some people who asked where they could get one of the signs that she had with her. “I just have the three “she explained – “that was all I was able to carry on the subway and the GO train. A high-profile media personality trudging from Toronto to Burlington on the GO train is what they call “waking the talk”.
Tranquada is now part of a group that goes from community to community with the message: “There aren’t a lot of victories these days, but the mood-altering blocking of the monster quarry in Melancthon Township in potato country a year ago was a brilliant model of how to get stuff done. The alliance of urban ecos, farmers, foodies and chefs showed the power of partnering, bridged the messy city-country divide and ultimately triumphed over a Boston-based hedge fund… Plus, it made the point with the mass soup-athons, that protests can be jubilant and very digestible – and that determination and positivity are our best weapons.”
 And those crowds sign a petition – and with public reaction like that – the company wanting to quarry prime farmland withdraws their application. With the farmland in Dufferin County saved, the group, known as Food and Water First, decided to get to the real core issue which was the Aggregate Resource Act – it sets the rules for the extraction of aggregates. Turns out Ontario has the weakest regulatory environment governing resource extraction in Canada, enabling anyone to pillage the very resources Ontario needs to drive parts of its own economy.
The Food and Water First people have taken the position that the aggregate producers require a “social license”, that is the permission of the wider community, to do what they do. That concept will be hard for some of the old-timers in the industry to digest but it is a changing world – Global Warming is real and both food and water will become the most critical elements of our society continue to exist.
There is legislation and policy that govern the activities around resource extraction in Ontario. The Ontario Sand, Stone and Gravel Association (OSSGA) chose to push for keeping things as they are instead of helping to create a document that would lessen rural strife and have them become a responsible corporate partner. OSSGA members will continue to be challenged by communities in which they want to do business and will have to defend their businesses. Instead of doing better and voluntarily recognizing that prime farmland and source water regions should be off-limits, OSSGA has clearly belittled the efforts of thousands of Ontarians who have so reasonably engaged in this policy development process. The public at large will continue to withhold that social license until there is modernized legislation.
Nothing in the Aggregate Resources Act (ARA) review document would prevent another Mega Quarry application tomorrow, destroying forever thousands of acres of our most productive farmland and putting the control of unbelievably vast amounts of Ontario’s fresh water in danger.
Food and Water First wants to see new legislation that recognizes prime farmland as a strategic provincial resource and protect source water regions by eliminating industrial extraction in those regions.
These social activists believe that as an engaged public, both urban and rural, we have had all kinds of assurances from MPPs that the thousands of people had been heard. Now is the time for those MPPs to act, not just speak.
A productive board meeting; the story of a community action that saved precious farmland – and the week wasn’t over. BurlingtonGreen went on to get the city behind their community garden project – but that’s another story.
 November 28, 2013
By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. Ray Rivers will not be with us this week. He will be on stage at The Pearl Theatre in Hamilton as part of the crew performing Modern Times, Almost a Musical.
The production is described as – these are their words not ours – Lost souls, smart phones, unattended packages. Saints, sinners, and an angel on call. Original music performed by Charly Chiarelli and Venesio De Salvo. Drama provided by Ray Rivers, Mike Queripel, John Darling, and Kaime Woody Sherman. Written and directed by David Laing Dawson. Produced by Gallery on the Bay.
A play that asks the question, “Is it possible to love Rob Ford and Mike Duffy at the same time, and, if not, well, who wants that last piece of pumpkin pie?”
Sounds like a bit of a lark for sure. If you’re a Rivers fan – and there are a lot of them – attend. If you’re not a fan and there are a lot of those as well, attend and throw buns on the stage. It’s all happening at The Pearl in Hamilton
 November 26, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. Diane Leblovic is not happy with Mayor Rick Goldring and gave him a piece of her mind in an email that was part of the City Council agenda Monday evening.
Diane and her husband Nick have been protesting the running of the Chilly Half Marathon along Lakeshore Road in March of each year because the race prevents a lot of people from getting out of the streets they live on that exit onto Lakeshore.
The Leblovic’s delegated as a tag team along with a half-dozen other Lakeshore residents – not everyone was opposed to the race being run along Lakeshore.
What had Lady Leblovic in a snit was comments the Mayor made after she had left the room. The discussion on the use of Lakeshore road for the chilly Half Marathon was still taking place but the decision that was going to be made was pretty evident so they packed up their papers and left.
 There were at least 3336 runners last March running close to the Oakville border and back. And just as many will be there in March of 2014 Mayor Goldring was not aware that the Leblovic’s had left the Council Chamber. It borders on unreasonable to leave a meeting at which your reason for being there is still being discussed and then later taking exception to comments made by the Mayor.
The Mayor did say that he had offered to meet with the Leblovic’s and when he realized they had left the Chamber he stopped talking. Mayor’s Goldring’s response was fair and decent. For Ms Leblovic to suggest the Council’s behavior was “unparliamentarily, unfair and inappropriate “ and that their not being in the room “provided a limited and one-sided picture of events and circumstances” is stretching things.
The Chilly Half Marathon delegations took up more than two hours when it was abundantly clear that staff had looked at the options and come to the conclusion that Lakeshore Road was the best place for the race.
In her email to a city hall staffer Ms Leblovic asked that the matter be deferred to the December 9th meeting because they will be “out of the country on the 25th for an important and long-standing personal commitment.”
 They just keep on coming – and making Burlington one of the most popular racing events in the province. The recommendations made at the Standing Committee were approved by Council – the Chilly Half Marathon will take place in March of every year for the foreseeable future.
Council approved a policy that has staff automatically approving events that take place each year. If a matter goes to a Standing Committee – it will be because staff felt something should be brought to the attention of Council.
The Leblovic’s can now plan for an event early in March of 2014 and arrange to be out-of-town. They could also walk part of the race or follow the lead from the Pastor of the Lutheran Evangelical Church and be out on Lakeshore road offering fresh fruit to the 5000 + runners.
Additional news stories on Chilly Half Marathon debate.
2013 race video
Standing Committee delegations
 November 25. 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. A city hall with a sense of humour? We didn’t see that when a resident sent in a proposal that would turn a Council member’s home into a park – but that’s another story.
 For the month of December you will be able to park here free and then for every Saturday during the year. Sound of Music week as well? Downtown Burlington has had a problem with parking and decided to change the channel and get people to focus on the downtown experience and forget about the parking.
To get people into this new way of looking at the parking issue the city decided there would be no cost to park downtown for the month of December and once we are into the New Year there will be no cost for parking downtown on Saturdays. That’s good news – the trick now was to get the news out.
Someone out there came up with the idea of doing a short video – it is a hoot. See for yourself.
Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward got herself all worked up when she said: “You asked for it; we delivered: Park FREE in downtown Burlington on street and in city lots/parking garage for the month of December, and every Saturday starting in January. Free parking starts one day early this year, Sat. Nov. 30, in time for Black Friday and Shop the Neighbourhood events.”
Let’s see if it makes a difference. Will free parking get you downtown? Will the merchants along Brant Street decorate their stores this year – few did last year – and make it an experience. The price for the parking is right – now let’s see what the Burlington Downtown Business Association does with this new tool to draw the good people of Burlington into the downtown core.
 November 25, 2013
By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. Oh dear, that was embarrassing. Brand new sign, new buildings, one of which is a high school and the wording on the sign has a mistake. Ouch!
 The sign installation wasn’t completed until just after 3:00 am the day of the public opening. How long will it take for someone to spot the error? We missed it – a reader brought the mistake to our attention. That will get fixed; perhaps someone will be told to sit in the corner and write out the word welcome 1000 times.
The credit for this “expose” belongs to Allan Harrington, who by the way. Has on more than one occasion pointed out some of our spelling mistakes. Don’t you just hate people like that?
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