By Staff

February 19th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

Burlington adults,  aged 19+ and 55+,  will be able to register for Spring/Summer Live and Play programs on Feb. 22 at 9 a.m.

There are a lot of competitive events as well as lap swimming and swimming lessons.

Registrations are accepted online at wwwliveandplay.burlington.ca or in-person on Saturday at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre, City Hall, Brant Hills Community Centre and Tansley Woods Community Centre.

Following Saturday’s launch, in-person registration can be done at any City facility during regular customer service hours. burlington.ca/servicehours.

It’s going to be a couple of months before these lawns are used – but you can register now.

The City of Burlington’s Spring/Summer 2020 Live and Play Guide, featuring listings for recreation, sport and culture programs, was originally distributed in January and can now be found in City facilities including recreation centres, Burlington Public Library branches and City Hall, as well as online at burlington.ca/play.

Non-residents aged 19+ and 55+ can register for Spring/Summer Live and Play programs on Friday, Feb. 28 at 9 a.m.

• To receive future copies of the online guide by email, subscribe to the Live and Play e-newsletter at www.burlington.ca/enews.

• For details on how to register for fall/winter programs and events, see page three of the guide or visit www.burlington.ca/play.

The Parks and Recreation department announced earlier this month that the Guide would no longer be published in print form going forward.

By Staff

February 10th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

The City of Burlington is inviting residents to provide feedback on three design concepts for a sculpture for City View Park.

Pre-game warm up field is just one part of the facilities at City View Park a location in the western part of the city on Dundas.

City View Park has been going through lots of changes and has three artificial turf fields, creative playground, parking, pond/wetland, trails, natural restoration and a park maintenance facility. In the next phase, the City will add a pavilion in 2020. The sculpture will complement the park building.

The artwork concepts can be seen Feb. 10 to 23 at Brant Hills Community Centre and at Burlington Public Library – Central Branch. The concepts will also be available online at www.getinvolvedburlington.ca .

Residents are invited to take a look at the three proposed designs and share their thoughts. These comments, along with the technical and design proposals will help with the jury’s final selection.

The art work will be kept at the pavilion.

Artwork Location
The artwork will be in front of the pavilion. This area will be a connection point in City View, linking pathways from the future parking lot to the entrance of the pavilion and central roadway. You will also be able to see the artwork from inside the pavilion’s main lobby glass walls.

Artist Selection
Last fall, the City asked for artists to let us know if they were interested in creating a sculpture to go with the new pavilion. Over 50 artists responded and the community jury made up of residents, local artists and project stakeholders reviewed these submissions and selected three finalists to develop preliminary artwork concepts.

The jury will consider public feedback when they select the winning proposal.
The selected artists are:

Ludovic Boney
Edwin and Veronica Dam de Nogales
Hooman Mehdizadehjafari
Ludovic Boney – Fragment

Fragment is a sculpture made of assembled aluminum plates which form layers over its entire height. Its roughness and irregular composition are reminiscent of the layers of stratified stone. The irregular angles and triangular shapes that make up Fragment are inspired by the angular architecture of the pavilion and the landscaping around it

Edwin and Veronica Dam de Nogales – Un(HERD)
Un(HERD) is meant to be a reminder of Burlington´s natural beauty and its relationship with nature, as an important necessity for “healthy living.” With nine heads raised and nine pairs of ears piqued and alert, the team of the females of the species Un(HERD) finds a natural home here. This piece is meant to echo Burlington´s commitment to nature, preservation, and coexistence.

Hooman Mehdizadehjafari – Soar
Inspired by the oldest living creature in Eastern North America, the public art design Soar inherited its form from the Eastern White Cedar. The 17-foot-tall metal sculpture reflects the rich natural heritage of the region, in particular the Niagara Escarpment. The diversity of materials used creates a play of colours that can often be seen in nature and alludes to the diverse and united community of Burlington.

By Pepper Parr

February 7th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

Family Day is a relatively new event for the people of Ontario.

Everyone seems to want to exploit the day by offering the public something.

The province has jumped on that bandwagon and is letting people fish for free – by that they mean you don’t need a license.

We didn’t know you needed a license to put a hook at the end of a piece of string and put a worm on the hook, drop it into the water and see if a fish bites.

Apparently you need a license.

Family Day is February 17th – given the weather today there is every reason to believe that it will be just as cold on the 17th.

So if you are fishing – it will be out of a little hut on a frozen lake.

There are hundreds of people who bundle up, head out onto the ice, cut a hole in the ice and drop a fishing line down.

These people seem to know where the fish are.

Most drive out onto the ice in a snowmobile – every year we read of someone who waited a little too long when Spring came around and their snowmobile sunk through what ice was left.

Usually these people have a little hut, sometime with a heating device or something in a bottle that makes you feel warm inside. Ontarians do some strange things to occupy their time.

The provincial government see this as an occasion when they can make spending time with family more affordable and invites families to fish for free on Family Day weekend.

This is about as Canadian as you can get – especially if they can watch a hockey game while they wait for a fish to bite.

From February 15 to 17, Canadian residents of all ages can enjoy fishing in Ontario without having to purchase a licence or carry an Outdoors Card.

“Our government is making it easier for families to spend quality time together while enjoying Ontario’s world-class lakes, rivers and streams,” said John Yakabuski, Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry. “We have made life more affordable by doubling the number of free fishing events to also include the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends.”

Now the Mother’s Day and Father’s Day weekends are not a bad idea – but fishing in February?

Veterans and active Canadian Armed Forces members residing in Ontario can enjoy year-round recreational fishing without having to purchase a fishing licence.

By Pepper Parr

January 29, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

The dialogue on the matter of lowering the city flag in front of city hall has gone on long enough.

A citizen made a request, got a very insensitive response from the office of the Mayor. Later that day the Mayor asked her Council members to join her in a minute of silence to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the liberation of the death camps in Auschwitz.

It was a dignified statement made more poignant when the Mayor presented the Key to the city to Gordon Schottlander, a 95 year old veteran of the D-Day landings on the Beaches of Normandy in France.

Victoria AlSamadi, Mayor’s Chief of Communications & Strategic Advisor wrote the citizen who made the original request saying:

I wanted to reach out on behalf of the Mayor, and team, regarding yesterday’s International Holocaust Day and your request to see the flags at City Hall lowered.

Please know that the Mayor and team consider it an important day of remembrance and pause – to ensure we never forget what happened and so that this never happens again.

We take every opportunity to oppose discrimination on any ground. It’s a significant date for the world, for humanity, and also personally for the Mayor, as we acknowledge the murder of six million Jews for no other reason than being Jewish as well as millions more. The crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis touch people of every background, religion, race, sexual orientation and disability, as well as our veteran community who found a way to help end the war so we can live in peace and acceptance of all people.

The Mayor has recently been invited to participate in a trip to Auschwitz to learn more and honour the victims of this heinous act of evil and she is working toward booking that in the near future.

In planning for this event, we decided to recognize this important day via social media posts as we have come to see over the past year that this is the most effective way to reach the largest audience and spread important messages in a timely and impactful manner for the Mayor. As you may know, there was also a minute of silence at council last night.

We also had planned (and will) lower the flags on April 21st, for Yom HaShoah, the day of Remembrance for Holocaust victims marked by many Canadians. Going forward, as a result of the additional request to lower the flags for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we will do that next year and in the future.

We realize how important adding a flag lowering to this occasion is to the community and are committed to doing this going forward to ensure our community sees every manner at our disposal being used to mark this day.

I assure you that we welcome all residents to partner with us and request the flag to be lowered ahead of all dates of importance to our community. If you or any other citizens have occasions you would like to see the flag lowered in the future, please do reach out to us at mayor@burlington.ca and we will make it happen.

The communications advisor should have quit when she was ahead.

Did the Mayor just announce that there will be another trip out of the country?

Related news stories:

The request

The response

By Pepper

January 28th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

How do people in Burlington, who want to be involved in the way the city is run, get to take part?

The city has a number of Citizen Advisory Committees that have in the past played an important role in bringing a detailed viewpoint to city council.

Is this house a Heritage property? The owners didn’t think so and took a very compelling argument to the Heritage Committee.

There was a time when the Heritage Advisory Committee basically took over a large part of the Heritage issue in the city and has continued to serve the city well.

There are others that don’t do a very good job – usually because of the committee leadership or committee members who were poor choices because they didn’t know how to behave and respect the views of other people.

Each committee has a Council member attached to it.  In the past there have been council members who tended to direct and at times bully the committee.  There is at least one from the current council who has yet to learn what his role on an Advisory Committee is.

Each committee has a Clerk.  Burlington is fortunate in having Clerks who are very good at their jobs.  A smart committee chair will stay close to the Clerk – they always bail the chair out when things get confusing.

Former Mayor Rick Goldring and former Toronto Mayor David Crombie at the Waterfront Advisory Committee. The committee was sunset – it suffered from poor leadership.

The committees have a small budget to cover some of the costs.

Members of Advisory committees are not paid.

With every term of Council, the Clerk’s Department undertakes an Advisory Committee Review.  This process began last year with Citizen Action Labs being held in the Spring and then a request for interest was sent out to those who attended the Action Labs to be a part of a “working group” to review the data received from the engagement process and prepare a report with recommendations regarding the Advisory Committees.

The criteria for how people are selected for advisory committees is based on each committee’s Terms of Reference under the heading “Committee Composition”.  The Clerk’s office is holding off on recruiting new members to advisory committees until the review is complete.

Home owners at a Heritage Workshop had plenty to say – the planners were given two weeks to come up with answers.  An example of an Advisory Committee at work.

The one thing the city has not done is publicly recognize the committees as a group.  Several of those committees provide very valuable advice.  The Mayor is currently re-thinking what the Burlington BEST awards could be in the future.  Formal recognition of the Advisory Committee members has merit.

A significant number of people who serve on Advisory Committees go on to run for political office.  Being able to say the you served on an Advisory Committee and then also being able to refer to a report you were part of is an important first step to developing a public profile; much needed if you want to serve the public.

Marianne Meed Ward and the Save our Waterfront committee; a foundation piece for a political career.

THE case study on how to do that is the current Mayor; she made saving the water front her issue and took control of a committee (not a city hall committee) and turned it into a campaign organization.

Set out below are the current Advisory committees and when they plan to meet in February.  The meetings are public – walk in, introduce yourself to the Clerk who will introduce you to the chair and the rest of the committee.