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.

By Pepper Parr

January 17th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

Thursday was a very full day.

Two of the Standing Committees met and approved a number of recommendations that will go some distance in the way the city develops its international profile.

The Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk and Accountability Committee heard a report from the Mundialization Committee that included the announcement that committee chair Ed Dorr was resigning. Dorr, has served for nine years, during which time he worked with four Mayors and five city managers.

There was other business conducted but what Ed Doer, and anyone else in the Council Chamber will remember, is the Certificate of Appreciation read out by the Mayor and presented to Ed. It went:

Ed Dorr

On behalf of the City of Burlington, it is our pleasure to once again extend sincere gratitude to Ed Dorr for your exemplary service to the Burlington community.

You have strengthened our city through leadership, mentorship and your focus on positive outcomes while being flexible in their achievement.

Your many years of service as member and chair of the Mundialization Committee is but one bright example of your giving of time and energy to making Burlington a better place. In that role you are duly credited with strengthening twinning relationships with Itabashi and Apeldoorn to their currently mature state, ensuring that for many years to come Burlington’s residents will enjoy the diversity of culture, international exchange and goodwill provided through those relationships.

Please accept our utmost gratitude for the time, effort and dedication you have given to your Burlington community.

The Certificate was signed by the Mayor and Councillor Rory Nisan who represents the city on the Mundialization committee.

Nisan set a new level of dress for a Chairman of a Standing Committee; he abandoned a jacket, dress shirt, no tie. One wonders if the appropriate dress will become a T shirt, shorts and flip flops.

All the other males on Council wore jackets.

Every male member of Council wore jackets; committee chair chose not to.

Rory Nisan, serving as Chair of a Standing committee.

By Pepper Parr

December 30th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

Ed Keenleyside has been writing about Burlington’s war time contributions for some time. When the city put up a small notice explaining the background of the cenotaph just to the north of City Hall it was Ed who spotted the error.

Keenleyside at the foot of the Cenotaph next to city hall. His book will commemorate those lost in different wars.

He recently approached the City manager with an offer to give the city non-exclusive rights to his manuscript on the understanding that the city would publish the book.

Keenleyside will negotiate with the city manager once the details are worked out and the legal department has put their thumb print on the proposed agreement.

The title: An Illustrated History of the Burlington Cenotaph, The Story of a Community Memorial is fitting – and if anyone knows that story it is Ed Keenleyside.

The Burlington Cenotaph has been a part of the history of the community for close to 100 years. Eighty-two Burlington veterans of the First and Second Wars have their names inscribed on the Cenotaph. The first 38 names were inscribed in 1922, with the additional 44 occurring in 1947 via a bronze plaque added to the Cenotaph.

Keenleyside, a Burlington resident, a retired member of the Royal Canadian Air Force, a former high school history teacher and former City of Burlington employee has completed a manuscript of the history of Burlington’s Cenotaph.

The book was written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Burlington Cenotaph on April 10, 1922.

The City will not pay Mr. Keenleyside for the publishing or distribution rights, it would only incur the cost of actually printing the books. Keenleyside would retain ownership of the book.

Printing and distributing this book, is described as a small gesture that the City of Burlington can do to recognize soldiers from Burlington who gave their lives during war. Copies of the book could be printed as gifts to visiting dignitaries or used for special occasions such as Remembrance Day ceremonies.

Mr. Keenleyside would retain copyright of the manuscript.

Cover of Ed Keenleyside’s first book.

Keenleyside is the author of “We Were Just Doing our Bit.” The City of Burlington does not own the rights to that book nor has any discussion taken place regarding that book.

While this manuscript has merit consideration had to be given to other requests of this type coming in. To date the City Manager’s Office is not aware of other requests of this type, nor has the City’s Legal Department drafted an agreement like this in the past.

If other requests such as this came forward, they should be evaluated on a case-by- case basis. Although no formal criteria is in place, any further considerations should take into account such factors as historical importance to Burlington, connection of the author to the community, financial considerations and opportunities for the City of Burlington to use the manuscripts.

The options considered by city staff were:

Not to move forward with an agreement and therefore not accept print or distribute the book.

Council decided at their December 16th meeting to go forward; the item was approved as a Consent item on the agenda with no debate or discussion.

The cost of printing and, we assume, the size of the print run and whether the cover will be a hard case of softback will be managed by the by Corporate Communications & Government Relations, a unit that is within the City Manager’s Office.

Design considerations are important – it isn’t clear if Keenleyside has final design approval.

There is a down side to this: once the word is out everyone with a “book” will be approaching Kwab Ako-Adjei;  this is his ball to carry.

Readers of the Gazette will have been aware of the in-depth word Mark Gillies did on the city’s war veterans.

Related news stories:

Keenleyside spots errors in plaque

Mark Gillies wrote in depth about Burlington war heroes.

Names and faces of the 38 lost in WWI by Mark Gillies