 By Pepper Parr
April 24, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
See it as a Jeff Fielding legacy. It was a good, if expensive idea, and hopefully it will get used by Pat Moyle, the incoming interim city manager and whoever the city hires as its full time city manager later in the year.
Fielding was a believer in listening to what the public had to say and he wanted to hear opinions but didn’t like the time most of the processes for gathering opinion took.
A chum of his, Angus Reid, sold him on the idea of using an electronic service ($100,000 a year) and he signed the city on for a three year deal.
It took some time to get the public to go with the idea and the number of participants isn’t as high as Fielding wanted them to be. There was always a little suspicion on the part of some people that the city would “know” who they were. The city can never know who you are personally. They don’t have access to that level of information – it isn’t on city computers.
The service is one that is run out of Vancouver – the city just creates the questions and the Vancouver people run the questionnaire. Right now the city is looking into how people get information from the city. There is a website – terrible thing – try finding something on it.
There is the three times a year magazine that is more puff and fluff than any really useful information. There is the annual community report that is – how does one put this – selective in what they say about different projects and issues in the city. Nice layout and design – but it doesn’t tell people anything they didn’t already know something about. It doesn’t delve into the issues. And there are issues.
There are the full-page advertisements in the newspaper; then there are the newsletters that Council members send out. I’ve yet to read an opinion in one of those newsletters that is the least bit controversial. Pablum for the most part – just plain bland. Voters want to know what their council members think. They would like to be educated on the issues – not placated by men and woman who want to do everything they can to assure their re-election.
The most recent Insight Burlington survey tries to dig a little deeper on how people get their information about the city. It begins with:
Hello Insight Burlington Community
This survey is about how the city communicates with residents.
It is very important for us to learn about where you get your information from on services, upcoming events or neighbourhood meetings. Are the tools we use effective? Is the information easy for you to understand?
Connecting with more people in the community is important to us and we need to learn from you, on where to focus our efforts.
This survey required about seven minutes. What was intriguing about the questionnaire was the way the person taking the survey manipulated information on the screen.
The data base that holds all the information on each participant knows if you own a home or live in an apartment; knows if you are male or female and your age. They have a rough idea of your income and the postal code you live in. But they don’t know WHO you are.
So- when they have the results of this survey they MAY know (the results haven’t been tabulated yet) for example that people over 60 prefer the newspaper and no one really like the Community report. And, again, for example that no one manages to get very much from the city web site.
If you want to take part in future surveys – email Leah Bisutti – Email Me – and she will direct you to the right place on the city web site.
 The way one answered this question was really cool. You just dragged the question into the order you wanted the information to appear and if you wanted to change your mind you just clicked on the little buttons to move things up and down. while it took less than seven minutes to complete the survey – you might find yourself playing with it for a while.  The layout is neat, clean and clear. It is very easy to understand and it allows you to change your mind.  The green progress at the bar tells you how far along you are in the questionnaire process
  By Staff
April 23, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Pythons are back. This annual event created by the Rotary Clubs of Burlington is an occasion for entrepreneurs in the commercial world and students at high schools who think they have good commercial ideas to get some of the technical help they need as well as some capital to grow the business idea.
Pythons’ Pit provides an avenue for creative, entrepreneurial residents and students of Halton Region and beyond to pitch their business concepts and product ideas in front of a live audience and a panel of real business moguls from the community. Open Category applicants can win up to $150,000 in start-up capital and a package of in-kind professional services to help launch the business. High School applicants can win cash prizes up to $2,500 or a bursary of up to $5,000.
 The Pythons look for that person will a bold idea and a vision; those that step forward and show initiative and drive. These are the people that keep an economy growing. There are two categories Open and High school students.
The Open Category entries this year are:
GymChum – Aydin Betez
Country Basics – Ted & Lisa West
V.M. Enterprises – Vincent Marchese
Tetra Biologicals Inc. – Bruce Robinson & Thurkathipana Navaneethan
Ranggo – Noha Abdelaziz & Peter Basil
Finalists in the High School Category are:
NORSAF Technologies – Jack Greenburg, Garth Webb Secondary School
Smart Tasks – Jennifer Palfi: Bishop Reding High School
Smart Tap – Jessy Kang; Abbey Park Secondary School
Fashion on Wheels – Nita Stranaghan & Katie Henderson; Georgetown District High School
Cyclo-Charger – Mark Suan: Corpus Christi Catholic Secondary School
Leading the event as Emcee this year is Connie Smith, well know local television personality. The program is brought to the community by McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business. Presenting sponsors are: Royal Bank and the MNP Group
Students winners last year were:
Ryan Muil, a Grade 12 student at Christ the King Catholic Secondary School in Georgetown, won first place and $2,500 for his already successful company Muil-E’s Hot Sauce, that Ryan founded when he was just twelve years old.
Jasmine Mercer, a Grade 11 student at Corpus Christi Catholic Secondary School in Burlington, won second place and $1,000 for her Mobilization of Restaurant Software – an application she developed, which offers solutions to problems Jasmine encountered while working in the restaurant industry.
By Staff
April 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It’s hard to keep up with the different colours used by the corporate community and community organizations to signify interest in what they are doing. I think it all started with that American pop song: “Tie a yellow ribbon round the old oak tree” to celebrate the return of a person who wasn’t at all sure he would be welcome.
I thought that pink was taken by the CIBC bank people and their Run for the Cure to raise funds for cancer treatment but pink is also being used to recognize International Day of Pink
 Set in the east end of the city on New Street the Nelson Youth Centre has been serving youth since the 1980’s Each year on the second Wednesday of April, millions of people wear pink to remember that positive actions make a difference. On Wednesday April 9th, RBC will make a donation to the Nelson Youth Centre in Burlington to support their efforts to eliminate bullying and discrimination.
Nelson Youth Centre is an accredited Children’s Mental Health Centre that offers treatment programs for at-risk youth in Halton. Reconnecting Youth is a community based program focused on helping youth develop effective social/emotional skills, coping strategies and effective learning skills to transition into adulthood and become successful and independent. The program works with youth, families, schools and the community and provides mental treatment and support for youth between the ages of 14-17 who are experiencing moderate to severe mental health issues which significantly impacts their ability to cope.
Day of Pink is an international day against bullying and discrimination supported by RBC. Last year, more than 16,000 RBC employees wore pink to show support for this great cause; this year the bank is encouraging employees to wear pink and in Halton South we are also making a donation to the Nelson Youth Centre in Burlington.
The Nelson Youth Centre has a program called Reconnecting Youth that provides individual and group counseling for youth struggling with self-esteem, social/emotional issues and poor peer relationship issues.
Next week we will take a look at the people and programs at Nelson.
 By Staff
April 2, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Tracy MacCharles, Minister of Consumer Services and Consumer Protection Initiatives got herself out in front of a microphone earlier today and passed on what she thought was good news – and good news it was – assuming what she said is true, true, true.
 The Minister of Consumer Services and Consumer Protection Initiatives told us how we were going to be protected from cell phone contract abuse – from the offices of a cell phone provider. Which is a nice way of saying the prices aren’t coming down but you will know just how high – try sky high – those prices are going to be when you sign up.
That the Minister delivered her comment at the offices of Wind Mobil gives you a sense of who has the clout; had she been out on a street corner with people who had their phones next to their ears and talked to them about what works and doesn’t work – this might have been a different story.
So for now we have to go with what the Minister said in that controlled environment the politicians like.
Eight out of every 10 Ontario families have a wireless services agreement but most of us don’t really understand the contracts we sign: the terms and conditions, what’s included in the agreed upon monthly fee, and what will cost extra.
Thus the new Wireless Services Agreements Act now in effect, brings long-awaited improvements to the marketplace. Ontario consumers can now expect clearer, easier-to-understand information, and fewer surprises when they enter into, or amend, cell phone and wireless services contracts.
Requiring plain language contracts;
Requiring that contracts clearly outline which services come with the basic fee, and which would result in extra charges;
Requiring that providers get a customer’s explicit consent before amending, renewing or extending a fixed-term contract;
Enforcing a cap on cancellation fees, making it less expensive for consumers to walk away from contracts; and
Allowing a consumer to cancel a contract at no cost after two years.
 What can consumers do if they think their contract was not properly made — or they feel they are paying for services they didn’t contract for? Under our new law, providers who do not comply with the rules must give consumers who cancel their contracts a full refund for up to a year of service.
 If a provider charges for services after a contract is improperly amended, a consumer is entitled to get that money back.
The act also addresses advertising by wireless services providers. Providers must now show the minimum monthly costs in ads – if they are advertising any costs – and the most prominent price must be the all-inclusive price.
Keeping up with all these rules and the services being provided to protect us can be daunting. The government has launched a new program (yes, another one) called Consumer Protection Ontario; an awareness program that will link together all of the consumer protection activities of the Ontario government with a common identifier.
Provincially mandated administrative authorities – such as the Real Estate Council of Ontario, the Electrical Safety Authority, and Technical Standards and Safety Authority, will help the people of Ontario know where they can turn to get information about their consumer concerns.
The Stronger Protection for Ontario Consumers Act gave provides more effective rules to help people who have to deal with door-to-door transactions, dealing with debt settlement companies, or in real estate transactions.
The province is going to modernize Ontario’s Condominium Act, so that the 1.3 million people in this province who live in a condo will have up-to-date legislation that reflects the reality of condo life today – including proper qualifications for managers and increased consumer protection for owners.
They are also continuing to explore home inspector qualification to increase the level of confidence people have when they buy a home – they need to be sure that their pre-purchase inspection has been done by someone with appropriate credentials.
 Protection from tow truck drivers – now that is something useful. Do you get the sense that we have a government working hard to convince us that they are out there doing everything they can to protect us – which many of us wanted them to do when they were thinking through how to get out of those gas plants they decided not to complete – that was a $1 billion ouch.
 By Pepper Parr
March 31, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
There were myths to be dispelled and facts to be shared – and it would have been nice if there had been time to ask questions earlier in the evening. For some reason many civil servants feel they need to take their audiences through all the legislation that is out there to be dealt with – the people in the room at the Holy Lutheran Church on Lakeshore Road wanted to ask questions about the coyote problem Burlington is experiencing.
 Coyotes are territorial, weigh 40 lbs. if they are male and prowl at night. The audience learned that coyotes are very territorial. They tend to mate for life. They have the one gestation period each year – February. Their gestation period is 60 to 63 days and something between 20 to 50% of each litter survive.
Coyotes do not mate with dogs. They will mate with some wolves
 Pups stay with the parents until they know how to hunt – then they find a mate and leave the pack. Both parents raise the pups. Burlington has a population of what are known as eastern coyotes. They are not all that big: females are 30 to 35 lbs,; males 40 to 45 lbs. The Ontario Ministry of Natural resources has a number (21) of coyotes that have GPS collars and can be tracked with their located plotted on a map. The audience was shown a map of a pack that lives in the south Burlington area.
 Orange dots on the map indicates where a pack of coyotes was between March 7 and 14th in Burlington. Known as MISSO14 this pack is tracked by GPS collars. Coyotes sleep during the day and prowl at night looking for food. They have been known to take down sheep, goats and if there is a cow that is injured they will bring that down as well but for the most part they go after mice, they eat berries and will go after wild geese.
They look for corridors they can travel in; railway lines, hydro rights of way as well as the edge of the lake.
Coyotes will not attack – but they will chase. If confronted by a coyote make all kinds of noise and leave the area but do not turn your back on the animal and do not run.
Coyotes have been come habituated in urban communities. John Almond of the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources told the audience that a fed coyote is a dead coyote – when fed they stop doing what they do naturally – hunt for their food.
 Coyotes have very acute hearing and can hear mice scurrying about beneath the snow. Coyote is preparing to pounce on a mouse. Coyotes look for places where they can sleep during the day and have a territory large enough for them to find the food they need. The live in packs, but once pups are taught to fend for themselves they leave the pack, find a mate and create their own pack. Territory is critical for them and they don’t welcome newcomers to an existing pack.
They have exceptionally acute hearing and know from sound where mice are beneath snow.
One of the biggest problems with coyotes in urban areas is people. We leave garbage out where they can get at it and some people actually leave food out for the animals.
 Coyotes howl to communicate to others in a pack. When coyotes howl – they are not telling the world they are about to kill something or have just killed something; their howling is a form of social vocalization.
 There was a time when government paid a bounty for coyotes trapped or shot. Coyotes have been with us for centuries. Governments used to pay a bounty to trappers in attempts to lessen the population. That didn’t work. disease and an inability to find the food they need is what controls the size of the coyote population. – there is a pack of them in south-east Burlington that has GPS collars the ministry uses to track them – they can take data from a satellite and know where that pack is at any given moment.
If you leave the coyotes alone, let them be the natural predators they are, don’t feed them – they won’t harm you. Because they are natural predators they see your cat as their lunch. Keep the cat inside at night.
 By Pepper Parr
March 23, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Denise Davy, a mother who lost a son in a railway crossing accident, became a tireless advocate for change and took her concern about the lack of safety barriers at railway crossings in Burlington to city council. She managed to bring about changes – there are barriers now in a number of places where people foolishly scoot across railway tracks, including ward 4 councillor Jack Dennison who publicly set an example he showed be ashamed of – but apparently isn’t.
 There is now a sturdy fence at this rail line. Davy, a former Spectator reporter, who now runs a writing and editing business, took her cause to the Regional government; she took it to Mississauga and got invited to a Roundtable held by the Member of Parliament for Halton, and also the Minister of Transport, Lisa Raitt. Here was someone who could do something.
Davy understood that she was to be one of a number of people taking part in a discussion about safety features along the railway tracks. She was amongst some pretty important people:
Attending were: His Worship, Gordon Krantz, Mayor of Milton; Andrew Siltala, Senior Manager, Economic Development, Town of Milton; Bill Mann, Chief Administrative Officer, Town of Milton; Jean Tierney, Senior Director, Corporate Safety and Security, VIA Rail Canada; Susan William, Regional General Manager, Central, VIA Rail Canada; Greg Percy, President, GO Transit; Paul Finnerty, Vice President, Operations, GO Transit; Michael Farkouh, Vice President, Safety and Sustainability, Canadian National Railway; John Orr, Vice President, Eastern Canada, Canadian National Railway; Randy Marsh, Manager, Community Relations, Canadian Pacific Railway; Andy Ash, Director, Dangerous Goods, Railway Association of Canada; Brad Davey, Executive Director, OntarioConnex; Eve Adams, Member of Parliament, Mississauga-Brampton South and a Representative from the Halton Police.
 Simple message bearing a lot of the pain that results from a needless death at a place where rail tracks were easily cross. No more at this crossing. There wasn’t a hope in hades that Denise Davy would have ever been able to pull a group of people with the kind of clout this crowd had. Davy saw herself as one of the group and was a little stunned when after a few words from Minister Raitt, she turned to Davy and gave her the floor. It wasn’t what Davy was expecting but she dove into her story, her experience and explained for the hundredth time that education alone does not work – barriers have to be put up – and if those barriers are expensive then we have to find a way to pay for them.
She worked at dispelling the myth that most of the people who lose their lives on railway tracks are suicides – the people in the rail transportation business have words to describe them: deliberates and accidentals. To Denise Davy they are all lives that were needlessly lost.
She points to the way the public safety people reacted to motorcycle people who used to drive without helmets – we passed laws requiring motorcycle people to wear helmets and we reduced deaths. We are in the process of putting in stiffer penalties in place for those who text and think they can drive at the same time. We learned she said that public education didn’t work in those situations and we know it doesn’t work to prevent rail crossing deaths. If it is going to cost money – then we have to find that money.
There weren’t a lot of concrete suggestions thrown out by others; mainly they went around the room and talked about what they’re currently doing, which included everything from public education to putting educational campaigns in the schools.
 A fence that cannot be easily climbed with a notice and a contact number for those under severe emotional stress is now in place at Drury Lane. Now for the rest of the Region and then the rest of the province and then the rest of the country. Davy said she listened and commented then said that the problem was clearly none of the things they were doing are working because people are still being killed.
Raitt proved to want to be more proactive than many expected. She made it absolutely clear according to Davy, that this is an issue for her, that she is concerned and glad that it was brought to her attention and said that it should be included with an overall review on rail safety. She is going to connect with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities and Rail Association of Canada and get the conversation going on the issue with them as well.
She also wants to go big with something on rail safety week which is April 28. It was mentioned a few times by various people, that the area around the GTA has the highest number of accidents in Canada.
Raitt gave Davy a printout that listed 29 accidents and incidents in Burlington, Milton and Oakville between 2009 and 2013. The total for Halton for same period was 46.
The tragedy came right to the doorstep of the Friday Roundtable in Milton. Passengers on the Lakeshore West GO line got the following message: Due to a police investigation of a trespasser fatality at Clarkson, train service on your line is suspended between Port Credit and Clarkson until further notice.
Davy had not seen the message as she was preparing to drive from Burlington to Milton for the Roundtable. “That is unreal. How many more people have to die before something is done!!! My heart is breaking reading this.” All the pain, the grief, the sorrow and the hurt came flooding back and the realization that the anniversary of her son’s loss was less than a week away.
Trooper that she is, Davy attended the meeting and left with a platform created for her by the Minister of Transport to get the message out. The matter of rail crossing safety was not on the agenda said the Minister – and added that “it is now”.
 Denise Davy rests a little easier knowing that fences like this at places where rail lines were once easily crossed might eventually get put up across the province. Raitt is planning something for the week of April 28th – Rail Safety week in Canada. The rail car disaster in Lac Megantic is the high-profile event – but Denise Davy now has a platform she can work from. She said after the Roundtable: “ I know change can’t come right away and the fact that I was given a platform to speak to such high level officials who are in a position to make change was a huge step forward.”
“The main thing” said Davy is “to watch where it goes from here. I am going to plan something for April 28 and told everyone in the room I would be open to working with any of them to do something on that date.”
Before Denise gets to April 28 – she first has to deal with March 27th.
Background links:
Single citizen get rail crossing safety improved.
Rail crossing deaths brought to attention of council.
 By Ray Rivers
March 20, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Another day, another free trade deal. Canada has landed what is being called a big one, this time with South Korea. Promoted by both Liberal and Conservative governments, these trade deals have inadvertently contributed to the de-industrialization of Canada.
Recall the sound of doors closing and windows being shuttered as the ink was drying on our first trade deal, the Canada-US FTA. Many of Ontario’s small and medium manufacturing enterprises, acting like characters in a Steinbeck novel, packed up and moved to larger markets, a warmer climate and the lower wage rates south of the border.
Former Ontario premier, David Peterson, had predicted that a quarter of a million jobs would be lost to FTA, and indeed, unemployment in Ontario more than doubled as its manufacturing sector took the hit. And then there was NAFTA. The Economic Policy Institute, a research think-tank in the US, estimated that by 2010 NAFTA had lost 700,000 US jobs to Mexico. It is worth recalling US presidential candidate Ross Perot and his famous prediction of a ‘giant sucking sound’, as American jobs rushed off to Mexico.
Free trade is just another economic theory. Hypothetical notions of absolute and comparative advantage sound logical on paper. But, the reality can be so different, particularly if the playing field is uneven, if your trading partners don’t play fair. South Korea is one of those nations which adjusts its exchange rates to make their exports competitive, and the nation employs a raft of non-tariff barriers to discourage its citizens from buying foreign goods.
 Cars being loaded on to ship for transportation to North America. with tariff removed many of those cars will come to Canada. The Korean deal is being sold as offering greater access to the Korean market for Canadian beef and pork, but even the government accepts that Canadian manufacturing, and auto making in particular will be hit by this deal. The US signed a trade deal, just last year, with South Korea (KORUS FTA) and their experience was that the US lost 40,000 jobs, and its historical trade surplus with Korea was turned into a substantial deficit.
Ford Motor Company, whose US parent had not initially objected to the KORUS FTA, pointed out this sad experience to the Canadian government just as we were putting the seal on our own trade deal. The PM’s response was a sharp rebuke to the manufacturing giant, accusing Ford of ‘duplicity’. Ford is Canada’s largest auto maker, employing about eight thousand people in Ontario and responsible for substantial spin-off employment, mainly in Ontario. Currently about a half million Canadians are employed in the auto industry, with fully a third of those in manufacturing. All Korean-made cars are imported into Canada.
Another potentially impacted auto-maker, Fiat-Chrysler, had been in discussions with the federal and provincial governments over financial support to help it expand its manufacturing operations in Ontario. Last September Ford had been awarded $140 million in a similar move to help it upgrade its plants. In fact the federal government maintains an open budget allocation just for this purpose. And jurisdictions south of the border have long used grants and loans to attract auto companies and other large employers to their states.
 Will beef actually get from Alberta to South Korea? Before either the federal or provincial governments could officially respond, Ontario’s provincial opposition leader, Tim Hudak, slammed any funding for Chrysler, calling it ‘corporate welfare’, ‘extortion’ and ‘ransom’. Both official levels of government were stunned and Chrysler immediately withdrew its request, claiming that it was not prepared to become a ‘political football’. Mr. Hudak, who is fond of complaining about Ontario losing its industrial base and jobs, needs to reflect on his behaviour and how he has shown himself to be unfit for the job of premier of this province. And his party needs to show him the door before the next provincial election, something a number of PC party members have already contemplated.
There will be winners and losers from this South Korean trade deal. While some beef and pork producers from Ontario and Quebec may see increased sales, most of the meat products will come from the west, primarily Alberta. On the other hand, Ontario auto makers Ford, Chrysler and GM, will los e sales to even cheaper Hyundai and Kia models, depressing both employment and provincial incomes.
Why would the federal government be so keen on adding more jobs into Alberta’s booming economy and driving up inflationary pressure there? And why are the feds OK with further depressing Ontario’s economy – the latest entry into the economic ‘have-not’club? It makes no economic sense, something that Ford and the Ontario government have been saying. And that is perhaps the reason this South Korean deal, which had been started a decade ago, had been left sitting on the shelf until now.
This is not only bad economic policy, it is patently unfair – unfair that a trade deal will benefit one province, one where the PM happens to reside, at the expense of another. Watching Quebec’s PQ government set the ground work for another sovereignty referendum, perhaps as early as next year, it is useful to reflect on what we tell Quebecers to expect by voting to stay in Canada. If it is not fairness, then what?
Background links:
Premier Peterson US Korean Trade Pact Free Trade and Jobs Auto Sector Worries Harper Slams Ford Harper Takes on Ford
Hudak Slams Chrysler Chrysler Backs Out
 By Pepper Parr
March 17, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Information is power. Knowing what is happening gives the person with the information an advantage over the person who doesn’t have that information.
City hall has tons of information – getting at it is not always easy.
 The city recently released a report, it was put together by Andrea Holland of the Clerks department and covers almost every sin imaginable when it comes to what information there is, what you can have, what you can’t have and how you get it. It’s not exactly an easy read but the information is there.
Transparency, accountability and privacy are common themes today. The City of Burlington is committed to fostering a culture of transparency, based on the principle that city information:
Must be provided to the public, limited by a few exceptions
Should be released proactively and responsibly.
Early in this decade the provincial government created the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act; FIPPA for short. The purposes of this Act are,
(a) to provide a right of access to information under the control of institutions in accordance with the principles that,
(i) information should be available to the public,
(ii) necessary exemptions from the right of access should be limited and specific, and
(iii) decisions on the disclosure of government information should be reviewed independently of government; and
(b) to protect the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information about themselves held by institutions and to provide individuals with a right of access to that information.
The province then created a sub set for the municipal sector and called that MFIPPA. In order to provide clarity around the FIPPA legislation with regards to records of members of council and the protection of personal information contained within those records, staff have prepared a reference guide – Access, Privacy and Records, A Guide for Council. It is to provide you with information to make informed decisions about the personal information you have within your office.
 The guide was prepared in consultation with staff and members of council to ensure that the information provided was clear and informative. Further research was conducted on Information and Privacy Commission orders that have been issued with respect to councilor records as well discussions with staff from the Ministry of Government Services.
The Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (MFIPPA) came in to effect on January 1, 1991. It applies to all municipalities in Ontario, including local agencies, boards and commissions, school boards and police services.
MFIPPA has two purposes:
Allows every person to request information from a municipality
Describes how the municipality must respond to requests, step by step
Lists limited and specific situations where access must not or may not be granted
Allows individuals to access and correct their own personal information
Requires that municipalities protect personal information in their care
Establishes rules for how personal information must be managed, including proper collection, use and disclosure
Compliance with MFIPPA is overseen by the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario (IPC). If a requester is not satisfied with the quantity or quality of information released by a municipality in an access to information decision (e.g. adequacy of a record search, information withheld under an exemption), or if an individual feels that their privacy has been breached while interacting with a
municipality, appeals and complaints may be made to the commissioner. Following an investigation, the IPC will then issue a public order or report describing the circumstances of an appeal or complaint, and what must be done to resolve the matter.
Transparency, accountability and privacy are common themes today. The City of Burlington is committed to fostering a culture of transparency, based on the principle that city information:
Must be provided to the public, limited by a few exceptions
Should be released proactively and responsibly.
This report explains how MFIPPA applies to elected officials at the City of Burlington, and provides guidance for how to comply with the Act in daily practice.
MFIPPA and the City of Burlington:
The City Clerk has been delegated with the responsibility for overseeing and administering MFIPPA within the municipality. Within the Clerks Department, the Records and Information Coordinator is responsible for the receipt and processing of access requests, providing advice and consultation to corporate staff, serving members of the public, and advocating for privacy and confidentiality throughout the organization.
FOI request process:
1. A request is received via mail, or in person at the Service Burlington counter. Requests must be accompanied by a legislated $5 fee.
2. The records and information coordinator sends a search memo to all affected departments and staff, which may include individual members of council.
3. Within 7 days, the affected departments and/or individuals provide unaltered and entire records to the records and information coordinator, along with recommendations on release, for analysis.
4. The records and information coordinator analyzes each record to determine whether or not it should be released under MFIPPA. At this stage, the Clerk’s department may seek an opinion from the City’s legal counsel.
5. When analysis is complete, a release package is prepared and approved by the City Clerk. Records may be released in part or in full, or withheld in their entirety, in situations where all responsive records are exempt from disclosure, or where no records exist.
6. All records pertaining to the request are securely stored in a locked cabinet in the Clerks Department until the required retention period has expired.
What is a record:
MFIPPA defines ‘record’ as “any record of information however recorded, whether in printed form, on film, by electronic means or otherwise.” The definition is broad in order to include the full range of possible information formats.
Under MFIPPA, councillors are not considered to be officers or employees of the corporation and records related to interactions with their constituents as elected officials (constituency records) are therefore not covered by MFIPPA and therefore not accessible under the Act. However, if a member of council holds corporate records  created by the City of Burlington, or is discussing city business, or where they relate to city business such as communicating directly with City staff, that information may be accessible under MFIPPA.
Councillor Assistants are considered to be City of Burlington employees, to which MFIPPA access provisions do apply.
 Constituency records:
Records of a councillor acting on behalf of a constituent and representing their interests are not accessible under MFIPPA. This includes all content, opinions and personal information contained in any correspondence to and from a constituent, i.e. name, phone number, email and mailing address. For more details on what constitutes personal information, see Definitions below.
Examples:
Correspondence from a constituent concerning a pothole in their neighbourhood
Email from a constituent requesting that the councillor attend a community event
Correspondence between a councillor and a private sector company
City business records:
Corporate records include information that is related to the business of the city, its agencies and boards, and may be requested through MFIPPA. All corporate records related to city business are also governed by the City of Burlington records retention by law 97-2005 and amending by-law 62-2013.
Examples:
Email sent to city staff and members of council, including carbon copies (cc).
Councillor records that advance the interests of the city.
Councillor forwards request for pothole repair to Roads and Parks Maintenance.
Roads and Parks Maintenance receives a request sent via email directly from a constituent to repair a city owned asset.
Email from a citizen, forwarded to a city department by a Councillor’s Assistant for follow up
Records related to a Council member’s involvement with a City agency, when acting on behalf of the city.
 Email:
Email between Council members and city staff is typically accessible under MFIPPA. Other email contents which are not generally accessible under MFIPPA include:
Citizen contact lists, addresses and phone numbers stored in email systems (hosted and on site, i.e. Outlook; Constant Contact.)
Emails between a member of council and a constituent or local business
Personal emails sent from one member of Council to another.
When a FOI request is received for councillor records, all requests will be analyzed on their own merit and a decision will be made whether the records are subject to MFIPPA or not, and if they are, a further decision will be made to release or withhold. Each request represents a unique set of circumstances that will need to be considered.
Councillor records management: During the term of office and when re-elected.
At the start of each term of office, members of Council will receive training on MFIPPA as part of Council orientation.
Corporate records related to city business must be retained and disposed of according to the City of Burlington records retention by-law.
Confidential and Transitory information, including draft or working documents and duplicate copies, can be securely destroyed in a locked shredding bin or with a cross-cut shredder when no longer required. On-site shredding services are highly recommended for secure disposal of personal, confidential and sensitive information.
Constituent records fall under the sole custody and control of the member of council. Even though MFIPPA does not apply to these records, each councillor should take steps to safeguard any personal information that is in their possession from unintended use or disclosure.
Constituent records can be treated as “General Correspondence” for retention purposes, with a suggested retention period of Current + 4 years.
 Any constituent records and/or personal information that has been collected by a member of Council or received through the Councillor’s office, including contact details, that resides on city email or other city-owned resources, can not be shared or used for any purpose without the individual’s prior consent. Similarly, contact information cannot be shared with election teams without prior consent to do so from the individual. The voter’s list is not intended for use related to constituency business.
Before leaving office, a councillor may forward any outstanding constituency matters or ward-related documents to their assistant for future follow up with a request to the affected constituent for approval to send the unresolved matter to the incoming councillor.
Private or personal contacts saved in Outlook folders must be destroyed.
 If an elected official wishes to retain a copy of any records associated with their time in office, contact the City Clerk.
Any records and documents retained by former councillors must be kept according to the City of Burlington records retention by-law. Electronic records should be encrypted, using one of several methods available.
When there is a change in office, the Councillor’s assistant should send an email to all current recipients of the Ward newsletter, offering a clear option to opt in and continue receiving the newsletter, or to opt out from future communication.
One example is provided below:
“As you may be aware, a new Councillor will be in place for Ward X as of December 1. If you wish to continue receiving the Ward X newsletter, please opt in at the link below.”
Collection, use and disclosure under MFIPPA
MFIPPA includes specific requirements for how municipalities collect, use and disclose personal information.
Every time that personal information is collected by a municipality, notice must be provided to the affected individual(s) which states:
The legal authority to collect
The purpose(s) for which the personal information will be used
The title, business address and telephone contact for an officer or employee who can answer questions about them collection.
MFIPPA prohibits the collection of personal information unless the collection is:
Expressly authorized by law, or
Used for the purposes of law enforcement, or
Necessary to the administration of a lawfully authorized activity.
 The personal information collected by an institution may only be used under the following conditions:
With informed consent from the individual
For the purpose for which it was obtained or compiled, or for a consistent purpose.
A municipality is not permitted to disclose personal information in its custody or under its control, unless the person to whom the information relates has consented to its disclosure, or in a few other limited circumstances described under the Act, for example: when there is statutory authority to disclose for law enforcement purposes.
Example:
The name and address of a citizen signing in at a public meeting can only be disclosed if the citizen provided consent,or if the possibility of disclosure was indicated in a written collection notice posted at the meeting.
The use and disclosure of personal information must always be consistent with the original purpose for which it was collected.
A consistent purpose is defined under MFIPPA as something an individual might reasonably have expected. Reasonable expectations are typically established in collection notices.
Under MFIPPA, councillors do not have any special right of access to records held by municipalities, including the personal information of citizens and employees.
In other words, members of council may only access information that would not normally be exempt from disclosure under MFIPPA. The same is true for former members of council or employees who, at one time, may have had access to records in the performance of their duties.
This approach is intended to protect members of council and the City of Burlington from the following risks:
 Contravening MFIPPA
Breach of privacy or confidentiality
Negative media exposure Example:
Members of Council cannot access contact information listed on public meeting sign-in sheets unless the attendee has consented to that kind of disclosure in advance.7
Records of unsuccessful tender submissions for a city construction project are reviewed and redacted according to MFIPPA exemptions before being received by a member of council, if requested outside of standing committee and council documentation
Councillors may have a right of access to certain types of information that would not be available to the general public, if they require the information in their capacities as members of council in order to carry out duties related to that function.
Councillors who wish to request information from the City of Burlington outside of their official capacity may submit an FOI request to the Clerk’s department at any time.
Access to personal information:
Where a councillor acting in their official capacity seeks access to personal information held by the city (for example, the personal information of an employee), information may only be obtained if the individual has provided prior consent.
The Mayor, as Head of Council, is considered an “officer” of the City. The Mayor’s records that relate to the mayoral duties, as opposed to constituency or personal papers, are considered to be in the City’s custody or control and therefore may be requested under MFIPPA.
 Examples of mayoral duty records, which may be accessible:
Notes taken at Burlington Hydro meeting, while acting in official capacity
Speech delivered at opening of new recreational facility
Staff within the Office of the Mayor are considered to be in political positions, to which MFIPPA access provisions do not normally apply. For example, an email sent from the Mayor to one of their staff members would not typically be accessible under MFIPPA. However, if city staff are copied on the email, it could be accessible.
Any time that the Mayor or one of his or her staff forwards a customer service or constituency matter to city staff for follow up, that record may also be requested under MFIPPA.
This is in contrast to staff working within Councillor offices, who are considered to be City of Burlington employees to which MFIPPA access provisions do apply.
Definition of personal information:
“personal information” means recorded information about an identifiable individual, including,
(a) information relating to the race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation or marital or family status of the individual,
(b) information relating to the education or the medical, psychiatric, psychological, criminal or employment history of the individual or information relating to financial transactions in which the individual has been involved,
(c) any identifying number, symbol or other particular assigned to the individual,
(d) the address, telephone number, fingerprints or blood type of the individual,
(e) the personal opinions or views of the individual except if they relate to another individual,
(f) correspondence sent to an institution by the individual that is implicitly or explicitly of a private or confidential nature, and replies to that correspondence that would reveal the contents of the original correspondence,
(g) the views or opinions of another individual about the individual, and
(h) the individual’s name if it appears with other personal information relating to the individual or where the disclosure of the name would reveal other personal information about the individual.
There you have it. Not the kind of document you will take to the beach to read in the summer – but it is the kind of document you might want to refer to – and it will be on the Gazette website for a long time – until it is revised.
In the past these rules have not been fully observed. with an informed public – we just might see better compliance.
 By Pepper Parr
March 15, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
John Willard has certainly put a much different twist on what we thought quilts were all about. Canadians used to see quilts as things that people on farms used – often made out of bits and pieces of discarded clothing and flour sacks.
We then saw quilts done by the Mennonite community that were pieces of art – with traditional patterns that sold into the tens of thousands at the annual quilt sale in New Hamburg each fall.
 A lot of tradition in this quilt but the use of pastel colours move it out of what many see as the “traditional” rural quilt made from remnants and flour sacks. Then along came John Willard who introduced designs that had not been seen before and quilt making was now going in a different direction. Willard has a 40 year retrospective on at the Burlington Art Centre where there is a feast for the eye and, if you look very closely, some very, very powerful statements hand stitched into a quilt.
There are a number of quilts that would meet the demanding standards of the Mennonite community and there is one that would fill the wall of one of those Lakeshore mansions.
Willard will tell you the very moment he became an artist. The family came across an old trunk stuck in a chicken coop on a family farm in Shediac, New Brunswick. It was filled with brightly coloured crepe paper – that moment James Willard could almost feel the colour entering his blood stream – we see that colour today on the walls at the Burlington Art Centre.
Willard was a set designer, a photographer He bought his first quilt in 1972; in the next five years he could display a collection of 30 quilts.
His work has meandered all over the place. He worked as a custodian at the Oakville Library and later accepted the position of Publicity and Programming Assistant which he held for 23 years.
Willard’s introduction to the finer art of actually quilting was received at the hand of Michael James who was giving workshops. Willard didn’t subscribe to the diehard traditionalists who insist quilts must be completely hand stitched from geometric blocks, have four square corners and be used as bed covering upon completion. Willard went with those who believed a quilt could be of any size, shape, texture or subject matter and could be hung on a wall to be admired as a work of art.
 It all began on an evening in 1907 needs very close inspection. What appears to be white caps on the waves is much more than the eyes sees at first glance.
There is a quilt that didn’t do much for me when I glanced at it. It saw it as a postcard, mildly interesting, until a woman asked if I’d looked at the Titanic – I said I had but it wasn’t my kind of quilt – but that I did like the ribbon quilts. “Take a closer look” the woman said to me. I did and said – “so it’s a quilt of the Titanic sinking – there are two of them.”
 The names of those lost when the Titanic sank in 1907 With that tone of voice only a teacher or a Mother can use, the woman said: “get closer” so I walked up and took a really close look – and then it hit me. The names of the more than 1500 people whose lives were lost when the Titanic sank at sea were hand stitched into the waves the ship was sliding beneath. The quilt is called: It all began on an evening in 1907.
 This massive piece needs a very large wall – it takes over any room it is installed in – but then what a room. The colour, the energy – it is almost a tapestry. The Ribbon Series, of which here are seven at the exhibit, celebrate a turning point in Willard’s life when he came out of the closet and embraced his life as a gay man with a joy and celebration that is evident in the flows of the ribbons in some of the quilts and the tight design and discipline in others.
 The colour, the flourish and the tight discipline take the art of quilt making some distance from the remnant quilts traditionally seen as folk art. Willard is very much a quilter, evident when you watch the way he holds the needle and draws a thread tightly but he has always relied on fellow quilters who have worked with him following his designs and instructions. The late Alvina Martin and Linda Robertson have done much of the finishing work from designs Willard spent months perfecting.
This is an exhibit well worth the time. It is the work of a master who broke old moulds and advanced the art of quilt making to a new level.
The quilts are on display until the end of the month – well worth some of your time.
 By Pepper Parr
March 15, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Much like the way rolling stock went through town at the Burlington Junction, what we fondly call Freeman Station, people come and go at the organization that is getting ready to begin real work on the structure that now sits on the north side of Fairview just before you get to the fire station.
 It was a proud day for James Smith – the signing of the Joint Venture Agreement between the city and the Friends of Freeman Station. Smith, standing behind the red light, signed on behalf of the organization. The Board of Directors announced that James Smith, President of Friends of Freeman Station (FoF) has resigned for personal reasons – good personal reasons. Smith will remain on the Board of Directors. He was a lead player in the significant effort that saved the station from the wrecking ball – the city did everything it could to get rid of the building – weren’t even able to sell it for scrap wood.
Brian Aasgaard, will assume the position of President; he served as a Vice-President of Friends of Freeman Station for a number of years. Brian has done an outstanding job as Vice-President, and will devote the same level of high energy and enthusiasm he has always shown. Brian has this uncanny knack for getting people to give the FoF stuff that relates to railway operations.
The FoF is always looking for new members, especially people who are good with tools and want a reason to get out of the house and be with the guys.
 John Mellow stands in the cold with artist David Harrington proudly displaying a print of the building the FoF are refurbishing to its 1906 condition. The renowned, internationally acclaimed heritage artist, David Harrington has taken out a membership and generously donated one of his limited edition prints to Friends of Freeman Station to assist in their fundraising efforts to restore the station back to its 1906 when it was first constructed. This limited edition “ The Burlington Freeman Station” print is numbered 19/500, signed by the artist.
Getting the public to take a sense of ownership in a project is a fine art – coming up with a name that tells the story in a few words is part art and part science. The good people over at the Friends of Freeman Station appear to be breaking one of the cardinal rules in keeping a story alive and growing: never mix up the message.
 Most people know it as the Freeman Station – even though officially it was the Burlington Junction station and that is what the sign on the structure will say the day it is opened as a tourist destination. We are seeing the words Burlington Junction being used – and that is in fact the real name of the station. It was one of two train stops in Burlington. The Burlington West station was the one used by the farmers to ship their produce into Toronto. It was located near a farm owned by the Freeman family and came to be known as the Freeman station when in fact the Freeman’s and had nothing to do with the station. Farmers tend to talk in terms of property by the name of the people who own the land – even though the ownership of that land changed hands years ago.
However, the public knows it as the Freeman Station – introducing the real name in media releases just confuses people. Do what the politicians do – stick to the message. If you don’t – you lose your audience.
Background links:
Freeman station saved – city signs the agreement.
 By Staff
March 13, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
If the inaugural meeting is any indication of what’s to come from this grassroots group, several local charities and organizations will be benefiting from additional funding, simply because passionate and caring women are coming together as 100 Women Who Care Burlington.
The concept is simple enough – 100 women (or more), $100 each (or more if you choose), 1 hour meetings 4 times per year. The goal is for 100 Women Who Care Burlington to collectively generate a minimum of $40,000 annually for local charitable initiatives. The impact is very powerful!
 Laurel Hubber, the energy behind this project said: “Just thinking about the impact we’ll have on much-needed charitable programs and services in our community is incredibly inspiring.”
She put the word out to her friends and networking circle and asked if they would give an hour of their time to talk about people and organizations in Burlington that needed some help. Once they had decided who – the cheques got written and the funds distributed – all within an hour.
 Having decided who they want to donate their funds to this first meeting of the 100 who care sat to have their picture taken. As a concept – this is very powerful. At their first meeting they chose the Burlington Humane Society as the recipient. Here is how Adrienne Gosse, Shelter Manager commented “the Burlington Humane Society was incredibly surprised to learn we were the recipients of this wonderful donation! You could hear the shouts of excitement and joy from the shelter staff and volunteers when we got the call from the 100 Women who Care foundation. This money will be used to provide our cats and dogs with all the medical care they need, such as medical exams by a veterinarian, vaccines, medications, spays and neuters, along with any additional care such as dentals and broken bone repairs.”
The group meets again on March 26, at Tansley Woods – for an hour, to donate and decide where the funds are to go this time. Meeting begins at 7:30 – ends at 8:30; registration takes place at 7:00 pm
Background links:
They get it done in an hour.
 By Staff
March 11, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
At a time when many were at church last Sunday, the fire department got a call – 10:56 am exactly – that smoke was coming out of the roof at 2063 Hadfield Court, a street north of Upper Middle Road, west of Appleby Line.
The first fire crew to arrive could see smoke and flames on the roof of the single family dwelling. Firefighters determined the fire originated in the attic area on the second storey of the house and pulled the ceiling beside the chimney down exposing the flames which were quickly extinguished.
 In a community with swimming pools in many of the back yards – a chimney fire cause damage estimated at $250,000 The fire had extended into the roof which moved the focus to the exterior of the house.
Once the fire was extinguished on the roof crews ensured that any extension from the fire was eliminated.
The fire was declared out and the home owner was allowed back into the building at 14:02, the fire trucks pulled out and that was it.
There were no injuries just massive water damage estimated at $ 250,000
The fire is believed to have been caused by a fire in the chimney The fire safety message in the media report: Have all chimneys cleaned and inspected every year.
And now the family at 2063 Hadfield Court begins the messy job of cleaning up and doing their best to get the smell of the fire out of the house.
 By Staff
February 25, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
If you are one of those who believes that there is an end to this winter and that Spring will arrive and the flowers will bloom and you are thinking about the work to be done to get your garden ready – there is a place you want to be: Saturday, March 1, from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. at St. Christopher’s Anglican Church 662 Guelph Line for the Halton Seedy Saturday.
 A large variety of garden seeds will be for sale at the Halton Seedy Saturday. A $2 entrance fee will give you access to a day full of swapping seeds at community seed exchange tables, buying from heirloom and organic seed vendors, learning from garden experts, and garden craft fun for kids. You can also discover community garden opportunities in Burlington and Halton. Food and drink from Family First Organic Meals will be available for purchase.
Featured guest speakers: at 11:15 a.m., Karen Walsh, a Halton Master Gardener, will discuss starting vegetables indoors; at 12:15 p.m., Fran Freeman, an Urban Beekeeper, will present urban beekeeping and attracting pollinators; at 1:15 p.m., Linda Crago, an heirloom vegetable farmer from Tree & Twig will discuss exciting vegetable varieties for your garden; and at 2:15 p.m. Sarah Hemingway from Sarah’s Kitchen Garden, will present growing, cooking and preserving herbs.
Confirmed vendors and exhibitors thus far include: BurlingtonGreen, Greening Sacred Spaces, Oakville Sustainable Food Partnership-Growing & Sharing Food in Halton, Burlington Horticulture Society, Urban Harvest Seeds, Days to Harvest, The Plant Lady, Matchbox Garden & Seed Co., Sarah’s Kitchen Garden, Tree & Twig, Urban Beekeeper, and Halton Master Gardeners.
Additional information can be found at Burlingtongreen. Event proceeds will support Halton community gardens. Non-perishable food items will also be accepted for food bank donation.
Halton Seedy Saturday is brought to you by BurlingtonGreen, Greening Sacred Spaces (Halton-Peel), and Growing & Sharing Food in Halton, with funding support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Background links:
Burlington opens its community garden.
 By Pepper Parr
February 22, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
There will be a heritage planner – a full time heritage planner but getting the position secured was easier said than done.
The question in front of city council as they worked their way through the budget was: how much did they want to spend on a heritage PLANNER – $206,000 or $103,000.
The city already has a heritage planner who spends half of her time on heritage matters and the rest of her time on other planning work; she is swamped. She gives the city far more time than she gets paid for and has done a lot of superb work.
Heritage has become a sort of favourite flavour of the moth in this city. The Heritage Advisory Committee is much more active – at times they think they need a full time planner. When the decision was made to go forward with the idea of a Conservation Heritage District for the Mt Nemo Plateau the work of the heritage planner suddenly got much bigger.
The question then was – how much staff resource are needed? For some reason council wanted to get right into the weeds on this one. They first talked in glowing terms about the job the current heritage planner has been doing and then began to map out her career for the next ten years until they were told that wasn’t council’s job.
 It was about 15 months ago that rural Burlington began the discusion about what it wanted to be. Some things were clear – others not as clear. The early draft of a vision got put on a huge board and for the most part the community liked the look of what they had said to each other. Council had gotten into the weeds on this one the way they do far too often. For a bit it looked like they were going to start running the department. Should the current planner become full time on heritage? a full time role and contract someone for an additional half day; no that’s not good use of human resources. OK look for someone within the department and have them pick up the development work the planner was doing – the rationale for that view was that development is off so there must be bodies in planning with nothing better to do.
General manager Scott Stewart who signs off on everything that comes out of planning, struggled to get a grip on all the ideas flying around when the city manager pipes up with his position: it isn’t pretty.
“You don’t Jenna, she does; she decides what she wants to do. You have asked us to manage – then let us manage; that is not your job; this is not the type of discussion we should be having; you have me here to tell you things like this.”
 A heritage planner was critical if a Conservation Heritage District bylaw was ever to get passed. First part of that effort got through a Standing Committee. The proposal to think about turning the Mt. Nemo Plateau into a Conservation Heritage District which is just at the information gathering stage will require a lot more of a planner’s time. That file has the potential to become a lot messier than it would at first appear – when individual land issues are on the table get ready for noisy meetings.
Councillor Taylor is a big advocate on for making the plateau a conservation district – he wanted the planning resources available.
While council was digesting that blast from the city manager, Scott Stewart the general manager invited the Director of planning to “take it outside” where they worked out the possible time/task splits
The proposal was to have 1.5 heritage planners – then it looked like they were looking at two planners. Then there was a tussle over what this planner would be doing. The issue was where the planner was going to come from and the amount of work that was going to get created by the Mt. Nemo Conservation District task that is now on the table – or look as if it is going to be on the table.
A motion to hire more people failed, the amended motion to make the existing half time planner into a full-time position and distribute other work she was doing within the existing staff compliment passed 6-1 with Taylor voting against the decision made. He wanted more in the way of human resources than his colleagues were prepared to pay for.
 Residents look at a large map of their community during a Rural Summit more than a year ago. That meeting was the genesis of making the Mt Nemo Plateau a Conservation Heritage District. Some members of council wanted to know why staff just didn’t do the staff allocation. It was a new position – they were moving from a half time heritage planner to a full-time heritage planner and that was a decision council had to make, explained director of finance Joan Ford. What Ford was trying to say in a polite way was that council had to decide on the expenditure – staff would then decide who should be doing the job.
Councillor Meed Ward said she had “difficulty with the process that got us here”.
Was the spend going to be $103,000 or was it going to be $206,000 and would the new position be added to the base staff compliment or would they go outside and contract with someone, or would they look within the planning department and find someone who wasn’t all that busy.
Councillor Lancaster thought the city was moving too quickly on this file. Her view was that council needed to be more reflective and to take some time. But that wasn’t the view that Councillor Taylor brought to the horseshoe. The Conservation District would be in his ward and he is fully aware as to just how powerful the people in North Burlington can be. They were the folk that hung in and fought the Nelson Aggregate quarry expansion. Those people know how to dig in and for them a Conservation District would solve a lot of their concerns or they think it will.
 It took $2 million out of the legal department’s budget to pay for the tear long tribunal that decided the Jefferson Salamander was important and that an expansion of the existing quarry should not be permitted. It was rural Burlington residents who were the force behind that battle – they were not to be trifled with. The expansion to the quarry was going to be in the lower part of this topographical map Councillor Dennison said that “we didn’t ask for this, we don’t need to get all gung-ho about it. He wasn’t all that keen on the “foremost specialist the city hired to do the first cut of the research presented at the January meeting. Get ready to see this as a file that becomes very contentious.
At the community event in January city planner Bruce Krushelnicki explained that a Heritage Conservation District was created through a bylaw passed by the city. No one else has any input on that bylaw he explained. The city can pass a bylaw to create something and they can revise that bylaw anytime they wish.
What the planning department has to do is do the research necessary to figure out how best to craft a bylaw that will stand up to scrutiny – and at the same time ensure that the community wants such a bylaw and understands the ramifications. There are both ramifications and consequences – some of them unintended.
Once e a bylaw is in place it tends to take on a life of its own – which is what the rural life advocates want to see.
Making that happen requires a lot of hard work, a lot of research and a lot of public opinion massaging.
The first battle was to get the planner in place so that some of the early research work could get done.
There will be a planner, working full-time on heritage matters. The planning department will figure out a way to reallocate day-to-day work in the department.
Our significant seven weren’t seen at their best on this issue and they needed the sharp rebuke from the city manager to remind then what they were supposed to be doing.
At times one wonders how we manage to stay out of serious trouble.
Background links:
Rural Burlington figures out what it wants to be.
 By Pepper Parr
February 4, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Where would you go if you wanted to figure out what RBA and BPM and SBB meant? You could do worse than talking to someone who has CIA, CCSA, CFE, CGAP, CRMA behind her name, which is what Sheila Jones, the city’s auditor has behind her name.
And she can explain what RBA, BPM and SBB mean and why they are both very relevant and important to the financial management of the city.
Burlington has, up until the 2014 budget year, based its spending on what each department does. City manager Jeff Fielding has changed that approach to a focus on the service that is delivered to the citizens of the city.
The objective is to first identify the services the city is in and decide if these are businesses we want to be in. There are a total of 54 services, of those 13 are internal to city hall – think legal and HR; leaving 41 services delivered to the public. Of that 41 – 31 are delivered by the city. Others are delivered by other levels of government. Region is an example – they handle water and waste removal.
If the residents of the city, and let us hope that it is the residents who make the decision along with their council members, and not just the administrators at city hall, decide a particular service is something they want and are prepared to pay for the city manager will assign responsibility and accountability for the effective and efficient delivery of that service to a specific person.
As a broad approach to the delivery of services it would appear sensible – now how do you define the metrics that will be used to measure the value of the services and determine if it is being delivered in an effective and efficient manner?.
 Sheila Jones, CIA, CCSA, CFE, CGAP, CRMA, Burlington’s first auditor Back in December, at a Committee of the Whole meeting Auditor Jones took Council through a detailed overview that left them with more questions than answers. Jones used about 45 minutes to lay out the changes that were in the works and asked for feedback.
She started by explaining what was going to be fundamentally different.
 The city is moving from a traditional approach to budgeting where all the expenses were attached to a department. They are moving to an approach where the expenses are attached to a service the city delivers. The city administration does see this as an effective way to manage the city. The approach is going to be for staff to provide Business Plans and Cases, Performance Tracking and Monitoring, Performance Reporting and Continuous Improvements.
At the end of this process the city manager expects to be able to ask, and answer two critical questions. There is a third question that you the voter will get to ask and answer.
Fielding is requiring his staff to tell him:
How much did we do?
How well did we do it?
He then wants you, the public, to tell him if you are any better off?
The process he is putting in place certainly has merit. Fielding is the kind of guy who thinks things through but isn’t afraid to change his mind if he didn’t get it right the first time. He has a lot of experience with “unintended consequences”.
The time line for all this:
 First, if you ever wondered what they do at city hall – charts like this are an example. This was not an easy task. It sets out the time frame to get to the new approach. This will be a very significant shift for staff and will be the making of careers for some and maybe early retirement for those who can’t make the transformation. Public input and education are a critical part of this process. What the city wants to do is promote dialogue about: Service management, Council and Service Owner roles and responsibilities, and the portfolio of services delivered to the public.
The city wants input on the level of service performance accountability reporting people want to see, along with the Importance and value of services delivered.
Auditor Jones wanted to know where Council felt they fit into the process. Were they OK with maintaining a strategic view of services by making decisions regarding commissioning and/or decommissioning of services; increasing and/or decreasing service levels and their appetite and/or tolerance for risk and a review of service portfolio?
Examples of de-commissioning a service can be seen in the 2014 budget. Do you want leaf collection in the fall as frequently; how often do you want sidewalks plowed.
Jones asked: Do you accept Council’s role and responsibilities? 100% they said BUT, …there was still some work to be done to show the link from strategic goals to performance management.
The report that was being discussed set out Senior Management, Service Owner and Staff Role and Responsibilities. Each was to:
Maintain an operational and tactical view of services by: making decisions regarding how services are delivered within the limits of Council approved service levels and budgets; determining, tracking/monitoring and reporting on performance and identifying risks; determining and implementing opportunities for continuous improvement; reviewing services and maintaining the service portfolio based on the decisions of Council.
Jones went on to give a detailed example as to how this would work using Burlington Transit as an example. Those details will be part of a different article.
Everything the city does under the 2015 budget will be somewhere within the Service Portfolio that is currently being revised and refined. That data is expected sometime in the spring when it can ideally become part of the election debate.
At this point in time the service portfolio consists of:
 A Service Portfolio is a list of all the services the city delivers. With the new Service Based Budget there will be a business plan for each service that will be approved by each Council at the beginning of its term of office. This basically sets out what the city is going to deliver.
Full details of that portfolio have yet to be released – there could be some surprises in that document. The core, the foundation of this new approach is the service that the city delivers. What services does the city want to be in and which services does the city want to get out of. This is a Council decision – what staff want to know is: What is the most suitable cycle time for a Council to review the service portfolio? 60% said at the beginning of new council term; 60% said some other time and 20% said at the beginning of each year. That comes to 140% – is this a harbinger of the kind of number stuff we can expect?
Every service will have a Business Plan that sets out the rational, purpose and the expectation the service will deliver. Whenever there is a change to the Business Plan a Business Case has to be provided.
One assumes these business plans and business cases will be on-line, which, if the Strategic Plan is any example, the public will pick up on very quickly and begin to demand that what is published is delivered. Which is exactly what city manager Jeff Fielding wants them to do – he wants the public to hold his staff accountable for his staff to learn to be accountable to the public they serve.
What is going to be in a business plan: Service Banner, Current State, Sub-services, Recent Continuous Improvements Initiatives, Financial Investment, Human Resource Investment, Emerging Opportunities & Anticipated Risks, Measuring Success and Service Objectives.
The presentation was extensive. Each of the parts of the Business Plan had forms that staff had to complete.
It all starts with what city people call the Service banner which a high level view of what the service is, why it is being delivered, what it will cost and how it will be reviewed by city council.
 The document that sets out the high level view of the service being delivered.  This type of document sets out the working plan for a service. The focus is always on improving the quality of the service and keeping the cost in line.  How much money has to be put into the service and what are the HR needs. Burlington has managed to keep the number of people on staff down – and without the use of all that much in the way of contract work.  City manager Fielding wants to see improvements and realizes that means taking some risks – and some of those risks will not work out. Staff can advise Council, Council has to make the decision. The public has to learn that changes need to be made and that much of the territory we are moving into is uncharted waters. Mistakes will be made and the public is going to have to learn to accept the mistakes. The Pier was not a mistake – but it was a classic example of terrible oversight and shockingly poor management.
 These are the documents that performance evaluations are going to be based on: Did city hall deliver – and if they didn’t, why not and if the why not isn’t satisfactory maybe HR will suggest another line of work – outside city hall.  For city manager Jeff Fielding it is all about improvement in the way services are delivered along with a hard look at what the city wants to actually deliver. Fielding isn’t a hard-nosed, cut everything to the bare bones. He thinks the flowers along main roads is a plus and are a part of what makes Burlington the top city it is – BUT he wants to make sure the public fully understands the costs – and is prepared to pay them. Fielding says the ear he has to the ground tells him the public is prepared to pay the cost for the extras – Council of course has to make that decision. With Council having had an overview of the process Auditor Jones wanted to know how they, Council, wanted to track what was being done.
She proposed that Council review the service portfolio at the beginning of each new council term. The Service Portfolio is that list of all the things the city does – the different businesses they are in.
All the Business Plans for all the services in place would be before Council and be made part of the orientation process for a new council and reviewed again annually during the budget process.
Council would look only at those services that have had a change made to them which would be shown in business cases that would be before Council. Waiting for a staff member to decide a change was needed and that a business case should be written up works only if you have a civil service that is responsive and genuinely feels they are accountable to the public. Many are, quite a few are not – it’s a culture change that is still being created.
Auditor Jones then wanted to know: What is the appropriate frequency of reporting performance
Measures; 40% said quarterly; 40% said semi-annually and 20% said annually
Jones took the middle road and proposed that management report to Council semi-annually to coordinate with financial reporting starting in 2015.
Management proposed to assess quarterly as the methods and data for calculating performance measures become stable, predictable and easy to access. This is a work in process that will need quite a bit of fine tuning.
Jones then poses the critical question: What does the public needs to know? Key messaging would include: what is the service portfolio?; why is it important to them? why should they care?; what is the service management framework?; what is a business plan?; what is service based budgeting?
The intention is to do this work in Q2 2014 using various communications channels along with Council involvement to actively engage the public in a process of education and awareness promotion.
Jones is close to emphatic when she says the city needs this valuable information from the public to assist Council in making decisions about services and service levels and to help administrate and prioritize initiative and activities. The city will begin gathering this kind of information in Q3 of 2014 for the 2015 budget and every year after that to inform the budget process.
What is the most suitable cycle for review of a service?
When a service review is defined as a formal undertaking by the service owner to ensure what is delivered is of the highest value to the community; that it applies best modern practices for cost-effective delivery, and directs valuable, limited resources to the delivery of community valued programs and services, a business case is prepared. The limitation here is that it is the service owner making the decision to review. The city might want to look for a way to pull the public into the process.
Council split on that approach as well: 40% said let’s do it bi-annually; 40% by priority sequence and 20% based on some other criteria.
Management came back with having management determine a service owner and Council requirements and develop a Service Review Framework and Methodology for implementation in 2016.
The public will participate – if you give them the opportunity. More than 70 people turned out for a budget review that was held at the Art Centre. The city didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to hold an event at Tansley Woods, where space is admittedly limited nor did they look at all the space in the Alton Campus.
And that was it – Auditor Jones had set it out for them:
Develop performance measures and complete business plans
Undertake continuous improvement efforts
Develop and implement: service based budget views; service performance accountability reporting and service review framework and methodology. Then educate the public on service management
With just under an hour for the presentation Jones asked: What do you think? And there wasn’t a word, not a peep from one of the council members. All seven members of Council were totally mute. Not a word, not a question. There was no interaction, no debate – nothing, which did not bode well for where this vital initiative for the city is going to go.
What was it that Jones said that stunned the seven? If the elected types don’t respond – what likelihood for a robust public response?
Before this new approach gets taken out to the public a lot more work needs to be done on the current council – because they didn’t appear to get it.
Jones has been the city auditor since January of 2009. A 20 year Royal Bank Financial Group veteran where she ended her career with the ban as senior manager of enterprise operational risk assessments. She also holds business degrees from Dalhousie and Queen’s universities.
 By Pepper Parr
February 1, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
In April 2013 Burlington resident Denise Davy spoke as a delegation at the city’s Community Services Committee, urging the city to take responsibility for the safety of pedestrians at railway crossings. City Council directed staff to consult with community stakeholders to research rail safety.
 This was the situation in Burlington before Denise Davey delegated to city council for a change. A rail line safety and awareness stakeholder committee was formed to bring the various groups together to review the issue and develop strategies to prevent rail line deaths. The committee included representatives fromGO Transit, CN, VIA Rail, CP, COAST, ROCK, Canadian Mental Health Association, theNorth Halton Mental Health Clinic, Halton Police, Region of Halton Public Works, Transport Canada and theTransportation Safety Board. The review resulted in a number of short-term strategies and long-term opportunities.
 Today there is appropriate fencing and protocols in place to ensure that the city tells the GO people and other authorities that the fence has been breached. It was not quite this easy when Denise Davey first took on the task of making the railway tracks safer by blocking crossing that were not properly secured. Davey’s son, Ryan, was 18 when he was killed by a train in March of 1998. Here is how she tells her story:
“Many more people have been killed by trains going through Halton since then and the numbers over the last year have increased at an alarming rate. In a six-month period, from August 2012 to February 2013, six people were killed, including a 23-year-old Hamilton man.
“That’s a huge increase from previous years and it speaks to the need for better safety measures to prevent further deaths. The area of major concern is along Fairview and Cumberland where many people have been killed by trains.
“It’s wide open and also extremely close to one of the busiest shopping plazas in Burlington. Although there are “Danger” signs posted, the well-worn footpath is a testament to how few people heed them. The same problem exists with the tracks that run between Appleby Line and Burloak, by Sherwood Forest Park.
“Not only are there openings in the fence by the park, but in many areas the bottom part of the fence has been pulled up where people have obviously crawled under. Finding out who is responsible for safety along the tracks was so difficult, however, that even after several calls to rail officials, I’m not completely clear on it.
“Indeed, it seemed even rail officials weren’t clear on it. Transport Canada and the Transportation Safety Board were quick to deflect all blame for any deaths or injuries and talk about the public’s responsibility.
“And there is truth in that. The public needs to be responsible around the tracks. But at some point, the people who run the trains also need to take some responsibility. I can think of several stories I’ve covered as a reporter in which a person was killed crossing the street illegally but a stoplight was later put in place to prevent further deaths or injuries.
“Not only are rail officials quick to deflect blame, they’re tight-lipped when it comes to statistics on train-related fatalities and injuries. After several calls to the GO media folks I was told they don’t have statistics on the number of people who have been killed by GO trains along the Halton tracks.
“How can it be?” I asked the GO spokesperson, “You’re telling me that you don’t know how many people have been killed by the service you run?” I was quickly put on hold then told I needed to talk to someone else. I never got the number from GO.
“I was eventually told by Halton police (who told me earlier they didn’t have the numbers) that five of the six recent deaths in Halton were a result of GO trains.
“I will be talking to members of Burlington city council about changes I think need to be made to areas along the tracks. They include fencing, surveillance cameras, motion sensitive lighting and noise barriers, the same type you see along the QEW in Grimsby.
“I figure if they’re deemed important enough to buffer noise for residents who live close to the highway, they should be considered important enough to save a life.”
 Will the sign make a difference? If it doesn’t – well we tried. But if it does – that is a victory. Denise Davey deserves great credit for her efforts. Keep her in mind when it comes to selecting Burlington`s Best. It was an uphill fight for a long period of time but at a city council meeting in January Bruce Zvaniga, director of transportation services said: “The various stakeholders came to the table prepared to discuss and make changes,” said Zvaniga, and “I would like to thank them for their responsiveness, action and commitment to safety.”
The committee has already put in place a number of short-term strategies, including:
A communication protocol where city staff share information with rail operators regarding fence damage and footpaths near the rail line. Rail operators are also to share information with roads and parks maintenance staff regarding fence damage on city-owned properties
Rail operator “high rail” reviews that exchange information about identified outcomes
City fencing improvements in five different locations where chain fences will be installed
Rail line safety and awareness in 11 public schools and seven catholic schools as part of the schools’ safety awareness programs and under the leadership of Operation Lifesaver
Site specific strategies have been implemented by GO Transit and the Canadian Mental Health Association
“I am very proud of the work done by the stakeholder committee,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “ The committee has created a set of best practices for the entire country. If what we have set in motion can save one life, than it has well be worth it.”
An annual stakeholder review process is now in place. The stakeholder group will meet each year to look at the outcomes of previous strategies, identify possible new strategies and discuss long-term opportunities. In 2014, the committee will invite the Catholic and public school boards to participate.
Somewhere along the way the woman who had lost a child to a rail line accident got forgotten as all the bureaucrats who should have been on top of this issue from the beginning did nothing until Denise Davey delegated.
The power of one person with a voice and the courage of their convictions is immense and magnificent.
Background links:
City staff directed to start asking questions.
Three deaths in seven months.
Parent wants better rail line safety – death level intolerable.
 By Vanessa Warren
January 30, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
An open letter to the LaSalle Park Marina Association (LPMA),
Last night I attended a public Consultation Meeting and Workshop for the City of Burlington’s 2014 budget.
 Vanessa Warren on the right reading through the city budget workbook at a public consultation last night took exception the way the LaSalle Park Marina association tried to hijack the meeting. Ken Woodruff, former Burlington Green president, is on the left. Full disclosure: I am a farmer in Burlington’s rural north, sit on the board of Burlington Green, and Chair the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition. I had never attended a workshop like this before and to be sure, what got me off the couch and to the meeting was a desire to see that public transit, environmental sustainability and rural issues were being represented within the context of the City’s financial plan; but I also attended because I feel we all have a civic duty to ensure our municipality’s house is in order.
I prescribe to the belief that I cannot ask my government to be accountable to me, if I do not engage with them.
Upon arrival, an encouragingly large group of attendees were put into working groups around large tables, and instructed as to the evening’s ‘feedback’process. We were then given an opportunity to ask questions, and the first two or three queries from the group were salient, intelligent and budget-related; but when John Birch, president of the LaSalle Park Marina Association stood up, it quickly became clear that the meeting had been hijacked.
Some background. The wealthy boat owners at the LPMA, led by rhetorician John Birch, would like to expand their private harbor, currently occupying the waterfront of a public park and further, want the city to provide more funds beyond the $150,000 already given to them to start detailed designs before the environmental assessment challenge is resolved. The crux of the issue, as I and many others see it, is that the desired construction will almost certainly destroy the wintering grounds of 1/4 of Ontario’s Trumpeter Swan population; a population that has been crawling back from the brink of extinction. I would, and have, also publicly argued that there is no demonstrated need for this redundancy particularly in the face of the City’s fiscal concerns, and with a great deal more environmental assessment to come.
However, regardless of your position on the project IT WAS NOT AN AGENDA ITEM at this budget meeting. The LaSalle Park Marina Expansion is not even being considered in the 2014 budget, and yet, the LPMA thought it appropriate to use the workshop as an illegitimate soapbox for its cause.
Many, many people, citizens, City staff, and almost the entire City Council (with the exception of Councillor Blair Lancaster), devoted their time last night to be engaged in the messy process that is democracy. The workshop was well-attended, well-organized, and should have been much more fruitful; instead, we spent a devastating amount of utterly useless time being commandeered by a special interest group railroading a non-budgetary issue.
 John Birch of the LaSalle Park Marina Association, on the left, going through his workbook. John Birch and the LPMA: I find your case for public funding of a private marina totally without merit. However, if you believe it to have merit, and as a “joint venture”of the City of Burlington, then you must follow the public process as it has been laid out. Your project already hangs by a thread of legitimacy, and if you truly believe your cause is just, then you should promote it justly. Engage with the community and your council where appropriate, and where people who have a counterpoint may enter the dialogue as well. The guerilla tactics that you used so disrespectfully last night were disruptive and unprofessional, and from my perspective, only further eroded your project’s credibility.
 By Staff
January 27, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
We have a fascination about quilts. Long a household staple in the rural community – it gets cold out there they eventually became an art form with some very traditional patterns.
 Quilt sales and exhibitions draw consistently strong audiences. In southwestern Ontario quilt designs were once painted in the sides of barns. Over time many of those traditional patterns were challenged by new artists . John Willard was one of those who challenged the traditional; a 40 Year Retrospective of his work will take place at the Burlington Art Centre from February 15, 2014 – March 30, 2014. The quilts will be hung in the Lee Chin Family Gallery
Denis Longchamps is curating this exhibit and will lead the Reception & Artist Talk on February : 23, 2-4pm at the BAC
Armed with scissors, needles, threads and fabrics John Willard has been making quilts for 40 years. Not one to follow the rules of tradition, he creates his own designs. Sometimes inspired by traditional patterns he has deconstructed, others by historical events, Willard creates quilts that are beautiful and turn the craft of quilting into an art form.
 Willard working on a quilt. A 40 year retrospective of his work will be shown at the BAC in February. John Willard is a basically self-taught quilt maker. He came to quilt making via set and costume design, photography, display and collecting, and created his first quilt in 1975 after amassing a sizeable collection of antique ones. Although his first quilts were very traditional he soon branched out into his own designs, which have evolved into bravura works of intense colour and complex patterns. He is especially noted for his daring combinations of varying and disparate fabric prints. John’s quilts have been exhibited internationally in Britain, Denmark, Japan, France, Taiwan and the West Indies as well as Canada and the US. His works are in numerous private, corporate and public collections.
 There is a level of precision seen in Willard’s quilts that is not seen in some traditional patterns. This Clair de Lune, done in 2002 was well received. John teaches the art of quilt making, specializing in contemporary design for those who wish to break away from the traditional. He and his works have been featured in many books such as A Fine Line: Studio Crafts in Ontario; Design Through Discovery: An Introduction to Art and Design and magazines including City and Country Home Magazine, Select Homes Magazine, Quilters’ Newsletter Magazine, American Quilter, Embroidery Magazine, Ontario Craft and West of the City Magazine. As a photographer he published a very successful book on Victorian houses, The Gaiety of Gables in 1974.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON.
January 23, 2014
You write them a cheque for times a year. It’s not exactly chump change. It’s just one of those things one does in a civilized society. You pay taxes and expect value for money.
 Joan Ford, the city’s Director of Finance knows where every dollar comes from and where every dollar gets spent. The city will be putting most of its Finance department people on the front line next Wednesday at the Burlington Art Centre. No open bar but there will be coffee and cookies while you participate in a public consultation meeting and interactive workshop on the budget.
The city wants you to tell them what is important to you. They do this each year and the turnout is not bad. They do an overall presentation and then run small, staff-led work groups focusing on such topics as service choices, infrastructure and planning for the future.
In a nut shell this is what the 2014 budget is about:
The City of Burlington’s proposed 2014 current budget recommends a 4.13 per cent tax rate increase to the city’s portion of the property tax bill. When this is combined with the Region of Halton’s increase of zero per cent and an education increase of zero per cent, the overall result is a proposed property tax rate increase of 1.68 per cent or $15.08 for each $100,000 of residential urban value assessment.
There are a couple of things that could be done to make this more effective. Putting a document on-line that can be downloaded and printed that sets out the basics of the budget so that people can do some homework if they wish. The budget is there if you want to download all 254 pages and print them out. How about something that is say 10 pages with lots of graphs?
And why this event is always held at just the Burlington Art Centre is inexcusable. While space is limited at Tansley Wood a public meeting could be held there and with the Alton Campus now open a public meeting could be held there as well.
The Burlington Gazette has been following the development of the budget for 2014 closely. Links to what we’ve written appear below.
 Most of the council members hold meetings in their wards to get local input. A couple of Ward 4 residents discuss a previous budget. Members of your city council continually say that half the population of the city is north of the QEW. City hall needs to do much more to serve the needs and interests of these people as well. This is a great opportunity for members of the public to share their insights, to learn more about the city’s proposed 2014 current and capital budgets and to discuss the impact the budget will have on property taxes.
 The small workshop sessions can be quite useful, particularly if there is something you want more detail on. Every Council member is on hand and anybody that knows anything from the Finance department is in the room. Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2014; 7 to 9:30 p.m.; Burlington Art Centre. Plenty of parking at the rear of the building. They should make the parking free on budget review nights.
This is an election year – so expect members of Council to listen with bigger ears this time around. Make your views known and let them know you will be watching.
If you can’t attend the meeting, watch the webcast on the city’s website and complete the online workbook If you’ve really got a burr under your saddle and have to talk to someone – a real voice can be reached at: 905-335-7600, ext. 7896.
Background links:
City manager tries to get some ground rules in place.
City administration begins to negotiate with Council on 2014 tax levy.
Will the 10% over four years hold; doesn’t look that way.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON.
January 21, 2014
Good authors, good books and a good interviewer can make for a pleasant evening. Burlingtonians got some of each last night at the Central Library where Susan Delacourt talked with former Liberal MP Paddy Torsney about her book – Shopping for Votes.
Torsney, who has shopped for the odd vote herself, sat with Delacourt and tossed questions to the author of four books who has been covering the federal political scene for more than 25 years.
 The keeners – those that take notes like crazy and often ask a lot of questions. She stunned this listener when she said Question Period in the House of Commons wasn’t worth listening to – this at a time when the public is seeing some of the very best opposition questioning of the Prime Minister day after day in a relentless onslaught that has kept the hottest political topic in front of the public for more than six months. No mean feat in this world of 24 hour news cycles.
 Delacourt’s fourth title appears to have struck a chord in those who question the way politics is done in Canada. Delacourt is however on to something significant when she talks of the way politics has changed from a discussion about vision and direction to one where the political parties treat voters the way a toothpaste company treats its customers and merchandises product to them.
Delacourt believes Canadians’ relationship with their politicians changed with the consumer boom of the 1950s. The explosion in consumerism resulted in advertising becoming the leading source of information — even in politics.
 Frank McKeown, former Chief of Staff to Mayor Rick Goldring asked about how politicians can handle complex issues when voters tend not to be informed and don’t have the background needed to arrive at decisions. But as she argues in her new book, Shopping for Votes, consumers have wants, while citizens have needs — and that creates a clash between short-term and long-term policies in the bid for votes.
Delacourt told her audience that she has found when she speaks to people about politics and elections she is asked: “Is this all there is to politics?” It’s not much different than going to the mall she said and then added that her very first visit to a mall was here in Burlington.
The Milton native said she found that “government is done to you instead of being you” and that governing today has followed a consumer approach. We started with Henry Ford telling us we could have any colour of car we liked as long as it was black. He made the cars and we went to him to buy them.
That shifted Delacourt pointed out when corporation used advertising to tell people what they had and hoped that you bought it. We are now at the point said Delacourt where political parties research and poll the public to find out what they want and then make it for them.
 A healthy, just under 100 audience, took in the event on one of the colder evenings the city has experienced. An older crowd – the kind that tend to vote. Was there a future first lady for the city in the audience? Delacourt won a Canadian Journalism Fellowship at Massey College where she happened upon a course in “material culture”. It was essentially about our relationship to stuff, and it raised a lot of good questions about consumerism. “I was taking the course” she said “at the same time as the 2008 election was under way, and I suddenly realized that the politics friendliest to consumers (Conservatives) was the winning formula.
Delacourt explained to her audience that the Conservative government doesn’t like data in government but they love it in politics and are relentless in digging out small pockets of support and exploiting each to the fullest. She gave the example of the snow mobile community for which the party bought a magazine mailing list and began targeting individual households, first with research polling and then with literature supporting ideas that had come out from the research. Delacourt explained that the Conservatives were miles ahead of the Liberals on this type of engagement with the public. She added that the New Democrats are pretty good at target polling as well – they focus on consumer interest matters.
 Book signings are a part of the game for authors. Delacourt, surprisingly tended to write fairly long notes in each book – not just a signature dashed off. Delacourt brings 25 years of political reporting to her explanation that the public does no always understand that politics and government is not the same thing.
Many people want the government to operate as a business, to bring market discipline to the operation of government services – which is an interesting approach except that the public are not consumers or employees when it comes to government – and you can’t lay off voters when times are tough and revenue targets are not being met.
What the just short of 100 people at the event heard was a journalist who has been at the game for more than 25 years and has followed the current Prime Minister from the day he began to serve as an elected politician. As an experienced observer she brings a critical eye to what she sees and is quite direct with her observations.
 Book sales are what it is really all about. The event, a joint effort by the Public Library and A Different Drummer Books, was part of a series of events. You can almost feel her ire rise when she talks of the “robo-calling” that took place in Guelph where it was a clear case of voter suppression. “We don’t know who the master mind in that situation was” she said, “ but we certainly know who the players were” and then added that that situation is not done with yet. Elections Canada have been all over what was done.
According to Delacourt people do not get their information from news anymore – they get their information from advertising where the message is totally controlled. Andy Frame, a Tory since the beginning of time told the audience that he had listened to Justin Trudeau at an event in Oakville and he was convinced the young man was going to be the “next Prime Minister of the country”. That perked up Torsney’s ear and brought some comment from Delacourt who said it is too early to tell whether or not Justin is more than a flash in the pan but there is little doubt that there is something going on there.
As people were leaving the library the membership secretary of the Burlington Provincial Liberal Association approached Mr. Frame and asked if he would be interested in purchasing a membership. Money did not exchange hands.
Is there hope asked one member of the audience? There is according to Delacourt. The British are finding that they don’t like being manipulated and the changes that we have seen in the United States where Barak Obama tapped into a deep yearning on the part of the black population to be at the table.
Delacourt explained that in Canada about 60% of the people vote and that 10% of that vote is really the swing vote – people who are not locked into a political party. Every stripe and flavour of politics works at tying down their core vote and then doing whatever they feel they have to do to get more of than 10% than the other guys.
 Paddy Torsney, Delacourt’s “interrogator” during the evening certainly understood what the author was saying when she declared that attack advertising certainly works. Jacket at Joelle’s if you wanted to know. What about those attack ads? Delacourt was asked. “Well the certainly work” she replied. Dionne and Ignatieff will attest to that. And they will continue to work as long as the public gets its information from advertising.
The irony of all this for Delacourt is that at a time when there is more information available than ever before, people have less time to read and there is no one giving the public the analysis and background needed to make sense of all the noise and the clutter.
“Is it depressing” asked an audience member? “No” replied Delacourt, but there didn’t appear to be a lot of confidence or certainty in the response. Many feel Justin may turn out to be a “celebrity” rather than a sound political leader.
|
|
