 By Pepper Parr
April 26, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The Gazette has run a comments section since the day we started up.
There are some people who abuse the privilege – there are some who think writing comments in the Gazette is a God given right.
There are a number of people, far too many if I do say so myself, who see the comments as irresponsible and not really serving any purpose.
There are others who comment frequently and add significantly to the body of information we use to make decisions.
We got a comment from Phillip Wooster this morning that we want to share.
He was responding to a comment made by another reader who had commented on the decision city council made to declare a Climate Emergency.
Let Phillip tell you what he learned.
I can attest about your comment about building in a flood plain. In 1979, while I was considering buying a house backing onto Tuck Creek, I had a choice between one north of Spruce on Regal Road and another south of Spruce. I happened to have a chance meeting with a farmer who had owned property at Lakeshore and Pine Cove in the 1950’s. He told me to buy south of Spruce–when I asked why, he told me that north of Spruce was a flood plain. In 1954, Hurricane Hazel turned the area into a lake; he said if there was another such weather event, the same thing would happen. And in 2014, guess where the flooding occurred. WHO KNEW????
 Tuck Creek There are few real estate agents in town who will tell you what Phillip has known for years.
Thank you Phillip.
Salt with Pepper is the opinions, reflections,musings and observations of the Gazette Publisher
 By Staff
April 26th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton District School Board trustees are reaching out to communities in the Region to gather feedback from parents/guardians, students, and community members to include in their submission to the Ministry of Education’s consultations on class size, mandatory e-learning courses and hiring practices. The Ministry’s proposed changes include an increase in average class size of one student in Grades 4-8 and an increase in average class size in high school from 22 to 28 students.
 Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School The meetings will take place at 7 p.m. in the cafeteria at three schools across the region:
• Thursday May 2, Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School (3040 Tim Dobbie Drive, Burlington)
• Wednesday May 8, Abbey Park High School (1455 Glen Abbey Gate, Oakville)
• Monday May 13, Milton District High School (396 Williams Avenue, Milton)
The agenda will be interactive, with Trustees briefly setting the context followed by participants working together to provide feedback around key areas including class size, e-learning and hiring practices.
Participants are asked to bring a Wi-Fi enabled device (phone, tablet or laptop) to assist in the feedback-gathering process.
 Director of Education Stuart Miller confers with Board chair Andrea Grebenc. “It is critical that Trustees hear from the community on these important issues,” said Andréa Grebenc, Chair of the Halton District School Board. “As Trustees, our mandate as set out by the Education Act is to maintain focus on student achievement and well-being, to assist the Board in delivering effective and appropriate education programs to its pupils and to bring concerns of parents, students and supporters of the Board to the attention of the Board. Holding these meetings will assist us to meet these responsibilities in an informed way.”
To learn more about the Ministry’s consultations and the Education Action meetings, visit www.HaltonEducationAction.ca.
To indicate interest in attending a meeting, find a map to meeting locations, or to request a copy of the final submission for the consultations from the Board of Trustees to the Ministry of Education, please refer to the website. Confirmation of attendance is requested for planning purposes.
All are welcome to attend.
 By Staff
April 25th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
It took a number of police officers and the use of the K9 unit to capture and arrest two suspects but arrested they were and now await bail hearings.
On Wednesday April 24, 2019 at approximately 1:17 am, a uniformed officer was driving in the area of Plains Road West near Daryl Drive.
 K0 unit at work The officer observed a black Dodge Ram pickup truck and attempted to stop the vehicle for a Highway Traffic Act offence. The vehicle failed to stop for the officer and fled the area at a high rate of speed. At 1:26 am, a concerned citizen from the Snake Road area contacted police when this same black truck drove on to a front lawn. The vehicle was left running with the lights on and the occupants fled the area on foot.
Halton Regional Police officers flooded the area and set up a perimeter. The Canine Unit attended and tracked for more than an hour until the two accused parties were located hiding near the Notre Dame Motherhouse.
Both were arrested shortly before 3:00 am without incident.
The pickup truck was confirmed to be stolen from Hamilton and break and enter tools were located within the vehicle.
Accused:
Kyle Hunt (29) of Hamilton
Charges: Flight from Police, Dangerous Operation of a Motor Vehicle, Weapons Dangerous, Possession of Property Obtained by Crime (Over $5000), Possession of Break and Enter Tools
Accused:
Ashley Wilson (25) of Hamilton
Charges: Possession of Property Obtained by Crime (Over $5000), Possession of Break and Enter Tools
Both Accused parties were held for bail and appeared in the Milton Provincial Court on Wednesday April 24, 2019. Hunt was remanded into custody and will appear in Bail Court on Friday April 26. Wilson was remanded into custody and will appear on Thursday April 25, 2019.
People charged with a criminal offence are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Tips can be submitted to Crime Stoppers “See Something? Hear Something? Know Something? Contact Crime Stoppers” at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca.
 By Staff
April 25th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Finding something new, interesting and different for Mother’s Day can be a challenge.
The people at Ireland House have been offering a unique experience at Ireland House Museum.
 A different way to celebrate – Mom will enjoy the tour of the kitchen in the lower level of Ireland House. The Mother’s Day Tea & Tour will serve premium tea, traditional sandwiches and desserts, followed by tours and demonstrations on the hearth at the historic Ireland House.
Select from one of 3 seating times (11 am, 1 pm or 3 pm). Tickets are $40/person. A maximum of four people can be seated at your table, not recommended for young children.
Once your booking is processed, a museum representative will contact you to confirm your table arrangements. Tickets are non-refundable.
Click to book tickets:
 By Staff
April 25th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
In the world of politics you send out the bad news media releases late in the day on a Friday. Works even better when there is a long weekend.
Last week Burlington MPP Jane McKenna went even further.
 MPP Jane McKenna at a public event. Late last Thursday, that would be the 18th of April with the Friday being a holiday, “MPP Jane McKenna sent a letter to my office”,said Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, “expressing her concerns with my April 15th statement about the recent provincial budget.
“She also shared her letter with the Burlington Post/Inside Halton where it appeared in a story on April 20th. Having personally received her letter yesterday morning, I then had the opportunity to review it and respond.
The following response was sent to her yesterday:
Dear Ms. McKenna, M.P.P.,
Much discussion is being had in the public domain since the release of the Provincial Budget earlier this month. As a result of the many cuts that were announced by Premier Doug Ford and his government, citizens and communities continue to voice their concerns over the impact they will see and feel to services they count on and priorities they value. From increasing classroom sizes to slashing funding for indigenous affairs to changes in funding for families dealing with autism, there are many issues of concern.
As Mayor of Burlington, I am focused on the list of things that directly impact our municipal bottom line and represent a downloading of costs to our tax payers. Issues of particular concern to our city involve cuts of over $300K to the Conservation Authority that will hurt flood mitigation strategies and impact public safety, recent Province-wide public health funding cuts which were only disclosed late last week and whose impact (both financial and practical) to our residents is yet to be clarified, and the cancelled promise of incremental gas-tax funding increases which would have helped fund essential transit improvements in Burlington and beyond.
As I said in a previous statement, I am particularly disappointed in the government’s decision to cancel the incremental increases in Provincial gas-tax funding over the next 10 years – a promise that was made by the conservative party during the election campaign as reported in a recent article by the CBC. The related numbers you referenced in your letter are incorrect. I would welcome a discussion with you, myself, and Joan Ford, our Director of Finance, who can furnish you with the correct numbers. For example, your letter referenced transit ridership data from 2013 to 2015, and we have already seen increased ridership from 2016-2018 that add new context to this issue. The gas tax increase from 2% to 2.5% would be enough to fund one additional bus purchase each and every year: a substantial impact to our city.
While the Council of the City of Burlington acts prudently and does not budget for any upper-level government transfers promised during election campaigns, federal or provincial, we do get them consistently every year and they amount to millions of critical dollars (originally collected from our own tax payers) being delivered back to us so that we can reinvest in our city’s infrastructure and services. Over the past week, I have spoken with Mayors in neighboring municipalities who share our concerns and we are now discussing a joint response.
Health, the environment, transit and infrastructure are not the places to be making cuts. Ultimately these decisions will download millions in costs to municipalities and their tax payers in order to maintain the services they’ve come to count on.
Once again, I would welcome a further discussion on these issues in person with myself and my team anytime.
Sincerely,
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward City of Burlington
What did the MPP say to the Mayor? We don’t know yet – Ms McKenna doesn’t send her media material to the Gazette – she doesn’t like the stories we right about some of her public behavior.
By Pepper Parr
April 25th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
For some reason the Honourable Karina Gould, MP, Burlington, Minister of Democratic Institutions and Pam Damoff, MP, Oakville North-Burlington, joined Mayor Marianne Meed Ward to announce the Burlington projects that will benefit from the Federal One-time Municipal Infrastructure Top-up funding.
A media release with the information would have done the trick.
Climate Change is the flavour of the month and every politician who has served more than a year in office learns to discern what the issues are – or they aren’t around for a second term.
 Burlington had declared a Climate Emergency the day before; there was every reason to roll with the momentum. And roll they did.
Last month’s federal budget included municipal top-up funding to support local infrastructure priorities. This one-time doubling of the Federal Gas Tax funding will result in an extra $5.6 million for infrastructure. Federal Gas Tax funding can be used in eligible categories including productivity and economic growth through areas such as roads, bridges or public transit, clean environment initiatives such as community energy systems or strong cities and communities via sport, recreation, culture, tourism or disaster mitigation.
City staff brought a report with recommended projects to council earlier this month. Council has approved these projects:
Elgin Promenade, Phase 4 – $700,000
There are some who wonder why this expenditure would be approved until the issue as to just what is built on the old Elisabeth Interiors site has been determined. Much of what gets build on that site will result in parts of the Promenade that will run right beside what is now Kelly’s Bakeshop.
Transit Bus renewal program – $500,000
Wolfe Island Bridge, additional rehabilitation – $230,000
New Street resurfacing, advance from 2023 to 2020 – $2,050,000
Beachway Pavilion, decking and accessibility improvements – $350,000
A much needed improvement – hopefully the public washrooms will get some attention
Civic Square, additional enhancements – $265,000
Skyway Arena, new small indoor walking track – $1,500,000
Most projects are expected to be completed within 18 months, with the exception of the New Street resurfacing, which is anticipated to happen in 2020 and Skyway Arena enhancements, which will take two to three years to complete.
 Karina Gould, MP, Burlington, Minister of Democratic Institutions The Honourable Karina Gould, MP, Burlington, Minister of Democratic Institutions said at the photo op on Wednesday that: “The Federal Municipal top up will allow municipalities, like Burlington, to continue to fund long-term, stable infrastructure projects such as public transit, water and wastewater, local roads, sports and recreation facilities and tourism infrastructure. The investment announced today reiterates our commitment to making our communities stronger and more resilient.”
 Oakville Burlington North MP Pam Damoff Pam Damoff, MP, Oakville North-Burlington, who will probably get to hold her own photo-op with the Mayor of Oakville said: “Public investments in areas like infrastructure and public transit are crucial to driving economic growth and strengthening the middle class. Through my experience on Oakville Town Council, I saw first hand the benefits of funding to municipalities to help them build and revitalize their local public infrastructure while creating jobs and long term prosperity. By making smart investments in local infrastructure, we can build roads, transit and water systems that make a difference in our communities.”
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward added her comments: “It is always a fantastic thing when our levels of government work together in a way that betters our amazing City. And this Federal One-time Municipal Infrastructure Top-Up Funding of approximately $5.6 million does just that.
 Marianne Meed Ward as a Council member during a Strategic Plan session at LaSalle Pavilion. “This is prudent spending ” said Meed Ward “and reflects the majority of the things we heard from the community that they wanted. These choices help make our city more livable, and encourage healthy living, environmentally-friendly choices, and improve our infrastructure to keep people moving safely and efficiently.
“It’s always a difficult job paring down the list of what projects can benefit from funding like this, so I want to thank our City of Burlington staff for the great job they did in balancing the known priorities of our community and helping us get started as soon as possible.”
Other spending to look forward to are:
Housing: To help municipalities grow housing supply and find new solutions for affordable housing, Budget 2019 proposes to provide $300 million to launch a new Housing Supply Challenge.
The Housing Supply Challenge will invite municipalities and other stakeholder groups across Canada to propose new ways to break down barriers that limit the creation of new housing.
Energy efficiency
Budget 2019 plans to give resources to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ (FCM), municipal funding program, the Green Municipal Fund for three initiatives that would provide financing to municipalities.
1. Collaboration on Community Climate Action ($350 million) will provide municipalities and non-profit community organizations with financing and grants to retrofit and improve the energy efficiency of large community buildings and community pilot and demonstration projects in Canadian municipalities, large and small. FCM and the Low Carbon Cities Canada Initiatives will create a network across Canada that will support local community actions to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions.
2. Community EcoEfficiency Acceleration ($300 million) will provide financing for municipal initiatives that support home energy efficiency retrofits. Homeowners could qualify for assistance in replacing furnaces and installing renewable energy technologies. The FCM will use innovative approaches like the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) model that allows homeowners to repay retrofit costs through their property tax bills.
3. Sustainable Affordable Housing Innovation ($300 million) will provide financing and support to affordable housing developments to improve energy efficiency in new and existing housing and support on-site energy generation.
Can you feel the federal election coming?
By Staff
April 24th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton Regional Police Service is investigating an armed Robbery that took place at a Freedom Mobile store located on Upper Middle Road in Burlington.
 Freedom Mobile located on Upper Middle Road in Burlington robbed at knife point. On Tuesday April 23, 2019 at approximately 5:20 pm, three male suspects entered the store and confronted a staff member working the store front. The staff member was threatened with a knife before a quantity of cellular phones and cash were stolen. The staff member did not sustain any physical injuries.
The three suspects fled in a dark coloured 4-door sedan.
Suspect 1: Male, approximately 5’9″ – 5’10” in his 20’s, wearing all black clothing and a mask
Suspect 2: Male, approximately 5’7″ – 5’8″ wearing jeans, a hoodie and a black mask
Suspect 3: Unknown
Anyone with information or who may have video surveillance or dash-cam video of the suspects/ suspect vehicle are asked to call D/Cst. Dave Griffiths of the District 3 Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 ext. 2350 or the on-duty Staff Sergeant at 905-825-4747 ext. 2310.
Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers “See Something? Hear Something? Know Something? Contact Crime Stoppers” at 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca.
By Pepper Parr
April 24th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
In the past few months Community Development Halton has sponsored a number of special focus courses – five that we can count so far.
This is not a traditional area for CDH – an organizational that does a lot of research and spawns organizations that get spun off and continue to serve the wider community.
 One of the more recent focused day long course offerings from Community Development Halton.
Food 4 Thought and the Age Friendly operation are two examples.
 Retired MPP Ted McMeekin in conversation with a former Community Development Halton contract staffer. The CDH Board has gone through some significant changes – financial constraints have called for some cut backs in the number of hours staff work and a push on bringing in some revenue.
CDH came out of what was once known as the Burlington Social Planning that was headed up by retired MPP Ted McMeekin.
Like every worthwhile organization CDH is going through a transformation and learning to adapt to changing circumstances on the funding side and an even greater need for more in the way of actionable data and the creation of services that meet identifiable needs.
By Staff
April 24th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Get the roller-blades and skateboards ready, declared a City media release.
 Burlington’s annual spring street sweeping blitz will begin in the first week of May. The cleaning of winter sand and debris from roads is expected to take six weeks with a crew of seven vehicles working seven days a week.
Street sweepers are exempt from the noise bylaw; however, to reduce noise disruption, residential streets will only be cleaned between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. The rest of the time will be spent cleaning primary and secondary roads.
Residents are asked to avoid parking cars on the roads and to remove encroaching basketball and road hockey nets from the street so the sweepers can move quickly and efficiently.
“This winter we used a lot of sand” said Mark Adam, Manager of Roads, “so it’ll take some effort to get it all cleaned up. The fewer parked cars and nets on the roads, the faster and better the crews can work. Moving around obstacles takes more time and means we can’t clear the curbs and gutters.”
By Pepper Parr
April 24th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
City Council unanimously passed a motion to declare a climate emergency. The notion was brought forward by ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan.
Numerous cities around the world have recently declared climate emergencies in response to findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that we have only 12 years to keep global warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees, beyond which any further increase would significantly worsen the risk to hundreds of millions of people of extreme heat, drought, floods and poverty. London (UK), Los Angeles, Vancouver, Halifax, Kingston and Hamilton have each declared climate emergencies recently.
 A residential basement after the August 2014 flood. Burlington has already felt the effects of climate change over the past several years; climate matters are currently ranked as the third highest risk on the City’s Enterprise Risk Register, which measures overall risk to the City.
The City is currently updating many of its plans in relation to climate change including the Community Energy Plan (transitioning to the Climate Action Plan), Corporate Energy Management Plan, Storm Water Design Standards and Urban Forest Management Plan. The City has set a goal to be net carbon neutral by 2040 and work towards being a net carbon neutral community.
The climate emergency declaration would increase the city’s ambition on climate change initiatives, including in the community, and provide staff and residents with clarity of purpose regarding Council’s view of the importance of climate change.
Action items from the declaration include:
• That a climate emergency be declared for the purposes of deepening our commitment to protecting our economy, environment and community from climate change; and
• That Council and staff immediately increase the priority of the fight against climate change and apply a climate lens to the plans and actions of the City of Burlington including the Council strategic work plan and future budgets; and
• Staff are directed to bring a report to the June 3, 2019 Committee of the Whole meeting that outlines actions taken to date and includes a critical path for the development of the first City of Burlington Climate Action Plan that will:
 The tree was on private property. Should the owners have been required to get permission to cut it down? The city does have a pilot private tree by law for the Roseland community. 1. address the operations of the corporation of the municipality as well as the functioning of the entire community; and
2. include a plan for a thorough and complete consultation with stakeholders and the community; and
3. increase action and ambition for the City’s climate change-related activities; and
4. include performance metrics to track progress and timelines for achieving key deliverables/major milestones, and a strategy to report back publicly on progress.
• Direct the City Manager to bring back the Burlington Climate Action Plan to Council no later than December 2019 for approval.
“Our health, livelihoods and futures are directly linked to the environment”, said Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. “ Flooding, storms, water quality and air quality affect everything and everyone in our community. Real change requires all of us to work together.
“If our goals are to build a prosperous, healthy and green city for the long-term, we need to take serious, tangible action. Passing this declaration is another step in ensuring that we are doing everything we can to stop climate change — this companion motion includes timelines for action, as well as reporting back on initiatives that are already underway at the City of Burlington.”
 Councillor Rory Nisan – not doing media interviews these days. Councillor Rory Nisan, who chose not to be available for an interview, did say in a written statement that: “By declaring a climate emergency, Burlington City Council is recognizing the magnitude of the challenge we face in combatting climate change. But it is only one step. Through the declaration we have requested a comprehensive climate action plan by the end of the year and that plan is where we will begin to make real, practical change for Burlington.”
The Mayor and some members of her council held a media event this morning to explain what the city planned to do with the $5.6 million they got from the federal government recently.
One of the council members drove away from the meeting in a high end pickup truck. I was struck with a dose of envy (it’s a guy thing) and wondering what kind of a statement was being made.
To the best of our knowledge there isn’t a member of council driving an electric vehicle. Full disclosure – I don’t drive one either but then I don’t pull in 100 big ones annually either.
By Pepper Parr
April 24th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton District School Board issued 154 redundancy letters yesterday to secondary school teachers. This is in addition to the 150 redundancy notices that were issued last week to elementary school teachers.
 Stuart Miller said last week that the issuing of the notices is a requirement under the Collective Agreement the school board has with its unions.
Miller was unable to say which high schools will lose teachers come September.
It is worth noting that two of Burlington’s seven high schools were closed: Lester B. Pearson was closed last June – its students were transferred to MM Robinson.
 Robert Bateman High School is scheduled to close – the actual date was moved back and is now planned for this June. The bulk of the Bateman students will be going to Nelson High School where new facilities are being built for students with special needs.
Those who keep a close eye on public school matters wondered if the decision made three years ago to close two of the seven high schools was not a smart move – even though it wasn’t seen as a smart move at the time.
Miller said in an earlier interview that the province might come through with additional funding or school principals might find a way to shift course offerings and make it possible for a school to keep its staff.
And there is also the matter of retirements – those might open up some spaces that had to be declared redundant.
It is a pretty fluid situation for school administrators – a very uncomfortable situation for teachers who have been told they might not have a job in September.
Related news story:
Elementary school teachers get redundancy notices.
 By Pepper Parr
April 23rd, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Two people who were heavily involved in the campaign to elect Marianne Meed Ward, the Mayor of Burlington, have come out with strong statements on the new Customer Relations Management system the city is in the process of adopting.
A third citizen has commented on just how unfriendly the city hall atrium is.
There is something amiss here.
 The crest would at least add some colour to a dull boring looking council chamber. The woman who is now Mayor has been a citizen’s champion from the day she first stood at the podium in city hall to delegate. That “new – re-modeled” council chamber is even less friendly than the atrium. If there was ever a bland space made up of dull grays the council chamber would be it. Having a copy of the city crest made up and put up on the space beside the name Burlington, would do something for the chamber.
The podium that can be raised for people of different heights was a good idea – but when the seating area for the members of council was lowered it meant that people in the audience could not see all that well.
 This is what bland looks like. The design of the new chamber is a botched job – reportedly carried out by the Clerk’s office with no public input.
Blair Smith, a person with considerable experience in the running of government services, having served as an Assistant Deputy Minister with the Ontario government said in a Gazette comment that:
“There is nothing inherently wrong in a Customer Relations Management System” wrote Smith, “but it needs to be coupled with a customer service philosophy that permeates through the organization and gives staff energy and focus.
“CRM can make operations more efficient if used properly but it can never replace personal contact and commitment; it was never intended to be a replacement. The City of Burlington needs to ‘open up’. It needs clear and understandable program descriptions with accountable staff identified and contact information clearly displayed. Accountability and visibility go hand in hand. It needs performance dashboards with metrics that are measurable to report on commitments and progress against plan.
 Blair Smith in conversation with Director of Planning Heather MacDonald “It needs transparent citizen engagement instruments so that the public actually contributes to decision-making and can see how operational and strategic directions evolved. And to ensure that the process is not merely cosmetic, it needs a comprehensive customer service program with an executive lead and performance metrics that are in every staff contract and commitment.
“There are established and successful models for true Customer Service Management in operation in other municipalities and levels of government. Seek them out, adapt and adopt them.”
 Transparency was her trademark – which looks a little faded these days. The Gazette thinks Smith is dead on. We all thought that what Smith had to say is what Meed Ward thinks; it is certainly what we have heard in all her public remarks, right back to the days when she would walk backwards as she spoke into a camera explaining what was wrong with the thinking about the pier and that piece of property between Lakeshore Road and Old Lakeshore Road.
 Lynn Crosby; one of the front line workers in the drive to keep Central High School open and a trooper in the Meed Ward campaign. Lynn Crosby, who worked tirelessly on the Meed Ward campaign, running the office they had on Brant Street is “betting this is a system created by staff and was not something the new council or Mayor created. This would beg the question of why staff members might want to vet emails that come in and also begs the question of whether all emails that come in are actually forwarded to the appropriate person, and if so, are they forwarded in a timely manner – i.e., same day – or not.”
Crosby is also no fan of the “big Security desk that greets visitors to city hall” and adds that “it is not exactly welcoming”
“I think it’s early days with the new council and there’s lots of work to be done on making changes to how the city communicates with the citizens and what the tone is. It can be done.
“Looking at this system should be a priority because transparency and ease of communicating with the mayor, council and staff members should be easy to implement.”
Crosby also asks: “Where is the staff directory naming all individuals in key positions with clear contact information?”
When Kim Phillips was a General Manager with the city she was against such a directory. She didn’t want the public “pestering staff”.
Smith and Crosby are pushing in the right direction – we think they had hoped the Mayor would be leading in that direction.
By Pepper Parr
April 23, 2109
BURLINGTON, ON
This evening council will meet to put the rubber stamp and the required signatures on the documents that rule the way we live in this city.
The Interim Control bylaw that halts all development in the Urban Growth centre of the city will be made law. It is a brutal piece of legislation that will cause significant financial stress for at least one developer and dash the hopes of another for the immediate term.
The Paradigm development on Fairview between Brant and Guelph next to the GO station which has three of the five towers in place needed a site plan approval before they could begin construction on the final two towers. The ICBL prevents that site plan from being approved.
 Phases 1,2 and 3 of the five tower development. Phases 4 and 5 are being delayed due to the ICBL council will approve this evening. The Paradigm was the type of development that created the kind of housing the city needed to reach the residential targets set for the city by the province.
Due to a complicated set of agreements that were part of the purchase of the land the Paradigm is being built on the registration of the condominiums is impacted.
The Amica proposal for a large retirement home development on North Shore Blvd never did have much traction with this council. Their representative will be at council this evening pleading for an exemption to the ICBL – short of a total reversal of their position that plea is likely to fall on deaf ears.
However politics being what it is – one never knows what will get decided.
There is a Special meeting of city council the day after – it will be closed to the public so that council members can discuss freely what they have in mind in the way of a new city manager.
 The job is critical – if they get this right – there is a better than even chance that the mandate this council was given is one they can deliver on.
There are many who knew the city manager had to be replaced; others who think that a wholesale clean out is needed – from the City Solicitor; the Clerk, the Deputy city manager and at least one of the Directors – perhaps two of them.
Finding a City Manager that understands what council wants and what they believe they need is going to be the challenge.
 The second step of the Meed Ward political ladder: Mayor of Burlington Hiring talent that can lead and understand is not easy – expecting a team made up of people who have no experience doing this is asking for more than they can deliver.
Will this council choose and be able to find someone who can advise and direct them?
Franks Towes made a comment during his recent delegation on the Lakeshore Village Plaza development. “You are the gatekeepers” he said. Indeed they are – what they bring through those gates is what will determine what kind of a Burlington we have going forward.
It will determine as well just what kind of a politician Marianne Meed Ward will be – serving as Mayor is just part of the ladder she will climb.
Salt with Pepper is the opinions, reflections,musings and observations of the Gazette Publisher
 By Pepper Parr
April 22, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
When you walk into city hall there are two sort of reception areas – one with the word “Security” in large large letters in the front. To the west side of the atrium there is another counter with a copy of people toiling away.
The word “Service” is blazoned along the front.
The people at the service desk are decent; they do their best to answer your questions.
We were delivering an envelope addressed to the Interim City Manager – the clerks didn’t know what to do with it. We didn’t hear back from the Interim City Manager – maybe he didn’t get the envelope?
As for the Security Guard – someone wants to explain just what a smile can do.
The city is shifting to a new approach to communicating with its citizens. They are using what is known as CRM – Customer Relations Management.
They want to apparently change the way you the citizen communicate with the elected officials – we don’t know if this system is going to go any further than that.
 If you don’t get a response to the email – look for her in a park. A resident explained to us that city hall wants people to use ward2@burlington.ca if you want to communicate with ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns. They want to persuade you to stop using lisa.kearns@burlington.ca
Don’t write marianne.meedward@burlington.ca – write to Mayor@burlington.ca
 Email her – just be careful which email address you use. According to a resident who has experienced this new approach when you send something to Mayor or Ward 2 you get an email from the City giving you a case number and the gist of the email and then told where this email is being directed – for example to the Mayor’s Office.
What that means is that someone is reading your email and deciding where it should go.
The woman who stood on your door step and told you she would be transparent and available now has a gate keeper who decides how your issue will be handled. This will be tough news for some of those people in Aldershot who write out long repetitive emails to their Councillor and copy every name they can come up with.
The system has been in the works for a number of years – it was an agenda item when Kim Phillips was a General Manager.
Council members do get swamped with email – this is what the current council said it wanted – “we need to hear from you” was the refrain.
Our citizen reported that days can go by before there is a response. Or the email reaches the appropriate person.
The citizen would like to know who reads these emails, who decides where they go, do they keep these on file and more importantly can they target certain residents or organizations that they want to keep an eye on????
Good questions.
 It doesn’t have to be this way.
Gord Krantz, Mayor of Milton sits in an office at the street level looking out over the public park.
When you walk into the Milton Town Hall you walk by the Mayor’s office – where the door is usually open if he is at his desk.
You walk past the Mayor’s office to get to a staff member.
Krantz wants people to see him and be able to reach him. That might be why he has been the Mayor of Milton since 1980 – has been an elected official since 1965
 By Staff
April 22, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
Everyone is now on board the climate change train – except for those south of us who are still arguing that climate change is part of the fake news business.
 On Tuesday, April 23rd at 6:30pm city council will debate and pass a motion to declare that the city is declaring a Climate Emergency in Burlington. This in a city that is part way through a pilot private tree bylaw in one part of the city.
In a recent article in the New York Times magazine I read a paragraph that put climate change in hard to grasp black and white – we have 11 years to reverse the rate at which we are warming the earth. To make it even worse – Canada has been warning its territory at a rate twice as fast as most other countries.
Burlington Green said in a statement that: “Declaring a climate emergency sends the signal that Burlington will take a stand on climate action, and acts as a beacon for our Council’s decision-making through a climate action lens.”
Hamilton declared a climate emergency last week.
The council debate will be interesting – how many members of this council are driving electric cars?
How much money is this city going to spend during its term of office to cut down drastically on the Co2 emissions?
How many police cars are electric?
How many school buses are electric?
Will every vehicle in the city fleet, include Burlington Hydro in that, be electric within 18 months?
What hope is there when we read that Alberta and Ontario are fighting the federal carbon tax plans.
Voice your Support and urge council to get beyond the talk talk stage.
By Staff
April 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington has a Park Play Experience Fund and is now accepting applications
The Parks Play Experience Fund will provide up to $1,500 to bring people together and encourage our community to get outside and play in City of Burlington parks, trails and open spaces.
 His to discover. The deadline for submissions is Monday, May 27, 2019. The Park Play Experience Fund is a one-year funding program that has been expanded from the Healthy Kids Community Challenge initiative.
The Parks Play Experience Fund will provide up to $1,500 to bring people together and encourage our community to get outside and play in City of Burlington parks, trails and open spaces.
Park Play Experience is designed to:
 Not as easy as it looks – great exercise. • Encourage outdoor play experiences in City parks, trails or open spaces
• Encourage neighbourhoods and community groups to get together and play outdoors
• Create new community connections
• Enhance playability, walkability or connectivity within City neighbourhood parks, trails and open spaces
Ideas for types of Outdoor Play Experiences include:
• Create a walking group on our trails
• Organize a neighbourhood park play day
• Organize a neighbourhood recreation program
• Purchase equipment to be shared among the community that will enhance play
• Introduce new outdoor park play experiences to enhance an existing program and encourage more people to get outside
How the fund works
The Park Play Experience must be:
• Open and inclusive to the entire community
• Within the City of Burlington
• Free or under five dollars ($5)
• Outdoors
• A one-time funding request
• Able to satisfy insurance requirements (listed online at burlington.ca/parkplayfund)
• In compliance with municipal, provincial and federal regulatory standards (i.e. standards for playgrounds, building codes)
 There is a soccer player in there somewhere Each application will be evaluated on the following criteria:
1. The request meets all criteria for funding
2. The overall feasibility of the experience
3. Tangible benefits and outcomes from the experience
4. How many people it will impact in the neighbourhood
5. A realistic budget that clearly outlines how the budget will be spent
6. Ability to complete the experience before Dec. 31, 2019
 Chris Glenn, Director of Parks and Recreation for the city. Chris Glenn, Director of Parks and Recreation has this to say about the program: “Play starts when we are young, but it never really stops. Play is for all ages, cultures and abilities. An outdoor play experience can be anything that encourages participation at any age group or demographic. Passive and or active. Sport, recreational, cultural or educational in nature. Connecting with nature and being outdoors.”
Links and Resources
For more on the rules – CLICK
By Pepper Parr
April 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
There are 150 elementary school teachers with the Halton District School Board who have been told that come September 1st, they don’t have a job.
The “redundancy” notices they received were required under the collective agreement the school board has with the elementary teachers union.
That’s the bad news – and there is more to come.
Director Miller Stuart Miller, Director of Education for the school board said we will learn next week what we will have to issue in terms of redundancy notices to high school teachers.
In an interview Miller said that some of the elementary teachers might get recalled but at this point we still don’t know what our grant structure from the province is going to be. We usually have that information by now – it might be the end of May before we know what we will have in the way of grant money, what individual schools need in the way of teaching staff and what we will have in the way of retirements.
The provincial decision to increase the number of students in elementary school classes after grade 4 and the need to have bigger high school classes isn’t helping.
Redundancy notices are issued on the basis of seniority which means the newer and usually younger teachers are the first to get let go.
 Teachers reminding the public just what it is they do. Miller did add that the notices have to be issued at this point – “I am hoping that the province sees us as a board with a growing population. We are opening a new school in Oakville.
“I am working with all the secondary school principals to learn what they think their needs are going to be.
“Right now we are dealing with a lot of if’s and maybes.”
While the Halton |Board has a good working relationship with its unions – those unions don’t like what they see coming their way from the province. Think strikes in the educational sector.
Cold comfort for those teachers that got the letters telling them that there is no place for them come September.
By Staff
April 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
As most people get ready for a long weekend, hoping that real spring weather will show up, some time might be found to plan for the next set of school holidays.
The Halton District School Board released the calendar for the 2019-2020 school year.
The calendar has to be approved by the Ministry of Education.
Getting a calendar to this point is no small feat. The two major school boards have to get their ducks lined up and then they need to look at what else there is in the way of public holidays.
So far we are not seeing very much in the way of accommodating the Muslim community.
By Pepper Parr
April 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
There is nothing more powerful than a motivated citizen with research skills who takes the time to read lengthy, incredibly boring documents.
 Lucy Belvedere in conversation with ward 5 candidate Mary Alice St. James Lucy Belvedere didn’t like the look of the proposed development for the Lakeshore Village Plaza but she wasn’t prepared to sit idly by and let the developer roll over the residents of the community.
After delivering a zinger of a delegation Belvedere went over the documents that were public and realized she had missed something.
“I don’t know how I missed this! I discovered that in the Official Plan now under review, there is already a designation for the smaller sites of mixed-use properties that can apply to the Lakeshore Village Plaza site.
This designation is called Local Centre Designation and describes Policies for sites that are 1 to 4 hectares.
Belvedere argues that “Lakeshore Village Plaza should be given the designation as a Local Centre since it is under 4 hectares. This would resolve many of the major concerns of height and density and in reality it reflects the Neighbourhood Commercial designation of the existing Official Plan beautifully…allowing intensification without being excessive.”
The controversy over this redevelopment proposal could have been avoided had Lakeshore Plaza been given the correct designation: it is under four ha and should be designated a local designation centre.
“I don’t understand why it was given the Neighbourhood Centre designation that applies to properties that are 4 – 12 Hectares, especially considering the narrow roads that serve this property and the character of this east-end neighbourhood surrounding the site.
Local Centre Designation better suits a Secondary Growth Area Designation allowing reasonable intensification, but not to the extent of a Primary Growth Area.
Belvedere’s finding was sent to everyone that mattered.
During the delegation none of the council members raised the designation that was given, Lola xxx didn’t make any mention either. Did they not fully read the report?
A complete application has been in the hands of the city for some time. Are the east end residents looking at yet another development application that is going to squeeze through because of a timing goof?
 This one at Martha and Lakeshore.  This one opposite city hall. That’s how ADI got away with their Nautique development in the downtown core. The OMB approval of the ADI development gave the Carriage Gate development the loop hole they needed to get a 24 story structure approved opposite city hall.
 Is this what the residents of the east end can expect for the Lakeshore Village Plaza? Will Lucy Belvedere have run the alarm bell soon enough?
By Staff
April 17th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
This criminal act sets a new level for stupidity.
 On April 16, 2019, at approximately 7:45 pm, the Halton Regional Police Service received a call to attend an address on Walkers Line in Burlington. Information from the caller stated a female had been shot at the residence.
A large emergency response (including police and EMS) was coordinated and attended the address. Investigation found the allegation that a female was shot, to be false.
Zach Gerdes (27) of Burlington, was arrested at the scene and charged with the following:
-Public Mischief
-Convey False Message
It is alleged that the 911 call was made by Gerdes to expedite police response to a separate report in regards to missing property.
Police would like to remind the public that 911 is only to be used in an emergency. It is a criminal offence to make a false 911 call and such hoaxes divert first responders from actual emergencies.
People charged with a criminal offence are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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