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April 11th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON The elevator at the Waterfront Parking Garage at 414 Locust St. is out of service until further notice.
 Until further notice doesn’t sound very promising. The picture is dated – there is a new graphic on the building.
April 11th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
Work begins on Spencer Smith Park Promenade improvements The Gazebo we knew and loved is gone – replaced by something that looks like it came out of an assemble-it-yourself kit. I suppose we will get used to it.  It was small, in-accessible but it had character. The tree trunk stumps that were once magnificent willow tress that were planted by the man for whom the park was named after. Even the trunks were removed. The willow trees went with it. All part of improvements being made to Spencer Smith Park and the beginning of the implementation of the Burlington Beach Regional Waterfront Park Master Plan, which includes both Spencer Smith and Beachway Parks,  The new gazebo – bigger – hard to say it is better. The work is being done in two phases – the first was the upgraded gazebo at a new location; hard-surfaced walkway, pedestrian lighting and benches, tree and perennial planting then grading and drainage improvements. Phase 2 will see a re-surfacing on the promenade, a new shade structure at the cobble beach and concrete surfacing at the seating nodes. The promenade surface replacement with new asphalt will upgrade the surface to an accessible pathway that is smooth, durable and suitable for walking, cycling and use by mobility devices, such as wheelchairs. A dashed centre line will be painted down the centre, which is the current industry standard for a multi-use path, to provide separation based on the direction of travel. This is the same principle as driving on the road where you keep to the right and allow faster traffic to pass on the left. So much for a pleasant stroll.  The new shade structure is at that point where Spencer Smith Park becomes the Beachway; once a community of more than 200 homes, many of which would not meet the building code today. Spencer Smith Park will stay open during the construction, with sections of the promenade closed from April to December 2017. The closures will happen in phases to allow annual major festivals and events, such as the Sound of Music Festival and Canada’s Largest Ribfest, to use the park to host their events. The Regional government is part of the planning and design work for a project that was very controversial because it eventually leads to the destruction of all the homes currently in the Beachway Park.  The first public showing of the plans for the Beachway that will change the way the public uses the park. While the long term plan to re-develop the Beachway Park is grand and involves many stages it brings to an end a part of the city that once defined a large part of the Burlington character. There are no plans to keep any of the housing or to leave any sense of the city’s heritage. The price of progress!
April 11th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
There are six flag poles outside city hall. We aware of them, especially when they are at half-staff – we wonder who died. The city frequently uses the lead pole – the one closest to city hall, when it wants to raise a “special Interest” flag. The Rainbow flag is an example.  City hall with its six flag poles. Last week the Mayor raised the autism flag. People tend to either shrug or think “that’s nice” and move on if they happen to see a special interest flag. For the families that have children whose health is somewhere on the autism spectrum the raising of that flag is much more than a passing event. It is the community’s acceptance that an acknowledgement has been made and that there is some level of acceptance and understanding.
A year or so ago, a group of parents with older – more than 18 years of age – family members met in a day long workshop at ThinkSpot in Lowville to think through an approach they wanted to make to the provincial government about the care and welfare of their children. For these parents there is a terrible, dreadful fear over who will care for their autistic children. They worry about who will take care of their children when they are no longer able to do so. They have special needs that are not provided once they are past the age of 18. “They just get dumped” was the way one parent put it. Out of that workshop came an application for a Trillium grant that allowed the creation of a plan for a different approach to the care of older autistic people. That flag going up a pole at city hall in Burlington was more than a simple flag raising occasion – it was a sign and an acceptance that change was needed and that change was taking place. Who would have thought that Julia, an autistic child, would become a main character on a hugely popular children’s television program. Raise more than a flag to that step forward.
April 10th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington artists and cultural groups from all disciplines that would like to perform at one of the Doors Open Burlington sites on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. are invited to submit a proposal for consideration by May 12, 2017. The events may include, but are not limited to: craft, dance, literary arts-spoken word, media arts-film, music, theatre, visual arts and performance art. Artists and performers must be Burlington-based. An honorarium will be provided for each selected proposal. The event will promote free, hands-on, interactive activities that invite the public to participate behind the scenes to discover the world of artists, performers, historians, architects, curators, designers and other creative individuals in Burlington. For more information about Doors Open Burlington, Culture Days and the proposal, please visit contact Adam Belovari at 905-335-7600, ext. 7335. Previous Doors Open events have disappointed. The Historical Society mounted a sad looking collection of four large photographs put up on stands outside the Tourism office. The Friends of Freeman Station fully understood what Doors Open was all about and they had both a display and people who would talk your ear off if you let them. A list of the events taking place at various locations will get released later on in the season. We’ve not yet gotten used to the idea that winter is over and that Spring is here.
April 10th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The public gets to see what the newly formed Arts and Cultural Council of Burlington (ACCOB) wants to look like and what they would like to achieve. The Board of the organization announced that the organization will be formally launched at a free public event at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Tuesday April 18th, 2017 at 5:30pm. The Arts and Culture Council is a private initiative formed by the arts community; it has been a long time in development. In 2013 Trevor Copp appeared before city council saying he wanted to be able to work in the city he lived in. Council agreed with him – and that was when the ball began to roll.  The cultural community wanted to be in on the ground floor of any decision making – they made their voices heard – then waited to see if city council will fund culture in a meaningful way. That was in 2013. Sometime after that a number of Burlington artists came together to form the Arts and Culture Collective of Burlington (ACCOB), in an effort to provide support for the many artists and artistic organizations that call Burlington home. This first ACCOB grew to include over 600 members on its Facebook page. It became clear to the group that a more formal organization should be created; that resulted in the creation of a not-for-profit corporation.  Robert Missen with his Hall of Fame award, Former Performing Arts Centre president Suzanne Haines on the left and PAC chair Ilene Elkaim on the right. Robert Missen, the 2016 recipient of the Performing Arts Centre Hall of Fame award, said ACCOB joins the community of arts councils that has existed across Canada for many years. “The fact that it has taken some time to make this happen has meant that our Council is unique in Canada in representing the concerns of the various multicultural communities in our city.” “ACCOB invites all artists and all Burlingtonians that are passionate about arts and culture to gather in the Lobby of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on Tuesday April 18. Representatives of the ACCOB Board of Directors will provide a brief introduction to the organization and it’s Board. They will outline some of the initiatives they plan to undertake over the next few years, services they plan to provide to the city’s artists and artistic and cultural organizations, and benefits that will accrue to members of the organization. Attendees will be encouraged to become members of the organization.” No mention was made of any membership fee. The occasion will include brief performances featuring several city performers. These include singer-songwriter Andy Griffiths, violin prodigy Yoanna Jang and the children’s choir Enchorus, conducted by Catherine Richardson. Hors d-oeuvres will be served, catered by Ampersand, and there will be a cash bar. BURLINGTON PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE LOBBY; TUESDAY APRIL 18TH, 2018 5:30-7:00pm With decent wine swilled to augment the swallowing of those hors d-oeuvres – then what?  City Culture manager Angela Papariza chats up Trevor Copp during the unveiling of the Spiral Stella outside the Performing Arts Centre. Part of the mandate will be to influence city council and where it puts the several million dollars that go into the operation of the Art Gallery, the Performing Arts Centre and the museums along with the money being pumped into public art. Chances of getting new money into the city’s budget might be a bit of a stretch – but there is an election in 2018 and that usually tends to loosen the purse strings.  The Artists Collective was very clear – they wanted the Parks. It has taken more than four years to get to the point where the arts community has its own formal organization – now they have to fund it. Arts and culture have always had a hard time finding place where real roots can be put down. Thy were always stuffed into Parks and Recreation where things just didn’t work out. Splash pads and swimming pools dominated. Former city manager Jeff Fielding found a way to keep the cultural manager on staff and former General Manager Scott Stewart had that role reporting to a General Manager. When Mary Lou Tanner was made the Director of Planning she brought Culture into her department where it has at least been kept alive. Quite how the Manager of Culture will fit into ACCOB is something that only time will tell – they will want funding the Culture manager will want to keep.
April 10th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
City council has decided that growth and development is, to a large degree, going to be centered around Mobility hubs and they want you to help them do that work.  Four mobility hubs – expected to be the preferred locations for future commercial growth and development. There are two meetings taking place. The city has invited the public into their new Locust Street Grow Bold offices on April 12th. “Individuals interested in learning more about the Mobility Hubs studies are welcome to drop by to meet the city staff working on the Mobility Hubs studies and to ask questions. Refreshments will be provided along with fun activities and games.” Takes place on Wednesday, April 12 – 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Mobility Hubs Office, 1455 Lakeshore Rd., Unit 7 (across the street from the ESSO gas station)  Mary Lou Tanner, Director of Planning and Building for the city. Mary Lou Tanner, Chief Planner and Director of Planning and Building explains the purpose of the meeting: “The city needs to hear from the entire community about what they love and value in their downtown so that we can create a long-term vision that continues to make downtown Burlington a great place to live, work, shop and play. “There is a lot of interest in our downtown from developers. As our city grows, we will receive more and more requests for new buildings of all sizes. With input from the community, the land-use policies created through the Downtown Mobility Hub study will help ensure we have the type of growth in our downtown that we want.” Once approved, the policies created through Burlington’s Downtown Mobility Hub study will be adopted as part of the city’s new Official Plan. The offices on Locust Street are not that large – if the weather is good the overflow can spill out onto the side walk cafes on Lakeshore.  Home to the people who are going to focus on our growth. On April 20th, city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward will return to her Downtown Visioning project and focus on mobility hubs and the role they play. This meeting takes place at Burlington Lions Club Hall, 471 Pearl St., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Halton Region is anticipated to grow from 530,000 to one million people by 2041. The Province of Ontario’s provincial growth plan, Places to Grow, mandates the City of Burlington plan for a population of 193,000 by 2031. Just what are mobility hubs? There is a general idea but specifics and details are far from being worked out. The prime objective will be to find ways to move all these people around efficiently. To get this worked out in the next 18 months is a challenge and include it in the Official Plan A number of years ago Burlington Transit decided they would shut down the small terminal office on John Street where people were able to buy bus tickets and update their Presto cards. That idea didn’t last very long – what was stunning to many who know something about transit was that the idea actually got to a city council meeting.  John Street transit station was at one point thought to be past its Best Before date. Clearer minds looked at the property again and decided it could get an upgrade to the status of a mobility hub. What the city has done is set out where the mobility hubs are to be located and have produced a draft Official Plan that focuses on the four locations. Mobility Hubs locations are around the city’s three GO stations, Aldershot, Appleby and Burlington, and the downtown bus terminal; this is where new growth and development over the next 20 years is to take place. The city plans to hoist a number of engagement opportunities over the next 18 months to gather input from residents and businesses about how they’d like to see these areas grow and change in the future.
April 10th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The battle lines are being drawn. Homes in the downtown core got a mail drop recently setting out where Progressive Conservative candidate Jane McKenna stands on the issue of closing high schools in the city.  Side 1of a flyer dropped off at homes in Burlington.  Side 2 of a flyer dropped off at homes in Burlington. City hall may have been reluctant to get involved but the smell of blood in the water has Jane McKenna focusing her efforts on turning minds in ward 2. The facts need not bother getting in the way – there is an opportunity to exploit and it doesn’t appear it is going to be missed. There was a debate in the provincial legislature and the Liberal party did vote to take no action at this point in time.  Ward 2 city Councillor Meed Ward who is a member of the Program Accommodation Review Committee took part in a media event at Queen’s Park with Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown. Meed Ward has always identified herself at a Liberal in the past. PC leader Pat Brown held a media event the day of that vote with Burlington’s ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward at the microphone appealing to the provincial Liberals to do something about the Program Accommodation Review (PAR) taking place in the city. Meed Ward and most of the parents involved in the school closing issue believe that the PAR process being used is badly flawed and that the quality of the information the school board is feeding the public is both not reliable and subject to frequent changes. The Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC) has completed its work and the matter is now in the hands of Board staff who are pulling together the numerous documents that Director of Education Stuart Miller will use in preparing the report he will deliver to the trustees and the public on April 21st. We are going through a bit of a quiet time while that report goes through what will probably be several drafts before it is placed in the hands of the trustees and the public on April 21st at 6:00 pm; a Friday on the Board of Education’s web site. All the senior people at the board will have quietly driven out of the Board parking lot and headed for home – no one wants to be around for whatever the backlash to that report is going to be. The report will get discussed at a school board trustee Committee of the Whole on Wednesday April 26, 2017 starting at 6:00 pm. Between now and then everyone with any skin in the game will do everything they can to influence the outcome of the debate and discussion that will now take place in front of the 11 school board trustees. The literature that went out to households in the high school catchment areas across the city might be just the start. Politics, especially local politics are called a “blood sport” for a reason. The Burlington Progressive Conservatives are fully funded for the next provincial election. Former city Councillor and Member of Parliament Mike Wallace is running the McKenna election campaign. Wallace wants and needs to win this campaign if he is to get back into local politics; his eye is believed to be on the office of Mayor for Burlington.
April 9th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
According to Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward Burlington has 73% of the intensification it is going to have to take on by 2031 – which is beyond the scope of the much vaunted Strategic Plan. She seems to be saying we are already there. Does that mean we can stop building? The developers certainly don’t think so. There are currently a number of developments taking place in the city – and not all of it is in the downtown core. The Adi Development Group is in what looks like close to the mid-point in their Link – a rather adventurous looking set of buildings on Dundas and Sutton; cheek to jowl to Bronte Creek. The Adi group has always had strong design; nothing beige about these people. Their buildings should take awards for the look and, except for the Martha and Lakeshore project that is mired down in Ontario Municipal Board hearings, locations. The project on Guelph Line just north of Mainway is a fine building. The Link will appeal to the people who like to live in buildings with a smart progressive look. No word yet on just where the project is in terms of sales. But the cranes are in place and the building is rising floor by floor.  Link2 – seen from the corner of Sutton and Dundas.  Link – seen from Dundas Street. The eastern side of the project borders on a path that runs along the side of Bronte Creek. The development does have some OMB history attached to it. If the information on the ADI Development web site is accurate this project is very close to be sold out. The offered 1 BED, 1 BED + DEN, 2 BED, 2 BED + DEN, 3 BED + DEN and 4 BED + DEN. Not much of anything left but developers may play the game the big show entertainers play when they announce that a new block of whatever they are selling has been released. The development business calls for a lot of cash up front – they do what they have to do to manage the demand for their product and keep the prices where they want them to be. As scrappy as they can be on matters regulatory and legal – no one can take away from them the design flare they have shown. The are brash, direct and know where they want to go – and are in the process of creating a brand that will signify value and a certain flare. Linx2 will have 154 units and is scheduled to open Fall of this year. That could actually happen. The Molinaro Paradigm project on Fairview is in the process of changing the city’s sky line. Tower A has reached its full height with just the mechanical that will sit on the roof to be completed. Towers B and C are under construction.  Tower A of the Paradigm project has reached its peak while Tower B and Tower C to the east begin their climb to 21 and 19 storey heights.  Towers B and C of the Paradigm project on Fairview next to the GO station and across a parking lot from Walmart.
It is a large site that will eventually consist of five buildings. In the downtown core the Carriage Gate people are close to the bedrock level they need for the three levels of underground parking. The condominium will be a combination of a 3 storey stone and precast podium that will accommodate a select group of upscale retail establishments at ground level and professional offices on levels two and three. Atop the podium there will be a 17-storey glass tower with condominiums.  This is a three part development with a condominium tower, a parking garage and a medical center. Each has its own name. Berkeley for the condo – garage for the garage and Medica One for the medical centre. The development will get build in stages. The project is to consist of three buildings when completed. The condominium will be the first to get built, followed by the eight level parking garage and then the eight story medical building that will border on Caroline.  The Berkeley at bedrock – bottom floor of the three levels of parking with 19 storey’s of condominiums. The yellow line at the top is the demarcation point for the condominium and where the eight level parking garage with a grass roof will be. The project will give John Street a bit of a much needed boost in terms of what the street looks like. Parts of the street look more like a back alley than a street that will have one of the mobility hubs at its base. The city is going to get a chance to learn more about just what a mobility hub is and how it fits into the development of Burlington in the longer term. The draft of the Official Plan that was released last week suggests that major development is going to be located around the four mobility hubs. At least one developer who was coaxed into putting funds into a creative and much needed development in the east of the city got a bit of a shock when they learned that the project might not get lift off. There are others that see the mobility hub concept at somewhat limiting.
April 7th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
 It wouldn’t have been quite this bad. Just not all that nice. The opening of Tyandaga Golf Course for the 2017 season has been postponed until Friday, April 14 due to this week’s wet weather. With climate change we may well have to get used to a much different kind of seasonal weather. For more information, please call 905-336-0005 or visit www.tyandagagolf.com.
April 7th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
Were the 1960’s classic film ‘The Graduate’ being shot today, the one word of career advice for our Benjamin would be robotics, not plastics. It’s coming and fast. There are already a number of cars which can park and drive better than you and I. And those cars will obediently come when beckoned more consistently than my dog. The modern day soothsayers and prognosticators are telling us that the future is here and now. And it won’t be long before we’ll all be out of work thanks to automation and artificial intelligence. Last year one study estimated over 40% of our jobs are at risk, as automation has now moved beyond performing mundane repetitive tasks to the “cognitive, non-routine tasks and occupations, such as driving and conducting job interviews.” And if job interviews can successfully be undertaken by robots, is any management or executive job safe?  Is this the shift supervisor managing the robots? Robots vary in price but some industrial ones fall into the $50,000 to $100,000 range. That compares well with the annual salary of an assembly-line worker when you include benefits. Providing the robot lasts more than a year, automation can be a good financial investment for a company. And the robot won’t talk back to you, can’t complain of workplace harassment, nor organize a union to demand higher wages. Bombardier seems to be in the news a lot these days. It used to be a compact family run affair, and apparently still is, though big time acquisitions have transitioned it into a multifaceted corporate monster. And the truth is that non-linear thinking and multi-tasking can be best done more often by some kind of computer than a well reasoned human being. Even intuition, without that fickle human emotion or greed, can be programmed into its logical memory.  A fortune in subsidies but these aircraft do keep Canada in the high end aircraft business which is where many hoped the Avro Arrow would have put us. That may be Bombardier’s problem – it got too big for its britches – or at least the britches of the family compact that grew this little snow-cat enterprise into the mega transport world. Things go wrong and stuff happens when you lose your focus. And that may account for the bleeding red ink and the backlog in production that has been plaguing its air carrier and rail product lines. It has got so bad that the City of Toronto is contemplating killing its long over-due orders. So the company went cap-in-hand to the governments and banks and dug up two and half billion dollars in Quebec, in exchange for non-controlling equity trades. And the feds have responded to the company’s earlier request for another billion by awarding it around $400 million in an interest free loan. Ironically the federal money coming after the other investments is considered surplus to requirements. But, it was interest free, so they took it anyway and found a use for it.  Some of these sleek looking transit vehicles are having a hard time keeping on schedule. Basking in the glow of all this green cash the company decided it was high time to share some of the wealth among its six top executives. It boosted their annual compensation packages by a whopping 50% – to a total of $35 million – almost $6 million each. In its defence, Bombardier drew comparisons to exec comp packages at would-be competitors Boeing and Airbus. And the best way go head-to-head with the big leaguers was match them. And if you don’t have the planes to sell, try matching senior management salaries instead. Timing is as important in public relations as any other aspect of management. So you’d think the Bombardier exec’s could have paced themselves a little before proclaiming how they were spending this new government money on themselves, acting as if they’d actually earned it from product revenue. So the fact that they were laying off almost 14,000 employees globally with about half of those cuts in Canada, never crossed their minds. “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”, are the words attributed to the infamous French Queen Marie Antoinette, on hearing the complaint that the peasants had no bread. Clearly this was not Bombardier’s finest hour. It took the roar of an angry public for the embarrassed execs to announce they wouldn’t immediately be hauling in their new-found loot, but rather phase-in their pay raises over three years. As if delaying their inevitable bonanza would appease those now contemplating feeding their families on federal EI payments. It would be interesting to know how many workers are being replaced by some kind of machine. And perhaps some of those now unemployed are wondering when somebody will invent a robot which can better manage an entire company, like the one they used to work for.  Will they be given the right to vote? Still the governments of Canada and Quebec are standing behind the company and the wisdom of their investments. The PM shrugged off the exorbitant compensation packages claiming he respects the workings of the free market. Except government subsidy is usually not the first thing that comes to mind when one thinks of the free market. Still economic nationalists would be hard pressed to argue against public financial support for one the most significant Canadian companies ever. And according to Transport Minister Marc Garneau “the C-Series is an extraordinary plane”. So as this country celebrates its 150th birthday we should take a moment to recall another extraordinary plane, the AVRO Arrow of some 60 years ago. The Diefenbaker government will long be remembered for failing to support the development of this advanced jet fighter.
Background links: Replacing Workers – Machines Taking Jobs –
April 6, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The school calendar for 2017-18 has been set out – just needs provincial approval. Here it is:
April 6th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON City council will begin discussion of the draft Official Plan this week. Opinions are already being formed. There are so many problems with Burlington’s official plan update that it’s hard to zero in on the most problematic element. Leaving alone for a moment the massive green space loss or the complete lack of any mathematical forecasting, the transit plan is truly insane. My largest problem when running for Regional Chair in 2014 is that I just could not get people to accept what the cities future transit plans actually are. People would just say “That is crazy” and look at me like I must not understand the plan. Either read what is coming out of the city or take my word for it. The future of Burlington is city wide deliberately induced gridlock. I realize that this is so divorced from reality that the average resident of Burlington simply cannot accept this is the cities plan. It is simple – keep jamming people in until roads are mostly impassible and largely slower than walking. People will then seek “alternatives” once they realize they can walk or bike to a location in just hours vs multiple hours of driving. If you are disabled, elderly or have a schedule that doesn’t support biking, stay home or get out of Burlington. The first problem is that I would say you need a public mandate to do this. This certainly does not exist. The draft says the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to mobility” (Page 14 in the link below). Right now for example you might like to drive to the gym. In the new city walking and biking should be your forms of city recommend exercise. In the future city staff will decide what you do, how and when you move around. The city needs to execute the mandate of citizens, not try to force everyone to do as they think we should. The second problem is that the transit plan cannot withstand even light mathematical examination. It can’t possibly achieve its own goals. You won’t see numeric calculations coming from the city – because they won’t add up. To believe that 300,000 people are place-able in Burlington with “No New Car Capacity” (Page 15 in the link below) is to believe we will have pedestrian rates orders of magnitude higher than Paris France. As I delegated to council: Even if you line up Paradigm developments along every possible place all the way down Plains road – you will never get a pedestrian commercial base. There is no mathematically possible pedestrian city on a single straight road. Cities are built in grids for a reason – it is the only way to get transit time low and have the density for a partly pedestrian customer base. The last problem and most deeply troubling aspect of this is the underlying theory behind it. This mentality places the city in direct opposition to you. Your goal might be to take your kids to soccer practice. This “unsustainable transit pattern” makes the city wish you didn’t. You want to visit your Mother after work – the city wishes you didn’t. It’s all to pretend that intensification doesn’t need increased infrastructure to support it. That an infinitely increasing population doesn’t cost anything in money or environment because the city now rations “what is” out. They can’t figure out a transportation strategy for this mess of intensification. So now “untransportation” is desirable. Not enough water – the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to bathing.” Not enough parks – the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to sports activities.” This “reprioritization” is to no longer do what is best for yourself, but instead do what city planners have rationed out for you. Since we still live in a democracy – it will not work. Once the main streets are nothing but micro businesses very few trips will be to them; just past them. The constant gridlock will be the largest issue and people will not care beyond mobility. This will give rise to and elect a class of politician that will run on and expand the road base. Though since staff have worked deliberately to make this difficult, the roads will now expand in ugly and awkward way. If you want 300,000 people in Burlington then we need developments totally concentrated in the down town core – it’s the only place with a grid. Yes, you will need an aggressive walking, biking and public transit strategy. But you will also need the major arteries of Burlington expanded to 6 lanes, plus a dedicated bike path, plus a large public walking space. You can get into fanciful debates as to what you want to do in those extra lanes – single passenger cars, rapid bus transit, street car, etc. But they need to be reserved and planned as if they will exist. There is no possible benefit to this gridlock – hundreds of thousands of cars idling and caught in congestion will have a far higher environmental footprint than a hand full of bikers can ever offset. Congestion helps big box retailers and hurts small business – this can only lead to greater commercial concentration. The idea “if you build roads people are going to use them” so if we stop building them people will then not use to road we didn’t build. This is just idiocy. If you feed starving children they are just going to keep eating and eating; to a point yes. If you provide houses with water people are just going to keep bathing and bathing; to a point yes. However I consider the ability to feed, bath and get my kids to soccer – all as positives. I’m pretty sure the rest of Burlington does as well. Background link: Official Plan report to city council committee
April 5th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
Water in the creeks and streams is already quite high and flowing swifter than normal.
The majority of the creeks are running at, or above, seasonal levels and are expected to experience higher levels and flows with the upcoming precipitation due to our saturated soil conditions. Our reservoirs are still in range of our seasonal holding levels and have storage capacity available. Widespread flooding is not anticipated, however fast flowing water and flooding of low lying areas and natural floodplains may be expected. Municipalities, emergency services and individual landowners in flood-prone areas should be on alert. Conservation Halton is asking all residents to stay away from watercourses and structures such as bridges, culverts and dams. Elevated water levels, fast flowing water, and slippery conditions along stream banks make these locations extremely dangerous. Please alert children in your care of these imminent dangers.
April 5th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
It was the same room, basically the same crowd three years later, but the mood was a lot different. Last week the Carriage Gate group told the public what they had in mind for the corner of Brant and James Street – across the street from city hall. They set out a number of charts and large blow ups at the front of the room of the 27 story tower they wanted to build – one got the impression that the developer was going to talk about the project. Everything seemed to be out front. Three years ago the Adi Development Group was in the same room. There were no large blow ups of the project they were about to explain to the public and the audience was in no mood to listen. That project kept going downhill from the moment the architect began to explain the project and is now before the Ontario Municipal Board.  Twenty seven storey’s high – directly across the street from city hall. The mood was so positive that if the Carriage Gate people had had some sales agreements on the table there were people in the room quite prepared to sign on the dotted line and put down a deposit. There were some who thought it was a “terrible” idea and the issue of traffic and parking reared its head. Burlington and cars have always had an awkward relationship. Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, who is no fan of tall buildings, got the meeting off to a decent start. The Mayor and ward 3 Councillor John Taylor were on hand along with a couple of other people from the city’s planning department. Four mobility hubs are in the planning process. The plan appears to be to focus on the downtown hub first. The public got to hear about the group that has been created to study and develop the concept of “mobility hubs” – something that has become the most recent buzz word for planners. Kyle Plas, the senior city planner on this project explained where the project was from a planners perspective and took the audience through the process of getting it before city council where a decision is made. Carriage Gate is looking for both Official Plan changes and zoning changes. This project would come under the existing Official Plan which is now more than 20 years old and as Mark Bayles, the Carriage Gate manager who would be overseeing the development of the project, explained in his opening comments “the existing plan no longer reflects where development is going.  From th left, Robert Glover, an urban planner, Ed Fothergill, planer and Mark Bales, project manager with Carriage Gate Carriage Gate has assembled a solid team to shepherd this through the approvals process. Ed Fothergill, a planning consultant who has advised on many of the Molinaro projects and was the advisor to the Carriage Gate people on this project explained the planning environment that everyone has to work within.  Policy documents that set out the rules planners have to work within and comply with. It includes the provinces Provincial Policy Statement in which the province sets out where the growth is going to take place; the Greenbelt policy, which for Burlington means the Escarpment and The Big Move which is the framework that the GO transit people work within out of which comes the mobility hub concept. The GO train service west of Toronto is going to be improved to 15 minute service and eventually it will be electrified. The improvement in GO frequency is intended to get cars off the QEW and handle the expected population growth.  Close up of the Brant street side of the building. The city wanted smaller shops at the street level; the developer had no problem complying. The restaurant on the site is to be included in the building. Many in Burlington don’t like the idea of growth – but the population of the city is going to grow – the province has said that is what is in the cards, and because we can no longer grow out, – there isn’t much more left for development within the urban boundary for new development the growth will be up, not out. Thus the high rise. Given that there are going to be buildings in the 27 story and higher range where should they go? Robert Glover, an architect and planner with the Bousfields, a community planning firm that has handled some of the more impressive developments in Ontario gave the audience his take on how Burlington and high rise buildings are going to learn to live together.  Tall buildings in Burlington tend to be away from the downtown core and on either side of Brant Street. He explained that Burlington has a lot of tall buildings – mostly in the 8 to 12 storey range that are set out in different parts of the city with a concentration along Maple Avenue. Glover said his view was that with buildings all over the city Brant Street was sort of an orphan with very little that would attract pedestrian traffic. The view he put forward was that Brant needed to become the spine that buildings would be anchored along. The Carriage Gate project was to be the first. The development that is known at this point by it’s address – 421 Brant – they have yet to release the name for the project.  The view from the corner of John and James. Glover set out how he thought the city and the high rise development that is on its way would evolve. Brant Street would become the spine on which development would be anchored. The Street would have one of the four mobility hubs at the bottom one block to the east and a second mobility hub at Fairview – a part of a block to the east. The public in general doesn’t know all that much about mobility hubs – the city has planned a public meeting for April 12th where people can get to meet the Mobility Hubs Team.  Nick Carnicelli The principles in any development seldom take to the stage. They sit in the audience and listen carefully trying to get a sense of the audience and how they feel about the project that is being explained. Nick Carnicelli sat off to the side and seemed satisfied with the way the meeting had gone. He had every reason to feel satisfied – his people had put on a good presentation; they answered all the questions and didn’t duck any of the issues. Parking seemed to be the one that bothered people the most. The plan presented called for 183 parking spots; one for each unit in the building. If there is going to be a problem with this project that is probably where the city will ask for changes. The design calls for four levels of parking.
April 5th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The Halton District School Board has whittled the 30 plus options that were put before the PARC down to five. The Gazette has pulled together the five maps along with the rationale and make them available to the public. Nelson high school closes in June 2018
To be an English only school. Robert Bateman HS: Closes in June 2018.
No schools closed – catchment boundaries are revised.
Close Central and Pearson: The original recommendation
Pearson closes
April 5, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
I.T. will be doing maintenance on the online Interactive Mapping/Open Data Wednesday, April 5, 2017 from 5 to 8 p.m. During that time, users may experience delays or disruptions.
April 5th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
 Parents at a public meting were the details for each of the school closure options were made available. Parents with high school students are getting a bit of a break from the work that was done by the Program Accommodation Review Committee (PARC). The members of that committee have completed their work knowing that they did everything they could to dig out much needed information and whittled a list of more than 30 possible options down to five. Those five are: Robert Bateman high school closes in June 2018. The next municipal election, at which school board trustees will stand for election is October 2018. The provincial government is up for re-election on June xx 2018. The schedule going forward is: Chair of the PARC gives his report to the Director of Education (The Gazette has yet to be given a date for the completion of this report.) Friday April 21, 2017 – Director’s Final Report released online at www.hdsb.ca in the agenda package for Committee of the Whole. Wednesday April 26, 2017 (6 pm) – Director’s Final Report will be presented to the Board of Trustees at the Committee of the Whole meeting. Location: J.W. Singleton Centre (2050 Guelph Line, Burlington). This meeting will be live-streamed on the Board website. If additional audience capacity is required, it will be available at M.M. Robinson High School (2425 Upper Middle Road, Studio Theatre). Monday May 8, 2017 (6 pm) – Public Delegation Night. These evenings will be live-streamed on the Board website. Location: J.W. Singleton Centre (2050 Guelph Line). Seating priority in the Boardroom will be given to delegates. If additional audience capacity is required, it will be available at M.M. Robinson High School (2425 Upper Middle Road, Studio Theatre). Monday, April 17, 2017 – Is the first date to submit online Delegation Request Forms for the May 8 Delegation Night. Thursday May 11 (6 pm) – Public Delegation Night. These evenings will be live-streamed on the Board website. Location: J.W. Singleton Centre (2050 Guelph Line). Seating priority in the Boardroom will be given to delegates. If additional audience capacity is required, it will be available at M.M. Robinson High School (2425 Upper Middle Road, Studio Theatre). Thursday, April 20, 2017 is the first date to submit online Delegation Request Form for the May 11 Delegation Night.  Parents listening to the PARC meetings. Central high school parents had a team at these meetings every occasion. Wednesday May 17, 2017 (7 pm) – Board meeting. Final Report to Board of Trustees for “information”. Location: J.W. Singleton Centre (2050 Guelph Line). If additional audience capacity is required, it will be available at M.M. Robinson High School (2425 Upper Middle Road, Studio Theatre). Wednesday June 7, 2017 (7 pm) – Board meeting. Final Report to Board of Trustees for “decision”. Location: J.W. Singleton Centre (2050 Guelph Line). If additional audience capacity is required, it will be available at M.M. Robinson High School (2425 Upper Middle Road, Studio Theatre). Maps of the school boundaries and the rationale for each option is set out HERE.
April 5, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The Art Gallery of Burlington wants artists to participate in the creation of a Garden of Chimes; an outdoor installation celebrating Canada’s Sesquicentennial.
This invitation is open to all AGB Guilds, the Potters Guild of Hamilton and Region and the Brantford Potters Guild. Specifications: • Maximum size is 12” diameter and 36” length. The proposal has to include a sketched image with description of materials and include an estimate of weight. Please submit your proposal by APRIL 17, 2017 via email to kai@agb.life . Charming idea – why limit it to just Potters Guild members?
April 5, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
City council had decided they were going to keep a barge pole length between what they do and what the Public school board has to do. These two organizations –both vital to the smooth operation and functioning of the city are far apart when it comes to working together on joint issues. The city and the school board are so far apart that they don’t even meet on a formal basis. The Halton District Regional Police make a presentation to the city; the Library makes a presentation to the city. When the Board of Education meets with the city it is usually at the staff level and then it usually boils down to a turf war. These guys tend not to play golf with each other. When the Board of Education told its trustees that it believed it was necessary to close two high schools (that was one of 19 options the School Board staff had considered) City council seemed to be hoping that the matter would stay at the school board level – let them deal with the inevitable political fallout.  Councillors Sharman and Lancaster were te only two who wanted the city to write a letter to the Minister of Education to halt the Program Accommodation Review the school board was undertaking. And it seemed to be working out – that was until Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman asked Council to waive the advance notice of a motion rule and debate his motion that the city write the Ministry of Education asking for an immediate halt to the school closing process now in place to consider the closing of one and perhaps two of the seven high schools in the city. It has become the hottest political potato the city has faced in a decade. There was considerable discussion and debate on whether city council was going to let the Sharman motion come forward. Eventually they did on a 5 for, 2 against vote. One of the negative votes was cast by Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward who argued that it was too late for the city to have any impact on the decision. Meed Ward said: The moment for the city to show some leadership passed when city council chose to appoint the city manager to the PARC instead of the Mayor and then not give the city manager anything in the way of a mandate. “That ship has sailed” she said. The motion was to ask that the city write the provincial government and ask that there be an immediate halt to the school closing process now taking place. Council agreed to allow the motion to proceed which brought Denise Davey to the podium who was given permission to delegate. She said: As I wrote in my column in The Hamilton Spectator, this has been an extremely difficult and emotionally draining few months for thousands of parents across the city. We’ve been pulled into a process that we knew nothing about and it’s been a steep learning curve trying to figure it all out. In addition to trying to sift through a maze of information, we’ve had to deal with ineffective public information sessions where we had no voices and a tedious online survey.  Delegator Denise Davey My worry is that that flawed process and that misinformation that’s been floated around is leading us in the wrong direction and my position – and the reason I approached Paul Sharman – is that I believe Burlington city council needs to take a leadership role. This is your city and the closure of any school will have an impact on the social and economic fabric of the entire community. I am not asking that you take a stand around which school to close but simply that you support Councillor Sharman’s motion to suspend the process immediately so that in the end the right decision will be made. I want to offer an example of how problematic this process has been and why it needs to be suspended, namely, that the data and information being thrown out to the public about Bateman school has been seriously misrepresented. Shortly after this point Committee chair Meed Ward cautioned Davey that she was straying from the subject being debated. Davey pressed on and was cautioned a second time – she was determined to get the Bateman high school plea on the record.  Councillor brought in a “walk on” motion to have the city write a letter to the province asking that the Program Accommodation Review in Burlington be halted. Sharman then began to explain what he was hearing from his constituents. He said he had been asked to help find corporations that might help fund keeping the high schools open. He didn’t mention any specific corporations and asked council to support his request that the provincial government be asked to immediately halt the school closing process in Burlington. Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor, the longest serving member of Council, joined the debate. He didn’t support letting the motion get to the floor of council and he wasn’t going to support the motion either. He then went into what was pretty close to a tirade about party politics getting into the debate. He did however bring some background and wisdom when he explained that the “baby boomers” – those born just after the end of the Second World War, have changed everything they touched as it grew and evolved. They changed the way education was delivered; we were building elementary schools all over the place and then high schools, and then then universities. The woman who worked in factories during the war returned to their homes, married and had children. Three to four children was not unusual. Those children needed schools. They were the boomers and as they grew families found they needed two incomes to pay for the housing they wanted. Taylor asked his colleagues why anyone was surprised that we face this problem today. It has been in the making for more than fifty years. When dozens of elementary schools were closed it should have been no surprise that at some point high schools would have to be closed as well.  Councillor Taylor gave Council members a broad stroke picture of what they were dealing with. Taylor added that the next phase the boomers are going to impact is the building of hospitals and nursing homes to take care of the boomers who are now aging. To add to it all Taylor pointed out that advances in medicine have us living longer. We have to do something about this problem – it can be avoided, he added. Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison said that this was a provincial government and Board of Education trustee problem – it is not a city problem. He saw no point in the city making a plea to the provincial government. Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster said that more and more parents were asking her to become involved. “None of the schools that are being recommended for closure are in my ward but some of the students are”, she said. And added that she too felt the process was flawed and that while she wasn’t comfortable with interfering she was very concerned about the problem of the quality of the data that was being used to make a decision. Meed Ward said she did not believe the province would intercede for one Board of Education and asking it to do so was “irresponsible and inappropriate”.  City manager James Ridge, on the right, with PARC Chair Scot Podrebarac. Ridge said very little during the meetings – he wasn’t given a mandate other than to attend the meetings. “Council squandered its opportunity to lead on this. There was an opportunity to send an elected member – we didn’t do that and we didn’t give the person we did send anything in the way of a mandate.” Having “squandered” the opportunity to lead Meed Ward said the city could now join the other organizations in asking the province to put a moratorium in place across the problem. ROMA – the Rural Ontario Municipal Association has done a lot of research that is very well documented – we could join their plea. AMO, the Association of Municipalities in Ontario has made comments however they have not asked for a moratorium.  Meed Ward is troubled by the message city Councillors are sending constituents, particularly parents of Central and Pearson high school students. Meed Ward said she is “troubled” with the kind of message is this council sending when it said up and down that it was not going to get involved but now we have council members who have schools that might be closed in their wards and want the city to do something when the opportunity to do anything has passed. What message does this council send to the parents of Central and Pearson? that we did not value their schools when they were subject to closure but now that other schools have been named we want to interfere? This is both inappropriate and offensive. During the discussion the Mayor mentioned that he had a conversation earlier in the day with the Minister of Education – but didn’t say what words were exchanged.
April 4th, 2017 BURLINGTON, ON
The Bayview Park Leash-Free Area will be closed on Thursday, April 6 to allow for construction within the fenced area. Thank you for your cooperation during construction.
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