 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 13, 2010 There is a little progress every day – and the unseasonably warm weather the last few weeks has allowed Graham Infrastructure of Mississauga to get much more work done than originally expected.
 Lot of fog when this picture was taken - but if you look closely - all the beams that were atop the caissons on the left of the Pier are no longer there.. The trestle, used by construction equipment, is on the right side. While it was foggy the day we took some of the pictures set out below it is quite clear now that all the beams put in place by Harm Schilthuis and Sons Ltd. of Ancaster, before they walked off the job in December of 2009, have now been removed. With colder weather setting in there won’t be much that can get done with a slippery, icy surface out there on the Pier.
 This photograph, taken before the "faulty steel was taken out, shows just how much work had been done on the Pier. New steel will be put in place in the spring. Fabricating of the new beams is believed to be underway. If there is an early spring we just might see new beams being stalled which will signal that the building of the Pier is real and that we are at least heading into the home stretch.
Where does all that steal go? Well it won’t get made into razor blades quite yet – there are more than a handful of lawyers who want to take a close, almost microscopic look at those beams because a large part of the several lawsuits that are floating around rest on the quality and make up of those steel beams.
And, by the way, whose property are they?
Harm Schilthuis and Sons Ltd. is in the process of trying to clarify in the mind of the public, some of the issues related to the role they played in the building that took place during what the city engineering people now call phase one the Pier project . Phase two is the “new” day with the city believing that they have a solid new contractor in place and all the technical support they didn’t have during phase one.
No word from the city’s legal department as to where things are with the civil trial. All we hear from them is that they aren’t going to say a word about how much they’ve spent on lawyer’s fees to date. Were they to do that the spotlight would certainly shift from the folks in engineering to the folks in the legal department. It is going to be an ‘ouch’ of a legal bill.
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 11th, 2012
It was a great day in Burlington history and perhaps the brightest day in the life of Marvelous Mike Wallace; the Prime Minister had come to town and as Wallace tells it – “I spent four hours with the Prime Minister”. Mike wore a smile for the next month.
 It was a big day for Burlington MP Mike Wallace. The Prime Minister was in town and Wallace made sure everyone who wanted their picture taken with the PM got that chance. Expect those pictures in future campaign literature. The obvious question we had for Wallace was: how did you get the PM to come to Burlington Mike? Every MP wants the PM to visit their riding. The rules of the game are the MP puts together an outline and makes the case for the PM to visit.
“I had a contact within the PMO and was able to get a favourable look at Burlington.”
Wallace says he was “told two weeks before hand that the PM would be visiting Burlington and was sworn to secrecy. Two days before the visit I am allowed to let the word out and the guests are advised and everyone shows up.” And show up they did. The Prime Minister toured the Performing Arts Centre and talked with members of the Burlington Teen Tour Band in the Main Theatre and then moved to the smaller Community Studio Theatre where the press conference took place.
Wallace believed he could have filled the Main Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre with guests, but the security people chose the smaller Studio Theatre. Politically, it is better to have a small room filled to bursting rather than a big room with empty spaces. The security people began to get a little edgy when people were milling around the Prime Minster and Wallace, along with Mayor Goldring, were directing people to where the PM was standing to have their picture taken. Didn’t matter who you were; if you were upright and breathing you got your picture taken.
 Prime Minister checks out the product at Ecosynthetix. Company CEO John van Leeuwen is on the left The Prime Minister included a tour of Ecosynthetix, a newly minted public company with offices and research facility on Mainway in Burlington.
Great Day for Marvelous Mike and a pretty good year as well – he is now part of a majority government that has settled in for the next four years during which time, based on what we have seen so far, we can expect some significant changes. For Wallace this is a very welcome change indeed. “We were always on edge as a minority government, we never knew when or if the government was going to fall. I rented campaign offices on two occasions because I thought we were going into an election.” When the election was called and the campaign offices were finally used Wallace got 54% of the vote, “for which I am grateful” he said.
When the government was formed Marvelous Mike wasn’t made a Cabinet Minister, but he did get a promotion to a very important House of Commons Committee. “It’s an important job and it meant a little bit more money” explained Wallace who is now the Vice Chair of the Government Operations Committee, whose job it is to review all government legislation.
To give you some idea as to just how important this committee is – here’s what it is required to do:
House of Commons Standing Orders, the mandate of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates includes primarily the study of: the effectiveness of government operations; expenditure budgets of central departments and agencies; format and content of all Estimates documents; cross-departmental mandates – programs delivered by more than one department or agency; new information and communication technologies adopted by the government; statutory programs, tax expenditures, loan guaranties, contingency funds and private foundations deriving the majority of their funding from the Government of Canada.
Add to that, this:
The Committee is specifically mandated to examine and conduct studies related to the following organizations, whose operational responsibilities extend across the government. Central Agencies and Departments, Privy Council Office/Prime Minister’s Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Organizations Related to Human Resources Matters, Public Service Commission, Public Services Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, Canada School of Public Service.
It doesn’t end there. Add these to the list of things this committee looks into. Office of the Governor General, Public Service Labour Relations Board, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat. They look at legislation related to the following Crown Corporations: Canada Lands Company, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada Post Corporation, Defence Construction (1951) Limited, Old Port of Montréal Corporation Inc., Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Queens Quay West Land Corporation and the Royal Canadian Mint.
Any legislation introduced in the House of Commons that passes first reading is sent to a committee for what is referred to as line by line review or Second reading. Anything to do with estimates (basically money matters) goes to the Committee of which Mike is vice chair. Because this is such an important committee, what happens there is of vital importance.
The story of Wallace’s attempt to get everything this committee does, done behind closed doors first broke when CBC radio did a short feature on it. Wallace refers to the woman who broke the story, Kady O’Malley, as “a blogger who doesn’t do any research”. Blogger she may be, but she was in the room, when Wallace put forward his motion, and she heard every word. O’Malley has a sterling reputation around Parliament Hill. Also, the printed minutes of the meeting show fairly clearly, what Wallace was trying to do. He didn’t get away with it this time – we will watch to see, what he tries to do next time.
This time there he was , Burlington’s Member of Parliament; part of a majority government, new job, better pay – and what does he do – lands himself in hot water with an attempt to have the meetings of the committee for which he is vice chair held behind closed doors.
CBC’s very popular radio program, The House, (Saturday on CBC Radio One at 9:00 am) which is a must for anyone politically involved in Ottawa did a piece on Wallace December 17th in which they skewered him. The Globe and Mail followed up with a short piece in which they said:
“The federal Conservative government is trying to move more of the debate at Commons committees behind closed doors – a tactic that opposition members deride as another effort by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to limit what Canadians know about the conduct of their Parliament.” The news story went on to say: “It is normal that witness lists would be drawn in camera because the discussion covers personalities and qualifications and capabilities, Mr. Comartin (NDP House leader) said. But “what they’re talking about here is all debate that goes on, unless there is a witness before the committee, everything else is going to be behind closed doors,” he said.
Wallace said in our interview with him that that what he proposed was “no big deal” and said he wasn’t put up to the move by anyone. “I’ve not talked to anyone at the PMO (Prime Ministers Office) about this”. Many don’t believe Wallace – they don’t think he’s smart enough to do something like this on his own.
Wallace says, that while he was thwarted in his first attempt to get things discussed behind closed doors, he plans to serve notice of his intention to bring a motion, which will pass because the government has the most members on the committee.
Here is where this issue gets dicey. There are times when Committees need to go into a closed session. Burlington’s city council does it frequently. What Wallace was thought to be trying to do was pass a motion that would have the Government Operations Committee always be in closed session. Wallace says that isn’t the case – what he wanted was a motion that would allow the committee to go into closed session when “future business” was being discussed.
 Burlington MO Mike Wallace at a federal Conservative Caucus meeting. Wallace usually wears a smile and tends to be a bit of a jokester at times. Known for his ability to play small pranks. Can't dance though. We’re not sure if Wallace was trying to pull a fast one and set things up so that all reviews of government legislation gets reviewed behind closed doors or if he was misunderstood when he used the phrase “all future business”. We will watch this one closely. Wallace did say that the committee meetings were collegial, academic rather than political. One doesn’t get that sense from a reading of the minutes.
Wallace is developing a reputation as someone who knows the process and sees the need for change. The Hill Times, a magazine that focuses on what happens on Parliament Hill mentioned that : “Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.), vice-chair of the House Government Operations Committee,said MPs should do a better job of scrutinizing government spending, but also they don’t have the time, expertise or resources to do an adequate job. Mr. Wallace said he has been working on ways to improve the budget approval process and will present those suggestions to the Conservative caucus in the fall. He declined to elaborate on his ideas until he talks to Tory MP”.
The articles goes on to quote Wallace as saying: “Right now for you to get all the balls in order, you need to look at the budget, then you have to look at the spending estimates, then you have to look at the priorities and planning documents that the ministries put out in the fall and then you have to look a year and a half later to the public accounts. It’s a very time consuming and difficult piece to put together,” Mr. Wallace said. “I just think we should be doing a better job of it as Members of Parliament. I’m not blaming anybody for it, it’s just the way it is.”
Wallace has developed a personal niche for himself on Parliament Hill. He likes looking at numbers and the details in a bill interest him. Many get that glazed look in their eyes when they see page after page of numbers – but Wallace likes this kind of work and as a result has a better command than many of the numbers and details involved. That kind of background comes in very handy when an issue is being debated.
There was a point in 2011 when Burlington was giving some thought to perhaps just giving up on the Pier and tearing it down. That was certainly the advice former Mayor Jackson gave current Mayor Goldring. Wallace quietly let the city know that if they chose to tear down the Pier, and that was a choice they could make, but if they did – they would have to return the millions of dollars the federal government had contributed.
 Mike Wallace stands before a constituency map with all kinds of Tory Blue on it. He took 54% of the vote last time. Wallace is particularly proud of the role he has played in the development of the arts in Burlington and having an brand new Performing Arts Centre might have been a part of the attraction for the Prime Minister to travel to Burlington. Wallace was part of the group that organized in 1999 to get a Performing Arts Centre for Burlington. Both Wallace, who was a Council member at the time and then Mayor Walter Mulkewich, worked hard to get Burlington to where it is today. The task of making Burlington a worthwhile destination from a performing arts point of view is now in the hands of the people that run the Centre. Burlington is fortunate enough to have an Executive Director, Brenda Heatherington, who brings an exceptional set of skills to the job. If anyone can make it happen, Heatherington can.
What she didn’t need of course was to have her MP on the stage trying to do a Gene Kelly impersonation during the Blue Jeans Gala and forgetting the line to Singing in the Rain.
Wallace has always been concerned about the lack of a strong voice for the arts community at city hall and points out that Oakville has a point person for the arts.
2011 was a good year for Mike Wallace. He is popular in the community, he delivers for the community and unless there is a tidal wave of discontent with the current government Mike Wallace is going to be our MP for some time. Governments of course eventually lose office – thank goodness for that. Can you imagine Jean Chretien getting away with the sponsorship scandal.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – Eight million You Tube hits and counting. Walk off the Earth, a Burlington based band has the world going whacky with their innovative approach to getting their fifteen minutes of fame. That celebrity, Russell Crowe caught their material and tweeted his crowd about the group certainly didn’t hurt. But as the band says – you do what you gotta do to get the exposure you need – and if you don’t do it yourself – it ain’t gonna happen But happen it did. Slip over to You Tube and check it out for yourself.
 You Tube just might have given Walk off the Earth the boost they needed to really make a mark on the musical scene. Are we looking at another Spoons in the making? From the left: Joel Cassady, Sarah Blackwood, Gianni Nicassio, Michael Aj Guilfoyle and Ryan Marshall. The band set themselves up in front of a camera with five people – but just one guitar and then did one of the almost funny deadpans into the camera. Ryan Marshall, the guy on the right doesn’t bat an eyelash as he plucks at the top end of the guitar while Joel Cassady, on the left, doesn’t even play the instrument but uses it as if it was a bongo drum and creates a neat beat.
Platinum blonde Sarah Blackwood has her head down for much of the four minute plus piece, but then pops up and looks straight into the camera to tell us about some guy that worked her over.
The band, Burlington based, uploaded the video to You Tube January 5th and somewhere along the way it went viral and were at eight million plus hits, when we saw the piece. If this were the 50’s they’d be getting a call from Ed Sullivan. But it isn’t – so they might have to settle for a spot on the Mayor’s Cabaret on the 24th of February. The band is booked for The Casbah in Hamilton on the 27th of February.
Comment from a loyal reader:
“They’re now up to over 10 million views! Small name correction: the one on the right is Michael Taylor, who just happens to be the father of my beautiful goddaughter! (It’s a small town.) Ryan Marshall is second from the right.”
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – Halton Regional Police released statistics on the number of people caught in the net they put out during the holiday season to apprehend those stupid enough to think they can drink and drive. If you’re were one of the people who got the card with an illustration – hope you said thanks to the police officer and then remembered to ensure your kids got the message – you can’t drink and drive.
Nelson High School students got that lesson when police spent part of a day at the school showing the students just how unable they are to walk a straight line if they had been drinking and getting a look at the equipment the police use to measure the blood alcohol content in their bodies. It was police time well spent.
The driving under the influence of alcohol legislation has been around for 90 years – since 1921, but we still have far too many traffic deaths, that were the result of a driver being drunk. There was a time when friends at a party would say to a guest as they were about to leave – “Have one for the road”. We actually did that.
 A total of 84 RIDE check points were set up by Regional Police; 67 driving under the influence charges were laid. Burlington's record was the worst in the Region. This year the police stopped 17,396 vehicles during the RIDE program. 564 of those people were asked to blow into the device that measures the amount of alcohol in the blood; 87 people were given warnings while 23 failed the test. Failing the test means you get to call home and ask for help or call your lawyer. If you are just warned you face anything from a three day driving suspension up to a 30 day driving suspension if you are caught a third time. Should the police officer that stops you decide to take you into the police station for a test on a much more sophisticated piece of equipment or if you refuse to take the breathing test – you lose your license automatically for 90 days. One would hope that at that point your insurance company made it so expensive to get coverage, that you wouldn’t be able to afford to drive.
Sgt. Dave Cross, media guru for the Halton Regional Police, wasn’t able to say if the number of warnings and charges has dropped over the years, but he does point out that the RIDE program serves a very useful purpose. You can almost hear him shaking his head, when he talks about the number of people who actually get caught behind the wheel of a vehicle, knowing they have been drinking. Couple of things were evident from the data he released though. While Burlington may be the #2 best Canadian city to live in, it had the worst results in terms of the number of people warned or charged by the police.
There were a total of 84 different RIDE check points set up, 31 each in Burlington and Oakville.
While the prime purpose of the RIDE program is to catch people driving while drinking, it serves as a notice to the community that the police are out there. It also gives the police a chance to scoop up other people they are looking for. There were seven criminal charges laid for non-drinking offenses, 3 suspended drivers were caught and 178 people nabbed under the Provincial Offenses Act – most of them were from Oakville.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – The Mayors Inspire program that featured Andre Picard will be re-broadcast on Cogeco Cable at 9:30 pm on January 12, 2012 – well worth watching.. You will get to hear one of the best thinkers on public health policy in the country, who will explain just what it is we have in the way of a public health system in Ontario and where it is likely to go.
The Picard talk, given at a time when the direction for health services in Burlington is less than certain, helps to understand the financial challenges the province faces and sets aside many of the myths that surround public health services.
This presentation was the last of four Mayor Rick Goldring sponsored during 2011. They have proven to be quite a success – the last filled the Community Studio Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre. Goldring expects to sponsor another series in 2012.
 PART TWO
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 9, 2010 – When Christine Iamonaco saw the ad she knew instantly “that job was meant for me”. While putting together her resume she got calls from colleagues, who alerted her to the job opportunity. It didn’t take the city long to see the potential, and less than two months later Iamonaco signed her contract, and was shown the office she would work out of. While Christine doesn’t live in Burlington – she commutes from east end Toronto. She spent the first month reading and working closely with Kim Phillips who was going to shepherd her through the processes and procedures the city has in place. Business cards were printed and the gig was getting ready to go on the road..
 Burlington's Public Involvement Coordinator, Christine Iamonaco - if her public sessions are anywhere near as organized as those post it notes on the wall behind her desk the city will be well served. Iamonaco got her first taste of what the good folks of Burlington are like, when she helped out with the Heritage Workshop that was held to calm the very troubled waters the good ship Registry sails on. There were well over 100 people at that event and it got noisy at times; but it was nothing like some of the garbage site selection meetings that Iamonaco handled in places like Chapleau and Kenora. “Those” Iamonaco will tell you “got really noisy.” When you try to tell people that there is going to be a garbage dump just down the road from where they live be ready for some reaction.”
A lot of her early work was done in the Waste Management field – where she developed plans for municipalities that had run out of space to put their garbage and needed to either open up new sites or expand existing locations.
A native of Ottawa, Iamonaco’s career started in retail where she found she liked talking to people. She saw a job that intrigued her and got into the waste management field, where she was a waste reduction facilitator in South Simcoe. That first brush with a larger public was the beginning of a career that brought her to Burlington with stops along the way in Kenora, and then ten years with the city of Toronto. A stint with BCHydro “before the department was gutted in 2007” and Iamonaco decided that it was time to get more formal education to compliment her experience in the field. She took a career curve and attended York University and left with a degree in Urban Studies.
What else does she bring with her? In her resume Iamonaco describes her skill set and experience this way:
I am a senior public involvement manager and coordinator, liaison, and facilitator with progressive planning experience. I have lead and prepared staff for specific roles in public involvement processes. I have created plans, strategies, and processes, in regulated and non-regulated environments. I am diplomatic and adept at contextualizing the issues and interests of multi-stakeholders. I am a strategic thinker who recognizes how company actions and messages will impact different stakeholder groups. I have clearly reported to government and stakeholders on issues, process progress, and emergent opportunities. I have established and managed a multitude of committees, advisory groups, peer review groups, and community liaison groups. Instrumental action in terms of managing conflicting community and corporate interests. Skilled group presenter, leader and trainer, adhering to IAP2 principles of inclusion and transparency.
IAP2 principles were used by Council and Staff when the Strategic Plan was created. Those same principles are going to be applied to the process of creating the Engagement Charter and are expected to be embedded within the Charter when it is finally ready for a trial run.
Iamonaco works out of a small office on the sixth floor and meets once a week with Kim Phillips to ensure that the time lines are being met and the objectives achieved.
After spending a couple of months getting the lay of the land, interviewing key people at the staff level and getting to know council members and meet with some of the stake holders, Iamonaco was ready to take her work plan into the field and work with the community to develop a Citizen’s engagement Charter – which is? And that’s where the job becomes one of educating first and then working with citizens as they fumble with their early understandings and over time get a deeper appreciation about just what it means to have an engagement Charter and then decide what to do with the thing once it has been put together. Iamonaco explains that an Engagement charter “improves the practice of information sharing.”
That assumes that the stakeholders actually want to share information. Does Council want to share and involve the citizens they represent, or do they see themselves as having been elected to run the city – and that they do – and come election time they get re-elected if they did a good job or shoved out if someone better comes along.
 Participatory democracy - the public going over budget documents. Turnout was low - was the effort made worth the time - did it have any impact on the budget decisions? Iamonaco explains that there are two types of democracy: representative democracies where you send someone to Ottawa or Queen’s Park and expect them to do the best they can for you or you have a participatory democracy where the citizens are involved right up to their ying yangs – if that’s what they want.
Council recently saw an example of participatory democracy, when people in the Orchard community flooded the Council Chamber saying what staff was recommending was totally unacceptable; then came in with ideas of their own that got right down into the nitty gritty of how much land they wanted dedicated to parks for their children. Based on how Council reacted a few weeks later on the Orchard issue, it would appear they are quite comfortable with having citizens at the table offering very detailed plans.
How far will Council – and staff for that matter – go with that approach? Staff will say – ‘hey we were hired to do this stuff’ and council may get to the point where they can only handle so much of a new approach. We are talking the protection of ‘turf’ here.
And that of course is what the Shape Burlington report was all about – they said the citizens wanted more say and they wanted to be consulted and be a real part of the decision making process.
Iamonaco found that the Shape Burlington report was the “push” that Burlington needed. “There were some very useful insights in the report; but real citizenship engagement comes when there is a willing council and the silos between the different parts of the civic administration are taken down.” Not always an easy task when their turfs are threatened.”
Iamonaco adds that “improving the practice of information sharing means building the capacity to participate – which is almost a straight line back to the information deficit the Shape Burlington Report highlighted. Burlingtonians have been so far removed from municipal participation, that they’ve forgotten they have a right to be at the table. Both Council and staff have been left to their own ways, which means that they are going to have to get used to citizens appearing and asking for more information and more participation.
What Burlington wanted to avoid was a situation similar to some of the early Strategic Plans – ‘oh we had one, but nobody did anything useful with what they had’. We now have a Strategic Plan that has become part of the process of getting things done. Any decision made is bounced off the Strategic Plan and the question: Does it fit with the Plan ? gets asked.
What approach will council take to the Engagement Charter? How will staff work with the thing? Well just what is the “thing”? It isn’t going to fall of the back of a truck and into our laps fully formed. The process will begin with a series of community information sessions. Five dates have been set with the locations set out below:
Community Engagement Information Sessions:
Monday, January 12, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Aldershot Arena, Community Room, 494 Townsend Avenue
Tuesday, January 17, 7 to 8 p.m., Mainway Recreation Centre, Auditorium, 4015 Mainway
Thursday, January 19, 7 – 8 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street Council Chambers (this session will be recorded for webcasting)
Thursday, January 19, 2 to 3 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Room 247
Thursday, January 26, 7 to 8 p.m.; Brant Hills Community Centre and Public Library, Nelson Room
These are “formation” meetings at which people will learn something about Engagement Charters. What are other cities doing? What are the upsides and the downsides of the different practices? Iamonaco is aiming for a “made in Burlington” Engagement Charter.
Iamonaco is looking at different levels of citizen participation. “Some people will choose to jump into this with both feet while others will want to just listen and monitor”, she points out.
Her objective is to pull together a group of people, who will work with her to determine what engagement model suits Burlington and then ideally produce something that is truly “Burlington” – made here to work here. We’ve not seen Iamonaco in action yet – she certainly speaks the language, but then so do most of the politicians we elect – it’s what happens to them when they get into office that’s the problem.
Iamonaco envisions a Charter Team – these are the people who will actually create the document. These people will meet often and Iamonaco hopes and expects there will be Council representation and senior staff representation involved in this as well as people from a good cross section of the community. She expects the group will number between 19 and 30 people.
She also wants to create a Virtual Team, that is people who are involved but not as directly. They get everything, they see everything and they can comment – but they may not be at the table doing the writing and the re-writing. Then there will be a Listen and Monitor Team – these are people who will be on a mailing list and just get material sent to them. Each of these groups will “self-organize”. Iamonaco’s role is to facilitate – not to create the document. She will be in place as probably the prime resource – but not the only resource. What she doesn’t know yet, is what kind of talent is out there and what kind of an appetite the community have for a charter?
 Burlington has had relatively large community protest groups in the past. The Save our Waterfront group had more than 1000 members - did it achieve anything other than getting its founder elected to city hall? Here, one of the masters of public involvement, former Toronto Mayor David Crombie talks with current SOW president. This isn’t the sexist stuff to work through; but when completed it will result in an approach to citizen engagement that will move Burlington forward as a city whose citizens are aware, informed and active in the decision making process.
Iamonaco is going to have to work with both the people outside city hall and the people inside city hall. Far too many people have horror stories about how they were treated at one of the counters on Brant Street. We could tell you the story of a council member who was stunned with the treatment at the parking ticket counter. Pity that council member didn’t choose to go into the grubby little room, where you can plead your case at what is called the First Attendance office.
When we talk of getting things done in Burlington, mention is always made of the stakeholders” and of our desire to “partner” with others. Stake holders are often people, who feel they have a vested interest in something. They may not do very much of the heavy lifting, but they want and expect to be heard. What is really happening is that they are protecting a turf they have decided is theirs to protect.
Mayor Goldring moved through the “stakeholders” very early in the process of creating the Strategic Plan, where he was direct and not prepared to listen to much of the “same old, same old”. Some of those “stakeholders” were a little surprised, at the rate with which the Mayor went through their briefs. It was kind of healthy actually.
How radical a document is this Engagement Charter likely to be? Hey – this is Burlington – so let’s not let the word radical get put into use. It should be noted though, that there was a decent demonstration outside the Waterfront Hotel by the Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition. So – well we can dream, can we not?
When one listens to Christine Iamonaco, you will hear her talk about Burlington, that best kept secret, that hidden gem. Why change it, one might ask? Well John Boich did say that the relationship between the city and its citizens was toxic and when given an opportunity to take the words back and apologize for them – he didn’t.
Listen to the people who were really riled up over the way we handle, define and register buildings that are seen as “heritage” properties and you get a clearer understanding of where the problems exist. There were no deep dark secrets or an “agenda” within the Planning department. The problem was that citizens did not have clear information and that is more a community relations issue than a bureaucratic matter.
 Orchard residents filled the Council chamber and gave council members a different pciture than staff had provided on creating park space in their community. We didn't have a Public Involvement Coordinator but the problem got resolved. Do we really need this position? Had you had a chance to listen to the community delegation from the Orchard, when they were ticked with the way the city was handling the creation of some parkland for their children, and had you heard the rather weak excuse staff gave for putting forward the decision that was eventually turned down by council, you will get a sense as to why an Engagement Charter is needed. An interesting note: – the oversight for the Public Involvement Coordinator is being done by Kim Phillips. Can she bring city council around enough to have them go along with the process that Iamonaco is setting out to implement? And which council members are going to choose to be part of the process? And what impact will our new city manager have on all this?
Iamonaco brings an understanding of what people want when they talk of involvement. “The public” she will tell you “pushes when they want something. They usually want a say in the decisions being made on their behalf”. That she points out is what the Shape Burlington report did – “it was the push”. “There are some very good insights in that document and it is clear Iamonaco intends to use it as her starting point. And now that it is back up on the city’s web site – one would hope that everyone who is part of the Charter Team make a point of downloading the document and reading it from cover to cover.
 That rooster on the door of Christine Iamonao's office is her way of telling people "you have to start early" if you want to get the job done. As we get into January the city will see a blizzard of community meetings - five over a two week period, allowing all parts of the city to become informed and take part. The start for Iamonaco is “improving the practice of information sharing”, which are words that will warm the cockles of Councillor Mead Ward’s heart. However, information on its own won’t make all that much of a difference. Iamonaco talks of “building capacity to participate” which means getting out into the community and explaining to people how they can take part. That kind of field work sticks in the craw of some of the council members, who feel that what happens in their ward is their concern and they don’t need some outsider who doesn’t have to manage the consequences, which they do come election day. As one council member put it at a meeting to think through what the job would mean – “will this person be taking the late evening calls at home, when something has gone wrong?”
Former prime minister John Turner recently said in a television interview that “democracy doesn’t just happen”. Iamonaco will tell you that this isn’t something she is going to do for the city of Burlington. Her job is to help the people in Burlington think through what they want and help them fashion the document they feel will give them what they want in terms of engagement charter. Her role is to listen to the participants and give them the guidance and direction to get to where they tell her they want to go.
Iamonaco says she would like to see a charter drafted and implemented by September of 2012 – and that is a bit of a stretch. However, what Iamonaco has going for her is the growing trend of taxpayers to be more involved. The internet has brought a lot more information to the public – they are now more informed and they don’t like some of what they see.
 The Baby Boomers - they changed the way society worked every decade they went through - what will they do with Civic Engagement Another factor that is in play is the appearance of the “baby boomers” as community activists. The “Boomers” have changed every level of society they were a part of. They changed our education system, they changed the way children were raised and they raised pure hell on university campuses around the world. They changed every level of entertainment. There is no reason to think that they won’t change what it is to be a senior. Gone will be the quiet, submissive senior who takes it on the chin.
Engagement Charters are an accepted part of municipal life in Australian and New Zealand. In Canada, Edmonton is the city with the most Engagement Charter experience where the initiative is a joint venture between the University of Alberta and the city.
For some communities the engagement charter is a policy, for others it is a collection of protocols and procedures; Burlington will have to decide, what it wants and then craft a document that sets out the rules of engagement – and then we can all have at it. This is a process that is just beginning.
 PART ONE
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 9, 2012 It wasn’t a very well written document, but over time it took on a life of its own and just may be the report that pushes Burlington along a path where citizen engagement becomes something real.
During the last year of his term of office then Mayor Cam Jackson created a Citizen Advisory Committee on Civic Engagement, to look at the way citizens interacted and communicated with city hall. There were a lot of people who at the time felt city hall was too distant and didn’t involve the public enough in its thinking. This applied more to the civil servants, than it did to the council members – they could be tossed out in an election. The bureaucrats were there for life and other than complaining there wasn’t much anyone could do.
 John Boich - co-chair of the Shape Burlington Committee died in 2011 The late John Boich was an unpaid advisor to Jackson and he certainly had the Mayor’s ear. Jackson was just over a year away from his next municipal election and being the politician he was – he was becoming aware of some restlessness amongst the natives and felt that advice from a committee would serve his purpose rather well. He appointed Boich and former Mayor Walter Mulkewich to co-chair the committee and gave them a very short time frame within which to get their work done. One of the things Boich was superb at, was getting things done and the report came back in a very short period of time.
 Former Mayor Walter Mulkewich co-chaired the Advisory Committee that produced the Shape Burlington report. His co-chair was the late John Boich Mulkewich got a call “out of the blue” from Jackson asking if he would co-chair the committee. He quickly said yes and the two advocates for citizen participation were off. They had carte blanche from Jackson and they handpicked the committee they wanted and then engaged a public opinion research firm to help with pulling together some data and the report was released. While Council at the time approved the report on a unanimous vote, several council members took exception to some comments Boich made to the media. Boich, true to form, stood by his comments on just how toxic things were between the city and its citizens.
 A Shape Burlington original Blair Lancaster went on to get elected as Council member for Ward 6. She is not always a strong Shape advocate. Jackson had hoped for something a bit different than what he got, but he was able to live with the report. Now that it was public it took on a life of its own. Two members of the Shape Burlington Committee went on to become members of city council. Paul Sharman and Blair Lancaster seldom fail to remind people they were part of that committee, but they tend to blow hot and cold on some of the recommendations that were in the document.
The Shape Burlington report, which by the way was not on line when we began this story, had somehow fallen off the radar – was that a telling mistake or just sloppy management over at the web site side of the city? Kim Phillips, General Manager Budget and Corporate Services, is the person who shepherds anything related to Shape Burlington through city hall. How the document got left off the web site is a question Phillips asked and got an answer to quick, quick. It is now back on the city web site.
The creation of a meaningful Strategic Plan was part of what the Shape Burlington recommended and on that one, the city delivered in spades. Not only did they put in a considerable amount of time creating the document, but they also took steps to ensure that the document didn’t just gather dust on a shelf.
The city assigned the ongoing review of the document to Allan Magi, Executive Director of Corporate Strategic Initiatives, who will be leading Council through a quarterly review of just where the city is with its plans as set out in the Strategy document.
More than that, every action the city takes gets run through a number of filters. One of which is – how does this impact the Strategic Plan, another is – what does this mean financially.
 Paul Sharman served on the Shape Burlington Committee along with Lancaster. He was a bit of a "bull in a china shop" with that organization and brought the trait along with him when he got elected to Council. The next challenge for the city and the way it continues to respond to the Shape Burlington report is the creation and implementation of a Community Engagement Charter. Then Council has to get over the hurdle of actually putting a Citizen Engagement Charter in place. No one really knows what an engagement charter is other than that it is a tool that gives citizens a voice at the table where decisions are made any time and every time – and not just when Council or staff think it would be nice to hear what the people paying the freight think.
That there was no expertize within the Shape Burlington committee, and not that much elsewhere in Canada, didn’t stop them from believing that a charter would solve a lot of the problems. With Council having endorsed the report unanimously – truth be told not one of them had the courage to vote against the report – Ward 2 Councillor Peter Thoem did say the report was a nice collection of Motherhood statements. He lost the 2010 election to Marianne Meed Ward. With two Shape Burlington Committee members now on Council, the report was expected to get serious consideration.
Kim Campbell did the early spade work on just what it took to get a Citizens Engagement Charter in place. She found that cities that had a real working charter (and there weren’t very many of them) tended to have someone in place to grow the idea and the concept within the community. What was an Engagement Charter going to do for the city? There are all kinds of ideas and expectations running all over the place, but no one had anything anywhere near a concrete plan.
The people who put the Shape Burlington report together were so pleased with themselves and what they had achieved that, like a really good party – they didn’t want it to end. Jackson’s Advisory Committee was disbanded the day the report was given to Council. Many members of the Shape Burlington Committee decided to re-shape themselves and be known as Shaping Burlington – that subtle difference in name is important. Shape had legitimacy and a clear mandate and the line of accountability was crystal clear.
Shaping is a self-appointed group that is accountable to no one and decides on its own who will be a member and who will not be a member. They delegate to city council committee meetings, but other than comments on their web site there is no other accountability. Elected Council members would just love to be able to operate that way. While Shaping calls for transparency and accountability on the part of Council – they don’t apply those strictures to themselves. Do they make valid comments? Are the comments useful? One would have to give them a mild yes at this point. They have served as a reminder, perhaps as a “conscience for the people in place to make this happen. Neither Boich or Mulkewich chose to be part of the Shaping group, but Mulkewich is believed to advise the group and they have enlarged their “membership” somewhat.
 General Manager, Budget and Corporate Affairs Kim Phillips took control of the city's decision to hire a Public Involvement Coordinator and has made this her signature file. Shaping felt strongly that there should be someone hired to create an Engagement Charter for the city and then be on hand to make the thing work. They wanted the job to be full time and permanent. They got a commitment to hire an experienced person for a two year contract. Once again Phillips picked up her pen and with other people within city hall, crafted a job description. As Phillips explains it:
“I got Mike Greenlea, who was assistant to the general managers at the time, to research similar positions in other municipalities because this was a new role for us and Shape Burlington had some specific suggestions on what they felt worked in other places and could work in Burlington.
“We then drafted a job description while consulting with other staff to avoid duplication of effort and reviewed corporate job descriptions for comparable attributes, expectations, job requirements and appropriate compensation.
Because this had the potential to be a contentious hire, I had previously met with each member of council about deliverables and measurables to get an idea of the type of work they expected and results they were looking for, which helped me frame up the type of person/skills needed”.
The document was then run by the people over at HR after which Phillips then reported to committee/council with a proposed work program and job description. Normally this level of detail doesn’t go to committee/council, but the city was breaking new ground and Phillips wanted to cover all her bases. That committee meeting got a little bumpy, but Phillips left the meeting with more than her shirt on her back – next step was to get the hire requisition moving and all the sign offs that were required.
“The recruitment phase begins with internal and external posting” explains Phillips. This hire was going to get special treatment right from the get-go; every application went to Phillips. “Usually” she explains “ there is some slimming done at HR before an application goes anywhere, but in this case, “it was such a unique position with a range of backgrounds that could ‘fit’, I decided to review them all.” This was going to be a project with Kim Phillips’ fingerprints all over it.
The city’s interview panel for full time employees (including contract employees) is usually the supervisor (in this case Phillips), the HR representative and another staff person. (A variety of selection criteria to end up with an appropriate panel. In this case, round 1 interviews included Mike Greenlee and round 2 interviews added Scott Stewart).
The hiring decisions are considered the supervisor’s, with the input from participants on the interview panel, for all positions. Christine Iamonaco was a Kim Phillips hire.
Part 2 This job was made for me.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 5, 2012 – During the Christmas holiday period suspects as yet known slipped into the fenced compound of Trans East Trailer at 3091 Appleby Line and removed the tires and rims off two double axle trailers parked in the north west portion of the parking lot.
Stolen were twelve Michelin XZE2 low rolling resistance tires and twelve aluminum outer 10 holes rims. Total loss is valued at $12,000.
 Police would like any help they can get on a much bigger heist that took place between November 25th and November 28th, 2011. Thieves broke into a gated compound located at 4495 North Service Road. They then rolled out a 53 foot, white, storage trailer and its contents. The stolen automotive parts include 10 engines, 54 engine covers and 12 bumpers. The total loss of the trailer and parts is valued at $143,000. That will be quite an insurance claim
Police see this as professional due to the expertise required to operate and move the heavy objects.
Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com
By Staff
If you really want your 15 minutes of fame on a Burlington stage – get your demo into the Mayor’s Cabaret. There are just a few days left to be considered for the event which is to take place at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on February 24th.
 Mayor Goldring, upper right, practices his routine for the upcoming Mayor's Cabaret. He hasn't been told yet that after his Blue Jeans Gala performance - he isn't going to make the cut. To date there are 30 submissions and the Mayor’s Office expects a few more to come in at the last minute – you could be one of those. While the competition is going to be stiff we are able to tell you that you won’t be going up against the Mayor or Mike Wallace, Burlington’s MP. Both took part on the Blue Jeans Gala early in December and both have decided to keep their day jobs.
 The Cabaret is Mayor Goldring’s initiative as a fund raiser for the Centre, which has just gone through what they called a slow opening – and they weren’t kidding. Starting with Royal Oak back in October to the big ticket Gala with Sarah McLaughlin on the stage and a “boffo” event for the patrons who could put up the $400. per ticket price.
Now the Centre settles into becoming a destination in the city that delivers world class entertainment and at the same time makes room for local performing arts groups and serves as home base for the Burlington Teen Tour Band. The Mayors Cabaret is about as local as you’re going to get; it will be interesting to see what comes in. If you want to take a shot at being selected click on the link above.
The Sound of Music people are heavily involved in this initiative; they will be doing the selecting and overseeing the production.
Inquiries: Daphne Jaques, Assistant to the Mayor, (905) 335-7600, ext. 7478
Email: jaquesd@burlington.ca
Tickets for the event are $100. each, available at the BPAC box office – 905-681-6000, for which you get a lot more than a comfortable seat. The Centre has shown they know how to put on an event and based on the first really WOW! Gala we can expect this to be just as impressive. Big question is: Will Cogeco Cable TV have their cameras on site?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 4th, 2012 – There, that didn’t hurt now did it? Remember those words from your first visit to the doctor? It was a new experience for you and one you would get used to for the rest of your life. A similar experience came across the desk of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital CEO and President Eric Vandewall this week. Ontario’s Freedom of Information legislation was made to apply to the medical community and JBMH had to post the information on its web site. Now anyone and everyone can log in and see what the man is paid. There is nothing exorbitant in Vandewall’s contract. Some of his colleagues elsewhere in the province, particularly across the Bay, do much better.
 Liberal candidate in the provincial election Karmel Sakran shares a smile with JBMH CEO Eric Vandewall at an event where everyone hoped a provincial government minister was expected to show up with a funding announcement. Sakran at the time was a member of the hospital Board and was in line to become chairman of the hospital board but resigned when he ran for office - and lost. Sakran's signature appears on Vandewall's employment contract as a witness. To spare you the trouble of going through the 10 page agreement we can tell you that the hospital hired Vandewall in June of 2010 at a salary of $325,000 plus a car allowance of $1000. a month. He has to pay for parking like everyone else, which is more than can be said of Burlington city council members, but then they don’t get the big bucks that Eric gets.
In December of this year Vandewall’s salary was increased to $338,428. But there was a hook added to the compensation agreement. $17,767. of that salary is “at risk”, meaning that it is possible for Vandewall to not to actually get the full $338,428. in his contract. Has to earn this portion of his salary by meeting designated objectives outlined in the Hospitals’ Quality Improvement Plan. Personally, I hope for Vandewall that one of the objectives isn’t his getting real money from the province to rebuild his hospital. I think the province is going to stiff him because it just isn’t going to have the money.
That level of detail in the contract “designated objectives” portion of the contract is something best left to the hospital Board. You have to trust them to hold Vandewall accountable and to behave responsibly as a Board. One small quibble – the information that was to be made public effective January 3rd wasn’t actually available until sometime in the mid-afternoon – a small detail and hopefully not a telling one.
It is a new day for hospital administrators. They are paid out of the public purse and are responsible to the public. Accept the change or leave the profession and work in the United States where the dollars are much, much greater – but do you really want to live there?
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 4, 2012 – Wow! If the police can’t get what they need from Google – what are the rest of us supposed to do? Halton Regional Police Service reported that it was recently made aware of an error in the contact phone number for the Service when utilizing the ‘Google’ search engine. Is that a criminal offence?
The police apologize for any inconvenience this has caused the general public and report they have been assured ‘Google’ is working towards making the necessary correction. You want to bet they are.
The main phone number shown by Google is 905 825-4710 when it should be 905 825-4777.
Write that one down 905-825-4777
The police want you to dial 911 when there is a genuine emergency. However, they also remind you that there are non-emergency incidents that can be reported in person at either our police reporting centre or any of our police divisions.
Some non-emergency incidents can be reported online and the public is encouraged to visit the police web site at www.haltonpolice.ca, for a complete understanding of these reporting provisions. As always, if you have an emergency, call 9-1-1.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 3, 2012 A Burlington resident commented on our first story about the government requirement that senior hospital staff make their pay scale and expense spending public and said: “Here’s another reason why that secrecy is stupid: Taxpayers already know roughly how much Eric Vandewall is paid. According to other media sources Vandewall was paid $334,990.65 in 2010 and given a car allowance of “around” $1,100 a month.
“This stonewalling is nonsensical and seems inconsistent with the spirit of we’re-all-in-this-together community you think Jo Brant would be using in their fundraising drive”
Ouch!
Hospital spokespeople said earlier in December that they would not post the pay scales until January 3rd because they were not required to do so – which raised a bit of dust and the question: why not?
 Joseph Brant Memorial Hosapital CEO Eric Vandewall poses with Prime Minister Stephen Harper - the PM didn't have a cheque for the CEO. Vandewall wants to get his picture taken with the Premier of the province - that's where the funds have got to come from. If the figure reported is correct Vandewall is one of the best paid civil servants in Burlington. Well someone has to be at the top of the list and if the money that person gets is from the public trough – it gets declared. The presidents of large publicly traded companies have their salaries and benefits published in annual reports. The only time you don’t have to tell the world what you’ve earned is when it is a private company that you own. Then the only person you have to tell is the tax man.
What is frustrating is the tendency some civil servants have to duck the very valid question: How much public money are we giving you? Then the public can decide if the person is worth what they are being paid.
Andrea Horwath, NDP leader and MPP for Hamilton Centre makes the point that “leadership on cost-cutting has to start at the top. You can’t expect a nurse to take a pay freeze while the CEOs are raking in not only high salaries and bonuses but also perks … These perks are all part of the equation, when we look at trying to get control over costs in the hospital sector” says Horwath.
Horwath has long been fighting to rein in hospital CEOs salaries and in the process scores political points and keep her blue colour base happy.
Smith makes nearly $725,000 a year and Martin is just over $700,000. Higgins makes nearly $490,000 and Vandewall gets just over $350,000 in salary and taxable benefits.
At St. Joseph’s Healthcare, CEO Kevin Smith gets $1,000 a month and drives a Mercedes ML Diesel SUV. Smith is paid nearly $725,000 a year. Heck based on that – Vandewall (who gets just over $350,000) should be looking for an increase. Because for the next five years – maybe ten, he is going to be battling the bureaucrats at Queen`s Park to get the funding to rebuild the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, when the province doesn`t have any money and at the same time deal with city hall to coax out of them some of the cash they already have in the bank.
Vandewall has to clear the property parking lot so that the expansion can take place and to do that he has to build a parking lot. The city of Burlington doesn`t want to put their money into a parking lot for a couple of reasons: there is nothing sexy about a parking lot and the city isn`t all that sure the province will really, really come through. The Mayors Letter to the Editor in the Post notwithstanding. To hand over $20 million to the hospital now and see a parking lot go up – and not get the revenue from that parking – is proving to be a tough one for the city to swallow. The definitive agreement between the city and the hospital is still going back and forth. But somehow Vandewall has to convince the city to let the money flow his way.
 Vandewall has to attend every Gala that is put on to raise money for the hospital - but he doesn't have to pay for the tickets. Then he has to glad hand for the next five years to get the people with deep pockets to come up with the $60 million the Hospital Foundation has to raise. Were I Eric Vandewall, I would be renting billboards and telling the city how much I am being paid and then ask for a raise. He has one of the toughest jobs in the city and quite frankly I don`t care what kind of a car he drives. That is none of my business. How much we give him to pay for the car – that is public information.
When on compares what Vandewall is earning with what his colleagues a few miles away are earning and you measure that against what the guy does – he is worth every dollar we are giving him. This guy oversees the building of hospitals – and that is no simple task.
Before coming to Burlington, Vandewall was the senior vice-president of Trillium Health Centre, where he over saw the building of the Trillium Health Centre’s West Toronto 18,510-square-foot addition and 23,575-square-foot renovation.
Construction setbacks – including a labour strike, record summer rainfall and construction challenges – put the project behind schedule. Still, Ellis Don, the general contractor, was able to make up the time to bring it in on time and within budget, which included being just under the five per cent contingency allowance.
While Vandewall didn’t do all this by himself he certainly directed the team and made all the parts come together. This guy knows how to get a hospital built – now if he can learn how to work a little more effectively with the city and soothe the nerves of the politicians who will take it in the neck if they end up paying for a parking lot garage and then have to wait more than ten years for their hospital.
One thing that did surprise me about the pay packages was that the cost of subscriptions to the numerous galas these people have to attend is covered in their remuneration package. What we are doing is using tax dollars to pay these administrators – some of whom are brilliant – and then giving them a perk that they use to buy a ticket to a fund raising event to build the hospital. Is that what they mean by paying Peter to rob Paul? I thought these people paid for their tickets out of their own personal funds. Maybe I am naïve.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 2, 2012 – Halton Regional Police reported on December 30th, the finding of the body of Terry Wilkinson. He had been missing since November 22, when he was last seen in downtown Burlington. The body was found on the beach just east of the lift bridge. The police report there was no suspicion of foul play.
 Terry Wilkinson, Father, friend community volunteer, found dead on Burlington Beach. Foul play is not suspected. Wilkinson was with a family member on that Tuesday and said he was going home, but family members have not had direct contact with him since then.
His family says the disappearance is out of character and that Wilkinson had no pre-existing medical conditions and was believed to be in good health.
Burlington Det.-Sgt. Ray Bruce reports reviewing surveillance video of Wilkinson at a downtown gas station around 7 p.m. the same day he went missing. Wilkinson is on his own in the footage and appeared to be in good condition.
Wilkinson’s 2004 black Pontiac Grand Prix was found by police on Wednesday, Nov. 23, around 10 p.m., in the Brant Street/Lakeshore Road area. It had a parking ticket on it dated the same day, around 11:25 a.m.
The police marine unit did a search of the shoreline around Spencer Smith Park and also a foot search of the downtown area to no avail shortly after Wilkinson was reported missing.
Weather until very recently was unseasonably warm.
Burlington resident Casey Cosgrove was part of a community effort to locate Wilkinson. Flyers were placed in stores in the downtown core and police were on constant lookout and several searches were organized.
“The story with Terry has ended in a way that makes all if us that cared for him or called him a friend very sad”, Cosgrove said. `”He was a husband, father, and an active volunteer in his community for many years. Every time there was an event that needed support, Terry was there. He will be dearly missed.”
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON December 31, 2011 – They do it every year. Some of them get away with it; others get caught in the RIDE sweep while others bring tragedy and grief into the lives of the people they kill while driving the vehicles and under the influence of alcohol.
 Halton Regional Police will be handing out these cards to drivers who made it through the Ride check. Tomorrow evening a couple of squads of police officers will set up their cars and pull drivers over and do a quick RIDE check. If the police officer thinks you’ve been drinking they will ask you to step out of the car. If they ask you to use the breathalyzer – you could be in serious trouble. If you get charged with drunk driving – consider yourself lucky. Had you continued to drive you might have killed someone.
Halton Regional Police recently took Nelson High School students through a “walking the line” test and let them see what the breathalyzer looked like and how it worked.
The objective was to convince the students that while people think they can drive if they’ve had a few drinks – the fact is that alcohol severally limits your ability to drive or react – so get someone to drive you home.
Yet every year dozens of people in Burlington get caught driving while drunk. It doesn’t have to be this way.
As a cogent reminder as to who this is all about Halton Police hand out cards with pictures done by students in grade 4 and 5 classes with the message: Think of me.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 30, 2011 – Rick Goldring, who has had his job as Mayor for just over a year, took some time to reflect with Our Burlington on his first year in office. We wondered what it is that defines his first term – and he agreed that the decision not to do a deal with Paletta International or the Hamilton Tiger Cats was not a defining moment for him. He did agree though that it was a hectic couple of weeks and he got to see how city hall staff managed a situation under significant pressure.
 The Burlington Tiger Cats? Not this time around. The Mayor dealt with his first challenge. With the decision not to put any money on the table to bring a Canadian Football League team to Burlington – the Mayor was able to get on with the business of learning how to do his job and create a City Council that could work together as a team – and that seems to be what Goldring sees as his best contribution so far. Not his only contribution by far.
Goldring explains that in any relationship there is a certain amount of tension, which he saw as a good thing. The first steps he felt were critical for the Council he was leading was to establish trust between the members, three of whom were brand new to municipal politics, and had to learn what it was to be a council member, while he learned to be a Mayor.
 Frank McKeown, on the left chats with Ward 5 councilllor Paul Sharman at a Strategic Planning session. Bringing McKeown in as his top advisor was one of the smartest moves the Mayor made - calling him his Chief of Staff wasn't as good an idea. One of the smartest moves he made was to bring Frank McKeown into his office as his top aide and thinker. Goldring knew that he was in a job that he had not been able to prepare for – all he had was one four year term as a Council member. His contacts within the city were not limited, but they didn’t reach as deeply as they needed to reach, if he was to be a successful Mayor – and make no mistake – Goldring very much wanted to be a successful Mayor.
With the football issue behind him he next had to face the notice from the provincial government, that there might well be a road rammed through the Mt. Nemo part of the community. That one kept him busy learning whom he had to talk to at Queen’s Park. Joyce Savoline had announced, she was not going to run in the fall of 2010 as the MPP, so Goldring knew he was going to have to deal with a new person as MPP.
 In a little less than 20 months you will be able to stand out on the Pier and look towards the city. The Pier - which could have crippled this administration has been handled in what we now see as a typical Goldring fashion - be direct, take action and be open. Then of course there was The Pier, an issue that could have severely bogged down a lesser man. It certainly didn’t get the attention it needed during the previous council’s term. It was Goldring’s intention to do everything he could to complete The Pier but he wasn’t prepared to do so at any cost. The previous Mayor, Cam Jackson, had advised Goldring to just tear down what was built and put the matter behind him – but that isn’t the way Goldring works. He’s a builder and he wanted to see the project completed – but not at any price.
Add to that ongoing problem, the surprise that shook everyone on Council when they learned there was a surplus of more than $9 million and some pretty fancy managing of the work force at City Hall and you see a man getting a crash course in Mayor 101.
There was more. Burlington has known for some time that its hospital needed a significant upgrade if not a complete re-build. The provincial government made it known that they expected major dollars from the community so the city budgeted for $60 million over a six year period. Due to the surprise surplus the city was able to set aside the first $20 million almost immediately. So – here’s a Mayor, new to the job, who finds he has a very significant surplus, which is nice when you have extra dollars to spend. Goldring also knew that this was really very poor municipal management.
His city manager “steps aside”
Out of that realization came an announcement that the city manager, after a meeting with the Mayor, had decided to “step aside”, which gave Goldring the opportunity to look for a city manager that fit his operational style.
The Mayor was beginning to look at the City Manager in a much different light. During the Strategic Planning sessions, it became clear there were some significant differences in the way the Mayor and the then City Manager Roman Martiuk saw things. The Mayor’s viewpoint prevailed and Martiuk chose to “step aside” allowing the Mayor to look for a City Manager that fit the management style of both the Mayor and his Council.
That led to the search for a new city manager, which didn’t take very long. The current city manager for London will move to Burlington and lead the city for the next five years. Jeff Fielding brings a career in municipal management to the city and a significantly different working style. The city met over a two month period and got the guy they wanted. City hall will be a much different place come the end of 2012
 Mayor Goldring in the centre works with his council and senior staff to craft a Strategic Plan that will make itself felt in every decision the city makes during its term of office. Goldring wanted to bring a significantly different approach to the way the city planned – and by that he meant planning at every level. He knew that there was a better way to run a city and one of his early decisions was to create a really meaningful Strategic Plan. Burlington is a city that has for some time been seen as a city that actually had a Strategic Plan – there has been one in place for more than seven years. But those strategic plans really weren’t all that good, and for the most part they were forgotten once the exercises of creating the plan was done.
Goldring didn’t see municipal leadership quite that way and he convinced his Council to go along with him and create a really strong Strategic Plan that could be lived up to and revised each year to meet changing circumstances. Both Council and senior staff really didn’t know what they were getting into when they started, but eleven long, half day meetings later – there it was, a Strategic Plan that is a model for other communities.
Goldring knew that the city needed to begin thinking much more strategically. He wasn’t completely sure what the strategy had to be but the need for a strategy was essential if the city was going to manage the changes that were coming its way.
When he embarked on the creation of a Strategic Plan neither Goldring or his Council had any idea they would spend the amount of time they did – eleven half day sessions – on the creation of a Strategic Plan which, while considerably better than anything done previously, despite the protestations of a former Mayor, the current strategic plan isn’t all that it has to be.
 Every thought, every idea made by anyone during the Strategic Plan sessions got written down. Staff and council put in much more than a full week of work to produce a document they are now committed to live within. Two things have become evident with the plan. The citizens are reading the thing and using it to suggest to Council that some of their actions are not reflecting the words that were written. And Council and some staff are beginning to realize that a Strategic Plan is a big deal and requires a lot of thinking – much more than they realized when they worked together and got into the deliberations. The creation of a Strategic Plan is a “big hairy deal”. What this Council and senior city hall staff were not able to come up with was that “big hairy audacious goal” that defined the city. The best they could do this time around was to lean on the old standbys – the Lake, Spencer Smith Park and the Escarpment. Burlington has yet to figure out just what it is that makes the city different. The Strategic Plan they have is good – it just doesn’t go as far as it should. They will be revisiting the Plan every year of their term and it may well become the document that the next municipal election focuses on.
Goldring has committed to reviewing the Strategic Plan once every quarter at a Committee of the Whole session. City council then made a senior staff member responsible for the document and also tied it to the development of the budget. That senior staff member has his work cut out for him and may not be up to the task.
In the matter of relationships:
I’m not quite sure when Rick Goldring realized that governing was all about “tension” and that there were two kinds of tensions – one related to tasks that had to be done and one related to relationships with people.
As I get it from Goldring, there is tension the moment there is more than one person involved in a task or a relationship. Each person brings their perspective and expectations to a task. Goldring began working with his Council on tasks – because the darn things were sitting there in front of him and they had to be dealt with. And for the most part – the tasks that faced him during the first three months were dealt with fairly well. Other than the shellacking he took over the reception his Council held after their inaugural meeting, when he got a chance to see the kind of political posturing he was going to have to put up with and the attempt to get the pay for Council members behind him – there were no major goofs.
 Mayor Rick Goldring: He pays attention to detail, he is usually very well prepared and he listens. The Mayor and his Council found they were able to get along quite well, which got them from the “task” focus into a place where trusting relationships could be developed. Some of the task tension is still there but they tend to get resolved and the relationships get better and better. The need to flaunt egos began to subside and one could see a real team beginning to develop. It is when, Goldring believes, these two tensions are aligned that a team can really do good things.
They were all still politicians with goals, plans and expectations of their own and an apparent need to do some political posturing, but this Mayor was proving to be a different leader than the former Mayor.
The biggest task on the table for the next month is the budget and determining what the tax rate is going to be. Goldring doesn’t believe the public has any appetite for tax increases greater than inflation and that seems to be the target they will work towards.
A surprise surplus:
Last year, due to a surplus that few on Council knew about during the municipal election, they were able to spend money on all kinds of items, including a big chunk of change going into the hospital re-build fund and some put into the significant infrastructure deficit the city faces. More than 60% of the infrastructure work scheduled for the future is not funded. Add to that the very clear fact that if the work is not done when scheduled, – it will cost even more when it does eventually get done.
During the budget sessions for the councils first year in office they were subjected to – and that may be too mild a word – some incredibly boring briefings that told them precious little. Some of the committee chairs were new to their jobs and let meetings run on for far too long. When Goldring has the Chair, things move briskly – almost too quickly – but he doesn’t waste much time. This time out the city has a Strategic Plan that will serve as a filter for every spending decision made. The “does it fit with the strategic plan” question will come up every time spending is talked about. Councillor Craven, who is very hard nosed about “sticking to what you said you would do”, will feel he has died and gone to heaven – if this Council does what it has said it will do.
Beachway might become a missed opportunity:
Then there is the Beachway Master Plan that the city has basically lost control of – it is now going to be a Conservation Authority issue with Burlington following along and looking for a way to deal with the thirty some odd families, who have led Council to believe they will leave their homes kicking and screaming every foot of the way.
Burlington has let a true gem sit idle and grossly underused. The opportunity to develop something truly significant appears to be getting away from the city. True that the land is owned by the Conservation Authority, but the city manages it and was in a position to take much more of a leadership role in how this was developed. The fight over what happens to those 28 + homes on the Beachway could well become Burlington’s 2012 Pier level issue. This need not have happened.
Downtown core and a changed development scene create challenges:
Then there is the Downtown Core – what to do with it? How do the retail merchants attract shoppers? Is the commercial malaise that plagues downtown a parking issue? Not if you tried to find a parking spot over the holiday Season at any of the malls. There is going to have to be some very creative, out of the box thinking done by both the merchants and their association, The Burlington Downtown Business Association, to get this one resolved.
 Alton; one of the last large community developments in Burlington. MAyor Goldring has to steer the development of a city that needs to grow UP rather than out. Goldring takes the helm of a city that is in the dyeing days of robust economic growth, driven by housing developments that brought very significant development charges into the city’s coffers. The last of the really big tracts of land available for housing development are being worked on now. There is so little land left available for housing development, that the owners of large tracts of land set aside for industrial growth are trying to convince the city to re-zone some of the industrial land for housing. Based on current zoning, all the city can look forward to is small infill development and going up instead of sideways. That will mean a different look to the city and Goldring knows from experience that change does not come easily to Burlington. The fact that the wave can be seen on the horizon and you know it is going to come crashing in and flood everything – Burlingtonians still don’t go out and buy rubber boots. It is a city that is seldom ahead of the curve.
 Goldring on the left and former Minitser of Transportation Kathleen Wynne on the right with Liberal candidate Karmel Sakran in the miiddle. Goldrings doesn't look as if he beleives what the Minister is saying then and we don't think he beleives what she is saying now as Minister of Municipal Affairs and overseeing the Regionbal Official Plan that sets out what will and won't be done with the Escarpment.non the right Goldring will be the Mayor who has to fight with the province to ensure that developers are not allowed to nibble away at the 407 highway boundary that separates rural from suburban. The moment one developer gets an approval from the OMB, and that is the only level that is going to approve anything north of 407, there will be a stampede and the Burlington we know will be lost forever. There are perhaps as many as two dozen developers and land owners who are hanging in for the day that development is permitted. The city’s executive director for economic development believes some of the land abutting the north side of 407 should be used for the location of environmentally friendly office buildings. That would be the thin edge of the wedge.
The revenue side of the ledger takes on a different look. Tax assessments will increase and result in more tax revenue but those increases will never equal what development charges produced for the city. Goldring is going to be the Mayor that was at the helm, when the shift from a rapidly growing suburban city was created out of a rural part of the province to a community that has matured and begun to see some urbanization and a degree of sophistication developed. How that change gets implemented will be his legacy.
During this term of office the city’s Official Plan will be reviewed. The challenge for the Mayor and his Council will be to see how they adjust and modify the plan to meet the changing realities. This is probably the most significant change that Burlington has had to face since the early development days, when the city was racing through one housing development proposal after another as orchards were plowed under and good agricultural land felt the blade of a plow.
Escarpment is still threatened:
The Region recently got a response to the Regional Official Plan – it was the document that let everyone know just over a year ago that a road through parts of the Escarpment was a very real possibility. All the municipalities in the Region worked together on this and put their views before the provincial government. The most recent response from the province says: “…The Ministry is satisfied that ROPA38, as modified, is consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement and conforms to the growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, the Greenbelt Plan and the Parkway Belt West Plan”, which sounds nice – kind of – until you read the more than 45 pages of deletions and alterations. Saving the Escarpment from rapacious growth is far from a done deal. Goldring’s comment is that “the situation is being closely monitored.
Your city council managed to put a keep on the size of the city staffing compliment and they were able to put a freeze on salary increases. What they have not been able to do – no one is even sure it can be done – and that is to lessen the huge gap between the retirement benefits civil servants get and those that are available in the private sector. The public sector pensions are, in a word, delicious and the pay scales aren’t by any means chintzy either.
Managing the size of the payroll:
Goldring, who spent his first career in the financial planning field, is all too aware of just how wide the gap in pension benefits is between the public and private sectors and comments that many of his fellow Mayors across the country “don’t have much of an appreciation as to how much public dissent could be created over this disparity”.
The city has had to allocate an additional sum to cover a shortfall in the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement fund and has been advised that they may have to do another top up in 2012. The workers at those companies that have had to close down and were not able to meet their pension obligations must look in wonder at how taxpayer money gets used to pay civil servant pensions.
The city has heard the background briefings on a very big initiative that will see significant changes in the way it delivers information to the public. The Information technology staff have brought forward a proposal that will make a huge difference in what the public can learn about what goes on at city hall. The cost is quite steep and it might not make it through the budget process in 2012 but it does show that the city is looking for ways to improve communication and reduce the “information deficit” the Shape Burlington report brought to everyone’s attention.
Is the Shape report still shaping the city?
During the election campaign that moved Goldring from ward 5 where he was a Councillor to the office of the Mayor, the Shape Burlington report was probably the most important document the voters had to deal with. How much of that report will Goldring implement and what part of his legacy will be shaped by the report? Shape Burlington pointed to a city that had a significant information deficit – too early to say if Goldring is going to widen the flow of information from city hall to the people who pay for the place, but it is clear that he going to bring new ideas to the city and create an environment, where he gives the people of this city something to think about and ideally respond to. The Mayor’s Inspire program was a success in 2011 and will be continued into 2012. While just of 1/10th of one percent of the population took part in the Inspire series it has had a positive impact on the thinking within the city. Fresh ideas never hurt.
How will the development that the city is going to require come about? Will the Economic Development Corporation become something that drives the effort to attract new business or will the Mayor use Burlington Hydro, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the city, to drive the creation of new wealth for the city.
Goldring’s past was one of helping people create wealth and plan for their futures and it would not be unreasonable to see him look for ways to fashion Burlington Hydro as an organization that served as an incubator perhaps for the development of opportunities for the city.
Goldring has been doing some thinking about how he can pull the McMaster University DeGroote School of Business, which is now located on the South Service Road where it is a bit of an orphan, into the fabric of the city. The McMaster University decision not to locate in the downtown core of the city was a huge missed opportunity for Burlington – but it’s done and all we can do is live with that mistake. There is vacant land right beside DeGroote on the South Service Road that Goldring wants to see developed as a cluster that includes additional educational institutions and perhaps a start-up lab or a research organization that would develop new ideas out of the glare of public city council meetings.
Frank McKeown, the Mayor’s top aide who is a serial start up entrepreneur may be just the guy to get a little juice into Burlington Hydro and turn it into the economic driving force it has the potential to become. At one point I thought McKeown was nearing that point where there wasn’t much more he could do for the Mayor; I may have been wrong on that point. Council recently took steps to have Burlington Hydro financial data available to the public. Up until now Hydro has been a sleepy little financial holding the city owns but doesn’t do much with. In the right hands that corporation could be turned into something that could make a significant strategic and financial contribution to the city. Look for major changes over at Burlington Hydro. Right now all it does is pay fat dividends to the city.
Citizen’s Engagement Charter: Real or imagined?
Another Shape Burlington recommendation was the creation of a Citizen’s Engagement Charter. The city has hired Christine Iamonaco as the Public Involvement Coordinator on a two year contract. She is now rolling out a series of community meetings intended to educate and involve the community in the creation of a Community Engagement Charter.
The broad strokes of what we can expect from Rick Goldring as Mayor are now basically in place. He doesn’t grandstand – doesn’t know how. He is self-effacing; he wants an informed electorate and has taken some bold moves with his Inspire series of Speakers.
Now that he knows he can do the job – and he didn’t know that at the end of his first two months in office – he is venturing out a bit from his comfort zone. Goldring is cautious by nature and an environmentalist at heart. Will we see the inspired, bold, innovative, fiscally responsible leadership we need? Probably not in year two of his mandate. Goldring is still working through what he wants to do. Remember, he ran for the office of Mayor because he couldn’t stand what then Mayor Jackson was doing to the city. The election results made it clear that most of the city agreed with Goldring. He isn’t ready yet to come forward with anything radical – he is still developing those relationships.
That BHAG, the Big Hairy Audacious Goal that eluded both Council and senior staff during the creation of the Strategic Plan has yet to be brought to the surface. We’re not even sure yet that it is even in there waiting to be brought to the surface – Goldring is going to need all of this first term of office to figure that out. What we do know at this point is that Rick Goldring has grown into the job of Mayor that he got just over a year ago and that there is the capacity to both lead and make the hard decisions that have to be made.
In the next 24 months we will get to see what kind of depth he brings to his first term and the vision he will offer the city when he prepares for his second term as Mayor. And make no mistake about it – Goldring is at least a two term Mayor.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 28, 2011 – In the world of politics it is called getting ahead of the parade. When there is some news you know is going to create some controversy, you get out in front of it and do your best to control it, put it in context and frame it with as much positive data as you can. Smart people do that –they work at creating the agenda rather than being the agenda.
Come Tuesday of next week, Eric Vandewall and others at the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital (JBMH) will be the agenda when what they are paid each year is made public. The province decided some time ago that what hospital administrators are paid is public information and can be learned through a simple access to information request.
Several local media then gave the JBMH a call a few days before Christmas and asked – “well just how much are you paying the lad?” and were told that the media would have to wait until January 3rd, which is what the rules call for. All the hospitals in the Burlington-Hamilton area got together and agreed that they would all release the numbers at the same time. In the commercial world that’s called collusion and if they were selling something we would call it price fixing, but I digress.
 Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital CEO Eric Vandewall is about to tell us what he gets paid annually. He didn't volunteer this information. Hospital administrators are paid with tax dollars and Ontario has for some time made the salaries of those paid by the taxpayers public information. It has been called the Sunshine list and is released each year.
The public relations people at JBMH had an excellent opportunity to be seen as complying openly and willingly with the new rule – but instead of doing that they decided to drag their feet and leave the impression that they really don’t want you to know – and come Monday they will be the news story of the day unless there is a natural disaster somewhere in the world.
I have always wondered why intelligent, highly paid people do such stupid things. It’s kind of scary when you think about it. They don’t seem to be able to think much beyond the end of their noses or they are far too focused on their own self-interests – either way – scary.
These are the people we pay very well to make good decisions on our behalf and when they behave like this – stalling for what amount to less than two weeks one wonders – why?
A positive news story would state what Vandewall is paid and then put it in context with say what the city manager is paid ($214,000+ for the last one) and what the President of McMaster University is paid and then look for what some of the publicly traded companies are paying their CEO’s. Help the public see and appreciate the value we taxpayers are getting for the dollars that go into their pockets.
The medical community has always had a rather high level of arrogance about it. One had to just watch Vandewall when he last appeared before city council. He wanted money the city had set aside as its share for the re-build of the hospital and the sooner the better was the message he was sending. Vandewall told council that the hospital Foundation would match what the city was putting up, $60 million of your dollars over a six year period. Add the city’s $60 million to what the hospital Foundation was committed to raising and you have a handy $120 million.
 Hospital Foundation Board - needs to raise $60 million. So far has only managed to get their picture taken. Nice picture though. Problem is the Foundation has yet to raise a dime, at least they haven’t reported any funds being raised but they did have a nice picture taken of themselves. In due course the Foundation will raise its share but right now the hospital needs to lay its hands on some cash so the early prep work for the eventual re-build of the hospital can get done.
One of the first layers of that work is the building of a parking garage. Why a parking garage first? The hospital has to clear some land that will be used to add the new extensions to the hospital and they need a place to put the cars currently parked on the hospital lot. So, they thought, why not get the city of Burlington to pass along some of the money needed to build the garage.
 Parking space - someone has to come up with the money to pay for a parking garage so that these cars have a place to go. Burlington city council isn't very keen on city money being used to pay for a hospital parking lot. Not so fast, say the folks at city hall. Before as much as a dime of city money goes to the hospital, the Memorandum of Understanding (or whatever they are going to call the document that sets out who gets what and who does what) has to be signed. That document has been in the negotiation/development stage for more than four months now. Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor is keeping a very close eye on this one – he’s not about to see a big chunk of the city’s money get used to pay for a hospital parking garage. Taylor was heard to mutter something about maybe having the parking lot revenue go to the city.
All the Senior people at City Hall get their names published in the Annual Sunshine list (Its officially known as the Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act), if they earn more than $100,000. The list comes out early in August – we’ll see that you get a copy. Eric Vandewall earns well in excess of $100,000; he may well be the best paid civil servant in the city, an accolade he isn’t going to want to wear on his lapel.
 Hospital CEO Eric Vandewall stalling for time while waiting for a provincial government Minister to show up to announce that the hospital re-build would be funded. The Minister never arrived. This isn't the last time the provincial government is going to let the CEO down. Good talent has to be paid the going rate and there are not a lot of exceptional hospital administrators in the province. Vandewall was brought in to clean up a real mess and it would appear that he is doing a very good job at what he is being paid a very good salary to do. The public needs to appreciate that his job is to get the new hospital Burlington has wanted for some time built – and the faster the better.
Part of the problem is that the kind of hospital Vandewall is beavering away to get built down on Lakeshore Road may not be the kind of hospital Burlington needs for its aging population. There is reason to believe that Burlington might be much better served with a community type hospital and have Hamilton and Oakville handle the type of medical situations that calls for the high tech/emergency level care.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the needs of our aging population are probably not best met with the type of hospital JBMH is slated to be rebuilt into. What is best for the city is not yet clear but no one seems to want to ask the question: What kind of hospital is going to meet the needs of our changing demographic and at the same time meet the needs of the current growing population. But there isn’t a politician in this city who is going to stand up and ask that question publicly. It would be really interesting to hear what people within the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care think is best for Burlington long term.
He has to do this job and get it done while working with a government that seldom tells him the truth and happens to be broke and isn’t likely to come through with the money needed to do the rebuild. Eric Vandewall has a very tough five years in front of him. He isn’t going to be able to do what he was hired to do – through no fault of his own.
So he looks at the pile of cash Burlington is sitting on and looks for ways to get it out of the city’s bank account and into the hospital’s. Good luck Mr. Vandewall. There happens to be a wily old coot sitting at that Council table and he isn’t at all keen on seeing city money used to pay for the building of a parking garage. Part of the garage ? – probably.
When they all learn what you’re being paid – they are going to make you work very hard for every dollar of it.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, on December 23, 2011 – It’s been awhile since we’ve said anything about The Pier. Hasn’t been much to say. Now there is news. Good news.
Sometimes he’s called the “stick handler”; sometimes they call him “the fixer”. Most will tell you that if he says it’s going to get done – it will get done or someone will be answering to him pretty quick. He’s not known for his diplomacy and during his time with Burlington as the General Manager Community Services he has stepped on a lot of toes – but he has gotten things done. He has been given some of the most problematic files, which he never shirks – he just gets the job done.
The Pier became one of the pucks that Scott Stewart had to handle and when others at city hall missed a pass that was sent their way Stewart would circle back – pick up the puck and move it up the ice.
He has left the politics and the PR side of the Pier to others but been on the scene or behind the scene for every major problem that came up as this new Council got a firm grip on The Pier problem and convinced most of the citizens that they were doing the right thing.
 That there is one big load of steel on its way out of the city to a home unknown to us as this point. But it isn't ours anymore. A Christmas wish come true for the folks in the city's engineering department. The one thing Scott Stewart doesn’t do is give you a deadline that he knows just cannot be met. So when people wanted to know when something was going to happen down at The Pier, Stewart would just say that things were on track.
He is still looking for a couple of light standards – but he knows where they are.
The last quarter of the year has been a tough one for both Stewart and his chief sidekick Kim Philips who GM’s things at the Budget and Corporate Services side of city hall. The hospital and its problems are her domain; The Pier is Stewart’s. Both will want to take some much deserved time away from their desks during the holidays. Phillips however is wearing the Acting GM title until the first week in January so she can’t get too far away from things. Stewart will be resting up and perhaps Phillips will get away for a bit after the holidays.
Stewart though has to be taking much satisfaction from the pictures that accompany this article. He wouldn’t say when work would actually begin down on the waterfront because he knew that the moment he put a date on something – something would go wrong. But earlier this week a flatbed trailer hauled away the first of the many steel beams that have to go before The Pier we have all been waiting for begins to take shape.
 Construction crane delicately removes steel beams from the pier - fist major step into Phase two of what has been an expensive and politically damaging project for the city - but it is now under control and proceeding ahead of schedule. A crane can be seen on the horizon down there swinging in and out between the flatbed truck and the structure that is currently in place; but coming out one big beam at a time. The decent weather has allowed work crews to be on the site getting a bit of a head start on things. If the weather holds up they just might manage to get it all out before the snow and the really freezing weather make the site unsafe for work crews.
So, come New Year’s Eve, Scott Stewart and Tom Eichenbaum, Director of Engineering for the city will be hoisting at least one to celebrate their success to this point and know that the hard part is behind them. All they have to do now is approve requests for payment and make positive reports to city council. Few taxpayers recognize either man should they pass them on the street – all should be happy they are in place. Hoist more than one on the Eve fellas.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON December 23, 2011 – Halton Regional Police have received reports of a prowler who is doing more than prowling along Palmer Drive near Guelph Line. The prowler’s actions suggest he was peeping into the homes.
The man is described as being in his forties 6’1, 220 lbs., wearing blue jeans, a grey sweater and grey hat.
There have been several similar incidents reported to the Halton Regional Police Service both in Burlington and Oakville dating back to early 2011. In these earlier incidents, the reports were of a suspect masturbating while looking into homes. Police believe that the same person is responsible for many of these acts. There is no evidence that the culprit ever attempted to enter any of the residences.
 The Halton Regional Police Service would like to remind residents to be vigilant in reporting any suspicious behaviour around their homes to police. Additionally, police would like to hear from those residents who have experienced similar incidents that have previously gone unreported. Further, police are asking that if residents encounter incidents of this nature, they DO NOT confront the culprit but immediately call 911.
Anyone with information in relation to these or any other crimes is asked to contact the Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905 825-4747 x2215 or anonymously through Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON December 19, 2011 – The Halton Region Community Investment Fund wants to hear from the not for profit community on how to revise the fund to best meet the needs of non-profit programs and the residents they serve. The consultations will also explore other strategies to help agencies respond to community needs.
If you are involved with a non-profit organization or community group that provides community health and social service programs in Halton, Halton Region would like your input on Halton Region’s Community Investment Fund.
The HRCIF funds non-profit programs that address key community health and social service needs in Halton. In January 2012, the Region will be holding consultations throughout Halton to determine “We value the important work being done in Halton by the non-profit sector and have committed resources in the Citizens’ Priorities – Halton Region’s 2011-2014 Action Plan to support those efforts,” said Regional Chair Gary Carr. “I encourage individuals who work or volunteer in the non-profit sector to be a part of the conversation about the future of the Halton Region Community Investment Fund.”
Community consultations about the investment fund have been scheduled as follows:
Burlington – January 19, 2012, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., De Groote School of Business (Ron Joyce Centre, 4350 South Service Road)
MASS LBP, a Canadian advisory firm that specializes in community engagement, is coordinating and facilitating the consultation sessions. To register for a community consultation in your community contact Mass LBP at 1-888-377-2739 or register online at www.halton.ca/investmentfund.
While the non-profit sector is important, the health of the private sector is vital to the community and Halton has done reasonably well. Construction, which is the industry the Region follows closest, looked like this:
 New houses in the Alton community on the North side of Dundas added to the construction industry numbers for the 3Q of 2011. Construction industry:
Halton’s total value of new construction and expansions declined during the 3rd quarter of 2011 from the same period in 2010, falling 23% to just over $381 million. The decreases in construction values was seen across the industrial, institutional and residential categories, whereas the commercial category saw an increase from the same period in 2010. The major non-residential project that got underway during the 3rd quarter was Phase 1 of the Joshua Creek Corporate Centre in Oakville, where permits were issued for three office buildings totaling 120,000 sq.ft. and a combined construction value of over $14.5 million. There were no notable industrial permits issued during the quarter.
Overall, there were 1,734 building permits issued in Halton during the 3rd quarter, which represents an 18% decline from the same period in 2010. Residential permits accounted for 58% of all building permits issued and 14% were Industrial, Commercial or Institutional (ICI) permits.
Halton’s industrial vacancy rates during the 3rd quarter of 2011 dropped 5.8%, while vacancy rates in the office market rose slightly to 14.2%. At the same time, there was negative absorption in both Halton’s industrial market (-86,506 sq.ft.) and office market (-15,910 sq.ft.). This contributed to slight declines in both industrial and office net rental rates in Burlington and Oakville, while industrial rates in Milton rose marginally.
Economic Conditions
Ontario’s real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined 0.3% in the 2nd quarter of 2011, following seven consecutive quarterly gains. Production by goods-producing industries fell 1.0%, while services-production industries edged down 0.2%. Production declined in the manufacturing, finance and retail trade sectors, while utilities and construction posted the highest gains. Meanwhile, business investment on plant and machinery continued to trend upward, rising 4.9% during the 2nd quarter.
Employment in Ontario was also up over 12,000 in September 2011. Over the past 12 months, employment in the province increased over 135,000 (+2.0%), the majority of which was full-time work. The provincial unemployment rate climbed 0.1 percentage points in September to 7.6%.
 Federal government Stimulus Funding, announced by signs like this wherever the governmenet spent any money, made a significant contribution to the Regional economy. Is a second wave of Stimulus funding needed or can we just weather out the coming economic uncertainty? Halton’s economic conditions weakened during the 3rd quarter of 2011 from the same period last year, halting the substantial market rebounds observed throughout the post-recessionary period of 2009 and 2010. Construction activity in Halton fell by 23%. The industrial sector posted the highest losses, with a decrease of 81% over 2010. Institutional investments also deceased (-39%) as federal and provincial infrastructure stimulus funding wound down.
In the residential sector, development activity dropped 12%, however, Halton’s resale housing market remained strong with a reported 23% increase in sales listings and 41% decrease in the number of days listings were staying on the market longer on average. Housing prices rose 12% over the same period in 2010, reaching just over $515,000 on average.
The labour market in Halton also weakened slightly during the 3rd quarter with the region’s unemployment rate rising to 6.6% from 5.0% during the same period in 2010. However, this was an improvement on the 7.2% unemployment rate recorded in the 2nd quarter of 2011. The number of residents participating in the labour force decreased from a rate of 77.0% in 2010 to 74.9% in 2011.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON December 17, 2011 – On December 3rd Burlington got a peek at the kind of city it could be; urban, sophisticated, connected and able to show the rest of the country that it is not a small ingrown town run by an old boys network.
 Cogeco Cable did a thoroughly profesional job of cable casting live the Gala Opening of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre. Mark Carr, on the right, will be moving on to CBC, ABC or NBC soon - unless of course he is waiting to move into Ward 6. The opening of the Burlington Performing Arts Centre with Sarah McLaughlin on the stage as the lead performer was without a doubt THE cultural, social event of the year for the city.
The event was broadcast live by on Cogeco Cable who had five cameras on the site along with their mobile unit and a staff of 14 people backing up Mark Carr and Deb Tymstra who were on air throughout the evening.
The Cogeco programmers are going to re-broadcast the event on the following dates:
Dec. 18, 5:30pm
Dec. 25, 5:30pm
Dec. 27, 10pm
Dec. 29, 8:30pm
If you want to get a sense of how this city works, the way the movers and shakers meet and greet each other – take the time to watch the re-broadcast.
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