BURLINGTON, ON April 28, 2011 – Wow! Can these people every spend money. I lost track of just how many millions the four candidates for the federal seat of Burlington said they would spend on our behalf. A couple of time they even mentioned billions. They tossed off the numbers the way kids do when you’re teaching them how to play Monopoly.
Alyssa Brierley was there as the Liberal Candidate, David Laird there as the candidate for the New Democrats, Graham Mayberry as the candidate for the green Party and Mike Wallace as the sitting member for Burlington in the House of Commons and asking if the community would re-elect him. The candidate for the Marxist Leninist Party did not attend – a Chamber of Commerce meeting wouldn’t be seen as good ground to work for those who want a Socialist paradise. I wondered why a Marxists Leninist party would see Burlington as a place to run a candidate. Burlington ???, I asked when I first heard, had Randall Reef done that much damage to the water we drink?
Wallace lost a bit of weight during the campaign – one notch on his belt. Will he notch another election? This is Burlington.
During the all candidate event hosted by the Burlington Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the Real Estate Association of Hamilton/Burlington, no one candidate moved the room any great distance. There were a couple of good shots gotten in by Brierley and Laird. Mike Wallace seemed to struggle a bit to keep up. Laird was the strongest speaker – he had his file down pat and delivered his opening comments without glancing at any notes whereas both Wallace and Brierley seemed to have to pause frequently to collect their thoughts. Had it been debate rather than the polite Q&A the Chamber of Commerce prefers, Laid would have led and been closely followed by Brierley. The thrust and cut of a debate is not where Wallace excels. Graham Mayberry was almost entertainment rather than an informative candidate.
The room of more than 150 people did like Brierley and they responded with a healthy laugh when Laird said that this was his “fifth” election and that he was at least “tenacious”. The Chamber had said “no walk-ins” but had you walked in you’d have found a seat.
The responses heard were based on the questions asked and while some were surely planted by the candidates it wasn’t that solid a business crowd.
Gave perhaps the best performance at the Chamber of Commerce All Candidate – if Burlington picks up on the national buzz for the NDP – he might – but this IS Burlington.
Graham Mayberry of the Green Party seemed to mumble at times and said that he didn’t really have a position on income trusts but that he would certainly like to have one. Wallace made it very clear that the Conservatives weren’t going to bring those things back. Income trusts allowed corporations to change drastically how they were taxed and had gotten to the point where they were shaking the very foundation of our economic system and how the government collects taxes from the corporate sector.
On Afghanistan there was one stunning surprise. Everyone was for getting us out of that situation with. Laird didn’t think we should have gone in in the first pace, Wallace said that it is now a NATO issue and we will soon become Peace Keepers. Brierley had us out in July and Mayberry didn’t see us as being there much longer. But not a word from a single candidate on the more than 150 men and woman who died in that country for a mission that not too many Canadians felt all that strongly about. The Supreme Sacrifice didn’t even get a mention and the absolutely disgusting manner the federal government is treating those who have lost limbs and will be in wheel chairs for the rest of their lives wasn’t brought up. The Legion has some work to do on the Lest We Forget campaign.
Laird did get in one of those tried socialist lines about re-orienting away from our Imperial” ways.
Graham Mayberry was different. He seemed to be having the time of his life and now knows that he wants an income trust. There will be quite a few Green signs out there – this IS Burlington but there won’t be very many ballots
The way the country is governed got covered pretty well. No one in the room stood up to applaud how well the House of Commons is run. Wallace explained that the difficulty would disappear if the Conservatives could just get a majority government, which Canadians clearly don’t want to give Stephen Harper. To his credit, Wallace didn’t drag out the canard about a “coalition” forming to become a government that wasn’t elected.
Brierley, the person at the table who best understands political science explained that Members of Parliament have to cooperate to get things done and that this isn’t the way the House of Commons works today. She got the first round of applause from the audience when she said “you earn a majority if you are honest with people” Laid just wanted the Prime Minister to stop lying.
In the last eight to ten days the New Democrats have surged forward in Quebec and appear to be taking away votes from the Bloc Quebecois, but do appreciate that what we are getting are the results of polls that are measuring a population that is going through significant change. The one thing we are learning is that they country does not like the way things have been going but isn’t clear on just who it wants to go with. Wallace touts the Conservative line that with a majority all this unsettling business would disappear – so just give us a majority to which Laird added – “I’d like a majority too and Mayberry piped in with “I guess it’s a bit of a long shot for us”.
The close to complete disgust from the Liberal, NDP and Green candidates over the government being found in contempt of the House of Commons was close to visceral. Brierley made the point that this was not a small matter and while Burlington is a conservative community one got the sense from those in the room that the community at large wasn’t proud of the way its government had behaved.
“We have a Prime Minister” declared Laird, “who manufactured his own defeat and then tries to convince us that it wasn’t all that serious. Contempt” declared Laird “is serious and then added that we have an economy that is going to get worse before it gets better” which was why he thought the NDP should form the next government.
Difficult to understand how a party with no experience running a national government and, experience they would rather forget running Ontario, now feels they can move in, take over and do a better job with the national economy.
Brierley brought some very positive energy to the campaign – was it enough? She has the potential to be another Paddy Torsney which would be a plus for the House of Commons.
On the aboriginal issue Brierley pointed out that the Conservatives cancelled the Kelowna accord which had very real and significant benefits for the Aboriginal community. Of course they cancelled it – it wasn’t their policy. Wallace did point out that Prime Minister had apologized to the Aboriginal people on behalf of Canada for some very real and long standing grievances.
Wallace got his only round of applause when he mention the really poor House of Commons attendance on the part of Michael Ignatieff. Jack Layton was the person who laid that beating on Ignatieff during the English debate. That was probably the point at which the focus of this election began to shift although no one saw it coming. The New Democrats have become ecstatic on the social media and nationally there is talk of an orange wave – but that sense of change wasn’t evident at the Holiday Inn Wednesday morning. Pretty sure David Laird is not giving up his day job or looking for an apartment in Ottawa.
The economy continued to be the focus of many questions. Wallace stressed how good a job the Conservatives have done with the budget but made no mention of the size of the deficit they have created. It is an understandable deficit – the spending had to be done to keep the Canadian economy afloat while we weathered a recession that we did nothing to create and could do very little about. The recession was the result of pure greed on the part of people working within the American housing market that came close to shutting down a world economy.
Brierley made an attempt to point out that the Liberals left the Conservatives with a surplus, which was true but, as Laird pointed out the Liberals handled their fiscal difficulties by cutting back spending significantly and shoved a lot of the cost of delivering services on to the provinces.
Brierley pointed out that inflation is much higher than anyone is admitting and that there is potential for economic turmoil. And there will be economic turmoil if Laird’s wildest dream comes true and there is a minority NDP government.
The session ended with each candidate being asked what their three top priorities were for Burlington. For Wallace it was working with groups, the city and region.; to be more effective and to stay focused on the needs of the city’s seniors. He did admit that he had not done as much as he should have in getting local business into some of the federal assistance programs.
Mayberry of the Green party said he was still learning, that the Niagara GTA highway was an issue he wanted to be on top of and that the infrastructure needed a lot of attention.
Laird pinched a large part of the Green platform when he talked of making sure Burlington was Green and clean and that we develop programs that would result in the exporting of green technology. He didn’t say the NDP would nationalize the banks – so that was a step forward.
Brierley was a little weaker with her closing than many expected. She covered all the bases; balancing the budget, attention to fitness and the arts and a good mention of the Family Pack the Liberals developed for the election but there wasn’t the energy that many have come to expect from this young woman with so much promise.
Each candidate was given 90 seconds to sum up their position and Laird said there were serious problems that have not been identified. “I have shown” he said, “that I have earned your vote.” David Laird has certainly worked hard and did everything a candidate is supposed to do and did it all rather well – but this is Burlington and it may well be the last city in the country to elect a New democrat.
Wallace – well he was Mike. He said he’d done a good job and would like to be re-elected.
Brierley ran though what the Liberals would do, said she would listen and give Burlington better representation in Ottawa. If she ever gets to Ottawa she will no doubt be a very good Member of Parliament. Will she make it this time? Far too many variables out there for anyone to really call this one. Had Brierley had more time and had she put down some roots in the city – she would have been given a much different look. However, many of those who did look her over really liked what they saw.
Graham Mayberry said he was “having a blast”. Said he was “wide awake”, and that’s “not usual for me at this hour of the morning and then added: “It’s crazy but you can vote Green”.
Keith Hoey, President of the Chamber of Commerce for the past seven years, said the Chamber of Commerce has been sponsoring all candidate events for all three levels of government since ‘close to the beginning of time’. It appears to be a part of that layer of civility the Chamber wants to see in place to make the city a good place for business.
BURLINGTON, ON April 28, 2011 – Halton Regional Police Service are stumped in their investigation for the thief that broke into a Tim Horton’s and left without donuts. An unknown amount of cash was taken.
Some time after 2:30 a.m. on April 25th, a suspect as yet unknown to the police entered the closed Tim Horton’s located at 5353 Lakeshore Road.
Video surveillance revealed suspect attended (what does it mean to “attend” the rear of the building, and forced open the rear door to gain entry to the premise. Once inside, the suspect forced open the doors to the main office (this was a determined man) and removed cash from the cash registers. The suspect then fled the premise through the rear west doors with an undisclosed amount of cash.
Suspect is described as a male, white, 6’0″ tall, heavy set. He was wearing a black ski mask, grey shirt with a back jacket over top, black gloves, grey sweat pants and black shoes. Pretty good description of a smash and grab artist who apparently doesn’t know what a maple dip donut is.
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 or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes)
BURLINGTON, ON April 29, 2011 – As record-setting tornados rake the continent and floods hit the Canadian west and the US Midwest, a McMaster researcher is warning that poor local decisions will make global climate change much worse for Hamiltonians. In particular, Dr Mike Waddington says expansions to the urban area will exacerbate flooding problems that are already plaguing the city and leave Hamilton less able to respond to other climatic extremes.
Massive cloud formation that pulled itself into a funnel to wreck havoc on a community. Awesome power.
“Our hydrological resilience is in dramatic decline,” the associate director of the McMaster Centre for Climate Change told Tuesday’s annual general meeting of Environment Hamilton. “And what should the city of Hamilton do to mitigate that? You certainly wouldn’t be wanting to expand the urban boundary, in that we have ecosystems in this region which are providing very valuable ecosystem services.”
Waddington highlighted a string of catastrophic atmospheric trends that he contends suggest this is “the first time in the history of the world, thanks to science, that we can actually predict our demise”. He says a doubling of extreme heat days, intensifying precipitation, and more droughts will likely be among the local effects of climate change.
“The distribution of that precipitation is going to become a lot more extreme,” he predicted. “We’re going to go through periods of large drought, and then very large rainfall events. So we’re going to get a lot more of what we’ve seen in the last couple of years.”
Hamilton endured two 100-year storms in the summer of 2009 and over a dozen other extreme rain events since 2005 that have flooded homes and triggered compassionate grants from the city. Council decided earlier this month to battle the province over a 3000 acre future boundary addition in Elfrida, and last fall approved a 4500 acre expansion around the airport that remains under appeal.
The professor of geography and earth sciences is one of two dozen McMaster researchers studying climate change. His current work focuses on the increased risks of wildfires and their relationship to soil moisture. He pointed to the disastrous drought and resulting peat fires that killed an estimated 56,000 people in and around Moscow last summer as an example of what happens when bad local decisions are magnified by weather events. Prior to last summer’s record heat wave, forests around the city had been drained to improve their productivity.
“These were very poor forests in very wet environments, and they drained these ecosystems to make the trees grow better, and once they got very dry, they caught on fire and they wouldn’t stop.”
A similar “triple whammy” of land use change, climatic changes, and the El Nino weather system imposed an air quality disaster on Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia for months in 1997 in what came to be known as the Southeast Asian haze.
“It resulted from the draining of very large ecosystems for palm oil plantations and also for mega-rice projects under Suharto,” Waddington explained. “Emission from the fires in this region alone was equal to almost 40 percent of the annual fossil fuel emissions”.
It remains difficult for science to connect specific weather events to climate change, but it is simple physics that warmer temperatures increase the moisture holding capacity of the atmosphere and provide greater energy to storms. For example, the huge number of tornados devastating the US this month – and especially over the last two days – are being linked to an unusually warm Gulf of Mexico.
Storm chasers take huge risks to capture these images and give us a sense of all the energy that is swirling around. Changes in our climate bring about cloud formations like this.
Last year set a global record for precipitation, and tied 2005 as the hottest since modern records began. Extreme flooding in Australia and Brazil earlier this year has been followed by current inundations in western Canada and along the Ohio, Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
It is all tied together isn’t it? What we do effects them and what they do effects us. Guess we all need to think about what we do.
BURLINGTON, ON April 26, 2010 – We are going to continue to work with the promoter and develop a safe plan for this event.
Problem is that the promoter of the event is having one heck of a job getting all his ducks lined up and can’t provide some of the plans the police require because he doesn’t have the information he needs from different municipal departments.
The Halton Regional Police Service is going through the motions but they have lost patience with Craig Fagan of the Mid week Cycling Club – that happens when you bounce a cheque payable to the police.
At a council committee meeting last week the police asked if it were possible to have the date for the delivery of Event Traffic Plans and Mitigations Plans brought forward to May 2nd – arguing that they needed time to ensure they could bring in the support they needed from neighbouring police services to man the roads on which the cycling races are to take place. It looked as if the police wanted to bring the “withdraw support date” forward from the 16th of May to the 2nd because they sensed that Fagan was not going to be able to meet the required commitments.
Fagan, according to the police had yet to meet any of the committees by the due date however, after prodding the documents or data the police required got to them. One had the sense that the police were just fed up and would cheerfully walk away from the event and that city staff were of basically the same mind.
Everyone was clinging to the hope that Fagan would actually deliver and that he races would be a huge success – but that is looking les and less likely – which will put a huge crimp Burlington had in developing a ‘sports tourism’ business for the city. The geography is almost custom made the this kind of business and the business community is certainly onside – having gone to the effort to obtain a waiver from the Business Holiday Act that would allow many of them to remain open on Sunday.
Fagan who has yet to be really effective at a city council or committee meeting, claiming that he is not really getting the kind of support he needs from the police services, does appear to have the support of the business people and is said to have made a very strong presentation to the Burlington Downtown Business Association.
Fagan has to come up with very close to $100,000 (by certified cheque if you don’t mind) by noon of May 18th or the police services will with draw their support and will be followed by the city of Burlington.
It took Fagan much longer than he expected to get his agreement with the city in place and without the agreement with the city he couldn’t accept registrations from elite riders. No registration money and no funds to pay the police.
Signs for the event actually taking place are not all that good at this point – seem to hinge on a ‘hope and a prayer’.
Because of difficulty with getting Fagan to meet deadlines the police and the city put him on a short lease and required him to report every three weeks. The police would have liked it to have been an even shorter leash. HRPS Deputy Chief Bob Percy had hoped that perhaps the Canadian Cycling Association would guarantee payment of the bills.
If Fagan is depending on registrations and the registrants for the Time Trial portion of the Canadian Road Cycling Championships that had to be moved to the Belfontain-Caledon area are any indication – then folks, there is trouble in paradise – because the registration web site for Ontario Cycling, the organization that handles registrations and fee collection, doesn’t have a single registrant shown for the three different sets of Time Trials. There are maps and course details and where to drop off and all kinds of data for riders – but no registration names.
The HRPS are being pretty tight lipped about everything. When asked to explain just what a Mitigation Document was Inspector Ivan Lortie, the point man on this file, said the police would rather not say and wanted at this time “to work with just the organizer” so it is difficult to know if Fagan’s argument that the police are being onerous in their requests for information and detail has any merit. Whichever, it has become a dysfunctional relationship and one doesn’t build community that way.
Fagan does not respond to telephone calls or email requests for information or confirmation. He apparently doesn’t show up for meetings either.
At an earlier Burlington council committee meeting there was much concern over whether Fagan could actually pull in the registrations. He assured Council he could do that once he had an agreement in place. He has had his agreement in hand for more than a month but at the Council Committee meeting last week no one asked what he had in the way of registration.
High noon of May 16th – Craig Fagan has to deliver a certified cheque to the Halton Regional Police Service for close to $100,000 or they withdraw their support and the city will do likewise.
And a great opportunity will have been missed. Great idea – but the wrong person was leading the parade. We’re going to have to hold our breath on this one and maybe our noses as well.
Burlington, On.—April 21, 2011– It was like an old boyfriend coming back with an engagement ring – he didn’t seem to understand that it’s over, the trust is no longer there so let’s just clean up the mess and move on.
Last week, the city’s was given a proposal from the lawyers representing the insurance company that provided the performance bond that was behind the Brant Street Pier construction project. The construction company had walked off the job, the city asked the insurance company to pay on the bond, the insurance company said not now, the city sued and everyone was talking to their lawyers.
The insurance company must have looked at the facts and realized they didn’t have that strong a hand and that they were going to have to pony up some real cash they decided to do what they could to limit their losses.
So they came back to the city with a proposal to have the original contractor complete the building of the Pier along with a number of other companies that would provide design and other services.
This was the beginning of the end for the contractor. A crane falling over, stressed steel beams that were later reported to be sub standard, and things went downhill from there. The crane operator was reported to have been on a cell phone with his girl friend when he lost control of the equipment
The city also parted ways with company that was handling both the design and project management of the project. Thus, the city had a clean slate to work. City council was now focused and began to pull together a new team to build the Pier and that process was coming along nicely.
The new insurance company proposal is certainly a ‘fly in the ointment and while this Council doesn’t deserve what is happening to the city on this issue, it is now their issue and they have to deal with it. As a Council they were developing very nicely and heading into the development of a Strategic Plan that would keep them focused for the next three and a half years. This Pier mess will pull them away from their game a bit – we will now get to see what these seven people are made of. How much grit is their in their porridge?
Councillors Taylor and Dennison have the most experience but they are both getting tired and finding that days with seven and eight hours of meetings are not pleasant and don’t allow for the clear headed thinking needed to work through problems like this. When the issue of the new proposal from the insurance company got to open committee they immediately went into an In Camera session – so much for the transparency everyone had talked about during the election.
It was a short and somewhat noisy In Camera session. On a Wednesday with a Press release put out late Thursday giving Council four days of breathing room. Here is the press release that was issued.
The City of Burlington is reviewing a proposal from Zurich Insurance Co., the holder of the performance bond for the Brant Street Pier, to finish building the pier.
City staff provided a closed session update to the city’s Community Services Committee meeting on April 20, citing that the proposal was delivered to the city through Zurich’s legal representatives. City staff said they will need at least six weeks to review the proposal, including the engineering components.
In March, the city hired Morrison Hershfield as the lead engineer on the pier project and announced it is no longer working with former engineer Aecom Canada Ltd. The city is preparing a design and tender document for a contractor to complete the pier, with that tender expected to be released in July 2011.
“City Council will continue to monitor the pier project and remains committed to a timely and cost-effective completion of the pier,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “Any completion arrangements must result in a safe and buildable pier.”
City staff will continue to provide information and status updates to council and the community, including at Community Services Committee meetings.
So – staff are going to take six weeks to figure out if there is any merit to the insurance company proposal – but Council doesn’t have that that kind of time. They will face an unhappy public that will see only more delay, a growing legal bill and nothing firm in front of them when actually there is a decent news story available to the Mayor.
In the Pier Update that was released last Wednesday Council heard about all kinds of progress. Teams have been created, different levels of contractors and service providers had been interviewed, choices had been made and contracts were being prepared for signatures. This was good stuff and the Mayor could have and should have trusted his constituents and told the story. But he issues one of those ‘written or reviewed by lawyers’ documents that tells you nothing and makes you wonder. City engineering staff wanted contracts signed by the middle of July with work starting soon after – and that can still happen.
The proposal from the insurance company has to be considered and it is going to get special consideration that will include a deep level of distrust on the part of city staff towards the original contractor who, before walking off the job demanded more than $2 million in additional fees and not have to accept any liability for mistakes they may have made. The city didn’t buy it then and they shouldn’t buy it now – BUT, do go through the document and make the case for or against the proposal based on the facts.
The plan is to apparently review the proposal and look at if from every possible angle and then use the same metrics to evaluate the proposals and measure it against the proposals already in place. Yes, the date for proposals has closed , nevertheless the city staff are going to have to review the document from the insurance company. Council and the Mayor need to get out in front of this issue and tell its public what’s going on. Mayor Goldring has the confidence of his citizens – don’t lose it..
The Mayor has council members who have taken positions in the past that have the potential to impede progress.
Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Mead Ward made the problems with the construction of the Pier a large part of her election campaign and did regular updates with videos of her in a construction helmet with the Pier in the background. That got her into office where the Pier is now on her plate. Mead Ward has consistently advocated for a mediated solution and seemed to feel that there was a way to resolve the problems and bring the original contractor back to the table and out on the constructions site completing the Pier. That “careful what you wish for” truism is now staring Mead Ward in the eye.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman will be close to livid with this most recent turn of events and I suspect he will advocate for a very tough stance. Will Councillors Taylor and Dennison go along with him? And where will Craven go with all this. Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster will find the learning curve a lot steeper than she had anticipated.
BURLINGTON, ON April 26, 2011 – He can be grumpy. He is often pedantic. He is very often a stickler for the rules and can snap out a Point of Order to the chair of a committee faster than most people can say Jack Spratt. He is truly passionate about his Ward. But there is nothing fuzzy or warm about this man who will tell you he has ambitions for higher political office. The one thing you can say is that he is effective
Quick to go to the rule book and quick to cut off improper debate. Effective? Not always but he believes in what he has been doing since 2000
Rick Craven ha been doing what he does for more than ten years and yet doesn’t hold the “sway” that Councillors Dennison or Taylor have over their Wards. There is a sense of Team that seems to elude Rick Craven and while he has a solid base in Aldershot (Mead Ward Learned that in 2006 when she ran against him and lost soundly) he doesn’t have anywhere near the impact on Council that the other two more senior Council members, Taylor and Dennison have and has been crowded out by the much stronger personality of Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman.
When there was an even remote chance that the Tiger Cats would take up residence in his Ward, Craven was like a “hound who had treed a possum” howling and jumping all over the place. He was the biggest booster there was but that one got away on Craven. Then when IKEA let it be known that it wanted to leave Aldershot and move to a location that would allow for larger retail premises that would include a larger office and administration facility – which meant some 150+ more jobs for Burlington but a huge loss for the Aldershot BIA, Craven was big and magnanimous. If it was better for Burlington – then he would live with the loss, secure in his mind at least – that Aldershot was the place to be.
Finally, a development that is mostly pluses – it’s taken a bit of time to get growth along Plains Road.
There has been some good news for the community. The LaSalle Terrace is slated to proceed and once constructed and operational it will take some of the strip mall look that tends to dominate parts of Plains Road West out of the mix.
While Plains Road tends to be seen as the focal point for Ward 1, it is really the Beachway (that part of the Lakefront that is west of Spencer smith Park), that holds the promise to make Burlington into a city that has capitalized on its truly magnificent waterfront. Add to that, the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC), which also sits in Ward 1, and you have the two most promising city building projects on the go in the one ward. Craven, a practiced politician, also happens to sit on BPAC Board where he gets a first hand look at that development and sits on the Waterfront Advisory Committee where he sees what is coming up from the grass roots on the thinking around the Beachway.
Craven Chairs the Community Services Committee and at times proves to be a task master who will insist that more formal protocols be followed but has recently given up on that approach. Councillors Dennison and Taylor know everyone by their first names and don’t take to Craven’s insistence that people be addressed more formally. It’s tough to go against Dennison’s “I’ve known you for years” attitude or Taylor’s “happy-go-lucky” folksiness.
He has fun when doing his job but as often as not he leaves a meeting abruptly and in a bit of a foul mood. You never get the sense that he goes out for a beer with the rest of the team. Never appears to be a “happy camper”.
Part of that is because Craven brings a different kind of seriousness to the work he does; almost driven at times. He sees what he believes are big mistakes being made and he knows that in the long run it is the taxpayers who pay for the mistakes.
Craven: “…making sure the taxpayers know what the cost is going to be BEFORE the bill is rendered.”
He knows too, that the taxpayers would like everything they can think of and at the same time he knows they are going to balk when it comes time to pay the bill and sees his job as making sure the taxpayers know what the cost is going to be BEFORE the bill is rendered. Again and again he will tell his fellow council members that they need to consistently explain the consequences behind the decisions council makes.
The city currently has just 68% of the money it needs to pay for the road and infrastructure repairs that are necessary. “We didn’t set that money aside and now we have very poor roads in parts of this city and the public wants them fixed now – but we don’t have the money to pay for that work” explains Craven.
“There are all kinds of surprises out there waiting for us” claims Craven. “The breakdown of the boilers at the Burlington Art Centre is but one example he will tell you about. “Government is not the enemy” says Craven but then adds that “we raise expectations in the minds of the public that they are not really prepared to pay for. There is just one tax bill and all the money we spend is collected through that tax bill.”
“And” Craven is quick to add, “if you abuse that taxpayer it doesn’t take them very long to let you know how unhappy they are”. Craven argues that the role of a Council member is to seek “balance” and use “common sense”. We have to listen to our constituents and learn from them.
“We froze the staffing compliment with the budget we just passed” says Craven and the result, he says, is that the city manager cannot hire a new person if it is going to increase the amount of money he is going to spend. That, according to Craven means that the city manager will hold back on filling a position because he won’t have the funds to pay the person and he goes on to add that not having critical staff people on hand will mean poorer, diminished services.
Gapping is when you create a significant amount of time between when a person leaves a position and when the replacement goes on the payroll – the gap between those two dates result in significant staff savings to the city and because 80% of our costs are human resource based – gapping proved to be very convenient for the city’s Executive Budget Committee.
The decision by senior city staff to make “gapping” close to a policy that was never approved at council has created serious problems for the city even if it did produce more than $3 million of the $9.3 million surplus we had at the end of last year. Gapping is when you create a significant amount of time between when a person leaves a position and when the replacement goes on the payroll – the gap between those two dates result in significant staff savings to the city and because 80% of our costs are human resource based – gapping proved to be very convenient for the city’s Executive Budget Committee.
Craven see “gapping” as something city staff legitimized but it resulted in work piling up and very disgruntled staff and unhappy taxpayers as well. Craven points to the functional design project approved for Plains Road in 2010 on which work has yet to begin.
Burlington, Craven will tell you is not a complete city yet. The Performing Arts Centre is going to make a huge difference and he believes that if we can get our heads around what we want to do with the Beachway, the Lake will become much more relevant to a greater number of people.
The “diamond in the rough” for Burlington – an opportunity to create a truly magnificent waterfront that combines the “finest beach in Ontario” with a vision that reflects what Burlington wants to become.
The big issue the city has to face with the Beachway is what to do with the 28 private homes that are left. They are privately owned homes that do not have sewage service and use septic tanks that fall short of acceptable sanitary service. The land on which the homes are built consists of 37 feel of sand, defined as a dynamic beach, that is constantly shifting and is not suitable for development.
The property usage is controlled by the Region which will not allow sewage services to be installed – which is odd because the sewage treatment is literally just across the road.
The city created a Waterfront Advisory Committee just before the last election but it hasn’t met the hope many had for really positive ideas or significant feed back from that committee. Part of the reason for the failure, perhaps too strong a word – let’s just say it didn’t develop into something as effective as the Sustainable Development Advisory, – is that there was a political element to the creation of the Watefront Advisory that may have served a purpose before the election but it resulted in a committee that has yet to really find its way and with the current leadership it won’t go anywhere. The result is that the committee appears to have lost the clout it could have had. Craven sits on the committee but for the most part doesn’t say all that much. One gets the sense he is there to protect his constituency rather than use the committee to promote his community.
Craven studied Communication Arts at Mohawk College and worked in radio for five years as a news reporter. A graduate of McMaster University Craven worked with the Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board for two decades.
He got into the political game by coming up through community organizations starting with Chairman of the Aldershot Community Council and on the Executive Liaison Committee for the Halton Police Community Consultation Committees. This is a guy who works at the grass roots level but doesn’t bear the colour or style of a populist. Very personable and outgoing but you don’t get the sense of his being a close team player. Effective though but just a little too serious.
We will return to Councillor Rick Craven later this week and dwell on what could be his legacy to the city and perhaps a step to a higher level of public office.
BURLINGTON, APRIL 25, 2011 – There are cat people, there are sports buffs; there are political whacko’s and then – there are gardeners. Those men and woman who spend hours in the garden cultivating, weeding, seeding and nurturing flowers and shrubs.
You see them every spring at the gardening shops buying flats of whatever they fancy. For most people just spending time in the garden is enough but there are others who take huge pride in their garden and they like the idea of having “the” best garden on the block. One can only imagine just how competitive this can get.
Thirty two years ago, in 1978, the city created what is known as the Civic Rose Award (CRA) that was given by a committee made up of the Burlington Parks and Recreation Department, the Burlington Horticultural Society and the Garden Club of Burlington. The City covered all costs of the CRA program.
About ten years ago, at the City’s suggestion, the CRA steering committee became independent of the city and took their direction from a board made up of the two horticultural societies, and the interested public. The CRA committee recruited some 13 sponsors from the community, each of which contribute about $300 annually and present specific awards in their name. The City of Burlington has been one of these sponsors, contributing the prestigious “Mayor’s Cup” and providing the committee with a city facility (for some years now the Tansley Woods Center’s large room) for its awards evening, which draws some two hundred attendees.
The “grant game” is going through a change at city hall and, as City Manager Roman Martiuk less than elegantly puts it – right now the policy on grants is to say No! – no to requests for grants and no, there isn’t a policy and if Council wants a policy all they have to do is ask city staff to develop one. But there are a couple of softies on this Council and they come up with ways to give in kind grants and waive the fee for space that is normally has a fee attached to it.
Thus the Civic Rose Association presented themselves at Council and prevailed upon city Council to waive the fee for the room at Tansley Hall and all was well with the people that run the association.
Mayor Rick Goldring, obviously not a gardener and still putting together a set of political skills, suggested that the top prize should be known as the “Burlington” Cup rather than the Mayor’s Cup. In time he will realize that the 200 gardeners who appear at the awards event have favour that is well worth winning.
Some might suggest that Burlington elected the Mayor they have – not quite true. They decided they did not want to Mayor they had and chose the best option. The current Mayor has their trust, their respect and to some degree their admiration for doing the job he has done so far. But that honeymoon is not going to last forever. At some point Goldring needs his own city wide base. But this is a story about gardens – and the Civic Rose Award brings out the very, very best in gardeners. Look at the Awards for 2010.
One of the advantages of a newspaper on a web site is that a story can be aslong as we want it to be – there are no space limitation – and we can put in as
many pictures as we wish. And so here you are – the winners of the 2010 Civic Rose Awards, along with an application form to be entered into the 2011
competition.
We’ve not indicated which zone a winning garden was in or who won the other prizes – that was last year – but we did want you to see the kind of gardens that grace our city.
Just click on each picture to see the beauty.
Nominations for the 2011 can be sent in any time and must be received no later than June 25th. Click below to get a nomination form. All gardens must be visible from a public street, the garden must be a private residence and it must be in the city of Burlington.
View the 2010 winners
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When we have the zones for the 2011 competition we will pass those along to you and we will of course follow the competition avidly in 2011 and publish the results in full glorious colour and detail.
BURLINGTON, ON April 21, 2011 – It was a pretty quiet Council committee evening. Interesting stuff which will get covered off in material we file later in the day. Started at 6:30 and everyone was a little grumpy come 10 pm when it looked like we were all going to get to go home.
Tom Eichenbaum was on hand to give an update on the Pier. I wondered why Tom, the senior engineer was giving the update and why this was being left to the very end of the meeting. There was so much good stuff happening with the Pier that I wasn’t ready for the Kaboom! that made the council committee move into an In Camera session and I get ushered out of the room.
The road to nowhere just hit a speed bump.
When Eichenbaum went to the Council table he had a very thick binder in his hands –well he’s an engineer and these guys always have thick binders of stuff in their hands. After explaining that Procurement Specialist Consulting had been put in place and the city was ready to issue a contract to Cassels Brock, a Toronto based firm with a fine reputation. They even named the two people from the firm that would be taking on the task. This was good news. Progress.
The engineering department interviewed six firms to provide project management services and settled on SMA/Mettko, the firm that is doing project management for the new fire station at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road. This meant the city was going to be working with people they already knew. This was good news. Progress.
Morrison Hersfield was already in place as the Design Consultants. They advised early in April that the permit process was coming along just fine. When a new contractor is put in place everything has to go back almost to square one. New drawings have to be prepared, no one was prepared to rely on drawings from the original design team – they were the guys that provided a design that basically fell apart during a concrete pour.
Poor weather has delayed a structural inspection and the underwater inspection is scheduled to get done at the end of the month. The site survey has been completed. Appreciate that when the original contractor walked off the job the gates were locked and that was it – nothing was done other than to secure the site.
The drawings for the structural steel had commenced. This was good news. Progress.
Everything was coming along just fine and the Mayor was less apologetic about the Pier.
Then Eichenbaum casually mentioned that a document had been delivered to the Engineering with a proposal from the bonding company about a consortium that had been put together to complete the Pier – and that the consortium included the original contractor who had walked away from the job late last year. This was not good news. This was not progress.
Well it was one of those ‘slap me silly’ moments. Here we are doing just fine – going our own way after the original contractor walked off the job and the insurance company said they were not going to honour the performance bond the original contractor had put in place.
The city had ended its relationship with the original project management company and had all but completed the process of putting a new team in place to get the Pier built – and now this?
Eichenbaum was reporting that his staff had only been able to give the document a cursory look and would get into the details and do a full scale review and report back when they have been able to arrive at an opinion. Well, he has to do that. But I’ll bet my allowance that he also put in a call to the legal people to give them a heads up.
Heck we are in the process of suing Zurich Insurance for not paying the performance bond and we are suing the original contractor for walking off the job and we are suing the original contract managers for not doing their job. It took this council close to four months to get all the crap out of the way and get the city to the point where there was movement on the project. Now what?
Tom Eichenbaum wasn’t smiling when he left the Council Chamber and there were voices raised loud enough while Council was In Camera, that they could be heard in the foyer outside the chamber.
It was tough to read the faces of the seven council members when they moved back into open session. The Mayor did say to the Director of Communications that there wouldn’t be any big splashy event to celebrate the opening of the Pier.
This might be a bit of a set back and it may move the Grand Opening date back a bit – but this latest problem is not the fault of anyone on this council or within the Engineering department. They have all pulled together to clean up a real mess.
Imagine that you are dressed in your finest on Easter Sunday and you step outside the house and a robin flies overhead and does what most birds do then they fly – splat on your freshly cleaned suit. S… happens and you just have to clean it up and move on. But Burlington didn’t need this set back.
Let’s hope that the Mayor gets out in front of this one and doesn’t hide behind the advice of the lawyers. Just tell the public as much as you can about what are up against ands ask for their patience and support.
BURLINGTON, ON April 20, 2011 – The budget is locked in place and everyone seems pleased. So what’s next? Well, new on the radar screen is a squabble about just where the Magnificent Seven are going to perch. Right now they are squirreled away in what Mayor Rick Goldring called “absolutely terrible office space” that he didn’t like one bit when he was just a council member. “There were times when I could hear three different conversations in adjoining offices” he commented at a Council meeting while a report was being reviewed on how space in City Hall was to be allocated.
Six of the Magnificent Seven aren’t being evicted but they are being sent packing – all the way up to the seventh floor.
There is as yet no consensus on what the best configuration should be. The matter of space was brought up when senior city hall staff wanted to put all the Clerk’s staff and the communications people in one location. The Clerks share the space on the ground floor with city councillors and their assistants.
Kim Phillips, General Manager Corporate Services, told Council that the moving around of staff wasn’t being driven by concerns as to where council members should be but rather by internal requirements. That didn’t go down particularly well with Councillor Paul Sharman
Councillor Rick Craven thinks every member of Council should be on the ground floor where they can be seen. Right now the Mayor is on the eighth floor and Council members on the first floor. Ms Phillips didn’t think putting city council on the ground floor where they could be seen was the best use of what she called prime space. She explained that council members are at the Region quite a bit and out in there wards frequently.
Sharman doesn’t have a window in his office and doesn’t feel appreciated either.
Councillor Paul Sharman had major concerns with the way staff was handling the proposed move to the seventh floor and was verbally sparring with Ms Phillips when he said the seventh floor was inconvenient but what bothered Sharman most was that he wondered when Staff was going to think about Council? The move was being driven by a need to get all the Clerk and the communications in one place. “We are being left behind, it is as if we are not really legitimate, we are just politicians.”
“Leadership” maintained Sharman “is Council and we should be right out front, we should be visible and on the ground floor where we are accessible. I don’t feel valued where I am now.” The offices the Council members currently occupy are stuffy little places with a single meeting room that looks like a bunker with no window. Several of the Council members have offices with no window and there is no coffee service. The space really is quite crummy, painted an institutional green that went out of style twenty years ago and certainly doesn’t suggest any dignity. All of the General Managers have much better space.
When things get a little sticky at Council or Committee meetings, City Manager Roman Martiuk steps in and usually starts his comments with the words: “Let me put this in context and then he proceeds to pour oil on troubled waters. Martiuk explained that the city I currently renting space in the Sims building across the street from City Hall and that staff was taking longer look at their space requirements and added that Councillor Sharman’s comments were heard.
At that point Kim Phillips piped in that she has a high regard for Council and that there is a longer report on space needs in the works. She added that this discussion was really about customer service and not about dumping council some place. She added that she felt they should all be together.
Councillor Taylor, an easy going guy, whom Councillor Lancaster has taken to calling “JT” wanted to know why the report on moving people around was even in front of the committee. “Our organizational review is at least two years away, there is no need to move, I believe most of the council members are comfortable”. That wasn’t quite the case. Councillor Craven said he liked the first floor because it allowed him to walk to any department he needed to talk to but he did feel that everyone should be in the same location, which for Craven would mean moving the Mayor down from the eight floor to the ground floor.
Mead Ward has a window in her office and institutional green walls
Councillor Lancaster said she felt having everyone together was a good idea. Councillor Mead Ward said her office was “virtual” and that it didn’t matter to her where she was – as long as she had her cell phone.
The Mayor said he felt detached from things being on the eighth floor. The plan was to move the council members and their assistants to the seventh floor where they could walk down one level to the sixth where the General Managers are and up one floor to where the Mayor and the City Manager are located
As the debate took place one could sense the tension between Council and Staff. The Council accommodation is dumpy and this Council wants to be treated with more respect and given office space that is not an embarrassment. Kim Phillips pointed out that the ground floor space is used by the public who went to City Hall last year to get 660 marriage licenses; have 1150 documents commissioned and to record 1400 deaths. Traffic to the offices of the Council members is not as heavy as the traffic is for service at the Clerk’s counter.
A move to the seventh floor was passed with one of those dreaded 4-3 votes.
BURLINGTON, ON April 20, 2011 – Just about everyone who sat through the 2011 Budget Orientation sessions (they were brutal) and then the actual fashioning of the budget agrees that there has to be a better way to do these things.
Council and staff would like more public input and they want spending to be based on a clearly understood longer term plan. That couldn’t happen for 2011 because the Strategic Plan wasn’t in place. The desire is for specific performance measurements which focuses on service delivery outcomes. In other words – are we getting what we are paying for.
This Council is not going to have a Strategic Plan in place until sometime in September and while the hope is the plan will identify the directions for this term of council, Mayor Rick Goldring “believes preparation must begin now to affect future budgets” and he presented a Staff Direction which was accepted by the Budget and Corporate Services Committee. Here is what they are setting out to do:
That staff be directed to conduct a budget debrief with members of Council and staff for the purpose of identifying levels of satisfaction and areas of improvement for 2012 and report back to Council in June 2011. This is not an evaluation on the results of the budget but rather the process, timelines, public input and methodology.
That staff be directed to provide Committee with a report no later than September 2011 outlining the key deliverables, timelines, cost and resources required to develop and implement performance-based budgeting and reporting for the City of Burlington as it relates to the Strategic Goals and Objectives.
The observation with this Staff Direction is that the people who managed the whole process are the people who are going to carry out the review. Whoever debriefs the Council members will certainly get an earful and someone will churn out a report that lays out all the concerns.
How then do the people who managed the Budget process last time around take the concerns and do it all differently (and hopefully more efficiently) next time. More than a majority of the Council members will say they did not like the way they had to dig and dig for information and that there were too many surprises and that there were Briefings that were tedious, self serving and not necessary.
Will the Executive Budget Committee hear what they are told and return with a process and understandable procedures to allow this Council, which is working quite effectively, come in with a tax increase of less than 1% tax next year?
BURLINGTON, ON April 18, 2011 – There is always a sense of relief and regret when a term of office ends. If it’s an elected position there is huge regret when you lose. It isn’t much different when a term of office for community service comes to an end. You get the plaque, the (hopefully) warm round of applause and the complimentary comments on the job you did. And then you go home, you put your feet up – and then what do you do ?
A knowledge economy at work. Gregory spends as much time at a keyboard as he does promoting Burlington.
If community service is one of your passions, if you believe that part of your reason for being on this earth is to serve and make the place better for others – sitting at home watching television isn’t very high on the priority list. And that is where Mark Gregory finds himself this week. He serves in other capacities in the city but the task that kept him really busy and invigorated was the Chairmanship of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation. BEDC, a non profit that looks for new companies that think they might like to call Burlington home. An equally large part of the job is to make sure that those who have chosen Burlington stick around.
Gregory who served as a member of the BEDC for four years got chosen by the Board to lead the corporation at a time when layoffs were being made throughout the city and while no one had to shut down and cease operating, it was far from smooth sailing for the Burlington economy as the world weathered a nasty recession.
That recession impacted many organizations in Burlington, including Locomotion, a Burling based communications and public relations firm of which Gregory is the Managing Partner.
Gregory chose to use the time to grow the business community rather than to go into a defensive mode and out of that growth came a number of intriguing initiatives that appear to have served the city exceptionally well. Kyle Benham, Executive Director of the BEDC developed a Rapid Response protocol to deal with those extraordinary situations when a deal was close to closing but needed that extra push to get it done.
For Gregory it was vital that the BEDC take a strategic approach to the situation they faced and he gives an example on how the organization could be “strategic” using the membership it had on it’s Board. Gregory explains that the talent within the BEDC is what makes it possible to pull together a Rapid Response team which is a significant plus – but the talent on the Board is exceptionally deep. “We have a Board member from the IT field, Louise St-Pierre, Senior Vice President, Residential Services, Cogeco Cable Canada LP who was at one point the Chief Information Officer for her organization and is now an Executive vice president located in Burlington.
“She has her finger tips in every significant information technology change on the horizon and we have that talent at our table. We get briefings at every Board meeting and if we see a situation where we need some advice and content briefings when a new prospect is looking at Burlington, a very informed comment is available to us. Few communities have this depth of talent on their Board and we can use that talent to help make strategic decisions.”
One of the effective and pleasurable working tools Gregory developed was his Friday afternoon beer sessions that he will regret letting go. But we all move on and Gregory can let that one go. However, I’m pretty sure Gregory will take a phone call to get together for a beer almost any Friday afternoon.
Mark Gregory cover off last minute details with Lauren Griesbach before the start of the BEDC AGM.
Gregory fully understood the need for Burlington to create a “knowledge economy” and he sees the role that the DeGroote school of Business is going to play, as it works its way into the fabric of both the city and the business community, as a very significant part of the transition. That DeGroote facility came on stream during the last part of Gregory’s term of office. “Innovation has to be our top priority” maintains Gregory and he realizes that our continued growth depends upon being innovative.
Mark Gregory will chair the Nomination Committee for the next two years and in that way continue to have an impact on the new blood being brought into the BEDC. He will also serve on the Executive Committee that Executive Director Benham turns to when there is some heavy lifting to be done.
Asked if he did the job he set out to do when he became Chairman, Gregory demurs and says that is for others to say.
The BEDC sponsors a number of events that serve as a networking hub for the large corporations in the city. They include the Economic Outlook Breakfast, the Mayor’s Networking Lunch and their Signature event at which they recognize and honour the entrepreneur of the year.
While economic development is a passion for Gregory the city of Burlington has him getting all mushy and soft. He has worked in many cities; Lethbridge, Edmonton, Regina – and none he says compares to what Burlington has to offer. He was obviously a natural to lead the BEDC. As Chair of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation at a time when the city was struggling to get through a recession we could do nothing about, Gregory maintained the course and has now turned the helm over to someone else. His dance card has an open spot on it.
Burlington, On—April 18, 2011 The Joseph Brant Museum just might have a life afterall. The Museums Foundation announced receipt of a $1.4 million bequest from the estate of the Helen Ireland Caldwell. Caldwell, who passed away in August 2010, was first cousin to Marie Ireland, the last Ireland family member to live in historic Ireland House before it was bought by the city and turned into a museum in 1987.
“The Helen Caldwell estate is very pleased that her bequest to the Burlington Museums Foundation will be used to help preserve Burlington’s heritage,” said estate executor Paul Charlebois, Q.C. “The Burlington of today rests on the foundation of the values of its pioneer families.”
“We’re extremely grateful for Helen Caldwell’s generous gift and for her commitment and generosity to the museums of Burlington over many years,” said John Doyle, chair of the Burlington Museums Foundation. “She leaves a great historical legacy that supports the rich heritage our community.”
Helen Ireland Caldwell was a volunteer at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, Joseph Brant Museum, the Ireland House at Oakridge Farm, and a longtime member of the Burlington Historical Society.
Born in 1918 Helen Mary Ireland was . 21, 1918 in Hamilton. She was a case worker for the Children’s Aid Society in Hamilton from 1959 to 1983. Helen was instrumental in carrying out Marie Ireland’s dream of turning the Ireland home into a museum.
Helen married Charles Clelland Caldwell in 1948 in Hamilton. Charles died in 1959, when he was only 39 years of age.
Built between 1835 and 1837, Ireland House at Oakridge Farm was the home of Joseph Ireland, one of Burlington’s earliest settlers. Emigrating from Bowes, Yorkshire, England in 1819 at the age of 27, he petitioned for land at Oakridge Farm and so began a legacy that continues today.
Joseph and his descendants lived in Ireland House until 1985. In 1987, the City of Burlington bought the property from the estate of Lucie Marie Ireland Bush and set up a museum, restoring the homestead to show three distinct time periods that represent the generations of Irelands who lived in the house: the 1850s, 1890s and 1920s.
The property consists of four acres of woodland, gardens, potting shed, cottage/drive shed, and picnic areas. The Museums offer tours of the property, living historical demonstrations, special events and educational programs .
BURLINGTON, ON April 18, 2011 – The objective was to have women outvote men by at least 10%. In the upcoming federal election. Eric Williams thought he had come up with a unique idea to get woman to vote by asking them to make a video of them telling Prime Minister Steven Harper that “It was Over” – they were ending their relationship with him.
Williams encouraged woman to do short videos on how they would tell ‘Steve’ it was over which he then strung together and posted as a video You Tube. And it worked – sort of. It’s cute but I don’t think it is going to b a game changer by any stretch of ones imagination.
Williams, a McMaster University students doing a degree in communications and history is certainly communicating but not making much history. There are three videos up with woman in different cities making videos and there is traffic to the You Tube site.
“The main video was at 34,000 when I started editing last night, and was at 41k when I came home this morning”, said Williams. He adds that the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The game has changed”, declares Williams. “We have a chance to really shape this election by significantly increasing female voter turnout. Major papers and TV are covering “It’s Over Steve” plus we just got endorsed by Margaret Atwood and several MPs. . There are tons of stories
Williams claims Harper himself has to keep pretending like we don’t exist, no matter how huge this gets. “He might pander more to women, or broadly criticize web politics, but he will never speak about us by name. That’s how we are going to defeat him. I hasten to add that I wish he and his family no ill will, especially Laureen Harper, who always comes across as a lovely person.
“Right now the political parties seem almost blind to us. They aren’t really engage and they aren’t changing their message. Once they realize how decisive women are going to be in this election, they’ll be tripping over themselves to win their support. This truly is a golden opportunity for Canadian women.”
We just want women to think and talk together, and get out and vote. It’s going to make for a better and more progressive Canada. I really truly do believe this, and that’s why the campaign is the way it is. It’s time for women to have a turn and decide for Canada
By Pepper Parr – almost totally plagiarized from a Sarah Banks blog
BURLINGTON, ON April 18, 2011 – It’s no secret, I feel like somewhat of an outsider here in Burlington. On the rare occasion that I spot someone with the potential to be like-minded (I’ve got excellent radar in this regard), I have to get a hold of myself and rein in my inclination to exhibit bizarre gestures of desperation. “Hey there! You look like my kind. Open-minded, progressive thinker with an appreciation for sarcasm, sustainable development, humanity and CBC Radio. Wanna be friends?”
Christopher Hume. The man speaks my language. And then some.
Photo credit: Randy Risling
I had to exercise particular constraint this past Tuesday when I saw the wise and wonderful Christopher Hume speak at the Inspire Burlington speaker series hosted by Mayor Rick Goldring. I felt like he’d arrived on the mothership (in this case, the GO Train) and I was more than ready to be transported back to Planet Toronto with him.
In case you don’t know, Mr. Hume is the wry and outspoken architecture critic and urban affairs reporter for The Toronto Star. He knows what makes for a great city and he doesn’t hesitate to let you know when Toronto (or in this case, Burlington) isn’t making the grade.
As a relatively new Toronto transplant, I too have not held back in my criticisms of B-town. Occasionally, I sense I may have a few behind-the-scenes foes who don’t share my disdain and wish I would shut my trap. So it was nice to have a little validation with Hume’s expert insight in the room.
Among his many observations, Hume feels the design of Burlington leaves much to be desired. “A lot of Burlington’s problems are design problems,” he said. He shared some less than impressive slides of forgettable intersections and nondescript streetscapes. He gave moderate credit to the dynamics of the stretch of Lakeshore Blvd occupied by Pepperwoods and Benny’s but was quick to note that the romance only lasted one block.
The important thing, he said, is not the height. “It’s how the building meets the street. Is it interesting? Is it engaging? It’s what’s happening at the street level.”
Early on in Hume’s presentation, he put it right out there for the 150+ crowd to chew on—”Burlington is run by the development industry.” I’m pretty sure I clapped the loudest. Right on, Hume. Tell it like is.
As a member of the Burlington Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee, I’m especially interested in what goes on behind closed doors with city staff and the Robert Moses‘ of Burlington. Not surprisingly, I’m skeptical and have my doubts that the development deals being done in this town put the needs of residents first. But I’m also resolute in my desire to show that we (the lowly residents) have more power and influence than we may realize. And we’re entitled to it, to boot. But I digress. Back to my hero, Hume. One of his more gentle reflections was that “the buildings are the buildings but the important thing is what happens in between them.” In other words, the opportunity for urban vibrancy and life in general to occur is made possible by a combination of both organic goings-on of humanity and thoughtful long-term planning decisions.
There is a unique one-shot opportunity for Burlington to succeed in achieving this urban design magic, described above. I would love to know what Hume’s thoughts are on the Old Lakeshore Road Precinct. Aside from hazard lands, the City owns none of this precious parcel on the downtown waterfront. It is owned by a combination of developers and individuals. Condos *will* be built there and we as citizens have an opportunity to influence what this prime chunk of land will evolve into.
BURLINGTON, ON April 7, 2011 – It was perhaps appropriate for the Annual General Meeting of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) to take place at the Paletta Mansion. The site has history and wealth attached to it; first when it was given to Laura Secord by the British Crown for her role in the War of 1812. Secord, a Canadian heroine had alerted the British of a American attack plan. The property went through a number of hands before it was bought by Cyrus Albert Birge who used the property as a summer playground.
When Birge died suddenly in 1929 he left a fortune to his daughter Edythe Merriam MacKay who built the mansion we use today with her inheritance. Those years were different times and the monied set lived a life of leisure. Birge had amassed quite a fortune when her merged a screw manufacturing company into what eventually came to be known as the Steel Company of Canada.
The property’s mansion ranks among the finest representations of great estate homes designed and built in Burlington in the two decades between 1912 and 1932, and was the last of its kind and quality to be built in Burlington. Paletta hardly gets a mention in the literature – he put up a couple of million dollars to pay for the purchase when it looked as if the city was not going to be able to acquire the site.
Some 75 people gathered for the AGM to approve a financial report (which had a surplus) and install a new board of Directors that has five more directors than Royal Bank of Canada.
Leo DeLoyde, former General Manager of Development and Infrastructure for the city of Burlington and also a former CEO of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation before it was spun off as the stand alone organization it is today was on hand.
Stranger shows up for a service award and a free dinner. Leo DeLoyde talks with fellow guest at the BEDC AGM
The BEDC had a decent 2010 with 42% of its revenue coming from the city and 68% from other grants and revenue it generates..
The incoming chair is John Chisholm, Partner and CEO of SB Partners who will serve a two year term. He is joined by Louise St-Pierre, Senior Vice President, Residential Services, Cogeco Cable Canada LP , Paul Subject, President, STANMECH Technologies Inc. and Ruta Stauskas, Vice President, Boehringer Ingelheim Ltd.
The BEDC reported 852 new jobs were brought to Burlington in 2010, 27% of which were created in the professional services field. The organization had a construction target of 400,000 sq ft of new space for Burlington and brought in 380,000. Overall, the organization was just a little shy on most of its target which was seen as acceptable given that the Canadian economy is just pulling away from a rather savage recession in the United States.
John Chisholm, CEO of SB Partners starts a two year term as Chair of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation. He leads an organization that weathered a recession – tough act to follow.
The future hope for the BEDC lay in the new initiatives that were put in place – the most successful being the Rapid Response Team, a concept developed by Executive Director Kyle Benham. As he explained the concept – there are situations where a deal is close to closing but there are still significant outstanding issues. That is when Benham is able to call on a team of people that is flexible and immediately available. A closing deal may require some input from a financier, help from the city planning department, some give on the part of a developer; – each situation is different. What is consistent however is the need for a rapid response to the situation that needs that little extra, last minute push in order to close.
“We can do that in a city the size of Burlington” explains Benham “because while we are not a huge city there is a depth of talent that is accessible and immediately available.
We’ve pulled together Rapid Response teams in a number of situations and while we are not always successful it isn’t because we didn’t have the talent we needed.” Burlington is one of a few municipalities in Ontario that can deploy this type of talent which is seen as a Best Practice in the economic development field.
Another BEDC initiative is the evolution of the work force in the community. Having the deGroote school of Business unit of McMaster University in Burlington gives us access to an academic institution many communities don’t have and that is a big draw for people looking for a community in which to locate. The BEDC is also continuing with the Next Generation Manufacturing Project. The changes taking place in 21st century manufacturing make it imperative for corporations to be on top of what is happening. We are able to do develop this kind of program and make it available to the manufacturing sector.
The BEDC is continually improving its investment profile, which is the image and view that the world has of Burlington. “Our job” explains Benham, “is to create am image for Burlington that makes us an attractive choice for companies that want to locate in a stable, safe community that is very close to its markets.
It was the way the BEDC had chosen to improve and develop that profile that got a bit of a rough ride at a Council committee meeting where the planned budget for 2011 was discussed. Benham had plans to visit Appledoorn, our sister city in Europe, to try and entice a Dutch company to locate in Burlington. Council didn’t get very excited about that idea.
Kyle Benham takes the BEDC through another AMG – this time he has a surplus to show for his efforts.
Mark Gregory eases out of a two year stint as chair of the BEDC and looks forward to the next community service task.
Nor did council fully take to the explanation that the development of small business in Burlington was best done at the Regional level. Council felt that five new small business operations that create 25 jobs is realistic, but that bringing in a large corporation that will create 125 new jobs was very hard to achieve. Much more so for Burlington which doesn’t have any class A office space in the downtown core.
It was evident that there was a bit of tension between city council and the BEDC as to where they should be looking for those new jobs everyone wants to see come to Burlington. Most economic forecasters believe that small business is the best driver of economic growth in Ontario and that that is where the effort to build local economies should be focused
At his Q&A with members of the Chamber of Commerce earlier this month Mayor Rick Goldring mentioned that he wanted to see and was working towards more Small Business creation in the city.
John Chisholm and his Board have their work cut out for them as the BEDC and the city work out a business development philosophy that is more closely aligned. Mark Gregory steered the ship through a very nasty recession but if there is to be smooth sailing the way the growth objective is reached needs some work.
BURLINGTON, ON April 15, 2011 – I mentioned to the photographer who was taking pictures of the demonstration in front of the Waterfront Hotel on Lakeshore Road Friday morning that not very many people were honking their horns.
“Hey pal”, he responded, “this is Burlington and demonstrations are unheard of in this town.” But it was most certainly a demonstration and the more than 55 people from the Stop the Escarpment Highway Coalition wanted to make sure Tim Hudak, Leader of the Opposition at Queen’s Park knew how they felt about his view the the GTA xx highway was a good idea.
More than 50 demonstrators kept their banner stretched across the front of the Waterfront Hotel in Burlington Friday morning – asking the public to support their objective of keeping any kind of highway from running through the Escarpment
It was a cold windy morning but they were out there and they were noisy. Hudak took it all in stride as he entered the hotel to speak to the Progressive Conservative party faithful – but didn’t say a word about the demonstration. And, based on the comment made by those who wear blue instead of red inside the hotel – the demonstration fell on deaf ears. That didn’t stop the scurrilous comment that the demonstrators were being paid $80.00 at demonstrate. The Coalition wishes it had $80. to buy hot chocolate for the demonstrators. This group is about as grass roots as it gets. They represent 12 community organizations with some 7000 people on their mailing list.
Geoff Brock does a stand up piece for a television news camera during the demonstration against long range plans for a highway through the Niagara Escarpment.
But media is what these public demonstrations are all about and they certainly got coverage. The aim of the Coalition is to keep the issue in front of the public – one can expect to see more of this type of thing. Queen’s Park is a future stop for the people with the banner sign.
Meanwhile, inside the hotel a more than respectable crowd of Progressive Conservatives showed up with all the usual suspects on hand. Brian Heagle and Rene Papin, both declared candidates for the seat that Joyce Savoline has decided not to contest again, were on hand pressing the flesh. Ted Chudleigh and anyone else that wanted to get elected as well as the people that make a political party viable were on hand. Jimmy Tap was there was well – looking rather dapper in a well cut sports jacket. Gosh – even Cam Jackson was on hand and took a bow when called upon.
Tim Hudak, Leader of the Progressive Conservative opposition at Queen’s Park chats with Rene Papin before his pep talk to the party faithful at a breakfast meeting. Papin is one of two declared candidates for the provincial nomination in Burlington.
Hudak didn’t speak for very long and there was nothing trenchant in the remarks he made. The Smart Meters (the Dalton McGuinty initiative to get people to use hydro power during off peak times) have to go and the LIN’s (Local Health Integration Networks) will get booted out of existence even faster if Hudak can form a government next October.
Hudak told his audience that he saw great hope for Conservatives federally based on the way he saw the election going. Mile Wallace, the federal MP for Burlington and up for election against a young Liberal doing much better than many expected, sure hopes Hudak is right.
And just to show that Hudak was a straight up kind of guy he announced that he would be out canvassing with Mike Wallace and with Ted Chudleigh and meeting with some of Burlington’s business leaders.
A good friend of mine Jim Barnett called me an hour or so ago about the article you wrote about my delegation before Council on Monday night. I certainly understand your point of view but don’t agree with it.
Do you know that Council took away from all non union staff their annual cost of living increase for 2011.(Perhaps you should have researched and included that fact in your article) This was the backdrop to my comment on pay. Could you imagine them taking an increase and all staff being asked to forego the same increase? What Council did was take the lead which was in my opinion the right thing to do under the circumstances.
The article on Joe Lamb’s delegation to city hall is here.
By the way I enjoy your website. I have added it to my favourites.
BURLINGTON, ON April 14, 2011 – The Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition (SEHC) will be serving Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak a reminder for breakfast at the Burlington Chamber of Commerce’s morning meeting this Friday. The SEHC is protesting Hudak’s promise to build the Niagara to GTA Highway (previously called the Mid-Peninsula Highway) from Fort Erie to North Burlington if elected Premier. Demonstrators will let him know that the highway is not wanted.
Hudak is attending a breakfast meeting for the Burlington Chamber of Commerce:
Friday, April 15, 2011
Protesters to attend from 7:15AM to 8:00AM
Breakfast to be served at 8:00AM
Waterfront Hotel
2020 Lakeshore Road, Burlington, Ontario (at the foot of Brant St. at Lakeshore Rd.)
The Coalition is committed to ensuring there is no new highway ripped through the Niagara Escarpment, a national treasure and UNESCO reserve. They also want to highlight the importance of this issue for all Ontario taxpayers. “It may not be your backyard – but it’s your back pocket,” said Susan McMaster, Co-Chair of COPE. “Hudak is planning to spend billions of dollars for a highway that isn’t needed. That’s a cost we’ll all bear.”
That arrow is where they bureaucrats and planners wanted to ram a road through. And that battle isn’t over yet.
The highway got to be called the Green Arrow when it appeared on a provincial government map last October to the surprise of just about everyone. The community pulled together quite quickly with a voice that was loud enough to have the provincial government put a hold on the idea which at the time they said was just a concept.
For Hudak this issue has become the “apple of his eye” because he thinks he can earn more votes promoting the highway than we would if he were to oppose it. The Coalition which was conceived when Burlington Councillors Blair Lancaster and John Taylor held a public meting that saw more than 800 people in the Mainway Arena. Out of that came a list of people and organizations that almost immediately had signs out on the back roads of northern Burlington and then hours of time in meeting rooms creating an organization that pulled together a dozen different community groups with support from both the Region and the city.
Hudak is now up against a very well organized Coalition that has exceptionally sound support from the city of Burlington. While the candidates for the Burlington provincial seat are quite due to the federal election – you can bet the mortgage money that none of them will be with Hudak Friday morning. Support for the Green Arrow isn’t going to pull in votes in this city.
Signs like this were out on the back roads of Burlington days after the Coalition was formed.
While keeping the pressure on Hudak The Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition people have not forgotten what the provincial government is doing. In March 2011 the Ministry of Transportation released the latest report on the status of the project. Public comment must be submitted by June 6, 2011. The report includes optimizing existing road networks, a new highway from Fort Erie to Welland and continued study on a highway commencing at the 403 in Ancaster and cutting through Flamborough on the way to toll highway 407 in North Burlington.
The coalition maintains that this would irreparably damage Niagara Escarpment, agricultural land and eco-systems along the way. The Coalition is currently canvassing Federal election candidates on their position on a National Transport Policy and intends to publish the results. Members believe this is needed to ensure rail transport options are given due consideration in the Niagara GTA project as well as overall sustainable transport planning.
The local provincial candidates are being canvassed as well for their views on the highway.
BURLINGTON, ON April 13, 2011 – This is supposed to be the election that is going to be dominated by social media. Everyone is tweeting or posting a message to their Facebook page and this is all supposed to keep us in the loop and know, to the last second, what’s going on. Ok, if you say so – I suppose.
All that ability to communicate with us is a step beyond the telemarketers interrupting dinner – but its happening so I guess we have to live with it. Right?
It isn’t all doom and gloom though – there are some funny things going on. The Raging Grannies have done a song that is available on You Tube. And Eric Williams of Hamilton has created a You Tube section with a feature that is titled: It’s over Steve!
The theme is of women who are talking to some man in their life and telling him that the relationship is over. Women will identify with this one – and some of it is really quite funny.
Williams’ take is asking women who have a camera attached to their computer to do a little piece on how they would end a relationship – in this case with Stephen Harper.
“They are just regular everyday Canadian women. Strangers I recruited off the street after we setup our shot. Basically I said, stare into the camera and break up with Steve in 60 seconds or less, just like you have before, or have seen in movies. The girls did their own acting.” And now they are getting their 15 minutes of fame.
Williams is a communications student at McMaster University where he is doing two undergrad degrees and would like to see his effort go “viral” which in the world of the techies is like taking down all ten pins with one bowling ball – three times in a row. Big stuff.
Williams says he “is not affiliated with any political party and hasn’t received funding from anyone. We have big plans for future episodes to be released this week and throughout the election.
“The goal”, says Williams, “is to boost the female turnout on election day. I’d like to see their turnout be at least 10% higher than the last election. Women are awesome at social networking and I think it’s gonna work.”
“We are having a great time making these! And adds: What an age we live in, eh? Can’t get much more Canadian than that. McLuhan would call it cool!.
You get viral when people see the item and pass it along to their friends – some of these things spread around the world in a matter of hours. Sort of like watching a “wave” at a hockey game.
The “It’s over Steve! Gets a little political at the end – we apologize for that. We pass it on in the spirit of good fun. If you happen to come across something on Ignatieff or Duceppe or Layton in a similar vein – pass them along. We need something to take for the assault on our senses during election campaigns.
BURLINGTON, ON April 13, 2011 Thousands of Canadians tuned into the federal election debate on television but I’m betting most of them didn’t stay for the full two hours. It got kinda boring, no it got very boring at times. Was there a winner? Yeah – Jack Layton actually won the debate – but he hasn’t a hope in Hades of winning the election and his health is such that he probably would not be able to finish the term were he to win.
But he did get off some of the best lines. Stephen Harper was the same, empty, bloodless person he has always been. The man just doesn’t emit any sense of empathy. Michael Ignatieff was OK – but if the sense that he needed a knockout punch to win – then he didn’t win because there was no knockout punch.
Gilles Duceppe was in there plugging away for Quebec’s interests. Odd that he could be part of the debate but the Greens were not given a place at the table. Elizabeth May is at least lively, focused and good at going for the juggler. However, five candidates would have been too many. Why does Duceppe take part in a debate for English Canadians – shouldn’t he be limited to just the French debate?
I watched the debate at two different locations – the Mike Wallace Conservative campaign office and at the Alyssa Brierley Liberal campaign office. Mike had the larger crowd – maybe 15% larger. He was also serving beer and wine. And the usual suspects were at his event. The Mike crowd were quite boisterous and guffawed like fans in a tavern watching a hockey game.
When Jack Layton sucker punched Ignatieff over his House of Commons attendance record one voice in the Wallace crowd hollered out: “Thanks for that Jack.” To the Wallace crowd it was all great sport and they felt their guy was more than holding his own. Mike himself was in fine form.
Try as Ignatieff might he was never able to make the point that the election was taking place because the government had been found in contempt of the House of Commons. That is a big deal and it will be part of the Harper legacy. Harper wouldn’t see it that way – he saw it all as “bickering” between political parties that was wasting everyone’s time – especially his.
It was interesting to note that while the two local campaign managers were roughly the same age and appeared to me to be good at what they do – the Liberal crowd was younger and much more engaged. The Wallace crowd was definitely older and reminded me of the people that were at one of the early Cam Jackson campaign for Mayor events. You didn’t get the sense that they were as aware or “with it” as the Liberal crowd.
The Liberals were quieter than the Tory’s. Alyssa Brierley was “tweeting” throughout the debate. There was the sense at the Liberal event that Iggy did OK – he didn’t make any monumental goofs, and he was certainly miles ahead of poor Stephane Dion. Ignatieff had been well briefed and knew his file and at times the passion in the man did come through but never with the vigor that was needed.
While election signs are not a particularly reliable measure of support for a candidate, there appear to be more of the red ones than the blue ones out there and a lot of the blue ones appear to be on commercial property rather than homes of people who can fill in a ballot. There are some of the orange ones and I’ve seen a few of the green ones as well.
Harper did more than hold his own. He was standing there taking on all comers and while the answers were acceptable, other than his explanation that there was no money to be saved on the new fighter jets he planned on buying – as he said they wouldn’t be spending a dime for another five years.
Did the country trust Harper anymore after the debate than they did before? I don’t think so – but the country is getting used to the guy. Will he get the majority he needs? Really hard to tell. Will there be a higher voter turn out ? Well make sure you vote and drag your neighbours along.
Will we end up with another minority? That could happen. My sense is that we will end up with another minority government – who will lead that government and will it have the confidence of the House? Big questions. But hey, we Canadians learned what “prorogation of the House” is all about so we can handle a confidence matter.
We’ve done all right with the last two minority governments. If Harper does not win a majority he’s toast and if Ignatieff does not form at least a minority, he too will be toast. And Layton’s health is such that this is probably his last election. So, we could see all three men off the federal stage 18 months from now. Duceppe? Oh he will still be there – he gets great deals for Quebec.
BURLINGTON, ON April 28, 2011 – Wow! Can these people every spend money. I lost track of just how many millions the four candidates for the federal seat of Burlington said they would spend on our behalf. A couple of time they even mentioned billions. They tossed off the numbers the way kids do when you’re teaching them how to play Monopoly.
