By Gazette Staff

July 24th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

With the extreme heat we have experienced today – rain was to be expected.

Conservation Halton advises that Environment Canada has issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch across our jurisdiction for this evening.

Torrential rainfall with amounts upwards of 50 mm are possible. Although soil conditions are dry locally, intense downpours may produce significant localized runoff.

Heavy rain will increase water flow in creeks. Keep children away from the creeks.

Widespread flooding is not anticipated, however, fast flowing water and flooding of low-lying areas, natural floodplains, and areas with poor drainage may be expected.

Conservation Halton is asking all residents and children to keep a safe distance from all watercourses and structures such as bridges, culverts, and dams. Elevated water levels, fast flowing water, and slippery conditions along stream banks continue to make these locations extremely dangerous. Please alert children in your care of these imminent dangers.

 Conservation Halton will continue to monitor stream and weather conditions and will issue an update to this Watershed Conditions Statement – Flood Outlook message as conditions warrant.

This Watershed Conditions Statement – Flood Outlook will be in effect through Friday July 25, 2025.

By Pepper Parr

July 23^rd, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

The dispute between Millcroft residents and Millcroft Golf course over what would/could be done with land that was still a golf course but threatened with development in the future was xxx.

The residents lost an attempt to stop the development at the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).  There were conditions attached to the OLT decision.

The residents were of the opinion that development couldn’t proceed until the conditions were met.  The developer didn’t see it that way and moved in with equipment to cut down dozens of trees.

Trees were taken down with little in the way of notice to the residents.

When the residents asked for an MZO) (Ministerial Zoning Order) the Minister of Municipal Affairs instead directed the Office of the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator (OPLDF) to step in and see if a solution could be found.

The Office of the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator (OPLDF) was established in 2005 to help resolve cross-cutting planning and development issues arising out of implementation of provincial policies. Since then, the role of the office has grown to encompass a broader range of projects and requests for its services. The OPLDF is classified as an Advisory Agency under the Agencies and Appointment Directives who reports to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

The Office of the Provincial Land and Development Facilitator provides services, including:

impartial mediation

facilitation

negotiation

These services help individuals, businesses and municipalities resolve issues about:

growth management

land use and infrastructure planning

environmental protection related to land and development

streamline approvals to support provincial surplus lands project to facilitate housing

The office will ensure they consider the following as part of the issues resolution:

Environmental objectives were seen as prime concerns for residents -but were ignored by the developer according to residents.

provincial land use policy

financial interests

environmental objectives

The facilitator may also act as a negotiator on behalf of the Government of Ontario on issues dealing with provincial:

land, assets, and interests.

Equipment to cut down trees arrived – unannounced.

How they prioritize requests

When the OPLDF receives a request for facilitation services, the office looks for at least one of the following criteria:

it relates to ongoing, large-scale land use, planning or development application

it relates to infrastructure or environmental issues that are overarching in nature and may cross municipal boundaries or watersheds

it falls under the mandate(s) of two or more provincial ministries or agencies

it involves the implementation of relevant provincial legislation, plans and policies

Given that the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing directed the ODLPF to take on the case and that the following determine a time line:

nature and time constraints of the issue

interests of the various parties, including those of the province

any outstanding legal matters, including tribunal hearings or active litigation

one would think they would be high on the list of the cases they take on.

We will dig around a bit and learn more about just how the OPLPF goes about their work.

By Pepper Parr

July 23^rd, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Kirk Robinson,  director of Millcroft Against Bad Development, known as MAD, delegated at City Council last week saying:

“On behalf of MAD, I would like to thank Council for your continued support throughout our five and a half year journey to stop the development of the Millcroft Golf course lands. We have asked for the mayor’s assistance many times during this journey, and we always receive a timely response. Mayor Meed Ward recently gave a shout-out to Matt on CHCH TV,  recognizing our spirit and our efforts to take the fight directly to the Premier, asking him to step in and save our green space.

It was seen as a brilliant development that had a golf course and a housing development side by side with a stormwater drainage system that prevented flooding. It worked very well until the owners of the golf course decided to make it a smaller course and the the land for 98 new homes.

Kirk Robinson

“We also seem to have our Councillor, Angelo Betivegna on speed dial. We can always count on Angelo to answer our questions and share his knowledge. Most recently, on a trip to Ottawa, he met with our representatives of Canada’s Residents Group on our behalf to learn more about their experiences fighting the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).

Fencing in place to protect trees.

“We know that our mayor and Angelo have many other projects and issues to address, but they always find time to listen and address our concerns. Thank you for that. MAD now has over 18,000 supporters, and that number grows each day. We attribute this growth to the success of our social media outreach as well as broadcast and press coverage. We work hard to educate the public about the issues and keep them updated on our progress. This growing support reinforces the need to save our green space, respect the 40 year old ecosystem and its wildlife, and avoid increasing the risk of flooding by building on floodplains. Our social media coverage has exploded in the last 10 weeks since our rally.  We now average over a million daily views.

“We have been featured on CHCH seven times in the past 10 weeks. The Hamilton Spectator gave our story front page coverage on July 4, running it over a two day period due to high public interest.

“Burlington residents are upset that even though council unanimously voted against the development, the developer is still able to appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal. Residents cannot understand how elected municipal officials can be overruled by unelected OLT appointees.  The fight to save green space in Millcroft has united Burlington residents who have rallied behind both MAD and City Council to save our green space. We commend council for unanimously passing a request for a second MZO (Municipal Zoning Order) on the balance of the property. As advocates for the protection of green space, MAD strongly encourages council to express its willingness to participate in the facilitation process proposed by the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

“This direction provides important clarity to all parties and reinforces the city’s clear and consistent position that preserving all remaining green space is the priority. This step demonstrates Council’s proactive leadership and commitment to environmental stewardship. MAD  hopes the Facilitation process will ultimately support the protection of these lands, and that early action by council will help set the tone for meaningful and focused dialogue. We hope the premier will listen to the people, because municipalities know best. MAD recently filmed two cameos, one with Burlington, Citizen of the Year, and Order of Canada recipient, Ron Foxcroft.

I will close with quotes from Ron Foxcroft who states “this development is a very serious, tragic development”  As chair of the 2014 flood relief campaign, Foxcroft knows all about flooding. He added: “ the city cannot afford to lose more green space” , and urged us to blow the whistle on this development.

Kirk Robinson, MAD Chair

Robinson had a question from Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan:

Thank you, Kirk. It’s always great to hear from you, and thank you for all your work you’ve done supporting Millcroft, particularly through the OLT process. I know you’re part of a larger organization, and some folks are here as well. So thank you for being here. You nearly answered my question through your remarks, which is great. What do you hope to get from the facilitator for the community? What do you hope will happen?

Robinson: Well we’re hoping, obviously, that we shut down the second part of the development that the developer has planned. I think my wife is present there; she could address those questions even better.

Sonya, Robinson’s wife was in Council Chamber while he delegated virtually.

Sonya: We’re hoping to save green space throughout all of Millcroft. We’re still  holding up that we’re going to win phase one. We have reached out separately to the Premier on our own initiative, and we were actually hearing some good things. So, you know what? Hoping to save phase one and phase two. Don’t know if that answers your question more or less, so just to, just to follow up on that.

Sonia: The goal is, as I think Kirk mentioned, is to have no more development on the Millcroft lands. We want it preserved.

Nisan: My second question is around the facilitator; have you been involved with them at all? And when did you first learn about the facilitation option?

Robinson: We’ve been working with our MPP  Effie J. Triantafilopoulosie for four and a half years. MAD reached out to her and asked her for her opinion, and so we worked back and forth. We asked her to go to Minister Rob Flack on our behalf and to the Premier as well. She was the one who first notified us of this, apparently, after many discussions

Councillor Bentivegna: I just have one question for now, Kirk, I’m not sure if you can answer it, or one of your directors who are present there. You mentioned Kanata, an Ottawa area community  you have been working with.  Can you tell us what the connection is and why it was important to touch base with them?

Sonia: I’ll speak to that, because I do communications for MAD  We reached out to the group about five years ago when this all started to basically learn from them. Through the five years, we’ve been going back and forth with them. One of their representatives reached out to us about two or three months ago, asking for a meeting with us. When Angelo attended an FCM meeting in Ottawa we asked if he would meet with them  on our behalf; find out what you can – that’s kind of how, but we’ve been going back and forth with them.

Councillor Nissan: Just one more question for either of you.  Could you tell us more about the independent initiative that you mentioned, that Millcroft Against Development is working on with the Premier.

Robinson:  I don’t know that we can go into all of that. We’ve have representatives conversing with the Premier, so we’re doing our best in that regard. But I don’t know that we can go into all the details on that yet.

Lisa Kearns: invites Robinson to copy all of council at any time.

Councillor Kerns:   In light of that last question, can you just maybe highlight for us how many dialogues are happening at once? What I’m hearing is there’s a mayor and Ward councillor to Mad, Mad to the Premier, MAD to Effie J. Triantafilopoulos,  Effie J. Triantafilopoulos to the ward councillor and Mayor, staff to provincial staff. Am I missing any?  That’s my question.

I think things are going well, and we’re still hoping that the first part of the development is ceased as well.

Robinson:  Well, I think after fighting for five and a half years to save this golf course, there’s been so many conversations with so many people, and obviously we’re residents just trying to do the right thing and communicate with the right people and get the job done, which is obviously what the residents of Burlington are hoping for, right so I don’t know that I would have, you know, the chain of command, or, you know, of all those different conversations, I’m sorry, but I think things are going well, and we’re still hoping that the first part of the development is ceased as well.

Kearns: I appreciate that and invite you to copy in all of council at any time.

By Pepper Parr

July 22nd, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

The Ontario government has proposed removing 645 acres of the beaches and an island in Ontario’s most-visited Provincial Park and turning them over to development. This represents almost one third of Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. The proposal also makes it easier and faster for the government to remove lands or entire parks across the province. This will be done by changing the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act which currently requires a study, report, and agreement of the members of the Ontario Legislature before lands totalling more than 1% of a park area can be removed or sold. The proposal aims to remove this portion of the Act.

“Provincial Parks belong to the people of Ontario and are meant to be protected forever. It is appalling that the current government is trying to give away big parts of our most popular park and make it easy to give more park land away in the future” said Tim Gray, Executive Director of Environmental Defence. “These beachfront lands on Georgian Bay are worth millions of dollars and owned by the people of Ontario. They should never be a gift to well-connected developers”.

Hassaan Basit at his last Burlington Council meeting.

Our current Chief Administrative Officer, Hassaan Basit moving along to the provincial government to handle conservation matters.

When we checked to make sure we had the title correctly, we were surprised to learn that Basit is not only the Chief Conservation Executive but he is also a Deputy Minister and that the appointment is for a three-year period,

Pursuant to the prerogative of His Majesty The King in Right of Ontario to appoint persons to serve His Majesty’s Government of Ontario in the discharge of its executive obligations and responsibilities.   Hassaan Basit be appointed Deputy Minister and Chief Conservation Executive, Cabinet Office, effective August 4, 2025, to serve at the pleasure of the Lieutenant Governor in Council for a period not exceeding three years from the effective date of this appointment.

The job comes with some interesting perks.   A performance bonus that can reach as high as 26% for DM1 levels and a car with a driver.  No, not every deputy minister is guaranteed a driver. While some deputy ministers are provided with vehicles and drivers as part of their role, it is not a universal perk for all deputy ministers.

Wasaga Beach Provincial Park

By Pepper Parr

July 22^nd, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

OPINION

Calderbank: “Council and the City have the power to fix this.”

In an opinion piece yesterday, Kimberly Calderbank, the volunteer president of Burlington Aquatic Devilrays (BAD), said: “Council and the City have the power to fix this.”

BAD also has the power to fix this.

They have engaged legal counsel to represent them should this matter get to a Courtroom.

This is the time to get the matter before a judge.  First, by asking for an injunction which would stop the city from doing anything, not that they have done all that much so far.

And then asking a Superior Court Judge to hold an expedited Judicial Review of just what took place – and just where the unfairness lies.

Calderbank is quite right – the time needed to set up programs for the fall is slipping away.

Swimmers don’t know which club they are going to be members of.

Certainly not a Burlington Swimming Club.

Golden Horseshoe Aquatic Club (GHAC) have said on numerous occasions that they are not a Hamilton Club.  Perhaps not, but they are certainly not a Burlington swimming Club.

While incorporated as a not-for-profit club, the GHAC  business model is to acquire as much pool time wherever they can and to charge fees that exceed anything asked for by BAD.

Council is not scheduled to meet again until mid-August.  They can meet at the call of the Mayor, which Meed Ward has done in the past.  We understand that she needed a nudge from a member of Council to make the decision to call a Special Meeting of Council.

The seven members of the current Council were elected to represent the people of Burlington.  If they won’t get on with resolving this issue, then put it before someone who can resolve it.

Some say that pool time should be available to anyone. On what basis would that decision be made?

On numerous occasions, the city will put out a call to artists to provide their work, which the city will display.  On occasion, and not just a few, the call is limited to Burlington residents only.

Burlington swimming pools were built for the residents of Burlington.

Background:

Related opinion piece

The timeline

By Pepper Parr

July 21^st, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

At the last City Council meeting until mid-August, by which time current Chief Administrative Officer Hasssaan Basit will have begun his new job with the province he spoke about what he believes he has achieved in the 16 months her served.

Thank you. I wasn’t going to make my traditional statement, and I was asking the person who sits to my right, my lawyer, the city’s lawyer, and he said, “there’s no protocol. You do what you want.”  So I appreciate the kind note and the kind words, Mayor. And I think I will keep it very brief. I spoke to all of you last week.

Hassaan Basit at his last council meeting.

It’s been an absolute pleasure to be here,  to work with those of you I’ve known for many years, such as yourself Mayor, and get to work closely with others that I’ve known.  You know, I’ve worked in Burlington for the past 21 years and and the last 16  months, however long it’s been, it’s been an honour to work right here at City Hall. We have made a lot of progress. We have made a lot of changes. We’ve collaborated on achieving almost all of them. It has not just been down to me.

I’m very proud of leaving you with a very talented group of public servants who work at the City of Burlington, not just at the executive leadership team. I have the unique opportunity, you know, to hire many of them, most of them actually.   I looked for people who had leadership capabilities, who could make decisions, who could unlock problems, we could identify circular processes and put a stop to them, inspire people to serve our community. And that’s the team I have around me, and that’s the team that the city has. It’s been only a few months since the last pieces of that team came together, and so you know, they’re going to continue to serve you well.

The staff who work at the City of Burlington are second to none. They really are.   They know what business they’re in, and that’s to serve the community, they require the space and the resources and the leadership and the tools to be able to do that, as long as council and the leadership team continues to support them, the sky’s the limit in terms of what we can do for the residents of this city.

And lastly, to everybody on council, I appreciated all our interactions, one on one, some private, some public, always really good, great ideas. And lastly, to you, Mayor, as you said, I’ve worked with you for many, many years in many capacities, for both of us, actually.

It’s been a real pleasure to work shoulder and shoulder over the past little while.  I’m not going far. It’s a great opportunity to go do something at a larger scale in an area that is near and dear to my heart, The  Burlington perspective will be front of mind, you know, as as I go and take that responsibility on.

To my senior team, thank you so much for putting up with everything over the past year and a bit.

To the staff at the City of Burlington, I will miss them the most. So with that, thank you so much.

By Kimberly Calderbank

July 21st, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

We hear the phrase “in good faith” often these days.

It’s used by lawyers, officials, and press releases—meant to assure us that decisions are being made with honesty, fairness, and transparency.

But standing here on July 21st, watching our club, our families, and our 40-year grassroots legacy hang in limbo, I can’t help but ask: what does “good faith” really mean, if it’s not backed by action?

The Burlington Aquatic Devilrays (BAD) is a Tier 1 competitive swim club and a community-built legacy. We’ve developed Olympians, taught thousands of children to swim, and made a significant contribution to Burlington’s reputation as a city that supports youth sports.

We entered the City of Burlington’s pool allocation RFP process in good faith. We submitted all required documents. In fact, we went above and beyond, providing a Certificate of Status and confirmation of our non-profit standing—standard and acceptable proof in the Province of Ontario.

And yet, our proposal was rejected.

Why?

Because we didn’t submit a “Current and Valid Certificate of Incorporation”—a document that does not exist in Ontario, and certainly wouldn’t still be current after 40+ years.

Here’s the hardest part: the City knew this.

In the Adult RFP, also issued this year, the City explicitly acknowledged in the addendum question section that a “Current and Valid Certificate of Incorporation” does not exist in Ontario and instructed applicants to provide alternative documentation instead.

That same clarity was not provided in the Youth RFP.

Here’s what’s important to note:

• GHAC applied to both the Adult and Youth RFPs, meaning they received the correct information about the document requirements through the Adult process.
• Burlington Masters applied only to the Adult RFP, and therefore also received the corrected criteria.
• There were only three applicants total across both RFPs.
• Of those, two had access to the updated guidance on documentation—yet it was not shared with all applicants.

Why wasn’t that critical information communicated to everyone?

Especially when it affected a legacy club’s eligibility?

In contrast, GHAC was given until September 1st to meet residency requirements. The City even changed the contract language to accommodate them.

Meanwhile, the City issued press statements calling our advocacy efforts “misinformation.” But everything we’ve shared—every fact, every timeline—has been truthful. We’ve been transparent from the start. We’ve followed the process. We’ve trusted in the system.

And now? We’re still waiting. We’re still asking for the most basic information:

How many hours are we getting so we can plan and move forward?

Summer is slipping away. Swimmers, parents, and coaches remain in limbo. We want to communicate a plan to our community—but we need the information to do so.

This is about more than BAD.

This is about every youth organization that partners with the City in good faith, and trusts that their long-term investment in Burlington will be respected.

It’s about ensuring that municipal policies are followed, not bent or selectively applied.

The City of Burlington’s own Recreation Facility Space Allocation Procedure outlines exactly how decisions like this should be made. It states that:

• Historical use is a core criterion in space allocation decisions.
• Qualified Program Providers are to be allocated core hours each season based on prior usage and community need.
• New and emerging organizations should only be approved if they fill a gap—not if they duplicate services already provided.
• Groups must demonstrate 80% residency and be in-good-standing status.

BAD checks every one of these boxes.

We have a 40-year history. We meet residency requirements. We are in good standing.  We are the very definition of a Qualified Program Provider.

By the City’s own policy, we should not be losing our core hours to a non-local club duplicating existing services.

This was not a one-off documentation issue. It was a fundamental breakdown of the City’s own allocation process.

We’ve asked for one thing:

A fair, just, and transparent path forward.

We are still waiting.

Council and the City have the power to fix this.

They have the power to choose fairness over bureaucracy.

To honour legacy over loopholes.

To live up to the very principles they put in writing.

If “good faith” means anything at all—now is the time to prove it.

Kimberly Calderbank is the Volunteer President, Burlington Aquatic Devilrays