 By Staff
February 7th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
After meeting with the nation’s provincial leaders and the prime minister on Jan. 15, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that it was time to put Canada first, even ahead of provincial interests, in dealing with tariff threats from American President Donald Trump. By Jan. 29 the province had begun an election campaign, after Ford announced an early call in order to garner a stronger mandate over the next four years.
 Premier Doug Ford: Has he taken a political risk that he might regret? New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds residents not sold on the timing or motivation of the election. Four-in-five Ontario residents (78%) – and in fact three-in-five who currently say they’ll support Ford’s party – say that this election call was made to serve Ford’s interest and not those of the province. Seven-in-10 (68%) characterize the election as “unnecessary”.
Continue reading Four-in-five Ontario residents say this election call was made to serve Ford’s interest
 By Staff
February 6th.2-25
BURLINGTON, ON
After careful consideration, the Burlington Teen Tour Band will not be travelling to Myrtle Beach to perform in the Myrtle Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
 By Staff
February 6th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
Today, Mayor Meed Ward issued a Mayoral Direction focused on supporting Canadian businesses, workers, and the broader Burlington community, aligning with provincial and federal efforts to bolster national economic resilience.
The Mayoral Direction issues the following directions to staff:
Continue reading Mayor Meed Ward: We have to Stand Up for Canadian Businesses and Burlington’s Future
By Staff
February 6th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Stretched to the limit: hospital union will be lining up gurneys outside Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington at 1:00 pm today to draw attention to the healthcare crisis
The province is in the midst of a provincial election that is to take place on February 27th.
Every self-interest group is struggling to get its story out while the political parties get close to reckless on how they would spend public money.
The hospital unions are raising concerns about access to care due to growing deficits across the hospital sector. Based on latest data, hospitals in Ontario faced a cumulative shortfall of $800 million in the first half of 2024-25.
 Joseph Brant Hospital operated at 94.2% capacity, well above the 85 per cent recommended maximum bed occupancy level. At Joseph Brant Hospital the shortfall was $1.8 million. The union warns that cutbacks are already happening at numerous hospitals, including Burlington, as they buckle under the weight of growing patient volumes and insufficient funding; pointing out that per-person hospital funding in Ontario is the lowest in Canada and that we have the fewest beds and hospital staff to population.
In the first half of 2024-25, Joseph Brant Hospital operated at 94.2% capacity, well above the 85 per cent recommended maximum bed occupancy level. According to analysis by OCHU-CUPE, Joseph Brant must add 32 beds to achieve safe occupancy levels.
Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) says it is not surprising to witness a record increase in hospital overcrowding. About 2,000 patients every day receive care on stretchers in unconventional spaces such as hallways and storage closets, an increase of 125 per cent since June 2018 when Ford got elected on the promise to end hallway health care.
Hurley says hospital overcrowding compromises patient and staff safety, causing delays in admitting patients, higher risk of nosocomial infections, and heavier workloads. Moreover, it robs patients of dignity as they are treated out in hallways without privacy.“There were 250,000 people on wait lists for surgeries last year,” Hurley says. “2,000 are on stretchers today, begging for a bed. Palliative patients die at home without painkillers. As a province, we must do so much better for our citizens.”“The next government must implement real solutions”
The union recommends the following solutions to address the healthcare crisis:
 Hospital union will take empty gurneys out onto Lakeshore Road to demonstrate how bad things are at the Joseph Brant Hospital. Improve hospital capacity to match the needs of an aging and growing population, by adding staffed hospital beds.
Address the staffing crisis by improving compensation and working conditions, and providing incentives such as free tuition to students in nursing and PSW programs
End private sector delivery of acute, long-term care and community health services
Ban agency nurses to reduce staffing costs, and invest that money in improving compensation and working conditions for in-house workers
Improving staffing in LTC to meet the 4-hours of daily care benchmark and expand capacity to reduce waitlists
End contracting out of services across health care, and run LTC and home care on a public, not-for-profit basis
Expand the use of nurse practitioners to lead primary care clinics.
Fast Facts:
- 1,860 people on stretchers in hospital hallways, up from 826 in June 2018 when the Premier promised to end hallway medicine.
- 2.5 million citizens without a family doctor
- Palliative homecare patients dying without painkillers and medical supplies
- 250,000 people waiting for surgeries
- Nearly 50,000 people waiting for long-term care
- Constant ER closures in small towns.
By Pepper Parr
February 6th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The properties bounded by James, Martha Lake Shore Road, and Pearle provide a snapshot of what is taking place in the downtown core.
In the picture below there is the Mattamy development on the corner of James and Martha. In the background, on the left is the ADI Nautique, and to the right the Beausejour.
South of the ADI and Beausoleil developments, in the football space between Lakeshore Road and Old Lakeshore, thereat are four skyscraper-level developments that are in various stages of development.
 Every square foot of the property inside the football has a development plan that is somewhere between the Planning Department, the OLT, and maybe even a building permit. The people who live north of Upper Middle Road have, for the most part, little in the way of understanding how the city is changing – downtown for them is Sound of Music, Ribfest and events that get them out to Spencer Smith Park which is now past capacity.
The small stretch of Martha, on the east side of the street just south of where James turns into New Street there is a patch of land that will see buildings that are in the six to eight-storey range.
Interesting how development has changed the downtown core and the Save the Waterfront group that Marianne Meed Ward used to get herself elected to Council in 2010 has managed to save the waterfront – if you can see it.
 The sales sign on the Nautique doesn’t represent the reality that most people deal with when looking at condo space.
In the beginning – when Rick Goldring was Mayor the then Waterfront Advisory Committee invited former Mayor David Crombie out to talk to the group. At the time Crombie urged the community to invite architects to come up with some ideas on what could be done with the football properties. At that time no one had begun to consolidate the 18+ lots.
That idea didn’t find any traction – what you see rising out of the five-level underground garages is what Burlington is going to look like well into the next century.
Pity
By TOM PARKIN
February 5th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Many school principals say lack of available teachers is a daily problem and many have had to tell a special needs student they can’t come to school.
In 2024, 46 percent of Ontario elementary school principals and 39 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of teachers every week, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 Ontario school principals.
And it’s a daily problem at 24 percent of elementary schools and 35 percent of secondary schools, principals say.
Ontario universities are graduating about half the number of teachers as a decade ago, and the low number of available teachers is making it hard to ensure classrooms are staffed, principals report.
Teachers not available when principals needs to fill gaps
Starting in September 2015 the Ontario Liberal government expanded the teacher training program to two years from one year and cut admissions by half.
Between 2008 and 2011, before the change, there were 9,100 newly licensed teachers in an average year, according to the Transitions to Teaching report from the Ontario College of Teachers. That’s dropped to just 4,671 on average between 2019 and 2022.
The result has been a teacher shortage. In 2014, 34 percent of newly-licenced teachers were not full-time employed as a teacher in their first year. That number has dropped to just four percent in 2022, leaving principals in many areas unable to find teachers and fill gaps.
The annual report of principals shows that 42 percent of elementary principals and 46 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of educational assistants every day.
Principals telling special needs students to not come to school
In 2018, 58 percent of elementary principals and 48 percent of secondary school principals had to tell special needs students to not come to school for the day. In 2024 it was 63 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
In 54 percent of cases, the principal told the special needs student to not come to school because necessary support was not available.
In Ontario, 16 percent of elementary and 28 percent of secondary students are supposed to receive some form of special education support, a proportion that has remained relatively steady over the last decade
Majority of schools in northern Ontario have no access to a school psychologist
In 2017, principals reported that 13 percent of elementary schools and 16 percent of secondary schools had no access to a school psychologist, either in-school or on-call. In 2024, that number has increased to 24 percent and 29 percent, respectively.
And the problem of no access to school psychologists is heavily geographically weighted.
Principals reported that only seven percent of schools in the Greater Toronto Area didn’t have access to a school psychologist. But there was no access for 20 percent of schools in southwest Ontario, 30 percent in eastern, 36 percent in central, and 59 percent in northern Ontario schools.
By Staff
February 5th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
It has been a whirlwind past week in Canada-U.S. relations, after announced tariffs on Canadian goods entering America – set to take effect on Tuesday – were delayed 30 days. This, after a call between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump, where Trump claimed victory but by many accounts received little.
 Continue reading Pride in Canada rebounds in face of Trump threat
By Staff
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a 10 percent levy against China and pressing a 30-day pause on proposed tariffs to Canada and Mexico, Martin Danahay reflects on the dangerous historical outcomes of past trade wars.
The Professor of English Language and Literature at Brock University specifically notes that the First Opium War, fought between China and the British Empire from 1839-1842, began as a trade imbalance.
 The Opium Ward were fierce and bloody. “When China blocked the British opium trade, British traders successfully lobbied their government to attack China, ultimately forcing the removal of the trade blockade through military action,” he says.
Danahay notes that while the current situation between the U.S. and Mexico/Canada is a reversal of that situation — imposing levies on imported goods to force action on the flow of illegal fentanyl into the U.S. from its two neighbouring countries — the use of tariffs and “belligerent” rhetoric can easily transition into military conflict.
Another notable example, Danahay says, are the British trade restrictions imposed on American ships during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s.
 During the Napoleon War, American seamen were conscripted to serve aboard Napoleons’ ships – much of this led to the War of 1812 “Along with forced conscription of American sailors into the British Navy, the trade restrictions led to the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States,” he says.
Trump’s use of trade war tactics forcing concessions from Mexico and Canada is especially concerning, Danahay says, since U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly shared that military force is still an option against Mexico.
While he says it is unlikely the U.S. will invade Mexico (or Canada), it is certainly possible that an invasion of a smaller country could result from a propensity to use trade wars and violent rhetoric as the basis for foreign relations.
Danahay says that Panama, in particular, seems vulnerable as various U.S. officials (including President Trump) have claimed that China is operating the Panama Canal, a key route in global trade.
“President Trump has also imposed tariffs on China ostensibly because of the production of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, which is shipped to Mexico, processed and then smuggled into the U.S., where there is a widespread crisis of addiction to the synthetic opioid,” he says. “President Trump has openly expressed a desire to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, showing an imperialist mindset that is reminiscent of the British Empire.
While many are of the opinion that Trump is unlikely to use military force, history shows that a combination of a trade war and military rhetoric can easily become the basis for war.”
 By Ray Rivers
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Donald Trump: Look carefully – he blinked. Trump bluffed and then he blinked after his bluff was called. Hardly the lame duck everyone thought he’d be, Justin Trudeau played his cards well in Mr. Trump’s game of chicken. Our PM brought all interests in the country together despite Trump’s intention to tear us apart by a lower tariff rate (10%) given to primarily the oil producing provinces.
Alberta and Saskatchewan premiers had argued that Canada should just lie down and take it. But Trudeau stood firm and showed Mr. Trump that we can return tough love back. In the end the PM was right – standing up for Canada was the right thing to do. Though he’ll be history as PM in a matter of weeks, history will likely record this as Trudeau’s finest moment.
It wasn’t just him though. Ontario’s Ford forcefully clamoured for a strong retaliation, as indeed did most of the other premiers. The normally boisterous Mr. Poilievre, on the other hand, was unusually silent, particularly in the earlier days. He presumably had not wanted to contradict his Alberta ally, so was waiting to see the outcome of Trudeau’s gambit.
 Poilievre – endorsed by Trump’s main man Elon Musk Poilievre stands apart as having been endorsed by Trump’s main man Elon Musk. This was happening even as Trump and his entire entourage, including Musk, were bad mouthing and trash talking Trudeau and Canada.
In the end, Mr. Trump delayed the tariffs for both Mexico and Canada by a month. The betting is that ‘The Donald’ has seen the light and will eventually drop his tariff plan entirely. His vision of returning to the anachronistic and protectionist America First, which he idolizes, would come with a huge price tag for the American consumer.
Still, Trump is nothing but inconsistent and volatile, so we’ll see how he feels about his would-be 51st state in thirty days. Now that his drug and migrant arguments have been exposed as the falsehoods they are, he has turned his sights to Canada’s banking system.
In the meantime his actions have already had consequences – for Mexico, Colombia and Canada at the least. He has given us here in Canada pause to appreciate what we have in this geographically diverse nation of 41 million people and to realize that we don’t want to lose it.
 The idea of Canada prevailed through to Quebec referendums. So we say to Mr. Trump, thanks but no thanks. We’re not interested in being your 51st state – especially if you would be our president and Mr. Musk would be pulling the strings.
 Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links:
Blinks – Tariffs Poilievre Won’t Back Retaliation – Poilievre is Vague – Is Poilievre Musk’s Puppet –
 By Staff
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Swimming is widely recognized as one of the most effective exercises for promoting health.
The Parks, Recreation and Culture Aquatics team offers several drop-in programs and Lifesaving First Aid courses designed to support your well-being
To register click HERE
 By Pepper Parr
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
We erred: Bonnie Crombie has said she will be running for the Mississauga East seat in the legislature.
The focused concern over what the threat of 25% tariffs would do to not only the economy but individual households has taken our eyes off the provincial election campaign that is now underway.
 Maybe I shouldn’t have said that. Doug Ford put his foot in it when on the campaign trail Monday he was caught on a hot mic expressing frustration with the president.
“On election day, was I happy this guy won? One hundred per cent I was. Then the guy pulled out the knife and f—-ing yanked it in me,” said Ford.
That comment is going to haunt him throughout the balance of the campaign. The upside for Ford is that the election will have taken place before the 30-day hold on possible tariffs is reconsidered.
Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford said he hoped the situation with Trump “might be a little different,” despite Trump’s prior threats to levy tariffs on Canadian exports.
Ford was captured on video after a news conference Monday saying he was happy that Trump had won the most recent U.S. election — until Trump made threats of steep tariffs that could devastate Ontario’s economy.
“I can work with anyone, I don’t care who it is. I just thought things might be a little different,” Ford said Tuesday when asked why he was happy that Trump was elected, despite Trump’s history of trade threats during his first term.
While polling numbers show Ford with an impressive lead the campaigning taking place in constituencies across the province shows a different scenario.
 Marit Stiles in Quinte, a part of the province where the Progressive Conservatives have always done well. In Quinte, a constituency where political views have been decidedly conservative for a long long time the New Democrats have been pulling out good audiences.
The Liberals can’t seem to get much in the way of traction; party leader Bonnie Crombie has said she will be running for the Mississauga East seat in the legislature.
 Ontario Election to be Held on February 27
By Staff
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport Announces a new strategic airline partner, Porter Airlines.
Porter will initiate service at Hamilton International beginning in early June 2025, introducing daily service from Hamilton to four popular domestic destinations: Calgary, Edmonton, Halifax, and Vancouver.
The airport will move now on planned terminal upgrades that will begin immediately.
 The long-term collaborative partnership between the City and TradePort, in place since 1996, has positioned the airport as a critical driver of connectivity, economic growth, job creation, and community partnerships for Hamilton and the surrounding region. Under the new lease, efforts to expand air service, enhance the passenger experience, and deliver safe, sustainable, and efficient operations will continue – starting with planned terminal upgrades that will begin immediately.
Airport enhancements will include an updated exterior frontage with new and expanded canopies to improve curb operations, and a refresh of terminal interiors from check-in counters and passenger screening areas to gate seating and baggage claim. Integration of architectural elements and finishes inspired by the region’s natural geography will lend the airport a unique sense of place, while new digital signage and lighting upgrades will enhance the overall travel journey.
Additionally, future enhancements will include passenger jet bridges to connect the terminal directly to aircraft – a first for Hamilton International – and terminal infrastructure upgrades to position the airport for future expansion to accommodate expected air traffic growth
Airport enhancements will include an updated exterior frontage with new and expanded canopies to improve curb operations, and a refresh of terminal interiors from check-in counters and passenger screening areas to gate seating and baggage claim. Integration of architectural elements and finishes inspired by the region’s natural geography will lend the airport a unique sense of place. New digital signage and lighting upgrades will enhance the overall travel journey.
Future enhancements will include passenger jet bridges to connect the terminal directly to aircraft – a first for Hamilton International – and terminal infrastructure upgrades to position the airport for future expansion to accommodate expected air traffic growth.
 By Staff
February 4rg, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
The 50th-anniversary event at the Art Gallery went very well.
 Jonathan Smith, a former curator at the Art Gallery attended.  The event drew a young crowd as well as the patrons who rarely miss a major event. Attendance was excellent and the mood was very upbeat.
The Ontario Art Council speaker told the audience that they have been a large part of the funding the Gallery receives for the past 50 years – they were there at year 1 – and that the Arts Council fully expected to continue supporting AGB.
That was the good news – the not-so-good news was the damage done by the postal strike. Donations that would have normally come in – didn’t. The postal strike meant cheques didn’t make it to the mailbox.
 Curator Suzanne Carte checks out the largest piece in the 50th anniversary exhibit. Suzanne Carte Art Gallery explained: “Back in November, we set an ambitious goal to raise funds to support impactful programs, events, and exhibitions at the AGB. We are thrilled to share we raised over $38,000, but with your help, there is still time to reach the $40,000 milestone!
The federal government has extended the donation deadline for the 2024 tax year. For AGB donors, this means you can still make a donation until February 28, 2025, and claim it on your 2024 taxes.
We are genuinely grateful for the incredible support we received in 2024. Your generosity means so much to our community.
Two things you can do: Send along whatever you can afford and make a point of taking in the Time Isn’t Real. It is mind-stretching and runs through to April 27th.
By Staff
February 4th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
What a news whirlwind yesterday.
A photographer took some time in the late afternoon to see what was happening at the LCBO outlets.
Some of the shelves were bare.
 Whiskey shelves were a lot more empty at the end of the day. A clerk at the LCBO said there was a bit of a rush during the day.
 The wines from California were almost cleaned out. With the 30-day hold on the imposition of any tariffs, life at LCBO outlets should return to normal – or will people stock up – fearing that Trump will at some point create huge damage to the economies of both Canada and the United States.
By Staff
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Times change. Living next to Donald Trump is a crisis. It was always clear his people would try to disassemble the American federal government in his second term, and that he intended to seek revenge. And it was clear he was coming after his allies, Canada included.
 David Frum We have gone through the first crisis – and we made it. For the next 30 days Ottawa and the Premiers will work to figure out just how much more they have to give. Whatever they decide – it won’t be enough. David Frum, one of the better analysts on Canadian/American affairs described Trump as a predator.
Frum worked in the White House as a speechwriter for the second Bush. He is a man worth listening to.
Arlene Dickinson, part of the TV Dragon’s Den crew had this to say:
Everyone is trying to figure out the endgame. What does Trump really want? What’s his strategy? What’s his angle? How do we work with him to give him what he really wants? People keep asking how to make him stop coming at trade with tariffs.
Here’s what he wants: He wants money. He wants power. He wants control. It’s that devious, and it’s that obvious.
 Arlene Dickinson This isn’t about trade imbalances. It’s not about fairness. It’s not about drugs, immigration, or national security. Those are just the stories he tells to justify what he’s really after—leveraging fear and economic pressure to serve his own interests.
If it really were about those things, then negotiating honestly and fairly with a friend, ally and neighbor would be the obvious and most productive way to accomplish those goals. But that’s not what’s happening. Because this isn’t about solving problems—it’s about creating leverage.
And who pays the price? Not him. Not the politicians who stand beside him. Its workers, families, and businesses on both sides of the border. It’s people on both sides watching their costs go up, their jobs disappear, and their futures get thrown into uncertainty—all while the ones in power play the long game for themselves.
We can spend time debating the strategy. Or we can focus on the truth. This isn’t about protecting America. It’s about protecting Trump. And the sooner we see that clearly, the sooner we can stop letting him dictate our future.
He may control his tariffs, but we control our wallets. Buy Canadian. Support Canadian. Invest in Canadian. Celebrate Canadian.
Trump truly, wrongly believes tariffs will enrich the United States. He is an incompetent blusterer, and even though Canada got Trump to back off his tariff threats, the idea of annexation is planted. That threat won’t vanish.
We will come back to that annexation issue in a different article.
At this point, the individual Canadian can do one thing: Buy Canadian wherever you can.
 Dominic LeBlanc, Minister of Finance Dominic LeBlanc, the current Minister of Finance told an interesting story on CBC radio this morning. He said that New Brunswick has some toll crossings at the New Brunswick-American border. They decided that vehicles with American license plates would pay a higher toll.
Small matter but very satisfying.
We made it through the day – tomorrow is another day – the focus will be on preparing for that phone call in 30 days.
Between now and then LeBlanc will be meeting with the Secretary responsible for imposing tariffs – some sense may get determined during that meeting.
By Staff
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Most voters aren’t in love with their choice – three-in-five say they ‘dislike the other options more’
Ontario Premier and Progressive Conservative Party leader Doug Ford has become a regular fixture on national television at the head of Canada’s response to American tariffs. The threat of President Donald Trump also provided the fuel for Ford’s justification to bring the province into an early election campaign.
 But threats from Trump, and Ford’s response to them, has done little to warm Ontarians to the premier after years of chilly assessments.
New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds that Ford’s personal unpopularity continues to have little impact on Ontarian vote intentions. If an election were held today, more than two-in-five (43%) say they would support Ford’s party, while the Ontario Liberals (26%) and Ontario NDP (21%) fight for second place.
Ford is viewed the most negatively of the major party leaders (-27 net approval), who are contending with relatively low profiles. At least three-in-10 say they don’t know enough about Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie (28%), NDP leader Marit Stiles (30%) or returning Green leader Mike Shreiner (37%) to say if they have a negative or positive impression.
Both Stiles (-2 net favourability) and Crombie (-9) are also wrestling with more unfavourable views than favourable ones of those who offer an opinion.
Altogether, voters appear disenchanted with their options in what might be a sequel Battle of the Bleah. Three-in-five (59%) say they’re supporting who they are now because they don’t like the other options on the ballot, while two-in-five (41%) say they “really like the party” they’ve chosen and what it stands for.
Link to the poll here: www.angusreid.org/
By Staff
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
 Tough place to patrol. News flash via Apple –
U.S. tariffs on hold for 30 days after Canada commits to beefed up border security.
Poilievre wants to send army troops to ensure that drugs don’t get smuggled into the United States and that people don’t find a way to slip across the border into the United States.
President Trump is going to jerk the Canadian government around like this for as long as he can.
 By Staff
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Who said you can’t play golf in the winter.
Andy Griffiths has been doing disc golf for more than a year.
Check-in with the Conservation Authority to see what is open.
Related news story.
Disc golf – how it works
By Staff
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
That trade war that gets real on Tuesday has everyone waiting to see just how bad it will get.
For weeks Prime Minister Justin Trudeau could not get through the President Trump.
 To be a fly on the wall when these two speak sometime today. Today there appear to be two back-to-back calls.
Premier Doug Ford said in a written statement: “Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy.”
In New Brunswick the provincial government is reported to have boosted the tolls at one entry point into the province for cars with American license plates.
It is going to get messy for the next 24 to 36 hours.
The Canadian government is standing firm – the President still has a bit of time to ease up.
It will be interesting to see how this works out.
 By Pepper Parr
February 3rd, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Part one of a two-part series
Superintendent Dave Costantini from police district number three, which is the Burlington detachment started the presentation that explained what the police do on a day to day basis.
He opened by saying that the credit for good work done belonged to Superintendent Sue Biggs, who’s gone on to other things at headquarters,
 The police officers that take care of Burlington. Inspector Dwayne Perron delivered the presentation. Introducing the rest of the team he added that manager of our Criminal Investigations Bureau is Detective Sergeant Derek Moyes; Manager of Community Mobilization is Chris Clarke. Team leader of the District response unit is Sergeant John Edolls.
Constable Sarah Rudall does a lot of outreach within the community.
At the moment, there’s some promotional processes, so command of three district may or may not change. When that happens, we should know in the next week or two when that happens
Inspector Dwayne Perron: “It was 23 short years ago that I started my career here in Burlington, actually just down the street on Locust where the police station used to be located.
“I arrived back in Burlington last year as the Operations Inspector. My goal is to provide an overview of some of the work were done in Burlington.
“I want to highlight some of the challenges that might propel us into 2025 and some things that we are looking to do and try to accomplish, some of which will probably come as no surprise to each of you.
“I’m going to talk a lot about collaboration, because we know that we can’t do this alone. We have a community that is very supportive of our police service. Last year, we attended seven different public town halls. I have promised transparency
“You heard Superintendent Costantini talk about our Criminal Investigation Bureau as well as our District Response unit and our Community Mobilization Bureau.
“Focusing on the District Community Mobilization Bureau, they are the ones that are boots on the ground that are in all the meetings and are working directly with their community.
“We try to do that through what we call a CSWB lens – Community Safety and Well Being. We don’t look at something from a police perspective or an enforcement perspective, but we try to look at the underlying root causes of what exactly is happening because it may not necessarily always be just a police matter. We may be just one small slice of the pie.
“An example I can give you is Reimer common, a small townhouse complex just off of Queensway Boulevard. Early last year we had some challenges that were based on different mental health challenges as well as drug addictions that was causing a lot of calls to our community that were affecting all of the residents in that area.
“Our Community Mobilization Bureau then partnered with our Criminal Investigation Bureau, and they tackled this through a CSWB lens.
“They looked at foot traffic that resulted in the setting up of fences, which enabled us to slow down some of the challenges that we are facing.
“We also tackled it from an enforcement lens to understand, is there something that we are missing that we can do to try to help the residents that are living in that area, to make sure that at the end of the day, that they feel safe?
“We faced some challenges at the GO station in Burlington in terms of individuals staying there overnight which resulted in some petty crime and some mental health challenges that were affecting our community.
“Working with them we were you able to come up with a compromise and a solution that met exactly what we’re trying to achieve.
 Homeless people were gathering at the Burlington GO station. “Our team does a lot of outreach for our unhoused. Every Thursday they partner up and go out with Halton Housing; they actually go out and they meet those individuals that are facing challenges and trying to provide resources and outreach to find out if there’s anything that we can do, or at least connect them to those that have the potential solutions for them to get them off of the streets,
 “It would be easy for an officer to go out and just do random traffic enforcement -we try to shy away from that. We try to make all of the business that we do, whether that’s traffic enforcement or criminal investigations, based on intelligence led so that we are not only receiving information from the public by way of traffic complaints, which I know we had approximately 2,500 last year, but those are the ones that are greatly impacting our citizens. By using our collisions data and determining where the accidents actually happening we can really direct and focus our enforcement
“In the rural areas, the issue is not the amount of traffic but the speeding.
“The ultimate goal is not about trying to issue a ticket to an individual. It’s trying to prevent deaths and serious injuries from happening on our roadways.
The traffic enforcement we’ve been able to accomplish with our strategic policing, is aggressive driving, or careless and distracted driving.
“Last year, just to provide some context, our district response team, arrested 131 individuals for impaired driving.
“The District Response Team, in terms of distracted driving, laid 176 different charges.
“Project noise maker. We do receive a lot of complaints about the level of noise This issued 386 offenses – loud, noisy mufflers, which causes not only issues the environment, but also causes challenges for our residents who are living in the downtown core and trying to be able to sleep at night.
“I want to talk about some crime trends. There are three types of crimes that are the most prevalent in Burlington. Auto theft – we are facing an epidemic. Last year in Burlington, we had a total of 431 vehicles stolen, which is a significant number for us. Believe it or not, it’s actually down from the year before.
“We built a regional task force that operated in the city of Burlington. It was a pilot program that we started to try to focus all of our enforcement efforts on auto theft, and not just auto theft as a singular crime, but organized crime as a whole because we know that auto theft is directly connected to organized crime. That pilot was so successful, not only in terms of arrests but in reducing the number of vehicles that we had stolen, and as a result, we’re able to now move that forward as a full-time team as part of the hall Regional Police.
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