Nanos, a national polling organization and the Oakville, Milton and District Real Estate Board, released a report on opions people held about housing issues.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman brought it to the attention of Council members and commented on the content at some length.
Sharman points out what densification has come to mean to Burlington: the city is required to be 82% high rise buildings; 12% mid rise and 6% low density. The high rise and mid-rise will be infill because we have had essentially no greenfield land to build on. The Alinea properties did provide some extra green field land.
Were local governments making the right decisions?
RATING LIFE IN THE REGION
Residents of the regions gave the top rating to their community as a place to raise a family (Oakville mean of 8.3 out of 10, Burlington mean of 8.5, Halton Hills mean of 8.2, Milton mean of 7.5), and also gave high ratings to their region’s overall quality of life and as a safe place to live. All regions receive lower grades on being a place to take public transit, with a very poor grade in Halton Hills (mean of 3.4) and Milton (mean of 4.2). The region as a place where one can afford to buy a home scored the lowest (mean of 3.4 overall).
DIRECTION OF THE REGION
Residents of the Towns of Oakville (52%), Halton Hills (54%) and the City of Burlington (53%) are more likely to say the region is moving in the right direction than the wrong direction (35%, 33%, 33% respectively), while residents of Milton are split with 46 per centwho say the Town is moving in the wrong direction and 43 per centin the right direction. Asked why they have that opinion, residents who think things are moving in the wrong direction mentioned the construction/development and the population growth that they believe is happening too fast (29% each).
REASON THEY LIVE IN THE REGION
Residents most frequently say the main reason they live in their community is because they grew up there and have been there a long time (high of 31% in Halton Hills, low of 21% in the Town of Oakville), or that they like the area and they believe it to be a nice place to live (14% overall). Just over one in ten also mentioned they live in the region because their family/friends live here (13%) or for jobs/work (11%).
PIECE OF ADVICE FOR THE REGION
The most frequent piece of advice residents had for their region was to ensure the City/Town grows at a manageable rate (24% of residents). This was followed by improving public transit and improving infrastructure/ roadways (nine percent each) and improving traffic (eight per cent).
Key Findings – State of Housing
HOUSING AFFORDABILITY IN THE REGION
A majority of residents from the Towns of Oakville (71%), Milton (70%)and Halton Hill (74%) and the City of Burlington (68%) say housing affordability in their community has worsened or somewhat worsened compared to five years ago. An additional one in ten say it has somewhat worsened (Oakville: 11%, Milton: 10%, Halton Hills: 9%, Burlington: 13%).
PREFERRED HOME TYPES OVERALL
About two thirds of residents of the region report living in a single detached family home (63% overall, 77% in Halton Hills). And additional one in ten say they currently live in a Town house (13%). Asked which type of housing they would want to live in, three quarters say they want to live in a single detached family home (74% overall, 85% in Halton Hills).
PREFERRED HOME TYPE IF DOWNSIZING
Asked which type of housing they would prefer to live in if they were to downsize, residents say they would want to downsize to a smaller single detached home (32% overall, 43% in Halton Hills, 28% in Burlington). Just over one in ten want to downsize to a Townhouse (11%).
SUPPORT FOR BUILDING SECONDARY/GARDENSUITES
Residents of the region are more likely to support or somewhat support allowing homeowners in their community to build a secondary or garden suite on their property (Oakville: 56%, Halton Hills: 66%, Burlington: 56%) than oppose or somewhat oppose this (Oakville: 28%, Halton Hills:26%, Burlington: 33%). On the other hand, residents of the Town of Milton have split opinions on this topic (43% support/somewhat support; 42%oppose/somewhat oppose).
PREFERRED APPROACH FOR NEW HOUSING*
Asked which approach they prefer for new housing in Oakville, opinions were shared between having a mix of units being added to existing homes on residential streets and high-rise apartment/condo towers being build around GO stations (32%) and Building high-rise apartment towers around GO Transit Stations and limiting units being added to existing homes (31%). Nearly one quarter prefer adding units to existing homes and limit high-rise apartment towers around GO transit stations (22%).
CONVERTING SINGLE-FAMILYHOMES
One third of residents say single-family homeowners should be able to convert their home into a duplex (34%). This was followed by under one in four who say they should be able to convert their single-family homes into a semidetached home (23%),a triplex (20%), a fourplex (18%) and a Town home (17%). Of note, nearly one third say homeowners should not be able to convert their single-family home in any of the above (32%).
The vast majority of the people who took part in a recent poll on housing want what is no longer being built in Burlington.
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman
Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman said: “The irony is that the stop the expansion, stop development sprawl, save the farms, folks would have caused the future density to have been even greater than the province regulations anticipated. Irrespective, massive density and sky high home prices are exactly related to people living longer, low child birth rates, leading to economic collapse without significant immigration increasing and therefore huge demand for new homes, homeless people, at a time when supply is low for whole number of reasons. Governments have not had an adequate future view in the past and now we are paying the price.”
Jamie Tellier, Director of Community Planning and Nick Anastasopoulos, Director of Building Services and Chief Building official entertained the members of the Pipeline to Permit Standing Committee of Council
Tellier, who has a very engaging manor, started by saying: “we’re going to do something fun here if you actually allow me to. As of this morning, the database that we’ve talked about, the database that creates these charts behind the scenes is now live on our web page. So if you just give me a minute here to share my screen, I’m going to show you this, and it’ll start to answer a lot of the questions that we’ve had at previous meetings here. So bear with me for one second as I share my screen.
“I’ve taken you to the city of Burlington pipeline to permit web page. Okay, so anyone can access this, and as you scroll down the page, you’ll see the pipeline or permit self serve dashboard, okay? And then you have two options as well. There’s a desktop if you’re at your computer, and there’s also a mobile if you’re on your phone.
“But for today, we will look at the desktop version, since I’m using a computer, and when I click on this good it is showing up. Here it is.”
Tellier began explaining in great detail how the data base worked and what you could expect from it.
Link to the desktop version of the Pipeline to Permit data base
In a separate article to follow we will take you through what the data means and how it will be used to track the rate at which housing development is taking place.
For this article we have shown the two screens that people can work with. You of course need to link to the data base (link shown above) to interact.
Members of CUPE Local 966 (Canadian Union of Public Employees) addressed Region of Peel councillors over concerns about the Ford Government’s secrecy around recommendations made by the Peel Transition Board, including the possibility of privatizing necessary public services like the region’s water and wastewater.
What does this matter to the City of Burlington? What Premier Ford decides to do in Peel is what he is likely going to want to do with the Region of Halton. A Legislative Standing Committee is currently research and deliberating on what should happen to the Region of HAlton going forward.
Whatever gets decided for Peel Region will impact decisions made about Halton Region.
Planning at the Regional level is in the process of being shifted to the municipalities.
“While Doug Ford has backtracked on plans to dissolve the region entirely, plans for the future of the region are still being kept a secret,” said CUPE 966 President Salil Arya, who represents municipal workers in the Region of Peel. “Important decisions that will affect Peel residents and our members like the privatization of public services are being made in the dark without transparency or public knowledge and it’s unacceptable.”
Last month, news broke that the Peel Transition Board could be recommending the privatization of water and wastewater, a decision that could impact on the quality of the region’s water and take control of its most valuable resource out of public hands.
“Peel residents pushed back last year when the province wanted to dissolve the region, and Ford backed down,” said CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn. “The stakes are even higher if Ford is planning to privatize Peel’s water, because we’re talking about a necessity of life. If it takes another fight by residents to keep Peel water in public hands, CUPE Ontario will be there.”
CUPE 966 called on the Region of Peel to demand that the Ford government release the recommendations made by the transition board, and to reject any plans to privatize public services.
Halton Waste Water treatment plant.
There are a number of services that are Regional: Social welfare; some roads, water and waste removal as well as some services that should perhaps be Region wide, such as transit.
There are changes taking place that the province isn’t saying very much about. We are of course being told about being able to buy beer and mixed drinks at the corner store soon and we are supposed to be impressed with not having to take care of license plate renewal.
The Ontario Science Centre has to be torn down, based on some very conflicting reports.
Shifting to a political perspective, Tom Parkin, writing under a headline that declares: No premier has been able to escape defeat since at least 2011 when their approval rating is 31%; data that came from the Angus Reid Institute quarterly survey data.
At 31 per cent, Ford now has the lowest job approval score of any premier surveyed, according to the latest quarterly survey, released June 26. The quarterly Premier approval survey excludes only Prince Edward Island.
Premier Doug Ford: Not a happy camper; public is hearing a lot of bluster – no clear vision other than silly tricks that add little to the quality of life for most people.
The 31 per cent level appears to mark the edge of a political black hole for premiers and prime ministers. Since at least 2011, no premier or prime minister whose job approval score passed below 31 per cent has been able to escape the pull of defeat.
During June, Ford revealed a controversial and expensive plan to shut The Beer Store and give its sales to grocery and convenience stores, faced continued opposition to his plan to shutter the Ontario Science Centre, and began to fuel early election speculation. Unemployment also rose to 7.0 per cent, well above the national average and the number of full-time jobs declined by 7,400.
Despite Ford’s low personal score, his PC Party’s support remains high on his opponents’ troubles.
Marit Styles, Leader of the NDP opposition is doing a superb job. She has yet to break through in terms of a profile that people will like once they get to know her.
Polls show that as people get to know NDP leader Marit Stiles her positive score rises, but nearly half still cannot make a positive or negative assessment.
Bonnie Crombie: Liberal Party leader looking for a seat in the Legislature hasn’t found the traction many thought would make her a natural to lead the province.
Voters are getting to know Ontario Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie faster, but as they do, her negatives rise and her positive impression score remains stalled.
The insurance industry can at times be a bit of a damper on what people need in the way of liability insurance.
The City needs liability coverage – without it in place any lawsuits land on the city. And people are quick to sue the city because municipalities tend to settle rather than let a claim go to court.
A group of citizens took on the task of cleaning up some of the tombstones at the Union Cemetery (UEL) in the west end of the city. The site is the burial ground for many of the people who built the city.
Gates to the Union Burial Grounds on Plains Road yards from IKEA.
The event took place – at a cost, a considerable cost – they were required to put up $5 million of liability insurance. Our source has been involved in community work for decades but would not permit a name to be used – Burlington can be nasty with people who make critical remarks about how the city handles some issues. City hall staffers remember when people object to some of the decisions that are made.
The assembly of posters on the south side of Lakeshore Road north of Spencer Smith Park required liability insurance that is not cheap.
Tombstones that are being restored.
A number of months ago representatives from the hospitality sector had to fight very hard to get the city to reduce the size of the liability coverage if they were using city space for the patios they were opening that took up city owned space. The city wanted $5 million of liability coverage Restaurateurs explained that there had never been a claim anywhere near $2 million. It took some pushing on the part of the restaurateurs but they eventually were able to get the required liability coverage down to $2 million.
Why that figure is not made available to other groups is unfortunate. It puts a damper on what public groups want to do.
Odd that at least one member of Council doesn’t take this on and find a way to establish a liability insurance level that is fair to both the city and the people who have to pay the insurance fees.
You wonder, don’t you, why a Council member doesn’t do something for the people who elected them.
The makeup of Burlington’s organization chart is going to become known in bits and pieces.
Jacqueline Johnson is second from the right; Blake Hurley is to her left.
Jacqueline Johnson, seen at a Committee of the Whole this week, is the Commissioner of Community Services responsible for overseeing:
Transit
Recreation, Community and Culture
Fire
Customer Experience
Blake Hurley is the Commissioner for Legal and Legislative Services. He is also the City Solicitor. He is serving as Interim CAO while Hassaan Basit is away. Communications did not confirm that he is on vacation.
The current organizational chart for the City of Burlington
A better sense as to the size of the staffing compliment can be seen from the organizational chart for the Digital Services Division. The chart was a “for discussion” document. Roll your cursor over the image to enlarge the type.
The chart was published as a “for discussion” document.
Canadian Rents Increase by 7.0% in June, Marking Slowest Growth in Over a Year.
Average asking rents for all residential property types in Canada increased by 7.0% year-over-year in June, reaching an average of $2,185 per month according to Rentals.ca and Urbanation’s latest National Rent Report. This represents the slowest annual rate of growth in 13 months. On a month-over-month basis, average asking rents decreased by 0.8%, marking the largest decline since early 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and reversing the typical seasonal trend of rising rents at this time of year.
“Rents at the national level are clearly levelling out,” said Shaun Hildebrand, President of Urbanation. “At this stage of the market, strong rent increases are mainly limited to inexpensive cities, particularly in the Canadian Prairies, while larger markets dealing with severe affordability issues are seeing rents slow or fall.”Rents for purpose-built and condominium rental apartments fell by 1.0% in June from the previous month, averaging $2,146. Year-over-year, apartment rents increased by 9.0%, driven by an 11.0% rise in purpose-built rental rates, which now average $2,121. In contrast, condominium apartment rents saw a 2.6% increase, averaging $2,320.
In addition, studio rents for condominiums dropped by 5.1% annually to $1,823, while purpose-built studio rents surged by 14.6% to $1,613.Toronto rents fell to a 22-month low, with average rents for purpose-built and condominium units declining by 2.5% monthly and 3.5% annually to $2,715. Vancouver saw a 1.1% monthly increase but a 7.8% annual decrease, bringing the average rent to $3,042. Edmonton experienced the highest rent growth among major cities, with a 14.3% annual increase to $1,564, while Calgary’s rents grew by 4.2% to $2,092.
Montreal’s rents grew by 4.3% to $2,013, and Ottawa saw a slight increase of 1.5% to $2,179.Most provinces saw year-over-year rent increases, except for Ontario, where rents declined. In Ontario, rents for purpose-built and condominium apartments decreased by 1.7% from May to June and fell by 1.3% annually to $2,382. Quebec also saw a monthly decrease of 1.0%, but rents were up 5.1% year-over-year, averaging $1,979. Saskatchewan continued to lead the country with a 22.1% annual increase in rents, though they remain below the national average at $1,339.Shared accommodation listings recorded a 7.5% annual increase in asking rent across four provinces, averaging $989.
However, roommate rents in Toronto fell for the fourth consecutive month, down 1.7% monthly and 4.0% annually to $1,236. Ottawa also saw a decline, with roommate rents decreasing by 1.0% year-over-year to $938. Calgary led the growth in roommate rents with an 8.8% annual increase to $916, while Vancouver remained the most expensive city for shared accommodations at $1,471, up 1.2% annually.
The National Rent Report charts and analyzes monthly, quarterly and annual rates and trends in the rental market on national, provincial, and municipal levels across all listings on the Rentals.ca Network for Canada. The data from the digital rental platform Rentfaster.ca is incorporated into this report.Rentals.ca Network data is analyzed and the report is written by Urbanation, a Toronto-based real estate research firm providing in-depth market analysis and consulting services since 1981.*The data includes single-detached homes, semi-detached homes, townhouses, condominium apartments, rental apartments and basement apartments (outlier listings are removed, as are single-room rentals.)
Sunday’s turnout voting for the French National Assembly was the largest in over 40 years. The polls had predicted that rightwing party leader Marine Le Pen would win the most seats and thereby appoint her choice of prime minister for the republic. Though France also has a president he, Macron, would have been forced to bend policies to suit Le Pen.
And that would have been only the second time in history that France’s government had been largely run by a right wing Nazi party. Following France’s surrender, from 1940 to ’44, Adolf Hitler installed a traitorous anti-semitic former French general to govern the one third of France (the Vichy Regime) which Germany chose not to.
Marine Le Pen
Marine Le Pen’s father, a Holocaust denier, along with a former German SS officer started what was to become the National Rally (NR) in 1972. Le Pen, like America’s Trump and Hungary’s Orban, are admirers of Russian leader Putin. In Le Pen’s, she had also been bankrolled by a Russian bank. And her policies, were she to win, would be in sync with those of the Russian dictator: anti-environment, anti-immigration, anti-Semitic, anti-Islamic, anti-NATO, anti-European Union and anti-Ukraine.
French president Macron called for National Assembly elections after Le Pen’s party made surprising but significant gains in elections to the European Union parliament. It was a risky proposition but it kind of paid off. She cleaned up in the first round of voting. Then, despite the polls and pundits, Le Pen fell to third place in the second round.
It was a mixed blessing for Macron, whose centrist party also dropped to second, leaving the leftists, which had formed a coalition, with the largest number of seats in the Assembly. Macron will have to compromises with the left wing parties, some very opposed to his policies, in order to govern the country.
Adopting a page from Mr. Trump’s playbook, Le Pen immediately blamed her failures on an unfair election. Russian disinformation, no doubt, also played a crucial role in Le Pen’s initial success. Over 4400 Russian disinformation bot posts had been distributed across France and Germany since mid-November, according to ‘antibot4navalny’, a Russian media research collective.
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron
France was only the second nation in Europe to buck the trend toward the seemingly growing popularity of right wing politics. Only a week earlier, British voters rebuked the governing Tories, virtually sweeping them into political oblivion for the time being. Albeit, as happens in their first-past-the-post system, they did this with only about a third of the popular vote.
There was a huge sigh of relief in most European capitals following the results of both of these elections. One wonders whether Americans will rally against poll-leading former president Trump, a convicted felon and pathological liar. That too will depend on whether democrats can convince the stubborn-minded Biden to swallow his ego and let someone else lead them into the election.
There are a few take-aways from what happened in France – a society among the most influential in our history of democracy. First, the polls cannot be trusted to reliably predict a political outcome. Even on the eve of the elections the pollsters got it wrong.
Second, when push comes to shove liberal democratic values still outweigh the alternatives in our free societies. Negative politics and disinformation may confuse some of the people some of the time, as it did with the Brexit vote in the UK. But change for the sake of change is not always the best option.
Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh: Canada already has a de facto coalition government
Third, Le Pen was defeated because the splintered left wing opposition parties combined forces to win the bigger prize. Canada already has a de facto coalition government with progressive policies in place. But continuation of those policies is at risk once that Liberal-NDP compact expires in time for the next federal election. First-past-the-post works best with a two party system. The Conservatives understood that when they united their left and right wings.
As an interesting side bar, our modern concept of left and right winged politics has its roots in French politics. Following the French Revolution the social and conservative radicals sat respectively on the left and right in the French National Assembly.
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
All businesses, regardless of sector or whether they’re based online or on physical premises, are under pressure to reduce their carbon footprint as much as they can in order to help the collective effort to reduce global warming. A lot of people would assume that businesses such as online casinos, due to the fact that they are ‘digital’ and ‘online’, wouldn’t necessarily apply to them. But it does.
The dealer is live.
A lot of the top online casinos now offer a live experience where you can play against a live dealer; a fine example of this is online at LuckyKoala Live Casino Canada. And of course, if they’re going to have a live dealer, they need physical premises. And so today we are going to look at the steps that some of the top online casinos that offer these live games are taking in order to reduce their carbon footprint while at the same time being able to offer that all-important immersive and engaging experience to their players.
How they are going eco-friendly
As well as having to provide physical premises for a live dealer, a lot of online casinos have their own offices for staff who perform duties such as software development, marketing, and customer service. Likewise, on data or network servers, whether they are remote or in-house, they can still be attributed in either way to that company’s particular carbon footprint. As the demand for online casinos increases, so does the power and processing capacity that these casinos need to function optimally and present their players with a seamless experience. Any top casino brand needs to have a robust and professional infrastructure in place.
Turning to renewables
Energy now comes from multiple sources; windmill farms are an example.
So if casinos are going to need more and more power and energy in the future, how do they go about this in as eco-friendly a manner as possible? Well, many of the top online operators are noticing that they need to do something and are moving towards having their systems rely on renewable energy rather than those backed by fossil fuels. This is energy typically used to power the technology behind their gaming platforms and also the servers, which, of course, accommodate and supervise all of the traffic going through their website. This option, however, needs to be thought about in quite a lot of detail as it can incur costs, and the transition needs to minimize disruption and therefore downtime of their website.
Another option?
Although casinos don’t want to have to go through the hassle of moving towards renewable energy to power their equipment themselves, either through time constraints or financial expenses, there is another option, and you may have heard of the term ‘cloud’ being bounced around various sectors within the technology field. It essentially means that a casino can operate all of its processing power remotely at a facility that is dedicated for such a purpose. The reason why this might be a popular option is that a lot of the companies offering cloud storage and processing already have eco-friendly and scale-able solutions in place to cope with the casino’s power consumption demands.
In Summary
The biggest factor in changing the climate is individual behaviour.
Ideally, this has given you a bit of insight into the infrastructure that the online casinos need to have established and in place in order to deliver the experiences they do to players like me and you. And at the same time, the challenges and options that are there and available to them should make them want to start taking steps in order to try and be more eco-friendly and to also reduce their carbon footprint, doing their bit as a business to help combat climate change.
When a soldier is seriously wounded in battle, they typically need to be treated early with blood and plasma to improve their likelihood of survival, but because of the way our blood components are currently formulated they cannot always be delivered quickly in the field.
To help save the lives of injured soldiers in combat zones, Canadian Blood Services in partnership with the Department of National Defence and Veterans Affairs Canada, is working to revive an innovative solution, the use of dried blood components. Dried plasma can save lives as it can be much more easily administered on the battlefield. It can be stored at room temperature and requires less storage space, meaning that soldiers can carry it into combat for medics to administer on the spot. A Canadian supply of dried plasma may also benefit civilians who suffer traumatic injuries.
“The Canadian Armed Forces depends on Canada’s blood authorities to support its members at home and abroad. We value our relationship and this important collaboration with Canadian Blood Services,” Major-General Scott Malcolm, Canadian Armed Forces Surgeon General, says.
During the Second World War and the Korean War dried serum was used extensively in battlefield surgery and was produced in Canada. However, for blood safety reasons the program was discontinued. Since then, there have been many advances in the safety of the blood system and dried plasma is once again being considered to support battlefield medicine.
Canadian Blood Services has been funded by Veterans Affairs Canada on behalf of the Department of National Defence to carry out the necessary research to work towards re-establishing the ability to produce dried plasma with the addition of modern testing and pathogen reduction processes. This important collaboration is expected to also have domestic benefits for the Canadian blood system.
“Innovative research partnerships like this collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces are an important foundation of Canadian Blood Services’ commitment to put the needs of patients first and provide lifesaving support to people in need, including military personnel on the battlefield and civilians in trauma settings.” Graham Sher, CEO of Canadian Blood Services says.
Five women on a summer afternoon: A picnic sur l’herbe, music, play and tales of love in the Forest of Arden.
Join a group of friends to celebrate the timeless love story of Rosalind and Orlando at the heart of As You Like It. All the wit and humanity of Shakespeare wrapped in contemporary theatricality and physical storytelling.
A Trevor Copp production at RBC – it will be as good if not better at Dundurn Castle.
Performing at the beautiful grounds of Dundurn Castle Aug 13-31, 7pm, Mondays-Saturdays (no shows on Sundays). All performances are Pay-What-You-Can, no reservations required.
Also available: our spectacular picnics! $40 buys you a picnic and includes your donation to the show. Email artisticdirector@totteringbiped.ca at least 48 hours before the performance for details.
While this isn’t a Burlington event Trevor Copp has brought Shakespeare to Burlington audiences in a way no one else has. Always evocative, always a different perspective. We wanted you to know that Trevor Copp is back.
Cast and Crew:
Director – Diana Belshaw *The participation of Diana Belshaw is arranged by permission of Canadian Actor’s Equity Association.
Movement Coordinator – Trevor Copp
Music Director- Zach Parsons
Poster design- Mimi Xuan
SM team – Addie Moody and Eric Lessa Frattini
Performers – Zita Nyarady, Rebecca Durance Hine, Madeleine Storms, Julia Scaringi and Alma Sarai
Conservation Halton advises that Environment Canada and the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources & Forestry (MNRF) Surface Water Monitoring Centre (SWMC) are forecasting that the remnants of Hurricane Beryl will bring heavy rainfall across southwestern Ontario early Wednesday and continue into Thursday. Currently, total rainfall amounts in excess of 50 mm are possible. Although soil conditions are dry within our jurisdiction, intense downpours may produce significant localized runoff.
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 Saturday July 13, 2024.
It was supposed to be a project update on the preferred concept design for Civic Square – it turned out to be an hour and 17 minute dive into the weeds.
Council was not prepared to let staff make all the decisions on this project.
The basics of the preferred concept are now on the table.
The project aims to visualize, design, and implement the renewal of Civic Square, City Hall Entrance, and adjacent streetscapes to contribute to a healthier and more vibrant downtown core.
The final preferred concept design is an evolution of Concept 2 – Atrium with modifications to include some design features from the other two concepts.
Use your cursor to enlarge parts of the graphic.
The preferred concept design includes key features such as a consolidated vestibule entry, focal point canopies with branding at Brant Street / James Street and Elgin Street, continuous canopies along the building facade, transitions to adjacent properties and streets, a variety of seating elements, inclusion of flag poles adjacent to the building entrance, an in-ground water feature with water jets, and waves themed patterning in paved surfaces.
Key features of the preferred concept design are:
A consolidated (single) vestibule entry
A focal point canopy with branding at Brant Street / James
A focal point canopy with branding at Elgin Street
Continuous canopies along building façade (where feasible)
Size, configuration, and flow of exterior spaces, including ‘3 Rooms’ approach and associated parking lot reduction (50%)
Transitions to adjacent properties and streets
Variety of seating elements
Inclusion of flag poles adjacent to building entrance
An in-ground water feature with water jets
Maximize landscape opportunities while maintaining flexibility and use of space
‘Waves’ themed patterning in paved
The project is now transitioning into Phase Three of the engagement plan – before that could take place city council made sure that there finger prints were all over the project.
The project schedule includes detailed design, permits and approvals from July 2024 to March 2025, tender period in February – March 2025, and construction period from June 2025 to June 2026.
The budget for the project is approximately $7.6 million, with funding from the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, and the city.
In 2021 the city received Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) – Community, Culture and Recreation Stream funding for the renewal of Civic Square and Brant Streetscape (from Elgin to Ontario on the west side).
To achieve efficiencies and a cohesive design, the Civic Square renewal project has been combined with two additional capital projects – the Brant Street entrance to City Hall and streetscape improvements on Elgin Street.
The overriding goal of the Civic Square and Brant Street Renewal project is to visualize, design, and implement the renewal of Civic Square, City Hall Entrance, and adjacent streetscapes to contribute to a healthier and more vibrant downtown core.
In May 2024 council approved report ES-10-24, that provided an update on the project and presented and summarized three concept designs.
Staff see engagement as critical to this project and built that into all stages of design development. While including the public is the goal, the one occasion when visuals were available for viewing and consulting staff were on hand to answer questions – less than 40 people took part.
Three concept designs were “Canopies,” “Atrium,” and “Portals.” Through engagement and an analysis of the feedback, a preferred concept design was developed.
Through the City’s Public Art Program, LeuWebb Projects has been selected by a community jury of artists and arts professionals to join the project team. In the first phase of their contract, LeuWebb will collaborate with the project team to design site-specific, integrated public art for Civic Square. In the second phase of their contract, LeuWebb will lead the fabrication and installation of the public art, in consultation with the project team.
To date, the project is meeting all critical milestones.
The implementation and scope of work for this project is clearly defined and is in alignment with ICIP funding requirements and capital budget planning, thus limiting other options.
The preferred concept has been designed to the construction budget.
The Government of Canada is investing $1,984,900. The Government of Ontario is investing $1,653,917. The city has already committed capital funding of $884,744 with an additional $808,750 forecasted in the 2025 Budget.
Capital funding in the amount of approximately $2,365,000, to support changes to City Hall related to this project, was approved in the 2024 Budget.
The project continues to be a major undertaking for the project team. The commitment the city has made to fulfilling the schedule requirements of the project are well supported by the internal project team and the consulting team. Getting this done without city council xxx
The projected completion date is June of 2026.
The next municipal election take place in October of 2026
The six ward Councillors and the Mayor need this project to draw waves of public approval when the ribbon is cut – the election for their third term takes place 60 days later.
There is a part two to this article. Reading how members of council made sure they had major input on this Capital project. Later in the week.
The push is on – from the Premier himself no less.
This summer, there are still thousands of places people can buy their favourite beer, cider, wine or even spirits across Ontario. To help consumers connect with local retailers and producers close to home during the ongoing OPSEU strike, the province has launched a new searchable and interactive map of retailers that remain open and ready to serve. These retailers include more than 1,000 local Ontario breweries, wineries, wine shops and distilleries, in addition to other retailers such as LCBO Convenience Outlets, The Beer Store and licenced grocery stores that sell a range of Ontario-made and imported products.
“This new map is a great way to connect people across the province to local Ontario-made products and support the hundreds of Ontario businesses and thousands of Ontario workers who make these products and serve customers each and every day,” said Premier Doug Ford. “It also supports our plan to offer consumers the kind of choice and convenience available to other Canadians when purchasing alcoholic beverages, starting later this summer. I hope people across the province will take this chance to shop local and responsibly enjoy some great Ontario-made products!”
The new convenient and easy-to-use map can help users find a location that sells beer, wine, cider, spirits or ready-to-drink beverages. The map will be updated regularly as alcohol sales are expanded to more licensed grocery and convenience stores. As LCBO retail stores re-open, these will also be added to the map.
“Our government is delivering on its commitment to expand the province’s beverage alcohol retail marketplace to increase choice and convenience for shoppers earlier than planned,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “Ontario can rest assured there are more options to purchase than ever before, thanks to the government’s bold plan to modernize alcohol sales.”
As announced in May 2024, Ontario is expanding the province’s alcohol beverage marketplace in phases to allow convenience, grocery and big-box grocery stores to sell beer, cider, wine and ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages, such as coolers, hard seltzers or other premixed cocktails.
It was a hot Saturday morning which didn’t seem to deter the band of about 25 people who chose to do a walking of parts of ward 2 with Councillor Lisa Kearns.
Tour started off at the No Frills plaza – towers in the background, all south of Caroline, have in the minds of many, destroyed the feel of the downtown core.
Lisa spent half an hour talking about the her view of the ward as she saw it, explaining what a city Councillor could say and do and what they couldn’t say and do, giving her view of the ward as she saw it and then walked the group up Brant Street and point out where the development was going to take place and what she liked and didn’t like about some of the developments.
Maps with development details were handed out.
He is certainly paying attention.
The concerns were always about height and density and the size of the units that would be organized as rental units. Not much mention of park space.
The development at 795 Brant has been an issue for council. The developer wanted to demolish the building arguing that it had little in the way of heritage value. The matter went to the Ontario Land Tribunal where a settlement has been worked out. That story will be a seperate article later in the week.
The house, one of the last farming houses left standing in the core of the city, has been a Land Tribunal issue that is at the settlement stage. Exactly where the house will be located is not yet clear.
Tour ended at Brant and Prospect where there is a very controversial development taking place on an oddly shaped piece of property.
Let me tell you why I started a petition to stop the proposed 8.9% increase in 2025 Burlington property taxes. Burlington City Council has a spending problem”.
My petition asks the city for three things,
a zero percent increase in taxes for 2025,
clear language when communicating tax increases,
and an understandable budget.
1 – No increases in 2025
When talking about tax increases in Burlington, the city and Mayor Meed Ward often talk about the impact of the increase on our tax bill.
When talking about a budget only two things matter.
1 – The percentage increase.
2 – The dollar value increases.
The last municipal election was in 2022. On our final tax bills, for 2023, there is a line starting with M – Municipal line, that showed an increase that amounted to 15.59%.
Your 2024 tax bill would show, at the same place M – Municipal line showing an increase of 10.21%.
The budget numbers for 2022
The approved budget for 2022, operating and capital combined, was $362.1 million.
The numbers for the 2023 budget.
The approved budget for 2023, operating and capital combined, was $434.8 million.
That’s an increase of $72.7 million taken in by the city from tax payers over a two years period.
How can the city possibly spend $72.7 million on the things that benefit the tax payers in such a short period of time?
That’s not easy for any organization to do. The city could have used the funds to pay down debt or top up reserves, but that does not appear to have happened.
This following statement on the city’s debt level is from the 2024 approved budget:
“The City has an estimated $73.8 million in total principal debt outstanding. Taking into consideration principal debt repayments of $14.2 million, $54.7 million in debt issued and $47.7 million in debt, which has been approved and not issued, total City principal debt outstanding and remaining to be issued at year end 2023 is $162 million.”
Did the author of that statement understand what it means?
In this video, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Hassaan Basit spoke of the need to show taxpayers the value they will receive from the proposed 2025 – 8.9% tax increase that will appear on the M-Municipal line on your tax bills when they are issued in 2025 – assuming of course that the increase is not greater than 8.9 %. .
Before talking about further significant tax increases (that being the 8.9% increases the city department is projecting), the city needs to show what value taxpayers have received from the 2023 and 2024 increases. With 72.7 million additional dollars it’s hard to imagine that the sky will fall, despite what the City Manager said.
2 – Clear Language when communicating tax increases.
Burlington has an Engagement Charter that has the following statement: “Clear Language: The City of Burlington will use plain and clear language in documents and public communications that is more engaging and understandable for citizens than technical language and jargon.”
For 2025 the proposed increase is 8.9%. This is how the mayor explains this increase on her website “the 2025 Proposed Budget. Staff are predicting a total tax increase of 5.5%, of which the City’s portion would be 4.5%.”
The reality is that the proposed budget increase is 8.9%, and the M-Municipal line on your tax bill will show that 8.9% increase. . The mayor needs to stop freeloading on the other parts of our tax bill to make her increases look somewhat acceptable.
Using the approved 2024 budget total of $434.8 million – 8.9% of that amounts to $38,697,200 of additional dollars for the city to spend.
3 – Share the details of the budget in a way the community can understand them.
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns: “I would call it like mumbo jumbo.”
Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns, speaking to a community meeting about the budget said: “The budget is really hard to understand. I would call it like mumbo jumbo. Its 700 pages. “ Kearns is one of the brighter members of this Council and is usually able to figure out complex document. For a more in depth look at what Kearns told her constituents click HERE.
City staff, people that are paid with money tax payers provide, prepare a budget that Kearns called “mumbo jumbo. The people given the 700 pages from city staff – the people we pay to represent us then have to deal with the “mumbo jumbo”
How is this mumbo jumbo possible?
Doreen Sebben
Lydia Thomas
Our councillors have failed to insist that staff use language that is easily understood and graphics that help make the point. They have allowed this situation to get out of hand. Kearns talks about change, and there have been some changes – they were the result of and a response to excellent delegations from Lydia Thomas and Doreen Sebben.
Kearns complains about mumbo jumbo but it takes citizen action to force changes. We elect council members to work with city staff on our behalf. What has this council been doing? The budgets have been confusing for years. The M-Municipal line on the tax bill increases have become so large that citizens are having to complain directly to the council. Maybe our councillors are starting to wake up and talk about change. We’ll have to wait and see if this is just talk or if there will be real change.
One question remains, why wasn’t something done about the mumbo jumbo years ago?
Eric Stern is a retired business owner with a keen eye and a desire to keep his dollars in his wallet. When the dollars come out of his wallet he expects value in exchange for the money. He does not feel the city is giving him measurable value.
By Pepper Parr
Sharman points out what densification has come to mean to Burlington: the city is required to be 82% high rise buildings; 12% mid rise and 6% low density. The high rise and mid-rise will be infill because we have had essentially no greenfield land to build on. The Alinea properties did provide some extra green field land.
