By Staff

February 17th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Those who spend time paying close attention to local politics are getting more involved.

The Burlington Association has planned a series of Town Hall type events, the first of which will take place on Saturday the 25th.

The association is reported to have 2800 members. A Director of the association added that the significant increase in the membership was the result of the recent leadership contest that made Pierre Poilievre the leader of the party.

The EXECUTIVE: Debbie Sova – President / CEO; – Vice President: Chris Cottingham – Secretary: Robert Whittaker – Financial Agent: Jackson Carter – Executive Director: Laurie Allan – Executive Director: Nathan Zych – Executive Director: Marilyn Hunter – Past President

DIRECTORS: Wayne Brown, Norman Cheng, David Cherry, Connor Clark, Edward Dinca, Dennis Downs, Colette Ertel, Mark Fedak, Ron Finnigan, Camila Gutierrez, Dani Heroux, Kassia McLaren, Tamanna Prashar, Cailin Rodgers, Wayne Shiplo, Lorne Stewart, Christine Wei, Stephen White, Stephen Wishart, Charles Zach

Candidate of Record:  Emily Brown

The association is not just a get out the vote operation – they take part in community events and have laid claim to a part of a part of Appleby Line, north of Harvester Road that they Clean up every year – been doing it since 2005.

They have held Pints and Politics events as well as a Christmas Party.

This past few years they have held fund raising events for the Ukrainian community.

The Town Hall events are part of an initiative to raise issues that impact people directly and personally.  Rental rates in Burlington are hurting people and there is no relief in sight.  The federal government is bringing in more than 400,000 immigrants each year for a number of years.  Those people are needed to fill the jobs that are being created – the down side is the housing they need just isn’t in place yet.

By Pepper Parr

February 17th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

No matter how you look at it – it is going to be tight.

While the public hasn’t been told all that much about the work that has to be done to get the asbestos out of the Bateman High School site – the information we have is that this is not an easy job.

In a statement from Brock University they said:

“Brock University is excited about its future presence in Burlington. This is a multi-year project that will begin with a relocation to the former Lester B. Pearson High School beginning this fall. The University is working closely with the City of Burlington on requirements for the new campus located at the former Bateman High School as they redevelop the site.”

So students will attend classes at the Lester B. Pearson High School for a year, starting this fall, September of 2023, expecting to be in their new home for September of 2024.

That will be a stretch that will be closely watched by an anxious and disturbed public that thinks the city has been too tight lipped during the process of buying the property and financially irresponsible with the funds tax payers have entrusted them with.

Related news story:

Just what do we know about the asbestos problem at Bateman

 

By Ray Rivers

February 16th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

We are still here – find out why

What Canadians need to ask their provincial and territorial governments is why they need more federal dollars for health care. Most provinces ran a budgetary surplus last year while the federal government still had a massive deficit.

For example, Ontario’s system is in crisis mode, yet the government is sitting on a $2 billion surplus from last year. According to the new leader of the NDP, ”…Ford is on track to leave almost $20 billion on the table, deliberately under-spending on health care, education, and justice – services that are vital to Ontarians.”

It a sad and dangerous game. Like a dog in a manger, the provinces claim constitutional responsibility for managing the health sector, yet they starve it into near ruin. And then go cap in hand begging for more federal money. The consequence is that Canadians, once proud of our health care system, are rapidly beginning to see the systems as a failure. And that may have been the strategy all along.

It is as if the provincial governments are deliberately running down our health systems so they can turn over much more to private for-profit operators. And since that will just drive up health costs even more, user fees may be just around the corner. In other words… the end of universal health care and the adoption of something akin to the more costly and inequitable US model.

Part of the problem is that health care is just another budget item in another provincial ministry competing with all those other government priorities, such as that sexy highway-to-nowhere that Mr. Ford wants to build. And being the single biggest budget item, it becomes an easy target for the bean counters and those political leaders who are ideologically opposed to the idea of socialized health care anyway.

Andrew Coyne, who writes a column in the Globe and Mail, recently suggested something to the effect that the federal government, rather than giving the provinces more money, should actually cut funding to zero. If I understand his ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ argument correctly, cutting federal funding would force the provinces to reform health care instead of looking to blame someone else for their incompetence.

Coyne notes that even as spending has increased over the years to its highest levels ever, wait times and other measures of efficiency have worsened. The government’s pet excuse is that the generation of aging baby boomers requires more care. While there is some truth to that, the fact is that the average age of Canadians, which hovers around 40 years has barely changed over the last few years. And even the pandemic has receded.

Canada’s universal health care system was born in the late 1960’s as a 50/50 sharing arrangement between the two orders of government. That changed when Paul Martin in the 90’s became a hero to fiscal conservatives by finally ending the long string of federal deficits. But in order to do that he cut provincial health transfers through some slight-of-hand which reduced the fed’s ante to more like 20%.

Coyne’s proposal is intriguing, but without the funding ‘carrot’ the federal government would have no way to enforce the Canada Health Act. And that means that those provinces like Alberta, Ontario and even Saskatchewan, the very birthplace of socialized health care, would be free to just check out of universal health care and go straight to the extra billing model. Federal funding is the glue that keeps the provinces in line and the Canada Health Act alive.

So, given little choice, Mr. Trudeau has been forced to do what the provinces have been demanding, and offer another $46 billion over the next decade. But Coyne is right that giving more money will just forestall reform, especially if that money doesn’t go into areas the federal government has requested. Meanwhile the provincial governments grumble that it’s not enough but will take it anyway. They know they’ve won the game, but good luck to federal demands for greater accountability.

In the case of Ontario and Alberta, the new money will just be used to top up payments for the new private for-profit health care operators and more costly contracted nurses. Or it’ll be repackaged and channelled into some other project. And wait times and hospital crowding will only get worse.

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:

Under Funding –

Provinces Richer than Ever –

Tax Points –

Federal Transfer Payments –

Coyne’s Proposal –

By Staff

February 16th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

We are still here – find out why.

Rents are not coming down -and there is yet to be much in the way of a pattern.

Dismal describes what people are up against.

The latest National Rent Report:

The average listed rent for all property types in Canada rose 10.7 per cent year over year in January, the ninth straight month for double-digit increases, according to the Rentals.ca and Urbanation latest National Rent Report.*

The average listed rent for all property types was $1,996 in January, decreasing 0.5 per cent from December after averaging above $2,000 during the previous two months.

Compared to the pre-pandemic average rent in January 2020 of $1,823, rents in Canada increased 9.5 per cent, equal to an average annual increase of 3.2 per cent during the three-year period.

Toronto finished second on the list of 35 cities for average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom at $2,458 and second for average monthly rent for a two-bedroom at $3,227.
Year over year, average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom in Toronto was up 20.8 per cent and up 17.2 per cent for a two-bedroom.

Burlington came in fifth on the list of 35 cities for average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom at $2,210 and eighth for average monthly rent for a two-bedroom at $2,519.
Year over year, average monthly rent in January for a one-bedroom in Burlington was up 17.9 per cent and up 10.3 per cent for a two-bedroom.

Among Canada’s six largest rental markets, Toronto condo rental and apartment rents increased 20.8 per cent annually in January. Vancouver and Calgary had the highest increases in average rent for condominium rentals and apartments in January, with annual growth of 22.9 per cent and 22.7 per cent, respectively.

Among 20 medium-sized cities and areas in Canada, seven GTA rental markets recorded the highest average annual rent increases for condo rentals and apartments in January: Brampton with the highest increase up 25.1 per cent; Mississauga up 19.3 per cent; Etobicoke up 17.5 per cent; Vaughan up 14.6 per cent; Oakville up 14.4 per cent Burlington up 14.3 per cent and Scarborough up 13.5 per cent.

Shaun Hildebrand, president of Urbanation said: The Canadian rental market started 2023 where it ended in 2022, posting sharp annual rent growth amid low supply and quickly rising demand. Outside of Toronto, rent increases are becoming more acute in markets in BC and Alberta, which are experiencing relatively strong rates of population growth.
–
*The National Rent Report charts and analyzes monthly, quarterly and annual rates and trends in the rental market on a national, provincial, and municipal level.

By Pepper Parr

February 16th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

We are still here – find out why.

City Council was in session for a solid seven hours not including the breaks on Tuesday.

There were a lot of questions, more than enough posturing but not a word in the way of changing the budget that came as recommended from the Standing Committee.

The tax rate that was voted on works out to $60.31 per $100,000 of Current Value Assessment (CVA)

There is a tax levy that will be applied to the repair and replacement of the infrastructure.  There was no mention of just how much that is.

There is usually a surplus in spending from the previous year that gets placed in the Tax Rate Stabilization Reserve – the amount of the surplus was not made public.

We will chase those down for you

The motion they were to vote on was split into three separate votes. The first is on the operating budget. The second is on the capital budget and the third is related to assessment growth and how they will deal with it if it is lower than expected.

The Mayor asked if there any outstanding questions; none they moved on to comments from the Councillors before the actual vote.

Councillor Sharman, who is also the Deputy Mayor of Strategy and Budgets. Go ahead and kick us off on comments.

“Thank you very much. I’ll be brief – I guess. I’ve been reflecting on what occurred in our budget discussions, and I realized that this is a step on the journey we’ve been on and we’ve got a long way to go yet. The sophistication that we’ve added to the budgeting system in the course of the last number of years, has led us to a point where we have a long term strategic plan or a vision as we call it.

“We have an operating plan, which we call vision to focus. And those pieces should fit together well and we need to improve that but then what we have to add to that as a costing of our official operating plan B to F and that means we are doing the budget every day of our lives from now on, because by the time we get to a budget discussion this time next year, that should not be any unknowns, we should not be having any random motions.

“They should already be dealt with. The only place where we just have a motion is where there’s clearly something missed in the budget. And I won’t get into the examples because that leads to a longer debate. But when there’s something that that has come up recently, more recently in the deliberation, then the deliberations of staff that allow that we have a reason good reason to address it. And we did that in this last budget. But we need to get discipline into this process. And we need to be alert to the fact that it is the long term that matters and that we constantly have to be thinking about financing of everything we do and we have to make our priority decisions based on the resources available to us.”

Councillor Benevento
“My thought my thought process reviewing this budget had to do, we’re trying to balance.

“I guess from a personal standpoint, what I believed we needed now and massaging some of the rightful business cases that into the 2020 Ford budget which we know is coming later this year. Our city’s simulated budget over the next few years, we know it’s going to be challenging. That will remain to be seen when we all are aware that there are financial analysts out there who are predicting inflation to drop in 2023 to about 3% and 2% in 2024.

“So I thought that this might have been a great opportunity to balance some of the shortfall without kicking the can down the road.

“Unfortunately, for me, my motions did not pass and that’s okay. I am disappointed, but I respect the process and the discussions that we had. I would like to say that a 730 page budget book is not an easy document to review, which makes our decisions very difficult. It’s very short period of time.

“We’re not the operators, and we’re not accountants. And that’s what makes it very, very difficult for us. “We do live in a great city. We do have great services, and we have great staff. No one, including myself, wants to see any less services than we have. Having said that, I believe we need to look at our process a little bit when it comes to budgets.

“I mentioned, during the budget discussions, that I will be bringing forward a motion at an upcoming committee meeting that will direct the CFO to prepare a 2024 budget to limit the overall tax increase percentage without reducing any existing service levels. That’s how we do it at the region. And we’ll see why we can’t figure out a way to do it here in the city.”

Counsellor at Nissan
“It’s been a tough budget. Very tough; it’s been tough across the province.
“Burlington has added dollars to key elements: bylaw, human resources and other areas. There was a strong justification given for every single item. I tried to find places to cut and in the end, I could only find one spot where I thought maybe we could, and even then a pretty strong justification was made.

“And here’s the hard fact: we are already lean in Burlington. Our taxes are lower than other local jurisdictions. We have been very, very lean. We can’t reduce taxes without reducing service levels We are building the city of the future while trying to reduce tax increases.

“We are being very responsible through a tough budget and yeah, kudos we’ve been doing for several years now. Active Transportation, I really appreciate my colleagues support for that.

“And Safe Streets. These are things that we all agree on. And so there’s been some really smart amendments, very strategic focus, and there’s just there’s nothing there’s no excess here. There’s just nothing left. And so that’s because of the hard work of our staff. A lot of good work here.

Councillor Kearns: “Are we making all of our budget comments under the operation? Are we waiting to the end?

Mayor: “If you have separate comments on capital and the disposition of the assessment you would make those under those two but operating is kind of the big one. Feel free to make it now.

“I’m humbled also to share on the approval of our budget for the coming year. It has been a difficult and challenging process as the pressure to manage our expenses and prioritize services has been immense. I really emphasize that immense part. Incredible work has been done with diligence and scrutiny. At the heart of our community are our residents and it’s with their future in mind that we’ve crafted this budget. We’ve worked tirelessly to ensure that essential services such as public safety customer excellence, quality of life, infrastructure, maintenance and development management will remain in front and center of our fiscal outlook. We understand that this is a time of economic difficulty for many families. That is why we also are empathetic to those who need assistance during these trying times and also have relief programs subject to availability, eligibility available through a finance department.

“There’s been tension with stakeholders and staff to drill down into further savings and cost avoidance initiatives. I’ve scrubbed this budget to little avail of further relief, and it has been significant underfunding, part of which we all have an accountability to and this budget strikes a commitment to do better and we will together Furthermore, we are focusing on environmental sustainability initiatives and livability. So we can ensure a healthy future not only for the Burlington residents of today, but for generations to come.

“It’s quite incredible to be part of a generational shift and to make these investments for generations to come. We plan on investing in energy projects over the next few years exploring creative opportunities through culture building, expanding public transit options, investing in green infrastructure improvements for the city and implementing new programs aimed at delivering transformational digital solutions. It’s our belief that by pursuing these initiatives, not only will the citizens of Burlington benefit now, but they’ll continue to reap the rewards well into the future.

“As always, it remains our priority to provide safe communities where people can flourish and take part in creating vibrant neighborhoods to reflect our collective values and objectives. With this budget in place, we believe that these goals can be achieved over time with consistent effort from local leaders and stakeholders like I want to thank everyone who has been involved in this process and for taking part in these important decisions along the way.”

Councillor Galbraith

“This was a very challenging budget. You know, we’ve definitely heard some feedback from the residents about the number and it’s not easy to swallow. But, you know, I think we did a lot of work along the way in the past year towards this budget. Improving bylaw departments approving purchasing our largest community center at budget time, we need to fund those.

“We can’t pull the funding at budget time for things we’ve already approved and all agreed to support. It just doesn’t work. We need to fund our, our, the plans for you know, active transportation we need to fund those plans and I appreciate some of the motions brought forward by my colleagues.

“They were very good and and were supported and they need to be supported. You know, I am excited about some of the staff fixes that are this budget is supporting. We have a lot of processes that were just are backlogged. They’re just not working right now. So there’s really no way around it. We have to fix our internal staffing issues. The culture is not competitive anymore. Compensation is so looking forward to supporting this budget.”

Mayor Meed Ward: “So first of all, I would like to offer some some thanks. Starting with our city manager, our CFO and the entire team of staff. This wasn’t an easy budget for you to present to us.

We recognize that and we also know that we can’t fix what we don’t know. And if there are issues in the corporation we really do rely on having a collaborative and trusting relationship with our staff to bring forward what you believe the city needs and our community needs. And you did that in in a very difficult budget year and we know this is year one of two years of difficulty so next year’s budget is going to be difficult as well. Because we are building the foundation for the future. We are not just planning for all of the services that our community needs for this term of Council.

“We are planning for the next seven generations and this budget and the next one and the future ones that we will deal with on our watch are part of putting that strong foundation into place. It makes key investments in issues and projects and services that our community has told us are important this directly responds to community feedback that we’ve heard around the need for more community amenities. So Robert Bateman High School redevelopment adaptation is funded. The Skyway Community Centre is funded with a new NHL size ice rink.

“We have park improvements that are funded active transportation, including some additional motions brought forward during committee to make sure that people have the choice of cycling walking transit to get around our city. Residents have asked us for enhanced resources around bylaw enforcement and coyote response. This is directly relating to people’s quality of life living in our community. And so we responded to that as well, as well as automated speed cameras. This is year one of a two year implementation program to make sure that we have a better way of dealing with speeding on local streets and protective protecting public safety in that way.

“And we’ve reserved our free beach parking passes for Halton residents for the next year for the next two years, actually. So we this is a very responsive budget. It also addresses ongoing impacts from COVID inflation as well as the need to be competitive to the labour market and make sure that we have the best people here to deliver the best services to our community and catching up to growth. So a lot of we’re behind the eight ball community growth has far surpassed our planned expectations and we expect that to happen again even with the new numbers assigned to us by the province. And gross never fully pays for growth.

“And of course under Bill 23. We are going to continue to lobby that the impacts and the hole in our budget created by that bill be erased and that we’d be made whole so that we can collect what we need to build the community services, infrastructure and other amenities that a growing community needs. So we’re playing catch up with his budget and the next. And a reminder to folks that your overall budget includes three levels of government. It includes Halton Region services, you get paramedics, waste management, public health, social services, housing and so much more. And of course, also public education. We we are the collection agency for local investment in education.

“So you get all of that for about another $1.50 a day in this budget and even after all of that our tax rate will be lower than municipalities of our size. So I’m very excited about what this budget delivers by way of services and amenities to our community and setting a foundation for a very strong future in the short term as well as seven generations out. So with that I’m not seeing any other speakers to this item. So I will we will turn it to the clerk to call the vote. Go ahead.

Councillor Galbraith’? “support”. Councillor Kearns? “support”. Councillor Nissan ? “support”. Councillor Stolte? “support”. Councillor Sharman? “support” Councillor Bentivegna ? “do not support.” Mayor Mead Ward ? “support”.

The motion carries.

Now they get to do it all over again for the Capital budget.

Mayor: ” We now have the separate vote on the capital budget for the city If anyone wishes just to speak to capital now’s your chance. Okay, I will simply say that this This budget does include an infrastructure levy we are playing catch up on State of Good Repair for for our assets, roads, community centres, buildings and we are increasing that this year because we know that we need to close the gap between the required costs of making sure that our infrastructure is kept in a state of good repair and the actual the amount that is available. So we’re going to continue to close that gap.

“We have a 20 year asset management plan. And and that’s part of what you’re getting in this budget. All right, seeing no additional speakers. To that back to the clerk for the recorded vote on this one.”

They voted: All supported except for Councillor Bentivegna who was opposed to the Capital Budget

Thank you and our final vote is with respect to assessment growth: if it is higher than the estimated 6% any increase generated goes to the tax rate stabilization reserve which we know has been relied upon heavily during COVID.

Councillor Kearns: “Thank you very much. So this is exactly where it should be going. We absolutely do need to build up that tax stabilization reserve fund. And for that reason in the year ahead with the amount of work that we’ve already done on the budget. I will not be supporting anything that comes out of one time tax rate stabilization reserve fund through the balance of the year. So I hope that everything that needs to be done has been captured in this budget and any overages or returns go right back into this reserve fund.”

Councillor Sharman: “Thank you. I think this point underlines my earlier comment, so thank you for that Councillor Kearns.  As I’ve said before, we have been on a long journey by prior councils to try to minimize tax increases to the community and they have been very successful. Of course, those kinds of steps have implications because you only have so much money and all of you at home, who are dealing with your own personal budgets and your own situations at home that caused you to have the budget that you have. Those kinds of factors apply also to this community in total. The cumulative impact of all prior years of costs is on our books today. And that would suggest to us that we have to be very conscious of the future of the organization, the future of the community, as much as on the impact on local community members today. There is no magic to this. It requires discipline, hard work and diligence. Part of it is that we have to rebuild our reserves.  I’m not going to make any comments about the way we’ve used them in the past. My point is only about the future requires more and more discipline and care. And not that we haven’t cared enough. We just got to think about it differently.”

Mayor Meed Ward: “At the moment, I will simply conclude my statements with some thanks that I left out. I want to give a huge thanks to Councillor Charmin, who is also our Deputy Mayor of strategy and budgets for your deep review. And understanding of these matters and contributing to getting us to today.  I’ve learned a lot sitting side by side with you through this process and look forward to next year in coming years.

“And I also want to thank our budget chair Councillor Kearns, who very capably led us through over seven hours of discussion in one day and we were in good hands. Our conversations as has been noted before, we’re very respectful, very thoughtful and and that is, I think, a huge testament to this council working together because it’s difficult any year in a budget year and we’ve had some tough ones. But especially when you’re looking at a significant increase like this.  People focused on what we needed to do for the community and that is evident in our discussion. So thanks to all of you. The community is better for it.

City Manager Tim Commisso made perhaps the truest comment saying “this budget could not have been done without Treasurer Joan For”  Joan added that it was a team of five financial analysts,  Meri Gjeka; Andrea Hagley; Gurpinder Grewal; and Lori Jivan who was the public face during the debates.  She seemed to have every number that was needed at her finger tips.

The same day City Communications put out a statement,

Burlington City Council has approved the city’s 2023 budget, focused on planning ahead and protecting our city’s future.

As Burlington continues to grow, the 2023 budget will make key investments to ensure our City services, amenities and infrastructure keep pace with the changing needs of the community and address the continued impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key investment priorities include:

• Enhancing front line service delivery with additional transit operators, firefighters, and bylaw and animal services staff to respond to your concerns
• Funding for two new community centres – Skyway Community Centre located at 129 Kenwood Ave. and the former Robert Bateman High School at 5151 New St.
• $72.6 million of capital investment in 2023 to keep our infrastructure assets like buildings, roads and parks in a state of good repair.
• New funding dedicated to cycling infrastructure
• New automated speed reduction program to help address local traffic concerns
• Free transit for youth (ages 13-19) on evenings and weekends

Al this is going to come to $60.31 per $100,000 of Current Value Assessment (CVA)

The property tax bill is made up of three portions, the City of Burlington (48.9%), Halton Region (33.4%), and the Boards of Education (17.7%). The overall tax increase is 7.52 per cent.

By Pepper Parr

February 15th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Hamilton is no longer the top choice to host the Commonwealth Games in 2030 due to funding.

Commonwealth Sport Canada (CSC) says Hamilton will no longer host the events because they were not able to secure support from the Ontario government.

Even after a deadline extension, Hamilton was still unable to meet the Monday deadline. .

Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath told CHCH News she was really disappointed about the bid bust. She is calling this a lost opportunity, and says it’s up to the province to revive any shot at moving forward.

The games come with a price tag of $1.1 billion – that’s funded through upper levels of government, the city and private investments.

The city had previously supported the idea, with some councillors and mayors saying it will boost the tourism and economy in the city.

Ron Foxcroft said:  I” applaud with great respect the local organizing committee, putting 5 years, of heartfelt dedication into the bid process. When the process began who would have predicted that we would encounter a pandemic of such proportion.

“I respect upper levels of government with conflicting priorities including pandemic recovery, an inherited health care system with enormous challenges, and the potential to fund the 2026 FIFA World Cup Tournament in Toronto.

“These are but a few of the challenges we face as a Province. The local organizing committee made us proud as they navigated on the world sport stage.”

Had the games come to Hamilton on the 100th anniversary of the event Burlington would have been a different city when the Games closed. It wasn’t to be.

By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

This request Expressions of Interest in taking on a public art project was released a number of weeks ago.

The re posting of the notice suggests there may not have been that many responses.

The site for the public art is the Skyway Community Centre. Deadline: Friday March 10, 2023. Award: $120,000 CAD

The City of Burlington invites professional artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create an exterior public art installation for the plaza area of the new Skyway Community Centre (129 Kenwood Ave, Burlington, Ontario). This competition is open to all Canadian and International professional artists and/or artist-led teams.

The proposed artwork should act as a beacon to help guide visitors towards the main entrance of the building. Additionally, an important component of the Skyway Community Centre project is the environmentally responsible design of the facility. The Skyway Community Centre will include a low carbon design to align with the City’s goal of having a carbon neutral operation. Recognizing the severity of a changing climate, City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and a year later approved a Climate Action Plan with a target to become a net carbon zero community by 2050. This philosophy and focus on sustainability should be a primary focus for the public art, both in theme and materials / fabrication method chosen.

An artwork proposal is not requested at this time. This is a two-phase process: in Phase One, applicants will be reviewed on the basis of artistic merit of past work, professional qualifications and experience. In Phase Two, short-listed artists will be required to submit a preliminary artwork concept proposal that will be displayed for public comment and jury review. Artists selected for the short-list will be provided with a full Request for Proposals outlining detailed artwork specifications prior to developing their proposals. Short-listed artists will be paid an artist fee of $1500 to develop their proposals.

Talk to Kim Selman, Public Art Manager if you’re confused
Tel: 905-515-9334
Email: kim@cobaltconnects.ca

By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

When one door closes, even if firmly locked and barred, another one will open.

When I announced that the Gazette was going to cease publishing on January 31st there was no alternative – all available and foreseeable sources of funding, personal and otherwise, were gone.

I had no means to continue. The twelve years that I published were thrilling and coming to the conclusion that I was just not able to continue meant dealing with some depression.

Hours after the notice was published the comments section begin to fill with words of thanks, encouragement and offers to pay for a subscription to the Gazette.

The intention was always to have paid advertising cover the operating costs. I took the position that I had to grow the readership to the point where there was value for an advertiser. We were close to that point when Covid19 shut everything down.

We were working on an approach to publishing that held significant opportunity to both inform the public, grow the community and become financially sustainable. That fell apart on January 30 bringing me to the point where I had to throw in the towel.

Those who understood just how important this local news source was to them and to the community spoke up and said they would be there for us and how could they help ?

That has resulted in some short term funding that will get us through the next 90 days, giving us time to begin the advertising sales campaign and to put in place an application people can use to become “patrons” of the Gazette which will  provide us with small amounts that will, hopefully, cover the operating costs and allow us to bring on board someone who can do proof reading (there are many that will say Amen to that) as well as copy editing.

I will keep the readership fully informed. Thank you

By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It was the end of a very long day – they had put in close to 11 hours and had begun to get a little giddy.

We do not yet have numbers on what the impact will be on taxpayers.  The motion they passed will be debated at City Council today is shown below.

In commenting on just what they had done ward 6 Councillor Paul Sharman said:

So to the ladies and gentlemen who are paying attention to what we have just done. I’d like to make the point that we recognize this is a significant increase in taxes in comparison to what has happened in prior years.

It is not a list of what we have done, it is not irresponsible and it is not a mistake – we face serious circumstances that need to be taken care of. We have spent 40 years trying to reduce and control the impact of the cost of the city on community members. And the result of that is we have lower taxes than any other municipality in our vicinity. And we’ve been proud of that, and we’re still proud of it and we are still pretty darn low.

So I’m not too concerned that that we have failed the community by over taxing – we have done very well. If the cumulative effect has been that we didn’t spend enough money on some critical matters – we have in the past made decisions that cause us to be uncompetitive in the labour market within competing municipalities around us and we’re losing people that is not in the best interest of our community.

So we’re moving to correct that. We have had complaints as late as last week about potholes in our roads that we can’t fix for another two years. And you put that in the context of us having a $5 billion infrastructure expense that is not funded; that roads and buildings and vehicles face a funding gap to keep them in the state of good repair. We now have to try and catch up – we’ve been doing that now for about five years by putting money aside and realizing that has to be increased.

In addition to that we’ve had services like by law offices where we have not had even half the quantity of our nearest neighbour, Oakville. We have a third of the number of bylaw officers they have. We are taking initial steps to adjust that. We have to get more next year.

We have a fire station that we have built 10 years ago that we’ve never properly staffed. And now that is causing concern about potential risk.

We’re not too worried that it’s going to create an immediate impact. But we’re now moving to fill those jobs.

The story goes on and on and on. We had one more thing of course, which is inflation – high inflation, So put it all together. This city is creating itself for the long term good of the community. That is our goal to do the right thing for all of you. Thank you.

Ward 6 Councillor Angelo who had more Budget motions than any other member of Council, most of which failed, struggled through the day to fully understand the difference between the Capital Budget and the Operations Budget said:

All I want to say quickly is today was long day and I do agree that we do need to shore up staffing issues, etc. We’ve been discussing my 10 motions, which, with the exception of two, did not reduce any of these numbers that we’re talking about and we are simply looking at putting them on a 2024 budget.

I understand. We all have our different viewpoints, some of the things I felt we needed to defer to the 2024 budget, and then see where that falls in terms of inflation numbers, Maybe we could have massaged it to some degree.

Chair Lisa Kearns, who ran a tight meeting under some awkward situations at times thanked committee “for your incredible teamwork today. Your collaboration your respect your dialogue and your insight in carrying forward concerns around budgetary pressures as well as the desire of the residents that you represent.

She thanked the city manager, Joan Ford, CFO and staff for delivering to us with a steady hand budget under very difficult pressures. You have been excellent in doing all of the back work and that’s required to have the conversations that you allowed counsel to undertake today with a thorough review a very thick budget book, and very respectful dialogue in and through each of the different items that we discussed today.

I am complete as your budget chair. I think we have a lot to be proud of as a council and as a city.

I first wish to take the vote for the operating budget. The motion is on your screen. It should be available for the public to see as well. (It wasn’t) Looking for all those in favour, please. All opposed. Thank you that does carry.

Looking now to take the vote for the capital budget. It is there on your screen. All those in flavor please say aye. All those opposed?

Now I’d like to take a vote on the balance. All those in favour. All those opposed? Thank you.

This does carry the main motion as amended.

Joan Ford: “ You’ve taken a very long term look this year as part of your budget deliberations and I hope you continue that going forward.

City Manager Tim Commisso added: “I think the only person that hasn’t been thanked is Joan Ford, without her this doesn’t happen.

We will meet again on February 14th to pass the budget that was approved today.

The unfortunate part of the process that produced a budget recommendation that will be voted on at Council today is that the data was not made available.  Information that should have appeared on the screen didn’t appear on the screens.

what the financial impact will be to taxpayers was not made available.

We will see that information later today – but the public had a right to see it BEFORE it went to Council.

The rush to come up with a budget recommendation is disturbing.  Three days had been set aside to do the job properly. Council members chose to put in an eleven hour day.  That last two hours was not this Council at its best.

By Pepper Parr

February 12th, 2023

BURLINGTON. ON

 

Police need the public if they are to solve crimes. Every day the police get 911 calls reporting a driver who is weaving back and forth between lanes. It takes minutes to get a patrol car on the scene.

Media get all kinds of news tips – they get crank tips as well from people who have an axe to grind.

It was a call from a Lowville resident in 2013 about dump tricks that were muddying Appleby Line that resulted in our breaking the story about an attempt to build a much bigger airport in the Escarpment.

The Gazette writes a lot about the goings on at city hall. There are city staff that are not comfortable with the budget that is about to be passed.

We recently received a comment from a reader who used the name COBEmployee with an email address that proved to be valid.
If there are employees at city hall who think there is something we should know – create a phony email address and tell us what’s bothering you.

The City Communications department is in place the tell the city’s story the way they want it told.

Media has an honourable tradition of learning what is happening from people who think the truth is important.

The Mayor of Toronto resigned last week because media followed up on a piece of information that came their way.

We look forward to hearing from you – and to COB Employee – thanks.

COBEmployee is the name that was used.
COBEmployee@gmail.comwas the email that was used

The message: Pay is deposited automatically. Pay stubs, which are the details of the deposited pay, are mailed out.

We knew that – having it confirmed was useful.