 By James Smith.
BURLINGTON, ON. July 8, 2013.
James Smith usually goes on about transit or waxes eloquently about the Freeman Station which he is in the process of saving. Over the weekend he apparently stumbled across a city staff report about trees and – well he kind of lost it.
Guelph has one.
So does Oakville.
Toronto? Check.
Burlington? Nope.
I could be speaking about any number of things like reliable, well-funded Transit but in this case it looks like we won’t be getting a Private Tree Bylaw either if one reads the Private Tree By Law feasibility study about to go to council. Burlington it seems is keeping to its long and proud tradition as depicted on our Coat of Arms
 This tree canopy on Belvinia in the Roseland community is a large part of what the older part of the city is all about. Beautifully shaded streets with trees that add value to every house on the street. Most of these trees are on city owned property. To be fair, council has started, if it’s not too much of a bother, the process of maybe, possibly, sometime looking at a private Tree bylaw. Rather than ask staff to craft a tree by-law Council asked for a feasibility study, and in May they told City Staff “no recommendations”, instead we get “options”. The report spills a lot of ink on background, you know, like why trees are important, applicable statues, methodology, numbers of trees cut down every year by Arborists, (about 1,800) and the results of surveys and consultation. Oh, we’ve been consulted, we’ve been telephoned and online surveyed, research firms hired, and public meetings held. City staff tell us they have 71,571 “Touch Points” (- frankly I don’t like the sound of that term at all). 71,571 sounds like a big number until you read that 68,000 of these “Touch Points” come from the City’s version of Pravda- AKA- City Talk- the thing that only wonks like me, & high school civics students (reluctantly) read.
 Did I mention consultants? Burlington LOVES her consultants, Forum Research provided 31 pages of survey data that supports the community’s view that Trees are important!! Fifty Nine percent suggested more needs to be done to protect trees. A one page spread sheet and four paragraphs are included in City Staff’s portion of this feasibility study that superficially addresses what other cities do and do not do to protect trees on private property. What towns have them, number of times amended, number of annual infractions, fines, staff required, number of permits issued and fees, exemptions and a one word answer if the by law is effective.
Did I say we had meetings? Burlington city hall loves its meetings almost as much as it loves its consultants. Burlington carries on its proud tradition of meetings. Talking and meetings, give the impression that work is actually being done. One may point to all the meeting minutes, and reports and addenda produced from which a report is dutifully presented. It all looks like an issue is being tackled, decisions being formulated, and our staff resources put to good use.
Poppycock.
Here are City Staff’s Options:
Decide against implementing a Private Tree Bylaw
Direct Staff to Draft a Private Tree Bylaw
Increase Public Education and Awareness
Enhance public Participation and Involvement
Identify Partnerships with the community to Enhance Tree Planting Programs.
Delegate Responsibility for the protection of woodlots between 0.5 ha and 1.0 ha to Halton Region.
Wow, what did this cost in staff time and consultants? Furthermore, staff recommends all of these options, with the notable exception of actually crafting a tree by-law. Really. Burllingtonians, 59% of us want more tree protection, but City staff who were specifically asked not to included recommendations, opine that they don’t support a Private Tree By-Law! Out of whole cloth and with little or no back-up this statement heading appears: ” Support for a bylaw regulating trees on private property is low” In my book 59% is still pretty good, given that Don’t Support, and Don’t Know/Don’t Care are about equal.
 Every tree on this street is on private property. Every property owner has the rigght to cut down the tree on their property. If one comes down – so what? If five come down will those five people have lessened the value of the properties on the street? If they all come down – would anyone want to buy property on this street. That’s what a Private Tree Bylaw is about. So where does this statement come from? Could it be the many members of vested interests who made their way into the public meeting on the subject? Could it be the way the on-line questions were asked to give a desired result? One example: The on-line survey did not ask WOULD YOU SUPPORT A PRIVATE TREE BY-LAW but rather cunningly asked: “If the city of Burlington was considering a household tax increase to preserve and protect the urban forest, for which of the following initiatives would you like to see the funds allocated?” and seven choices were presented. Funnily enough, 47% replied they will not support a tax increase for any reason. I wonder how these folks feel about the $300,000 for taking the memorial out of Joe Brant?
 Lets look at this a little more critically, the city of Oakville have staff of exactly one person to run the tree by-law, Guelph has 4. if part of the reason staff have drawn the conclusions they have is a result of little support for taxes increased to be spent on one position, can we not find the money in existing programmes? What about permits and fines? Surely this can be a self funding office,! I would argue it could generate a surplus to fund some of the other wacky stuff city staff actually want to do. My conclusion is, for some reason, city staff don’t want the headache of an office that actually does stuff, but would rather play with Adobe Suite making marketing plans that the people of this town really don’t give a squirrel’s tail about. Otherwise why would they have devised a process designed to produce these results? Make no mistake, one just has to make it through the report and read how the on-line questions have been asked, to come to the same conclusion. It is either that or one must ask if city staff is up to the task.
After who knows how many staff hours, and work by well paid consultants, Burlington City council once again is set to live up to their tradition by abandoning anything close to a vision of what kind of city we should build. Heck, we can’t even follow good examples from other cities in the GTHA. Meanwhile mature trees are set to be cut down trees on Ghent Avenue, and through out the city.
Oh, and Burlington’s Coat of Arms? Why by now you should know that our Motto below the Shield reads: STAND BY
 By Ray Rivers
BURLINGTON, ON. July 6, 2013. We are all Albertans in this time of their crisis. Some called it a thousand-year flood but it’s enough to say it was unprecedented. And if you are looking for the blame game, there is lots to go around – building houses in a flood plain, failure to implement a flood management plan, timely reaction to weird weather and, of course, global climate change. Researchers with the US Department of Agriculture, half a decade ago, predicted the onset of extreme rainfall events for prairie grasslands. Isn’t that exactly what we just witnessed in Alberta?
By now you’d think that every informed person would understand the relationship between greenhouse gases (GHG) and climate change. According to Canada’s latest emissions inventory Alberta generates over a third of the country’s emissions, up by a half since 1990, and far more than any other province. As an aside, Ontario’s emissions have fallen over that period thanks, in part, to Dalton McGuinty’s energy plan.
Canada accounts for only a small percentage of global GHG emissions, though we are among the biggest culprits given our population. Once upon a time Canada supported the Kyoto protocol, the international treaty on emission reductions. We had committed to reduce our emissions by 6% but were failing miserably. When our emissions sky-rocketed by 19% Mr. Harper finally pulled the plug. Why make promises you have no intention of keeping?
Most of Canada’s GHG emissions come from fossil fuels and the second largest source is oil and gas production, which is spiraling upwards as Alberta develops its tar sands. According to James Hansen, one of the most credible climate change scientists on the planet, there is twice as much carbon in the tar sands as in conventional oil. It’s like burning a second barrel of oil just to get the first one.
The tar sands reserves are huge, but remote and thus barely developed, since the bitumen needs to get to a market. Building the Keystone XL pipeline to refineries in Texas would solve that problem and add a million barrels of production a day. So, Hansen is a fierce critic of the pipeline. He believes that the building the pipeline would be “game over” for the environment and has urged US President Obama not to approve it for that reason. Obama has expressed his concerns about climate change but the betting is split on whether he’ll approve it or not.
The PM, like me, was trained as an economist. However, I suspect he missed the lecture on externalities – the law of unintended consequences, a concept that goes back to Adam Smith. The toxic slag heaps, the poisoned and dying wildlife, and the warming of the planet are all unintended consequences of developing the tar sands. The profits from the tar sands go to the oil companies but the unintended consequences fall on the rest of us.
Mr. Harper has spent over a billion new dollars on the military since he came to office, yet on this topic, he turns a deaf ear and a blind eye. Back in 2010 he was warned by senior officers that “Climate change has the potential to be a global threat of unparalleled magnitude and requires early, aggressive action in order to overcome its effects.” But Stephen Harper has been a climate change denier and out of touch with this reality. And in a vulnerable northern nation, like Canada, that is scary.
Climate change is global, The consequences could happen anywhere but the stars aligned to make it Alberta this summer. Albertans are like most other Canadians and care about the risks we take with the environment and the legacy we leave our children. But Mr. Harper is a transplanted Albertan, maybe that accounts for his attitude, beliefs and prejudices. So don’t expect the PM to move proactively on an environmental issue he doesn’t believe in. Rather, Canada will have to wait for the US – for Mr. Obama’s decision on the Keystone pipeline – before it get’s worse.
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat after which he decided to write and has become a political animator. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. July 5th, 2013. The most recent report on lake water conditions from the Region doesn’t have much good news for those who want to swim.
People visiting Burlington’s Beachway Park will see water-testing equipment set up on the north beach this summer.
The City of Burlington has partnered with Environment Canada’s National Water Research Institute, Western University and the University of Waterloo on a research project to better understand how groundwater quality contributes to test results at Great Lakes beaches.
Burlington is committed “to providing beaches that people can use for swimming and other recreation to contribute to an active, healthy lifestyle,” said Chris Glenn, director of parks and recreation.
This new testing will be in addition to water-quality testing conducted by Halton Region. During the summer months, monitoring is done once a week, or more if necessary. Beachway Park will be sampled more frequently due to the pilot project.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. Jul5 5th, 2013. We know about the damage the land fill being piled up on the site of the Burlington Executive Air Park has done.
What is it all in aid of? Are they really building a bigger airport out there? And if there is going to be a bigger airport does the wider community not have some say in what takes place?
Yes, airports are regulated by the federal government – there are very good reasons for that. But methinks the Air Park people have really bent those rules and using them as skirts to hind behind.
The Air Park has never really had a business plan or at least not the kind of business plan that would keep city officials happy. There had to be some kind of a plan to keep their bankers satisfied when they got a $4.5 million mortgage but other than knowing there is a mortgage on the property not much more is known.
 This was the market Vince Rossi wanted to attract to his airport. As what has now become a city problem works its way through the various departments at city hall it is becoming clear that Rossi and whoever is advising him never did know how to approach city hall and talk up their project.
 The more of these, the better was the mission – the idea had merit but the team assembled didn’t have the smarts to pull it off – then the city found out and that may have been the begining of the end to the dream. Rossi did have one meeting with Mayor Goldring. He was intrigued but told Rossi at the time to come back with a much more detailed plan. He never came back. At the time Goldring wasn’t sure if Rossi was looking for financial support or if we he was just getting a briefing.
At the time, Goldring was still quite new to his job and may have failed in not red flagging the project and keeping a watch on it. He didn’t. His former chief of staff Frank McKeown would have had some very clear thoughts on the project assuming he sat in on the discussion the Mayor had but McKeown is no longer on staff.
Rossi was dumping landfill at that time and he just continued doing just that. And for the past number of years, since 2008 at least, Vince Rossi has been getting away with it – and it is going to take some effort to bring a halt to what he is doing and then to clean up the damage.
The “airport crowd” those people who rent hangers, own light aircraft, like to fly and follow the rules appear to be a very decent bunch of people. They are being tarred with the brush that many want to use on Mr. Rossi.
When Glenn Grenier, legal counsel for the Burlington Executive Air Park, appeared before council to state his client’s case, his objective seemed to be to scare the city by telling them what they were up against and he couldn’t seem to understand why the city didn’t read his 10 page plus letter and then just fold.
The city manager, on three different occasions, advised the Mayor to move on with the meeting and dismiss the lawyer. He has nothing for us stated Jeff Fielding – he represents the interests of his client.
When advised that he had just five minutes to delegate he told council that he would need more than five minutes – he didn’t get it.
The city knew next to nothing about what is going on out on the air field. The only source of information was what the locals can pass along and according to Blair Lancaster, ward Councillor for the north Burlington community, they weren’t telling her anything. Lancaster says she didn’t hear anything from the local people until March 5th of this year.
During the Q&A portion of the council meeting Grenier did say that the Air Park’s plans were on their web site. Councillor Lancaster commented that what she saw on the web site were not plans – “not much more than a wish list” from her point of view. Meed Ward, ever the techie. added that the web site was no longer on-line. Grenier said there were technical difficulties. He could also have said they were experiencing some air turbulence.
At the end of the council meeting the Mayor said this was serious stuff and the city would be moving quickly to get something done – even though at the time they really didn’t know what they could do.
 Both the Region and Conservation Halton bought the argument that they had no jurisdiction but Rossi appears to have kept them informed. It wasn’t until Vanessa Warren went public with a delegation to Burlington that the fat was in the fire. Above is one of the early site plans he submitted The issue would get taken up at the Regional level while the city scurried about to meet with the residents and hopefully get Vince Rossi into the room as well.
Vanessa Warren spoke to a Regional government committee and heard nice words and real, genuine concern from members of that Council.
Burlington took three weeks to determine what its strategy should be. They are in a very tricky situation and have to deal with someone who cares not a whit about the community he does business in.
In the middle of all this Rossi announces that the company doing the landfill work has a contract to dump asphalt stripped from the 407 and will be doing so all night long as well. Everyone was astounded at the news. That contract appears to have gone somewhere else.
Tim Crawford appeared before Regional Council to delegate against the decision to have the southern gate to the project closed and was mauled by a number of Regional Council members. (Every member of the Burlington city council is also a member of the Regional Council.)
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton explained to Crawford that the one thing Halton had going for it was its “livability” and they weren’t about to see that lost.
In an interview after his Regional delegation he talked about how he got involved in the air park development. He, like just about everyone involved in this project, is a pilot. He saw great potential for the air park and knew that the Kovachick family wanted to sell the property when Vic Kovachik died.
 Rossi has always had a big picture and as his plans matured he bought up the pieces of land he needed. There was always a plan – what was missing was the capacity to execute on the plan. Crawford had an idea and pulled together a meeting of some 60 pilots and pitched them on the idea of forming a group that would buy the property. Of the 60 people it turned out less than ten were prepared to write a cheque. One of the ten was Vince Rossi who at the time was just another pilot with hanger space.
He seemed to be able to raise the funds and eventually bought the property from the Kovachik family – then quickly learned that the operation was a money loser. Rossi, scrambling to find something, anything that would produce revenue, looked into storing thousands of cars on the site as part of a used car auction operation.
That deal didn’t work out.
 The helicopter training operation was going to go in the location in the lower left corner of this drawing. It would have been 75 yards from Barbara Sheldon’s front door. Given the air port is a federally regulated operation – the city’s bylaws had no impact. Then there was a potential contract to train hundreds of Chinese pilots how to fly helicopters. That contract never got signed.
Then there was going to be a cell phone tower that Rogers wanted to put up; that opportunity created huge resistance in the community and after considerable public resistance and a noisy public meeting at city hall in January of 2009 the proposal to build a 65 metre (213-foot) cell tower on a piece of the Burlington Airpark in the north end of the city was withdrawn” and the company looked for and found a different location.
Crawford talked of his meetings with the Burlington Economic Development Corporation which didn’t go very far. “We met with them but all they seemed to want to do was sell us a page of advertising in a publication they were involved in”. Crawford went on to say that he and Rossi couldn’t get any traction with the economic developers but added that they did buy a page of advertising.
Vince Rossi was able to catch the ear of Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion. News that the Buttonville airport was going to close was known by everyone and, as Crawford explains it, “the distance between Burlington and Toronto is basically the same as the distance between Buttonville and Toronto – that made a Burlington operation a natural business opportunity. And an airport in Burlington would be seen as a plus for Mississauga.
Problem with all this thinking, according to Monte Dennis, one of the original participants in the POP (People or Planes) fight that stopped the Pickering airport plans back in 1972, is that “small airports don’t make any money”; something Vince Rossi is learning. So far he has financed his operation by being paid to have landfill dumped on the site. Many think that the game is really to make money from landfill and when that comes to an end to walk away from the project. Those who know Vince Rossi will tell you that he is passionate about this project and does want to see a bigger airport built.
In a presentation document used by Burlington Executive Air Park the following information is set out:
An estimated $30 Million funding project will provide the airport with, but not limited to the below enhancements that will emphasize the importance of the airport to not only the community, but to all of the GTA.
Further land acquisition to enhance the main runway
Construct a new terminal building and associated aircraft movement area
Complete construction of a new West side taxiway servicing the main runway
Service and construct the west side infrastructure
Enhance safety and protect airspace surrounding the airport
Provide services for Transient aircraft
Construct hangars and office space for GTAA Small and medium business’s
Also in the same presentation document:
 It was a great idea that is about to become mired in an expensive court case. It didn’t have to be this way. Burlington Airport is in transition in an effort to provide the current vital transportation and social services we currently offer, as well as move the airport to the next necessary level to meet the growing demand. As a privately owned business, the financial assistance provided for infrastructure to the municipal owned airports is unavailable, yet we serve the community in the very same manner. Of course, positioning the airport for the future requires focus, precise planning and funding. To date all the funding has come from the Airport Owner, Mr. Rossi, but the ability to meet the future service demand will need other sources of infrastructure funding. Mr. Rossi has invested near 4 Million dollars into infrastructure listed below to enhance the facility.
Rossi has been consistent since the year he bought the airport – his operation is federally regulated and he does not have to comply with provincial, regional or municipal rules or regulations.
The Region and the Conservation Authority appear to have bought into that line of thinking and they have done next to nothing, until Vanessa Warren delegated to Burlington’s city council June 10th. Rossi has run up against a city administration that is determined to be both informed and involved.
The determination of this difference of opinion could we decide what happens to northern Burlington – it will also determine what Vanessa Warren and her husband are able to do with the equestrian school they want to develop – the planned runway extension will be yards from the riding ring they are currently building.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 4, 2013— For a document that was to have been available the day after city Council met on Tuesday but didn’t see the light of day until late Thursday afternoon – the statement put out really don’t reveal much.
All we know is that the three lawyers met and agreed to disagree. What took place was that three legal warriors got a chance to look each other over and get a sense as to where each was coming from and then return to their offices to figure out what to do next.
In an agreed upon statement – here is what we have been told:
“Mr. Blue and Mr. Grenier clearly stated their respective legal positions on the applicability of the city’s site alteration bylaw to the airport but agreed to reserve that legal issue until they and representatives of the city and the airport can meet to discuss a possible agreement to address the concerns raised by the city about best management practices for fill at the airport. If an agreement cannot be reached within a reasonable time, the legal issue will be revisited.”
Air Park owner Vince Rossi released a document at the Tuesday city council meeting in which he set out what he was prepared to do and what he needed in return. Basically he said I will do some things you want me to do but you have to agree not to sue me.
What is troubling about the Rossi memorandum is that it came out of a meeting between Rossi, and his associate Tim Crawford and Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster.
Why is Lancaster hammering out an agreement with a business person the city is having serious problems with? Lancaster is seen by many in north Burlington as already seriously compromised. They see their ward council member as being in the pocket of the owner of the Air Park.
 Vince Rossi and Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster sit beside each other at community meeting which many found offensive given that Rossi is the person damaging local property. Lancaster explained later that she needed to sit in a chair with a good back because she had been in a very minor auto collision and that Mr. Rossi chose to sit beside her once she was seated. The view through the large barn doors is to the property onto which Rossi wants to extend his airport runway. Lancaster clearly has a close relationship with Vince Rossi and both meets and speaks with him far more often that she speaks with the north Burlington residents. She did tour three properties on Tuesday and then sat through a CLOSED session of Council at which lawyer Ian Blue set out what the issues were as he saw them. Given the nature of the relationship with Rossi, should Lancaster have taken part in a closed session where strategy is being determined?
In the past Lancaster has stepped away from the Council table when issues related to the downtown core were being discussed; she is the owner of a business in the downtown core.
 Former Beauty Queen still knows how to pose for the camera. Ward 6 Councillor at an Air Park picnic last summer which she turned into a constituency meeting. Lancaster has held community events at the Air Park which we have attended. We were of the impression that Lancaster was holding her constituency event at the Air Park, which we thought was a neat idea – great place for a photo –op and we took a number of pictures. The fact was Lancaster was tagging along at an annual open house the Air Park holds each year. That was never made clear to media people.
 King Paving’s John Hutter in the foreground along with Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster and two city hall staff look at the landfill next to the fence line on the Cousin’s farm property. Hutter said that the drainage culvert that dumps onto the Cousin’s property runs across the full width of the airline property at this point. Had the city had site plan approval this would never have been permitted – and where a drainage culvert runs has nothing to do with the operate of an airport. The culvert is 20 feet + beneath the surface. Do we have a situation where Lancaster is closer to the person the city is close to taking legal action against than she is to the residents she was elected to represent?
Lancaster pointed out in an interview that she got less than 100 votes from north Burlington in the 2010 election. She will be lucky to get one vote from that community next time out.
 Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster trudging through tall grass on the way to look at the landfill dumped on the Cousins Appleby Line far, Many thought Lancaster should have made the trip months ago to see the damage done. Lancaster did not visit the properties that have sustained the damage until July 2nd and maintains that she did not hear a word from any resident until March 5th of this year. Several residents were aghast when they heard this and are in the process of scowering their records to put forward evidence that refutes the statement made.
Barbara Sheldon didn’t think the statement the city put out was “as strong and aggressive an approach as I had hoped it would be.” “Every day” she added Rossi continues to bring in truckload after truckload – today there had to be a couple of hundred trucks. Now he’s got carte blanche for at least another two weeks. Sheldon believes the meeting on July 17 or 18th “will be stalled by Rossi’s people until early August, if not later.”
Burlington city hall tends to shut down for much of August.
The city has hired Toronto lawyer Ian Blue to work with the city’s legal team. Blue met July 3 with Glenn Grenier and Brent McPherson, the lawyers representing the airport, and will meet again with airport representatives on July 17 or 18.
Blue is Ian Blue, the lawyer Burlington has hired and Grenier, is Glenn Grenier, a Burlington resident and a pilot and the lawyer the Air Park has hired. Vince Rossi has beefed up his legal team with an additional lawyer from the same firm: Macmillan. It will take two lawyers to one-up Ian Blue.
City council has seen Grenier before when he over-reached to impress Council with all he knew about things aeronautic and basically saying the city didn’t have a hope in hades of winning so give up now.
City manager Jeff Fielding wasn’t buying that and on three separate occasions during the Council meeting advised the Mayor to dismiss Grenier and send him on his way.
What has Burlington totally ticked is the way the Air Park people have handed the situation. At that meeting Councillor Craven asked Grenier: “Why is your client such a lousy neighbour”.
The city’s legal strategy will have been determined – we will see very little of that strategy – these guys are great poker players. “Burlington” said the city media release ” is moving forward with a legal strategy to address concerns regarding noise and fill activities related to construction at the Burlington Executive Airport on Bell School Line.”
Blue will look for ways to chip away at the “federal jurisdiction” the Air Park has been relying upon the thumb their noses at the city, and make no mistake about this, the very senior level of city hall is furious with the way they are being treated.
 To see a piece of construction equipment this close to your kitchen window was seen as a deliberate and provocative attempt to intimidate property owner Barbara Sheldon. The Mayor is taking a softer political line with statements suggesting that can all be worked out through dialogue and compromise but people like Barbra Sheldon don’t see much compromise when there is a massive piece of machinery parked less than 50 yards from her kitchen window on a hill of landfill that she doesn’t think should be there in the first place.
Most in the community see the parking of that equipment as a deliberate and provocative intimidating act on the part of Vince Rossi.
Mayor Goldring called the damage done appalling when he first saw it.
The city arranged for a meeting of the Rural Burlington Green Coalition as a first step – which may be the only step between the community and the air park owner. Vanessa Warren believes a community wide meeting needs to take place to explain to a wider public the seriousness of this problem. Should there even be an airport in north Burlington and if the answer is yes – then how big should that airport be?
Many believe this is a decision the city and Region should be making and not an individual entrepreneur who has found a loophole in the law that allows him to bypass any city involvement.
The city has hired Toronto lawyer Ian Blue to work with the city’s legal team. Blue met July 3 with Glenn Grenier and Brent McPherson, the lawyers representing the airport, and will meet again with airport representatives on July 17 or 18.
The work being done now came out of a direction from city council June 10th, to develop a legal strategy. It was among the seven recommendations approved by City Council, which include:
The city’s legal staff will develop a legal strategy to address the concerns expressed by City Council and citizens regarding issues with the Burlington Executive Airport and report back to City Council on July 2, 2013
The city’s director of engineering will, by September, review and update the city’s site alteration bylaw 6-2003 to reflect best practices
Mayor Rick Goldring and City Manager Jeff Fielding will jointly contact the federal Minister of the Environment to request soil testing of the Burlington Executive Airport property
Mayor Goldring will work with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities to lobby the federal Minister of Transportation and other relevant ministries to develop a process to allow municipalities to have input on airpark land filling operations and expansion plans
The city’s director of finance will arrange a meeting with MPAC representatives and the affected property owners beside the airport property regarding current property value assessment
The general manager of development and infrastructure will request the owner of the Burlington Executive Airport to provide the city with a complete site and grading plan that minimizes impacts on neighbouring properties and will request that the owner modify existing grades to minimize impact on neighbouring properties
The director of planning and building will have staff enforce the city’s dust suppression bylaw 50-2008 that requires consideration be given to neighbouring properties when construction processes generate dust. Staff will also enforce the provisions of the nuisance and noise control bylaw including after-hours enforcement and issuing offence notices as necessary.
The city is grinding away with the limited regulatory tools it has while legal counsel looks for chinks in the Air Park armour.
The Air Park continues to dump landfill on the site.
The residents fume.
 By Staff.
BURLINGTON, ON. July 4, 2013. Shortly after 4:30 p.m., yesterday afternoon, an off-duty Halton officer was shopping in a grocery store in the area of Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road, Burlington, when he observed a man attempting to purchase pre-paid credit cards with what appeared to be a counterfeit credit card. After several attempts to complete the transaction, the man was unsuccessful and left the store.
The officer observed the man get into a waiting vehicle containing two other occupants and flee westbound on Upper Middle Road. The vehicle was stopped by responding officers in the area of William O’Connell Boulevard and a quantity of fraudulently obtained merchandise, counterfeit credit cards and associated documents were found within.
The three men face a multitude of charges including: Conspiracy to Commit Fraud, Possession of Property Obtained by Crime, Personation, Possession of Counterfeit Credit Card, Possession of Counterfeit Mark (two counts) and Fraud Under $5000 (two counts).
ACCUSED:
Azki MOHAMED (21 years) of Burlington
Nisanth VISITHTHIRAMOORTHY (20 years) of Toronto
Mithunan VAMATHEVAN (19 years) of Woodbridge
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 3, 2013. Imagine! A city Councillor with more than 20 years at the Council table asking you for your opinion on what gets you excited about living in the rural area?
John Taylor represents Ward 3 which takes in that part of rural Burlington on the west side of the city limits over to Walker’s Line then from Derry Road down Dundas with a patch that reaches down to the QEW. This is John Taylor country – and it is served very well.
 John Taylor has been at the business of municipal politics for a long time. He once thought of seeking higher office – but that time has past. He work diligently for the people of ward 3 and now wants their opinion on living in the northern part of the city. Taylor is seldom at a loss to give you an opinion on whatever happens to be crossing his mind – even if you don’t ask for that opinion.
Burlington publishes City Talk, a news magazine, three times a year filled with “fluff” for the most part but it does serve as a link from city council to the wider community. Waste of good paper from our point of view but that doesn’t mean they are going to stop publishing the thing.
Each council member gets some space to put in whatever they want to tell their constituents – just the good stuff though. You will have to look very hard to find anything the least bit controversial or provocative between those covers. Pure vanilla – paid for with your tax dollars.
 The ladies love him. He charms them and he listens to them; never patronizes them. That’s why he gets smiles like this one from Georgina Black, the consultant who led the then new city council through its Strategic Plan back in 2011. Taylor is taking a slightly different approach to his part of City Talk – he wants to know what it is about living in rural Burlington that gets you excited. He has a number of reasons for asking the residents of the northern part of the city what gets them excited about – there is currently something to get very excited about – the attempt on the part of an entrepreneur to build an airport with little, if any, input from city hall or the economic development corporation.
Taylor is looking for your opinion. This is an excellent time for everyone in the city to tell a council member what is important about the rural part of the city.
 Lot of hay taken off these fields – but not very many cattle out there. There are those within the political go on about the agricultural industry – there is no such things as an agricultural “industry” in rural Burlington. There are a couple of very successful fruit operations and the equestrian people have made that part of the city a great place to operate. Don’t expect to very many cattle in that part of the city. Couple of places where there are some chickens and a several that have a couple of pigs. Some fruit operations but for a stretch of land that is pretty good from a soil perspective – we don’t really exploit that opportunity.
A lot of hay is taken off those fields but you will seldom see any soybeans and not a lot of corn. Farming in north Burlington is a bit of a stretch. Nice place to live – well not if you are on Appleby Line with all those trucks trundling load after load of land fill into the airport development.
So – what is there to be excited about north of Dundas/Highway 407? Councillor Taylor would certainly like to hear what you have to say.
Several months ago the city`s planning department held a half day Saturday session during which people gathered to talk about rural Burlington in what was billed a Rural Summit. What was very interesting, and revealing, was that the problems surrounding the dumping of landfill on the airport property didn’t get mentioned.
Perhaps this appeal for the things that excite people will bring more to the surface.Put your thoughts together and send them along to his very able assistant Sheri Wainman.
 By Debra Pickfield.
BURLINGTON, ON. July 2, 2013. They were doing something right.
It was 9:30pm on Friday night at the 7-11 at Guelph Line and Prospect St. First day off school, long days of sunlight, the weather cooling off after a few warm days.
Teenagers were in the store collecting their snacks for parties and I happened to stand beside three 11-12 year old boys with long-boards, trying to decide what drinks to buy with the little money they collectively had.
 Carmelita, cashier at the 7-11 convenience store at Guelph Line and Prospect, knows the three boys who were in her store. we’d like to know who they are. Can you help? They raced over to the refrigerator to pick their drink and in their haste were a little too clumsy and before you knew it a drink was on the floor leaking away.
What happened next totally surprised me. Fully expecting them to leave the bottle or hide it and then take another one, the leader of the three boys said “OK – we’ll have to pay for this one – let’s pick it up and tell them what happened.” Not one of the friends disagreed or complained.
They did exactly what they said they would do, and I was trying to suppress a grin that desperately wanted to come out. These kids did what I struggle with – taking accountability for their actions even though no one was looking.
I wish I knew who they were – their parents/guardians/teachers need to know what an exceptional job they are doing raising three great young boys.
Carmelita, the cashier at the 7-11, knows the boys well since they are often in the store. She put it well – “they are always honest about how much candy they buy – some people try to sneak more – but these boys always play it straight”
Thanks guys – you couldn’t know how good you made me feel to watch that scene unfold the way it did. In my world you absolutely rock.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, JULY 3, 2013) For the second year, Art in Action presented a scholarship to a Halton Region High School student intending to pursue a full-time, post-secondary education this fall.
 Samples of the work on display during the Art in Action studio tour – always during the first weekend in November. Art in Action is a self-guided studio tour that takes place every year on the first weekend of November in Burlington. If art and craft appreciation mean anything to you – note the dates. The tour will introduce you to new art and get you out of the house and meet really interesting people. This year will be our third and we wouldn’t miss it.
 Darlene Throop, Art In Action, Michelle Nguyen, Scholarship Winner and Regan Heffernan, Principal, Robert Bateman. This year’s winner Michelle Nguyen, a student at Robert Bateman High School, received a scholarship of $1,500.00 as well as free admission to participate in the Art in Action November Studio Tour.
Nguyen intends to pursue her artistic and design interests and the University of Guelph in their Landscape Architecture program in September,
Burlington public and catholic schools were invited to participate by putting forth an applicant and including three digital images in the application. The turn out this year was less than promising, (shame on those schools who didn’t dig a little and encourage their students to take part). The Art in Action group feels there will be a better response next year. Let us hope they are right.
There are very few privately funded groups that use their own funds to provide scholarships for promising students. Things like this need to be both encouraged and responded to.
For additional information contact, Teresa Seaton at tmseaton@cogeco.ca
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 3rd, 2013. They went into closed session and stayed there for well over an hour while media cooled their heals in the foyer.
This was the first time city council members got a chance to talk one on one with the legal hired guns the city has hired to steer them through a very sticky set of situations related to the Air Park problem.
 Ian Blue, a lawyer with an expensive pedigree that will serve the city well in a critical fight. Ian Blue of the firm Gardiner Roberts is said to have significant experience in constitutional law matters, including experience in airport fill disputes in Ontario and was involved in the New Tecumseth and Scugog disputes. These two were situations where land fill on airport lands were part of the difference of opinions that brought the lawyers into the room.
Blue is a Queen’s Counsel, an appointment he was given in 1985 when the honorific mattered, and a senior counsel and advisor on complex energy, electricity and environmental law matters that have administrative-law, business-law and constitutional-law issues.
He has acted for both private sector and public sector clients. He has appeared before all levels of courts in Ontario, Alberta, Nova Scotia and the Yukon and before both levels of the Federal Court. He also has appeared before the Supreme Court of Canada. In addition, he has appeared before the National Energy Board, the Ontario Energy Board, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board, before arbitration panels and other regulatory bodies.
Blue has been a Bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada and as a past Chair of the Administrative Law and Environmental Law Sub-Sections of the Ontario Bar Association. These are significant positions within the legal profession. This lawyer would have run circles around Glenn Grenier, the lawyer Vince Rossi has hired to spin tales of what the city can and cannot do in terms of regulating what happens to land in the Escarpment.
Blue is also a prolific legal writer and speaker on practice and legal topics and is a contributor to various lawyers’ publications. He has also assisted in drafting federal legislation and Ontario legislation and was the draftsman of the Gas Distribution Act, 1999, as well as regulations made under that act, for the Province of New Brunswick.
 Ian Blue studied at Dalhousie University – one of the very best law schools in the country. This guy writes the law that the rest of us have to follow.
He is costing the city a very pretty penny but they would appear to have gotten the right guy to steer council through very complex matters.
Now – why does all this matter? After all – there are really not that many people impacted by what Vince Rossi is doing with his Air Park. If that is your thought – re-think.
What Vince Rossi is attempting to do is completely circumvent the city’s authority to determine how the community grows and what kind of community Burlington wants to be.
If there is an Air Park along the lines of what Vince Rossi wants – that decision gets made by the community.
 If Burlington is going to have the kind of air port Vince Rossi wants to develop – Vince Rossi is going to have to do that development in concert with the city and follow the by-laws the city has in place. economic development is a city and Regional domain – not that of an individual entrepreneur. Mr Rossi has some expensive lessons to learn. This city did not want a highway rammed through the Escarpment and it fought to ensure the provincial government listened to what we had to say.
Burlington had grown to the point where they no longer wanted to be an extraction site for the aggregate industry and fought to ensure that Nelson Aggregates was not given another permit to pen up a second quarry. That fight cost the city millions but there will not be another quarry.
Now the city has to fight again to prevent an entrepreneur from deciding, by himself, how this city is to develop.
If there is to be an airport of any significant side – that decision will be made by city council and the Regional Council who will inform and educate its citizens will decide what kind of development takes place.
 Vince Rossi, owner of the Burlington Executive Air Park at a meeting with members of the Rural Burlington Green Coalition The public is not yet fully aware of just what the ramifications are should an airport that is anywhere near what Vince Rossi wants to build. Mr. Rossi has to learn that the “community” makes these decisions – not a single entrepreneur who has managed to convince a bank to loan him $4.5 million. The TD Bank, the people who put the $4.5 million mortgage on the property, has some explaining to do and in the fullness of time they will pay a price for their decision.
For the immediate future, the city can take some comfort in know they have someone with the depth and the experience to take on this task. The man is also incredibly well-connected. He served as Legislative Counsel to a former President of the Privy Council, the Honourable Alan J. MacEachen, P.C. who was Government House Leader. THAT is impressive. It would seem evident that Ian Blue sees merit in the battle Burlington has on its hands and has decided to bring his talent to bear on that problem. Lawyers of this calibre get their pick of what they choose to do; that Blue decided to take this one on over many others that would have come his way speaks volumes.
Finally Ian Blue studied at Dalhousie University where Constitutional law is taught better than anywhere else in the country. Blue also served in the Canadian Army. The information in his profile suggests that he is a Maritimer as well – and that never hurts.
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 2, 2013. Somehow we missed one – there were xx people arrested and charged with various offenses last week and we reported on that occurrence but Shane Cooper got left out of that editorial roundup. We wouldn’t want Mr. Cooper to feel left out – so here is what they nailed him for:
Shane COOPER (41 years) of Carlisle.
Conspiracy to traffic (2 counts)
Trafficking (Cocaine)
Trafficking (Marihuana) 2 counts
Possession for the Purpose (Marihuana) 3 counts
Possession for the purpose (Cannabis resin) 2 counts
Possession of Cocaine
Possession of Oxycodone
Possession Hydromorphone
Produce a controlled substance.
The first part of that series of arrests is detailed in a previous report.
Police in the Region spend the bulk of their time on traffic offenses and drug raids which usually includes the Guns & Gangs Guys as well. The two seem to go together.
Elsewhere in the paper we pass along the view of our columnist Ray Rivers who thinks some drugs should be legalized.
 By Ray Rivers
BURLINGTON, ON. July 2, 2013 Canada was the first nation in the world to ban cannabis, back in 1923, driven to action by a transplanted Alberta magistrate, eugenicist and racist, pen-named ‘Janey Canuck’. A prolific Maclean’s Magazine columnist whose book, ‘The Black Candle’, warned about the dangers of “Chinese opium peddlers” and “Negro drug dealers;” she convinced legislators to adopt prohibition without a word of public debate.
So it was fitting that Maclean’s, in a recent issue on cannabis, reviewed the facts, acknowledged the error of its ways, and is now calling for legalization. The facts can be summarized as follows:
1. Safety. Well nothing is perfectly safe, but puffing ‘weed’ is safer than drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, or adding salt to your steak. It is not addictive, doesn’t ‘gateway’ to other drugs, and smoking doesn’t cause cancer – in fact, may protect against it.
2. Wasting resources. I thought this would appeal to fiscal conservatives, but alas! Enforcement is costly, so is imprisonment and so are the courts. People behind bars aren’t contributing to the economy, they are draining it.
3. Protecting Children. Despite prohibition, more Canadian children have tried ‘grass’ than anywhere else in the west, including decriminalized Spain.
4. Eroding societal values. If the law is an ass, people will ignore it and hate the cops. Legalization would kill black-markets and gangsters faster than a speeding bullet. And aren’t prisons just training academies for inmates wanting to become better criminals?
5. Provincial budgets. The LCBO gives1.2 billion dollars a year to the provincial government, in addition to the 13% HST and 10% licensing fee. Why wouldn’t we want to regulate the production and sales of recreational cannabis and use the revenues to pay for public services?
‘The Black Candle’ was wrong, but it is never too late to do the right thing. Back in the early 1970‘s The Royal Commission on the Non-Medical Use of Drugs (LeDain Report) called for de-criminalization of cannabis. In 2002 a Senate committee reported that “… drug legislation was largely based on a moral panic, racist sentiment…” and also called for legalization. Chretien and Martin started drifting towards de-criminalization but then Stephen Harper, another transplanted Albertan, like Ms. Canuck, came along to reverse progress. Drug enforcement is back big time. Today growing six hemp plants will get you an automatic 6 months in the big-house.
Richard Nixon’s war on drugs in the US was an absolute failure. Jails are half-filled with drug inmates, drug crime is at an all-time high and drug use in America has never been higher. In light of this, many states have taken action to start decriminalizing drugs. Washington and Colorado, are legalizing, developing infrastructure and rules for cultivation and marketing. The US feds, like their Canadian counter parts, have ultimate jurisdiction, but they’re not interfering. Is that because their last three presidents were self-proclaimed potheads?
Stephen Harper claims to never have smoked ‘pot’. So his head should be clear – right? Not at all. Last year, addressing the Summit of the Americas, he admitted “…that the current approach is not working. But it is not clear what we should do.” Still ignorance hasn’t deterred him from going back to what doesn’t work – aggressive criminalization.
Since the Conservatives came to power in 2006, drug-related arrests have mushroomed by 41% and over 400,000 people have been arrested. And, Harper can’t even articulate why. In a 2010 YouTube clip the PM miserably failed to make a single coherent point in defense of his neo-con drug policy – just ended up mumbling something about drug cartels.
Now, if Harper is concerned about drug cartels he needs to visit Mexico. That country used to have one of the toughest policies on drugs anywhere, which ultimately led to its deadly drug wars. The wars became so vicious that the Mexican government has now decriminalized small quantities of all major narcotics.
Of course, Mr. Harper should have gone to learn the Mexican experience before he saddled us with his ill-advised, retro drug laws. And why not take along his conservative ally, Rob Ford? Toronto’s controversial mayor might be interested to know that smoking crack-cocaine is now legal in Mexico.
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat after which he decided to write and has become a political animator. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington where he ran against Cam Jackson in 1995, the year Mike Harris and the Common Sense Revolution swept the province.
The views of the author are his alone
 REVISED
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 26, 2013 The city has done its best in meeting with the residents in north Burlington, both individually and with the coalition that was put together by Vanessa Warren and called the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition (RBGC) that is pulls LARA, PERL, and COPE into one tent. The north Burlington community did the same thing with the Niagara GTA fight – they formed SEHC – Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition that had more than 10,000 people who would sign petitions, take road side signs and write letters.
City Hall for its part is happier working with coalitions – it gives them a pipeline to a large number of people with clearly defined leadership.
The RBGC has worked diligently to press their case against the expansion work being done at the airport at both city and Regional council meetings. Burlington is certainly with its residencts, and the Region, while certainly not fully behind the residents, is not doing anything to get in their way. The Conservation Authority seems to be lost in a fog that it created.
 What makes the Halton Region work is that it is a livable community. You won’t find this kind of a property in many other places in the province that are as close as we are to Toronto. We are going to have to fight to keep it this way. The case for no airport was summed up best at a Regional Council meeting with Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said the thing that makes our part of the world what it is – is that this is a livable place – and with an airport this large – we will no longer be livable.
The Buttonville Airport is due to close – the Air Park people saw an opportunity and rather than work within the system they chose to use the fact that they are indeed federally regulated and played that angle to get them to where they are today. But that gig might be up. The municipalities are up in arms, the Region will go along with them. Is there a provincial point of view? Noted is that there hasn’t been a word from Burlington MPP Jane McKenna – expect her to come out with a “if there are jobs then it is good”.
The residents now know they are going to have to do what north Burlington always has to do – get into the trenches and fight just the way they did with the Niagara GTA highway battle and the fight to prevent the Nelson quarry from getting a permit to open up a second quarry site.
This situation came to the city in a bit of a rush even though the dumping of landfill had been going on since 2008 – the problem d idn’t manage to reach the ears of city council until around March of this year. There are residents who claim they have been writing and making phone calls and getting little in the way of response from Councillor Blair Lancaster in whose ward the development is taking place.
The changes are not easily recognized when you drive along Appleby Line. There are just the two property owners who have been badly hurt by landfill that comes right up against their property lines.
One resident whose property is not currently impacted by the landfill but will be if the proposed extension of the north south runway goes forward, formed a coalition and began making delegations to the city. That put the fat into the fire and the city began to look into the problem – and found there was a massive jurisdictional mess that no one fully understood.
However, when city hall began to look at the problem it did manage to move rather quickly. City manager Jeff Fielding put the problem into the hands of city manager Scott Stewart. One of the first things Stewart did was organize a meeting of the residents and the air park owner Vince Rossi which, in the words of Vanessa Warren, chair of RBGC, “it was pretty futile”. Warren doesn’t believe there is going to be any progress with Rossi.
The city decided to move forward on several levels which included trying to work with the air park owners, then working with the newly formed coalition (RBGC) and at the same time develop an overall strategy that would include determining what the legal options were.
The Burlington Executive Air Park had sent legal counsel to city hall to explain that the air park was regulated by the federal minister of transportation and that they did not have to comply with whatever rules, regulations and by laws the city or the Region had in place.
 Glenn Grenier, legal counsel for the Air Park did his best to explain that the city had no jurisdiction with Air Park development. The city wasn’t buying that story and sent him packing. That didn’t go over all that well with the city and during the delegation of Glenn Grenier, the Burlington resident, pilot and legal counsel for the Air Park, the city manager advised the Mayor to dismiss the man – send him home – the city didn’t need to hear him explain what his client didn’t have to do.
 Lawyer Glenn Grenier hears some choice words from Burlington city manager Jeff Fielding while city lawyer Blake Hurley and Nancy Shea Nicol, on the right, listen in. After that Council meeting city manager Jeff Fielding had a ‘corridor conversation’ with Grenier during which he made it very clear that the city was not going to be told by anyone how it was to run its affairs and that if the Air Park could not behave as a responsible corporate citizen it could not expect any cooperation in the future.
The city then set out to get the legal talent it needed to figure out what it could do and what its possible options were.
The city has now secured the services of a person who fully understands the way things aeronautical work at the federal level and happens to be a lawyer as well. The name of that person and his bona fides will be released at city council’s meeting on Tuesday July 2nd.
Don’t expect to learn all that much about the strategy the city will have developed – that will be explained to council in a closed session. Our city solicitor Nancy Shea Nicol keeps her cards very close to her chest.
In the weeks since this issue first came to city council there has been a burst of activity that has included presentations to the Region where they went along with closing the south gate to the site but residents say the trucks just go in other entrances.
It would seem that the differences of opinion are moving to some kind of stand-off – with the city doing everything they can to get a stronger grip on what goes on at the Air Park and doing what it can to enforce its by-laws while the Air Park does as much as it can to stick to their position that they are federally regulated.
Mayor Goldring is setting up a meeting with Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion whose fingerprints seem to be all over this project. “Butt out Hazel” might be an appropriate phrase but Goldring is just too polite say anything like that.
The city can’t get much going with the Conservation Authority people who are apparently sitting on a document that will determine if the Air Park can buy the property to the north which would them give them the room they need to extend the runway and dump more landfill.
Burlington city hall basically shuts down during August – so whatever doesn’t get done in July will sit until September. There is one situation to watch – what the Conservation Authority does with the application it has sitting on its desk. City hall types have not had much luck in having a sit down with the Conservation people. The RBGC people have no problem with Conservation sitting on the paperwork – they just want to be sure a document isn’t issued while everyone is away.
Things are sort of grinding to a halt and what was a dream and a pretty good opportunity might get caught up in the gears of different jurisdictions. Time for some creative thinking.
 REVISED
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 28, 2013. I didn’t see Rick Wilson out on the pier this afternoon with a telescope but there were around 100 people who were up on the observation deck or crowded around the rail of the pier watching the five tall ships manoeuver and getting in position to pass through the canal, under the lift bridge and into Burlington Bay where they were to sail around the bay letting people on both the Hamilton side and the Burlington side see these majestic vessels catch the light winds before they tie up at the various piers they have been given for the duration of their stay in Hamilton.
Wilson, a history buff who will, if you let him, tell you more than you ever wanted to know about the War of 1812 battle that took place on the lake just off the foot of Brant Street, or so some believe, that changed the outcome of the War of 1812 that lasted three years.
 They weren’t easy to see but they were certainly out there; five tall ships lining up to pass through the canal and into Burlington Bay where they will tie up in Hamilton for the weekend. Today, there were five tall ships, easing their way into the canal. There were supposed to be six – no idea where that last one got to – but the five were out there on the lake. Many wondered why the ships didn’t come in closer to the pier – wind was not all that good and they had to be far enough out on the lake to be able to line up in procession to get through the canal.
 The public gets some value from their $15 million pier (true cost is going to be $20 million) as they watch Tall Ships prepare to sail into Burlington Bay. It was expected they would all drop their sails as the went through the canal but at least one went through with all their rigging up.
 The tallest mast on this ship had to have a hinge placed on it so it could clear the lift bridge that lets her into Burlington Bay. The tallest of the ships, the Solandet, had to put a hinge on part of their tallest mast – it was just a little too high to pass underneath the lift bridge safely.
The sky was a little overcast, weather muggy, rain off and on – not the best weather in which to see these ships. They will be in Hamilton Friday through to Sunday. Tours are available.
The expectation is that all the ships will sail out of Burlington Bay at the same time. Exactly when that will happen isn’t all that clear.
There are more than a dozen ships taking part in what is billed as Tall Ships 1812 Tour with different ships showing up at different ports. St. Catharines, Dalhousie are among those that will be visited.
 The Niagara, one of six Tall Ships that will tie up in Hamilton after taking part in a sail past around Burlington Bat. None of this matters to Rick Wilson, his mission, driven by his passion is to have a plaque set up on the Burlington Heights to replace the one that everyone now agrees is just plain wrong.
 Here they come. Slip over to the links and read that tale of the role British ships sailing off Burlington played in winning the War of 1812 where ships fired cannon balls and iron shot at each other. For those who dive as a hobby – there are cannon balls to be found at the bottom of Lake Ontario –possibly right off the front of Spencer Smith Park.
Our colleague chose to catch the ships as the passed through the canal. She made a better choice than we did.
Margaret Lindsay Holton has written for us in the past. Some of her columns can be seen at:Terra Greenhouses and Are you nuts?
Tall Ships passed through the Burlington Canal under the Skyway Bridge mid-afternoon on Friday, June 28th.
Black and white photo montages by Margaret Lindsay Holton – Mid-career artist and author from the Golden Horseshoe Region of Ontario, Canada.
 Passing through modern history.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 26, 2013. Economic development in the city has stalled. Part of the reason is that no one knows how to give the people who are supposed to make economic development happen the enema they so badly need. Burlington hasn’t seen a piece of good economic news for some time.
That may change but it won’t be because the Economic Development Corporation has done anything. They have yet to get past setting out their governance standards and as a result have some members around the table more focused on their individual economic interests rather than those of the community at large.
Serving on the board of an economic development corporation means you leave your personal or employer related interests outside the room; that apparently is not yet the case in Burlington.
 Head of the Economic development Corporation in Burlington, Kyle Benham hasn’t move the dial very much during his tenure. Quite why the city’s banker or the local cable company are on that board is beyond me. The banker’s marching orders are to make sure they don’t lose the city banking business and the cable company wants to be sure it gets the brownie points it needs to maintain the federal government license they have to operate their business.
There are more than a couple of people on that Board who know what has to be done and in the fullness of time they will succeed in totally reorganizing the Burlington Economic Development Corporation and getting it to the point where it is effective and fully focused on the job that has to be done.
That process seems to be taking quite a bit of time. There are some timelines the most significant of which is the AGM next April at which time expect to see a new chair in place.
 Burlington city manager Jeff Fielding came to us from London, Ontario where he was able to maintain development growth. Here he is seen at a London Council meeting where he moved things along rather smartly. He’s in the process of doing the same thing in Burlington. Fielding sits on the BEDC board. The city can`t afford to continue experiencing the current state of economic affairs. City manager Jeff Fielding advised council recently that he expect ICI (Industrial, Commercial, Institutional) tax revenue to be less in 2013 than it was in 2012; not a sustainable situation for the city.
Currently the Economic Development Corporation is a stand-alone operation that gets some of its funding from the city but had to do a significant amount of funding on its own – at which they did rather well by the way, but that funding work took the focus off the really important stuff – getting new business into Burlington.
The governance discussion is believed to be revolving around dissolving the existing structure and bringing economic development back into city hall, where it used to be when Don Baxter headed up that work. He is now a consultant working with corporate clients in the Fort McMurray, Alberta part of the country as well as serving on the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.
 Parking lot # 3 on the corner of Caroline and John Street will be re-developed as a structure that has several levels of public parking. The city will look for an organization to partner with on this. Is there revenue is selling the naming rights to the building? The city for its part is pushing on a number of levels. They have decided to work towards getting better use out of parking lots 3, 7 and 8. The thinking is that the city would look for a partner to build an above ground parking lot on #3, at the corner of John and Caroline, that will serve the shopping plaza just north of Caroline – which should soon be given a major make-over, as well as some of the overflow from Brant Street.
The MedicaOne project, on the corner of Caroline and John Street, which expects to break ground soon will have some underground parking – something in the order of 100 spaces but that will get used by the traffic to the medical offices and the condo owners in that project.
 Situated on the corner of Caroline and Locust any structure on this lot would certainly crowd the Different Drummer bookstore. Lot 8, on Caroline immediately west of Brant, snuggled up to the Different Drummer bookstore and lot 7, on Locust south of Caroline will be made “marketing ready” with the city looking for potential partners. There is a property right beside lot # 7, to the south, that is up for sale and could become part of a land assembly.
 Lot 8 on Locust Street is closest to city hall. It serves people who meet at the Upper Canada location where Regus has been located for years. The city is hoping that if it puts its property in play developers will take up the opportunity and do some building. The problem is that there has in the past been no one at the BEDC that knows how to bring players to the table and close deals. That is a very specialized skill; a combination of hustle, diplomacy and the capacity to schmooze, bundled up with a person who has contacts or knows how to make contacts. There have been some new people added to the BEDC staff but that corporation has chosen not to say anything about these new additions. Not a good sign.
The city also has to make a major decision as to what it wants to do about its own space requirements. The lease it has on the space in the Simms building, right across the street from city hall, is due for renewal – does the city continue to rent or do they build and own?
 Does the city expand on the space it has on Brant Street by adding to the back of the building or putting office space on Civic Square? Or is there a new city hall in the cards for us? Councillor Jack Dennison, who certainly knows about this kind of stuff, believes the city could have paid for an addition to city hall with the money they have paid in rent to the owners of the Simms building.
The city could, some think, build onto the back of the existing building or perhaps build into the current Civic Square space. Or – and this would seem to be the preference of city manager Jeff Fielding, the city could build a brand new structure that would be designed for the city that is now a much different place than it was when city hall was first built.
Parking lots 4 and 5 on Brant and John Streets get all kinds of attention when conversations like this take place.
 The last time Council took part in a ground-breaking event it was for a park in the Alton Village part of town. No tax revenue there. What we are seeing is all kinds of buzz and chatter but there haven’t been any announcements. The property that International Harvest is currently located on at Guelph Line and Harvester, will be vacated soon as they move their operation to Hamilton. We are not only not bringing in new business but we are losing the good ones we had.
This situation has been ongoing for some time – more than a year. Changes needs to be made when there is a situation that has our ICI tax revenue facing negative growth relative to last year.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 26, 2013. There is usually a better way – we often can`t see it because we don`t want to see it. Our stubbornness gets in the way. My Mother used to say to me, when I was about to make a fool of myself again: I see you are going to cut off your nose to spite your face.” It took many years for me to fully understand what she was trying to teach me.
Those people who attended that meeting in a barn hayloft on Bell School Line sat and listened to Vince Rossi, owner of the Burlington Air Park as he said time and again that he would “take it under advisement” whenever people asked him to do something.
To be fair to Rossi – there were some pretty stupid asks but the point was clear to everyone; Vince Rossi isn’t going to do a damn thing unless he is forced to. Many thought the meeting was a waste of time before it was held and are doing the “I told you so” thing. But the meeting had to be held; the community had to show that it would come to the table and listen.
 Vince Rossi, owner of the Burlington Air PArk is keeping pretty good political company. He has Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion in his corner as well as Burlington Ward 6 Council member Blair Lancaster. The ward residents are opposed to the airport expansion. What they heard was a man on a mission determined to make his dream come true and if the property of some people is destroyed, well that’s the cost of progress. Rossi put it rather crudely when he said to one property owner that if they didn’t want airport problems they shouldn’t have bought property beside an airport. Problem with that response was that property owner was there before the airport.
This situation could be handled differently. There is another small airport in Tottenham, south of Barrie just off the 400 highway. They too are expanding and they too are bringing in landfill.
Known as the Volk Aerodrome on Hwy 9 is under new ownership, Tottenham Airfield Corporation owned by Toronto businessman John Bailey.
Bailey brought in a communications group that sends out information. The airport corporation said they were doing “An enhancement of the existing airfield and once a draft master plan has been completed – expected later this year – it will be shared with the local community.”
The news release went on to say: “We believe there is a tremendous potential to provide high quality aviation services at a small local airfield, particularly with the planned closing of the Buttonville Airport in Markham, the increased interest in recreational flying, and the increase in tourism and development in the Simcoe area.”
The Volk Aerodrome has been the subject of intense opposition from its neighbours who have pleaded with the Town to stop the fill operation that had been taking place over the past few months. Growing volumes of truck traffic in and out of the site caught the attention of the Ministry of Transportation which suspended entrance permits until several conditions were implemented.
Volk put together a contractual arrangement with the Green Soils group of companies. Green Soils is highly respected and specializes in the movement and remediation of soil. (…) with this single-source supplier arrangement, a strong level of control can be placed on the amount and quality of soils entering the site, as well as all trucking activity.”
Volk has set up a telephone hotline for enquiries about the airfield. A general manager for the company will be hired in the coming weeks, and the Volk family will continue to manage the airfield and flight school operations.
Tottenham Airfield Corporation Inc. is holding a community open house to seek input into the site plan, provide information about the enhancement project and answer questions from members of the community.
It can be done differently but for reasons that only Vince Rossi understands he is going to attempt to bulldoze his way through this in the belief that he holds the trump card: he is federally regulated.
Rossi has pulled in some powerful allies. His relationship with Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion is strong enough for her to fax material to the federal minister of finance on behalf of the Burlington Air Park.
Burlington’s Mayor Goldring will be meeting with McCallion to see what can be done to have her have some respect for Burlington and allow us to develop our own plans.
 For reasons that only she understands, Blair Lancaster, Ward 6 Councillor chose to seat herself beside Air Park owner Vince Rossi during a meeting between a resident association that is opposed to the dumping of landfill on airport property and would like to know much more about what the long-term plans are for the Air Park. The council member appears to be telling her constituents where she sits Rossi appears to have almost completely co-opted the ward council member. At a meeting of residents of the community and the organization set up to battle the airport plans, Blair Lancaster chose to sit beside Rossi throughout the meeting – not the best political optics but perhaps Lancaster thinks she has the votes she needs to win her Council seat south of Dundas. She appears to be doing next to nothing for the people who have organized themselves to get some information on what is happening to their community.
Lancaster has lost the support she had north of the Hwy 407/Dundas line.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 26, 2013. Conservation Halton votes against a Staff Recommendation to implement a program to purchase the homes in the Beachway Park over a period of time. On a recorded vote a specific section of the recommendation was a 6-6 tie which meant the vote was lost.
The recommendation read: That Conservation Halton Board OF Directors recommend that the current strategy of the Burlington Beach Regional Waterfront Park land base being entirely in public ownership continue to be pursued, to ensure the protection of life and property from natural hazards, and to complete the land base of the park.
The vote on the recommendation was tied and it is therefore seen as lost – so the Conservation Authority is now on record as not being for the acquisition of the 30 homes left in the Beachway Park. It was a significant win for the homeowners.
A much more detailed report will follow.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. June 27, 2013 Halton Police have released a video image of a suspect involved in a Burlington break-in and are seeking the assistance of the public in identifying him.
On June 23, 2013 at 4:00 p.m., a man went to Burlington Tire and Auto – 4490 Harvester Road, knocked out a window in an overhead door and entered the business.
 Not quite sure what this break and enter was about – police report nothing was stolen. May be more to this than meets the eye. No property was stolen during the entry.
The man is described as: white, approx 6’0”, 240 lbs, short brown hair, clean-shaven, solid coloured shirt that may be red in colour, baggy brown shorts past his knees.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905 825-4747 x2315, Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222-TIPS(8477), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting ‘Tip201’ with your message to 274637(crimes).
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. June 27, 2013 If the drug business is like any other business and reacts to the laws of supply and demand – things are going to be tight in the city for a period of time.
The Halton Regional Police Service Integrated Drug, Gun and Gang Unit wrapped up a five month investigation of drug trafficking in Burlington of Hamilton.
They called it Project Rounder, which was an in depth street level investigation of multiple persons involved in the trafficking of cocaine, marihuana and prescription medication in Burlington. The investigation led police to Hamilton when additional participants were identified.
Early morning raids were executed on this morning in both Burlington and Hamilton. Halton Police worked with Hamilton Police Drug Unit, Ontario Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit, Ontario Provincial Police Organized Crime Unit and the Durham Regional Police.
Police executed 13 search warrants and 12 involved persons were arrested, a total of 41charges were laid. Police seized pounds of marihuana, quantities of cocaine, hashish, psilocybin, oxycodone, five vehicle were seized (07 Volkswagon Jetta, 04 Ford F150, 97 Harley Davidson, 04 Dodge Ram, 2010 GMC pick up) and approximately $100,000 cash.
Charged are:
Elvis DOJCINOVIC (40 years) of Burlington.
Trafficking (Cocaine) 2 counts
Possession of marihuana
Eric LAW (42 years) of Burlington.
Trafficking (Cocaine) 2counts
Possession of Hydromorphone
Possession of Oxycodone
Michelle PELLERIN (31 years) of Burlington.
Possession for the purpose (Cocaine)
Robert SWALLOW (34 years) of Burlington.
Possession for the purpose (Marihuana)
Possession of cannabis resin
Possession of psilocybin
Robyn BARKHOUSE (45 years) of Burlington.
Conspiracy to traffick (Marihuana)
Trafficking (Cocaine)
Possession for the purpose (Cocaine)
Possession for the purpose (Anabolic steroids)
Possession of cannabis resin (2 counts)
Possession of marihuana (2counts)
Ken GARVIN (42 years) of Burlington.
Possession of marihuana
Production (marihuana)
Susan ESTEY (41 years) of Carlisle.
Possession for the purpose (Marihuana)
Possession for the purpose (Cannabis resin)
Possession of Cocaine
Possession of Oxycodone
Possession Hydromorphone
Produce a controlled substance
Sarann CHAN (23 years) of Hamilton.
Possession for the purpose (Marihuana)
Possession of property obtained by crime
The accused parties will appear in Milton Provincial Court Criminal Division June 26th, 2013.
Investigators remind the public to utilize Crime Stoppers to report any illegal drug, gang or gun activity at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637(crimes)
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. June 26, 2013. Shortly after midnight , last night, a group of friends were visiting the Burlington Pier when they started conversing with another group of males.
Without warning, the group of males grabbed one of the men and one of them struck him in the head with a bottle.
The group then ran off, pursued by one of the victim’s friends. Police were notified and located the accused near the intersection of Burlington Avenue and Lakeshore Road.
The accused was arrested and held for a bail hearing.
ACCUSED: Mohammed ISSE, 31 yrs, of Brampton
CHARGES: Assault Cause Bodily Harm and Assault with a Weapon
The victim, an 18-year-old Stoney Creek youth, was taken to Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, treated for a head wound and released.
 The public has taken to the pier – trey love the place. Others that don’t have a lot of love in their hearts throw bottles at one another – let’s beef up the security. The pier has been open for less than two weeks – clearly it’s become the place to be for people from Stoney Creek. Is it a safe place to be? Of course it is – but some security presence wouldn’t hurt and video surveillance might be a good idea as well.
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