BURLINGTON, ON  March 3, 2011  –  Have you noticed how we have all become “environmentalists”?  We put our garbage in the different coloured bins.  We buy into the idea of not purchasing water in plastic bottles and we at least try to walk rather than drive some of the errands we have to run – but the price of gas drives that decision more than our newly found environmental concerns.

There aren’t all that many opportunities to reduce the size of our carbon footprint on this planet but a developer new to the Burlington market is about to begin the “big dig” for a 16 storey condominium project at the corner of Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road, which they describe as “north Burlington”

The cost of heating and cooling units is being borne by Mother Earth for this “first in the province” use of geo thermal in a condominium project.

What makes this development unique and environmentally sound is the decision to go geo thermal for their energy.   The contractors will be putting pipes down fifteen metres into the ground and tapping into the earth’s energy that will be used to heat and cool the condominium units.

Geo thermal as a process is not cheap.  “It usually adds about $5000.00, often more than that to the price of a unit and that put condominiums into a price bracket that isn’t very competitive” explains Graham Chalmers.  However, Davies Smith Development has come up with a really interesting twist to paying for that very expensive geo thermal piping and its attendant monitoring devices.  The company that is doing the geo thermal work will own the system and lease it to the condominium, thus spreading the cost of the construction over a long period of time and making the units as affordable as anything else in its market segment.

Each resident will be able to set the level of heating or air conditioning they want in their unit.  They will never know that the energy they are burning (if we can use that phrase)  will come from the earth beneath them but, they will see something in the order of a 10% reduction in their energy costs at today’s prices, and be protected from future increases in the price of natural gas.  There isn’t much of a down side to this.  Geo thermal is a proven technology, used by Wal-Mart at their Fairview Road location in Burlington.   The only tough part with geo thermal has been the capital cost and with the lease back solution Davies Smith has come up with, the condo owners get the best of several worlds.  Price protection and a secure energy source and knowing that they’ve  helped save the planet.

The building has solar panels on the roof but Graham Chalmers points out that “solar really isn’t as cost effective as many people think it is”.  It does work and the hope is that they will generate enough energy to cover the cost of heating the water used in the building.  “We will have some natural gas coming into the building to heat water but the building itself will be heated and cooled with geo thermal energy”, said Chalmers.

He believes this development is the first condominium, in Ontario at least, to use geo thermal on this scale.  Construction will begin late in March.  And how is business?  Are the units selling?  According the Davies Smith sales people 85% of the units are sold – not bad when they have yet to put a shovel into the ground.

Davies Smith developments is a partnership between two guys that worked together for some time for different companies and decided they had a bit of money and wanted to strike out on their own.  They aren’t a ‘runty little development company’ selling condo units in one of the hottest markets in North America but rather have earned a better than average share of awards and have decided that they will develop a reputation and let that sell the housing they develop.

The project at Appleby Line and Upper Middle Road is in an area undergoing significant change.  All four corners of this intersection as well as properties south along Appleby are slated for development.  The city has its newest fire station under construction half a block away.  The units range from 645 sq ft to 1140 sq feet in size.   85% of the units have been sold.

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By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON March 3, 2011  –  The deadline for nominations for the annual Burlington Civic Recognition Awards closed on Tuesday and now the task of sifting through the nomination papers gets started.  The following people are on the Committee that will determine who the recipient will be for each of the six awards.

Lisa Boyko, Linda Cupido, Bob Hilton, Jane McKenna, Ann Coburn and Keith Strong have accepted the call to choose the person to receive the community award for each category.  Each of the six were appointed to the Burlington Civic Recognition committee for a tem that expires at December 31, 2013.  Susan Zidaric Seymour is also on the committee and Adam Smith serves as chair of the eight member committee who meet by themselves with just a Clerk joining them to advise on protocol and procedure.

For those awards that are sponsored – the Arts award being an example, the sponsor of the Award has the right to have a person in the room for those deliberation but Deb Caughlin, Manager Council Services points out that there is seldom anyone from the sponsoring group taking part. This is the first year Caughlin has served as the Clerk to this committee.  She describes it as an “awesome event”.

The award categories and their sponsors are:

Citizen of the Year – Sponsored by Service Clubs of Burlington: Aldershot Lions, Central Lions, Optimists, Royal Canadian Naval Association, The Rotary Clubs of Burlington: Burlington, Burlington Central, Burlington Lakeshore, Burlington North

Junior Citizen of the Year – Sponsored by B’Nai Brith

Senior Person of the Year – Sponsored by the Heritage Place Retirement Community

Environmental Award – Sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Burlington: Burlington, Burlington Central, Burlington Lakeshore, Burlington North

Community Service Award – Sponsored by Cogeco Cable Inc.

Arts Person of the Year The K. W. Irmisch Arts Award – sponsored by the Irmisch Family.

The Citizen of the Year recipient along with the nominees is announced in early May.   The recipients of the other five awards are announced at the event.  Each person nominated for an award is given a certificate

Awards night for Civic Recognition. Tickets priced at $30. each. Great deal.

The event that celebrates the announcement of the awards and the presentation of the certificates takes place on May 26^th at the Burlington Convention Centre.  Tickets will be available at City Hall in the next few days.   Tickets are $30. each and are available from the city 905-335-7600, ext. 7493 or visit www.burlington.ca/civicrecognition

“This is not a fund raising event” explained Caughlin.  “All we do is cover the costs and have reserved 250 spaces at the convention Centre.”

The Awards have been given out since February of 1965.  Before that different groups gave awards and the city decided it would be more effective and meaningful for there to be a single event at which all the recipients were recognized.

Transit appointments:

The following citizens were also appointed to the Burlington Transit Advisory Committee for a term that expires December 31^st, 2012

Christopher Cottingham (Resident-Youth) and Amy Collard (Alternate, Halton Public school Board Trustee.  Jennifer Hlusko was approved as an appointee to the Burlington Transit Advisory for a term that expires December 31, 2013.

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By Pepper Parr

Identity theft and acts of fraud that take place can be a nightmare for anyone trying to repair the damage to their credit rating and reputation after becoming a victim. Thieves prowl through your garbage or pick up a receipt you carelessly threw away – and suddenly your bank account is accessed, charges are made to your credit card – and worse still – your house gets a mortgage put on it that you know nothing about. These things happen but you can safeguard yourself by being careful and vigilant.

Crime Stoppers is teaming up with Shred-It to help protect people from identity theft by hosting Community Shred-It events to give residents of the region the opportunity to have any unwanted private papers or sensitive documents safely destroyed.

Identity theft has become one of the fastest growing crimes in the country and is now robbing the Canadian economy of more than $2.5 billion a year.

“One of the best ways to protect yourself from identity theft is to shred any paper that has your name and other personal information,” said Cal Millar, chair of Halton’s Crime Stoppers program.

“Criminals can use a few details collected from a discard utility bill or bank statement to fraudulently obtain credit cards, driver’s licenses, health cards or other forms of identification in your name,” he said. A Community Shred-It events will be held on March 26 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Burlington Mall.

Kelly Gorven, chair of the project, said this is a fundraising event and Crime Stoppers will be asking for a donation of $5 to shred a shopping bag of personal papers or $10 for the equivalent of a banker’s box.

“It’s a unique fundraising initiative,” she said. “We want people to shred personal information to prevent the crime of identity theft and we’re raising money to pay for tips that may help solve numerous crimes. Everyone wins when we work together to combat crime and keep our community safe.”

Gorven said while people are spring cleaning or going through financial records to prepare taxes they should set aside any documents with sensitive information and bring them to one of the Community Shred-It locations. “You risk becoming a victim of identity theft if you throw anything in the garbage that has your name, address or other pertinent information,” she said.

“Losses”, according to a senior Halton police official, “ can come from someone simply forging your name on a cheque or using your credit card. They get that information from documents you just put in the garbage. “You reduce the possibility of becoming a victim when you are aware of the various frauds that are being committed today, especially those involving identity theft” he said.

Halton Crime Stoppers is hoping its partnership with Shred-It will not only increase the awareness of identity theft and the crime that stems from it, but will directly protect residents in this area from becoming victims.

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BURLINGTON,ON February 21, 2010 – It was one of those meetings where all the heavy weight activists were on hand. People from COPE, (Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment) PERL, (Protecting the Escarpment and Rural Lands) Burlington Green, a city councillor, a senior rep from the Region along with Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring and his spear carrier Frank McKeown.

Early on the agenda was a name change – they met as BHCAG – Burlington Halton Community Action Group and left as STOP the Escarpment Highway Coalition. The word coalition is what it was all about because the activist didn’t want the show run by the politicians. But this group did much more than change their name – they showed that politicians and community groups could work together for a common cause even though at times their individual interests might go off in different directions.

This group was in for the long haul when they met early in February. The full range of community activists in the Halton Region gathered around a table in a room that was too small for the size of the attendees and set out how the politicians, the bureaucrats and the activist would each be able to do their thing and at the same time put forward a common front. This was citizen participation at its very best.

It all began in December of 2009, when the region approved Regional Official Plan Amendment 38 (ROPA 38) – which included protection for escarpment and rural lands – and submitted it to the province for approval. Regional chair Gary Carr took great pride in the three year effort to get all four municipalities in the Region on side.

By June 2010, with the Environmental Assessment incomplete, the province returned with a draft transportation development strategy that included optimizing existing road networks and planning for a new transportation corridor. In October 2010, the province modified ROPA 38, placing a proposed transportation corridor across escarpment lands in rural Burlington. The revised document was mailed to the Region and its municipalities a few days after the municipal election. Then “it” hit the fan

The objective was to STOP the highway. The city of Burlington does not want a highway anywhere near the Escarpment and they had decided to engage their citizens in that battle. Because it is a regional issue as well that brought in groups from all over the place. Close to a dozen groups, some small and ineffectual, some very experienced and battle scarred, some poor and some well funded – all with one objective – STOP the highway.

The offending document is referred to as ROPA 38 Decision-2 and was brought to the public’s attention at a December community meeting in Burlington. Burlington council members Taylor and Lancaster led that parade through a hall with more than 800 people that had every politician getting a pay cheque in the room.

That was when citizens learned that the province had asked the Region to amend their Official Plan to accommodate a new highway, which an Ontario ministry described as a concept. The province sent the request to all the municipalities and the Region a few days after the municipal election.

This was the Environmental Assessment map that gave first light to what got called a concept.

John Taylor, Burlington Ward 3 council member, wasn’t buying the province’s request and he organized a community meeting that had every politician you could name on hand to swear that this was never going to happen. Even the two Tory members were on hand to speak against the proposed road, while their leader was in nearby Flamborough saying “jobs trumped the environment and the road meant jobs”. Taylor made it very clear at the December meeting that the community had to organize now even though the highway “would probably not get built in my lifetime”. Well John Taylor is still with us and the committee with the new name is in place to fight the good fight and tell their story should the idea of a highway near the Escarpment come up again.

The main thrust at that December meeting was to get petitions signed but as a representative from Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment – COPE – later put it – getting ROPA 38 reversed is “first dragon to be slayed” and petitions will be a part of that battle “but the second dragon will be the MTO Environmental Assessment and we will have a battle – GET BLANCE IN HERE.

With names on petitions the meeting ended and the phone calls between everyone began and out of it came a decision to find a way to join forces and have the activists, the city and the Region work together. But the activists didn’t want the politicians leading the parade and the politicians weren’t about to give up the exposure one gets from leading a hugely popular xxx in the community.

There were some pretty smart marketing people in the room and they pushed for the word coalition in the name because that is how they see themselves – citizens in a coalition with two levels of government. It is quite a coalition and may be the first occasion when a Regional government, a municipal government and more than half a dozen active community groups joined forces for a common cause, which in this case was the stopping the idea of constructing a highway that would cut right through the villages of Lowville and be very, very close to Kilbride.

If the first part of the battle was to get petitions signed this group did a great job and in the process learned that not everyone is one same page of the hymn book and they came face to face with “corporate interests” that got put before the welfare of the community.

Angela Scrannage, John Timmis and Janie Moorse with sign the Stop the Escarpment Highway Coalition were going to plaster the Region with.

Janie Moorse, the person heading up the petition campaign, reported that she had well over 1000 petitions signed and that her team was out every weekend with a kiosk telling the story. Angela Scrannage told of the success at Lowville during the Winter Fair and of the problems with the YMCA and Mountain Co-op – they were unable to get inside those locations – are you ready for this – they didn’t want their clients to be harassed and asked to sign a petition.

The supermarkets have no problem in asking you for a loonie for some charity but the YMCA – the YMCA – doesn’t want their client base harassed over an environmental issue. Don’t think the Y or Mountain equipment Co-op really understand their clients. Tumblehome on Brant Street, however is one of the most successful petition gathering locations. Scrannage reported that Tumblehome staff ask their clients if they will sign the petition. They clearly know which side their bread is buttered on.

The Burlington Library apparently won’t allow a kiosk where people are asked if they would like to sign the petition. Makes you wonder why the library is there if it isn’t to serve as a source of information. The goal was to have 10,000 signatures on petitions and Moorse, who is not shy about asking people for their signature, reported that she had close to 2000 in hand before the campaign was closed down when the province backed off with their plan..

This is he map that told the story best – we could see the communities it was going to rip right through. It had to be stopped
– it was stopped.

One of the problems the Coalition had was that the people north of Dundas get the problem – if you live in Lowville you care – but the urban people south of Upper Middle Road apparently don’t see the issue of a road ripping through the escarpment as all that serious. The Coalition had plans to set up guided tours through the escarpment in the Spring and hold a “Rural Fest” event at a later date

The approach that was to be taken to this hugely important objective is unique and quite frankly, kind of gutsy for Burlington. We have a Region, which has an agenda of its own. We have Burlington which has a very vocal population in the north end of the city who will lay down across the roads before a bulldozer can even start working at shaping a highway and then there are more than half a dozen citizen activist groups that have years and years of experience at this game of voicing the concerns of the taxpayer. Herding cats might be easier.

No one knows if the sounds coming from the growing community opposition made any difference or if the impending provincial election made the Ministry re-think the plan or if someone on the Transportation Ministry realized it was just a dumb idea – the fact is at this point that the highway is not on any Official Plans.

So – no highway. Big win but the win for the community was much bigger than just stopping a highway. The activists learned that they could organize themselves into a coalition and have as much clout as the City or the Region and could be treated as equals around the table.

The activist knew they could not do this by themselves and the politicians knew that they needed the boots on the ground that the activist had.

The was really a new approach to community engagement and there was no rule book yet – so the Coalition began to write the rule book while they are playing the game. Interesting and pretty brave on the part of the City and the Region. It looks as if the Coalition was going to strive to create several groups: A Community Working Group that would work independently of city hall; a City Working Group and a Regional Working Group that would be joined together as a Coalition, constantly communicating with each other to ensure that the actions of one Working Group did not limit the actions of another.

The province has been playing around with all kinds of ideas – they just want to move traffic and if it means encroaching on the Escarpment – they seem prepared to do just that.

The activists wanted to ensure that they were not seen as an appendage to what the city and the Region was creating. They wanted to ensure they could speak for themselves and at the same time allow the politicians could play their role. Tricky stuff and would never work if anyone with a large ego got let loose.

The city’s working group is accountable to city council and adheres to city policy. The advocacy groups have to remain independent with their own structure and governance. So far, so good. But this was going to be a long, long, LONG term project.

It was all going to cost money. Where would the money come from?. The Community Group certainly doesn’t want to appear to be a “kept woman” and have the city pay all the bills but some of the costs might be beyond what can be done through local fund raising.

One of the ideas that came up during the organizational meeting was that bus tours could be arranged. The city has a fleet of busses – but how do they justify letting them be used to transport people to the Escarpment for tours to educate people on the highway issue and not make those same busses available to a group of Seniors who want to take in a tour of the RBG to smell the roses?

Cash donations from the city would be inappropriate but in-kind support could perhaps work. What about tax receipts ? Most groups don’t have charitable status – they couldn’t get such status because they are advocating and that is against donation tax receipt rules. The city does have a legal department that can be very helpful.

These people are basically taking a cat skinning course. They are venturing into uncharted waters but Burlington is Joseph Brant country and they know how to make canoes. And it looks as if there is a whole tribe of restless natives prepared to take up paddles and stroke their way through those waters.

But it all came to a halt when the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rick Bartolucci, met with Regional Chair Carr and Burlington Mayor Rick Goldring to say the province wasn’t going to plan on building a road through the Escarpment area after all. And so what are we left with? Does the Coalition just fold up their tents and try to sell the several hundred plastic signs they had made up on eBay?

[box type=”warning”]Province caved in and said: “We are not going to require you to put the highway in your Official Plans.”[/box]

There was some exceptional work done by this Coalition and that experience has probably taught not only the community activist but the politicians as well, that they can work together and they can bring about change.

However, the idea of a highway cutting through the Escarpment has been kicking around for a long time. Tim Hudak, leader of the opposition at Queen’s Park said publicly that jobs trumped the environment and much of what we make rolls along highways into the United States.

Kelly Baker, a spokesperson for the office of Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne, said it was the province’s understanding that the arrows indicating a corridor in the Halton Official Plan were only conceptual. “Until a new transportation corridor is identified as needed, it is premature to assume that any corridor location has been selected,” Baker said. The idea for the highway was originally proposed by the provincial Conservative government in 2001 and then fell off the agenda for a while. Baker contends that the past government’s plans for building a mega-highway through the Niagara Escarpment is not what the current government is doing.
“We want to get it right,” Baker said. “That’s why we used a research- and an evidence-based approach. We are not going to just assume we need to pave a mega highway through the escarpment.” And if you believe that my friends – let me tell you about the tooth fairy.

Our geography looks pretty attractive to people who play fast and loose with environmental concerns and jerk the public interest around when they are running for office. The Coalition would be well advised to adopt the Burlington motto – Stand By – and keep a watch on what those rascals at Queen’s Park are up to.

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By Staff

BURLINGTON, ON February 22, 2011  –  Requests for a total of $108,000 in grants landed on the City Manager’s desk but he has suggested to council that although each has merit the city should stick to its decision to not give grants to community groups.

Grants to community organizations were phased out in 1994 but staff have found that requests are still coming from external agencies.  The requests range from fee waivers to help with annual operating costs.  Some of the more recent grant requests are a result of an end to funding support from the Province, with the provincial Trillium Foundation being one of the organizations that ends funding at some point and the group has to look elsewhere.

Creative Burlington is in just that kind of a bind.  They have benefited from Trillium Funding for a number of years but that ends this October.  The non-profit organization that was a prime mover for a Performing Arts Centre now finds itself watching the BPAC get more than half a million dollars in start up money and have more than $10 million  raised within the community to work with, while it, Creative Burlington, may soon find itself struggling to meet the payroll.

Tough one to handle but if the City Manager’s advice is to not provide the $65,000. Creative Burlington has asked for – some hard decisions have to made at the little house on Old Lakeshore Road.

The City Manger asks council for some direction and a policy that can be applied to funding requests  “Should the City begin providing community grants, further requests will undoubtedly flow.  In order to determine which groups should be funded and to what level, a policy should be developed” is the view of staff as set out in their report

Council may not want to belly up to that idea.  Should there be a policy every group that wants funding will lobby council members seeking a vote at council.  The Soccer Mom’s did that and they prevailed.  The cycling group convinced the city to kick in $30,000. with the argument that it would be good for business.

Deb Tymstra, Executive Director of Creative Burlington could give an equally strong argument about the arts being good for business.  If Ms Tymstra were to ride a bicycle in the Canada Day race – would that help her application.

It’s dicey one and there has to be a policy for city staff to dole out funds.  Is this Council ready to think about giving funds to community groups?  Jack Dennison would float the Joseph Brant Museum away on Lake Ontario – so his vote can’t be counted on.

Burlington Green is asking for $10,000; the Burlington Sport Alliance is looking for an annual grant of $5000. while Civic Rose and Joseph Brant Day want stage and facility fee waivers.  The Halton District School Board wants $25,000. for an Active and Safe Routes to School program.

As Roman Martiuk stated in his report – they all have merit but he needs a Direction from Council and a policy to work within.

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