By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON December 14, 2010  –  More than 1200 people packed the Mainway Arena in Burlington the evening of the first snow fall.  They wanted to know all about something called “the big green arrow”. The only thing that wasn’t to be seen was someone outside scalping tickets to a “sold out” event.

The “natives” packed the room to hear Blair Lancaster take the crowd through an explanation about a big green arrow that had been drawn on a map indicating where a new super highway was proposed – that arrow came out of Flamborough though Kilbride and Lowville and joined up with the 403 at about Walkers Line. For a look at the map – click here.

It was only a concept map, said a government report but as one person in the room said – “when these things show up on a map they take on a life of their own and become fact.”  The arrow designates where a new super highway is being planned.

In a follow up report we will fill you in on all the details.

One young woman explained to the crowd that she and her husband had just moved into a house they had built by themselves. “We’ve been living with our in-laws for the past five years.  If that road gets built – and we are right under that green arrow” she said – “then where will we go.”  Someone in the audience suggested, rather unkindly, that she could “go back to their in-laws” – and that was about the only real laughter during the evening.

Blair Lancaster led the roster of politicians including Gary Carr, Halton Regional Chair, Burlington Council member John Taylor who originally called the meeting in the Kilbride area but soon realized the hall up there was way to small.  Rick Goldring, Mayor of Burlington spoke as did MPP’s Joyce Savoline and Ted Chudleigh.  Both said they were totally opposed to the new road while the leader of their party, the Progressive Conservatives, is supporting the new road.  Further,  the idea for a new superhighway came out of the Harris government back in 2002.  Odd that the local MPP’s should stand up and say they were opposed. Ooops – there is a provincial election in less than 300 days – of course they would be opposed with 1200 voters standing in front of them.

Gary Carr was very effective when he said “we have to hold together and be consistent in our objection to this idea”.

More detail later – want this to be in your morning news feed.

The locus of civic engagement is where we live in our local neighbourhoods. 

A book review by Walter Mulkewich:

In the past year, the Shape Burlington process started a community wide conversation about civic engagement in Burlington.  Shape Burlington’s successor organization, Shaping Burlington, is continuing that conversation by promoting the eight recommendations of the Shape Report, and now has presented to City Council its model for an “Engagement Charter”.

With its clarion call, “City Hall must reinvent itself”, the Shape Burlington Report emphasized how citizens can more effectively be engaged with City Hall and its decision-making processes. 

But, effective civic engagement is not only about City Hall reinventing itself; it is about local residents rediscovering the lost art of citizenship.  That is essentially the topic of the recently published book, Local Motion. 

This book is about civic engagement in Toronto, but its ideas and examples cross municipal borders – certainly to other GTA cities such as Burlington.

The setting for the book may be the swamp of anger, resentment, and diminished expectations that characterized the recent Toronto municipal election – an election that was fought on clichés of gravy trains and value for taxpayers rather than lifting up a vision for better urban and civic life. 

Local Motion is about how ordinary citizens who are passionate, stubborn, and committed are already the basis of real change in Toronto.  The sixth of the uTOpia series by Coach House Press about great ideas for Toronto, Local Motion examines how citizens can take their own initiatives and become involved in building a better city.

The fourteen essays by on-the-ground journalists explore what makes Toronto tick and stall.  They give examples of citizens who make things happen, how citizens can be involved in the budget process, how the voting system can be reformed, how citizens can navigate local bureaucracy, and get the attention of the media.   An interesting essay is how citizens can use music to further civic engagement.  The essays are both hopeful and inspiring.

The introduction of the book sets out a fundamental understanding of civic engagement: “What your city can do for you is important; the flip side, what you can do for your city, is the other half of the deal.  It needn’t be as extravagant as building a hospital:  You can organize a neighbourhood picnic, fight the demolition of a beautiful building, run for City Council, even just pick up some litter.  We can’t wait for the politicians to do these things for us.  The way to make our city better is to do it ourselves.”

Burlington has had a strong history of citizens making a difference in many areas of civic life.  We can rediscover that history, build on the Shape report, and move on to rediscover the lost art of citizenship. 

In beginning and end, the locus of civic engagement is not in the rooms and corridors of city hall, but where we live in our local neighbourhoods. 

Local Motion is an interesting read.

Local Motion, The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto,
Dave Meslin, Christina Palassio, & Alana Wilcox,
Coach House Press, 2010
221 pages

Walter Mulkewich, a former Mayor of Burlington, former Co-Chair of the former Shape Burlington Committee, and a member of Shaping Burlington.  

The countryside is splendid and many of the homes are lovely.  It is certainly quiet, which is probably the way most people up there like it.  But the community is threatened in the short term by possible budget cuts that may impact on the community centre and a fire department that is seriously undermanned. Those problems aside, it is a sleep little community and they don’t need much time to tell you that that is the way they want it to stay, peaceful, quiet and no major roads running through this part of town if you don’t mind.

A road the province wanted to ram through that part of the city – in about 20 years –   galvanized the community and when the plans for the highway were stopped they thought they could be quiet again.  Changes in the next Burlington budget may have them marching down Cedar Springs Road and heading for City Hall with hay forks and battle axes over there shoulders.

The community is served by a rather large school, a fire station with a community police station that you reach at night by picking up a telephone outside the building.  This is a very low crime community – maybe a house break in from time to time and perhaps some road accidents. The equipment at the fire station is well maintained – it just isn’t very well manned.

The requirement is for 40 people to staff the place but there are just 19 and they are all volunteers.  Those parts of Burlington south of Dundas get what the fire department officials call 4×4, which is their code for four fireman at a location in four minutes – but  that doesn’t happen in Kilbride.  Poor fire service, and that doesn’t mean the fireman do a poor job – there just aren’t enough firemen to cover all the shifts.  is just one of their problems – the community centre is at about as much risk as any house that might catch fire.

As Burlington gets into the nitty gritty of its budget making for the next fiscal year it has to decide where it wants to cut, where it has to cut.   The city went through a four year period where the tax increases amounted to 28% during that four year period and the taxpayers got fed up.  Newly elected Mayor Rick Goldring told his constituents in his inaugural address that he would strive to keep the increase to 10% during his four year term but Ward 5 Council member Paul Sharman stunned both Council and city hall staff when he said tax increases could and would be held to 0%.  He said at the time that the political will was represented by council and that he wanted staff to come back with budget that had a 0% increase.

And that is what council will struggle with in the weeks ahead.  It will get noisy as city staff lays out the options and council members either stand up to their constituents or fold the way Rick Goldring did when he was council member for Ward 5 and his residents almost ran him out of the ward when he voted for having a soccer pitch for the Pan Am games in Sherwood Forest Park

Sharman is something new to this city council.  He is bold, a bit on the gruff side but can be amazingly gracious when he chooses.  But you never doubt where he is coming from.  He wants better value for the money we pay city hall staff  and he doesn’t want to pay them as much either.  He is proposing that there be no COLA – Cost of Living Allowance, which gives city hall staff an automatic pay increase – annually, based on the CPI, Consumer Price Index.

He is prepared to see merit pay given out but he doesn’t want to have council involved in that process. “We would just determine what the gross amount of the merit pay allocation would be and leave it to the city manager to determine who gets what – based on their performance.”  That didn’t appear to go down all that well with senior city hall staff and that policy isn’t a done deal yet.

What will Kilbride lose in terms of services?  That won’t be known until the budget is finalized – but it could be a noisy council chamber in the weeks ahead.

By Pepper Parr

MILTON, ON February 13, 2011 – It was just a cool way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  And it was a great deal as well.  For $20. you got two hours of exceptional jazz in a really pleasant renovated barn setting with all the coffee you wanted to drink, several cheese trays and cup cakes – and a beer tasting table and a cash bar.  And because this was Valentine Sunday – there were carnations for the women. The event was part of the pretty regular Sunday Jazz program at the Halton Regional Museum.

This is something worth checking out.  The location is very nice and the price – almost too good to be true.  Led by Polish born, Toronto-based musician Paul Pacanowski we heard many of the old standards as well as an original composition: “Summer Hay Ride” in which you could hear the clip clop of the horses hooves.  Nice piece of work.

The Jazz series are part of the Halton Museum Foundation program – well worth looking into.

Rob is left scratching his head

And then uttered a classical Canadian phrase eh?

By Rob MacLellan and Mike Harris

We just love it when there is dialogue – people exchanging views and asking questions.

Rob, my neighbour who has a great big snow blower, so we are buddies if you know what I mean.  Rob tells people he hails from Cape Breton (hope he doesn’t put that on his resume) sent me this:

From Rob:

I thought this might interest you given your the attention paid to politics and political figures on your website.  I recently sent a message to Burlington MP Mike Wallace and have attached it along with his reply below.

Kind of makes you scratch your head and think a bit.  Personally, I cannot see how a cut in personal taxes would save the average Canadian family enough to not mortgage their futures.

Here is what` Rob sent Mike Wallace, his Member of Parliament:

Hello Mike,
I recently received a mailer from your office and I wanted comment on it.  This particular mailer has a focus on families with respect to taxes and such.

I am sure you are probably quite aware of the costs of raising a family, it seems the bills never seem to end.  Two of the more substantial costs coming from child care, and saving for post secondary education.

I view myself as one of the lucky ones who doesn’t feel the pinch too badly with respect to these costs, but it always leaves me to wonder about those who may have a more difficult time making ends meet.

Let’s focus on child care as I think it would likely be the most universal issue to young families.

Assuming the “Average Canadian” household income is ~ $70,000, say $35,000 per spouse.  If the average tax rate is approximately 19%, so approximate Net family income each year is $56,700.  Breaking it down even further, gives a family $1,090 each week to spend.  I know there are tax experts out there who would curse such a rough calculation, but I would hope I am still fairly close to the mark here.

For this example I will use a family with two (2) children, who are at daycare age.

Now if we factor in the $2,400 / year Universal Child Care Benefit, or $1,944 after 19% tax, it gives a family an extra $37 per week.

So, assuming $1,127 / week take home pay for an average Cdn. family.  Where does that money need to go?

Household Costs (avg. per week):
– $490.00 Child Care(example taken from Woodlands Childcare centre here in Burlington)
– $30.00 Hydro
– $26.00 Union Gas
– $30.00 Telephone / Television / Internet
– $150.00 Grocery
– $242.00 Mortgage (assuming $200,000 mortgage, 3.99%, 25 years, weekly payment)
– $50.00 Property Tax
– $40.00 Insurance (home / auto[1])
– $50.00 Gas (for auto)
—————————-
$1,108.00 Average

That leaves $19 per week to cover miscellaneous expenses (clothing, furniture, car payments, home/auto repair, life insurance, etc.), spending money (entertainment), savings (Vacation, RRSP, RESP), etc.  I don’t know about you, but I know I spend a fair deal more than $19/week on miscellaneous type expenses.

The single largest cost based on my calculations is Child Care.  I know my estimates are raw and debatable, but I suspect they are not far from what families are paying.

I have a hard time seeing how Canadians will be to live day-to-day and make ends meet, let alone be able to save for their future (i.e. retirement), and the future of their children (i.e. post secondary).

My question is this.  If the above information is even close to accurate, would you want to live like the “Average Canadian”?

I welcome your feedback.

Here is what Rob got back from his Member of Parliament.

Hello Mr. MacLellan

First, I would like to thank you for taking the time and effort to write a detailed response to my recent mailer.  I will not dispute your numbers.  The issue the mailer addressed was that families faced a higher family tax burden prior to us taking office.  The tax burden was about $3000.00 more for a family of four.  This is not to say the job is done, but we have been reducing federal taxes for individuals and families.  Tax freedom day now comes weeks earlier in the year than under previous governments.

This may not be enough, but we will continue to find ways to cut personal taxes.

Rob is still scratching his head over this one.

Right now, the Nelson quarry file is one of the most important public proceedings in Canada. Isabelle and Sarah Harmer and their group Protecting Escarpment Rural Land are part of a hearing that could protect the Niagara Escarpment. Read on to learn the truth of such public hearings: They are only won with the support of friends – friends who help bear the financial burden of a professional hearing, friends who donate their time and energy to attend the hearing or spread the word.

She is kind and warm, the type of person who makes you feel cared for when you’ve only just met her. Isabelle has seen a lot in her eighty-ish years. She’s sharp, a quick and accurate judge of character. In the last decade alone, this trailblazer has helped to found or promote an impressive list of volunteer programs to protect her community*.

Sarah, her daughter, is a rival for the title of world’s nicest woman. Sarah Harmer is a popular and highly-respected musician; she, like her mother, is a committed environmental advocate. Sarah has created songs about the Harmers’ backyard: the Niagara Escarpment. She has back-packed its trails, performed for crowds in out-of-the-way halls, and spread word of the Escarpment on cross-Canada tours.

“It’s hard to say exactly when I became involved in the Niagara Escarpment, and in PERL. About 20 or 30 years ago, this society in Ontario decided that the Niagara Escarpment was an ancient and vital ecosystem. Because it’s difficult terrain — it’s difficult and steep — historically it was difficult to develop. Now, some of the remaining old-growth forest is still there, along with hundreds of creeks and tributaries,” says Sarah.

The Harmer farm

The Harmer family property lays atop the Niagara Escarpment. It’s a 100-acre farm full of hay and trees, close to wetlands that nurture the threatened Jefferson Salamander.

The Harmer family farm also sits close to a large quarry operated by Nelson Aggregate. Nelson’s quarry is nearly sixty years old, has helped build much of the Greater Toronto Area, and the company is about to run out of rock. It is hoping the Province of Ontario will issue it a new license to blast out a new massive quarry across the road from the old one.

Concerned about the impacts Nelson’s new quarry would have on precious Escarpment water and wildlife, Isabelle and Sarah teamed up to stop the project:

“A few years ago, my mother and me and some neighbours made fliers and stuffed mailboxes. Then we had a meeting at the church, and about 100 people came out,” Sarah told The Tyee in 2005.

PERL’s vision

Their group’s name, PERL, stands for Protecting Escarpment Rural Land. It has a broad vision of celebrating and protecting the Niagara Escarpment, and more committed volunteers have come aboard to help out.

Right now, PERL’s intervention on the Nelson quarry file is one of the most important public proceedings in Canada. PERL’s initial concern – protecting 200 acres of rural land from the Nelson quarry expansion – is the focus of a hearing before a combined panel of Ontario Municipal Board and Environmental Review Tribunal members that promises to stretch on for many, many months.

A hearing of this length is an incredible commitment. Any individual or organization participating in a hearing is represented by counsel, but they need to have a team in the room to fully participate. When your team is a nonprofit organization, volunteers and generous consultants have to do more than their fair share of the legwork. PERL volunteers are attending the hearing virtually every day to listen to evidence, identify issues for cross-examination, and prepare for their own team’s testimony.

Local government agencies such as City of Burlington, Halton Region, Conservation Halton, and the Niagara Escarpment Commission are on PERL’s side. They are full participants in the hearing, bringing witnesses and leading cross-examination. That makes it easier for PERL, but not easy.

PERL’s challenge

PERL’s costs for expert evidence will be in the tens of thousands of dollars. (When Lake Ontario Waterkeeper was preparing for our appeal of the Lafarge Alternative Fuels file, our expenses reached about $200,000 before the appeal even began.)

To raise funds, PERL needs public support. The group has an individual giving program called “Adopt-a-Jeff”. Artist Stewart Jones has made 100 prints available for $250, with proceeds to PERL. Lake Ontario Waterkeeper is directing every text-to-give donation we receive between now and February 6th to help pay for evidence on water issues (Text “Drink” to 45678).

No hearing outcome is ever guaranteed. You never know what the final decision will be. The value of a hearing is the decision of the independent adjudicators, the people who hear all the evidence and weigh it fairly. Public intervenors (like PERL) are there to assist those decision-makers, to ensure that they are given all the evidence, the best evidence, and the community context to make a wise and informed decision.

The truth is, hearings are won by friends: friends who help bear the financial burden of a professional hearing, friends who donate their time and energy to attend the hearing or spread the word. You cannot win a fair legal hearing because of your friends, but without them you will always lose.

Both Isabelle and Sarah have put their heart and soul into protecting Mount Nemo. They have dedicated money, proceeds from album sales, time, energy, care and thought to their cause … all in the name of water and plants and the squishy-looking Jefferson Salamander.

If they win, future families who stomp around in Mount Nemo’s wetlands, poke at frog eggs, and breathe the quiet plateau air can thank Isabelle and Sarah and all those who are the first ones to say “yes” when the world needs their help.

That future is possible. PERL has science on its side. It has local government on its side. It has Canada’s ecological and cultural heritage on its side. All that PERL and Isabelle and Sarah need now is plenty of friends, friends who will come to the aid of two of the nicest people in the world.

More information

Lake Ontario Waterkeeper live-blogs weekly from the Nelson hearing. PERL’s Facebook Page carries regular updates as well. Please visit our pages to follow the hearing and share your comments.

(* Isabelle Harmer’s other projects include Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment, Coalition of the Niagara Escarpment, Canadian Federation of University Women of Burlington, and SHARE Agriculture Foundation.)

When Sarah Harmer chose to record her last album, All of Our Names, in her own home near Kingston, Ontario, it wasn’t because the commercial recording studio was all booked up.

Harmer admits she tends to “write songs and bits of songs at home and about home.” The wood stove crackles in one of the songs on the album, and she says “both the sounds and the sentiments of her house seeped in.”

Harmer grew up in rural Ontario, and doesn’t think much of recent developments in the Niagara Escarpment, to name one of her environmental concerns. No naïve granola, Harmer has spearheaded an “I Love the Escarpment Tour” and a group called PERL.

But even though she says she finds the natural environment endlessly fascinating, she avows she never sets out to have this theme or any other theme in her songs. “It’s just what ends up. I start with something special or interesting, and it’s kind of random what ends up on paper. So much is about what’s in someone’s life. The little moments.”

Harmer spoke to The Tyee by phone. “I love Vancouver,” she says of her pending performances at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. “And it’s at Jericho, which I have great memories of – I had an all-night bonfire there several years ago.” She’ll also be heading to Salt Spring Island and Tofino for concerts and for a little recreation after that.

Below, excerpted from our conversation, are her quotes.

On her origins – the church and the botanists

“I grew up on a farm just outside of Burlington, Ontario. It’s where my parents still live.

“I also grew up singing in the church choir. That’s where I learned to sing and harmonize. When I was eight and belting out classics like ‘Will Your Anchor Hold,’ I didn’t feel all that spiritual about them then. And I don’t practice any organized religion now, but I do think that’s filtered in somehow.

“Then there’s the fact that, genetically, my mom was a schoolteacher and she had six kids. She had aspirations to be a minister.

“I do think that music is part of the service industry. And spirituality is about being in service to other people and the natural world. I think it’s apparent that I’ve become more spiritual in the last five or 10 years, but mostly it’s just that I’ve grown up a little bit. And I’ve spent a lot of time outside.

“Which reminds me of something my friend told me: that nature and imagination are two of the world’s oldest friends. They do go hand in hand.

“Lately, I’ve been hanging out with a lot of biologists and botanists to do some environmental monitoring, mostly behind my parent’s land. And I’ve had some interesting conversations about reverence and some about straight-up science. But I really can’t separate the two. So many things are fascinating in the natural world that there’s a kind of inherent respect.”

On PERL-ly thoughts

“It’s hard to say exactly when I became involved in the Niagara Escarpment, and in PERL About 20 or 30 years ago, this society in Ontario decided that the Niagara Escarpment was an ancient and vital ecosystem. Because it’s difficult terrain — it’s difficult and steep — historically it was difficult to develop. Now, some of the remaining old-growth forest is still there, along with hundreds of creeks and tributaries. And the corridor is protected. But there’s one loophole – for the aggregate industry. They’re still allowed to operate.

“But if you have to prioritize between where to get gravel and where to protect species at risk, it’s an obvious priority. So PERL came into being just to protect 200 acres of grasslands.

“It’s got just about every button you could possibly push. We need to protect agricultural soil, habitat, old growth forest. Everything we’re talking about worldwide is going on here.

“A few years ago, my mother and me and some neighbours made fliers and stuffed mailboxes. Then we had a meeting at the church, and about 100 people came out.”

On singin’ the ‘Escarpment Blues’

“I guess I wrote ‘Escarpment Blues’ to tell the story. I just started kind of singing it in my backyard. I started it then I thought ‘Oh, I guess that’s a song,’ then I kind of put it away. For me, usually the melody is a given. It just happens. It’s just there. It’s subconscious. I usually have to labour over the words.

“A few weeks later, I finished it, and recorded it. My record label generously manufactured it and gave all the profits to PERL. It’s been awesome to put music to work.

“The Escarpment Tour wrapped up in June, but Andy Keen got the whole thing on video, so he’s going to make it into a documentary. He shot our shows and the hiking and rock climbing. So he’s cutting it. And I’m also going into the studio with an acoustic band to capture what we were doing on this tour and record an album Ideally, we’ll have a simultaneous release. So we’ll keep doing it.”

Sarah Harmer is playing at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival on Saturday, July 15th at 5:30pm on stage four.

Vanessa Richmond is the culture editor for The Tyee.

Stewart Jones

Mount Nemo
Printed on Archival Bamboo paper
20″ x 20″

BURLINGTON, ON  February 12, 2011

The tap got turned off due to an inappropriate and rash decision.  The result of that decision, which we didn’t make, meant that the “newspaper on a web site” was ‘unavailable’. We all do dumb things at different points in our lives.

It is going to take a few days to get everything re-installed but for the time being – here we are –  back again with full control of our system.

While we were away, The Pier mess inched forward a bit, the Mayor did some traveling, those soccer Moms are working things out and the Waterfront Advisory Committee held another meeting which we were unable to cover.  We have a story on the Kilbride community that is near completion and want to tell you about an absolutely magnificent example of citizen participation and engagement that we watched take place.  We will update you on all this and more when we can get back to where we were before the …uh…incident.



Insurance company tells city to take a hike,

Decides not to honour the bond city bought.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  February 8, 2011  – Well we knew the meeting was not going to have any good news.  Now we know how bad the news is and the Mayor deserves credit for telling his constituents what is happening.  The next question is – now what?

And, to do that, the members of Council will go behind closed doors and jabber amongst themselves and city hall staff – looking at the options and determining what the next step could be or should be.

The city’s press release said:  The City of Burlington received notice on Feb. 7 from Zurich Insurance Co., the bonding company for the contractor originally hired to build the Brant Street Pier, that Zurich has denied Burlington’s claim under the bond to help complete the long-delayed project.

That’s a tough one.  The city surely thought when the bond was put in place they were covered.  Turns out they aren’t covered.  No details on why the claim was denied.  All that “might” come out at the Council meeting which will follow the committee meeting.

Give Mayor Goldring credit for getting the news out as soon as he got it.  Keep up the good habit Your Worship.

Our Performing Arts Centre goes

on stage before Council with budget.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON Jan 31^st, 2011  – Will they be throwing roses on the stage when the Burlington Performing Arts Centre (BPAC)budget gets debated by city council later this month?   Council members will get a copy of the budget this Friday afternoon and, based on some of the comments made at previous council meetings, the plans may be in for a rough ride.

Ward 3 council member John Taylor was a little antsy last week when he complained about not knowing what the budget was going to look like and how much the deficit was going to amount to for the first year of operation.

The BPAC is an arms length organization, run by a 13 person Board that sets out policy and a staff that runs the place which is scheduled to open this fall.  The city’s role in the operation is to pick up whatever the deficit amounts to – and there will be a deficit the first couple of years.

Former Chair, and now Past Chair, Keith Strong advises that the deficit will be much less than  a million dollars but many suspect it will be higher because there hasn’t been all that much in the way of financial information from the BPAC people.

To date, the BPAC has held a number of open houses which let people see how the construction has proceeded.  Strong points out that the place is “on time and on budget” – something he adds that Burlington hasn’t seen in some time.

Taylor wanted to know what acts and performers have been booked and how much had been spent.  Staff assured Taylor that all would be revealed when the budget and business plan are presented.  Taylor wasn’t satisfied. “Events have to be booked well in advance” said Taylor at a recent meeting – “so they must know what we are going to see in the fall.”   Staff couldn’t add much in the way of information other than to say that the report was “in the works”

Once can’t expect Taylor to be throwing roses on the stage for the BPAC Board’s premier performance before council.  Taylor has never been a big fan of the centre and points to failure after failure of this type of organization.  HECFI in Hamilton is going broke he will tell you and most opf the smaller theatre groups in Burlington don’t like what’ve heard of the cost structure to use the new building.  The fact is that few Executive Directors of new performance Centre’s last much more than a year and a half, but that doesn’t seem to have phased Brenda Heatherington who is beavering away at getting the building completed and planning for the first six months or so of performances.  This is a woman who wears a construction helmet and velvet gloves at the same time.

The completion of the building is, as Strong says “on budget and on time” and one wonders why the Board isn’t being given credit that that achievement – no small feat in Burlington.

Alan Pearson, chair for the current year is pretty aggressive with his comments and he doesn’t have a lot of time for the ‘nay sayers’.  “The train has left the station on this issue” says Pearson.  It is too late for people to carp about whether or not this is a good thing for Burlington, he adds, sounding like a guy who believes everything is under control.  “We are planning a soft opening with a series of low key events that will give the community time to get used to the facility” explains Pearson.  So, it looks as if there isn’t going to be a big budget, boffo event that will cost a fortune and be foisted on a community that is still getting used to the idea that we have a performing arts centre.

Strong says talking about the specifics of performances now is premature.  There s a lot to get done and the public will know all about what is planned when it is appropriate.  Well, it is ‘show business’ and I guess we have to leave it to the people behind the curtains do develop the buzz and create the hype that will result in sold out performances.

This is a new step for Burlington and except for the small kafuffle over which brick to use on the outside of the building – there haven’t been any problems.  We have an Executive Director who has the experience needed to make the place work and a fund raising team that has done exceptionally well with more than $10 million raised to date.  Denise Walker has taken over the fund raising effort for the final drive.  Strong explains that fund raising expenses, which are minimal, get paid with the interest earned on the funds raised and held by the city.   Nothing financially flabby about this organization.  Lean and driven so far.  But Strong grouses that the city pays a miserable 1% – you get the sense that if her were managing the money the return would be a little fatter.

The Board is a pretty hard driving bunch of people.  They meet once a month at 8 am.  With two Council members on the Board Rick Craven, Ward 1 and the Mayor, and one senior city staff member, Steve Zorbas, former city treasurer (so he will know how to count the jelly beans) and now Acting General Manager Infrastructure and Development plus ten other people drawn from the community –  the public interest is certainly well represented.

The Budget and the attendant documents get known on February 14^th – Valentine’s Day.  Pearson should perhaps bring chocolates.

United Way approaches final stretch.

One small hurdle and we are there.

By Pepper Parr

BURLINGTON, ON  January 27, 2011  –  There are some things that just have to get done – every day.  Some things are seasonal others maybe once in a lifetime.  The dishes, every day; the garbage, once a week and the United Way Fund – once a year.  And it is that time of year again.

Running the Burlington United Way campaign is a mammoth task.  It requires all the skills needed to run a large corporation and then men and woman who do that job take time away from busy professional and personal lives to make the phone calls, attend the events, plan the strategy and get the money into the bank so that it can be distributed to those agencies in the community that take care of those who, for any number of reasons, cannot take care of themselves.

We have agencies in place to spot these problems and who can take the necessary action but they cost money.  The people who do this work have to be paid; rent and electricity for the offices they work in has to be paid for – it all costs money. Organizations like the United Way do the hard grunt work to pull those funds into the coffers and put it where it will meet the most pressing needs in the community.

The current United Way campaign is in the final stretch to raise $2.15 million that will get distributed to 44 agencies in the community.  The campaign is just $300,000 shy of reaching that total.  Dig a little deeper today and make this happen.  We are out of the recession for the most part – we’ve got the money, let’s share it.

These fund raising events don’t just happen.  They require hours and hours of  meetings and phone calls.  The team that is making those phone calls this year is made up of

Rick Bashista, Campaign Vice Chair & Insurance Sector Rep
John Flasch Insurance Agency Inc.

Kathy Brown, Health & Social Services Division Chair
Director, Client Services, Central West Community Care Access Centre

John Chisholm, Accounting Sector Rep
Partner, SB Partners

Dr. Nicole Ciraolo, Chiropractor Sector Rep, Canadian Laser & Pain Therapy

Jamie Edwards, Leadership Chair. JM Edwards Associates Inc.

Tom Irvine, Credit Union Sector Rep. Branch Manager, First Ontario Credit Union

Anthony Koleoso, Commercial Sector Rep. Regional Manager, Business Development, Speedy Glass

Ruth Lee, Banking Sector Rep. TD Canada Trust

Roman Martiuk, Business Division Chair. City Manager, City of Burlington

Tim Miron, GenNext. Manager, Durward Jones Barkwell & Company LLP Chartered Accountants

Nancy Morley, Finance & Advisory Division Chair. District Vice President, Burlington District

Jeremy W. Okolisan, Engineering Sector Rep. Vice President, Byrne Engineering Inc.

Mike Pautler, Halton Catholic District School Board Sector Rep. Halton Catholic District School Board

Joe Popkey, GenNext.  Sales Director, Golden Horseshoe, RBC Royal Bank, RBC Life Insurance Company

Barry Powel, Manufacturing Sector Rep. Accounting Manager, Umicore AutoCat

Judy Pryde, Community Agency Sector Rep. Executive Director, Community Living Burlington

Jeff Shannon, Investment Sector Rep. Division Director, Investors Group Financial Services Inc.

Ken Zukiwski, Investment Sector Rep. Certified Financial Planner, Certified Senior Advisor, Investors Group Financial Services Inc.

The team is led by Karmel Sachran, a Burlington lawyer who is also Member of the Board of Governors of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital (2006 – present), Chair of their Human Resource and Compensation Committee, Member of the Executive Committee,    Board Representative on the Hospital Foundation Steering Committee for the Capital Re-Development Project (with fundraising target of $120 Million)

Karmel holds two annual fundraisers for local charities: the Wills & Powers of Attorney Event and an annual Canada 5 km run / 1 km walk event.  In 2008  he formed the Magnificent 7,  a group of seven individuals that trained to run a half marathon, raising money for local children in need and affiliated with the YMCA and Children’s Aid Society.

In 2009 Karmel helped with the formation of FAB Foundation, “Fit – Active – Beautiful” a program designed to help disadvantaged girls gain self-confidence and discipline in learning how to train and run 5 km.

Karmel has been a member of the Rotary Club of Burlington and was the 2008 recipient of Rotarian of the Year award and the recipient of Paul Harris Fellowship Award twice.

Karmel was a Founding Board Member of The Carpenter Hospice in Burlington. He was involved from concept, design, construction, operation and governance. The hospice   serves an average of 100 individuals and their families every year without cost to them and has an annual operating budget of $1.8 million.

A member of the Board of the Halton County Law Association Karmel was called to the Bar in 1995 and is a member in good standing with the Law Society of Upper Canada. He founded Roseland Law Chambers comprised of 7 sole practitioners.

Whew !– where does this guy find the time to get all this done and run a very successful law practice as well?

The gift came from his Father, who was born in Nazareth, Palestine where he grew up and taught school for a short period of time and then was trained as a land surveyor by the British when they had a mandate to rule Palestine.

One of his Father’s jobs in the Middle Eats was to survey the northern part of Galilee during the Israeli rule where he eventually reported to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Lands.  We tell you all this to make the point that Karmel’s Father held a very responsible position in the Middle East but gave up what he had there and immigrated to Canada with his wife and children because he wanted then to be raised and live in a free country.

Norm Sakran foresaw the turmoil that today racks the Middle East.  He wanted better for his children and so they came to Canada where the Father ran into that question which faces so many immigrants: Do you have any Canadian experience?  Norm decided he would become a grocer and operated the Ontario Variety on Ontario Street, which is still in business, now run by Karmel’s brother.

Karmel brings that “child of an immigrant” to everything he does.  He understands how fortunate we are in Canada and works to share what he is able to earn and lives each day grateful that he is here.  He is a philanthropist by heart and works to inspire others on the duty of giving and caring for their community.

This week Karmel Sachran needs your help to get that last $300,00 into the bank so that his community can take care of those who cannot today take care of themselves.