 By Pepper Parr
October 11, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Adi Developments has made application to the city for a change to the Official Plan and the zoning bylaw that would allow them to build a 28 storey condominium at the intersection of Martha Street and Lakeshore Road.
 Rendering of the 28 storey tower from the south west. The podium at the bottom will be parking space clad in a metal grill. The existing zoning on the property is four stories with provision to go to eight storeys with planning department approval. The application for 28 storeys has stunned many.
ADI Developments are fairly new to Burlington as developers. They are completing construction of a four level condominium on Guelph Line that is close to sold out. Topping off has taken place. Occupancy is expected to begin early next year.
ADI Developments is also doing a larger project on Sutton Drive and Dundas. That project is being reviewed at the OMB – the developer and the city were not abale to get all the documents cleared and the problems with the project worked out within the 180 day period a developer has before they can take their application to the Ontario Municipal Board
Their most recent project is a very audacious structure that will be the tallest in the city. ADI has always done superb design and have been given awards by Hamilton-Halton Home Builders Association (HHHBA) for the design work they have done. RAW, the project architects have also won numerous awards.
Their first project, Mod’rn Condominium, was the winner of the 2012 HHBA 2012 Award of Distinction, including Project of the Year, and nominated for 2013 Most Outstanding Mid-rise Development by the Ontario Home Builders Association (OHBA).
The Planners for the developer are required to provide a justification for the development report. The document Walker Nott Dragicevic Associates Limited (WND) submitted includes a number of studies, including a Functional Servicing Report; a Stormwater Management Report, a Tree Inventory and Preservation Study; a Traffic Impact Study; a Noise Feasibility Study; a Shadowing Study and a Pedestrian Wind Study.
 Delta Hotel on the right and the 22 storey Bridgewater condominium on the left. Both just a block away from the ADI Development. The city`s planning department will review each study and provide comments in a report that will eventually get sent to the city`s Development and Infrastructure Standing Committee.
What is it that the Adi`s want to build on the corner of Martha and Lakeshore Road? A 28 storey structure with three levels of parking above the ground and five levels below the ground. They want to make the first two levels retail commercial – and if they do it right it could become the place to locate a professional office.
 Rendering of the 28 storey structure from the south east. The architects described the design as having the look of a “billowing sail” that will serve as the gateway to the downtown core. That is not quite how the 80+ residents who took part in a neighbourhood meeting described the structure. Realize that a block away to the west the Bridgewater condominium will reach up 22 storeys and the best hotel the city will have, the Delta, will be yards away, The focal point for the city will shift south and a little to the east of Brant Street.
There are some concerns with the design of the Adi building planned for Lakeshore Road and Martha; there are some very serious concerns with the way traffic will move on Lakeshore Road, particularly at the point where the road narrows.
The architect talked about the design having a “billowing sail” look to it – and that it would serve as the eastern gateway into the downtown core. It may have that look to it – but managing the traffic to the building as well as in and out of the building is going to be a serious challenge to both the planners and the traffic department.
And there isn’t going to be much time to dicker with the developer. When Adi Development found they could not work out the differences with their Link2 project at Dundas and Sutton in the north east sector of the city they moved on to the Ontario Municipal Board almost immediately after the 180 day time period.
We now know what ADI Development wants. How do they justify the application?
In their conclusion Walker Nott Dragicevic Associates Limited (WND) said the proposed 28-storey mixed use development is appropriate for the site and surrounding area and represents good planning. Specifically, the proposed development:
Is consistent with the Provincial Policy Statement as it will provide for intensification and redevelopment within the City of Burlington Settlement Area, expand the range and mix of housing, promote transit use and active transportation, efficiently use land and minimize land consumption and servicing costs;
Conforms to and implements the policies of the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe by directing growth to an Urban Growth Centre and Major Transit Station Area and facilitating the creation of a “complete community”;
Conforms to and will help to implement the Big Move: Transforming Transportation in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area by proposing new development within an Anchor Mobility Hub in a form that will support transit use;
Conforms to the Halton Region Official Plan by directing development to the Urban Area, and an Urban Growth Centre, Anchor Mobility Hub and Major Transit Station Area;
Conforms to overall goals and objectives of the City of Burlington Official Plan by directing transit oriented housing intensification to Downtown Burlington which will improve the streetscape environment and support its ongoing viability and vitality;
Has regard for the Burlington Downtown Urban Design Guidelines and emerging Mobility Hub study by providing for a landmark development at a view terminus and key eastern entry node to the Downtown;
Provides for a safe and active streetscape with commercial uses fronting directly onto the street;
Represents an appropriate form of intensification that is compatible with surrounding built form, including recently approved high rise development to the west and older towers to the east and north;
Can be accommodated by the area transportation and servicing infrastructure.
 The downtown core is in the process of being altered with the construction of the 22 storey Bridgewater condominium and the eight storey Delta Hotel – that project is located in the area with the red outline. The ADI project is the orange outline – a bit more than a block apart. If the Adi Development planner is right and the city planning staff cannot come up with compelling counter arguments there may well be a 28 storey tower at the corner of Lakeshore Road and Martha three years from now.
“If 28 storeys is acceptable” asked a woman from the audience – “why not go for 75 storeys and call us Toronto West”
Why not indeed
 By Staff
October 12, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
For the book lovers in town it will be an evening to remember.
 Carrie Snyder Five renowned authors will gather at the Art Gallery of Burlington on October 28th.
 Miriam Toews The five are all finalists in the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize . Hosted locally by A Different Drummer Books, in partnership with the International Festival of Authors and The Writers’ Trust of Canada the evening will feature: Andre Alexis, Steven Galloway, K.D. Miller, Carrie Snyder and Miriam Toews .
 Steven Galloway The event begins at 7:00 pm in the Shoreline Room.8 7pm ~ Art Gallery of Burlington, Shoreline Room. Tickets are $10, available at A Different Drummer Books. To reserve, please contact us at (905) 639 0925 or diffdrum@mac.com.
 K.D. Miller The finalists for the 2014 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize will present their works, just days before the recipient of the $25,000 award is announced.
 Andre Alexis The authors and their books: Andre Alexis, Pastoral, Steven Galloway, The Confabulist, K.D. Miller, All Saints, Carrie Snyder, Girl Runner and Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows
More information about the prize and the nominees can be found at this link:
 By Carol Gottlob
Candidate ward 4
October 12, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Each week, until the ballots are cast on October 27th, we are going to follow the tales and travails of a single candidate. We have chosen Carol Gottlob, running in ward 4 against a well entrenched incumbent. Gottlob has no experience in civic government, has never campaigned before. Following this candidate is not an endorsement; Gottlob will win on her own merit.
Thanksgiving holiday marks the 10 week point since the flood hit Burlington on August 4th. In the final weeks of this year’s municipal election campaign, I find myself walking up to houses in all parts of Ward 4; some still have bins in the driveway, and many are patiently waiting for the contractors to show up.
The physical clean-up is virtually complete in terms of removing debris and cleansing, but the social and emotional rebuilding still has to happen and confidence in our government needs to be restored.
 Creeks couldn’t handle the volume of water because they were left in a “naturalized” state which meant broken limbs and fallen branches were not regularly cleaned out During this severe rain storm, our municipal systems that combine storm water and raw sewage into the same pipeline were exposed to more volume than they could handle, and the result was sewage backup spewing out into basements and other low lying drains. As we now know, sanitary sewer overflows which were caused by that huge downpour, created a severe problem to the environment, to public health and significantly, to many homeowners, wreaking havoc on many Burlington homes, causing thousands of dollars in damage to floors, walls, furniture, appliances and electrical systems.
This situation also threatened our Public Health because these overflows were comprised of raw sewage before it reached our waste water treatment plant, and it contained disease-causing bacteria, floating human waste, toxic pollutants, pesticides, and other contaminants that threaten public health and the environment, contaminate drinking water sources, and damage buildings.
Those unfortunate Ward 4 residents who found themselves in this terrible situation were not alone, we now realize. With heightened awareness, we are now learning that the increase in the number of homes connected to already aging sewage systems has contributed to rapid and repeated increases in sanitary sewer backups, flooded basements and overflows in our community.
 The flood waters sparred no one – home owners and commercial sections of the city all had water in their premises. In addition, the problems of the adversely affected Ward 4 homeowners were, in many instances, also negatively impacted by nearby creeks, such as Tuck Creek which became blocked by fallen trees and debris, consequently overflowing and further flooding many residential basements via windows and portals.
Generally, the creeks and waterways in Burlington are under the jurisdiction of Conservation Halton. The storm water system comprised of storm water sewers and culverts is under the jurisdiction of the City of Burlington. Sanitary sewers and waste treatment is under the jurisdiction of the Halton Regional Government.
The question before us is this; are these governments taking sufficient initiatives and offering appropriate financial and other assistance to the adversely affected homeowners?
Apparently, Burlington is making grants to affected citizens to offset the cost of building permits and Halton is offering a lump sum towards the cost of the installation of a back-flow valve.
In this regard, I must point out that it is unacceptable to me that our municipalities are also making it a condition of such nominal payments, that a homeowner formally release the municipality from any other claims they may have. The only statement that may, in my view, be required from any recipient is that such payments shall not be deemed an admission of liability by the government and that if a claim against the government is subsequently successful, the government shall be credited with the payment received.
In my view, this extraordinary, but rare, negative situation deserves an extraordinary response from our municipal governments. Provincial and community fundraising contributions notwithstanding, the municipalities should exercise their authority under the Municipal Act to make a financial grant to the affected homeowners and the municipalities would together, upon a formula agreed between them, fund such grants to compensate for the following:
a) the full cost of the purchase and installation of a sewer back-flow valve;
b) the cost of cleaning out and disposing of the sewer backup sludge, the damaged walls, floors and household contents;
c) the cost of removing mold, cleaning and restoring the basement walls, foundation and main floor where affected;
d) the cost of replacing the interior walls and floors of the basement and main floors damaged by the storm and sewer backup;
e) an interest free loan to cover the costs of restoring the basement and its contents, as well as the main floor where affected and not covered by the compensation listed above.
Certainly, the foregoing compensation would be subject to several process and claim procedures, including the homeowner being able to establish to the governments his or her losses and damages, as well as evidence that none of their claims were covered by private insurance coverage. Clearly, the governments would not be obliged nor able to compensate the homeowners for the loss of intangibles, computer data, electronic media and related records.
It may be argued by some, that the compensation outlined above for the affected homeowners is a precedent to be avoided and that, generally, it is too expensive to be paid for by the governments.
 My response is that such compensation to our neighbours is a precedent which should be set, as it is entirely in the public interest that the few citizens among us affected so adversely by such a storm should not have to bear alone and alone assume all of the negative costs of this storm due to the failure of our municipal infrastructure to handle such a storm. As one homeowner pointed out to me, if a municipal water main erupted and caused damage to nearby homes, would the municipality not be responsible?
How is this event any different, other than it being on a much larger scale? The responsibility still rests on the municipalities, and those homeowners who are experiencing repeated floods are no longer eligible for private insurance. Someone has to step up.
 Carol Gottlob – running for the ward 4 council seat and a seat on the Regional government; two bikes, one car. Furthermore, due to the fact that we can anticipate other significant storms in the future, these expenses are justified in so far as they will remove the public health threat to these citizens whose homes are vulnerable, without such improvements, to being subjected to subsequent sewer backups.
If the municipalities in the past refused to foresee the necessity to rebuild an infrastructure to handle such storms within the context of regional development, why shouldn’t they now assume the cost of paying the affected homeowners for the consequence of such prior government decisions?
All the more reason to learn from this and use the technology we have and the foresight we need to exercise, to plan and build for 100 years out if we want a stable and viable infrastructure and move away from costly damage control.
As the evenings close in on us and the weather turns cooler, I am thankful for the warmth emitted from my furnace, however I am sadly reminded that some of my neighbours are not so fortunate, through no fault of their own, and we owe it to them to provide the basic necessities through community assistance as well as good government that takes responsibility for those provisions.
By Pepper Parr
October 11, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
For those families that have children who are autistic – everyday life is different. One of the fears is that as the child grows he or she may begin to wander and suddenly be lost. The fear and the dread in the hearts of the parents is palpable: where is my child?
The Halton Regional Police have launched a new Autism Registry.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life: it is the result of a neurological disorder that affects the functioning of the brain. It is believed that over 100,000 people in Ontario are diagnosed with some form of ASD.
This voluntary registry is designed to provide a better system of service delivery to community members by ensuring that front line officers have access to vital information when responding to occurrences involving people with ASD.
The registry system provides a proactive means to gather information voluntarily provided by the person registering in the program, or the parent or guardian of the registrant. This information would include the description and photograph of a registered person, behaviours, routines, communication abilities, expected locations of travel, as well as other detailed information.
This registry is entirely voluntary and operates under the basis that families willingly provide police with critical information in relation to a person living with ASD which will help officers in their overall response. By gathering this data in advance of any potential occurrences, police will be entering into a situation with more information, allowing them to have a more specific understanding of what they are responding to.
This registry was developed in conjunction with Autism Ontario – Halton Chapter as well as with information provided by other police services with similar registries. Participating in the registry simply requires access to the internet and visiting the Halton Police web site. Link here.
Information on the Registry web site includes:
What is the Autism Registry?
Can individuals with other special needs participate in the registry? Or is it restricted to those who fall within the Autism Spectrum?
If I don’t live in Halton Region, can I still register my child/dependent adult in the Registry?
Will the information be immediately available to police officers as soon as I register?
Will I need to quote my confirmation occurrence number when I call police?
Who has access to the Autism Registry?
Can I update my profile more than every year if there are changes? How do I do that?
Will I be notified when the annual renewal is required?
How will this registry help if my child/dependent adult goes missing?
How do I contact Autism Ontario?
The Halton Regional Police continue to promote advocacy, support and education for families who are affected by the challenges of ASD and do so both internally and with our community partners.
Autism directly affects several members of the Halton Regional Police Service.
 By Pepper Parr
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
During the debate in ward four Tuesday evening Mayor Goldring brought out an interest he has been nurturing for some time. The current method of determining who the winner is in an election is the person who gets the most votes. They call that First Past the Post – it has its own acronym FPP.
Many people, including the Mayor see the FPP as unfair.
 During the ward four debate Rick Goldring said he was in favour of a Ranked Ballot approach to municipal elections. Would he be Mayor today if that approach had been in place in 2006? l Mayor Goldring would like to see that changed. In 2006 Goldring won the ward 5 council seat with just 28% of the votes cast.
The alternative that is being talked up – more than talked up actually – the Premier has mandated Ted McMeekin Minister of Community and Social Services to begin “a review of the Municipal Elections Act after the 2014 municipal elections”.
“You will ensure that the act meets the needs of communities, and that it provides municipalities with the option of using ranked ballots in future elections, starting in 2018, as an alternative to first-past-the-post,”
What is Ranked Voting ?
Mayor Goldring was well briefed on the concept of Ranked voting – although he didn’t explain exactly what it was all that well.
In a ranked-ballot system, voters cast ballots for preferred candidates — they mark their first choice; their second choice and third choice.
If a candidate does not get more than 50% of the votes on the first count – there is an immediate recount and the second choice votes are added in. If that gives on candidate 50% of the votes that candidate is declared the winner. If there was no candidate with 50% the third choice votes are added in.
There is no mention in the explanation as to how far out this goes – one would hope that three runs at this would find a winner.
So how would this have worked in the 2006 and 2010 elections?
In 2006 the results for Mayor were:
Cam JACKSON 14941
Joan LOUGHEED 13687
Rick BURGESS 12658
Philip PAPADOPOULOS 1393
Stephen KOLCUN 147
 Cam Jackson: Election night 2010 Where would the Burgess, Papadopolous and Kolcun votes have gone if the Ranked balloting approach had been used. There are a lot of reasons to believe Burlington would not have had that four year Cam Jackson experience.
In Ward 4 the results were:
Jack DENNISON 3364
Frank McKEOWN 2517
John VERSLUIS 2085
Jeff ROTTAR 1010
Ross HICKS 915
It would be a stretch to think that the three lowest vote getters would split evenly between McKeown and Dennison. Would McKeown have won? Had he – he would not have been available to serve as Goldring’s Chief of Staff for the first half of the 2010-2014 term – and that would have made for a much different form of leadership from Goldring.
In 2006 the count was:
Rick GOLDRING 1848
Casey COSGROVE 1368
Fred SUTER 1185
Sam SARRAF 647
Bill BASTIEN 503
Vera KURNITZKI-WEST 342
Marnie MELLISH 305
David ABBOTT 253
Stephen BAULD 243
Casey Cosgrove believes that he would have beaten Rick Goldring which suggests Goldring would never have become Mayor.
 Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster thinking through the answer to a question. Tends to be cautious. In 2010 the cliff hanger was the race for ward 6 where Mark Carr gave Blair Lancaster a really good run. Had he lived in the ward he might have taken it. Doubtful if ranked voting would have given the seat in 2010.
Blair LANCASTER 2,574 ELECTED
Mark CARR 2,449
Christopher MULHERN 575
Robb HERRIOT 248
Phil BUCK 176
The process continues until a candidate wins a simple majority of 50 per cent plus one.
Proponents argue it is more democratic, curbs vote-splitting, and leads to less polarizing politics because candidates run less negative campaigns over fears of alienating potential second-choice supporters.
Those opposed to the change warn ranked ballots can be confusing for voters — even though under the current “first-past-the-post” system, candidate routinely win with far less than 50 per cent of the vote.
Many think the municipal electoral system needs an overhaul. A ranked ballot system, for example, would make municipal elections less polarizing and produce a more accurate picture of what voters want.
In ranked-ballot voting, a candidate must secure a majority and wins if he or she has the most first-place votes; if the vote does not produce a true majority, an instant run-off would determine the winner.
 Would Councillors Sharman and Lancaster have been elected in 2010 has Ranked Balloting been in place? Currently, the “first past the post” system dictates the candidate with the highest number of votes wins.
When members of the Legislature are appointed to Cabinet they receive a “mandate” letter from the Premier in which what is expected of the minister is set out. These are usually confidential documents but Premier Wynne released them this time.
Mandate letters are the marching orders; “There aren’t too many surprises in them,” said Wynne.
In her mandate letter to Ted McMeekin, Wynne spells out the importance of leading “from the activist centre” with democratic reforms.
“We will place emphasis on partnerships with businesses, communities and people to help foster continued economic growth and make a positive impact on the lives of every Ontarian,” the premier wrote.
“This collaborative approach will shape all the work we do. It will ensure we engage people on the issues that matter the most to them, and that we implement meaningful solutions to our shared challenges.”
Ranked voting will challenge the way some municipal politicians have held their seats for so long.
 By Pepper Parr
October 9, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
Elections bring out all the interest groups. Many of these groups have taken to using questionnaires through which they solicit the views of the candidates on their issue and publish the results.
During this election it looks as if there are more than a dozen questionnaires in circulation. BurlingtonGreen has one, the Waterfront Advocacy group has one; the arts community has one, the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition went one better and organized a tour of the damage they believe was done to north Burlington properties as a result of what they describe as illegal landfill dumping.
 Doug Brown and Susan Lewis look over a 1982 copy of the city’s bus schedule. Asked off the record every candidate will tell you that the questionnaires are getting a little out of hand.
BFAST, Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit, a local public transit advocacy group published the results of its first ever Municipal Election Candidate Questionnaire. The focus of the questionnaire was transit issues in the city, ranging from fares, to improving service levels, and providing a better quality of life to seniors and the disabled. The group was impressed overall with the quality of responses it received from candidates.
What was interesting with this survey was the number of incumbents who did not respond to the survey. Councillors Dennison, Sharman and Lancaster chose not to respond as did many of the candidates in ward six where the need for public transit in a newly developed community is important if younger people are to get out of the community without parents driving them around town.
In their media release BFAST said: “Clearly transit has resonated among candidates as a serious issue which the next term of council must address” said BFAST chair Doug Brown. “Many candidates comments agreed with the assessment of BFAST that Burlington has failed to meet the needs of transit users, and can do much more to attract new transit riders.”
A majority of candidates supported suggestions such as free transit for seniors one day a week, as Oakville has recently implemented. There is also widespread support among candidates for freezing or reducing fares, currently among the highest of any municipality in the GTHA. Criticism of the adhoc way in which transit service changes are implemented and communicated is also prevalent.
Here are some of the comments that stood out:
“It seems like we have worse transit now than we did when I was growing up in Burlington.”
“Having Transit Service Standards seem like a no-brainer, and to be honest, I didn’t know Burlington got rid of them… Thanks for bringing it to my attention.”
“When our City looks after its oldest, youngest and most vulnerable, we will all thrive.”
 Burlington Transit put their most festive bus into the parade. The language doesn’t matter – the message is still the same. 
Question 1: Burlington only spends one half of the GTA average on per capita municipal spending on transit, resulting in low service levels and low ridership.
Would you increase Burlington’s share of the transit operating budget to at least the GTA average?
Question 2: Burlington Transit’s capital budget has come from the City’s share of the Provincial Gas Tax Fund. Historically, Burlington had devoted 30% of their Federal Gas Tax monies to Burlington Transit. Most GTA cities allot a larger share of their gas tax funds to transit. For example, the City of Toronto allots 100% of their gas tax funding to transit. In 2013 and 2014, Council reduced the transit share of gas tax funding from 30% to 20%, removing $500,000 annually from the transit budget and using these funds to re-pave some side streets and cul-de-sacs.
Question 3: Although Burlington has one of the lowest transit service levels in the GTA. It leads the way on its fares. The $3.25 adult cash fare makes our fares among the highest in the GTA. For example, Hamilton cash fares are $2.55 (22% less than Burlington!). Even the TTC has a lower fare than Burlington.
Question 4: Transit Service Standards are used in most communities to ensure that their citizens have reasonable access to transit and good service. Transit Service Standards include maximum walking distances to transit from residences and major destinations, hours of service, and maximum wait times for transit users. Burlington had Transit Service Standards, but some years ago, quietly discarded their standards. This has resulted in many residents having little or no access to transit service, long waits between buses (one hour – mid-day – week days on North West routes), and long walks from their homes to a bus stop.
Question 5: Many of our citizens have mobility issues that prevent them from driving, or from using conventional transit. Burlington’s spending on special transit (handi-van and taxi scrip) has been well below the provincial average resulting in longer waits and poor service levels for special transit users. In addition, Burlington has cut funding for “taxi-scrip”, a program that enabled disabled passengers to take a taxi at an affordable rate if neither conventional nor special transit could meet their needs. The elimination of the Taxi Scrip Program has made it difficult in some situations for persons with mobility issues to attend urgent appointments or social events.
Question 6: The growth of transit use in Burlington will also need a considerable promotional effort and incentives to get drivers out of their cars and on to the bus. Reduced fares are a proven method of increasing ridership. For example, Oakville has increased the use of transit by seniors by providing free transit to seniors one day a week.
The responses are available online
 Mobility hubs at the GO stations is close to a no brainer – it is the possible hub in the downtown core that has yet to be thoroughly thought through. Council decided that closing the terminal on John Street to save $8000 a year was not a bright idea. There isn’t a consistently strong transit advocate on council other than Marianne Meed Ward who will press transit issues whenever she can.
When three of the seven incumbents choose not to respond to a serious survey and when the Transit Advisory Committee no longer functions – you know you are not in a transit friendly town.
And yet, when Council speaks of how it is going to improve a rather dismal record of economic development they talk of the creation of four mobility hubs in the city. Fitting public transit into the plans isn’t quite there yet. At one point Burlington Transit wanted to close down the ticket station in the downtown core.
The hope for transit as a public service might be the suggestion Mayoralty candidate Peter Rusin made when he said “transit should be a regional responsibility”. That would move transit policy development even further from the citizens. With an aging population that is getting bigger and bigger Burlington might find that voters will demand a service that meets their needs; that certainly isn’t the case today.
By Lana Kamaric
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The Ballerina Project by Rolly Astrom is now showing at the Art Gallery of Burlington for the month of October.
 In this photography project Rolly Astrom takes classic ballet dancers and places them in contemporary cityscapes. Each photograph is a portrait that gives you a glimpse of what the dancer is capable of. Astrom’s artist statement reads, “My intent was to showcase the dancer’s grace, beauty, strength, flexibility and lines against a background of local sites.” The Ballerina Project showcases all of these elements while also presenting a portrait of the dancer herself.
Each ballerina is given her own space to work within a different part of the city. In A Stage to Herself we find the ballerina dancing outside of the Performing Art Centre. Shifting the boundaries of dance space, she is taking her craft from the stage and bringing it into the outside world. Another dancer is Stopping Traffic in her bare feet; she turns the city street into her studio, as a lamppost becomes her ballet bar. With each photo we find another public space occupied by a dancer as the world becomes their stage.
 Astrom was surprised at how collaborative the project became when he began working with the dancers. They would simply “meet up and start wandering” according to Astrom. Together they would agree on a space that worked and transform it into an art piece. The dancers would use their years of ballet experience to work with the space and create beautiful shapes, while he would use his photographic eye to capture each portrait. The dancers use the space around them to shape their poses and become part of the space itself. Poised in the Niche portrays the dancer as a statue preserved in the architecture. While Stone Dance seems to pull the dancer into the natural world around her, sculpted among the rocks her body becomes part of the structure.
Astrom works with digital photography. After taking the photo he manipulates elements of it to create various effects. In Waiting the image has the appearance of being folded over twice as one might find with an old photograph printed from film. This illusion according to Astrom was added to give the sense that it was an abandoned photograph picked up by the viewer. With the blending of dance and photography each image tells us the story of the girl in the photo.
 The Ballerina Project is Astrom’s first solo exhibition. On October 5th an opening was held in the Fireside Lounge of the AGB, where the pieces are currently on display until the end of the month. Many of Astrom’s supporters attended the opening to congratulate him and celebrate the first exhibition of this project. Guests were also able to meet some of the ballerinas who attended. The exhibition included the dancers’ old ballet shoes piled below the photo Abandoned, showcasing their discarded shoes. The photos range from bold colours to softer palettes and black and white. Each photograph, taking on its own presence while the dancer’s lines move your eyes from image to image.
 Astrom said that he had difficulty choosing which pieces to print and include in the show. To overcome this challenge he decided to include a digital slideshow of the full collection. The slideshow ran on loop for the duration of the opening. Guests were able to see the same dancers in another variety of movements and spaces that offered further clues to their portraits.
I had a chance to speak with Jodie, one of the ballerinas. She was pleased with how the exhibition turned out, “It’s nice to see our form of art combined with photography. I think it will make people appreciate dance more.” This may be true since the combination of the two art forms opens up each one to a wider audience. Working with Astrom, she found it interesting to use aspects of the background in combination with her dance. It is “unlike typical dance photos” which usually consist of a basic backdrop and the dancer smiling while posed. By taking the dancers out of their studios and off the stage Astrom has given them a limitless performance space and offered the viewer a new way to see ballet.
 So where does he go from here? “It’s not done,” says Astrom. “I’m going to continue with this as an ongoing series.” Working with Dance Makerz studio, he has taken most of the photos in Burlington but is looking to expand into Hamilton as well. With the number of dance studios in the surrounding area I am sure we will be seeing many more ballerinas taking over the cities before Astrom is through.
Lana Kamarić is a contemporary surrealist artist and a self-taught painter. Born in Sarajevo, Bosnia Lana arrived in Canada at the age of five. After moving to Burlington she attended Robert Bateman High school and graduated from York University with a degree in Art History. Lana has worked with the Museums of Burlington, the Art Gallery of Burlington and is currently working as a full-time artist. Lana was a participant in Cirque, the 2014 No Vacancy installation event in the Village Square. Her last show was Art in the Workplace at McMaster Innovation Park.
 By Ray Rivers
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
They used to call the Ontario Progressive Conservatives (PCs) ‘the natural governing party’. Originated with the Upper Canada Family Compact of Sir John A Macdonald, the party was first led by another Macdonald, who was actually a Liberal. The PCs under one label or another have ruled Ontario for over half of the province’s post-confederation history. And interestingly the Party’s official name used to be the Liberal-Conservative Association of Ontario.
 Next May the Ontario PCs will be choosing a new leader and will get the opportunity to rid themselves of the regressive and divisive politics that characterized much of the past couple decades. Christine Elliott, the widow of former finance minister Jim Flaherty, appears to be the candidate to beat. She’s been down this road before, coming in third place to Tim Hudak in the 2009 leadership fight. Flaherty had been one of the Mike Harris’ radicals though he took on subtler, more folksy and progressive persona as Mr. Harper’s finance minister.
After Flaherty vacated his provincial seat to run federally, Elliott squeaked in to fill her husband’s shoes. She claims to be a moderate, a centrist, and unlike Hudak, was never a foot soldier in the Harris government. In fact she has been known to criticize Harris’ ‘Common Sense Revolution’ and the extreme policies of former leader Tim Hudak, policies which led to the party’s failure in the last provincial election.
There is so much political landscape for a moderate leader of the second party to explore, providing that party is focused on good government and not blinded by ideology. For example we know that balancing the budget is an exercise in offsetting expenditures with revenues. And it follows that if costs can’t be reasonably curtailed, then taxes must increase.
Ontario’s state of transportation infrastructure is in shambles – and especially so in the GTA. Former Premier John Robarts would have intervened long ago to build more public transit, so people could come out of their cars and off the roads. And that would have helped, but this is more complex than just building bus lanes, subways and GO trains – it is about urban sprawl and planning for development in Ontario.
 Bill Davis had problems learning how to balance a budget; never really did learn. Former premier Bill Davis implemented Ontario’s land planning process, calling it one of the most advanced anywhere. But for all the praise, it is not much more than a reactive system driven by unsolicited developer proposals. Only the official plans and Greenbelt represent any kind of meaningful planning. And then there is that archaic institution called the Ontario Municipal Board, which exists nowhere else and, which can overrule municipal decisions to the ‘nth’ detail of a developer’s wet dream, thus emasculating council decisions.
Finally the whole municipal system promotes corruption and influence peddling. For example, some councillors accept contributions from land developers, and then are in a position to approve their development plans. And isn’t four years is too long a term for a municipal official between elections? Term limits might encourage greater participation in the municipal process as well as reducing the amount of ‘dead wood’ in council chambers.
Fixing these things is not really a matter of being right-wing or left-wing, and neither is ensuring adequate health care, reliable energy and quality education for the Ontario public. So I welcome a new PC leader who understands that we just want good government. Isn’t that how the PC party started and evolved, at least until it went off the rails. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a choice between two middle-of-the-road parties that mostly believe in the same things for all of us?
 And don’t we get tired watching one party come to power and then cancel the programs the former one had brought in, and so on and so forth… Of course there are some universal truths. Wealth doesn’t just trickle down from the rich to the poor, which is one of the reasons we have taxation. An economy in perpetual deficit will ultimately fail to perform at all. And the profit incentive is essential to ensure economic progress.
These principles or philosophies can be located somewhere in the constitutions of both of the two major political parties in Ontario if we look hard enough. This is the heritage of the parties and also their foundation. What’s not there is how they act to achieve these goals: being moderate, reasonable, inclusive and cooperative or conflicting, contrary, exclusive and divisive.
 Not everybody always votes for the same party, except maybe in Alberta. Some voters might occasionally want to support a second party, if only for a change of blood. But that becomes difficult when partisan ‘policy wonks’ dream up striking new ideological policy planks for the party leader. You know, the kind of stuff Mr. Tory attempted with religious school funding, Mr. Hudak with slashing the civil service and the crippling the unions, and Mr. Harris by dismantling our reliable electrical generation system.
There are at least four other contenders for the PC leadership so far, and in politics anything is possible. So it may not be Ms. Elliott who wins. Hopefully the new leader will look for inspiration to the glorious days before the 1990’s when the PCs were both conservative and progressive.
 Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. 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.
Links:
PCs Christine Elliott PC Leadership
Patrick Brown Candidate Hudak’s Platform
PC’s Relevant? Federal Conservative Constitution
By Staff
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
Police work is more than just catching criminals and writing traffic tickets.
When a crime is committed there is a victim – and often the victim needs not only justice through the courts but help to cope with the hurt and the harm done them.
 The Halton Regional Police Victim Services Unit is reaching out to the community for people interested in supporting victims of crime and trauma in our region.
These volunteer positions are for people who want to make a difference in their community and want to give back by helping others in need.
The Victim Services Unit can be called to attend incident scenes, hospitals or other locations where trauma has occurred, to provide immediate crisis assistance to serious incidents. This can include a broad spectrum of physical / psychological trauma from sudden death to assaults, robberies or motor vehicle collisions. HRPS Victim Services Unit volunteers may also be required to provide emotional support, explain police and / or court procedures and / or provide referrals to community agencies. The HRPS proudly supports the growing communities of Oakville, Burlington, Milton, Georgetown, Acton and Halton Hills.
Requirements:
To be considered for this volunteer position, you must:
Be a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident of Canada.
Be 21 years of age or older.
Have successfully completed at least four (4) years of secondary school education or equivalent.
Not have been convicted of a criminal offence for which a pardon has not been fully granted.
Be a fully licensed driver in Ontario having accumulated no more than six (6) demerit points.
Be prepared to take an Oath/Affirmation of Office and Secrecy
Be non-judgemental and empathetic.
Required to complete the mandatory sixty (60) hours of volunteer training, to take place weekly from January to March 2015.
Required to dedicate a minimum of four (4), eight (8) hour shifts of duty per month. During your shift you will be ‘on-call’ from your home but must strive to respond to calls from any of our locations in the region within 40 minutes of receiving the call.
Required to attend at least eight (8) of twelve (12) monthly meetings, in addition to shift hours.
Have access to internet / e-mail and a cell phone
Successfully complete the Volunteer Crisis Responder application and selection process.
Applicants must be willing to commit two years of volunteer service with Halton Regional Police Service. Full training will be provided.
The Volunteer Crisis Responder job position is posted on our website and can be found by following this link:
The web site does say that the position is in Oakville
 By Pepper Parr
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Elections bring out every interest group in the city. Some are minor, a little self serving while others are significant and impact the whole city.
 Barbara Sheldon look at 32 feet of landfill less than 50 feet from her kitchen window. All dumped without any permits because an airport is federally regulated. The Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition’s is one of the major concerns. Their mission statement is “to protect the Greenbelt Plan’s ‘protected countryside’ in North Burlington from ecologically and socially damaging development”. Since its founding in April 2013, it has worked to secure Municipal and Provincial control over the five year, unregulated fill operation at the Burlington Airpark.
In November 2013, and June 2014, Ontario’s Superior and Appellate courts both awarded in favour of the City of Burlington’s right to enforce its Site Alteration Bylaw on Airpark lands. In September 2014, the City of Burlington passed its new, more fulsome, Site Alteration Bylaw that will provide greater controls at the Airpark and will prevent another large scale fill operation from harming our Rural North. However, the story doesn’t end here.
Speaking to those who are running for office the RBGC said in a prepared statement: “Many of you have identified the Burlington Airpark as a major campaign issue, and your term of office will define how and when our City moves forward with environmental soil testing, remediation and restoration on the Airpark and adjacent properties, and in turn, how to bring justice to the neighbours of the Airpark.”
 Landfill comes to the edge of a neighbouring farm causing significant water damage. Candidates and media have been invited to take part in a Candidate’s Open House & Tour of the three neighbouring properties that have been most damaged by the Airpark’s fill operation on Saturday, October 11th 2014
Refreshments and briefing notes will be provided at the event. You are encouraged to drop in anytime between 10am and 1pm. It should take about 90 minutes for the complete tour.
Start at 5199 Appleby Line, and then travel north to the neighbouring farm and rural residences that have been surrounded by untested fill. The residents will be in attendance to share their personal stories and their concerns for the futures of their properties and water supply. Please wear footwear suitable for wet conditions.
RSVP’s are appreciated but not mandatory. Email Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition ruralburlingtongreenbelt@gmail.com
 By Pepper Parr
October 8, 2104
BURLINGTON, ON.
The momentum to keep raising funds for Burlington flood victims is continuing at a strong pace. As of noon today, the Burlington Community Foundation Flood Disaster Relief Committee has raised $750,000 in cash and $100,000 of in-kind support for a total of $850,000.
 With a pitch man like this how can a company not write a cheque. “Businesses, individuals and community organizations throughout the Golden Horseshoe continue to help us raise much needed funds for victims,” says Ron Foxcroft, Chair, BCF Flood Disaster Relief Committee. “As we plan our Thanksgiving celebrations this weekend we need to remind ourselves that many people in our community who suffered tremendous flood damage are still without essentials like furnaces, washers and dryers. We need to raise more money to help these people.”
The Committee is very pleased to announce that both Fortinos and Longo’s are getting involved raising funds in a big way. Each company has announced it will donate $25,000 for a total of $50,000 to flood relief and collect donations at their checkouts.
The Fortinos fundraising efforts will be held from October 17-30 and customers will be asked to consider contributing $2-5 when paying for their groceries.
The Longo’s fundraising efforts will be held from October 17-24 and customers will be asked to consider contributing $2 or more at checkout.
Grassroots fundraising efforts are also continuing in the community:
A Nine and Dine at Crosswinds Golf on October 5th raised $7,600; The Lion’s Club of Burlington donated $8,000; a Burlington couple donated $13,500 in securities to assist in the relief.
Sheil Patel, an 11 year old Burlington resident approached numerous local retailers for prizes and is selling tickets to raffle off the prizes. So far he has raised $400 and an anonymous donor has stepped up to match all proceeds.
The Bank of Montreal donated $20,000, the Insurance Bureau of Canada donated $5,000
 This total does not include the $100,000 Cogeco is reported to have given by way of in-kind services. This might be an embarrassing question but that$100,000 in-kind donation comes from Cogeco which is a corporation that has the sole right to offer its cable services in protected markets. Part of the deal Cogeco has with the government is that they will provide a community content channel that covers local community events. Cogeco does a lot of this kind of broadcasting. They never cover anything that is the least bit controversial – they don’t want to offend anything – so they tend towards “fluff” pieces that keep the customers smiling.
A key role for the broadcast media is to not only entertain but to inform; that seems to have fallen off the Cogeco radar screen.
For Cogeco to be described as a company that donated $100,000 as in-kind services is quite a stretch. That is there job, that is why they were given a license and a protected territory.
By Pepper Parr
October 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The rain was pouring down – but that didn’t stop the ward four folks from packing the upper floor of Paletta Mansion Tuesday evening to listen to those running for the council seat and the office of Mayor.
The issue for many was just what the incumbent was going to say about his appeal of a Committee of Adjustment decision to the Ontario Municipal Board. The issue related to his request to the Committee of Adjustment for a severance of his Lakeshore property to create a second lot.
The concern for many was the perception that Jack Dennison, as a Councillor, has to adhere to a more stringent set of rules. The Gazette asked Dennison:
When you were sworn in December of 2010 did you not swear to protect the city’s bylaws? Would you explain the role of a Council member when it comes to protecting the bylaws of the city and ensuring they are adhered to?
Dennison said he felt he had the same rights as any other citizen and that included the right to ask for a property severance at Committee of Adjustment which included the right to appeal their decision.
Dennison did not feel that as a city council member he should be held to a higher standard.
So now you know his position. The appeal to the OMB has been postponed twice – and is due to be heard sometime after the new council is sworn in.
 Rick Goldring stands to defend his first term as Mayor. Challengers Peter Rusin and Anne Marsden look on. Mayor Goldring and Peter Rusin went at it again; still no knockout punch from Rusin. Goldring is holding his own but he isn’t telling the public much more than he has set out in his brochure.
Rusin wants a “Bolder, Brighter Burlington”; a great campaign slogan that might have resonated with voters if the Rusin campaign had started earlier.
Rusin said he would focus on collaborating with people, ensure there was more transparency and more accountability. He suggested the city currently has “ineffective leadership”; “there is no plan, there is no vision”, said Rusin. He was here, he said, to put an end to the bad deals the city has made. Rusin added that he wanted to see a city that was run by Council and not the city’s legal department.
Doug Wilcox consistently referred to his “neighbours” but doesn’t actually live in the ward he wants to represent. He also appears to believe that there isn’t a financial problem that cannot be solved by raising the development charges builders are required to pay. Wilcox wants to see these raised wherever and whenever possible.
Wilcox pointed out that currently the development charge for a single detached home is $8203 but just $4075 for a condominium. Wilcox wants to double the development charge for the condominiums built.
Development charges are the amount a developer is required to pay a municipality to cover the cost of the services that have to be provided to the new homes. Roads, sewers, storm water management – all the services that are needed to make a city run properly.
 Ward four council seat candidates: Incumbent Jack Dennison seeking another term after 20 years on Council, Carol Gottlob seeking her first term and Doug Wilcox a candidate who does not live in the ward. Carol Gottlob, a ward four resident challenging Jack Dennison, made some very good comments. She came across as decent, prepared to learn and represent the interests of the ward. She said she would press for an Ethics Commissioner and a Code of Conduct.
Mayor Goldring actually promised that there would be a Code of Conduct in place during the next term of office. The Mayor is but one vote – if he manages to get a Code of Conduct in place – it will be a very watered down version of what Gottlob appears to have in mind.
Goldring said the city needs to put a Code of Conduct in place before the province imposes one.
The panelist asking the questions consisted of Pepper Parr, publisher of the Burlington Gazette, Joan Little, columnist for the Hamilton Spectator and Tina Denver Depko, city hall reporter for the Post.
Depko asked the candidates their views on the neighbourhood character studies the city was doing.
 The ward four debate gave Rick Goldring a lot to think about – he was never challenged like this when he ran for the office of Mayor in 2010 Mayor Goldring basically didn’t answer the question. Peter Rusin wanted to know what the definition of a neighbourhood character study was and what was expected of the study. “Are they a tool to gather information, are they a decision made by a community or are they something that is to be implemented” “Which is it” asked Rusin.
Burlington undertook two neighbourhood character studies; one at Indian Point which was abandoned when it was clear there was not going to be any kind of consensus and a second for the Roseland Community which is still ongoing.
The question about the character studies touched on the Official Plan and the ongoing review of the plan which Anne Marsden maintained “has no value”. She suggested Burlington should take on the province and tell them to mind your own business.
 Anne Marsden made some cogent direct points during the debate. Marsden clearly does not understand that municipalities are creatures of the province and, if they wished, the province could decide with the stroke of a pen that Burlington was to be merged with Oakville – just like that.
The province requires that every municipality have an Official Plan that is reviewed every five years and that the review include public participation.
For those municipalities that are part of a two tier government – Burlington is part of Halton Region, the municipal plan must adhere to the Regional Official Plan.
Marsden told the audience that she has been involved in municipal elections 19 of the 20 past years – but has never been elected to public office. There is a reason for that.
Mayor Goldring pointed out that any developer has the right to take a proposal to the city and ask for an amendment to the Official plan. “It doesn’t happen that often” he said “The city makes about three changes a year to its Official Plan”. That assertion needs confirming.
 Apple trees on Guelph Line next to St. Christopher’s church last week The question of a private tree bylaw came up – this one is a problem for Burlington. Oakville has a strong private tree bylaw – but Burlington cannot seem to get beyond the “it’s my property and I will do whatever I want with it” position. The environmental community has argued that we human beings are but stewards of the planet we live on. Burlington seems to feel the planet is ours to have our way with.
 What is left of the apple trees on Guelph Line next to St. Christopher’s church. Best argument for a private tree bylaw. The Mayor and Peter Rusin were in agreement on this one a private tree bylaw was a must.
Anne Marsden wanted the public to know who voted against the proposed bylaw.
Joan Little asked the candidates what they thought about the size of the current council. Mayor Goldring loves it – he pointed out that in 1997 there were 17 members on council and it was apparently very unwieldy – council meetings on occasion went on until 2:00 am. This council turns out the lights at 10:30 pm.
Anne Marsden wanted a larger council but didn’t suggest how much larger it should be. Rusin thought two additional council members were needed to better serve the growing population. The size of the current council allows every member to also serve as a member of the Regional Council where Burlington has seven seats.
Dennison said the size of the Burlington council is the envy of municipalities across the province. You can bet politicians love it – small means easier to control and fewer interests being expressed.
Many people do not realize that Council members earn half of their income as Regional Councillors and are there to represent the interests of the city. A significant number of candidates running for office make no mention of the Regional council role on their election signs.
Regional Council is due to review the current distribution of Council seats. Burlington may end up with fewer seats and then have to decide which of the city council members will also sit on the Regional Council. Should be fun to watch our elected officials play that game of musical chairs.
There is more to report on this event. The Roseland Community Organization and the Roseland Heights Community organization sponsored the event. They served their members very well. A clear fall night would have brought out more people – but as it was – it was standing room only.
 By Pepper Parr
October 7, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
The amounts donated to the Burlington Flood Relief fund increase each day. Small amounts get donated via the web site which is at; other amounts get a red carpet treatment.
Last week the Bank of Montreal donated $20,000. The presentation took place at a BMO branch with most of the branch managers in Burlington in attendance along with the federal and provincial political representatives on hand for the photo-op.
 Insurance Bureau of Canada donates $5000 to the Flood Relief program. Mayor Burlington and Burlington Community Foundation president Collen Mulholland accept the donation from an Insurance Bureau representative. Yesterday there was a $5000 donation from the Insurance Bureau of Canada – that amount gets you the Mayor and the President of the Burlington Community Foundation.
There are people who will gulp when they learn of the Insurance Bureau donation.
The grant programs the BCF is administering fall into two categories: a sum of up to $1000 for those who were in a desperate situation and needed some cash to cover immediate costs – motel accommodation for those that had to live in a motel.
The second program is for those who are un-insured or under insured.
One might ask – and many people have – why the public is being asked to support those who did not buy insurance. Are these people not responsible enough to by the insurance they need?
They are responsible – they are just not able to buy the insurance they would like. There are homes in this city that have been flooded up to four times – the insurance companies are just not giving them the coverage they would like to buy.
Mayor Goldring was flooded – the water rose above the main floor in his home. MP Mike Wallace was flooded – it took weeks to get the dumpster off his front lawn. They probably don’t expect to get flood insurance when their policy comes up for renewal. They both had insurance. Will their policies cover everything they lost. Fat chance of that happening.
Collen Mulholland, president of the BCF was flooded – she was talking in terms of $80,000 to cover the loss – that isn’t going to be covered by the policy that family has.
 Premier Wynne has visited Burlington a number of times. Let’s let her know we need some help – soon would be nice. These are not irresponsible people. They had insurance – they probably weren’t under insured. These three people will not be seeking financial support. Those that have filled in the forms seeking assistance are decent responsible people who have come up against the damage that nature can do.
Ron Foxcroft, the man who was asked to head up the fund raising drive, cannot buy flood insurance – few people can; it has gone the way of the dodo bird.
For those who have had to ask for help, and it wasn’t easy for any of them to fill in and sign those forms, some compassion would be nice just about now.
The province has yet to tell the BCF that it will add to what the community has already raised. Burlington’s MPP. Eleanor McMahon is doing what she can do to get the province to help.
We can give our MPP some help by emailing the premier directly and asking her to provide Burlington residents with the financial support they need. The community is doing it’s part.
The Premier, Hon Kathleen O. Wynne can be reached by email at:
kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org
We would like to track the people who choose to email the Premier. If you BCC publisher@bgzt.ca we will be able to get a count of how many people ask the Premier to help out. With that kind of information we can continually remind that Burlingtonians are asking for help.
You can write the Premier at: Queen’s Park, Room 281, Main Legislative Building, Toronto, ON M7A 1A1
The Premier won’t be picking up the phone should you call but they will take a message. 416-325-1941
Make a point of putting Help Burlington in the subject line of your email.
By Pepper Parr
October 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
There are Rusin for Mayor popping up around town – maybe as many as a dozen.
Peter Rusin does his second debate against Mayor Rick Goldring and Anne Marsden Tuesday evening at the Paletta Mansion on Lakeshore Road. Start time is 7 pm.
 Peter Rusin with his first election sign – his daughter put it up. The format will be much like the Lion’s debate last week where the Regional candidates, the Mayoral candidates and the candidates for ward four were all at the front of the room.
Rusin has his work cut out for him. He certainly scored some points during the first debate but failing to say who he was at the start of the debate suggested this is a politician who has a lot to learn.
Ward four carries a lot of clout in Burlington and there will be some people watching his performance very carefully. Last week when Rusin took part in an Ontario Poverty Roundtable it became evident that he didn’t know what Ontario Works was all about.
Not knowing what Ontario Works is about won’t make a pinch of difference to the Roseland crowd but it is a glimpse of the short comings in the Rusin attempt to get that Chain of Office around his neck.
Rusin will have to land a sold knockout punch or Goldring will have to stumble badly if Rusin is to advance his candidacy. Neither is likely – we have seen Mayor Goldring stand up to some of the Rusin challenges. What has been useful is a candidate who has forced to Mayor to move out of the lazy stroll he was taking to a return trip to the office of Mayor.
 The Regional government has some explaining to do about the storm water and sewage systems. The battle for the Region Chair has already been determined. Gary Carr has done a good job and will be returned. He could be held more accountable; all for municipalities that make up the Regional government are in for both a surprise and a shock when the Regional budget comes down in the Spring. .
Burlington is due much, much more in the way of explanations as to what went wrong with the storm water sewer and sewage systems.
 Councillor Jack Dennison faces an incumbent who is nipping at his heels – too early to tell is she will manage a decent bite, Dennison is out walking door to door handing our his brochure. Some truth in advertising issues with that brochure. A key part of the evening is watching how well first time candidate Carol Gottlob does when she goes up against long term incumbent Jack Dennison. Gottlob doesn`t have any political experience but she certainly sounds good. Someone younger with new ideas and a different level of energy might be what ward four needs.
It will be interesting to see how well she holds her own.
Maureen Tilson-Dyment will moderate; Joan Little, Hamilton Spectator columnist, Tina Depko-Denver, city hall reporter for the Post and Pepper Parr, publisher of the Burlington Gazette will be on a panel putting questions to the candidates.
The event is being sponsored by the Roseland Community Organization and the Roseland Heights Community Organization.
By Pepper Parr
October 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
We haven`t got the municipal election behind us – yet and it looks as if there is yet another one looming out there.
 Burlington MP Mike Wallace appeared at the Bank of Montreal Flood relief cheque presentation last Friday – even though the federal government has done nothing so far for Burlington. So why was Wallace in the room? Photo – op for Mike and he now needs all the exposure he can get. The next federal election is scheduled for October 2015 – but that is something the Prime Minister can change any time he wishes – and the signs suggest that he may be wishing for something sooner.
When Burlington goes to the polls for the next federal election there will be two ridings – Mike Wallace will stay in Burlington which has been re-shaped but not by all that much. A new riding Oakville – North Burlington has been created. That one is a bit of a mess organizationally. The two candidates seeking the nomination in that riding both withdrew – one quit before she was told to leave.
Quite when Wallace has to get out his campaign boots and start knocking on doors isn`t certain – but if his bringing the Minister of Defence into town for a fund raiser is any indication – things might be heating up in the Conservative election planning offices.
And, ever since Eleanor McMahon took Burlington for the Liberals provincially – the Conservatives realize they are going to have to invest more politically in Burlington.
Problem for Mike Wallace is that the fund raiser “was a bit of a flop”, which is how on long time Tory put it earlier this week.
How bad a flop? “Bad”, was as far as our source would go. And this is a guy who has been writing cheques for the Conservatives for many many years.
What else could move the Prime Minister to advance on the scheduled October 2015 date? We are going to be officially at war with ISIS by the end of the week. The Prime Minister is rattling his sabre and saying we are not side line players – but when the first Canadian CF -18 is shot down, the pilot captured and beheaded – watch for a change in what the public feels about being at war.
 Mike Duffy in better days The criminal trial of Senator Mike Duffy is scheduled for April 2015 – the Prime Minister does not want to 24 hour news cycle bleating that story 24/7. And should the courts find Senator Duffy guilty – is a trail for Pamela Wallin that far behind. And if Duffy is sent to jail – will that mean Wallin will go to jail as well? And how will that ride with the public who will realize that the Prime Minister appointed the two of them?
Smart minds would tell the Prime Minister – get the election behind you as soon as you can. And this Prime Minister is one smart cookie when it comes to political strategy. However – he may be about to over play his hand.
Best move would be for the Prime Minister to step aside – call a leadership race and then go to the polls with a new look.
None of these scenarios offer Burlington’s Mike Wallace much solace. He has his work cut out for him and the base he has relied on for so long might be getting a little soft in the middle.
 Expect to see a lot more of this face once the municipal election is over. Karina Gould is the federal Liberal candidate for Burlington. The Liberals have nominated Karina Gould, a smart young woman who will have a much better grip on the issues than Wallace – and she will have Eleanor McMahon in her corner as well. McMahon is one of the most natural election campaigners we have seen in some time.
Gould expects to begin pulling her campaign team together fairly early in the New Year.
Can you imagine – Liberal’s representing Burlington in the House of Commons and Queen’s Park?
 By Pepper Parr
October 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It is far from over.
The bigger corporations are writing cheques and the photo ops get taken while people like Catherine Brady trudge from retail location to retail location collecting the coin boxes that have been put out in more than 60 locations in the city. `They are in the McDonalds locations, there is one at Mary Lou`s which has done surprisingly well for us.
 “We were delighted when we opened some of the coins boxes and took out paper money – orange bills” – which amount to $50
There are discussions taking place with some well-known retail operations; there is a food chain that is in discussions with the fund raisers and there are plans being put together for a concert. “We thought we might be able to get Walk off the Earth onto a stage but they were traveling “ said a source who added that someone is looking into talking to Sara Harmer who has been a strong supporter of environmental issues in the past.” Our source is working away with a small group developing different fund raising ideas.
So it is far from over. That $2 million from the community is not yet within striking distance but it is very much THE target for the people raising the dollars.
If the Burlington Community Foundation (BCF) has heard anything from the province on where they are with the application to be seen as a disaster area and subject to the Ontario Disaster Relief and Assistance Program (ODRAP) – the rest of the city would like to hear about it.
It is almost as if everyone thinks Burlington is deaf – we aren’t hearing from the province and we aren’t hearing from the Region.
The Region seems to be trying to use the excuse that there is an election going on and they can’t talk to either the Mayor or council members. The seven people that represent us are all drawing pay cheques – let them do their jobs and get the information the public needs.
The province is apparently now in possession of all the numbers they need. They now know how many homes there are that were uninsured or under-insured – these are the only two classes of people that will see any funding from the province and then only for the necessities.
An insurance adjuster has been brought in to analyze every claim – there are not going to be any wind falls for the people who had more water in their basements than they wanted.
Ted McMeekin, Minister of Community and Social Services and the man who will sign off on this file, is apparently not keeping as in touch with his political cohorts in Burlington as they would like.
McMeekin is leaving Eleanor McMahon blowing in the wind – we understand as well, that the relationship that used to exist between McMeekin and the Premier is not what it once was.
 Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon – wondering if her government is going to come through for the city? While Burlington didn’t expect to be showered with goodies from the government for electing a Liberal – many felt that there would be more in the way of communication from the province.
One well-placed business person in the city said “if the Liberal government doesn’t come through for Burlington it will amount to political suicide for McMahon.”
Previously the Gazette said the fund raising campaign was to end December 15th – we got that wrong. The campaign will end November 15th. When Ron Foxcroft took on the job of heading up the fund raising drive he said it was going to take 100 days to raise the $2 million from the public. While we are some distance from that total there are organizations coming to the table with decent sized cheques.
Monday morning the Insurance Bureau will be getting their photo op with the BCF people.
Matters within the BCF are not quite as good as many had hoped. The BCF manages a significant amount of money that it holds for the various programs it runs. On Friday the Bank of Montreal donated $20,000 – other banks are expected to make their contributions in due course. We are told that the bank the BCF uses is not going to be at the table with a cheque. Time to change banks?
By Carol Gottlob, Candidate Ward 4
October 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
Each week, until the ballots are cast on October 27th, we are going to follow the tales and travails of a single candidate. We have chosen Carol Gottlob, running in ward 4 against a well entrenched incumbent. Gottlob has no experience in civic government, has never campaigned before. Following this candidate is not an endorsement; Gottlob will win on her own merit.
I’m continuing to knock on doors this week, and several residents are asking questions about the type of Councillor I will be if elected to office. How accessible will I be, whose voice will I represent inside City Hall and how accountable will I be to commitments made, and will I give up my current employment if elected Oct 27th? I am hearing residents struggling with disappointments they’ve witnessed over various commitments to their issues: Gaps in community engagement, or the morality conflicts they have seen over private interest representation instead of what they feel is the community’s interests. Why does this gap exist and what I am going to do to change it?
 The pier is something we paid too much for it – but we are stuck with it – lets make the best of what we have. Candidate Do I believe our council candidates to be well intentioned good people? I do. I believe everyone enters into public service with an honest intent to serve the people of their community. Do I believe public office is easy to serve? I do not. I believe there are many challenges to bridging the gaps between opposing interests. But what I also believe is today our City Officials who are elected public servants are operating in the absence of a more specific and a more defined set of rules for their conduct. This absence of an effective policy and procedure is, I believe, to the elected Officials’ own detriment and to that of the citizens who elect them.
I believe our publicly elected officials should have these defined rules of expectation to which they can refer to as guidance for what the city residents expect of them; a defined boundary of where their roles as private citizens and their position as elected official meets. Residents want to know when elected officials are working on behalf of their constituents, or representing their private rights. When in the case of potential conflict, how is this resolved, which role supersedes the other, or which role must be abdicated? This is not happening effectively today and I am hearing from various residents that this absence of definition and formalized process is no longer acceptable. Simply stated, there needs to be clear decisive separation of the role of City Official versus that of private citizen and private business.
As a result of compensation at both the regional and municipal level, Councillors today make just less than $100,000, plus expenses. I believe this compensation should entitle citizens to some clear expectations of their elected officials such as: full time dedication to the role while serving, and a clear separation between their private business and the proposals before City Hall. If and when these two should collide, a declaration of conflict of interest should be made, followed by the removal of the Official from participating on the matter and any others related to it. I don’t believe public Officials should be allowed to use private facilities, time, or materials for personal benefit, which would affect their financial interest. There should be no opportunity for personal gain be it by the elected official, or family members, and be it through personal financial gain or converted into personal projects. I believe all votes should be recorded, and easily searchable by residents. Councillors make impactful decisions to our community and their constituents have the right to know not just what they believe are important considerations prior to a decision but also how their council representative voted on the decision.
 I believe in the need for an Ethics Commissioner. More than the existence of these rules under a code of conduct I believe every seated council official should go through a mandatory training program. This program would not be limited to the code of conduct regulations but include as well expense reporting and more stringent fundraising regulations. So that there should no longer exist inconsistencies of reporting on any of these matters, as may be the case today. Finally if these rules are to have their wanted effect, then they must be enforceable by an objective third party, which is why I believe in the need for an Ethics Commissioner. In order for this role to be effective, I believe this individual can have no formal ties to ongoing work or projects with the body that it is currently regulating, otherwise we risk the ability to maintain sound objectivity.
Our City has grown and matured over the years from a once small town to a larger developed city with more mature and diverse needs from its municipal government. It’s time Burlington’s government starts putting in place these types of policies and procedures in order to continue to nurture our engaged citizen model; a model intended to reflect our mutual respect of our residents and elected Officials. In having these clear delineations between citizen and elected Officials we as a community can continue to build upon our successes without the appearance of conflict.
By Pepper Parr
October 5, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
We dropped by Mayor Goldring’s campaign office on Fairview – he was holding an open house. We wanted to get a sense of what he was getting in the way of traffic. It wasn’t standing room only but there was a respectable flow of people in and out, many of them taking a lawn sign with them.
Clearly, the Mayor’s re-election campaign was in gear. The need to even have a campaign sort of snuck up on His Worship when Peter Rusin jumped into the race at close to the last minute. The Mayor didn’t even have a campaign office at that point.
 Is Mayor Goldring checking out a possible council member? He did say he likes the guy. One of the people that dropped in was Jivan Sanghera, one of the nine people running against incumbent Blair Lancaster. Sanghera did very well in the ward six council candidates debate sponsored by the Gazette.
Vanessa Warren, another ward six candidate is reported to have said to Sanghera that if she had known he was going to run she may not have gotten into the race herself. Warren was adamant about there being a candidate to run against Blair Lancaster and in the earlier stages of this campaign there weren’t a lot of people wanting to be on the ballot.
The South East Asian community was nowhere to be seen until sometime in September when four people from that community popped out of the woodwork.
Sanghera is finding it difficult to become the “front runner” with four South East Asians in the race. There are tribal and family loyalties that have to be dealt with. This is a tight knit community with all the problems and foibles that can produce. Smear campaign abound – there is some pretty nasty stuff coming out of one campaign and another that seems to feel she can put up signs wherever she pleases.
Sanghera who is Indian culturally was raised in Canada and has prospered. He chose to get into politics despite the comments from his father, who is reported to have asked his son why he would choose to try and become a member of council. Sanghera, who is in the mortgage business, will tell you without as much as a blink of an eye that he loves his city and wants to serve.
The job you have said his father is equivalent to doctor money – why would you want to take such a huge pay cut? Same reply – this is something I want to do.
So – off Sanghera went to meet the Mayor – thinking that this is the man I might be working with. Here is how Sanghera explains his “Moment with the Mayor”.
Having had the pleasure of attending Rick Goldring’s open house I was amazed to walk through the door to him saying “Jivan” with an out stretched hand.
By having spoken to him I gleaned one thing. This man really cares about Burlington. We spoke of how long he has been serving the city in one capacity or another. Whether via his previous work in Financial Planning, the Chamber of Commerce, or through Council.
The advice he gave me was quite simple. Serve for the right reasons and everything else will fall into place. I believe that he works to make Burlington a better place. I may not agree with all of his decisions to date but i know that he must have believed it was the best move for the city. The fact that he is very much a proponent of the new style of performance based budgeting is a point that we definitely agree on. He also agreed that Councillors represent all of Burlington not just one section and its interests.
It may or may not be my time to take a seat in the council chamber. But one thing is for sure Mayor Goldring is a guy I’d be happy to work with.”
 Jivan Sanghera left Mayor Goldring’s open house with a Goldring lawn sign which he added to the one he uses to win the ward six seat. Can Sanghera ride the Mayor’s coat tails into office? Jivan Sanghera left the campaign office with a sign tucked under his arm which he planted on his lawn when he got home. Goldring has the votes from that household.
By Staff
October 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Life in the Alton Village seems to be about on-line voting and robo-calls. The natives up there are not happy.
 The phones are ringing in these homes. One ward six resident said: “The newest addition to the Burlington community is front and centre in the election. Alton Village, part of ward 6, residents have their phone ringing off the hook with robo calls right up until the 9:00p.m. hour .
Mayoral candidate and Councillor questions are the mainstream. If you are not home, they will keep phoning back, hang-up because you are putting your baby to bed, they will phone back. Has the incumbent finally realized there is a fresh voter pool? Alton Village, like most of Ward 6, has been vastly ignored in the past four years by the City.
“People are getting pummeled with nonstop robo calls. I felt bad – I have only had one” said our source. “The people in the Village are the new voting group… so they have a huge role to play in the election.
One resident said she got four calls one evening “when I am putting my newborn down, unreal. Sick and tired of the calls. Do they not understand we are commuters and don’t get home at 5?”
City hall became concerned that people would think the robo-calls were being paid for by the city and they put out a statement saying it wasn’t them.
 New community and new voters – candidates are trying to figure out what they want and are using robocalls as a research tool. Residents are not too happy. A little bit of thinking and one can narrow down the source of the calls to three possible candidates. One has used this type of service before and has a lot of experience; another is looking at a campaign that is in trouble and needs to find a way to get out of the hole the campaign is in and a third is part of the race for the office of mayor – however this is not much more than informed speculation.
We are getting reports as well that when registering to vote on line some get their email advising them of their PIN right away, while others after a successful register are made to wait, wait and wait. It appears however that people are eventually getting their pin numbers and are able to vote.
By Pepper Parr
October 5, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
Lana Kamaric crossed our path at the September No Vacancy Cirque event at the Village Square. I was chatting with Anne Swarbrick outside one of the installations and a woman in her mid-twenties stuck her head out the door and said “I have a bone to pick with you sir!” in a tone of voice that suggested this wasn’t going to be a fun conversation.
When I finished talking with Swarbrick I went in and glanced at the installation which I didn’t immediately understand. There were a lot of strings going up to the ceiling of the room and what looked like pages from a book flying around. There was a large book on a table covered with a crimson red cloth. At the time I didn’t notice anything unusual about the table.
Ms Kamaric said she had sent me an email and I had not gotten back to her. “Your web site says that you get back to every email and you didn’t get back to me.”
 “I use art as a means of understanding the world around me, a tool to help me work out the great puzzle of purpose and meaning.” I didn’t recognize the woman’s name but said I would do a search and see if I did in fact get an email – and sure enough I did; but all it had was a link to another site and I never click on links to a site that come from someone I don’t know. That’s the easiest way I know of to let a virus into your computer.
I was struck with the boldness that Kamaric used to get my attention. There was nothing shy about this attractive woman with long curly auburn hair. At the time I hadn’t paid that much attention to her “installation” other than to remember the brilliant red cloth on the table. I took a few pictures and moved on.
A few days later when I was doing the articles on the No Vacancy event I decided I would do a piece on the impact the event was going to have on young emerging artists and decided to follow up with Ms Kamaric – called and arranged to do an interview.
 Lana Kamaric has arrived – her art is being seen and sold. Lana Kamaric was born in Sarajevo in Bosnia at a time when the country was under a siege that lasted longer than the siege of Stalingrad in the second world war. The city was under siege from 1992 to 1996. The Kamaric family left Sarajevo and immigrated to Canada. Her father, who is Muslim, left first, “my Mother and I went to Croatia and then on to Canada. “We arrived in November” 1994 and were given “immigrant winter coats”
Kamaric remembers most of the siege. Kamaric’s mother was a film producer in Sarajevo; but when she came to Canada the switch to digital had begun and it wasn’t something her mother was able to get into and she left her career as a documentary film maker. “They had very little facility with the English language when they arrived” explained Kamaric, but they were open minded people and they adapted”.
Lana Kamaric adapted as well. She always wanted to draw. “I remember much of the magic of Sarajevo and brought that sense of magic to Canada. High school, university then a job at what was then the Burlington Art Centre, now the Art Gallery of Burlington, where she worked in customer service and convinced Leslie Page to let her set up a “coffee” shop for artists. It was an informal thing that was put on every second Sunday and lasted for about a year.
 Part of a series based on Alice in Wonderland’s Through a Looking Glass Her Mother now works in real estate and her father is in construction.
Surrealism came to Kamaric when she was 17 – it was just what I wanted to do. This form of painting lets me say the things I want to say without words. I do a fair amount of research before I actually begin to paint or draw. But I have been painting for as long as I can remember.
Lewis Carol’s Alice in Wonderland became part of the world for Kamaric at an early age. She wears a necklace with a small key on the chain – that key is her entry into the world of Alice “where time stands still.”
 Kamaric doodles – her Mad Hatter is the kind of thing she does when she has a pen in her hand. Her Alice work has met with commercial success. Many of the illustrations on her web site have the words SOLD on them. We can expect to see more Alice work from Lana Kamaric who did her first art show while at York University – one of her larger paintings, a 36 x 48 inch piece, was stolen before it got to be put on display. While she studied art history at York University she is self-taught as a painter.
Things work out for people in the oddest way – Lana Kamaric happens to live on the same street as Selina Jane Eckersall. They came to know each other and Eckersall invited Kamaric to take part in the No Vacancy Cirque event at the Village Square.
This was her first installation art form and it tied in well with her surrealism. The event was a success for both Burlington, Selina Jane Eckersall, Lana Kamaric and most of the other artists. Now what? Eckersall is still analyzing the results of the September event and thinking about 2015.
The No Vacancy Cirque had a certain edginess to it” said Kamaric. “There were very few guidelines which suited me”, she added. Her installation was well received. What next?
Kamaric isn’t sure – she doesn’t feel she needs to be certain. Artists today write a “statement” that sets out what they are doing and why they are doing what they do.
 An Alice in Wonderland series that sold out. “I use art as a means of understanding the world around me, a tool to help me work out the great puzzle of purpose and meaning. As a Bosnian immigrant in Canada I have spent the majority of my life trying to make sense of my identity and place in the world, and as a result I have created a universe of my own – a painted surrealist utopia, free from the burdens of reality and where nonsense takes precedence. In my painted world we are not restricted by time, nature is not corrupted but a ruling force, and identity is discovered by revisiting our childhood self. Of course, these are the issues that stir inside me, but each viewer seems to find their own inner battles within my work and the visual language translates into a personal story of their own.”
For a woman who doesn’t use words this is a pretty compelling statement.
Kamaric is currently deciding what she wants to do next as an artist. She certainly wants to be part of the 2015 No Vacancy event and she is thinking through some ideas.
 Kamaric – a Gazette reporter. When the Gazette learned that Trevor Copp was putting on a two week run of the First Dance we wanted someone with an arts background to do a review of the performance and asked Lana Kamaric if she would be interested in covering the event. She was interested, she covered the event and wrote her first review. It was a good first piece and we asked Kamaric if she was interested in doing more of this type of thing. She was and on Sunday afternoon she will cover the Rolly Astrom Ballerina photography exhibit at the Art Gallery of Burlington and later in the day visit with Teresa Seaton, the “den mother” of the art community in Burlington, at her studio which is snuggled up beside the Royal Botanical Gardens out on Plains Road and while there spend some time at the EdRoy gallery and look at some of the work Kyle Brooke does.
The Gazette now has an artist to cover the cultural community; watch for her contribution
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