By Staff

February 10th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

We got this one wrong.  The item wasn’t debated which meant there wasn’t an opportunity to learn what council members thought of letting people vote online during both the advance poll and on election day

The next municipal election will be held on October 26, 2026. Municipal and school board elections are held every four years and are administered by the City Clerk as the Returning Officer

The Municipal Elections Act, 1996 permits municipalities to utilize alternative voting methods and vote-counting equipment for its municipal elections. To authorize alternative voting methods and the use of optical scan tabulators, Council must pass a by-law by May 1, 2026. Notice of contract extension must be provided by March 31, 2025.

Council was asked to:

Approve the use of optical scan vote tabulators for in-person voting throughout advance polls and on election day, and that internet voting be authorized for advance voting in the 2026 Municipal election.

Key findings.

The 2022 Municipal Election had a 27.6% voter turnout where 39, 217 electors voted out of 142,218 eligible.

These are not numbers the city should be proud of nor are they numbers council embers should see as a respectable mandate.

14,980 electors voted online, up by 12.5% from 13,123 in 2018.

In the 2022 municipal election, internet voting was available for 10 days from October 11th to Oct 20th.

64% of the post-election survey respondents indicated they voted online, and of those, 96% found the process to be easy and convenient.

In December 2021, the contract was awarded to Voatz Inc., for internet voting services along with Election Systems & Software (ES&S) for optical scan tabulators. Voatz provided a secure and accessible system for casting and reconciling votes.

Benefits:

Internet voting is convenient, helps reduce barriers and increases accessibility of the process, eliminates spoiled ballots, and provides an accurate ballot count. Coupled with the use of optical scan vote tabulators at in-person voting locations on Election Day, it allows for quick and accurate results.

The post-election survey conducted in 2022 provided insight into the voter experience. Survey responses and additional information on the 2022 election is available in the CL-07-23 2022 post-election report. Survey results indicated strong support for the use of online voting for future municipal elections in Burlington.

Was this a COVID Council?  The voter turnout was in the 27% range. The City was still in the post-COVID period when things were not normal.

For the 2026 municipal election, staff will once again work closely with the Communications team to develop a comprehensive communications and engagement plan for the election focusing on the availability, accessibility, and security of online voting. The election team will also create online voting guides for electors to further improve the online voter experience and to assist in the process, with the goal of encouraging more voters to utilize this method of voting.

Staff recommend using internet voting as an advance voting option as it provides a secure and accessible way for electors to cast their ballot from anywhere and at any time during the 10- day internet voting period. It is the approach used successfully in 2022 and voters in Burlington are familiar with the process.

Although expanding internet voting to election day may provide more convenience, the risks outweigh the benefits. Any voting slowdowns or system timeouts may require the Clerk to utilize emergency powers to extend voting hours delaying election results. Supporting two different voting methods (online and at a polling station) will require significantly more staff to support the voting processes and could significantly impact the voting experience both at the polls and online. Anyone not registered to vote, would still be required to go to a voting location to be added to the voter’s list on election day where they could vote right there and then. For access and convenience, Burlington employs the “vote anywhere in your ward” system, meaning that electors do not have to go to an assigned voting location, but can vote at any of the voting locations in their ward.

The cost of the 2022 alternative voting methods was $194,541. Costs for the 2026 municipal election are expected to include inflationary increases and any change orders to the statement of work with the vendors.  The source of funding for the election is the reserve fund with an annual contribution of $160,000.

This item wasn’t debated.  It was placed on the Agenda as a Consent item which meant it would not be debated unless a Council member asked to have the item removed from the Consent agenda.

For those readers who commented – you might want to rethink what you submitted.

By Matt Harvey

February 9^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

The threat of tariffs has the people of Burlington feeling unsure about what could happen.

I asked 26 people outside two of the Fortinos supermarkets about what they thought about the possibility of tariffs and how it would affect their households; there were different sentiments about the looming threat.

Continue reading Burlingtonians have views on the possible imposition of tariffs – many didn’t know quite what to say

By Staff

February 6th.2-25

BURLINGTON, ON

After careful consideration, the Burlington Teen Tour Band will not be travelling to Myrtle Beach to perform in the Myrtle Beach St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

By Staff

February 6th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Stretched to the limit: hospital union will be lining up gurneys outside Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington at 1:00 pm today to draw attention to the healthcare crisis

The province is in the midst of a provincial election that is to take place on February 27th.

Every self-interest group is struggling to get its story out while the political parties get close to reckless on how they would spend public money.

The hospital unions are raising concerns about access to care due to growing deficits across the hospital sector. Based on latest data, hospitals in Ontario faced a cumulative shortfall of $800 million in the first half of 2024-25.

Joseph Brant Hospital operated at 94.2% capacity, well above the 85 per cent recommended maximum bed occupancy level.

At Joseph Brant Hospital the shortfall was $1.8 million. The union warns that cutbacks are already happening at numerous hospitals, including Burlington, as they buckle under the weight of growing patient volumes and insufficient funding; pointing out that per-person hospital funding in Ontario is the lowest in Canada and that we have the fewest beds and hospital staff to population.

In the first half of 2024-25, Joseph Brant Hospital operated at 94.2% capacity, well above the 85 per cent recommended maximum bed occupancy level. According to analysis by OCHU-CUPE, Joseph Brant must add 32 beds to achieve safe occupancy levels.

Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE) says it is not surprising to witness a record increase in hospital overcrowding.  About 2,000 patients every day receive care on stretchers in unconventional spaces such as hallways and storage closets, an increase of 125 per cent since June 2018 when Ford got elected on the promise to end hallway health care.

Hurley says hospital overcrowding compromises patient and staff safety, causing delays in admitting patients, higher risk of nosocomial infections, and heavier workloads. Moreover, it robs patients of dignity as they are treated out in hallways without privacy.“There were 250,000 people on wait lists for surgeries last year,” Hurley says. “2,000 are on stretchers today, begging for a bed. Palliative patients die at home without painkillers. As a province, we must do so much better for our citizens.”“The next government must implement real solutions”

The union recommends the following solutions to address the healthcare crisis:

Hospital union will take empty gurneys out onto Lakeshore Road to demonstrate how bad things are at the Joseph Brant Hospital.

Improve hospital capacity to match the needs of an aging and growing population, by adding staffed hospital beds.

Address the staffing crisis by improving compensation and working conditions, and providing incentives such as free tuition to students in nursing and PSW programs

End private sector delivery of acute, long-term care and community health services

Ban agency nurses to reduce staffing costs, and invest that money in improving compensation and working conditions for in-house workers

Improving staffing in LTC to meet the 4-hours of daily care benchmark and expand capacity to reduce waitlists

End contracting out of services across health care, and run LTC and home care on a public, not-for-profit basis

Expand the use of nurse practitioners to lead primary care clinics.

Fast Facts:

• 1,860 people on stretchers in hospital hallways, up from 826 in June 2018 when the Premier promised to end hallway medicine.
• 2.5 million citizens without a family doctor
• Palliative homecare patients dying without painkillers and medical supplies
• 250,000 people waiting for surgeries
• Nearly 50,000 people waiting for long-term care
• Constant ER closures in small towns.

By TOM PARKIN

February 5^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

Many school principals say lack of available teachers is a daily problem and many have had to tell a special needs student they can’t come to school.

In 2024, 46 percent of Ontario elementary school principals and 39 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of teachers every week, according to a recent survey of over 1,000 Ontario school principals.

And it’s a daily problem at 24 percent of elementary schools and 35 percent of secondary schools, principals say.

Ontario universities are graduating about half the number of teachers as a decade ago, and the low number of available teachers is making it hard to ensure classrooms are staffed, principals report.

Teachers not available when principals needs to fill gaps

Starting in September 2015 the Ontario Liberal government expanded the teacher training program to two years from one year and cut admissions by half.

Between 2008 and 2011, before the change, there were 9,100 newly licensed teachers in an average year, according to the Transitions to Teaching report from the Ontario College of Teachers. That’s dropped to just 4,671 on average between 2019 and 2022.

The result has been a teacher shortage. In 2014, 34 percent of newly-licenced teachers were not full-time employed as a teacher in their first year. That number has dropped to just four percent in 2022, leaving principals in many areas unable to find teachers and fill gaps.

The annual report of principals shows that 42 percent of elementary principals and 46 percent of secondary school principals had a shortage of educational assistants every day.

Principals telling special needs students to not come to school

In 2018, 58 percent of elementary principals and 48 percent of secondary school principals had to tell special needs students to not come to school for the day. In 2024 it was 63 percent and 58 percent, respectively.

In 54 percent of cases, the principal told the special needs student to not come to school because necessary support was not available.

In Ontario, 16 percent of elementary and 28 percent of secondary students are supposed to receive some form of special education support, a proportion that has remained relatively steady over the last decade

Majority of schools in northern Ontario have no access to a school psychologist

In 2017, principals reported that 13 percent of elementary schools and 16 percent of secondary schools had no access to a school psychologist, either in-school or on-call. In 2024, that number has increased to 24 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

And the problem of no access to school psychologists is heavily geographically weighted.

Principals reported that only seven percent of schools in the Greater Toronto Area didn’t have access to a school psychologist. But there was no access for 20 percent of schools in southwest Ontario, 30 percent in eastern, 36 percent in central, and 59 percent in northern Ontario schools.

By Staff

February 4th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

In the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump imposing a 10 percent levy against China and pressing a 30-day pause on proposed tariffs to Canada and Mexico, Martin Danahay reflects on the dangerous historical outcomes of past trade wars.

The Professor of English Language and Literature at Brock University specifically notes that the First Opium War, fought between China and the British Empire from 1839-1842, began as a trade imbalance.

The Opium Ward were fierce and bloody.

“When China blocked the British opium trade, British traders successfully lobbied their government to attack China, ultimately forcing the removal of the trade blockade through military action,” he says.

Danahay notes that while the current situation between the U.S. and Mexico/Canada is a reversal of that situation — imposing levies on imported goods to force action on the flow of illegal fentanyl into the U.S. from its two neighbouring countries — the use of tariffs and “belligerent” rhetoric can easily transition into military conflict.

Another notable example, Danahay says, are the British trade restrictions imposed on American ships during the Napoleonic Wars in the early 1800s.

During the Napoleon War, American seamen were conscripted to serve aboard Napoleons’ ships – much of this led to the War of 1812

“Along with forced conscription of American sailors into the British Navy, the trade restrictions led to the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States,” he says.

Trump’s use of trade war tactics forcing concessions from Mexico and Canada is especially concerning, Danahay says, since U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has publicly shared that military force is still an option against Mexico.

While he says it is unlikely the U.S. will invade Mexico (or Canada), it is certainly possible that an invasion of a smaller country could result from a propensity to use trade wars and violent rhetoric as the basis for foreign relations.

Danahay says that Panama, in particular, seems vulnerable as various U.S. officials (including President Trump) have claimed that China is operating the Panama Canal, a key route in global trade.

“President Trump has also imposed tariffs on China ostensibly because of the production of the precursor chemicals for fentanyl, which is shipped to Mexico, processed and then smuggled into the U.S., where there is a widespread crisis of addiction to the synthetic opioid,” he says. “President Trump has openly expressed a desire to take over the Panama Canal and Greenland, showing an imperialist mindset that is reminiscent of the British Empire.

While many are of the opinion that Trump is unlikely to use military force, history shows that a combination of a trade war and military rhetoric can easily become the basis for war.”