By Staff
February 19th, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
IKEA gives up on move to North Service Road – announces it will remain in Aldershot.
More to follow.
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February 19, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. You can`t fault Councillor Jack Dennison for trying – and try he does. During a Standing Committee last week when discussions on the capital projects the city will take on in 2014 as they spend the $67 million plus that council is expected to approve Tuesday evening, Dennison felt there were opportunities that were being missed and wanted the city to consider selling the Tyandaga Golf course property.  Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison always has an eye open for an economic opportunity – sees a great one for the city: sell the golf course. “This isn’t a business we should be in” Dennison commented, echoing remarks city manager Jeff Fielding had made more than a year ago. While Tyandaga is currently running at a bit of a profit that was not the case a couple of years ago. At that time the golf course juggled its business model and tightened up its management practices and the profit and loss statement began to look better. Dennison just doesn`t think the city should be in the golf course business and pointed to the “40 golf courses” in the surrounding communities – that number might be a stretch, but Burlington certainly has its share of golf clubs that are a 15 minute drive from the downtown core. Should the city be in a losing business when there are plenty of very good private golf clubs in the community?  Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison sees 200 homes on the Tyandaga golf course property and thinks the Catholic Diocese property that front on Brant Street could be made a part of the project as well. Dennison saw the 110 acre Tyandaga property as prime residential development land and talked of being able to get something between $12 and $18 million for the land alone. He added to that the immense development charges that would accrue to the city and then the tax assessment which he pegged at $200 million. Dennison told his colleagues that the property had 33 acres of land that could be developed and because of the location he saw at least six houses on each acre getting pretty close to 200 homes on a prime site that would have 76 acres of parkland. Before we knew it Dennison had $1.6 million in additional tax revenue in the city’s coffers.
The rest of Council wasn’t as gung-ho as Dennison. They Mayor said it looked like a “cash grab” to him but didn’t explain what was wrong with wringing cash out of an underperforming asset. The rest of Council didn’t get very excited either. Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven was delayed in getting to the Standing Committee meeting and missed a discussion that would have taken a major public recreational service off his plate. Councillor Sharman took the high road and said the selling of the golf course had to be looked at in a “broader context” but didn’t elaborate on what that meant other than to say that the city was “not ready for the discussion”. Councillor Meed Ward piped in with her view that adding residential assessment isn’t always a good deal for the city. “For every dollar of tax revenue we pull from residential properties we end up, over time, spending a $1.40 Dennison came back with “that argument doesn’t really hold all that well”. Council needed some input on just what the planned spending on the golf course was for and called Director of Parks and Recreation Chris Glenn to the podium. Odd as it may sound Glenn wasn’t able to say just how many golf courses there were in Burlington, nor could a member of his staff come up with a solid number.
Glenn explained what the $150,000 was going to be used for – and added that it wasn’t really a capital expenditure from the city’s point of view – the expenditures were going to come out of reserves the golf course had in place. For Dennison it was an opportunity that was being missed; he wanted to see the asset being used in a much different way. He didn’t manage to convince his colleagues to go along with him – the motion to defer the item was lost on a 4-2 vote. But Dennison did manage to plant a seed – the city manager is way ahead of him on this one. When city council decides what businesses it wants to be in – the golf course business is not likely to be one of them. Another question is: will Jack Dennison be on Council to see this kind of development take place. At the Tuesday evening Council meeting the Capital budget was approved for 2014. There are loads of items in the longer term capital budget that will be getting a much different look during the year. City hall will begin the process of totally recasting capital expenditures as it reorients itself to its new financial reality. Among the projects in that capital budget that will be getting a closer look are the railway underpasses on Mainway and Burloak – neither is going anywhere in 2014 – both will be getting a closer look as the longer term capital budget gets its remake. On the books for the 2015 to 2023 capital spending is a massive $494,012,195 in capital spending. City manager Jeff Fielding looked at the cookie jar and knew pretty quickly that the number wasn’t possible – thus the decision to totally recast what we want to do, what we have to do and what we can do in the way of capital spending for the next 15 years.  Lori Jivan, on the right, Acting coordinator budget and policy with the city explains the 2014 budget at a public meeting. With the capital budget of $67,973,902 nailed down – let’s look at where the money is going to come from: Lori Jivan, Acting coordinator budget and policy explains: External other: These are monies the city gets from other place, could be the provincial government, the Region or some other municipality we are doing a joint project with. If Tremaine Road was having work done on it – because it is our border with Oakville they might be paying part of the cost. We pick up $10,089,000 from this source. Debt: We sometimes decide to borrow money to pay for a capital project. This year the city projects they will borrow $6,903,000 Cash from the current budget: This is tax revenue – money the city collects as taxes. A portion of the tax money gets pushed into the Capital account. For 2014 they are moving $16,684,000 into capital expenditures IRRF – this is the Infrastructure Recover Fund which amount to $2.000.000 the city gets from Burlington Hydro. It comes to the city from Hydro as a dividend which the city places in the Infrastructure Recovery account. $2,000,000 SCD: Special Circumstances Debt. This is an estimate of the amount of debt the city will have to take on for special project – one time situations that might get taken on. The Performing Arts Centre is an example of a one time Special debt. FGT: Federal Gas Tax. The portion of the federal gas tax that the city receives. For 2014 that is set at $4.774,000 Provincial Gas Tax PGT: The portion of the provincial gas tax the city receives. For 2014 that is set as $850,000. Reserve funds will be used with $20,648,000 coming from the development charge reserve and $5,027,00 coming from what the city calls “other”. [facebook]
February 19, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. There was just the one delegation at city council last night – had to do with the re-naming of Southampton Boulevard to Constable Henshaw Boulevard Ben Carman asked Council to name some other city asset after the long serving police officer who died in 2010 of natural causes while on duty. Councillor Lancaster took exception to some of the comments made by Carman and asked if she had not call the Carman residence on three occasions. She had indeed replied Ben Carman – the calls came after a recommendation had been made by the Standing committee. Carman had expected to be able to speak to his council member before the recommendation was made. He isn’t the first person to complain about the level of access to the ward 6 member of council.  What was Southampton will become Constable Henshaw Boulevard. Council didn’t get to hear why the residents really didn’t want the name change. Lancaster, who has had problems with constituents groups in the past, appears to be upping her game now that we are in an election year and stressing that she does get back to people. It should be noted though that Lancaster has yet to file her nomination papers, although she has said publicly that she intends to run again for the ward 6 seat which includes the Headon Forest community that Southampton. It was difficult to fully understand what the opposition within the Headon Forest community was with the renaming of the street. Ben Carman and his wife Susan talked after the council meeting about the difficulty they and their neighbours have had with the administration at the Southampton police station. There was a time said Carman when the relationship with the police detachment was very good but it has deteriorated. By way of example he commented on the use of heavy equipment to move snow around the police parking lot – at 11:30 at night. When calls were made to complain about the noise Carman felt he was treated poorly and being told that the police can do what they want and don’t have to comply with noise bylaws didn’t do much for his view of the way police and community should be working together.
During his delegation Carman made no comment on the apparent friction between the police detachment that is on Southampton and the community. But that appears to be what the problem really is. Lancaster of course knew nothing of this – because she didn’t succeed in getting back to the resident before the discussion on the issue took place at the Standing committee. Councillor Craven, who represents the city on the Police Services Board might want to give Ben and Susan Carman a call and learn a little bit more about a community that appears to have a problem with its local police. Lancaster will have a problem with Craven crossing into her ward – tough – this is an issue that needs attention. Background links: Residents don’t support street name change. Council goes with what the police association members want. Lancaster and communications skills. [facebook]
February 19th, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. Council meetings in Burlington tend to be quickies – the tough slugging gets done for the most part at the Standing Committee level – but from time to time there are some news gems to be picked up. At the Tuesday evening council meeting there was a single delegation and a last-minute item that got pushed onto the agenda. The last-minute item was a need to go into a CLOSED SESSION – which usually happens when there is either a property matter or a human resources issue.  A prime concern has always been the width of the North Service Road and how traffic to the new IKEA location would be managed. This time it was a property matter – which in itself is not unusual but when the Mayor said the words IKEA – ears perk up. What could there be that is a property related matter on the IKEA project – which if you will recall is the struggling effort to move IKEA from their current Burlington operation out in Aldershot to a new location on the North Service Road between Walkers Line and Guelph Line. There was every indication that the property issues had been resolved and that the Ministry of Transportation wasn’t giving an inch on the work that had to be done to the Walkers Line intersection that needs major work if traffic is going to get to the new IKEA location.  The property IKEA has chosen for their new location is quite deep but the north side of it isn’t all that pretty. A rail line runs along the northern edge. Could the problem be something related to Conservation Halton and the problems with the creek that runs along the eastern side of the property? Or has someone finally realized there is going to be a major problem with traffic on the North Service road unless major changes are made to the width of that road? Whatever it is – the problems are inside one of the three in binders General Manager Scott Stewart took to the horseshoe as the media left the room. Stewart has been managing this file since its inception – and it has begun to get messy. IKEA tends to be very tight-lipped when it comes to talking about his project which hasn’t been as smooth as one would expect from a major multi national corporation. IKEA decided some time ago that they needed to move out of Aldershot and settled on the North Service Road location because it was available and it would give them the QEW exposure that IKEA tends to want. Getting the matter before council on basically no notice and not waiting until the next Standing Committee meeting suggests there is something up. Quite what – we don’t know. Let’s see what a little digging can do. Background links: IKEA move gets tangled up in the paperwork. IKEA move takes longer than expected. IKEA announces a move out of Aldershot. [facebook]
February 18, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. “The single most important thing the government can do to secure Ontario’s prosperity is to eliminate the deficit.” This statement appears at least three times in the 2013 budget document, as if to leave no uncertainty that Ontario’s ballooning debt is front and center of all policy. That debt now has risen to match that of the federal government as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) – approaching 40 percent.  John Robarts – one of the best Premiers the province ever had: knew how to balance a budget. I grew up observing John Robarts, nicknamed ‘the Chairman of the Board’ for his commanding leadership of Ontario. He presided over unprecedented economic development, with up to 8% growth rates during the 1960’s. He gave us our single-payer health insurance, modernized the public service, introduced bilingualism and education reform and was known for his balanced budgets. His successor, Bill Davis, on the other hand, governed the province form 1971 to 1985 but never once balanced a budget. David Peterson eked out a small surplus in his last year in office and we all know that Bob Rae’s NDP never even came close. For all his big talk, Mike (the knife) Harris managed only four balanced budgets before quitting politics, leaving his next inevitable deficit for Ernie Eves to announce. Then Dalton McGuinty’s Liberals registered three balanced budgets in a row during their first eight years in office.  Bill Davis had problems learning how to balance a budget; never really did learn. In fact, if we add up the budgetary performance of all governments over the last forty-two years ago, going back to when Bill Davis became Premier, we’d find that the Liberals and Progressive Conservatives delivered exactly the same number of balanced budgets – four a piece. And, the Tories held power for five more years than the Liberals over that time frame. Thus, this myth that Conservatives are somehow better at managing the deficit is pure and utter rubbish. This is also true for the federal political parties. John Robarts benefited from a truly progressive income tax system where the wealthy paid their fair share, and the middle class prospered. Mike Harris, by contrast, made huge cuts in income taxes and paid for them by slashing public programs – primarily welfare, health care, education and municipal services. Given the magnitude of Harris’ austerity program, he should have been able to balance all of his budgets, had he just not cut income taxes as he did. As the current federal finance minister is fond of saying – there is no free lunch.  Dalton McGuinty balanced some budgets – but budgets weren’t his downfall – the gas plant fiasco did him in. McGuinty raised taxes modestly on coming to office, introducing the Health (insurance) Premium. But then he further cut corporate and personal taxes, ironically, at a time when the economy most needed more tax revenue to deal with the consequences of the 2008 global meltdown. As a result the provincial debt which has nearly doubled since 2004 is now a priority for Premier Wynne.  Bob Rae couldn’t catch a break anywhere and had the misfortune of getting hit by an economy no one was able to manage. The lack of any experience running a government didn’t help. Balancing a budget requires tough choices, compromise and determination. Bill Davis had the good fortune to inherit a well-run and funded government, yet failed to keep his expenses in balance over his fourteen year run. Mike Harris squandered the benefits of his austerity measures and Bob Rae, stuck with Ontario’s worst recession since the nineteen-thirties, couldn’t get a break. McGuinty inherited Harris’ tax regime yet still pulled out three surpluses, even as Ontario became a have-not province in the federation. Unlike Harris, however, he actually expanded the effectiveness of public service. Health care waiting times fell from being the longest in Canada to the shortest; high school graduation rates jumped from 68% (2003) to 83% (2011) ; school test scores rose to among the highest in the country; and poverty levels dropped. High public debt limits the ability of a government to respond to circumstances, such as the economic collapses in 1990 or 2008, with the wherewithal to effect a swift recovery. And paying interest on that debt is money which cannot be used for some other economic purpose. John Robarts followed the Keynesian economic model, which asserts that debt be paid down in good economic times – but Keynes became a pariah in the eighties. So today both Ontario and the federal government are running debt levels at over a third of our GDP – levels which are high, if not dangerously high for the eventual rise in interest rates.  Mike Harris balanced some of his budgets – but was known more for the significant damage done to the province’s education system and reducing the wrong taxes for the wrong reasons. To address this, Ontario could go back to the austerity of the ‘Mike the knife’ days, closing hospitals and laying off nurses; increasing class room sizes and laying off teachers; selling off crown corporations and assets; and deferring essential infrastructure like bridges, highways and public transit. We recall stories of classroom wars, cardiac patients dying in hospital hallways awaiting critical surgery, and tires flying off trucks on our highways during the good old Harris days. Alternatively we could just let the debt continue to rise until it becomes difficult and costly to borrow any more, blindly mimicking what we witnessed with the Greek economy last year. Or, we could go back to paying our way as we go. We could bring back the kinds of taxation policies which would grow the middle class – the ones which enabled John Robarts to fund Ontario’s high growth in the sixties, without the need to run up deficits and the debt.
Background links: 2013 Ontario Budget John Robarts Bill Davis McGuinty and Harris Education in Ontario Finance Minister’s Address Ontario’s Fiscal History Public Debt Canadian Public Debt [facebook]
February 17, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. Marianne Meed Ward set the scene when she explained as Chair of the Community and Corporate Services Standing Committee that they were there to “listen today”. This was the day council members were going to hear delegations. There were 12 of them and at ten minutes each we knew we were going to be there for a while. Several were exceptionally good – all added to the process in a measurable, meaningful way and at the same time gave us an insight as to how your council works on your behalf. Culture, economic development, caring for the community and transit got coverage. In this series we will run three articles and focus on what happened and what it all means for the economic and social health of the city.
We will focus on culture in this piece and follow-up with two additional pieces on Economic Development and services to the community.  Great crowds, great weather, great music – Burlington’s Sound of Music Festival – a standard since before 1996 The Sound of Music wants $44,000 from the city in addition to the $54,101,00 that is already in their base budget. Council appears ready to go along with getting those additional dollars. Dave Miller, Sound of Music Executive Director said in his delegation that he wouldn’t come back looking for money for five years if the city agreed to put the additional funds into the base budget. That`s the kind of deal this council just might take him up on. Miller has been at this Council almost since they were sworn in. He has been relentless. While the event is probably the largest that takes place on the waterfront, Dave Miller didn’t get much in the way of respect from this city council. In this his third year before council seeking financial support the SOM hasn’t managed to convey the size of the economic impact the event has on the city. Council can’t see beyond the more than half a million dollars they have on their balance sheet. Miller hasn’t succeeded in convincing this council that the funds are vital – all it takes is one year of bad weather and the SOM would take a huge hit.  They come in droves for the biggest free music festival in the province. Miller pushed all the usual keys: the excellent ratings from visitors, the quality of the performances, the demographics, the accessibility of the event, the awards they continually get; the constant improvements they make to the environment with their clean up practices and that the SOM is a fun safe event. He trots out cute pictures of kids and talks up what the event does to Burlington’s profile and the support the event provides for emerging bands. He was talking to people who are deaf to the upside of what the SOM does for the city. Council sees all that money on the balance sheet and drools. Miller adds that the SOM is the driving force for more than $6 million in economic activity with 45,000 of the attendance defined as new visitors to the event; 40% are from outside Burlington and according to Miller 80% of the people attending have been to the event before. Something in those numbers doesn’t quite add up – but that’s not the point. Try taking it away: What would happen if the SOM folk decided that they have been at it for many years and need to take a break for a year and re-think what they are doing and how they do it? This council would howl.
The SOM financial statements point to; $35,900 + that they pay the police security $13,946 + they pay the city for permits $22,381 they pay the Parks and Road Maintenance for material, equipment and repairs to the park grounds. The SOM pays the Performing Arts Centre $8,300 + for the use of their space. The event results in $8,000 in parking revenue plus a significant boost in parking tickets. SOM says they add $15,000 to transit revenue. The Sound of Music has a strong story on the performance side as well. In 1997 there were 47 performances – in 2013 there were 100. Attendance in 1997 was 90,000 that number rose to 215,000 in 2013 The city`s financial contribution rose as well; from$25,000 in 1997 to $54,000+ in 2013. In terms of what portion of SOM revenue came from the city – that number slid from 13% in 1997 to 4% in 2013. Miller has been at this since 1996 when he joined as a volunteer and earned the position of Executive Director some time after that. Miller gets paid but doesn’t have a pension. SOM has more than 800 volunteers, many that use their vacations to “do the festival”. Miller keeps wanting to grow the event – which led to Councillor Lancaster asking last year when was “enough enough?” There has been some reluctance to see the event grow to anything bigger than it is which suggests Miller and his organization have some relationship building to do. Miller needs the funding from the city to qualify for funding from other levels of government. Governments ted to want everyone to be in the tub at the same time, sharing the same bar of soap.  The Sound of Music Festival parade gets the annual event off to a strong start. Sound of Music for 2014 will begin June 7 with the parade that will have a slightly different route and then moves into their usual four-day event that brings great music to the city and hundreds of thousands of people to the waterfront – and loads of revenue for almost everyone in the city. And yet the Sound of Music can`t get a miserable 4% of their budget from the city. Not coming up with the cash is sort of like throwing the baby out with the bath water – isn’t it? [facebook]
February 15, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. It is surprising how little we hear from Council members on the issue of improving the dangerously low economic growth of the city.  The BEDC has a formula they use to go from the first hint, tip, request – whatever they get to track the opportunity. Is this a viable model? Are there better models out there? This one suggests we wait for people to call on us – do we ever go out and attempt to convince people to come to us? That’s how Hamilton took International Harvester off our plate and ate our lunch. Economic development for Burlington is done by a standalone unit that is not part of the city hall operation. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation is a unit that is subsidized by the city and charged with attracting new business to Burlington and retaining the business we already have. Burlington is now at a point where its financial growth is not going to come from the residential housing sector. We are very close to build out – there are but two large developments left to get done, one in the east along Tremaine Road and the other in the west known as Eagle heights – after that it is infill and small pocket developments. The city has a lot of land that is designated and zoned “employment lands”. The owners of much of that land would prefer to see it used for residential development where the profits are much higher. Residential development will attract new families but also add a significant burden to the city’s cost structure. The industrial commercial sector not only returns higher tax dollars to the city but creates jobs as well. Those jobs attract younger people and for a city that has the largest growth in the seniors demographic in the GTA that growth is important. In 2012 the city’s tax growth in the ICI (Industrial Commercial Institutional) sector was a negative number compared to 2011 and will be the same for the 2013 tax year. The prospects for the next couple of years are not a lot better. Something had to be done with the BEDC – they just were not producing. Burlington has a great story to tell and we were doing a terrible job of telling our story and attracting new business. We don’t recall a single media release on a new business coming to town from the BEDC. We did get media releases from a few new business operations – Lowes being one. If the BEDC doesn’t tell its story – then its story doesn’t get told and when anyone goes to the internet and enters Burlington new business – there won’t be much to see. The organization has taken on a secretive approach – getting information out of them has been very difficult – they are not exactly media friendly. They tend to hunker down and hope that things will just blow over – an attitude and approach that applies to both staff and the directors. We recall two situations where we have asked for comment and were referred to the Executive Director who they later fired. When the BEDC gets “repurposed” or “reinvented” or whatever they decide to call themselves they need to take on a good dollop of media savviness as well. They need to understand they are a sales organization charged with the responsibility of selling the city as a great place to live and do business. When Burlington was named the best medium-sized city in Canada to live in the BEDC immediately took out a full-page advertisement in a leading business magazine. It was the best they could do.  Not much for the downtown core. Are we doing what needs to be done with the QEW Prosperity Corridor?  Is this the type of business Burlington wants? Did we go looking for them or did they call us? The administrative structure of the BEDC from about 2009 through to 2011 required them to raise a large part of their budget which they did with events. The focus often went to creating, marketing and then putting on a series of networking events. BEDC management couldn’t manage to operate on the two fronts and the attraction of new business suffered. The BEDC kept producing reports which all too often suggested yet another report. Early in the fall the BEDC Board came to the conclusion that the Executive Director was not the man for the job and the two parted ways – but not before a Board member, who should have known better, made statements that added to the size of the separation package the city had to pay out. The BEDC is now looking for a new Executive Director but can’t start that process until there is a clear, strong governance model in place. That task seems to be taking quite a bit of time and is in the hands of Gerry Smallgange, Burlington Hydro president and Pat Sugrue of Fearmans Pork Inc.; both BEDC board members.. Acting Executive Director Scott Stewart, who is also the General manager for the city of Infrastructure and Development, put it very bluntly when he said: “These gentlemen and the board owe you a report on this topic in April”. The BEDC board owes the city a lot more than a single report. In the past year Burlington managed to lose one of our historically long operations – International Harvester, that got scooped up by Hamilton. Some of the data presented to the Standing Committee earlier in the week suggests BEDC has upped their game and they are now doing the job they were put in place to do. Not everyone agrees with that assumption.  It’s not a bad story – but is the story good enough and can we do better?  Looks like a lot of “speculation” on those development charges going forward. Stewart, serving as Acting Executive Director since November of last year took the Committee though the data pointing out that 2013 has been a “transition” year for the BEDC. Scott comments: The governance model is expected to come up with a “completely re-constituted board”. The term for the current board ends at its AGM on May 29th That base budget Stewart was delegating on was originally submitted in October by the previous and now departed Executive Director. The base budget is now set at $958,000 which includes a reduction of $22,000 that the BEDC was directed to remove. In addition to the base budget there are three business cases council is being asked to consider for a total of $275,000 What is a bit surprising and disturbing is that the BEDC has had three months and to re-develop their raison d’êtreand craft a governance model – and there is nothing to show yet. This isn’t rocket science; these governance models are done in the private sector every day.  Turning those opportunities into wins is the challenge.  There are some critical sectors we are not active in. How do we change that? A legitimate question would be – why hasn’t this been done by now and what have you been doing for the past three and a half months? There are three members of Council on the BEDC; the Mayor, Councillors Sharman and Dennison. Earlier in the day the BEDC delegation was heard Councillor Sharman had asked Rishia Burke, who was delegating on behalf of a Community Development Halton initiative, what she did each day. Ms Burke acquitted herself quite well – the same cannot be said for Councillor Sharman if he had been asked what he has done on the BEDC.  The development Charges are interesting – but there has to be a commitment before those charges get levied. The citizens of the city just don’t hear what that board does; what the wins have been and what the problems are – and there are very clearly serious and significant problems. It appears that the problem has been a lack of both leadership and focus – this Board doesn’t seem to know what it is supposed to be. It is far too large a board and it isn’t clear where the leadership is coming from. For the immediate future the day-to-day operations are being led by a city General manager who spends half a day a week at that office.  Are the council members on the BEDC the three moneys? As the Acting Executive Director Scott Stewart was the person that spoke for the BEDC at the Standing Committee meeting; not word from the Chair who was in the room and nothing from the council members who sit on that board. Stewart does the best that can be expected under the circumstances he has to work with. Were those three doing a three monkey act: See you evil, hear no evil, speak no evil? What the public hears is that we have a Prosperity corridor and somebody is interested in some property over there. Questions were asked at the Standing Committee by ward 2 councilor Marianne Meed Ward who said she had plenty of questions which she had sent to the BEDC board. They were not read out in the open meeting but here they are: 1. What is the result of the marketing funds the city gave the BEDC last year? Any new businesses locate here as a result? Any leads? 2. What is the current staffing, in terms of roles? Is there a full-time person devoted to lead generation/sales? 3. What is the current staffing requirement for events? 4. Could the BEDC get out of events this year (i.e. how many are already booked/paid for; can you release the balance so by 2015 there are no more events)? Which events remain on the books this year? 5. What are the marketing funds for the 2014 budget going towards? What are the measurables – i.e. what is the BEDC expecting in return for this investment? Jobs? Leads? Etc. 6. What’s included in the marketing and investment attraction “employment lands marketing initiatives” line item? 7. How many sales calls are staff expected to generate, leading to how many leads, leading to how many news jobs/business/sq ft in Burlington? 8. Where does the money in the innovate Burlington line item come from?
10. What are the contract services for corporate restructure, for both 2013 and 2014? 11. What’s in the parking line? 12. What’s the scholarship funding line item? 13. What’s the TEAM Burlington line item? 14. How many net jobs came to Burlington this year (how many left; how many came – are we up or down)? 15. Have the commuting patterns gone up or down versus last year (i.e. are more, or less, people commuting outside Burlington for work?
17. The 2014 budget is less than the 2013 actual. I assume that is because some projects in 2013 were one-time and not repeated? If so, which ones? If not, why is 2014 budget lower than 2013 actual? Mead Ward says she is supportive of the BEDC and the city investment and is “looking for more detail on the specific budget items, with a goal to accelerate work on business attraction”. Her concern relates to any continued involvement in events, which take a huge amount of staff time to run. The events part of the BEDC operation used to be run by Jackie Isada who got talked into joining the Mayor as his Chief of Staff. Isada once said that she had raised more than $2 million for the BEDC through events while she held that job.
Not mentioned at the committee meeting on Thursday was that there is to be a Committee of the Whole on February 27th to provide an update on BEDC. The agenda for this meeting will be completed February 24th following a BEDC board meeting on February 21st. City manager Jeff Fielding sits on the BEDC board as does the Mayor and Councillors Sharman and Dennison. There wasn’t a single question from any of the elected representatives on the BEDC board. Up until November of last year there was an Executive board which was merged back into the full board which now consists of: P.K. (Phil) Nanavati (Chairman) Fengate Capital Management – Broker of Record, an investment management firm specializing in originating and managing investments in the infrastructure and real estate sectors. Alf Zeuner (Past Chairman), President AXYZ Automation Inc.; a global company manufacturing, selling and servicing computerized industrial machinery, specifically CNC router tables. John Chisholm, CEO and Partner SB Partners LLP, a full-service financial services firm and trusted resource for assurance/advisory services, tax minimization, valuations, estate and succession planning, SRED tax credits, U.S. tax services, mergers and acquisitions. Mayor Rick Goldring Jeff Fielding, Burlington City Manager Councillor Jack Dennison, owner of Cedar Springs Health Racquet and Sportsclub. Councillor Paul Sharman, a professional accountant and has a successful career as a consultant and as President and CEO of one of the largest professional US-based associations of accountants in the world. John Lever, Regional Vice President, Halton South, RBC Royal Bank. The bank provides services to the city of Burlington. Gerry Smallegange, President & CEO, Burlington Hydro Electric Inc. – Ruta Stauskas, Vice President, Human Resources, Boehringer Ingelheim Canada Ltd., one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. Louise St-Pierre, Senior Vice-President, Residential Services, Cogeco Cable Canada LP, the second largest cable system operator in Ontario. Paul Subject, President, STANMECH Technologies Inc. specializes in innovative, customer-focused engineering solutions. Patrick Sugrue, President, Fearmans Pork Inc., the largest pork packing company in Ontario and the largest employer in Burlington. Ronald J. Weston, Partner, Feltmate Delibato Heagle LLP a team of innovative legal experts who cover wide-ranging areas of practice. It is a very large board which former Mayor Goldring Chief of Staff Frank McKeown thought should be “blown up”. During a tour of the employment lands in Burlington with the former Executive Director he commented that there were significant opportunities on the north side of the 407 for development. Might be, but there is a provincial policy that has those lands set aside a part of the Green Belt and if Burlington is to maintain its municipal integrity those lands have to be kept green.
 KPI’s – Key performance indicators. The 2014 targets will be hard to meet with the current leadership.  Hard to understand the significant increase in expected tax revenue when the square footage is close to the same. The organization has taken on a secretive approach – getting information out of them has been very difficult – they are not exactly media friendly. They tend to hunker down and hope that things will just blow over – an attitude and approach that applies to both staff and the directors. We recall two situations where we have asked for comment and were referred to the Executive Director who they later fired. When the BEDC gets “repurposed” or “reinvented” or whatever they decide to call themselves they need to take on a good dollop of media “savviness” as well. This Board needs strong leadership which they are not going to be able to hire until they have a governance model in place that will guide whoever is brought in. Expect to see something come out of the Committee of the Whole later this month. Will someone within city hall suggest the existing Board be dismissed and the responsibility be brought in-house – at least until things are stabilized and we are where we should be and need to be? Is there a member of council with the courage to step forward and talk about some “out of the box” ideas. Surely Burlington can do better than this. When Burlington was named the best medium-sized city in Canada to live in the BEDC immediately took out a full-page advertisement in a leading business magazine. It was the best they could do. [facebook]
February 14, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. If you believe that citizenship is a privilege as well as a right, you might be pleased with the Harper government’s recent initiative making it tougher for immigrants to become Canadians. Indeed there are no good arguments against longer residency requirements for potential citizens. And, discouraging ‘citizens of convenience’ is something we would all agree with. Recall how we had to send a ship to Lebanon to rescue our ‘citizens of convenience’ living there during the last Israeli bombing a few years ago.  Immigration is what has grown this country – will the new rules fix the mistakes that were made? But Mr. Harper’s plans to strip citizenship from unsavory characters will run into problems with our constitution and possibly our international treaties – not that anyone would object to seeing terrorists deported. Of particular concern is the plan for citizenship to be placed in the hands of the minister, instead of an independent citizenship judge or panel, as it is now. Just another bad idea tempting politicians onto the slippery slope of political corruption. Canada has always been pretty accepting of immigrants, even before we allowed them to buy their way into the country, a practice which we’ve mostly ended. Other places like New Zealand, which had been the victim of ‘brain drains’ in the 50’s and again the 80‘s welcomes young immigrants who can contribute to its economy. But don’t even think about retiring there as an immigrant, unless you can ante-up with over a million dollars in cash. On the other hand, Switzerland, always cautious about how immigration might erode Swiss values, has become even more restrictive, recently voting to shut the door to a potential flood of European Union (EU) applicants. And then there is the USA which has talked about immigration reform for the last fifteen years while illegal immigration has made a mockery of government policy. And given the Americans’ perennial legislative gridlock, don’t expect much to change over the next fifteen either.  Will the aboriginal student population get the services they need to become employable – or are we still in that old Residential School mindset? Another initiative last week came with the announcement that the government will fund efforts to improve aboriginal education. It is disgraceful that those students who do complete secondary school on reserves fail to meet provincial education standards and can’t compete for the better jobs in the labour market. So this is a very welcome and long overdue initiative – one we would have seen in place almost a decade ago had Jack Layton and Stephen Harper not teamed up to bring down the Martin government and kill the Kelowna Accord.  The last federal budget form Minister of Finance Flaherty didn’t do anything for Ontario. “We were ripped off” said the Ontario Premier. Then this week the Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, brought down the federal budget and he might as well have left his old shoes on. While the budget came close to being balanced, it did so by delaying costly Tory programs and promises until after the next election. And some of the spending cuts came on the back of government employees. Salary and pension cuts, while helping bring the budget close to balance, will continue to take its toll on a public service already under performing due to lack of resources, morale and leadership. Flaherty also cut his own home province’s equalization payment by over $600 million, in an unprecedented action. This is just old fashioned meddling in provincial politics, helping his old friend Hudak. Holding back money due the province, this former MPP is trying to further damage the Liberal government at Queens Park, in advance of a provincial election expected this spring.  Ontario’s Minister of Finance claims the province was ripped off and short changed by $600 million by the federal government. Premier Wynne held a media conference the next day to complain about the 110 actions the Tories have undertaken to hurt Ontario since they came to power in 2006. Flaherty arrogantly re-announced the Canada Job Grant, which the feds had generously advertised last year regardless that the program didn’t even exist. And since it was supposed to involve the provinces, Ontario wasn’t alone complaining about the absence of any consultation. This is Mr. Flaherty’s ninth budget and his tamest, given those omnibus bills which have done serious damage to Canada’s environmental assessment process and emasculated its fisheries act. This is probably his last budget as well. Perhaps that is why it is so uninspiring, much like its author, the real Flaherty. I think back to his economic statement in 2008, which nearly brought down the Harper government.
Background Links: New Citizenship Rules Current Immigration Rules Citizenship Stripping New Zealand Aboriginal Education Aboriginal Education Crisis Kelowna Accord [facebook]
February 14, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON While city council meeting as a Standing Committee, was listening to delegations on everything from culture, to economic develop and the removal of snow – older people who need walkers, pushed their devices through slush and snow on the sidewalk outside city hall.  Sidewalk clearing outside city hall a little on the patchy side. Sidewalk across the street, outside a commercial location didn’t have as much as as snowflake on the ground. While at the same time, on the other side of the street, directly across from city hall, outside a commercial establishment there wasn’t as much as a snow flake on the sidewalk. The yakety, yak, yak, yak puts pay cheques in the bank account of the more than 25 city hall bureaucrats who were in council chambers – but for some reason no one was able to find or direct even one of the 1000+ employees to get a shovel and clear the side-walk.  This citizen isn’t smiling. Was she one of the hundreds that were basically locked in their homes during the five days of heavy winter weather because streets were not cleared? It would be nice to say that words are cheap – they actually cost us quite a bit. The action was so easy but you see most of the senior bureaucrats, and the politicians for that matter go out a different door, the back door and they don`t see the state of Brant Street because their cars are parked right outside the building. The bureaucrats have to walk across the road to the indoor parking lot. We heard during the delegations that clearing of the sidewalks is a city responsibility. Yeah right! [facebook]
February 13, 2013 BURLINGTON, ON. A late January accident on Upper Middle Road has resulted in the death of a Mohawk College student, in Canada on a student visa from India. The 25 yr old foreign student residing in Burlington has succumbed to his injuries at Hamilton General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon sustained from a collision on January 23rd. The student had been in critical condition since the crash, which occurred on Upper Middle Road near Headon Forest Drive. His parents were able to travel to Canada and be with their son in the last few weeks. He was residing with extended family in Burlington. Police will not be releasing his name at this time. This is the 2nd traffic fatality in Halton Region for 2014, and the first in the City of Burlington. The accident took place January 23, 2014 at approximately 0240hrs. Halton Regional Police responded to Upper Middle Road and Headon Forest Drive in the City of Burlington for a motor vehicle collision. As police arrived on scene, it became apparent that two vehicles were involved; a silver four-door Volkswagen, which had rolled over on the north side of Upper Middle Road and a white four-door Toyota, which had struck a tree on the centre median. Both vehicles were westbound when the collision occurred. The driver of the Volkswagen, a 21-year-old Hamilton resident was assessed on scene by paramedics and sustained no injury. The driver of the Toyota, a 26-year-old Burlington resident was rushed to a local trauma centre with critical injuries. That driver succumbed to his injuries yesterday. [facebook]
February 11, 2014 BURLINGTON, ON. It’s going to be tough to have the Delta Hotel that will grace Lakeshore road at the bottom of Elizabeth in time for the Pan Am Games – construction appeared to start earlier this week.  A cement truck and a drill suggest someone is digging holes and filling them with concrete – what’s what construction is all about. Will we see the Delta Hotel and the Bridgewater open by the end of 2015? People out on the property with drills and cement trucks – sure sign of somebody doing something to the ground. The Games are scheduled to run from July 10-26 with soccer being played in Hamilton and the multi million dollar New City Park serving as the practice field for the competing teams. Burlington’s newest and its biggest park has basically been rented out to the Pan Am Games people – all we will see of the teams is the bus bringing them to the city passing by.  Delta Hotel on the right and the 22 storey Bridgewater condominium on the left. Finally underway? The four star Delta Hotel was touted as an upper end hotel which the city wanted in place for the Games. Those who know construction tell us that it basically isn’t possible to get the building up and ready for occupancy in the time left. “The big thing for us” said a usually reliable source “was to have the hotel in the city and operational.” While there are construction workers on the property they appear to be on the side where the Bridgewater condominium will get built. We will keep an eye on this for you. [facebook]
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The golf course wants to spend $150,000 this year on upgrading parts of the golf course – Dennison wanted to defer that spending while the city took a closer look at the property and the opportunity he felt it offered.
Were anyone to ask a privately operated golf course what their competition was you would expect them to tell you exactly how many competitors they had and be able to tell you which were their closest competitors in terms of course usage and revenue.
It would appear that the Headon Forest community haven’t taken to the idea of renaming Southampton after a police officer because the relationship with the detachment isn’t all that good to begin with.
Culture was clearly the biggest concern: with delegations from the Art Centre, who had a very spiffy presentation, Sound of Music, who finally shared their audited financial statements, Heritage Burlington who came up with a new logo that cost less than $2000, which made Councillor Dennison smile.
What Miller hasn’t managed to do is make the city his partner.
9. Salaries saw an increase in 4.18%. Can you advise why? More staff? What’s the budgeted raise? At the city, the compensation amount is set at 1%. How much would your budget be reduced by if you also kept HR to 1%?
16. What is the $40,000 for investment attraction, and why so low?
Stewart set out the problem better than he may have realized when he told the Standing Committee that 
The BEDC doesn’t tell its story and when anyone goes to the internet and enters Burlington new business – there won’t be much to see.
This year there were 17 items from just two council members: Dennison and Taylor of ward 3 – both whom have been on council individually for more than 20years
Marianne Meed Ward chaired the meeting – she runs a swift, no-nonsense meeting; this is a council member that has learned a lot in the four years she has served the city. Much more focused when it comes to running a meeting. As chair she gets to talk as long as she wants – and to the delight of her colleagues she has learned that 50 words can often do as much as 500 words.
|
5 |
Harvester Road @ Guelph Line IntersectionYear 2017 | $22,000 | $148,000 | |
| Ref # |
6 |
Harvester Road – South Service Road to CenturyYear 2017 | Drive$161,700 | $823,200 |
| Ref # |
7 |
Harvester Road – South Service Road to WalkersYear 2017/2020 | Line$365,200 | $699,500 |
| Ref # |
8 |
Lakeshore Road – Maple Avenue to City LimitYear 2015/2017 | $451,000 | $957,000 |
| Ref # | 11 | North Service Road @ WalkersYear 2014 | $187,000 | $277,000 |
| Ref # | 12 | Waterdown Road NorthYear 2016 | $528,000 | $818,000 |
| Ref # | 13 | Waterdown Road WideningYear 2014 | $72,600 | $312,600 |
| Ref # | 16 | Plains Road Reconstruction | ||
| Year | 2015 | 380 m @ $220 /m = | $83,600 | $1,005,000 |
| Ref # | 17 | South Service RoadYear 2016/2017 | $52,800 | $209,600 * |
| Ref # | 19 | Brant Street @ Plains RoadYear 2017 | $22,000 | $66,000 |
| Ref # | 20 | Harvester Road @ WalkersYear 2016 | $22,000 | $272,000 |
| Ref # | 21 | King Road – SSR to NSR | ||
| Year 2019 | $57,200 | $2,532,000 * |
| Ref # | 23 | Walkers @ DundasYear 2016 | $22,000 | $52,000 |
| Ref # | 24 | Walkers @ Upper MiddleYear 2018 | $22,000 | $122,000 |
| Ref # | 25 | Waterdown Road Bridge Widening at Hwy 403 | $17,600 | $1,500,000 * |
| Ref # | 28 | Burloak Drive Grade SeparationYear 2020/2021 | $44,000 | $2,000,000 * |
| Ref # | 31 | Lakeshore Road ReconstructionYear 2019 | $37,400 | $179,100 |
| Ref # | 32 | Plains Road @ York Blvd RoundaboutYear 2023 | $33,000 | $83,000 |
| Ref # | 33 | Walkers Line – Hwy 407 to No 1 SideroadYear 2020 | $239,800 | $824,800 |
| Ref # | 85 | Eastport Drive Cycling ImprovementsYear 2017 | $11,000 | $1,000,000 * |
|
TOTAL |
$2,473,900 | $14,702,800 |
Harvester Road corridor:
Question: Harvester Road Corridor Improvements and Widening. Provide the total cost of all works proposed along the Harvester Road corridor.
Response: The total gross cost of projects along the Harvester Road corridor is $ 27,489,500.
Sealing cracks on roads is one of the preventive maintenance tools before a road has to be rebuilt. Shave and pave have proven to be money well spent – and we are spending a lot of money on this tool.
Road repairs – sealing cracks:
Question: Provide the list of suggested roads that will be crack sealed.
Response: The following table identifies the proposed 2014 crack sealing candidates
| Road | From | To |
| WILLOWBROOK RD | PLAINS RD | ENFIELD RD |
| GLENWOOD AVE | NORTH SHORE BLVD | TOWNSEND AVE |
| RICHMOND RD | MAPLE AVE | HAGER AVE |
| POMONA AVE | LAKESHORE RD | SPRUCE AVE |
| PINE COVE RD | SPRUCE AVE | NEW ST |
| ROCKWOOD DR | WOODVIEW RD | WALKER’S LINE |
| TURNER DR | LONGMOOR DR | BENNETT RD |
| GRAPEHILL AVE | WALKER’S LINE | STRATHCONA DR |
| MELBA LANE | SPRUCE AVE | STRATHCONA DR |
| LINDEN AVE | HAWTHORNE AVE | SPRUCE AVE |
| REEVES RD | WHITE PINES DR | TOTTENHAM RD |
| MAPLE | LAKESHORE | FAIRVIEW |
Downtown street lights:
Question: Is the sum of $884,000 in addition to the $1.9 million included in previous budgets to complete Decorative Street Light Restoration works on the downtown?
Response: The sum of $884,000 is new funding. The restoration project is to start in 2016 and continue yearly for 4 years with an expenditure of $222,000 per year. The previous Capital funding was for the reconstruction of Brant Street, burying utilities and installing Decorative Street Lights.
Central Arena Facility Renewal/Enhancements – Skyway
Question: Is money needed for these arenas? What is the future direction of Skyway?
Response: Funds for Central Arena are identified for 2015 and funds for Skyway Arena are identified for 2017. Staff will be conducting an ice needs review in 2014 to determine if the current inventory will meet customer needs for the next 5-10 years. The results of this review will be presented to Council. If the review warrants major renovations to either arena, staff will submit a business case in conjunction with the 2015 budget submission.
The capital budget will be recast in 2015. As such, the 2014 capital budget and forecast focused on 2014 projects. The project in the capital budget assumes a revitalization of Skyway Arena based on life cycle renewal requirements. However, prior to proceeding with this a strategic review of the need for this facility vis-a-vis ice user needs as well as other community needs will be under taken as directed by Council.
Longer term thinking has city hall being replaced but for the immediate future improving the sound system in Council chamber – FINALLY! and improving some of the meetings rooms is where capital dollars will be spent this year.
City Hall:
Question: What work is being done on the city hall building for the $250k in 2014?
Response: A City Hall Administrative Study is underway which will provide a recommended strategic option for City Hall needs. Funding identified in 2014 is to advance the high level option recommended in this study to design development including costing for capital budget purposes.
Looking at what to do with city hall long term doesn’t mean it will be left to disintegrate.
Question: Provide the detail of the work being done in 2014 for public meeting rooms and council chambers.
Response: (a) Meeting rooms on 3rd floor: Replacement of carpeting, furniture and technology. (b) Council Chambers: Audio equipment only.
Now the biggest park the city has – and the furthest from the bulk of the population.
City View Park:
It is now the biggest park the city has – but very few people get to use the place tucked away as it is in the north-west sector of the city – easier for Waterdown people to get to the place.
Once you are there – the site is wonderful. Many don’t like the plastic grass and argue that we will rue the day we have to pay for its replacement and cost of getting rid of it. It was hoped the location would be a big Pan Am Games attraction but all Burlington is going to get is a decent chunk of rent money for space soccer teams use to practice. The public will not be allowed onto the site during those practices.
Question: Outline the need for the 1.8 FTEs and $158K of operating requirements in 2016 and 2017.
Response: 2014 request of $5K supports the portable washroom facility required at the site. The amounts for 2016 and 2017 should be adjusted as follows:
Move request for $15K and 0.3FTE from 2016 to 2015 to provide a student for maintenance of the 3 premier sports fields starting in the Pan Am year. This student will work weekends and will provide a presence in the park, collect litter, groom fields as needed, inspect the trails and ensure the fields are being used as permitted. Three artificial turf fields have been built out and the large investment in this infrastructure requires a greater level of oversight and service.
Move request for $143K and 1.5FTE to 2019 when the Pavilion construction is scheduled. The FTE’s are for one permanent staff person (Equipment Operator) and one seasonal temp. With the build out of the pavilion, the washroom building will be open and the picnic areas. Much like other city parks (such as Central, Nelson, Sherwood Forest, Millcroft, Lowville) the investment in infrastructure combined with high use require increased staff levels to ensure that maintenance standards are met.
Information technology is everywhere – but not always something you can put your finger on. Done well it will save most people time and the city administration a tonne of money. Expensive – yes – but we couldn’t exist without it.
Information technology:
City hall is going to use the internet as much as it can to both improve its communication with its citizens and to reduce its costs. The Information technology department will be charged with delivering on the policy that Council decides upon.
There will be some bumps along this road – we don’t have an IT department that manages to be ahead of the curve in the IT field – to be fair few municipalities are able to keep up with the change. Major corporations stumble on this one. Add to that – that technology takes longer to complete – almost every time.
Project: E-Government Strategy Implementation
Question: a) How much funding has been committed to the E-gov’t program (to date and future)?
b) How many FTEs (permanent and temporary) are assigned by year?
c) With the money being spent, what will be the outcomes / transactions?
Response: a) The E-government program funding is:
Approved to-date:
$1.21 million (2011 – 2013 capital budget requests for software, hardware, implementation, IT staff costs). The projects supported with this funding are the web portal, e-commerce, public involvement, community calendar, service requests.
$490,000 (current budgets for business project staffing costs). These staff are supporting projects for recreation services, web design and migration and overall e-government program implementation. (one-time expense)
2014 capital request:
$240,000 to support projects in development services, open data and staff support.
Total of $1,940,000. This reflects what was requested in the 2012 budget in a 3 year capital program (2012 – 2014).
b) Staff assignments to E-Government Program:
Program manager 3 years, Business Analyst – 2 years, Application Analyst
– 2.5 years, P&R Business Lead – 1 year, Web Specialist – 1 year. The Program Manager and Application Analyst positions finish in 2015 and all others end in 2014.
All of the positions are temporary assignments done through secondment or contract.
c) E-Government Program deliverables are focused on enhancing and expanding our customers’ online experience. Our goal is to introduce more electronic service options for the public and enhance the information access/search ability with improved navigation.
Services delivered to date include: The online Live and Play guide with direct connection to program registration, Public engagement through MindMixer, Tax bill/statement electronic distribution and payment through EPost, Online Tyandaga tee time bookings, P&R program waitlist notification and receipt printing, Online facility availability, Online P&R membership registration.
City information data sets available through our Open Data project for developers and interested community members e.g. our transit schedule is now available through free apps to make it easier to know what bus to take based upon where you want to go.
Our future deliverables are:
Providing a single online reference point for Public Involvement opportunities with the City through a new web page
Online facility availability to meeting rooms and picnic spaces
Revitalized map views to make them easier to use and understand
More data sets for developers to create apps for our citizens to use e.g. cycling routes, construction plans, approved budgets
A new website with the ability to put more services and information online in an easier to access format e.g. service requests, development service permits and applications
An enhanced community calendar
A more user friendly and flexible e-payments solution
Emerald Ash Borer
This is one of those projects where we often don’t know that we are doing – but then no one else in the field knows all that much either. It is complex, based on science that we are still learning about and it is expensive. The hope is – and that’s basically all we have at this point – is that we can keep ahead of it. Not much of an upside but the downside is to lose thousands of trees – and if tax payers are concerned about property values – imagine a street that loses all of its ash trees. This is a tough one.
This little creature is costing us a fortune – and we are not at all certain we are going to win the battle to stop the infestation.
Question: a) How effective is the current program?
b) What were the results of the pilot program in Oakville?
Response: a) Although the effectiveness of the current program is still being understood, observations indicate that treatment has contributed to the prolonged life of ash trees. To date, the trees requiring removal have been primarily those that are untreated and there has not been a significant impact to treated trees. In some cases, non-treated trees have been removed beside treated trees that are still standing.
How much damage can the Emerald ash bore do? Trees in Cambridge that are lost.
b) Staff will request information from Oakville staff about the results of their pilot study and provide Council with this information as it is received.
The above are a few of the items in the capital budget for 2014. The numbers are for the most part place holders while the city totally re-casts the capital budget for 2015 – which is when the new budgeting tools begin to come into play. Service based budgeting, Result based accountability and new Business process management tools will become THE approach used at city hall.
Will they make a difference. You want to hope so – there are some costs coming our way that could cripple the 2020 taxpayers.
[facebook]
By Pepper Parr
February 10, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Expect to hear much more about “business cases”, documents that set out what the city wants to do with your money.
The document the bureaucracy provides is pretty straight forward. It sets out what they want to do and how much they expect to spend. Some of the business cases are recommended by the Executive Budget committee while others are not.
The arts and culture set knew what they wanted – what they weren’t sure of was – is city hall listening to them?
The city wants to hire a Manager of Cultural Planning. There is currently a Cultural Planner on staff who worked half time out of the Parks and Recreation department. That position has been made full-time, however the planner is still doing quite a bit of Parks and Recreation work..
The intention is to have a Cultural Manager along with the Cultural Planner who will oversee the implementation of the cultural plan that has been approved by city council. What the public has not seen yet is the specifics of the plan that is to be implemented.
The city will spend something in the order of $120,000 for the manager and associated costs. Back when the Performing Arts Centre was a gleam in the eye of many Burlington had a small arts organization that got renamed Creative Burlington. It was the place that had what information there was on the arts and the people in the art business. They were heavily involved in the Taste of Burlington event but relied on Ontario Trillium funding. When that ran out Creative Burlington appealed to the city for $65,000 to stay alive while they worked on a funding formula to become sustainable. The city turned them down – now the same council is going to consider putting up $100,000 plus, for a full-time person that will be come part of the year to year budget.
Jeremy Freiburger, author of a report that provided direction for the city’s cultural plan based on reams of data he had gathered. Now the city has to determine how it wants ti implement its Cultural Action Plan.
About a year after that, the city put out a Request for a Proposal for some research and idea development on culture and the city. Jeremy Freiburger, head of Cobalt Connects brought in his Cultural Directions report that provided the city with all kinds of data based on extensive research and community input. It was some of the best data the city has every had available about culture. Freiburger was able to tell us how much we spend on culture, where we spend it and where there was opportunity for cultural growth in the city.
This at a time when the Performing Arts Centre had opened to mixed reviews and then went into a dive when it went to city council saying they needed twice as much money as originally thought they would need in the way of a subsidy. To its credit the Performing Arts Centre has recovered and while it will always require a subsidy management over there expects that to come in at below $500,000 perhaps as early as 2015
That resulted in the then Executive Director deciding that family was more important and submitting a resignation to the Board. The board itself realized it needed to up its game and recruited some new members –this time adding some much-needed business acumen and one member who at least dabbled in the arts.
It was real art which the public liked and it was one of a number of elements that brought to the surface a desire for more in the way of cultural life in the city – and brought it from a community few knew all that much about.
At about the same time the city took up the generous offer insurance executive Dan Lawrie made to pay for a large part of a sculpture that was to be erected outside the Performing Arts Centre. The Spiral Stella was unveiled on a bright sunny day – the audience oohed and awed and that was it. The thing just stands there with nothing more said or done about it.
This after a delightful piece of public art set up in a just plain dumb location – on a major traffic artery yards away from a railway underpass on Upper Middle Road.
We seemed to be going from one disappointment to another when – 
Trevor Copp, who had been named Artist of the year delegated before city council and said he wanted to be able to perform in the community he lived in and didn`t want to always be “on the road”. His delegation was like one of those Chinese fire crackers that go one and on. Copp struck a chord that is still reverberating.
A meeting of arts types was called, there is some difference of opinion as to who actually called the meeting, but it took place with 20 people at the first one, then a second meeting with sixty people and out of that came the Arts and Culture Collective of Burlington with its own Facebook page that you have to be recommended to get in.
Suddenly the arts community had a voice and the bureaucrats had someone they could listen to. Prior to this, all the city had was those who wanted culture and those who didn’t think it was the city’s business to be doing all that much for the artists.
With all this early stage fermentation taking place there was then the No Vacancy art installation at the Waterfront hotel that was as avant guard as it gets and over the top for Burlington. It was a one night stand that was supposed to take place in a motel but got upgraded to the Waterfront hotel where management was scared silly that the vice squad was going to raid the place. The nude stretched out on the hotel room bed was a stunning piece of installation art. The event lasted a couple of hours and was a knockout.
Mixed in with the No Vacancy event was a bit of Slam Poetry – few even knew what Slam Poetry is, but here in Burlington there is a group of poets who perform once a month at the Black Bull on Guelph Line. They work with funding from the Canada Council and no one for the most part knew anything about them.
A delightful work of art – but you may never see it – sitting as it does in the middle of Upper Middle Road yards away from a railway underpass. Councillor Lancaster argued that the thing wasn’t in her ward.
Members of Council seemed thrilled that the city had such a vibrant arts community – one they knew very little about – so much for council members having their ears to the ground.
With all that by way of background – what will city council decide to do in the way of supporting this nascent community? Will they approve the hiring of a full-time Cultural Manager? And what impact will that have on the implementation of the Cultural Action Plan? And just what’s in that Plan anyway? And who is overseeing this cultural initiative?
Getting to this point has not been easy. There was a point at which Freiburger saw his efforts as being “trashed” by senior city hall management that didn’t bring an arts or culture background to their work. Most had come out of a gymnastics culture that many in the arts community felt didn’t understand what it is that makes the arts tick. The differences between bouncing on a trampoline and working the strings of a big Gibson guitar are not comparable other than they both require discipline and practice.
The Freiburger report landed on the desk of General Manager Kim Phillips who had her portfolio drastically cut when city manager Jeff Fielding moved finance, legal and information technology to his desk. Philips was left with Parks and Recreation, the Fire department and oversaw the management of the creation of a Citizen’s Charter – which has yet to be given life. Culture will also report to Phillips
The working relationship between the city manager and general manager Phillips is not the best – perhaps some additional “adjustment” to his senior team when a performance review takes place?
The cultural initiative is sitting in limbo until city council approves the expenditure for the Cultural manager who is expected to work somewhere outside city hall. The Executive Budget Committee (EBC) supports the expenditure which will become an annual expense.
The cultural community wanted to be in on the ground floor of any decision-making – they made their voices heard – now they wait to see of council will fund culture in a meaningful way.
The arts community will be out in force on the 13th when this item will be open for delegations. It is a critical decision for the city – the choice they make will pinch the growth of the arts and culture in the city or give it the room it needs to grow and flourish.
What will this person do? The Business case the city set out has the Cultural manager serving in a leadership role to “develop and maintain networks of cultural contacts including cultural Board and maintain cultural mapping on-line. This leader will use a community development model to develop an external non-profit organization that will be called the Burlington Arts and Cultural Council.”
“The Cultural Manager will be expected to ensure that the city`s cultural services: – festivals and events, public art, Burlington Teen Tour Band and the Burlington Student Theatre are delivered in a customer first service model and are well-managed with appropriate requests for financial and human resource support.”
The expectation appears to be that this manager would become the “service owner” for cultural services in the city.
The Sound of Music has their request in for $48,000 (they asked for basically the same amount last year – didn’t get it) and the EBC has not recommended the request this year but, Heritage Burlington is in for a tonne of money – one chunk with a $103,450 price tag and the other budgeted at $125,000 in 2013. Of that amount there is $97,228 that will be rolled over into 2014.
Next in this look at business cases series – the Burlington Economic Development Corporation and its ask for $275,000 – which has been approved by the Executive Budget Committee comes up for debate. Council has continued to throw money at the EBC hoping some of it will produce results.
Background links:
Arts community smells funding.
No Vacancy event revealed a different Burlington.
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By Pepper Parr
February 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It was the third visit Kathleen Wynne has made to Burlington since being “crowned” leader of the Liberal Part of Ontario and therefore Premier of the province. The previous Premier, Dalton McGuinty, had resigned and left Wynne with the equivalent of a South African necklace – and if you don’t know what one of those is – you’re lucky; they are nasty things that usually result in the painful death of the wearer.
Premier Kathleen Wynne talking to seniors at Martha’s Landing.
Wynne has proven to be somewhat plucky and while her survival is certainly not guaranteed come the next election, which she told a Burlington audience this afternoon would be “sooner rather than later”.
Wynne was in town to show off the spiffy new candidate the Liberals nominated last week. Eleanor McMahon was declared the Liberal candidate for Burlington and will run against current MPP Jane McKenna. It will be a much different race for McKenna whenever the election takes place.
Martha’s Landing residents got a first hand look at Liberal candidate Eleanor McMahon.
McMahon has a touch that is seen often in politics – but with this woman it seems more real than the many this reporter has watched. Both Wynne and McMahon worked the room at the Martha’s Landing Retirement home on Lakeshore Road. But the two have distinctly different styles.
Premier Wynne is respectful, direct and listens carefully to people – but she doesn`t have the almost intimate one on one touch that McMahon works from.
Both are respectful, direct and sincere. Wynne will lean forward and listen carefully, smile and offer a pleasantry. She’s the Premier, meets thousands of people and has a lot on her plate.
McMahon moves right in on the person she is talking to. She sat with the seniors and took both their hands and mentioned how they reminded her of her Mother. The empathy was – remarkable. It was something like a good Catholic stepping into a confessional and unburdening themselves of all their cares and worries.
These people loved it. Every one of them felt in their hearts that they were with someone who cared about them. And it was real.
McMahon has been around the political ring more than once; this is not a new gig for her. She has worked with more than one Prime Minister and knows what politics is about. Eleanor is my side of 40, in good shape with a clear sense of who she is and what a Liberal government is supposed to be about: fiscally responsible and compassionate.
Premier Wynne added later in the meeting that she is also very persistent in working to get what she wants. McMahon has done work as a volunteer on roads and bicycles and pestered Wynne endlessly when she was Minister of Transportation. There are a couple of thousand cyclists in Halton who will mount their bikes and work hard for Eleanor McMahon.
Brian Heagle, who desperately wanted the Progressive Conservative nomination that went to McKenna, might take some solace now in not getting that nod. Had he won he would have had to run against McMahon and then join the ranks of those one term politicians.
While it is very early in the game – and in the world of politics a weekend is the equivalent to six months – a betting man would put real money on McMahon taking the Burlington seat provincially – even if Premier Wynne fails to earn the majority she feels she has earned.
Wynne did well in her short visit. She spent part of the forenoon in Mississauga and was on her way to Niagara Falls where there is a tough race. In her comments to the people at Martha`s Landing Wynne said all the usual – it is about jobs; the economy is still not as stable as we need it to be. She talked up several of the governments initiatives, there are apparently 200 welder jobs begging for workers in Niagara, which fits in with her plans to get more training programs in place.
Wynne talked about her plans to develop broader reaching pension programs. She has not been able to get the federal government to step up to the plate and do what most people see as the responsible thing – create programs that make it possible for people to set aside money for retirement. With more than three-quarters of people working today not having anything other than the Canada Pension Plan and the Old Age Pension most observers agree that improvements are needed. Wynne points out that pension plan changes are not a tax – it is a program that helps people to take care of themselves.
It isn’t easy to get a laugh out of Premier Kathleen Wynne. Here she remembers the story about long time ago Ontario Premier Mitch Hepburn and a manure spreader on a Rice Lake farm
Wynne said that Ontario is prepared to go it alone and come up with a pension plan that meets the needs that are clearly identified but not being met. She said what was is being worked out will be totally portable and that there are a number of other provinces prepared to work with Ontario.
Wynne talked with pride about the increase made to the minimum wage that will kick in this June. She added that she “couldn’t for the life of me understand why the NDP has not taken a position on this issue”. Traditionally the NDP has always championed better wage rates.
The event on a brisk Canadian winter afternoon was about Eleanor McMahon. You are going to see and hear a lot about this lady. Make a point of listening to her and deciding for yourself if she is the person you want to represent you at Queen’s Park.
Background links:
McMahon named Liberal candidate
Premier does Burlington’s rib fest.
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By Pepper Parr
February 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
For members of Council the biggest task they take on is determining how much of your money they want to spend. They do this with the budget.
We decided a few weeks ago to track the thinking of the candidates who have filed nomination papers and ask each of them the same questions and publish what they have to say – with no editing.
We have not included the Mayor in this tracking – so far he is the only elected member of Council who has filed nomination papers. Our intention is to put different questions to the elected members of Council – they have a position to protect whereas newbies have no responsibility for the budget that is about to be passed.
Katherine Henshell, ward 1 – did not submit a response to the questions asked.
Lisa Cooper, ward 3 did not submit a response to the questions asked.
Ian Simpson, ward 5, did not submit a response to the questions asked.
There are six candidates who have filed nomination papers. Jason Boelhouwer was the first to get back to us – within a few hours, followed, days later by Alexandra Kubrak and John Sweeny. We did not hear from Ian Simpson in Ward 5, Katherine Henshell in Ward 1 or Lisa Cooper in Ward 3.
Here are the questions we asked:
1: Did you attend the public workshop January 29th?
If you did – what did you think of the city’s presentation?
2: Based on what you know of the budget what are the three main problems that you see and how would you address those problems were you a member of Council?
3: Based on what you know what were the two things about the budget that you thought were just great. Don’t limit your responses – but appreciate that we all want people to read what you write – so be moderate in terms of length.
Given that the budget is THE document for municipal council members we were surprised that half of the people who have nominated themselves chose not to reply.
Jason Boelhouwer going through the city budget workbook at a table with Aldershot residents.
Jason Boelhouwer, candidate Ward 1:
Did you attend the public workshop January 29th?
Yes
If you did – what did you think of the city’s presentation. One of the comments that was made seemed very relevent, these meeting should have been done before the actual budget was already set to go to Council for final approval. I appreciate the difficulty in the timing but it seems that the timing makes this more of an effort to placate rather than to seek input.
Based on what you know of the budget what are the three main problems that you see and how would you address those problems were you a member of Council? Accountability, Priorities and Communications. Having a more open and accountable budget and budget review process with results that are communicated to the general public will go a long way to making sure that people are informed and can have a sense of ownership in the things that the City is trying to achieve.
Based on what you know what were the two things about the budget that you thought were just great. Don’t limit your responses – but appreciate that we all want people to read what you write – so be moderate in terms of length. The idea that the city is headed towards some sort of metrics for specific line items is great, they were very vague during the meeting but at least the conversation seems to have started. Secondly I was impressed with staff’s willingness to discuss the shortfalls in maintenance of infrastructure funding and a willingness to start to deal with it. I would have liked to hear how and why the situation was allowed to develop to the state that it is in – again communications and accountability could help this. Overall the City seems to be willing to start looking at the operation of the ‘City’ in terms of running a service industry business. Business’ have budgets, and the people in each of those departments should be held accountable for the results (positively and negatively) as well as for how those results are delivered thus ensuring exceptional service is provided to all stakeholders.
John Sweeny, Ward 4 candidate
1: Did you attend the public workshop January 29th?
John Sweeny on the left, goes through the proposed city budget for 2014 at public meeting.
If you did – what did you think of the city’s presentation? I did attend the City public workshop on January 29th. My first impression on the presentation and format was that the staff had put a significant amount of time and effort in putting it together. There was lots of data however it was not presented in a way that would allow for open consultation. Unfortunately, I find this to be a consistent theme with public presentations from municipal (City and Education) organizations. The data was structured in a way that really limits the ability of the public to consider alternatives. It would seem to me that there are ways to present the information in a more simplistic fashion. This would include more closely matching costs and revenues.
As an example, there was a specific discussion about the “IKEA project” and the City finance team indicated that the cost was lower due to the application of Development Charges. I inquired if there was a direct link (i.e. The City won’t get the specific charges without the IKEA project) or if this was just an application of the funding. I asked a question to the team and it didn’t appear that there was a direct connection. I believe that these types of things are misleading and we need to be clearer to the public IF we really want input. And, “We SHOULD want real public input!”
2: Based on what you know of the budget what are the three main problems that you see and how would you address those problems were you a member of Council? In terms of my view on the main 3 issues that the City faces based on the content that I heard and my additional review of budget documents:
1/ Continued focus on the City’s Capital Assets to ensure their continued value and usefulness.
My initial perspective is that a long term program, as was presented, represents the prudent and reasonable approach. If I was on council, I would work with the City staff to ensure that the information presented to our constituents was clear and concise.
I do wonder why the increase for this budget year is 0.75% when the remaining years it is 1.25%. I did inquire of one of the Councillors and the response was that it didn’t really have a significant impact in the long run. From the documentation it appears that it would take 1 year off the term which IS significant. My opinion is that this may be more of an election year issue which is very disappointing.
2/ Future revenue sustainability.
The continued revenue from “organic” growth with new development is not sustainable. Therefore alternative sources of revenue, likely from Commercial and Industrial expansion. We need to ensure that the City brings all possible resources to bear to support the BEDC in selling the City and “Closing the deals”.
I have an anecdotal story about an organization that was interested in making a move from Oakville to Burlington and was looking to take over a vacant piece of prominent (North Service Rd) real estate. There was an issue with storage at the property which resulted in them renewing their lease in Oakville. The real estate agent indicated that they have been having trouble with the property. I had to wonder if the BEDC was engaged with the opportunity would there have been an opportunity to overcome the objection in order to secure a net new long term tenant. If the BEDC was not engaged then we need to ensure that we have a future approach and process in place to bring all the power of the City to “WIN NEW BUSINESS”.
3/ Service Level Budgeting.
There was a question/comment raised about Zero Based Budgeting. The implementation of Service Level Budgeting will address some of this issue, without all of the additional administration of ZBB. However, the question of what service levels will be set was not clear. We need to have a clear set of baseline benchmarks in place to understand if the City is efficient and effective with our operations. I know as an example that the City of Toronto completed some benchmarking reviews of some of the core services. Are we incorporating this type of data in the process of developing service levels?
A specific example of this would be the request for additional funding for 4 firefighters. Given that the City is currently paying overtime to existing staff to cover the time shortage this would appear to be a very simple decision since each hour is currently at overtime pay rates (Time and a half?). What was not clear was if the service level across the entire operation was currently efficient or could resources be reallocated? Benchmarks against similar and geographically close municipalities would allow the City to be confident in our current level of efficiency and effectiveness.
3: Based on what you know what were the two things about the budget that you thought were just great. Don’t limit your responses – but appreciate that we all want people to read what you write – so be moderate in terms of length. A couple of things that are very encouraging:
The City current fiscal position appears to be solid. We have taxes that are below the average for neighbouring municipalities, the debt position is strong below both the City’s debt policy of 12.5% and well below the provincial mandate of 25%. Although with potential issues of future growth we need to be prudent to leverage this strength to secure continued growth.
I was also very excited to hear about the Insight Burlington initiative. If communicated, implemented and used effectively this would be an excellent opportunity to “take the pulse” of the community.
This was the first session like this that I have attended and overall was impressed with the process and the level of data that appeared to be available. It did result in many more questions still outstanding and in the future it would be valuable to have more of these sessions over time to provide for a feedback mechanism. As a Councillor there are likely better opportunities for more “back and forth” dialogue with the City staff, we need to ensure that the public has this opportunity.
No Sound of Music Money from this candidate – and she gets indigestion when she sees the big bucks the city wants to pay some new staff.
Alexandra Kubrak: Ward 4 candidate:
After reviewing the budget and hearing the concerns on the matter through the fellow participants, I found the overall presentation on the proposed budget items fair and balanced. The city is doing well to consider the needs of not only the inner workings, but every resident within Burlington. The balanced approach creates an equal treatment of resident needs and infrastructure requirements. However balancing such needs can become troublesome when the allocation of funds are spread thin to appease everyone.
Three main concerns I had with the budget are as follows:
1. The addition of two high-priced positions of Heritage Property Planner and the Manager of Cultural Services
2. $44k increase of the Sound of Music Festival
3. The revision of sidewalk plowing
Looking at the proposed amounts for Heritage Planner and Manager of Cultural services, I was surprised to see a six-figure salary of each. I maintain that every position should be fairly treated based on the average dedication and knowledge you must have to carry out the job. But looking as such positions, with relative understanding of the average salary of a Burlington resident, decreasing such an amount by even $25k each would allocate those funds for better programs. Asking $128k for a Manager of Cultural Services and $103k for Heritage Property Planner seems quite steep when you consider the position would be filled by a current Burlington resident, or locally known expert. at even $80k for each position, that is still a very fair sum for any employee to have. Especially with the deficit as it is, such positions cannot be overly lavished. Again, more information must be known about the positions and what they entail for the city. However shaving off almost $71k between both positions would create gains for more necessary services.
Sound of Music will get no sympathy from Alexandre Kubrak were she to be elected a Council member. She thinks the event should be looking for additional sponsors – she’s not the only one with that thought.
The increase of $44k in funding for the Sound of Music festival is a great idea. However that amount can come from outside sources not just the city. Working within the music industry for a brief period allowed me to understand the massive amounts of funding festivals and music galas need to raise in order to put on a great show. The Sound of Music festival has many options to find addition funding going outside their comfort zone and looking for bigger and better sponsors to maintain or even exceed the quality they have had for 20+ years. The festival generates a lot of revenue for the region, as well as is recognized by the province as a great festival to participate in. Festival organizers should be approaching larger corporations outside of Burlington-area companies (i.e. Molson, Scotiabank, TDCanada, Sleeman, Technology Companies) for larger funding opportunities. In recent years many Toronto-area festivals have allowed larger corporations in on sponsorship and presentation of festivals only to have their events turn into large-scale and profitable internationally renown festivals that suit the needs of the local and global audience. Again more information on the goals of the festival committee and the current strategies have to be considered before going ahead.
The revision of sidewalk plowing to reduce the amount of need is a bit negative. As is, many areas including war 4, have to wait longer than necessary to have sidewalks and even street plowed of snow. This causes more than inconvenience, but serious injury risks and access problems. Ice, snow, and sleet can cause many elderly people to be stuck in their homes for quite some time, with little to no access to services they may need. As well reducing sidewalk plowing can also cause issues with children walking to local schools. The risk of injury and death from walking on roadways increase when sidewalks are not plowed. I would recommend using the amount shaved off the additional manager positions be put towards increasing the response times and coverage of plows within the city.
Although these three items may be negatives for me, there were two positives I saw within the budget presentation.
Committing 562 million to infrastructure over ten years may seem like a lot, this needed is very wise. Both IT, roadways, economic development, and the like all need to be upgraded as we become and increasingly networked world. The need to create a better flowing city is needed to keep up with the new needs and interactions of every resident. Though the backlog has created an bit of a deficit issue, the proposed increase in taxes was shown to be fair and based upon a balanced structure for every resident. This type of competitive property tax scenario has obviously worked in other larger cities, Burlington must adapt to this model to maintain the high level of services we have been known for.
Secondly the restoration of city transportation routes is proof the city listens. For years Burlington has had less than acceptable levels of public transportation, the reduction in services in lesser used areas has only caused greater problems for residents who use those routes on a frequent basis. The only way to offer expansion is by providing every citizen a way to get around. The demographics in Burlington are split, thus the need for public transportation has always been high. As well, the recent trend towards a greener city means public transportation is a necessary option to provide residents with a cleaner, more fuel effluence way to get around. Restoring such routes will only enhance the city as a great place to live, work and play.
Overall the public budget that has been presented has been fair. However more information on the background of such amendments is needed with the documents to keep the public informed as to why these changes are necessary.
Background links:
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By Pepper Parr
February 7, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Auctions are both a form of entertainment and a chance to learn more about art, see what you like and decide if you are prepared to pay the price the auctioneer has worked the audience up to.
Friday evening, Nello Romagnoli pulled $80,000 from a room that was packed.
Earlier in the week, an event that usually draws 250 people did manage to get 150 hardy souls to the CIBC Wood Gundy private reception in weather that had the city cancelling all its public events as Burlington buttoned down to weather yet another winter storm.
Robert Bateman’s Coyote on Mt. Nemo was certainly the draw and for the most part the crowd pleaser but it didn’t pull what it should have pulled in the way of price. The bid came in by telephone – they got a deal.
The draw for most was a very recent and much different Bateman than they’d seen in the past. Robert Bateman, who is in his 83rd year, has done a piece that is much closer to his Burlington roots. Titled Coyote at Mt. Nemo, the 30 x 43 cm oil on board resonates instantly with those who have taken the paths to Mr. Nemo.
The rock formations are identifiable not only to the eye but to the heart-strings as well. It is as if one was taken back to an old, familiar, comfortable place and there, almost in the shadows, is a coyote looking at a crevice between two rock formations and deciding if he can make the jump from one side to the other. Between the two sides of the crevice the green branches of trees are visible – that’s our Mt. Nemo.
Art Centre Executive Director relays a telephone bid for the Bateman. Best he could do was pull in $13,000. A deal at that price.
The painting is given a market value of between $15,000 and $19,000 – Executive Director Ian Ross had his phone pressed against his ear as the unknown clients settled at a bid of $13,000. That buyer got a deal.
The Bateman piece was one of 120 pieces of art that are part of the live and silent auction – the 35th put on by the Burlington Art Centre that will be going through a re-branding once the city budget is approved. John Duffy, who has done some impressive work in the past, has taken on the task of freshening the image of the Art Centre.
Auctioneers are at heart psychologists – they bring an ability to read a room as well as read a person and know if they can entice a higher bid. They can spot a bottom feeder a mile away and usually know when a bidder is about to top out.
Hundreds of people dropped by the Art Centre to take their time and see what was in the catalogue and decide what they liked. Several excellent pieces went for well above the Estimated Market Value – eight items were withdrawn.
A good auctioneer will ease a bidder up an additional $100 and the moment he has pulled that from you – he is off to the next person to see if he can entice them to take the price up $50 and if he does he will be back to the first person trying to coax an additional $50. – all the while casting his eyes about the room looking for that furtive hand that flicks its fingers – the sign that there is life and a wallet the auctioneer can get at.
Good auctioneers learn where the laughs are in the room and will choose people, often couples that he can use as foils to advance the bidding. Watching a good auctioneer is a little like watching a play – one in which the bidders are not just the audience but get drawn up on stage to play a small part.
A Helen Griffiths piece went for less than the Market Value and will hang in the home of Burlington MP Mike Wallace. Good taste in art.
So – who bought what? Well Burlington MP mike Wallace was seen walking out with three shrink wrapped pieces , one of which was a Helen Griffiths still life of six coffee cups. Griffiths is a local artist whose work will appreciate in value. Her portrait work is well worth looking for.
Someone asked Mayor Goldring if he was buying, and he replied that he was buying the pier. There was an “encaustic on panel” of the pier by Hamilton artist Ron Eady that went for $1600, but it didn’t look as if the Mayor was the buyer – so perhaps he meant he wanted to purchase the pier itself. Should he somehow manage to do that – well there are $50 million lottery tickets sold – the citizens of the city would be forever grateful, re-elect him for certain and probably name the thing after him to show their eternal gratitude.
Hillside Homes went for its Market Value – most didn’t make that level.
There was one art matron who held up her catalogue displaying her bid number more than once and on each occasion the auctioneer managed to coax an additional hundred dollars or so from her – then dart away to see if he could do the same thing to someone else. On at least two occasions this matron was the top bidder who just wiggled with delight at her purchase. For this woman it was the pleasure of the piece she was buying that moved her.
“Fly Fishing” was struggling at the $200 level when the auctioneer scowled at the audience and informed them that a fishing license costs more than the bid. He managed to get it to $250 and had to settle for that.
A Life’s Journey by Doug Mays went for a little less than the Estimated Market value – a fine piece of work.
Most of the final prices were considerably lower than the Estimated Market Value shown in the catalogue – which may have been deliberate. A total of eight pieces were withdrawn when the bids did not reach the minimum the artist had set. The price a piece is sold for determines the value the market places on a work – for budding artists there is a level they do not want to go below – if that isn’t reached they exercise their right to withdraw a piece.
For some artists, usually people who do not see themselves as full-time professionals will donate a piece to see just what value the market places on their work.
Frank Myers has a capacity to discover old buildings which he photographs – producing often evocative images. He did a tour of parts of Pennsylvania a number of years ago and came back with a very intriguing collection of pictures. His Turtle Rock photograph sold for more than the Estimated Market Value. William Warren, another NAME photographer, didn’t do quite as well with his Peace Lily Quintet
The surprise of the evening was Jodie Hart’s January Sunlight with Five Celementines, which went for more than $1000 over the Estimated Market Value. The buyer of this piece was very excited over her purchase; her friends can expect to be invited over for a private viewing.
Those who wanted to catch the auctioneer’s eye sat in the front rows, placing heir bid numbers on their seats.
Some local corporations buy a row of seats and use the occasion as a Staff appreciation event. One local architectural firm did this; they also bought a few pieces for their corporate collection. The delightful part of this was that one young couple bought their first piece of art. For those that understand how art enriches life – it is a pleasure to see young people buying something they like,
Was it a great auction? Watching an original Bateman go for less than $20,000 is disappointing, but it was a good auction for the Burlington Art Centre. It’s an annual event – something everyone should take in at least once in their life time.
The reception hall buzzed with a very healthy crowd. CIBC Wood Gundy has been the lead sponsor of this event since 1995 – that is more than commendable.
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By Ray Rivers
February 6, 2014
BURLINGTON,ON.
There is at least one academic study which claims that increasing the minimum wage would make poverty worse – but the authors note that the result is not statistically significant. And the study is so full-up of assumptions that changing any of them might flip the result. Nevertheless, those opposed to minimum wages hold this up as proof that minimum wages kill jobs and increase poverty, rather than reduce it.
A raise in the minimum wage of 75 cents an hour isn’t going to produce much – $30 a week at best.
Those who support increasing minimum wages disagree and produce their own studies to show a host of benefits. The President of the United States is apparently in that camp and so is Ontario’s Premier. Taking her cue from the Ontario Minimum Wage Advisory Panel, which she appointed last year, she has raised the provincial minimum wage and tied its future to the cost of living. And, she has credibility on her side, since the provincial Liberals’ poverty reduction strategy claims to have lifted almost 50,000 children out of poverty between 2008 and 2011.
Still, less than ten percent of Ontario’s labour force work for a minimum wage, about half a million workers. And not all those living below the poverty line are employed, so it will take more than raising minimum wages, if solving the poverty problem is our end goal. Raising the income and dignity of those whose only choice is to accept a low-paid job is an important outcome, however, for a government which cares about all residents and not just the well-off. However, eliminating poverty would require a more substantial initiative, including revamping our tax system and some leadership by the federal government.
In the 1970‘s both Canada and US ran pilot projects testing something called a ‘negative income tax’ or ‘guaranteed annual income (GAI)’. The idea was to ensure everyone received a livable income from their work, or would be matched with a government grant if they didn’t. Don’t be alarmed, this concept is somewhat comparable to the existing HST rebate, which goes to lower-income households. The Canadian pilot projects were aborted before the results could be fully evaluated, victims of unusually high unemployment rates, high budgetary deficits and newly elected Conservative governments eager to uproot socialism.
Some of the early results indicated that there would be only a modest impact on labour markets but significant changes to how people use their time – mothers doing more child care, greater family leisure time and enhanced educational activity. Demographics have changed considerably since the 70‘s so the results may not be very useful for implementation today, even were today’s conservatives willing to overlook their oft-recited Protestant creed – ‘the Lord helps them who help themselves’.
But not all conservatives are spooked by innovative approaches to eliminating poverty. Senator Hugh Segal is a proponent for GAI and argues that such a plan could be funded entirely from the resources being poured into the existing patchwork of poverty reduction programs. In addition, existing welfare programs perversely discourage recipients from looking for work, while GAI would encourage them to top-up their incomes by accepting low paid work – at least until better opportunities come available.
Hugh Segal has spent most of his working life as a Progressive Conservative in some capacity or other, including senior aide and chief of staff for Premier Bill Davis and PM Brian Mulroney, and seeking public office himself. He was appointed to the Senate by Liberal PM Paul Martin in a rare moment of non-partisanship, as if Martin was somehow anticipating Justin Trudeau’s recently articulated appointment policy.
But Senator Segal is very much a voice in the wilderness on this issue among the political movers and shakers. Though he may not be too far ahead of the general public, which recent polling shows is becoming interested in, and supportive of, the concept of a guaranteed annual income. Still no political leader seems to have made this a priority. In the meantime I guess we’ll have to settle for Premier Wynne’s inflation-proof minimum wage.
While on this topic I don’t understand why today’s wait-staff (liquor servers) get treated like something out of a Dickens novel. Their minimum wages are set conservatively at about a dollar less than that of other eligible workers, making them reliant on the archaic practice of begging for tips -‘To Insure Prompt Service’. In New Zealand, for example, tipping is infrequent and unexpected because the restaurants there pay their staff decent wages up-front. Even here, some restaurants slap on a mandatory service charge, which presumably goes to the wait-staff and avoids that annoying tipping.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the next time that attractive person waiting on your table flashes those big brown eyes, you know it’s because he, or she, is interested in something other than what’s in your wallet.
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. He developed the current policy process for the Ontario Liberal Party.
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