By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

This request Expressions of Interest in taking on a public art project was released a number of weeks ago.

The re posting of the notice suggests there may not have been that many responses.

The site for the public art is the Skyway Community Centre. Deadline: Friday March 10, 2023. Award: $120,000 CAD

The City of Burlington invites professional artists to submit Expressions of Interest to create an exterior public art installation for the plaza area of the new Skyway Community Centre (129 Kenwood Ave, Burlington, Ontario). This competition is open to all Canadian and International professional artists and/or artist-led teams.

The proposed artwork should act as a beacon to help guide visitors towards the main entrance of the building. Additionally, an important component of the Skyway Community Centre project is the environmentally responsible design of the facility. The Skyway Community Centre will include a low carbon design to align with the City’s goal of having a carbon neutral operation. Recognizing the severity of a changing climate, City Council declared a climate emergency in 2019 and a year later approved a Climate Action Plan with a target to become a net carbon zero community by 2050. This philosophy and focus on sustainability should be a primary focus for the public art, both in theme and materials / fabrication method chosen.

An artwork proposal is not requested at this time. This is a two-phase process: in Phase One, applicants will be reviewed on the basis of artistic merit of past work, professional qualifications and experience. In Phase Two, short-listed artists will be required to submit a preliminary artwork concept proposal that will be displayed for public comment and jury review. Artists selected for the short-list will be provided with a full Request for Proposals outlining detailed artwork specifications prior to developing their proposals. Short-listed artists will be paid an artist fee of $1500 to develop their proposals.

Talk to Kim Selman, Public Art Manager if you’re confused
Tel: 905-515-9334
Email: kim@cobaltconnects.ca

By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

When one door closes, even if firmly locked and barred, another one will open.

When I announced that the Gazette was going to cease publishing on January 31st there was no alternative – all available and foreseeable sources of funding, personal and otherwise, were gone.

I had no means to continue. The twelve years that I published were thrilling and coming to the conclusion that I was just not able to continue meant dealing with some depression.

Hours after the notice was published the comments section begin to fill with words of thanks, encouragement and offers to pay for a subscription to the Gazette.

The intention was always to have paid advertising cover the operating costs. I took the position that I had to grow the readership to the point where there was value for an advertiser. We were close to that point when Covid19 shut everything down.

We were working on an approach to publishing that held significant opportunity to both inform the public, grow the community and become financially sustainable. That fell apart on January 30 bringing me to the point where I had to throw in the towel.

Those who understood just how important this local news source was to them and to the community spoke up and said they would be there for us and how could they help ?

That has resulted in some short term funding that will get us through the next 90 days, giving us time to begin the advertising sales campaign and to put in place an application people can use to become “patrons” of the Gazette which will  provide us with small amounts that will, hopefully, cover the operating costs and allow us to bring on board someone who can do proof reading (there are many that will say Amen to that) as well as copy editing.

I will keep the readership fully informed. Thank you

By Pepper Parr

February 14th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It was the end of a very long day – they had put in close to 11 hours and had begun to get a little giddy.

We do not yet have numbers on what the impact will be on taxpayers.  The motion they passed will be debated at City Council today is shown below.

In commenting on just what they had done ward 6 Councillor Paul Sharman said:

So to the ladies and gentlemen who are paying attention to what we have just done. I’d like to make the point that we recognize this is a significant increase in taxes in comparison to what has happened in prior years.

It is not a list of what we have done, it is not irresponsible and it is not a mistake – we face serious circumstances that need to be taken care of. We have spent 40 years trying to reduce and control the impact of the cost of the city on community members. And the result of that is we have lower taxes than any other municipality in our vicinity. And we’ve been proud of that, and we’re still proud of it and we are still pretty darn low.

So I’m not too concerned that that we have failed the community by over taxing – we have done very well. If the cumulative effect has been that we didn’t spend enough money on some critical matters – we have in the past made decisions that cause us to be uncompetitive in the labour market within competing municipalities around us and we’re losing people that is not in the best interest of our community.

So we’re moving to correct that. We have had complaints as late as last week about potholes in our roads that we can’t fix for another two years. And you put that in the context of us having a $5 billion infrastructure expense that is not funded; that roads and buildings and vehicles face a funding gap to keep them in the state of good repair. We now have to try and catch up – we’ve been doing that now for about five years by putting money aside and realizing that has to be increased.

In addition to that we’ve had services like by law offices where we have not had even half the quantity of our nearest neighbour, Oakville. We have a third of the number of bylaw officers they have. We are taking initial steps to adjust that. We have to get more next year.

We have a fire station that we have built 10 years ago that we’ve never properly staffed. And now that is causing concern about potential risk.

We’re not too worried that it’s going to create an immediate impact. But we’re now moving to fill those jobs.

The story goes on and on and on. We had one more thing of course, which is inflation – high inflation, So put it all together. This city is creating itself for the long term good of the community. That is our goal to do the right thing for all of you. Thank you.

Ward 6 Councillor Angelo who had more Budget motions than any other member of Council, most of which failed, struggled through the day to fully understand the difference between the Capital Budget and the Operations Budget said:

All I want to say quickly is today was long day and I do agree that we do need to shore up staffing issues, etc. We’ve been discussing my 10 motions, which, with the exception of two, did not reduce any of these numbers that we’re talking about and we are simply looking at putting them on a 2024 budget.

I understand. We all have our different viewpoints, some of the things I felt we needed to defer to the 2024 budget, and then see where that falls in terms of inflation numbers, Maybe we could have massaged it to some degree.

Chair Lisa Kearns, who ran a tight meeting under some awkward situations at times thanked committee “for your incredible teamwork today. Your collaboration your respect your dialogue and your insight in carrying forward concerns around budgetary pressures as well as the desire of the residents that you represent.

She thanked the city manager, Joan Ford, CFO and staff for delivering to us with a steady hand budget under very difficult pressures. You have been excellent in doing all of the back work and that’s required to have the conversations that you allowed counsel to undertake today with a thorough review a very thick budget book, and very respectful dialogue in and through each of the different items that we discussed today.

I am complete as your budget chair. I think we have a lot to be proud of as a council and as a city.

I first wish to take the vote for the operating budget. The motion is on your screen. It should be available for the public to see as well. (It wasn’t) Looking for all those in favour, please. All opposed. Thank you that does carry.

Looking now to take the vote for the capital budget. It is there on your screen. All those in flavor please say aye. All those opposed?

Now I’d like to take a vote on the balance. All those in favour. All those opposed? Thank you.

This does carry the main motion as amended.

Joan Ford: “ You’ve taken a very long term look this year as part of your budget deliberations and I hope you continue that going forward.

City Manager Tim Commisso added: “I think the only person that hasn’t been thanked is Joan Ford, without her this doesn’t happen.

We will meet again on February 14th to pass the budget that was approved today.

The unfortunate part of the process that produced a budget recommendation that will be voted on at Council today is that the data was not made available.  Information that should have appeared on the screen didn’t appear on the screens.

what the financial impact will be to taxpayers was not made available.

We will see that information later today – but the public had a right to see it BEFORE it went to Council.

The rush to come up with a budget recommendation is disturbing.  Three days had been set aside to do the job properly. Council members chose to put in an eleven hour day.  That last two hours was not this Council at its best.

By Pepper Parr

February 12th, 2023

BURLINGTON. ON

 

Police need the public if they are to solve crimes. Every day the police get 911 calls reporting a driver who is weaving back and forth between lanes. It takes minutes to get a patrol car on the scene.

Media get all kinds of news tips – they get crank tips as well from people who have an axe to grind.

It was a call from a Lowville resident in 2013 about dump tricks that were muddying Appleby Line that resulted in our breaking the story about an attempt to build a much bigger airport in the Escarpment.

The Gazette writes a lot about the goings on at city hall. There are city staff that are not comfortable with the budget that is about to be passed.

We recently received a comment from a reader who used the name COBEmployee with an email address that proved to be valid.
If there are employees at city hall who think there is something we should know – create a phony email address and tell us what’s bothering you.

The City Communications department is in place the tell the city’s story the way they want it told.

Media has an honourable tradition of learning what is happening from people who think the truth is important.

The Mayor of Toronto resigned last week because media followed up on a piece of information that came their way.

We look forward to hearing from you – and to COB Employee – thanks.

COBEmployee is the name that was used.
COBEmployee@gmail.comwas the email that was used

The message: Pay is deposited automatically. Pay stubs, which are the details of the deposited pay, are mailed out.

We knew that – having it confirmed was useful.

By Pepper Parr

February 12th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Included as part of every Council agenda is a section called Consent items.

These pieces of information that Council is prepared to vote on with no debate. Any Council member can ask that an item be pulled from the Consent list and moved to the bottom of the day’s agenda where it gets debated.

Once the budget is voted on, that will take place on February 14th, (what a Valentine the tax payers are going to get) Council will begin debating the Strategic Plan, a document that sets out what the city wants to do over a 25 year period. Each term of Council (4 years) creates what is called a Vision to Focus

The Consent item was the Vision to Focus (VTF) Integrated Reporting update as of December 31 2020.

Members of Council can comment on a Consent item without actually debating it.

Chair asks: No need to pull it. If you would like an opportunity to have questions. Does anyone want to pull one of the consent agenda items ?
Chair continues:

Before I call the vote would anyone like to comment on an item I see that Councillor Sherman’s hand is up followed by Mayor Mead Ward.

Sharman: Thank you very much chair. Just wanted to comment on vision to focus. This is clearly a work in progress from last year that has to be updated for the new term. And so in my role was deputy mayor I had a conversation with Sheila Jones, Executive Director and staff to talk about that in the context of our whole planning process. Not fun not planning, but economic planning for the community.

And you know, we have this new fabulous financial planning regime that has moved us just lightyears ahead of everyone, although some people might not see it that way. And we have this 25 year strategic plan, that will be updated, which will happen later in the term.

We also have to make sure that we have an operating plan that aligns with the strategic plan and the priorities of counsel, which is the V2 F and in addition to that, we also have to make sure we do a financial analysis of the of the five year V2F. Now notice I’m saying five not four, which I will continue to say because of we need to cross over and make sure we’ve got the legacy. But what I’m getting at is that I had that conversation.

And now we have other deputy members with each with their own role responsibility. And of course they have to participate in that process too. So this is the beginning of a little journey as we update V2F. I’ll let Sheila Jones comment on the timeline for that, but you know, it’s coming.

Mayor Meed Ward asks: I don’t know if staff can comment if they have not been asked a question.

Chair says: No Paul.

Sharman responds: Sometimes our procedure by law doesn’t help us have good discussion and continues:

Mayor Meed Ward comments: Maybe I can channel a bit of Sheila in my comments. I did have about 20 questions on this report. None of which you will be relieved to hear I will be asking today.

I have asked those in writing of staff but as I got through the list what it occurred to me is exactly what Paul has said, we need to refresh. We’re doing vision to focus on a document that focused on 2018 to 2022 – it’s out of date. It’s last term, we need to look at this again with fresh eyes and fresh priorities and a number of the questions just because I’m sure you’re all curious. Were around things that were listed as not yet started not identified as a priority of council things that I know that are priority.

Zoning Bylaw review, digital submissions, prosperity corridor review, congestion, management, planning, and greenhouse gas emissions. The list goes on. There are many of them and when I saw, you know not identified as a priority, I thought well hang on. I think we actually have identified many of those things already through some of the reports that we’ve done, as being of great interest. And so bringing all the bringing all the threads together is really important.

So then my questions to Sheila Jones the other day was, you know, when are we going to have that opportunity as a council, because that’s the best forum is to bring all of council together to do a refresh of this reset our priorities and then set the stage for this term of Council. And if I can find my notes, I think it’s coming in March for everyone. So in March, we will have that opportunity.

I really look forward to that and also as I was reading through the list of initiatives it became quite clear what Councillor Sherman also said, which was there are many initiatives there that can now be attached to a deputy mayor portfolio, the recreation portfolio, the housing portfolio and the red tape, red carpet, portfolio. So as we continue to evolve the deputy mayor portfolios to link those initiatives to really a work plan for the deputy mayors with support is really critically important. So all in good hands and I’ve just saved you 20 minutes 2020 questions on the floor this morning and we can move right along.

Chair: Thank you very much, mayor. I too am excited about the updates. We will see division and focus. We always knew this was a living breathing document and that priorities change, and if we were to take our re-elected hats off and put on different hats – we are definitely a brand new council that wants to quickly undertaking this exercise once again to bring the reflective priorities from our constituents into this business plan, which will of course inform those future job evaluations and our metrics, and that will be an exciting time for everyone.

With these comments I will now look to committee for a vote please All in favour. Anyone opposed?

The item was approved as a Consent item.

Interesting conversation. We get an early look at what Council members want to do as Deputy Mayors – tasks that in the past were done by the city administration.

This just might prove to be a defining point in how this Council wants to run the city.

Stand By

By Pepper Parr

February 10th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It took well over an hour of debate – but in the end the Motion from ward 6 Counsellor Angelo Bentivegna did not pass – he wanted to cut a $4.7 million allocation down to $3.7 million that was going to be used to improve the salaries of the employees the city did not want to lose.

In the past, during budget deliberations, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward had all kinds of ideas for cutting the budget; she made it a badge of honour. The only budget item she had this year was an increase in the number of staff in her office. We cover that in a separate article.

“All I’m asking is to spend $3.7 million, see where we’re at in spending that amount and then decide what to do.

“There are so many parts – part time, full time, vacancies to fill

“I want to be clear. I am good with that. My motion has to do with reducing the $4.7 million to $3.7 million.

“We have another budget coming in 2024, in less than 10 months.” He wanted council to see “where we’re are at in spending; how much of that has been spent. “I’d like to see the results of that. That’s where I’m at.”

Councillor Sharman didn’t see it quite that way. “I’m sorry” he said, “I can’t support this. We need to spend it. I will not have anything more to say.”

Councillor Stolty wasn’t as certain as Sharman saying “I’m intrigued by this conversation. That’s certainly one that I also had with our finance department. My concern being that we’re already into February and it is unlikely that we are going to actually spend the $4.7  I really don’t believe we’re going to be able to use the $4.7 million this year. I’d like to think that we could but I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere close to that in a real world. We’ve certainly heard a lot of conversations about the challenges about attracting and filling positions.

“I actually don’t have any issue with this I had proposed the thought of deferring some of the funding into a dedicated human resource reserve fund, but I certainly understand the challenges about not funding positions fully in a year. So I’m going to support this. I think it’s more reasonable approached given the fact that we are already going to be you know 25% of the way into 2023 by the time we get through these deliberations. I do want to know that that funding is available in 2024 if it’s needed because in an ideal world we will we will need it but I will be supportive at this point.”

Mayor Meed Ward said: Staff did do a detailed review of the positions that we have based on extensive performance evaluations, every staff member did their own evaluation of their role, looked at the rating and the ranking and then the competitive market that took about a year or more to generate that and come up with this amount. I am wondering why; do you have any additional research ?

Great question replied Bentivegna. “Our job is to make decisions. And that’s what I’m doing here.”

Meed Ward adds “I you know, we have been presented very serious concerns from staff. Two budgets ago, we added funding for planning staff, and they’ve not been able to fill or keep those positions.

“So if there’s a view that $4.7 million is the right amount, I’m satisfied that staff have done their work.

“We already know next year is going to be a difficult budget. Much like this one. So I’m not going to support the reduction. I understand fully that we may not get all the staff in place. Any surplus at the end of the year can be used to add funds to the tax rate stabilization funds. The Tax Stabilization fund is where any surplus amounts are placed – it becomes an account that can be drawn upon for unseen expenses – frequently referred to as the Councillors “piggy bank”.

Councillor Galbraith had a comment. “This is the largest budget item and it did need to be looked at but I can’t support it.

“I believe he’s (Bentivegna) just throwing a dart at the million dollars. If there’s no real justification for that amount; adding we did all support this at committee. We saw the data; it takes some 23 years to get to the top end of the compensation scale, we know that in neighbouring communities is five to eight years.

“This labour market is different. We are in a different time period where culture doesn’t really matter anymore. It’s a virtual world and unless we’re competitive with our compensation, we are going to lose staff. The backbone of this organization is our staff. If things aren’t getting done on time and our office is bombarded by complaints and concerns, it’s because we are not compensating our staff or we don’t have the staff or we can’t attract the staff; there’s really no way around it. I don’t like it any more than anybody else. It’s the marketplace that has determined this and unless we are competitive we are going to lose people.”

Chair Kearns turned to Laura Boyd, Executive Director of HR asking: “Is HR entirely confident in this number? Would you like to make any changes to it and can you provide clarity that this funding is to retain the existing HR complement and that the budget amount does not provide any additional enhanced services ?”

Boyd replies: “Yes, the confidence we have in the numbers is based on the modelling we did based on actual salaries and on performance merit reviews for 2023. May it change between now and when we implement in July. Absolutely. But this is our best estimate. And as you know we have a second request next year to further implement a performance based compensation program. This is step one of a two-step process. This is this is based on our current compliment and doesn’t include any of the added positions that counsel may be considering as part of this year’s budget

Kearns added: “I don’t like this number more than anyone else likes it. But at the same time if we do not invest appropriately in our absolute number one asset we will we will fail and we will continue to fail. You have often heard me talk in this council chamber about root cause corrective action. If we’re not getting the level of service, we’re not getting the targets that we’re asking for and we’re not getting the caliber of employee that we know will deliver service excellence, then this is how we correct it. I don’t see any evidence to the contrary that indicates a change in course would deliver the same result.

“So this is a confident number that has been put forward with great investigation and review and data driven analysis.  The only wish I would put forward was I wish we had the job reviews done sooner, but you’ll know that I have asked for that along with a lot of times in a gentle way. I want those job reviews done and this is going to help. It is tempting to take out a million dollars out of the budget in this year.

Councillor Sharman asking a follow up: “I think the conversation we’ve had here has been really great. The tension that the Counsellor created by putting forward the motion truthfully. You know, when it comes to accountability, we’ve done our best in prior councils to try to keep tax rates low. That includes in 2010 2011 budget, capping of headcount and elimination of automatic CPI increases; we were paying salary increases well above the market at that time.

“And it was done and it was justified – then it got held on to for too long. We didn’t then address it because we continued to be listening and saying yes, we’ve got to keep cost down. And I would say we’ve been doing that for probably three or four decades to the point that has now accumulated.

“The other thing I can also say is that what led us to the situation with staffing to a large degree. The other the other thing that I would own up to is that, you know, in the last few budgets, I have created the notion of differing gapping benefits as a result of getting staff to say well, when will we hire there? How much will I gapping not be utilized and therefore added into the knot therefore added into our reserve fund.

“And the outcome is we’re taking I think is a $3 million hit this year and this year’s tax increase that I frankly, I have to now say enough is enough.

“I put this in the context that we have got some discipline in this budgeting process that I’ve never seen before. And I say that with the greatest respect to all the work that has been done by finance people, but it was in the context of understanding we have changed our budget system to look out into the future. To eliminate the June kind of politically oriented let’s set a tax rate. And then staff work their guts out to try to meet that number, whether it’s a good number or not.

“What we’ve done here is we’ve taken a responsible approach looking after the needs of the city for the long term, and that is the beginning of a process that that I personally believe is vital and timely. And I will stand behind the choices staff have made right now in the recommendations they’ve made. And in the event that there’s some gapping – it’ll get put into reserves. We had a $1.4 million draw on reserves last year because the budget was out of balance – that cannot be repeated. So I I appreciate the thought. But we’re not thinking that way anymore.

“I do have a question to Laura. I’m just seeking some clarity. So I understand that this is for existing positions and making them relevant and competitive as far as the outside market goes to make sure that we’re attracting and retaining, particularly retraining, our good staff. Last year, I believe it was if not the year before, but I think it was last year we approved in the budget a position to look at that market competitiveness and job evaluation. How far along are we in that process?”

Laura Boyd, responds: “The numbers that you see in front of you is part of our job evaluation process on market competitiveness. The job evaluation process that has resulted in this budget ask has two pieces to it. One is internal equity; job evaluation looking at all the positions with everyone completing a job information questionnaire.

Points were then assigned and then positions are grouped into like pay bands, that is the internal focus of job evaluation.

“The external focus is a market competitiveness which was done as part of this process. Gallagher, the consulting firm we are using looked at the council approved comparators and then commented where the pay bands should rest. And then from their human resource staff, including our manager of total compensation, they modelled how do we move staff from the current ranges to the new ranges. So that’s what the number you see in front of you today is paying for.”

Bentivegna adds: “Yes, we do need to move forward. In 2024 we’re going to go through this again; we already have a 7% simulated budget for 2024. Keep in mind that 2025 simulated budget is less, 2026 simulated budget is even less.

“I think I heard the word discipline earlier. I want to see us become a little bit more consistent in budget time saying okay, we know we need this, whether we need it today whether we need it tomorrow or two, three years from now, and as long as we’re still here to plan for this. When it comes to HR competitiveness, there is more to come. We need to prioritize. That’s what I’m looking at and asking is: are we going to tackle this forever?

“I want to be able to spread that those numbers over several years.”

Kearns announces that she doesn’t see anything else on the board which means we will now move to the vote on this item. Budget motion number two, reduce the funding in the 2023 budget. From 4.7 to 3.7.

“All those in favour ?

The motion does not carry at this time.”

By Pepper Parr

February 10th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

When LeBron James set that astonishing basket ball record earlier this week we turned to Ron Foxcroft who knows the game well – he has been at it since his high school days when he worked high school basketball in 1963 in Burlington and Hamilton

He progressed to Canadian College then FIBA doing International basketball including the 1976 Gold Medal Olympic Game between USA and Yugoslavia.

He was the first Canadian to work Division 1 in the NCAA in 1977 until 2000. Worked the Sweet 16 in 1999.

Foxcroft is currently working his 21st season with the NBA, first as an officials observer and currently as the replay and coaches challenge at the score table.

Foxcroft said he “Love it today, as much as the first time I took up officiating.

“It was difficult back in 1963 officiating with a Pea Whistle, but got better when I started using the world famous Fox 40 Pealess Whistle in 1987

Today he looks at the LeBron James record and is grateful for the opportunity to have played a role in a sport that has grown and is going to continue to grow.  I watched that game on TV and like everyone else I was watching a champion set another record.  And it isn’t over yet.”

 

By Pepper Parr

February 8th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Council was debating the problems and costs related to the Information Technology (IT) the city uses.

Chad MacDonald the top dog in that world was explaining where the problems existed and what it was going to take to solve the problems – it amounted to time and money.

Lisa Kearns, who was serving as Chair of the Workshop that was discussing the budget, made some comments that gave the public a look at how she uses IT – Kearns, the person with the best brain on this city council is known for some real zingers. At times you never know where she is going to go or where she is coming from.

Her latest interest is AI – Artificial Intelligence and seems to want the city Communications department to use the technology.

Kearns said: “ We don’t have the visibility for bolding AI. My office recently undertook an AI initiative and I’ve been able to bump out speeches that are 700 words in the matter of about 90 seconds.

“I type in about five words, how many paragraphs I want, and the length and it scours the web and bumps out fresh content non plagiarized.

“I’m able to do social media posts within 30 seconds, and they are about 350 words. That’s amazing. And that’s just at the very basic level.”

She actually said that. Truly amazing – astonishing actually

The Councillor doesn’t think about it; doesn’t appear to do a first draft and massage that draft to ensure that she is “communicating” with the people who elected.

Nope – she just bumps it out.

Ya gotta love these people.

Kearns went on to say: “I can’t even tell you on my examination of the number of different broken pieces of IT infrastructure they’re not talking to each other and they’re falling apart.”

There is more than Information Technology that is broken.

By Staff

February 8th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The province has a Financial Accountability Office (FAO) which recently reported that the Ford government will withhold nearly $20 billion in promised spending by 2024/2025.

The NDP Finance critic said: “This FAO report reveals that Ford is on track to leave almost $20 billion on the table, deliberately under-spending on health care, education, and justice – services that are vital to Ontarians.

“I am extremely concerned that Ford is taking money from health care and education and putting it in ‘contingency funds’ that are unallocated and not transparent. Ontarians deserve to know how their tax dollars are being spent, and the Ford government should be investing in the services that people need, not stockpiling funds with no purpose.

“Budgets are about priorities. This report makes it crystal clear that Ford is not prioritizing the well-being of Ontarians.

“We have been travelling around the province with the pre-budget committee, listening to delegations from organizations that desperately need funding for health care, education, and mental health supports. They are coming to us in good faith, and their concerns are not being heard.

“We need our government to listen to the people of Ontario and commit to spending the money they have on the services we need – not hiding it away.”

Marit Stiles, who now sits in the Legislature as leader of the New Democrats, will be doing some door to door campaigning in Hamilton today.

 

By Staff

February 7th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

The Gazette uses a number of security applications to protect the contents of the newspaper.  One of the service providers sent this along.  It is essential that people understand the need to protect what gets done with a computer or a cell phone.  These are simple steps suitable for a five years old.  Get them started on security early – it is not going to get safer any time soon

Fostering habits for some simple yet good cybersecurity and privacy best practices early on can go a long way.

1. Lock the device.

When it’s time to put away the phone or tablet so your child can do something else like going to the park, remind them to lock it. They can do this by pressing the power button of the device. Of course, this only works if you have Lock Screen enabled on the device.

If your child is 5 years old and up, you can explain to them that locking the phone or tablet stops other people from using it without asking permission.

2. Use passwords.

Of course, in order to lock a device’s screen, a password is needed in this case. Not going for a pattern lock is deliberate. At this stage, we’re not only seeding the idea of creating strong passwords but also making locking devices the norm (From 2016 to 2018, a reported 28 percent of Americans surveyed failed to use any safeguards to lock their phones).

Don’t be too concerned about length yet, but if you can get your little one to spell out and remember a six to eight-character string—ideally, a word—you’re both golden. We started our little one with a three-letter password to open her tablet when she was four, and we plan to triple that length now that she’s two years older.

3. Keep the device in a safe place.

Instruct your little one to put away the phone or tablet after they lock it. Make sure you already have a designated place in the house that your child knows about. Also, check that this place is accessible, and if it has doors, they can easily open and close them with minimal effort and supervision.

Under a pillow on the master’s bed works, too (just don’t forget to remove it before bedtime).

4. Ask for permission.

Your five-year-old may have access to either the Google Play or Apple App stores via the device you’re letting them use. Whether you have parental controls set up for these stores or not, wouldn’t it be great to hear them ask: “Is this okay to download, mum?” This gives you, the parent or guardian, the opportunity to review the app to see if it’s any good for them (Remember, dubious apps can still end up in these stores.).

The same principle should apply when they’re watching videos on YouTube.

Every now and again, we see or read about cute or cartoony clips that are not actually for kids’ consumption. And believe it or not, some of them were purposefully made to appear inviting to young children. To be safe, a critical eye is needed because, sometimes, even YouTube’s AI can get it wrong.

5. Share only with relatives and close family friends.

Kiddo loves having her picture taken. Sometimes, she would ask me to take a snap and send it to her Nana, who is part of an Instagram group.

Thankfully, only family members—and those close to us who’re treated as family—are members of that group. We would’ve been reluctant to share otherwise.

Kiddo doesn’t have a single social media account, but we’re already instilling in her the value of information related to her and, consequently, us. She knows our home address, for example, and she also knows she should only share it with a policeman or policewoman if she’s lost.

Final thoughts

The computing devices and apps your little one uses are already impacting them in more ways than one. It’s essential to steer them in the right direction by getting ourselves involved in their digital lives as early as possible. There is plenty of room for growth.

So, parents and guardians, be patient. Repeat these points and expand on them. And, if you’re lucky, be thankful that before your child starts school, they already have some of the cybersecurity and privacy basics down.