 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 25, 2012 Halton Region residents looking for work or employers looking to fill positions now have access to a “personalized” service. It is a significant time saver for employers.
The service for employers includes personalized services such as: screening and matching services to help employers select the best qualified candidate; reference checking and education verification service; training incentive programs to off-set the cost of training and hourly wages; access to the Haltonjobs.ca job board; the Employment Halton LinkedIn group where employers can network together regarding hiring needs and access to annual job fairs. All the services are free.
If you are looking for a job the Region has an accessible employment resource centre complete with one-on-one support to help people searching for a job, help explore career options, and access programs and funding for apprenticeship and career development programs. The only thing they don’t do is send a cab to pick you up. All services are free.
Funding for the Employment Halton office has been provided by the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.
In 2011, there were 8000 visits to the Employment Halton office and over 190 employers in Halton received services from Employment Halton staff. The service exceeded Ministry targets for the number of clients and employers served and the number of clients that obtained jobs. Anyone who is searching for a job or interested in training for a new career can visit the Employment Halton office in Bronte Village Mall (2441 Lakeshore Road West – Bronte Village Mall) in Oakville
Job creation is a top priority for every level of government and they don’t want to leave very much to chance. “The government believes people are our best resource the province has and programs like these help them to continue to contribute,” said Glen Murray, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.
To learn more about Employment Halton visit our office in Bronte Village Mall, call us by dialing 311 or 905-825-6000, toll free: 1-866-442-5866, TTY 905-827-9833 or visit www.halton.ca/employmenthalton or www.haltonjobs.ca.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 25, 2012 A Woodland Avenue resident, returning to her home at 4:45 in the afternoon on January 23rd interrupted a break and enter in progress.
Two suspects had pried open a back door to gain entry into the house. When the suspects were alerted to the resident’s presence, they fled on foot through neighbouring backyards.
Police were dispatched to the area. Alert neighbours saw the fleeing suspects and managed to capture and detain one of them for police.
Police also seized a vehicle that had been left behind by the suspects, parked in the victim’s driveway.
Police are still seeking a second male suspect, described as 6’1”, olive complexion, with a tattoo on his neck and wearing a black coat at the time of the break-in. Two female suspects are also being sought that were seen exiting the suspect vehicle and fleeing on foot.
James Mann, 19 of Hamilton, is charged with Break and Enter, Obstructing Police. He is being held pending a bail hearing.
 Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 x2315, Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS(8477), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637(crimes).
This is the second reported break in the community in as many weeks. Hopefully Judges in Milton handling these cases will send a message to not only the criminal element via the stiff sentences they impose but to the community as well. A statement from the bench is perhaps called for.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 17, 2010 – This time last year Council member Paul Sharman was savaging senior city staff over the data they had provided council and the budget recommendations they had made. This year Sharman was blowing kisses to Joan Ford, Acting city treasurer. How things do change.
Has Sharman learned to see things through the lens of a civic council member rather than his private sector corporate lens? Or has the city`s Executive Budget Committee learned something from the 2011 budget exercise? Whichever, the projections for the 2012 budget look pretty decent at this early stage but as Councillor rick Craven pointed out, “the comments in the staff report – “There are insufficient financial and human resources to support all existing services, add resources to respond to community growth…” Craven, who runs a very tight committee meeting made the point that “we are not funding infrastructure needs adequately either. “We are setting aside half a percentage point of the budget when we need a full 1%. to get our roads where they need to be.”
The city budget team is projecting a tax increase of 3.444%. They were directed to come back with a budget for 2012 that was between 2% and 3.5%
There isn’t going to be very much that is new in this budget – the exercise is going to be to move as much money as possible into infrastructure and ensure that we have the funds the hospital has asked the city to contribute for the rebuild of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital.
Councillor Dennison pointed out that the hospital is still working at drawings for the parking garage and that they have no sought any building permits or prepared for a site plan review. The Memorandum of Understanding between the hospital and the city is not yet signed but Acting City Manager Kim Phillips believes construction on the garage will get started this year and the city seems prepared to write the cheque for the first $7.5 million.
 Lots of kudos for Ford on her draft budget - will everyone be as happy when it comes down to the final determination? Acting treasurer Ford gave a Council committee an overview of what the budget recommendations were. Mention of service cutbacks and the elimination of underused facilities was frequent. But at this point no one has detailed which services might be cut back and there wasn’t any mention from Council members as to which facilities were underused in their wards.
All Boards and commissions were asked t keep their increase requests to below 2%, which for most is close to impossible. Lots of haggling to be done yet.
 Festival looking for an 80% city funding increase. The surprise for many this morning was the close to last minute request from the Sound of Music festival for a close to 80% increase in the funding they get from the city. They are asking that the city increase the $52,000 they are currently contributing to $86,000 – which as Councillor Lancaster pointed out is an 80% increase.
It was going to take more than a “spoonful of sugar” to make that medicine go down. Sound of Music Executive Director Dave Miller had a presentation with lots of pictures and data but the state of the electronics in the Council Chamber are in a pretty sad state of disrepair and he was unable to share his power point presentation with the people in the public gallery.
If the Sound of Music Festival is going to get the increase they want – there is going to have to be a significant change in attitude on the part of this Council.
Miller was asked by Councillor Taylor if the Festival had written a letter asking for the increase. Apparently they had not.
More on the Sound of Music story in a report to follow and much more once we’ve had a chance to look at the draft budget.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 17, 2012 It was a cold Canadian winter night with everyone in a home on Cherry Hill Crescent snuggled under their covers. The sound of breaking glass at 3:30 am was not expected – and brought the residents of the house to their feet.
 The police canine unit was brought in to track down suspects that had begun to break into a Cherry Cr home. Suspects had attempted to enter the home by smashing a rear sliding glass door, but were scared off by the occupants who witnessed two males running from the area.
Police conducted an extensive search of the area, including the use of a canine unit, but were unable to locate those responsible.
Tips related to Home and Business security can be found at www.haltonpolice.ca under the ‘Community Policing’ tab.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the Burlington Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905 825-4747 x2315, Crime Stoppers at 1 800 22-TIPS(8477), through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637(crimes).
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 17, 2012 – It is difficult to see any relationship whatsoever between chocolate and the Ireland House at the Oakridge Farm – but who cares? They are putting on a chocolate making event – which is a half day long taking place on Sunday, February 12 at Ireland House from noon to 3:00 pm.
 Yummy, yummyy - choclate making event. Book early. It is just chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate – and oh yes, a little bit of history thrown in to keep it legit. For the chocolate lover – and that would be most of us – this is an event to make time for.
Space is limited – 40 people max, so if you want to take in this event call Ireland House and reserve your space. Tickets are $30. each – take the Missus and you get two tickets for $50.
The program is delivered by Chocolate Tales, a group that market this niche offering where owner David Levy bring his mobile chocolate-making service to workshops about the art of chocolatiering. They use only use certified nut-free Belgium chocolate.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 16, 2012 There is a group of people, less than twenty, who gather in a city workshop and plan for the lighted display that appears every year during the holidays in Spencer Smith Park. They give of their time and pick up a significant part of the costs to build and later maintain the lighted displays that are a delight for the rest of us to enjoy each year.
Somewhere in the city there are a couple of punks who thought it was a huge lark to slip into the park at night and dismantle the display of a small herd of deer.
The replacement value for the six foot, steel framed, lighted display, hand made by the Festival of Lights Committee that have been doing this for more than 15 years, is approximately $2,500.
In a basement or perhaps a garage somewhere – the punks that stole the display are chuckling away. They are not likely to grow into the kind of young men that grow up to volunteer in their community.
 Lynne Snider is one of some 20 volunteers who create, build and then install the displays that dot Spender Smith Park during the annual Festival of Lights. They might want to think about helping put up the 12,000 feet of tube lighting that is used for the Festival that lasts 40 days and pulls an average of 600 people into Spencer Smith Park during the event.
The official opening of the Festival of Lights features a march in by the Burlington Teen Tour Band who, would you believe this, devour more than 960 pieces of pizza during the chow down they get after the opening.
The loss of this particular display is disheartening and disappointing for the Festival Committee who in 2012 face some significant financial hurdles. The Burlington Downtown Business Association has decided they are not able to continue funding the Festival with their $5000. Contribution. The BDBA found that the traffic to Spencer Smith Park just didn’t work its way up Brant Street.
Oddly enough, the city isn’t involved in this significant event. It doesn’t have a staff member on the Festival Committee. Michele Allan, chair of the Festival Committee is confident that a new source of funding will come through for them. If you’ve any funding ideas – pop a note along to her at: burlingtonfol@yahoo.ca
Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com or by texting “Tip201” with your message to 274637 (crimes).
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 16, 2012 Literally thousands of Burlingtonians log into Our Burlington – and that pleases us. The analytical reports we get tell us how many people visited the web site and how many were first time visitors. We learn how long people stay on the web site and how many pages they look at. What we don’t know is who you are – and that is as it should be..
Today, we wish we knew if teachers at our high schools were reading us – because there is an event taking place later this month that we would really like every high school teacher with young women in their classes to know about.
The A Different Drummer Bookstore is bringing Michelle Landsberg to the city. This woman is a must for every women getting an education. Who is Michelle Landsberg and why would you want to listen to her?
We could fill pages telling you about her. Michelle is a Mother, a community activist, a book reviewer, a writer for the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and the Toronto Star, appearing over more than forty years, Michele Landsberg has engaged with and exposed the injustices borne by women, seen in infamous events and present in the mechanisms of our society.
 Always the advocate - Michelle Landsberg take up the microphone and the pen - and brings aboiut change.. A speaker not to be missed. Many of gains made by women and for women came about because Michelle Landsberg was there, fighting the good fight. You may not want to be out there burning your bra – but you do want to hear what Michelle has to say. This woman isn’t a strident feminist but she is feminist advocate of exceptional courage, widely recognized and celebrated for the light she casts on the most troubling of iniquities.
Michelle will be talking about her latest book, Writing the Revolution. In her Toronto Star columns she continually broke new ground, ably and frankly delineating the social and legal status of women, with her cogent commentary from today’s perspective. She also has one heck of a sense of humour.
Michele Landsberg presents and discusses Writing the Revolution on Monday, January 23, at 7pm, in the Centennial Room at Burlington Central Library. Tickets are $10, available at the Third Floor Information Desk at the Library, and here at A Different Drummer Books.
To reserve tickets, please contact us at (905) 639 0925 or diffdrum@mac.com.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 15, 2012 It was the first of five public meetings – and we hope that the other four are better than the first. Take out the politicians who were in the room and then the media and there was a total of five people who could be described as “the public” interested in a Citizen’s Engagement Charter. Most of the public didn’t have a clue as to what an engagement charter is or why we need one.
However, Christine Iamonaco is an experienced community development agent and a low turnout early in the game does not slow down people who do what she does. Building community and developing the processes that involve the public takes time and patience. Iamonaco, who is with the city on a two year contract to develop an engagement charter as well as handle public involvement in the 2012 budget and the early ground work for the Official Plan review, held her first community meeting at the Aldershot Arena.
Iamonaco’s first taste of the Burlington “public” was at the Heritage Workshop back in November when the Mainway Arena had more than 100 ‘unhappy’ campers on hand. To go from 100 + to five people takes an ability to shift gears that only a politician can handle.
 The first public meeting for the Public Involvement Coordinator, Christine Iamonaco was a bit of a head scatcher - a low turnout will do that to you. Brave soul that Iamonaco is, she plugged on and explained what the Citizen Engagement Charter is all about and how she thinks it will get put together in Burlington. There will be five phases to the process and, she hopes, three different levels of public participation.
The “drivers” for the work Christine Iamonaco is doing comes from the Strategic Plan and the Shape Burlington report that came out in 2010 which said the “public wants meaningful participation in municipal government”.
Phase 1 is complete and consisted of putting together the development plan Iamonaco intends to follow. The time was also used to think through what some of the implementation procedures would be.
Phase 2, which will run through to March , will have Iamonaco out in the field meeting with various community stakeholders, holding charter information sessions and developing the three different teams she needs.
Phase 3: March through to August are for the actual development of the Charter – which assumes the teams come together, are in place and functioning. Included in this phase is the first crack at a Charter Implementation Plan.
 Citizens will show up for a meeting if you make it interesting enough and promote it effectively. This crowd was going through the city budget. Iamonaco is hoping to recruit three teams of people to work with her. The most important of the three is what she calls her Charter Team – these are the people who will think through what kind of a charter the city needs and then actually write the document. Iamonaco explains that her role is not to write anything but to guide the community and let them dip into her more than twenty years of community development experience.
Whatever that group writes has to go before the Budget and Corporate Services committee where it will get a royal going over by the members of Council. We will come back to that.
The second community group Iamonaco hopes gets formed will be virtual, by which she means they will meet on line and exchange notes with each other and comment on the progress overall.
The third group will be made up of people who get email that updates them on what has been done and what is planned. Iamonaco refers to all three groups as “fluid” – by which she means people can, if they choose, move from group to group.
 Are Senior citizens going to play a role in the development of a Community Engagement Charter or will it be left to the younger crowd?  Iamonaco, Burlington's Public Involvement Coordinator, organizes her schedule and plots out what she wants to get done. If she can get the public to show up to the meetings - we just might see a Community engagement Charter. Iamonaco explains that each of these communities will “self organize”; it will be up to them to determine when they should meet and what they want to do during their meetings. This is truly grass roots organizing.
Phase 4 of the process is expected to begin the fall and be the period of time when the final community review gets done and the report is presented to the Budget and Corporate Services Committee and, assuming it makes it through the Committee, it will get passed by Council and become the law of the land.
While the Cam Jackson Council passed the Shape report and the current Council approved the hiring of the Public Involvement Coordinator (PIC) – don’t let yourself think this Council is happy with even having a PIC. While they won’t come right out and say so – not one of them wants a city hall staffer out in their ward messing around with what is happening in their communities. If there is a community interest or concern – Council members want the concerns to come to their offices and not to a staffer that reports to one of the General Managers. If you have an issue and you don’t get along with your Council member – you’re out of luck. Just ask Tom Muir.
Phase 5, which is to have a life that begins in October of 2012 and ends in September of 2013, which is when Iamonaco’s contract ends. During this phase the Engagement Charter Implementation Committee is formed and made operational. Once that Committee has been created they then implement the Charter and monitor community involvement initiatives. Finally they are in place to refine the charter.
The difficulty with the turn out at the Aldershot Arena, which was low, is this. Can the Public Involvement Coordinator entice the public to come out and learn more about the process and involve them in the development of a Charter.
And where in all this is Shaping Burlington? Would one not expect them to make at least an effort to get people out to these meetings? There was no “official” Shaping Burlington people other than former Mayor Walter Mulkewich who serves as an advisor to the group and was of course co-chair of the founding report.
It is too early to get a clear sense of where this initiative is going to go. The first reach out to the community will have to improve if the city is to see something substantive come out of all this.
 Will this Council really approve a document that has the community calling some of the shots at city hall? There will be a document at some point in the process that will have to be taken to the Budget and Corporate Services Committee for discussion and debate. It’s going to be hard to convince council that there is a strong community based desire for an Engagement Charter unless the turnout gets better than what we saw in Aldershot last week. Did the Ward council member get a notice out to the people on their mailing list about the event and urge them to attend? If they did – those mailing lists need a review. If there is ever going to be a Community engagement Charter in Burlington, the Shaping Burlington folks are going to have to get out and beat some drums.
Back in 2010 when the Shape Burlington report was released the then city Council unanimously approved the document. When the new Council set up shop in 2011 they chose to implement some of the Shape recommendations and moved immediately to create a Strategic Plan; one of the key Shape recommendations.
The Strategic Plan calls for a Citizen’s Engagement Charter – so we have two documents calling for a charter – but there isn’t yet a tidal wave of public interest. These things do take time – so let us not throw our arms up in despair – not yet. So, let us do a better job of getting the word out to the community.
Interested? Christine Iamonaco is certainly interested in hearing from you.
Meeting dates.
Tuesday, January 17, 7 to 8 p.m., Mainway Recreation Centre, Auditorium, 4015 Mainway
Thursday, January 19, 7 – 8 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street Council Chambers (this session will be recorded for webcasting)
Thursday, January 19, 2 to 3 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Room 247
Thursday, January 26, 7 to 8 p.m.; Brant Hills Community Centre and Public Library, Nelson Room
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 13, 2010 There is a little progress every day – and the unseasonably warm weather the last few weeks has allowed Graham Infrastructure of Mississauga to get much more work done than originally expected.
 Lot of fog when this picture was taken - but if you look closely - all the beams that were atop the caissons on the left of the Pier are no longer there.. The trestle, used by construction equipment, is on the right side. While it was foggy the day we took some of the pictures set out below it is quite clear now that all the beams put in place by Harm Schilthuis and Sons Ltd. of Ancaster, before they walked off the job in December of 2009, have now been removed. With colder weather setting in there won’t be much that can get done with a slippery, icy surface out there on the Pier.
 This photograph, taken before the "faulty steel was taken out, shows just how much work had been done on the Pier. New steel will be put in place in the spring. Fabricating of the new beams is believed to be underway. If there is an early spring we just might see new beams being stalled which will signal that the building of the Pier is real and that we are at least heading into the home stretch.
Where does all that steal go? Well it won’t get made into razor blades quite yet – there are more than a handful of lawyers who want to take a close, almost microscopic look at those beams because a large part of the several lawsuits that are floating around rest on the quality and make up of those steel beams.
And, by the way, whose property are they?
Harm Schilthuis and Sons Ltd. is in the process of trying to clarify in the mind of the public, some of the issues related to the role they played in the building that took place during what the city engineering people now call phase one the Pier project . Phase two is the “new” day with the city believing that they have a solid new contractor in place and all the technical support they didn’t have during phase one.
No word from the city’s legal department as to where things are with the civil trial. All we hear from them is that they aren’t going to say a word about how much they’ve spent on lawyer’s fees to date. Were they to do that the spotlight would certainly shift from the folks in engineering to the folks in the legal department. It is going to be an ‘ouch’ of a legal bill.
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 11th, 2012
It was a great day in Burlington history and perhaps the brightest day in the life of Marvelous Mike Wallace; the Prime Minister had come to town and as Wallace tells it – “I spent four hours with the Prime Minister”. Mike wore a smile for the next month.
 It was a big day for Burlington MP Mike Wallace. The Prime Minister was in town and Wallace made sure everyone who wanted their picture taken with the PM got that chance. Expect those pictures in future campaign literature. The obvious question we had for Wallace was: how did you get the PM to come to Burlington Mike? Every MP wants the PM to visit their riding. The rules of the game are the MP puts together an outline and makes the case for the PM to visit.
“I had a contact within the PMO and was able to get a favourable look at Burlington.”
Wallace says he was “told two weeks before hand that the PM would be visiting Burlington and was sworn to secrecy. Two days before the visit I am allowed to let the word out and the guests are advised and everyone shows up.” And show up they did. The Prime Minister toured the Performing Arts Centre and talked with members of the Burlington Teen Tour Band in the Main Theatre and then moved to the smaller Community Studio Theatre where the press conference took place.
Wallace believed he could have filled the Main Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre with guests, but the security people chose the smaller Studio Theatre. Politically, it is better to have a small room filled to bursting rather than a big room with empty spaces. The security people began to get a little edgy when people were milling around the Prime Minster and Wallace, along with Mayor Goldring, were directing people to where the PM was standing to have their picture taken. Didn’t matter who you were; if you were upright and breathing you got your picture taken.
 Prime Minister checks out the product at Ecosynthetix. Company CEO John van Leeuwen is on the left The Prime Minister included a tour of Ecosynthetix, a newly minted public company with offices and research facility on Mainway in Burlington.
Great Day for Marvelous Mike and a pretty good year as well – he is now part of a majority government that has settled in for the next four years during which time, based on what we have seen so far, we can expect some significant changes. For Wallace this is a very welcome change indeed. “We were always on edge as a minority government, we never knew when or if the government was going to fall. I rented campaign offices on two occasions because I thought we were going into an election.” When the election was called and the campaign offices were finally used Wallace got 54% of the vote, “for which I am grateful” he said.
When the government was formed Marvelous Mike wasn’t made a Cabinet Minister, but he did get a promotion to a very important House of Commons Committee. “It’s an important job and it meant a little bit more money” explained Wallace who is now the Vice Chair of the Government Operations Committee, whose job it is to review all government legislation.
To give you some idea as to just how important this committee is – here’s what it is required to do:
House of Commons Standing Orders, the mandate of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates includes primarily the study of: the effectiveness of government operations; expenditure budgets of central departments and agencies; format and content of all Estimates documents; cross-departmental mandates – programs delivered by more than one department or agency; new information and communication technologies adopted by the government; statutory programs, tax expenditures, loan guaranties, contingency funds and private foundations deriving the majority of their funding from the Government of Canada.
Add to that, this:
The Committee is specifically mandated to examine and conduct studies related to the following organizations, whose operational responsibilities extend across the government. Central Agencies and Departments, Privy Council Office/Prime Minister’s Office, Treasury Board Secretariat, Public Works and Government Services Canada, Organizations Related to Human Resources Matters, Public Service Commission, Public Services Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, Canada School of Public Service.
It doesn’t end there. Add these to the list of things this committee looks into. Office of the Governor General, Public Service Labour Relations Board, Canadian Intergovernmental Conference Secretariat. They look at legislation related to the following Crown Corporations: Canada Lands Company, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, Canada Post Corporation, Defence Construction (1951) Limited, Old Port of Montréal Corporation Inc., Public Sector Pension Investment Board, Queens Quay West Land Corporation and the Royal Canadian Mint.
Any legislation introduced in the House of Commons that passes first reading is sent to a committee for what is referred to as line by line review or Second reading. Anything to do with estimates (basically money matters) goes to the Committee of which Mike is vice chair. Because this is such an important committee, what happens there is of vital importance.
The story of Wallace’s attempt to get everything this committee does, done behind closed doors first broke when CBC radio did a short feature on it. Wallace refers to the woman who broke the story, Kady O’Malley, as “a blogger who doesn’t do any research”. Blogger she may be, but she was in the room, when Wallace put forward his motion, and she heard every word. O’Malley has a sterling reputation around Parliament Hill. Also, the printed minutes of the meeting show fairly clearly, what Wallace was trying to do. He didn’t get away with it this time – we will watch to see, what he tries to do next time.
This time there he was , Burlington’s Member of Parliament; part of a majority government, new job, better pay – and what does he do – lands himself in hot water with an attempt to have the meetings of the committee for which he is vice chair held behind closed doors.
CBC’s very popular radio program, The House, (Saturday on CBC Radio One at 9:00 am) which is a must for anyone politically involved in Ottawa did a piece on Wallace December 17th in which they skewered him. The Globe and Mail followed up with a short piece in which they said:
“The federal Conservative government is trying to move more of the debate at Commons committees behind closed doors – a tactic that opposition members deride as another effort by Prime Minister Stephen Harper to limit what Canadians know about the conduct of their Parliament.” The news story went on to say: “It is normal that witness lists would be drawn in camera because the discussion covers personalities and qualifications and capabilities, Mr. Comartin (NDP House leader) said. But “what they’re talking about here is all debate that goes on, unless there is a witness before the committee, everything else is going to be behind closed doors,” he said.
Wallace said in our interview with him that that what he proposed was “no big deal” and said he wasn’t put up to the move by anyone. “I’ve not talked to anyone at the PMO (Prime Ministers Office) about this”. Many don’t believe Wallace – they don’t think he’s smart enough to do something like this on his own.
Wallace says, that while he was thwarted in his first attempt to get things discussed behind closed doors, he plans to serve notice of his intention to bring a motion, which will pass because the government has the most members on the committee.
Here is where this issue gets dicey. There are times when Committees need to go into a closed session. Burlington’s city council does it frequently. What Wallace was thought to be trying to do was pass a motion that would have the Government Operations Committee always be in closed session. Wallace says that isn’t the case – what he wanted was a motion that would allow the committee to go into closed session when “future business” was being discussed.
 Burlington MO Mike Wallace at a federal Conservative Caucus meeting. Wallace usually wears a smile and tends to be a bit of a jokester at times. Known for his ability to play small pranks. Can't dance though. We’re not sure if Wallace was trying to pull a fast one and set things up so that all reviews of government legislation gets reviewed behind closed doors or if he was misunderstood when he used the phrase “all future business”. We will watch this one closely. Wallace did say that the committee meetings were collegial, academic rather than political. One doesn’t get that sense from a reading of the minutes.
Wallace is developing a reputation as someone who knows the process and sees the need for change. The Hill Times, a magazine that focuses on what happens on Parliament Hill mentioned that : “Conservative MP Mike Wallace (Burlington, Ont.), vice-chair of the House Government Operations Committee,said MPs should do a better job of scrutinizing government spending, but also they don’t have the time, expertise or resources to do an adequate job. Mr. Wallace said he has been working on ways to improve the budget approval process and will present those suggestions to the Conservative caucus in the fall. He declined to elaborate on his ideas until he talks to Tory MP”.
The articles goes on to quote Wallace as saying: “Right now for you to get all the balls in order, you need to look at the budget, then you have to look at the spending estimates, then you have to look at the priorities and planning documents that the ministries put out in the fall and then you have to look a year and a half later to the public accounts. It’s a very time consuming and difficult piece to put together,” Mr. Wallace said. “I just think we should be doing a better job of it as Members of Parliament. I’m not blaming anybody for it, it’s just the way it is.”
Wallace has developed a personal niche for himself on Parliament Hill. He likes looking at numbers and the details in a bill interest him. Many get that glazed look in their eyes when they see page after page of numbers – but Wallace likes this kind of work and as a result has a better command than many of the numbers and details involved. That kind of background comes in very handy when an issue is being debated.
There was a point in 2011 when Burlington was giving some thought to perhaps just giving up on the Pier and tearing it down. That was certainly the advice former Mayor Jackson gave current Mayor Goldring. Wallace quietly let the city know that if they chose to tear down the Pier, and that was a choice they could make, but if they did – they would have to return the millions of dollars the federal government had contributed.
 Mike Wallace stands before a constituency map with all kinds of Tory Blue on it. He took 54% of the vote last time. Wallace is particularly proud of the role he has played in the development of the arts in Burlington and having an brand new Performing Arts Centre might have been a part of the attraction for the Prime Minister to travel to Burlington. Wallace was part of the group that organized in 1999 to get a Performing Arts Centre for Burlington. Both Wallace, who was a Council member at the time and then Mayor Walter Mulkewich, worked hard to get Burlington to where it is today. The task of making Burlington a worthwhile destination from a performing arts point of view is now in the hands of the people that run the Centre. Burlington is fortunate enough to have an Executive Director, Brenda Heatherington, who brings an exceptional set of skills to the job. If anyone can make it happen, Heatherington can.
What she didn’t need of course was to have her MP on the stage trying to do a Gene Kelly impersonation during the Blue Jeans Gala and forgetting the line to Singing in the Rain.
Wallace has always been concerned about the lack of a strong voice for the arts community at city hall and points out that Oakville has a point person for the arts.
2011 was a good year for Mike Wallace. He is popular in the community, he delivers for the community and unless there is a tidal wave of discontent with the current government Mike Wallace is going to be our MP for some time. Governments of course eventually lose office – thank goodness for that. Can you imagine Jean Chretien getting away with the sponsorship scandal.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – Eight million You Tube hits and counting. Walk off the Earth, a Burlington based band has the world going whacky with their innovative approach to getting their fifteen minutes of fame. That celebrity, Russell Crowe caught their material and tweeted his crowd about the group certainly didn’t hurt. But as the band says – you do what you gotta do to get the exposure you need – and if you don’t do it yourself – it ain’t gonna happen But happen it did. Slip over to You Tube and check it out for yourself.
 You Tube just might have given Walk off the Earth the boost they needed to really make a mark on the musical scene. Are we looking at another Spoons in the making? From the left: Joel Cassady, Sarah Blackwood, Gianni Nicassio, Michael Aj Guilfoyle and Ryan Marshall. The band set themselves up in front of a camera with five people – but just one guitar and then did one of the almost funny deadpans into the camera. Ryan Marshall, the guy on the right doesn’t bat an eyelash as he plucks at the top end of the guitar while Joel Cassady, on the left, doesn’t even play the instrument but uses it as if it was a bongo drum and creates a neat beat.
Platinum blonde Sarah Blackwood has her head down for much of the four minute plus piece, but then pops up and looks straight into the camera to tell us about some guy that worked her over.
The band, Burlington based, uploaded the video to You Tube January 5th and somewhere along the way it went viral and were at eight million plus hits, when we saw the piece. If this were the 50’s they’d be getting a call from Ed Sullivan. But it isn’t – so they might have to settle for a spot on the Mayor’s Cabaret on the 24th of February. The band is booked for The Casbah in Hamilton on the 27th of February.
Comment from a loyal reader:
“They’re now up to over 10 million views! Small name correction: the one on the right is Michael Taylor, who just happens to be the father of my beautiful goddaughter! (It’s a small town.) Ryan Marshall is second from the right.”
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – Halton Regional Police released statistics on the number of people caught in the net they put out during the holiday season to apprehend those stupid enough to think they can drink and drive. If you’re were one of the people who got the card with an illustration – hope you said thanks to the police officer and then remembered to ensure your kids got the message – you can’t drink and drive.
Nelson High School students got that lesson when police spent part of a day at the school showing the students just how unable they are to walk a straight line if they had been drinking and getting a look at the equipment the police use to measure the blood alcohol content in their bodies. It was police time well spent.
The driving under the influence of alcohol legislation has been around for 90 years – since 1921, but we still have far too many traffic deaths, that were the result of a driver being drunk. There was a time when friends at a party would say to a guest as they were about to leave – “Have one for the road”. We actually did that.
 A total of 84 RIDE check points were set up by Regional Police; 67 driving under the influence charges were laid. Burlington's record was the worst in the Region. This year the police stopped 17,396 vehicles during the RIDE program. 564 of those people were asked to blow into the device that measures the amount of alcohol in the blood; 87 people were given warnings while 23 failed the test. Failing the test means you get to call home and ask for help or call your lawyer. If you are just warned you face anything from a three day driving suspension up to a 30 day driving suspension if you are caught a third time. Should the police officer that stops you decide to take you into the police station for a test on a much more sophisticated piece of equipment or if you refuse to take the breathing test – you lose your license automatically for 90 days. One would hope that at that point your insurance company made it so expensive to get coverage, that you wouldn’t be able to afford to drive.
Sgt. Dave Cross, media guru for the Halton Regional Police, wasn’t able to say if the number of warnings and charges has dropped over the years, but he does point out that the RIDE program serves a very useful purpose. You can almost hear him shaking his head, when he talks about the number of people who actually get caught behind the wheel of a vehicle, knowing they have been drinking. Couple of things were evident from the data he released though. While Burlington may be the #2 best Canadian city to live in, it had the worst results in terms of the number of people warned or charged by the police.
There were a total of 84 different RIDE check points set up, 31 each in Burlington and Oakville.
While the prime purpose of the RIDE program is to catch people driving while drinking, it serves as a notice to the community that the police are out there. It also gives the police a chance to scoop up other people they are looking for. There were seven criminal charges laid for non-drinking offenses, 3 suspended drivers were caught and 178 people nabbed under the Provincial Offenses Act – most of them were from Oakville.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 10, 2012 – The Mayors Inspire program that featured Andre Picard will be re-broadcast on Cogeco Cable at 9:30 pm on January 12, 2012 – well worth watching.. You will get to hear one of the best thinkers on public health policy in the country, who will explain just what it is we have in the way of a public health system in Ontario and where it is likely to go.
The Picard talk, given at a time when the direction for health services in Burlington is less than certain, helps to understand the financial challenges the province faces and sets aside many of the myths that surround public health services.
This presentation was the last of four Mayor Rick Goldring sponsored during 2011. They have proven to be quite a success – the last filled the Community Studio Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre. Goldring expects to sponsor another series in 2012.
 PART TWO
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 9, 2010 – When Christine Iamonaco saw the ad she knew instantly “that job was meant for me”. While putting together her resume she got calls from colleagues, who alerted her to the job opportunity. It didn’t take the city long to see the potential, and less than two months later Iamonaco signed her contract, and was shown the office she would work out of. While Christine doesn’t live in Burlington – she commutes from east end Toronto. She spent the first month reading and working closely with Kim Phillips who was going to shepherd her through the processes and procedures the city has in place. Business cards were printed and the gig was getting ready to go on the road..
 Burlington's Public Involvement Coordinator, Christine Iamonaco - if her public sessions are anywhere near as organized as those post it notes on the wall behind her desk the city will be well served. Iamonaco got her first taste of what the good folks of Burlington are like, when she helped out with the Heritage Workshop that was held to calm the very troubled waters the good ship Registry sails on. There were well over 100 people at that event and it got noisy at times; but it was nothing like some of the garbage site selection meetings that Iamonaco handled in places like Chapleau and Kenora. “Those” Iamonaco will tell you “got really noisy.” When you try to tell people that there is going to be a garbage dump just down the road from where they live be ready for some reaction.”
A lot of her early work was done in the Waste Management field – where she developed plans for municipalities that had run out of space to put their garbage and needed to either open up new sites or expand existing locations.
A native of Ottawa, Iamonaco’s career started in retail where she found she liked talking to people. She saw a job that intrigued her and got into the waste management field, where she was a waste reduction facilitator in South Simcoe. That first brush with a larger public was the beginning of a career that brought her to Burlington with stops along the way in Kenora, and then ten years with the city of Toronto. A stint with BCHydro “before the department was gutted in 2007” and Iamonaco decided that it was time to get more formal education to compliment her experience in the field. She took a career curve and attended York University and left with a degree in Urban Studies.
What else does she bring with her? In her resume Iamonaco describes her skill set and experience this way:
I am a senior public involvement manager and coordinator, liaison, and facilitator with progressive planning experience. I have lead and prepared staff for specific roles in public involvement processes. I have created plans, strategies, and processes, in regulated and non-regulated environments. I am diplomatic and adept at contextualizing the issues and interests of multi-stakeholders. I am a strategic thinker who recognizes how company actions and messages will impact different stakeholder groups. I have clearly reported to government and stakeholders on issues, process progress, and emergent opportunities. I have established and managed a multitude of committees, advisory groups, peer review groups, and community liaison groups. Instrumental action in terms of managing conflicting community and corporate interests. Skilled group presenter, leader and trainer, adhering to IAP2 principles of inclusion and transparency.
IAP2 principles were used by Council and Staff when the Strategic Plan was created. Those same principles are going to be applied to the process of creating the Engagement Charter and are expected to be embedded within the Charter when it is finally ready for a trial run.
Iamonaco works out of a small office on the sixth floor and meets once a week with Kim Phillips to ensure that the time lines are being met and the objectives achieved.
After spending a couple of months getting the lay of the land, interviewing key people at the staff level and getting to know council members and meet with some of the stake holders, Iamonaco was ready to take her work plan into the field and work with the community to develop a Citizen’s engagement Charter – which is? And that’s where the job becomes one of educating first and then working with citizens as they fumble with their early understandings and over time get a deeper appreciation about just what it means to have an engagement Charter and then decide what to do with the thing once it has been put together. Iamonaco explains that an Engagement charter “improves the practice of information sharing.”
That assumes that the stakeholders actually want to share information. Does Council want to share and involve the citizens they represent, or do they see themselves as having been elected to run the city – and that they do – and come election time they get re-elected if they did a good job or shoved out if someone better comes along.
 Participatory democracy - the public going over budget documents. Turnout was low - was the effort made worth the time - did it have any impact on the budget decisions? Iamonaco explains that there are two types of democracy: representative democracies where you send someone to Ottawa or Queen’s Park and expect them to do the best they can for you or you have a participatory democracy where the citizens are involved right up to their ying yangs – if that’s what they want.
Council recently saw an example of participatory democracy, when people in the Orchard community flooded the Council Chamber saying what staff was recommending was totally unacceptable; then came in with ideas of their own that got right down into the nitty gritty of how much land they wanted dedicated to parks for their children. Based on how Council reacted a few weeks later on the Orchard issue, it would appear they are quite comfortable with having citizens at the table offering very detailed plans.
How far will Council – and staff for that matter – go with that approach? Staff will say – ‘hey we were hired to do this stuff’ and council may get to the point where they can only handle so much of a new approach. We are talking the protection of ‘turf’ here.
And that of course is what the Shape Burlington report was all about – they said the citizens wanted more say and they wanted to be consulted and be a real part of the decision making process.
Iamonaco found that the Shape Burlington report was the “push” that Burlington needed. “There were some very useful insights in the report; but real citizenship engagement comes when there is a willing council and the silos between the different parts of the civic administration are taken down.” Not always an easy task when their turfs are threatened.”
Iamonaco adds that “improving the practice of information sharing means building the capacity to participate – which is almost a straight line back to the information deficit the Shape Burlington Report highlighted. Burlingtonians have been so far removed from municipal participation, that they’ve forgotten they have a right to be at the table. Both Council and staff have been left to their own ways, which means that they are going to have to get used to citizens appearing and asking for more information and more participation.
What Burlington wanted to avoid was a situation similar to some of the early Strategic Plans – ‘oh we had one, but nobody did anything useful with what they had’. We now have a Strategic Plan that has become part of the process of getting things done. Any decision made is bounced off the Strategic Plan and the question: Does it fit with the Plan ? gets asked.
What approach will council take to the Engagement Charter? How will staff work with the thing? Well just what is the “thing”? It isn’t going to fall of the back of a truck and into our laps fully formed. The process will begin with a series of community information sessions. Five dates have been set with the locations set out below:
Community Engagement Information Sessions:
Monday, January 12, 7:30 to 8:30 p.m., Aldershot Arena, Community Room, 494 Townsend Avenue
Tuesday, January 17, 7 to 8 p.m., Mainway Recreation Centre, Auditorium, 4015 Mainway
Thursday, January 19, 7 – 8 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street Council Chambers (this session will be recorded for webcasting)
Thursday, January 19, 2 to 3 p.m.; City Hall, 426 Brant Street, Room 247
Thursday, January 26, 7 to 8 p.m.; Brant Hills Community Centre and Public Library, Nelson Room
These are “formation” meetings at which people will learn something about Engagement Charters. What are other cities doing? What are the upsides and the downsides of the different practices? Iamonaco is aiming for a “made in Burlington” Engagement Charter.
Iamonaco is looking at different levels of citizen participation. “Some people will choose to jump into this with both feet while others will want to just listen and monitor”, she points out.
Her objective is to pull together a group of people, who will work with her to determine what engagement model suits Burlington and then ideally produce something that is truly “Burlington” – made here to work here. We’ve not seen Iamonaco in action yet – she certainly speaks the language, but then so do most of the politicians we elect – it’s what happens to them when they get into office that’s the problem.
Iamonaco envisions a Charter Team – these are the people who will actually create the document. These people will meet often and Iamonaco hopes and expects there will be Council representation and senior staff representation involved in this as well as people from a good cross section of the community. She expects the group will number between 19 and 30 people.
She also wants to create a Virtual Team, that is people who are involved but not as directly. They get everything, they see everything and they can comment – but they may not be at the table doing the writing and the re-writing. Then there will be a Listen and Monitor Team – these are people who will be on a mailing list and just get material sent to them. Each of these groups will “self-organize”. Iamonaco’s role is to facilitate – not to create the document. She will be in place as probably the prime resource – but not the only resource. What she doesn’t know yet, is what kind of talent is out there and what kind of an appetite the community have for a charter?
 Burlington has had relatively large community protest groups in the past. The Save our Waterfront group had more than 1000 members - did it achieve anything other than getting its founder elected to city hall? Here, one of the masters of public involvement, former Toronto Mayor David Crombie talks with current SOW president. This isn’t the sexist stuff to work through; but when completed it will result in an approach to citizen engagement that will move Burlington forward as a city whose citizens are aware, informed and active in the decision making process.
Iamonaco is going to have to work with both the people outside city hall and the people inside city hall. Far too many people have horror stories about how they were treated at one of the counters on Brant Street. We could tell you the story of a council member who was stunned with the treatment at the parking ticket counter. Pity that council member didn’t choose to go into the grubby little room, where you can plead your case at what is called the First Attendance office.
When we talk of getting things done in Burlington, mention is always made of the stakeholders” and of our desire to “partner” with others. Stake holders are often people, who feel they have a vested interest in something. They may not do very much of the heavy lifting, but they want and expect to be heard. What is really happening is that they are protecting a turf they have decided is theirs to protect.
Mayor Goldring moved through the “stakeholders” very early in the process of creating the Strategic Plan, where he was direct and not prepared to listen to much of the “same old, same old”. Some of those “stakeholders” were a little surprised, at the rate with which the Mayor went through their briefs. It was kind of healthy actually.
How radical a document is this Engagement Charter likely to be? Hey – this is Burlington – so let’s not let the word radical get put into use. It should be noted though, that there was a decent demonstration outside the Waterfront Hotel by the Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition. So – well we can dream, can we not?
When one listens to Christine Iamonaco, you will hear her talk about Burlington, that best kept secret, that hidden gem. Why change it, one might ask? Well John Boich did say that the relationship between the city and its citizens was toxic and when given an opportunity to take the words back and apologize for them – he didn’t.
Listen to the people who were really riled up over the way we handle, define and register buildings that are seen as “heritage” properties and you get a clearer understanding of where the problems exist. There were no deep dark secrets or an “agenda” within the Planning department. The problem was that citizens did not have clear information and that is more a community relations issue than a bureaucratic matter.
 Orchard residents filled the Council chamber and gave council members a different pciture than staff had provided on creating park space in their community. We didn't have a Public Involvement Coordinator but the problem got resolved. Do we really need this position? Had you had a chance to listen to the community delegation from the Orchard, when they were ticked with the way the city was handling the creation of some parkland for their children, and had you heard the rather weak excuse staff gave for putting forward the decision that was eventually turned down by council, you will get a sense as to why an Engagement Charter is needed. An interesting note: – the oversight for the Public Involvement Coordinator is being done by Kim Phillips. Can she bring city council around enough to have them go along with the process that Iamonaco is setting out to implement? And which council members are going to choose to be part of the process? And what impact will our new city manager have on all this?
Iamonaco brings an understanding of what people want when they talk of involvement. “The public” she will tell you “pushes when they want something. They usually want a say in the decisions being made on their behalf”. That she points out is what the Shape Burlington report did – “it was the push”. “There are some very good insights in that document and it is clear Iamonaco intends to use it as her starting point. And now that it is back up on the city’s web site – one would hope that everyone who is part of the Charter Team make a point of downloading the document and reading it from cover to cover.
 That rooster on the door of Christine Iamonao's office is her way of telling people "you have to start early" if you want to get the job done. As we get into January the city will see a blizzard of community meetings - five over a two week period, allowing all parts of the city to become informed and take part. The start for Iamonaco is “improving the practice of information sharing”, which are words that will warm the cockles of Councillor Mead Ward’s heart. However, information on its own won’t make all that much of a difference. Iamonaco talks of “building capacity to participate” which means getting out into the community and explaining to people how they can take part. That kind of field work sticks in the craw of some of the council members, who feel that what happens in their ward is their concern and they don’t need some outsider who doesn’t have to manage the consequences, which they do come election day. As one council member put it at a meeting to think through what the job would mean – “will this person be taking the late evening calls at home, when something has gone wrong?”
Former prime minister John Turner recently said in a television interview that “democracy doesn’t just happen”. Iamonaco will tell you that this isn’t something she is going to do for the city of Burlington. Her job is to help the people in Burlington think through what they want and help them fashion the document they feel will give them what they want in terms of engagement charter. Her role is to listen to the participants and give them the guidance and direction to get to where they tell her they want to go.
Iamonaco says she would like to see a charter drafted and implemented by September of 2012 – and that is a bit of a stretch. However, what Iamonaco has going for her is the growing trend of taxpayers to be more involved. The internet has brought a lot more information to the public – they are now more informed and they don’t like some of what they see.
 The Baby Boomers - they changed the way society worked every decade they went through - what will they do with Civic Engagement Another factor that is in play is the appearance of the “baby boomers” as community activists. The “Boomers” have changed every level of society they were a part of. They changed our education system, they changed the way children were raised and they raised pure hell on university campuses around the world. They changed every level of entertainment. There is no reason to think that they won’t change what it is to be a senior. Gone will be the quiet, submissive senior who takes it on the chin.
Engagement Charters are an accepted part of municipal life in Australian and New Zealand. In Canada, Edmonton is the city with the most Engagement Charter experience where the initiative is a joint venture between the University of Alberta and the city.
For some communities the engagement charter is a policy, for others it is a collection of protocols and procedures; Burlington will have to decide, what it wants and then craft a document that sets out the rules of engagement – and then we can all have at it. This is a process that is just beginning.
 PART ONE
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 9, 2012 It wasn’t a very well written document, but over time it took on a life of its own and just may be the report that pushes Burlington along a path where citizen engagement becomes something real.
During the last year of his term of office then Mayor Cam Jackson created a Citizen Advisory Committee on Civic Engagement, to look at the way citizens interacted and communicated with city hall. There were a lot of people who at the time felt city hall was too distant and didn’t involve the public enough in its thinking. This applied more to the civil servants, than it did to the council members – they could be tossed out in an election. The bureaucrats were there for life and other than complaining there wasn’t much anyone could do.
 John Boich - co-chair of the Shape Burlington Committee died in 2011 The late John Boich was an unpaid advisor to Jackson and he certainly had the Mayor’s ear. Jackson was just over a year away from his next municipal election and being the politician he was – he was becoming aware of some restlessness amongst the natives and felt that advice from a committee would serve his purpose rather well. He appointed Boich and former Mayor Walter Mulkewich to co-chair the committee and gave them a very short time frame within which to get their work done. One of the things Boich was superb at, was getting things done and the report came back in a very short period of time.
 Former Mayor Walter Mulkewich co-chaired the Advisory Committee that produced the Shape Burlington report. His co-chair was the late John Boich Mulkewich got a call “out of the blue” from Jackson asking if he would co-chair the committee. He quickly said yes and the two advocates for citizen participation were off. They had carte blanche from Jackson and they handpicked the committee they wanted and then engaged a public opinion research firm to help with pulling together some data and the report was released. While Council at the time approved the report on a unanimous vote, several council members took exception to some comments Boich made to the media. Boich, true to form, stood by his comments on just how toxic things were between the city and its citizens.
 A Shape Burlington original Blair Lancaster went on to get elected as Council member for Ward 6. She is not always a strong Shape advocate. Jackson had hoped for something a bit different than what he got, but he was able to live with the report. Now that it was public it took on a life of its own. Two members of the Shape Burlington Committee went on to become members of city council. Paul Sharman and Blair Lancaster seldom fail to remind people they were part of that committee, but they tend to blow hot and cold on some of the recommendations that were in the document.
The Shape Burlington report, which by the way was not on line when we began this story, had somehow fallen off the radar – was that a telling mistake or just sloppy management over at the web site side of the city? Kim Phillips, General Manager Budget and Corporate Services, is the person who shepherds anything related to Shape Burlington through city hall. How the document got left off the web site is a question Phillips asked and got an answer to quick, quick. It is now back on the city web site.
The creation of a meaningful Strategic Plan was part of what the Shape Burlington recommended and on that one, the city delivered in spades. Not only did they put in a considerable amount of time creating the document, but they also took steps to ensure that the document didn’t just gather dust on a shelf.
The city assigned the ongoing review of the document to Allan Magi, Executive Director of Corporate Strategic Initiatives, who will be leading Council through a quarterly review of just where the city is with its plans as set out in the Strategy document.
More than that, every action the city takes gets run through a number of filters. One of which is – how does this impact the Strategic Plan, another is – what does this mean financially.
 Paul Sharman served on the Shape Burlington Committee along with Lancaster. He was a bit of a "bull in a china shop" with that organization and brought the trait along with him when he got elected to Council. The next challenge for the city and the way it continues to respond to the Shape Burlington report is the creation and implementation of a Community Engagement Charter. Then Council has to get over the hurdle of actually putting a Citizen Engagement Charter in place. No one really knows what an engagement charter is other than that it is a tool that gives citizens a voice at the table where decisions are made any time and every time – and not just when Council or staff think it would be nice to hear what the people paying the freight think.
That there was no expertize within the Shape Burlington committee, and not that much elsewhere in Canada, didn’t stop them from believing that a charter would solve a lot of the problems. With Council having endorsed the report unanimously – truth be told not one of them had the courage to vote against the report – Ward 2 Councillor Peter Thoem did say the report was a nice collection of Motherhood statements. He lost the 2010 election to Marianne Meed Ward. With two Shape Burlington Committee members now on Council, the report was expected to get serious consideration.
Kim Campbell did the early spade work on just what it took to get a Citizens Engagement Charter in place. She found that cities that had a real working charter (and there weren’t very many of them) tended to have someone in place to grow the idea and the concept within the community. What was an Engagement Charter going to do for the city? There are all kinds of ideas and expectations running all over the place, but no one had anything anywhere near a concrete plan.
The people who put the Shape Burlington report together were so pleased with themselves and what they had achieved that, like a really good party – they didn’t want it to end. Jackson’s Advisory Committee was disbanded the day the report was given to Council. Many members of the Shape Burlington Committee decided to re-shape themselves and be known as Shaping Burlington – that subtle difference in name is important. Shape had legitimacy and a clear mandate and the line of accountability was crystal clear.
Shaping is a self-appointed group that is accountable to no one and decides on its own who will be a member and who will not be a member. They delegate to city council committee meetings, but other than comments on their web site there is no other accountability. Elected Council members would just love to be able to operate that way. While Shaping calls for transparency and accountability on the part of Council – they don’t apply those strictures to themselves. Do they make valid comments? Are the comments useful? One would have to give them a mild yes at this point. They have served as a reminder, perhaps as a “conscience for the people in place to make this happen. Neither Boich or Mulkewich chose to be part of the Shaping group, but Mulkewich is believed to advise the group and they have enlarged their “membership” somewhat.
 General Manager, Budget and Corporate Affairs Kim Phillips took control of the city's decision to hire a Public Involvement Coordinator and has made this her signature file. Shaping felt strongly that there should be someone hired to create an Engagement Charter for the city and then be on hand to make the thing work. They wanted the job to be full time and permanent. They got a commitment to hire an experienced person for a two year contract. Once again Phillips picked up her pen and with other people within city hall, crafted a job description. As Phillips explains it:
“I got Mike Greenlea, who was assistant to the general managers at the time, to research similar positions in other municipalities because this was a new role for us and Shape Burlington had some specific suggestions on what they felt worked in other places and could work in Burlington.
“We then drafted a job description while consulting with other staff to avoid duplication of effort and reviewed corporate job descriptions for comparable attributes, expectations, job requirements and appropriate compensation.
Because this had the potential to be a contentious hire, I had previously met with each member of council about deliverables and measurables to get an idea of the type of work they expected and results they were looking for, which helped me frame up the type of person/skills needed”.
The document was then run by the people over at HR after which Phillips then reported to committee/council with a proposed work program and job description. Normally this level of detail doesn’t go to committee/council, but the city was breaking new ground and Phillips wanted to cover all her bases. That committee meeting got a little bumpy, but Phillips left the meeting with more than her shirt on her back – next step was to get the hire requisition moving and all the sign offs that were required.
“The recruitment phase begins with internal and external posting” explains Phillips. This hire was going to get special treatment right from the get-go; every application went to Phillips. “Usually” she explains “ there is some slimming done at HR before an application goes anywhere, but in this case, “it was such a unique position with a range of backgrounds that could ‘fit’, I decided to review them all.” This was going to be a project with Kim Phillips’ fingerprints all over it.
The city’s interview panel for full time employees (including contract employees) is usually the supervisor (in this case Phillips), the HR representative and another staff person. (A variety of selection criteria to end up with an appropriate panel. In this case, round 1 interviews included Mike Greenlee and round 2 interviews added Scott Stewart).
The hiring decisions are considered the supervisor’s, with the input from participants on the interview panel, for all positions. Christine Iamonaco was a Kim Phillips hire.
Part 2 This job was made for me.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 5, 2012 – During the Christmas holiday period suspects as yet known slipped into the fenced compound of Trans East Trailer at 3091 Appleby Line and removed the tires and rims off two double axle trailers parked in the north west portion of the parking lot.
Stolen were twelve Michelin XZE2 low rolling resistance tires and twelve aluminum outer 10 holes rims. Total loss is valued at $12,000.
 Police would like any help they can get on a much bigger heist that took place between November 25th and November 28th, 2011. Thieves broke into a gated compound located at 4495 North Service Road. They then rolled out a 53 foot, white, storage trailer and its contents. The stolen automotive parts include 10 engines, 54 engine covers and 12 bumpers. The total loss of the trailer and parts is valued at $143,000. That will be quite an insurance claim
Police see this as professional due to the expertise required to operate and move the heavy objects.
Anyone with information on this or any other crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1 800 222-8477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.com
By Staff
If you really want your 15 minutes of fame on a Burlington stage – get your demo into the Mayor’s Cabaret. There are just a few days left to be considered for the event which is to take place at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on February 24th.
 Mayor Goldring, upper right, practices his routine for the upcoming Mayor's Cabaret. He hasn't been told yet that after his Blue Jeans Gala performance - he isn't going to make the cut. To date there are 30 submissions and the Mayor’s Office expects a few more to come in at the last minute – you could be one of those. While the competition is going to be stiff we are able to tell you that you won’t be going up against the Mayor or Mike Wallace, Burlington’s MP. Both took part on the Blue Jeans Gala early in December and both have decided to keep their day jobs.
 The Cabaret is Mayor Goldring’s initiative as a fund raiser for the Centre, which has just gone through what they called a slow opening – and they weren’t kidding. Starting with Royal Oak back in October to the big ticket Gala with Sarah McLaughlin on the stage and a “boffo” event for the patrons who could put up the $400. per ticket price.
Now the Centre settles into becoming a destination in the city that delivers world class entertainment and at the same time makes room for local performing arts groups and serves as home base for the Burlington Teen Tour Band. The Mayors Cabaret is about as local as you’re going to get; it will be interesting to see what comes in. If you want to take a shot at being selected click on the link above.
The Sound of Music people are heavily involved in this initiative; they will be doing the selecting and overseeing the production.
Inquiries: Daphne Jaques, Assistant to the Mayor, (905) 335-7600, ext. 7478
Email: jaquesd@burlington.ca
Tickets for the event are $100. each, available at the BPAC box office – 905-681-6000, for which you get a lot more than a comfortable seat. The Centre has shown they know how to put on an event and based on the first really WOW! Gala we can expect this to be just as impressive. Big question is: Will Cogeco Cable TV have their cameras on site?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 4th, 2012 – There, that didn’t hurt now did it? Remember those words from your first visit to the doctor? It was a new experience for you and one you would get used to for the rest of your life. A similar experience came across the desk of Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital CEO and President Eric Vandewall this week. Ontario’s Freedom of Information legislation was made to apply to the medical community and JBMH had to post the information on its web site. Now anyone and everyone can log in and see what the man is paid. There is nothing exorbitant in Vandewall’s contract. Some of his colleagues elsewhere in the province, particularly across the Bay, do much better.
 Liberal candidate in the provincial election Karmel Sakran shares a smile with JBMH CEO Eric Vandewall at an event where everyone hoped a provincial government minister was expected to show up with a funding announcement. Sakran at the time was a member of the hospital Board and was in line to become chairman of the hospital board but resigned when he ran for office - and lost. Sakran's signature appears on Vandewall's employment contract as a witness. To spare you the trouble of going through the 10 page agreement we can tell you that the hospital hired Vandewall in June of 2010 at a salary of $325,000 plus a car allowance of $1000. a month. He has to pay for parking like everyone else, which is more than can be said of Burlington city council members, but then they don’t get the big bucks that Eric gets.
In December of this year Vandewall’s salary was increased to $338,428. But there was a hook added to the compensation agreement. $17,767. of that salary is “at risk”, meaning that it is possible for Vandewall to not to actually get the full $338,428. in his contract. Has to earn this portion of his salary by meeting designated objectives outlined in the Hospitals’ Quality Improvement Plan. Personally, I hope for Vandewall that one of the objectives isn’t his getting real money from the province to rebuild his hospital. I think the province is going to stiff him because it just isn’t going to have the money.
That level of detail in the contract “designated objectives” portion of the contract is something best left to the hospital Board. You have to trust them to hold Vandewall accountable and to behave responsibly as a Board. One small quibble – the information that was to be made public effective January 3rd wasn’t actually available until sometime in the mid-afternoon – a small detail and hopefully not a telling one.
It is a new day for hospital administrators. They are paid out of the public purse and are responsible to the public. Accept the change or leave the profession and work in the United States where the dollars are much, much greater – but do you really want to live there?
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON January 4, 2012 – Wow! If the police can’t get what they need from Google – what are the rest of us supposed to do? Halton Regional Police Service reported that it was recently made aware of an error in the contact phone number for the Service when utilizing the ‘Google’ search engine. Is that a criminal offence?
The police apologize for any inconvenience this has caused the general public and report they have been assured ‘Google’ is working towards making the necessary correction. You want to bet they are.
The main phone number shown by Google is 905 825-4710 when it should be 905 825-4777.
Write that one down 905-825-4777
The police want you to dial 911 when there is a genuine emergency. However, they also remind you that there are non-emergency incidents that can be reported in person at either our police reporting centre or any of our police divisions.
Some non-emergency incidents can be reported online and the public is encouraged to visit the police web site at www.haltonpolice.ca, for a complete understanding of these reporting provisions. As always, if you have an emergency, call 9-1-1.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 3, 2012 A Burlington resident commented on our first story about the government requirement that senior hospital staff make their pay scale and expense spending public and said: “Here’s another reason why that secrecy is stupid: Taxpayers already know roughly how much Eric Vandewall is paid. According to other media sources Vandewall was paid $334,990.65 in 2010 and given a car allowance of “around” $1,100 a month.
“This stonewalling is nonsensical and seems inconsistent with the spirit of we’re-all-in-this-together community you think Jo Brant would be using in their fundraising drive”
Ouch!
Hospital spokespeople said earlier in December that they would not post the pay scales until January 3rd because they were not required to do so – which raised a bit of dust and the question: why not?
 Joseph Brant Memorial Hosapital CEO Eric Vandewall poses with Prime Minister Stephen Harper - the PM didn't have a cheque for the CEO. Vandewall wants to get his picture taken with the Premier of the province - that's where the funds have got to come from. If the figure reported is correct Vandewall is one of the best paid civil servants in Burlington. Well someone has to be at the top of the list and if the money that person gets is from the public trough – it gets declared. The presidents of large publicly traded companies have their salaries and benefits published in annual reports. The only time you don’t have to tell the world what you’ve earned is when it is a private company that you own. Then the only person you have to tell is the tax man.
What is frustrating is the tendency some civil servants have to duck the very valid question: How much public money are we giving you? Then the public can decide if the person is worth what they are being paid.
Andrea Horwath, NDP leader and MPP for Hamilton Centre makes the point that “leadership on cost-cutting has to start at the top. You can’t expect a nurse to take a pay freeze while the CEOs are raking in not only high salaries and bonuses but also perks … These perks are all part of the equation, when we look at trying to get control over costs in the hospital sector” says Horwath.
Horwath has long been fighting to rein in hospital CEOs salaries and in the process scores political points and keep her blue colour base happy.
Smith makes nearly $725,000 a year and Martin is just over $700,000. Higgins makes nearly $490,000 and Vandewall gets just over $350,000 in salary and taxable benefits.
At St. Joseph’s Healthcare, CEO Kevin Smith gets $1,000 a month and drives a Mercedes ML Diesel SUV. Smith is paid nearly $725,000 a year. Heck based on that – Vandewall (who gets just over $350,000) should be looking for an increase. Because for the next five years – maybe ten, he is going to be battling the bureaucrats at Queen`s Park to get the funding to rebuild the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital, when the province doesn`t have any money and at the same time deal with city hall to coax out of them some of the cash they already have in the bank.
Vandewall has to clear the property parking lot so that the expansion can take place and to do that he has to build a parking lot. The city of Burlington doesn`t want to put their money into a parking lot for a couple of reasons: there is nothing sexy about a parking lot and the city isn`t all that sure the province will really, really come through. The Mayors Letter to the Editor in the Post notwithstanding. To hand over $20 million to the hospital now and see a parking lot go up – and not get the revenue from that parking – is proving to be a tough one for the city to swallow. The definitive agreement between the city and the hospital is still going back and forth. But somehow Vandewall has to convince the city to let the money flow his way.
 Vandewall has to attend every Gala that is put on to raise money for the hospital - but he doesn't have to pay for the tickets. Then he has to glad hand for the next five years to get the people with deep pockets to come up with the $60 million the Hospital Foundation has to raise. Were I Eric Vandewall, I would be renting billboards and telling the city how much I am being paid and then ask for a raise. He has one of the toughest jobs in the city and quite frankly I don`t care what kind of a car he drives. That is none of my business. How much we give him to pay for the car – that is public information.
When on compares what Vandewall is earning with what his colleagues a few miles away are earning and you measure that against what the guy does – he is worth every dollar we are giving him. This guy oversees the building of hospitals – and that is no simple task.
Before coming to Burlington, Vandewall was the senior vice-president of Trillium Health Centre, where he over saw the building of the Trillium Health Centre’s West Toronto 18,510-square-foot addition and 23,575-square-foot renovation.
Construction setbacks – including a labour strike, record summer rainfall and construction challenges – put the project behind schedule. Still, Ellis Don, the general contractor, was able to make up the time to bring it in on time and within budget, which included being just under the five per cent contingency allowance.
While Vandewall didn’t do all this by himself he certainly directed the team and made all the parts come together. This guy knows how to get a hospital built – now if he can learn how to work a little more effectively with the city and soothe the nerves of the politicians who will take it in the neck if they end up paying for a parking lot garage and then have to wait more than ten years for their hospital.
One thing that did surprise me about the pay packages was that the cost of subscriptions to the numerous galas these people have to attend is covered in their remuneration package. What we are doing is using tax dollars to pay these administrators – some of whom are brilliant – and then giving them a perk that they use to buy a ticket to a fund raising event to build the hospital. Is that what they mean by paying Peter to rob Paul? I thought these people paid for their tickets out of their own personal funds. Maybe I am naïve.
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