 By Staff
August 21, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington is commissioning an artist to create a sculpture for the new Skyway Community Centre.
A citizen jury shortlisted three (3) artists to submit design proposals and now we want you to tell us what you think! Your feedback will help the citizen jury with their final selection of the winning artwork.
Skyway Community Centre Public Art Projects Goals:
1. Create a contemporary sculpture that is part of the new community centre.
2. Act as a beacon to help guide visitors towards the main entrance of the building.
3. Reflect on the theme of sustainability through the artwork materials and/or artwork subject matter.
4. Complement the design of the community centre.
Give us your feedback
Skyway Community Centre Public Art Feedback
Share your feedback on three proposed designs
Please review the three proposed designs and submit your feedback. Your comments, along with the technical and design proposals, will inform the jury’s final selection.
 By Staff
August 21st, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Friends…It’s great to be back here in the wonderful city of London…Alongside my caucus and cabinet colleagues for the 2023 AMO Conference.
I want to acknowledge Regional Chief Glen Hare and Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Dowdeswell as well as our host mayor Josh Morgan.
It’s my sixth time speaking at this conference and as I’ve said before this event is one of the highlights of my year. It’s always a privilege to join you to not only talk about the challenges we’re facing but also talk about the great progress we’re making together.
 Premier Ford’s sixth time speaking to an AMO crowd. And friends Ontario is growing at an unprecedented pace. Last year alone our population grew by more than 500,000 people. At this rate Ontario will add five million more people in the next 10 years. That’s like adding two new cities nearly the size of Toronto in a decade.
Ontario is now the fastest growing jurisdiction in all of North America…Bar none! We’re growing faster than both Texas and Florida. Hundreds of thousands of families are coming to Ontario because here in Ontario we have endless opportunity.
We’re seeing new businesses set up shop. We’re attracting billions of dollars in new investments…And new jobs…Across all sectors…In all regions of the province.
And I have to tell you as Premier nothing brings me more joy than joining you in your communities to welcome a new investment.
Another factory or a new shift. Another production facility or a state-of-the-art manufacturing lab.
 In April…I joined Mayor Vrbanovic and Mayor McCabe to break ground on the University of Waterloo and City of Kitchener’s new Innovation Arena for health-science start-ups.
In May I was thrilled to join Mayor Liggett to celebrate Moderna’s major investment to make vaccines in Cambridge.
And I’ll never forget last year standing shoulder to shoulder with Mayor Dilkens to celebrate Canada’s first large-scale electric vehicle battery plant in Windsor.
Or this past Spring in St. Thomas alongside Mayor Preston to announce that Volkswagen was following suit with their first overseas gigafactory.
And friends…I just want to take a moment to talk about our growing auto sector. We’re building a home-grown electric vehicle supply chain…That’s going to benefit every community in this province for generations to come.
 Rendering of the Volkswagen plant to be built in St. Thomas We’re connecting critical minerals in northern Ontario and clean steelmakers in Hamilton and Sault Ste. Marie. We’ve attracted over $25 billion in auto and EV battery investments.
Ontario is the only jurisdiction in North America where the world’s six largest automakers have set up shop.
Last month alone Ontario added more than 7,800 manufacturing jobs to our economy. That’s more new manufacturing jobs than all 50 U.S. states combined.
Ontario manufacturing sector now employs over 820,000 people, the highest it’s been since December 2008.
Across all sectors…700,000 more people are working today, than when we took office in 2018. as our economy grows our population grows…
We need to make sure our infrastructure keeps up. That’s why we’ve embarked on the most ambitious capital plan in our province’s history. We’re investing nearly $50 billion to support more than 50 new hospital projects across Ontario.
We’re investing $28 billion in roads and highways…
And more than $70 billion in transit…
As we build the largest transit expansion in North America.
 The Bradford bypass Shovels are in the ground to build the new Ontario Line.
Work is underway…On a bridge crossing over the future Bradford Bypass. We’re building the new Highway 413… stretching across Halton, Peel and York regions.
In Windsor we’re widening and expanding Highway 3 from two to four lanes between Essex and Leamington and building a new interchange to connect Highway 401 to Lauzon Parkway. We’ve purchased three new train sets as part of our plan to bring back the Northlander connecting Timmins and Cochrane with Toronto.
And we recently approved the terms of reference for the First Nations-led Environmental Assessment to finally build the all-season roads to the Ring of Fire.
Together, we have to ensure that Ontario is a place where our shared potential is limited only by the scale of our ambitions.
We have to ensure that Ontario is a place where we can do and build big things. We can’t talk about building without talking about homes. As everyone in this room knows We’re in the midst of a housing crisis. I hear it everywhere I go. People are struggling. Struggling with affordability, with the rising costs of buying a home and with high rents.
This struggle is being felt most by young people and newcomers who are priced out of the dream of home ownership. Even one of our own mayors, Mayor Salonen from Wilmot Township can’t afford to buy a home in the municipality she leads. That’s why it’s so important, that we work together to build at least 1.5 million homes by 2031.
Failing to act would worsen the housing supply and affordability crisis. Failing to act would hurt everyone in Ontario by driving up the cost of goods and services and by hampering new job creation and investments.
Failing to act…
 The gag was about the time he swallowed a bee. The Premier continued with one of the better Chamber of Commerce boost business speeches read in some time. He mentioned the
A Housing Supply Action Plan…
The Building Faster Fund.
Extending strong mayor powers to another 21 municipalities.
Urging the federal government to renew and expand the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
It wasn’t until the Premier got to saying “thank you again for inviting me here today” that we realized he didn’t use the word Greenbelt once in his address to the Mayors.
Only in Ontario
 By Pepper Parr
August 20th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Being part of the process that has candidates for leadership positions in a political party is fascinating.
The best I once took part in was when John Turner and another half dozen people were running to lead the federal Liberal Party. Pierre Elliott Trudueau won that contest and went on to be one of the most influential and at times divisive Primer Minters the country has ever had.
 Nate Erskine – Smith was a happy man – facing a room of attentive Liberals. Choosing who the next leader of the Provincial Liberals in Ontario will be is a lot quieter but none the less important.
The Burlington Liberals listened to Nate Erskine – Smith who told the audience that the race was between him and Bonnie Crombie who will be meeting with the Liberals on Monday evening at Tansley Woods.
What did Nate have to say to the audience?
Well – he is certainly fiscally conservative and believes that operating budgets have to be balanced. Capital budget don’t have to be, and if I understood Nate they shouldn’t be.
He wasn’t all that keen on a Universal Basic Income either.
He did respond to the tax and spend reputation Liberals have.
 Nate was an active federal parliamentarian – wrote some of the legislation that governs the country and produced a number of policy papers. We learned a lot about what he did while the Member in the House of Commons for Beaches East York.
Nate didn’t like being told how to vote with the Trudeau government but that is the way federal governments work in Canada. You get elected as a Member of a Political Party and you are required to support the party. It isn’t any different in Ontario – Nate wants to be the leader of the Liberal party and will expect those elected is as Liberals to stick to the party line.
Nate clearly wants to lead. He knew that his career opportunities federally were limited; and Queen’s Park means he can get home for dinner most nights.
Nate was an active parliamentarian – wrote some of the legislation that governs the country and produced a number of policy papers.
 A decent audience – not that many young people. His strong point was his consistently telling the audience that they would always know where he stands. You may not agree with him but you will know where he stands on an issue and why.
He spoke consistently about good faith relationships and doesn’t see very much of that in Ontario today.
He sees the problem Ontario faces with the current Ford government is this: they are not working for the people of the province – they are working for their friends. Nate call this corruption in plain sight.
He has a firm grip on the housing issue and talked about churches, municipalities and Metrolinx as organizations that have a lot of land that can be freed up for housing development. He made mention of an approach the United Church is taking. They have created a Housing Corporation and poured $10 million into it. Their plan is to merge churches that have small congregations and use the property they have to build affordable housing. Nate has seen this at work in his riding.
 Nate Erskine – Smith: The province does not have a Climate Change Plan While Nate doesn’t claim to have the answer to the affordable housing problem – he believes there is an answer and that the people of the province can work together to solve the problem.
He is certain the approach the current provincial government has decided to take is just plain wrong and takes offence at the way the Premier continually breaks his promises.
Well educated and well connected with the Bay Street crowd where he toiled for a number of years until he decided that he could serve society as a politician.
He sees the trouble facing Ontario with the current Ford government is a challenge that has to be met. And will tell you that the race is between him and current Mayor of Mississauga Bonnie Crombie. He has figured out how many seats the Liberals need to win and where the wins need to take place.
 Nate with Lisa Mayeski , president of the Burlington Provincial Liberal Association This is an intelligent man on a mission
He made one statement about Long Term Care – the province is building Long Term Care facilities in places no one wants to live in.
He said the province does not have a Climate Change Plan
Nate Erskine – Smith wants to empower community and is travelling across the province to meet and talk to as many people is as possible – if you find yourself in a room with him be prepared for a man who has a lot to say.
He also listens. If he is chosen to lead the party the hope is that he can grow it from the nine members it has to at least the Leader of the Opposition.
There is no clear sense yet is as to what the top Nate Erskine – Smith issue is going to be. He knows this – the affordability problem has to be resolved.
If he is elected leader by the Liberal Party before the end of the year he will probably have to bump Mary-Margaret McMahon, the current MPP for Beaches East York and run for that seat in 2026.
 By Pepper Parr
August 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
There is a publication with a 127 year history of giving people who like to spend time at the race track placing bets on the ponies. The Daily Racing Form provides horse racing tips, news, handicapping and analysis: trusted from Kentucky to Hong Kong.
 See this opinion column as a local tip sheet on what is going on at Queen’s Park.
Here is the way that messy business of land transfers is going to go down. Large tracts of land were purchased by a few developers.
Shortly after the purchases closed the developers provided descriptions of the parcels of land to the Chief of Staff for the Minister of Housing. Ryan Amato, the Chief of Staff, referred to as the kid worked with Government Staff who were required to sign documents that prevented them from talking to anyone about the work they were doing.
 Story is that site 9 had not been closed before it was placed on the list of properties to be taken out of the Greenbelt boundary. The tracts of land were then taken out of the Greenbelt boundaries and could then be used to build housing on.
That had greedy developers in a position to rake in billions once the land they had purchased had houses on the land.
The Auditor General investigated and set out what took place
The Auditor names Minister of Housing Chief of Staff Ryan Amato as the person who handled all the paperwork.
Everybody thinks the kid should be fired along with his boss the Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs.
Others think the kid should be fired and the Minister should do the decent thing and resign.
 Doug Ford, the Premier doesn’t see it that way.
He takes the principled decision that the buck stops at his desk and he said no one loses their job; however he does ask the Provincial Integrity Commissioner to look into the ethical issues to see if there are any and to report back to him. The Integrity Commissioner actually reports to the Legislature.
The Integrity Commissioner is hired by the province with a multi-year contract.
Amato who was out of the country on vacation when the Auditor General’s report was made public is reported to have lawyered up.
We now wait. Premier says his people are fine – they are doing their job which is everything possible to build the 1.5 million homes that are needed by 2031 (there isn’t a hope in hades that the target is going to be reached – but we have to wait until 2031 to be sure don’t we?
At some point the Integrity Commissioner issues a report and sets out multiple ethical breaches and suggests the kid be let go.
Premier with a huge sigh announces that the Integrity Commissioner is not part of the government, they are in place to advise the government and the advice is – let the kid go.
Doug is off the hook – he said keep the kid. The Minister of Housing is safe and secure – he is just doing his job – getting much needed homes built.
The Leader of the Opposition Marit Stiles, is doing everything she can to keep the issue front and center but with the Legislature recessed until September the public isn’t going to hear very much.
Doug Ford did say that if the property does not have housing on it by 2031 he will return the land to the Greenbelt.
There are numerous groups looking for ways to force the government to do that now.
Is that doable?
If there is a will – there is a way.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
By Pepper Parr
August 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
 The Regional Health department updates its dashboard related to COVID19 information every Thursday at 4:00 pm.
There was a time when that dashboard was updated daily – the threat is much less today but there is still a threat.
The people who monitor infections and new cases are paying close attention to “Eris,” a variant of interest.
The date shown below is an update on what has been happening in Burlington and the rest of the Region. Nothing alarming. However, we now know that this virus is going to be with us for some time – a mild state of vigilance is require“Eris,” a variant of interest.
Children return to school soon. Information is being sent to parents on what to prepare for – the Gazette will publish that information is as soon is as we can pull it all together.
The World Health Organization has classified the Covid strain EG.5, or “Eris,” a variant of interest, and says it currently believes it poses a similar level of global risk as existing variants.
Reformulated Covid vaccines are set to be available in the U.S. from late September which are expected to provide better protection against the variant.
 By Staff
August 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Disc Golf enthusiasts and outdoor adventure seekers can give Conservation Halton’s new ‘Summer 9’ disc golf course a spin at Kelso Conservation Area (Kelso). The course was designed in partnership with Chainlink Disc Golf to provide an unforgettable gaming experience for both beginners and seasoned players alike.
Disc golf is similar to traditional golf, but instead of using clubs to hit a ball into a hole, a disc is thrown towards a basket. The goal is to get the disc into the basket in the fewest tosses or ‘strokes’ possible. The player with the lowest total strokes for the entire course wins. Players can easily keep score by downloading the UDisc App.
 It would be hard to find a nicer setting to get out for a walk – and test your disc throwing skills. The course’s unique layout highlights the park’s diverse terrain. It incorporates elevation changes and a blend of long and short holes to accommodate players of various skill levels. Each hole is equipped with 2-tee placements and is supported by a 3-hole, 3-tee practice course to try putting, pitching, and driving.
“Conservation Halton prides itself on connecting people with nature,” said Craig Machan, Director, Parks & Operations, Conservation Halton. “Our ‘Summer 9’ disc golf course at Kelso gives visitors another way to experience our parks and get active outdoors. Disc golf is a fun activity, and it’s suited to all ages and abilities. Plus, here at our course, players will get to enjoy a round with the incredible Niagara Escarpment as their backdrop. We’re excited about this addition and look forward to hosting visitors for a round soon!”
 Great idea for a group outing – no golf clubs to lug around. Park visitors can enjoy Kelso’s disc golf course free of charge during regular park hours in spring, summer and fall. The course is also available to reserve for leagues, tournaments, corporate events, and school trips.
Individual players and groups can rent a 3-disc set that includes one putter, one mid-range, and one driver. Players can also choose to purchase their own 3-disc starter set, single discs, and/or disc bags at Kelso’s Trailhead Sports Rental & Retail Store (Trailhead), that include local retailers like: Innova, Discmania, Latitude 64, and GripEq Bags.
Grand Opening Event
Conservation Halton will be celebrating the Grand Opening of the new disc golf course on Saturday, August 26th from 9 am to 5 pm at Kelso. Visitors are encouraged to test out the course or register to compete in Mixed Singles and Doubles, or Men’s and Women’s Doubles. Players can participate in exciting prize draws and contests like the Longest Drive, Closest to the Pin, and Record an Ace Competitions. New and developing players can join Chainlink Disc Golf at 11:30 am for a Learn 2 Play Clinic. Food and refreshments will be available to purchase at West Lodge and Trailhead. More giveaway contests and discounts on retail will be offered August 17th to October 29th for visitors shopping at Trailhead.
For more information about Kelso’s ‘Summer 9’ disc golf course, including the full course map, park hours, group reservations, and event details, visit www.conservationhalton.ca/activities/disc-golf/or contact Conservation Halton at discgolf@hrca.on.ca.
 Conservation Halton is the community-based environmental agency that protects, restores, and manages the natural resources in its watershed. The organization has staff that includes ecologists, land-use planners, engineers, foresters, and educators, along with a network of volunteers, who are guided by a Board of Directors comprised of municipally elected and appointed citizens. Conservation Halton is recognized for its stewardship of creeks, forests and Niagara Escarpment lands through science-based programs and services.
By Pepper Parr
August 18th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
They will head for London Ontario to take part in the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference taking place from the 20th to the 23rd.
Council members from 422 of the 444 municipal councils in Ontario are expected to show up.
 City Manager Tim Commisso. The Mayor, along with Councillors Sharman, Galbraith and Bentivegna will be attending along with City Manager Tim Commisso. The Regional government pays for the councillors to attend AMO.
 Brian Rosborough, Executive Director of AMO Brian Rosborough, Executive Director of AMO, explains that people think of AMO as first and foremost an advocacy organization; advancing the interests of municipal council member; and for advancing the idea of good public policy where the sector is speaking with one voice.
This year, after the 2022 municipal elections, 42% of all Councillors are new to municipal council.
Burlington was not amongst that portion of the membership – every member of the current council was re-elected in 2022.
A feature of the AMO program has the entire provincial cabinet up on the stage for a question period in which AMO members are allowed to ask any questions they want. It’s an extraordinary moment of accountability for the province.
There are also delegation meetings; a local council can request a meeting with a cabinet minister, where they get to talk about local issues and priorities.
 Elementary students get a look at what city’s use to keep their city operational. Typically there are four or five hundred of those meetings that take place over the course of four days. It really is an opportunity for local councils to sit down with a cabinet minister and talk about the things that are really important to that municipality.
 Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward There is little doubt that Burlington has a lot of questions to ask – but there was nothing in the way of a media release setting out what the city wanted more information on – don’t expect the Mayor to tell you how things went with the Premier when he outed her on Burlington’s rate of new residential construction. Burlington was at the bottom of that list.
Burlington doesn’t include that kind of information as part of their transparency and accountability mandate.
“I can’t think of a venue where, like the entire government essentially shows up to answer questions outside of question period” said Brian Rosborough
“It’s a moderated discussion, but it is an opportunity for a pretty frank exchange.” Sometimes, he added, “we get a little announcement coming out of the Premier or a minister says something that that they want people to be aware of and we’re always eager for those.
 Leader of the Opposition: Marit Stiles Photo courtesy NDP Speeches are delivered from the official opposition the NDP, from the Liberal Party and from the Green Party. Each party has an opportunity to clearly articulate their commitments to the municipal sector to recognize that they understand the importance in the civil sector, and to give us a sense of what’s happening not just with the government, but with the opposition parties
Rosborough said that while there isn’t a general theme for this year’s conference there is an informal theme that we really want to explore and that is around optimism.
This government has three more years in its mandate and our view is that there’s a great deal we can accomplish together over the next three years.
We demonstrated a remarkable success in working together around COVID19; all three orders of government, provincial, federal and municipal governments with the municipal level doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
The big issue at the moment is around housing supply and affordable housing. It’s a top priority for the province, a top priority for the federal government and a top priority for municipal governments.
I think people are absolutely seized with the need to make some progress and municipalities are certainly eager to be part of that success.
Policy gets thrashed out at the plenary sessions. In addition there are about 15 workshops that occur throughout the course of the program, Outgoing Lieutenant Governor Dowdeswell is going to address the delegates.
 Catherine McKenna will speak on climate change, social, cultural and environmental and economic impact. Former federal Cabinet Minister, the Honorable Catherine McKenna, will speak on surrounding climate change social, cultural and environmental and economic impact. She is going to be one of three speakers for the Women’s Leadership Forum.
AMO has a partnership with the Council of Ontario Universities with three professors: from Wilfrid Laurier University, the Toronto based Metropolitan University and from McMaster talking about innovation related to housing.
 Premier Doug Ford with Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark The municipal level of government delivers most of the day to day services provided by government – the level of efficiency they achieve makes a big difference in the quality of life you live. Fixing the potholes, waste removal and the recreation service delivered are what keeps people content.
The elephant in the room didn’t get a word of mention from AMO – but the scathing report from the provincial Auditor General will be the hottest topic. As the delegates listen to the Minister of Municipal Affairs most will wonder how much longer he is going to have his job.
 By Staff
August 16th,2023
BURLINGTON, ON
This looks like fun – credit to the Burlington Downtown Business Association (BDBA) for this one.
On August 23rd, they will be celebrating the end of the summer Movies by the Lake experience – and to celebrate, they want to make that last movie night count! So we’re celebrating with a good old-fashioned treasure hunt.
 Find the card. Our giant Burlington Downtown Gift Card is hiding in one of our downtown businesses, and we need you to find it! Starting today (August 17th), follow our Instagram stories for clues on where to find the “long lost treasure”.
If you’ve figured it out, head on down to your business pick and, if you’re correct, collect one of 5 golden tickets*.
Bring your ticket to Spencer Smith Park on Wednesday, August 23rd, for one of 5 chances to win a prize pack live at the park!
By Pepper Parr
August 16th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Earlier in the week Bill Kelly, a broadcaster who spent 17 years at CHML covering local issues and interviewing the people who ran things at city hall in Hamilton and Burlington.
The occasion was Kelly’s last broadcast and he invited John Best, publisher of the Bay Observer to talk about the problems media is having informing the public.
We are publishing that conversation and adding some comment on what these two long toothed broadcasters had to say and how it impacts what is currently taking place in Burlington.
 Bill Kelly did a program with CHML for 17 years – signed off Monday morning. Kelly: I wanted John to be part of this last program to comment on media.
Best:My pleasure, Bill. I sort of feel like you and I are the two old guys up in the balcony on set saying: “ Yeah, let’s give it one more shot.
Kelly: You wrote in the piece you published recently about the elephant in the room and the seeming demise of journalism in this country.We’re being swallowed up by major corporations, who seem to think that subtraction is the best way to grow. And it’s not just to do with the situation with my show. But we’ve seen it happen too many times to too many top notch journalists in various forms, whether it’s print journalism, broadcast journalism, whatever the case might be, and we as a country and we as a society are the worst for it.
Best: One of the points I wanted to make is I think the big national news networks, the New York Times, CBC, not sure about CTV News, with some of the cuts they’ve made; that the national media, news media will probably survive in some form.
I’m really concerned about what’s happening with local news, with your show gone. For many, many years it was a local watering hole. It was the forum of our community and and I just worry generally about local news that we’re already seeing news deserts.
I look at Burlington as a city that really does not have the kind of coverage that a city of nearly 200,000 should have.
Local news actually probably works a little better in the smaller communities where they don’t have any television or radio. And in those cases, at least a local weekly newspaper can survive.
But if we don’t have local news Bill, what we’re going to have is all these people in City halls cranking out press releases that we all get by by the dozens: there will no longer be any kind of an observing filter. It’ll simply go from the PR people directly to the public, and at some point it will be taken as gospel.
And that’s really dangerous. That’s almost Orwellian to guys like me that have worked around the media for most of our adult lives. So it’s a concern and the answers are not readily at hand. I don’t think government funding is necessarily the answer either. So there’s some challenges here for sure.
Kelly: You related to a story when you and I talked a couple of days ago about your time in Brantford. You’ve been the news director at CHCH and a number of stations You had an allstar news staff with Tom Cherrington, Dick Beddoes. and Dan McKaren – Connie Smith was part of the gang. That was when they were reporters. I mean, they were people that were employed to go out and get the story to talk to the newsmakers to report on this.
But when newsrooms are decimated as they have been, especially as you say in some small markets with local news, the people that are left, and there’s not that many of them, have no choice but to simply, you know, reprint the press releases that the politicians or others are putting out. The few reporters that are left don’t have time to question – basically all they’re doing is repeating the spin that these people are putting on it. And that’s not good for the public. That’s not good for us to be informed and know what’s going on. There’s a valuable piece of that that’s starting to erode right now and I think we all need to be concerned about the implications of that.
 John Best was news Director at CHCH; he is now publisher of the Bay Observer – published as an online newspaper Best: So what’s left are extreme bloggers, and then the odd person like my myself, trying to sort of do the journalism I was trained to do many years ago. I publish the Bay Observer and try to keep it reasonably up and down. You know, in terms of balance and you know, I look around the city and the quality of the retired journalists in this community right now you could build an all-star team around them, but after they move on there isn’t much to work with.
We have Mohawk College, God bless them. They turned out some fantastic people, including yourself and Connie Smith. They’re dropping their journalism program because there’s no industry for them to feed graduates into. So at some point, you know when the old crew finally really do give it up, I’m just not sure what’s left in terms of people that can ask questions work their contacts.
Younger people now don’t even pick up the phone. So you know, and that’s one of the tools of journalism. You have to actually speak to people to ask them questions and get answers and you can’t do it all by email, and text. It’s too impersonal and you don’t get to the truth. If you can’t look people in the eye when you’re asking them questions.
Kelly: And like I’m not oblivious to the challenges facing you know, media and, and these corporations, the head offices, guys and all that sort of stuff. I get that. And I get the fact that they’ve got their hand out and I get the fact that they’re lobbying the federal government particularly, you know, to give us a help give us financial aid, which is one of the reasons for the legislation, which was so controversial these days. But what I don’t hear from any of them is, is the acknowledgement that hey, maybe we’re part of the problem, too.
Maybe we we’ve done enough to corrupt this business already. Maybe subtracting and basically disarming journalists in the fashion that they have over the last not just couple of years but really the last 10 or 20 years has put them into a predicament right now where they are at and you know, they’ve been part of the problem that for the longest time right now because they think more is going to be more beneficial that concerned about the bottom line. So we’re gonna make cuts whether it’s you know, Lisa LaFlame and CTV as you were just talking, Dan McLaren and Connie from CHCH some years ago, and on and on, it goes.
Then people stop listening, or they stop reading and all of a sudden revenues go down. They don’t seem to understand that Joe and Joanne public,are the connection with the media in this country; they are the ears and eyes the authors, the writers, the journalists, the newscasters, the news, anchors do their work for – and if you’re going to blow them out of the equation, you’ve lost the public, they’re gonna go someplace else, and that’s what they’ve done. They’ve gone to social media.
Best: Well, they have and of course, I mean, social media has is the main reason that we’re having this discussion right now. They have simply siphoned off you know, the old paradigm was people would read newspapers and tune into radio and television to get the news. The advertisers knew that that’s where the value was. They knew there was going to be an audience there and it was going to be a reasonably intelligent audience. And so they wanted to put their commercials next to that product.
But with social media now overwhelming the system the vast majority of that money has gone to them. And we just haven’t figured out a way yet. of, you know, making that whole. I’m not sure this piece of legislation in Ottawa is going to solve the problem. But, you know, I never thought in my time that I would actually see see local news under threat. Then journalism essentially is under threat. And I don’t think I thought the practice of journalism would be this fragile in my time, but there it is. That’s kind of a gloomy thing to say, but I don’t think we can ignore the fact that the news business is in trouble.
Kelly: And I know that some people are going to listen to this conversation because I get this feedback all the time. And all they are you taking shots at you know, the social media, people and journalists. There’s some fine people that make contributions on social media, with their blogs or any other number of vehicles. But there’s some that are not credible and not reliable. And it’s very difficult to tell one from another because basically, there are no guardrails with social media and that can be dangerous in and of itself, too.
And you’re right. I don’t want to be a downer with this whole thing but I’m worried about the future because, you know, information is key, information is power and in the absence of that information, anybody with can fill that void with whatever they want. And there’s always going to be an element of the population that is simply going to say, well, I saw it in print, so it must be true. And that can lead us down a very dangerous road.
Best: Yeah, we’ve kind of lost the shared sense of rules. There were, you know, some fairly basic rules about how news was presented and, you know, some people would paint outside the dots here and there, but generally speaking, there was general agreement on on what should be published and what should not be published and how to do it. That’s, that’s changed. I certainly as long as I’m doing what I’m doing, I’m going to try to continue to work with what worked for me so but it’s going to be tougher for the consumer to sort out who’s who’s got the good stuff and who’s misleading the public and creating more propaganda in the news.
Kelly: Well, I thank you for your contributions, as I say you’ve had a long and admirable career in journalism as well. And you’re continuing that traditional debate with the Bay Observer. It’s important that these communities are served with honest reporting, whether it be good news, bad news, or whatever the case might be. It’s key and absolutely true that that we’ve got to maintain that local contents and it’s not just talking about the bake sale that’s going on at the church around the corner. It’s talking about what goes on at city hall with all of these communities and, you know, the journalists, the All Stars that we all refer to were the ones that had that strength and that ability to talk about those issues and to ask the questions; to drill down and make sure that the public is properly informed. You continue to do that. I will too, in some way, shape or form but not on CHML apparently after today, but that’s a decision somebody else has made and we’ll have to abide by that.
This is not the end of our conversations either. We’ll just pick it up another time in another place.
I’m sure you’ve seen some of the outpouring of community support on social media. People really appreciate what you’ve done and every bit of praise that I’ve seen online is well deserved and I know you are not going to be silenced. Maybe you and I will actually figure something out at some point.
Bill Kelly and John Best were part of the way news was done that we will live to regret losing. The City of Burlington has a staff of three communications advisers who, as Best describes it, crank our the story the City wants the public to read. If we attempt to be in touch with a city staffer we get shunted along to the advisers who take our questions and come back with an answer which is frequently incomplete. There is no interview.
By Staff
August 16th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington is hosting it’s third annual Food for Feedback event on Saturday, September16 between noon and 4 p.m. at Central Park (2299 New St.).
 Almost every city department and every member of Council will have a table. Was there an opportunity for advocacy groups to set up a table and get out their story? Residents can come to enjoy a free meal in exchange for sharing their thoughts on City projects. City staff, Mayor Meed Ward and members of Council will be there to listen to resident feedback.
The free drop-in event features more than 26 booths and four food trucks. There is a special area called the ‘Kidz Zone’ sponsored by Canadian Tire where children can have fun while family members provide feedback on City projects.
Feedback collected at the event will help the City continue to improve services and initiatives.
Date and Location
Residents are welcome to attend Food for Feedback on:
Saturday, Sept. 16, between noon and 4 p.m. at Central Park, 2299 New St.
If it rains, the event will move to the Burlington Senior’s Centre.
This year, the City will be seeking feedback and sharing information on topics including:
Burlington Transit
Climate resiliency
Customer experience with the City
Civic Square renewal
Future use of former Robert Bateman High School
Transportation options
Recreation
Parks
Official Plan revisions
As part of the event, the City will also be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the Community Engagement Charter. The Charter is a tool used by residents, City staff and Members of Council. It guides and promotes active and meaningful resident engagement. Residents will also have an opportunity to provide feedback and make recommendations on how to refresh the charter at the event.
 Michelle Dwyer setting up for a previous Food for Feedback event. Michelle Dwyer, Manager of Engagement and Volunteers “wants everyone to have a voice in shaping our community. We’re excited to host Food for Feedback for the third time and bring together hundreds of community members to talk about how we can make our programs, services, and initiatives even better. Let’s have fun and make a difference in our city.”
Related news story:
Deciding when and where these Food for Feedback events were to take place took hours – the individual council member comments were memorable.
By Pepper Parr
August 16th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
We published two articles on people who have and are having problems communicating with City Hall and members of Council.
Ann Marsden and Tom Muir have been cut off; their email is diverted to the off of the City Clerk where decisions are made on what is “actionable”.
Who cares?
The software we have that allows us to see which stories are being read – the story with the highest readership is at the top of the list. As we work our way through a day we can see what is being read.
 Ann Marsden delegating at City Hall  Tom Muir On both of the days that the Muir and Marsden stories were published each was at the top of the list from about 10:00 am and remained there through to the end of the day.
Their story was being read – what we were not seeing was very much in the way of comment from readers.
There was all kinds of comment on the “garden” story.
The data tells us that people are aware of what has been done to Muir and Marsden but the readers have chosen not to comment
As one reader put it: “We have heard nothing from no-one!!!!”
That is very telling.
Some might see Muir and Marsden as a couple of noisy cranks who have nothing better to do with their time. If the City administration can get away with doing this to them – they will in time get away with doing the same thing to you. And the people you elected are not going to stand up for you.
Related news articles:
The Ann Marsden story
The Tom Muir story
By Pepper Parr
August 15th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It’s an issue that impacts all of us – on two levels.
The first – the way the provincial government treats the people who voted for them.
Second – how the provincial government manipulated issues and some of the senior people on the political side and the staffing side.
 Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Housing Steve Clark trying to talk their way out of the responsibility for lands that were taken out of the Greenbelt Boundary.  During the media event in Streetsville where the Premier and the Minister of Housing were handing out provincial money to a housing development that was oriented to people who had drug and coping problems one of the reporters asked the Premier why they were throwing Ryan Amato under the bus.
In the world of journalism you don’t too many opportunities to ask questions like that; once in a career if you are lucky.
I think Minister of Housing Steve Clark gulped.
If Ryan Amato was watching the media event – not sure if he was attending, didn’t see him in the small group, but he must have shuddered when he heard the question.
The Premier has sent the issue of Amato’s behaviour along to the Integrity Commissioner letting him hold the axe that will be used to dispose of Ryan Amato. The Integrity Commissioner said “it is reviewing a request from Premier Doug Ford’s office to investigate a senior aide about his role in selecting which lands in the protected Greenbelt would be approved for housing development.”
Recall that Amato worked very closely with a number of developers who were giving him documents that suggested which properties could be taken out of the Greenbelt Boundary and made available for development to solve the hosing crisis.
Nate Erskine Smith, one of five people running for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party who is currently a federal politician sitting in the House of Commons where he represent a Toronto constituency – Beaches—East York said:” now I’ve been in politics long enough to know that there is no chance, there is no chance that a chief of staff takes all of these significant steps without informing the minister or the Premier’s office.
Well just what were those “significant steps”
Nate puts it this way:
The Auditor General found that the developers received preferential treatment, incredibly of the 15 sites approved for removal 14 were brought into the project by the housing Minister’s Chief of Staff and it doesn’t stop there.
92% of the acreage ultimately removed were from five land sites passed to the housing Minister’s Chief of Staff from two developers, including, by the way have a package handed to him on September 14 at a dinner function.
What has to be interesting is that the names of the developers who were passing information along to Amato are not yet named.
We do know now that most of the land is in Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy constituency Pickering—Uxbridge
On September 14, 2022 at the Building Industry and Land Development Association (BILD dinner, two prominent developers provide packages to the chief of staff including site nine. The next day on September 15, the sale of site nine is completed (it hadn’t even been completed when they handed the package over). The following day, September 16. The Chief of Staff communicates three priority sites for removal from the Greenbelt, including site nine.
A Toronto Star columnist puts it this way:
“The housing minister’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato was directing the process for choosing which land would be opened up.”
The senior civil service staff involved were under the impression that Amato was doing what the Minister wanted so they didn’t speak up. Also because of the tight three week timeline, and the confidentiality agreements civil servants were obligated to sign, the sites could not be fully examined by experts, nor could many alternative sites be suggested, the auditor found.
Again from the Star columnist:
“Of the 15 parcels of land that were being considered,14 were proposed by Amato, not non-partisan provincial staff tasked with the work. Of the 14,, 12 were brought to Amato by the developers themselves. During the selection process, Amato changed the rules so that these properties would be more likely to qualify.”
 NDP leader of the Opposition Marit Stiles Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk even uncovered instances where portions of emails from developers to political staff were copied and pasted and forwarded to deputy ministers for inclusion in legislation. The civil servants involved did not know the text they were writing into law had been drafted by those who the law would affect.
Premier Doug Ford and Housing Minister Steve Clark say, essentially, that they didn’t realize that’s how it went down. “The process should have been better,” Ford said.
Toronto Star columnist Reg Cohn put it this way: “The politician who first came to power alleging corruption by a previous Liberal government now presides over a corrupted political process of his own making, on his own watch.”
All this ended up with the Auditor General when NDP leader of the Opposition Marit Stiles asked the Auditor to investigate. Interestingly Stiles gets little mention for that initial step she took asking the Auditor General to investigate.
Related new story:
Follow the money.
By Pepper Parr
August 15th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
There is something about all that property that was taken out of the Greenbelt boundaries and open to housing development that I don’t understand.
The figure of $8.3 billion is being used to express the increase in the value of the land that developers bought on which they are expected to build residential housing.
The developers are going to make a tonne of money once the housing is built and sold.
It is said that the developers are “friends” of the Premier.
The Minister of Housing, who said he has the confidence of the Premier and doesn’t appear to be all that uncomfortable with what is Chief of Staff did for the developers.
 Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Steve Clark  Ontario Premier Doug Ford So I ask myself? Why would the Premier sign off on this in a Cabinet meeting?
Why would a Minister of Housing sign off on this after he presented a case in a Cabinet meeting?
And why would a Chief of Staff meet with these developers and accept packages of information that set out which properties they developers would like to have taken out of the Greenbelt Boundary?.
 Chief of Staff to the Minister of Housing Ryan Amato What was in it for the Premier, the Minister of Housing and his Chief of Staff?
Nothing?
Really?
I have no evidence to turn to that suggests there were payoffs.
The Provincial Police have said they are investigating.
In Ontario the Provincial Police, police at any level for that matter, tend not to put their noses into anything the politicians.
 Looks like a duck You know that phrase: If it looks like a duck and walks like a duck – it’s a duck.
We may not have much in the way of certainty as to just what to call this – but it certainly stinks.
Is there any hope of changing the decision – and putting the land back within the Greenbelt Boundary.
In the stock market business if the regulators find that there was something crooked taking place they can and order that the transaction be unwound.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
 By Tom Muir
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Anne Marsden is not the only person having problems with their email going to city hall.
Let me tell you about my experience with the email I send to city hall.
On January 3, 2023 I sent an email to Kevin Arjoon, the Clerk, Tim Commisso, City Manager, Nancy Shea-Nicol, and Blake Hurley, Legal, and other Senior Managers in Burlington City.
An edited part follows to show the essence of my comment point here regarding the fate of this email, and whether all of these people are getting their mail. It is something previously sent to the Integrity Commissioner and City Council.
January 3 2023
“I should have copied the Clerk and Legal on this correspondence to the Integrity Commissioner and Council earlier, but I did not expect the bad experience I have had.
I am sending this material and information to you because I don’t know where else to send it at City, and I feel your responsibilities as Senior Staff make these issues part of your responsibilities and purview.
I have read the City web pages on Transparency and Accountability, including the City Citizen Engagement Charter among other things.
 Tom Muir at a community meeting asking questions about a development application. I note that the City says – “The City of Burlington is committed to maintaining transparency in our information and accountability in our processes.”
On the role of the Integrity Commissioner, the City says – “The role of the IC is to support the City’s ethical framework and enforce the Code of Good Governance. They provide guidance on various ethical codes and policies and investigate potential breaches of the Code.”
The following correspondence of mine provides evidence in my opinion indicating breaches of transparency, accountability, ethics and breaches of the Code that are relevant to the duties of the Clerks office as overseer of procedure and the written Codes of Conduct. This was previously sent to the Integrity Commissioner and Council.
“1. The following Investigation procedure contained in the City Code of Good Governance page 7 of 9, was not followed by the Integrity Commissioner:
Investigation
If the Integrity Commissioner determines that a formal investigation is required he or
she shall proceed in the following manner, subject to the Integrity Commissioner’s
ability to elect to exercise the powers of a commissioner under Parts I and II of the
Public Inquiries Act:
• The Integrity Commissioner shall provide a copy of the complaint and any
supporting materials to the member whose conduct is in question with a request
that a written response to the allegation be provided to the Integrity Commissioner
within ten days
• The Integrity Commissioner shall provide a copy of the response provided by the
member to the complainant with a request for a written reply within ten days.”
I did not receive the response of the Councillor.
Tom Muir I think this a serious contravention of the Code, and not keeping with the tenets of procedural fairness that Integrity Commissioner cited for providing the Councillor with my evidence. With respect to me, it amounts to the withholding of evidence that the procedural order specified as required.
The Councillor was provided with all my complaint evidence, but I was provided with none of his response. That is obviously not procedural fairness as the Code says.I asked for but did not receive any acknowledgement of receipt from the Integrity Commissioner or Council or the Clerk or any Party, nor did anyone respond.
So, nobody responded and so, apparently, nobody is responsible, transparent and accountable no matter what the City says is Policy.
Like the case of Anne Marsden, did any of the Senior and Responsible staff on my mailing list not get my mailing directly?”
The Clerk is first, as he has the responsibility and duty to respond to my point of enforcing the procedural rules of the City and the Codes of Conduct. His Office also pays the bills for the Integrity Commissioner.
I have tried to communicate with Councillor Galbraith but he sent me a message telling me flatly, with no foundation at all, that I will receive no further communication from his office.
I wrote the Mayor asking her if she was going to allow this as it transparently violated any number of the City Code policies, and Engagement Charter, Provincial polices on Councillor duties, the Councillor’s Oath of Office, and so on in common sense, shared by many friends.
The Mayor responded that the Councillor could limit interactions with someone when “deemed necessary”, but with no elaboration, allowing it to be arbitrary. I searched for any City documentation, looking for where it was written what “deemed necessary” meant, and what grounds described it, but I could not find anything.
The bottom line is: The Clerk did not respond to me regarding this failure by the Integrity Commissioner to follow this written procedure in the Code of Good Governance, and did not provide any transparency or accountability in response of explanation of this Integrity Commissioner failure and its previous failure to acknowledge my message raising it..
 Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward Further, the City Manager was copied, as were Senior Legals, and other Senior Managers with related purviews in my opinion. They stood down. The Mayor was sent this, but was silent on the procedural issue of the Integrity Commissioner.
As I said, nobody appears to be transparent or accountable for even an explanation of my issue, or my legitimate message and request for action on what is a certain and exclusive duty of the Clerk. with a certain presumption of oversight by the City Manager.that her
“In the Marsden story the City Clerk stated that her emails to Councillors and staff are diverted to the Clerk’s Office.
The reason, he claims, is so the emails can be properly actioned!”
I have to ask, was my email here diverted?
 City Clerk Kevin Arjoon Arjoon has failed to respond to what I saw as actioning his most basic duty – enforcing the procedural rules.
It looks like I am totally throttled from any communication however legitimate it appears to be, even regarding a fully legitimate and procedural regulated City public process under the oversight of the City Clerk.
It looks like Anne may be too.
 By Staff
August 14th,2023
BURLINGTON, ON
 Produce that went to the Burlington Food Bank A reader asks:
Why is the property at Ghent and Brant allowed to be left un-mowed?
This is a main artery and looks terrible.
Indeed it is – could it be because it was re-zoned in the mind of the ward Councillor as farm property?
When the Urban Farm first opened it was a busy place and produced a lot of food that went to the Food Bank. However, in the following years it wasn’t as popular. This year the site was left unkept with what were clearly weeds.
Bylaw enforcement Officers in Burlington do not visit a property unless a complaint has been made.
 The site marked A is where the Urban Farm was located It is also the site that will be developed as a high rise tower. Site B is where an almost identical tower will rise. Site C will have stacked houses in the Molinaro development. The developer let the people running use the land at no cost to them.
By Staff
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Surprising to see this advertisement.
The person a Mayor needs is someone they know well, respect and will listen to. The Chief of Staff is there in an administrative capacity as well as a strategic role.
While the title is a little on the inflated side – there are only four people in the office – it is nevertheless a critical role.
 Former city manager Tim Dobbie. In the past Burlington Mayors have had men (always men) who served them exceptionally well. Tim Dobbie worked very closely with Rob MacIsaac as City Manager – no need for a Chief of Staff Dobbie knew everything and did everything MacIssac needed.
When Cam Jackson replaced MacIssac Dobbie knew it was time to move on and set himself up as a consultant. He is never out of work.
 Frank McKeown, Mayor’s Chief of Staff, attempts to fix the clock in Council Chambers. Frank McKeown worked with Rick Goldring but left when he realized Goldring wasn’t the Mayor he had hoped he would be.
The Chief of Staff makes a Mayor look better than they are; they know the strengths and the weaknesses of the person they are working for and with.
You don’t find that person by running an advertisement.
The advertisement is no longer running – it served its purpose.
By Pepper Parr
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It was both a tough week and a political disaster for Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. That was last week.
This week Mayor Meed Ward has a meeting with the Premier of the province (if not this week – soon) during which he will ask – where do you have shovels in the ground.
Mayor’s don’t attend events like this on their own. Meed Ward will take some weight with her – most likely City Manager Tim Commisso, who isn’t likely to add much to what the Premier will want to hear.
 Executive Director Sheila Jones. Were I the Mayor, I would take Sheila Jones, she is the most articulate presenter the city has and can explain the problem in language the Premier will understand. Not likely to happen though.
The public will probably not hear all that much about the meeting with the Premier. Mayor Meed Ward tends to not make mention of anything that doesn’t shine the bright lights on her.
Media across the country are now taking up the naturalized gardens issue – the Mayor missed that one as well. A piece in the Hamilton Spectator today makes it clear that the naturalized gardens and an issue that is not going to go away. The LINK will take you to that story.
Later in the month the Mayor will attend the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario A(MO) conference – wonder how her peers will wonder – what is it that isn’t working in Burlington.
That’s a question that is being asked more and more around town.
 By Ray Sullivan
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
This opinion piece first appeared in the Toronto Star
Housing Minister Sean Fraser is correct: housing has become a major bottleneck to economic growth in this country. But the minister is mistaken when he says that current federal budget commitments are enough to get the job done. Here’s why:
- Housing dollars don’t go as far in 2023. When rental housing developers could borrow money directly from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation at 1 to 2 per cent interest, project budgets pencilled out. Non-profit housing projects could add more affordability with CMHC grant contributions for 30 to 40 per cent of project costs.
Today, those same projects can only borrow at four to five per cent interest from CMHC, which means they can’t afford to borrow as much, and CMHC grants now only cover five per cent of costs. Plus, construction costs have risen by as much as 50 per cent.
We’re in a crisis, with homelessness, housing-induced poverty and serious economic and human impact. We need federal leadership and rather than relying on out-of-date plans, programs and commitments from five years ago, Fraser needs to see that far from being adequate to fix the problem, the federal tool box needs to be updated and replenished.
- Federal funding drops off a cliff in five years. Current federal budget commitments for housing and the National Housing Strategy end in 2028. Some of it even sooner. New housing takes four to five years from conception to completion. We have no commitments there will be federal support for affordable housing projects five years from now. It’s not just about spending faster, it’s about predictability and matching federal timelines to the development cycle.
- It’s not just about supply; it’s about the right supply. We need more homes, to keep up and to catch up with population growth. According to CMHC, we need to build 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to restore balance and affordability. But there are flaws in this simplistic supply-and-demand argument. If we double the pace of residential construction to meet that target, we add pressure to strained labour, trades and materials markets.
Following the same supply-and-demand logic tells us that doubling the pace of residential construction will drive up construction costs and the price of new homes. Clearly, increasing supply alone will not address the affordability crisis.
More than 20 per cent of households cannot afford market-rate housing. The community housing sector represents only four per cent of the total housing supply, and struggles to meet demands that are more than five times greater than the entire existing non-profit and co-op housing stock. We need to at least double the supply of community housing to come closer to meeting the housing needs of modest income households.
- We’re fighting a headwind now, so focus our energy. Recently, encouraged by low interest rates, low inflation, stable costs and a whole generation priced out of home ownership, private industry returned to rental construction. There was a tailwind and momentum that made it easy to believe that the only necessary government response was to remove barriers and unleash the capacity of the market and private industry.
The winds have changed now. With higher interest rates and high inflation, private industry is putting projects on the shelf and ramping down production. At a time when we need it most, the momentum has dropped, and federal intervention is needed to jump-start greater housing production.
Housing is a shared responsibility between all orders of government, but we need national leadership. We need a “Team Canada” industrial approach and the feds are wearing the jersey with the big “C” for captain.
The team captains can’t say “we’ve done our share,” or “leadership isn’t primarily our responsibility” — that isn’t good enough. We can no longer rely on strategies, programs and plans designed under completely different economic circumstances. The game has changed, and we need to adapt and step up to the growing challenge.
Ray Sullivan is executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association, which represents non-profit and co-operative community housing.
By Pepper Parr
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It is a great place to visit.
A collection of over forty aircraft maintained and preserved are housed at the Canada’s aviation history saw restoration projects that were not only great pieces of workmanship but airworthy examples are housed at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum next to the Hamilton International Airport. Some of the aircraft are show below.
 If you visit expect to spend a couple of hours.
What is really exciting is the opportunity to be a passenger on a flight.
It’s on the pricey side – but it will be the adventure of a lifetime on some of the aircraft.
Want to think about it ? Click on the link.
When the Boeing Stearman takes off it is just you and the pilot on a twenty minute flight. The illustration below is the place that you book the flight. There are people that have almost everything – this is the kind of gift for that kind of person. The illustration below is an example of where you book a flight.
By Pepper Parr
August 14th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
There was a time when a resident could send a note to their ward Councillor and get a response promptly.
This still happens – for some people – not all people.
 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith.  Tom Muir Tom Muir, an Aldershot resident was told by his ward Councillor that Muir would not get any service from ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith.
Tom Muir can be a handful at times. Burlington prefers people that are polite and the current Council now takes the view that they can cut someone off if they don’t want to respond to them. Mayor Meed Ward pointed out to citizens that Council members and Staff are not punching bags, something she appears to have forgotten or ignored when she revised a Council Agenda in order to pound away at Councillor Shawna Stolte.
Stolte is another Council member who has decided to be selective in who she responds to.
Marsden can also be a handful at times. She was like a dog with a bone when the infections at the Joseph Brant Hospital resulted in the death of 98 people. Marsden kept that situation in the public eye which resulted in a financial settlement; there has yet to be a public apology for the failure to ensure the hospital was kept clean.
Ann Marsden learned recently that the email she sends to anyone at City Hall does not get to the person it was addressed to – it instead gets routed to the Office of the City Clerk where it is reviewed and someone in that office determines what happens to it.
Marsden wanted to communicate with Councillor Stole on a matter that related to a Council meeting that was chaired by Stole in the Mayor’s absence.
 Ann Marsden reading to City Council  Councillor Shawna Stolte serving as Deputy Mayor Knowing that her email was being redirected she sent a Registered letter to Stole at her home address – expecting a response. The letter was signed for – so Marsden knows it was received – the lack of a response is both troubling and disturbing. This Council officially takes the position that they are both transparent and accountable.
The letter sent to Stole is set out below:
Deputy Mayor Shawn Stolte at Nomination Paper Address BY REGISTERED MAIL
c.c. Mr. Blake Hurley Mr. Tim Commisso
Care of Deputy Mayor Stolte August 8, 2023
Dear Deputy Mayor Stolte,
First of all our apologies for addressing you at your home by registered mail. However, as you will see from the attached Update Comment to an article that appeared in the Gazette regarding our delegation on July 11, 2023 Kevin Arjoon has confirmed that our emails to all staff and councillors, are, as suspected diverted and do not reach those intended. This happened in the past with the former Clerk, City Manager and Head of Legal but we thought such tactics to prevent our right of engagement with staff and council through email and the delegation process were a thing of the past with the retirement of the former Clerk, Head of Legal and departure of the last City Manager.
But obviously we were wrong to believe this was a thing of the past given City Clerk, Kevin Arjoon has verified that all the Marsden emails to Councillors and staff are diverted to the Clerk’s Office. The reason, he claims, is so the emails can be properly actioned! Arjoon has failed to respond to:
Who in the Clerk’s Office is receiving the emails?
Who instructed the Marsden emails to staff/council members be diverted?
The Clerk also verified this diversion of the Gazette published Marsden emails from clerks@burlington.ca was responsible for the Public and Council being informed the Marsdens had not registered for two delegations at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting that led to you calling for a motion to waive the Procedural Bylaw. Arjoon’s fix to address our delegation request not being addressed when
it should have been appears to us to be a deliberate act of deceit by the City Clerk to obtain an unnecessary vote of Council. The purpose of which was to divert attention from what was occurring with the Marsden’s timely email request of clerks@burlington.ca to delegate.
The result of the deceit, has led to two very important matters of huge public interest improperly remaining on the Consent Agenda at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting which you had the honour of chairing given the Mayor’s inability to do so. . The Marsdens were properly registered for a delegation on both these items which required their transfer to the Regular Agenda, which did not occur.
This results in a question of the legitimacy of the policy and new by-law, the first Trespass By-law the city has approved. Both of which were put in place to protect clients of the City’s recreation programmes and were long overdue. The staff review of the policy was ordered by Council to occur December 2020.
This letter is to formally ask you to:
Correct the minutes to show Council were informed, noted by yourself, that the Marsdens had registered to delegate at the July 11, 2023 Council meeting and, therefore, the Motion to Waive the Procedural By-law was applicable to only one delegate, not three.
Put forward a Motion of Reconsideration to the August 24, 2023 if held and September Council meeting if not, that will place Public Conduct Policy and Trespass By-law (CL-08-23) and Civic Square and Brant Street renewal – project initiation (ES-27-23) on the Regular Agenda of the appropriate September/October Committees and the following Council meeting.
Put a motion before Committee that:
requests a report from Clerk Kevin Arjoon that explains the delay in complying with the Council review date of December 2020 on the Public Conduct policy and other Corporate Policy review dates.
requests a report from the City Legal Director Blake Hurley as to why a Trespass By-law has not been in place to support the Public Conductcorporate policy since the policy was first introduced, given the apparent lack of authority to issue trespass notices without such a by-law.
We believe all of these actions by yourself as the Chair of the July 11, 2023 Council meeting are in the best interests of the community all members of Council have voluntarily agreed to serve and demonstrate their willingness to abide by the Procedural Bylaws each of you have approved on several occasions and the various pieces of legislation pertinent to good governance including the Municipal Act.
As our emails continue to be diverted despite our objections we would very much appreciate you sending a copy of this letter to Messrs. Hurley and Commisso and each member of council and then confirm having done so to anneandave@gmail.com.
Again we apologize for our method of communication with you and hope that it does not have to be repeated after Messrs Hurley and Commisso are made aware of the situation and do what they have to in order to restore our ability to communicate with staff and council the same as every other taxpayer expects to be able to do.
Thank you Deputy Mayor Stolte for doing what you can to restore democratic principles, earned by the sacrifice of so many, to prevail at Council and in the governance of the City of Burlington.
Anne and Dave Marsden
Pro Bono Community Health, Safety and Access Advocates 308-1425 Ghent Ave, Burlington, Ontario L7S 1X5
905-467-2860 anneandave@gmail.com
“Work for the well-being of the city to which I have sent you.“ Jeremiah 29 vs. 7 NIV Bible.
 City Manager Tim Commisso appears to have delegated the Marsden problem to the City Clerk  City Clerk Kevin Arjoon Efforts are going to have to be made by someone, ideally the City Manager, to bring to a head what is a vexing problem.
There has to be limits that are reasonable and easily understood by the average person. The City Clerk appears to have put in place a procedure that is reasonable. The decision on the part of Councillor Stolte to ignore the registered letter would appear to be avoiding a problem. That tends not to work with Ann Marsden.
This situation could be seen as a tempest in a tea pot – until it happens to you.
Related news stories:
Is City Council about to limit your rights
Has City Council become authoritarian?
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