 By Staff
November 9th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
 Burlington MPP Natalie Pierre speaking at Queen’s Park We don’t know exactly when Burlington MPP Natalie Pierre stood up in the Legislature to read a statement. She was congratulating the Halton Regional Police on their Cram-a-Cruiser event supporting the Burlington Food Bank telling her colleagues that is was a major success!
“Together with the community on a rainy Saturday morning we were able to raise $1150 and over 950 lbs of food! It was very heartwarming to see the generosity of Burlington residents.
Two police officers were in the gallery to hear the MPP
You can watch the performance HERE
 By Pepper Parr
November 9th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
A group with the name Ontario Health Coalition has been doing a fine job nipping away at the heals of the provincial government.
 They have scheduled a public event; Liberal Leadership Candidates Q & A Roundtable on Public Health Care in Ontario
The Ontario Liberal Party will announce the membership election of its new party leader is electing its new leader early in December
We coalition wanted to find out how the candidates are thinking about the key health care issues. All the candidates have agreed to join a public roundtable Q & A session.
All are welcome to attend. Here is the information:
Monday, November 13, 12 p.m. (noon)
You can join to watch and send your comments:
Zoom – register here and Zoom will email you the link to the event: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtc-uvqzgpG9VhNVZ2ZydAKl6V1cQQ4fy6
Facebook – go to https://www.facebook.com/ontariohealth at 12 p.m. on November 13 and you will see the Livestream
Twitter – go to our Twitter at @OntarioHealthC at 12 p.m. on November 13 and you can join the Twitter Space by clicking on the icon (and we will tweet out the link) to hear the Q & A
All are welcome. If you are joining the Zoom please register soon; they are limited to 1,000 people only.
Bonnie Crombie, Nate Erskine-Smith, Ted Hsu and Yasir Naqvi (invited, has not yet confirmed)
Candidates will respond to questions about their commitments and plans for Ontario’s hospitals, home & community care, long-term care, public health, EMS and primary health care.
The Ontario Health Coalition is a non-partisan public interest and advocacy organization dedicated to safeguarding and improving our public health care under the principles of equity and compassion that are foundational to our system of health care for all.
 By Staff
November 9th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
 There are children who do not have snow suits. The Regional Police have set up collection locations where snow suits can be delivered. For the third consecutive year, Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) is launching their annual Kozy Kids initiative to help ensure under served youth across the Halton Region are prepared for winter.
The initiative was kickstarted in 2021 after two HRPS Constables learned that a number of children – many of whom were newcomers to Canada – were regularly absent from school during the winter months, as their families couldn’t afford to purchase winter apparel. In the Town of Milton alone, 105 students were identified as needing assistance. Thanks to the generous donations of Halton residents and business owners, gently-used clothing and financial donations were offered, ensuring all identified children were provided with a snow suit or winter jacket.
The following year, and made possible by financial donations, HRPS ordered new snow suits to-size, clothing 475 youth.
As the rising cost of living continues to impact individuals across the Region, we’re working with local community partners to identify more families who need our support.
Starting today and until November 21st, we kindly invite residents and business owners to purchase a new snow suit (youth sizes 6-16) and drop them into a collection box stationed at our Headquarters and each of our District buildings:
2485 North Service Road West, Oakville, ON. (8:00 am – 4:00 pm)
3800 Constable Henshaw Blvd., Burlington, ON. (8:00 am – 10:00 pm)
95 Oak Walk Drive, Oakville ON. (8:00 am – 10:00 pm)
490 Childs Drive, Milton, ON. (8:00 am – 10:00 pm)
217 Guelph Street, Georgetown, ON. (8:00 am – 4:00 pm)
Stephen J. Tanner, Chief of Police, Halton Regional Police Service said “Like many things in life, it’s not until you don’t have something that you truly appreciate it. Snow suits are an essential item for children in our Region. When you donate, you’re not just helping to keep kids warm as they travel to and from school, you’re giving them the opportunity to explore and learn in the great outdoors for what can otherwise be isolating months. We’ve seen firsthand the joy and excitement that your donations bring to children in our community, and on behalf of myself and the entire Service, we thank you for warming both the bodies and hearts of those who need us the most.” –
By Pepper Parr
November 8th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Direct the City Manager to bring forward a rank order (Top Priority/High Priority/Medium Priority/Other Priority) for all FTEs (Full time Employee) included in the 2024 financial needs and multi-year forecast that are supported through the tax rate for the November 7 Budget Council Workshop meeting.
The following are the graphics that came out of that Direction.
Getting the priority documents into the hands of Council the following days was the result of a superb effort on the part of several Staff members led by Executive Director Shelia Jones who ran a very tight meeting.
As each department head explained to Council what their staffing needs there had to be some way to prioritize the jobs. Some were needed immadiately, other weren’t needed this year but the department heads were making it clear that they would be needed next year.
 These were the jobs that staff saw as essential. They were included in the Budget the Mayor put forward.
 These were the next level of prioritization. Note that the Dire Department is expected to get by with two of the four they require.  Third level of prioritization. Yellow indicates those that are in the current Mayor’s budget.  These were seen as necessary by staff but not seen as necessary by Council – usually because funding wasn’t available.
 This chart shows how the city recognized what was needed and when they could not be funded they were carried forward to a following year. All this staff expansion is the result of the 29,000 housing units that are going to be built in the next decade.
By Pepper Parr
November 8th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
When the public gets wind of just how many new jobs city department managers say they need – everything will go up in smoke.
 Chad Macdonald: An Executive Director and Chief Information Officer During one of the Workshops during which there was drill down deep questions during which the staff member responsible for the department was asked to explain what they needed and who – and then – how it could be done.
A lot of this stuff is way over the heads of most people.
But there was one new job that will delight those who pay some attention to what goes on in city hall.
They want to hire a webmaster!!! Halleluiah!!!
No word on when this might happen – but it is clear that the Executive Direction and Chief Information Officer Chad Macdonald has it on his list.
Macdonald is doing a superb – and could get a lot of what he is asking for.
The chart below will blow your mind – it is a list of the jobs that need to be filled.
 There are at least 16 new jobs on the list. A webmaster would be very very welcome. It is hard to find someone that likes the city web site as it is today.
By Staff
November 8, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
A report in the Toronto Star has a majority of 50 municipalities poised to fail their first high-stakes provincial housing assignment.
There is a “fundamental flaw” in the government program that may further stall development.
 Burlington close to the bottom of the list of municipalities reaching their development targets. Ontario’s housing ministry has a program that is in place to reward some and punish other municipalities for something beyond their control.
 This is what the province wants to see – just not enough of it happening in Burlington The Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM), a coalition of 29 municipal leaders that represents 70 per cent of the provincial population, is urging the province to rewrite the terms of its housing strategy, which is using a pot of $1.2 billion to award municipalities that reach at least 80 per cent of their provincially assigned target.
The housing ministry clarified that target late last month, telling municipalities they would be accountable for “housing starts” — the number of foundations laid during the initial stage of construction.
Municipalities don’t pour concrete. They can’t lower interest rates, expand the number of skilled labourers or carry water into communities that have none.
 Mayor Marianne Meed Ward at a budget meeting earlier this week. “Tying funding eligibility to a foundation being poured is holding the municipality to account for something we can’t control,” said OBCM chair Marianne Meed Ward, who is also the mayor of Burlington. “That’s one of the reasons why so few of our members are qualifying.”
Burlington is among 26 cities, including Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Newmarket, Oshawa and Vaughan, that are less than halfway toward meeting their targets this year. As of late October, 76 per cent of the municipalities Ontario is tracking — 38 of 50 — did not qualify for funding.
“If this is not fixed, the municipalities that won’t get the funding will have to do one of two things: raise taxes or not build infrastructure,” said Meed Ward. “Neither option is appropriate or palatable.”
Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra told the Star his government “will continue to work with our municipal partners in order to achieve our shared housing goals.
“At the same time we have been clear that the Building Faster Fund is a tool through which our government is supporting municipalities committed to growth … with costs related to the housing enabling infrastructure required to support that growth,” Calandra said in an email Thursday.
 Housing Minister Paul Calandra – “We will not allow for any distractions. “We will not allow for any distractions … we are counting on each municipality to do their part.”
Later that day, the province released its fall economic statement, which set aside additional money for municipal infrastructure projects, but OBCM said the pot won’t go far.
The Star reached out to municipal staff and elected officials in a dozen communities across Ontario to understand the challenges keeping them from meeting their provincial targets and building more homes faster.
They talked about the true costs of building new neighbourhoods, being publicly shamed by Premier Doug Ford and why most of the municipalities that signed up for this challenge never had a fighting chance of winning.
Mayor Meed Ward is struggling to produce a budget that comes in at 4.99% for the city portion of the property tax bill – this isn’t going to help what already looks like a target that may not get met
By Staff
November 8th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington is looking for community members to volunteer on a city committee or board.
These volunteers play a key role in providing advice and feedback to City Council and staff on a variety of city issues. Applications are now being accepted online at burlington.ca/committees until Nov. 27, 2023.
 Residents taking part in a discussion about the role Advisory Committees can and should play in helping Staff get feedback. This group didn’t manage to resolve anything. Members of the public over 18 years of age, representing the diverse backgrounds of our community are encouraged to apply. Participating on a city committee provides a unique opportunity to:
- Lend your voice and expertise to help shape decisions and services that impact our community
- Expand your network and meet new people
- Gain a broader understanding of how municipal government works.
Now Recruiting
The nine committees recruiting new members include:
Burlington Accessibility Advisory Committee (1 vacancy)Burlington Agriculture and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee (6 vacancies)
Burlington Cycling Advisory Committee (9 vacancies)
Burlington Downtown Parking Advisory Committee (2 citizen representatives and 2 alternates)Heritage Burlington Advisory Committee (9 vacancies)Burlington Integrated Transportation Advisory Committee (2 vacancies)
Burlington Mundialization Committee (4 vacancies)
Burlington Sustainable Development Advisory Committee (10 vacancies)
NEW – Pipeline to Permit Standing Committee (5 vacancies)
The number of people the city wants to recruit for a couple of the committees look as if they are doing a complete re-build – not a healthy sign.
New – Pipeline to Permit Committee
 Waterfront Access and Protection Advisory Committee was sunset by the city when it no longer served its original purpose. New for 2024, Council has established the Pipeline to Permit Standing Committee. It has nothing to do with “pipelines”
This new Committee, which to a considerable degree is an experiment, will focus focus on tracking growth, issues, and continuous improvement opportunities for the development approval process within the City of Burlington, recognizing overarching legislative planning requirements and any other relevant regulations.
The City is looking for five community members with relevant experience to volunteer on the Committee. More information about the Pipeline to Permit Committee can be found at burlington.ca/committees.
Attend an information session on Nov. 23
Individuals interested in learning more, can attend a virtual information session on Wednesday, Nov. 23 at 6:30 p.m. on Zoom. To register, please email clerks@burlington.ca.
The City of Burlington has more than 18 boards and committees that play a key role in providing advice and feedback to City Council and staff on a variety of issues, including heritage, accessibility, diversity and the environment.
On Nov. 2, 2023, City Council approved the Terms of Reference for the Pipeline to Permit Committee (Report CM-15-23).
 By Pepper Parr
November 8th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The Wendy Fletcher Petition to keep the property taxes lower is still drawing signatures.
It climbs a little high each day.
The Telephone Town Hall last night drew a reported 5,000 people on the call. Nothing all that new – it was a bit of a grandstand for the Mayor who was joined by one of her Deputy Mayors – Paul Sharman
As of 8:30 today there were:
By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Sue Evfremidis, Acting Executive Director Human Resources –
The increases to the staffing compliment are at the base of concerns and complaints about the budget increases.
 Sue Evfremidis, Acting Executive Director Human Resources Sue Evfremidis, Acting Executive Director Human Resources – started by explaining that “, our staff, our people are our most valuable and unique asset that we have.
Human Resources is responsible for developing a people strategy that is aligned with the city strategy and goals. That will ultimately increase our organizational effectiveness.
“Our ability to attract, hire and retain staff has a direct impact on our ability to achieve our goals and deliver service excellence. The employee experience drives the customer experience. When I say employee experience, I’m referring to the entire employee life-cycle from the moment that they become a potential employee for the City of Burlington to the moment that they leave and everything in between.
All of it is impacted by the HR systems that are in place today and planning for tomorrow. How they were hired, did we invest in their development? Was it the right development? Did we provide a safe and inclusive work environment? Did we address the compensation and to ensure the compensation systems were equitable? Did we recognize and reward behaviours?
“We wanted to foster that employee experience. I’ve worked for a variety of different organizations, both private and public sectors, like much like many of you here today, they ranged from classical managerial style to highly collaborative global innovative structures.
“There’s not a one size fits all people strategy. It must be aligned with the organization’s strategy and goals and must also take into consideration the organization’s current capabilities and future capabilities. If not, may not be implementing HR systems and programs but we may be implementing excuse me, HR systems and programs that are hindering instead of helping our organization to achieve our goals.
“Our city is a complex organization with multiple business lines, varying funding streams, legislations legislated highly legislative excuse me that relies on a skilled union and non union workforce, inclusive of both full time and part time staff. Within a hybrid work environment, the city is experiencing a significant transition.
 Sue Evfremidis, Acting Executive Director Human Resources explained: approximately 50% of our people leaders have changed positions in the last two years. “The community is also growing and there are many exciting and very important city goals on the horizon. And we currently don’t have a people strategy nor the HR systems in place to support this transformation effectively.
“Let me tell you the story behind the data you see. There were approximately 389 full time staff changes since the beginning of 2022. With just over 1000 full time employees, we are not large. What that means is we do not typically have the staff or the bench strength to draw upon when there are unexpected vacancies.
“On average, it takes approximately 14 weeks to hire a replacement. And many of our jobs take several months to get up to speed to be considered fully qualified. And that’s once the hiring process has begun.
“We also had a 10% overall turnover rate in 22. That’s inclusive of all the departures which is certainly not bad. What is alarming, however, is that approximately 60% of those resigning are doing so within their first three years of employment with the city. The retention of our staff has to be a top priority, and the retention of staff within the first three years of employment needs immediate attention.
“Next, the city has approximately 170 People leaders from coordinator to executive level. And over the past two years approximately 50% of our people leaders have changed positions whether internally or externally brought onboard Gartner, a world class consulting firm that specializes in a number of areas including human resources, identified the number one priority for HR departments is for leader and manager development. We are no different here at the city. It must be a priority.
“Many managers are struggling workload responsibilities have increased, and this is often further exasperated by poor organization and position design and lack of leadership development and leader pipelines. People leaders have the most direct impact on our culture, retention and service delivery. We need to have programs in place to set them up for success.
“Some major programs and approaches that could positively support our people leaders and by extension service delivery, our people leader onboarding, leadership development, succession planning, and reposition redesigns. Lastly, I want to bring your attention to the drop in our culture score. It dropped by 13% in one year, it was previously 80%: 67% of staff feel very positive or positive about working for the city.
“Culture is something that the city needs to actively foster because in the absence of a cultural direction, people leaders and staff will adopt and practice their own norms and behaviours that may not support a culture that is aligned with our goals. And not surprisingly again, Gartner’s number two HR priority was organizational culture. Some contributing factors may be fewer in person interactions for culture to succeed.
“In a hybrid world, leaders must work intentionally to align and connect employees to it equipping teams to create vibrant and healthy micro cultures. I won’t read out all the goals you have up on the slides nor the risks, however, I want to draw your attention to a couple of the mitigation strategies, increasing HR staffing to stabilize and prepare for the future is key. We need to establish a people strategy with embedded HR systems and programs. So city staff are better positioned to pivot and respond to the changing needs of the city.
“The city currently only has one full time organizational development consultant. This role is also lead for the city’s corporate learning portfolio. One role is simply not enough to do all of this and to do it well. Also, with the launch of Workday, just around the corner, real time recruiting, retention and other employee related data will be available to assist HR and people leaders to make more informed people related decisions. This must be used to its best advantage. .
 This is the first time the public has been made fully aware as to just how extensive the changes really are. What’s happened and what’s happening? “This slide is inclusive of some of the city manager and vision to focus targets. You’ll notice right away that three key city manager targets were achieved in 2022. Phase one of the non-union job evaluation program was completed in October of this year.
“The next part of this program is ensuring two distinct salary adjustment levers remain in effect, the market and the performance lever. You may recall that under our old system, it could take non-union staff upwards of 20 years to get the job reach. The second target that was met was our WSIB action incident rate. Fostering a safe a safe work environment is a fundamental part to any retention strategy. What we need to focus here in addition to the target that we met below, which is the turnover target is maintaining these achievements.
“The fourth item on the slide is related to the HR department goals as they relate to creating a PPL strategy that is aligned with both the city manager’s objectives and V to F to include the following outputs.
 Sue Evfremidis,: the development of a leadership development program is critical. “We are currently in phase one of the performance management project we hired a consultant this past summer to lead this project. A project team has been struck and the design work is well underway. I’ll talk more about this project tomorrow. Another important output is the development of an employee facing Diversity Equity and Inclusion strategy. This project work was initially delayed due to COVID. It is currently underway, albeit progressing slowly due to limited resources. This is extremely important work as a passive approach Diversity will not yield our intended results.
“The third output is the development of a leadership development program. This program work is in its initial stages. It is scheduled to ramp up after workday is launched and stabilized once workday is up and running. And we’re able to access real time data.
Workday is a user-friendly, cloud-based system that will replace the City’s current human resource and finance systems used for items such as benefits, time and attendance, recruitment payroll, financial services and procurement.
“My intention is to provide regular human resource scorecard updates to a broader to the broader audience here as well as to staff. A people strategy that is aligned with the city’s strategy and capabilities is essential to the city success.
“The employee experience drives the customer experience.”
 By Staff
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The NDP Opposition at Queen’s Park is doing a consistently great job on keeping the public attention on the matter of those Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) that the province was handing out like candy on Halloween
Marit Stiles, Leader of the Opposition said earlier today that: “…an investigative report in the Toronto Star revealed that Ministerial Zoning Orders (MZOs) have done little to speed up housing starts during Ford’s first years in office – despite the Conservatives’ frequent insistence on handing them out. MPP Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre), NDP critic for Municipal Affairs, issued the following response:
 “This report directly undermines Ford’s repeated claim that handing out MZOs to wealthy insiders is necessary to build housing. Today, he learned that’s just not true – in some cases it’s even slowed down development. Either Ford has no idea how his favourite MZO tool works – or he knows it isn’t useful, and hands them out anyway. Is he just handing out favours to wealthy insiders?
We need to get to the bottom of this behaviour and get serious about real solutions to help build affordable housing. The Ontario NDP are bringing solutions to the table while Ford is handing out favours to land speculators and wedding guests.
I look forward to having more light shed on this through another ongoing Auditor General’s investigation.
With Ford under RCMP criminal investigation, there’s a shadow cast over all his decisions.”
QUICK FACTS
MZOs are a repeated favourite tool of the Ford government. With the stroke of a pen, they can instantly increase the value of land.
The Ontario NDP found that 18 MZOs were given just to the guests at a Ford family wedding – the same number that was handed out in 15 years by the former Liberal government.
On October 10, the Auditor General confirmed to the Ontario NDP that they had launched an investigation into the Ford government’s use of MZOs
A Global News report found that one fast-tracked government MZO proposed a 50-storey tower directly in middle of the flight path of Pearson International Airport. The province had to quietly amend the MZO after airport officials were forced to intervene.
By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Part 2 of a 6 part series
Given the size of the staffing expense the Finance department has to look for ways to manage and finance the Human Resources expense. There have been several hard hitting report from the Human Resources department
Municipalities like other service organizations rely heavily on human resources to deliver the range and quality of services that residents have come to expect. Human resource costs
(including benefits, training, etc.) as a percentage of the city’s 2023 gross operating budget is 49.2%.
 The care and feeding of employees is a different challenge in today’s market. Creating an environment where staff feel appreciated has in the past result in competition between departments in pulling that truck. There was a time when Clerk’s was always the winner – they worked well as a team. A significant risk to the corporation is the attraction and retention of staff. This has been a primary area of focus in recent years. As part of the 2023 Budget a significant investment was made to update the non-union compensation system to make it more market competitive and provide a foundation improving on our ability to:
• Attract and hire qualified candidates to fill vacancies
• Retain employees in a highly competitive labour market This update modernizes the current job evaluation system and compensation policies while realigning to the Council
approved market position being the 65% percentile versus our municipal market comparators.
The non-union compensation update was the first step to building a foundation for attraction and retention strategies.
Supporting and developing our current staff is just as important as attracting new and qualified candidates for vacancies. Over the next several years, workforce programs such as succession management, performance management and a diversity and inclusivity strategy also need to be enhanced/developed to address retention risks. With the introduction of our new Workday platform, we also want to seize the opportunity to integrate new functionality and transform our Human Resource business processes.
While approximately 160 additional staff positions were added in recent budgets, financial constraints prevented many other pent-up needs from being incorporated. This results in deficiencies in human capital, difficulties servicing a growing population, leading to risk in operations and compliance with legislation.
The City wants the best people working here to support our community and maintain quality of life. However, we are having a difficult time not only attracting candidates but also retaining our excellent staff particularly in high demand job categories (technical and professional positions).
Related news story:
Director of Human Resources drops a hard hitting report on the City Manager
Part 1 of the 6 part series.
By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington is undertaking a pilot program to accelerate the permitting process for industrial-commercial buildings.
Burlington is the second city in Canada to use this technology to improve its permitting process and make it easier to build in Burlington. Burlington is also the first city in Canada to use the technology specifically for development on employment lands.
How it works
 Using innovative AI-powered technology, the platform used in the pilot digitizes the rules in Burlington’s zoning bylaws, relating to industrial-commercial buildings. Once applicants have submitted a proposed design, the platform automatically evaluates the design’s compliance against the relevant rules. The solution checks to ensure requirements are met for things such as setbacks, heights, floor area ratios, landscape areas and parking ratios.
The digital tool also generates a comprehensive compliance report which is available to the applicant immediately. The report gives applicants a summary of which aspects of the design have passed or failed, as well as details about how the design complies with each zoning bylaw rule.
The AI-powered technology’s ability to review designs quickly and efficiently provides value to the City, customers, and staff, including:
- Saved time, by reducing the number of manual exchanges between applicants and City staff
- Allowing applicants to have immediate feedback on proposals and allowing for modifications prior to submission
- Faster approvals and turnaround time on issuing building permits
- Shortened design time
- Higher quality of design submissions
- Financial savings on the cost of multiple design revisions
- Enhanced transparency about the City of Burlington’s development review process
The pilot began in late July and will conclude by the end of 2023. The objective of the pilot is to provide essential data on the value such a tool may provide for Burlington in accomplishing our stated organizational goals related to housing.
The platform can also be used to check design compliance on all forms of development. While this option is not currently part of the pilot, applicants can pick a specific site, upload their design to the platform and immediately see a 3D visualization which allows users to assess whether their design meets the rules.
Next steps after the pilot may include further pilots or a larger-scale roll out.
Chad MacDonald, Executive Director Digital Services and Chief Information Officer explains: “This pilot is a significant step toward a more efficient, customer-centric building plan review process at the City. As technology continues to evolve, we want to harness the power of these digital tools to create tangible improvements for residents and businesses. The simple interface of this platform allows applicants to easily submit their application, get instantaneous results, and fine tune their design, making the approval process faster, easier, and cheaper.”
By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It was the start of a two day review of what Staff wanted City Council to hear as they worked their way towards what in the end would be a budget that the Mayor presented.
Ward 6 Councilor Angelo Bentivegna brought the meeting to order and turned it over to Executive Directror Sheila Jones who told Council there was a lot to get through and then turned the meeting over to City Manager Tim Commisso who said “I think today and tomorrow are very important sessions. This is the third iteration of coming to council to speak about needs and your decision making.
 “It is not very often that we drop a 92 page, PowerPoint deck on you. I want to acknowledge the work that went into that. The entire Staff team worked on this and you will see a tighter integration with the budget. The other that is really important is alignment; when I speak about alignment it is more in the context of how do we align with strategic objectives, goals and operating objectives.
It is in this area that I see us really advancing. We’re not quite there yet, but I think at the end of the day how we set objectives and how those objectives guide your decision making in terms of resource allocation and budget are fundamental to us in terms of our strategic management.
Last week when we introduced the budget I unfortunately did not acknowledge John Ford’s leadership. I’m not sure what other municipalities are doing but I can tell you, Burlington is at the very forefront of it.
Burlington always does as good a job as any municipality in terms of how we’re moving forward. So thank you, Sheila. I’ll turn it back to you.
 Executive Director Sheila Jones ran a tightly focused meeting and kept it ahead of schedule. A rare feat with this Council. Jones who is all business asked the AV people to put up the first slide – there were 91 left and Jones made sure that there was no slippage.
 Lauri Jivan Budget Coordinator “In the past we have had Service Information approaches – in today and tomorrow’s session, you will see a shift in approach. You received the 2024 Financial Needs and Multi year Forecasts presented by our CFO Joan Ford, and our coordinator of budgets Lauri Jivan on October 30.
“You received the mayor’s budget on November 2.
“The session today and tomorrow are designed to be directly aligned to your decision making process not only for the 2024 budget, but for future years. A multi year approach means the decisions you make today will have a cumulative impact on the future operations of this city. What you will hear in the next two days is intended to augment the extensive information that was provided in the 2024 Financial Needs forecast.
“We are coming into these sessions on the assumption that you are familiar with the business cases and the other budget information . Today and tomorrow provides counsel with an opportunity to ask questions and better understand the complexity of the financial needs for 2024. We have aligned the key investment information to the 2020 to 2026 Burlington Vision to Focus (V2F) which you endorsed in principle this past October.
“For ease of reference we have included the business case number should you need to reference the 2024 Financial Needs book.
“As you can see, we have a very extensive schedule within each focus areas. We will go through a couple of presentations, then pause for questions from Council. Our time for questions is short. So I’m asking you to keep your questions focused on the information. Members of our leadership team are here to respond to your questions. I will do my best to keep us on track and on schedule.
“It will be a bit of a judgment call as the questions are asked to see what we can answer in these sessions; we may need to move on. So please understand if your question requires a more extensive answer you can submit your questions to me and we will work to get written responses to all of council by the end of this week.
 “This morning you received an email from me with the responses to the two Staff Directions that were raised in committee last week. These will be on the table for discussion during our session tomorrow. So please get comfortable get your note paper ready get your to jot down your questions and as we go along because we will have quite an extensive day.
“Every year you as counsel make investments in our services to better our community, it is important to acknowledge these investments and more importantly, what outcomes those investments have achieved, along with provincial funding councils investment and support for our staff and community planning, building forestry, digital services, corporate strategy, engineering and corporate communications and engagement throughout 2023 resulted in a streamlined and improved pre building permit process, including the visibility of the process to applicants the results will telling a decrease in processing time from 17 weeks to five and a half weeks and 30% of applications being processed within two weeks or less.
“Through this work, our staff now have the knowledge and skill to look at their work in a different way through the continuous improvement lens. We literally taught our staff to fish. So that process improvements can continue.
“For example, in seeking out ways to improve the collection of development charges to provide applicants with better clarity of charges to be paid and saving processing time by conducting this work at the optimal time in the development approval process. We know the improvements will not stop there, but will continue councils multi year investment in transforming information technology to Burlington digital services has advanced our organization. Not only have we broadened our approach to technology to include functions supporting digital enterprise architecture, product delivery and decision support and human centered delivery.
“We have our first digital business strategy by creating and fostering awareness of our capabilities, our skills and technology utilization to deliver better customer outcomes.
“We have an actionable strategic planning framework and road-map for how to use digital technologies, staff empowerment, and culture change to fuel business outcomes. The transformation has significant impact on our organization and needs to continue so we can continue to increase our agility to keep pace with rapidly changing resident expectations and broader external environment.
“Councils multi year investment in creating a new bylaw compliance department has enabled the focus transition and stabilization of our existing board based approach to a proactive team based approach to bylaw review, enforcement and licensing. With the new director carry dive run in place. The transition is underway.
“With continued investment outlined over a four year timeline the end state is a centralized service department for bylaw enforcement, with officers training in multiple areas for efficient response to all areas. This approach will increase service hours provide capacity to respond to emergency issues, such as like taxis and coyotes and reduce the risk that issues will grow to unmanageable levels and support a comprehensive review and public consultation for all bylaws.
“Finally councils investment in coyote response strategy is related to the new department. The focused response has resulted in improved community communication and education of living with coyotes through the collaboration of animal services and corporate communications and engagement. The continued collaboration of Animal Services customer experience and Digital Services resulted in significantly improved reporting and tracking of coyote sightings to enable Animal Services to respond and serve the community.
“These are just some of the highlights barely scratching the surface of the results of the past year and of previous years investments
“Our organization like every organization faces risks, we are not immune. In fact, we are dealing with some of these macro risks today. We don’t need the World Economic Forum to tell us although they will confirm we are in a world dealing with the impact of climate change, as we see the continued need for investment in green infrastructure and changes in our behaviours to adopt. In dealing with the dark side of technology where bad actors use cyber and data security against us. Hence the need for increased awareness and heightened vigilance in preventing and detecting these threats in dealing with the aftershock of the pandemic, and its impact in several areas, in particular human capital.
“Following the pandemic, we saw an impact on supply chain where we see the increase in costs and timelines for delivery. As the world gets back to pre-pandemic times. We see the impact on consumer behaviour, where you will see and have seen adjustments to budgets to reflect the changes in our customers use of recreation programs transit and parking and on operational resilience as we become more agile in our service delivery.
“We are in a world dealing with digital disruption as we see ourselves become more active through our digital business strategy. We are dealing with regulatory and law changes in disruptions. We have become all too familiar with this in the recent months with the provincial government changes.
Finally we are dealing with the fallout from geopolitical events that may not happen are in our backyard, but they have an impact on us as an individuals, as a family, as colleagues and as a community.
 “The macro risks are not the only risks we need to be concerned about. The aspirational goals set out in vision 2040 or 25 year strategic plan also face risks. The audit committee and council received the risk assessment in June of 2022 where we identified the top common risks. Each of these risks has a mitigation strategy.
“Your decisions in this budget will have implications not only for today, but for the future years to come. Not unlike the cumulative effect of zero tax increases for a period of eight years during the 1990s. All our efforts are needed to increase our confidence in achieving these aspirational goals.
At that point Jones introduced Sue Evfremidis, Acting Executive Director Human Resources – over to you Sue.
By Pepper Parr
November 7th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
We have undertaken to report on just how the petition started by Wendy Fletcher was doing on a daily basis.
The target was 2500 – they are very close to that.
The Petition is going to remain active until the end of December.
Here is where the totals stood at 10:00 pm on November 6th, 2023
 The Petition is still open. If you decide you want to support pushing city council to lower the tax click HERE to sign the petition.
By Pepper Parr
November 6th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
In the municipal world it is not unusual to have licenses required to run a local business, tags for your dog and a license to own a bike.
 A third of those holding business licenses are not current with their fees. In Burlington the business sector has been a little laggard on staying current with their licenses. Of the 11,000 businesses operating in the city some 350 are late (a polite way of putting it sending in their annual fee); the city wants to help them become current.
 Angelo Bentivegna before he was elected to office. The city also believes there could be hundreds who are not even aware that a license is required.
Ward 6 Councillor Bentivegna was once a bird dog in going after those that were not current. He will be talking about that problem on Tuesday.
By Pepper Parr
November 6th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
A project that a Council falls in love with can on occasion come back to bit them.
Other project just don’t work out very well and result in serious cost over-runs – think the The Pier.
Set out below are projects Council has committed to and now have to deal with.
Each of these will have a story behind them.
By Pepper Parr
November 6th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Council will meet today and on Tuesday to listen to staff explain the work that gets done on a day to day basis and what it costs.
The Mayor has organized a telephone Town Hall to listen to what residnets have to say Tuesday evening.
Later in the month Staff go through the Mayor’s Budget and, with what they will have learned on Monday and Tuesday decide what they want to keep and what they are prepared to take a pass on.
It is going to be an interesting exercise – the Mayor has drawn a line in the sand – no more than a 4.99% increase in the municipal share of the budget over last year.
The schedule for today is:
 Who speaks when is set out – how long they talk is unknown. The current City council does tend to go on and on and on even with time limits in place. Staffing has become an issue for a number of residents – some of the data they will get to look at will raise eyebrows.
 The label for this graphic is: The Employee experience
By Pepper Parr
November 6th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Risk assessment Part 1 of a 6 part series
When a Budget is prepared by Staff the risks involved in spending tax payers money or deciding not to spend tax payers money the risk has to be assessed.
There are within the Finance department people who have been doing this kind of work for a long time. Their approach to measuring the risk is based financial fundamentals and not what the political advantage or disadvantage might be.
The approach tends to be conservative, cautious
The City continues to closely monitor revenue sources and financial strategies to maintain financial sustainability as outlined in the objectives of the city’s long-term financial plan. There are a number of issues that the City will need to be mindful of in 2024 and future years.
 Joan Ford, City Treasurer has led the crafting of the city budget for well over a decade. Maintaining adequate reserves is important to her – they were not meant to be played with. These pressures include Economic Considerations which includes inflation, supply chain impacts and labour shortages in Ontario continue to pose an issue for municipalities.
• Inflation – In September, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 3.8% on a year-over-year basis, down from a 4.0% gain in August. While inflation numbers are lower than those experienced in 2022, this reduction (disinflation) does not mean that prices will fall, it simply means that prices are
rising at a slower pace than the previous year.
The City is experiencing significant increasing costs for contracted services, utilities, software license fees and materials that place additional pressures on the budget. For 2024, these higher-than-average inflationary pressures are estimated to be $1,882,924.
• Supply Chain – Many materials and supplies the city uses in construction activities are driven by market conditions and more recently significant price volatility and increased lead times during the COVID-19 pandemic. This results in the construction price index increasing higher than the
rate of inflation. From 2017 to the second quarter of 2023, the construction price of erecting non-residential buildings
was over 41% higher than in 2017, the year when the index base was set. This has had a significant impact on the City’s capital program.
• Foreign Exchange – The City has a number of large purchases that are paid using United States (US) dollars such as fire trucks and software maintenance. The foreign exchange risk can cause large fluctuations in the market value of these goods at any time during the year given changing economic conditions.
Legislation limits the City in its ability to protect itself against this risk as it is restricted in the amount of US dollars it can purchase in advance and prohibited from entering into foreign exchange contracts.
By Pepper Parr
November 6th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Getting Council to listen to the people who pay the property taxes has proven difficult.
Wendy Fletcher started a petition and ran into problems with the City Clerk in getting it presented and shown on the city web site.
The Gazette understood that the petition was closed, meaning that it was no longer possible to add your signature. We were misled – not deliberately.
The Petition is still open and will be open until the end of the year – by which time the budget, whatever it is going to be, should have been approved.
For those who still want to register their opposition – click HERE to add your name to the position.
There are currently 2173 signatures on the petition. We will report on how the Petition is doing from time to time.
 This is the Petition – but it IS NOT where you sign it. The link to the petition is shown in red above.
 By Pepper Parr
November 5th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
When Aldershot resident Lydia Thomas delegated at City Council earlier this week she ran out of time and wasn’t able to include all that she wanted to say in the five minutes allocated to her. Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna asked if she would send him the information. Bentivegnia doesn’t share information with the Gazette.
Ms Thomas sent what Bentivegna and added some additional content
Some of the facts that were not part of the delegation Lydia Thomas made due to the time limitation are set out below. She said: “I feel the public needs to be aware that:
Here is what Ms Thomas sent us.
 Lydia Thomas – 39% of people in the survey want 0% tax and 31% want 0-3% (likely most want the low end of that); this is very different than what councillor Nisan was stating
– how much did the city pay for renovations in the last 2 years and why do they want to spend more this year; this despite the fact that the offices are empty because of a hybrid work model which I also disagree with – they should be available in person to the residents they are serving
Richmond Hill will have a 0% tax increase for the 2nd year running and still find a way to hire 16 firefighters and make significant infrastructure changes – maybe we should be asking them what they are doing.
Meanwhile Burlington is planning the following further tax increases:
 Results from a city survey – the fact that the city hired over 100 + positions last year and want to hire 40 + more this year and it is not clear what all these roles responsibilities are or why they are needed now so urgently.
-This supposedly represents $4M in new salaries (according to another delegation), – they need to do more with less (cut headcount) and pass that $4M back to us all.
Would those over 65 prefer free bus transit (new city initiative) or a reduction in their property taxes?
Would we all rather have a reduction in property taxes or winter maintenance for 20 new park paths and parking lots
The City spent millions on digital efficiency tools which should result in reduced head count but instead they want to adding 40 more people as per this year’s budget
They spent millions on salaries last year and have another increase of $5.674 million planned for this yr (additional 4.04 m in salaries, 226K in health and dental, and 1.68 m in pension, employer contributions).
Remember the city has generous benefits package including pension so you’re not just paying for huge salaries. Over 10 m to salaries btw 2023 and this budget? The average salary in Ontario is 56K. At city hall its 104K.
In 2022 Oakville paid about 1.5 m more in salaries than us but they also have about 500 more people. Oakville also paid about 19K less per person on average than we did. Also, Oakville spent 30% of their total revenue on salaries and wages whereas Burlington spent a whopping 55.7%, a 5% increase from 2021.
So we are spending 25.7% more on salaries for less people than Oakville is. Yet Mayor Meed is claiming we aren’t paying enough and aren’t compatible with other municipalities. Mayor Meed Ward is being paid over $200 000.
The Robert Bateman building investment was 2.937 million. Previously approved capital projects which includes Skyway and Mountainside ($3.84 Million). It includes more transit but what they don’t say is that’s also more salaries.
They want to spend $ on refreshing the look of the CIVIC square. Not necessary after they spent millions updating Burlington City Hall while most employees are working at home with the Hybrid model. Note they never floated the idea of renovating City Hall by residents last year so we never had a chance to provide our opinions. We can stop this if we feel the money could be better spent elsewhere
– Burlington Food Bank stats show that our community is being hurt across all demographics and income levels due to financial instability (including these unaffordable property taxes)
– quote some of the 711 comments from the survey of which 211 said that they wanted reduced taxes.
– the fact that the 3 Mayor budget themes (Provide Essentials, Frontline Services, Planning for Growth) are too vague and do not align with what the residents have said that they want in their survey. (Reduced traffic congestion, reduced property taxes and City Hall cost cutting)
 Results from a city survey – the fact that the City’s recent budget survey results indicate that more people want services cut and property taxes decreased than they want them increased and yet they feel the need to grow for the 50 year future. The fact is we did not elect them for 50 years. That is not their job. They need to be sensitive to the current economic climate and help residents keep their homes and stay out of the Foodbank lines.
– some of the details of the proposal are missing and I would like to see more info regarding exactly how the new money will be used and what the new hires are needed for with facts and #’s to justify. There is too much focus on the benefits and risks of not doing it rather than the exact details of what the money will be spent on or what exactly the new roles will be doing and why this is necessary.
According to the people of Burlington in the recent survey, the #1 priority for City Council should be reducing taxes and yet they are doing the opposite.
Here is a link to the survey:
https://burlingtonpublishing.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=72258
Here is comment from Wendy Fletcher on Next Door regarding the results
“As I read through the comments, the number one theme by far is taxes. You can see the results of that survey below. And if MMW can’t see just from the comments how people feel about the taxes then her position is wilful.”
So here are 3 things to do to save us all thousands of $’s and keep us in our homes:
- Give the mayor your feedback on November 7th 7-8:30 (virtual)
** start calling at 6:45; keep trying and don’t give up because the lines will be busy
Phone number 1-800-785-1654. – call in and if you agree, say:
“ My name is … and l not be voting for you if real tax increases are not kept below 3%”.
I “if other cities can do it so can you. Cut the fat or you will be voted out”. “I don’t agree with your budget.”
Keep your call short so others can say the same thing
- Attend your Ward Meetings and/or send an email make a phone call to your Ward Councillor saying something like :
My name is …and l will not be voting for you if real tax increases are not kept below 3%”
In addition to anything else you want to say.
Ward 1 Kevin Galbraith Aldershot Thurs Nov 16th 10:30 to noon
Mapleview Mall Food court upper level near the elevator
kelvin.galbraith@burlington.ca. Tel: 905-335-7777, ext. 7587
Ward 2 Lisa Kearns – Central West lisa.kearns@burlington.ca
Tel: 905-335-7777, ext. 7588
Ward 3 Rory Nisan Nov 9 TBC- Brant Hills Community Centre rory.nisan@burlington.ca
Tel: 905-335-7777, ext. 7459
Ward 4 Shawna Stole. shawna.stolte@burlington.ca
Tel: 905-335-7777, ext. 7531
Ward 5 Paul Sharman Orchard Millcroft No meeting scheduled paul.sharman@burlington.ca
Tel: 905-335-7777, ext. 7591
Ward 6 Angelo Bentivegna angelo.bentivegna@burlington.ca.
Tel:905-335-7777 ext. 7592
Attend the Budget Council meeting on Nov. 21st and Nov. 23rd 9:30 am in the Council chambers at City Hall in person or join online
The purpose of the meeting is to Review and approve the proposed 2024 Budget, including delegations from the public. You can attend to support or Include a delegation submission to say your piece.
Let your voices be heard!! At a minimum email and make a phone call and then
Please cut and paste and PASS this note on to 8 Burlington residents.
It will take you 5 – 10 minutes maximum to make a few calls and emails.
Without people making noise, Mayor Meed Ward will pass this budget and we will pay 32 % more in property taxes.
The figures Lydia Thomas uses are hers. This is an opinion piece to which we have added two pie charts from the Financial Needs report produced by the City Treasurer.
 This data comes from the Financial Needs document prepared by the City Treasurer. Related news story:
A delegation that raised a lot of questions and support from Gazette readers
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