By Pepper Parr

August 22nd, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Preparation for the 2025 budget is underway.

Residents and business owners are invited to provide their input. The City’s public engagement opportunities include pre-budget consultation sessions hosted by Mayor Meed Ward, an online survey, a telephone town hall, Council and Committee of the Whole meetings, a Get Involved Burlington webpage, and the Food for Feedback event on Sept 14, 2024.

Each year, the City of Burlington reviews the annual budget to make sure the City has the funds needed for city operations, programs and services. These investments maintain a high quality of life for Burlington residents and businesses.

The four main principles to help balance today’s expenses while investing in our future are:

• 

  The document that set out the strategy the city has in place. Several significant changes make the document less than relevant: Climate Change Flooding and the commitment to adding 29,000 housing units by 20231

  Affordability

• Livability

• Sustainability

• Transparency

There will be a Food for Feedback on September 14th. Residents and business owners are also invited to share their input at the in-person Food for Feedback event on Sept. 14, 2024.

Mayor Meed Ward will be holding consultations to give feedback on the budget in person. All are welcome.

Wednesday, Sept. 11, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Port Nelson United Church, 3132 South Dr.

Monday, Sept. 23, 7 to 8:30 p.m., La Salle Park Pavilion, 50 North Shore Blvd. E.

Tuesday, Sept. 24, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Haber Recreation Centre, 3040 Tim Dobbie Dr., Room 1

Wednesday, Sept. 25, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Central Arena, 519 Drury Ln., Auditorium

Thursday, Oct. 3, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Appleby Ice Centre, 1201 Appleby Line, Community Room 1

Tuesday, Oct. 8, 7 to 8:30 p.m., Brant Hills Community Centre, 2255 Brant St., Community Room 1

Residents and business owners can share their feedback through the 2025 Budget Survey. This feedback will help the City to understand how they prioritize and value City services. The survey is open until Oct. 9, 2024.

Key dates:

June 10 – Committee of the Whole meeting
Staff presented the 2025 Financial Needs and Multi-Year Forecast Reference Document to Committee of the Whole. The Mayor will refer to this document as she develops her budget.

The Gazette will publish as much as we can of that Multi-Year Forecast before the weekend and make reference to it frequently.

That document however will not have had any content related to the July floods.  It became clear during the July Council meetings that more money is going to be needed.  That money will come out of your pocket – assuming the city has learned that the reserve funds are not there to be raided.

Residents learn sometime in October just what Chief Administrative Officer Hassaan Basit thinks will be needed, which puts a question mark beside that September  meeting.  Will enough be known by that date?

Keep in mind that the budget that will be debated is the Mayor’s budget – there will be all kinds of information from the Finance department – which will be delivered in a much different format – they promised that the 700+ page budget document is a thing of the past.

No word yet on who the head honcho at Finance is going to be. That job is being shared by several people.

Sept. 13 – Draft 2025 Budget
City provides summary of the draft 2025 budget for public consultation and input.

Oct. 25 – Mayor’s Proposed Budget Report posted

Nov. 4 – Burlington City Council Meeting
The Mayor, under the Strong Mayors legislation, will present the 2025 proposed budget to Burlington City Council. Council members can bring amendments to the budget for a council vote. The public will be given time to review and provide input on the proposed budget.

Nov.  7 – Budget Telephone Town Hall
Residents can join the call starting at 7 p.m. to ask questions about the 2025 proposed budget. The telephone town will be hosted by Mayor Meed Ward and run until 8:30 p.m.

Visit www.getinvolvedburlington.ca/2025-budget for more detail.

Nov. 18 and 21 – Budget Committee Meetings

Nov. 25 – Special Council Meeting for budget approval.

Mayor Meed Ward said: “It’s vital to hear from residents as we prepare the 2025 budget. The annual budget reflects our priorities as a community. Your views help shape how council will amend and ultimately vote. As I prepare the budget for consideration by the public and council, my plan is to focus on four key areas: Affordability, Livability, Sustainability and Transparency. I encourage you to take advantage of the many opportunities to share your input.”

There are many that would disagree strongly with that statement

Eric Stern said in a Gazette comment: “I certainly felt heard. I delegated about how misleading the Mayor’s 4.99% tax impact statements were at about 2:00pm and less than 3 hours later the Mayor’s communication team posted on X about her 4.99% tax impact. I may as well have stayed home and talked to my wife. A good reminder that we have one opportunity to be heard and that’s on October 26th, 2026.

The evidence he put forward on how the city was presenting information was classic citizen involvement.

Stephen White was just as blunt: “Burlington has an operating budget of over $350 million, and something like 1,500 employees. Burlington isn’t a “mom and pop” operation, and it sure isn’t Dog River, Saskatchewan from “Corner Gas”. We need Councillors with the skills and experience who understand managerial basics. A big part of that is setting clear goals and objectives, and holding staff responsible for delivering same. As for the public servants, if they don’t get clear direction they’ll just keep doing what they’ve always done.

Links and Resources

·        Visit burlington.ca/budget for information about the 2025 budget

·        To take the 2025 Budget Survey, getinvolvedburlington.ca/2025-budget.

• Attend Food for Feedback

 

 

By Pepper Parr

August 21^st,  2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The politicians love handing out awards; Certificates saying you were at an event – anything to get some ink.

The Gazette has created an award that we are calling the Blair K. Smith Political Maudit Prize.

We expect that there will be more than one award each year – the city and its people are rife with award opportunities.

Maudit is a French word – Quebec French to be precise

An award for:

The 2018 MMW Core Campaign Team for not becoming the 2022 MMW Core Campaign Team and probably becoming the 2026 anyone but Marianne core campaign team.

Stephen White for consistently holding Burlington Council to account with direct, precise and unbiased commentary. A fine example is this on how Council discussed the July floods: “What struck me about the interaction between the Mayor, the Councillors and public servants in another Gazette article is that we are a month after the flood, and the questions being asked are inordinately procedural, mundane and lacking in specificity. I guess if you live in a world characterized by abstracts and the theoretical a predisposition to action isn’t in your DNA.”

Eric Stern and Lydia Thomas for exposing the Bros. Grimm faerie tale of Burlington’s tax increase communications. Stern wrote: “Given that the City of Burlington employs people with serious communication skills it’s really surprising that, quoting the mayor, “misinformation, speculation and rumour” cannot simply be explained by someone, anyone, from the city providing “accurate and fact-based” information.  As a taxpayer, I have to wonder if the communications department is nothing but a taxpayer-funded PR organization for the mayor.”

Lydia Thomas was as direct: “During the 2024 budget process, there were many residents including myself who identified the need to stop property tax increases and accelerate cost cutting.

“Despite the fact that more than 40 motions were brought forward and some were passed, the budget increase miraculously remained the same at 10.2%.  Some quotes from the mayor which I found discouraging were we can “use savings of $1M to fund new Full Time Employees  in IT department” and in another instance –  that is a good way to “save to help fund the transformation” project.

“The end result was that the 10.2% increase remained the same despite the cost savings motions that were passed.   It was clear to me that there was absolutely no intent in trying to reduce resident’s property taxes despite the public outcry for prudence.  This tells me that we the public need to get involved earlier and more frequently.”

No actual prize this year.

By Pepper Parr

August 20^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Pot holes and recreation services are a large part of what a municipality is about – has been until population intensification got to the top of the municipal news hit parade.

The municipality you live in provides the services that matter most on a day to day basis.  And usually your municipal councillor is someone you pass on the street or see in the supermarkets – the exception for Burlington being ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan who moved from where he was elected into ward 2.

The federal government issues your passport and collects taxes, the province is expected to ensure there is a robust economy that provides the good paying jobs that leaves enough to pay the taxes.

From time to time a citizen will have a concern with something a level of government has done and they want more in the way of information.

Freedom of Information request have been the process uses at every level of government.

A front page article yesterday the Globe & Mail published a report based on work done by the Secret Canada, Globe & Mail  national investigation on how well the Freedom of Information process was working – the consensus – not all that well.

Much like their federal and provincial counterparts, municipalities across the country must adhere to freedom of information (FOI) laws, which are intended to promote transparency by allowing individuals to request documents from public institutions. These laws require institutions to disclose requested information with limited exceptions.

A Globe and Mail audit of Canada’s 53 largest municipalities (from which most of this article was sourced) has found vast differences in how local governments perform on FOI. While they completed access requests in 25 days, on average – twice as fast as provincial and territorial ministries, and more than three times as quickly as federal departments – some cities still took much longer, including Edmonton (69 days), Hamilton (66) and Greater Sudbury (50).

The audit also reveals that some municipalities apply redactions much more heavily than others. Mississauga, for instance, released 78 per cent of its files in full – that is, without any redactions whatsoever. Halifax, by comparison, released just 2 per cent of its files in full.

To assemble this national picture of municipal access performance, The Globe filed requests to every municipality in Canada with a population of at least 100,000 people, asking for data on FOIs completed between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The findings reflect the performance of 53 municipalities across eight provinces. (Three additional cities – Thunder Bay, Lévis, Que., and Ajax, Ont. – were excluded from the analysis because they said they had no FOI tracking system, claimed they could not produce the requested information or provided incomplete data.)

Kevin Walby, a criminology professor at the University of Winnipeg who also studies freedom of information, said some of the audited municipalities’ performance was “just abysmal – like, their FOI offices should be put into receivership, or something like that.”

“Some of the lack of compliance is just totally wild,” he continues. “There aren’t a lot of sites where you get great compliance. Great compliance, I think, would be where you have most of the records released in full, and most of the disclosures released within 30 days, or in a reasonable time.” Prof. Walby says the findings are evidence that some municipalities haven’t adequately resourced their FOI offices. “It’s a really contradictory message for an apparatus of the state to be sending: You guys comply with all these other laws, but we don’t have to follow the laws that pertain to us.”

“How do they expect Canadians to want to believe in the legitimacy of the state and believe in these kinds of transparency initiatives when you see this kind of lack of compliance across the board?”

 

Kristan Cook, a former FOI director for Edmonton, says municipalities make decisions that “actually affect” people’s day-today lives. “It’s people wanting to know, why is my bus route changing? How much did this bridge cost? Why is the train going through my yard?”

Ms. Cook, who is now the director of privacy at PBC Solutions, a health benefits technology company, says that Canada has thousands of municipal governments across the country, and despite their varying sizes, they follow the same access rules as higher levels of government. “Whether you’re a government administration of three people or 300, that three-person government administration still has to provide the same service under FOI.”

Municipalities handle FOI very differently from provincial or federal governments: City clerks usually act as ranking officials on FOI matters, and local governments tend to have fewer layers of review – that is, fewer people who need to approve the release of a document – before an FOI response goes out the door, which likely speeds up the process, Ms. Cook says.

The FOI requests received by municipalities are also very different from those going to the provinces or federal government. “So many dog bites, like, an incredible number of dog bites,” Ms. Cook says. “Fire inspections, that’s a big one. And then requests about infrastructure, things like bridges and buildings and mass transit – those have a very municipal flavour.”

Ms. Cook says that these contrasts in timeliness often come down to records management practices.

“If you don’t know where your records are, then you can’t locate them and you can’t respond to an FOI request,” she says.

“Organizations of a significant size have hundreds of systems that store records. Some of these systems talk to each other, and some of them don’t. So it really depends on where the information is stored and how easy it is to gather the information and put it into the form that an applicant is seeking.”

After assembling the documents relevant to a request, FOI offices read through the records to identify information that must be redacted under access law. Some responses are released as-is, without redactions, while others can be withheld in their entirety. The final status of an FOI package, also known as its “disposition,” is a useful indicator of how much information a public institution is actually releasing.

Mississauga released 78 per cent of its FOI responses without any redactions whatsoever, the highest full disclosure rating for any major Canadian municipality. Halifax, meanwhile, released just 2 per cent of its files in full.

(Some of these disclosure statistics are complicated by the types of FOIs they are processing. Winnipeg, for instance, also processes files for the Winnipeg Police Service, and police requests often carry personal information redactions. The Globe’s analysis aimed to measure how municipalities were responding to their requests, so it kept the request data it received mostly as-is, removing only FOIs that were abandoned or transferred to another public institution.)

Ms. Cook says that the variation in how extensively local governments redact records could be read many ways. Take a city that has high full disclosure rates: “Maybe it’s an organization that believes in transparency, or maybe it’s an organization that isn’t paying attention,” she says. Meanwhile, a municipality with high redaction rates may be “more on the cautious side of releasing information.”

Over all, municipal governments outperformed federal, provincial and territorial ministries across all FOI metrics in the audit. They closed requests more rapidly – 25 days on average, compared with 47 provincially/territorially and 83 federally – and completed the lion’s share of their files within 30 days. Municipalities also released files in full much more frequently: 38 per cent of the time, compared with 20 per cent provincially and 24 per cent federally.

To Ms. Cook, these differences can be explained in large part by the complexity of a public institution’s bureaucracy. People empowered to make final FOI decisions – the ones given “delegations of authority” – often have more levels of oversight at the provincial and federal level, she says, slowing down the process considerably.

“In some delegations, the people who are actually the people that you’re talking to when you’re doing the access request, they have the authority to sign something and send it out to you themselves,” she says. “In other places, they don’t. So, any time you have that – more people, more levels – the amount of time that it’s going to take for you to get something is going to increase. That’s a really important difference between municipal, provincial and federal.”

While several municipalities fared well in this audit, some stood out for how quickly and fulsomely they responded to requests. Red Deer, Alta., and Mississauga released more than 70 per cent of their files in full, and managed to do so while keeping FOI responses to an average of 22 and 23 days, respectively.

Nearly every request completed by Longueuil, Que., within the audit window was closed within 30 days – despite the municipality having completed more than 1,500 requests during the period.

Several Quebec municipalities achieved exceedingly fast completion times. Montreal wrapped up FOIs in an average of 15 days; Gatineau closed files in 13 days, on average, and Quebec City and Longueuil averaged 12 days.

Hamilton had the second slowest average response time (behind Edmonton), but it also ranked poorly across other metrics: It closed 40 per cent of its files within 30 days (third-worst, after Richmond, B.C., and Saguenay, Que.) and released 19 per cent of its files in full (13th-worst).

In a e-mailed statement, Hamilton city clerk Matthew Trennum said the municipality “takes its role as a steward and guardian of personal and confidential information very seriously,” and that Hamilton is “looking to invest in modernized freedom of information request tracking software to assist in managing timelines and more generally for project management.”

During the 2018 municipal election Burlington Council member Marianne Meed Ward running for the Office of Mayor began to suspect some of the information that was coming their way.

A member of the campaign team filed a  Freedom of Information request related to correspondence between the then Director of Planning and to some degree the then City Manger.  Shortly after the FOI was filed the city said they required a deposit of $700 to do all the work that was required.

While stunned at the amount the individual paid the deposit. We expect to have more detail on thus later in the month – we do know that some of the deposit was refunded.

We have been advised of another Burlington situation where the person filing the FOI request was asked to pay a deposit of more than $1000. They gave up at that point.

Burlington position on the list is at about the midpoint – better that Hamilton, which isn’t saying very much.

By Pepper Parr

August 20^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It has come to this:

We now have a Hunger Action Month.   The Burlington Food Bank and FeedHalton are set to mark Hunger Action Month during  September – the demand for food services are at an all-time high in the City and Region.

Hunger Action Month is a campaign that takes place across North America and here via our partner, Feed Ontario; the purpose is to raise awareness of hunger in our communities, province, and country, and to encourage our neighbours to take action in four key ways: Educate, Advocate, Volunteer, and Donate.

By the end of this past July, the Burlington Food Bank had surpassed the total number of unique individuals served in 2024 versus in all of 2023 by over 50 people. The average number of daily visits increasing over the summer from approximately 30 to 50 each day.

Overall, our food bank services in Burlington are up 42% over 2023. In Ontario, food bank usage has increased for the 6th consecutive year with 1 in 3 visitors accessing a food bank for the first time last year.

“Food banks provide help during times of crisis,” says Robin Bailey, Executive Director of the Burlington Food Bank and FeedHalton, “and we are seeing more and more people in crisis.

FeedHalton was developed in 2023 in response to growing numbers of people living with food insecurity in Halton, through the Burlington Food Bank’s program of delivering food and essential goods to other organizations. We needed to think and act bigger to fight hunger in Halton and provide sustainable solutions to our community.”

Amongst other activities, FeedHalton will host a Regional Food Sort on Wednesday September 25 with invited elected officials from across Halton and all levels of government. This morning of action will bring together the Halton Region to learn more about FeedHalton and how they can support our efforts in creating a more food secure Region.

The Hunger Action Month will include a flag raising; the Pier lights will be blue the day before the flag goes up.

Wednesday September 25: At FeedHalton’s location in Burlington (5280 Mainway) the Regional Food Sort with elected officials from across Halton (see invite attached). We’ve had great response to this and it will be a good time to speak to officials at all levels of government about food insecurity in our community.

At Burlington Centre, Canstruction 2024 where 4 local secondary school STEAM teams will design and build structures made of non- perishable food in a competition event. Hold Tuesday October 1 for judging, speeches and media evening.

The Burlington Food Bank has been serving the Burlington community for over 30 years. The mission is to provide healthy food and essential goods to those experiencing food insecurity with compassion, timeliness and dignity. We operate with over 100 volunteers who support our mission and community each day.

FeedHalton, launched in 2023  provides a coordinated and comprehensive approach to addressing food insecurity in the Halton Region. FeedHalton centralizes the procurement, sorting, shipping and distribution of food and essential goods to an agency network partners of food banks and community service organizations.

The FeedHalton’s 11,000 sq ft warehouse is located at 5280 Mainway, Unit 5 in Burlington.

FeedHalton is in the process of obtaining charitable status. When this occurs, the organization will be separated from the Burlington Food Bank.  FeedHalton addresses the larger regional area by centralizing operations and servicing needs through community agencies and the Burlington Food Bank will continue to service individuals in need of food directly.

By Staff

August 19^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

A lengthy, very data filled report was released days before the AMO conference taking place in London this week.

This report was written by Mike Moffatt, with funding from Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM).

About the PLACE Centre

Released by The PLACE Centre, which stands for Propelling Locally Accelerated Clean Economies, focuses on the complex challenges limiting clean economic growth in Canadian communities. The core approach is “place-based,” meaning the PLACE team works with all levels of government, industry, and civil society organizations to ensure regions across Canada have the solutions needed to overcome the challenges they face in advancing clean economic growth.

With this approach, the PLACE team creates practical, place-based recommendations where everyone involved can collaborate and work towards making progress in solving these problems. That way, every region and community across the country can be included in, and benefit from, Canada’s growing clean economy.

The report PLACE address the six core challenges identified in the report as slowing down or making unviable the building of new homes:

Coordination –  A lack of coordination between all partners involved, no one actor in the system can ensure that housing completions keep pace with  population growth.

Ability – Shortages in materials, financing, and skilled labour, from electricians to planners 

Viability – High costs, including interest rates, taxes and fees 

Productivity – Slow-to-no productivity growth in the home building sector

Permission – A regulatory environment that prevents many high-quality, climate-friendly, homes from being built

Non-Market Housing – A lack of non-market housing, from co-op housing to on-campus student rentals.

Municipalities recognize that they play a big part in getting homes built, through the application approval process and providing the needed infrastructure to create complete communities. Municipalities have been working in the last few years on improving these processes to get homes and communities built faster, including by focusing on implementing multiple government changes.

Municipalities however do not build homes, and even with our improved processes we are seeing productivity issues impacted by labour shortages, supply chain delays and financing. Municipalities cannot control these outside factors that are delaying already approved projects from being built, but we want to be part of the solution to help get shovels in the ground. We want to work together with our partners in the building industry as well as other levels of government to identify these barriers and find solutions to these challenges.

To get a sense as to the size of the challenge – set out below is the population growth that is expected to take place:

As highlighted in the report, all partners in the home building process play an important role and municipalities want to ensure that each partner is doing their part to reach our housing goals.

OBCM is calling on both the federal and provincial governments to hold an annual meeting for all partners in the home building process to establish an accountability framework that helps us identify barriers and find solutions to meeting our housing goals.

We are going to need a day or two to read the report in detail; we will get back to you on this one on what it means to Burlington where the growth that takes place will consist of high rise towers – a lot of them.

By Staff

April 19th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Premier Doug Ford spoke to to AMO in London this morning

His address is set out in full below.

“Well, good morning, everyone.

Thank you, Martin, for that kind introduction.

And before I get started…

I want to congratulate you Colin…

And the outgoing AMO Board of Directors…

For all the work you’ve done over the last two years.

Thank you for your partnership…

And for your service to the communities you serve.

Friends,

I’m thrilled to be back at the AMO conference…

And to celebrate AMO’s 125th anniversary.

It’s an amazing milestone.

A milestone built on a long legacy of bringing people together…

In service of finding common ground…

And delivering real solutions…

To building stronger communities…

Where people and families can live, thrive, and prosper.

And folks…

I don’t hesitate to say…

That AMO’s vision…

Its mandate…

Has never been more important.

That’s because Ontario is growing faster than it ever has before…

Some reports suggest that our population growth could be as high as eight hundred thousand.

That’s like adding a city the size of Mississauga

In a single year.

In a word…

This kind of growth is explosive.

People from across Canada…

From around the world…

Are moving to Ontario…

Eager to be part of the thriving communities we’re building…

Excited about the Ontario dream.

These newcomers…

They also want to participate in our growing economy.

An economy that’s added more than 800,000 new jobs since we came into office in 2018…

With 160,000 new jobs added since the beginning of this year.

In fact…

In recent years…

Ontario’s economy has attracted tens of billions of dollars in the tech sector…

$4 billion in life sciences…

And more than $44 billion in electric vehicle and battery plants.

What I’m most proud of…

Is that these new investments…

These new jobs…

Are being created in communities across the province.

Take for example our auto sector.

We can’t forget the dire shape it was in six years ago.

Sky-high energy prices…

And an uncompetitive business environment…

Forced plants to close…

And take jobs 300,000 jobs south of the border.

What a difference a few years and a pro-worker, pro-business government makes.

Over the past four years…

We’ve welcomed new battery plants in Alliston and St. Thomas…

With major investments across the electric vehicle supply chain in Brampton…

Brantford…

Port Colborne…

Windsor…

And Napanee…

To name just a few.

It’s so important to our government…

To ensure that the economic growth we’re experiencing…

Benefits the entire province.

That no matter where you live in Ontario…

You have the same opportunity to access a better job with a bigger paycheque.

So, today…

I’m excited to announce a new online tool…

Developed by Invest Ontario…

That will help local and international investors better connect with municipalities.

Through our new Partner Portal…

Municipalities will be able to upload information about commercial and industrial properties in their communities…

And provide companies with information about the property…

Including demographic trends, market analysis and First Nations treaty areas.

It’s going to be a powerful resource…

To help local governments and communities attract investments and jobs.

But friends…

As I’ve said before…

As we rebuild Ontario’s economy…

As our population grows…

We have to build the infrastructure needed to support this growth…

And ensure that it’s sustainable for generations to come.

We can’t make the same mistakes that previous governments made.

We have to plan for the future…

And build the roads…

Highways…

Public transit…

Hospitals…

Homes…

Schools…

And energy infrastructure we need.

That’s exactly what we’re doing…

With the most ambitious plan to build in Ontario history.

We’re investing nearly $100 billion to expand and improve transit, roads and highways.

In the north…

We’re widening Highway 17 from Kenora to the Manitoba border…

And making upgrades to Highways 584 and 11.

In Windsor, we’re building the Banwell Interchange…

And a new interchange connecting Highway 401 to Lauzon Parkway.

Here in Ottawa…

We’re providing funding for the design and planning for the Barnsdale Interchange.

In the GTA…

We’re building Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass.

Shovels are in the ground…

To widen Highway 3 between Essex and Leamington.

We’re building a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph.

Folks…

I could be here all day.

This list of projects goes on and on and on.

We’re building more…

We’re building faster.

In health care…

We’re investing $50 billion over the next ten years on more than 50 hospital projects.

In education…

We’re investing $16 billion to build, repair and expand schools.

And we’re making record investments to ensure people and businesses have access to reliable, clean and affordable electricity…

For generations to come.

I know…

Over the next couple of days…

You’ll hear more about these infrastructure investments from my Cabinet and caucus colleagues.

But I want to take a couple of minutes here…

To talk about housing.

Since we came into office in 2018…

I’ve heard time and time again…

A lack of housing-enabling infrastructure…

Is the biggest barrier to getting more homes built.

Mayors…

I want to say…

We hear you…

We’ve heard you loud and clear.

That’s why…

At this conference last year…

I announced the Building Faster Fund…

A $1.2 billion program…

That rewards municipalities for reaching annual housing targets.

The Building Faster Fund has a been a huge success.

Over the past several months…

I had the privilege of visiting so many of you…

Too many to name…

To deliver big cheques…

With big dollar figures…

That municipalities can use for infrastructure projects…

To lay the groundwork for more housing.

In our most recent budget…

We also announced record investments in our Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund…

And the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program.

This new money…

Totalling nearly $2 billion…

Is going to be a game-changer…

For so many of your communities.

Earlier this month,

We announced the first round of investments from the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund…

A total of $970 million…

That will be distributed to 54 projects…

Across 60 municipalities…

Helping to build more than 500,000 homes.

But we’re not stopping there.

We can’t stop there.

We’re going to keep working with you…

To build the housing-enabling infrastructure you need…

To meet and exceed your housing targets…

And to bring the dream of home ownership into reach for more people.

As we build more homes…

As you welcome more people to your communities…

We also recognize the need to invest in the public spaces that foster a strong sense of community and belonging.

That’s why…

As part of our 2024 budget…

We announced a $200 million investment to help municipalities build and renew sport and recreational facilities.

I’m pleased to announce…

That applications for this new fund…

The Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund…

Are now open.

Municipalities…

Local services boards…

And not-for-profit organizations…

Can apply for up to 50 per cent of funding for projects…

And Indigenous communities and organizations can apply for up to 90 per cent.

I can’t wait to visit your communities…

To stand with you…

As we invest in the sports and recreation facilities…

Where so many new memories will be made.

Friends…

Ontario is growing…

Like never before.

This kind of growth isn’t without its challenges.

But it also opens the door to incredible opportunities.

In order to seize these opportunities…

And ensure every region…

Every municipality prospers…

We need to work together to build the roads, highways, transit, homes, hospitals and schools our growing communities need.

We need to continue to create conditions to attract new investments…

To create better jobs…

And yes…bigger pay cheques.

And we need to keep costs down for hardworking families.

Ontario is the envy of the world.

And we have every single thing we need to succeed.

We have the talent…

We have the resources…

We have the determination.

All we need is to keep working together…

Always in service of the great people of this province.

Let’s build a better Ontario…together.

Let’s get it done.

Thank you again for inviting me to speak today.

And may God bless the people of Ontario.”

Does this sound like the kind of speech that gets made during a re-election campaign?

By Pepper Parr

August 19^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

They are not going to quit.

The Millcroft Greenspace Alliance said in a statement today that they will continue their advocacy to all three levels of government to preserve the Millcroft Golf Course Greenspace.” It has been our view since the outset that a political solution would stop the development and we still believe this!”

The City of Burlington is continuing the fight to prevent building homes on this important stormwater green infrastructure and MGA is proceeding with its advocacy to support the City and Region’s position.

What MGA does not mention is that the Ontario Land Tribunal has found in favour of the developer, albeit with a significant number of conditions that have yet to be met.

MGA points to the two very important documents produced in 2022 regarding flood mitigation and climate change. One was federal and the second was authored by the Ontario Auditor General. In both reports, greenspace is a recommended flood mitigation measure.

The impacts of climate change can not be more obvious with the numerous incidences of flooding in recent weeks.

MGA argues that “Premier Ford is well aware that land use decisions, overdevelopment, and antiquated infrastructure are contributing to urban flooding (97% of flooding is urban vs 3% from riverine sources). The health and economic impacts of repetitive flood events are significant.

“Restoration expenses from flooding and/or the increased cost of insurance, if available, are impacting our home values and ability to save for retirement.”

MGA is asking people to “Please make time to express your views to our government officials, provincially and federally.

Premier Ford did respond to Minister Guilbeault’s issue with building on floodplains – let’s see if he means what he says.

In December of 2022 Premier Ford did say “Ontario has no plans to allow homes to be built on floodplains”  The federal Environmental Minister Guilbeaultwarned Ottawa would not provide disaster compensation where development is greenlit in areas prone to flooding.

Ford said it’s the responsibility of any builder to ensure they protect against development on floodplains.

Related news story:

OLT decision on Millcroft golf lands

What flooding in Millcroft looks like.

By Pepper Parr

August 19^th, 2024

BURLINGTON, ON

 

City Council has been close to totally focused on figuring out what has to be in place  when the next flooding takes place.

While Rico Scalera was stick-handling the questions related to data collection and data analysis,  arbourists were cutting down trees on the Centennial Trail.

Staff use the short form ‘Rico’ for Enrico Scalera, Director of Roads, Parks and Forestry.

In May of 2023 the city announced that a draft of the Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP) was now ready for public review. Residents were invited to review the document and provide feedback of the draft at a public information session and/or through an online survey.

Some of the highlights of that draft included:

The UFMP will provide the strategic direction important to managing the urban forest in response to new pressures and challenges related to urban development, climate change, extreme weather and invasive pests.

This plan identifies opportunities on both public and private lands and focuses on five key areas:

Management and Implementation

Community Engagement and Stewardship

Protection and Preservation

Replenishment and Enhancement

Tree Health and Risk Management

 

We have asked the City Communications people for a statement from Enrico Scalera,  Director of Roads, Parks and Forestry on how the significant tree cutting that has taken place aligns with the Urban Forest Master Plan.

We learned that the tree cutting is being done by Burlington Hydro as part of Burlington Hydro’s preventive tree maintenance program; an ongoing initiative to help mitigate outages and equipment damage.Hydro adds: As trees mature, the potential danger of tree branches/limbs coming into direct contact with powerlines is increased. Add a severe storm or high winds into the mix, and those same trees/limbs could fall on powerlines, a scenario that contributes to a significant portion of all outages.

The pictures we published earlier this month don’t look like tree “trimming”

What we are seeing doesn’t align all that well with the city plans for an urban tree canopy; something the Mayor mentions frequently.

Mayor Meed Ward sits on the Hydro Board – they paid the fees for the professional designation the Mayor earned at McMaster University. She should have been aware of the Hydro plans.  We don’t recall ever hearing anything from the Mayor on this one.

There is more tree trimming to come. The Hydro schedule is set out below.