 By Pepper Parr
October 1st, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
The short video mention in this article does not appear in a re-issued version of City Talk.
 With what is proving to be a tight race for the office of Mayor one has to ask why the city would publish its most recent edition of City Talk and feature the Mayor in a video as the lead article.
If there was ever a reason to complain to the Elections Officer – this is it.
It is a very short video – 38 seconds but it will pull at the heart strings of those dedicated to the healthy city everyone wants.
Someone at city hall is either very stupid or there is a political game being played by the administration.
With most documents issued the final sign off is that of the City Manger. We understand he is currently out of the country. He might want to stay out of the country.
We are not providing a link to the article in City Talk – no one should add to the malfeasance.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
September 19th, 2018
BURLINGTON. ON
There is another way of looking at the idea the Mayor has of annexing parts of Waterdown.
There is a real drive to keep Brant Street the way it was in the 60’s and 70’s; small, quiet, slightly quaint.
The picture got over-developed (pun intended) when the city approved a 24 storey structure opposite city hall. ‘There goes the neighbourhood’ would certainly apply in this situation.
 The Burlington the city is going to get …  The Burlington many had hoped the city would be. We couldn’t keep what we have – so we are going after parts of Waterdown. In a Scott Radley radio broadcast – the link to that is HERE, made it pretty clear that Mayor Goldring had not really thought this one through.
To not even advise Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger beforehand is an insult and just plain bad politics.
Goldring’s rationale appeared to be that annexing Waterdown would “help alleviate the growth pressure on Burlington” Goldring sees a natural affinity between Burlington and Waterdown and thought that this was an idea to at least consider.
Eisenberger didn’t see it that way. Hamilton has invested more than $50 million in Waterdown and didn’t take kindly to the Mayor of Burlington grabbing the tax revenue and development charges that are generated by developers and tax payers in Waterdown.
In the Scott Radley radio program, on which the interviews took place, Goldring said that no one at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs thought it was an outrageous idea.
Eisenberger, trying to be polite, thought that he was owed an apology for the way Goldring “completely blind-sided” him.
“This sounds like an idea that Goldring just threw up in the air without thinking it through. I don’t know where this is coming from.” Said Eisenberger.
 Hamilton just might take the property back when the lease expires. It probably puts the kibosh on Burlington’s efforts to buy the water lots that are part of the LaSalle Park and owned by Hamilton. They just may have a very nasty surprise for us..
Eisenberger pointed out that he saw Goldring as a huge supporter of intensification and that what Burlington was doing amounted to the tail wagging the dog – he could have added that the dog just might decide to bite.
Hamilton has 165 hectares of land that it is ready to develop; and there are 5000 residential properties currently in various stages of development.
Eisenberger thought that at a minimum there should have been some analysis and research done before putting an idea like this on the table.
Messy messy. To get back to that quaint feeling that many in Burlington want to keep – it seems to be something that is now gone putting the Emerald and St Luke communities at considerable risk.
The quaintness that Burlington wants will be in Waterdown where the streets are a lot more vibrant than anything Burlington has.
Look at the Waterdown street scrapes.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
September 19th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
It is called connecting the dots.
Mayor Goldring determines that he is in trouble with his election campaign.
 What has he done? Mayor Goldring is Chair of an AMO committee (Association of Municipalities of Ontario)
He gets together with other Mayors, most of whom are east and north of Burlington.
He comes up with the idea of meeting with the Minister of Municipal Affairs asking him to ease up on the Places to Grow legislation which requires municipalities to create more housing and jobs.
The Mayor meets with the Minister of Municipal Affairs and some of his staff who, according to Mayor Goldring, had no objections to his suggestion that Burlington be permitted to annex parts of Waterdown.
Goldring doesn’t say how much of Waterdown he wants to annex.
Goldring doesn’t inform Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger
 Fred Eisenberger – thinks the idea was a flyer crafted on the back of a napkin. Eisenberger is not impressed. He calls the idea a flyer that was written on the back of a napkin.
While all this local nonsense is going on the Premier of the Province has made it very clear that he wants less local government and is ramming legislation through to get a bill passed that would let him reduce Toronto city council from 47 members to 25.
Holding a session of the Legislature at mid-night would qualify as ramming.
Premier Doug Ford has said he will use a section of the Constitution to impose his will on municipalities.
 What will Doug Ford do with the idea of Burlington annexing part of Waterdown. The province can order a municipal level of government to do anything he wishes
Watch for what Doug Ford does with the subject that Rick Goldring put on the table.
Doug Ford will order Burlington and Hamilton to merge and become one municipality.
Premier Harris forced the amalgamation of the Toronto suburbs into the mega city that is now Toronto.
The end of Burlington as you know it will have been brought about by Rick Goldring.
 The sign might get an upgrade.
By Pepper Parr
September 14th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
There was a time in Burlington when people behaved quite a bit differently than they do today.
It was a more genteel community. People knew each other and the city’s rural roots were still part of the way people looked at things. One of the most influential organizations in the community was the Horticulture Society. Burlington was a produce community that send apples, pepper, pears, cantaloupe around the world.
There was a spur railway line that the engineers backed their train into to load on barrels of produce that got rushed to Montreal where it was loaded on ships.
 There was a time when Burlington shipped its produce around the world; the railways did great business hauling fruit and vegetables from area farms. It was a more polite society as well The Grant Trunk Railway had two tracks coming into Burlington property that is now a walking path along the edge of the lake.
City council was there to help and for the most part it did. Roly Bird and Walter Mulkewich and were Mayors that saw things a little differently than the current crop.
There was a small incident earlier in the week that highlighted the kind of Burlington we have become.
Gareth Williams who is running for the ward 3 city council seat became aware that Rory Nisan, who is also running for the seat, had planned a community BBQ at which raffle tickets were going to be sold.
 Ward 3 candidate Gareth Williams Gareth talked to people at the Clerk’s Office – the city Clerk is the election Returning office.
He asked if the sale of raffle tickets was permitted and was told what the rules are.
If you want to sell raffle tickets you need a permit to do so from the city.
In an older more genteel Burlington Gareth Williams would have called Rory Nisan and advised him as to what the rules were; instead he waited, arranged for one of his team to attend the event and take pictures of the table with the raffle tickets on it and made them available to media.
 Ward 3 candidate Rory Nisan When the Gazette got the media release from Gareth we called Rory Nisan and asked some questions. Nisan admitted they had screwed up and were doing everything to repair the damage. We asked Nisan if he was going to issue a statement. At first he wasn’t sure but thought about it and said he would issue a statement – which he did.
It was less than a fulsome statement. Nisan referred to documents that were not crystal clear on just what the rules were.
Nisan’s response was not a fulsome, unequivocal apology for not ensuring that what his campaign was doing was onside. It fell a little short of what was expected from a Canadian diplomat.
The Clerk’s Office didn’t cover itself in glory on this disappointing situation. They were aware that someone was offside. It didn’t take a rocket scientists to figure out if questions were coming from a ward 3 candidate that the concern was in ward 3.
 City Clerk Angela Morgan serving as Returning Officer in the 2010 election. Would it have been too much to ask the Returning Officer to issue a bulletin to all candidate explaining the rules? Something along the lines of – it has come to our attention that etc. etc.
When this election is over there are some very hard questions to be put to the Returning Officer: Which part of the democratic process are you having difficulty with?
The city administration adds a tag line to every media release they send out.
“Burlington is one of Canada’s best and most livable cities, a place where people, nature and business thrive.”
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher
By Staff
September 14th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
It is silly and embarrassing.
The pettiness and rancor that have become part of the process of determining who is going to represent the people of ward 5 at city council next on December 3rd when the new council is sown in.
ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington have worked hard to organize debates at the ward level. This is something Burlington has not had for well over more than a decade.
 Intense to the point of making delegations uncomfortable ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman does know how to drill down into the data and look for results. Paul Sharman, the incumbent who was first elected in 2010, re-elected in 2014 rather easily is in a tough battle this time around.
He has decided not to take part in the ward debate that has been organized.
His reason? “My very presence at your event will provide the opportunity for you to load the questions and to create the kind disrespectful behaviour we have experienced over the last 10 months.
“Therefore it will be better for everyone that I will not be present.”
Mr. Sharman, an accountant by training, knows full well that ECoB was incorporated as a non-profit corporation. He also knows that ECoB will not have anything to do with the questions that are asked by the moderator other than to collect the questions written out by the public when they are in the auditorium.
To suggest that ECoB has an opportunity to load the questions is just plain sleazy.
 Ward 5 candidate Wendy Moraghan in conversation with incumbent Paul Sharman Sharman has a battle in front of him; the chatter on social media is pretty vicious and Sharman is adding to it.
Why he doesn’t talk about his accomplishments, and there are some, is beyond this observer.
In 2011 Sharman literally pushed through a 0% tax increase – something that has not been seen since then.
With that notch in his belt he went on to be close to abusive with delegators. It was a path he chose to take – it has not served him or his constituents well.
Sharman claims ECoB avoided the question of whether or not ECOB is a) actually an organization and b) whether you are simply organizing a public forum or one that will be characterized by the regular ECoB tactics of divisiveness and c) who is funding these activities.
As to the ECoB funding – they are donations made by citizens who attended the public meetings. There were more than 50 people who were dropping $20 bills into a box and several that wrote healthy cheques.
At the first ECoB organizational meeting a citizen said he was in the room representing people from his community and that he had a signed cheque in his pocket – he wanted to know who to make it out to.
There is still time for Paul Sharman to do a course correction. The ward 5 debate is on Wednesday, September 19th at the Bateman high school. You will get to see Paul Sharman or an empty chair with his name on it.
Ouch!
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher
By Pepper Parr
September 10th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
So it has come to this.
One had hoped that he might go quietly into the night – but that is obviously not going to happen.
Councillor Rick Craven published a vitriolic screed about why he could not support Marianne Meed Ward as Mayor.
 Craven and Meed Ward couldn’t get further apart – bad blood between the two of them. There was never any doubt that he was not going to support her. The bad blood between the two of them was evident almost before Meed Ward became a council member.
For Craven to come out publicly against Meed Ward at this point in the campaign is very telling – Craven realizes that she has traction and that the incumbent Mayor is in serious trouble.
We have inserted our own editorial comments alongside what Craven wrote. This kind of cheap garbage cannot be left to stand without some comment.
In his Facebook comments Craven said:
Meed Ward for Mayor – I don’t think so.
There’s one fundamental fact about this election that I hope Burlington voters understand.
The mayor of Burlington has no power.
Under the rules set up by the Province we have what is known as a “weak mayor” system. The only power the mayor has is the power to call a meeting and the power to declare an emergency. That’s it! Everything else must negotiated with the other members of Council. This requires skill, diplomacy, care and compromise; traits that Marianne Meed Ward has failed to demonstrate.
Diplomacy, care and compromise are not exactly skill sets that Craven has demonstrated in the eight years the Gazette has watched him
Her inability to pass most of her major proposals is clear evidence that she has no interest in negotiating with her council colleagues. It’s all about her. She thinks she has all the answers and the rest of Council can simply go to hell.
Meed Ward supporters will argue that her routine 6-1 losses result from the fact that the rest of us simply don’t get it and that she is usually right and the rest of us are usually wrong.
Really?
The six other members of council are mostly wrong and Meed Ward mostly right? Surely the average Burlington voter knows that this is simply not probable.
Meed Ward supporters will tell you that the 6 to 1 losses are a badge of courage. I think they are a testament to failure. They are a testament to her inability to get along with others in authority.
So, Meed Ward can make all the promises she likes: promises that sound good and appeal to the disappointed, the angry and the worried in our City, but her record would suggest that she simply does not have the skill to get her agenda passed. She is too adversarial.
She is not a consensus builder.
I’m not the only one who believes this.
Columnist and former City Councillor Joan Little wrote “She’s smart, but not well liked by colleagues – a big minus at the mayor level”.
Joan also wrote “Meed Ward has a sharp mind and a lot to offer, but is disliked by many colleagues, and a mayor needs council support. For that reason she’d likely be ineffective.”
The Burlington Gazette wrote “One must admit that Meed Ward does run on – frequently. She has no friends on Council.”
Craven never recognizes the Gazette for what it is: a credentialed newspaper that is published on a web site. However, now that it serves his purpose, Craven quotes us.
Burlington once had a mayor who thought he was smarter than the rest of us and didn’t need to consider Council’s views. During his four years in office Cam Jackson caused a lot of problems at City Hall. Little was accomplished and 17 senior staff left the City taking decades of expertise with them. Today, we call the Cam Jackson term “the lost years”.
I have worked with Marianne Meed Ward for 8 years. I cannot support her for mayor. Today, I have outlined just one of the many reasons. We don’t need another Cam.
Rick Craven did not work with Marianne Meed Ward – he sat beside her and never missed a chance to belittle her, diminish her and disrespect her.
His personal behaviour to the woman was shameful. Much of what we know about that behaviour is confidential – we were asked to keep it confidential and will respect that request. We do want to add that Rick Craven has represented the city on the Police Services Board for the eight years we have been following him. Connect the dots.
Let us just leave it at that.
Craven said he: “Fully expects to be vilified for this in social media by Meed Ward supporters, but it can’t be helped. This election is too important. I cannot remain silent.” Indeed, when it comes to Meed Ward Rick Craven cannot remain silent. It is Craven at his worst which is unfortunate because during his time as the Councillor for Ward 1 he did a lot for the Aldershot community.
To sully his own reputation like this is disappointing.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
September 7th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Paul Sharman has once again confused the forest for the trees.
He has said that he is not going to attend the debate for the ward 5 candidates until he knows who the Directors of ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington.
Sharman wants to know:
Who are the directors of the incorporated ECOB entity? I understand the original participants have resigned.
There has been no information about the ECOB “organization” on the website.
In the short history of ECOB there has been a continuous demonstration of divisiveness, disrespect of Council / City management, inflammatory misinformation and partisan posturing.
If the CFUW or any other respectable, objective, well established organization with a properly elected Board of Directors were to sponsor the September event, I would participate.
Otherwise, I will not participate in any event sponsored by ECOB.
I will post this message on all my public communications with respect to this event.
Does an organization that is organizing a debate have to respect the elected members of council when most of the members of this council have very little respect for the citizens who stand before than as a delegation.
 ECoB’s first public meeting attracted more than 100 people. Would that be enough to make them credible? If Sharman would do his homework he would know that ECoB held an event for anyone interested in becoming a candidate for a seat on city council or serving as a school board trustee.
More than 100 people turned out for the first event ECoB held – they raised a significant amount of money at that event. Some of those funds are being used to organize the debates. Church hall rentals being one of the costs.
 A room full of people who wanted to know more about running for public office. The event was organized by ECoB who had former council members and school board trustees on the panel. Would this make ECoB credible? Sharman is using the credentials of the people organizing the event – the people doing the hard work to make the debates happen and to deal with the antics of the sitting members of council who are doing nothing but making the job of volunteers that much harder.
What Sharman is doing is creating a phony reason to not attend a debate where he will have to face candidates that have done their homework.
 Ward 5 candidate Wendy Morghan squaring of with Councillor Paul Sharman  Mary Alice St. James talking to people outside a public meeting in the Lakeside Village Plaza where an massive change to the community was being presented.
By Pepper Parr
September 5th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
 Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman listening to east end residents. Councillor Sharman wasn’t certain that ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington – had the legitimacy or credibility to organize a series of debates for residents in each of the city’s six wards.
 Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison Councillor Dennison chose not to take part in the debate opportunity.
Councillor Lancaster took issue with Mark Carr moderating the ward level debates – ECoB arranged for a different moderator.
What is it about these three statement that are similar?
All three are members of a city council that has been in place for eight years and they aren’t interested in debating the issues.
Sharman and Dennison face very serious challenges – Lancaster has a battle on her hands. All three could be collecting pension before the end of the year.
The people of Burlington are now at a point where they want to be at the table where the decisions are made. They have trusted their members of city council to act in the best interests of the electorate. Many think that trust is now misplaced.
We have a democratic process where the elected go before the electorate and defend what they have done in the past and explain what they propose to do in the future.
Instead, Lancaster takes issue with Mark Carr being the moderator – and what might the basis of that concern be? Carr has been moderating the panel discussion The Issue on Cogeco TV for years. No one has ever suggested that he has shown any bias.
 Ward 6 Councilor Blair Lancaster chairing a Standing Committee Just what could Mark Carr do in a public debate that would harm Lancaster’s interests? This is a candidate who has come up with a case of the jitters.
Lancaster did much the same thing when the Gazette sponsored a debate in ward six when she was up against nine other candidates in ward six. On that occasion Lancaster didn’t have the “cahonies” to complain directly – she had her sister Brenda do the complaining. Slimy stuff.
Sharman has no use for any citizen group that he doesn’t control. And he doesn’t like situations where he can’t control the agenda. Ward 5 has two female candidates who are going to be in his face demanding answers to their questions and explanations behind some of his questionable behaviour during this election and that is taking far from his comfort zone.
Poor Jack Dennison – he hopes that if he can do his door to door campaigning and continue to charm the residents he can squeak through. It doesn’t look as if he is going to get away with that approach this time.
The beauty about the democracy we have is that the voters put an x mark on a piece of paper and put their marked ballot in a box – it’s a secret ballot. By the end of the election eve – the voters will know if their will was focused enough to bring about a change.
Councillors Taylor and Craven chose not to run for re-election. Craven has never been beaten – and he would probably win another term of office had he chosen not to retire. No word yet on what he wants to do next.
Councillor Taylor came to the realization that it was time to put the gauntlets on different hands. A wise decision on his part. He has served well for the most part and should be recognized for his contribution. Did he stay too long? The voters didn’t think so. He never lost an election and was acclaimed on at least one occasion.
Residents have been complaining for more than a year about the absence of the kind of engagement they want to see in the direction the city grows.
 Gary Scobie has delegated to the city in dozens of occasions – doubts he has ever been heard. Council has failed to hear what the citizens are saying and staff, who serve at the will of Council, take their que from city council.
The public is very unhappy with staff, particularly with the Planning department and the Office of the City Manager.
Should there be a new city council – there will be changes at the senior staff level.
 In the meantime there are going to be debates in every ward of the city so that citizens can hear what those who want to serve have to say for themselves. Those who have served will be asked why they should be re-elected.
Three of those seeking re-election: Sharman, Dennison and Lancaster are being dragged into the debates kicking and screaming.
Same thing happened in the French Revolution when the guillotine was put into almost daily use.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher
By Pepper Parr
August 30th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
It’s a story that isn’t going to go away and the telephone election polling being done doesn’t appear to be stopping.
Campaign Research appears to have revised the questions they are asking the people they call in Burlington which suggests that the client is still intent on attempting to collect some information and at the same time using historical information out of context to hammer the reputation Mayoralty candidate Marianne Meed Ward’s reputation,
Meed Ward worked for a number of years as a columnist for the Toronto Sun. Anyone who wants to put a specific spin on what another person who writes for the public won’t find it difficult to do a really good smear job on them. Columnists have opinions – that’s why they are hired. Some are provocative, others entertaining. We all have our favourites.
I usually can’t wait to read what Maureen Dowd has to say in the New York Times and there is certainly a colourful background story on her.
 There is a lot of money riding on this development. They want what the guy across the street has in terms of height. This rendering is on Brant from the Queen’s Head looking north. What Burlington is seeing is this – significant financial interests don’t like the impact Meed Ward is having on the rate and kind of development the city is experiencing.
Meed Ward, often described as a populist (I’ve never understood what’s wrong with being a populist) can be very blunt and direct. She has an agenda – as a politician she is supposed to have an agenda.
For some politicians their agenda is for the ward they represent. Meed Ward has always seen the city and the Region as her agenda and a city that meets the needs of the people who live here as she understands them.
She is described as well as “divisive” – that she isn’t a team player. She has chosen not to work with the current political team at city hall because she thinks they are dead wrong and she has a level of support that suggests she just might be right.
That she has the support of a large sector of the city impacts what the developers are going to get away with. Development is now all about money.
There was a time when developers cared about the communities they were building – that day has come and gone. It is now about how much you can make and keep.
The number of new developers who are new to Burlington is significant. They see a market in which they can get just about anything they want – and they are either buying up properties or getting options to buy.
Residents see opportunities to make a bundle on selling their homes – everyone wins.
Meed Ward sees it differently.
 Quiet streets with good homes – the Burlington many people want to defend and they believe Meed Ward is the person who will deliver for them. She believes that the city is where people live and the quality of life they have experienced can continue as long as there is some level of control over the growth that is taking place.
There are numbers being put out saying that the city has to grow by a certain number of homes and jobs – it doesn’t look as if anyone knows what the 30+ development applications that are said to be working their way through the Planning department will amount to.
Which brings us back to the telephone survey that has been taking place and is still underway.
Someone wants to know just where the political support is in this city. There are three serious candidates (the fourth needs to get another hobby). Each offers very clear choices.
 Meed Ward has always been a different campaign. She ruffles the feathers of her colleagues on city council; asks more questions than all the others combined and truly believes that the people she represent deserve a better form of local government. The Meed Ward choice threatens the interests of people with a lot of money who don’t want to lose the opportunities they see in Burlington.
So they do some research and in the process do whatever they can to besmirch the reputation of one of the candidates by bringing up stuff she wrote more than a decade ago and then putting it in a different context.
It’s sort of like asking a man if he is still beating his wife. The answer to the question isn’t the issue – it is the question that is all wrong.
That’s what applies to what it taking place now and people in Burlington need to see the situation for what it is.
This business about being divisive is just another way of saying Meed Ward asks questions that make me uncomfortable – and that she does. That’s what her job is and she appears to be doing it quite well – too well for some people.
 Mayor Rick Goldring being interviewed by CBC The CBC radio office in Hamilton has done a good job of digging out a large part of the story. (We would love to have the resources they have.) They got a statement from the Mayor – he appears to have chosen not to release a statement to all media. Goldring, who is running for re-election against Meed Ward, said he had nothing to do with the poll. “It was definitely not me. It’s certainly not my style.”
In the CBC report Councillor Marianne Meed Ward says she first received word from residents on Sunday afternoon she was being mentioned in a telephone survey conducted by Toronto-based consulting firm Campaign Research — which counts controversial conservative political strategist Nick Kouvalis as one of its heads.
Meed Ward called the statements made about her “untrue, inflammatory and defamatory.” Campaign Research denies that. “This is heinous and it needs to stop,” Meed Ward said.
 Jim Young at a transit meeting. Burlington resident Jim Young told said he received a call Monday afternoon. “It started off like a fairly regular political poll, he said, “consisting of rating candidates on a scale of one to 10, and indicating how certain he was that he would support a particular candidate.”
Young said that he planned to vote for Meed Ward and then the tone of the questions the person was asking changed.
“At that point, the questions became very strange,” Young said. The woman conducting the poll said she was going to give several statements about Meed Ward, and instructed Young to indicate on a scale of one to 10 how likely he was to change his vote because of them.
The questions asked, which don’t deserve repeating, were in Jim Young’s words “seemed like character assassination.”
Young wanted to complain about the questions being asked and was told that the survey was being done by Campaign Research and was offered a telephone number in case he wanted to complain.
Young said he called the number, and got an automated recording for Campaign Research.
Campaign Research denies survey was defamatory
In an email, Campaign Research Principal Richard Ciano said the company will not “disclose, discuss, confirm, or deny the existence of any matter relating to who its clients are, or may be, or any work Campaign Research Inc. may perform on behalf of its clients unless specifically required to do so by law, or unless specifically directed to do so by our clients.”
 Nick Kouvalis, a campaign strategist with a reputation os his own that he uses to drum up business from people who want deep background on public office candidates. Legal counsel for Campaign Research said, “We vehemently contest your characterization of the subject statements as ‘defamatory’.”
He also said the poll was conducted for “another market research firm, whose identity we cannot disclose due to confidentiality.”
A bunch of guys just taking care of business – see them for what they are.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher
By Pepper Parr
August 23rd, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Is it deliberate?
Or is it from an organization that is now so dysfunctional that the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.
We published an opinion piece by ward 2 city council candidate Roland Tanner who wrote about a meting that was very poorly promoted, pointing out that even the ward Councillor and candidate for Mayor didn’t know about it.
We did a follow up piece on how a public meeting on such a critical matter could be so poorly promoted. We kept coming across the Get Involved part of the city web site.
 Those who know or should know how to communicate effectively: Back row, left Kwab Ako-Adjei, Senior Manager of Government Relations and Strategic Communications,. Bottom row, centre Donna Kell, Manager of Public Affairs and to her left city manager James Ridge. They would have signed off on the ChAT report. While we were reading up on Getting Involved we came across ChAT – an interesting group that, in their group photograph, has several city staff in the group – including Kwab Ako-Adjei, Senior Manager of Government Relations and city manager James Ridge.
In April 2013, Burlington City Council approved the first Burlington Community Engagement Charter. The Charter was created by citizens with support from staff. It is an agreement between and among Burlington City Council and the community concerning citizen engagement with City government and establishes the commitments, responsibilities and fundamental concepts of this relationship.
Ako-Adjei and Ridge surely know something about communicating.
ChAT had their most recent annual report on the web site.
Some excerpts from that document
1. Ensure notification is as widespread as possible:
a. Use communication tools that include City of Burlington website, local print media, online digital communication, direct delivery and social media.
b. Reach out to groups/individuals that may be affected by proposed developments, policies, initiatives, studies and municipal projects.
c. Create and develop partnerships that will help reach out to citizens.
d. Ensure that communication plans include early and widespread notifications.
e. Where appropriate, provide progress and/or completion notices.
2. Ensure notification is given early enough so that the citizens may be fully engaged:
a. Set up and maintain a way for citizens and groups to subscribe or sign up for early notification through email, social media or other means.
b. Advise the public of proposed developments, policies, meetings and major projects as soon as possible. For major projects and public meetings, at least two weeks notice to the public is expected. Exceptions will be made in emergency situations where less than two weeks notice will apply.
3. Support staff in providing early and widespread notification so that it becomes part of the corporate culture:
a. Provide staff training in effective public engagement practices through workshops and e-learning opportunities.
4. Collaborate with citizens and partners in empowering citizens through different means of communicating:
a. Use existing resources in the community to help to provide information as soon as possible.
b. Develop and use networks for information sharing of contacts.
5. Clearly communicate meeting dates and deadlines:
a. Schedule public meetings to take place early and with opportunities for public input into decision- making.
b. Create a central point on the City’s website where all dates are available.
c. Ensure dates are reflected on City project pages on the website.
d. Include dates in all relevant communication materials.
Is this happening?
It is so immoral for a city to publish statements like this and then fail miserably to deliver on the promise.
The people who work at city hall want to be seen as professionals – and they should be. But there is nothing professional about how that public meeting Wednesday night came into being.
Burlington once had a city manager who made mistakes – and he had the decency to apologize publicly for the mistakes he made.
And he wasn’t crass enough to define his mistakes as a “learning opportunity”.
Related opinion and news stories:
Roland Tanner opinion piece
Public meeting that failed.
By Pepper Parr
August 20th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
The election that will decide who the Mayor of Burlington will be for the 2018 – 2021 term of office is attracting a lot of attention. The high profile offices usually get a lot of attention when an incumbent just might be getting the boot.
Burlingtonians have two very different choices if they decide that current Mayor Rick Goldring has done his bit. Ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward has her hat in the ring and former city Councillor and Member of Parliament Mike Wallace are candidates for Mayor. Aldershot resident Greg Woodruff has also announced his candidacy.
While those top spots are important – the critical level of municipal government for households with children is our school board which is Regional in nature.
The Board that is seeking re-election is the Board that voted to close two of the city’s seven high schools when it was not crystal clear that those schools had to be closed.
 The school closings are what the Board administration wanted. The Director of Education changed his position once he had compelling data from Central high school parents. It isn’t clear why the Board staff did not spot what Central parents discovered.
Because of the doubt the Board trustees did have the option of voting to not close any of the high schools at the time and to wait for a few years to see just what high school enrollment was going to be.
The very significant intensification Burlington is going through makes it clear that we are going to see more people living in Burlington. Some of those people will be families and some of those families will have children and some of those children will be high school students.
In the process of closing Robert Bateman and the Lester B. Pearson High schools the trustees did two things that have done almost irreparable harm to the community. Bateman had a Community Pathways Program that provided an essential educational program for students that deserve as much opportunity as any other student.
Moving the program to Nelson is filled with problems.
Few, other than the parents who had children in the program, knew about the vital role CPP played in the lives of disadvantaged students.
 On the several student events that the Gazette covered at the school we didn’t hear a word about CPP; but as the PAR process rolled out it became clear that the program was essential for a group of families.
 When the decision to close Bateman was announced those parents erupted as well they should have. Had they made their case earlier in the process a different outcome might have been possible.
The Central high school parents did their homework and pointed out how expensive (never mind how disruptive to student life) it was going to be to bus their students. The Board looked at the numbers Central provided and agreed and took Central off the close list.
They then put Bateman on the list; their response was to claim the Central parents had “thrown them under the bus”.
The closing of Bateman has been pushed back two years.
 Ward 5 Halton District School Board trustee Any Collard With nominations closed – parents now know who has come forward to serve at the Board of Education level. There are a couple of bright spots. The acclamation of Amy Collard in ward 5 assures the public that there will be at least one strong voice coming from Burlington.
 Parent Diane Miller delegating to Administrative Review Facilitator Margaret Wilson. The entry of Diane Miller for the ward 3 seat is good news. Ms Miller made a very strong delegation to Margaret Wilson, the Facilitator appointed by the province to carry out an Administrative Review of the process used by the Halton District school Board to arrive at it’s decision to close two of the city’s seven high schools: Lester B.Pearson and Robert Bateman. Ms Wilson found for the Board of Education saying there was nothing fundamentally wrong with the process that was used.
Her public report said: “Based on my review and consultations, I conclude that, while there were violations of the Board PAR Policy, they were such that they had no material effect on either the deliberations of the PARC or on the final decisions of the Board.”
One wonders what the Board administration would have to do to draw a different response from the Facilitator.
 Jason Bartlett, who is running for the Ward 1 and 2 seat is an active participant of the Special Education parents group and can be expected to advocate for the parents with children that have special needs. Those children need all the advocacy they can get
One can only wish that those parents had been more active during that period of time when the decision to close Bateman was made.
One hopes that the debate for the school board trustees can hear sound arguments and strong positions from the trustees and do away with that “we were thrown under the bus” claim by Bateman parents.
There is the potential to elect trustees that can do the job they are elected to do.
This is the time for voters to look over the candidates and ensure that the direction the school board takes is sound and meets the needs of the children that will be heading back to school in a couple of weeks.
Salt with Pepper are the opinions, reflections, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher
By Pepper Parr
July 30th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
We erred – there are four people running for Mayor. This story has been corrected. The number is still 63
Nominations closed at city hall Friday afternoon.
There are 63 candidates running for city council seats, Board of Education seats, both Catholic and Public.
There is also a race for the Regional Chair.
There is one acclamation.
Ward 1 has 11 nominations, ward 2 has 6 and ward 3 has 5.
The only straight one on one battle is in ward 4 where Shawna Stolte is taking on 25 year + incumbent Jack Dennison who has a battle on his hands this time.
Four people are running for Mayor.
Two of the seven Burlington Council members have resigned: Rick Craven in ward 1 and John Taylor in ward 3.
There are 13 people running for seats on the Halton District Catholic School Board where there are some fundamental questions to be worked through.
The Halton District School Board has challengers for three of the four Burlington seats on the 11 member board. Amy Collard has been acclaimed in ward 5 once again. The residents in ward 5 know when they have a good thing going for them.
Expect to see the school board issues made part of the municipal election; the parents at Bateman appear to be getting ready to blame the closing of Bateman high school on ward 2 city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward when it was the school board trustees who made that decision.
The October election looks as if it is going to be messy with development being the biggest issue. A project in the east end of the city that wants to put 11 buildings in the old Lakeshore Plaza site, now named Lakeshore Village Plaza, will bring out those that want Burlington to remain what it has been for some time. Those who don’t want to kind of development that is being brought forward by the developers use the phrase “responsible development”.
It will be up to the new city council to determine just what is responsible development is.
With four candidates running for Mayor the choices are not going to be easy. Meed Ward at some time has to put forward a really clear position on just what she thinks the city should have in the way of a development plan going forward; the Mayor, Rik Goldring has to stop saying that the tax increases are in line with inflation – they are not. He is fudging the numbers to his advantage.
Mike Wallace has to begin to say more about what he would look for as Mayor. So far we know that he now realizes the city needs a larger city council. – the reason we have just the six members of council is because of a motion Wallace brought years ago that reduced the 17 then to the six now.
Wallace has talked about a “Liberty Village” for Burlington. Interpreted that is about land development – which developer are we talking about here – there isn’t all that much land available.
We aren’t hearing anything from Wallace on the downtown development.
Greg Woodruff has to do more than have a Facebook page.
When 63 people run for public office you know that there are a lot of people very unhappy with the way things have been done the past eight years.
By Pepper Parr
July 25th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
At the start of almost every delegation made to city council the words: “Thank you to Council and Staff for hearing my delegation.”
It is my view that the council and staff should be thanking the delegator for taking the time to prepare their remarks and speak publicly to those elected to office. Many members of Council do say – Thank you for coming – and then stop listening. Rarely do the members of council say – That’s a good idea – I will ask staff to make it happen.
Gary Scobie- a frequent delegator  Jim Young, one of the best delegators city council gets to hear. Language determines the direction a conversation takes. If a delegator appears as a supplicant members of Council will treat them as supplicants.
Burlington’s city council has treated the public as supplicants during the period of time Cam Jackson was Mayor and for the two terms Rick Goldring has been Mayor.
The public lets them do this and the civic leadership in the past has been content to let it continue.
It is going to take a Mayor that fully understands and commits to the belief that the voters are supreme on the day they cast their ballots and that they matter every day of a term of office.
The Gazette has listened to well over 100 delegations – some are exceptionally well prepared – others could have used more work but every delegation was an important part of the democratic process that has to be respected by the elected to office.
The current Procedural bylaw needs a revision; it limits how a delegator can address council and basically prevents a delegator from addressing staff in a formal setting unless the chair lets that kind of interaction take place.
Burlington has a city manager who believes his role is to protect his staff. He has been recorded as saying that he is passionate about protecting his staff.
On far too many occasions the Chair of a council meeting, the Mayor is the worst offender, insist that there be no clapping or applause when a delegator has finished their presentation. The Mayor however has no problem letting the public applaud when he is handing out certificates of merit.
The public process is a large part of the heart of a community. It needs to be allowed to swell and be proud and to express sadness and disappointment.
 Candidate for Mayor – Mike Wallace  Seeking re-election to a third term Rick Goldring Citizens of Burlington will decide between three candidates in October. The number of new people running for office makes it evident that people want to see changes. Nominations close on Friday.
Use the summer to think about what you want and then determine who best meets your wishes.
 Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward running for Mayor  Greg Woodruff wants to be Mayor Municipal government in Canada is not political party based. Hopefully both the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives will not hop on the wagon being pulled by a candidate for Mayor.
The New Democrats and the Greens have their followings as well.
Candidates have to be judged on their merits and being a Liberal or a Progressive Conservative is not necessarily meritorious.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the thoughts, opinions, observations and musing of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
July 19th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
David Vandenburg contacted the Gazette to clarify why a second version of the mayor’s newsletter went out earlier this week.
The Mayor said, according to his campaign manager, that the downtown Councillor contacted the Mayor’s Office with the request for correction, which he then provided. Apparently the Mayor “didn’t want to mislead readers by not highlighting the part that was corrected.”
 David Vandenburg announcing that he is going to manage Mayor Goldring’s re-election campaign. Vandenburg added that as the “lead representative of council, any Mayor should keep residents informed on votes and what other Councillors were looking for, it wasn’t a political shot. Which is why the Mayor referred to Councillor Dennison’s wishes for the site as well.
“It was a minor error in the first one that was simply requested to be changed by a colleague, which was done and highlighted.”
Vandenberg said he was “clarifying the reason why the part was highlighted in the second version was because the first newsletter went out only saying MMW put forward a motion for 11 stories. She asked for it to be changed to 3-11 stories, which the Mayor did and highlighted it so readers understood the correction in the newsletter.
“MMW asked for the change and he did it for her and to clarify to the public, not a shot at her. She asked for the change.”
I’m confused.
Here are the two version of the paragraph in the Newsletter:
 The paragraph as it appeared in the first version of the newsletter on the Tuesday.  The second version of the paragraph as it appeared in the second version. All the Mayor had to do was say that he was asked the make a correction. Now we know. Awkward!
It all comes across as a little confusing – kind of like the New Street Road Diet. Do it right the first time and don’t slip and slide explaining something that was pretty simple.
Why couldn’t the Mayor have said something like: I was asked to make the following correction by the ward Councillor – then make the correction.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the thoughts, opinions, observations and musing of the Gazette publisher.
 By Pepper Parr
July 19th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
How does the Mayor get to use his Report to the citizens as part of his campaign to get re-elected as Mayor?
 The Mayor is given space on the city web site to report to the citizens of the city on decisions he makes and why he made them. Mayor Goldring’s practice has been to produce a report at least once a a month.
The Mayor is expected to use various media to speak to the public about decisions he has made and why he voted the way he did.
Nothing wrong with that – it is part of the job of being Mayor.
However, when his Updates are used to advance his electoral campaign he is stepping outside the lines.
In the most recent Update the Mayor chose to highlight part of his remarks in yellow in which he set out what one of his competitors for the Office of Mayor had said she wanted to see accepted in terms of height for a controversial downtown development.
The Mayor can and will campaign for re-election. He will discuss what he has done and what his competitors are doing on the campaign trail and in debates.
It is not appropriate for him to use media space given to him by the city to take a swipe at another candidate.
 The Mayor highlighted the views of a council member in yellow marker.
What makes this particularly tacky is that the Mayor published his update on Tuesday at 4:37 pm in which the words about Meed Ward were not highlighted in yellow.
He republished his Update on Wednesday at 6:03 pm – that is the version that has the highlighting.
It is actions like this that make election campaigns dirty.
By Pepper Parr
July 18th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
We just might be hearing the phrase “Common Sense Coalition” when the municipal election gets more active .
There are candidates who are getting together and talking about identifying themselves as a coalition where they will have a statement they all endorse that is city wide.
The individual candidates will then have issues they want to identify and work with within their own wards.
The people behind this idea point out that there is nothing partisan about what they want to do. “We are just candidates for public office that want to tell the public that we can work together and avoid the rancor that exists on the council we have now.”
One of the concerns the Gazette hears again and again is the lack of civility at council meetings. There are some very very poor relationships between some council members. There are two that just will not let up – they go at each other as if there were working on a long standing family feud.
 Citizens standing for the National Anthem at the start of a council meeting. Twelve people delegated – not many smiles from even one of them. We hear from people who have delegated at council and say that they will never do that again. They felt they were humiliated and not respected. Some people don’t have experience delegating and they are nervous, lose their train of thought and then wander off from the issue.
There is the sense that the delegator and the council member come across as combatants – the council members don’t come across as leaders.
Frequently a council member challenges a delegator in a dismissive diminishing manner.
There is rarely the sense that they are all in the room to achieve the same goal.
On Monday there were people delegating and talking about how well their community worked for them. They were the personification of that phrase city hall trots out with every media release: Burlington is one of Canada’s best and most livable cities, a place where people, nature and business thrive. A comment from a Georgian Court reader went like this: “Our city counselors totally let us down, and in the process were disrespectful. I have lost all faith and confidence in our city government”.
 Walter Mulkewich  Rob MacIsaac When we meet with people we ask: Who is the best Mayor the city had in the past? Rob MacIsaac and Walter Mulkewich are always at the top of the list. “Rob was always informed, knew what he was talking about and was a pleasure to work with” was the way one citizen described a past Mayor.
During a conversation with someone who knows MacIsaac well told us that he was at an event with MacIsaac recently and asked him which of the several jobs he has had in the past did he like the most. We were told that MacIsaac said he had fund while he was Mayor.
One seldom gets the sense that anyone is having any fun at city hall. The planners are almost under siege. They are over worked – the development applications arrive almost daily.
 At times the work for the planners is both exciting and challenging but the pace is relentless and fatigue sets in.
City Council is off for the month of August – the planners aren’t going to have that luxury.
Perhaps Parks and Recreation could put on an event for the Planning department – let them all hop onto a trampoline and just have fun.
How about the City Manager on a trampoline? That might be asking for too much!
Salt with Pepper is the opinions, reflections, musings and observations of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
July 15th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
A source that does have a vested interest in the outcome of the municipal election in October advised us yesterday that he can confirm Frank McKeown, the recently retired executive Director of the Economic Development Corporation, has taken on the task of being chief strategist for current Mayor Rick Golding who is seeking a third term.
 Frank McKeown. McKeown was once the Chief of Staff during the first two years of Goldring’s first term, 2010 to 2014 and is believed to have been the person who wrote the several position papers that Goldring issued during the 2010 election. They were good papers and set out issues the Mayor was able to deliver on.
The creation of Tech Place was a Goldring initiative in the 2010 election. After leaving the Mayor’s office McKeown was appointed the Executive Director of the Economic Development Corporation where he did the grunt work that got Tech Place on the map.
His initial objective was to work with the McMaster De Groote School of Business and create a partnership with the German Fraunhofer Group and establish a Centre at De Groote; that didn’t work out. The German group partnered with the Innovation Centre in Hamilton.
TechPlace, where the tech community connects, develops and grows, has worked out. There are now a reported seven “clients” working out of the offices on the North Service Road in the east end of the city.
Goldring’s re-election campaign is being managed by David Vandenburg. At one point there was the hint that Martin van Zon of Burlington based Interkom Smart Marketing would be playing a large role in the campaign. That idea didn’t go very far.
 Mayor Rick Goldring at his campaign kick off. The chatter amongst those that follow the election is that Golding is not holding his own and that Mike Wallace, with very little in the way of public comment on significant development matters, is doing better than many expected.
There is nothing to substantiate that view but bringing McKeown on at this point in the campaign suggests that a Goldring feels he needs some bench strength.
McKeown has never been a fan of the approach ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward takes to development in the downtown core.
On the occasions when McKeown has delegated at city council his body language and the responses he gives Meed Ward to many of her questions speaks volumes. There has never been a good working relationship between those two.
There was a point in 2013 when McKeown was giving serious thought to a run at the Mayor’s job. His decision not to enter the political arena at the time was that he felt the morale at city hall was toxic.
 Frank McKeown explains a concept to Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman. McKeown was described as the 7th council member during the 2011Strategic Plan sessions. McKeown is a team player; quiet, soft spoken with the capacity to deliver. McKeown doesn’t have to work another day of his life. He is in that fortunate position of being able to decide what he wants to do and nothing is Ok with him rather than taking on a useless task.
His relationship with Goldring is not all that clear. You can bet that McKeown didn’t volunteer to serve as the lead strategist – my guess is that he got a phone call and rather than see either Meed Ward or Wallace be elected as Mayor he joined Goldring’s team.
McKeown is direct, he thinks things through and when he has questions or concerns he gets out of the office and looks into situations himself. He has few pretensions; he’s the kind of guy who can be in a room and you never know he is there.
Ward 2 city Councillor Mary Anne Meed Ward is a candidate for the Office of Mayor in the October election Both Meed Ward and Wallace will know that there is now some weight on the Goldring bench; the concerns all three candidates have with the performances coming out of the Planning department will be high on the campaign strategy agenda for Goldring.
Will having McKeown be enough to shore up the Golding position? There is more than enough time to fix whatever flaws there might be in the Goldring team.
 Mike Wallace in full campaign mode. Wallace has much more bench strength than many realize.
Meed Ward desperately needs some bench strength on the realities of real estate development.
The city now has a public that is unhappy, somewhat confused and determined to do as much as they can to bring about a change.
 Frank McKeown attempts to fix the clock in Council Chambers. He is a detail type – get it right and keep it on time. McKeown is the kind of strategist who not only knows that you get in front of the parade and lead; he can be expected to come up with ideas and directions to slow down the pace of the parade and get the band to play a different tune.
Goldring opens his campaign office early in August – he announced it will be in the Plaza on Guelph Line at New Street – next to the Tim Hortons shop. They got that part right.
There is more than enough time to fix whatever flaws there might be in the Goldring team.
Wallace has much more bench strength than many realize.
Meed Ward desperately needs some bench strength on the realities of real estate development.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the view, musings and observations of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
July 13th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
A candidate for one of the city council seats sent us a proposal that had come to his attention via ECoB: Engaged Citizens of Burlington that he felt council should consider.
The proposal is to use some of the community benefit money that would be a part of the process if the 409 project proceeds to move the Kelly’s Bake Shop from its current Brant street location to an empty city lot at John and Caroline, allowing Kelly’s Bake Shoppe to remain in the downtown core.
 Kelly’s Bake Shop has become a destination for many. A condo development threatens the existence of the buisness. While the sentiment is nice – this idea is fraught with problems.
First, John Street north of Caroline is not actually a street – it is a lane way and there might be issues over what can be built on a lane way.
Second, City Manager James Ridge brought to council’s attention that any rental the city might do would have to be at market rates – the Municipal Act requires him to do that.
Third, should the city be in the business of favouring a specific commercial operation? This is not the purpose of municipal governments. It opens the door for all kinds of cronyism – and if Ridge is against anything, his stomach would turn if he saw that happening on his watch.
The desire to do something for the cupcake store is based on an emotional concern – that’s not what city hall is about.
 Kelly Child’s is a very talented marketer – trying to convince a city to give her special treatment. It is the Gazette’s understanding that Kelly Child’s has yet to meet with the Economic Development Corporation; that organization is in place to work with commercial operations that need help.
What Kelly Child’s has done is play the “crying in public” card for sympathy and support. This is a business situation and we are talking about public money – be very careful.
The candidate said he has “spoken to Kelly Childs and confirmed that this is a proposal she would be happy to consider.”
I’ll bet she would be happy to consider the proposal.
The candidate, who we have deliberately not identified; (we don’t want to embarrass him any more than he has embarrassed himself by promoting a totally cock-a-mammy idea), said he “believes this is an excellent and inventive idea worthy of full and urgent examination by Council and Staff, and I will be supporting that examination.
 John Street at Caroline looking south – a proposed new location for Kelly’s Bake Shop. The building on the property has been demolished “Kelly’s Bake Shoppe is a Burlington success story that may become a Canada-wide and international success story. Burlington should do everything it can both to protect the heritage property and recognise the tenant’s special contribution to the downtown.
“I believe that this is a proposal well worth getting out to your readers today.”
Hmmm … is this what we want on city council?
Salt with Pepper is a column reflecting the opinions, views, observations and musings of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
July 10th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
Affordable housing – an oxymoron perhaps.
In a market where housing prices have risen as much as 20% year over year, the cost of buying a home has skyrocketed – and that impacts directly the cost of rental accommodation.
 Some of the year over year changes were mind boggling – a market run amok. The Burlington mind set is married to the idea of owning the home you live in – rental accommodation is not for people who are true Burlingtonians – we are all property owners.
Every development that comes before city council has the words “affordable housing” tucked in the application somewhere and the response from the planners pays lip service to the idea. Members of council will insist that some affordable housing be included in a development.
Carriage Gate agreed to provide the City with a cash contribution of $300,000 prior to condominium registration that was to go towards an affordable account the city appears to have created.
Reserve Properties, the developers promoting a development on the SE corner of Brant and James, have made mention of their plans to contribute something to the need for affordable housing if their development is approved.
The developers offer up some cash in lieu of actually including affordable units in the condominium.
Where does that cash the developers give the city go?
That isn’t exactly clear. The Gazette isn’t sure if any funds have actually moved from the developer’s bank account into the coffers of the city. Funds from carriage Gate should be in the city bank account by now.
The issue is not about the need for affordable housing – the issue is who is to provide that housing.
Every member of city council knows that housing is a Regional responsibility.
 This high rise close to Lakeshore sets aside 60% of its space for rent geared to income (RGI) tenants. The building is owned and operated by a co-op that works with the Region. The Region has policies, they have a reasonably clear idea of what is needed. How close they are to that need could be a little tighter.
The Region operates a number of towers that are totally affordable.
They partner with organizations that make space in buildings they own for rent geared to income space.
They maintain the list of who is looking for affordable housing and they determine who can get into a building and when. The mix of affordable housing is pretty good.
The problem is the need for a shift from the approach that has language which makes affordable housing options sound like or look like welfare options.
Housing has to be looked at differently.
 The Region has a section on its web site where people can search and see what is available. Waiting times to get a residence is measured in years. The Region is responsible for the social housing needs of all four municipalities: Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills.
 During the 2010 election Regional Chair came close to losing it when people were going on about the need for affordable housing at the municipal level – “it’s a Regional responsibility” he almost shouted out in an exasperating tone..
There are some very good people at the Regional level administering the policies and the properties.
In the event that Burlington sends the money it gets from developers to the Region (and that point isn’t clear) the Region does not appear to be committed to spending what it gets from Burlington in Burlington.
Instead of trying to outdo each other in how committed they are to affordable housing Burlington city council needs to get its act together and set out what it would like to see done and then take the Burlington plan to Regional council and fight for it at that level.
That however would require a council that is cohesive and can actually work together.
Burlington is now seeing a new crop of candidates that are younger, have good intellectual chops and want to see a change.
ECoB – engaged Citizens of Burlington held a meeting for people interested in running for office – the came close to packing the room. The city is close to have good solid candidates in all six wards and clear choices for the next Mayor.
In the 2014 municipal election Mayor Goldring said he was quite comfortable with seeing every member of the council re-elected. And they were all re-elected. They really weren’t any tough races with the possible exception of ward 6 where Blair Lancaster faced nine candidates.
There were two problems with the comfort level the Mayor had chosen.
He wasn’t leading council and council wasn’t taking the city anywhere.
That could be about to change.
The next step is for the people who live in the city to think about what they want and then decide who can deliver what they want.
Then get out and actually vote.
We did a piece recently on a woman who taught the city something about milkweed plants and learned that she had run for public office in 2003 – the turnout in that election was 16%.
No wonder we are in a mess.
The complacent people of Burlington did this to themselves.
As for an affordable housing policy that delivers for Burlington – that has to get worked out at the Regional level and Burlington city council members have to make their case at that level.
They’ve known that for the past seven years.
Salt with Pepper is an opinion column reflecting the views, musings, observations and opinions of the Gazette publisher.
By Pepper Parr
June 9th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a resounding win.
Given the chaos that Doug Ford faced when he was made leader of the party his win can only be described as incredible.
The people who voted wanted a change and this has certainly been a change.
The voter turnout is reported to have been 58%, the highest the province has seen in 20 years. One canno argue with results like that.
The voters made decisions and the joy in the various halls where the celebrations took place echoed what people wanted.
 Jane McKenna will become the MPP for Burlington, this time as the member of a government. Burlington is now back to being a blue city. Jane McKenna is once again a member of the provincial legislature and this time she is a member of the government. Whatever Ms McKenna has in the way of ideas and aspirations can now come to the surface.
Time will tell what kind of a contribution she is going to make.
Today, she is to be congratulated for her win.
Eleanor McMahon now ends her career as a politician.
The city did see two very good new candidates: Alvin Tedjo brought a fresh approach for the Liberals and Andrew Drummond was a welcome surprise for the New Democrats. One hopes they stick around.
Time to move on and get on with the business of creating a new government and getting used to the idea that the change the voters wanted has begun.
Will the change we saw take place last night be repeated in October at city hall? And if they are will they be as resounding?
Salt with Pepper is the reflections, musings and opinions of the Gazette publisher.
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