Chair of the Planning and Building committee is in for a rough evening - 31 delegations have registered.

By Pepper Parr

January 23rd, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

Getting in front of members of city council to speak is proving a little awkward.

ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington are determined to bring this city council to heel and insist ob being heard.

A Planning and Building Committee meeting scheduled for this afternoon and this evening has 12 registered delegations this afternoon and 19 registered delegations for this evening.

ECoB sent a notice to Chair, Committee of Planning and Development Councillor Paul Sharman

Intense to the point of making delegations uncomfortable ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman will be asked to deal with some procedural issues at a Planning and Building meeting this evening.

Please be advised that members of Engaged Citizens of Burlington have notified the Clerk’s office that there were system interruptions with the Delegation Registration link last week. Confusion has ensued it is unclear if delegates will be turned away or refused the opportunity to address Committee at the November 23, 2018 Planning and Development Committee. We wish to provide clarity to our members.

Per Section 37.7 of the Procedural Bylaw 64-2016, Delegations will be permitted without prior registration during any public meeting as required by section 14.1 of the Planning Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. P.13. Delegations are strongly encouraged to register before the standard delegation registration deadline and will be asked to fill in an attendance form to fulfill legislative notice requirements.

Please confirm if a Procedural Motion is necessary or will be presented to allow anyone eligible in attendance to speak to the matters relating to Proposed New Official Plan (PB-50-17) & Proposed Downtown Mobility Hub Precinct Plan and proposed official plan policies (PB-81-17).

EcoB has developed the ability to be heard – they also know how to ambush the Mayor at his own meetings.

The group had planned a meeting for volunteers then learned that the Mayor called a meeting of his own to listen to people.

ECob held their meeting, prepared a list of things they wanted the Mayor to do and zipped over to the Mayor’s meeting to put their demands in front of him.

The Mayor promised to respond – nothing so far.

In preparing for the meeting this evening ECoB is arguing that the Planning department has basically ‘run amuck’; citizens were urged to delegate and appear to have found that the system that handles delegate registration wasn’t working properly.

This council has never had to face a well-organized and angry group of citizens like this in their seven years of service.  Should be an interesting meeting.