By Gazette Staff
July 23, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Freeze non-union pay for 2026 and 2027, prioritizing fiscal discipline while protecting service delivery.
Thomas Duffries chose to send his delegation on the 2026 budget to City Council rather than delegate in person and be on hand to answer any questions Councillors might have.
The delegation was exceptional in its understanding of numerous funding plans available to the city.
- Employee Compensation and Well-being
- Freeze non-union pay for 2026 and 2027, prioritizing fiscal discipline while protecting service delivery.
- Enhance employee wellness:
o Expanded mental health and well-being supports.
o Begin phased implementation of a 4-day workweek.
o Increase starting vacation entitlement to three weeks, with accelerated progression timelines.
- Transit Service Enhancements
- Add 16 transit drivers in 2026, no new buses, funded through increased ridership and reduced overtime.
- The proposed amount does not help Burlington achieve its now expired Transit Plan. While Burlington Transit has made terrific gains in its ridership, it has not completed its goals of improving service. This amount will help achieve the goals set out in the plan.
Council should ask that Staff develop a Service Plan for 2026 consisting of options that will range from increasing service with 5 Operators, 8 Operators and 16 Operators. These Service Plan options should be developed and presented to Council during Budget 2026 and refined for implementation in June 2026. Handi Van service should not be expanded at this time.
- Free transit initiatives:
Free transit and shuttles
o Free Summer transit for students to be permanently funded
o Free Christmas and March Break transit, funded through the Youth Initiatives
Reserve as a pilot pending results from Summer ridership.
o Free transit and shuttles during Sound of Music Festival and RibFest, and free transit on Canada Day and New Year’s Eve, funded potentially through the
Municipal Accommodation Tax (MAT) and sponsorships.
- Pilot renewable diesel transition for transit and fleet vehicles to advance climate targets.
- Infrastructure and Environmental Investments
- Increase the Infrastructure Renewal Levy to 3% gradually from 2026-3031, strengthening funding for critical asset renewal and resiliency.
- Use the Infrastructure Renewal levy to support:
o The Multiyear Community Investment Fund.
o Immediate expansion of the tree replacement program, increasing the planting/replacement ratio to 3:1, strengthening Burlington’s climate adaptation and urban canopy goals.
- Dedicate MAT revenues to develop a Sport Tourism, Development, and Infrastructure
Strategy, enhancing economic activity and community health.
▪ This strategy should be used to attract more sport events and tourism in Burlington but also develop the infrastructure needed. This strategy should specifically look at developing a 50m Pool, Indoor Soccer facility and
other sport infrastructure located at Sherwood Forest Park.
- Explore Sustainability-as-a-Service models to advance Net Zero goals, leveraging private-sector partnerships for building retrofits, fleet electrification, and green infrastructure.
- Use the Green Initiatives Reserve to fund:
o The next Climate Action and Resilience Plan.
o Wind Study
o Biodiversity Strategy, to enhance local ecosystems.
o Feasibility study on implementing District Energy, supporting low-carbon community-scale heating and cooling.
- Increase funding for new community gardens, advancing local food security and
neighbourhood connection.
- Explore opportunities to increase naturalized areas, reducing maintenance costs and improving climate and ecological resilience.
- Downtown and Mobility Strategies
- Initiate a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Strategy, supporting sustainable,
Use parking revenues to fund the next Downtown Burlington Master Plan
active travel potentially funded by parking reserves given the current ongoing parking
strategy for the Downtown.
- Use parking revenues to fund the next Downtown Burlington Master Plan, ensuring vibrancy and economic vitality.
- Increase Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE) cameras to 8, enhancing road safety and
advancing Vision Zero goals.
- Accelerate the Mainway Grade Separation Project to 2026, beginning planning and early
design to improve safety, reduce delays and unlock a important economic corridor.
- Initiate a Rail Crossing Planning Project, covering Mainway and all crossings in the
Integrated Mobility Plan, prioritizing safety and future grade separations.
- Implement ward-based Vision Zero community safety plans, modeled on Sheldon Creek:
o Develop tailored local traffic safety and speed management plans in each ward.
o Engage residents, schools, and stakeholders in co-design.
o Include data-driven traffic calming, safe crossings, neighborhood design
improvements, and targeted education campaigns.
- Organizational Capacity and Customer Service
- Extend the HERO coordinator contract for two additional years, enhancing customer
service capacity.
- Add a Sport Tourism Coordinator, funded via MAT, to drive sport event attraction and strategy implementation.
- Add a TDM Coordinator, to lead TDM strategy rollout and active transportation initiatives.
- Youth and Community Development
- Initiate a new Youth Strategy, funded through the Youth Initiatives Reserve, to engage youth, support leadership development, and improve access to programs and services.
- Revenue Generation and Long-term Sustainability
- Launch a sponsorship and advertising review, to expand non-tax revenue streams.
- Conduct a feasibility study on a potential Stormwater Fee, integrated into the Stormwater
Management Plan, to secure sustainable funding for climate resilience infrastructure.
- Service Review, Transformation, and Civic Engagement
-
Launch, with resident involvement, a transparent Service Review and Transformation Committee.
o Capital projects, with funding status and readiness to advance.
Conclusion
The 2026 budget proposal is a robust, strategic roadmap that balances Burlington’s immediate service needs with long-term goals for sustainability, safety, community vibrancy, and organizational transformation. Through increased infrastructure investment, enhanced mobility and climate action, support for youth and neighborhoods, and new engagement initiatives, Burlington will continue to lead as a resilient, inclusive, and future-ready city.
The person who wrote the comment would appear to work for the city. He should have said so.
Is it fair to say that everyone wants a four-day work week, ideally in a job where you work from home, combined with mental health and well-being supports, and great vacation benefits?
Municipal employees have increased job security, defined benefit pension plans, and great health benefits. Something to think about the next time a minimum wage server brings you a meal at a restaurant. That minimum wage server, if they can afford to live in Burlington, will be paying property taxes, either directly or as part of their rent.
There is always that sticky problem of who pays for all this. While the MAT tax is a place to start, the MAT tax is not a money tree. Raising the MAT tax will make hotel stays in Burlington more expensive, resulting in consumers staying elsewhere.
Raising Burlington’s line on the property tax bill by 5.8%, will make businesses in Burlington less competitive during a period where one export market is collapsing and all our industries need to be more competitive on the world stage.
While there are many wonderful ideas put forth in the article, the reality is that taxpayers need to be able to afford to live in Burlington. Taxpayers also need to be able to commute to work; often, that means in a car. Traffic congestion is a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and something residents are very concerned about.
The article sounds like an election platform. Perhaps the author should take the time to provide costs for all these ideas.
As someone who has ecently started using the Handivan service, I don’t agree with his suggestion not to expand the sevice at this time. I have found on some of my appointments that the Handivan is so busy the sevice has to send out taxicabs to assist customers. As our aging population increases with its accompanying disabilities, the need for the Handivan is going to increase.