By Staff
August 16th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington is hosting it’s third annual Food for Feedback event on Saturday, September16 between noon and 4 p.m. at Central Park (2299 New St.).
Almost every city department and every member of Council will have a table. Was there an opportunity for advocacy groups to set up a table and get out their story?
Residents can come to enjoy a free meal in exchange for sharing their thoughts on City projects. City staff, Mayor Meed Ward and members of Council will be there to listen to resident feedback.
The free drop-in event features more than 26 booths and four food trucks. There is a special area called the ‘Kidz Zone’ sponsored by Canadian Tire where children can have fun while family members provide feedback on City projects.
Feedback collected at the event will help the City continue to improve services and initiatives.
Date and Location
Residents are welcome to attend Food for Feedback on:
Saturday, Sept. 16, between noon and 4 p.m. at Central Park, 2299 New St.
If it rains, the event will move to the Burlington Senior’s Centre.
This year, the City will be seeking feedback and sharing information on topics including:
Burlington Transit
Climate resiliency
Customer experience with the City
Civic Square renewal
Future use of former Robert Bateman High School
Transportation options
Recreation
Parks
Official Plan revisions
As part of the event, the City will also be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of the Community Engagement Charter. The Charter is a tool used by residents, City staff and Members of Council. It guides and promotes active and meaningful resident engagement. Residents will also have an opportunity to provide feedback and make recommendations on how to refresh the charter at the event.
Michelle Dwyer setting up for a previous Food for Feedback event.
Michelle Dwyer, Manager of Engagement and Volunteers “wants everyone to have a voice in shaping our community. We’re excited to host Food for Feedback for the third time and bring together hundreds of community members to talk about how we can make our programs, services, and initiatives even better. Let’s have fun and make a difference in our city.”
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This seems like a waste of money in times of huge tax increases especially considering they don’t do anything with feedback, and there is no way they can even accurately tell us what feedback they got. But it’s perfect for photo ops and social media posts and is scheduled so that every election year they can use it as a perfectly-timed campaign event funded by us. Maybe Tom and Anne can show up and hand deliver their printed emails to staff and council members!! Certainly they could ask our Clerk what the heck he’s doing.
The Community Engagement Charter is a joke.
It doesn’t have any mechanisms to hold Council and Staff accountable for not engaging the community. $100 million on Bateman with no community engagement on the cost.
Really no engagement on 90 percent of the building’s use either.
Hmmmmm using taxpayers money to obtain extra feedback on city projects but failing to respond to feedback addressing their elected responsibilities through email seems rather bizarre to us! July 11, 2023 Deputy Mayor Stolte announced Friday is Never Give Up Day. Seems to us this Council and senior staff gave up immediately after the election on the responsibilities they swore to uphold.
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It is wonderful to see that there are some activities in this City that still have almost a ‘heritage value’; things like “Food for Votes”. This is one of those engagement events where there is no verifiable audit trail of citizen feedback and the City can say “we heard you” and create any message they want. It’s also a rather irresponsible waste of money when there are far more effective ways to solicit verifiable opinions. Remember this is one of those ‘pork barrel’ events that will be duplicated in every sty – oops, Ward.
The draft engagement plan for Bateman had the food for feed back event characterized as for information. No feed back expected.