By Pepper Parr
July 11th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
It was a different City Council meeting.
Deputy Mayor Shawna Stolte chaired the City Council meeting this day.
The Mayor didn’t take part except for the several times she dropped in virtually. Deputy Mayor Shawna Stolte had the gavel (no chain of office) and ran a different kind of meeting.
It was softer in a nice way – she was more gracious than Meed Ward usually is. More empathetic and got through the event without a glitch.
She handled the delegations smoothly.
Council covered a very broad range of issues – we will cover is as much is as we can in the next few days.
Council basically agreed to work towards a transit service that will be free for everyone any time. To the surprise of many, Councillor Sharman put out a Staff Direction that called for the collection of data that will be used to determine just what the cost is likely to be should all day free transit come to pass.
Councillor Sharman moved a Staff Direction that will pull together the data needed to determine just what free transit is going to cost.
Council was told of a CMHC funds that has billions to spend on housing initiatives. We will report on that is as well.
On the negative side this Council went along with the passing of a bylaw that gives the city the power prevent a person from using city facilities. They did this without is as much is as a single word from any Staff person explaining how they would do this – and worse still – without a single word from any member of Council – other than when they voted.
We will need to review the web cast to ensure that we are correct in saying that Mayor Meed Ward was did not vote – for the brief moments it took to tally the vote we don’t believe the Mayor was online. But we do need to confirm that.
Anne Marsden gave a blistering delegation on why Council should not do what it chose to do.
This is a matter that should be taken to the City Ombudsman.
