By Pepper Parr
February 26th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
Mayor has since “walked back”
In a note Ward 3 Councillor Stolte sent people on her mailing list, she said:
The Mayor has since “walked back” her original Motion and has now notified Council of an intention to put forward an alternative DC Exemption Motion that addresses many of the concerns that were brought up by myself and Cllr Nisan, is based on staff expanding a program within a Community Improvement Plan (as staff had originally recommended) and considers accessing dollars from the Housing Accelerator Fund to cover financial deficits.”
Gazette readers who also got the note are telling their friends “the public can attend the Monday meeting and register to delegate or send written correspondence to Council that will be included in the Special Council Meeting Package of March 2 where this will be discussed at further length and voted on.”
While members of Council squabble amongst themselves, the public is left in the dark.
Many people now know what a development charge is – a handful might know what the Community Improvement Program is.
We will do our best to get something to you before the end of the week.
Discover more from Burlington Gazette - Local News, Politics, Community
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
If COB was a stock ticker I would dump all my shares.
Here is what I know. The city needs to get its act together. We need to know all the details and the source of funding scenarios, be it Development Charges, Community Benefits, Housing Accelerator Funding or the Community Improvement Plan that the city is musing over. When you have your act together let us know, because right now it appears like council is a rudderless ship. If this is the best example of Strong Mayor Powers we are doomed.
So, to get this right – we’re going to make the CIP expansion dependent on the HAF funds… and the HAF funds continuing are dependent on us building more homes… but the CIP needs to be expanded to build more homes… what exactly are we doing here? This is going to fall flat on its face.
My modest research suggest that a Community Improvement Program rarely accesses any funds from the Federal Housing Accelerator Fund (exception infrastructure) and will not fund or reimburse any incentives like breaks on Development Charges. Municipalities are on the hook for these
Could our politicians be giving this debacle a new name in hopes of deflecting the public?
When I read that Burlington’s $15 million dollar offer for the Millcroft lands that developers bought for $5 million just a few years earlier was turned down I came to two conclusions.
There must still be more money to be made by developers in this or a later market.
That this financially illiterate Council should gamble their own money (not ours) on lottery tickets which my dad considered a tax on the stupid despite our last name.