By Pepper Parr
January 10th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Part 2 of a 2 part feature on the level of citizen satisfaction on how the city is delivering services
Engagement has been a prime concern for the members of the current city council. Mayor Meed Ward has made engagement her signature skill set.
She at one point said she had 17 different ways to communicate with the voters of the city.
All are one-way traffic lanes – from the Mayor to whoever is listening.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward engaging with the citizens of Itabashi, Japan, during a tour of one of Burlington’s sister city.
Meed Ward prides herself on her training as a journalist – she used to frequently make mention of how important local media is – yet – she has not once held an open media event where questions could be asked directly and follow up questions put to her when she might appear to be avoiding an issue.
None of this is to suggest that Meed Ward has been a failure as a Mayor. She understood the importance of moving the Urban Growth Centre from the downtown core and pushing it north and closer to the GO stations where the high rise growth is going to take place.
The Rick Goldring Council went along with the Metrolinx decision to designate the bus terminals an MTSA – Major Transit Service Area.
And – she made sure that a tiny bus terminal, smaller than many kitchens lost the designation it had as an MTSA – Major Transportation Service Area. That designation is what made it possible for a development to soar 26 stories on a lot that was far too small for that particular development.
In the survey done by a reputable organization 755 Burlington residents were randomly selected and interviewed using either a residential landline or cell phone number.
The 2019 community survey is the first time that interviews/surveys were conducted using cell phone numbers, this is an important distinction to make as more people are forgoing landlines in favour of cell phones. The Community Survey was also replicated online (from September 13 to October 15) the City’s decision-making about projects and services is reflective of the voice of a majority of residents, with two major differences; 1) it was open call where anyone registered to the Get Involved Burlington platform could take the survey and 2) the sample size was much smaller (234 online versus 755 facilitated by MDB Insight).
When it came to measuring satisfaction on engagement we saw the following:
One of the graphics asks where people got their news.
In 2017 the Gazette was on that list. Someone somewhere removed our name from the list of news sources people in Burlington use.
Our numbers have grown every year during the ten years we have been publishing. Thought you would want to know that.
They also removed the Marsdens from receiving responses to questions by adding an additional d to our email address among other things. We all know if the Mayor doesn’t want you to be informed or have an opportunity to publicly engage with Council or Region you won’t be able to. Democracy has never ebbed so low in Burlington as it has September 2014 – January 2022.