Flood victims deserve better leadership from those holding public office.

By Pepper Parr

September 29, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON,.

For the incumbents in wards four and five the August flood has become a campaign issue – one they are finding there isn’t all that much they can do about.

The people whose homes were flooded need some information from their political leaders – has the municipal election made them all mute? The public isn’t seeing a lot of leadership from this lot.

The flood certainly took place – and there are some very sad and serious situations – but Council members are restricted in what they can do by the Municipal Act and by the fact that the pipes that direct the water into homes are a Regional responsibility.

Worse – the Region has decided it is not going to meet with the Burlington residents that have serious problems until after the election.

Why is that?

In Burlington, city council has a regular meeting schedule but it can meet almost immediately, at any time at the call of the Mayor.

There are some technicalities – Council members have to be given some notice which can be waived if necessary.

One assumes that the same kind of rules would apply at the Regional level.

So why doesn’t the Regional Chair call a meeting?

Well the Chair isn’t being pressed to call a meeting – and Regional staff don’t appear to want a meeting – so there isn’t going to be a meeting at which the public can delegate.

Mayor Goldring has recently taken to wearing his Chain of Office outside the Council chamber – will he soon begin to exercise the power and authority that goes with the Chain of Office?

The situation for those people in this city whose homes were flooded appears to be close to leaderless.

There just doesn’t seem to be anyone elected to public office who wants to do anything.

Could Mayor Goldring not poll his council members and see if they would support him in a call for a Special meeting of the Regional government?

Could the Mayor not then call his colleague in Oakville, Mayor Rob Burton, and ask him to poll his members and see if they would support a Special Regional meeting.

And could they not deliver a document to the Regional Chair Gary Carr and ask –heck they should be demanding – that a Special meeting of Regional Council be called to tell the people of Burlington what went wrong and what they are doing and use the occasion to let the people of Burlington know what the governments they elected are doing for them.

Gary Carr took some hard shots as a goal tender; time to take some hard shots as a Regional chair and act on behalf of all his constituents.

Chair Gary Carr isn’t very keen on this type of meeting. People tend to get rowdy and noisy and that isn’t the Carr style.

Tough, Chairman Carr – you have a responsibility to let the people you serve know that you are fully aware of their concerns and that you are doing everything you possibly can for the people who pay you.

Time for some leadership.

Salt with Pepper is an infrequent column written by the publisher of the Gazette