By Pepper Parr
July 31st, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Every time I bump into Gary Carr, Chair of the Region of Halton, I usually have some questions for him
But before I can get as much as a word in Gary will say: “Gee Pep, you’re looking great. And you’ve still got all your hair.” I try to squeeze in a question and Gary turns – I’m running late – gotta go – but keep in touch.
Gary Carr as a goal tender.
You have to keep in mind that Gary was a hockey player – he stood between the pipes as the goalie and kept the puck out.
On the few occasions that I got anything past Gary, it was usually a it was an easy question – seldom did I get anything substantive past him
I’ll keep trying.
I wanted to know why he let Regional Council go into a CLOSED session to discuss the shutting down of the Regional Heritage Services unit.
To be fair to Gary, didn’t actually chair the meeting at which all this happened. He attended virtually and had a Council member serve as Chair. She did a good job.
The Heritage Services unit doesn’t spend more than $750,000 a year; that’s less than peanuts for an organization with a $1.2 billion budget.
The last time I was able to talk to Gary Carr was at a Sound of Music event. Couldn’t get the time of day out of him.
I’d like to ask him what the thinking was behind the move. The Staff report doesn’t answer that question – it just lists what the inventory is and how it wants to dispose of it all.
Nothing wrong with that – but why in secret?
Does it have anything to do with the land the building is on? The building is part of the Kelso Park operation which is a Conservation Halton operation that, until 16 months ago, was under the thumb of current Burlington CAO Hassaan Basit who is moving on to the provincial government on August 2nd.
The job Basit walks into, didn’t exist before he was hired, is to oversee environmental issues.
The land the Heritage Services offices are on is believed to be owned by Conservation Halton.
A request to the provincial Ombudsman might bring something to the surface, but there is a limited amount of time – the Region wants to get rid of everything by the end of the year.
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The correct way to do this is to file a complaint with whoever is the closed meeting investigator for the regional municipality of halton.
That may be the Provincial Ombudsman or some other designated investigator,
Closed meeting investigations are relatively easy compared to an Ombudsman investigation.
I assume if the City of Burlington’s Mayor and council do it all of the time, I assume the Region of Halton has decided to follow suit!
Is it acceptable! Absolutely Not!!:All decisions involving the Region of Halton and or the City of Burlington should be held before the Public with No exceptions!!
We as Taxpayers pay for all of it, and everything should be held in an open forum.