By Staff
Burlington, ON November 8, 2011 This city is big on two things: Galas and awards. There is hardly a city council meeting that doesn’t have some kind of an award given to someone for something. Senior city hall management used to insert a page at the front of many of their reports which stated that the contents had been given an award.
And talk about Gala’s – you name it and there is a gala to raise funds for it. In the very neat future Our Burlington will be putting up a What’s On! Feature which will set out everything we can learn about taking place in the city and we are pretty certain there will be some kind of a Gala every week of the year and in some weeks more than one.
Burlington General Manager Community Services Scott Stewart with his award for leadership at the Tier 1 level of Public works Commissioners.
This type of social interaction is typical of cities the size of Burlington that has a smallish geographical footprint. Some of the awards are very significant – the one given to Burlington Firemen for their bravery in a rescue mission of a citizen whose life was suddenly in very real danger was a much deserved reward.
Last evening at a City Council meeting the former Acting City Manager and General Manager of Community Services Scott Stewart was asked to leave his seat and come to the podium to accept an award for his work since 2003 on the Regional Public Works Commissioners of Ontario (RPWCO), which is an organization of Tier 1 municipalities and the Regions that meet regularly to iron out policies that are consistent across the province and to work collectively to influence the province and the federal government on issues that are important to municipalities.
The Walkerton water disaster is one of the issues that the organization was in on from the very beginning, explains Stewart. “We have worked with the province and the federal government on the quality of water in Burlington Bay and Hamilton Harbour where several jurisdictions have a significant say”. It is vital that senior management in the municipalities be able to work together and both lobby and advise the federal and provincial governments on what actually happens at the municipal level.
Stewart came out of Hamilton where he was Commissioner of Public Works which is the equivalent to being a General Manager Community Services in Burlington. But for a guy like Stewart “Commissioner” seems to fit him better.
