By Staff
February 5th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Jim Thomson has been a regular delegator at City Hall. He know delegates virtually – his presence in the Council Chamber is limited.
Here is what he had to say today:
Jim Thomson: This is this is the democratic process not working as the previous delegation said. Okay, yeah, we were told that the public would get to get a chance to engage in the outdoor space starting in March 2024. Now we’re told it’s going to be late spring does that means you?
Okay, so I’m gonna start Why can’t the city issue a report that includes the word asbestos, there was an incident and the construction were part of the roof fell in, but it doesn’t get mentioned in the update. Why is that? I’d like to know if there was any asbestos released into the community when the roof fell in? We’ve never had any report on that. I don’t think anybody’s asked the question.
Yeah, okay. We were told that offsite parking would be something that the committee of adjustment would rule on. Now, we get told that the Committee of Adjustment doesn’t have the authority to make that kind of ruling. Who does? City council and if that’s the case, why didn’t City Council make the ruling? Now, not later? We were told that staff recommended not changing the zoning bylaws. We weren’t told why. Nobody asked the question why – you just accepted it. This is the democratic process not working as the previous delegation said. Okay, yeah, we were told that the public would get to get a chance to engage in the outdoor space starting in March 2024. Now we’re told it’s going to be late spring does that means you?
Were told that the public engagement on the outdoor space will only be limited to placement of trees benches, and the direction of pathways. What happened to actually talking about parking? Are we ever going to have public engagement on the parking. We’re also being told now that other uses other than benches, trees and pathways aren’t possible because the bore field being considered for the phase two heat pump. We’re prevent putting a baseball diamond or something on the site. There’s no underground facilities. So where’s the openness and transparency in this process? We keep getting told different things at different times. There’s never a consistent story.
Costs, okay, what’s the value of the change order to the contractor for the change? of scope? that’s being proposed? Specifically, what’s the cost of the doormat enhancement and enhancement that consumes green space? It’s somehow buried in the cost already. Can’t be. It wasn’t part of what the contractor bid on. Maybe it was in contingency but it’s a cost that the public is going to bear. Somehow, maybe it’s necessary. Maybe it’s not. How can decision be made on that? And does the public actually get to cut to comment on the doormat or is that out of the scope of the engagement?
Jim Thomson: Is that going to happen in phase one and with no public consultation at all? What happened to the fulsome engagement process that we were supposed to have on the door space?
Is that going to happen in phase one and with no public consultation at all? What happened to the fulsome engagement process that we were supposed to have on the door space? It’s not happening. And does the public actually get any input into the enhancement of the school board property? Can we say no, we don’t want to enhance the school board property. We want to keep the cost of the project down. Is that Is that something that the public gets to engage on? And lastly, the cost for the engagement process. It was supposed to cost $20,000 For the flyer to go to all the city. Now we’re told that all that’s happened and the cost is only $17,000. And that includes five or six engagement processes the food for feedback. So we’re the cause we were given bogus. Does anybody going to ask those questions?
Thank you for your time.
There was a very good discussion later in the meeting during whuchmany of the Thomson questions and concerns were answered.
