Mayor dominates virtual Town Hall on the budget

By Pepper Parr

January 21st, 2021

BURLINGTON, ON

The number of people taking part in the Virtual Town Hall Wednesday night was better than any other virtual event the Mayor has hosted.

Michelle Dwyer – handled the questions coming in and kept the program going.

Despite not having access to the actual operating budget there were a number of very good questions: “awesome”, and The city communications people have come up with a format that works well. Someone from the Communications department handles the questions that come in – some live, others submitted beforehand – and determines who they should be handed off to. Michelle Dwyer was the Vanna White for the evening and she made it work quite well.

The problem to this observer was that I wasn’t sure the Mayor, who took part in literally every question that was asked, was really hearing what people were saying.

The concern over the spending was very real. Each time someone asked if a particular spend was necessary the Mayor and or the Staff member would come back with ‘we are providing the services that people tell us they need’.

A number of people – maybe 25% – were saying that perhaps some of the services weren’t needed all that much, especially given the tax increase will be 4.99% if the staff budget is adopted and 3.99% if the Mayor manages to push them enough to cut it another 1%.

Should the Performing Arts Centre and the Art Gallery be shuttered while the province is on lock down? Each get $1 million from the city to help out with operating costs.

One resident wanted to know if the city was going to close the Performing Arts Centre and the Art Gallery until things were back to normal. They were closed for a period of time explained the Mayor but they are back offering virtual programming. The city still has $2 million in the budget – $1 million each.

Additional staff are needed in the Building permit department because there has been a 10% increase in the number of building permits for decks and swimming pools.

Transit has taken a huge hit as a result of COVID – the exceptionally adroit management that Director Sue Connor provides has resulted in the department providing the service that is needed and slowly rebuilding.

Director of Transit Sue Connor has to deal with two big problems: limits on the number of people she can put on a bus and a traffic count that is on the low side.

COVID has Connor operating big buses with just 15 passengers – that is the COVID limit. Connor explained that she has to keep a bus on standby in Burlington and another in Hamilton. The technology she has tells her when a bus has 15 passengers – telling her that another bus is needed on the route.

Parks and Recreation is taking a big big hit on the revenue side while still trying to provide something in the way of service.  They are in a very difficult situation with not much in the way of wiggle room.

Two members of Council were on the line but did not participate.  One member of Council thought it might have been wiser to wait until the public had more access to information on just what the Operations budget was all about.  Another said she was unable to provide a response to the question asked.

Lisa Kearns pointed out that “From December 2 – January 15 questions could be submitted about the Budget to City Staff through GetInvolvedBurlington.ca   The Virtual Town Hall is the public opportunity to hear those answers and ask additional questions about the 2021 Budget.

The budget book is now available on line HERE

It is a 436 page document in a pdf format  and takes a little time to load.

The on-line Town Hall was recorded and will be posted to the city web site soon.