By Pepper Parr
June 19th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
That didn’t take very long.
The request that the Minister of Municipal Affairs issue a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) on lands that are being developed for a 98 high end housing project on lands that were formally part of the Millcroft Golf Course.
Mayor Meed Ward and ward Councilor Angelo Bentivegna sent the news to the residents in an Instagram.
Council will discuss the matter at the July Council meeting.
By that time, all the trees the developer needs to remove will be wood chips to be carted away.
This isn’t the least bit surprising, but the mayor and councillor continue to pretend they’ve done and are doing anything. Their playbook is small and the same ones just get played over and over again ad nauseam. It’s like Groundhog Day from Hell.
In these times we are living right now, with what is happening in the world, I find Burlington’s mayor’s petty whining about respect and the endless selfies and travels around the world on our dime and statements on things over which she and council has no control to be beyond trivial. I find them actually offensive and completely embarrassing.
Once again “smoke and mirrors”. My guess, although I could be wrong, is that when this MZO was sent both the Mayor and Councillor Bentivegna knew what the response would be.
It reminds me of when the Mayor ran four successful election campaigns (for ward councillor and mayor) using “save the waterfront and stop overdevelopment” as her mantra. How has this worked out for the residents of Burlington?
Seems to me that the 2026 election campaign has started. I have to keep reminding myself “do not drink the Kool aid”.
I wrote this comment to the one on this topic yesterday, but like the Gazette said, the Province did not take very long to say NO. However, what I wrote then is as appropriate as it was the first time I wrote it. Ford refused the MZO, but the rest of the message is much the same.
I don’t know what to expect from Ford, but I like the idea of the MZO. The housing news is that condo demand is severe sinking, resulting in a lot of cancelled approved starts. I have commented before that, in Aldershot, and the Plains Rd- MTSA area, many approvals have been sitting idle, and proposals are not moving forward, but the paper inflationary development approval values, being used to refinance another larger, more dense reapplication.
So, there is no City need for the Millcroft high end proposed build – the affordability problem gets no relief. However, Ford is still wanting to build more and more anyways, spending subsidy money we don’t have, and imposing costly, rigid house number mandates on the City in exchange for “strong Mayor” powers for Mayor Meed Ward.
If the mayor is demanding respect for all of Council, then I suggest that showing that we can get trust first in telling Ford that building houses is not the top priority right now when all they really are now, is not selling, or being built, but trying to be rolled over as an inflated investible asset.
The mayor can resign the Strong Mayor powers, that many residents resent, and certainly do not get any respect from people, or even all Councilors in known fact.
This would certainly alleviate the City/Mayor/Council leverage from Ford to keep trying to keep on with his 6 years of failure. The real estate facts of today clearly indicate failure is continuing to worsen.
Giving up strong powers, the mayor will just be abandoning a sinking ship, and there is no trust and confidence evident in a mayor that is willing to take her residents and taxpayers down with the policy that is already sinking through a large and growing debt hole.
If the mayor demands respect, then you need to show some of it first.