By DENIS GIBBONS
October 20th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Despite drawing some criticism in his rookie term on Burlington city council, Rory Nisan is confident he can hold his seat in Ward 3.
Nisan said that in 2018 he campaigned on bringing a splash pad for children to Brant Hills Park, limiting growth in the downtown area and improving traffic flow and public transit in Burlington.
“I always said we should be doing whatever we can to move the growth from downtown to the areas around the GO stations,” he said.
He is pleased that the splash pad was approved in the first budget of his first term and completed in 2021.
“There are so many people there on warm days,” he said. “It has become a community meeting place for Brant Hills.”
Nisan said council has done everything in its power to move growth to the GO station areas.
“I wish we had more support from the Province,” he said. “I wish municipalities had more power to control their own destinies.”
The advanced traffic management which is on its way from the Region, he said, will make a big difference particularly during rush hour.
“It will allow us to leave green lights on longer to move traffic.”
Nisan said he’s proud that the City has purchased more buses and hired more bus drivers and handi-van drivers.
“But we still need to do more,” he said.
He considers the splash pad his greatest first-term achievement.
“My predecessor John Taylor said it couldn’t be done, my main challenger in the last election said it couldn’t be done and staff said it couldn’t be done because there was not enough room,” he said. “People were worried about softballs hitting the kids. I suggested putting up a bigger fence. We overcame the problem through some creative thinking.”
In 2018 Nisan polled 54.05 per cent of the vote, more than the combined total of runner-up Gareth Williams and three other challengers.
It was the first election in the ward following the retirement of John Taylor, who served on council for 30 years.
If he is re-elected, Nisan said he will work hard to create a community centre at Robert Bateman high school, which the City is in the process of purchasing from the Halton District School Board.
Plans call for the City to lease space to both the school board and Brock University.
Protecting the Niagara Escarpment, which he described as the “jewel of Burlington”, is a primary objective as well as final implementation of a climate action plan.
Nisan said he also is looking forward to the arrival of inclusive zoning as part of council’s drive for more affordable housing.
“Cities now have the power to mandate that there be some affordable housing in all new developments,” he said.
Regarding his filing a complaint with the Integrity Commissioner, together with Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith, on statements made at council by Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte, Nisan said it hasn’t been an issue at the doors while he has been out campaigning.
“It’s all about accountability,” he said “We have only one avenue and that’s through the Integrity Commissioner.”
Nisan said he doesn’t believe any hard feelings remain.
“Even when we disagree as a group, we still manage to get things done,” he said. “Councillor Stolte and I have been on the same side of issues since then.”
On another point of contention, Nisan said he’s not concerned about critics who claim he is too much a disciple of Mayor Marianne Meed Ward.
“People can say what they want but if they look at my record I’ve voted against the mayor many times,” he said. “Those who say otherwise are being lazy in their analysis.”
When a vote came up at regional council in the spring on lifting the mandate for citizens to wear masks, it carried by a margin of 23-1, with Nisan being the lone dissenter.
“I felt it was too soon to do it,” he said. “I took some flak but I also got a lot of support on it. I’m not afraid to take a stand on issues.”
Nisan still is on an unpaid leave of absence from his job as a foreign service officer for Global Affairs Canada.
If re-elected, he plans to be a full-time Councillor again.
Great article. Looking forward to the Council votes being recorded on the City website for all to see. Up until the most recent Council, they were posted. The most recent Council allowed votes in camera if you can believe it. Onward with transparency and accountability! Thank you for the Aird Berlis report!!
Whether you are a Nisan fan or not…he has shown he can get things done…so he stands by his mayor..is that a bad thing ? The other 2 candidates have shown nothing on their platforms …what have they done …what groups have they worked with….do they volunteer? Show me something…anything…other than just knocking on doors……
I respectfully disagree Lydia and wonder how you could make this assessment. Jennifer Hounslow has private sector experience that is second only to Paul Sharman’s – and she is a published author in process improvement. She has a solid record of achievement and of positive engagement with her communities – quite the reverse of Mr. Nisan. You say that Rory “has shown that he can get things done”. What exactly? I count one ill-conceived splash pad. His status as a on leave “foreign service officer for Global Affairs Canada” is considerably different than his early self-promotion as a “diplomat”. It’s all in the nuance and the honesty. He has ignored his constituents over the last 4 years and has now conveniently risen to claim his sinecure as the Mayor’s automatic vote. Rory is perhaps the worst Councillor of the 2018 Meed Ward populist coup. A disappointment in all respects.
We have an environmental emergency, but they bought Diesel busses.
This is an extremely disappointing review of Nisan’s term as Ward 3 Councillor; it is the classic “softball”. It has little if any analysis but simply repeats the self-serving and rather shallow responses of Nisan himself. It ignores the “Rory Challenge” (i.e. the number of times he appears as a black screen for Council and Subcommittee meetings); it avoids his suspect use of Covid to avoid physical attendance at Council (suspect because he apparently can attend other things in person); it misses his shocking loss of control in the 3 hour “shaming” of Shawna Stolte; it overlooks his position on the one prospective ‘high rise’ development in the Ward; it fails to challenge his belief that the splash pad (a very early first term accomplishment) is virtually his only accomplishment; it doesn’t raise the rather obvious fact that the move of the UGC away from the downtown was neither an unblemished accomplishment nor truly his; it is silent on his rather embarrassing “pickle ball comments”; it ignores the fact that the Bateman purchase is actually very controversial and is a Ward 5 future with largely negative impacts on Ward 3; and it posits no analysis of what his climate change initiative actually is – a shallow and expensive piece of window dressing.
I expected much more.
Rory Nisan said we needed a splash pad but was a huge supporter of dumping our Centesnniel fountain and stopping the rejuvenation of Civic Square in 2019. and under his supervision the Heritage Advisory Committee ignored our pleas to stop the Edward VII historical fountain going to rot. We should have had a Civic Square to be proud of going into our 150th year. Now we have dead trees, weeds and the huge public liability of Civic Square paving in terms of Falls. Falls kill Rory or don’t you know that we have a Region program to prevent the biggest taker of elderly lives Falls. We need people sitting on Regional Council who care about the health of our families and do what they have to do to remove Falls hazards. Our Civic Square is supposed to tell people we look after our infrastructure it tells them we don’t give a fig. .
Rory knew as heritage tree, the beautiuful Horse Chestnut tree in Veteran’s Square was coming down and gave no notice to allow a few “conkers” to be collected or a few leaves pressed between the pages of a favorite book. Worse still he allowed the city to eventually plant a stick rather than a replacement tree. He loved dancing in the streets overseas with the Mayor on our dime but has prevented safe dancing in Civic Square for those whose dimes he used.
He also watched as the Heritage Advisory Committee went ahead and approved a motion that dealt with Committee expenses when there was no quorum. Nisan is the last Ward 3 candidate that should get a vote. He makes $111,000 a year from his Council election and is a stay at home dad bouncing his baby on his knee during a meeting and taking lots of breaks after he got reported on by Joan Little. I appreciate stay at home dads but not on my municipal dime. Get a baby sitter you make four times as much as a single mom and they have to get baby sitters to do their job.