 By Pepper Parr
November 19th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Lynn Crosby delegated at City Council yesterday. What she said is at the bottom of this article.
 Lynn Crosby How Council responded is set out below. Rarely does Council engage with a citizen. Crosby is more than a butterfly that flits about. She was heavily involved in the Meed Ward 2018 election campaign and at one point was being considered as part of the Mayor’s staff.
The discussion after the delegation went as follows:
Councillor Nisan:
With respect, this is all about engagement. You mentioned that that there wasn’t enough time for council members or the public to review. The strong mayor power says we only have 30 days between presentation of the budget and passing a resolution to amend that budget. It was the budget report put up October 25 and we have special council meeting to provide any Council amendments on November 25. Do you have any recommendations for how we would work within the strictures of the strong mayor legislation that only gives us 30 days?
Crosby: I think that you should release a draft budget that is very similar to the proposed one far sooner, because as far as I know, the legislation doesn’t say anything about draft budgets. The information we received prior was way too limited. There was as missing data and numbers. It was just very vague. We don’t even have till the 25th of November, because nobody thinks it’s going to change drastically the last week of November or the day of that meeting; more has to be released that’s very similar to the proposed budget much earlier.
Nisan: My second question it, does the strong mayor powers do mention that if the head of council does not propose the budget by February 1, Council must prepare and adopt the budget. Do you have a position about that?
 We’re not allowed to do Q and A, Crosby: I might be wrong the way I’m interpreting that. But does that not mean that, if a mayor does not, if February 1 comes and goes, and the mayor has not presented a budget, a proposed budget, then Council does that. Is that what that says? And they also have to do it on February 1.
We’re not allowed to do Q and A, but functionally, that appears to be the case. Some, mayors have taken that route. I thought it was sort of if the mayor doesn’t do it, then Council has to do it.
Chair Sharman cuts in – “ This is not a debate, please.
Councilor Stolte: My question is a little bit more generalized. I hugely appreciate that you’ve come to talk about engagement, because you are 100% right. There are a lot of ways that we could continue to improve. Do you have some good suggestions about perhaps we should be making sure we have all the information that is common sense. Good, solid, common sense. My question to you, as I said, is kind of generalized, and that’s when it comes to public engagement.
Would you agree that there needs to be a balance in our public engagement, especially when it comes to something like the budget? The budget is detailed. The budget is specific. The budget is very hardcore numbers, literally, and you, particularly yourself as Lynn Crosby represent.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say one of maybe 200 people in the city of Burlington that dives into it to the detail of what you do, and therefore your comments are valid and respected because you take the time to educate yourself, but 200 people in the city of Burlington, of almost 200,000 that represents 0.001% of the population who takes the time and effort to educate themselves to then be able to engage effectively. Would you agree that there’s a responsibility on both sides of the ledger, as far as the city providing opportunities for engagement, but the public also taking the time and energy to educate themselves. So the engagement they’re giving is really effective,
Crosby: Sure, but the problem is – how are they supposed to do that with a 615, page document, you hardly have any time. This is the problem. And so the people that are looking at this, they have all kinds of questions clarifications they’d like to make. It’s unreasonable to think that a massive amount of people in Burlington could do that. I think you need to give them what they need. And I think people have different ways of engaging. Nobody has to come here and stand here. People who are working can’t be here. And no people should not have to take a day off work to come here. People have other ways of engaging, and one of those valid ways is sending emails to council members. You heard Jim’s experience on how that went. You know, we often send, send in emails and you don’t get anything back, or you get a response back, which you don’t really believe quite answered you, and then it says the file is now closed. Well, it’s not closed for me.
I feel like you need to come to where people can engage and even if that’s if they’re replying on City’s Facebook page or this, councilors ones, look at that like that’s still engagement too.
Councillor Kearns: I want to understand a little bit more around what your group or yourself took back from what were considered sort of the height of the engagement opportunities, which would have been the mayor’s individual Ward presentations.
How the information that you saw there and the feedback received be reflected, in your opinion, in the budget that we have before us today?
 As far as I could see, none of them chimed in and said that they knew the answer. Crosby: I attended several of the meetings in person and almost all the rest virtually. I did not see any sort of agreement with people who were asking for reductions. I felt like it was too soon – having the meeting before the budget was released. The mayor can’t help it if she doesn’t have the information. Then, why are we doing this right now?
There, were a number of staff in the room – none of them ever spoke. As far as I could see, none of them chimed in and said that they knew the answer. I felt like a lot of the theme of the meeting was people politely giving suggestions on how the you know, cuts could happen, and how they wanted things to be reduced. Even small things – this idea that if it’s not a giant thing like transit it won’t make a significant enough dent in the tax rate. So we won’t go there.
The whole theme was, that you need to spend responsibly, and in times of difficulty like now and when the rate is over 8%
Do a whole bunch of little things – they add up. That’s what we did not see.
On the 25th no one really got the point, which was cut all the things that aren’t absolutely necessary – rein in your spending. We did not get that. Those of us who were at the meetings felt was that it was rather a waste of time.
Kearns: My second question is on the release of a draft budget. I had nothing to present at my own September 18 Ward two community update.
We then had two days of committee. Around the end of October, we did have the the line by line 615 page proposed budget. I was able to pull together a community meeting for the Wednesday, well attended, very rich dialog. I like sort of the theme being brought forward around releasing a proper draft budget with all the lines. I felt like community members wanted to be involved, but the timeline put pressure on sort of disengagement case. Might that be the case?
Crosby: Yes, absolutely. I think that’s important, and I think it’s rather unfortunate that you didn’t get the information you needed when you needed it.
Councillor Sharman: I have a couple of questions. Lynn, the first thing about the 600 page document, there was a summary that was, I believe, quite thorough and full of a lot of information for most people who don’t understand the accounting logic. Do you feel that that was inadequate the first 30 page the summary document in the binder?
Crosby: I think in general, it’s best to look at the actual meat and not just the summary. So, and I think oftentimes the summaries just are too vague.
Sharman: My second question is about the when you refer to as the tax increase of the city at 8.5 and I have to use an analogy to clarify my question. If you go into a grocery store and you buy a piece of steak and vegetables and butter and salt and sugar, each item has a lit has its own price, and at the bottom, there is a price for the total bill, which is what you’re paying, not necessarily an individual item by itself.
Isn’t it true that the tax increase is actually the sum of the bill of all the items, not each individual one, where the blend of the price is actually the bottom one, not the individual one, and therefore, clarity purposes, the tax increase is actually the bottom line, not the top line. Could you comment on that?
 Crosby: You’ve completely lost me there. Crosby: You’ve completely lost me there. I’m not a numbers person, though, so But to me, that’s complicated, and my point stands. I think that Burlington Council is responsible for the Burlington costs. You’re spending our money as you see fit. At the end of the day, you are spending 8.3% more. You’re asking people to give feedback on the budget by telling them that it’s going to go up 4.9 it is certainly reasonable to think that people’s answers on what they should how what you should be doing or not doing, would be different if they thought it was 4% something or eight.
Sharman: Did you not see in the summary document that we declared the 8.5
Crosby: Yes and No – it wasn’t clear, because at the at the meetings before that, the mayor did, I saw different slides at each meeting, sometimes the 8.3 was there. It was not there very prominently. Yes, it is in the summary, and it is in the other budget document to if you find it. But that does not change the fact that the media releases, the social media, posts, the interviews, – everything – we’re hearing, 4.97 4.97 and that is wrong, in my opinion.
The Crosby delegation:
November 18, 2024 – Budget Committee Meeting
During the budget process
Councillor Nisan:
With respect, this is all about engagement. You mentioned that that there wasn’t enough time for council members or the public to review. The strong mayor power says we only have 30 days between presentation of the budget and passing a resolution to amend that budget. It was the budget report put up October 25 and we have special council meeting to provide any Council amendments on November 25. Do you have any recommendations for how we would work within the strictures of the strong mayor legislation that only gives us 30 days?
Crosby: I think that you should release a draft budget that is very similar to the proposed one far sooner, because as far as I know, the legislation doesn’t say anything about draft budgets. The information we received prior was way too limited. There was as missing data and numbers. It was just very vague. We don’t even have till the 25th of November, because nobody thinks it’s going to change drastically the last week of November or the day of that meeting; more has to be released that’s very similar to the proposed budget much earlier.
Nisan: My second question it, does the strong mayor powers do mention that if the head of council does not propose the budget by February 1, Council must prepare and adopt the budget. Do you have a position about that?
Crosby: I might be wrong the way I’m interpreting that. But does that not mean that, if a mayor does not, if February 1 comes and goes, and the mayor has not presented a budget, a proposed budget, then Council does that. Is that what that says? And they also have to do it on February 1.
We’re not allowed to do Q and A, but functionally, that appears to be the case. Some, mayors have taken that route. I thought it was sort of if the mayor doesn’t do it, then Council has to do it.
Chair Sharman cuts in – “ This is not a debate, please.
Councilor Stolte: My question is a little bit more generalized. I hugely appreciate that you’ve come to talk about engagement, because you are 100% right. There are a lot of ways that we could continue to improve. Do you have some good suggestions about perhaps we should be making sure we have all the information that is common sense. Good, solid, common sense. My question to you, as I said, is kind of generalized, and that’s when it comes to public engagement.
Would you agree that there needs to be a balance in our public engagement, especially when it comes to something like the budget? The budget is detailed. The budget is specific. The budget is very hardcore numbers, literally, and you, particularly yourself as Lynn Crosby represent.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say one of maybe 200 people in the city of Burlington that dives into it to the detail of what you do, and therefore your comments are valid and respected because you take the time to educate yourself, but 200 people in the city of Burlington, of almost 200,000 that represents 0.001% of the population who takes the time and effort to educate themselves to then be able to engage effectively. Would you agree that there’s a responsibility on both sides of the ledger, as far as the city providing opportunities for engagement, but the public also taking the time and energy to educate themselves. So the engagement they’re giving is really effective,
Crosby: Sure, but the problem is – how are they supposed to do that with a 615, page document, you hardly have any time. This is the problem.
And so the people that are looking at this, they have all kinds of questions clarifications they’d like to make. It’s unreasonable to think that a massive amount of people in Burlington could do that. I think you need to give them what they need. And I think people have different ways of engaging. Nobody has to come here and stand here. People who are working can’t be here. And no people should not have to take a day off work to come here. People have other ways of engaging, and one of those valid ways is sending emails to council members. You heard Jim’s experience on how that went. You know, we often send, send in emails and you don’t get anything back, or you get a response back, which you don’t really believe quite answered you, and then it says the file is now closed. Well, it’s not closed for me. I feel like you need to come to where people can engage and even if that’s if they’re replying on City’s Facebook page or this, councilors ones, look at that like that’s still engagement too. It is absolutely thank you.
Councillor Kearns: I want to understand a little bit more around what your group or yourself took back from what were considered sort of the height of the engagement opportunities, which would have been the mayor’s individual Ward presentations.
How the information that you saw there and the feedback received be reflected, in your opinion, in the budget that we have before us today?
Crosby: I attended several of the meetings in person and almost all the rest virtually. I did not see any sort of agreement with people who were asking for reductions. I felt like it was too soon – having the meeting before the budget was released. The mayor can’t help it if she doesn’t have the information. Then, why are we doing this right now?
There, were a number of staff in the room – none of them ever spoke. As far as I could see, none of them chimed in and said that they knew the answer. I felt like a lot of the theme of the meeting was people politely giving suggestions on how the you know, cuts could happen, and how they wanted things to be reduced. Even small things – this idea that if it’s not a giant thing like transit it won’t make a significant enough dent in the tax rate. So we won’t go there.
The whole theme was, you need to spend responsibly, and in times of difficulty like now and when the rate is over 8%
Do a whole bunch of little things – they add up. That’s what we did not see.
On the 25th no one really got the point, which was cut all the things that aren’t absolutely necessary – rein in your spending. We did not get that. Those of us who were at the meetings felt was that it was rather a waste of time.
Kearns: My second question is on the release of a draft budget. I had nothing to present at my own September 18 Ward two community update.
We then had two days of committee. Around the end of October, we did have the the line by line 615 page proposed budget. I was able to pull together a community meeting for the Wednesday, well attended, very rich dialog. I like sort of the theme being brought forward around releasing a proper draft budget with all the lines. I felt like community members wanted to be involved, but the timeline put pressure on sort of disengagement case. Might that be the case?
Crosby: Yes, absolutely. I think that’s important, and I think it’s rather unfortunate that you didn’t get the information you needed when you needed it.
Councillor Sharman: I have a couple of questions. Lynn, the first thing about the 600 page document, there was a summary that was, I believe, quite thorough and full of a lot of information for most people who don’t understand the accounting logic. Do you feel that that was inadequate the first 30 page the summary document in the binder?
Crosby: I think in general, it’s best to look at the actual meat and not just the summary. So, and I think oftentimes the summaries just are too vague.
Sharman: My second question is about the when you refer to as the tax increase of the city at 8.5 and I have to use an analogy to clarify my question. If you go into a grocery store and you buy a piece of steak and vegetables and butter and salt and sugar, each item has a lit has its own price, and at the bottom, there is a price for the total bill, which is what you’re paying, not necessarily an individual item by itself.
Isn’t it true that the tax increase is actually the sum of the bill of all the items, not each individual one, where the blend of the price is actually the bottom one, not the individual one, and therefore, clarity purposes, the tax increase is actually the bottom line, not the top line. Could you comment on that?
Crosby: You’ve completely lost me there. I’m not a numbers person, though, so But to me, that’s complicated, and my point stands. I think that Burlington Council is responsible for the Burlington costs. You’re spending our money as you see fit. At the end of the day, you are spending 8.3% more. You’re asking people to give feedback on the budget by telling them that it’s going to go up 4.9 it is certainly reasonable to think that people’s answers on what they should how what you should be doing or not doing, would be different if they thought it was 4% something or eight.
Sharman: Did you not see in the summary document that we declared the 8.5
Crosby: Yes and No – it wasn’t clear, because at the at the meetings before that, the mayor did, I saw different slides at each meeting, sometimes the 8.3 was there. It was not there very prominently. Yes, it is in the summary, and it is in the other budget document to if you find it. But that does not change the fact that the media releases, the social media, posts, the interviews, – everything – we’re hearing, 4.97 4.97 and that wrong, in my opinion.
and elsewhere, we keep hearing the word “engagement” from staff, the mayor and city councillors. They say they want to engage with residents and seem to believe that their engagement is real and effective. In the opinion of many of those residents, however, it is not.
What exactly IS engagement? Looking at definitions and the purpose of engagement put forth by numerous experts, one finds common criteria. This from Citizen Lab puts it well: “The idea behind community engagement is that community members should have some power over the decisions that affect their lives. Community engagement requires an active, intentional dialogue between residents and public decision-makers. Its nature is formal: cities provide citizens with the necessary tools to get involved in decision-making. Its main challenges are identifying what is important for citizens, convincing them to engage, and offering them all the necessary information to make well-founded decisions.”
Today’s meeting focuses on the budget, so I will speak to the engagement surrounding that. It is indicative of the problems which I believe continue to repeat themselves in Burlington with respect to all engagement with citizens.
- The City released their proposed 2025 budget on Friday, October 25. Residents pay the property taxes and have a right to clear explanations of where that money goes. Getting a 615-page document a few short weeks before the budget is voted on does not allow for true engagement. This is an issue both for residents and council members. The councillors got the budget when we did, how can they effectively represent us with such a short time to review it and get our feedback? This does not “provide us with the necessary tools to get involved in decision-making” when it is almost impossible to do so in such a short time-frame.
- Speaking of not having the necessary tools: how can any reliable feedback be given in any manner including the much-touted (and, in the opinion of many, deeply skewed) city surveys, when we are not given the accurate numbers of what the proposed spending increase and tax increases even are? We also are missing the Flood Report and the post-2024 Transit Master Plan, which won’t be issued until after the budget is passed.
Fact: City spending will increase by 8.3%; Burlington property taxes will increase by 7.5%. And yet, the number we hear over and over again from the city and the mayor is 4.97%. The city has calculated this number by blending in the education and regional taxes. I suspect that if blending in other entities’ tax rates caused the Burlington rate to be higher, no such blending would occur. Asking residents if they agree with a 4.97% increase and to base their comments on that when the true increase is 8.3% completely skews any feedback.
If I went to the grocery store and filled my cart, adding up the costs of my purchases as I went, and then discovered at check-out that in fact the total is much higher because the price tags were labelled too low, I would realize that I would have made different choices along the way had I known. I would then be removing several things from my cart.
Additionally, since the Halton Region Police Service is looking for a 13.8% budget increase, which will “impact” the Halton Region increase by about 2%, this makes the continued presentation of the 4.97% number to council and the public, including at the November 4 Committee of the Whole meeting, even more misrepresentative. Your blended number, which you repeatedly reference as the “impact,” will be inaccurate and too low if this is approved at Halton Region.
It would be more prudent and transparent to time the Burlington budget process to occur after the Halton Region tax rate has been set and after all reports and data necessary for budget planning have been released. Under the Strong Mayor Powers legislation, the proposed budget doesn’t have to be released until February 1.
- What else skews the feedback? Being asked to provide most of it before we even had access to the proposed budget, and therefore, zero idea how much any of our responses would actually cost in real terms, both in dollars and in changes to other services or items.
To ask citizens to give feedback at the Food for Feedback Event without us having any context of what the implications would be if we “voted” with stickers for increases or decreases on various broadly-worded items is quite simply a flawed and cynical approach. To do so with no numbers attached is pointless. I’m shocked that anyone thinks putting stickers on a poster in this manner counts as anything. You have no idea who even attended: surely not everyone who dropped by for “free” food even lives in Burlington. Some sticker-happy souls were children. You have no idea how many people stuck all their stickers on one box. And regardless, they certainly didn’t have “all the necessary information to make well-founded decisions.” And yet we are to believe that the mayor and staff used this at least partly as a basis for preparing the proposed budget.
- Lastly, we had the mayor’s budget meetings held in each ward, again, before the proposed budget was released. Therefore, the necessary tools — the needed data and the context — were missing. And time and again when residents did try to engage – to give suggestions and opinions on asking for cuts and reductions, this feedback was met with excuses about why these would not be heeded. Stephen White and Jim Barnett spoke at the November 4 Committee of the Whole meeting about the lack of true engagement at those sessions.
I urge council and staff to look at Sherry Arnstein’s “Ladder of Citizen Participation”. Arnstein wrote in 1969 in the U.S. about citizen involvement and described this ladder. It has been described since as: “a guide to seeing who has power when important decisions are being made. It has survived for so long because people continue to confront processes that refuse to consider anything beyond the bottom rungs.”
The bottom two rungs of the ladder are labeled as examples of “Non-Participation;” the middle three as “Tokenism” and the top two as “Citizen Control.” I would like to quote from descriptions made by David Wilcox in describing the rungs for a UK publication (www.partnerships.org.uk/part/arn.htm:). These are the rungs of the ladder that I believe we are stuck on in Burlington:
Bottom two rungs:
1 Manipulation and 2 Therapy. The aim is to cure or educate the participants. The proposed plan is best and the job of participation is to achieve public support through public relations.
The middle three “Tokenism” rungs:
3 Informing. Too frequently the emphasis is on a one way flow of information.
4 Consultation. A legitimate step … but Arnstein still feels this is just a window dressing ritual.
5 Placation. For example, co-option of hand-picked ‘worthies’ onto committees. It allows citizens to advise or plan ad infinitum but retains for powerholders the right to judge the legitimacy or feasibility of the advice.
I’d like to end by repeating the idea of engagement which I cited at the beginning: “that community members should have some power over the decisions that affect their lives.”
I speak for friends and neighbours, for members of the Burlington Residents’ Action Group as well as numerous other residents who have delegated or commented on various forums when I say that we do not feel that we have any power over the decisions being made with respect to the budget on how OUR money is being spent. This is NOT a community budget. True engagement must go beyond the sheer number of events termed to be “engagement”; the type and worthiness of the engagement is what matters. Let’s try to get to the top of the ladder on engagement, not stay on the Manipulation and Tokenism rungs.
 By Staff
November 12th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The City Communications people are rolling out material on what will come out of the budget that is before Council
They want you to know that a combined investment of nearly $17 million with the federal and provincial governments is going to support improved and greener public transit. They also better prepare the city’s infrastructure and transit services to support the future needs of Burlington’s growing and diverse community.
What this investment means for Burlington residents:
New transit buses and greener public transit – 15 new conventional, hybrid, and electric buses that will replace aging vehicles and expand the capacity of the local public transit system. This initiative helps create a more healthy and sustainable community and supports the City’s efforts to improve our natural environment and take action on climate change. These investments move the City of Burlington towards decarbonization of our transit fleet. Four of the 15 buses will be electric and part of a pilot project.
Transit route expansion and service improvements – Adding new buses to Burlington’s fleet allows for transit route expansion and service improvements. This makes transit a more viable and efficient option for residents. It also enables Burlington Transit to offer more frequent service (15 and 20 minute frequency).
 Data from the 2025 proposed budget New specialized transit vehicles to support riders – By adding six specialized transit vehicles to the fleet, the City of Burlington can provide more service to our riders who are not able to use conventional buses. With door-to-door service, these specialized transit vehicles can help meet the needs of our changing and aging community.
Improvements to digital signage at Burlington bus stops – This includes new digital signage with real-time schedules and next bus information. This enhancement will support an improved passenger experience.
In 2019, the City of Burlington was the recipient of funds under the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, an initiative involving all three levels of government. These funds helped the City complete a number of initiatives, including the following:
- Burlington Transit 5-Year Business Plan
- Specialized transit vehicles expansion to better service the changing demographic in Burlington and the increasing need for door-to-door, specialized service
- Conventional transit vehicle expansion
- Conventional transit vehicle replacement
The federal government is investing $6,782,156 through the Public Transit Infrastructure Stream of the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. The Government of Ontario is investing $5,651,231 and the City of Burlington is contributing $4,522,003. This funding is a result of the City of Burlington submitting applications to receive these monies in 2022.
From 2019 to 2023, there was a 21 percent increase in transit ridership in Burlington, exceeding pre-pandemic levels in 2023 and trending higher in 2024.
Burlington’s population is expected to grow by over 40 percent in the next 25 years. This investment will support current and future generations.
 Mayor Meed Ward announcing new transit funding. She had people dancing in the transit garage after showing off the new bus. Mayor Marianne Meed Ward explains that the city is poised for significant population growth. It is increasingly important for municipalities to invest in transit system expansion to support growing communities in getting to and from their homes, places of employment, and other commercial and recreational facilities. Through these strategic investments, we are taking proactive steps towards increasing mobility services that are reliable, efficient and innovative for Burlington residents. At the same time, we are reducing our carbon footprint and promoting the long-term sustainability of our transit network.”
What wasn’t mentioned in the announcement is where the plans for a new transit campus are. A bigger location is going to be needed to service electric and diesel buses.
By Pepper Parr
November 12th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
 Hassaan Basit: It’s a short-term pain for a long-term gain to have a modernized system. “It’s a 700 page budget” said CAO Hassaan Bait. “I want to start off first by thanking all of you. We’ve had a lot of discussions that were not all budget related, but they all informed what the priorities are. This wasn’t a normal year. We have a new software system that will let us access all that data the city has – that hasn’t always been the case. That might not sound like a big deal, but you know, if at home and you open a drawer where you’ve always kept something and it’s not there anymore. Think back to those emotions, you’ll find it eventually. That’s where we are right now. It’s a short term pain for a long term gain to have a modernized system.
Staff has also been working with a restructuring within the city. Things have been moved around, now called different things. So a lot of work has gone into this.
“Now, how do I feel about the budget? A number of people have asked me that – I think the budget really does prioritize operational excellence. I think it looks to balance a lot of things. You’ve heard a lot of delegations today; I think a lot of them wished you luck in trying to balance those priorities.
 The July floods came out of nowhere – the city now knows that there are going to be others and has budgeted for the future. I think the budget addresses some key challenges, including recovery efforts from July’s flooding – It looks at the resiliency of city services against the backdrop of that, I think we are looking at a lot of council priorities – that will become clear as we go through the presentation
I don’t see any shiny objects in this budget, but I do see it being inspired by where I where I feel the community wants us to go, where Council has wanted us to go. Examples are key investments in the target, storm water management, infrastructure repairs, core services, public safety, transit, road maintenance, all of those things are here. By focusing on sustainability, climate resilience, we are preparing Burlington, not just for today, but for future challenges as well.
I’m sure you’ve seen these four principles, they were in the mayor’s direction to staff as well. If you take them as just words, they all sound good. You can put them, you know, in front of every document, but here’s what we’ve done with some of them, and it was about balancing between all of these without sacrificing any of them. That’s the key here.
 Hassaan Basit: There are a lot of core, fundamental things that the city needs to focus on. Look at affordability; we’ve looked at and retained things like our low income tax relief, our transit subsidies, other fee subsidies. We focused on essential services identified by the community. We are looking to continue to attract and grow businesses, to expand that tax base and ease resident tax burdens. These are long term strategies you need. There are a lot of core, fundamental things that the city needs to focus on. They don’t all show up on a balance sheet every single year. But strategically they are important. We are continuously looking to drive efficiencies, use non tax revenues, where we can manage inflation impacts, which has eaten away at our ability to maintain and enhance services, to support quality of life as the city grows by perhaps up to 40% over the next 25 years.
 Bateman has been a controversial decision from the very beginning. The city was looking to community organizations for ideas – they got more than they expected. We are going to be relaunching our 25 year horizon, including the multi year simulations, and, yeah, it is a dynamic environment. There are a lot of assumptions that go into predicting, what would happen – what will happen with population growth. We are trying to do is come up with a dynamic model that really allows us to manage as those assumptions come true or not. The key here is that we do need to do long range planning, and we do need to show that we’re taking small steps every year toward those long range targets. Long range doesn’t just mean we’ll worry about it in 25 years. We’re funding key projects like Skyway and Robert Bateman Center.
We are investing in By Law enforcement, urban forestry, transit, fire safety, speed enforcement, all priorities all related to very tangible services, looking at sustainability, so ensuring the long term upkeep of our roads, parks, community centers and a dedicated 2% infrastructure Levy. These are all balanced in this budget, strengthening financial health by looking at our debt levels, our reserve levels, advocacy for government support, all of those things are in here, adjusting fees where we can for inflation and perhaps market standards, transparency.
 Eric Stern, spokesperson for a community group that has major concerns with the 2025 budget points to the word PROPOSED on the budget book. We heard a lot through the community. They wanted simplified budgets. So we’ve tried to do that. We’ve also tried to present more information earlier than we ever have in the past. From what I can understand, more visuals, less jargon, more infographics, which you’ll see in this budget, and earlier and more accessible engagement opportunities, multi channel, with lots of time dedicated by people around this table attending those.
So what’s the bottom line here? The 2025 budget is at $471 million. One of the key investments is $103 million budget for our capital projects. These are upgrades to parks, storm water management, safer roads, all of those things. We’re looking at expanded community services through transit, enhanced fire, again, parks and recreation – a lot of investment in front line, community facing services. We are looking at technology investments in software systems to make city services more efficient, more user friendly. We’re also looking at a lot of cost avoidance by upping our technological capabilities. We are adding new positions to the city as well – 30 full time positions. A big chunk of them, a third of them, are in transit. We also are adding positions in Bylaw, in forestry, in fire emergency response. I think, trending in the right direction in terms of the investments that this council has made in in the city’s staffing and capabilities. The Bateman and Skyway, operationalizing will mean a property tax increase. My approach to presenting preliminary budgets is that they be as accurate as they as they can be.
I don’t like the used car salesman approach, where we come in June with a 12% projected increase and then look like absolute heroes later saying: Look, we cut it in half. It was a pretty lean budget in June and I feel comfortable with what is before Council.
I want to mention that because we heard a little bit through some of the delegations, we’re constantly relocating resources, even positions, to address what are in some cases burning platform issues. In some cases they are new priorities that emerge, or an emphasis in more area is required in certain years. We are constantly shuffling those things. Those are administrative decisions. You can’t always include then in a budget book, but that is occurring, and that’s one of the reasons we’re starting to see hold steady on our head count this year.
 The numbers on the Burlington line are based on the Current Value Assessment (CVA) of your property. For every $100,000 of CVA your taxes were the figure ($464.27) in 2024 and are projected to be $499.10 in 2025. The data comes from page 31 of the budget book. That translates to holding our budget increases lower than they were last year, lower than they were the year before. They’re trending in the right direction.
You know, we’d all like them to be lower, but we’re making investments that I think will bear fruit in coming years.
This is a transformational year. It’s setting up a shift to a new, improved organizational state, and I think by the end of 2025 our organization, the city, will be more aligned, more efficient, more innovative, with clear goals and stronger internal processes.
Now that’s not just jargon. What are the exact projects that we’re working on right now? Streamlining, enhancing workflows to improve efficiency and support better outcomes. We are investing heavily, big focus on KPIs with dashboards being introduced to ensure real-time progress tracking against projects, transparent project funding. We are looking at establishing a starting point for data-driven improvements across the city which will mean new baselining. We are looking at revamping our risk framework to combine strategic planning with operations and budgeting into one cohesive approach.
 We’re looking at our long term vision, the 2050 horizon and get a fix on our North Star and how do we get to it? We are reviewing our board and agency relationships. We are looking at brand renewal, moving towards a unified brand identity to reflect our mission, strength, internal unity. A number of comments were made about staff performance reviews – that’s coming in January. Everybody who works at the city will have performance goals. They will be tied to organizational priorities, departmental priorities – compensation will be tied to the to that.
A lot of things are occurring behind the scenes; these initiatives are starting to drive change now and will have a real impact over the course of the year.
I want to leave you with a few other things. This budget focuses on measurable improvements in city services. 74.5 almost 75% are satisfied or very satisfied with city services. We’d like that number to go up.
We have found efficiencies. Some of them are in this budget book, but I’ll draw your attention to a few. We redirected $112,000 from forestry. We are reducing the innovation fund to cover software costs by $580,000 bringing in automated speed enforcement. $827,000 covered by revenues that we expect to generate. We are looking at not ignoring our reserves. There are guidelines and standards, and it comes down to our risk appetite and what our priorities are as council and as staff. Our stabilization reserves are recommended to be 10 to 15% of revenue. They’re at 6.7%
Our target for capital reserve funds should be 2% of the value of our assets; that’s $126 million I believe the replacement cost to our assets is $6.3 billion. Scott’s nodding at me, so that’s, you know, that’s, that’s a big asset value, and we are at 21.1 million. That’s not terrible, but having a dedicated capital levy that contributes to that is a responsible thing to do. We’ve included that in the budget as well.
 Hassaan Basit: There is a lot of transformations under the way underway and I’m confident that this budget will do that. This is a budget that I think is funding a lot of things. It’s funding saving for the future. It’s funding frontline improvements in services today, it’s responding to, you know, the events, the flooding events, and making those are a priority.Our property taxes make up 72% of our operating budget. We are going to be looking at how we can look at our own source revenues, our government grants to see if we can up that contribution as well. We’ve tried to work hard to ensure this year’s tax increase is as low as it can be. We’re working to demonstrate real value.There is a lot of transformations under the way underway and I’m confident that this budget will do that.
 By Gary Scobie
November 11th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
 It was a site that had incredible potential – but the city let it get away. Eventually the “football” will have three near 30 storey buildings in a row across from three similar height buildings on the north side of Lakeshore Road heading to the west and Brant Street.
These buildings will face the Bridgewater towers across the road to be someday joined by whatever towers get built where the Waterfront Hotel is today, right up to Spencer Smith Park.
It will form a magnificent wind tunnel which is not necessarily a tourist attraction.
 This is what we are going to end up with. The three buildings on the North side of Lakeshore Road are under construction. Work on the space inside the football will begin when the market conditions are right. This is the vision of the Province as translated in Burlington by our Council and developers. I don’t think this was what we voted for provincially and locally the last few times around. But then so few of us vote as to make our concerns have any impact.
We squander our democratic rights. Those who don’t participate really have no right to complain about the outcome in my opinion.
Related news story:
How great potential was lost.
 Gary Scobie has served on city advisory committees. He has been an advocate for responsible development in the downtown core and was one of the first to point out that the transit station on John Street did not qualify as an MTSA. By the time what Scobie knew got through to council members the Nautique had been approved – that was the beginning of the change for downtown Burlington – and it is not over yet.
By Staff
November 10th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
On November 11, Metrolinx is honoured to provide complimentary transit services to veterans, reservists and active members of the Canadian Armed Forces (and one companion), as well as family members of deceased veterans across the GO and UP Express transit network.
 When travelling that day, kindly wear or carry something identifiable, such as a medal, beret, blazer, uniform or Veteran’s Service Card.
This year, Metrolinx was also proud to announce that veterans, reservists and active members of the CAF can travel for free year-round on GO Transit, beginning March 1, 2025.
Metrolinx is working to enable this fare type on PRESTO cards, and also make this available for UP Express in the future. More details will be provided on enabling this fare type in early 2025.
 By Blair Smith
November 2nd, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
I was asked to write a personal perspective on how we came to this dreadful pass. Just a few days before the American Presidential Election, we seem to be standing on the brink of a yawning, widening chasm. And no one really knows how we got here. How is it possible that we have arrived at a fundamental ideological division of a nation, so deep and vicious that it pales its previous domestic conflict of 150 years ago?
 Donald Trump: the most odious, demeaning expressions of hate and division become a policy platform. How can people be so divided around the same set of facts and when did facts themselves become incidental to belief or irrelevant when they do not fit a particular narrative? How can men and women in all demographics and social strata, of all faiths, races and heritage be so incapable of compromise or the ability to trust in a common future? How does a people become so polarized that truth is no longer a critical aspect of discourse and debate, that the most odious, demeaning expressions of hate and division can become a policy platform, that rambling lies and wild allegations become a standard campaign rhetoric and that treason (unproven) and criminal undertakings (both proven and convicted) are excusable and excused?
And all this came about in just the last eight years? Not very likely and, in my opinion, not the case.
What we are experiencing now in American politics, gloriously embodied in the truly nasty character of Donald Trump, is the final stage of decades of decline in the fabric of a nation. Arguably, it began after the second world war when an aggressive materialism and a reinvigorated belief in the fundamental “rightness” of the American Dream swept the recovering nation. However, it was not matched by a corresponding growth in the maturity of social conscience or world view and became rather quickly a narrow, self-righteous parochialism. One can trace the general trajectory of decline through the next 65 years – through the counter cultures and domestic unrest, the fleeting Camelot hope and bloody assertion of civil rights, the assassinations, Watergate, the costly military encounters that drained the nation’s soul and undermined its common conviction, the too-frequent lapses and personal foibles of holders of the Oval Office all exposed as never before by an empowered and capable information machine.
 Charles Dickens  Donald Trump It was as Dickens wrote “the best of times, the worst of times …” but it was, overall, mostly the worst. The United States during the post-war years was like a candle that was burning too brightly and too quickly and was far too visible. It’s international commitments, unsupportable position as ‘defender of democracy everywhere’ and self-professed identity as ‘the greatest nation on earth’ or ‘the most glorious human experiment ever’ gave it no opportunity to calmly and collectively rationalize what it actually was and needed to be. The decline continued and accelerated. And like the candle that burns its brightest before it is extinguished, there was the period of the Obama administration when hopes rose and all things seemed possible. But the expectations were unreasonable, much too high and lofty intentions far exceeded actual accomplishment. As a result, the divisions between factions and ideologies deepened, became more callous and entrenched. What a perfect stage for the rise of one who has no true convictions, who will tell the American people what they most want to hear – that they are great but have been betrayed, that their personal problems are not their fault, that there are conspiracies afoot that keep them disadvantaged, that ‘they can be great again’ but only through him – not his party, not his policies, not his associations – just him.
 The fundamental tradition of the peaceful transition and transfer of power was horribly disrupted with the incited storming of Capital Hill on January 6, 2020. The four years of the Trump administration transformed the Office of the President of the United States and irreparably diminished its decorum, integrity and probity. The unorthodox, originally heralded as a fresh apolitical approach, soon assumed a dark and very political aspect with traditional boundaries of influence and interference openly crossed or ignored. The mantra of “draining the swamp” adopted aspects of a pogrom with “enemies lists” that would have been the envy of the Nixon White House. It became a revolving door of key aides, bureaucrats and personalities with intrigues and internal rivalry on an unprecedented scale and any co-operation between the political parties vanished in a partisan gulf that could not be bridged. Trials of Impeachment, only formally conducted three times in the entire history of the United States (Andrew Johnson, Bill Clinton and Donald Trump), occurred twice in Trump’s single term of office. And the fundamental tradition of the peaceful transition and transfer of power was horribly disrupted with the incited storming of Capital Hill on January 6, 2020 – an event for which Trump still faces charges of sedition.
Four years later, after a generally hapless Biden administration that only served, if anything, to deepen the ‘Great American Divide, Trump is back – a convicted felon awaiting sentencing and further trial – as possibly the 47th President of the United States. Over the past four years his rhetoric has become even more contentious and disruptive, his allegiance to the truth more suspect, his persona more deliberately carney-like, his followers and political allies more intransigent and more firmly committed to his return to office. He has been described with very little hyperbole as “an existential threat” to American freedoms.
 The advance vote taking place in the state of Georgia set new records. Here we sit – on the edge of the precipice, the virtual eve of one of the most definitive and defining moments in modern history. Those who do not fear the possible outcomes of November 5th have not realized its horrible potential for anarchy and civil unrest with implications reaching far beyond the borders of the United States. The very best prospect may be several years of continual economic and social disruption until an exhausted nation finally achieves some balance and order is restored. The worst is almost literally unthinkable, particularly for a Western culture that has become accustomed to generations of security and physical well-being. In our current “nanny states”, we have become desensitized to the very real possibilities for seismic changes to our lives caused by forces and events beyond our control.
Tuesday, November 5th, 2024 poses such potential.
 By Liam McGee
October 31st, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Since moving to Burlington ten years ago, I have been fascinated by the brand of municipal politics practiced here. I come from quite a different local experience, a more active one, and have often remarked on the relative passivity of this City’s residents. It seems to take a fair amount to get people here excited. It happened in 2018 when the current Mayor and Council were first elected (to their current roles) and it may be happening again with the Mayor’s second budget under the aegis of her Strong Mayor powers. It would appear that many people have issues with the proposed expenditure plans for 2025. And perhaps even more find that the process of civic communication and engagement used to present and explain the planned budget was unsatisfactory and unsatisfying.
 Times of popular discontent are often the very best times to introduce change -to pose the challenging questions and unusual ideas that might lead to improved approaches and better ways of doing things. So, in this spirit and before Burlington begins its 2025 budget debate next week, I ask why do each of the municipalities within the Halton Region have separate purchasing, traffic, transit, fleet management, bylaw enforcement, human resource, records management, permitting and Information technology functions – to name an obvious few? Why are there four separate and quite distinct web sites with equally varied backend customer interfaces? Why are the administrative and operational processing systems all “roll your own”? The four municipalities are fundamentally the same business with identical core administrative processes and needs. Indeed, there are also common statutory requirements to much of what they do through the prescriptions of the Ontario Municipal Act. But each municipality has established itself as a discreet entity – a fiefdom unto itself. Even the governance structures of each municipality differ to the degree permissible under provincial oversight. The result is duplication of effort, bloated bureaucracy, needless expense, reduction of bench strength (scarce skills and technical expertise) and inconsistent if not conflicting citizen experience.
I believe that political entities habitually resist aggregation in any form; they instinctively fear the loss of identity, power and control that comes with consolidated operations or being only part of a larger whole. So, for example, when the Ford Government introduced its Regional Review in 2019, the common reaction of most well-run municipalities was to oppose regional amalgamation as a loss of “local voice” and sensitivity to unique citizen needs. Eventually the initiative died in a very opaque cloud of political confusion and counter-direction. But, was the fear of loss of local autonomy ever ground-truthed against actual experience and has the citizen experience in the Halton municipalities been rich and satisfying as a result. I would argue to the contrary.
 1: This is not an economically sustainable model 2: how much does this debt cost the taxpayer ?  Now may be the time that these long-term Halton career politicians actually assumed a true leadership role and worked, as a collective, to rationalize their common services into a shared resource pool. Of course, this would be flying in the face of the current Ford government direction towards disaggregation – a return to over 400 little service centres with over 400 voices chirping in the wind (and over 400 varied client/customer experiences). In this time of mounting budget pressures and fiscal uncertainty, consolidation of essential support services provides economies of scale, operational savings, greater purchasing power and consistency of approach. It allows for the development of centres of expertise/excellence with a depth of resource strength, reduced bureaucracy and the development of critical back-up and recovery services. It provides the mechanism, the structure, for improved levels of support to the region’s citizens. Most importantly, and somewhat ironically given the popular wisdom of five years ago, it actually strengthens “local voice” – but more on this aspect later.
Liam McGee is a retired university professor – political science and sociology. Taught at two Canadian universities during his career. Burlington resident for 10 years, lives with his wife of 45 years and two large dogs. Three grown children who now have lives of their own and bring the grandchildren with them when they visit.
 By Pepper Parr
October 30th 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Burlington’s Digital Services department has grown to become massive; it just might be the largest in the city.
What does it all amount to?
 In the next decade the city expects to spend $70 million on digital services. As the city moves away from paper copies of documents the software systems being developed will allow each department to share what it has in the way of data with every other department. Linking everything is complex and requires software that can handle and manage the data flow. When a department makes a change to a document – every other department that needs that data will have it at their fingertips instantly.
The Pipeline to Permit dashboard is a very good example. Click on the link below and play with it. All kinds of data that is available in real-time.
You can access this dashboard by clicking HERE
The city web site to be upgraded:
The good news for those who use the city’s web site is that it is to undergo a revision.
The funding request is essential for the ongoing support, enhancement, and promotion of the City’s online communications and engagement platforms, as well as the customer service options they enable. To facilitate community use of online services and improve communication and engagement with residents, we must ensure that the City’s website remains inclusive, continuously evolves, and is responsive to customers’ needs. Investments in these areas are crucial to meet the growing demands of the city and its residents.
Upcoming initiatives include
- Enhancements to support ongoing phase 3 of web modernization project and potential impacts from KPMG web architecture review
- Enhancements to support any non-project scoped integrations to ERP, EAMS, AIMS, or other emergent projects
- Enhancements to support future development and integration of CIAM single identity login.
- Potential full site renewal in 2026
 Wifi for buses
 It was a service the public wanted. Will every bus route have the service? Provide free Wi-Fi network on all conventional and specialized buses to all customers who board with a Wi-Fi enabled device such as a smartphone, laptop computer or tablet.
Once connected, customers will be directed to the Burlington communication channels. Enhanced digital connectivity builds on one of transit’s competitive advantages and provides the ability to dedicate attention to digital devices to get work done and remain connected while travelling.
Wi-Fi on buses will provide improved connectivity to the bus to support enhanced operations and maintenance, revenue opportunities, operator and public safety solutions and other future opportunities.
This initiative also aligns with customer survey feedback to provide Wi-Fi on buses.
Automated Speed Enforcement Program.
The software is in support of the Automated Speed Enforcement Program. The initial rollout of the program will look to implement 6 cameras. The program, with the cameras and this required software, will deploy an additional effective tool to mitigate speeding and the resulting impacts (collision severity and customer requests relating to speeding and aggressive driving).
Emergency operations
This is for the equipment required for the Emergency Operations Co-ordinator (EOC).
 Emergency operations at the time were just not up to the job of managing the problems that resulted from continuous rainfall. The city learned during the July flooding that there were not enough people with the right equipment to handle the increase in communications to stay on top of what was taking place in real-time.
As an outcome of EOC drills, additional IT accessories have been recommended to ensure that staff working from the EOC have the required equipment to operate during hybrid activations, and to ensure that there is sufficient redundancy in the telecommunications systems available to ensure that the EOC can continue operating effectively if there are outages with our primary telecommunications service providers.
 Municipal election
This project provides funds to acquire technology that enhances the citizen experience for the municipal election. The funds will be used: for software, hardware to perform automated ballot scanning and tabulation, laptops, Internet connections, and barcode scanners.
 Digital and business transformation
The Enterprise Asset Management Solution (EAMS) Project is focused on digital and business transformation in the areas of asset maintenance and asset planning, identified as a priority in Council’s Vision to Focus document. To date, a $4,356,300 capital order has been established for the project through the 2018-2030 capital budgets for the solution/implementation services, staffing resources, hardware and project contingency. Since the previous budget request submission, the EAMS solution/implementation services RFP was issued, proposals were evaluated, a recommended proponent was selected and contract negotiations commenced. During this period, the project schedule has been refined increasing implementation period by 18 months and additional expenditures were identified. Additional funding of $500,000 is required to support project delivery, bringing the total EAMS capital budget to $4,856,300. These additional funds are required to support staffing for additional 18 months, mobile devices for staff, additional technology infrastructure, data preparation and migration to the new EAMS solution and additional contingency reserve.
 Customer experience
While the city is committed to enhancing its Customer Experience – making it happen has taken years. The strategy in place to address the challenges identified during the initial implementation of our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system needed significant changes. In alignment with the evolving Digital Business Strategy, we are embarking on a new CRM rollout. This initiative began with the development and deployment of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) in a specific area, allowing us to assess the system’s effectiveness before broader implementation.
The upgraded CRM solution will significantly improve our capacity to connect with customers, understand their needs and preferences, and cultivate more personalized relationships. It will streamline access to City services and information, optimizing customer interactions across all channels. Additionally, the new technology will provide enhanced data insights, supporting more informed decision-making and enabling ongoing refinement of our service delivery.
 End of life for software is a reality.
Existing corporate and department applications and existing technology infrastructure all require scheduled upgrades. Upgrades provide vendor support compliance, improved functionality, issue resolution, and technology currency. Without upgrades, vendor support expires, technology becomes obsolete, performance is jeopardized and security concerns intensify. If left too long, systems fail and business continuity is at risk.
Each year systems and assets reach end of life. Support will no longer be available unless an upgrade is undertaken. Examples of anticipated renewals include the telephone system and network hardware.
In 2025 there will be a major focus on upgrades / enhancements to various software and physical hardware infrastructure.
 Phasing m365 solutions
This project is a phased enablement of M365 (The M stands for Microsoft) solutions such as OneDrive and SharePoint to strengthen collaboration, data exchange and productivity throughout the enterprise while supporting a hybrid workforce. Enhancement of licensing for enterprise mobility and security licenses to improve our security and cyber readiness. A plan for future permanent administration and support requirements will be developed.
Public expects extensive online, enablement, and self-serve options for service delivery.
Citizens, businesses, and employees now expect extensive online, enablement, and self-serve options for service delivery. To meet these expectations and fulfill our commitment to a digital vision, we have identified significant resource, process, skill, and technology gaps that could impede our ability to achieve our Vision to Focus (V2F) and Digital Transformation goals.
To bridge these gaps, we are executing a multi-year roadmap. This project provides essential funds to acquire new applications and infrastructure, ensuring our business services remain robust and future ready. As technology evolves at a rapid pace, this capital budget allows for agile adaptation to emerging needs and opportunities.
Our focus is on several key initiatives (i.e. – portal and digital identity) and themes:
Digital Transformation: Investing in digital solutions to modernize our operations, enhance service delivery, and improve overall efficiency. By leveraging the latest technologies, we aim to streamline processes, reduce manual work, and provide better support to our staff and citizens.
Digital Twinning of Services: Developing virtual models designed to reflect our physical services, enabling more efficient management, decision making and delivery of services to our citizens and businesses.
Application Rationalization: Assessing and optimizing our existing application portfolio to eliminate redundancies, reduce complexity, and ensure we are using the best tools for our needs. This approach will not only improve performance but also result in cost savings.
Cost Optimization: Strategically managing our IT investments to maximize value and minimize expenses. By adopting a cost-conscious approach, we will ensure that every dollar spent contributes to our strategic goals and enhances our service offerings.
Emerging Technologies: Exploring and implementing cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and cloud computing. These advancements will enable us to stay ahead of the curve and provide innovative solutions to our community.
Positive Outcomes for Organizational Goals: Aligning our IT initiatives with the broader organizational objectives outlined in the Vision to Focus plan. Our investments will support the Red Carpet, Red Tape Initiative, environmental stewardship, housing pledges and other priority projects, driving success and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
Citizen-Centric Services: Ensuring our technology investments directly benefit the lives of our citizens. By focusing on user-friendly and accessible solutions, we aim to enhance the quality of life for all community members, providing them with efficient, responsive, and reliable services.
Chad Macdonald serves as the TITLE for the city. Before his arrival from Halifax the city didn’t have anyone with the depth needed to move the city into the digital world. Chad had the capacity to see the really big picture and convince then City Manager Tim Commisso that huge changes had to be made if the city was to move into the digital world.
Commisso bought the understanding Macdonald brought with him and it appears that CAO Hassaan Bait is going along with it as well. The city is certainly spending a tonne of money making it happen.
The Dashboard (Click HERE to look at it) that Mayor Meed Ward maintains is a leading practice that municipalities across the country will eventually use, is an impressive piece of software. Our question is – How many people actually use it. It just might be one of those “nice to have” but not really worth what it cost to create it.
Replacement of the current IT Service Management product
This project is for a replacement of the current IT Service Management product, which is unable to meet all required business needs. With the move towards cross departmental support teams for various corporate solutions, a new solution is required to better manage staff incidents and requests. Benefits will include improved customer satisfaction, reduction in turnaround time with requests and incidents, and better support as we move to a hybrid workforce. The request for this year is for the additional modules and consulting work for enhancements.
Establishing foundational common and reusable platforms,
The Customer Centric Digital Architecture Blueprint supports the Burlington Digital Business Strategy through establishing foundational common and reusable platforms, and at the same time is open to agility, flexibility and innovations so that the City can respond to ever-growing demand and expectations from the City’s customers in this new digital-era and other disruptive factors that drive the change. The funding is to support planning and implementing the Customer Centric Digital Architecture Blueprint, through an incremental approach, with initial focus on Portal and Web Form Platform and Customer Identity and Access Management Platform; Future platforms also include a Secure Online Payment Platform, a Unified Customer Notification Platform, Application and Data Integration Platforms, and other data and security platforms.
Fund and implement critical enhancements to the Workday platform188
This project aims to fund and implement critical enhancements to the Workday platform. The scope includes improving Payroll and Time Tracking (PATT), optimizing Benefits integration with OMERS and Sunlife, and enhancing system integrations. Additionally, the project will focus on streamlining financial operations, refining business processes for greater efficiency, and ensuring the necessary bi-annual professional setups are completed to maintain system performance and compliance.
 IT Security
The City’s IT Security Program is an important aspect of corporate risk management. The goal of the Program is to protect information assets, be resilient to cyber threats and to enable our IT staff and City services to innovate while maintaining a secure environment. Technology enhancements are required to develop and maintain an IT Security Program. In 2025, the Program will address Security Event and Information Management and control enhancements outlined in existing work plans as well as audit recommendations.
Funds required to cover the hardware and software for each information technology new employee
Provide information technology equipment required for new positions. This may include laptops, mobile devices, monitors, annual increase in electronic document storage and back-up, etc.
Based on budget estimates, this expense reflects the average cost per new position with job requirements for information technology hardware and for software licenses.
 Minor technology enhancement
Funds are allocated each year to support minor technology enhancement projects and consulting services.
What does it all amount to?
 By Staff
October 18th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Days away from the first public version of the Mayor’s 2025 Budget that is now said to include an 8% plus increase over last year has BRAG – Burlington Resident Action Group ready to march on city hall and we see a sign like this.
BRAG is getting ready to do a deep dive on just what’s involved in the $6 million it will cost the city to provide free bus transit service.
For the most part, what we are seeing is significant spending – no mention, at least not at this point, that some items are going to be cut from the budget.
One of the people we keep in touch with regularly has said “Nothing is going to change with this Council until they realize they are all going to lose their council seats” -by then it might be too late for them to save their skins.
What the public is looking for is a council that is listening – that might take some time.
There is a reckoning coming.
 By Staff
October 9th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
The Royal LePage Shelter Foundation Night Light Walk – Burlington 2024 is back for another year. Join Royal LePage as they walk, talk, fundraise and share in a magical night of light under the stars in support of urgently needed resources for women and children experiencing domestic violence.
All proceeds are directed to Halton Women’s Place Transitional Housing Units, so sign up today knowing you will be making a real difference. With your support, we can help light the way forward for so many women and children who are ready to take their first brave steps away from violence.
 Date: October 24, 2024
Suggested Arrival Time: 6:15 p.m.
Walk Starts: 7:00 p.m. (rain or shine)
Location: Burlington Civic Square
Together, with friends, family and neighbours, we will walk 3k through the streets of our community. It all starts at 6:15 p.m. at Burlington Civic Square, where we will gather to hear inspiring stories before we head out to walk a lantern-lit route lighting the way for women and children experiencing domestic violence in our community. The night’s activities will also feature coffee and espresso, a light snack after the walk, Face Painting and a Clown/Balloon artist. All participants will receive a Royal LePage Shelter Foundation Night Light Walk Knit Hat and an LED bracelet.
By Pepper Parr
September 25th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
At a ward level meeting Councillor Paul Sharman explained to the decent sized audience that “Through its Housing Pledge, the City of Burlington has made a commitment to advance 29,000 Housing Units by 2031. He added that Burlington is expected to grow to 265,000 people by 2051
 The green and the blue lines tell us that the population of the city is getting older – the younger demographic is stable. This creates a real problem for the city administration. The City’s Official Plan directs a significant amount of growth to Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs)
The elephant in the room was the Branthaven Oval Court subdivision. It is huge and people in the community are not impressed.
They spoke quite passionately about the traffic problems that have now and can’t understand why the city is even thinking about adding more housing – this time in a very density xxx
Councillor Sharman, along with the three people from the Planning department – Jamie Tellier, Director of Community Planning,Alison Enns, Manager, Policy & Community Initiatives and Kyle PLas, Manager, Development & Design explained that at this point the city does not have an application from the developer. All the public has seen is what was shown at a community meeting when the developer laid out what their thinking was at this point.
 Application for Draft Plan of Subdivision to accommodate seven (7) mixed use blocks varying in size from 4,028 m2 to 8,913 m2 and one creek block of 3,438 m2.
Later the size of the development changed to a mixed-use development consisting of high-density residential, office, community and commercial uses. A total of eight (8) towers are proposed, ranging in height from 11 to 30 storeys with 1,996 residential units and approximately 12,500 m2 of retail, office, daycare and library uses. The proposed development is intended to be completed in phases.
Assuming two people per unit – and that is a low number – there will be something in the order of 4000 people living in an areas that was a mix of commercial, light industrial on the north side of Fairview and residential on the south side of Fairview.
The Appleby GO station is a block or two away – perhaps too far for people to walk to – shuttle transit would be needed. Sherwood Forest Park is very close by. The developer will have a strong story to tell – which suggests that in the fullness of time – the development will see shovels in the ground.
The people who were at the meeting could see their community undergoing a significant change – they were asking publicly is this was the time to sell their homes and look for a different place to love and raise their children.
Situations like this are going to take place in almost every ward in the city. The development hot spots shown in the map below are around the three GO stations. There isn’t much in the way of green-space where the traditional single detached homes were built that makes Burlington what it is today and has been for a decade and a half.
 The yellow highlighted areas are where the city expects to see the high rise housing. The red circles are locations where development could also take place. While not relevant to the ward 5 meeting – the King Road development in Aldershot and the plans to redevelop the Waterfront Hotel site are also at different stages.
There is a lot of concern over the immense growth that has taken place in the size of the full time staff at city hall. Every department is undergoing changes – Planning needs people to administer the development applications that are much much bigger than anything the city had had to handle in the past. Creating Parks and recreation services requires more people (and more in the way of imagination and innovation) to meet the needs of the additional 65,000 people that are going to call Burlington home in the next ten years.
 A rendering of the two 30 and 35 storey towers the developer wants to put in place of the current Waterfront hotel.  The Preferred concept has gone through several versions – a decision on what could be developed is being made at the Land Tribunal. Getting people used to the changes that are going to take place will not be easy. It will take many more events like the one Councillor Sharman held in his ward; probably semi-annual updates.
Sharman and Councillor Kearns have been doing a decent job of working with their communities. Kearns has told people that she will not run as Councillor in the 2026 election – she has hinted that she might run for Mayor.
Ward 1 has a Councillor Kelvin Galbraith has significant conflicts of interest which is not a crime – he has property in the ward that will be developed making it difficult for him to represent the interests of the community which may not align with his personal interests.
It is hard to say what ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan will do going forward. He is the city representative on the Federation Canadian Municipalities, the national voice of municipal government . That responsibility has him missing many council meetings. He no longer lives in the ward he represents.
 A, B, C, D and E are expected to be consolidated and developed. Galbraith owns A, C and D. He has a Memorandum agreement with the owner of E. B is a garage at the corner of Plains Road and Waterdown Road – a ten minute walk to the GO station Galbraith and Nisan took part in a video related to the King Road development that left many wandering just who the Councillors were working for – click HERE and figure out just who they represent.
 CAO Hassaan Basit – at the six month point in the job. How is he doing so far – hard to tell – he has made a lot of changes at the senior staff level. Add to all this the growth of the size of the city budget and the tax increases – you get an almost toxic mix of problems to be tackled.
The City has a relatively new Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Hassaan Basit, Significant changes in the structure of the senior staff levels have been made. These things take time to come together and create a team that meets the daily challenges.
All part of the change taking place – and all part of the anxiety and concern families deal with as the wonder what home is going to look like in a decade.
By Staff
September 24th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
City of Burlington administrative services will be closed on Monday, Sept. 30 to observe the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Sept. 30 is also recognized as Orange Shirt Day, an Indigenous-led grassroots day inspired by the story of Indian Residential School Survivor Phyllis Webstad. As part of Orange Shirt Day, residents can come to Spencer Smith Park (1400 Lakeshore Rd) to reflect and take part in a Walk for Reconciliation and Peace, hosted by local indigenous people.
Opening remarks will begin at 6 p.m., from the pavilion at the east end of the park, with a walk to follow along the Waterfront Trail ending at Beachway Park for a tobacco ceremony. Additional details can be found on the city’s online events calendar at burlington.ca/calendar. Participants are encouraged to wear orange shirts and moccasins if they have them.
We encourage residents to visit the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation website for educational materials and resources.
| City Service |
Holiday Closure Information |
| Animal Services |
The Animal Shelter at 2424 Industrial St. will be closed to appointments on Monday, Sept. 30. To report an animal control related emergency on a holiday, please call 905-335-7777. |
| Burlington Transit |
Burlington Transit will operate on a regular weekday schedule on Monday, Sept. 30. For real-time bus information and schedules, visit myride.burlingtontransit.ca.
The Downtown Transit Terminal, at 430 John St., and Specialized Dispatch will be open on Monday, Sept. 30. |
| City Hall |
Service Burlington and the Building, Renovating and Licensing counter on the main floor of City Hall at 426 Brant St., will be closed to all appointments and walk-in service on Monday, Sept. 30.
Many service payments are available online at burlington.ca/onlineservices.
For online development services, MyFiles can be used by residents who have applied for Pre-Building Approval. Check the status of Pre Building Approval applications at burlington.ca/MyFiles. |
| Halton Court Services – Provincial Offences Office |
Court administration counter services at 4085 Palladium Way will be closed on Monday, Sept. 30.
Except for the holiday closure, telephone payments are available at 905-637-1274, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. All in-person services are available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Many services are also available by email at burlingtoncourt@burlington.ca or online at Halton Court Services. Payment of Provincial Offences fines is available 24/7 at www.paytickets.ca. |
| Parking |
Paid parking will be in effect on Monday, Sept. 30.
NOTE:
- The Waterfront parking lots (east and west at 1286 Lakeshore Rd.) do not provide free parking on holidays
- Parking exemptions are required to park overnight on city streets and for longer than five hours. Visit burlington.ca/parkingexemptions.
- Please make an online reservation using Park Pass to visit Lowville Park on weekends. Reservations are free and available in three-hour time slots
|
| Recreation Programs and Facilities |
Recreation facilities are open for registered and drop-in programs and rentals on Monday, Sept. 30. Please note: The Burlington Seniors Centre is open for drop-ins only and Bistro service is not available on Monday, Sept. 30. Drop-in recreation program schedules are available at burlington.ca/dropinandplay.
Customer Service
Recreation, Community and Culture customer service is available to assist you in person at recreation facility counters during program times. Customer service is also available:
- By email at liveandplay@burlington.ca
- By phone at 905-335-7738, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday (including Sept. 30) and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
|
| Roads, Parks and Forestry |
The administrative office will be closed on Monday, Sept. 30. Essential services will be provided as required. |
Links and Resources
By Staff
September 20th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
On Saturday, September 21 and Sunday, September 22, Lakeshore West rail service will be temporarily modified to accommodate critical track work that will bring faster, more frequent service across the network.
 GO service modified this weekend. Train service between Union Station and West Harbour GO will operate on an hourly schedule.
- GO Bus Route 12, 15 and 18 connections may be adjusted.
- Please check the schedule before your trip.
For those who normally connect from Lakeshore East service to continue travelling west, not all trains will continue past Union Station.
Regular service will resume on Monday, September 23.
Riders can transfer for free with One Fare between GO Transit and TTC. Customers are encouraged to use gotransit.com or triplinx.ca to plan their trips. You can also check the GO Transit Service Updates page for real-time details.
By Pepper Parr
September 14th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
There she was sitting on the upholstered bench CHCH television uses for its Morning Show with the interviewer prepared to toss softball questions.
 Interviewer: Mayor Marianne Meed Ward joins us this morning for a Burlington check in; before we find out what’s going on in the city. What are you wearing right now?
Mayor Meed Ward: I am wearing a pin that is part of the King’s Medal Award that I just got. It was total shock. I cried when I got the notice. Somebody nominated me. I don’t know who. There’s an actual coin. It’s got King Charles on one side, the other side is this. It’s a 13 pointed star with a crown, and that’s for all of Canada’s provinces and territories. But I can only wear the medal at military events, formal council meetings, or, you know, very ceremonial or Speech from the Throne, which in my case would be a State of the City address.
 But I can wear this pin every day. It was very unexpected, a huge honour. I’m just, so overwhelmed with, with the support and the community has been very kind and saying, you know, you’ve earned this. So it’s awesome.
Interviewer: This is the King Charles coronation metal. And what’s it for? Is it for service to community ?
Mayor Meed Ward: It’s for service to community country.
So it can be a local community. It can be nationwide. One of the reasons that I was given this was really an initiative that I started off the side of my desk, something beyond being the Mayor.
“It’s a Her Halton group; elected representatives who are women. We’ve been talking about the toxic nature of politics, and we developed a pledge that we commit ourselves to respectful debate, and we ask others to take the pledge as well. This was picked up by the Canadian feminist parliamentarians across the country – we’ve had dozens and dozens of people sign their name to the pledge.”
A concern a lot of people have with Mayor Meed Ward is with what she says and what she actually does. There was an occasion when she chose to manipulate a Council Agenda that she was chairing virtually and attempting to coerce a member of Council into apologizing for the treatment of a staff member. It was a brutal occasion. Link to that event is HERE.
Mayor Meed Ward: The formation of the group is something I did outside of my role as Mayor, over and above the usual duties that I have. That was one of the reasons, another was raising awareness about mental health, addictions, homelessness in our well, really in our country, but certainly in municipalities here, large and small, rural, urban – everyone’s facing it. We launched a campaign through the Ontario Big City Mayors to solve the crisis. Those were some of the things that they thought were worth acknowledging. So, you know, this is work I do because I love it, and I just want to make the community better, make Burlington better. It was nice to get the award, and I wear it with pride. I did cry a lot, rightfully so.
Interviewer: You want more people engaged? You want people to learn about how their council impacts them because Municipal Affairs, when you think about it, that is the level of government that affects your day to day living.
 Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff presenting Burlington Mayor Meed Ward with the certificate that accompanies the King Charles III Coronation Medal Mayor Meed Ward: Absolutely, you know, I was a community organizer before I was elected. I’m a huge believer in bringing people together and where we agree on the issues and where we can advance something.
Interviewer” You want to hear their take on free transit.
Mayor Meed Ward: Yes. We have chipped away at free transit: it’s free for youth under 12, seniors, 24/7, low income residents, young people, evenings and weekends. We’ve already we’ve seen massive increases in ridership because it just eliminates the barrier to get around.
We directed our staff to actually consult about, should we just go the whole, you know, full nine yards, right? And make it free for everyone. A survey is out there. We will be getting a report back, and I’m really looking forward to what the community has to say.
Interviewer: Okay, deadline to respond ?
Mayor Meed Ward: No deadline, respond any time to the survey. We’ll be deciding in the fall, and you can come to delegate at committee and council to get your views in on that one.
Interviewer: Marianne Meed Ward Mayor of Burlington. Thanks very much.
There you have it – the Mayor’s explanation as to why she was given one of the King’s Coronation Medal that was handed out to her by Oakville North Burlington MP Pam Damoff.
By Staff
September 10th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport (Hamilton International) will conduct a full-scale emergency exercise on September 10, 2024, between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The mock exercise is designed to test and enhance the preparedness, coordination and response capabilities of airport personnel, local emergency services and other airport stakeholders.
 Photo from the Gazette photo bank The simulation will involve collaboration between Hamilton International, the City of Hamilton including Hamilton Fire Department, Hamilton Police Service, Hamilton Paramedic Service, and Transit (HSR); Hamilton Health Sciences; WestJet; Canada Border Services Agency; St. John Ambulance; Mohawk College; Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum; Executive Aviation and other agencies. Participants will engage in a variety of activities, including emergency response coordination, medical triage and treatment, incident command and communications.
Members of the public may see increased activity around the Airport during the exercise and should not be alarmed. Airport operations will not be impacted as a result of the exercise. Only authorized personnel will be admitted into the exercise area, and the exercise is not open to media participation.
“The Airport’s top priority is the safety and security of Hamilton International employees, passengers, tenants, partners and other visitors at all times,” said Cole Horncastle, Executive Managing Director, Hamilton International. “The Airport and its partner agencies hold regular emergency exercises to test and refine procedures, communications and response plans. Such exercises are critical to ensuring that the Airport and its partners are well-coordinated and ready to respond effectively in the event of a real emergency.”
 By Julieta Belen Correa
August 22nd, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
After leading the organization for almost four years, Martha Otton has announced her impending retirement, which will be effective at the end of the year. As the inaugural Chief Executive of iGaming Ontario, she’s been in charge of regulating Ontario’s online gambling market and ensuring casino operators abide by the industry standards.
 Martha Otton: iGaming Ontario to retire Considering the size and potential of the gambling market in this area, she’s had her hands full. Ontario is home to crypto casinos and no KYC sites, which generally offer fast payouts, ensuring Canadian gamblers have plenty of options at their disposal. These sites allow players to have their winnings in their accounts almost instantly in some cases, or at least within a day.
Clearly, as iGaming Ontario’s CEO, Otton is the one with the biggest responsibility when it comes to player safety and satisfaction.
Now that she is stepping down from a leadership position, the Board of Directors will be tasked with finding a successor who will follow in her footsteps and do as good of a job at managing and developing Ontario’s iGaming market.
Otton has achieved impressive results during her 4-year career at iGaming Ontario. Not only did she oversee the regulation of online gaming in Ontario but she also contributed to the province’s iGaming market growth, which resulted in even bigger revenue for the government.
 OLG – Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation has been a leader in research on gaming practices. One of the most notable accomplishments during her tenure is the establishment of the Ontario Gambling Research Center—a research facility that’s tasked with learning about the impacts of gambling on society. This center has yielded many studies that have helped shape the online gambling industry and its regulatory decisions.
Otton’s career will not only be remembered for her work on responsible gambling initiatives, which have transformed how people view gambling but it will also be marked by her efforts in expanding iGaming Ontario’s reach to worldwide markets. Due to her initiative, expertise, and guidance, the organization was able to launch a number of new online gambling platforms in different parts of the world, thus boosting revenue beyond all proportions.
Speaking of Otton’s career, she’s had quite an impressive run even before becoming the head of iGaming Ontario. She’s spent several decades working for numerous sectors within Ontario, including alcohol and gaming.
Before her job at iGaming Ontario, Otton was the CSO at the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO). Her responsibilities within the organization varied, but her main role was to be a part of strategic planning. Likewise, she helped with the expansion of AGCO’s regulatory responsibilities, which later went on to include horse racing and cannabis.
 There’s no telling how Otton’s departure is going to affect the industry, but the lack of her presence will surely be felt. She has pledged her full support to whoever happens to be her successor, as she wishes for a smooth transition in leadership. However, it’s her vision that has been key to iGaming Ontario’s growth and success, and her legacy will undoubtedly be remembered in the years to come. The timing of her retirement might also make it harder for her successor to adjust, as there’s a lot of activity happening in Ontario’s iGaming industry, including new casino operators joining the province.
By Pepper Parr
August 20th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Pot holes and recreation services are a large part of what a municipality is about – has been until population intensification got to the top of the municipal news hit parade.
The municipality you live in provides the services that matter most on a day to day basis. And usually your municipal councillor is someone you pass on the street or see in the supermarkets – the exception for Burlington being ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan who moved from where he was elected into ward 2.
The federal government issues your passport and collects taxes, the province is expected to ensure there is a robust economy that provides the good paying jobs that leaves enough to pay the taxes.
From time to time a citizen will have a concern with something a level of government has done and they want more in the way of information.
 Freedom of Information request have been the process uses at every level of government.
A front page article yesterday the Globe & Mail published a report based on work done by the Secret Canada, Globe & Mail national investigation on how well the Freedom of Information process was working – the consensus – not all that well.
Much like their federal and provincial counterparts, municipalities across the country must adhere to freedom of information (FOI) laws, which are intended to promote transparency by allowing individuals to request documents from public institutions. These laws require institutions to disclose requested information with limited exceptions.
A Globe and Mail audit of Canada’s 53 largest municipalities (from which most of this article was sourced) has found vast differences in how local governments perform on FOI. While they completed access requests in 25 days, on average – twice as fast as provincial and territorial ministries, and more than three times as quickly as federal departments – some cities still took much longer, including Edmonton (69 days), Hamilton (66) and Greater Sudbury (50).
The audit also reveals that some municipalities apply redactions much more heavily than others. Mississauga, for instance, released 78 per cent of its files in full – that is, without any redactions whatsoever. Halifax, by comparison, released just 2 per cent of its files in full.
To assemble this national picture of municipal access performance, The Globe filed requests to every municipality in Canada with a population of at least 100,000 people, asking for data on FOIs completed between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The findings reflect the performance of 53 municipalities across eight provinces. (Three additional cities – Thunder Bay, Lévis, Que., and Ajax, Ont. – were excluded from the analysis because they said they had no FOI tracking system, claimed they could not produce the requested information or provided incomplete data.)
 Burlington ranks in the top half – doing better than Hamilton which isn’t a metric you want to be measured by. Kevin Walby, a criminology professor at the University of Winnipeg who also studies freedom of information, said some of the audited municipalities’ performance was “just abysmal – like, their FOI offices should be put into receivership, or something like that.”
 “Some of the lack of compliance is just totally wild,” he continues. “There aren’t a lot of sites where you get great compliance. Great compliance, I think, would be where you have most of the records released in full, and most of the disclosures released within 30 days, or in a reasonable time.” Prof. Walby says the findings are evidence that some municipalities haven’t adequately resourced their FOI offices. “It’s a really contradictory message for an apparatus of the state to be sending: You guys comply with all these other laws, but we don’t have to follow the laws that pertain to us.”
“How do they expect Canadians to want to believe in the legitimacy of the state and believe in these kinds of transparency initiatives when you see this kind of lack of compliance across the board?”
Kristan Cook, a former FOI director for Edmonton, says municipalities make decisions that “actually affect” people’s day-today lives. “It’s people wanting to know, why is my bus route changing? How much did this bridge cost? Why is the train going through my yard?”
Ms. Cook, who is now the director of privacy at PBC Solutions, a health benefits technology company, says that Canada has thousands of municipal governments across the country, and despite their varying sizes, they follow the same access rules as higher levels of government. “Whether you’re a government administration of three people or 300, that three-person government administration still has to provide the same service under FOI.”
Municipalities handle FOI very differently from provincial or federal governments: City clerks usually act as ranking officials on FOI matters, and local governments tend to have fewer layers of review – that is, fewer people who need to approve the release of a document – before an FOI response goes out the door, which likely speeds up the process, Ms. Cook says.
The FOI requests received by municipalities are also very different from those going to the provinces or federal government. “So many dog bites, like, an incredible number of dog bites,” Ms. Cook says. “Fire inspections, that’s a big one. And then requests about infrastructure, things like bridges and buildings and mass transit – those have a very municipal flavour.”
Ms. Cook says that these contrasts in timeliness often come down to records management practices.
“If you don’t know where your records are, then you can’t locate them and you can’t respond to an FOI request,” she says.
“Organizations of a significant size have hundreds of systems that store records. Some of these systems talk to each other, and some of them don’t. So it really depends on where the information is stored and how easy it is to gather the information and put it into the form that an applicant is seeking.”
After assembling the documents relevant to a request, FOI offices read through the records to identify information that must be redacted under access law. Some responses are released as-is, without redactions, while others can be withheld in their entirety. The final status of an FOI package, also known as its “disposition,” is a useful indicator of how much information a public institution is actually releasing.
Mississauga released 78 per cent of its FOI responses without any redactions whatsoever, the highest full disclosure rating for any major Canadian municipality. Halifax, meanwhile, released just 2 per cent of its files in full.
(Some of these disclosure statistics are complicated by the types of FOIs they are processing. Winnipeg, for instance, also processes files for the Winnipeg Police Service, and police requests often carry personal information redactions. The Globe’s analysis aimed to measure how municipalities were responding to their requests, so it kept the request data it received mostly as-is, removing only FOIs that were abandoned or transferred to another public institution.)
Ms. Cook says that the variation in how extensively local governments redact records could be read many ways. Take a city that has high full disclosure rates: “Maybe it’s an organization that believes in transparency, or maybe it’s an organization that isn’t paying attention,” she says. Meanwhile, a municipality with high redaction rates may be “more on the cautious side of releasing information.”
Over all, municipal governments outperformed federal, provincial and territorial ministries across all FOI metrics in the audit. They closed requests more rapidly – 25 days on average, compared with 47 provincially/territorially and 83 federally – and completed the lion’s share of their files within 30 days. Municipalities also released files in full much more frequently: 38 per cent of the time, compared with 20 per cent provincially and 24 per cent federally.
To Ms. Cook, these differences can be explained in large part by the complexity of a public institution’s bureaucracy. People empowered to make final FOI decisions – the ones given “delegations of authority” – often have more levels of oversight at the provincial and federal level, she says, slowing down the process considerably.
“In some delegations, the people who are actually the people that you’re talking to when you’re doing the access request, they have the authority to sign something and send it out to you themselves,” she says. “In other places, they don’t. So, any time you have that – more people, more levels – the amount of time that it’s going to take for you to get something is going to increase. That’s a really important difference between municipal, provincial and federal.”
While several municipalities fared well in this audit, some stood out for how quickly and fulsomely they responded to requests. Red Deer, Alta., and Mississauga released more than 70 per cent of their files in full, and managed to do so while keeping FOI responses to an average of 22 and 23 days, respectively.
Nearly every request completed by Longueuil, Que., within the audit window was closed within 30 days – despite the municipality having completed more than 1,500 requests during the period.
Several Quebec municipalities achieved exceedingly fast completion times. Montreal wrapped up FOIs in an average of 15 days; Gatineau closed files in 13 days, on average, and Quebec City and Longueuil averaged 12 days.
Hamilton had the second slowest average response time (behind Edmonton), but it also ranked poorly across other metrics: It closed 40 per cent of its files within 30 days (third-worst, after Richmond, B.C., and Saguenay, Que.) and released 19 per cent of its files in full (13th-worst).
In a e-mailed statement, Hamilton city clerk Matthew Trennum said the municipality “takes its role as a steward and guardian of personal and confidential information very seriously,” and that Hamilton is “looking to invest in modernized freedom of information request tracking software to assist in managing timelines and more generally for project management.”
 Marianne Meed Ward made transparency the watch word that got her elected – the phrase fell out of use when she was elected Mayor. During the 2018 municipal election Burlington Council member Marianne Meed Ward running for the Office of Mayor began to suspect some of the information that was coming their way.
A member of the campaign team filed a Freedom of Information request related to correspondence between the then Director of Planning and to some degree the then City Manger. Shortly after the FOI was filed the city said they required a deposit of $700 to do all the work that was required.
While stunned at the amount the individual paid the deposit. We expect to have more detail on thus later in the month – we do know that some of the deposit was refunded.
We have been advised of another Burlington situation where the person filing the FOI request was asked to pay a deposit of more than $1000. They gave up at that point.
Burlington position on the list is at about the midpoint – better that Hamilton, which isn’t saying very much.
 By Staff
August 19th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Speaking to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), Marit Stiles, Leader of the Ontario NDP, promised to reverse three decades of provincial downloads and deliver a new deal for municipalities when she becomes Premier.
“Affordable housing, quality infrastructure, and open ERs are a necessity in Ontario, not a luxury,” said Stiles. “Municipal leaders shouldn’t have to beg the province to do their job – but that’s exactly what’s happening right now. Our municipal partners and the communities they serve deserve better”.
 Marit Stiles, NDP Leader of the Opposition Stiles’ plan for Strong and Caring Communities: A New Deal for Ontario’s Municipalities includes a commitment to reverse decades of unfair provincial downloads and funding cuts.
“Cities and towns invest billions each year in vital services and infrastructure,” said Stiles. “In return, they’re asked to take on skyrocketing costs and increasingly complex social and economic problems. I’m committed to working in partnership with municipalities to build strong and caring communities and a stronger economy.”
Marit Stiles and the Ontario NDP’s plan would reverse unfair provincial downloads and bring stability to municipal finances through fair cost-sharing of municipal-provincial priorities. This New Deal will include:
- A province-wide Social and Economic Prosperity Review of how infrastructure is funded in small, rural, and Northern municipalities that are facing disproportionate challenges with fewer financial resources in a changing climate.
- Upload back provincial financial responsibility for affordable housing, shelters, and homelessness prevention programs, while maintaining locally focused delivery by municipal service managers.
- The restoration of 50% provincial funding for municipal transit net operational costs.
- A commitment to get Ontario back to building affordable homes through Homes Ontario – the Ontario NDP’s plan to provide significant new provincial investments in public, non-profit and co-op housing, in partnership with municipal service managers.
-
- The application of a rural and Northern lens to the development of this new partnership that recognizes the unique challenges and opportunities facing those communities.
By Staff
April 19th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
Premier Doug Ford spoke to to AMO in London this morning
His address is set out in full below.
“Well, good morning, everyone.
Thank you, Martin, for that kind introduction.
And before I get started…
I want to congratulate you Colin…
And the outgoing AMO Board of Directors…
For all the work you’ve done over the last two years.
Thank you for your partnership…
And for your service to the communities you serve.
 Premier Doug Ford at AMO earlier today. Friends,
I’m thrilled to be back at the AMO conference…
And to celebrate AMO’s 125th anniversary.
It’s an amazing milestone.
A milestone built on a long legacy of bringing people together…
In service of finding common ground…
And delivering real solutions…
To building stronger communities…
Where people and families can live, thrive, and prosper.
And folks…
I don’t hesitate to say…
That AMO’s vision…
Its mandate…
Has never been more important.
That’s because Ontario is growing faster than it ever has before…
Some reports suggest that our population growth could be as high as eight hundred thousand.
That’s like adding a city the size of Mississauga
In a single year.
In a word…
This kind of growth is explosive.
People from across Canada…
From around the world…
Are moving to Ontario…
Eager to be part of the thriving communities we’re building…
Excited about the Ontario dream.
These newcomers…
They also want to participate in our growing economy.
An economy that’s added more than 800,000 new jobs since we came into office in 2018…
With 160,000 new jobs added since the beginning of this year.
In fact…
In recent years…
Ontario’s economy has attracted tens of billions of dollars in the tech sector…
$4 billion in life sciences…
And more than $44 billion in electric vehicle and battery plants.
What I’m most proud of…
Is that these new investments…
These new jobs…
Are being created in communities across the province.
Take for example our auto sector.
We can’t forget the dire shape it was in six years ago.
Sky-high energy prices…
And an uncompetitive business environment…
Forced plants to close…
And take jobs 300,000 jobs south of the border.
What a difference a few years and a pro-worker, pro-business government makes.
Over the past four years…
We’ve welcomed new battery plants in Alliston and St. Thomas…
With major investments across the electric vehicle supply chain in Brampton…
Brantford…
Port Colborne…
Windsor…
And Napanee…
To name just a few.
It’s so important to our government…
To ensure that the economic growth we’re experiencing…
Benefits the entire province.
That no matter where you live in Ontario…
You have the same opportunity to access a better job with a bigger paycheque.
So, today…
I’m excited to announce a new online tool…
Developed by Invest Ontario…
That will help local and international investors better connect with municipalities.
Through our new Partner Portal…
Municipalities will be able to upload information about commercial and industrial properties in their communities…
And provide companies with information about the property…
Including demographic trends, market analysis and First Nations treaty areas.
It’s going to be a powerful resource…
To help local governments and communities attract investments and jobs.
But friends…
As I’ve said before…
As we rebuild Ontario’s economy…
As our population grows…
We have to build the infrastructure needed to support this growth…
And ensure that it’s sustainable for generations to come.
We can’t make the same mistakes that previous governments made.
We have to plan for the future…
And build the roads…
Highways…
Public transit…
Hospitals…
Homes…
Schools…
And energy infrastructure we need.
That’s exactly what we’re doing…
With the most ambitious plan to build in Ontario history.
We’re investing nearly $100 billion to expand and improve transit, roads and highways.
In the north…
We’re widening Highway 17 from Kenora to the Manitoba border…
And making upgrades to Highways 584 and 11.
In Windsor, we’re building the Banwell Interchange…
And a new interchange connecting Highway 401 to Lauzon Parkway.
Here in Ottawa…
We’re providing funding for the design and planning for the Barnsdale Interchange.
In the GTA…
We’re building Highway 413 and the Bradford Bypass.
Shovels are in the ground…
To widen Highway 3 between Essex and Leamington.
We’re building a new Highway 7 between Kitchener and Guelph.
Folks…
I could be here all day.
This list of projects goes on and on and on.
We’re building more…
We’re building faster.
In health care…
We’re investing $50 billion over the next ten years on more than 50 hospital projects.
In education…
We’re investing $16 billion to build, repair and expand schools.
And we’re making record investments to ensure people and businesses have access to reliable, clean and affordable electricity…
For generations to come.
I know…
Over the next couple of days…
You’ll hear more about these infrastructure investments from my Cabinet and caucus colleagues.
But I want to take a couple of minutes here…
To talk about housing.
Since we came into office in 2018…
I’ve heard time and time again…
A lack of housing-enabling infrastructure…
Is the biggest barrier to getting more homes built.
Mayors…
I want to say…
We hear you…
We’ve heard you loud and clear.
That’s why…
At this conference last year…
I announced the Building Faster Fund…
A $1.2 billion program…
That rewards municipalities for reaching annual housing targets.
The Building Faster Fund has a been a huge success.
Over the past several months…
I had the privilege of visiting so many of you…
Too many to name…
To deliver big cheques…
With big dollar figures…
That municipalities can use for infrastructure projects…
To lay the groundwork for more housing.
In our most recent budget…
We also announced record investments in our Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund…
And the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program.
This new money…
Totalling nearly $2 billion…
Is going to be a game-changer…
For so many of your communities.
Earlier this month,
We announced the first round of investments from the Housing-Enabling Water Systems Fund…
A total of $970 million…
That will be distributed to 54 projects…
Across 60 municipalities…
Helping to build more than 500,000 homes.
But we’re not stopping there.
We can’t stop there.
We’re going to keep working with you…
To build the housing-enabling infrastructure you need…
To meet and exceed your housing targets…
And to bring the dream of home ownership into reach for more people.
As we build more homes…
As you welcome more people to your communities…
We also recognize the need to invest in the public spaces that foster a strong sense of community and belonging.
That’s why…
As part of our 2024 budget…
We announced a $200 million investment to help municipalities build and renew sport and recreational facilities.
I’m pleased to announce…
That applications for this new fund…
The Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund…
Are now open.
Municipalities…
Local services boards…
And not-for-profit organizations…
Can apply for up to 50 per cent of funding for projects…
And Indigenous communities and organizations can apply for up to 90 per cent.
I can’t wait to visit your communities…
To stand with you…
As we invest in the sports and recreation facilities…
Where so many new memories will be made.
Friends…
Ontario is growing…
Like never before.
This kind of growth isn’t without its challenges.
But it also opens the door to incredible opportunities.
In order to seize these opportunities…
And ensure every region…
Every municipality prospers…
We need to work together to build the roads, highways, transit, homes, hospitals and schools our growing communities need.
We need to continue to create conditions to attract new investments…
To create better jobs…
And yes…bigger pay cheques.
And we need to keep costs down for hardworking families.
Ontario is the envy of the world.
And we have every single thing we need to succeed.
We have the talent…
We have the resources…
We have the determination.
All we need is to keep working together…
Always in service of the great people of this province.
Let’s build a better Ontario…together.
Let’s get it done.
Thank you again for inviting me to speak today.
And may God bless the people of Ontario.”
Does this sound like the kind of speech that gets made during a re-election campaign?
By Pepper Parr
August 12th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
If you are a woman who is considered low income, you may be eligible for pre-employment, pre-apprenticeship and entrepreneurship training through the Women’s Economic Security Program (WESP).
The training will help equip you with the skills, knowledge and experience to improve your economic security. If you are interested in applying to a WESP training program, please contact one of the organizations listed below to determine your eligibility.
This is an excellent program – well worth at least looking into. If it isn’t for you – pass it along to someone you think might fit.
There is training in four streams:
skilled trades
entrepreneurship for self-employment
information technology
general employment training
All programs include additional supports so you can focus on participating in the training programs. Supports may include:
food throughout the training day, and/or access to a food bank
transportation to and from the training program
support in finding child care
referral to mental health and wellbeing supports, counselling, housing and legal support
If this is something you want to follow up on here is the link to the people that can help.
Some projects also provide specialized programming and supports if you’ve experienced intimate partner violence or are at risk gender-based violence. Learn about intimate partner violence and how to get help.
 Women in skilled trades
There is a great need for workers in the skilled trades and many jobs in the trades are high-paying and can offer long-term economic opportunities.
If you’re interested in exploring a career in the skilled trades, you can find women in skilled trades training programs at:
Canadore College – General Carpenter Pre-Apprenticeship
Centre for Skills Development and Training – Enhanced General Carpentry
Collège Boréal – Programme de préapprentissage en Charpenterie
The Conestoga College Institute of Technology – Women in Skilled Trades: Enhanced General Carpentry Program
CWB Welding Foundation – Women of Steel: Pre-employment Program
George Brown College – Women Transitioning to Trades and Employment (WTTE)
Humber College – Plumbing Pre-Apprenticeship for Women
Six Nations Polytechnic – We Are Welders Women’s Program
Women’s Enterprise Skills Training (WEST) of Windsor – Industrial Mechanic Millwright CNC Pre-Apprenticeship Program
WoodGreen Community Services – CNC/Precision Machining Skills Training Program
 Entrepreneurship for women’s self-employment
You can find entrepreneurship training programs for women’s self-employment at:
10 Carden Shared Space – Opening Opportunities
Connecture Canada – Hairstyling Entrepreneurship Training
Elizabeth Fry Society of Toronto – My Start-Up Program
Heritage Skills Development Centre – GTA Women Jumpstart to Success
Kingston Employment Youth Services – Creating Enterprise Opportunities
OASIS centre des femmes – Entrepreneurship Launchpad
PARO Centre for Women’s Enterprise – ParoBiz – Women’s Business Development and Microloan Program
Scadding Court Community Centre – WE Hub
 Women in information technology
You can find a Women in Information Technology training program at:
The Redwood Shelter – Women in Technology: IT Help Desk Technician
Seven Generations Education Institute – Azemiinagoziwin Telecommunications Program
YWCA of Greater Toronto – Mobile Application Development
General employment training for women
If you are interested in employment training, you can find courses and programs at the following institutions and organizations:
George Brown College – Fashion Exchange (FX) Women in Fashion TECH
YWCA Greater Toronto – Moving On To Success (MOTS)
La Cité Collegiale – Programme de préparation à l’emploi pour femmes francophones à faible revenu
Minwaashin Lodge – Courage to Soar Program
Again – if you’re interested here’s the link
|
|
By Pepper Parr
