The room was full. It was a rainy night but under 100 people showed up for an information session on their vision for the downtown part of the city. The focus was on mobility hubs.
The Gazette will do a more in-depth report – this is a first look at the kind of questions that were asked and the answers given
There were some surprises.
A participant using the hand held device to record their answer to the question being asked.
There were 12 questions asked. The question was put up on a screen – the people in the room had been given hand held clickers that they could use to indicate their choice.
We report on two of the questions in this early look at what was an important event. There will be a follow up meeting in June for the people in Ward 2.
The intention is to hold similar session for each of the four mobility hubs that city has identified.
This is city building at its best. How it will roll out is going to be interesting to watch.
These answers are going to surprise the Bfast people and give Burlington Transit a lot to think about.
There were a number of developers in the room along with just about everyone that mattered from the Planning department. On the political side – Councillors Taylor and Meed Ward were in the room along with the Mayor who opened the session. More to follow.
So much for the argument that we need more people downtown to make the core the vibrant place everyone appears to want it to become.
We were unable to cover the Open House the city held at the new Go Bold offices that have been set up for the planners that are doing the big think on the four mobility hubs that have become the hot new buzz words at city hall. Mobility hubs seems to have replaced intensification.
The downtown hub is the first of the four that is going to get the “community engagement” treatment.
Earlier in the week the city’s communications people set up a conference call that allowed us to exchange views with Mary Lou Tanner, Director of Planning.
The Gazette had a very poor connection – not sure if the problem was on our end or theirs – but it was difficult to have an in depth conversation with Tanner, who is usually quite willing to explain and put forward the reasons for the decisions made and the work being done by her department.
What we did learn was that the mobility hub intention is for people to be able to walk within the defined area of each mobility hub – and that the longest walking distance would be around a mile in length.
Ann McIlroy and Associates are on a three year contract to work with the Go Bold mobility hub team. The McIlroy team have done a lot of work with and for Burlington in the past. One of the more recent assignments was the detailed planning for the new Beachway Park. A lot of the very early design work was done by McIlroy.
Much of the original design work for the Beachway Park concepts was done by Ann McIlroy and Associates – they are advising the city on the mobility hub thinking.
Tanner described mobility hubs as a “higher order of transit” and said there was some science behind this kind of transportation thinking. The intention was to have “area specific plans” for each of the mobility hubs with the downtown hub being the first to get attention from the planners and the Grow Bold team.
The first meeting, the one that took place Wednesday evening, was intended to introduce people to the concept. A colleague of ours, comes out of the real estate sector, described the event as “underwhelming”
“I went to the Mobility Hub Open House. Just a few maps up on display and an “ask” for emails addresses so we could be kept informed. Lots of treats (cakes and candy) and coffee.”
There is another meeting scheduled for June 2nd that will focus on that downtown mobility hub with additional meetings to follow in the fall. Each of the hubs is to get this multi-meeting community engagement touch.
The public was heavily involved in community engagement meetings where people poured over plans for a proposal the city had encouraged for the east end Lakeside Village Plaza.
When the community engagement and the deep thinking is complete a report will go to city council where the Planner will ask for directions.
The approach for the Official Plan, which also comes out of the Planning department, where Andrea Smith, Manager of Policy and Research has been focused on getting the new Official Plan ready for the public. Smith spent years working on a revision of the old Official Plan. When Mary Lou Tanner was appointed the new Director of Planning she decided to press the reset button, take a pause and ask if the old Official Plan was worth a revision.
The Escarpment is basically out of bounds from a planning perspective – except for some growth in the hamlets – Kilbride and Lowville.
Tanner apparently decided that a totally new plan was needed – and that is what the city is now looking at.
The draft Official Plan that is being reviewed now is meant to align with the Strategic Plan; the approach being that the Official Plan is expected to create rules and regulations for developers to have a clear idea of what the city want to get done on the next 20 years. At this point we know that we are to grow up and not out – and that all this has to be done within the urban boundary. The Escarpment is out of bounds.
There are going to be three months of discussion and community engagement with perhaps ward specific meetings.
Municipal politics is like any other form of government – new brooms can be brought in and the Strategic Plan scrapped – the planners then have to tinker with and revise the Official Plan – an action that drives people in this city bananas.
City council has decided that growth and development is, to a large degree, going to be centered around Mobility hubs and they want you to help them do that work.
Four mobility hubs – expected to be the preferred locations for future commercial growth and development.
There are two meetings taking place.
The city has invited the public into their new Locust Street Grow Bold offices on April 12th. “Individuals interested in learning more about the Mobility Hubs studies are welcome to drop by to meet the city staff working on the Mobility Hubs studies and to ask questions. Refreshments will be provided along with fun activities and games.”
Takes place on Wednesday, April 12 – 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. Mobility Hubs Office, 1455 Lakeshore Rd., Unit 7 (across the street from the ESSO gas station)
Mary Lou Tanner, Director of Planning and Building for the city.
Mary Lou Tanner, Chief Planner and Director of Planning and Building explains the purpose of the meeting: “The city needs to hear from the entire community about what they love and value in their downtown so that we can create a long-term vision that continues to make downtown Burlington a great place to live, work, shop and play.
“There is a lot of interest in our downtown from developers. As our city grows, we will receive more and more requests for new buildings of all sizes. With input from the community, the land-use policies created through the Downtown Mobility Hub study will help ensure we have the type of growth in our downtown that we want.”
Once approved, the policies created through Burlington’s Downtown Mobility Hub study will be adopted as part of the city’s new Official Plan.
The offices on Locust Street are not that large – if the weather is good the overflow can spill out onto the side walk cafes on Lakeshore.
Home to the people who are going to focus on our growth.
On April 20th, city Councillor Marianne Meed Ward will return to her Downtown Visioning project and focus on mobility hubs and the role they play. This meeting takes place at Burlington Lions Club Hall, 471 Pearl St., from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Halton Region is anticipated to grow from 530,000 to one million people by 2041. The Province of Ontario’s provincial growth plan, Places to Grow, mandates the City of Burlington plan for a population of 193,000 by 2031.
Just what are mobility hubs? There is a general idea but specifics and details are far from being worked out. The prime objective will be to find ways to move all these people around efficiently.
To get this worked out in the next 18 months is a challenge and include it in the Official Plan
A number of years ago Burlington Transit decided they would shut down the small terminal office on John Street where people were able to buy bus tickets and update their Presto cards. That idea didn’t last very long – what was stunning to many who know something about transit was that the idea actually got to a city council meeting.
John Street transit station was at one point thought to be past its Best Before date. Clearer minds looked at the property again and decided it could get an upgrade to the status of a mobility hub.
What the city has done is set out where the mobility hubs are to be located and have produced a draft Official Plan that focuses on the four locations.
Mobility Hubs locations are around the city’s three GO stations, Aldershot, Appleby and Burlington, and the downtown bus terminal; this is where new growth and development over the next 20 years is to take place.
The city plans to hoist a number of engagement opportunities over the next 18 months to gather input from residents and businesses about how they’d like to see these areas grow and change in the future.
City council will begin discussion of the draft Official Plan this week. Opinions are already being formed.
There are so many problems with Burlington’s official plan update that it’s hard to zero in on the most problematic element. Leaving alone for a moment the massive green space loss or the complete lack of any mathematical forecasting, the transit plan is truly insane.
My largest problem when running for Regional Chair in 2014 is that I just could not get people to accept what the cities future transit plans actually are. People would just say “That is crazy” and look at me like I must not understand the plan. Either read what is coming out of the city or take my word for it. The future of Burlington is city wide deliberately induced gridlock.
I realize that this is so divorced from reality that the average resident of Burlington simply cannot accept this is the cities plan. It is simple – keep jamming people in until roads are mostly impassible and largely slower than walking. People will then seek “alternatives” once they realize they can walk or bike to a location in just hours vs multiple hours of driving. If you are disabled, elderly or have a schedule that doesn’t support biking, stay home or get out of Burlington.
The first problem is that I would say you need a public mandate to do this. This certainly does not exist. The draft says the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to mobility” (Page 14 in the link below). Right now for example you might like to drive to the gym. In the new city walking and biking should be your forms of city recommend exercise. In the future city staff will decide what you do, how and when you move around. The city needs to execute the mandate of citizens, not try to force everyone to do as they think we should.
The second problem is that the transit plan cannot withstand even light mathematical examination. It can’t possibly achieve its own goals. You won’t see numeric calculations coming from the city – because they won’t add up. To believe that 300,000 people are place-able in Burlington with “No New Car Capacity” (Page 15 in the link below) is to believe we will have pedestrian rates orders of magnitude higher than Paris France. As I delegated to council:
Even if you line up Paradigm developments along every possible place all the way down Plains road – you will never get a pedestrian commercial base. There is no mathematically possible pedestrian city on a single straight road. Cities are built in grids for a reason – it is the only way to get transit time low and have the density for a partly pedestrian customer base.
The last problem and most deeply troubling aspect of this is the underlying theory behind it. This mentality places the city in direct opposition to you. Your goal might be to take your kids to soccer practice. This “unsustainable transit pattern” makes the city wish you didn’t. You want to visit your Mother after work – the city wishes you didn’t. It’s all to pretend that intensification doesn’t need increased infrastructure to support it. That an infinitely increasing population doesn’t cost anything in money or environment because the city now rations “what is” out.
They can’t figure out a transportation strategy for this mess of intensification. So now “untransportation” is desirable. Not enough water – the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to bathing.” Not enough parks – the public must “Reprioritize decision-making relating to sports activities.” This “reprioritization” is to no longer do what is best for yourself, but instead do what city planners have rationed out for you.
Since we still live in a democracy – it will not work. Once the main streets are nothing but micro businesses very few trips will be to them; just past them. The constant gridlock will be the largest issue and people will not care beyond mobility. This will give rise to and elect a class of politician that will run on and expand the road base. Though since staff have worked deliberately to make this difficult, the roads will now expand in ugly and awkward way.
If you want 300,000 people in Burlington then we need developments totally concentrated in the down town core – it’s the only place with a grid. Yes, you will need an aggressive walking, biking and public transit strategy. But you will also need the major arteries of Burlington expanded to 6 lanes, plus a dedicated bike path, plus a large public walking space. You can get into fanciful debates as to what you want to do in those extra lanes – single passenger cars, rapid bus transit, street car, etc. But they need to be reserved and planned as if they will exist.
There is no possible benefit to this gridlock – hundreds of thousands of cars idling and caught in congestion will have a far higher environmental footprint than a hand full of bikers can ever offset. Congestion helps big box retailers and hurts small business – this can only lead to greater commercial concentration. The idea “if you build roads people are going to use them” so if we stop building them people will then not use to road we didn’t build.
This is just idiocy. If you feed starving children they are just going to keep eating and eating; to a point yes. If you provide houses with water people are just going to keep bathing and bathing; to a point yes. However I consider the ability to feed, bath and get my kids to soccer – all as positives.
I’m pretty sure the rest of Burlington does as well.
It was the same room, basically the same crowd three years later, but the mood was a lot different.
Last week the Carriage Gate group told the public what they had in mind for the corner of Brant and James Street – across the street from city hall.
They set out a number of charts and large blow ups at the front of the room of the 27 story tower they wanted to build – one got the impression that the developer was going to talk about the project. Everything seemed to be out front.
Three years ago the Adi Development Group was in the same room. There were no large blow ups of the project they were about to explain to the public and the audience was in no mood to listen. That project kept going downhill from the moment the architect began to explain the project and is now before the Ontario Municipal Board.
Twenty seven storey’s high – directly across the street from city hall.
The mood was so positive that if the Carriage Gate people had had some sales agreements on the table there were people in the room quite prepared to sign on the dotted line and put down a deposit.
There were some who thought it was a “terrible” idea and the issue of traffic and parking reared its head. Burlington and cars have always had an awkward relationship.
Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, who is no fan of tall buildings, got the meeting off to a decent start. The Mayor and ward 3 Councillor John Taylor were on hand along with a couple of other people from the city’s planning department.
Four mobility hubs are in the planning process. The plan appears to be to focus on the downtown hub first.
The public got to hear about the group that has been created to study and develop the concept of “mobility hubs” – something that has become the most recent buzz word for planners.
Kyle Plas, the senior city planner on this project explained where the project was from a planners perspective and took the audience through the process of getting it before city council where a decision is made.
Carriage Gate is looking for both Official Plan changes and zoning changes. This project would come under the existing Official Plan which is now more than 20 years old and as Mark Bayles, the Carriage Gate manager who would be overseeing the development of the project, explained in his opening comments “the existing plan no longer reflects where development is going.
From th left, Robert Glover, an urban planner, Ed Fothergill, planer and Mark Bales, project manager with Carriage Gate
Carriage Gate has assembled a solid team to shepherd this through the approvals process.
Ed Fothergill, a planning consultant who has advised on many of the Molinaro projects and was the advisor to the Carriage Gate people on this project explained the planning environment that everyone has to work within.
Policy documents that set out the rules planners have to work within and comply with.
It includes the provinces Provincial Policy Statement in which the province sets out where the growth is going to take place; the Greenbelt policy, which for Burlington means the Escarpment and The Big Move which is the framework that the GO transit people work within out of which comes the mobility hub concept.
The GO train service west of Toronto is going to be improved to 15 minute service and eventually it will be electrified.
The improvement in GO frequency is intended to get cars off the QEW and handle the expected population growth.
Close up of the Brant street side of the building. The city wanted smaller shops at the street level; the developer had no problem complying. The restaurant on the site is to be included in the building.
Many in Burlington don’t like the idea of growth – but the population of the city is going to grow – the province has said that is what is in the cards, and because we can no longer grow out, – there isn’t much more left for development within the urban boundary for new development the growth will be up, not out. Thus the high rise.
Given that there are going to be buildings in the 27 story and higher range where should they go?
Robert Glover, an architect and planner with the Bousfields, a community planning firm that has handled some of the more impressive developments in Ontario gave the audience his take on how Burlington and high rise buildings are going to learn to live together.
Tall buildings in Burlington tend to be away from the downtown core and on either side of Brant Street.
He explained that Burlington has a lot of tall buildings – mostly in the 8 to 12 storey range that are set out in different parts of the city with a concentration along Maple Avenue.
Glover said his view was that with buildings all over the city Brant Street was sort of an orphan with very little that would attract pedestrian traffic. The view he put forward was that Brant needed to become the spine that buildings would be anchored along. The Carriage Gate project was to be the first. The development that is known at this point by it’s address – 421 Brant – they have yet to release the name for the project.
The view from the corner of John and James.
Glover set out how he thought the city and the high rise development that is on its way would evolve. Brant Street would become the spine on which development would be anchored. The Street would have one of the four mobility hubs at the bottom one block to the east and a second mobility hub at Fairview – a part of a block to the east.
The public in general doesn’t know all that much about mobility hubs – the city has planned a public meeting for April 12th where people can get to meet the Mobility Hubs Team.
The houses in the city are now so expensive – we are seeing $1 million homes in what are described as normal suburban communities.
Nick Carnicelli
The principles in any development seldom take to the stage. They sit in the audience and listen carefully trying to get a sense of the audience and how they feel about the project that is being explained. Nick Carnicelli sat off to the side and seemed satisfied with the way the meeting had gone.
He had every reason to feel satisfied – his people had put on a good presentation; they answered all the questions and didn’t duck any of the issues.
Parking seemed to be the one that bothered people the most. The plan presented called for 183 parking spots; one for each unit in the building. If there is going to be a problem with this project that is probably where the city will ask for changes. The design calls for four levels of parking.
The federal government brought down a budget last week. Did anybody notice? Well if you drink wine it’ll cost you a little more. The tax credit for taking public transit is gone and you’ll have to pay the HST on your next Uber ride. There is also supposed to be more money for infrastructure, innovation and child care but these benefits will not be as noticeable as the taxes, nor immediately applicable to many of us.
It was all a bit anti-climatic. Even the people’s broadcaster (CBC) muted the Finance Minister’s speech and plugged in one of their own reporters instead. Why hear it from the horse’s mouth (no offence intended) when there is some reporter, barely exhumed from the pre-budget ‘lock-up’, who can ramble-on quoting second-hand information from his notebook of cryptic scribblings?
Prime Minister Trudeau congratulating Finance Minister Morneau on the delivery of the 2017 budget
I recall watching Flaherty and Martin being allowed to wax on poetic, why not Morneau? Over a thousand journalists, independents from think-tanks, and other influential people spend budget day together locked in a big room and not released until the budget is read out. But since most of the budget has already been leaked by budget day, it might just be the expensive feeding and watering that has them coming back each year. Who says there is no such thing as a free lunch? Perhaps it’s time to get rid of the budget lock-up.
Pre-budget speculation had investors worried that Trudeau would impose a higher tax rate on income from capital gains. After all income is income, and that might help slow down the crazy inflation in the housing sector, particularly if homes selling for more than a million were included as taxable, which was one rumour.
It was Justin’s father who first introduced capital gains taxes and taxation had been applicable to 75% of that income in those days gone by. Anyway, that rumour was false, though that extra cash would come in useful for a government mired in red ink. That old saw, that you have to be crazy not to borrow at today’s ridiculously low interest rates, doesn’t sound so reasonable when one considers that even a balanced budget, let alone surplus, isn’t expected before the end of this decade, and well beyond the next election.
If this budget was designed to keep folks on-side with the Liberals it mostly failed. Despite its glossy front web page, it is long on minutia and mostly short on substance and vision, certainly compared to the last one. But then this is only a mid-term instrument, tailored to not steal the spotlight from the more important one coming in the election year. And perhaps we’re all too demanding and our expectations are too high – or maybe it’s the rumour mill that keeps whetting our appetite for more.
Trudeau has been a media darling ?
Trudeau has been a media darling since coming to power, in fact even more admired abroad than at home. Though when it comes to that domestic audience, his boat is starting to leak and according to one poll is now listing and behind the leaderless Tories for the first time since his solid win in 2015. How could that be? That voters saying they’d prefer a party with no leader to the current government? Well as Diefenbaker used to say…”polls are for dogs”.
Halfway into an election term, the public usually gets antsy – that mid-term itch. And there are some reasons for the public to start to back-off from their leader. Trudeau has done himself no favour with this on-going cash-for-access thing. And his expensive Christmas holiday, at our expense, in the Bahamas has proven unpopular among those of us who never seem to make the Aga Khan’s guest list, no matter how hard we try. And, like Harper before him, those idealistic promises on transparency are getting harder to fulfill once in office. Small things but still….
Bombardier’s CS100 assembly line is seen at the company’s plant Friday, December 18, 2015 in Mirabel, Que. After years of delays and cost overruns, Bombardier’s CSeries commercial aircraft has been certified by Canada’s transportation regulator. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz
There was this Castro fiasco a little while ago, and then elbow-gate showed a lack of composure in a leader we’d assumed had it all together. Some folks resent his subsidy to giant Bombardier, particularly as the company’s management has just given themselves whacking big (millions of dollars) raises while simultaneously laying off a chunk of their the wage-earning labour force. Lately some folks are unhappy about the business dealings between the government and Trudeau’s close friend Tom Pitfield.
The government has just dropped one of those white papers on parliamentary reform, which would give MPs a four day work week in Ottawa and require the PM to only show up one day a week for question period. There is the carbon tax, though at least environmentalists will appreciate the government cutting a subsidy to the oil sector. After all, why carbon tax the public so they’ll use less oil, while simultaneously encouraging more oil development with an almost instantaneous rapid capital write-off.
How are we liking this so far? Sunny ways?
Oh yes, and then for those who really care about electoral reform, there was that broken promise on ridding us of the unfair first-past-the-post system. While one can accommodate foot dragging while a government slogs through the mud of its agenda, this was a veritable ‘balls-up’ and a breach of faith.
It’s a long road in political life until the next election. And what really matters are the first and last budgets in the cycle. Tweeners, like this one don’t really count much. And whether this is a made-in-Canada budget or not, Trudeau had to be looking over his shoulder at what is happening south of the border. Trump is just beginning his own tax reform process so it may have been sensible for us to wait. After all our guy doesn’t want to get too far out of sync with our greatest trading partner and best friend.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
People write the member of city council, or their Member of the provincial legislature (MPP) or the member of Parliament (MP) when they have a beef.
Sometimes they write a “thank you very much” letter.
Burlington’s MPP Eleanor McMahon hasn’t seen too many of the thank you notes recently.
If it isn’t hydro rates they are complaining about then it is the mess at the school board where they are trying to determine which schools to close while parents are asking that none of the schools close.
The following is the correspondence between Cheryl De Lugt, a member of the PAR Committee representing Lester B. Pearson high school.
From: cheryl [mailto:cbtalus@hotmail.com] Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2017 8:15 PM To: Eleanor.McMahon@ontario.ca; McMahon, Eleanor MPP CO Subject: URGENT REQUEST for Eleanor to vote on Tuesday March 7 to stop the PARC process across this province it is not right to be closing schools which are the heart of the communties
Good Day Eleanor McMahon:
My name is Cheryl De Lugt a very concerned parent in Burlington. As you are well aware the Halton District School Board is under a PARC process of all secondary high schools in Burlington triggered by the Liberal Government that you belong to.
Pearson student let people know where she stands.
This process has become incredibly stressful to the citizens of Burlington, parents but more importantly the students that will ultimately affected by any decisions.
I am very concerned about this whole process with a child who has a learning disability and who would be affected the most if her school closes which is Pearson High School as she is in grade 10 and would have to move to a new school in her last year most important year of high school grade 12. As a parent with a child with a disability I fear her transition to high school from the elementary school system fearing she would be lost in the crack, but it was far from that at Pearson. In a smaller school environment she has flourished because every teacher knows every student and they took her under their wings. Wow she would not have had that in a larger mega school environment that this Liberal government is in favour of.
I understand that there is an urgent debate and vote that will be occurring this Tuesday March 7 asking for a moratorium to this flawed process called the PARC. I know first hand being a parent selected to represent Lester B Pearson High School on the PARC Committee, this has been a true eye opening of the recking spending and the lack of accountability and transparency of our school board that we as parent entrust with our children.
I am hoping that you will listen to your Burlington constituents and vote to stop this process and stop closing schools across this Province as they are the heart of the community. I know that the voting rating for the Liberal Party is at it’s all time low and this is time to listen to the people who can or will vote for you.
I appreciate your time but more importantly hope you will vote to stop this PARC process in the legislation on Tuesday March 7, 2017. I do appreciate a response back to this urgent message
Sincerely
From: Eleanor McMahon, MPP (Constituency Office) <emcmahon.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org>
Sent: March 23, 2017 11:56 AM
To: ‘cheryl’
Subject: RE: URGENT REQUEST for Eleanor to vote on Tuesday March 7 to stop the PARC process across this province it is not right to be closing schools which are the heart of the communties
Dear Cheryl:
Thank you for taking the time to contact my office regarding your concerns related to the pupil accommodation review underway in Burlington. It is important for me to hear from constituents about issues that are important to them. You have clearly outlined your concerns regarding the process and also about Pearson. I was also copied on an email from Jillian to the Trustees and Director – I am assuming she is your daughter – and I very much appreciated hearing from her with the student perspective.
The only thing that hasn’t happened is picket lines outside the MPP’s office.
In my role as MPP for Burlington, I have spoken with other parents, students, teachers and residents concerned about the impact of the PAR process. School closures and consolidations are some of the hardest decisions faced by our school boards given the critical role that schools play in the lives of Burlington families and our community more broadly.
Our schools have an impact that extends far beyond the classroom, which is why all residents deserve the chance to provide feedback so their input is reflected in the decision-making process. In my discussions, I have heard from constituents who feel that they have not had adequate time or opportunities to provide meaningful input. I have listened to these concerns and shared it in discussions with constituents, community leaders, trustees and the school board, outlining my expectation that Burlington residents have the chance to participate in consultations.
Decisions with respect to schools and school closures are made at the local level by local decision-makers: school boards (staff) and trustees (elected officials). There was a time, not that long ago, when schools were closed without due consultation. Our government changed this and has empowered local decision-makers to review school accommodation needs, entrusting our school board staff and trustees to ensure that student well-being is the number one priority.
School boards are now asked to ensure these decisions reflect consultations and input from impacted members of the community. The Ministry of Education’s pupil accommodation review guideline provides a framework for this, mandating that meaningful consultation take place.
Local input is essential for local decision-makers as they act on behalf of their community. I expect the Halton District School Board to listen and respond to requests from Burlington residents for more extensive consultation and ensure that their concerns are understood and dutifully addressed. This will ensure that Burlington residents have confidence in the process and therefore, the outcomes.
Encouraging community input is a fundamental principle in important decision-making processes like this and as the MPP for Burlington, I will continue to advocate on behalf of my constituents to participate and have their voices heard in these important discussions. Providing our students with the best educational opportunities remains a priority for me, and I expect that a meaningful consultation process will support a robust, high quality education system in Burlington and across the province.
Thanks again for reaching out to me.
Eleanor McMahon – MPP, Burlington
De Lugt wasn’t buying the response she got and shot back at McMahon:
Thank you for your email response but as a concerned parent in Burlington I am not naive in this flawed process that the Liberal Government has created for Local School Boards across this Province to follow. I am not satisfied with your “its not my issue” answer and that this is a decision of the School Board and local elected officials.
Central and Pearson high school parents were outside in the cold weather demonstrating consistently.
As a concerned parent that has witnessed first hand this flawed PARC process in Burlington watching communities pitting against communities to save their own school has been a true eye opener to the irresponsible reckless spending and the lack of accountability and transparency of our School Board and Provincial Government that we as parent entrust with our children with.
I work as a nurse in a hospital. We have adopted “A TIME OUT or Patient Briefing” prior to any major procedure such as an operation. The whole team from the surgeon, anesthesia and nurses in the operating room take a momentary pause prior to any operation making sure they ask these questions ( is this the right person, the right surgery, is it the right procedure) this allows the whole team to be on the same page making sure they are delivering the best care to the patient and to carry out the right procedure.
I encourage the Halton District School and the Provincial Government who’s popularity rating is at an all time low at 12% to take “A TIME OUT” which is a momentary pause in closing any schools in Burlington and across this Province. Please be patient and take a time out for approximately 3-5 years wait and watch approach and you will see your student numbers go up. With seniors downsizing and moving out of their homes young families are moving in the students will come.
Burlington is growing and there is projected growth north of the QEW that will be taking place in the next 5-10 years so we will need our schools
Closing schools are not the right thing to do. Schools are the centre of our communities and if the School Board closes one or two schools in Burlington it will severely impact the way this city looks and operates for many many years to come.
Each school has its own stories and its own unique programs and clubs that are important to their communities
I encourage the Provincial Government, Halton District School Board and the elected School Trustees to think very hard about any decision to close any schools in Burlington with the growth that will occur in Burlington and the lack of green space left to develop there will be a new look to this city with high density development which in turn will yield great number of students.
Sincerely, Cheryl De Lugt
Expect to see a lot more mail like this. The parents in Burlington have been putting up some very stiff resistance to the closing of high schools.
At just about every city council meeting when there is a recommendation that council accept a request to change something in the Official Plan residents ask:
“Why bother having an Official Plan is almost anyone can come along and ask for a change and get it?
That has been the way things got done at city hall in the past. Most recently there have been two projects, both from the same developer that city council didn’t buy into.
The city has been working its way through the creation of a new city plan. It has been a long labour and it is nowhere near birth yet. A review of the plan started back in 2012 and seemed to stumble again and again when there were staff changes in the Planning department, sudden departures, the resignation of the Director of Planning and the imposition of a 25 year Strategic Plan.
Then the city decided to scrap the review of the existing Plan and write a brand new plan.
All that got us to where we are today.
The document is now on the table in DRAFT form ready for public consultation – all 530 pages of it.
The forward of the document says:
“The City of Burlington is at a turning point in its evolution and is transitioning from a suburban to an urban community. The City’s growth is shifting from building new greenfield communities to accommodating more residents and jobs within existing areas through re-development. This intensification is being directed to targeted areas in the City. This is to ensure that denser land uses are carefully co-ordinated with infrastructure, either by encouraging development in areas that make efficient use of existing or planned infrastructure, or to effectively co-ordinate any infrastructure enhancements to accommodate future growth. Also, this targeted approach ensures that existing residential neighbourhoods of the City are protected from major change.
PostIt notes left by citizens at an Official Plan review meeting in 2012 Has anything changed since then?
“The focus on accommodating growth through intensification within the existing Urban Area aligns with the City’s interest in protecting and strengthening the rural community and in retaining the special character of North Aldershot as a distinct, identifiable area. It supports the protection of agricultural lands and agricultural operations and the protection of natural heritage and water resources in line with the City’s Strategic Plan and Provincial plans and Policies.
“Provincial plans and policies have directed that Burlington must grow and must grow within the existing Urban Area. The City has developed a new Official Plan in recognition of the challenges and opportunities ahead as it continues to evolve into a complete city. A complete community provides for all of the daily needs of its residents, providing convenient access to an appropriate mix of jobs, shopping and personal services, housing, recreation and open space.
“The Official Plan is a policy document that sets out the City’s directions for growth and development, and continues the commitment to building a complete City. It was developed through planning analysis and research but also through significant collaboration and dialogue with the community as well as internal and external stakeholders. The Official Plan fuses the local community interests with Regional and Provincial policy direction and articulates the City of Burlington vision to 2031 and beyond. It includes policy to manage physical change in relation to land use and development, transportation, infrastructure, the natural environment, heritage, parks, and social, economic and environmental sustainability.
Citizens let the Planning department know how they felt at a public event in 2012. Has anything changed?
“The Official Plan sets out a clear vision and establishes strategic priorities for sustainable growth, complete communities, environment and sustainability, economic activity, infrastructure, design excellence, land uses and public participation. This Plan sets out development-ready provisions and guides development within certain parameters allowing for private sector flexibility while ensuring the public interest is maintained. The Official Plan also includes criteria for when and how changes to the Plan are to be considered. At times, refinements to policies of the Plan may be appropriate. The Plan will be used to guide the decision making and approval processes of the City, ensuring that all new development contributes to Burlington’s long-term vision.”
Look carefully at where the red dots are and where the green dots are. This was what people thought and felt in 2012.
The content and details of the DRAFT Official Plan cannot be covered in a single article. The Gazette will endeavour to break that task into smaller pieces and explain as much as we can and then follow the process that has all the interested parties commenting on the document.
The Planning department set out a number of principles that will guide all land use decision making to achieve sustainable development a complete community in accordance with the City’s four key strategic directions.
A CITY THAT GROWS: A CITY THAT MOVES: A HEALTHY AND GREENER CITY: AN ENGAGING CITY
The city planners felt it was time to take a stronger, bolder stance and came up with a name for the process: We were to Grow Bold. The public was given a couple of name choices and they settled on growing bold.
In the DRAFT OP there is a paragraph that is indeed bold.
No by-law may be passed, and no public work undertaken by the City, which does not conform with this Plan. The capital works program and the capital budget are intended to provide the infrastructure required to implement the land use vision, objectives and policies of this Plan.
There will be some gulps from the development community over that one and the remark that “I will believe it when I see it” from literally hundreds of citizens who have experienced situations where that just did not happen in Burlington.
This sign tells the sad story of Burlington’s commercial development problems. Developers want to take land out of Employment Lands designation and move it into residential. They fight like crazy to get the zoning changed – all the way to the Ontario Municipal Board – where they all too frequently win.
Part of the Planning process is setting out the zoning of specific pieces of property and determining what land is going to remain as Employment Lands.
We will return to the DRAFT OF THE Official Plan Again – shortly.
The document gets presented to city council officially April 6th. while the planners may have a schedule in mind for getting the Official Plan approved by city council – the seven that are in office may nit be there by the time the document gets passed. It then has to go to the Region and chances are that someone will appeal it to the Ontario Municipal Board.
In a couple of weeks the City of Hamilton will be hosting its Big Picture event, an opportunity for the arts and cultural industries to come together and tell city government how to make arts and culture the city’s engine of growth. It’s all part of the economic evolution taking place in Hamilton, a city known as a poor cousin to it’s noisy neighbour, Toronto.
Decades of pollution that fouled the air and polluted the water and created some immense wealth for a few – certainly not the steel plant pensioners will pictures like this be in Hamilton museums only?
Many commercial institutions have long deserted Hamilton, following the sweet smell of money and drifting to that other big smoke. Even the ‘steel-town’ moniker no longer fits since Stelco was raped and dismembered by a US competitor. Hamilton has struggled with its identity for decades, suffering economic malaise and some of the highest property taxes in the province until just recently.
And even twenty years after a forced amalgamation of surrounding area communities, intended to fix the city, it still struggles with its identity. It is not uncommon for suburban politicians to occasionally play the parochially divisive card of what’s-in-it-for-me, threatening progressive initiatives such as transit systems not in their wards. And there is still the odd die-hard anti-amalgamation separatist in the sticks, where I live.
When the steel plants eventually go – will this become an interesting residential development?
Still, the city’s leaders have come to a genuine consensus that Hamilton’s road-map to future prosperity follows the route of developing its emerging arts and culture sector into a thriving industry. After all they’ve seen the numbers. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that municipal investment into the arts returns anywhere from $7 to $12 on the dollar. That beats trying to keep the old steel plant alive.
The Chamber of Commerce agrees with Council, but switching to the right-side of the brain for a community too often focused on steel, coal and electricity is not without its challenges. And there is a lot of competition out there, including a growing list of other communities also looking to break into the arts business big league, and attracting all of that talent for themselves. Recall that good old Hog Town has more than 120 professional companies performing on more than 40 stages, and is third in annual ticket sales globally, just behind New York and London.
The Philharmonic doesn’t get all that much in the way of funding from Hamilton’s city council
Another issue is money. The Hamilton Spectator recently reported that Hamilton remains far behind most other cities in arts funding per capita. It points out that the Art Gallery, the Philharmonic Orchestra and Theatre Aquarius get less municipal funding than other similar organizations across the country. And with Hamilton expected to outperform the national economy this would be a good time to correct that financial imbalance.
But money is not the only impediment to attracting artists and their audiences/customers. City bylaws, zoning and building codes, transportation routes and parking all have a role to play and no doubt will be on the table as part of the discussion of the Big Picture. Then there is the matter of where artists work and sleep – workshops and housing. That used to be an easy problem to solve given Hamilton’s traditionally low housing prices and rental rates.
There is certainly a base market for the arts in Hamilton.
But while we were sleeping Hamilton-Burlington has ballooned into one of the fastest growing housing markets in the country, rivalling and even exceeding Toronto and Vancouver, by rate of change, if not actual value of transactions. Sky-high home prices, low rental vacancy rates, and gridlock are the proverbial chickens coming home-to-roost in TO. So would-be home buyers are heading over to nearby Burlington and Hamilton, driving up prices and driving down accessibility.
Burlington’s MPP, Eleanor McMahon, who is also Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport has brought home some bacon for Burlington.
Burlington’s MPP, Eleanor McMahon, who is also Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, recently announced a new provincial strategy for cultural industries. She points out that the culture sector adds more than $25 billion to Ontario’s economy, supporting approximately 280,000 jobs, and including almost 60,000 folks directly employed in the arts across the province. This is only a strategy, though one expects it will eventually come with some hard currency for that bigger picture the province is promising to paint.
And one has to recall that Hamilton has deep roots and credibility in the cultural arts sector. Karen Kane, James Balfour, Eugene Levy, Martin Short, Lawrence Hill, Steve Paikin, Daniel Lanois, Neil Peart, Rita Chiarelli, Stan Rogers call or called Hamilton their home. Even Rompin’ Ronnie Hawkins, the Hawk, claims he got his start at a local bar in the city. And he’d be a great opener of the event.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
The City of Burlington has begun construction on an exciting new project. “The Knot” (or Elgin Promenade) is the name of an urban pathway connecting the downtown to the Centennial Multi-Use Pathway. It might have been called “Shortcut to the Poacher” but that would have been too exciting for Burlington, the town the late Jane Irwin, the city’s best advocate for keeping our heritage once referred to as ‘Borington’ when she delegated to city council.
The Knot – no idea why that name was chosen – will create a pathway linking the Centennial Trail in the east to streets that will get a bike rider as far west as the canal – basically the city limits.
This multi-use pathway will service more than 10,000 people every year and provide public space for a wide range of leisure activities, community events and easy access to shops and restaurants. It will also ensure that public space is preserved and celebrated for years to come.
Al the property inside those yellow lines once belonged to the city. Ownership of the middle section was shared with an Ontario Ministry. The property was sold for a pittance. The two pieces at either end were turned into Windows on the Lake.
Many would have loved to see the same approach taken to some of the most precious land the city once owned – that stretch of property between Market and St. Paul Streets on the south side of Lakeshore Road.
The location of this new pathway is where the city’s transit terminal was once located
The design of the new park will be led by a team of architects – yet to be named – who will work with the city’s Capital Works Department and provide input into the overall design of the pathway with specific attention paid to core place-making elements.
Preliminary design of the pathway will begin in early April 2017 with construction expected to be complete by March of 2018. This project is on an accelerated timeline due to Federal Canada 150 funding. The selected artist(s) must be available to attend regular meetings in Burlington, Ontario from late April – August 2017.
Deadline for Expressions of Interest is March 31st.
The project has a budget of $20,000
Click HERE to download the Request for Expressions of Interest.
The heavy weights are beginning to have their say about the closing of high schools in Burlington,
World-renowned artist and Robert Bateman High School namesake is speaking out against the possible closure of the school.
Robert Bateman
“The times that I’ve been there I’ve been just amazed at the things they’re doing that no school has ever done before but that were being done at Bateman,” said Robert Bateman, who taught at the south east Burlington school from 1970 when it opened until 1976.
Mr. Bateman now lives in Salt Spring Island, B.C. and still visits the school once a year. When he learned that Bateman HS was one of six schools being considered for closure by the Halton District School Board as part of the Program and Accommodation Review (PAR), he expressed concern about the impact it would have on students and the community.
“I think it’s much better for the kids and much better for their education to have schools in their neighbourhoods so you have the same geography and you have the same feeling for the history of it,” said Mr. Bateman.
“It’s extremely important for the emotional and human component of children.”
Bateman high school students during a cook-off with Burlington fire fighters.
Bateman High School has had more than $2-million in upgrades over the last six years, and with existing accommodations in place for the Community Pathways Program (CPP) it is the most up-to-date for AODA requirements. It fills a unique void in the city’s education system because of its wide range of diverse programming including: International Baccalaureate (IB) program; the self-contained CPP for students with special needs; LEAP Program to help transition students to grade nine; specialty facilities that include a highly customized kitchen for a culinary program and a specialized auto body paint booth for one of the many Ontario Young Apprentice Programs (OYAP).
There is also an Autism Social Skills and Drama Group, Robotics Specialized Course and multiple design/tech rooms. Having all program pathways under one roof is critical to student success as it allows movement between the pathways. Scattering those programs would effectively limit the opportunities available to our most vulnerable student population.
“The school has all kinds of departments that are getting kids much more prepared for life.”
“I think it’s a terrible idea (to close it) and it doesn’t make common sense” says Bateman.
Closing Robert Bateman would also result in the closure of the on-site YMCA Lord Elgin Day Care and could impact Centennial Pool, which had costly renovations last year.
It is hard to believe how obtuse some of the people at City Hall can be.
A seven paragraph media release with the word pilot project slipped in but not one use of the work bike or the words road diet.
Here is what the city sent out.
“Water main work with Halton Region will begin on New Street between Dynes Road and Cumberland Avenue on March 7, resulting in lane closures and scheduled water service shutdowns. The construction is scheduled to be completed in May.
“The installation of a new water main between Guelph Line and Dynes Road began in October and November 2016. The work to install the rest of the water main between Dynes Road and Cumberland Avenue will start earlier than scheduled due to mild weather.
“Residents and businesses will be given 48 hours’ notice for scheduled water service shutdowns. Water main installation will include the replacement of curbs, gutters and the boulevard to restore any damage from the water main works.
“New Street between Walkers Line and Guelph Line is the site of a pilot project that began in August 2016 for all street users.
“Completing the water main installation in May will reduce the disruption to New Street into two shorter, two-month intervals rather than one six-month construction period originally planned for the spring and summer of 2017. This will allow for longer, uninterrupted traffic data collection.
“The city is collecting data, and will continue to collect data after the water main work is done and until the end of the summer to ensure the city has the data needed to assess the pilot. That information, along with travel times on nearby residential roads that run parallel to New Street, will be included in a recommendation report to Burlington City Council this fall.
“Creating more travel options for the community means thinking differently about how our city road network looks and functions. The one-year pilot on New Street is an example of how some existing roads in Burlington could be redesigned to give people more travel options to get around the city.”
One of the most contentious projects the city has decided to do – lessen the amount of road space for vehicular traffic on New Street and put in bicycle lanes. It was set up as a pilot project and public opinion views were all over the map.
It was so contentious that the Mayor couldn’t get some personal private time at the Y – residents kept approaching him to bend his ear.
In future they should take him by the ear out to the woodshed.
New water mains being laid down on New Street west of Guelph Line.
One of the reasons for doing the pilot project on dedicated bicycle lanes was because New Street was going to have significant water main work done and then a new layer of asphalt laid down – it was thought that would be a convenient time to install bicycle lanes and see how they worked.
To not even use the words “road diet” or bike or bicycle is sneaky and only adds to the cynicism over the way city hall works. Do they think that by not using the words that people will forget?
Transparent – accountable – please!
Vito Tolone, Director of Transportation
They transportation department should be ashamed of themselves for letting this kind of media release get sent out. The close to 3000 people at have signed a petition have every reason to be angry – city hall has been exceedingly disrespectful
Vito Tolone, Director of Transportation is quoted as saying” “A lengthy and uninterrupted time-frame to collect all the data needed for the New Street pilot will be beneficial to staff when incorporating this information into our report to City Council.” He can’t say the words either.
It was hard to get a real fix on the size of the crowd – but it was a crowd of people who wanted to know more about what the Halton District School Board meant when they talked about possibly closing two of the city’s seven high schools.
It was a large fully engaged crowd – who will wonder for the next while if they are getting all their questions answered.
The Board has had a PARC in place for more than three months. This group of 14 people – two from each high school – had been tasked with coming up with a recommendation on which, if any, of the high schools should be closed.
The issue was that Burlington has 1800 + empty high school seats which it does not expect to fill for some time.
The problem is compounded by the fact that the city’s newest high school is filled to overcapacity and that other high schools might need portable units.
The problem is to some degree one of changes in the boundaries that were created that determined which high school a student would have to attend.
When the PARC process started in December the focus was on the recommendation that Central and Pearson high school be closed.
Large posters with maps showing possible high school boundaries were set up for public viewing.
During the PARC process there were recommendations that Bateman and Nelson high schools be closed – and that brought a lot more people into the discussion which resulted in the very high turnout Tuesday evening.
People were engaged and asking a lot of questions. The data that was put in front of them was not as clear as it could have been.
Tuesday evening the public saw people from Nelson and Bateman wearing their school sweaters; one parent paraded around wearing a graduation cap.
The discussion and explanations at the six different information stations was directed by senior board staff who touted the board line.
The members of the PARC were present and many of the trustees attended as well.
Which high school will these two attend?
Director of Education Stuart Miller was not at the meeting. He is away for a short period of time on personal matters. The last thing that can be said is he is ducking the issue. He is in this up to his eyebrows and he knows how serious a problem his board faces.
There are decisions that were made six to seven years ago that created the problem he faces; he however has to deal with the reality that today there are 1800 empty seats and the province will not give the Halton Board the funding it needs to keep them empty. Miller points out frequently that the Halton Board is pretty close to the bottom of the list on the amount of funding per capita that it gets from the province.
Three city Councillors in this picture – two others were floating around as well.
Many people wanted to see city council involved in this process; just as many felt it was a school board matter and none of th city’s business. And up until now city council members said very little. That has changed. Every member of council could be seen walking around chatting people up; the exceptions were the Mayor and ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven.
School board trustees for Burlington have been almost glued to this process; the other seven were seldom seen. Last night there were four or five from other communities.
Scott Podrebarac, chair of the Program Accommodation Review Committee explaining some detail to a parent.
There were no introductory remarks. People just walked in, were given a four page flyer that explained what the information on the walls was all about and people were left to walk around and ask questions.
Part of what is taking place is each high school arguing why they should not be closed – there was no higher level look at what Burlington will look like should some high schools be closed.
Burlington is in a state of transition. The city’s population is ageing and the cost of housing is mushrooming.
There will be a lot of discussions taking place in thousands of households across the city in the weeks ahead.
Ward 1 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward, on the left, is also the PARC representative for the Central high school parents, listens while a Board o Education staffer explains some of the information on the posters.
The second public meeting, with an agenda that is identical to what took place Tuesday evening at Hayden high school will be held at the New Street Education Centre on Tuesday March 7th.
If there were 400 people at Hayden last night look for an even higher turn out next week
Why does what we pay our politicians of so much interest to people?
We don’t spend as much time on what we pay our Member of Parliament and the Member of the Provincial Legislature. Partly because what the municipal politicians do is much closer to home.
Explain the ongoing angst over the New Street Road diet?
Its impact is so exaggerated by both sides of the argument. A short change in the amount of time it takes to drive from one Line to the next is made to sound like the world is coming to an end for those who feel the road was put there by God himself and is a divine right for car drivers.
The cyclists explain that it is just a small part of the bike lane network they want to see build across the city.
Emotions do get stirred – and it takes a sensitive politician tuned to the will of the residents and a genuine desire to listen and find the needed compromises. We don’t have a lot of those on this city Council.
The significant seven – how many will return in 2018?
Most of them take the view that they were elected to make decisions, which they do, based on the world as they see it.
Councillor Sharman brings his pretty solid conservative views to the table and in order to avoid making a decision he continually asks for more data.
Councillor Taylor is of the view that if someone one needs support for transit they should undergo a means test.
He has somehow equated transit with social welfare. Taylor can probably not tell you when he was last on a bus in Burlington.
Councillor Meed Ward wants to maintain some height limitations that are not realistic and believes that the city can somehow stop the kind of growth that is going to take place.
Her colleague, Councillor Jack Dennison, would be quite happy to see a Burlington with 300,000 people living in with the city limits. He thinks like a developer.
The Mayor wants a city just like the one he was raised in – he forgets that both he and the city have grown up.
Councillor Lancaster has an elitist view of what a politician is supposed to do.
We commented on Councillor Craven in a separate article.
They are the people the citizens elected. That less than 40% of the population bothers to vote is not something you can blame on the politicians – even if they do make it very difficult for new comers to get elected.
Hundreds of people grouse about where these members of council fail – but very few step up and run for office.
The money isn’t great. No one is going to buy one of the larger homes on sale in his city with the salaries that are paid.
And those that really do the job put in long hours. The Mayor is out most nights of the week. Among the Council members he works the hardest.
Add about $55,000 in Regional salary to what the city pays and you arrive at a total of $120,000 a year. The hours are pretty easy with close to a month off in the summer. Pension is now very good,
Every member of Burlington’s city council is also a member of the Regional Council. They earn a separate amount from the Region – about $54,000 a year plus mileage expenses.
The current pension plans is very good. For those that have been at the Council table for 20 years – the pnsion isn’t going to allow them to live in luxury.
Would paying more result in better council members; probably not but it would certainly attract a lot of people who see $100,000 as a great salary.
Municipal politics is nothing like the private sector and it takes a full term of office to get the hang of it. some never get it and probably should not have been there in the first place.
Of the seven men and women we elect expect at least five of them to run for office in 2018. The race for MAyor has been going on for some time. On Monday at a Committee of the Whole meeting Councillor Meed Ward was serving as Chair.
Councillor Meed Ward ate the Mayor’s lunch at a Standing Committee on Monday.
There was an award presentation to be given – the city was named as the winner of an Ontario Public Works Association award for the way they handled the 2014 flood. These award presentations are usually done at city council meetings and not Standing Committee meetings.
The Mayor uses these occasions to give commendations to various groups and often receives an award the city is given along with the relevant staff members.
On Monday afternoon Meed Ward, as chair of the Standing Committee, decided that she would accept the award for the city and invited the Mayor to join her along with senior staff members. Meed Ward had just eaten the Mayor’s lunch.
Patrick Brown has put the ‘Progressive’ back into the Ontario PC party, as he gears up to give Kathleen Wynne a run for her money in the next provincial election in 2018. His mission is to move his party back to where it was before Tim Hudak took it on a wild joy ride that ultimately alienated the voters.
Patrick Brown, leader of the Progressive Conservative opposition party at Queen’s Park.
He acknowledges that climate change is real, is caused by humans, and he is in favour of a provincial carbon tax to help mitigate it.
Brown sounds like he’d adopt the B.C. carbon tax model if he got a chance. B.C.’s carbon tax increases over time and is intended to be revenue-neutral since income taxes have already been correspondingly reduced. Not everyone in his own party agrees with him on the idea of a carbon tax though. Perhaps that has something to with it being federal Liberal policy.
Brown opposes Premier Kathleen Wynne’s more complicated ‘cap and trade’ approach to carbon pricing/taxation. Implemented this year, there is an annual provincial greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) cap, which declines every year in line with Canada’s strategy on climate change. All large emitters must buy GHG allowances annually to operate their businesses. As we’ve already seen at the gas pumps, the oil companies and utilities will pass much of the cost of the allowances onto their customers, much like the B.C. carbon tax does.
Air pollution coming out of Hamilton smoke stacks.
The big difference with Ontario’s system is that the price of carbon here eventually gets determined in the market place by the buyers and sellers of allowances. This will eventually take place through an auction, rather than arbitrarily by government decree. It is conceivable in Ontario, though perhaps unimaginable, that the price of carbon could be lower in some future year, because of lower demand for allowances relative to the annual cap – something that wouldn’t ever happen with a flat carbon tax.
A second difference is that Ontario’s system is not intended to be revenue-neutral. The provincial government actually intends to spend much of the proceeds from allowance sales on transit infrastructure and for subsidies to business and consumers to assist them to adopt low carbon technologies, like electric vehicles. The provincial folks feel that is a more effective way to help consumers reduce their carbon footprint, rather than simply lowering their income taxes.
Ontario’s cap and trade will also include provisions for smaller entities to create emission credits, also called offsets, and sell these in the market place alongside allowances. For example a hog farmer could convert methane emissions (~30 times more potent that CO2) into useable energy, thereby reducing those emissions and offsetting his/her normal electricity or heating requirements. Being able to sell carbon credits into the market will provide an additional incentive to spur innovation and help pay for the costs of the technology.
No air pollution here: an electric charging station in a city garage.
Finally since cap and trade is a market instrument it requires a large number of buyers and sellers of GHG allowances and credits to work efficiently. So initially Ontario’s program will be integrated with that of California and Quebec, though other provinces and states may join later. A common trading registry and on-line format will be available for all participants in the cap and trade system.
The whole Ontario approach is complex, but no more complex than what we already see with our security exchanges, trading derivatives, hedge funds, etc. And carbon emissions trading schemes do work, as New Zealand, Japan and Europe can attest, though not always without some warts or hiccups. Emissions trading was actually invented by a University of Toronto economist, John Dales in 1968, though the idea that pollution can be monetized goes back much further in economic history.
The US acid rain cap and trade program is perhaps one of the best examples of the effectiveness of that market-based approach. Even the Harris/Eves government ran a small trading program to reduce nitrogen and sulphur emissions from the former coal-fired electricity plants.
The B.C. carbon tax, Canada’s first, received glowing praise for seeming to reduce GHG emissions during Canada’s last recession. But it has failed to do so once the economy rebounded. Since there is no cap on emissions, those who complain that it is just another tax are right. And there is no guarantee that the federal GHG reduction targets, which the former Harper government established and which the Trudeau government has since adopted, will ever be met.
Another negative is that, like any other sales tax, carbon taxes are regressive. Revenue neutrality just means there is a re-distribution of income – a reverse Robin Hood effect – giving the extra money the poorer folks paid to fill their gas tanks to those better off through their income tax reductions. Ontario’s system will still hurt the poor but at least there should be tangible alternatives for them to access lower carbon technology, including, hopefully, less costly transit.
Mr. Brown is certainly on the right track in telling his party to get behind the climate change struggle. He just needs to put politics behind him, listen to the business community and think through on the advantages of the cap and trade program Ontario has just started to implement. And while taking the tarnish off the ‘P’ in his party’s name, he should recall that there is no shame in adopting somebody else’s good idea, but it would be a shame to change just for the sake of change.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
The fundamental elements of a successful democracy are an informed public, a free press and an electoral system which best reflects the will of the vast majority of the voters.
At the time the disparate Canadian provinces undertook confederation, voters had but two federal political entities to choose from: the Liberal Party founded in 1861 and the Conservative Party established in 1854.
With just two political parties First Past the Post made sense.
So it was natural for Canada’s election system to be premised as a choice between only two parties. The candidate with the highest vote count would win their election poll in a system called first-past-the-post (FPP). Since the national popular vote typically coincides with the number of seats in a two party system, the public was well represented.
150 years later a lot has changed. Additional political parties representing a more diverse population with more complicated issues and demands have emerged. Recently 100% of Canadians have been governed by political parties which claim a majority of parliamentary seats, regardless that their popular support amounts to less than 40% of the voters.
At the 2012 federal Liberal convention in Ottawa, former leader Stephan Dion chaired an electoral reform policy session, also attended by Justin Trudeau. Although many present, including Dion expressed a preference for proportional representation, there was a consensus to promote a ranked/preferential ballot as a transitional or first step.
Former Minister of Democratic Institutions and Peterborough-Kawartha MP Maryam Monsef addresses the crowd during a town hall meeting on electoral reform. Jessica Nyznik -Peterborough Examiner/Postmedia Network
Three years later, as Mr. Trudeau was struggling his way up from third place in the election campaign, he added another vote-getting promise – that this would be Canada’s last federal election under FPP. However once the election was over and the brass ring was firmly in his hand, the urgency seemed to have vanished. He appointed a relatively inexperienced MP as his minister of democratic institutions. She was slow off the mark, proceeded to organize an unfortunate on-line survey, and mis-managed her special parliamentary committee.
The committee finessed the government by recommending a proportional representation approach but only if subject to a referendum. But there is simply not enough time left in the electoral term for that to reasonably happen. So the PM shuffled his junior ministers and announced that he was breaking his promise because there didn’t appear to be a consensus for change.
Except there is consensus. Mr. Trudeau’s own party wants it – they had in fact passed a policy resolution calling for this kind of change. The third parties (NDP, Greens, BQ) are almost unanimous in their desire to adopt proportional representation. And that just leaves the Tories who like the status quo, knowing that FPP is the only way they could ever win majority government again.
But the Conservatives poll less than 40% of Canadians at best. So the government doesn’t need a referendum to change our political system, it already has the numbers. Besides, changing from FPP was an election promise, and Trudeau won the election.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau leaving a stage. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Politicians break promises at their own peril. I’d bet that electoral reform is one that will come back to haunt Mr. Trudeau. It is unknown how many NDP, Bloc and Green supporters walked their votes to the Liberals largely because of the promise of electoral reform. Judging by the reaction among the media and those commenting on social media, if they did, they won’t make that journey again. Mr. Trudeau has just lost a huge chunk of personal credibility and trust. That will cost him in support come election time.
There are also Liberals who now feel betrayed and alienated by a leader in whom they had put so much faith and trust. Once lost it is almost impossible to regain the hearts of his once loyal supporters. He can expect to see party unity suffer and membership start to decline. Volunteer workers will become less available, and contributions will start to dry up. Come voting day it will be that much harder to get out the vote and fewer volunteers will be there to help get it out.
Mr. Trudeau has been overexposed in his first year in office, and most of that has been positive, at least up until now. Both main opposition parties will have new leaders for the 2019 race and as they energize their party faithful expect to see them stick Trudeau with this issue until the votes are finally counted.
Finally, what will become of all those reluctant millennials who thought they were voting for a different kind of politics and politician? Perhaps some of them will show up at the National Day of Action for Electoral Reform at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto, this Saturday 2-4 PM. See you there?
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Bfast – Burlington for Accessible affordable Transit, published a piece on what a consultant said to city council.
They, Bfast, seem to be suggesting that consultants don’t always get it right,
Brent Toderian
On February 11th, noted Urbanist and Twitter phenom Brent Toderian was invited to come to Burlington to speak with City Council and Staff, as well as to present to the public as part of Mayor Goldring’s “Inspire Burlington” series.
Here are some things we picked up on from Brent’s presentation to Council:
Brent Toderian’s first point was that we need to change our thinking from being a suburb to being urban. We need to look at three dimensional streets rather than one dimensional roads. He noted that a suburb with more density will result in gridlock and congestion. In order to make this transition, and to position us for success our government needs to treat the Official Plan review as a rethink, not a tweak. Part of this is being willing to fail before we succeed.
Mobility: Brent stressed the need to prioritize transit, walking, and cycling over cars. We now have a very car-centred system meaning that we have to go well beyond the so-called balanced approach to moving budget dollars from cars to transit, walking and cycling. The car as the primary means of getting around has had a 40-50 year head start, so just seeking balance now won’t get us there. He also stressed that in urban places, balance isn’t good enough.
Transit: Brent noted that western Canada’s largest condo developer has said that the key factor in real estate development has changed from “location, location, location” to “transit, transit, transit”. Brent called improving transit “our strongest opportunity” as a city.
Strategic Plan and Budget: Brent noted that the City’s Strategic Plan was good – but the budget was not. He stated “the truth of a city’s aspirations is not in its plan, but in its budget”.
Making the transition -“pull the bandaid off quick” Brent was very critical of the slow approach re bike lanes. He said this approach maximized the controversy. Instead, he recommended rapid completion of a viable network that would work immediately. He also said that separation was needed on arterials – but not on other streets. Although he cited cycling in this approach, it would also apply to transit.
Prioritize the incentive for taking transit: Brent said that drivers need to see a benefit to take transit for example, bus only lanes that allow buses to move faster than cars.
Parking: Brent emphatically said “get out of Park’n Ride” (will Metrolinx listen?). He suggested that the City constrain the supply of parking.
Intensification: Brent discussed how building density right is a challenge because it can result in “the sweet spot of failure”; intensification on too low a scale will create traffic congestion but not enough density to support efficient transit. We need to have an honest conversation about the real cost and consequences to growing the right and wrong ways, with respect to climate change and public health. The starting point of “I don’t want the city to change…” is common, but ‘stable neighbourhoods’ are a lie. All cities are changing in ways beyond the control of local government, so take the word ‘stable’ out of your vocabulary. Cities should reject the idea that there is an optimal number for growth (how big should we get) and worry about quality instead of quantity.
Doing the wrong thing better: Painted bike lanes were one example of this; need to make sure we don’t mistake for doing the right thing.
Public Engagement: Your goal should be to convince the convinceable; as leaders you need to change the conversation. Just because we don’t have consensus doesn’t mean we can’t have an intelligent conversation.
Burlington Transit: It was upsetting to hear that Brent Toderian did not get to meet with anyone from Burlington Transit.
As I read through the piece I found myself asking – is this how we decide what kind of a city we want and how we build it? Do we have to bring in consultants who have never lived here, never walked the streets, never attended an event?
Toderian told city council that they need to get rid of rural names – hang on – Walkers Line, Guelph Line and Appleby Line are part of the history and a part of the feel for the city. They remind of us our rural roots.
They no next to nothing about how rich our agricultural background is.
These consultants want to come into town for short periods of time, get very well paid for their time, spout all the most recent flavour of the month in urban design and move on to the next consulting assignment.
City manager James Ridge – an old friend of Toderian who he had worked with during his time in Vancouver. Toderian got turfed by a th Vancouver city council.
Both city manager James Ridge and Director of Planning Mary Lou Tanner, both relatively new to Burlington, knew of Toderian and his work – they thought the guy was great before he had spoken as much as a paragraph. It was almost like he was a member of the club coming back into the circle.
It’s the citizens that decide what kind of a community they want. Consultants have a place and their opinions are important but the people who grew up in the city and want to see it evolve and be something they at least recognize when they are taking their grandchildren to events.
There is nothing wrong with progress and growth – it just has to take place at a pace that works for the people who live here. Why else do we have a community?
Back in October of last year Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward told her following, that the city was “poised to endorse “interim” tall building guidelines and then send them out for public consultation. “You need to make your voice heard, because Burlington’s future will be shaped by these guidelines. I didn’t endorse the guidelines at committee and won’t at council.”
“The guidelines are more than an endorsement of good design. They’re an endorsement of tall buildings. They could lead to approvals for tall buildings on lots not intended for them, so long as they conform to the guidelines.
Just Guidelines – do they represent the city you want to live in? In order to have a specific number of metres space between two buildings – you have to have two buildings.
“Do we want a future which protects the livability, diversity and small town feel of our city, or something akin to Vancouver without the mountains?”
How did we get here?
“The guidelines were developed by outside consultants (BrookMcIlroy) at the request of city staff to deal with tall building applications already coming in.
“They draw heavily on a style of planning called “Vancouverism” – narrow towers on podiums, setbacks to allow public activity on the street. Vancouver’s former city planner, Brent Toderian, is advising the city on planning, transportation and transit.”
City council did pass the Guidelines and developers took to them with great gusto. The city’s Official Plan (OP) is in a sort of limbo while the planning department works at crafting a brand new OP. The old plan is still the rule but no one is doing all that much to support the document.
Less than six months after the Guidelines were approved a developer who had been assembling property on the east side of Brant street north side of James walks into city hall with an application that appears to conform with the Tall Building Guidelines.
Meed Ward points out that “Council had one week to review the guidelines. There was no prior public consultation. The development community was consulted before the report was prepared. Members of the city’s Housing & Development Liaison Committee received an electronic copy, with an invitation for tall building developers to attend one-on-one meetings with staff. But even developers said there wasn’t enough public consultation.
“Given the lack of public input, I had proposed the guidelines be considered “draft,” then sent out for community input. We need a “Made in Burlington” solution, not a model designed for a different city.”
However, the rest of council voted to put the Guidelines on the books.
The planning department committed to following up with the development community to hear their concerns.
The way the Tall Building Guidelines got put in place reminded Meed Ward of what was being done back in 2008 when planning changes to Old Lakeshore Road gave height along the waterfront without meaningful city-wide public input. That process created the Save Our Waterfront movement where 2,000 residents across the city sought better public consultation on changes like this, and eventually led to the creation of Burlington’s Community Engagement Charter.
The fear back in 2010 was that tall buildings would get built along Old Lakeshore Road with heights in the eight to fifteen storey range – that didn’t go anywhere. What was proposed was 28 storeys (reduced later to 26) just a block away.
Save Our Waterfront also propelled Meed Ward into public office. She had previously run against Ward 1 Councillor Rick Craven and took a beating. She moved to ward 2, set up shop there as a persistent city council delegator and beat then ward Councillor Peter Thoem handily.
Meed Ward fears “We’re heading back to that era at council, where public input is bypassed, minimal or after the fact.”
All this led to a community meeting on Saturday that had about 60 people touring parts of the downtown core with comment from planners and a consultant on the look of specific buildings and what worked and what didn’t work all that well.
This after the Guide lines are already on the books and have been used by the ADI Development Group to justify their wish to put up two tall buildings (19 storey’s each) in Alton Village, a community with two story houses and townhouses where traffic congestion is horrendous.
The ADI Development Group project for the Alton Village was negotiated with the Planning department – but got killed at city Council after significant community opposition – it is no at the OMB appeal stage. It appears to meet the Tall Building Guidelines.
The Alton Village community organized and convinced council to not go with the Planning department recommendation – this after negotiating at considerable length with a developer that is not easy to negotiate with. It was a tough day for city planner Mary Lou Tanner – and it will be a tough OMB hearing which the developer has asked for on an expedited basis.
It will be tough on the taxpayer when the legal bills on this one come in.
Meed Ward points out that endorsing the guidelines now before we have finished our Official Plan and Zoning reviews may end up superceding our planning vision.
The risk she said is that the city will “get development applications that conform to the guidelines on setbacks or podiums, but are in places we don’t envision tall buildings. It will be very difficult to hold our ground and direct height to where we want it if the building meets our design guidelines, especially with the ever present threat of an appeal to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Tall buildings lead to more tall buildings; and sure enough along comes a development for 26 storey’s right across the street from city hall.
The space marked “subject site” is where a 26 storey tower that meets all the Tall Building Guidelines is proposed – right across the street from city hall.
The guidelines help pave the way, claims Meed Ward who adds that “pretty soon we will have lost meaningful control over planning and implementing a community vision for our city.”
Meed Ward wonders if “we’re headed toward intensification coupled now with a focus on tall buildings.
Is the city past the tipping point; is the die cast?
Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his adopted non-de-plume, George Orwell, would be in his element were he alive to witness America’s latest president in action. Like Big Brother out of the Orwellian novel ‘1984’, the Trump presidency has been transitioning the English language towards Newspeak. Among the various intricacies of Newspeak was the construct of ‘Blackwhite’ – “impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts…and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary”.
George Orwell – his “1984” was ahead of its time. Is it’s time today?
‘Alternative Fact’ is today’s version of Orwell’s Blackwhite. Trump’s lieutenant Kelly Anne Conway, was being questioned on a US talk show over why the Trump administration was so ridiculously insistent that more people attended the inauguration than actually did. She responded their’s were just ‘alternative facts’. But as any reasonable person knows, ‘alternative facts’ are not facts. They are falsehoods – or worse – out and out lies.
Former dragon, and most recent applicant for the job of leader of the federal Conservative Party, Kevin O’Leary has his own version of alternative facts. He recently complained that Ontario trails Michigan in auto investment because “business there enjoys “30% less in tax, no regulations and no carbon tax.”
First of Ontario doesn’t trail. The two jurisdiction have been alternating closely for first place in auto production in North America, though Ontario actually has a stronger five year record. And according to the Premier, Ontario also outpaced Michigan with a recent $2 billion investment in the auto sector.
Kevin O’Leary – he will be heard from – will Canadians listen. His candidacy will tell us more about ourselves than about him.
To claim that an historic industrial state, like Michigan, lacks regulations comparable to those in Ontario, governing everything from the industrial workplace to the environment is just plain nonsense. It’ is true that Michigan hasn’t, nor is likely to have a carbon tax in the near future. Still the combined federal-state corporate taxes there run at close to 40% (38.9%) compared to the combined rate of only 28.5% in Ontario – Ontario’s tax regime is almost 30% lower.
That O’Leary, the investor, lacks a handle on something as basic as corporate tax rates, or was too lazy to look it up, is inexcusable for someone vying to be our future PM. But then maybe he was just making up stuff, hoping nobody would fact-check – or that no one would care. This is Canada so we should hope he is wrong on that account.
O’Leary has also jumped on the Ontario electricity rate bandwagon. It is true that Ontario’s rates have risen to become among the highest in the country but they are close to those in Detroit and far lower than many other jurisdictions south of the border including New York and Boston, where Mr. Wonderful has a second home and must pays the bills – so should know better.
Kevin O’Leary, aka Mr. Wonderful, in New York. (Photograph by Stephanie Noritz)
Trump may have spun some big whoppers and got away with it, but O’Leary is not Donald Trump, charisma notwithstanding, So when he finds himself onto the next debate platform, it will be his lack of knowledge of the issues, and his willingness to build his campaign on falsehoods, which will cost him the nomination. For if there is anything Canadian voters expect more of their federal leaders than being able to also speak reasonably fluent French, it is intellectual honesty and competence.
After all, running the country is not a game shown, like the Den or the Tank. But if it were, most Conservative voters should say ‘I’m out’ to O’Leary’s pitch. Perhaps it would be best for Mr. O’Leary to stick to the business he understands and where he has been successful, leaving politics to those who can tell the difference between the facts as they are and the alternative facts as he’d like them to be.
Seldom at a loss for words and never shy about getting an opinion out – Keven O’Leary will make the campaign trail interesting.
O’Leary has been supported by the Toronto Sun and has assembled a team, including former premier Mike Harris. His entry into the race will be an interesting diversion for as long as it lasts. In at least one of his open letters to the Premier he raises some legitimate criticisms. Unfortunately those points will be lost in the dust of the bigger picture – the world of his alternative facts.
In the end, if this is the worst damage our Mr. Wonderful can inflict on Kathleen Wynne, she is doing a far better job than her poll numbers would indicate. And ironically by giving her government new credibility, he may have just thrown the Premier a lifeline and another term in office.
Ray Rivers writes weekly on both federal and provincial politics, applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was a candidate for provincial office in Burlington in 1995. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Tweet @rayzrivers
Mayor Rick Goldring on the State of the City: January 25th,2017
The Gazette has published the Mayor’s State of the City report for most of the last six years. Links to previous addresses are at the bottom of this address.
Today marks my seventh State of the City Address. Since the first time I stood before you, we have made significant progress, which I will share with you.
My colleagues from Burlington City Council are with us today. I am proud to work alongside these men and women who are deeply committed to our city.
Please welcome Councillors Rick Craven, Marianne Meed Ward, John Taylor, Jack Dennison, Paul Sharman and Blair Lancaster.
Our City Manager James Ridge is also here today. James is a key part of the leadership at the city along with the Burlington Leadership Team and our staff. I am proud of the dedicated staff working hard every day to make this city the best it can be.
We continue to work closely with all orders of government. Joining us this morning is Oakville North-Burlington Member of Parliament Pam Damoff, as well as Burlington Member of Provincial Parliament Eleanor McMahon, who last year was also named Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport.
I want to recognize Burlington Member of Parliament Karina Gould, who was not able to join us today, on her appointment as Minister of Democratic Institutions.
I am pleased to see Oakville Mayor Rob Burton, Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette and Milton Mayor Gord Krantz. It is great working with you as we build strong communities and a prosperous region at Halton Regional Council.
It is a privilege and an honour to serve as Mayor of Burlington. This community means everything to me.
I grew up in Roseland. I attended Nelson High School, Tecumseh and Lawrie Smith. I opened a business on North Service Road. I raised my family in Burlington. In short, my roots in this community run deep.
My wife, Cheryl, is here today. She has supported me every step of the way on my path in municipal politics. They say behind every successful man is a surprised woman. Thank you for not showing your surprise, Cheryl.
Every day, I am thinking about how to make Burlington better. There’s nothing 9 to 5 about being mayor or councillor. Our minds are working 24/7 on ideas and finding solutions to concerns.
Today, I want to talk with you about:
What we are doing to create more local jobs and strengthen our economy.
How we are growing as a city, and what we are doing to keep people and goods moving.
And what investments we are making to ensure the best quality of life for our residents.
This morning, you will hear more about some of our successes, our challenges and the hard work yet to come.
We are all in this together.
What are we doing to create more local jobs and strengthen our economy?
It goes without saying, economic development is critically important for Burlington.
The good news is that we already have a solid foundation.
Last year, MoneySense Magazine ranked Burlington as the best mid-sized city in Canada for the fourth year in a row. Burlington also ascended to the second best city in the country in the 2016 rankings, after Ottawa.
In 2016, Canadian Business and PROFIT listed Burlington as Number 10 on its annual list of Canada’s Best Places for Business.
It cited the fact we have a low unemployment rate, strong connectivity to major markets and a well-educated population as driving economic factors. In fact, 65 per cent of Burlington’s adult population has some form of post secondary education.
This independent recognition reminds us that we already have a thriving economy.
Burlington Economic Development Corporation – known as the BEDC – is leveraging these assets every day.
As a member of the board of directors of the BEDC and someone who has been involved in business, I know first-hand the importance of adapting to a changing market.
In a 2016 report, the Ontario Chamber of Commerce identified a critical gap in Canada’s business growth strategy. Here in Canada we are starting many businesses, but they are not growing into large organizations.
We also know from Industry Canada that more than 40 per cent of new jobs in Canada come from companies less than five years old. This represents a significant opportunity for Burlington to strengthen the resources available, renew the entrepreneurial energy that exists locally and develop Burlington’s brand as a great place not only to start, but to grow a business.
Aligned with the City of Burlington’s Strategic vision of A City That Grows, the BEDC developed an innovation and entrepreneurship strategy in 2016. It is focused on strengthening local support for entrepreneurs across the region.
BEDC has invested significant time and resources to develop this strategy. Staff reviewed data, looked at comparable cities and their strategies, and connected with the business community. More than 50 stakeholders weighed in.
And this is what they said: the local ecosystem is alive and well. And they need a physical space in Burlington where entrepreneurs, mentors, investors and established businesses can connect to build new relationships and tap into shared resources.
As a result of this feedback, the BEDC is focused on three key areas for supporting innovation and entrepreneurship:
Building entrepreneurial energy. This is what happens when you bring like-minded people together who are focused on solving complex problems through innovation.
Providing the critical support that companies need to grow.
And helping provide access to capital.
As noted by the stakeholders, innovation and entrepreneurship is already thriving in Burlington.
Our city is home to one of Canada’s most active angel investing groups, Angel One Investor Network. Since incorporating in September 2011, Angel One members have closed 84 deals investing over $23 million.
Silicon Halton, a grassroots group started by local entrepreneurs eight years ago, hosts regular meetups and demo nights for technology entrepreneurs across the region. It provides peer support and mentorship.
Haltech, Halton’s Regional Innovation Centre, works with Halton technology companies to accelerate innovation for business growth. The City of Burlington is proud to be a community partner.
Burlington is ideally situated in the heart of the innovation corridor, which is the area between Kitchener-Waterloo and Toronto.
With these assets, Burlington has endless opportunity to strengthen innovation and renew entrepreneurship. This translates into new business in Burlington. And new jobs once those businesses succeed and grow.
The BEDC’s innovation and entrepreneurship strategy will take shape in 2017 through the development of an Innovation Centre right here in Burlington.
I am thrilled to announce that yesterday, the BEDC board approved the lease for this new Innovation Centre. It will be located across the road from us here at the Convention Centre in the Burloak business park at 5500 North Service Road.
A one-stop destination for new and growing technology companies, the space will be dedicated to connecting, developing and advancing entrepreneurs at all stages.
It will serve as a base camp for companies looking to access programming, support and mentorship to help them scale their business.
Leveraging the contributions and expertise of numerous partners, the centre will be home to more than 8,500 square feet of space dedicated to increasing the connectivity, visibility and vibrancy of innovation and entrepreneurship in Burlington.
This centre will help businesses looking to start up or grow in Burlington. It will also connect larger, more established companies to the start-up ecosystem.
The facility will provide event space, meeting areas, programming and incubation space to members of the start-up community.
The BEDC is proud to lead such an exciting new initiative for Burlington and hopes to open the doors in June 2017.
As the BEDC supports innovation and entrepreneurship helping new businesses, it remains committed to established companies.
For example, the BEDC helped Ippolito Produce with its recent expansion. The second generation farming company, which started from humble roots, has grown into North America’s largest supplier of fresh Brussels sprouts. Ippolito also has a full line of Queen Victoria and Coast King vegetables.
BEDC helped facilitate zoning and building permits for Ippolito’s 80,000 square foot reinvestment in a state-of-the-art food facility on Howard Road. The company also received a $1.7 million grant from the provincial government. This assists the company in bringing 40 new jobs to the area.
Partnerships are essential to strong economic development in Burlington.
The DeGroote School of Business is one of the leaders of academic innovation in our city, making it an ideal partner.
Last year, the school launched new programs based at Burlington’s Ron Joyce Centre, including the world’s first Executive MBA in Digital Transformation. It also established the Health Leadership Academy. This is an interdisciplinary venture created in partnership with the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.
These two programs help attract the best and brightest students in the world to Burlington.
DeGroote will also continue to work with BEDC and the City of Burlington in developing an innovation ecosystem that sets the stage for Burlington’s economic future.
And the BEDC is working with universities and colleges like McMaster and Mohawk to keep these great minds in Burlington.
How are we growing as a city? What we are doing to keep people and goods moving?
We made major advances last year on the first of the four pillars of our Strategic Plan – A City that Grows.
Our Planning and Building Department is leading implementation with Grow Bold, which is the theme of our new Official Plan.
Why are we choosing to Grow Bold?
The City of Burlington is at a unique time in its history.
With very little greenfield left to be developed for traditional suburban-type neighbourhoods, the city is essentially built out.
Making the decision to grow within our urban boundary gives the City of Burlington the opportunity to define the type of development we want.
We have identified where we want to see growth over the next 25 years. We have identified our traditional neighbourhoods that will see modest changes going forward.
We are committed that half of Burlington remain urban and the other half rural. The vast majority of people I talk with want to keep it that way.
In my view, as population density increases in Greater Golden Horseshoe area, it is more important than ever to ensure people have connectivity to natural spaces through places like the Cootes to Escarpment EcoPark System and our rural areas.
What does Grow Bold mean? Let’s take a look at the video.
Our mobility hubs – which are the areas around our three GO stations and downtown Burlington – offer significant opportunity for smart growth. Right now, staff is developing extensive plans that will show what our mobility hubs look like in the future. Along with that will be community engagement in the coming months.
Our new Official Plan will focus our growth at: our GO stations, in downtown Burlington, the Plains Road/Fairview corridor, Uptown area around Upper Middle Road and Appleby Line, at some aging retail plazas, and from an economic development perspective, our Prosperity Corridor along the QEW.
I want to take time today to talk about the whole issue of housing affordability.
When I say affordable housing, I am not talking about subsidized or social housing; I am talking about housing that is affordable for the vast majority of people, from millennials to seniors, and everybody in between.
As we all know, housing prices in Burlington and the whole GTHA have increased dramatically over the last number of years.
I have heard from many people, including my Mayor’s Millennial Advisory Committee and seniors, who are very concerned about the prospects of being able to afford to live in Burlington.
The most recent numbers from the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington show that for December 2016, the average sale price for all housing units in Burlington was just over $700,000. This is a 29 per cent increase from December 2015.
The average for a freehold or detached home was up 35 per cent to $840,000. If I include the sales in Burlington by Toronto Real Estate Board Members, the averages are higher by 6 to 7 per cent.
Why are our prices escalating like this?
Low interest rates. People from outside Canada are inundating the market with cash, which we are seeing to a minor extent in Burlington. Job creation in the GTHA is strong. Home-buying millennials are an extremely large population group. Immigration from outside of Canada. Migration from within Canada, as Canadians are flocking to Ontario at the highest rate in 29 years. The Provincial Growth Plan restricts where new home building can take place. And in Burlington, as I mentioned earlier, we have no more room for traditional, suburban-type development. This is putting upward pressure on the existing housing stock. If we do not grow, the prices will increase at an even steeper rate.
The most recent Halton State of Housing report for 2015 identifies the maximum affordable purchase price of $357,000 for a household income of $102,000.
What do we do about this?
The work our planners are doing around our mobility hubs, particularly around our GO stations, is critical. This work will create neighbourhoods that will foster and encourage an appropriate blend of housing units, including rentals, in such a way that will assist in facilitating some degree of relative affordability.
Recognizing that there is virtually no room left for traditional suburban development, staff, working with the community, need to find a way to make living in dense, multi-unit development more desirable for families.
We also want to build housing that appeals to aging baby boomers to downsize into this type of development. As a result, this helps turn over our single-family-home neighbourhoods to allow families who can afford these homes to move in. And this will help keep our schools viable.
There are some people in our community, myself included, who are concerned with over-intensification of various developments. In fact, Burlington City Council recently voted against two development proposals – one in downtown Burlington and one in Alton – that we felt were examples of over-intensification.
I am also concerned about the risk of under-intensification, as this can contribute to housing that is out of the reach financially for the vast majority of people.
Transportation and traffic congestion is an issue I hear about from the people of Burlington.
There are three key factors we need to take into account when we talk about transportation.
The first is Burlington’s location within a fast-growing area.
Currently, the population of the Greater Toronto Hamilton Area, which includes the regions of Halton, Peel, York and Durham, as well at the cities of Toronto and Hamilton, is approximately 7 million people. That number is expected to grow to 10 million by 2041.
Halton Region alone is expected to grow from 530,000 to 1 million people by 2041. A meaningful part of that growth will occur in Burlington.
That’s a lot of cars.
And our city, like so many other North American cities, was built for the automobile at a time when both land and oil were cheap. As a result, we rely on the automobile as the primary mode of transportation without even thinking about it.
A second factor that must be considered when we talk about transportation is that Burlington is located at a point where several major highways intersect.
These highways are an asset. But during evening rush hour, and especially during a full or partial closure, these highways can clog some of our city streets.
Every day, 200,000 vehicles use the QEW to travel through Burlington. During the peak hours, there are 20,000 vehicles per hour.
Naturally, when there is significant congestion on the QEW, drivers look for an alternative route to bypass the congestion. Much of the issue we have in Burlington is really the result of cut-through traffic, especially during the p.m. peak period.
We will continue to invest in our street network to facilitate the movement of vehicles. Our capital budget over the next 10 years forecasts an investment of $300 million in our roads, with such projects as resurfacing and reconstruction, new underpasses and intersection widening.
And this brings us to the third factor for Burlington when we talk about transportation planning.
More than 90 per cent of all trips made within the city on any day are made by the automobile.
The average weekday we see 260,000 trips that start and end in Burlington. Fifty per cent of those trips are five kilometres or less. These are ideal distances to take the bus, where available, or ride your bicycle. Destinations two kilometres or less are ideal for walking.
We want to provide people with more transportation options. We want to make it more appealing, especially for those short-distance trips.
Our new neighbourhoods around our GO stations and in downtown are going to be mixed-use, compact, walkable, bikable and transit-friendly.
We are working with Brent Toderian and Jarrett Walker, who are leading thinkers on planning and transportation, to find a made-in-Burlington approach to transportation as we grow.
We will be hard at work on a transit strategy in 2017 and making key decisions around where we focus our resources. Recognizing we will have more dense development in the key growth areas I have identified, it is logical to invest more money on public transit there.
This year will see a new cycling master plan.
I want to see us establish a network that will allow people to safely get to more places on their bicycle. My preference is off-road, protected bike lanes, where possible.
We are now trying some new ideas when it comes to planning when it comes to alternative transportation.
Last fall, for example, we decided to give a one-year road diet a try on New Street. This fall, staff will report back to council about the results of this initiative. It will be up to council to decide how to use what we learned going forward.
I want to emphasize that some of our new ideas might work, and some might not. And that’s OK. We must be innovative and unafraid to try new transportation approaches if we want to attain the goals of the second pillar of our strategic plan – A City That Moves.
What are we doing to ensure the best quality of life for people in Burlington?
Everything I have spoken about today contributes improving the quality of life in our city.
A lot of the planning that takes place at Burlington City Hall is done with one goal in mind: we are building a great city.
An important part of great city building is strengthening our sense of community.
As Burlington continues to grow, this sense of community remains a priority. Burlington has a small-town feel and we want to maintain that as we grow in a responsible and planned way.
I recently read a book called Blue Zones by Dan Buettner, a respected National Geographic Fellow.
Dan has discovered certain places in the world that have the highest percentage of centenarians. People in these areas live the longest and are the healthiest. The three major factors he identified were: social connectivity, a plant-based diet and physical activity.
With respect to social connectivity, these people chose social circles that support healthy behaviours, belong to a group and have a sense of purpose.
So, how do we build on our sense of community in Burlington?
One way is the City of Burlington’s Love My Hood initiative.
Love My Hood builds neighbourhood connections through community-led events and activities. People get together to plan an event and invite the neighbourhood to attend. The Love My Hood program makes this easy by providing toolkits and other resources.
We are asking residents to organize neighbourhood events to build on our sense of community in 2017. The City of Burlington’s goal is to help facilitate 150 Love My Hood events to mark Canada’s 150th birthday.
Of course, there are many other events held year-round that bring people together and boost citizen pride. In fact, Burlington was named the Municipality of the Year for 2016 by Festivals and Events Ontario. This award recognizes the best in municipal leadership and festival and event partnerships in the province.
Fostering community building and a sense of belonging is also achieved through age-specific initiatives.
The City of Burlington has worked hard to make our community more youth friendly. No Socks for Ivan offers safe spaces across the city for youth to interact. This program has been very successful. Last year alone, No Socks for Ivan saw more than 10,000 youth visits.
Last year, the City of Burlington was also acknowledged, for the first time, as a platinum-level Youth Friendly Community. This designation is awarded to communities that demonstrate a commitment to youth 13 to 19 years of age.
We know that if we want to create a well-designed city that is green and healthy, with a variety of housing and transportation options, we need everyone to be part of the planning – especially our young people.
To connect with residents aged 18 to 35, I created the Mayor’s Millennial Advisory Committee in spring 2016. We need millennials to be engaged now to help us create a community where they will want to live, work and raise their own families.
This new committee is developing initiatives focused on how to keep and attract millennial-aged residents. It also concentrates on creating opportunities to engage millennials with their community. I encourage you to read more about this group at Burlington.ca/millennials.
As with most communities across the country, we are experiencing significant growth in our older adult and seniors’ population. This demographic shift over the next 20 years means we must plan city services with a holistic approach.
As such, the city is working on a new Active Aging Plan to help keep older adults healthy, active and engaged in their community. Burlington’s Active Aging Plan will look at future needs and opportunities in a number of key areas, from transportation and outdoor spaces to social participation and making information easier to understand and more accessible.
Over the past year, city staff has conducted research and engaged the community. A citizens’ advisory committee was also formed to shape the direction of the plan.
We look forward to unveiling the Active Aging Plan later this year.
In order to invest in transportation improvements, increase services for our residents and develop more community-building initiatives, we need money. And we receive that money primarily from property taxes.
The operating budget for 2017 was approved this week.
When combined with the Halton Region and the school boards, the overall property tax increase is 2.56 per cent. That includes a 4.42 per cent increase in the city’s portion.
The increase means we can maintain and enhance existing services, add new services and help address our infrastructure deficit.
New investments in 2017 will allow us to add resources for managing our tree canopy, support the implementation of the strategic plan and improve the quality of our play fields.
Speaking about investing our tax dollars, the Joseph Brant Hospital expansion and redevelopment is progressing.
Burlington City Council, representing the people of our city, stepped up to invest $60 million. The province’s investment in this project is significant, as is the community’s investment, matching the city’s $60 million contribution.
Let’s take a look at the new update from the hospital.
Because we are creating more local jobs and strengthening our economy.
Because we are growing responsibly in alignment with our transportation network.
And because we are investing to ensure the people of this city have a high quality of life,
Burlington is ideally positioned for continued prosperity.
I ask each and every one of you to get involved in our community over the next year. There will be many opportunities for public engagement and community building.
Let us know if you have an idea you would like to develop at the Innovation Centre.
Tell us what amenities you envision at our new neighbourhoods around our GO stations and in our downtown.
And don’t forget to organize your Canada 150 Love My Hood event. Go to burlington.ca/lovemyhood. I want us to reach our goal of 150 events. I look forward to attending as many of these celebrations as I can.
We can make Burlington the best place it can be today and for the future.
By Pepper Parr
