 By Staff
January 11th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Have you noticed how the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star get their investigative reporters on to an issue and dig, dig, dig.
We are seeing more of this type of news reporting.
 The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing has amended the Greenbelt Area boundary regulation to add 13 new Urban River Valley areas and lands in the Paris Galt Moraine in Wellington County and remove 15 areas of land. Add lands in the Paris Galt Moraine in Wellington County to the Greenbelt Area Remove or redesignate 15 areas of land totaling approximately 7,400 acres from the edge of the Greenbelt Area that are serviced or adjacent to services and will be used to build housing in the near term. The investigative reporters want to learn more about who bought the lands that are being taken out of the Greenbelt and how much did they know before they bought ? The Star recently said: We covered Doug Ford and his government’s policies and their effects on the province since he was elected premier in 2018. Now, developers are eyeing the Greenbelt — and a Star/Narwhal investigation has revealed that many are connected to Ford’s Progressive Conservative Party.
That investigation has the OPP Anti Rackets Squad meeting with people who filed complaints. No investigation – yet. The police are sniffing around and following up on what the newspapers started.
Narwhal is an online operation (just like the Gazette) that started in British Columbia and recently opened an office in Toronto.
The Globe and Mail tends to focus on national news stories and does superb work on what the federal government is up to.
The Gazette focus’s on Burlington – where we are currently watching the approach City Council is taking on the budget that will determine the 2023-24 tax rate.
Media matters.
How much?
By Pepper Parr
November 14th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
While city council waits to have their successful election campaigns made legal at the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday development mistakes made years ago proceed.
 A rendering of what the BeauSoleil is expected to look like when completed. The trees on the right hand side never existed and never will. A 28 storey high rise is under construction The Beausoleil is replacing what used to be the Pearl Street Café, that was operated by John and Martha Duff, a a couple that met each other when they were members of the Burlington Teen Tour Band.. the Café was on the ground floor and a graphics company was on the upper floor.
When a developer came along with an offer was just too good to turn down the properties were sold.
They were later flipped to another developer who filed a development application, that ended up going to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) where the developer won.
It wasn’t long before demotion work began.
 Wreckers have cut off the back end of the house that was once the Pearl Street Cafe Part of the OLT agreement was that the two houses on the property would be kept as part of the development.
What is being kept is the façade that would serve as the entrance to two units. What isn’t clear is if the units were to be seen as private dwellings. That will all get worked out when the sales work begins.
The houses were built in 1880 and are the last examples of housing from that period on Pearl Street
The only thing that is going to be kept is the façade, which doesn’t do much for the sleek glass lined look of the building that will go up on the site.
Right now demolition is underway for the BeauSoleil development while construction takes place in the building to the immediate east – that being the Nautique.
 An aerial picture of the BeauSoleil site with the Nautique under construction at the top of the photo. Photograph by Harry Hersh In the past ten year the pace of development has been incredible. A run down motel was on the south side of Lakeshore Road – now the site of the Bridgewater development. The Waterfront Hotel could end up being torn down and replaced by two towers that will be more than 40 storeys.
 Almost all the land between Lakeshore Road and Old Lakeshore Road is set up for future development. Don’t expect to see any affordable housing in any of these buildings.
That part of the downtown in Burlington will become very high end and expensive. No one is at all certain what the area might draw in terms of commercial operations.
The facade that will be part of the BeauSoleil is all that will be left of the kind of housing (built in the late 1800’s) that made up a Burlington that is fast fading from view – all that will be left are the memories.
One of the occupants of what was known as the Acland house had a job filling water trucks that were used to put water on the streets to keep down the dust. A person with that kind of job would never be able to rent a house in Burlington today.
It was a kinder, more gentle town that was livable.
 By Staff
November 10th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
The Santa Claus parade is returning to beautiful downtown Burlington Dec. 4, from 2-4 p.m.
The parade will feature floats, community groups, costumed characters, the Burlington Teen Tour Band, Junior Redcoats and other marching bands. As always, Santa will be the grand finale of the parade.
 People can once again line New Street to enjoy a Seasonal event.
The parade will start at 2 p.m. at the corner of Guelph Line and Prospect Street and makes its way downtown along New Street. The parade then travels north on Brant Street and finishes at Caroline Street.
Roads of the parade route will be closed Dec. 4, at 1 p.m. and will re-open shortly after the final float has moved through and a clean-up has been completed.
 For the past two years Santa got driven around in an antique Fire Truck Children are encouraged to bring letters for Santa, which will be collected by letter carriers from Canada Post along the parade route. Spectators may bring non-perishable food donations, which will be accepted by the Burlington Teen Tour Band boosters for local food banks.
The Burlington Oldtimers Hockey Club will be collecting donations of loonies, toonies and $2 tap to help support the operation costs of the parade.
Any individuals or groups also interested in volunteering with the parade can email volunteer@burlington.ca, call 905-335-7777, ext.7978 or visit burlington.ca/volunteer.
 By Staff
November 3rd, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Changes in managers at the Parks, Recreation and Culture department were announced.
 Denise Beard Chris Glenn retired at the end of October which resulted in an:
Effective immediately announcement
Denise Beard, Manager of Community Development
Emilie Cote – Manager of Recreation Services.
The City Communications people explain: “The structure has not changed. The managers will each rotate being ‘Acting Director’ until the recruitment is complete for a new Director.
Is this an opportunity for Parks, Recreation and Culture to bring in someone who can do a really deep think about just the department might do going forward?
Those who use the Seniors’ Centre apparently want a different approach to the services offered.
By Pepper Parr
October 24th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
It didn’t take the provincial government any time at all to take some decisive moves – tomorrow afternoon Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, will introduce legislation outlining the next phase of Ontario’s plan to build more homes faster.
 Minister of Housing is going to tell the Legislature about his plans for building houses – a task that the municipalities have to make happen. The Minister will hold a technical media briefing via teleconference at 1:45 p.m. What he says at that briefing will not be attributable – it will be given as background to the legislation he will be tabling in the Legislature at 3:00 pm
While voters across the province are scurrying about to decide who they want to elect as their city councillors the provincial government is getting ready to introduce a bill that isn’t expected to make the job these new city council will have to do in the next four years.
Get ready for a bumpy ride
 By Staff
September 18th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
There has been another unprovoked coyote attack was reported to the City of Burlington from a personal residence on Lakeshore Rd. near Tuck Creek.
The unprovoked coyote attack occurred Saturday, Sept. 17 around 12 p.m. at a residence on Lakeshore Road east of the Roseland area. The victim was resting in the rear yard when a coyote bit her in the knee.
The victim was taken to hospital and treated.
The coyote is described as having the same characteristics, a smaller sandy colored coyote, as the sixth coyote attack on an elderly resident at a local retirement home on Sept. 10.
The City is asking residents to continue to be vigilant in and around the areas noted on the updated map attached below and report coyote sightings using the form at burlington.ca/coyotes.
City of Burlington Animal Services staff have been conducting ongoing joint operations with the Halton Regional Police Service (HRPS) and the Certified Wildlife Control Professional in the areas of attack to track down and eliminate the coyotes.
Residents may see this multi agency taskforce in their neighbourhood and it is critical that residents do not interfere with these operations.
Due to the fluidity of the situation, it may not always be possible for residents to be notified of the operations occurring in the surrounding community. It is important that crowds not gather during these operations. This is important for both the safety of residents and so crowds do not scare off the coyotes being tracked. The increasing challenge is that coyotes are no longer denning at this time of year and are more mobile.
The priority of this multi agency taskforce is to eliminate the aggressive coyotes based on our approved City of Burlington Coyote Response Strategy protocol.
The City of Burlington met with senior officials of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) Provincial Services Division this week to gain expert advice on the current situation and confirm further immediate steps to deal with a family of aggressive coyotes in south central Burlington. MNRF staff experts shared that under no circumstances should coyotes be fed by humans. When people feed coyotes, intentionally or unintentionally, coyotes become familiar with humans, are no longer afraid of humans and show more and more aggressive behaviour, as is happening now in south central Burlington.
From what City staff shared with MNRF scientific and veterinary experts, the experts are convinced these localized attacks are coming from coyotes who have been conditioned to see humans as providing a food source. This learned behaviour creates an environment where wildlife is conditioned to be comfortable with direct human interaction and may come to depend on humans for food. Once a coyote crosses the boundary of acceptable interaction with humans, the coyote must be eliminated for public safety reasons, due to a situation they did not initiate.
Anyone attacked by a coyote is advised to seek immediate medical attention and report the attack to the Halton Region Health Department and to the City of Burlington Animal Services at animalservices@burlington.ca or 905-335-3030.
Municipalities are responsible for taking appropriate actions to manage resident coyote sightings, encounters and attacks and take appropriate action. If a coyote attacks a person, the City has a Council approved Coyote Response Strategy in place that is currently being followed to prioritize and deal with this situation.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward in prepared remarks said: “This is the news we were hoping we would never hear again. Our hearts go out to this 7th victim of a coyote attack. We are pulling in every resource we have with help from the Ministry to locate and eliminate the coyotes responsible for these attacks. We won’t rest until public safety is restored.”
 By Staff
September 6th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
The New Democrats are going to sponsor a bill to put an end to landlord rent gouging.
They plan to introduce a Rent Stabilization Act that will require a landlord to charge new tenants what the last tenant paid.
 Getting that information into the hands of a tenant who is scrambling to find a place to live will be both awkward and cumbersome.
Admittedly – something has to be done – but creating a new level of bureaucracy isn’t the answer.
The two members of the Legislature will be holding a media event on Wednesday – we will see what they have to say.
It would be nice if the government found the moral compass they lost, even before they were elected, and set new bearings for themselves.
By Pepper Parr
August 8th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
This is a long article. It focuses on one new arena but sets out how this council is going to spend to provide the infrastructure it thinks the city needs. See it as a cautionary tale.
Council met on Thursday to decide if they were going to go forward with the construction of a new Skyway arena in ward 5.
Referred to as the Skyway Arena – the structure in place now was taken out of commission WHEN because it no longer met the rules related to Freon.
The rink was small.
 The city did a lot of planning on this project – it was to be carbon free, solar panels on the roof, two regular size ice pads, pickle ball courts, community rooms and a walking track.
 The new Skyway arena will be to the north of the proposed 6 story Lakeside Plaza development. Not a word was said about the development plans during the decision to spend $37 million Way back when Councillor Paul Sharman was first elected he tried, in vain at the time, to get in touch with the owner of the plaza that had seen better days. It took a couple of years but eventually there was a development proposal that included eight structures.
During that time the Burloaks Park was completed – it is one of the better parks in the city that is seldom crowed that way Spencer Smith Park is.
The community amenities will include pickle ball courts, meeting rooms and a Walking Track.
This is the background behind the decision to spend twice as much as was originally planned on the Skyway arena.
The decision was to a contract for the construction of the new arena to Norlon Builders London Limited for $37,021,769.55
Staff asked that Council
Approve the revised total budget of $39,433,100 with revised financing proposed.
Authorize the additional funding of $2,000,000 from Tax Supported Debt; $403,000 from the Corporate Accessibility Implementation Project and $4,710,100 from the infrastructure renewal reserve fund.
 Significantly looking structure for an arena – walking track, community meeting rooms and pickle ball courts make it more of a community hub. Something badly needed in the community. What makes the development awkward is that it is a 1.4 km and a quarter away from the Bateman high school site that the city is in the process of buying – the public will not know much about the cost until sometime in September when the deal is expected to close.
The figure of $500 million was mentioned by Councillor Stolte, who was sanctioned by the Integrity Commissioner for revealing information that was discussed in a closed session of Council. The figure Stolte made public was, as she explained it, an approximation.
The Bateman and the Skyway arena are all about creating more in the way of space for a growth in population that will add three new communities to the city around the GO stations.
The Bateman and the Skyway development are in the south east sector
Lisa Kearns Councillor for ward 2 asked a procurement question, wanting to know how far into the process was the tender?
Staff had already decided who should be getting the job – all they needed was approval from Council to go forward.
 Jennifer Johnson on the left, listening to a resident when public feedback was being gathered about the residential plans. Jennifer Johnson, the staff member who oversaw the redevelopment of the WHICH ONE explained that three compliant bids and were ready to give the contract to Nolan for $37 million plus.
Given that Councillors are in the middle of an election Kearns wanted to be seen as being on top of everything said: “I’m looking to understand or hear what within the bid tender document and or agreed upon by those compliant bids would potentially help the city in a situation where the vendors work fell short or compliance with specs was not met. Those types of things. I want to understand what our insurance plans are, so to speak, so that we can be very much guaranteed that we have the best quality for our you know, the best quality when this work gets undertaken?
Johnson explained that “through our pre-qualification, we went through two rounds for general contractors where we asked them to qualify, electrical, mechanical and landscape because those were a very big component of the project. So they actually had to name the consultants they were using and had to close the bid with them. So through the pre-qualification process, we knew who those trades were, they were local trades, good trades. And basically, we pre-qualified five general contractors prior to even releasing the tender documents.
 Solar panels on the roof will cover a lot of the electricity costs? “Our specifications were very tight, because we tried our best to include designs that were all locally sourced. We also went through a review process with the consultants to ensure that all the equipment that we included in the design and specifications were still able to be sourced without you know, extended lead times. Contractors, are obligated to fulfill their contract under that lump sum.
The Skyway arena is in ward 5, Sharman territory. He said: Just slightly more than half of this cost is more than the city expected, but this is not a unique situation- that’s happening to everything. The question raised from time to time is should we wait for things to get better? The Staff report concludes that it’s going to be at least five years before the current pressure on costs decreases.This is not going to get better. If we don’t do it now.
It’ll just get worse and where does that leave us? It raises all sorts of concerns about improving the infrastructure in the city and increasing the infrastructure in the city. And we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. But for now, I believe that we’re doing something that is badly needed by the city. We need the ice pads and the community rooms and the walking track.
Bateman won’t solve the ice pad problem, it won’t provide the walking track for the seniors who live in the immediate arena. And the pressure to build the pickle ball courts. So we’re going to be there. This is a wonderful addition to our recreation facilities in Burlington. Much needed, much appreciated. And we can just hope that cost isn’t going to be with us as a problem for ever.
Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte took a much different position. “I’ve certainly brought up concerns before about the commitment to projects located 1.4 kilometers away from each other. We’ve made a huge commitment to debate and project and I just feel very uncomfortable with as Councillor Sherman has brought up the increasing cost of this which I know is realistic. I know that costs are going up across the country. We’re all aware of that. But the reality is too is that by utilizing the limited funds that we have available to us and the limited room that we have in our debt capacity limit, we’re committing most of our eggs into two baskets that are in the southeast corner of Burlington and I’m just not convinced that that’s an appropriate decision for us to be making at this time.
 That walking track and a community rooms would be nice. I think that we could scale this project back to ensure that we have the ice rinks and I think that we could make sure that we have transportation options available to seniors to get them up to the proposed community rooms that we hope to have at the maintenance project. And that would leave us some funding available to ensure that we are able to take care of other infrastructure projects and that we have other opportunities to use our debt capacity limit because there certainly are a lot of a lot of other projects around the city that need attention. I wasn’t in support of this before. I’m still not. I know that it would be a great project if money were no object, but money is an object and I won’t be able to support this today.
Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan said: “This is a higher price than we anticipated. No doubt about it. We’ve made the Skyway a priority for a long time. I believe we can still pursue upper level government funding and I’m sure we will but we can’t just bring everything to a standstill.
Ward 1 Councilor Kelvin Galbraith said: “I’m in support of this. I am part of the ice user group that knows there is a big need for another ice rink. It’s the ice users have been hurt for the last couple of years now that Skyway has been taken out of the inventory and replacing it with a full size rink is very important and will be very valuable to the ice user groups.
“I think the city needs more of these type of facilities and the longer we wait, the more expensive it will get. I think the time is now and I’m prepared to support this today.
 Lisa Kearns put her financial concern, chase down the details spin on the building of a new arena. Lisa Kearns joined what was now a majority of Council and said: “I think the whole conversation we’re having here is really reflective of the petulance that I’m starting to see around some of these really, really big ticket items. We know that we’ve already committed to prioritizing Skyway community centre and it feels a lot like this is one of those projects that we’re so far into that is difficult to turn around in, in response to escalating prices. Now, in my view, there are two things to look at here. One is of course the community value which we can’t put a price tag on it’s clear we do need more ice rinks. And in fact, we need the type of ice rinks that can host and hold tournaments and things of that nature so that we can really capitalize on those additional tourism dollars especially in light of having our municipal accommodation tax now ushered in so we do need to look at this really big picture.
“It’s one thing to award a tender. It’s another thing to award a tender with really strong terms that despite escalating costs still puts the city in the driver’s seat around ensuring the diligence used around those funds. Those are many types of causes like clawback clauses, there’s the dispute resolution, there’s payment terms certainty of terms limitations of liability. I want to be really really sure that when we are embarking on projects this high visibility and this high of a price tag we have covered all our bases.
 The table below shows the change to the Total Project Cost over the last three years. The lowest compliant bid has resulted in an increased construction cost to $36.7 million, including soft costs, and project contingency, the new total project cost is estimated at $39.4 million (including the parks revitalization component). This is an increase of 22% from the Class A, most recently completed in March 2022 or $7.1 million. It’s really important that we don’t have bumps along the way from today’s meeting where we’re proving this to when we can actually open the doors and welcome our residents across the city into a facility like this. I do want to also put on record and echo the comments of Councillor salty in that I am worried about our debt limit and our debt threshold. We still have a really big ticket in very similar proximity that hasn’t even had its capital costs disclose to the public yet. And that will no doubt require some support from our tax base and of course from our infrastructure renewal reserve fund so that fun will quickly be dwindling and it’s I’m hopeful that they’ll be a lot left for some of the other areas where we are really putting a focus on growth.
I am supporting this today with caution. And you know putting everyone involved in this in this project on notice that we want it to be an absolute and true success and we want it to be handled with the greatest level of diligence as possible.
 The project was short 7 million – they dug into reserves and pushed $2 million onto the backs of the taxpayers – by taking out a 15 years debenture at 4.5%. Don’t you wish you could get that interest from your bank Councillor Sharman added later in the meeting before the vote saying he recognized that his comments about money were made the way they were said because I think that it’s just a fact of life that cost is increasing. The arena had to be closed because the Freon system became illegal. Otherwise, we would have continued to have Skyway arena open, but it was grossly inadequate. It was built in the 60s. It was no longer up to standard in terms of installation and efficiency and effectiveness and it was undersized so it needed to go. So it’s going to be built. I think that’s one point with respect to money or No, I have a fairly reasonable understanding of money and my view of the world is very oriented towards future cash flow and where it’s coming from.
 Paul Sharman: “I have no concerns about money.” “I have no concerns about money, it will be resolved and especially in Parkland dedication, even if I do think it’s a bit rich it’s going to pay for a lot of stuff. We will still be building within the urban boundary. We will have the cash to pay for the facilities we need for another 70,000 people in the course of the next 30 years. And if anybody’s thinking differently than I ask you to talk to me, because planning and cash flow forecasting is an important way of thinking and I have no concerns about the money. And that’s about it for me. I’m delighted that we’re getting on with this.
Mayor Meed Ward decided it was her turn to take a kick at the can. “I am really looking forward to the ground-breaking in October. We know that we need more community facilities for our growing population period full stop – we are at capacity, we are bursting at the seams. This will be a facility that is used and loved by people from across Burlington the ice pads the community meeting space the parkour out front and also it will be really the future of how we build community facilities in Burlington. It will have solar panels on the roof. It will be a low carbon building, that is the future and we are not done yet. Our community amenities our parks or community centers have not kept up with the growth that we have seen in population in Burlington – this is one more opportunity to not only refresh what was there before, but expand it. The Walking Track is was really important.
It’s not so much about what we spend, it’s what we spend on and this there’s no question in my mind that this has been a priority. And so we just need to get on with it. We need to because the price isn’t gonna get any cheaper. And the cost escalation that we have seen is due to factors that are outside of the city’s control for sure and there’s no time like the present to get going.
This will put us at 11% debt ratio, our city imposed ratio is 12 and a half so we’re still well below that. The province imposes a debt ratio of 25%. Tax supported debt is only one of many sources of funding. We have reserved funds – revenue from users that will come back to us. I know the pickle ball courts will be very well used and played.
We have just increased and really level set the development charges that we will be charging for new growth and our Parkland dedication fees we were way behind, leaving money substantial amounts of money on the table.
I’m enthusiastic about finally getting on with this centre and we will mean we need more we’re not done we are not done yet with parks and community centres. Because we still have a lot more growth coming and we still have some catching up to do. And we have the money. We have the money to do it.
We do need a recorded vote on this. So I will turn it over to our clerk to take the recorded vote.
Councillor Bentivegna had some interesting questions and concerns about what was going to happen to the taxpayer. His views will be covered in a seperate article later in the week.
Councillor stuck to her guns; the only Council member to talk about fiscal prudence.
City Manager Tim Commisso sat in on the meeting – didn’t say a word
 By Staff
July 26th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
The city web site has had a remake.
It looks different – and at first run it is better than what was there.
Search times take a bit – the communications people explained that there will be small tweaks to adjust how quickly searches on the web site are loaded.
 It is certainly a much cleaner look and searches seem to be a little faster. Give it six months and see how it works. It is certainly an improvement – how much of an improvement – only time will tell.
If you run into problems – send us a comment. Staff advised us the day the new version was made operational that the calendar and link is working. It does take a couple seconds to load. Testing on various browsers and on galaxy s10 and iphone occurred.
In a comment after we published the communications people said:
With any website launch it’s an iterative process. We’ll provide ongoing maintenance to keep it fresh and up to date. Look out for a formal City media release for the hard launch of our website this week.
Specific to our site search, our site search tool cludo is highly configurable based on use reporting. With each search, the site becomes smarter, faster and more accurate. This is a new install on a new site with a lot of navigation changes; we anticipate a couple weeks for site search result optimization.
You’ll see upgraded news and notices tools to better refine searches. Trending search results on the homepage too.
The team working on this remake were quite young – they brought a different perspective to their work.
Let’s give it a chance and at the same time record the problems.
 By Staff
May 17th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
 Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, Empress of India Victoria Day: What’s open and closed at the City of Burlington
Burlington administrative services will be closed for Victoria Day on Monday, May 23.
For a list of which City services and facilities are available on the Victoria Day holiday, please see the summary below or visit burlington.ca
*Important information regarding COVID-19: The information provided below is accurate as of May 17, 2022. In the event of any changes made by the Province of Ontario to current COVID-19 public health measures, please visit burlington.ca/coronavirus for potential impacts to City services and programs.
| City Service |
Holiday Closure Information |
| Animal Services
|
The Animal Shelter at 2424 Industrial St. remains closed to the public due to COVID-19.
To report an animal control-related emergency, call 905-335-3030 or visit www.burlington.ca/animal. |
| Burlington Transit |
Burlington Transit will operate a Sunday schedule on Victoria Day. For real-time bus information and schedules visit myride.burlingtontransit.ca.
The downtown terminal at 430 John St. and Specialized Dispatch will be closed on Monday, May 23. |
| City Hall |
The Service Burlington counter, temporarily located on the third floor at 390 Brant St., beside City Hall, will be closed to all appointments and walk-in service on Monday, May 23.
Many service payments are available online at burlington.ca/onlineservices. |
| Halton Court Services – Provincial Offences Office |
Court administration counter services at 4085 Palladium Way will be closed on Monday, May 23.
With the exception of the Victoria Day closure, telephone payments are available at 905-637-1274, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday to Friday. All in-person services are available from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Many services are also available by email at burlingtoncourt@burlington.ca or online at Halton Court Services. |
| Parking |
Free parking is available downtown, on the street, in municipal lots and in the parking garage (414 Locust St.) on weekends and holidays, including Victoria Day.
NOTE:
- The Waterfront parking lots (east and west at 1286 Lakeshore Rd) do not provide free parking on statutory holidays.
- Paid parking, on weekends only, at Beachway Park (1100 Lakeshore Rd) begins Saturday, May 21 using HONK Mobile.
- Please make an online reservation using Park Pass to visit Lowville Park. Reservations are free and available in three-hour time slots.
- Parking exemptions are required to park overnight on city streets and for longer than five hours. Visit burlington.ca/parkingexemptions
|
| Recreation Programs and Facilities |
Drop-In Recreation Activities
Indoor drop-in activities such as swimming, skating, and gym times are offered on a reduced schedule over the Victoria Day long weekend.Drop-in recreational and lap swimming is available on Victoria Day Monday at Angela Coughlan Pool, at 2425 Upper Middle Rd. Registering online to reserve your spot is recommended. In-person, walk-up admissions are accepted where program capacity allows.Drop-in programs go on sale online seven days in advance for residents, and three days in advance for non-residents. Please visit burlington.ca/dropinandplay for a complete listing of programs times and online registration.Splash Pads Opening
The City’s nine splash pads will be opening Saturday, May 21. For a list of locations, visit burlington.ca/splashpads.Outdoor Activities
Burlington has a wide variety of outdoor activities to enjoy with your family during the long weekend including:
- trails and multi-use paths
- parks and playgrounds.
- picnic site reservations for La Salle or Hidden Valley Park
Find out more at burlington.ca/outdoorplay.
Golf
Tyandaga Golf Course is open for the season and tee times can be booked online at tyandagagolf.com or by calling 905-336-0005, ext. 2.
Play Lending Library
Our Lending Library has a variety of outdoor and indoor play equipment available to borrow at no charge. From archery to wiffle ball, and Kanjam to pickleball – check out burlington.ca/playlending for details. |
| Roads, Parks and Forestry |
The administrative office will be closed on Monday, May 23. Essential services will be provided as required. |
Burlington is a city where people, nature and businesses thrive. Sign up to learn more about Burlington at Burlington.ca/Enews and follow @CityBurlington on social media.
Links and Resources
Residents can stay informed about City news at www.burlington.ca/coronavirus and our social media channels: @cityburlington on Twitter and facebook.com/cityburlington
 By Staff
May 6th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
This is an unfortunate situation that could have and should have been looked into some time ago.
City Council and senior staff are working diligently to solve the problem – some comments and background at a later date.
 LaSalle Park – these boats might be stuck on the site for some time. The boat launch which was to take place on the 15th is now delayed – a new date has yet to be determined.
The delay is due to insurance renewal issues. The City is aware of the LaSalle Park Marina Association’s (LPMA) expired liability insurance and difficulties finding a replacement insurer. The City is working closely with the LPMA to find a short-term and a long-term solution to open the marina.
At the May 5 Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services Committee meeting, City Council gave a staff direction which includes doing due diligence to identify and fully address the financial, legal, human resource and operating risk exposures to the City in order to operate the LaSalle Park Community Marina on an interim basis for the 2022 season based on a target date for opening of no later than June 15.
A key component is the interim Marina operation must be at no cost to the taxpayers of Burlington inclusive of City reserve funds. Early in this term of Council they approved taking $4 million out of the hydro reserve fund to pay for the wave break that was desperately needed.
City staff will report back to City Council on May 17, 2022 and at the June 9, 2022 Environment, Infrastructure and Community Services Committee.
The community marina is a key feature that the City values and wants to keep open, as is evident by the $4 million investment in the floating wave break that was installed in 2020. Proper insurance is required for operation and options are being explored. The closure of the marina also means the Burlington Sailing and Boating Club and the Able Sail program cannot operate from the marina and the boat launch will remain closed.
About the LaSalle Park Community Marina
Through an agreement with the City, the marina has been has operated by the LPMA for 41 years. The City owns the wave break and the marina.
 The wave break is in place – now insurance issues will keep the boats out of the water. The Marina is in a decent location. Parking is an issue and the site could use a decent restaurant. Marina has 219 docking spaces and is protected by a new floating wave break that was installed in 2020.
The Burlington Sailing and Boating Club and the Able Sail program offer sailing programs at the Marina. In addition, the City has a public boat launch at the Marina that is protected by the floating wave break.
Without a solution the marina will not be able to open. As it is many of the boaters will want to look for a new location – and there aren’t many of them in the immediate area.
This could end up being a black day for a lot of people.
 Chris Glenn: Director of Parks and Recreation and Culture. Chris Glenn, Director of Recreation, Community and Culture said during the Standing Committee earlier this week that: “The City of Burlington is committed to working with the LPMA to find a short-term and a long-term solution to keep the marina open for residents and tourists. We know the marina is a key feature for many people. We are exploring multiple options to get it open for the 2022 boating season and beyond. Until a solution is found, the marina and boat launch will remain closed and further update will be shared with the public as available.”
 By Pepper Parr
April 28th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Part 2 of a series
In the news game reporters have what they call sources.
They are frequently people working in a city hall department or someone in the private sector who can explain a complex document, process or procedure.
Mutual in trust is usually in place.
Each year during budget time calls would get made to the people working on different parts of a budget – a list of the reserves was always an issue.
The amount of money that was budgeted in a year but didn’t get spent often got placed in reserve budget which was often referred to the piggy bank and used by council members for favourite projects.
More often than not there were follow up questions to the experts; with both people on the line a clearer understanding of what are often complex issues is gained.
One of the more challenging was Development Charges – a contentious category for everyone.
Up until very recently Burlington was recovering less than 70% of what they spent handling development application work. It took a couple of expensive reports from consultants, and in the most recent set of discussion, long meetings with BILD (Building Industry and Land Development Association) and the West End Home Builders Association before a final figure was arrived at.
Development charges are very difficult to explain and at the same time a very significant part of the cost of buying a house that is under construction. Those development charges are all added to the cost of the residence.
Not something the average person fully understands.
Reporters have to wade through thick documents, try to understand the contents and the follow up with staff members.
That kind of thing is done at every newspaper, on line or print, in the country.
But that is not the way it works in Burlington.
 Former City Manager James Ridge – fairly described as media adverse The change began during the last years of the former City Manager James Ridge administration. What started in about 2016 is maintained by the current City Manager Tim Commisso.
Donna Kell was the communications coordinator at the time. Kwab Ako-Adjei was hired by Ridge and the game slowly changed.
Ako-AdjeiKwab gave Kell the chance to develop her career somewhere else
In a mature, professional organization Ako-Adjei would have reached out to the media and made a point of meeting the player’s and talked about how the two (media and administration) could best do their jobs. Access is the most important thing for media.
I first met Ako-Adjei at an event at the Waterfront Hotel – chatted for less than a minute; I was able to have a longer conversation several months later.
What we began to experience with Ako-Adjei and his staff was when we made a call to a staff member they would either tell us we had to call the communications department or if we reached out by email we would get a reply from one of the communications people who would ask what our questions was – they go away and come back with an answer.
None of the people who serve as communications staff have formal training in journalism or any work experience in journalism.
Most of them have a designation as a public relations specialist.
Public relations is in place to do everything possible to get out the story a corporation wants to get out and where there is a kaflooey, limit the damage and say as little as possible.
I want to share our most recent experience with access. It goes like this.
Sue Connor is the Director of Transit. She came to Burlington with an incredible reputation. The city was lucky to get her. She is seen and respected as a strong voice on the conversion of transit out of diesel into batteries or H20.
She takes part in the proceedings of CUTRIC (Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium) a solution based consulting company; leaders in the field.
We reached out to Sue asking if we could talk about the views she would be taking to the CUTRIC (Canadian Urban Transit Research & Innovation Consortium) conference which was taking place about a week or so later.
 Sue Connor – An Executive Director and Director of Transit for Burlington. Our interest was in Sue Connor as a respected leader in the move from diesel to a less climate damaging source of energy. She is a solid manager who runs one of the happiest, nicest places in the city to work
We got a call from the city communications people who asked what we wanted to ask Conner.
We explained that the event was not a city event and that Connor was attending the conference as an individual and not someone representing Burlington Transit.
Conner had advised the City Manager earlier in the month that she would retire at the end of the year. Shortly after that announcement Connor was elevated to the position of Executive Director filling the gap that was created when Heather MacDonald retired.
The end result was there was no interview with Sue Connor – which is unfortunate – she is one of the best on the ground thinkers in the transit business in the country and also ran one of the best operated departments in the city.
Policy and practice related to media come straight from the City Manager. While Ako-Adjei, has his finger prints all over every bit of information that comes out of city hall; he reports directly to Commisso.
 Kwab Ako-Adjei Kwab Ako-Adjei is leading an initiative known as One Burlington – it is there to polish the brand.
This is not a healthy situation and has to a considerable degree lessened the amount of information that gets through to the public
We are not the only people struggling with the communications department – several members of the very divided city Council have similar issues.
There is a link, not too difficult to find, between the messy Integrity Commissioners report that was really all about citizen access to information and the control everything communications department.
The root of all this is the office of the City Manager.
The City Manager gets his marching orders from City Council and this council is not going to lift a finger to bring about a change in the way city hall works with media
There are options that I will talk about in the future.
Part 1 of the series
The above are the opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
By Pepper Parr
April 21st, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Part 1 of a series
Media has always had a role to play in the way a public is informed.
Like any commercial sector, and media is a commercial sector, it has had it low points and its high points.
Media brought about the downfall of US President Richard Nixon when the Watergate story was told.
Media failed terribly, and to some degree is still failing, in the United States with the way it reported on and failed to report on Donald Trump.
Media has excelled with its reporting on the war in Ukraine and how different countries around the world have responded. That the South Africans have gone mute is more than disappointing.
The way in which media reported on the tragic death of Princess Diana and the response from the Royal Family changed the way the British public reacts to their monarchy – that institution is undergoing a tectonic level shift and may not exist at all a few decades from now.
The advent of the internet stripped away the revenue base of print media, many have just sold their presses and disappeared.
Online newspapers began to appear.
The Gazette came into being when a group was trying to establish a radio station for Burlington, not being fully aware of how complicated it is to get a license to broadcast over the public air waves.
I was asked to help with the writing of a business plan and convinced those involved that a radio license was not possible but there was an opportunity for an online newspaper.
 At about that time, ten years ago, John Boich and Walter Mulkewich co-authored Shape Burlington which took serious exception at the way city hall handed out information and advocated for public support for a new newspaper.
Shape Burlington cracked the ice that was blocking so much information but it didn’t open the flood gates.
The Gazette grew organically – take that to mean slowly. We covered the building of the Pier and covered the attempt on the part of the owners of the Air Park who were secretly dumping tonnes of fill on land without the proper licenses with the intention of creating more runway.
It took several years of court cases, a libel suit against the Gazette and two citizens before the Air Park owners threw in the towel
Eventually the courts cases ended and the Air Park owners decided they had had enough and walked away from the libel suit as well.
 The Gazette was the first online newspaper to be accepted as member of the Ontario Press Council – an organization that became the National Newsmedia Council
Media matters.
Fully understanding just what it is and how the different players are expected to play the game is a different story in Burlington.
The Gazette has worked with five different city managers. The relationship with three of the five worked well.
It was my practice to reach out to a new city manager, do an interview and help where I could as they settled into the city. Jeff Fielding was a dinner guest at my home; I took him to the top of Mt Nemo – he was amazed.
The other guy from the Region
 James Ridge: Ten years in the Canadian Army in the Discipline side of the service where he attained the rank of Major were not the ideal background for a job that calls for collaboration and an ability to accept different points of view. James Ridge was different. That first call to him in Vancouver went well enough; he talked about his dogs and the plans he had for he and his wife to drive across the country while their furniture followed in a moving van – for which the city paid. That is a common practice.
Before Ridge left Burlington he banned me from attending at City Hall on two occasions – one was a life time ban.
The reasons for the banning was set out in documents that I have yet to see. There is litigation. More on that at another time.
When Tim Commisso was hired, first as an interim City Manager and then hired as THE City Manager the relationship was iffy but reasonable.
 Tim Commisso had years of experience on the administrative side of the city before he went to Thunder Bay – then returned to Burlington to become the city manager.. I have never met Tim Commisso.
Traditionally media and administration meet personally to exchange greetings, get the measure of each other and set out the rules each intends to follow. Being the senior level Commisso was the one to do the inviting.
My approach has always been to make sure that those I deal with, elected or appointed, understand that I am not there to be there friend. I am there to hold them accountable and do what I can to ensure that everything is transparent.
Given the current mess where a member of Council is the subject of an Integrity Commissioner report that recommends she be docked five days’ pay I am not sure I can say that we are doing just fine with the matter of transparency and accountability.
One perseveres.
By Pepper Parr
March 22, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
It is over!
 Mayor Marianne Meed Ward had the power to declare a State of Emergency – she chose to share that decision with the other members of Council The Mayor along with her council members passed a motion to declare the State of Emergency that was declared two years ago was revoked today – at 4:36 in the afternoon.
Hugs are back said the Mayor.
The masking bylaw was revoked as well.
 Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan who voted against the decision to lift the mask bylaw It was passed on a 5-1 vote with Rory Nisan dissenting. Councillor Kearns was absent.
With the State of Emergency over the Emergency Control Group (ECG) gets dissolved.
We didn’t learn all that much today on just they did on a day to day basis but we did learn that their very first meeting on a Saturday lasted 8 hours – the second meeting on the Sunday lasted just as long.
City manager Tim Commisso explained that they just didn’t know what they were doing or had to do.
Keeping everyone safe was the prime objective – but in the early days it was never completely clear how to go about keeping people safe.
Executive Director Alan Magi served as co-chair of the ECG said it was learning what worked by the hour. All the essential service people had to be moved from their desks at whatever their location was and learn to do their jobs from the kitchen table at home.
Some staff members were able to make the transition while others had serious difficulty.
Commisso added that “we knew so little” but we had to be there to answer the questions.
 Executive Director Sheila Jones Executive Director Sheila Jones remarked that on her third month in her new position she had to learn how to manage staff to do something no one had been trained to do and there was no playbook to follow.
When we were putting up fencing in the Beachway area people were asking if that was necessary – “we didn’t really know” he explained.
 Director of Finance Joan Ford There was a real crunch on the revenue side – the city is blessed with a treasurer who has an incredible understand of where the dollar are and where they have to be spent. At one point Joan Ford was running under a Covid19 budget where much of the money came from the province and at the same time running a traditional municipal budget where revenues from just about everything were plummeting.
 Chris Glenn, Director Parks, Recreation and Culture Transit was bleeding, Parks and Recreation learned to pivot and then pivot again as the rules on what people could do and couldn’t do in the playground areas kept changing.
Friday afternoons began to be the time when the province would ship as new bunch of rules and guidance to the municipal sector
Everyone was thanking everyone – what we have yet to learn is who were the really strong people who could keep things calm. Commisso isn’t the kind of guy whose feathers are easily ruffled.
Fire Chief has shown herself to be good at keeping control and issues in context.
What Burlington didn’t have, and both could have had and should have had, was a steady stream of news from the ECG people.
 City manager Tim Commisso – dancing in the streets of Itabashi – Japan What the public got was reports the ECG people made to council once during the Standing Committee cycles. At basically the same time we had a Prime Minister at a lectern outside his home explaining what was being done; where we were on the matter of vaccines
 Mayor Marianne Meed Ward outside the hospital telling workers how important they were. The Mayor resorted to banging pots and pans or standing in front of the hospital with a megaphone in hand telling the essential workers that they were loved.
But as of today – all that is part of the past.
Plans are being made to hold some of the social events that were missed – sounds like an opportunity for one heck of a party.
I want to see Commisso dancing in the street the way he did in Japan.
By Pepper Parr
March 12th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
The deadline for responses to the survey put out after the Waterfront Study virtual meeting that took place on February 22nd, was March 1st the last date they would be accepted.
 There are two things taking place with the area outlined in blue. The oldest activity is a study of the area outlined in blue which the city says has been ongoing since 2018 – it actually started way back in 2015 when the city had a Staff member doing some work on what would be possible and fit in with the Promenade and Spencer Smith Park when the owners of the Waterfront Hotel decided they were ready to redevelop the property. The area within the red boundary is the property owned by Darko Vranich . In August of 2021 he began the process of providing the City Planning department the information it would need to prepare a report for City Council which would decide to Approve the development, Not approve the development or approve a development with required changes. hotel site was ready. The report from the Planning department has to be before City Council and approved no later than April 17th of 2022 It was a very short survey; two questions – what did you think and where do you live.
 The X’s mark the land the city would take as permitted park land allowance. Shouldn’t have taken all that long to sift through the responses, pass them along to the consultants overseeing the study and share both the results of the survey and whatever the next step was going to be.
There was some interesting news shared during the DATE meeting – the most significant being that the city planned on taking a 20 metre wide piece of land from the west side of the site. The width would run from Lakeshore Road to the southern and of the the property line.
There doesn’t appear to be any sense of urgency about a study that is intended to “inform” the long term development that will take place. Wouldn’t the Hotel site development application, if approved, set the pattern for any development in the immediate area. No?
Related news stories:
A time line that didn’t work for the citizens.
What about a land swap
The Statutory meeting
 By Connor Fraser
March 11th,, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that how we interact with the internet, and social media in particular, is disastrous from a health perspective.
Firstly, several studies have noted the link between social media use and depression. A 2018 study released in the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking demonstrated that every one-point increase in passive social-media use was associated with a 33% increase in depressive symptoms.
 Secondly, many have identified links between social media use and reduced memory and attention. Research published by the Gerontological Society of America reported that “on days when social media use was high, individuals reported more memory failures” and furthermore that “higher previous-day social media-use was associated with more memory failures on the subsequent day.” The researchers hypothesize that a key mechanism for memory failures is attentional disengagement, whereby “individuals using social media are less engaged in real-world activities…and may not encode these events and experiences as deeply as they would otherwise.”
Late in 2021, Facebook made headlines by announcing it would re-brand itself as ‘Meta’ signalling CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s intention to play a key role in developing the ‘Metaverse’: The next generation of the internet, enabled by technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Instead of clicking on webpages and newsfeeds, users will eventually navigate a digital world similar to the physical world, complete with their own avatars, and digital property such as clothing and land.
Imagine a world where a significant number of people live within a tightly controlled digital experience, rarely going outside or interacting with their neighbours. Companies such as Meta and Microsoft are betting big on people spending a lifetime online. But regardless of how scary this potential future looks like, many (particularly young people) are already living in a pseudo-metaverse.
For example, a 2019 article reported that children under age 14 spent nearly twice as long with their tech devices per day as they do with their families. These transformations are having profound impacts on our memories, and ability to pay attention and focus – which has serious implications for the future productivity of our economy, democracy and ability to confront life’s challenges. I argue that social media is already causing serious harms to society – and should be carefully regulated if we hope to prevent these harms and stop the ‘Metaverse’ from magnifying them to a terrifying level.
Consider that an incredible amount of resources have been dedicated towards designing social media and metaverse technologies to be maximally addictive. Former engineers at Google and Meta admit that their apps exploit the same psychological susceptibilities that makes gambling so compulsive, such as variable rewards. Faced to confront the latest techniques in psychology and advanced machine-learning algorithms, it’s no wonder why many find themselves continually attached to their phones – it’s not your fault!
Neither is it uniquely the fault of social media companies, who to my knowledge have not been accused of breaking government laws and regulations in any major way. The role of the firm has always been to generate profits for shareholders – and implicitly value for their customers. Contrastingly, it is the role of the government to identify activities that generate negative externalities and positive externalities – and regulate those activities which produce negative externalities (such as pollution) and fund those activities which produce positive externalities (such as public education).
The current relationship with social media is such that people receive an onslaught of messages from numerous platforms and numerous devices, and find themselves very quickly “toggling” between tasks, unable to consistently focus on any one task for greater than 3 minutes, on average. This toggling is rapidly eroding the capacity for long-term, strategic focus – precisely the tools that people need to set goals and achieve anything meaningful in life.
 It is worth noting that social media is not entirely bad, and there are positive aspects to these technologies. For example, in a report commissioned by PEW research, many teens reported that access to social media played an important role in overcoming difficult life experiences. These benefits were magnified for vulnerable populations, such as youth from households with annual incomes less than $30,000 – suggesting that social media offered critical support group that wouldn’t have otherwise been available or affordable.
Moreover, the majority of teens responded that social media enables them to spend time with their friends on a daily basis, through free messaging and video chatting features. During the pandemic, these services have undeniably played an outsized role in enabling people to remain in touch while in-person opportunities were limited. Additionally, some have argued that powerful social media algorithms provide a great service by connecting people with products that are optimally tailored to their needs. To cite one example, last year I received a Spotify advertisement for the language program “Learn French by Podcast” which I subsequently subscribed to and got a huge amount of value from.
While it is clear that social media has benefits to offer when used appropriately, I think it is important to recognize that certain use patterns can be incredibly destructive – especially when people turn to aimless scrolling and passive searching for instant validation. To prevent harms from further accumulating amongst young people, and also to prevent these harms from accelerating as the metaverse becomes more potent, the government must develop an action plan to leave people in control of their relationship with social media.
 Any action plan should focus on increasing healthy behaviour and preventing harmful behaviour. One strategy might include imposing regulations on tech giants that make it mandatory for all apps to periodically (i.e. once per month) provide users with a “time-spent” report, remind them about healthy-use habits, and remind them of in-app features that exist to turn-off notifications and block content. Another strategy might include devoting greater government resources to educate citizens about the circumstances under which social media use is harmful. Integrating compulsory modules into the elementary and high-school curriculum about healthy social media practices would be a good start.
Two final points to add. In order to proceed with meaningful action, more academic research of much greater rigour, needs to be conducted. The study cited above from the Journal of Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking made use of an online survey where participants answered subjective questions about their experience with social media and any subsequent feelings of depression. This is hardly sufficient evidence, nor the type of decisive evidence I would want to have in my arsenal to push back against big tech. The calibre of academic scholarship in this field needs to improve dramatically in order to provide a clear rational for action that will find sustainable support amongst the majority of citizens.
Finally, I wonder if there is an appetite to explore different business models. One of my professors at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Daniel Breznitz, once commented that “if you’re not paying for a service, you’re a product, not the customer.” In the world of Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat, users pay no subscription fees and should therefore think of themselves as “products”.
In order to generate revenues, these business models must create value for their actual customers (i.e. advertisers) by keeping us online for as long as possible. Altering the model by introducing a subscription fee could allow companies to generate value for users as their primary customers, and perhaps abandon the need to aggressively target us with manipulative techniques.
Regardless of what action the government decides to take, this file requires some movement, and I’m shocked that Canadians have received limited leadership from elected officials until now. With continued complacency we are sleepwalking into a future health and economic crisis of titanic proportions.
 Born in Hamilton, raised in Aldershot, Connor Fraser attended Waterdown Montessori School, Glenview Public School, Burlington Christian Academy and Aldershot High School. He earned a BASc. in Engineering Science and a major in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto. He then worked as a member of the technology development team at Microchip Corporation (North San Jose, California) where he contributed to the design of computer memory for FPGA chips.
Connor volunteered for the U of T Human Powered Vehicles Design Team as a machinist and led the design of a rollover detection system for high-speed tricycles. During the summer of 2013, 2015 and 2017, Connor lived in Quebec thanks to support from the YMCA Student Work Summer Exchange, and the Explore Program & is decently proficient in spoken French.
He is currently enrolled in the dual Master of Global Affairs and Master of Business Administration program and is concurrently a CFA Level 2 candidate. He is a Senior Producer with “Beyond the Headlines”, a weekly public affairs radio show that airs on CIUT 89.5FM
 By Staff
January 26th, 2022
BURLINGTON, ON
Community Development Halton is a Not for Profit organization, supported financially by the Region of Halton.
Community Lens is prepared by Community Development Halton to disseminate and interpret important community data as it becomes available.
 2022 is the year communities in Halton and across the province hope will spell the beginning of the end of COVID-19. Unfortunately, as Community Development Halton writes this, such a positive conclusion to a long two years may be premature. Encouragingly, though, some of the preliminary data on the reduced severity of the Omicron variant may be cause for guarded optimism.
Notwithstanding this renewed sense of hope, the World Health Organization (WHO) continues to discourage people from describing Omicron as “mild,” because “increased transmission is expected to lead to more hospitalizations.”
What is perhaps less well known is an awareness of some of the research that is taking place around the impacts of COVID-19, and how the pandemic may permanently impact employment sectors, workers, and communities in the years ahead. Last year, Community Development Halton studied the impacts of COVID-19 on older adult populations and published our findings in a series of Community Lens publications in late 2021.
Continuing our focus on the impacts of COVID-19, this Community Lens, the first of 2022, analyses the findings of a 2021 ‘GTA Employer Survey.’ Undertaken by the Peel Halton Workforce Development Group (PHWDG), the survey findings provide instructive insights that are “emerging from the lockdowns and the view of labour market issues during this period of recovery.” This is the 11th annual survey of employers that the PHWDG has carried out; 2020’s survey also looked at the impacts of COVID-19.
Conducted between August and October 2021, the survey was sent out to “700 employers, with an average response of 490 answers per question, from a cross-section of employers in Peel and Halton Regions, as well as from the surrounding Greater Toronto Area… 72% of the respondents are employers in Peel and Halton, many come from other parts of the GTA.” In total, 187 employers from Oakville (62), Milton (56), Halton Hills (17), and Burlington (52) responded to the survey.
The Impact of Lockdowns on Employment
Employers were first asked about the impact of lockdowns on employment levels. Unsurprisingly, smaller employers reported disproportionately larger impacts on employment levels. 39% of employers with 1-4 employees, for example, reported a large decrease (defined as over a 33% reduction of the workforce).
While 23% of companies with 5-19 employees reported a large decrease, it dropped to 4% for companies with over 100 employees. Put another way, “employers were more likely to decrease their employment levels rather than increase and that tendency increased the smaller the firm.” The most impacted sectors were, due to the nature of provincial lockdowns, the Accommodation and Food Services and Retail Trade sectors, while the sector with the lowest employment impact was in Transportation and Warehousing.
Community Lens is prepared by Community Development Halton to disseminate and interpret important community data as it becomes available. For more information please contact us at data@cdhalton.ca or 905-632-1975
Remote Work
Pre-pandemic the “incidence of remote work was low,” with the prevailing perception that employee productivity would be lower away from the office. The pandemic very quickly shifted this misconception, with the caveat that remote work isn’t appropriate for every employee or employer. In an analysis on remote work, the management consultancy McKinsey & Company found that “the potential for remote work is highly concentrated among highly skilled, highly educated workers in a handful [emphasis added] of industries, occupations, and geographies.”
 Working from home has its challenges. Before the pandemic, “61% said that their non-essential workers never worked from home and 92% said that their non-essential workers worked from home 20% or less of the time.”
During the pandemic, “48% of employers said that their non-essential employees worked from home 80% or more of the time; [while] 28% said these employees worked from home 100% of the time.”
Beyond the pandemic, one-third of survey respondents said that they can see “employees work from home 30% to 70% of the time.” The report adds, “many employees [expect] to return to the workplace, but a considerable number will work from home some of the time.”
Although workplaces in the survey shifted to remote work out of necessity and expect to retain some form of this flexibility into the future, employers were, nonetheless, more likely to offer “concerns” with remote working rather than “identifying benefits.” Employers referenced some of the challenges they envisioned with a remote work environment, namely, “maintaining a team spirit and a corporate culture and, to a slightly lesser extent, the ability to properly on-board a new employee.” In addition, closely aligned to the team spirit concern, employers expressed the belief that “innovation” may suffer in a workplace environment that was geographically splintered.
Vaccination Policy
The federal government announced on December 7, 2021, its intention to “make vaccination mandatory in federally regulated workplaces,” extending the mandate beyond the previously announced requirement that all federal employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. This followed earlier Government of Canada announcements, across several months, in which sector-specific federal mandates were declared.
 Corporate vaccination policies varied at first – but were soon set as mandatory vaccination. Other municipalities and public institutions are also developing and publishing their own vaccination policies and mandates. The City of Toronto, for example, announced that all employees would have to be “fully vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine series by October 30, 2021.”
Community Lens is prepared by Community Development Halton to disseminate and interpret important community data as it becomes available. For more information please contact us at data@cdhalton.ca or 905-632-1975
Indeed, this month (January 2022), after previous vaccination deadlines were extended, almost 500 employees that had not received the COVID-19 vaccine lost their positions with the City of Toronto.
Meanwhile, in Halton Region, the City of Burlington has introduced a “revision” to its “Staff Vaccination Policy” which now makes COVID-19 vaccination mandatory “for all City employees.” The Town of Milton, Halton Hills, and Oakville15 have all made similar announcements on mandatory staff COVID- 19 vaccinations at various stages over the last number of months.
The 2021 PHWDG survey found that employers are also thinking about the vaccination question in their own workplaces.
- One-third of employers are mandating that employees be
- One-third is either encouraging their employees to get vaccinated “or are providing an ”
- Under a third of employers in the survey “have either no policy or are leaving the decision to their ”
 Forecasting the number of jobs that will be available is difficult and will remain so for a period of time Post-Pandemic Hiring Projections
Looking into the future and making hiring predictions is proving to be challenging for many employers in the survey, in a context where Ontario has had strict, unpredictable, and extended lockdowns at various points over the last two years.
When employers were asked what their hiring intentions were over the next three months, assuming there are no changes from today, they provided the following responses:
- 18% said they “cannot predict” their hiring decisions on low skilled workers in the next three
- 16% said they “cannot predict” for mid-skilled
- 17% cannot predict their intentions for highly skilled roles in the next three
A reminder that the survey was administered between August 31 and October 5, 2021, during which the provincial COVID-19 picture was largely positive: “New cases, hospitalisations and ICU occupancy [were] not increasing”; vaccination uptake was strong in Ontario (although children, 5-11, were still exposed to COVID-19 as unvaccinated individuals, authorization for this age group didn’t arrive until 19th November 2021); however, the upcoming inevitable cold weather, which would drive people indoors where the virus would circulate and thrive, was a recurring source of seasonal “instability” that Ontario’s Science Table was factoring into its projection models.
It is likely that with the rapid increase in cases experienced in December and January in Ontario, caused by the now-dominant and highly transmissible Omicron variant, employer uncertainties are beginning to resurface – if indeed they ever went away.
Community Development Halton will continue to analyze the impacts of COVID-19 across 2022. Our next Community Lens, which will be published shortly, will be a complimentary analysis to this issue. In it, we will investigate the experiences of racialized workers over the last two years and assess Canada’s economic outlook for 2022 from a worker and consumer perspective.
As always, if you have any questions or feedback about this Community Lens or any of Community Development Halton’s other social policy and planning work, you can email data@cdhalton.ca.
Footnotes in the article are available at the CDH website
Community Lens is prepared by
By Pepper Parr
December 15th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
The City Communications department sent us the following:
The recently issued copy of City Talk, which is managed by City staff, was inadvertently sent out and delivered earlier than anticipated. City communications to residents about Council services and initiatives, like the City budget are never sent out prior to formal City Council approval. As much as possible, City staff work on communication materials like City Talk in advance, however, information isn’t shared till approvals. We apologize for the error.
 The 2022 election is a good time to re-think a council that approves news in a city publication. This is pure news spin. Burlington has a communications group that puts together the vast majority of the material that is posted on the various social media accounts the city has along with City Talk, a print piece that is delivered to the homes in the city.
A Gazette reader, who keeps an eye on things at city hall reports that her copy of City Talk was delivered on Tuesday, the 14th at around 1 pm.
“I watched the council meeting this afternoon and if I am not mistaken it was close to or after 4PM when council voted on and passed the 2022 City Budget.
 Reporting news before it happens: is this a new city communications department policy. The first article in the current edition of City Talk was ” CITY COUNCIL APPROVES 2022 CITY BUDGET: BURLINGTON TAXES REMAIN BELOW AVERAGE IN COMPARISON OF LOCAL MUNICIPALITIES”
Our reader added that the story in City Talk makes one question if Council Meetings are simply for the public when decisions are made and published before the formal vote.
Good question, especially given that it takes several days to put together an edition if City Talk, then it has to be printed and then delivered.
By Pepper Parr
October 6th, 2021
BURLINGTON, ON
Planner Alison Enns, Manager of Policy and Community, delivered a report on Floodplain and Spills Approach: Lower Hager and Lower Rambo Creeks. It was treated as a Receive and File document.
 Alison Enns, Manager of Policy and Community, It turned out to be a lot more than that – the information in the report has the potential to threaten some of the planned development along the path of Rambo Creek.
Enns purpose was to share how changes over time, new tools and approaches and the results of Phase 1 of the Flood Study, undertaken as part of the scoped re-examination of the Official Plan, have informed a change to how development in the Downtown is reviewed related to hazards south of the Hager/Rambo Diversion Channel.
Since the early 1980s the City has addressed development with respect to potential flood hazards in coordination with Conservation Halton. The Phase 1 Flood Study, finalized as part of the scoped re-examination of the Downtown, used new technology and information to identify hazards. That new information has informed a shift in responsibility from the City to regulation by Conservation Halton (CH) as of June 16, 2021.
Enns put up a slide showing the location of Hager, Rambo diversion channel.
 Blue line indicates the path of the Rambo Creek diversion channel. The diversion channel was constructed in 1976 to divert water from residential areas around the downtown to prevent flooding. The main diversion channel captures water flow from upper Hager and the upper Rambo systems. It is approximately 2.7 kilometers long and outlets to Indian Creek, which in turn empties into Hamilton harbour and Burlington Bay.
In the early 1980s, the Halton Region Conservation Authority, in a memo dated September 7,1982, stated that the Conservation Authority doesn’t exercise jurisdiction over the Hager and Rambo Creek or the diversion channel. From that point forward drainage areas south of the diversion channel were considered to be under municipal jurisdiction and constituting part of the municipal storm drainage system.
The city addressed development with respect to the potential for flood hazards in coordination with the Conservation Authority, The regulatory policy was updated in 1999 and again in 2006, and in both of these documents that approach was confirmed.
 The storm water ponds that feed into the Rambo Creek diversion channel. The various ponds, and their connection to the diversion channel are shown. Some context to help make the point about how we got here at the outset of the mobility hubs study…
There was an identified need for a scope of storm sub watershed assessment. Through that work and then subsequently through the work related to the downtown the scope re-examination, a final scope of that work was determined. In 2019 and carrying into 2020 the city retained Wood Consulting, in partnership with the Conservation Authority, to do a set of studies, which were called the flood hazard in storm water management assessment – commonly referred to as Phase One flood study. The purpose of that study was to define existing flood hazards for the areas where new development was anticipated, and also to develop a set of preliminary storm water management strategies. It also included reviewing drainage infrastructure capacity.
 The map shows both the current but expected-to-be revised Urban Growth Centre and the boundary of the Burlington MTSA. It was while thinking through policy options that a concern about flooding became an issue. That concern led to two reports that highlighted a serious problem – the challenge now is how to deal with the flooding issue. The climate has changed – now what?
This is the extent of the phase one study area – note that it includes the downtown, and the Burlington GO.
The findings of the phase one study inform the development of policies and mapping that were endorsed by council in late 2020, and were incorporated in the approval of the new official plan by the Region. The Phase One study also identified that further technical work would be required. The recommendations of Phase One included identifying flooding hazards, providing recommendations for area infrastructure improvements, and included discussion of storm water management criteria but, really, the key elements of the Phase One work was to say that further technical work would be required to refine and confirm the flood vulnerable areas. That would be done through a phase two study which is currently underway using more detailed topographic survey data.
After the completion of the Phase One study, Conservation Halton, in accordance with the Conservation Authorities Act, determined they would exercise regulatory authority over lands in the vicinity of the lower Rambo Creek in downtown Burlington.
The city has incorporated this information in the Official Plan through the new official plan and Conservation Haltom has incorporated these new areas subject to flood risk in their mapping, which is available online.
 The scale of this map makes it very difficult to show the detail. We will try and get a map with better resolution and then present the map in sections. What is evident is that there are a lot of developments that are in what is thought to be a flood plain. Think of the damage done when the Tuck Creek broke its walls and flooded hundreds of homes. The city wants to take action now to put policies in place that will determine what can be built in possible flood prone areas. June 16 2021 is the date after which Conservation applies the regulatory regulations to these areas.
Council saw the draft terms of reference in June. Staff is moving forward, refining the modeling from the Phase One study. That will determine if any further policy changes are required or any mapping changes. While Phase Two is not complete the Phase One study is considered best information; city and Conservation Authority staff will use that information to support the review of development applications.
With the Enns presentation completed – It was then on to Questions from Council. Mayor Meed Ward asked: when you look at the development proposals we have for the downtown many are identified as being in flood hazard areas. This may be, she continued, too early to answer this question but what does that mean, what do we know about what that means right now – does it mean no development there – does it mean, different kinds of development? What, what do you think it means – if you can answer that right now? With all the applications we have there appear to be a lot that are in a flood hazard area.
Enns had indicated that applicants will be required to interact with Conservation as part of the normal development approval process.
Councillor Nisan and the Mayor sit on the CH board and are aware that typically permits are not issued for developments that are within a hazard, that’s one of the protection areas. And in cases where the hazard can be mitigated, a permit with conditions might be issued.
What the Mayor was trying to get at is the potential that given the risk to health and given what we now know about flood hazards that permits will not be issued in some of these areas at all.
Through the permitting process, we would anticipate that depending on the issues that are present from a regular flood regulatory standpoint, this will influence design, and certain design outcomes as it relates to those projects, which is tied into the land use permissions. So we would not be proceeding from a planning standpoint to recommend approval of designs and final outcomes that conflict in any way, with the proper maintenance of the flood risk.
Any idea of when the phase two study might be complete and when we’ll be getting that information?
 If there were basements in these buildings where records and archived documents were stored – they were a soggy pile of useless pieces of paper. The target for completing phase two to line up with the MTSA work is, Q1 March of 2022. That work is happening very quickly and will help us answer some of these questions.
At that point Councillor Nisan was asked to move the item and it carried unanimously.
And with that – the fox was in the hen house. All those developments before the Planning department now face another hurdle that could determine if the application can proceed or if it should be modified to reflect the flood potential.
The developers would appeal to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) – it would be very hard for an OLT Commissioner to find for a developer when looking at public safety issues.
This one should be really interesting going forward.
Here is how Bryana tells us about the event:
 The Cosgrove family It’s rapidly approaching that time of year again…Terry Fox Run time! Team Casey has been participating in the Terry Fox Run event since 2011, so this will be our 10th year anniversary! In that time, Team Casey has raised almost $65,000 for the Terry Fox Foundation in support of cancer research….and I wanted to thank EVERYONE who has participated, donated, and supported us these last several years! Together, we have made such a difference in both raising needed funds and raising awareness (with our awesome presence we have brought to the event!) about the need for finding a cure.
This year’s event, given our continued unusual circumstances, will be a separate event from the usual run we have done in the past. This year’s event with be a baseball game and a BBQ at Casey Cosgrove Field! Here are the details:
 Date/Time: Sunday, September 19th at 6:00pm
Location: Casey Cosgrove Baseball Field (the ball diamond right behind Nelson High School)
BBQ: There will be a BBQ with hamburgers and hot dogs, drinks, and chips with all proceeds going towards the team donations
What to Do/Bring:
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 They filled each other’s lives If you would like to play baseball, please send me an email at teamcasey19@gmail.com by September 16th to guarantee your spot…otherwise, you may still be able to play but there will be no guarantees (but it will be very likely)
- Bring any baseball equipment you may have if you want to play
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 One remarkable human being. Bring a chair to sit in while you watch if you don’t want to sit in the bleachers
- Bring your appetite…all proceeds from the BBQ will be going towards the team donations
- Consider donating to Team Casey at www.terryfox.ca/teamcasey
- Most importantly….Bring your smile!
Even if you don’t want to play, please come out and watch some ball and have some dinner….we would love to see you!
Play ball!
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By Pepper Parr