 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 5, 2012 For Gary Carr, chair of the Region of Halton the real problem seemed to be that when a Minister of the provincial government gets shuffled off to another department – they take all the promises they made with them. It just isn’t the way a government can be run according to Carr, who has been in the government game for a long time. He served as an MPP from 1990 to 2003 and Speaker of the Legislature from 1999 to 2003. He’s been there and he has seen it all and right now – he doesn’t like what he is seeing.
The concern is Burlington’s Escarpment which is the rural part of the city. The province has a growth policy which if met is going to require new roads to handle all the increased traffic.
The bureaucrats get told to do a study, which in this case is a full, detailed Environmental Assessment – which means they look at everything. The bureaucrats don’t create policy – they just do the research and come forward with recommendations. What is scaring the daylights out of Burlington is that those recommendations tend to become the only choice and Burlington has learned, from painful past experience, to get your two cents worth in while the thinking is being done.
 This is the part of the province provincial bureaucrats are studying as they look for ways to create more capacity for road traffic. Their studies indicate that one of the ways to meet the demand for additional road capacity is to run a corridor through the Escarpment. Other groups feel this isn’t necessary and the Regional government thinks it is totally wrong. Chairman Carr had some difficulty understanding how very significant decisions made at the Regional level, communicated to the government and be known to the bureaucrats doing the research, but have no impact on that research – other than be “documented”. Carr was close to aghast when he learned that the bureaucrats knew about the Region’s concerns which did not result in any comments to the study team from the Ministry. “Did it not occur to you to ask questions?”
 The Region and the city of Burlington are focused on the west area. And they don’t like the look of some of the plans that are being talked about. The Regional people apparently don’t believe that the documented concerns were to have all that much impact. Carr believes that the 22-0 regional council vote against any road through the Escarpment – a shut out as Carr put it – has to have an impact and not just be “documented”.
Mayor Goldring wanted to know if there was a matrix used to arrive at a decision. There was: it involved transportation performance, the environment, the economy and communities. Behind those four main points were a host of factors that impacted the recommendation the bureaucrats would make.
The nagging suspicion at the Region was that the EA recommendation would become a decision and Burlington would have a new road north of the current Dundas/Hwy 407 which would then be the new build to line – and with that, what the city has as a rural element would be gone.
 The bureaucrats have developed a building block approach and are looking at all the existing options. Group ! is made up of places where they think they can optimize the existing capacity. If that doesn’t provide what they feel is needed to move up to Group 2 and consider new expanded NON road infrastructure. If they can’t get the capacity they maintain they need the they move into groups 3 and 4 where they look at widening and improving existing roads and look at new transportation corridor. All the bureaucrats do, explained John Slobodzian, is collect information and, as he put it “we document”. The inference was that with all the documentation they are able to make recommendations that get passed along to the Ministry. Fine – but is there anyone within the Ministry who would know the file well enough to seriously review and weigh the recommendations made?
It’s sort of like a trial – where there is no defense offered nor is there an opportunity to put forward a defense. The prosecution, in this case a group of well-intentioned bureaucrats who have no skin in the game, collect evidence and then make a case.
The Region is going to have to change the way this “trial” is going and introduce some rules that allow them to make their counter case. It would be unwise to expect the Ministry to invite the Region in and ask them to argue against the recommendations.
Chair Carr said this was a political decision – which it is. And while the province is the senior level of government – the Region can, should, and will have to inject a different approach to how the decision is reached – or the Escarpment will get rolled over – just the way the Red Hill Expressway in Hamilton came into being.
The regional planning and public works meeting at which the latest maps were presented put the group at a distinct disadvantage. All they had to look at was small 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper that did not show the level of detail needed to fully understand what was being proposed.
The bureaucrats advised that the maps were on the web site, which is a little on the shabby side in terms of sharing information. The study team had an obligation to provide the best possible images and have them up on the wall in extra large format where they could be viewed and studied before there was a question and answer session. The regional people really didn’t know what they were looking at and couldn’t make much of an assessment. Perhaps that is the way the bureaucrats wanted it.?
Burlington and the other municipalities that make up the Region have learned to make a lot of noise early in the game and ensure that everything they say and do is “documented” – but that may not be enough.
Chair Carr, Mayor Goldring and Councillor Taylor are finding that large public meetings with 800 + people in the room while impressive, doesn’t seem to sway the people at Queen’s Park.
 Do you get the sense that Mayor Goldring on the left believes a word Minister Wynne on the right is saying? She was delivering an election promise. They find they get a rock solid promise from the Minister of Transportation during an election, who at that time was Kathleen Wynne. After the election Wynne gets shuffled off to Municipal Affairs and takes her promise not to have a highway cut through the Escarpment with her.
All these comments came out at a presentation made by the Ministry of Transportation Environmental Assessment Project Team that was telling a Regional Planning and Public Works Committee where they were with their Niagara to GTA Environmental Assessment study.
The presentation began with the statement from the leader of the Ministry project team that the status quo was not an option, certainly set the stage. John Slobodzian, project manager for the Environmental study said “there will be more than 1.2 million additional passenger and commercial vehicle trips per day in the NGTA study area by 2031. He added that “transit is an important part of the solution, and it is assumed that plans and investment in transit over the next 20 years will result in an additional 700 million transit trips being accommodated in the GTHA by 2031. However, he added, we cannot assume that those coming to the region will travel exclusively by bus or rail.
New highway capacity was going to be required. The study team was conducting more in-depth explorations of highway expansion options
With that many trips in the offing the Ministry of Transportation people believe a new highway is going to be needed. “Those involved in moving goods agree that while there is a role for every mode, transport by truck is and will remain dominant.” New highway capacity is required and the Escarpment route is seen as one of the possibilities.
The Region was told shortly after the last election that there would be “one window” for them to work through with the provincial government and that would be Municipal Affairs which was fine by the Region – they always felt they were getting the run around from Ministry to Ministry. The politician that made a promise as Minister of Transport got shuffled over to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs – which is supposed to be the Ministry the Region is to deal with. Not a lot of trust between these players.
Add to that was the concern that with Municipal Affairs saying one thing, there would be no road through the Escarpment, the people over at Transportation were still beavering away at the Environmental Assessment that had “more highways” written all over it and the Escarpment looking like it was a really good place to ram a road through.
Lurking behind all this is the fear that if a new highway is built it will just attract more traffic and that doesn’t sit all that well with Burlington..
The NGTA Environmental Assessment study team has spent just over $6 million to date on this project. The options they put forward have continued to shift – whether this is the result of concerns voiced by the Region is doubtful for John Slobodzian says that he is aware of the comments the Region has made as well as stories in the media. He adds that there is a lot of mis-understanding out there but Slobodzian has yet to invite the media in for an in-depth background session.
His position is that he is conducting a full scale Environmental Assessment and that to be true to the process, nothing gets taken off the table until all the data has been collected and all the evidence is in. With the data in hand – the study team then takes their findings to the public for comment..
What does this more in-depth exploration of highway expansion options” consist of? John Slobodzian says they will be:
Assessing the relative merits of widening key highways such as Highway 403 and the QEW to determine if this option is preferable to constructing a new highway corridor
Considering a wide range of criteria and factor areas — from transportation performance, to natural and cultural environments. The innovative ‘building block’ approach looked first at how best to use existing transportation facilities and expand transit/non-roadway infrastructure
The draft Strategy is based on full implementation of the Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) by Metrolinx and GO 2020 Strategic Plan. All the funding for that RTP is not in place yet and, as Councillor Dennison pointed out, with the province facing a $16 billion deficit, and the Metrolinx plans estimated to come in at about $55 billion – there is clearly a challenge to be met.
The funding is going to be someone else’s problem. John Slobodzian has to complete an Environmental Assessment and he wants to be true to that process.
He speaks of:
Adjustable speed limits (speed harmonization)
Transit use of highway shoulders to bypass congestion
Reversible (contra-flow) lanes and moveable barriers
Initiatives that support freight rail
Optimization and non-roadway improvements are a core part of the Strategy, but the focus of the additional analysis will be on the roadway elements.
An ongoing concern is with any recommendation to construct a new corridor connecting Highway 403 to the 407 ETR.
Assessment of the alternatives has been undertaken at too broad of a level, without adequate quantification of the impacts. The primary objective at this stage is more focused analysis based on more refined corridors to identify and assess more specific impacts
Getting that done will generally involve:
Identifying new corridor alternatives connecting to Highway 401, 407 ETR, and other highways such as Highway 6.
Development of a conceptual plan for widening existing highways
Identification of a preferred new corridor alternative and a preferred widening alternative, followed by evaluation to identify the preferred alternative overall
The overall preferred alternative, will form the basis for Phase 2. There will be individual EA if the preferred alternative is a new corridor. There will be a Class EA if the preferred alternative involves widening of existing highways. A class EA is less intensive than a full scale EA.
Are you still with me? The average tax payer will have a difficult time following and understanding all this.
There are some very serious questions to be asked about any recommendation to widen the QEW over a new corridor. John Slobodzian will review the impact of an 8 lane cross section – 6 general purpose and two HOV – and ask how far beyond 2031 would such a cross section provide adequate capacity?
A Stage two look at the QEW options would look at a 10 lane cross section.
As one reads all these ideas and possible options you wonder if we are just going to pave it all so that cars and trucks can move from one place to another.
At some point some really basic questions have to be asked. Have we got this right or are we heading down a path that leads to a place we do not want to go? A question being asked is: perhaps a planning horizon of 2031 is not long enough?
 All those grey wavy lines are corridors; places the EA study team think a new road could be built within. While the corridor markings are very wide the study team points out that any road would only be 170 metres wide. ONLY? Each of the options shows increased traffic coming into the area. W1 would be a corridor running up what is nowHwy 6. W2 and W3 take a more easterly approach. W4 is considerably south of the original road that would run through Burlington’s Escarpment. Some are suggesting future freight forecasts are understated. Some suggest getting trucks off the road all together and use rail or five some thought to loading trucks on barges and float them along the edge of Lake Ontario into the GTA.. We didn’t hear any out of the box, blue sky thinking being done. It seemed to be the just pave over fields and drive along new roads.
Every planner in the world knows that if you build a road – cars and trucks will find it and use. Stop building roads and people begin to look for other alternatives.
Environmental assessment studies are what bureaucrats do – they research and set out the options. The Region and particularly Burlington would like to feel that their views are being heard and that there was some real dialogue between the bureaucrats and the citizens.
While we all enjoy the summer the bureaucrats will draw lines on maps and put together documents and present it to us in the fall at one of those Public Information events. In the past these were not all that well attended, partially because they were held during the day.
The bureaucrats can expect a better community response this fall – we’ve learned a lesson.
Once the public consultation is complete the MTO people hope to put forward their final strategy late in 2012 or early 2013. The time line the study team is working on shows construction as something that is eight years away.
Let us make sure we play an active, robust role in the determination of the recommendations that go to the Ministry. The Region needs to work at getting stronger ties to the people that make the decisions at Queen’s Park. As chair Gary Carr put it – this is a political decision.
 Regional Chair Gary Carr told the provincial bureaucrats that the 22-0 vote against any new road being pushed through the Escarpment was basically a shut out. And Carr knows what a shut out means – he might have to lace up again to win this one. You want to hope that he does, The bureaucrats are correct in the need to complete the environmental assessment and not to take anything off the table until they have completed their work; to do so would be against all the rules used to do a full environmental assessment. The Region can probably live with that – what they can’t live with is the constant change in messaging and maps that come out with new corridors that were not seen before.
The most recent set of maps had one possible corridor shifting south of Dundas in Burlington, between Brant and Walkers Line. When Councillor Taylor pointed that out the response from the bureaucrats was – “that’s not supposed to be there – we will have to fix that”, comments like those don’t instill confidence.
John Slobodzian was given a rough ride. He will undoubtedly put his report together, discuss it with his superiors up the food chain. Chair Carr suggested he go one better and have his “political masters” watch the web cast.
If you’d like to watch the web cast – it’s available at www.halton.ca
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON July 2nd, 2012 The city got its first look at what the people behind the creation of a Community Engagement Charter (CEC) are thinking. We saw a rough structure that spokesperson Chris Walker called “bones with no meat on it yet”.
The meeting was part of a council Workshop where no one got very excited about the presentation being made. This was the first chance council got to see what the CEC people have been doing for six months. There wasn’t that much to show for their efforts.
 The Community Engagement team didn't manage to engage council members at a Council Workshop - once council member didn't ask a single question. They Mayor had difficulty staying focused. The coffee didn't help. The meeting had a quorum but not much more than that. Councillors Taylor, Lancaster, Craven and Meed Ward were at the table. Councillor Dennison was in the room but not at the table for an event which was held in the community at Tansley Woods. Councillor Sharman didn’t attend. The Mayor was there but – well the picture tells that story.
Community Engagement Coordinator Christine Iamonaco introduced her team, which we learned consisted of 24 active participants; 86 people monitoring Basecamp, which is a web location that posts all the documents and the flow of information used by the Engagement Committee. There were 50 people participating via the Basecamp set up.
That’s a total of less than 100 people who were attached to the team in some way. Clearly Community Engagement hasn’t caught on fire in Burlington. There were more media and politicians than there were public at one of the community meetings in Ward 1.
One can’t blame Iamonaco for the turnout – the idea or belief that the city needed to improve the level of citizen engagement isn’t that wide spread. No one cares – until there is an issue that impacts on them – then we get a turnout that fills an arena meeting room.
Let’s first take a look at what the Community Engagement Charter people want to see changed and then look at how things work in different parts of the city when there is a problem.
 Members of the Community Engagement Team do a debrief after their Council Workshop session. Chris Walker is in the center. They put forward a Vision Statement – these things can be atrocious and are at times just “happy talk” or an ideal that is so far from reality that they aren’t taken as serious. The Community Engagement Charter team put this forward in a vision statement. They saw it as a Big Hairy Audacious Goal to “make Burlington the most engaged and connected community in Canada involving all generations, socio-economic and cultural groups”. No wonder the mayor was yawning.
What does that mean and how do you do that? The Mission Statement, one step beneath the Vision , explained how this would “…provide Burlington citizens, city council and city staff a plain language living document, that promotes active and meaningful citizen engagement in City of Burlington planning, policy-making and decision making processes.” Whew!
The Charter the CEC people want to put in place will work from the Vision through the Mission statement and be truly unique because it will be “created by the community for the community with an implementation plan that aligns with the Strategic Plan, the Official Plan, e-government strategy and “operationalizes” the Community Engagement Charter.” When the Charter is in place it will be reviewed annually for a period of time and then reviewed when the Strategic Plan is given a review.
And at this point I expect I’ve lost whatever readership there was for this story.
How did we get to where we are?
The city spends tens of thousands of dollars every year on advertising – and gets very little in the way of a return. Everyone talks about how e-government is going to change everything for the better when we don’t know yet what the city is planning nor do we know what the community wants.
In his remarks Walker made a very good point on the Workshop setting not being open to any back and forth between the CEC team, the few members of the public in the room and the city council members. It would have been interesting to watch what happened had Walker asked for a change in the format of the meeting and see how the Clerk and the council members reacted.
Everyone in the room had great expectations for “e-government”; a concept that has as many definitions as there are people using the term. Burlington recently brought Brent Stanbury back on staff to get the “e-government” process up and going. Stanbury has been given some direction by Budget and Corporate Services General Manager Kim Phillips but those have not been shared with the CEC team or the public in general.
The Community Engagement Charter team, began by looking at every example of community engagement they could find and produced a three inch binder with page upon page of background material.
 Members of the public didn't get a chance to engage the council members on just what they wanted from a Community Engagement Charter. They came to the conclusion that Burlington’s existing practices are good and there are opportunities for enhancements. That’s not what the Shape Burlington report had to say when it was published. Several of the people on the CEC team were core members of Shape Burlington and it’s offspring Shaping Burlington. The fire would appear to have gone from the belly of the people who were there in the early days – back in April of 2010.
The framework they are working from emphasizes city council commitments and citizen responsibilities. They want to identify existing best practices and include engagement guidance for city staff.
The team has identified commitments city council has made and wants to ensure those commitments are met, which means some form of ongoing monitoring of what happens at city hall. Shaping Burlington has done very little in the way of monitoring what gets done at both committee and council meetings.
Setting out citizen responsibilities is the kind of thing that gets taught at the dinner table. Sort of like the Ten Commandments – I know what they are – maintaining them is my problem. Everyone knows what their civic responsibility is – the first being to vote and with a current 34% range turnout – well we know which direction we want to go in on that one
The Charter that gets produced is going to be a 20 page document- that’s a relief. A Citizens Responsibility Guide is a little presumptuous. Bring Commitments to Life – that’s one that needs to be unpacked.
The Charter Team wants to start with the four commitments the city has already adopted:
citizen involvement;
transparency,
accountability
and adherence to the public engagement continuum as set out in the IAP2 process the city has adopted.
The CEC team want the city to be open to new ideas – bit of a stretch there. Politicians will always say they are open to new ideas – but that’s about it.
Early and broader notification – YES!
Customer service – city hall has some ideas they are working through – but they appear to be doing so in a room by themselves. This is one where the CEC people could have a significant impact.
The Region of Halton has a citizens panel – they call it MVP – My Point of view. Burlington would be well served if it had such a panel – say 150 people selected randomly that they communicated with electronically from time to time. Every year they would renew the panel.
The CEC team could have, and still should, get out and do some polling – get out and ask people what they think and feel – be as interactive as you want the people to be. There is a tinge of the academic to much of what the CEC people are doing. Democracy is a messy, down at the street level business – it is noisy, there is nothing polite about it.
 Two of the city councillors were not at the table and one didn't ask a single question. Councillor Craven chose to be mute. Democracy tries to ensure that everyone’s needs are fairly met and that the rule of law overrides everything. Which is fine – but when your specific needs are being trampled upon (they closed off your street so that bicycles could drive up and down for a couple of hours) then it doesn’t appear all that democratic to you.
Two examples of what the city is doing to improve customer service are telling: There will eventually be a single cash counter. If you are there to pay a parking ticket and then buy a ticket for an event – you now get sent to different counters. Centralizing this will make things much more convenient. Good move.
Disseminating information: – there are some moves here that are troublesome. The city is shoving everything out to their web site – but the web site is not easy to navigate and the search facility is not user friendly. The city has brought back the person who created the internal COBNET used by staff to talk about things you are not supposed to read. This is a level at which the CEC people want to lean very heavily. Civil servants by nature don’t naturally share information. Ask a question and they will ask you why you want the information. That’s just the way they are built – but that doesn’t mean they have to stay that way. This is what Shape Burlington meant by that information deficit.
In their deliberations the CEC people brought forward a definition that I’d forgotten I knew – community capacity, which is the capacity a community has to participate and the level at which a community participates in the growth and development of the community.
As the CEC team puts “meat on the bones” of the framework they have in place one hopes they will see opportunities to set in place ways to increase that community capacity. This isn’t easy stuff to do but there are some pretty bright people within that 24 member active core group.
The CEC report suggested a pilot project to support neighbourhood development; experience shows those approaches don’t work. People will agitate when they are upset. People will organize when leadership appears. Councillor Meed Ward created a community advisory committee that works – they don’t always agree with her but she is open and listens. Craven has been doing it for some time in Ward 1.
Each of the council members has an organized relationship with their communities; some are better at it than others and each brings their personalities and their feel for their communities to this task. The wiser municipal politicians will develop and maintain the strongest possible relationship with their community. It’s the cheapest form of campaigning they are ever going to find and they get paid while they do it.
Meed Ward attached herself to the Save our Waterfront organization and used it to propel herself into office. She made the pier her issue and is closely identified with what happens to that project. In Burlington the level most people participate at is galas and fund raisers. You could be out almost every weekend of the year at some event. This city is very open to helping.
What it isn’t doing all that well is being a real meaningful part of the civic process – and a large part of that is because there has been no one pushing against the edge of the envelope. Burlingtonians just accept that whatever is going on at city hall is OK; that whatever is going on at the hospital is fine when there are very real concerns at city hall – our transit problems, determining what kind of a city we are going to be 10 to 15 years out when we have more seniors that have to be taken care of and we don’t have plans or capacity to take care of them.
And the 90 + people that died at the hospital because the place wasn’t kept clean tells you what was going on over there. Public institutions are a bit like children – they need constant watching. You have to say – “no, don’t do that, please do this, I would prefer that you do that”.
There does come a time when your children get it and don’t have to be watched in quite the same way. Your elected officials and civil servants have to be watched all the time. Not because you can’t trust them – but because they don’t have any of their own skin in the game.
Let me expand on that. The little guy who runs a shop on Brant Street or the car dealership on Fairview pays a lot of attention to the people who walk through their doors – because if those people don’t come back – those business people don’t eat quite as well.
The folks at city hall don’t have to be efficient; there is no incentive to be efficient – they don’t own the business. They will perform well if there is top notch senior level management people in place setting the standard. Burlington has not in the past been blessed with that level of talent at the city manager level.
This city just parted ways with a senior level manager because he wasn’t top notch. Civic administration needs to be groomed and made professional; doing that calls for a leadership that demands professionalism. A bylaw report got sent back recently to be “cleaned up” because it wasn’t good enough. That has to happen more often.
A city manager will catch those things and if he or she is doing their job – there will be phone calls made. In Burlington – if you work at city hall and you are doing your job – you get a little note from Jeff Fielding the city manager saying thank you. If you work at city hall and you don’t get a note during the year – you might ask yourself if you are as professional as you should be.
The Check List idea was a good one. The community could create a check list and then monitor the city’s progress and put the tick marks in the boxes and have them posted in a public place. (This is something Our Burlington will look into – we just might be able to do that.)
Early successes – here they were into stretching it mode. The Mayor speaking at an Innovations in Public Consultation and Engagement conference can’t be described as an “early” win. Describing Burlington as a recognized engagement leader is self-serving at best.
This city is still stuck at describing ourselves at Canada’s # 2 Best city to live in. Folks – that survey was a magazine circulation building exercise – something the people at Economic Development missed when they featured the #2 standing in a full page, full colour advertisement in a respected business.
The 26 people actively participating in the development of an Engagement Charter is just not a very impressive number and makes it hard to claim that there is large community involvement in this endeavour. That is not meant to diminish or dismiss the work being done – but let’s be frank with what the CEC team has managed to get done in six months.
How does a community express it concerns? How does a community take an active part in its development and growth? The first step is having a public that knows what it is talking about and that means keeping them informed.
And that basically was what the Shape Burlington report was all about. It said the city had an “information deficit” and that people didn’t know what was going on and that city hall made a lot of decisions without asking the public what they thought or felt.
The CEC team now takes the framework to the community. They have some plans for an innovative approach to talking to the public on the downtown car free Sunday, July 15th. They should certainly have a good crowd to work with.
More community engagement in September and then taking the Charter to the public for review in October. In December it becomes a report to city council where the CEC would like to see the document approved as city policy and procedure.
Funding is always important: will the city commit real long term dollars to community engagement or will the final report the CEC people submit get the “receive and file” that this interim report got?
Don’t expect city hall to lead a review of whatever comes out of this process – it will be up to the community to push for what they want – that’s a lot of work for 26 people to do. It has been done before however.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 14, 2012 The Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital held their Annual General Meeting and instead of being a real yawner – turned out to be a bit of a fun event with the newly elected chair, Stephen Friday showing not only a tie with vivid colours, something not normally seen in the medical community but also displaying a rich sense of humour. Thus guy might be fun to work with.
 Incoming JBMH chair Stephen Friday - with ties like that, you just have to like this guy.  A relaxed for chair, Susan Busby on the right talks to Board member Brenda Hunter. Susan Busby, a woman who has served the community for more than 17 years at JBMH, turned the gavel over to Friday but not before the hospital treasurer told the audience that there was a surplus of $22,000 for the fiscal year that ended March 31st.
Financially the hospital is one firm footing. The Foundation has $12 million of their $60 million in hand; they raised $295,000 at the Crystal Ball. The Hospital Auxiliary committed to raising $5 million which is a record for this city and probably for any other city near the size of Burlington.
The audience did everything but give President and CEO Eric Vandewall a group hug – can you see him handling that – and went on to hear what Mayor Rick Goldring had to say as their guest speaker.
Before the Mayor got going someone leaned toward me and said “Busby would make a very good Council member”. Wonder which ward she lives in?
The city and the Hospital are almost at the “sign the agreement” stage on how the $60 million the taxpayers are going to contribute to the re-development will be spent. Mayor Goldring in his comments pointed out just how big an expenditure that amount is for the city. “It represents about 50% of the annual tax levy. We will have to borrow to meet the commitment. Our current total debt for the city is approximately $90 million and this will have to be increased.” So for Burlington – this is not small potatoes.
There was a very nice letter from the provincial Minister of Health and Long Term Care, Deb Matthews to outgoing Chair Susan Busby that was framed and presented to her.
While the dollars are important Goldring was in the room to talk about a “healthy community” and didn’t limit his definition to health to how big are stomachs were or how we felt but saw healthy community as one where everyone was pulling together in the same direction.
The past year has been awkward for the city. Council didn’t like the idea of being asked to pay for a parking garage and also didn’t feel it was in any sense a partner with the hospital board. There was tension which Goldring doesn’t feel is part of a healthy community.
He pointed out that Burlington” residents identified the hospital as their number 1 priority by almost 70%. Residents are clearly willing to contribute, and if need be, see spending controlled in other areas of the municipality.”
Council however is responsible to its taxpayers and they are going to be diligent and ensure that funds are spent wisely. In other words the city wasn’t going to just write a cheque and leave it at that.
“The hospital and city staff, have been working towards a contribution agreement for about six months now and I believe we have found a way to make this work for all parties.”
“The agreement that we are working to finalize, will see the city contributing $60 million for equipment purchases for the hospital. This gives the residents transparency as to how their tax dollars are being spent.”
“The i’s are being dotted and t’s crossed and we are hopeful that the final contribution agreement will be brought to Committee the week of July 9th with approval anticipated at Council on July 16.”
 Burlington MPP Jane McKenna yukking it up with the girls at the JBMH annual general meeting. While the McMaster University decision to designate Joseph Brant as a teaching facility came as a bit of a surprise to the city Goldring pointed out that the McMaster Halton Family Medicine Centre will add significantly to the level of service at the hospital and provide additional accessibility to care for our community.
Goldring pointed out that the city is consistently ranked as one of the best places to live in Canada and he wants the hospital to reflect that.
Goldring went on to define his idea of a healthy community as being about more than the healthcare system. Using Canadian Senate Sub-committee on Population Health data he said about 25% of health outcomes can be contributed to our healthcare system.
The other major contributors are education and income, which together are estimated to account for 50% of health outcomes, and the physical environment which accounts for 10% of outcomes. Biology and genetics are thought to contribute the balance. Municipal government plays a significant role in the overall health of a community.
There was a time when municipalities owned and ran their hospitals; then the provincial government took over that responsibility and we appear to be going back a bit and looking to the municipality to be a bigger player, which the Mayor appears to welcome. And to be a player the city needs to be at the table.
Average household income in Burlington is $115,000 per year, which is 25% above the provincial average. 40% of Burlington households have an income over $100,000 .
However, poverty is a challenge. Although not fully evident to everyone in Burlington, we have almost 10% of the population living at or below the poverty line. We have over 3500 families living in poverty in our community. Our food banks have become a growth business in Burlington. Over the last two years demand at the food banks has grown by 20% per year.
The City provides affordable opportunities for all. Seniors centers’, libraries, public transit, recreation and cultural events all help to level the playing field and provide an improved and affordable quality of life leading to positive health outcomes. Municipal Government operates long-term care facilities and supports or provides certain mental health services. We work with the LHIN to fund and coordinate some of these activities, but perhaps not to the level that we each could. These all dramatically impact the health of our community.
With the City and Region involved in so many of the important areas that impact the overall health outcomes of the community, how should we be working better together?
And that was the critical question – because the hospital and the city have not been able to work together all that well. When it takes six months to work out how the city’s $60 million contribution is going to be spent – you know there are problems.
Goldring wants the hospital to think aloud with him asking
1. How do we define a healthy Community? What would it look like?
2. How would we measure it? What critical measurements would we focus on?
3. What objectives would we set? How would we establish objectives that were meaningful?
4. How would we prioritize and fund these objectives within our individual areas of responsibility? Would we be willing to give up anything within our silo for the greater good?
5. Could we work together, share information and be more effective and efficient?
6. Understanding all the bureaucratic roadblocks that exist, would we be willing to pilot solutions that make Burlington a Healthier Community?
The city and the hospital haven’t been able to do this so far.
 The hospital is now working flat out to get shovels in the ground by the end of the year and will take a site development plan to city council in the fall. The overall layout for the site is shown above. The near completion of the Redevelopment Memorandum of Understanding is a significant milestone”, said Goldring. “All of us need to be united 100% behind the work of the foundation and the campaign cabinet and be advocates and contributors in order for us to reach our local share target.
“Let us look at the redevelopment process as the beginning of a much bigger conversation within which we can leverage the positive goodwill in the community and the great work the city and region do so that Burlington will be not only the best city to live in Canada but the Healthiest City.
“That is the question I want to leave with all of us.”
Did they hear the question? Will they head the question? Time only will tell. There is a new chair that Goldring knows well and has worked with in the past. Stephen Friday certainly sounded as if he was open to a new working relationship. Hopefully he can bring about a better working relationship.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON June 12, 2012 One of the three General Manager position at city hall was declared vacant this evening. Acting General Manager of Development and Infrastructure will return to his home position July 3rd and take up the position of Executive Director of Finance – which means Joan Ford who has been filling those shoes, very well we might add, goes back to her old job and all the people in the department will move down one rung on the corporate ladder.
 City manager Jeff Fielding has made his first move on re-organizing his talent pool. How much more to come? City Manager Jeff Fielding had the City Clerk hand out a press release once Council had adjourned – there was no discussion on the changes. That had taken place two weeks ago at a Budget and Corporate Services meeting at which more than an hour was spent at a Closed Session of Committee to discuss a Human Resources related to the reorganization.
The City Manager had decided to keep the three General Manager structure which will now look like:
General Manager: Kim Phillips heading up what has been called Budget and Corporate Services will oversee:
Finance
Human Resources
Legal
Information Technology Services
Clerks
 Acting General Manager of Development and Infrastructure Steve Zorbas reutrns to Finance to pick up his old job. General Manager of what was called Development and Infrastructure, which is now vacant will cover:
Burlington Transit
Parks and Recreation
Burlington Fire Department
Local Board Liaison: Burlington Art Centre; Burlington Museums; Tourism Burlington; Burlington Public Libraries; The Burlington Performing Arts Centre
General Manager of what has been called Community Services will continue to be overseen by Scott Stewart. Parks and Recreation has been moved out of this division and put into Development and Infrastructure
Planning and Building
Roads and Parks Maintenance
Engineering
Transportation Services
Corporate Strategic Initiatives
Local Board Liaison: Burlington Economic Development Corporation; Burlington Chamber of Commerce; Burlington Downtown Business Association; Aldershot BIA; Burlington Hydro
“The city’s Executive Director of Finance, Steve Zorbas, had been serving as the Acting General Manager of Development and Infrastructure. Staff in the acting positions of the executive director, deputy treasurer, manager of budgets and policy and financial analyst, budgets and development, will return to their home positions in the coming months,” said the press release.
 Joan Ford knew her numbers inside out and developed perhaps the sharpest crew at city hall. Joan Ford, as Acting Executive Director of Finance, has developed an exceptional staff team using a nurturing, supportive approach that has worked very well. Some of those staff members are highly qualified and may want to look at other municipal jurisdictions. Finance isn’t going to be a happy place for the next little while.
The Parks and Recreation Department will be grouped in the same division as Burlington Transit and the Burlington Fire Department. Until the new General Manager is in place, Parks and Recreation will continue to report to General Manager Scott Stewart.
The acting fire chief, Dave Beatty will report to the city manager temporarily. The recruitment for the new fire chief to replace the retired chief will take place after the new General Manager of that division is in place. The city currently has three deputy fire chiefs – which might, we are told, be cut back to just two deputies.
There are other organizational changes that will come to the surface once city manager Fielding has his three General Managers in place and functioning as a team.
Clerks is going to see some modifications. In order to “develop synergies within divisions and increase corporate capacity to best reflect the needs of the community” as Fielding put it, there is going to have to be more focus on the customer and less on the taxpayer.
Good first step – more to come.
 By Martha Emonts
WOODSTOCK, ON May 23, 2012 For the past few weeks I have written over 12,000 words on the abduction and murder of Tori Stafford. I have tried to give you the one perspective that has been missing from most reports on the subject. While most articles have focused on what has happened to the victim, her family or the apprehended killers, I have tried to show you what Tori’s story has done to an average parent within the community and the community itself. Hopefully I have provided you with some insight into my hometown and how we felt about this tragedy. All that is left to tell you is about my experience in writing this and maybe to answer a few questions that have crossed your minds while reading the various sections.
I didn’t tell many people I was publicly writing about the murder. I kept it quiet for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most prominent was that that the case was very emotional for my hometown. There was a great deal of debate over almost every aspect of the case, the vast majority of it rife with some form of controversy. You have to understand in a small town like Woodstock, old fashioned values and justice are still brimming near the surface. You’ll find more “eye for an eye” than “turning the other cheek”.
The trial renewed discussion about capital punishment, with even my own family disagreeing over the “what should be“ fate of Tori’s killers. Those discussions were not pleasant and involved a lot of heated words and flustered conversations. Some of my family knew I was writing these segments and followed along religiously- maybe not always agreeing, but okay with what I wrote because I kept things fair. A couple would call to tell me I was wrong and I shouldn’t have said something a certain way. And I only told the more tolerant ones. Could you imagine telling the others? Yeah,…not likely.
Now you might be thinking; wouldn’t I be worried they might stumble across my article and see what I wrote? You’re right, I was worried about that. But steps were taken to avoid that issue all together. No I didn’t email viruses to their computers. I did something much more devious- I adopted a pen name. Elizabeth Maloney does not exist anywhere but in my mind. I`ll tell you a bit more about that in a minute.
For now, let`s go back to my clandestine existence of writing under a pen name about a topic that was highly controversial in my world. Articles were written late at night after my daughter was in bed, because with having a full time job, it was the only time I could put fingers to keyboard. Reviewing the heinous details of Tori`s tragic murder every night before bed, it’s a wonder I didn’t have nightmares. The articles took their toll on me, leaving me raw with emotion some nights.
One such night, I made the mistake of watching part of the movie `The Lovely Bones`. For those of you who have not seen the movie, its about a young girl who is murdered by a man in her neighbourhood and the story is about her transition from earth to heaven, watching her family and her murder from the place in between. There were so many similarities between the movie and Tori that I ended up in tears. It was probably the rawest and most emotional moment I felt while doing this series, but it was also the best. By the time I went to bed that night I felt I was meant to see that movie when I did. The little girl in The Lovely Bones resolves what she needs to and happily moves on to heaven feeling at peace with herself and filled with love for her family. That night, as the tears streamed onto my pillow, I imagined the same for Tori. I felt relief for that little girl. Knowing that she was probably looking down at us the same way and knowing she was finding the peace we were so badly struggling to find here on earth.
And on many nights my daughter went to bed puzzled at why her mother had insisted on hugging her several times before she went to sleep. Tori has reminded me that even though my daughter drives me absolutely crazy most of the time now, our time together is very precious. Neither my daughter nor I have been given a guarantee for tomorrow. The last thing I want her to hear from me at bed time is how much I love her and how she is the best thing I have ever done with my life. Tori has given me the greatest gift- the gift of appreciation for my child. In a world where we often put people off or let angry words get in the way, I have been given a powerful reminder of how we have to cherish every moment we can, because that moment just might be our last.
 Martha Emonts, mother of an 11 year old daughter who wrote of the trial that convicted the murderer of Tori Stafford. So today I put the last couple of things to rest. Today I let go of little Tori, hoping I did her some justice in my telling of the events. The little girl I have come to affiliate with my own child. I feel like Tori has become part of my life and having to let her go is proving more difficult than I had once thought. But let her go I must, because life must go on.
And lastly, today, I also put my pen name to rest. Over the weeks I have given you a glimpse into my thoughts and feelings, all while keeping you in the dark about my true identity. It was a necessity at the time but with the case resolved, the murderers firmly behind bars and everyone beginning to move on with their lives, it is time I fess up and do the same. These 12 segments you have loyally read for the past few weeks under the name of Elizabeth Maloney, actually belonged to me, Martha Emonts; thirty-six year old mother of one beautiful 11 year old daughter and a proud resident of the City of Woodstock.
Editors note: Martha Emonts works in Burlington and sent us a note about what she felt was an error on our part in a piece we had written – she was right. We corrected the mistake and in the process learned of her feelings about the trail then taking place in London, Ontario of the man accused of murdering 8 year old Tori Stafford in Woodstock, Emonts home town. While not a Burlington story, Emonts works in Burlington/Hamilton in the finance industry and we felt her raw emotions were worth publishing. Children being taken off the street and never again seen by their parents is, as Emonts’ put it: can happen anytime, anywhere, and the most gut-wrenching of all; to anyone.
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 By Sue McMaster
Co-chair, Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment.
BURLINGTON, ON May 23, 2012 The Stop Escarpment Highway Coalition (SEHC) is calling on the Provincial Government to stop wasting money, especially on a highway they promised not to build: the Niagara to Greater Toronto Area (NGTA) highway.
Despite facing immense fiscal challenges, the McGuinty government is quietly spending money on the NGTA highway that local governments and citizens oppose in part because it will divert money from transit and make traffic congestion worse by dumping more traffic onto the already overloaded GTA highways. Moving ahead with the highway also contradicts a Liberal pre-election promise.
 The purple lines are the ones you want to pay attention to - this is where they want to build a six lane highway.  Legend for map displayed. In August 2011, prior to the October election, then Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne announced that Ontario’s Liberal government would not build the western portion of the Niagara to GTA highway. “We were pleased that Minister Wynne saw the logic in our group’s position: a highway isn’t needed now and, with gas prices rising rapidly and congestion in the GTA, it certainly won’t meet Ontario’s needs in years to come. Evidently, that promise vanished after the election,” says Susan McMaster of Citizens Opposed to Paving the Escarpment (COPE).
Back in 2002 COPE, a member group of the SEHC, led public opposition to the NGTA, then known as the Mid-Peninsula Highway. Planned to run from Fort Erie, through Flamborough it would meet up with the 407 in North Burlington. “They said we needed a highway in the area, but their assessment and numbers didn’t add up,” says McMaster. “The GTA was and is experiencing significant congestion; anybody could look at a map and note that the highway is a bad idea.” Public pressure forced the Ministry of Transportation (MTO) to take a second look at the project and they conceded that no highway was needed – at least between the Fort Erie and Flamborough section, but the push remained to build a highway through the heart of rural Flamborough and Burlington – until Minister Wynne’s empty pre-election promise.
 Mayor Goldring didn't look as if he believed then Minister of Transportation Kathleen Wynne during the provincial election. There is a different Minister now and they are talking a different story. “Going ahead with the planning for this highway after they said they wouldn’t build it is pure folly” said Geoff Brock, Chair of SEHC. “An Ontario Government Agency, Metrolinx, has mapped future congestion in the GTHA. It is exactly where anybody in the GTHA knows it will be. Starting in Burlington and increasing Eastward on the way to downtown Toronto. This highway we’re talking about – skirts the Western end of Burlington – culminating at Burlington and putting more pressure on an already severely congested area.”
Brock notes that at a recent Transportation Forum organized by the Federation of Urban Neighborhoods (Ontario) in Markham the message was clear – congestion will not be solved by more roads. We’ll be adding 2.5 million people to the GTHA in the next 20 years, and we won’t solve our congestion problem with more expressways. “There was a lot of anger expressed at the lack of transit,” he says. Clearly there’s a disconnect between what the MTO is planning for transportation and what people want.”
The SEHC is ramping up the pressure on the Provincial government to honour their promise and to build transit. The SEHC wants Premier McGuinty to give the money being spent on the NGTA
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON – April 18, 2012 – It’s a start – but a web site isn’t going to get me on my bicycle to pedal down to city hall – not when I have to cycle through that war zone on Guelph Line between Mainway and Fairview. That is just a dangerous place to be and a large, very large part of Burlington lives north of the QEW.
A press release the city released said: “One of the goals city council identified in Burlington, Our Future was to increase the number of people who cycle, walk, and use public transit for recreation and transportation,” said Mayor Rick Goldring. “We are providing the facilities and encourage the community to take action and use them.” Sorry your worship – but I`m not buying that one. I see far too many parking lots full and your administration has a policy that pays for staff parking. Need to be quite a bit tougher if you want real change.
The addition to the city web site of an environmental section isn’t going to do much to bring about change – but take a look at what the city is trying to do. City of Burlington is launching a new and improved environment section on the city’s website www.burlington.ca/environment.
There are bike lanes on Guelph Line and there will be lines painted on Walkers Line and Appleby Line later this year but as I travel those streets I don’t see very many bicycles being used. A few though and it does all has to start somewhere.
Getting Burlingtonians out of their cars is not going to be easy – some very creative and imaginative thinking is going to have to be done to come up with alternatives that offer an alternative people can live with.
One of the events that will make a change in both attitude and the climate we are going to have in the future is the 300 trees that will be planted out along North Shore Road opposite LaSalle Park and down along the waterfront near the marina.
 Thousands of people will be out in the community picking up trash. Now if we can teach people to look for places other than the streets and trails to toss the cans and the coffee cups there will be less to clean up. The Burlington Green Youth Network will be out early Saturday morning, Earth day preparing the site and laying out the trees that will be planted. They expect some 60 people to show up to plant the trees.
Burlington is hosting their big annual Community Clean Up, Green Up Event Saturday April 21st run by BurlingtonGreen. This annual citywide event provides an important (and fun) opportunity for citizens, schools, groups and businesses to come together and take pride in our City by cleaning it up.
Literally thousands of people will be out gathering up trash that has accumulated around the city. Last year a record number of participants (more than 5000) signed up to participate and cleaned up Burlington by collecting: 2800 kg’s of garbage, 25 tires, 85 kg of metal that was recycled, 200 kg recyclables, 2 Green totes with compostable paper coffee cups & dirty newspapers, 12 bags of yard waste plus LOTS more litter collected by schools & businesses.
Sign up today and show pride in your city at https://www.burlingtongreen.org/
The following is a list of places where clean up crews will be working: Centennial Bikeway from Martha to Sherwood Forest. ( could be done in 10 sections) ie 1 group from Guelph Line to Walker’s Line Beaches, Prospect Walkway across from Canadian Tire., Nelson Bike Park Dirtjumps, Kerncliff Park, Fairview & Maple s.e.corner, Ontario Street pathway to Richmond, Sheldon Creek, Sherwoord Forest and Tuck Creek
When the trash has been collected everyone is invited to join the Eco-Celebration that will take place outside city hall from noon to mid-afternoon. There will be a BBQ on site and a chance to win great eco-prizes.
Raw Materials will have a booth where you can bring along your used household batteries to be properly disposed.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON April 4, 2012 You can still see the geek in the guy as he talks about a pilot project that will help get the young rowdies off the street when Burlington`s downtown bars close at around two in the morning. The service Scott Wallace of Burlington Taxi is developing is about as non-tech as you can get and is best described as something between a paddy wagon and an ambulance.
Scott Wallace, a software developer before he got into the taxi business – and there is a connection between the two – at least there was for Wallace, appeared before a Council committee asking the city to go along with him on a pilot project that would provide a service allowing young people who have had too much to drink to be able to drive, and perhaps not enough cash in their pocket to pay for a cab and not prepared to give the parents a call,
 The 15 passenger van will serve as a cross between a paddy wagon and an ambulance and will charge $7 to get the rowdies home - safely. The service that will run as a pilot from early May to late August will consist of two vans that can hold up to 15 passengers each. One will make an eastern run while the other handles the western side of the city. While the details are still being worked out, the thinking is to have a couple of spots where young people can gather and know, that is where the van will be to drive them home. The trip home will cost $7.
Something in the order of 300 people pour out onto the streets at 2:00 am – the challenge is to clear the area as quickly as possible which means getting them into vehicles they aren’t driving before they do any serious damage.
Getting those with too much beer in their belly`s off the streets of the downtown core has been a challenge. Attempts to put this kind of a service in place during a previous administration at city hall didn’t get much past square one. This Council seems quite prepared to encourage the pilot and listen to the proposal, which has the backing of the Restaurant Association and the Burlington Downtown Business Association.
Wallace is very quick to make the point that “this service is not THE solution to the problem – it is part of the solution, or at least he thinks so and he is prepared to put some time an energy into the idea.
Are there risks involved? There certainly are. The kids that will use this service may have been Boy Scouts or Girl
 World headquarters for the 50 car + Burlington Taxi fleet. Gearing up to provide a service that will get the bar closing crowd home cheaply and safely. Guides when they were younger but with far more beer in them than makes any sense they become noisy and tend to want to topple mail boxes and pull shrubs from front lawns – usually after trying to water the plants – if you know what I mean.
“For the most part they are decent kids – just out having their version of a good time and they have to be accommodated”, explains Wallace who lives in the downtown core and is often out for a walk late in the evening and is fully aware of how much noise this crowd creates. He sees it as part of life in a city that has a part of town where there are bars and clubs.
 Possible pick up spot for the bar closing crowd - they're open until 3 am Friday and Saturday. The disruption created by these young people gets heard at Council committee meetings about once a month – the interesting thing is that no one mentions the one obvious and cost effective solution. Put more police on the street walking a beat in the bar area. There is nothing that settles a noisy, drunken youth down faster than a big beefy cop within sight. It would take four officers walking a small area for a couple of hours to settle things. Many people comment about the lack of adequate police service but that’s about as far as it goes. Just talk. Might the city of Burlington not petition the Regional Police Chief for more “feet on the street”?
Will there be bouncers in the vans ? – no says Wallace “but every vehicle has a camera that runs all the time as well as two way sound – so if there is a problem the action gets captured on video and the dispatcher knows instantly and is a button on a phone away from a call to the police.”
Burlington Taxi video footage has been used by Crown Prosecutors in the past – and, as Wallace puts it – some of these kids are not the brightest lights and they don’t realize how much technology we have going for us.
“This service isn’t going to be a money maker for us, says Wallace. “Some of my drivers would rather I didn’t put the vans out on the street – it would leave more of a passenger pool for them”. Scott thinks the city need a service like this that gets kids out of the core quickly – in this case 15 at a time in each direction – that’s 30 kids that aren’t whooping it up on the streets.
“We are just a part of the solution” says Wallace. “We need buses out on the street but the people at transit haven’t been able to meet this need” – bus service ends at 11:00 pm in Burlington. Burlington Taxi feels it can meet part of the need.
Which is what Scott Wallace is really all about. He talks about community service, social responsibility and adds “this is a great town”. I’m doing my bit to keep it that way.
Wallace created, developed and then sold a software development company that focused on taxi dispatching and vehicle tracking. “We’ve got GPS in every vehicle and software that allows us to log every trip and the revenue it produces which enables us to run a tight operation.” That operation is a fleet of more than fifty cabs, most painted a bright yellow you can’t miss.
 The bar crowd special - probably all cash fares but plastic is accepted. Burlington is a little different than many cities in that it has just corporate taxi operations – there are no independent operators. Wallace explains that a cab from Hamilton can drop off a fare but they aren’t supposed to pick up within Burlington and they don’t take calls from the city. This corporate fleet approach gives the city tighter control over the taxi business – rates are approved by the city.
Wallace continues to go to taxi conventions and is in touch with the industry – knows where the new ideas are being tried out and what can and usually cannot work. “People always want us to put more cabs on the street to meet those rush periods – but that doesn’t make economic sense. While every car is not out on the road every hour – the objective is to keep every cab out for as long as possible.”
Scott Wallace is one of those people who arrived in Burlington before the age of ten and while he has been away for periods of time growing his career he has always come back and can’t understand why anyone would want to live anywhere else.
Wallace says: “We’ve done the research and we are pretty sure this will work. We feel it’s certainly worth a pilot project.” And we will know next week if city council sees it the same way. Wallace got past the committee stage quite easily.
 REVISED
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON March 23, 2012 It has the potential to be one of those David and Goliath things – the little guy going up against the big developer who hides behind numbered corporations with lawyers galore involved.
Richard Szymczyk, a Queensway community resident fought along with his neighbours for a different kind of development in his community. A developer bought up six properties that had small tidy bungalows on lots that were half an acre in size. He asked the city for a zoning change to permit the building of a total of 78 townhouses on the assembled land. There were public meetings, community input, reports from the Planning Department – all the usual stuff surrounding a change in a community.
 One of six houses that have been demolished to make way for a 54 unit townhouse development the community is opposed to. Community appeals city zoning decision to the OMB. The city eventually settled on 54 units and thought the matter was a done deal. So did the developer – but that`s when Richard Szymczyk said “not so fast” and appealed the city`s decision to the Ontario Municipal Board.
Few people were even aware that the Queensway community existed before the development application came before city Council. Then when the Bridge over the CN railway tracks that defines the southern edge of the community had to be closed because it was deemed unsafe everyone in the city knew about the place and the city was certainly paying more attention as well. They have decided to spend close to $400,000 to do a five year patch on the bridge and have made a mental note that sometime after that five year period they are going to have to come up with something in the order of $3 million to either put up a new bridge or tunnel under the railway tracks – but that is in the far off future and that kind of thinking and headache gets left to the city treasurer who has to find the money to pay for these things.
 Community residents have held up the construction of these homes as they fight a city decision to change the zoning on six properties. Right now the city, through the OMB, is going to have to deal with Szymczyk who is getting ready to put on his armour and do battle with AMR Homes, known as 1066834 Ontario Limited which seems to be attached to another numbered company that starts with the numbers 938
Szymczyk felt the rezoning was a mistake primarily because of the significant increase in density and the total lack of compatibility with the rest of the community to which Szymczyk added traffic safety issues.
The planner who represented the developer argued that the development fit in very nicely with the provinces Places to Grow policy that requires Burlington to come up with a significant number of new housing units. At the time several members of city council was just getting a handle on their jobs and appeared to take the view that growth was required and the Queensway community was as good a place as any to plunk down some townhouses. The location was very close to the GO station which would give people access to good transit – heck they wouldn’t need a second car in this location.
The arguments for the development and the arguments for cutting it down to size or getting rid of it all together get made before the OMB hearing on April 18th – 10 am in Room 247 at city hall. The Queensway community is fresh from winning the fight to have their bridge repaired. They had eight people delegate at a council committee which included young girls reading poetry and very upset young mothers taking several council members to task over their attitude and comments.
The OMB hearing might find itself facing a handful of angry residents. If it were a weekend or evening event they would pack the room for sure. What the “guys on the other side” have failed to adequately contend with is Szymczyk himself. He was at one point in his career secretary to John Boich when he was with the school board and any one who could work for Boich and last more than a year is someone to be respected and in some circles feared.
Szymczyk was a school principal and taught at the Fishers Corners School that once served the community but was declared surplus and then torn down to make way for a widened QEW.
Szymczyk has the capacity to be very, very direct. Along with his issues with the planning “mistakes” he wants to know why he got telephone calls from someone in the developers office. Szymczyk takes privacy very seriously and getting his personal telephone number is harder than pulling teeth from a hen. Szymczyk is convinced someone at city hall, he suspects it was within the Planning Department, gave the developer his phone number.
 This school was built in 1872 to replace the original log school built in 1835 on one acre of Peter Fisher's farm.The first school, at the corner of Guelph Line and the Middle Road (now the QEW), had been called Fishers Corners School. This more architecturally elegant school was named the Grove Academy, in honour of the bush surrounding it, but continued to be called Fishers Corners. It burned down in March 1924 on a Tuesday afternoon when, owing to the teacher's illness, the school was closed.A third school was built in 1925 and served the area until the QEW overpass was built. Glenwood Public School replaced it in 1946. The lawyers for the developer asked the OMB to cancel the hearing because, they claimed, Szymczyk no longer lived in the community and therefore had no interest in the matter. Szymczyk responds rather haughtily that where he lives is nobody`s business and that he has a right to appeal a city decision if he thinks the change in zoning was a mistake. Trying to catch Szymczyk on a technicality is probably a mistake.
It should be quite a hearing. It certainly won`t be the typical dry, drawn out event – those who are in the room can expect some good theatre. Szymczyk’s witness list will prove to be interesting. And someone in the city’s Clerks office should begin preparing an answer for the question: Who gave out Richard Szymczyk’s telephone number and why was it given out?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON March 20, 2012 Jonathan Swift published all of his satire under pseudonyms – James Smith chose to be right out front and direct with his comments before a Council meeting that was getting ready to pass the Current Budget for 2012. Council was not pleased.
One of the bigger issues at Council was what to do with transit. Many feel that if a bus route runs empty half the time then the sensible business thing to do is shut it down and social responsibility be damned.
Smith, an architectural design director who specializes in landscapes and small environments who is also part of the team that is struggling to save the Freeman station from demolition went before Council to commend them for the Imagination, Courage and Leadership. That doesn’t happen very often so the media listened very carefully.
Smith said it took imagination to shave half a million dollars from the gas tax money that gets transferred to the city each year and plowing it into paving cul de sacs, which as he pointed out is a French word for a road that doesn’t go anywhere.
 Is there space on these library shelves that is empty? If so - the funds to pay for that space gets transferred to the shave and pave program. Smith was just getting wound up when he added, rather deliberately, that the gas tax, “despite what some may think, is not a Latte sipping, bike riding, transit loving, pink leftie tax” and it should be used for things that use gas. Council had previously taken a chunk of gas tax money and moved it out of transit over to their newest money saving tool, the shaving and paving of our roads.
Smith pointed out that he felt it took a great deal of imagination to present (with a straight face) a rationale for the use of funds designed to mitigate climate change to paving cul de sacs. He felt Council should be applauded for their courage in moving $500,000 out of transit to road improvements while the transit review is underway.
Leadership was given special treatment. Smith explained that it takes true leadership to make a commitment to public transit while insisting transit is run more like a business and requiring greater cost recovery and at the same time reducing investment. In the retail world, Smith added, “this is known as bait and switch”. Ouch!
 James Smith just might have come up with a way to use the technologically "swift"but financially expensive Presto Card to much wider use. Given these examples of Imagination, Courage and Leadership Smith took a page from Jonathan Swift to make what he called a couple of modest proposals. Shave and Pave the libraries he suggested. They are empty of people from time to time – shave and pave a few dollars from that service, it isn’t always used.
He went on to suggest there were other opportunities for a real display of courage. The washrooms and the elevators are not always used – but rather than close a few of them down, after all like buses they aren’t always used, require people to use their Presto card to get on an elevator or use a washroom.
James Smith just might be on to something here.
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON, March 14, 2012 One of the best urban thinkers in North America is coming to Burlington in April and will be the first speaker in Mayor Rick Goldring’s 2012 Inspire series.
Ken Greenberg is an architect, urban designer, teacher, writer, former Director of Urban Design and Architecture for the City of Toronto. Greenberg has played a pivotal role in public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe for the past three decades. He has focused on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning.
With Burlington chewing away on a Beachway Master Plan, a Transit Master Plan and gearing up for the next review and revision of the Official Plan and toiling away at the same time on its Downtown Core vision, Greenberg’s visit could not be more opportune.
The event is to take place April 11th in the Studio Theatre at the Performing Arts Centre. That space holds just 200 people – so register now if you want a seat. When Andre Picard, one f the country’s leading health policy thinkers spoke last year there weren’t a lot of empty seats.
 If designer Greenberg were advising Burlington on what to do with our Beachway would he suggest something similar to what he did for Toronto’s Harbourfront? For over three decades Greenberg has played a pivotal role on public and private assignments in urban settings throughout North America and Europe, focusing on the rejuvenation of downtowns, waterfronts, neighborhoods and on campus master planning, regional growth management, and new community planning. Cities as diverse as Toronto, Hartford, Amsterdam, New York, Boston, Montréal, Washington DC, Paris, Detroit and San Juan Puerto Rico have benefited from his advocacy and passion for restoring the vitality, relevance and sustainability of the public realm in urban life.
During that three decades of experience, Greenberg has managed large multi-disciplinary staff and consultant groups for both the public and private sectors. He applies a holistic approach to city building, crossing traditional boundaries and working in team settings collaborating with many talented professionals from a variety of disciplines. In each city, with each project, his strategic, consensus-building approach has led to coordinated planning and a renewed focus on urban design. He is the recipient of the 2010 American Institute of Architects Thomas Jefferson Award for public design excellence and the author of Walking Home: the Life and Lessons of a City Builder.
To fully appreciate what Greenberg brings to this Inspire session a closer look at some of his projects and their relevance to Burlington is worth the effort.
He did the Harbourfront Center Master Plan, Toronto, ON, he also did the FilmPort Toronto Film Studios complex on the Toronto Waterfront, Toronto, ON
While this one didn’t go very far he was the mind behind Master Plan for Adaptive Re-Use of the Hearn Power Plant, Toronto ON
 If McMaster University had not reneged on their agreement with Burlington to locate a campus in the downtown core – might this have been what Inspire speaker Greenberg would have designed? Greenberg did the Master Plan for Ryerson University, Toronto, ON as well as the Master Plan for University of Toronto, Toronto, ON and the Master Plan for York University, Toronto, ON. He also did the Master Plan for the Renewal of Regent Park, a major public housing project in Toronto
 Inspire speaker Greenberg who will be in Burlington April 11 was a consultant on the thinking behind how Toronto would make the Don River a more integral part of the city. Greenberg is currently working on the Lower Don Lands, planning for the mouth of the Don River at Toronto Harbour, addressing urban design, transportation, naturalization, sustainability and other ecological issues, Toronto, ON
The work Greenberg did on the Transit Hub Studies for Port Credit and Cooksville, Mississauga, ON should make interesting listening for the Burlington transit people
Other speakers in the Inspire series included Chris Hume Architecture critic at the Toronto Star, Gil Penalosa, Tom Rand, author of Kicking the Fossil Fuel Habit and Andre Picard who suggested that Burlington might want to take a second look at what it really needed in terms of hospital renewal.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON March 6, 2012 When your city Council began the process of putting together the budget for the 2012 fiscal year they instructed staff to come back with a document that would result in a tax increase of between 2.5% and 3.50% The draft budget called for a tax increase of 3.44%.
During the past month Council and staff have been going through a process that has resulted in a committee level budget approval calling for a tax increase of 3.29% over the tax increase for 2011 – that one was less than 1%.
 Budget committee meetings were chaired by Councillor Craven who did a superb job of keeping Council members focus and moving through the agenda quickly and efficiently. What does all this mean to you? You will be adding $16.96 to your tax bill for every $100,000 of current value assessment attached to your home. If your house is assessed at $300,000 your tax bill will have an additional $50.88 cents on it
Mayor Goldring said during his election campaign that he would work to hold the increases during his term of office to not more than 10% during the four year period. During the budget discussions Rick Craven, chair of the budget committee, pointed out the 10% was a political statement and not council policy. With a .9% increase in 2011 and a proposed increase of 3.29 % in 2012, the Mayor will be at 4.19 half way through his mandate.
In 2011 Councillor Sharman wanted to see a 0% tax increase – that demand really shook up Council. The lowest demand we got this year was a 2.99% increase from Councillor Dennison. The 3.29% increase agreed to at Committee will only go higher when it gets to Council for final ratification.
The final figure will get determined at the March 19th Council meeting and the tax bills will go out late in April.
Watching a city craft their budget is a fascinating part of the democratic process. In Burlington it began with the Mayor stating that he would be happy with a tax increase that was somewhere between 2% and 3.5% and city Council sent staff a direction instructing them to pour over every department’s expenses and work towards a figure that fell within that range. Getting to where we are with this budget has been an interesting and at times exasperating process.
Once staff had been given their basic instructions they beavered away over the books. In Burlington, the Capital Budget gets done first – that’s the document that sets out the spending that has to be done over an 10 year time frame and set out what has to be allocated each year. Building a bridge, constructing an underpass, replacing a building. The replacement of the Drury Lane Bridge is an example of a capital expense.
With longer term need set out, Council then buckled down to figure out what they need to get through the next 12 months. In Burlington 90% of the revenue raised through the tax levy is spent on salaries and benefits – so this gets a very close look.
Last year the management of the FTE (Full time employees) was such a mess that Council put a cap on what the city manager could hire. Councillor Rick Craven felt this instruction seriously hobbled the city managers ability to run the city. But hiring had gotten so seriously out of hand the previous two years that Council put the hobble in place. Whenever there is going to be a new hire, the department looking for a new person will have to make a sound business case. Lifting the staffing cap was, in the eyes of Budget Committee chair Rick Craven, the biggest and most important decision made by the committee.
Council had a fine little spat last week when Councillor Taylor said he was opposed to going into closed session to discuss what the staff salary increase would be and if Council did that he was going to leave the Council Chamber and hold a press conference in the atrium.
When Meed Ward was first elected it looked as if she was going to champion a move away from these closed sessions but her desire for higher office proved to be stronger than her journalism degree and for the most part she has been silent when it comes to closed sessions.
Staff had settled on a general salary increase in excess of 2% when they knew that the region had settled on 2%.
Meed Ward did attempt to have the free parking city hall staff get taken away; that didn’t fly and her attempt to have it phased out over three years didn’t get the support of her fellow Councillors either.
Same thing happened to her attempt to have $100,000 removed from the city manager’s Staff Training budget.
Jack Dennison moved back into city hall – that’s going to cost you an additional $15,000. Up until very recently, actually close to the time when council members got moved to the 7th floor, where the accommodation was a lot nicer than the digs they had in offices that were windowless for some council members and their staff were stuck in a basement. Prior to the move to the 7th floor Dennison did most his work out of his health club and didn’t need a full time assistant.
During the part of the process that had Council members digging into very specific spending items Councillor Dennison managed to carve out an additional $600,000 for his Shave and Pave approach to saving the city a bundle and getting our roads to where most taxpayers think they should be.
The city instructed each of the local boards, the Library, the Burlington Art Centre to keep expense increases to not more than 2%, which made it all a little tough for groups like the Sound of Music Festival who came in rather late in the game and asked for an increase that passed the 50% level. He was rebuffed but expect the SOM people to be at Council to try again.
 Mayor Goldring hunkers down with staff from the treasury department delving into the specifics behind a particular recommendation in the Capital Budget. In order to allow Councillors to get some sense of what cuts at different department levels would mean, the financial ninjas in the treasury department produced a spread sheet application that would allow Council members to cut an amount or add amounts and see instantly what the tax implications would be. It was a sort of high tech executive toy they could play with at home at night. When the little electronic memory sticks with the application were handed out Council members stood up and waved the things around like flags. Councillors Meed Ward and Taylor were like children at a birthday party who had just been given a loot bag.
 Director of Engineering Tom Eichenbaum looks over a drawing that Councillor Meed Ward needed additional information on. Italo Di Pietro's body language tells where he is with this conversation. He sits to the right quietly looking over Capital Budget numbers. Sometime after the bound budget projections and recommendations are put in the hands of Council members the staff congregate in a meeting room and gather in groups at different tables where they wait for Council members to sit down with them and ask detailed questions about specific expenditures. Because all the relevant people from a department are on hand Council members get all the information they need and staff get an indication of where a Council member might be going with a particular expense. The room had the feel of a Middle Eastern bazaar where merchants trade with one another.
A couple of weeks later Council members get the Current budget – this is a much bigger book and tends to get more attention from the public, especially groups that want something specific from the city.
For example this year the Burlington Performing Arts Centre was at the public tax trough seeking additional funding that was not in their original budget document.
For each of the budgets, Capital and Current, council members are able to have an item placed on the Agenda of the Budget and Corporate Services Committee. Organizations or individuals that want to delegate on an item can also appear.
Last year, freshman Councillor Marianne Meed Ward took up most of the oxygen in the council chamber with a rather long list of items she wanted to have council discuss and ideally get them to go along with her view and have the staff recommendation changed. While Meed Ward had a number of items on the list this year, it was Councillor Dennison who looked for every possible nook and cranny he could scrounge dollars out of and have re-allocated to the repair of the roads in Burlington. Meed Ward did take a run at reducing the city managers staff training budget by $100,000 but that didn’t fly.
The Fire Department needed and asked for funds to hire additional firemen for the newly opened station # 8 in the Appleby Line Upper Middle Road part of the city. He was told to get by using overtime, which will only work for so long. Men and women asked to take on too much overtime, experience overtime fatigue. Not the kind of problem Fire Chief Shayne Mintz wants to have to deal with. This one may get some additional consideration at the full Council meeting on March 19th.
Transit is going through a transition stage and working through the public participation stage of a consultants report and the creation of a Master Plan. The opportunity to beef up the revenue side by increasing bus fares was lost when Council couldn’t agree on how much and when a rate increase should be implemented. But this one is going to be coming back to Council – maybe even at the full Council meeting March 19th.
The city is short millions on the amount available to repair roads and if you drive the city street you can see and feel the problems with our roads. Dennison has become a champion of the “shave and pave” approach to road repair. If the city maintains a regular schedule of shaving a small portion of the surface of a road and laying down new asphalt the need to re-build a road at some future date, at a significantly higher cost, can be avoided.
The problem for Burlington is that it has not put enough money into the roads repair budget and as a result the city is now years behind in the work that needs to be done. The longer the repair work is left undone the more expensive it gets. Eventually the road has to be rebuilt completely.
 Councillor Taylor has been doing this sort of thing since "the day he used to have hair, it was black then" and knows the numbers as well as anyone in city hall. If what Dennison is proposing holds through the March 19th Council meeting, where the budget will get cast in stone, there will be enough money to get all the work scheduled for up to the year 2014 done this year. That may sound like we are getting ahead of ourselves – but that’s not the case. We are so far behind that it was going to take years to catch up – which meant years of complaints from tax payers.
Ward 4 Councillor Jack Dennison, who could probably run for Mayor on the strength of what he has done for roads this budget, took the $600,000 staff had recommended for road repairs and dug out more – a total of $600,000 additional dollars for a total of $1.2 million.
Dennison had Budget committee go along with taking the $400,000 that was scheduled for Strategic Land Acquisition and moving it into road repair and replaced that amount with part of the $4 million plus surplus from the 2011 accounts. Dennison was just slicing and dicing and looking for anything that wasn’t nailed down.
As a result the terrible roads condition list will get cleaned out – all done – but Dennison hasn’t stopped. There are funds in the Capital budget which has been approved – like a street that is going to get sidewalks on both sides of the road – Jack wants to cut some of those back to sidewalks on just one side of a road and use the funds saved for road repair. He thinks he can scare up an additional $600,000, for a total of $1.8 million in new money going into road repair.
The “shave and pave” process Dennison has taken on as his personal mission, has a machine that goes along a street and shaves off an inch and a half of asphalt that is immediately replaced by two inches of new asphalt. The result is a road that was beginning to deteriorate is now freshened and good for many years.
Goldring is seen to be doing a fine job as Mayor and has taken a Council that was once very fractious and molded it into a team that pulls together quite well for the most part; however he may find himself having to do even better in 2014. One can almost hear candidate Dennison talking about how good a steward he was of the tax payer’s purse when he not only kept taxes low (he wanted the increase to be 2.99%) but ensured that the money collected was spent on road repair, the city’s biggest problem.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON, February 15, 2012 In his State of the City message in January the Mayor announced a new graduate internship program, innovateBurlington. The objective is to help drive growth and innovation in Burlington by using talented young graduates to complete projects for local companies that help drive their business forward.
The project has some very interesting potential and appears to be one of those situations where everything came into line at the same time and it was relatively easy to go from concept to becoming operational.
The idea was part of Rick Goldring’s election platform – a promise he is delivering upon you might say. The Burlington Economic Development Corporation, the organization that keeps tab on the health of the city’s economic development, is the lead on the project and will be asking the private sector for the most part if they have projects they would like to get started on or complete but for a number of reasons have not been able to get off the ground.
The Mayor’s idea was brought to fruition by an Advisory Board made up of Cheryl Jensen, Paul Bates, C. Brotten, Keith Hoey, Catherine Mills, Nigel Jacobs, and Mike Jane who handed off the facilitation of the program to the Burlington Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) who will administer the program during the formative years until it is clear how the program is going to be taken up by the private sector.
Kyle Benham, working with Anita Cassidy, )we will tell you more about her in a moment), take the needs a company has expressed and looks at the graduate students they are working with and looks for a match.
The students in the program are being given an opportunity many of today’s graduates feel they need to kick start their careers. The deal for the students is that they are employed for a period of time – they get paid $23.00 an hour and work four days a week with their “client” and spend the fifth day in a classroom being mentored by some of Burlington’s success stories.
 A piece of plastic got turned into a multi-national corporate endeavour. Innovative financing and a measure of moxie made it all come together. Foxcroft is going to share his experiences with interns taking part in the innovateBurlington program. Ron Foxcroft, the basketball referee who turned a crisis, a piece of plastic and some entrepreneurial moxy into an internationally successful company. Today’s students need time at the feet of people like Foxcroft – who also happens to be a heck of a story teller.
BECD’s Benham has taken the program one step further. He and Cassidy look for situations where students work as team and for perhaps more than one client. They get to share ideas and network in a way they just can’t when they are out looking for work.
Will some of the students find full time work out of the program? That could happen but it is not the core objective. The purpose is to give students an opportunity to get some experience and to expose the private sectors to students who were educated in the Burlington area and have a great deal of talent.
In these lean times many companies have put some projects on the side to focus on keeping the revenue side alive and healthy. Projects that tended to be “future focus” got set aside either because existing staff just didn’t have the time or because a company wasn’t in a position to hire a new full time person.
BEDC has partnered with the Centre for Skills Development & Training and McMaster University. Students will take their mentoring classes at the Centre and will, from time to time take in a class at McMaster.
What made this program close to perfect from BEDC’s point of view was that they were able to administer a program that is relevant to their base and use it as another feature for companies looking at Burlington for their operational base or perhaps their headquarters.
One of the problems the city has had is enticing new corporate entities to a city the Mayor and the people that oversee the growing of the city know is a great place to live and raise a family. One of the problems they are up against is a form of apathy that says – “things are fine as they are” when many realize things are not all that fine. Good – but not good enough.
Graduate students will be with the program for a minimum of four months with the possibility of putting in a full year. The program isn’t meant to be a “full time” job for the students, even though they will certainly work full time and then some. There just may be a situation where the project the employer has requires a full year and the student is picking up great resume building experience. Most graduate interns will be involved in programs that last from between four months to a year.
Partnering with the Centre for Skills Development & Training, a not-for-profit incorporated affiliate of the Halton District School Board, brought in seasoned educators with experience at all stages of employment from youth just starting out, to older workers who have been laid off; from newcomers to Canada who need to improve their workplace English, to people interested in the trades who need to build their technical skills; and from small business owners looking to hire staff, to large companies who need help developing and transitioning their workforce.
The person in the trenches for this project is Anita Cassidy, who brings an almost perfect mix of academic training and experience to the task. A Scot ethnically, Cassidy brings charm and a soft brogue in her voice to a sector in Burlington that is often neglected – the building of talent within organizations that are still working their way through the 2008 recession.
Educated at the University of Glasgow with majors in history and economics she went on to do a double Master program; an MSc with Merit in Economic Development, and an MA Honours in History and Sociology, both at the University of Glasgow
 Anita Cassady, inovateBurlington program co-ordinator and Kyle Benham, Executive Director of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation work up the early staging part of a program that has been launched. Cassidy went on to work as program assistant from 2005 – 2007with the Strathclyde European Partnership where she saw how funds from the European Union were used in the re-development of the ship building industry in western Scotland. That experience gave her both an insight and an appreciation for how much benefit there is to programs like the one the BEDC is embarking upon. She then went on to work for the British Council and then back to Scotland where she was involved as the Funding Coordinator, for Glasgow’s Regeneration Agency. Burlington is going to seem mild to this woman
Frank McKeown, the Mayor’s top aide, pushed to have mentoring as a critical part of the program and said in an interview that he hoped to see a situation where the people involved in the program came back from Monday to Thursday sessions with their clients and spent the Friday in mentoring classes where they might get an opportunity to listen to someone like Ron Foxcroft talk about how you take an idea and grow it into a business.
McKeown fears that the Burlington private sector is just a little on the complacent side. He points to the co-op program at McMaster/DeGroote where some 140 students were put into programs with employers. Less than 4% of the 140 co-op students were placed with Burlington firms. “If they aren’t working for our private sector then they are working with private sector firms elsewhere in Ontario who might well be competitors of Burlington companies”, he said.
The project got off to a strong start when local company Global Mobility Products (GMP) was able to match up with a graduate to help them realize strategic projects. Ryan Djordjevic, GMP President, is keen.
Another program objective is to recruit, and retain talented young graduates in Burlington economy. James Maxwell, one of the graduate interns sees the program as an opportunity through which he can gain experience, and increase his employability. The hands on experience the program gives graduates includes learning how the business world works, which they don’t get in a classroom. The hope for the people at BEDC, and the wish the Mayor had in mind when he thought up the program, was that Burlington would become home to both their work lives and where they raises their families. The city wants to create a workforce that is part of those high paying, high tech jobs that everyone is after. Mayor Goldring found that the mountain wasn’t coming to Mohamed – so he took Mohamed to the mountain.
Great idea – let’s see if it work. If you want more information on this – log into www.innovateBurlington.ca Better still – give Anita Cassidy a call..
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON February 15, 2012 Family Day is a relatively new event for Ontario and while municipalities were quick to pick up on it – legislation said they had to – the commercial sector hasn’t done much. Denningers has announced they will not be open on Monday February 20th, which is the public holiday the province gave us in 2008 to celebrate the family. It is a statutory holiday – which means banks, government offices, schools and municipal offices will be closed. The idea was that everyone would bet at home being family. Hasn’t quite worked out that way but the city has set up a special schedule.
City hall is closed and a number of administrative services will not be available.
Burlington Transit and HandiVan service will operate a Sunday service schedule on Monday, Feb 20. The administration offices including the Downtown Transit Terminal will be closed.
While City Hall is closed on Family Day, Burlington parks and recreation facilities are wide open for family fun. Activities range from drop-in gym, swimming, skating and crafts to fitness classes.
A family of up to five (min. of one adult) can purchase a Family Day Pass and participate in up to three activities at Tansley Woods Community Centre for only $15. The full schedule of programs includes:
|
Family Day, drop-in programs
|
| Activity |
Time |
Fee Per Participant |
| Drop In Family Gym* |
9:30a.m.-2:30 p.m. |
$3.10/child, $2.10/additional child |
| Drop In Basketball* |
2:30-4:30 p.m. |
$3.00 |
| Family Fitness – Walk Tone & Stretch* (14yrs+) |
10:30-11:20 a.m. |
$5.80 |
| Family Fitness – Cardio Sculpt* (14yrs+) |
1:30-2:20 p.m. |
$5.80 |
| Family Fitness – Zumba* (18yrs+) |
11:30a.m.-12:15 p.m. |
$4.50 |
| Leisure Swim* |
9:30a.m.-1:30 p.m. |
$2.84 |
| Shallow Aquafit |
9:30-10:15 a.m. |
$5.91 youth/senior, $7.84 adult |
| Water Running – Deep |
9:30-10:30 a.m. |
$2.84 |
| Combo Swim* |
10:30a.m.- Noon |
$2.84 |
| Lap Swim |
Noon -1:30 p.m. |
$4.34 youth/senior, $5.75 adult |
| Fun Swim* |
1:30-4 p.m. |
$2.84 |
|
*Family Day Pass Options
|
|
Additional Family Day Drop-In Programs
|
| Skating |
| Appleby Ice Centre |
Family Skate – Pad 3 |
|
| Sticks & Pucks – Pad 3 |
|
| Public Skate- Pad 4 |
|
| Rotary Centennial Pond |
Public Skate |
|
| Swimming |
| Aldershot Pool |
Family Swim |
|
| Angela Coughlan Pool |
Lap Swim |
|
| Fun Swim |
|
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON February 4, 2012 – Most of the usual suspects were on hand for one of the public reviews of the 2012 city budget, along with city staff who were ready to explain the finer points of what looks like is going to be about 3.4% tax increase over last year`s which was less than 1%.
 Citizens gathering in a public session to review a proposed city budget with Council members on hand to answer questions and staff on hand to delve into the details. They weren't doing that in Syria last Thursday night. The public event, held at the Burlington Art Centre drew about 30 citizens who went through the workbook the city had provided. The evening started with an overview from Acting Treasurer Joan Ford after which staff joined each table to go through the well laid out workbook that for those attending , raised questions to consider.
We learned an interesting little bit about the technology the city uses to get the sense of what people in a meeting think about an issue. The city has a couple of dozen little key pads that look a bit like a remote but are quite a bit smaller. A question will pop up on a screen and people in the room key in the number that fits their answer to the question – less than two seconds later the results appear on a screen.
General Manager Budgets and Corporate Services, Kim Phillips brought the tool to the meeting – it was kind of neat to see what people in the room thought about a specific issue – you had the answer in seconds. This sort of thing could and perhaps should be used at larger meetings – say the Heritage Workshops where views are usually very mixed it would help to see what people were thinking. It was very “real time” and useful.
 Here we are at the nitty gritty stage. Citizens have talked through their concerns and the politicians now join them for a more focused conversation. This table had executive level firemen taking part. They want the new station fully manned and they'd like to see funds set aside for the upgrading of the station on Plains Road as well. Lots of firemen on the province's Sunshine list as well. That's the list of those who get paid more than $100,000 annually. Once a group has gone through the workbook the situation shifts and the politicians who were in the room join the table to discuss the major concern each group had. This particular public session saw a group from the fire department taking part – we’ve not seen specific stakeholder groups appear at these sessions in the past. The fire department has clearly decided that they need to make their point in quieter community based sessions.
It was interesting to watch Councillors Mead Ward and Craven along with the Mayor join the table and hear what the group had to say.
The evening ended with each table giving the audience a sense of their take on the budget. At this session the sense was that the city was on the right track ad that spending was seen as appropriate. One person thought some of the information given could have been put in a better context and made part of a large picture – good point.
While the workbook is some 20 pages, it covers the points city staff wanted to hear discussed and while there was no sense that anything was being hidden, public input on the questions that were asked, might have been helpful.
Time for these public sessions is limited so the city set out two service choices and asked participants to respond. They were told that the city planned on spending $80.71 on fire protection; $75.74 on capital spending, $66.53 on Roads and Parks Maintenance; $39.42 on Local Boards and committees (Library, Performing Arts Centre, the Economic Development Corporation; $32.92 on Parks and Recreation services and $28.60 on transit services.
The figures given are for every $100,000 of urban residential assessment – so if your house is assessed at $300,000 then you would multiply the number given by three.
 The graph shows what tax rates have been historically. The city portion of the total tax bill has not always been in sync with what the Region and Schools Board ask for. Wide swings during the Jackson administration. The participants were asked if they would maintain the amount budgeted for 2012; if they would enhance the amount (increase) or reduce the amount budgeted. Staff were on hand to delve into some of the detail in each of the spending categories. What would you have done with each of those categories? If you want to share your view, General Manager Kim Phillips would love to hear from you – she can be reached by email at phillipsk@Burlington.ca
 A closer look at the proposed 2012 city budget called for some thinking and some animated discussion at the Burlington Art Centre session last week. The participants were asked if they would support or not support reducing the frequency of mowing the grass under the Hydro rights of way from five times a year to four times and save $6000.00 . Or if they would support or not support reducing the school crossing guard coverage during lunch hours at under utilized crossings? I suspect the parents located near those crossings would like some say on this one – the specific crossings weren’t set out in the workbook – but if you`re concerned – ask your ward councillor.
There are 15 hanging baskets on Lakeshore Road between Maple and Locust – are they worth the $4000.00 the city spends to put them up and maintain them every year? Tell your Council member if you don`t think that is money well spent.
Running a city is a complex business and keeping everyone happy is no simple matter. A lot of people disdain politics – but like it or not – it is the glue that keeps the place together.
The previous session held elsewhere in the community had just five people in the audience and while that is disappointing – there is a very important point being made by the city. They have, each year, gone out into the community with well-prepared material and organized the event so that everyone had an opportunity to talk and make their views known. The attendance was disappointing but people in the city know that they can make their views known – so when the budget is approved – let`s not hear a lot of carping about the public having no input. There are additional public sessions scheduled. If you’ve got a beef – there is a chance for you to get your two cents worth on the table.
 Chamber of Commerce Chair Tamer Fahmi listens in and considers a possible poker game with the assistant treasurer. The sessions are kind of fun. One table left the sense they were prepared to get a small game of poker going – heck they were talking about the city budget so why not have some fun. That the deputy city treasurer along with the President of the Chamber of Commerce was at the table shouldn’t send out any alarm signals – they both looked like quarter a hand players to me.
Small, community based information sessions are just part of the public process. The budget, both the Capital budget, which is a longer term document and the Current budget – which sets out what is going to be spent in the current year, get discussed at length during the Budget and Corporate Services committee meetings, where any citizen can delegate and be given ten minutes to make their point. If you’re really hot and bothered about an issue – you can delegate at the Council meeting, where the budget is made official. You`re expected to have new information if you delegate at Committee and delegate again at Council – and you get just five minutes at a Council meeting.
If you’ve nothing new to say at a Council meeting you get met by stone cold silence from the seven members of city council, who thank you for your delegation and dismiss you – it can be a humbling experience, and it happens more often than it should. So if you chooses to delegate – be well prepared with facts and figures.
City council had asked staff to prepare a budget with a tax increase that ranged between 2% and 3.5% – they’ve produced a document that came in at 3.4%. Council at the Committee stage can and should squeeze this back to 2% and ensure that the needed funds for the road maintenance is in place.
 The breakdown of what the city plans to commit itself to for the re-development of the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital - when and if it ever gets re-built. The city is looking at a number of ways to collect these amounts. A straight tax levy every year or possibly a longer term funding that would spread the cost over several generations. There was a very interesting and innovative proposal put forward by Councillor Taylor for a debenture offering that citizens could subscribe to as a way to raise the funds needed to pay for any re-development that gets done on the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. The proposal would have given citizens a risk free investment opportunity and also have spread out the re-development costs over a longer time frame. If there is ever a re-developed hospital in Burlington –and it is far from certain that there ever will be one – the cost can and should be spread out over several generations. Giving people a better financial return than a savings account wouldn’t hurt either.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON January 29, 2012 – It was built in 1972 so that students could get to the school on the other side of the railway tracks. Jack Pierce a resident in the Glenwood School Drive part of Burlington, south of the QEW and west of Guelph Line, said he was told that it would last forever when it was built. Forever arrived last November 24th when after a close inspection the city said the bridge was probably not safe for pedestrian use and the city immediately closed the structure.
 Built in the 70's to allow people from the Glenwood School Drive community to get to shops and community amenities the bridge is now unsafe. To have the bridge collapse onto the GO train tracks would create a level of havoc the city could only shudder at.
Now the city has to decide what to do with the bridge and for the people who live in what is sort of a landlocked community.
What came as a bit of a surprise to many was the actual traffic level – the numbers reported were – 70 trips a day – and that counted the trip over as one trip and the trip back as a second trip. Which suggests that some 35 people use the bridge each day. Not exactly high traffic but there has to be a way for the people in that community to be able to get out. The only retail outlet in the community is a very small, slightly shabby convenience store.
The bridge has undergone a number of ongoing fix-ups but there were never any serious problems. All it needed was regular maintenance. Somehow, someone missed the degree to which the rusting had taken hold and with that information in hand the bridge got closed – real quick.
One city hall wag was astounded at the dollars that were being suggested to resolve this problem and suggested it might be cheaper to just buy everyone a car or at least a bicycle. Several members of Council talked of the need for people to do more walking and cycling – which didn’t go down very well with the few people from the community in the audience.
Council committee members were experiencing a little heartburn over the costs involved and discussion took place as to what other options were possible.
The staff report recommended spending the $380,000. to get the bridge operational again and then look into what the options were over the next five years.
That idea didn’t settle with Councillor Sharman all that well and he wondered why it was not possible to create some kind of a foot path westward from the bridge to the GO station parking lot where pedestrians could then use the well-lit underground tunnel to the south side of the tracks and access the transit service from the south side of the tracks.
 Example of the rust that has set in throughout the bridge making it unsafe for public use not to mention the havoc that would take place if the thing fell down on the GO tracks. There were problems with that solution and the answers that came back from staff were based more on what they thought than what they knew. Turns out there is a small creek running through the property the foot path would be built along and that would mean getting approvals from the Conservation Authority. The path would have to be paved and lit and during the discussion no one was really sure if the property needed was actually available.
Residents had been without a bridge since November 25th – close to 75 days and all they had to look at was a report with a recommendation that Council didn’t seem too keen on approving.
Staff reports to committee usually get voted on and passed along to a full Council meeting where approval is given. This report was not voted on but referred to Council so that it would not be delayed till the next round of committee.
The engineers were given their instructions; take a look at that path possibility and come back with some creative solutions.
 From the left Julie Kirkwood, Tanya Valenti and husband Paolo with their daughters - these are the people who pulled together the 240 signature petition asking that the bridge be repaired - quickly. The community wasn’t exactly idle during all this. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anyone from the community able to make a delegation. Paolo Valenti, a community resident sat in the public gallery blissfully unaware that he had a right to speak at the meeting. While he had pulled together a petition from the community he didn’t know they could make a delegation. He gave the petition with the 240 signatures on it which he passed on to the ward councillor Marianne Mead Ward who didn’t seem to advocate as energetically as she has in the past for this community.
The original options brought to a Community Services Committee meeting were to spend $380,000.00 to fix up the bridge and make it stable for the next five years. While this is an unexpected expense there was more than $500,000.00 saved on the Fairview Brant intersection road work done so getting the Drury Lane bridge back into service isn’t a financial concern. City engineers felt it would take four to six months to fix up the bridge to the point where it could be used for foot traffic.
Five years down the road the bridge would have to be completely re-built at a cost of $2,000,000.00 in 2012 dollars.
The community now has a better idea as to just what they can do – expect to see them out at the Council meeting on Monday, the 30th.
What no one mentioned during the Committee meeting was the significant increase in housing that was added to the community last April when Council approved a project that added more than 50 units to property that previously held six houses. Given the size of the lots – 1/2 acre each for most of them – this community is ripe for developers who want to build smaller units and significantly increase density.
 By Mayor Rick Goldring
BURLINGTON, ON January 25, 2012
Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Thank you all very much for coming this morning to the State of the City Address.
Last year there was record attendance for this event, and I am pleased and a little surprised that there is approximately the same number of people here this year as last. I thought the honeymoon would be over and the attendance would be less. Maybe the honeymoon is over and that is why you are all here.
Thank you to the sponsors for your contribution to this event. Scotia Bank, Bell, the Certified Management Accountants Association along with the Burlington Youth Soccer Club – you are all great contributors to our community. I have great affinity for the BYSC as all 3 of my daughters played soccer at all levels in the club and 2 continue to play soccer as young adults.
I also want to thank TV Cogeco for being here this morning, providing many who cannot be here, the opportunity to see this event at a future date on TV Cogeco.
I also wish to thank the Burlington Chamber of Commerce for not only hosting the State of the City Address, but also for the efforts you expend in the areas of advocacy as well as providing educational and networking opportunities for your members. The net impact of your efforts is a significant contribution to prosperity for our city.
Before I go any further I want to introduce my colleagues from Burlington City Council: Councillors Marianne Meed Ward, John Taylor, Jack Dennison, Paul Sharman and Blair Lancaster. Councillor Rick Craven is away on a well earned vacation in the Caribbean.
I also would like to introduce the Senior Executive Team with the City:
Kim Phillips – Acting City Manager – General Manager of Corporate Services;
Scott Stewart – General Manager of Community Services – who also served as Acting City Manager while Council was in the recruitment process; and
Steve Zorbas – Acting General Manager of Development and Infrastructure.
Kim only has two more days in the Acting City Manager Role.
I want to publicly thank both Kim and Scott for the time that each of you served as acting city manager. You both did a superb job – we were in good hands.
At this point, I would like to introduce our new City Manager – Jeff Fielding – who is with us this morning, even though he does not start until Monday.
Jeff was the City Manager in London for almost 8 years and prior to that, was the City Manager in Kitchener. Jeff brings with him not only great experience as a municipal leader, but also an incredible amount of enthusiasm.
Jeff, welcome to Burlington. We are all looking forward to working with you.
There are a number of additional members of our senior management team and staff who are also here this morning. We are extremely fortunate to have a fine team of public servants serving the needs of our community.
 Goldring says being Mayor "has been everything I had hoped for, and at times more, and some times much more!" This morning is my second opportunity to address the Chamber and the public through the press, and TV Cogeco and talk about our city. I have had the privilege of being the Mayor for just over one year now, and I must say that the opportunity has been everything I had hoped for, and at times more, and some times, much more!
The State of the City address can be a series of statistics and facts to prove we have done our job. However to me the state of the city is an attitude, a feeling, a level of confidence about how things are going. That is the foundation that allows us to focus on the hopes and dreams for the whole city.
This past year, I had the opportunity to speak to many residents. I attended more than 300 community functions and it often seemed that I spoke to every person present. In the Mayor’s Office, we had over 150 meetings with concerned citizens, groups and staff about the matters that were important to the community. I had the occasion to speak to and engage in dialogue with many service clubs, church groups, community organizations and business groups, including 10 CFOs from local businesses in a meeting that was arranged by the Chamber.
I was in arenas, art centres, halls, parks, libraries, schools, hospitals, churches, food banks, and just about any other facility we have here in Burlington. I visited local businesses regularly and met with several prospective Burlington businesses. During the year I hosted the Mayor’s Community Roundtable and invited about 30 community groups to attend and we have had great attendance. We established a series of Open Door sessions where residents simply show up to meet me without an appointment to discuss their issues. In fact there is one this Friday morning at City Hall.
Last week I invited some prominent citizens for dinner to talk about the city’s challenges and opportunities. This group of participants represented social services, culture, development and the business sectors. For me it was an inspiring evening. The level of enthusiasm and expertise we have in our community is an asset that we need to capitalize on more.
Many citizens also engaged me in grocery stores, shopping malls, on the street while out I was out walking, at the Y during my workouts, and sometimes even when I am out of town. This past Sunday I talked to a resident at the Sleeman Centre in Guelph while attending a Guelph Storm hockey game with my daughter.
In 2011 I had the opportunity to do Ward Tours with my colleagues. We drove through neighbourhoods, walked through parks and pathways, visited developing areas, areas of concern and areas of opportunity. I am consistently impressed with the work of my colleagues on Council, with how in touch they are with the Ward’s they represent, and how hard they are working every day in little ways that few people see.
 The Mayor is chief spokesman for the city; directs trafic as well. While the Mayor is the chief spokesperson for the city and the head of council, it is not the Mayor’s role to lead on every issue. The city is fortunate to have the blend of different people on council who are all community leaders.
So how are we doing?
In my inaugural speech just over a year ago, I spoke about the importance of rebuilding TRUST; the trust between council members, council and staff, council and the public and between City Hall and the public.
Elections can and often do end up creating at the beginning an interesting dynamic for municipal councils and the staff team they lead. It takes effort on all sides to meld together, different views, experiences and approaches into a cohesive team. I am pleased to report that the organization has come a long way in a year resulting in higher levels of trust and respect that allows us to focus on the issues in front of us more effectively.
I would like to read a quote from Kent Murdoch, President and CEO of the O.C. Tanner Company:
“If your workplace culture isn’t open and honest, it won’t create satisfaction, and you will experience turnover and a lack of productivity that will cost you money, ideas and time. On the other hand, if the work environment is ethical, productive and positive, people will stay – and stay committed. They will drive your organization forward”.
The result of a high trust organization will be a much better and more trusting relationship with the people we serve.
Having a high level of trust doesn’t mean that all decisions are unanimous. We all know that this is impossible. Trust is based on transparency, openness, an explanation of decision making, honesty and respect, including respecting alternative positions. This is true in our interaction with each other, staff and the community.
As we move forward to look at what happened in 2011 and what we look forward to in 2012, I hope you come away with these thoughts from today:
- I believe you should feel positive about what is happening in Burlington and how your council and city staff are working on your behalf.
- All municipalities have their challenges. We don’t have to look far to see examples. Burlington is in a better position than most. We have a very good and diversified local economy, we have a great quality of life and access to amenities and services and we are in a position to address our challenges in a professional and thoughtful way.
- We are addressing our issues head on. We are “living within our means” and we will continue to do so.
Highlights of 2011
2011 was an eventful year.
Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital
As we saw and heard in the video we played earlier, on August 10th the Province of Ontario announced the go ahead on the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital re-development project. This project, with a budget of over $300 million will result in a significantly rejuvenated hospital.
We will see new operating rooms, new private rooms, a new cancer clinic and many more improvements. The progress that has been made on this project is remarkable. This redevelopment will provide the infrastructure needed to provide the healthcare that Burlington must have for this generation and the next.
The project will proceed in two Phases. The hospital will begin with an RFP process and tender in Phase 1 in 2012 and construction in 2013. Phase 2 will go through a similar process with the tender award in 2014.
We have members of the Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital here this morning and I would like to acknowledge Eric Vandewall and the team.
The re-development of the hospital is not the only thing happening at Joseph Brant. As most of you know, the city and Region committed $10 million several years ago to McMaster University as part of the DeGroote School of Business at the Ron Joyce Centre on the South Service Road. This project had a second component which related to the commitment by McMaster to open a Halton McMaster Family Health Centre in the Burlington downtown area.
I would like to welcome here today Dr. David Price, Chair of McMaster Family Medicine and Dr. John Kelton, Dean and VP of Health Science. I am pleased to tell you today that McMaster has selected the Joseph Brant site as the preferred site for the Halton McMaster Family Health Centre. McMaster anticipates taking ownership of two floors and about 15,000 square feet at Joseph Brant as part of the Phase 1 project. All parties hope to be operational at Joseph Brant by the end of 2013.
We anticipate that a site plan application for Phase 1 will be submitted to our planning department in May this year. Through public consultation this will allow the public to more fully see and understand the plans at Joseph Brant.
Performing Arts Centre
The Burlington Performing Arts Centre opened this fall on time and on budget. This facility is absolutely magnificent. It is and will remain a centerpiece of our community for generations.
Burlington residents now have access to performances that could not previously come to our City. Our community cultural groups now have a place to perform and an environment to be inspired.
To build a city, attract creative people and have a vibrant downtown, you need the performing arts. The Prime Minister of Canada agrees, and as part of the opening week festivities Prime Minister Harper came to Burlington to celebrate with us. The Prime Minister spent most of the day here in Burlington, had an opportunity to visit one of our thriving businesses and to see Canada’s musical ambassadors The Burlington Teen Tour Band.
Education and Partnership
Our city building continued in education and partnership.
Ground was broken this fall for the new Alton High School, Library and Community Centre. This is a joint effort with the school board and public library to integrate high quality services on a more cost effective basis.
The city is also building Norton Park with soccer and football fields across the street and creating a campus to meet the community needs. This is a great example of partnership in action.
 The McMaster DeGroote campus on the South Service Rd. brings a significant educational institution to Burlington "making world class executive education" available to the business community. Life-long learning, innovation and entrepreneurship are critical to our prosperity and continued success. One of the very important institutions in our community to help us achieve this is the DeGroote School of Business. This is the home of the McMaster MBA program.
The program has expanded to 577 students for the 2011/12 academic year and continues to see an increase in International students which make up 20% of the class entering in 2011.
The program is in the top three in Canada for return on investment. 100% of the co-op students secured employment placement for the fall 2011 program. Since 2010, 17 Burlington companies have recruited co-op students. However, only about 4% of these co-op students are finding permanent employment opportunities in Burlington.
McMaster representatives are here today and I encourage local businesses to look into these opportunities. This is a win/win situation and if we can attract and keep leading graduates in our local economy, we will all benefit.
McMaster’s presence in Burlington also makes world class executive education available. Since 2010, 840 executives have participated in programs. Former Dean, and our good friend Paul Bates, leads this initiative. This is an opportunity for the community which we hope you consider.
I believe that innovation, entrepreneurship and keeping our young graduates in our local economy, is vital to our future.
To help achieve this, I am pleased to announce today that through partnership with the BEDC, McMaster, the Chamber of Commerce, and The Centre for Skills and Development Training, we are launching Innovate Burlington.
Innovate Burlington is a first step towards building a sustainable innovation and entrepreneurship program in Burlington.
Innovate Burlington will provide recent graduates the opportunity to work as interns, in Burlington, on meaningful projects to help local companies. We see this as a win for graduates and a win for you, our local businesses, who will have access to a tremendous talent pool. You may well find your future leaders through this program.
I hope you will seriously look at this opportunity for your organization. I would also like to introduce to you one company that already has. Here today are Ryan Djordjevic and Tim Sluy from Global Mobility Products.
There will be a formal launch for this program on February 16. I would like to thank Kyle Benham, the Executive Director of BEDC and Anita Cassidy, our Program Coordinator, for their efforts in getting this program off the ground. I would like to express my personal thanks to the Advisory Team that has contributed to this effort.
Strategic Plan
A new Strategic Plan was developed in 2011. The Strategic Plan focuses on three key areas: Vibrant Neighbourhoods, Prosperity, and Excellence in Government.
This plan was developed with unprecedented public input. It is a much more focused document than previous plans. For example, we reduced the number of initiatives from 107 to about 42 for the term. We have created a plan which is meaningful, focused, and attainable.
Niagara to GTA Highway
In October 2010, the province attempted to amend the Region’s Official Plan maps with a change that identified a corridor for a new highway right through the middle of rural Burlington. Council is committed to protecting this natural heritage for generations to come.
 Escarpment map with an arrow showing a new road was a surprise to many. The corridor proposal was removed but still lurks out there. Through a tremendous effort by Councillors Taylor and Lancaster and the Stop the Highway coalition this corridor proposal was removed from the Official Plan maps and Minister Wynne announced in July that there would be no highway.
I spoke to Minister Ted McMeekin about this issue again last week. I am assured that the province is looking at all multi-modal options, including rail, road widening and public transit to address our long term transportation needs.
There are still challenges associated with this issue and we continue to fight to protect the rural heritage. We need 21st century solutions to our transportation challenges.
In addition to these major milestones in our community, there were many others were noting:
- Burlington Transit ridership increased by 7.0% in 2011.
- In 2011, construction value increased meaningfully. Residential construction value grew by 23% and Industrial/Commercial development grew by 30%. That translates to a total of $451 million in construction this past year. We hope to see job numbers reflect this investment in 2012.
- Some high profile retailers selected Burlington as a location of choice. Sail, an outdoor retailer selected Burlington in October and should be open later this year. And of course the Apple Store opened prior to Christmas at Mapleview Mall.
- In August, EcoSynthetix completed a successful IPO, raising just over $100 million. Congratulations to John van Leeuwen and his team. Prime Minister Harper was also impressed and visited EcoSythetix on December 2.
So where are we going in 2012?
In 2012 and beyond there are a number of challenges and opportunities to address.
Community Engagement
Our new Public Involvement Coordinator, Christine Iamonaco is in the process of creating an Engagement Charter – a document that helps define the relationship between citizens and the city, whether it be staff or council. We need to demystify and enhance our processes to create an environment where our citizens can provide appropriate and timely input on the many initiatives and decisions that council is responsible for.
Official Plan Review
This year we will commence an Official Plan review. This is an exercise mandated by the province that must be done every 5 years.
An official plan is a statutory document which sets out the land use policy directions for long-term growth and development in a municipality.
I believe that this official plan review is the most important in Burlington’s history for a number of reasons.
- We have the lowest projected growth rate of any municipality in the GTA for the next 20 years.
- We are committed to keep our 50/50 rural urban split, meaning that all new development must occur south of the Dundas-407 corridor.
- After the Alton Community is complete, we have very little room left for “greenfield” development.
- Up to 80% of future residential development will be intensification, redevelopment and infill.
- We need to maintain an appropriate amount of employment lands for new business and new jobs to 2031.
Council will be having a workshop on the Official Plan shortly and just as the Strategic Plan had an unprecedented level of public input, we will also have a very thorough public process for the Official Plan review.
Neighbourhood Development
We continued to develop and protect our neighbourhoods in 2011 and will continue to do so in 2012 and beyond. Over 80% of our neighbourhoods will see little change, while certain areas of the city will see further intensification.
Aldershot
A great example of this is Aldershot and the Plains Road Corridor.
 Plains Road; an old suburban highway transitions into a vibrant urban main street. Plains Road is in the process of transitioning from an old suburban highway to a vibrant urban main street. My compliments to Councillor Rick Craven, along with the Aldershot BIA and the Plains Road Village Vision, who have lead many of the positive changes we have seen along Plains Road.
A fundamental factor that is influencing the Village Vision is that Aldershot has insufficient population to attract new businesses.
The newer residential and commercial buildings have more cohesive design features that result in a more vibrant and attractive area of the city. There are many examples of this and the most recent is the brand new Aldershot Library.
The new 403 interchange, a new Kings Road Underpass (that will be completed this fall) along with the work of the Aldershot BIA and city staff, have all contributed to the tremendous level of interest and activity with regard to new development along Plains Road.
Downtown
Under the Province of Ontario’s Places to Grow plan, our downtown is designated as an urban growth centre. It is expected, in fact it is mandated, that our downtown should add more residents and more jobs. We have seen some progress on this but progress has slowed.
There are 3 major development applications that were approved several years ago; however the shovels are not in the ground yet. When complete, these projects will add over 650 residents and over 500 jobs.
We need more of this. In the spring, council will be participating in a workshop discussing the potential for the parking lots located to the west of Village Square and east of Brant Street, south of City Hall. We see these lots as development opportunities that have the potential to add more jobs and residents without taking away parking spaces.
 Downtown parking lots on John and Brant street offer significant development opportunities. The success of a downtown is one of the major keys to a prosperous city. Development needs to continue in the downtown in order for our city to thrive.
I should mention that Councillor Meed Ward is taking me on a Ward Tour on Monday which will allow us to look at all of the opportunities we have in the downtown.
Economic Reality
The economic climate has changed significantly over the last 5 years. The issues in the US and Europe have cast a negative pall over many in the world. Canada is fortunate, on a relative basis, but we cannot be too smug as we are still vulnerable.
The world is transitioning from an Industrial Age to an Information and Communication Technology Age, resulting in many traditional manufacturing jobs being eliminated or moved to countries in the developing world, like China and India.
We need to leverage our investment in McMaster to help foster innovation, job creation and life-long learning in Burlington. I believe a culture of life-long learning is critical to prosperity.
“In the 21st century literacy will not be about reading and writing but will be the about the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn.”
The days of having only one job with one organization are over and the ability to be resilient and flexible in adapting to changing circumstances has never been as important.
Governments at all levels have to deal with issues differently. Yesterday’s approaches to the challenges of today and tomorrow will not work. We need to be creative, innovative and use ingenuity to address our future.
I am pleased to say that our staff has responded appropriately to these challenges in a very positive manner.
 Burlington has to "front end" $60 million of the $300 million Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital redevelopment. Last year, we had a City of Burlington tax increase of .9%. Obviously good news, but it is not sustainable to continue on at that level. The regular operations of the city require an annual increase to reflect increasing costs. On top of this, we have infrastructure challenges that all municipalities have. As much as the hospital announcement was great news for Burlington, we did not anticipate the timing of the announcement or the fact that the city taxpayers, along with donors, have to front-end $60 million each over the next 6 years.
I am confident we can deal with our financial challenges carefully and judiciously resulting in responsible tax rate increases and “living within our means.”
So what do I hope you take away from today?
- I hope you feel positive. Our City is in very good shape and we are committed to keeping Burlington as a thriving prosperous inclusive community through strong fiscal management, innovation and partnerships and cooperation.
- We all have challenges. Our City is changing. I propose to embrace this change.
- We have a meaningful Strategic Plan in place and you will see a more focused Council and a Council and Staff that better understands our priorities.
- We will continue to improve in how we work with the community as we work through the change that is taking place.
- Your City is focused on improving customer service, productivity through technology and decision making through engagement and measurement.
- We will “live within our means.”
In closing, I would like to thank the Chamber for hosting this event.
I want to thank council and staff of the city for all their hard work.
I also want to recognize the efforts of our faith communities, services clubs, social agencies, sports groups, and arts and cultural organizations, for the major contribution they are to a city where people, nature and business thrive.
It is an honour and privilege to serve as your Mayor.
I look forward to continuing to work collaboratively with you to make this city the best it can be.
In my inauguration speech I closed with the African Proverb “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”
Ladies and gentlemen, we are in this together and together we will continue to build a wonderful City.
Thank You.
January 26, 2012
Burlington Convention Centre
The Burlington Chamber of Commerce has been hosting the Mayor’s Annual State of the City Address for thirty years. With advocacy being a key objective of the Chamber, hosting the Mayor’s Address gives Burlington business people an excellent opportunity to gain a greater understanding of local politics and how issues being dealt with by the mayor and council can affect them and their business. Often viewed as the mayor’s most important speech of the year, the address outlines the city’s challenges, opportunities and priorities for the upcoming year. Recently, the mayor has made use of technology by conducting real-time polls during the event to gauge the thoughts and priorities of those in attendance. This gives the audience a way to directly interact with the mayor during the event. The Mayor’s Address is one of the premier events hosted by the Chamber which hosts 80 events each year.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 15, 2011 – Gary Crowell, the Chief of Halton Regional Police is hanging up his pistols and will take retirement in June of 2012. After 41 years of policing, which started with a stint with the RCMP, the chief, who has been with the Halton Regional Police Service since 1999, when he was brought in as Deputy Chief, is bringing a police career to an end.
Crowell was promoted to Chief in 2006. Prior to coming to Halton, he served with the Peel Regional Police Service.
Police Services Board Chairman Bob Maich and other members of the Board commended and thanked Chief Crowell for his dedication to the Service, and to the community. “The Board is proud of the Chief’s many accomplishments attained over the years. Through the leadership, integrity and decisiveness of Chief Crowell, the Police Service team, the Region of Halton, and all community members have benefited from his contributions”, said Bob Maich. “The Board looks forward to his continued leadership through this transition period.”
 Chief Gary Crowell has announced his retirement for June of 2012. Police Services Board gears up to find a replacement. Chief Crowell thanked the Board for their incredible support and guidance during his six years as Chief. He also thanked the members of the Service for their dedication and commitment in making the Halton Police Service a very effective and professional organization. “With the excellence of the Service team and many volunteers, our community partners and Halton citizens, I am proud that Halton has been able to maintain its recognition as the safest Regional Municipality in Canada”, remarked Crowell. “I will continue my commitment to the Service through to June, 2012.”
Throughout his career, Crowell has been committed to the betterment of the Service and the community. He is a member of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP) Crime Prevention Committee, the National Child and Youth Protection Advisory Committee and the Halton Poverty Roundtable. He served on the Joseph Brant Hospital Board of Governors for nine years. He is also the recipient of the Police Exemplary Service Medal, the Order of Merit, the Gold Medal for Excellence by the Human Rights and Race Relations Centre, and the Ontario Women in Law Enforcement’s first President’s Award.
 Officer Wendy Moraghan is one of the group of women in the Halton Regional Police Service that Chief Crowell wanted to see in the service as it expanded. Here she works on some equipment with a techie as they prepare for a community presentation. Crowell was responsible for some significant changes in the number of female police in the Halton service.
The Board will meet early in the New Year to consider the process it will undertake to appoint a new Chief. The Halton Regional Police Services Board is a seven-member civilian Board that governs the Halton Regional Police. Under the Police Services Act, the Board is responsible for the provision of adequate and effective police services to the citizens of Halton Region. The Halton Regional Police Service has an authorized strength of 925 staff, a net budget of $122.2 million.
The Police Services Board is going through a budget for 2012 that looks as if it will require a tax increase of 3.2%
Among the people that will certainly be in line for the top job is Deputy Chief Bob Percy who is currently as Deputy Chief Operations responsible for all front line and investigative policing. Halton Regional Police Service Operations under his command include: District Policing, Emergency Services, Intelligence Bureau and Regional Investigative Services. This task set is the guts of policing – the reason we have men and women in police cars with guns on their hips.
Prior to his promotion to Deputy Chief in May 2008, Deputy Chief Percy served in a wide variety of uniform patrol duties, including as a Coach Officer, Tactical Rescue Unit officer, patrol supervisor, and District Superintendent.
 Deputy Chief Bob Percy has handled some tricky situations in Burlington while he did his best to bring competitive cycling to the Region. He currently runs the Operations side of the Regional Police Service. Percy worked closely with the city of Burlington while they tried to work out a series of problems related to the potential for competitive level cycling that would be part of the selection of members of the Canadian Olympic Team. The problems proved to be insurmountable in large measure to the cost of police services to handle traffic control.
A couple of months later Chief Crowell appeared before Burlington city council to tell them that Burlington was doing OK from a policing point of view. The city had not seen the chief for some time. During that visit Superintendent Joe Taylor took part in the reporting event. That was another first for some time. Supt. Taylor proved to be a man with a sense of responsibility laced with a bit of a sense of humour. That wasn’t a personality trait evident in most senior police officers.
Police Services tend to look within when there are changes in the top levels. They tend to look for people who are thoroughly familiar with the community and know everyone in the chain of command.
Another candidate that will get a very close look for promotion is Deputy Chief Andrew Fletcher who began his policing career with the Halton Regional Police Service as a Cadet in 1984. He oversees Community Policing Administration as the Deputy Chief responsible for Community Policing Support, Human Resources, Training, Communications Bureau, Information Services, Courts Services, Records, and Administrative Support Services.
 Deputy Chief Fletcher currently runs the Administrative side of the Halton Regional Police Service. Deputy Chief Fletcher is a strong advocate for community policing and public safety. He is dedicated to building relationships with the community through a number of proactive policing and crime prevention initiatives.
Deputy Chief Fletcher also represents the HRPS on a number of provincial policing committees and liaises with the Governments of Ontario and Canada, and other police and emergency service agencies to ensure Halton remains as safe tomorrow as it is today.
In his spare time, Deputy Chief Fletcher enjoys spending time with his family and is actively involved in the community, including spending most of his spare time on local soccer fields as a coach with the Burlington Youth Soccer Club.
Halton Regional Police Service Community Policing Administration functions under his command include: Community Policing , Human Resources, Training Bureau, Communications Bureau, Information Services, Court Services, Records and Administrative Support Services
Deputies Fletcher and Percy came to the Halton Regional Police service at the same time in 1984. Has there been some rivalry between these two men ever since they came out of the police academy and put on uniforms with the same shoulder patch?
Whoever the new police chief is – that person will face a community that is seeing criminals from Toronto and Hamilton slip into Burlington where they sense the pickings are a little easier. There was an LCBO break in during the early hours that required more than twenty minutes for a patrol car to arrive on the scene. Maybe some tightening up within the ranks on the street is needed.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 14, 2011 They are getting ready to talk about a tax increase of 2 1/2 to 3% with the possibility of it going to more than 4% if they decide to buy all the goodies staff has put before them – but for now your city Council is going to give a bit of a break – FREE parking in the downtown core at all meters and municipal parking lots and the Waterfront Downtown Burlington parking garage on Christmas Day, Boxing Day, the 26th and again on the 27th of December.
Note: The Waterfront parking lots (east and west) do not provide free parking on statutory holidays. The one place that most people will want to go to – especially if the ice skating pond manages to freeze over – and, you guessed it; that one isn’t free. Now you know what they mean by looking a gift horse in the mouth.
 Not much Christmas Spirit at these Brant Street locations. Photo taken December 13th - maybe they are waiting for snow. Burlington Downtown Business Association needs to work on its membership. I suspect the downtown merchants would have liked city hall to spread that Christmas Spirit a little further and include a couple of days before Christmas Day. It’s not like downtown Burlington has a tradition of great Boxing Day Sales now is it?
City Hall itself will shut down from Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 and will re-open on Monday, Jan. 2, 2012. During this time, a number of city administrative services will not be available.
Parks and Recreation:
 This service provider managed to brighten up a display window - and for the most part they don't have walk in traffic. Right Spirit here. There are many opportunities the whole family can enjoy over the holiday season at city pools, arenas and community centres. Hours of operation and services available vary at each city facility. Call your local pool/arena for specific swim/skate times and check the Tim Horton’s Free Holiday Skate Schedule for skate times available in the Winter Wonderland events schedule.
Transit:
Burlington Transit and Handi-Van service will operate under a holiday season schedule from Dec. 25 through to Jan. 1 and will resume regular operating hours as of Monday, Jan. 2. For details, please call the automated 24-Hour BusLINE at 905-639-0550 or visit the city’s website at: www.burlington.ca/transit
Roads:
Roads and Parks Maintenance will provide basic and emergency service over the holidays. The office will be closed Dec. 24 to Jan. 1, 2012 and will resume regular service on Monday, Jan. 2, 2012
Court offices:
The Provincial Offences Court offices in Burlington and Milton (Halton Court Services) will be closed between Dec. 26 to 28 inclusive, and on Jan. 2, 2012. The Court offices will be open on Dec. 29 and 30. Please note that there will be no court hearings scheduled between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2, 2012 inclusive. Justices of the Peace will not be available between Dec. 23 to Jan. 2 inclusive.
 The Ho Ho man himself - didn't let the consistent drizzle lighten even one of his laughs.
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON December 6, 2011 Santa Claus has been coming to town for more than 45 years as part of the annual Burlington Christmas Parade.
The event is the result of the efforts of a community based committee that liaises with the city but is not a city committee. These guys don’t get as much as a dime from the city.
 Message carriers for a gymnastics group - they loved their wigs - so did the crowd. The city’s Festivals and Events office has two of their people who sit in the seven member committee as liaison but that’s it.
The parade that has more than 65 floats is run by a team of seven people. They are: Gunther Kaschuba, who has been involved for the past nine years; Don Basingdale, Allan Hale; John Thomblinson; Louise LeBel; Rob Henderson and Robin Kimberley.
Henderson was one of the truck drivers and when the committee member who used to handle the getting of the trucks from different trucking companies around the city – Henderson got the tap on the shoulder and he now handles the trucking stuff. King Paving has been providing trucks for the parade for a number of years.
 Applause is always welcome - you just know this Dad is watching one of his kids or a club he volunteers with -pass by. Cogeco Cable always does a show on the FYI to promote the parade and then they provide on the street camera coverage of the event.
Kaschuba, who comes across as a chair that is wide open with his committee members – each knows what they have to do – and they just do their jobs, he said.
We get a big boost from Burlington Transit who let us use their transit barn to decorate the floats and get the displays up and in place.
The parade has that warm, fuzzy small town feel to it with people always turning out – even in the light drizzle we had this year. Kaschubba did say that one of the bands dropped out a few days before the parade – the threat of heavy rain wasn’t something they wanted to deal with.
“We get people who do the same thing every year. Don Warwick has been coming out for as long as I can remember in that suit of armour” said Kaschuba. The kids love it. This year there was a little girl in pink sitting on the curb, totally transfixed by the man in a suit of armour striding down the street.
 Hoofing it!  Patiently waiting. The parade operated on a budget of between $12 and $15 thousand with funds coming in from sponsorships, parade entry fees. “We have two fee levels; one for community groups and another for the commercial community” explained Kaschuba.
And he added, the project is a Rotary Club initiative as well with all four Burlington Rotary Clubs taking part.
But the parade committee has to pay for the garbage pickup after the parade and the setting up and taking down of the traffic barricades. The Burlington Teen Tour Band participation doesn’t cost the parade group anything. “We were particularly grateful for their participation this year – those people went home just a little on the damp side this.
The Santa sleigh is rented from people in Hamilton.
If you’ve a hanker to help or think your organization could sponsor a float or your group take part in the parade – make a note that applications have to be in before early November and space is made available on a first come, first served basis.
For an application package and further details, visit www.burlington.ca. Go to the Events and Promotions section, Major Events and click on the Christmas Parade. The cost to enter the parade is $35 for not-for-profit organizations and $100 for businesses.
Bruce Marsh of the Burlington Old Timers Hockey Club manages those guys who walk along the edge of the parade with old socks attached to the ends of hockey sticks asking for loonies or twoonies to help defray the cost of the parade.
Community service at its very best.
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