Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced on the weekend that all publicly-funded schools will remain closed until at least May 31, 2020, as part of an effort to keep students, staff and families safe from COVID-19.
The extension was based on expert advice from the Chief Medical Officer of Health and health officials on the COVID-19 Command Table and is part of the government’s ongoing effort to stop the spread of the virus. The advice was to extend school closures for an additional period of time to permit updated modelling and data to inform next steps, given the government’s absolute commitment to safety.
“We will do whatever it takes to keep our students safe,” said Minister Lecce. “The government is taking a careful approach which provides our medical experts the time to review the modelling and make the best decision for the safety of our students and the future of learning.”
The government took immediate action to close schools in Ontario, the first in Canada to do so. The ministry continues to monitor the evolving situation and if necessary, the closure may be extended further to protect the health and safety of Ontario’s school communities.
At the same time the Ontario government is taking steps to ensure learning can continue. In March the province unveiled its Learn at Home portal. It offers all students high-quality resources, featuring made-in-Ontario math and literacy resources, created by Ontario-certified educators, in both English and French. Elementary resources are designed to help young students learn at home with interactive activities that encourage participation through entertaining and stimulating digital content. High school content was designed with a focus on STEM courses and ensures core competencies and skills are reinforced.
There won’t be a graduation ceremony and no prom either – but depend on the students to come up with something to celebrate leaving high school.
“Regardless of what transpires over the coming weeks, Ontario’s students will be able to complete their school year with confidence,” added Minister Lecce. “In particular, for students in their final year, we are removing all impediments to ensure students graduate and pursue post-secondary education.”
In the event that they do reopen, school employees will have access as of May 29, 2020.
The Ministry of Education will move forward to replace the remainder of Professional Activity (PA) days and examination days with instructional time, as well as the introduction of an expanded summer learning program that will focus on credit recovery, supports for vulnerable students, and course upgrading. Boards are to find solutions at the local level in keeping with this direction while upholding collective agreement obligations.
The Minister of Education later said that the next time he makes a public announcement it will be to set out how the balance of the school year will be dealt with.
Later today Premier Doug Ford will unveil the framework for re-opening the province.
Austin Horton, a Grade 9 student from Georgetown District High School, is using his personal 3D printer to make dozens of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help medical professionals stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Austin read about the need for PPE on social media in early April, he didn’t hesitate to fire up his 3D printer at home to start making plastic face shields.
Grade 9 student Austin Horton saw a need for Face Shields – went into production and has delivered 80 so far.
“I found the design online and slightly adjusted it for my printer,” he said. “It feels good to be doing this. I’ll keep doing this for as long as we have materials and it’s necessary.”
He has printed 80 shields so far. Each one takes about an hour and he prints around a half dozen a day. Austin leaves the PPE in a sealed bag at the front of his home and it is picked up by St. John Ambulance twice a week. He says the shields are being distributed to non-hospital medical professionals.
Michael Gallant, Principal at Georgetown District High School, said Austin’s PPE effort brings important hope to the local community.
“Like the residents of Georgetown, GDHS students and staff look for ways to support and improve their community and are committed to the success of all,” he said. “It is this dedication to the welfare of others that makes Georgetown such a special place. Find a way to do something that helps others and you will spread the hope and positivity that will get us through this challenge.”
Austin’s parents Krista and Shaun are very proud of their son’s effort to help people during these challenging times.
“Austin has always been very generous with his 3D printer,” Shaun said, noting he has made items to sell to fundraise for charities. “When it comes to helping others, he is always willing to assist wherever he can.”
“As soon as he was advised of the call for help, Austin offered to help immediately,” Krista said. “We thank (frontline workers) for taking time away from their family and friends to care for those who are not well and unable to have their families with them.”
Tim Bauer, Executive Director of St. John Ambulance, Halton-Hamilton Region, is grateful for Austin’s effort to help.
“The incredible work (Austin) is doing will go a long way toward ensuring public safety in this time of crisis,” Bauer said. “St. John Ambulance sincerely thanks him for understanding the need for PPE and for choosing to make an impact in the Halton community during a time of such great need in the battle against COVID-19.”
The Burlington Foundation today announced the first round of charities that will receive $163,500 from the Covid-19 Pandemic Response Fund since the Foundation announced the fund on March 31; 17 grants were announced.
Through the generosity of donors, the Pandemic Response Fund has grown to over $400,000 to support both community-based response efforts through two phases of granting, and a third phase that will assist charities in their recovery efforts recognizing that this pandemic will have long-term implications for the non-profit sector.
“The Covid-19 Pandemic Fund is designed to be a rapid response solution to the immediate and ongoing challenges facing our front-line charities as they struggle to meet the growing demand of community members impacted by Covid-19,” says Colleen Mulholland, President and CEO of Burlington Foundation.
Colleen Mulholland, President and CEO of Burlington Foundation.
The first phase of grantees provides a range of much-needed supports to high need, vulnerable people and families including those experiencing food insecurity; isolated seniors; community members with disability or mental health challenges; medical assistance; and safe housing. Second phase of granting will open on May 1.
“We are humbled by the care these front-line charities are providing to our friends and neighbours in great need during these unprecedented times. We are also honoured to partner with our fundholders and donors who are sending a loud caring message that we are all in this together,” Mulholland says.
Here are just a few of the grants being distributed to front-line charities:
• $10,000 to Burlington Food Bank & Open Doors of St. Christopher’s to purchase fresh food and staples for over 135 households increasing at a rate of 20% per month
• $10,000 to Compassion Society of Halton to acquire non-perishable food and hygiene supplies to help support over 1,200 clients a month and increasing
• $10,000 to ROCK (Reach Out Centre for Kids) to adapt virtual therapy programming to support over 300 clients with need escalating
• $10,000 to YMCA to adapt seniors’ programming to virtual platforms addressing isolation issues for nearly 900 Burlington seniors
• $15,000 to Halton Women’s Place to provide safe housing and healthy meals for 3 families
• $15,000 to Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation to aid in the purchase of PPE, equipment and related supplies as the hospital continues to battle Covid-19
Providing these critical emergency grants in this time of tremendous need would not be possible without the kindness of donors. Our heartfelt thank you to our many donors including: The Paletta Family, Pioneer Energy, Randy and Denise Reeve Family Fund, Milne Family Foundation Fund, Pieczonka Family Foundation Fund, LKH Spirit Fund, BDO Burlington Community Fund, Dalton Timmis Group Fund and several community donors.
To learn more about the Foundation’s Covid-19 Pandemic Response Fund, and how to support your community through a donation, please visitthe Foundation web site.
The Gazette uses Malware to secure its web sites. There are any number of software applications that can be used – we found Malware to work well for us. One of the added values is a newsletter they publish. In the most recent version they published a piece of just what “free” software is all about. Well worth reading.
It’s almost impossible not to rely on social networks in some way, whether for personal reasons or business. Sites such as LinkedIn continue to blur the line, increasing the amount of social function over time with features and services resembling less formal sites, such as Facebook. Can anyone imagine not relying on, of all things, Twitter to catch up on breaking coronavirus news around the world instantly? The trade off is your data, and how they profit from it.
Like it or not—and it’s entirely possibly it’s a big slab of “not”—these services are here to stay, and we may be “forced” to keep using them. Some of the privacy concerns that lead people to say, “Just stop using them” are well founded. The reality, however, is not quite so straightforward.
For example, in many remote regions, Facebook or Twitter might be the only free Internet access people have. And with pockets of restriction on free press, social media often represents the only outlet for “truth” for some users. There are some areas where people can receive unlimited Facebook access when they top up their mobiles. If they’re working, they’ll almost always use Facebook Messenger or another social media chat tool to stay in touch rather than drain their SMS allowance.
Many of us can afford to walk away from these services; but just as many of us simply can’t consider it when there’s nothing else to take its place.
Mining for data (money) has never been so profitable.
But how did this come to be? In the early days of Facebook, it was hard to envision the platform being used to spread disinformation, assist in genocide, or sell user data to third-parties. We walk users through the social media business model and show how the inevitable happens: when a product is free, the commodity is you and your data.
Setting up social media shop
Often, Venture Capital backing is how a social network springs into life. This is where VC firms invest lots of money for promising-looking services/technology with the expectation they’ll make big money and gain a return on investment in the form of ownership stakes. When the company is bought out or goes public, it’s massive sacks of cash for everybody. (Well, that’s the dream. The reality is usually quite a bit more complicated).
It’s not exactly common for these high-risk gambles to pay off, and what often happens is the company never quite pops. They underperform, or key staff leave, and they expand a little too rapidly with the knock-on effect that the CEO suddenly has this massive service with millions of users and no sensible way to turn that user base into profit (and no way to retain order on a service rife with chaos).
At that point, they either muddle along, or they look to profit in other ways. That “other way” is almost always via user data. I mean, it’s all there, so why not? Here are just some of the methods social networks deploy to turn bums on seats into massive piles of cash.
Advertising on social media
This is the most obvious one, and a primary driver for online revenue for many a year. Social media platforms tend to benefit in a way other more traditional publishers cannot, and revenue streams appear to be quite healthy in terms of user-revenue generation.
Advertising is a straight-forward way for social media networks to not only make money from the data they’ve collected, but also create chains where external parties potentially dip into the same pool, too.
That advertisement, beneath the headline, offering a free report is an example of an advertiser using the Google AdSense platform to put their advertisement in front of the audience they want. The Gazette earns a couple of pennies for each that someone clicks on.
At its most basic, platforms can offer ad space to advertisers. Unlike traditional publishing, social media ads can be tailored to personalized data the social network sees you searching for, talking about, or liking daily. If you thought hitting “like” (or its equivalent) on a portal was simply a helpful thumbs up in the general direction of someone providing content, think again. It’s quite likely feeding data into the big pot of “These are the ads we should show this person.”
Not only is everything you punch into the social network (and your browser) up for grabs, but everything your colleagues and associates do too, tying you up in a neat little bow of social media profiling. All of it can then be mined to make associations and estimations, which will also feed back to ad units and, ultimately, profit.
Guesstimates are based on the interests of you, your family, your friends, and your friends’ friends, plus other demographic-specific clues, such as your job title, pictures of your home, travel experiences, cars, and marriage status. Likely all of these data points help the social network neatly estimate your income, another way to figure out which specific adverts to send your way.
After all, if they send you the wrong ads, they lose. If you’re not clicking through and popping a promo page, the advertisers aren’t really winning. All that ad investment is essentially going to waste unless you’re compelled to make use of it in some way.
Even selling your data to advertisers or other marketing firms could be on the table. Depending on terms of service, it’s entirely possible the social platforms you use can anonymise their treasure trove and sell it for top dollar to third parties. Even in cases where the data isn’t sold, simply having it out there is always a bit risky.
There have been many unrelated, non-social media instances where it turned out supposedly anonymous data, wasn’t. There are always people who can come along afterwards and piece it all together, and they don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to do it. All this before you consider social media sites/platforms with social components aren’t immune to the perils of theft, leakage, and data scraping.
As any cursory glance of a security news source will tell you, there’s an awful lot of rogue advertisers out there to offset the perfectly legitimate ones. Whether by purchase or stumbling upon data leaked online, scammers are happy to take social media data and tie it up in email/phone scams and additional fake promos. At that point, even data generated through theoretically legitimate means is being (mis)used in some way by unscrupulous individuals, which only harms the ad industry further.
Apps and ads
Moving from desktop to mobile is a smart move for social networks, and if they’re able to have you install an app, then so much the better (for them). Depending on the mobile platform, they may be able to glean additional information about sites, apps, services, and preferred functionalities, which wouldn’t necessarily be available if you simply used a mobile web browser.
If you browse for any length of time on a mobile device, you’ll almost certainly be familiar with endless pop-ups and push notifications telling you how much cooler and awesome the app version of site X or Y will be. You may also have experienced the nagging sensation that websites seem to degrade in functionality over time on mobile browsers.
Suddenly, the UI is a little worse. The text is tiny. Somehow, you can no longer find previously overt menu options. Certain types of content no longer display correctly or easily, even when it’s something as basic as a jpeg. Did the “Do you want to view this in the app?” popup reverse the positions of the “Yes” and “No” buttons from the last time you saw it? Are they trying to trick you into clicking the wrong thing? It’s hard to remember, isn’t it?
A cynic would say this is all par for the course, but this is something you’ve almost certainly experienced when trying to do anything in social land on a mobile minus an app.
Once you’re locked into said app, a brave new world appears in terms of intimately-detailed data collection and a huge selection of adverts to choose from. Some of them may lead to sponsored affiliate links, opening the data harvesting net still further, or lead to additional third-party downloads. Some of these may be on official platform stores, while others may sit on unofficial third-party websites with all the implied risk such a thing carries.
Even the setup of how apps work on the website proper can drive revenue. Facebook caught some heat back in 2008 for their $375USD developer fee. Simply having a mass of developers making apps for the platform—whether verified or not—generates data that a social network platform can make use of, then tie it back to their users.
It’s all your data, wheeling around in a tumble drier of analytics.
Payment for access/features
Gating access to websites behind paywalls is not particularly popular for the general public. Therefore, most sites with a social networking component will usually charge only for additional services, and those services might not even be directly related to the social networking bit.
LinkedIn is a great example of this: the social networking part is there for anybody to use because it makes all those hilariously bad road warrior lifestyle posts incredibly sticky, and humorous replies are often the way people first land on a profile proper. However, what you’re paying for is increased core functionality unrelated to the “Is this even real?” comedy posts elsewhere.
In social networking land, a non-payment gated approach was required for certain platforms. Orkut, for example, required a login to access any content. Some of the thinking there was that a gated community could keep the bad things out. In reality, when data theft worms started to spread, it just meant the attacks were contained within the walls and hit the gated communities with full force.
The knock-on effect of this was security researchers’ ability to analyse and tackle these threats was delayed because many of these services were either niche or specific to certain regions only. As a result, finding out about these attacks was often at the mercy of simply being informed by random people that “X was happening over in Y.”
These days, access is much more granular, and it’s up to users to display what they want, with additional content requiring you to be logged in to view.
Counting the cost
Of the three approaches listed above, payment/gating is one of the least popular techniques to encourage a revenue stream. Straight up traditional advertising isn’t as fancy as app/site/service integration, but it’s something pretty much anybody can use, which is handy for devs without the mobile know-how or funds available to help make it happen.
Even so, nothing quite compares to the flexibility provided by mobile apps, integrated advertising, and the potential for additional third-party installs. With the added boost to sticky installs via the pulling power of social media influencers, it’s possibly never been harder to resist clicking install for key demographics.
The most important question, then, turns out to be one of the most common: What are you getting in return for loading an app onto your phone?
It’s always been true for apps generally, and it’ll continue to be a key factor in social media mobile data mining for the foreseeable future. “You are the product” might be a bit long in the tooth at this point, but where social media is concerned, it’s absolutely accurate. How could the billions of people worldwide creating the entirety of the content posted be anything else?
In a Statement published in the Mayor’s Newsletter – A Better Burlington – Mayor Meed Ward wrote:
City Council, at a Closed session accepted a proposed revised plan for a townhouse and semi-detached development at 2100 Brant Street. The proposal will be decided by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) at a hearing scheduled in July.
It is a piece of land that was farmed for centuries. It was pristine – and good have been a model community. The plans do not include anything near the traditional back yard.
The original proposal was for 12 townhouse blocks with a total of 83 units and three condominium townhouse blocks with 150 units, for a total development of 233 units. There was no parkland. Also included in the applications are a woodlot block as well as a natural heritage system block. The proposed development site has a total area of 11.1 hectares (27.2 acres). The developable area is 5.04 hectares.
The land is currently vacant and has been historically used for agricultural purposes.
The former City Council had approved a revised proposal in November 2018, before the new council was sworn in but after the election when 5 of 7 members of the previous council were not returning due to defeat or retirement.
Current City Council rescinded that plan in December 2018 in an effort to give residents, staff and the applicant additional time to improve the plan and come to a consensus on a revised development.
A group of citizens, primarily representing residents in the neighbourhood north of the development, formed Vision 2100 Brant Neighbours Association, an incorporated group that received Party status at the LPAT hearing to present evidence on behalf of residents.
Representatives of the townhouse condominium board immediately to the south of the project had earlier issued a letter of support for the November revised proposal, considering their issues (primarily around setbacks and drainage) to be settled.
City Council and Vision 2100 received a revised proposal in March 2020. This proposal was provided directly to the Vision 2100 citizen’s group at a meeting March 10 with the applicant and Ward Councillor. The proposal was further discussed April 2 via teleconference with Vision 2100 representatives and the Ward Councillor and Mayor, to seek citizen input on the proposal.
To date, Vision 2100 has not provided any suggested changes or feedback on the proposal, but did raise additional questions around parking, snow storage, traffic, and storm water management. These were answered by the applicant by email to the residents (see background below), and addressed in the revised proposal to the city’s satisfaction.
The new proposal improves on the original application as well as the November 2018 proposal with the following changes:
Reducing the unit count from 212 to 210 (down from 233 in the original proposal)
In the Northwest area of the development on both sides of the Almonte Drive extension, replacing six 2-storey townhouse units with 4 semi-detached 1.5 storey bungalofts
Increasing setbacks from the homes to the north, from 9 metres to 10 metres; in some areas the setback is 11 metres
Increasing the senior-friendly units with ground floor bedrooms to aid accessibility, from 7 to 16 units
Provision of a 0.3 hectare (0.76 acre) centrally located Public Park.
City council voted to accept the revised proposal at the council meeting of April 20, 2020.
The details of that March plan, and the planning justification for supporting it provided by city staff, are included in the planning staff analysis here: 2100 Brant Planning Analysis
The orange is where the proposed 233 units were to go – that has been reduced to 210
Unlike the vast majority of municipalities, Burlington releases the planning analysis for matters which the municipality is supporting approval of by the LPAT, in advance of the hearing. This policy change was implemented by the new City Council to ensure maximum transparency with residents about the basis of our decision-making.
The final decision on the revised proposal will be made by the LPAT. The city and applicant will appear in support of the proposal.
Vision 2100 is a registered Party to the hearing which gives them the right at the hearing to call evidence (witnesses, studies or both) to refute or support the proposal, cross examine city or applicant witnesses, or suggest further modifications to the proposal. The City of Burlington, the applicant (National Homes) and the Region of Halton are the other registered Parties to the hearing. There are two registered Participants to the hearing who can provide feedback at the hearing aswell.
Details on the original application submitted in 2017, revisions to the proposal, and details of the LPAT hearing are available on the project page for the development here created when the application was received: Current Development Applications, Ward 1, 2100 Brant St
Below is additional background, answers to some questions and a statement from the Mayor and Ward councillor.
Statement from Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith on 2100 Brant:
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
Resident input over several years, including the work of Vision 2100, has improved this application for the better, and we thank them for that.
Though the most recent proposal may not be exactly what residents or Councillors were hoping for, it does include more green space than the original proposal, including a new park, fewer units, less height and density, more variety and senior-friendly options, increased setbacks and better transition to the neighbourhoods to the north and south. The recent questions raised by residents around parking, traffic, snow storage and storm water management have been addressed.
Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith – working part time as a DJ?
In accepting the revised proposal, council considered a number of factors, including public input, the improvements made that addressed some of the concerns raised, the planning justification provided by staff, and advice from legal counsel.
Our decision also factored in some practical realities, including the inability to secure a planning witness that was of the opinion that the November 2018 proposal did not overall represent good planning, the likelihood that a hearing would not produce a different result, and the possibility that city taxpayers could be required to pay the entire costs of the applicant at a lengthy hearing. In addition, city staff who supported the November proposal would likely have been required to testify on behalf of the applicant, at city taxpayers expense.
We also considered that notwithstanding council accepting a revised proposal, there remain options for continued public input, especially for Vision 2100, which can provide feedback or modifications on the revised proposal, and/or proceed as a party to the hearing and call evidence and witnesses.
We believe we achieved the best outcome possible for residents in this case, and your input directly made that happen.
Background and Answers to Questions:
How has public input been gathered on this application?
This application has been under review since 2017, with multiple points of public input along the way. A citizen’s group, Vision 2100, was formed to represent the concerns of residents primarily north of the development site. A citizen’s group was formed to the south to represent the interests of the townhouse development to the south. They submitted a letter of support for the November 2018 revised proposal.
The applicant met with the public over 12 times in that period, in either organized public meetings or smaller resident meetings.
There was a neighbourhood meeting Oct. 12, 2017, a statutory public meeting April 3, 2018 where residents presented detailed feedback and suggested modifications to council. Some council members at the time remarked that they were the best and most comprehensive presentations they had heard. There was a further open house to discuss revised plans July 17, 2018.
Throughout 2019 there have been numerous additional consultations with the applicant, city staff and Vision 2100, individually or as a group, to address the remaining concerns of the community. They included general over development of the site with related issues, and the interface of the development to the single family neighbourhood to the north, at Almonte Drive/Belgrave Court/Havendale Blvd.
In February 2020 the applicant advised it was prepared to make changes to the plan to address the resident concerns. In March they submitted a revised proposal to Vision 2100, and city staff. City Council received the proposal in early April.
How is public input reflected in the final proposal?
Since the original application, there have been at least 11 major revisions as a result of public, staff and council input, including a reduction in units, increased parkland, increased setbacks from the neighbourhoods to the north and south, reduced height of some units and conversion from townhouses to semi-detached, and provision of accessible, senior friendly semi-detached bungalofts. There have been three different proposals including the most recent one.
The proposal was provided directly to the Vision 2100 citizen’s group at a meeting March 10 with the applicant and Ward Councillor. The proposal was further discussed April 2 via teleconference with Vision 2100 representatives and the Ward Councillor and Mayor, to seek citizen input on the proposal.
To date, they have not provided feedback on the most recent proposal, but they did raise several outstanding questions via email related to traffic, parking, snow storage and storm water management. These questions were raised with the applicant by the Mayor and Ward Councillor on residents behalf, with the response as follows:
Traffic on Havendale, Fairchild and Brant St. Was a traffic study produced and taken into account? ANSWER: A traffic study was provided to Vision 2100 previously with the analysis describing the difference of a single family development and a townhouse development completed by a professional traffic engineer, outlining that a single family home development would generate more traffic. City staff reviewed and supported the findings of the study.
Parking, no street parking on private roads and limited visitors parking. Where do visitors park? ANSWER: Visitor parking is provided in the development on both public roads interior to the site and private roads as detailed in the attached site plan (also provided to Vision 2100).
The Zoning By-law requires 54 visitor parking spaces, whereas 59 are proposed. In addition 25 on-street parking spaces could be accommodated along the Almonte Drive extension.
Snow removal. There is no room to pile snow. Does the City have a plan to resolve that problem? ANSWER: The site plan attached to the revised proposal identifies areas where snow storage will be designated, in the bottom left and top right areas of the development.
Storm Water management. This has been a serious issue for the residents, based on actual flooding experiences where the empty lot at 2100 Brant served as a sink which helped to mitigate the flooding. Now there will be no sink because the area will be developed. The proposal is for an underground collection system with tanks which can be drained into the existing stormwater sewer at Brant Street. The question is, will there be enough capacity to accommodate two major rain storms in a row and will the system work properly? ANSWER: The design was prepared by a professional engineer based on their experience and history of developing many projects within the GTA with a similar design. Burlington City engineering staff had their professional engineers along with the Region of Halton’s professional engineers review the design of the system and both have been satisfied.
Why was this appealed to the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal?
Developers and residents have equal legal right in Ontario to appeal any decision of city council on a development matter to the LPAT, to seek a different decision.
Further, an applicant can appeal to the LPAT if the municipality exceeds the provincially mandated timelines to make a decision, which at the time of this application were 180 days.
The applicant, residents and staff agreed to continue to work together on the project beyond the 180 day time frame to try to come to a better outcome, thus setting aside the deadline. This application is now in its third year of review.
However, this changed when the previous provincial government announced it was making changes to the LPAT (then called the Ontario Municipal Board) to restrict what could be appealed and giving more priority to local council decisions. The current provincial government rolled back those changes so the LPAT functions essentially the same as the OMB did.
However in that transition period thousands of applications across the province, were preemptively made to preserve rights to a hearing under the old OMB rules, including this one which appealed using the tool of “non decision” within the deadline, because council had not made a decision within the 180 day time frame.
What happens now?
This application and the proposed revised plan will be heard by the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal (LPAT) at a 12-day hearing scheduled to begin July 27. At that hearing, the applicant and city staff, based on City Council’s instructions, will jointly be requesting that the LPAT approve the revised application.
Due to COVID19, the province has cancelled all hearings till the end of June, but that does not apply to 2100 Brant Street as it is beyond that window of time. As such, all parties to the hearing, including Vision 2100, are required to produce evidence and experts to refute the application and revised proposal if they wish to challenge it.
To date, neither the city, nor Vision 2100, were able to find a planner to refute the proposal. This would leave the city without a witness at the hearing, compromising any ability to reach a different outcome at a hearing than the proposed application. In addition, city staff would most likely be called by the applicant to support the proposal, as they initially recommended approval of the November 2018 proposal. This factored into council’s decision to accept the third revised proposal as the best outcome possible, and an improvement on both the original and November proposals.
Entering a hearing without a witness could have also led to an award of costs against the city for the applicant’s expenses of the entire 12-day hearing, saddling taxpayers with a significant bill with no improvement in the outcome of the development. This also factored into council’s decision.
What are the opportunities for further public input on this application?
The next steps and opportunities for further public input at the hearing are detailed below, and were outlined via email to Vision 2100 from the Mayor and Ward Councillor April 10.
Vision 2100 has party status at the hearing. They can present evidence at the hearing regardless of whether any other party enters into a settlement. As such, they retain the opportunity (and obligation as a party) to call evidence against the revised proposal if they are opposed.
An issues list identified for the hearing outlines the issues raised by the various parties. The list is available on the project page on the city’s website. Issues list, attachment 3
There are four parties to the hearing: National Homes, City of Burlington, Vision 2100 and Region of Halton. On the issues list there are 16 issues cited by the city and Vision 2100 (Items 1-12, 14-17); 4 issues cited solely by Region of Halton (Items 13, 18, 19, 21), one issue cited by Region of Halton and Vision 2100 (Item 20), and 2 issues cited only by Vision 2100 (Items 22, 23).
We understand that Vision 2100 has wanted to see the city’s response to various issues and concerns to use in their own efforts at a hearing. Given that city staff previously approved the initial, and the modified (Nov 2018) application, and recommended approval of the March 2020 proposal, any concerns can assume to have been resolved to the city’s satisfaction.
The bulk of the issues raised by the city relate to planning justification matters. These were resolved to the city’s satisfaction, as outlined in the planning justification analysis
Any party can withdraw its issues or settle. Where issues are jointly raised, if one party withdraws from an issue, the remaining party to that issue can still raise it as an issue at a hearing.
Thus, regardless of the actions of the other parties, Vision 2100 retains the option in a hearing to call its own evidence on any of the issues they are listed under, as noted above.
According to the LPAT procedural order, where there are multiple parties listed beside a single issue, those parties have the option to call one single witness together to deal with that issue. This has led to some confusion that the city would call evidence and pay for it on behalf of Vision 2100. That is not the case, as each party remains separate. The City has been clear with Vision 2100 throughout the appeal process that each party, although having the same issues, was separate and should prepare to call its case separately in the event that one of the parties reached a settlement of the appeal.
If the city chose to call evidence on a particular issue, Vision 2100 could rely on that evidence themselves, rather than hire a second individual. If the city did not choose to call evidence, Vision 2100 would then be required to do so themselves. Each party retains independence, with the option to collaborate.
If one of the parties withdraws an item as an issue, or deems it settled and taken care of, the responsibility would be with the remaining party to call its own witness at the hearing, if that party believed that issue has not been resolved, based on their own expert review.
The format of the hearing is that each party must call its own witnesses to support their position of whether or not the application as presented should be approved; each party has the ability to cross-examine the witnesses provided by any other party. The documents in support of the application have been publicly available online since 2017, and residents can review this in advance of a hearing to plan their response. The planning analysis from the city is now also available to residents to plan their response.
A party to the hearing can produce their own evidence to refute the application, and would have opportunity at a hearing to ask questions of others. Regardless of whether there is a settlement, Vision 2100 has this opportunity to ask questions at a hearing, but also an obligation to produce its own evidence for any issues that Vision 2100 has identified on the Issues List.
Summary of options for continued public input:
1. Vision 2100 can undertake to hire their own experts to respond to the material that has been provided by the applicant and is publicly available online. This review may satisfy the concerns raised, or lead to suggested modifications which could in turn be requested of the applicant. Understandably, this is a significant financial undertaking, and may not be feasible.
2. As a resident’s group and as a party to the hearing, Vision 2100 has a unique opportunity to provide a direct public voice on the revised proposal, which they have not done yet. Vision 2100 has an opportunity to review the revised proposal, determine if it satisfies the concerns raised and if not suggest modifications.
3. If the proposed modifications are not accepted, Vision 2100 also has the option to proceed to a hearing, with the obligation to hire experts to refute the applicant’s material (which is publicly available online) and present new evidence in support of any additional proposed changes.
Did the city follow proper planning process on this application?
In dealing with this application, the city has followed the provincial planning process, which is not unique to Burlington but is required across Ontario. The process allows any party independently to determine whether or not its issues have been resolved.
The process allows any party to determine that its issues have not been resolved and proceed to a hearing, but in that case would need to present its own evidence to refute the application.
What is City Council’s role?
City council has an obligation to review and consider any revised proposal. In reviewing the proposal, we consider input from our planning and legal team, the applicant, as well as resident’s groups or individuals. The public is represented in this process in a variety of ways, including through your elected representatives and our voices carrying your input/questions forward, as well as any direct input you have provided to the city, applicant and elected representatives.
Your elected representatives also undertake to ensure that outstanding questions/issues have been addressed in making any decisions.
All means of public input described above have occurred throughout the processing of this application.
Think traffic flow onto Brant – and pity those that want to make a left hand turn on Brant in the morning rush hour.
City Council will learn from city staff what they expect the financial impacts of COVID-19 will be and seek Council’s endorsement of a three-month strategy that prioritizes which City services will be provided through to the end of June 2020.
Out of those deliberations will come a three-month work plan for the strategic management of the City budget and finances.
A statement from the administration seeks to assure City Council that staff remain committed to fiscal responsibility and accountability and are focused on offsetting all of the COVID-19 related City revenue losses to June 30, 2020 and are looking ahead past July 2020 to mitigate a shortfall at 2020 year-end.
A report detailing the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the City’s budget will be presented. This report will include:
• estimated revenue impacts of $7.6 million to June 30, 2020 • estimated expenditure savings of $5.2 million to June 30, 2020 • cash flow projections to June 30, 2020 • future financial modelling to identify pressures, dependent on the length of the pandemic, and recovery scenarios.
Municipalities are required to approve a budget that is balanced, however, the City can have a shortfall or surplus in a given year. A shortfall can be offset by:
• using reserve funds • increasing taxes in the next year; or • reducing expenditures during the year of the anticipated shortfall.
Burlington is attempting to mitigate a shortfall at year-end.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward said: “Our City is currently in a good position thanks to savings we’ve acquired through our winter maintenance budget, the result of a light winter, and major tenders that came in under budget.
Joan Ford, Chief Financial Officer
Joan Ford, Chief Financial Officer is the one who has to do the numbers juggling. Ms Ford and her team have always been conservative and cautious. She explains that: “In recognition of significant revenue losses such as transit fares, recreation programming and property tax deferrals, an expenditure restraint program was immediately implemented across the City to assist in mitigating the financial impacts.”
Will council listen or will they scour the reserve funds and look for ways to make up the shortfall from that source?
Monday is going to be a long day for city council – how deep their hands go into your pockets in the years ahead will be determined then.
The April 20 City Council meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. instead of 6:30 p.m.
The media release said the early start was to provide residents with the opportunity to watch a live stream of the meeting at a more convenient time.
The agenda is very heavy – they couldn’t possibly get through it all during an evening session.
The public can view virtual Council meetings remotely using the City’s existing web streaming tool at www.burlington.ca/calendar.
It will be the Mayor, the Clerk and the audio/visual technician only in the Council Chamber – the rest will be at home wearing headsets and participating virtually.
While no delegations are currently permitted, written comments may be submitted to the City Clerk by email at clerks@burlington.ca.
Received written submissions will form part of the public record and will be distributed to members of Burlington City Council.
Will they be read?
Live delegation presentations give Councillors an opportunity to ask questions and to follow up – that vital part of the delegater being in the room is lost.
Council will consider a recommendation to allow virtual delegations from members of the public at Council meetings, beginning in May 2020.
For the past month Ontario has had a Premier who has delivered. Surprising to many, is the level of empathy we are seeing from the man.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford – being pressed at every level yet keeping it all together.
Doug Ford is there before the cameras every day of the week; answering the tough, but necessary, questions.
Yesterday he stepped away from the camera, took a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe his brow. He was sweating it literally.
There is nothing smooth or slick about Doug Ford; his oratory doesn’t soar but when he says he will “look into it” – he does.
Hearing a politician say that they will do whatever it takes and then having them deliver on that statement is certainly refreshing.
His response to the desperate situation in the long term care homes hit home for this man; his Mother-in-law is a resident in one.
He moved swiftly to make changes across the system – long term care and the people who provide the service will benefit from his ability to see the problem, accept the advice he was given and get the wheels moving.
There will come a time when the spending being done today will have to be recovered from the tax base and we will watch with interest on how the current government pulls that off.
But right now Doug Ford is leading in a way this writer didn’t expect.
Does anyone happen to know where the leader of the provincial Liberals is. Has the New Democrat leader lost her tongue?
Many of us laughed when Doug Ford was basically hidden during the last federal election for fear that he would embarrass Andrew Scheer.
I may have issues with underlying philosophy that the Progressive Conservatives bring to the table but the man leading the government today is doing the job and I’m not embarrassed.
Listening to him say that he is a politician and he listens to the experts – and that it is his job to step aside and let the experts do their jobs is refreshing.
We didn’t see that from the federal Liberals during the SNC mess that occupied the minds of many trying to figure out just what the full story was behind the demotion of the then Minister of Justice Jodie Wilson Raybould.
Doug Ford is likely to be a two term Premier.
Every political leader has people who do the longer term political thinking. Were I Doug Ford, I would be asking my team to think about when to go back to the electorate.
When the COVID-19 crisis is behind us and things are getting back to, or close to, normal I would call a snap election – because when this is all over there is going to be a huge economic mess that may take as much as a decade to recover from and some very painful financial decision are going to have to be made.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
I didn’t know John Calvert. I knew of him. He was Director of Planning in Mississauga at a time when Hazel McCallion was Mayor – and he survived – Hazel was one tough cookie.
I was sent a copy of the letter Calvert wrote to Mayor Marianne Meed Ward expressing his profound disappointment on how the National Homes development on Brant was proceeding.
John Calvert has lived in Burlington for more than 30 years. Watching the shape, look, and feel of the city disintegrate has bothered him for some time.
John Calvert: Deeply hurt and disappointed
I had to ask a friend for contact information and see if Calvert would take a call from me.
He said he would and we had a ten minute talk.
I heard a very distraught man who was deeply hurt talk about the Due Process that he did not feel had taken place and the need for public input on planning decisions.
He agreed with me that people were excited when Marianne was elected Mayor – many believed that the development proposals on the table were going to ruin the city.
Calvert said he “likes Marianne” he just didn’t seem to like what she was doing.
“It took me some time to write the letter” said Calvert. “I showed it to my neighbour Ed Doer who was heavily involved in the opposition to the National Homes development; he said I had written what needed to be said.”
When Mayor Meed Ward went to France to take part in the 75th WWII anniversary she went with Calvert’s wife who was one of the Burlington residents who made the Juno Beach reception centre possible. Calvert told me that the two women travelled together and got along very well.
Calvert said he was asked to speak at one of Meed Ward’s campaign funding events. “I did so willingly” said Calvert
Calvert knows the ins and out of the planning profession. He told me that the communities we build today will determine the kind of society we will have a couple of decades later.
He talked about the lack of amenities in a community that was to have 233 homes – which may have been chiselled down to 215.
“The traffic problems will be horrendous.”
Calvert hopes that this Council decides to take a sober second look at what is being proposed.
The issue for Calvert is trust and quality in developments. By quality he doesn’t mean quartz counter tops and shiny high end stoves. He means space for people to live, back yards where there is room for one of those large Italian families and parks where children can play and enough room for a child to learn to ride a bicycle.
Calvert said he was excited when Meed Ward came along – mistakes that had been made were going to be corrected. Now it doesn’t look that way.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Premier Doug Ford – sweating out a very tough situation.
During a media conference call hours ago, Ontario Premier Doug Ford said that Ontario Schools would not be re-opening on May 4th and that the Minster of Education will be making an announcement on that matter in a few days.
The Premier added that the decision to not open the schools on the 4th “does not mean that the school year is lost”.
Even in the darkest days, there is a ray of sunshine.
The Local Media Association was asked to manage the distribution of $2 million in grants ($5,000 each) as part of the Facebook Journalism Project.
In October the Gazette will complete its tenth year of publishing news, option and reader comment for the citizens of Burlington.
More than 400 local newsrooms across North America have received grants to support their reporting on the coronavirus.
Many publishers in many provinces and territories will receive a grant of $5,000 USD to cover unexpected costs associated with reporting on the crisis in their communities.
The Canadian branch of the program was run in partnership with News Media Canada.
The grants will help fulfill needs such as remote work, increasing frequency of publishing, combating misinformation and serving vulnerable and at-risk groups.
The program is run in partnership with the Lenfest Institute for Journalism and Local Media Association in the US and News Media Canada and The Independent News Challenge in Canada. This announcement comes after the first round of 50 grant recipients was announced in March.
The Facebook Journalism Project doubled the total grant pool to $2 million after more than 200 publishers applied in the first 48 hours after the application launched. The expansion made it possible to help an even greater number of newsrooms navigate the economic impact of the outbreak.
The list for Ontario includes;
The Auroran Newspaper, Bancroft Times, Bancroft, Burlington Gazette, The Chatham Voice, Chatham, The Chronicle Journal, Fort Frances Times Ltd., Fort Frances, The Georgina Post, The Haldimand Press, The Highlander Newspaper, King Weekly Sentinel, Listowel Banner, The Logic, The Morrisburg Leader, New Canadian Media, New Pathway Publishers Limited, The North Grenville Times, Orangeville Citizen, The Ottawan, Peterborough Currents, The Review, Vankleek Hill, Salam Toronto, Thornhill, The Sarnia Journal, The Standard News Corporation, Port Perry, Temiskaming Printing, New Liskeard, Torstar Local – Torstar Corporation, Toronto, Freelancer – Trent Radio, Village Media Inc., The Voice of Pelham, The Walrus,Toronto, WHA Publications Ltd, Woolwich Observer.
The Gazette will hire a photographer and a writer for as long as the funds last.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward preparing her iPad for the Front Line Clap Out she performed from the veranda of her house.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward will not be talking part this Friday in the Front Line Clap Out she organized hoping that it would be celebrated across the city.
Her office reports that she is otherwise engaged.
While the response to the event was tepid at best on the street the Mayor lives on it was popular elsewhere in the city.
Quite popular actually.
Comments from Gazette readers:
FYI The Strata at 551 Maple was there front and centre, shouting from balconies, clapping, blowing horns,whistling. We are also there every day at 6 p m. and join in on other tributes. Kind of like if a tree falls in the woods and you didn’t see it did it really fall? So, yes for the record, we supported our Mayor and our front line.
A Frontliner Day should be declared for Halton Region or Burlington. So we have some time to notify and inform the masses and really show our gratitude. I’m sure we can work with social media and businesses to promote this day and work within the parameters of safe social distancing.(No group settings). Burlington Stay Strong!
we should have an ENCORE..this time we will spread the news and we should use pots and pans and even car horns.Let our noise reach toronto to show the frontliners that we really appreciate what they are doing
Great response on Daryl Drive in Aldershot. Lots of folks on balconies at Drewlo building at 945 banging pots, ringing bells, waving flags to neighbours on porches in surrounding courts. We’ve been doing this every night for a week now. The two minutes we spend on our balconies to thank all who are helping fight this, is also a great way to break the monotony of 24 hour isolation and reconnect with neighbours at a safe distance. Doing this every night we find the numbers keep growing. Those working to combat this pandemic deserve our two minutes.
Sorry we weren’t louder over at Pearl and Lakeshore for Marianne to hear us. All three buildings were clapping, making noise and cheering with thanks for the front line workers … with a special thx to the staff at Pearl and Pine Retirement for the tremendous job they are doing taking such good care of the residents. We are out/will be out each night at 7:30pm in recognition of these amazing heroes..
South East Burlington. We were out there with our neighbours. Clapping and cheering.
Helps break the feeling of isolation. Chatted safely and checked in with neighbours.
William
There were people clapping & banging pots on their balconies along Lakeshore, in view of Joseph Brant Hospital, but not in large numbers. I’m married to a career ER nurse at JBH and President of the nurses’ union there, and I know that all front line staff value gestures of kindness & appreciation. Theirs are largely thankless jobs. We are in the calm before the storm on COVID-19 & I am confident residents will become more enthusiastic in their support in the tough weeks to come.
Nicki St George is the mother of two, Leo 11 and Bea 8. She is a teacher at a private school in Oakville and in the final stages of chemotherapy. Nicki is part of a team of parents who write about their having the children at home experience
Saturday, March 28
It is a relief to have my husband back in the mix instead of being sequestered in his makeshift basement office. Bea does her dance class over Zoom. I am so impressed with how well the teacher has adapted to this new delivery method. Later, we organize a fashion show with two of my friends and their daughters over Houseparty.
I play music in the background and we all disappear to our rooms and emerge in our finery. I rock my mermaid sequin frock – any excuse to dig that beauty out! I read an article in the Atlantic about how pandemics are bad news for feminists – I reflect on the number of conversations I have had with my female friends about the current shortage of flour and yeast.
I have my first post-chemo alcoholic drink in four months. A quarantini.
Sunday, March 29
Since I have both yeast and flour, I decide to try making cinnamon buns. I keep promising the kids and then putting it off. They turn out okay. We go for a family bike ride after our weekly Houseparty get together with the grandparents and aunts and uncles. Bea masters getting herself started on the bike. This is a game changer!
Monday, March 30
What to watch for while we are on our travels.
I like Mondays. It is a great day to start fresh and set some good intentions and goals. This week our goal (that I set) is for me and the kids to get 10,000 steps every day. I make something called phyto broth which uses up all of the vegetable scraps that I’ve been saving for the last two weeks and creates a super vitamin packed broth. I take the kids to visit the grounds of my private school so that we can walk around the large lake-side property. We collect rocks by the shore and later spend time painting them. Leo likes his rocks too much to leave them anywhere for someone to find.
Tuesday, March 31
Eager to get our steps for the day and aware that Bea is not at her best (understatement) when walking around our neighbourhood, I devise a strategy to make it more fun. I give each kid a list of different items or animals to look for as we do our walk and take a tally. It is a roaring success until Leo gets fed up and crumbles his paper up. He is disappointed that Bea can count trucks as cars while he cannot include our local arena as a brick house. Most of the walk is spent with me encouraging the kids to keep going and to not give up. Leo is in a funk today. I give him some space and do my best to cheer him up. Neither of my kids have explicitly expressed unhappiness about the social distancing but I know it is taking its toll. Bea often uses the phrase, “when the virus is over…”
The joke was supposed to be on my husband.
Wednesday, April 1st
The kids are eager to see Dan succumb to our April fool’s joke which consists of loading up the laundry hamper with all the weights in the house and then asking him to take it downstairs to the laundry room. I send him an image I created on a fake headline website which says that Doug Ford is closing all the golf courses until September (scary because this actually might happen).
Thursday, April 2nd
Chickadees follow us and land on our hands even though we have no seeds to feed them.
We spend a lot of time outdoors today. My mood is much better when the sun is shining. I work hard clearing all the leaves out of the front garden. I find us a nature trail for our walk and chickadees follow us and land on our hands even though we have no seeds to feed them. I have been keeping off social media and the 24-hour news cycle lately. Instead we listen to Kidsnuz podcast and watch education TV shows during our downtime. I binge watch Friends in the evening. I find the banter on the show comforting.
Friday, April 3rd
Why do I have to conform to this 5-day work week paradigm?
I am in a funk today. I will not get all my steps today and I don’t even care. I have no desire to plan anything. The past three weeks of programming every activity for our family has caught up to me. I wonder how long this period of self-isolation will last. All I want to do is drink coffee, watch TV and do my puzzle. I mean why do I have to conform to this 5-day work week paradigm?
Today is my rest day. I let the kids have as much screen time as they want. I fight off the feelings of guilt. So many people have it much worse than me. I really have nothing to complain about. Think about the people on the front line risking their lives to fight this virus. I try to convince myself this newfound misery is the side-effect of the new cancer drug I started taking this week and it to some degree, it probably is.
I have no energy for daily phone call to my mum. I tell myself that tomorrow is a new day, but I know that this is more than a single day funk and that Dan will have to take over as ‘camp leader’ tomorrow. I make raw cookie dough and eat it after the kids go to bed. More guilt.
When the number of COVID-19 related deaths were reported at a single nursing home in Bobcaygeon exceeded ten there was concern about what was being done for people who are part of the very at risk.
The Gazette wanted to know what the Regional Health unit was doing to ensure that the same kind of outbreak did not occur locally.
We asked some questions: What is being done to protect residents and staff at long-term care facilities in Halton (geographic area) from the spread of COVID-19?
The Allendale Long Term care facility in Milton.
• Halton Region Public Health runs three accredited, non-profit long-term care homes: Allendale in Milton, Creek Way Village in Burlington and Post Inn Village in Oakville.
• To provide a safe and secure environment for all residents, Halton Region long-term care homes currently restrict entry of non-essential visitors.
• The Region follows all Ministry of Health directives for COVID-19 and is ensuring infection prevention best practices to reduce the risk of infection in our homes.
• Halton Region’s long-term care homes take a number of other measures to protect residents and staff, such as:
o enhanced cleaning and disinfecting; o active screening of anyone who enters the home (including staff, new admissions, etc.); o using personal protective equipment when necessary; o maintaining physical distancing (social distancing) between staff; and o ensuring proper hand hygiene.
• If a resident starts to show symptoms of COVID-19, he/she will be isolated immediately.
• Halton Region has also been communicating with families of residents and all staff members about the current COVID-19 situation.
Have there been any COVID-19 positive cases at Halton Region-owned long-term care homes?
• One staff member at Allendale in Milton and one staff member at Post Inn Village in Oakville have tested positive for COVID-19.
• Halton Region Public Health is working with the long-term care and retirement homes to take important precautionary measures to protect the health and safety of other residents and staff in the home:
o Any symptomatic residents or staff will be tested and isolated appropriately. All infection prevention and control measures are in place.
o Halton Region Public Health is helping to facilitate testing and identifying infection prevention and control measures the home needs to take.
• Families of residents in these facilities have also been notified and are receiving regular updates about the outbreaks.
Is testing being done for residents and their care providers?
• Long-term care homes must consult with Public Health and the resident’s primary care provider if the resident:
o exhibits symptoms of COVID-19;
o has been exposed to the virus; or
o if there has been confirmation of transmission of COVID-19.
• Public Health or your primary care provider will determine if any additional health and safety and clinical actions are required.
• As of March 9, 2020, when homes submit specimens for standard respiratory testing, these specimens are also tested for COVID-19 automatically. There is no change to the usual practices for submitting respiratory outbreak specimens.
• At this time, LTC residents and healthcare workers who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 are being tested.
Post Inn long term care facility in Oakville
Are visitors allowed?
• To provide a safe and secure environment for all residents, the Ministry of Health directed all long-term care homes to restrict entry of non-essential visitors until further notice.
• Only essential visitors with a family member who is critically ill will be permitted to visit the home. Our long-term care staff will notify families directly if this exception applies to them.
Does Public Health monitor the Halton Region-owned long-term care homes to ensure the care is at least adequate and that frontline workers are given what they need?
• Yes, Halton Region ensures our staff have the resources and training they need to support residents. At Halton Regional Long-Term Care homes, our primary focus is the health and well-being of our residents. We are committed to using evidence-based resources to support and sustain best practices that ensure the best possible resident care. For example, Public Health provides guidance and support for infection prevention and control; assists in managing outbreaks; and provides regular updates and communication to ensure that residents and staff are protected and safe.
Does Halton Region know how many private long-term care homes, nursing homes and retirement homes there are in Halton?
• There are three regional homes (Post Inn, Creek Way Village and Allendale), 15 private long-term care homes and 30 retirement homes in Halton.
As our online life continues to grow so do the risks involved in managing so much of our lives through digital tools, it has become increasingly important to learn how to protect your private information online, at all times.
We have been continuously integrating digital into daily life, moving from emails to online banks, even medical appointments can now happen through the web, so what can you do to stay safe but still enjoy all these wonderful tools at your disposal.
Choose carefully
Know where you are going online, the kinds of websites you visit and the apps you download, having the right information to make choices is a pretty good starting point for safety.
So if you are planning on gaming online pick the right site withsecured online casino payment, sites with plenty of reviews, don’t trust mass emails sent out to you, verify your bank’s address and avoid clicking on links sent by friends and family. Common sense is your first line of defense.
This is not a secure password system.
Passwords matter, a lot
This one is huge, and your second line of protection. Your passwords should be hard to guess, different for each account and they must never ever be shared.
How to pick a password? Avoid the common birthdays, home addresses and any easy hint, it is always better to go with random numbers, names, and places. Use a password managerto keep track of them all, change them regularly and stay ahead of the threat.
Update everything
Those pesky update reminder on your computer or your phone is there to do more than just annoy you, updating your device means more protection for your information.
Every new software development in operating systems helps to better security, so while it may be a little annoying to have to do it so often it is a small price to pay to stay safe. So next time you see that update notification come up just do it and save yourself some heartache.
Back up your information
Whether you use cloud storage or actual external drives backing up your data can help you stay safe in case of theft or when you lose a device somewhere.
Having your data copied somewhere means you can remotely deactivate devices even if you lose that information, protecting you and making it impossible for someone else to use your device. Literary saved data is safe data.
Don’t overshare!
One of the biggest problems for staying safe online right now is social media sharing, the more people know about you and your life the more exposed and vulnerable you are to identity theft and hacking.
So keep your sharing to the minimum, the internet does not need to know every move you make, the places you visit, the things you buy, friends you have and your mom’s birthday, for online purposes keeping quiet can keep you safer.
Smartphone use
The smartphone is by far the most used device right now, so they store within them incredible amounts of our information.
Intelligent, clean, conscious use of your smartphone makes your security a priority and saves you from unexpected threats, here are some other handy tips to keep your smartphone safe.
Getting people to fully understand what we are up against with the COVID19 crisis.
During a media event yesterday – Friday, three doctors made it very clear that 3000 to 15,000 people will die. They left the impression this level of loss was inescapable.
They will be people with compromised immune systems. Each year something in the order of 1300 people die during the annual flu season.
The downside is horrific.
The medical community warns that the surge of infections has yet to arrive in full force. That surge can’t be stopped. The infections that are going to show up in the days and weeks ahead were either brought into the country or passed from one person to the other a week to two weeks ago.
People have yet to see the number of deaths rise – we are seeing the number of infections reported increase. Some of those infected people will die; they are most likely to be people in the 70 and 80 year age range.
This year the medical community is dealing with a flu that has never been seen before and for which there is not yet a vaccine.
Those are the hard on the ground facts.
People are told to stay inside – something many are having difficulty doing.
These cars were parked outside Rattlesnake Point Conservation Halton Area that had been officially closed earlier in the week.
We seem then in public parks where they have been gathering in groups. So the cities are closing the public parks.
People want to get outside for some exercise and fresh air – and are frustrated by all the negative news and rules they aren’t certain make a heck of a lot of sense.
The Beachway has always been a popular place for people to walk; to spend time on the beach in warmer weather.
Not a single car parked – barricades in place
Earlier in the week the parking lots in the Beachway were packed – not the case now – except for one lot at the west end everything is blocked.
So what do you do to get out for some fresh air and exercise?
West end lot was left open. For who?
You are going to have to be creative and find spaces that are not crowded.
This is a situation we are going to be in for the balance of April for certain.
Any lifting of the limits on what we can do and where we can do it will be determined by the number of infection reports we get.
Dr. Donnelly, one of the three presenters at the media event on Friday, made the point:
The solution to the crisis is in our hands – our behaviour will determine just how quickly we can get the worst of this behind us.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
Easter isn’t about coloured eggs and the Easter Bunny.
Starts with Palm Sunday, then Good Friday, then Easter Sunday.
This Sunday we remember when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey and the crowds waved branches and laid down coats and shouted “Hosanna!”
Children in churches around the world will take part in a Palm Sunday procession.
In many churches there is a procession with the children walking into the Sanctuary waving palm tree leaves and singing hymns.
Covid-19 has put a serious crimp on church attendance. My church, Hamilton Mennonite, sent out a note saying they “need help to do a different kind of Palm Sunday processional, and anyone of any age can participate! Here are the steps:
1) Print the attached palm branch colouring page (as many as your household needs) 2) Colour (or otherwise decorate) it 3) Take a Picture of your artwork (horizontal is best). Include you holding it, if you want, or add your name to it. 4) Email it here or to Alissa at hmcpastor@cogeco.net by Friday night (or 1st thing Saturday morning if you must!)
Watch for the Photo Processional this Sunday morning in worship!
I’ll go on line to see how my Pastor handles the procession.
Think about what that procession was all about; the trial that took place, the decision to crucify a man named Jesus – that part is all fact – well documented.
The balance of the story, the Risen Lord – on the third day he rose – is pure faith – you either believe it or you don’t.
Much of our core social philosophy and fundamental social beliefs comes out of a Christian perspective. We now have many who bring a Muslim perspective to the way lives are lived.”
With parents struggling to keep their children active and at least a little entertained painting hard boiled eggs seems like a good idea and the hunt for the treats that are part of the secular Easter will keep the kids happy for a couple of hours.
You might give some thought to telling them what the season is really all about.
Salt with Pepper is the musings, reflections and opinions of the publisher of the Burlington Gazette, an online newspaper that was formed in 2010 and is a member of the National Newsmedia Council.
The province could experience something between 3,000 and 15,000 deaths from the COVID-19 virus – if we follow the rules.
Three of the smartest medical minds in the province, each doing a critical job, were on-line for a media event that lasted more than an hour and a half.
Dr. Peter Donnelly and Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health
President and CEO of Ontario Health Matthew Anderson alongside President and CEO of Public Health Ontario Dr. Peter Donnelly and Dean of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health Adalsteinn Brown revealed the projected numbers at Queen’s Park on Friday.
Dr Donnelly explained that in a normal flu season about 1,350 people die.
The data that was presented indicated that Ontario would have seen 300,000 cases of COVID-19 and 6,000 deaths by the end of the month if there was no government action or intervention.
There is one action that can keep the number of deaths down to that 3,000 level and that is to follow the rules.
One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. Two ears that work is all you need. Stay indoors; if you do go out for exercise stay away from other people. Mayor Meed Ward got it right.
The solution to the crisis we face, said Dr. Donnelly “is in the hands of the public.”
The decision to close schools in March was the right decision. Closing offices and factories were the right decisions.
Dr Matthews explained that the level of mortality for people over 80 who have underlying conditions and become infected is 16% – For those 70 the mortality level is 10%
Getting the data that was needed to do useful modelling from which projections can be made did take some time. Ontario was a little slow off the mark in the testing.
There were other issues:
Are there going to be enough ICU beds? Dr Anderson said that it is going to be very tight – and if public behaviour does not follow the rules – there will be a problem.
The province believes they will be OK – but there is no certainty.
Dr. Donnelly, who did most of the talking, said that the province is going to have to be rapid and rigorous in bearing down on people who don’t follow the rules.
We are heading into what looks like a decent weekend. Last weekend there was some really poor public behaviour. Cars were lined up on the side of the road at Rattlesnake Conservation area – when the park was officially closed.
People at Spencer Smith Park were tearing away that yellow tape that was around the park swings – Do that and the numbers will rise – and we will all be in very serious trouble.
Is that six feet of space?
People were standing just too close together.
The solution is in our hands. The solution to the problem is in the way we all behave. Discipline yourselves and don’t be afraid to remind your neighbours.
“It is not possible to be exact about where we will end up,” continued the Dr Donnelly. “But I think it is reasonable to say that if we do everything that we can think of, everything that already has been done stays in place, all of the other measures that are being considered put in place, we could reduce the death toll.”
He then talked about the virus being part of the world we live in for a couple of years.
The park these cars were parked outside had been officially closed.
Ontario is reporting 3,255 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the province with 67 deaths as of April 2.
President of Ontario Health, Mathew Anderson, said during today’s press conference on the models, that we are already growing close to pushing our healthcare system beyond its current capacity.
“If we do not adhere to social distancing — if we do not contain this disease, it will grow more rapidly,” he said.
The province has revised the list of essential services that can remain open and operate in the province.
For the purposes of this order, businesses include any for-profit, non-profit or other entity providing the goods and services described herein.
This does not preclude the provision of work and services by entities not on this list either online, by telephone or by mail/delivery. This also does not preclude the operation or delivery of services of any publicly funded agency or organization that delivers or supports government operations and services, including operations and services of the health care sector.
Teleworking and online commerce are permitted at all times for all businesses.
The list has been reduced from 74 to 44.
They are:
Supply chains
Businesses that supply other essential businesses or essential services within Ontario, or that supply businesses or services that have been declared essential in a jurisdiction outside of Ontario, with the support, products, supplies, systems, or services, including processing, packaging, warehousing, distribution, delivery, and maintenance necessary to operate.
Food
Businesses that primarily sell food, beverages and consumer products necessary to maintain households and businesses including:
Supermarkets and grocery stores.
Convenience stores.
Discount and big box retailers selling groceries.
Restaurants (take-out, drive-through and delivery service only).
Beer and wine and liquor stores.
Services
Pharmacies.
Gas stations and other fuel suppliers.
Laundromats and drycleaners.
Security services for residences, businesses and other properties.
Vehicle and equipment repair and essential maintenance and vehicle and equipment rental services.
Courier, postal, shipping, moving and delivery services.
Funeral and related services.
Staffing services including providing temporary help.
Veterinary services (urgent care only) and other businesses that provide for the health and welfare of animals, including farms, boarding kennels, stables, animal shelters, zoos, aquariums and research facilities.
Home child care services of up to six children as permitted under the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014, and child care centres for essential workers authorized to operate in accordance with Ontario Regulation 51/20 (Order Under Subsection 7.0.2 (4) of the Act – Closure of Establishments) made under the Act.
Hotels, motels, other shared rental accommodation including student residences, except for seasonal campgrounds and any pools, fitness centres, meeting rooms and other recreational facilities that may be part of the operations of these businesses.
Cheque cashing services.
Services to the public that are restricted to alternative methods of sale
Stores that sell any of the following items and provide them to the customer only through an alternative method of sale such as curb side pick-up or delivery, except in exceptional circumstances:
Hardware products.
Vehicle parts and supplies.
Pet and animal supplies.
Office supplies and computer products including computer repair.
Safety supplies.
Financial services
Businesses that provide the following financial services:
Capital markets and related securities trading and advisory services.
Banking/credit union activities including credit intermediation.
Insurance.
Land registration services.
Real estate agent services.
Pension and benefits payment services.
Financial services including payroll and payment processing and accounting and tax services.
Telecommunications and IT infrastructure/service providers
Information Technology (IT) services, including online services, software products and the facilities necessary for their operation and delivery.
Telecommunications providers and services (phone, internet, radio, cell phones etc.) and facilities necessary for their operation and delivery.
Newspapers, radio and television broadcasting.
Maintenance
Maintenance, repair and property management services strictly necessary to manage and maintain the safety, security, sanitation and essential operation of institutional, commercial, industrial and residential properties and buildings.
Transportation services
Businesses and facilities that provide transportation services, including,
transportation services provided by air, water, road, and rail, including taxis and other private transportation providers, and
support services for transportation services, including,
logistical support, distribution services, warehousing and storage, truck stops and tow operators,
services that support the operations and safety of transportation systems including maintenance and repairs, and
marinas, but only to the extent that the marina is necessary to enable individuals to access their primary place of residence.
Businesses that provide and support online retail, including by providing warehousing, storage and distribution of goods that are ordered online.
Manufacturing
Businesses that extract, manufacture, process and distribute goods, products, equipment and materials, including businesses that manufacture inputs to other manufacturers, (e.g. primary metal/ steel, blow molding, component manufacturers, chemicals, etc. that feed the end-product manufacturer), regardless of whether those other manufacturers are inside or outside of Ontario, together with businesses that support and facilitate the movement of goods within integrated North American and global supply chains.
Agriculture and food production
Businesses that produce food and beverages, and agricultural products including plants, including by farming, harvesting, aquaculture, hunting and fishing.
Businesses that process, manufacture or distribute food, beverages, crops, agricultural products, animal products and by-products.
Businesses that support the food or agricultural products supply chains and the health and safety of food, animals and plants.
Construction
Construction projects and services associated with the healthcare sector, including new facilities, expansions, renovations and conversion of spaces that could be repurposed for health care space.
Construction projects and services required to ensure safe and reliable operations of, or to provide new capacity in, critical provincial infrastructure, including transit, transportation, energy and justice sectors beyond the day-to-day maintenance.
Critical industrial construction activities required for,
the maintenance and operations of petrochemical plants and refineries,
significant industrial petrochemical projects where preliminary work has already commenced,
industrial construction and modifications to existing industrial structures limited solely to work necessary for the production, maintenance, and/or enhancement of Personal Protective Equipment, medical devices (such as ventilators), and other identified products directly related to combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Residential construction projects where,
a footing permit has been granted for single family, semi-detached and townhomes
an above grade structural permit has been granted for condominiums, mixed use and other buildings, or
the project involves renovations to residential properties and construction work was started before April 4, 2020.
Construction and maintenance activities necessary to temporarily close construction sites that have paused or are not active and to ensure ongoing public safety.
Resources and energy
Businesses that provide and ensure the domestic and global continuity of supply of resources, including mining, forestry, aggregates, petroleum, petroleum by-products and chemicals.
Electricity generation, transmission, distribution and storage and natural gas distribution, transmission and storage.
Community services
Businesses that deliver or support the delivery of services including:
Sewage treatment and disposal.
Collecting, transporting, storing, processing, disposing or recycling of any type of waste.
Potable drinking water.
Critical infrastructure repair and maintenance including roads, dams, bridges etc.
Environmental rehabilitation, management and monitoring, and spill clean up and response.
Administrative authorities that regulate and inspect businesses.
Professional and social services that support the legal and justice system.
Government services including but not limited to policing and law enforcement, fire and emergency services, paramedics, coroner and pathology services, corrections and court services, licences and permits.
Research
Businesses and organizations that maintain research facilities and engage in research, including medical research and other research and development activities.
Health care and social services
Organizations and providers that deliver home care services or personal support services to seniors and persons with disabilities.
Businesses that sell, rent or repair assistive/mobility/medical devices, aids and/or supplies.
Regulated health professionals (urgent care only) including dentists, optometrists, chiropractic services, ophthalmologists, physical and occupational therapists and podiatrists.
Organizations that provide health care including retirement homes, hospitals, clinics, long-term care facilities, independent health facilities and mental health and addictions counselling supports.
Laboratories and specimen collection centres.
Manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers of pharmaceutical products and medical supplies, including medications, medical isotopes, vaccines and antivirals, medical devices and medical supplies.
Manufacturers, distributors and businesses that provide logistical support of or for products and/or services that support the delivery of health care in all locations.
Not-for-profit organizations that provide critical personal support services in home or residential services for individuals with physical disabilities.
Not-for profit organizations that support the provision of food, shelter, safety or protection, and/or social services and other necessities of life to economically disadvantaged and other vulnerable individuals.
Some very tough times ahead for the hospitality and retail sectors of the Burlington economy.
These days even the tables and chairs are gone.
No business thus no revenue – with expenses that are basic – with rent being the biggest.
The Burlington Chamber of Commerce, Burlington Economic Development, Burlington Downtown Business Association, Aldershot Village BIA, and Tourism Burlington have joined forces to offer support and help Burlington’s Business community navigate the economic impacts of COVID-19.
Anita Cassidy, Executive Director of Burlington Economic Development.
While the Team Burlington name is not new, COVID-19 has renewed the group’s collaborative mission to keep the business community informed and ensure relevant and timely information is distributed as soon as it becomes available. “Right now, it’s about pooling resources for the collective benefit of the business community,” explained Anita Cassidy, Executive Director of Burlington Economic Development. “That means daily scrum meetings, sharing information, engaging subject matter experts and government officials, and asking the tough questions to ensure we know what businesses need now, and what they’ll need in the future to come out strong on the other side.”
About the best the Team is going to be able to provide is sympathy – there isn’t much they can do. Hydro will be low – the lights aren’t turned on; the city is creating some breaks on the tax side and I am sure that the Team will talk to landlords, and yes, lean on them a little but how much of the support has to come from the owners of the properties?
The first thing Team Burlington did to support businesses during COVID-19 was launch a one-stop-shop resource for businesses to turn to for information, resources and tools. With so much information rolling out every day, the website, which is hosted on burlingtonchamber.com, aims to provide the latest government updates, toolkits, support programs, economic relief information and resources all in place.
Carla Nell, President and CEO of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce
Carla Nell, President and CEO of the Burlington Chamber of Commerce also spoke to the power of working together. “Our membership already trusts that we’ll take a strong stance to advocate for their interests. Through this team approach, we’ll be able to do even more and extend our reach further to ensure all businesses of all sizes and industries feel supported and heard during these difficult times, and to position them for recovery in the longer term.”
Team Burlington is planning a series of COVID-19 virtual business support forums to give business leaders the opportunity to ask questions and hear from subject matter experts and key government officials at the local and regional levels, as well as Provincial and Federal representatives.
The available information is on the Chamber of Commerce web site.
The global COVID-19 pandemic is putting substantial pressure on the Burlington business community. Mandatory closures, necessary social distancing measures, layoffs and supply chain disruptions are putting immense pressure on businesses of all sizes. However, it is Team Burlington’s hope that through communication, advocacy, and the right relief measures, Burlington’s business community will remain steadfast in its short-term and long-term recovery from the impacts of COVID-19.
Bold statements – the reality is that some in the hospitality and retails sectors are going to end up closing their doors. On Friday, we will earn what the province thinks the immediate and medium term infection results are and what the projections look like.
The Premier has already said the news is not going to be easy to accept.
And if, for reasons that are not yet fully understood, the state of near total lock-down extends into the fall – the economic devastation will be severe.
By Pepper Parr
The Burlington Foundation today announced the first round of charities that will receive $163,500 from the Covid-19 Pandemic Response Fund since the Foundation announced the fund on March 31; 17 grants were announced.
• $10,000 to Burlington Food Bank & Open Doors of St. Christopher’s to purchase fresh food and 
For example, in many remote regions, Facebook or Twitter might be the only free Internet access people have. And with pockets of restriction on free press, social media often represents the only outlet for “truth” for some users. There are some areas where people can receive unlimited Facebook access when they top up their mobiles. If they’re working, they’ll almost always use Facebook Messenger or another social media chat tool to stay in touch rather than drain their SMS allowance.
1) Print the attached palm branch colouring page (as many as your household needs)
One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure this out. Two ears that work is all you need. Stay indoors; if you do go out for exercise stay away from other people. Mayor Meed Ward got it right.
We are heading into what looks like a decent weekend. Last weekend there was some really poor public behaviour. Cars were lined up on the side of the road at Rattlesnake Conservation area – when the park was officially closed.
FYI The Strata at 551 Maple was there front and centre, shouting from balconies, clapping, blowing horns,whistling. We are also there every day at 6 p m. and join in on other tributes. Kind of like if a tree falls in the woods and you didn’t see it did it really fall? So, yes for the record, we supported our Mayor and our front line.