 By Pepper Parr
October 2, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Burlington must be one of the toughest cities in the province to get a development through city Council and Tony Millington must have thought he was in a Court Room being grilled by a determined prosecutor.
 The revised proposal was to put four units on the property. Millington was taking part in a “For Information Only” briefing on a Lakeshore Road development that was to see a ranch style house on a deep lot converted to a condominium form of organization with four custom built homes on .35 ha property.
Council spent more than an hour on a set of documents that were for information only – no decisions were to be made and staff was nowhere near making a recommendation.
This was one of those issues where there were delegations for both sides – allow the zoning change – don’t allow the zoning change.
The zoning change application was originally for a 5 unit project – that got reduced to four units. Ward two councillor Marianne Meed Ward, in what came very close to a cross-examination of Tony Millington, the planner representing the current owners of the property, asked if would reduce the number of units to two. When Millington said no – Meed Ward asked why not.
What made the meeting difficult to follow was that the city had a lot of the technical data based on a five unit application. Rosedale Developments had reduced the proposal from 5 to 4 but had not completed the technical studies for the new version.
 The original proposal was to place five houses on the property Going to four units from five wasn’t enough for those who were opposed to the development. A number of people delegated to speak against the development but a surprising number who wanted to see the project developed and they wanted to buy a unit to move in. There were also more than 30 written submissions.
The battle over the differences was the impact the development would have on the character of the community and looks as if it is going to become one of those development battles that defines the city.
Weston Consulting was hired by two of the property owner with homes that abut the 2267 Lakeshore Road lot that currently has a single ranch style dwelling.
The application that will be before Council in the next term of office is for four detached dwellings on a condominium road in an established residential neighbourhood that is characterized by interesting and unique dwellings with frontage directly onto Lakeshore Road.
The properties owned by the planning consultant’s clients are below the neighborhood average in lot size, but are characteristic to the look of Lakeshore Road.
It is our opinion said the planner that an appropriate development of 2267 Lakeshore Road would include detached dwellings that continue the existing pattern of development, which includes the primary entrance to each dwelling fronting onto Lakeshore Road. He adds that “the fact that the proposed development is on a condominium road disrupts the established character of the neighbourhood and is not considered to be compatible with the established streetscape along Lakeshore Road.
Immediately across Lakeshore Road is a group of homes that do not face on Lakeshore Road. The distinction appears to be that the road they are on is a city road and not a private condominium road.
The planner defined compatible “as development or re-development that is capable of co-existing in harmony with, and that will not have an undue physical (including form) or functional adverse impact on, existing or proposed development in the area.”
 Much of the debate focused on the R% zoning which was required because the roadway was a private condominium road and not a city road. On the south side of Lakeshore Alexander Ct has homes in a cluster formation – which appears to meet the zoning requirement. seems a The property is contextually located in an area where the entire neighbourhood has the same zoning, thereby ensuring that similar development standards are applied across the surrounding community, thus creating consistency in the urban form of the area.
The R3.2 Zone does not permit multiple dwellings on a lot, and requires each parcel to have direct frontage on a public street.
“The proposed zone is also within the Low Density Residential category (R5), but would permit development of ‘cluster homes’. This form of development is not consistent with the established character of the neighbourhood as dwellings in an R5 zone are not required to have access from the public street. It is our opinion that the proposed Zoning By-law Amendment will not maintain the character of the neighbourhood and is therefore not appropriate for the subject lands.”
 The house on the property now does not make efficient use of the land. It appears said the planner, “that the developer is attempting to force as much development onto the subject lands as possible, with little regard for the impacts on adjacent properties or overall character of the community. The inclusion of detached dwellings in the proposed development is not sufficient to ensure compatibility with the neighbourhood. Consideration must also be given to the visual impact of the proposed lot fabric on the Lakeshore Road streetscape.”
It is our opinion that the proposed development has not given adequate consideration to the impacts on the neighbourhood that will result from the change in lot fabric. We suggest that an alternate proposal be prepared that orients any future dwellings to face Lakeshore Road. This would be more consistent with the established character and would comply with Official Plan policies as they relate to low-density residential areas.”
While many people spoke against any Official Plan amendment or any re-zoning, more than handful spoke of the need for just this kind of housing which they maintained was not really available in Burlington. Several spoke of being prepared to make deposits for such a property now; they are expected to go for something above $1 million each.
The area is desirable. It has a good school in the immediate area; it is a very short walk to Spencer Smith Park and all the downtown amenities.
The ranch style house that is to be demolished seemed to be quite outside the character of the immediate neighbourhood. There is an expanse of lawn between the house and Lakeshore road that doesn’t appear to be very usable.
There were what appeared to be very legitimate concerns about flood water and the pooling of excessive rain water that could result from additional houses. The developer had not provided technical drawings for the revised proposal.
Much of the discussion on this project had to do with the kind of Burlington we have now and the kind of Burlington people want in the future. There are many people who want to downsize from the large homes they have now and live in something smaller with less maintenance requirement. There were people in the council chamber who appeared to have money in their pocket ready to make a deposit.
People are not comfortable with change. Several said they moved to Burlington for the lifestyle and the kind of neighbourhoods we have – and they don’t want to see any change. Several people mentioned the number of houses on the south side of New Street at Drury Lane that had For Sale sign on the lawn – there were six of them in a row. One woman mentioned a letter she had received asking if she was interested in selling her home. “There is obviously something going on” she said but no one in city planning new anything about a new project.
Change takes place every day and it is at times difficult for planners to be fully aware of what public is going to want. In one of the written comments mention was made of a woman who used to skate on one of the ponds where Lakeshore School is now located. That was a long time ago – change takes place.
Whoa betide the developer who wants to put up a large tower on Lakeshore Road – oops there is an application for a 28 storey tower at the corner of Martha and the north side of Lakeshore Road.
 The sign says it all – 28 storeys on the north side of LAkeshore overlooking Emma’s Back Porch Everyone at the ward two all candidates meeting Wednesday night said they were not on for 28 stories.
The Bridgewater project on the south side of Lakeshore is due to break ground at some point – that will have 22 storeys – but that is a “legacy” project said the Mayor (whatever that means) that was first approved way back in 1985.
Things do change.
 By Pepper Parr
August 6, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
We get mail, ok email. The mail bag yesterday had a piece from Mr. Vince Rossi, president of the Burlington Air Park Inc., with the words in the subject line “For your publication” . Mr. Rossi is the person suing the Gazette, me personally, Vanessa Warren and Monte Dennis for a total of $100,000 to be awarded to him as exemplary damages. He wants us to be ordered to give him money, so that we are set out as examples of what people cannot do.
That matter has yet to get in front of a judge.
In his article to us – which we have set out below in full – with comments in a different typeface and we identify the Rossi comments. Our objective is to show the full picture with all the detail.
 Getting the Air Park to the point where it has a strong sustainable business case has been an uphill battle for Vince Rossi – he’s not there yet. ROSSI The Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change recently completed a review of groundwater monitoring and an environmental site assessment by Pinchin Environmental completed in April, 2014. In a letter to the Airpark dated August 1, 2014, the District Supervisor of the Halton Peel District Office writes:
“Based on our analysis of the information provided in this report, the [Ministry] has found that there is no indication the fill operations are adversely impacting groundwater offsite at this time.”
The key words here are “at this time”. It takes a lot of time for anything to work its way into a water table and the MECC makes that clear. This is in no way a clean bill of health.
ROSSI The Airpark further understands that Halton Region’s Medical Officer of Health has concluded, based on the Ministry’s review and private well sampling conducted by Health Department officials, that there is no health risk to residents from the Airpark’s activities.
 Vanessa Warren has been the best voice for those who want much more transparency on what is taking place at the air park. She formed a community coalition, Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition and then decided that she would run for the council seat for the ward the air park is located in. Warren and six other candidates want to take the seat from Councillor Blair Lancaster Halton Region has not produced any reports related to the safety of the fill that has been placed on the Burlington Airpark property.
In August 2013, the Health Department and the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change (MOECC) (formally the Ministry of Environment) worked together to sample and analyze the drinking water wells of homes located immediately adjacent to the areas of the Burlington Airpark where fill was placed. The results were provided to the individual private well owners. The purpose of the private well testing was to determine the safety of the well water at the time of sampling based on the parameters tested. The results were not intended to provide any conclusive evidence of any impacts from the filling operation at the airpark. The Region has not completed any other testing, nor produced any reports or studies related to the fill operations at Burlington Airpark.
Dr. Hamidah Meghani, Medical Officer of Health and Commissioner, Region of Halton
ROSSI The Airpark will conduct further groundwater testing in the future and will be sharing the results with the Ministry.
An informed reader who asked not to be identified had these comments:
The majority of the sample wells are for testing groundwater that has reached the perimeters of the airpark. The only interior well that I am aware of, is in a location with very little fill deposited.
There does not appear to be any documentation from the MOE that indicates that Terrapex was erroneous in their 2013 identification of contaminants in the scant soil samples that Rossi provided.
Furthermore, since there was no indication as to where these identified contaminants lie within the airpark’s extensively filled sites, it is reasonable to understand and believe that while there is no health risk now, it is just a matter of time before these contaminants will leech into neighborhood wells and bodies of water.
Those who have kept up with this file, several on city council want a comprehensive, core test drilling for contaminants, grid by grid on all areas that Rossi accepted ungoverned and unregulated fill.
We are told by a source in the trucking industry that at least one of the companies that delivered landfill to the site says that all the soil the one company delivered was tested. Aecon, Millennium Dumping, and King Paving delivered landfill to the site. Where are all these soil samples – and why have they not been turned over to the City?
Yes they will be conducting further tests – because Mr. Rossi knows that without data that can prove there is no contamination – there will be little co-operation from anyone he hopes to do business with at city hall. Testing has to be done over a lengthy period of time.
 Dennis Monte, one of three people being sued for libel has delegated frequently on the air park. While a compassionate focused speaker – one wonders if this council is listening to him. Please find attached a copy of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change (MOECC), Technical Support Section review of the following document: “Groundwater Monitoring Program and Limited Phase II Environmental Site Assessment” dated April 7, 2014, prepared by Pinchin Environmental Ltd. and signed by Melissa Gallagher, Sarah Ferguson and Andy D. Vanin.
For reference, this report can be viewed at the Burlington Airpark website www.burlingtonai rpark.com.
In summary, the Environmental Site Assessment and groundwater monitoring program found that groundwater down gradient of the fill area meets the provincial standards, except for uranium.
Based on additional re-sampling that was done, the report concludes that the uranium levels are likely naturally-occurring. A one-time cobalt exceedance was reported in one well, however additional core sampling was_done and the exceedences were not found.
Based on our analysis of the information provided in this report, the MOECC has found that there is no indication the fill operations are adversely impacting groundwater off site at this time.
Going forward, the MOECC is recommending that Burlington Airpark submit an ongoing groundwater monitoring plan for our review. The purpose of this groundwater monitoring program would be to monitor groundwater quality over time.
ROSSI In another development, Airpark owner Vince Rossi announced that he will not pursue a further legal appeal against the City of Burlington on the question of jurisdiction to apply its site alteration bylaw on land used for an airport.
Mr. Rossi has until September 10th to seek leave to appeal the Appeal Court decisionIf he doesn’t seek leave that ends things legally. While Rossi has said he will not seek leave the city is going to sit tight until the ability to appeal is lost.
ROSSI “While I do not agree with the decision given by the Ontario Court of Appeal in June, I accept the Court’s judgment and intend to comply with it. Equally important is my desire to move forward and in a mutually respectful and beneficial way with the Airpark’s neighbours, the City of Burlington and all other interested parties,” Rossi said.
The residents of the east side of rural Burlington scoff at the words “mutually respectful and beneficial way “
ROSSI “The Airpark is an important community asset, providing landing space for emergency medical flights and search- and-rescue aircraft, while also serving as a key economic driver for Burlington and Halton Region. It is my hope that with the litigation behind us, and the results of the groundwater testing re-confirmed, the City, Region and the Airpark can concentrate on enhancing the contributions the Airpark can make to the community and explore opportunities to attract more businesses and employment to our community. ”
 Part of the Sheldon property on Appleby Line. That rise of land in the background is fill Vince Rossi dumped without a site plan. There is a pile of landfill on the other side of the property as well. Sheldon basically lives in a valley with 30 foot hills on either side. The value of her property has been reduced by as much as 60% Justice Murray took the wind out of that sail with his decision which was agreed upon at the appeal level.
 We have a small piece of advice for Mr Rossi. Make an appointment with Frank McKeown, Executive Director of the Burlington Economic Development Corporation. His job is to grow the commercial and industrial side of the tax base for the city. He also wants institutional but unless you want to put a jail on the property there is nothing there for you.
McKeown is a tough cookie; he was Chief of Staff to the Mayor for two years and is one of those serial entrepreneurs that goes from one success to another. He can read a balance sheet better than most people you are going to meet – profit and loss statements get the full Monty treatment from McKeown. Pass the smell test with McKeown and you just might improve the Rossi reputation
Most of the people in rural Burlington like the airport – they kind of like that light fluttering sound when aircraft are landing. What they don’t like is what you have done to several properties. And they don’t like the spin you put on almost everything.
Can a leopard change its spots? Probably not – can Vince Rossi change? That’s an open question in the minds of the vast majority of your neighbours.
The decent thing for you to do is buy the Sheldon property and get permission to fill the space between your two 30 foot piles of fill with landfill that meets all the testing requirements. Then use the proceeds of that landfill to pay Sheldon.
Finally Mr. Rossi – keep sending us your thoughts – we really want to see you succeed – just not at the expense of others.
 By Pepper Parr
July 8, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
Kim Phillips. General Manager Corporate and Community Services leaves the city payroll at the end of July. Tom Eichenbaum, Director of Engineering also leaves at the end of July – both move to that place, where pension cheques get deposited regularly and the email traffic is a lot smaller.
 Retiring General Manager Kim Phillips on the job during a United Way fund raising week. That leaves Burlington with just the one General Manager and a City Manager, who serves as an interim until at least after the election and probably into 2015. It is certainly not what you would call a top heavy organization.
Probably the biggest task on interim city manager Pat Moyle’s desk is the workforce plan, he will put to council during a Committee of the Whole meeting, with his rationalization for a new structure. Moyle, who has a strong municipal background, much of which wasn’t made public when he was appointed, explains that Burlington is basically out of the “greenfield” business – that phase, where we just took large swaths of land and plunked down suburban bungalow after suburban bungalow and kept building north of the old city that sort of ended at about Caroline Street.
The development charges for all this construction kept the city coffers full – life was good.
The decision made to maintain a large rural sector that will not permit development north of Dundas is said to be cast in stone – but this reporter has heard economic development people talk of at least some form of development on the north side of highway 407 – which would be the thin edge of the wedge.
The rural boundary creates other problems because there basically was no plan –other than that there would be no development – which is what allowed the air park growth to get out of hand.
The province has told Burlington to get into the intensification business – and we are getting there, but not with the joy and determination with which we built all those bungalows.
Moyle explains that we don’t need a city bureaucracy focused on new growth and development – we need a bureaucracy that does fixing and maintaining and providing programs and services for a population that now has a lot more older people than there were in those prime development days.
The financial structure has changed as well. Moyle, with the experience he gained while serving as CAO for the Region, explains that most of our infrastructure is paid for – the waste and sewage structure is basically complete. The major road work to be done is on arterial roads which are a regional responsibility. “All we have to do is maintain the local roads we have” says Moyle – which Councillor Dennison will remind him that we are millions of dollars behind.
Moyle has a decidedly different view of the city’s financial position than that of his predecessor Jeff Fielding, and looks forward to a Council meeting in September, when he brings forward the Results Based Accountability approach the city will be taking for the 2015 budget.
It isn’t often that one sees bureaucrats getting excited, especially when they are talking about numbers, but Pat Moyle gets a gleam in his eye, when he talks about the people in finance and the change they were asked to make by Jeff Fielding; how the money was spend and the work they do gets explained to the public.
 A career as a municipal civil servant, who believes the culture of every city hall should be: You are here to serve. When Jeff Fielding bought a one way ticket to Calgary, the city found itself in an awkward spot. It needed a city manager and found one in Pat Moyle. It was a good fit and he had the capacity to take the city through the recruiting and selection of a new city manager. The problem was that he had one of his two general managers retiring and had to come up with a staffing plan that would work for the new kind of organization the city needed.
When a new head honcho is hired that person usually wants to create their own team and put their own stamp on the organization they will run. Kind of hard to do that if the person they hire sees the situation a little differently – unless Council decides to hire someone who buys into the decisions that have already been made – which kind of limits the choices.
Moyle has some pretty clear ideas on how the hiring process should go. Because of his extensive municipal experience there isn’t anyone out there, at least in Ontario, that he doesn’t know and he probably knows, who the top talent is in the rest of the country.
The plan, as Moyle explains it, is to advertise, review the resumes and then ask the short list to do some “game playing”. Each candidate would be given an information package and asked to design or scope out how they would organize the city to meet the challenges set out in the information package. It will be a little like putting them in a sandbox and giving all of them the same tools and toys and then watching what they build.
A good approach – but who will pull together the information package. Jeff Fielding saw the city’s financial situation one way – Pat Moyle sees it differently. Councillor Paul Sharman will tell you that the data is what matters most. Garbage in results in garbage out.
 The dean of city council with more than 22 years in the building has his hat in the ring for yet another term. All this will begin once there is a new council in place. October 28th will tell us who will be sitting around the horseshoe. While ward 1 has a growing number of candidates nominated – not always a good sign, one of them is going to have to come up with a very strong campaign to beat Councillor Craven. If there is an upset in ward 1 – it will stun most people, but elections are funny things – ask Cam Jackson.
Meed Ward is a shoe-in for ward 2 unless she pulls the faux pas of the year. John Taylor can’t be beaten in ward 3 at this point. Dennison is in trouble in ward 4 but that community doesn’t yet have the person that can take him down. There is word that Brian Heagle might put his hat in the ring. However, few are betting against the old fox but many want him out of office.
 Councillors Sharman and Lancaster – both newbies and both members of the group that produced the Shape Burlington report that basically went nowhere: will the same be said for these two council members. Lancaster has a field of six running against her, Sharman has a race in ward 5 and Lancaster has a battle in ward 6 – perhaps an epic one for her. With six people running against her – her hope is that the vote gets split and she comes up the middle. Jennifer Hlusko appears to be doing the kind of work that gets a candidate out in front.
The city could have three new council members come the end of October.
Those are the people that will make the decision as to who the next City Manager should be. Keeping someone in the city manager’s chair has been a bit of a challenge for Burlington. Roman Martiuk didn’t complete his five year contract, Jeff Fielding left for bigger and he thinks greener pastures and Pat Moyle is with us as a care taker – a quality care taker, but nevertheless the guy that is keeping the good ship Burlington upright, while general manager Scott Stewart does all the grunt work and Kim Phillips gets ready for her goodbye party.
The best way to understand Pat Moyle is to look at his very extensive municipal experience and use it as a guide as to how he works. Moyle got into the municipal world as a planner after graduating from Ryerson. Much of his experience has been with northern Ontario municipalities His work with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) kept him in touch with the municipal community across the province and because Ontario was he most powerful province, he worked closely with all the other provincial municipal associations.
Moyle was with AMO during the Harris/Eves years when the province downloaded service delivery, but no money to the municipal level. Moyle learned in the trenches how one has to deal with a provincial government that basically turned the tables over.
This depth of experience, especially the time spent at the Region, results in a view of Burlington and its problems that few have and allows Moyle to look for specific skill sets and approaches to problem solving, as he prepares to bring forward candidates for the job of City Manager for Burlington.
There are always internal candidates; Moyle talked of one situation, where there were more than three internal candidates and none got the job. Burlington doesn’t have a tremendous amount of bench strength at the director level and there are a number of people due for retirement.
The work being done by the finance department as they prepare for a Result Based Accountability (RBA) approach to the spending the city does will mean a huge shift – individuals will become responsible – not just a department.
Moyle began his career in the municipal field at the age of 29 in Huntsville, worked at one point for Brampton, where he crossed the path of Hazel McCallion who suggested he spend some time at AMO, where he headed up a board of 80 members representing 447 municipalities. It was invaluable experience.
Moyle has seen every form of municipal organization there is and comments that the structure Burlington has with its 880 employees is the same as that of Toronto. “We don’t need the general managers we have” explains Moyle. The fire department is our largest – why does it have to report to a General Manager, who then reports to the city manager. Expect to see the fire department as a direct report to the city manager in the future.
Almost every senior person you talk to about the city staff, point to a couple of dozen young people, who do sterling work and are technically savvy, innovative and bringing with great ideas.
Is it Moyle’s intention to suggest the city look for a manager that will focus on developing this young talent and move the city to a level of services it has not seen in the past?
Moyle appears to want to create a flatter organizational structure and move much of the responsibility to the line people delivering various services.
”It is important” said Moyle “that we fully understand what the problems we are trying to solve really are”. At the core of it all explains Moyle – staff are there to be of help – to serve. That is the culture city hall needs to have in place.
Moyle remarks on a comment management guru Peter Drucker made: “Culture eats strategy” – get the culture in place and the right strategy will follow.
Burlington is in a state of transformation – it is a city that is going to grow in place. There are few greenfield locations left to develop. He adds however, that there are between 2,000 and 3,000 residential units approved and ready for construction – so things are happening.
Jeff Fielding pointed out that while residential is great for the development community it isn’t the best situation for the city – new residential means more in the way of services that have to be delivered.
The development on the industrial, commercial and institutional sector is where Burlington lags and, according to Fielding, the city shouldn’t expect much in the way of new development from those sectors for 12 to 18 months.
The Burlington Economic Development Corporation finally put a new executive director in place and created a thinner more focused board. They have shifted from an organization that focused on networking, to an organization that is going to get right into the weeds of economic development. But that shift is going to take time – don’t expect to see a “good news” announcement this year.
The tag line for the Official Plan review is: “We are growing in place” – we are going to experience our growth with what we have. We appear to be in a planting the seeds mode on the staffing side and hoping that we get it right this time – a city manager that makes Burlington home – for more than five years.
 By Pepper Parr
June 10, 10, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON.
It could not have come at a better time for the north Burlington residents who are looking forward to a second day in court where they hope what they see as an errant, illegal land fill operation finally have the boots put to it.
The Gazette has followed this story since we first got word of the truck rumbling up and down Appleby Line with landfill from quite where no one knew.
Three notices of libel during which we were given an opportunity to retract what we had published, notices to two other north Burlington residents as well and then finally a Statement of Claim from the Burlington Air Park Inc., that we had damaged their reputations and needed to be punished to the tune of $100,000 by way of exemplary damages, And this isn`t over yet.
CBC National News has picked up the story which will broadcast this evening on the national network. The following is a transcript of what the CBC will run.
Rural Ontario residents fear contents of soil dumped near their properties
Anger over some landowners accepting millions of dollars worth of soil dug up in Toronto
Jun 10, 2014 11:43 AM ET
Marnie Luke, CBC News
Residents living in rural communities near Toronto are demanding to know what’s in the thousands of truckloads of soil being dumped on property near them.
 Barbara Sheldon’s farmland is located on the edge of Burlington, Ont., and is now walled in by a three-storey berm of dirt brought in by her neighbour, who owns the small Burlington Executive Airport next door.
She is worried about what might be in the muddy mix.
“We’re sitting ducks waiting for the contaminants to leach,” she said.
Sheldon told CBC’s Diana Swain that anyone in the country could face the same problem.
“They could lose everything. That is what happened to me. I lost everything,” she said.
“I’ve lost my property value. For five years I’ve lost the use of my land, I’ve lost the use of my home. I mean, from sun up to sun down and sometimes at night and on weekends we’re talking back-up beepers, we’re talking about dump trucks surrounding me,” Sheldon said.
Need for places to dump dirt will increase
Rural residents are angry that some landowners are taking in millions of dollars worth of soil dug up from Toronto-area construction sites with little oversight. The City of Toronto estimates nearly four million cubic metres of soil will be dug up in the next 10 years for Toronto water and transit projects alone.
With more and more soil being displaced to make room for condos, transit, Pan Am Games venues and other urban development projects, the need for places to dump that dirt is only going to increase.
Some municipalities have bylaws about using private property for landfill, but rules around soil testing and the amount of dirt that can be dumped are muddy.
Ontario environmental commissioner Gord Miller said it’s time for tougher rules as well as clarification on who has jurisdiction.
“We don’t have security on piles, on areas where we know there is contaminated soil … and it can be removed and sort of mixed in and how would we know? So there is legitimate concern when large volumes of soil are being deposited in rural areas with very little checking,” he said.
‘Disingenuously raising concerns’
Sheldon said every level of government she contacted for help since the dumping began five years ago said it wasn’t their responsibility.
 Court documents obtained by CBC News show Vince Rossi, owner of the Burlington Executive Airport, earned more than $855,000 accepting fill at the Burlington airport between the years 2011 to 2013.
In a statement to CBC News, Rossi accused his neighbours of “disingenuously raising environmental concerns.”
Rossi said the Ministry of the Environment has not found a problem with the fill he is using.
He also said that municipal bylaws don’t apply to his property.
“As for the issue of jurisdiction, our view is that only Transport Canada has a say over the nation’s airports,” he wrote.
The City of Burlington took the airport to court last year and got the dumping stopped. An appeal of that decision will be heard on June 11.
Similar disputes are playing out in other rural communities, like New Tecumseth in Simcoe County, which sits on the environmentally protected Oak Ridges Moraine about an hour north of Toronto.
A caravan of trucks began dumping dirt on the local air strip there four years ago, and concerned residents say they haven’t been able to get answers about what’s in the soil or the potential impact to well water.
Voluntary guidelines
Ontario’s Ministry of the Environment issued voluntary industry guidelines last year on testing and disposing of soil. But a report by the City of Toronto’s chief planner raises concerns that the guidelines do not deal with excess soil moved across jurisdictional boundaries.
“As a result, there continues to be a policy and regulatory gap in this area,” the report says.
Concerned citizens and environmental groups have formed the Ontario Soil Regulation Task Force, and are calling on the province to create an enforceable Clean Soil Act.
“That fill has to go somewhere. Somebody’s going to find a place for it, because it’s got money attached to it,” Sheldon said. “Until that money is removed from the fill, they should charge people. You want to put it here? OK, you pay us, developers. The whole system’s broken from the start.”
Miller, Ontario’s environmental commissioner, said to tackle the problem, you have to start at the source.
“The people who dig the holes should be responsible cradle to grave to making sure that soil is not only going somewhere where it’s safe, but somewhere where it’s wanted, and deposited in a manner that’s acceptable to the receiving municipality and the local residents,” Miller said.
The CBC is understood to be planning a series of television features on the problem. The natives north of Dundas will be beating their drums wildly tonight as they prepare for the appeal hearing tomorrow.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON.
February 4, 2014
Jeff Fielding has a problem. It’s a big problem. We aren’t sure exactly when he realized he had a problem nor do we know when he fully realized the extent of the problem. But there is no doubt today that he has got a firm grip on the problem and he can tell you exactly what it is with one simple graph.
 The chart covers a long period of time and it is difficult to read the detail but the trend isn’t hard to miss. Those red lines represent the amount of money the city does not have but needs to spend if roads and other capital assets are to be maintained. Are there efficiencies anywhere? Fielding will tell you that we aren’t in a desperate situation – yet, but he adds that if we don’t do something now – we will be in a close to desperate situation. The problem is with the asset’s the city owns.
In January of last year Fielding briefed Council corporate Asset Management Project. At that time Italo DiPietro and Paul Rohoman were seconded from Engineering to Corporate Strategic Initiatives to give the task the dedicated and focused attention it needed.
The city’s tangible capital assets, based on their replacement value is approximately $2.5 billion. Of this, approximately $2 billion is made up of linear assets including roads, storm sewers, bridges/culverts and sidewalks. A further $295 million is made up of city owned facilities and buildings. Collectively these two categories comprise approximately 92% of the city’s total capital assets as measured by replacement value.
 The objective of this project has been to report on the status of the city’s infrastructure, including adequacy of funding levels in the context of full life cycle needs. Following this, the project team would work with Finance staff on the analysis of funding scenarios and implications for the long-term condition of the city’s tangible capital assets.
In the asset management world seven things matter:
1. What do we own and where is it? (Inventory)
2. What is it worth? (Costs and replacement rates)
3. What is its condition and expected service life? (Condition and capability analysis)
4. What do we need to do to it? (optimum preventative maintenance and rehabilitation)
5. When do you need to do it? (Capital and operating plans)
6. How much will it cost?
7. How do you ensure long-term affordability? (Short and long term financial plan and acceptable risk)
These are large numbers. This is arcane language – only something an account would get excited about. However, if one looks at the data in a format that is easy to understand it evokes an Are you kidding me?
 Goodram looking north from LAkeshore: a classic Burlington Street that cost $2.9 million to rebuild just a portion of the street. Last summer Goodram Street was rebuilt. The street was close to 60 years old and its best before date had passed – some time ago. So the city rebuilt the road, rebuilt the sidewalk and the sewers at a total cost of $2.9 million
There were 54 homes on the stretch of street that had the construction work done. Based on the tax revenue the city derives from those 54 homes it will be at least 24 years before the $2.9 million has been recovered. In the meantime of course the city has to provide the good people on Goodram the normal services anyone else gets.
That kind of mathematics is just not sustainable – which is why Jeff Fielding and his staff are looking for more efficient ways to run the city. Somehow we must get a grip on what we are spending on the assets we own.
 Director of Finance Joan Ford does a great job of providing the data and her department does a good job of collecting the taxes as well. It’s the spending side that is causing the long term financial stress. Ms Ford doesn’t do the spending. It is important to note, said a city Corporate Strategic Initiatives (CSI) report that asset accounting is different than asset management. The former is backward looking and is focused on developing an annual charge based on expected service life (amortization period) and depreciated cost based on the acquisition cost (net book value). It is not based on actual replacement cost or actual condition of the assets, and in many cases the actual inventory of assets has been pooled and does not give specific details on an asset itself. Asset management on the other hand is forward-looking and is focused on planning for the maintenance and renewal needs of an asset in the future. It is a management and capital planning methodology. Critical difference that impacts on the way Fielding has to find the money to pay for the replacements.
To provide a full long-term assessment of funding needs, a 60 year time horizon was used for both the facilities and buildings assets and roadways. Meeting new building code and accessibility requirements will add to the actual cost of projects.
 Based on this analysis, the existing backlog of now needs for facilities and buildings is estimated at $13.2 million. With existing funding levels a moderate backlog is forecast to persist on average over the next 25-30 year period.
In the longer term, the forecast for facilities is shown to increase significantly, as long life building systems reach the end of the useful life. The extent of the cumulative backlog will be approximately $25 million at the end of the planning horizon approaching year 60.
Ouch!
The existing backlog of now need roads has been calculated at $105 million. The shave and pave program has extended the life of our roads but there is nothing that can extend them forever. Existing funding levels indicate a major deficit in approximately 2025 which is when a large volume of roads that will be at the end of their useful life and will require full reconstruction.
One of the objectives in the City’s Long Term Financial Plan is Predictable Infrastructure Investment. The city’s infrastructure is aging, and funds must be committed to ensure it is properly maintained and renewed. It is imperative that a strategy be developed in a way that ensures our assets are protected and maintained at minimum cost to the taxpayers.
There are several possible financing strategies available to address the issue of the existing backlog and the growing infrastructure funding gap. Capital from Current funding (Cash) is one of the preferred strategies. It requires detailed planning to ensure that funds can be collected over the life of the asset. . This option would require incremental increases to the city’s existing dedicated infrastructure levy. This would directly impact tax rate increases as well as restrict the ability to utilize property tax levies for other needs.
That last sentence needs to be read a second time. `… require incremental increases to the city’s existing dedicated infrastructure levy. This would directly impact tax rate increases as well as restrict the ability to utilize property tax levies for other needs.
Funds for new project would not be available.
In order to move towards a cash-based renewal program there may be a need to reduce the speed by which the city achieves the optimal life cycle funding level. Lifecycle spending levels may need to be slowed down to match funding capability, and new initiatives and programs restricted to match available funding. Despite these challenges, the cash funding option is preferred due to its sustainability.
 A rapt audience listened to an overview of the 2014 budget. What they have yet to have explained to them is the desperate situation the city will be in ten years from now if something isn’t done in the next few years to figure out how we are going to pay for the maintenance of the roads we have. The city`s reserve funds are improving but the city nevertheless got a “warning” rating when the last report was received.. Drawing upon reserves to fund infrastructure renewal will only be sustainable in the long run, if contributions are made on an annual basis from the tax base and other revenues.
Tax monies put into reserve funds is then not available for other projects.
As well, the city may want to establish a policy of maintaining a minimum balance on the capital reserve funds. This will allow the city to maintain financial flexibility and match funding required by other government grant programs without incurring additional debt.
The Parks & Recreation Department currently adds a surcharge on room rentals and programs at select locations. These funds are then held in a reserve fund for that facility’s capital renewal needs. The practice is not currently in place at all locations and the surcharge being collected is often insufficient to cover all renewal needs. The vast majority of other fees collected across the city are used solely to offset departmental operating costs and do not contribute to facility renewal. Should the city choose to rely more heavily on this source of funding, a review of current revenue policies would need to be conducted to establish where facility renewal costs could be recovered from rates and fees.
The city has recently been successful in the sale of naming rights at the new Haber Community Centre. Annual revenues from this sponsorship arrangement will be deposited in the facility’s reserve fund to be used towards future capital renewal. Additional private sector sponsorship arrangements such as these could be used to address facility renewal at other locations within the city. It should be noted that these options only address the city’s facility infrastructure needs and do not assist with the funding gap for other asset categories.
 Lori Jivan, Acting coordinator of budget and policy patiently leads people through an explanation of the budget and the workbook the city created. Debt financing is beneficial as it can be used to address immediate needs faster than waiting for cash reserves to be built up. However it comes with an additional interest expense. Debt follows the principle of “intergeneration equity”, as it spreads the costs over the taxpayers consuming the asset and the benefit of the capital project over a longer period.
The city has a current debt policy which restricts total debt charges to 12.5% of net revenues.
The city’s long term reliance on debt as a funding source for asset renewal should be phased out as asset renewal is a continual expense requiring a sustainable funding source. However, it may be necessary to incur debt financing in early years in order to include several critical life-cycle projects for which sufficient funds have not been fully set aside. It is also important to keep in mind that when considering the use of debt as a funding source, the city should ensure that it is being used in a fiscally responsible manner and should follow the recommendations of the City’s Long Term Financial Plan.
Other options are:
Divesting of underutilized assets – This option would include the review of assets owned by the city (land and buildings) with the objective of maximizing the value of these assets through sale, partnering on development or optimizing net lease costs received/paid by the city.
Development of other revenue sources. There is a potential to develop other revenue sources through the establishment of city owned development or service corporations.
 Transferring of assets to senior levels of government, for example roads rationalization with the Region.
Burlington is not bringing in the new employment development. Commercial properties pay more in the way of taxes and cost the city less to service. Residential housing is a loss operation for the city: it costs more to provide the services home owners need than the city is able to collect in taxes.
 Can the city manage its debt and the cost of the infrastructure by pushing some of it forward and having the next generation pay for some of what we need to fix in the next ten years? Could the city use a conversation that would look seriously at the options in front of us? There is one more graph that offers some hope. We continually hear about the baby boomers that are going to retire and cost the city more to provide services for.
The chart above shows where the hope is. While there are millions of baby boomers there are even more millions of Millennials – young people who will want to live and work in Burlington. We need to ensure that there are jobs in the city for them and that Burlington is a city they will want to live in. But that`s 20 years down the road.
 November 14, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. We now have more detail on the decision Justice Murray handed down this morning on the dispute between the city and the Burlington Executive Airpark.
The Airpark had taken the position they were a federally regulation operation and did not have to comply with local bylaws and regulations. They argued that the federal government was who they had to listen to.
 Vince Rossi, president of the Airpark had great plans. He was going to turn a sleepy little rural airport with a grass runway into a thriving regional airport. To do that he needed to dump tonnes of landfill on the property. An outline of the Airpark is shown above. The city argued that they didn’t want to intrude on the running of an airport but they did believe they had the right and more importantly the responsibility to ensure that property was protected.
In his conclusion Justice Murray ruled that the “application of the City of Burlington is allowed” which means Burlington is entitled to a declaration that Burlington’s by-law 6-2003 is valid and binding upon Burlington Airpark Inc. in respect to its landfill activities at the airpark.
The City, wrote Justice Murray “has requested an order requiring the respondent to comply with the by-law forthwith. This court has determined that the by-law is valid and binding on Burlington Airpark Inc. The issue of enforcement is properly left to the municipal authorities.
Justice Murray said the City of Burlington by-law was designed to regulate the use of landfill for the protection of the environment and for the safety, health and welfare of municipal residents. It was not enacted for the purpose of regulating federal undertakings and therefore the Burlington by law does not impair the core of the federal power.
 This Appleby Line resident wonders if the Court decision will mean this pile of earth will be hauled away. Or does the decision mean she has a claim against someone for the damage done to the value of her property/ The Judge’s decision set out the questions brought to him. He said: “There has been an ongoing dispute between the owners of Airpark and Burlington with respect to on-going fill operations maintained by Airpark. The owners of Airpark have consistently taken the position that its fill operation was not subject to review or regulation by Burlington because the airport is subject only to federal jurisdiction and regulation. Much debate has taken place since 2008 and has related to, inter alia whether the fill being used by the airport is clean. Although Airpark has made efforts to persuade Burlington that fill it is using on its premises is clean and presents no risk to neighbouring properties, the owners of Airpark have taken the position that as a matter of law, Burlington has no jurisdiction to regulate its fill operations.
“The issue came to a head in the spring of 2013 when Burlington started to receive significant complaints about the continuing fill operation at the aerodrome including complaints related to grading, drainage, noise, dust, traffic safety and possible effects of the fill on groundwater relied upon by neighbouring residents for drinking water.
“Burlington had a number of concerns including: the amount of fill deposited on the airport premises, whether the airport property is being used for a commercial landfill business unrelated to the airport, and the adverse drainage effects from the imposition of significant gradient and slope changes on the airport property that have been created by the deposit of fill. Fill samples provided by Airpark to Burlington have reinforced concerns that fill being dumped on the premises may result in contamination by pollutants of area groundwater.
“On May 3, 2013, Burlington issued an order to Airpark to comply with the by-law by obtaining a permit for the ongoing fill operation at the airport. Violation notices were subsequently issued notifying that Airpark was in breach of the order to comply and in violation of the by-law. Owners of the airport refused to cease accepting fill on its premises and commenced its own application to prohibit the city from enforcing its by-laws against it. In sum, Burlington indicated its intention to enforce its by-law and Airpark indicated that it will not comply. The result of this stand-off is the two applications before the court.
An application by Burlington for an injunction to restrain the delivery of fill to the airport lands was settled by Airpark agreeing to suspend all fill deliveries pending the outcome of these applications.
 The fence at the edge of this property can be seen at the bottom of the picture – there is 32 feet of earth that got put there without permission from the city. What happens to that earth now? The Burlington bylaw was pretty clear: An applicant for a Permit must submit a Control Plan as part of its application which must contain, inter alia, a map showing the location of the site, the site boundaries and the number of factors, the current and proposed use of the site, location of lakes, streams, wetlands, channels, ditches and other watercourses and other bodies of water on the site, the location of the predominant soil types, the existing site topography at a contour level not to exceed 0.5 m, the proposed final elevations of the site, the location and dimensions of temporary soil, or silt stockpiles and provisions maintaining site control measures during construction.
 Vince Rossi at a meeting with north Burlington residents. He took everything the resident had to say under advisement. Justice John Murray told Rossi that he had to apply with the city’s bylaw. Now what? With the Judge’s decision in hand, Burlington can now take steps to bring the site into compliance with the bylaw – and that is going to be a huge stretch. Some of the residents will want those 30 foot plus high hills of landfill taken down. Who will pay for that? Does the Airpark have the money to do that work?
The decision is a positive one for the city – now what they do with that decision and how they bring the Airpark property into compliance with the bylaw will be interesting to watch.
Scott Stewart, the city General Manager handling this file said: “Staff will be meeting with our legal counsel to determine our next steps, including how this decision might be used in respect of the city’s other regulatory powers, to deal with the situation at the Airpark”.
 November 4, 2013
By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON. ON. During the past six months, Ward 2 Councillor Marianne Meed Ward has called for a recorded vote on a number of important issues and found hers to be the only vote FOR a motion while the other six council members voted against.
Twice during the past 60 days Meed Ward has been cut off by the chair of a meeting for speaking too long. The first time the Mayor tried to cut her off, a shameful attempt; the second time Councillor Sharman tried to cut her off and on that occasion the Mayor suggested Council learn to accept the different styles members of Council bring to the table.
 City council recently held a CLOSED governance meeting attended by just the city Clerk and the Council members which was described as brutal by Meed Ward who did not disclose any of the specifics because it was a closed meeting.
This was not the first occasion this Council has reprimanded (and that is not too hard a word) Meed Ward. When she ran for office it was clear she was going to be different. She asks questions publicly and has no problem with being told that she isn’t as fully informed as she might be.
She listens to the delegations; she asks questions and she does her homework. She has served as the Chair of a Standing Committee and acquitted herself well however she needs more experience as a chair.
When asked how she felt she would respond to the drubbing she got during the closed Governance meeting she said she planned to meet one on one with every council member and do her best to work out the differences. According to Meed Ward, she has never been approached by a member of Council to talk about how she behaves.
 Meed Ward with Alan Harrington, president of the Historical Society. Her peers take exception to her practice of calling for a recorded vote, sometimes on a clause by clause basis, on a lot of the motions. They also dislike her continued call for recorded votes on every issue so the public can see just how their council member voted.
It will be interesting to see just how much impact Meed Ward has had on the quality of public debate. This council might find itself surprised at how many people agree with her.
During the 2010 election, then Mayor Cam Jackson was worried about the impact the pier issues were going to have on his being returned to office. He worried as well on the impact Meed Ward was going to have. What he didn’t realize at the time was that he, rather than the pier, was the issue and a once loyal constituency turfed him out of office.
Meed Ward appears to be raising the bar on transparency for the citizens of Burlington. Expect her to campaign on recorded votes for both Standing Committees and Council meetings. She might even try to get a line item into this year’s budget to pay for the equipment that would show the vote the moment each Council members pushes a button.
 Meed Ward was delegating during 2009 and 2010 – laying the groundwork for her defeat of Peter Thoem in 2010 Are we looking at a whacko politician who comes up with one zany idea after the other? If one listens to Meed Ward you hear a politician who believes, fervently believes, the approach Burlington takes to civil matters is wrong, doesn`t work and needs a change.
What sustains her is the belief that thousands of Burlingtonians feel the way she does. Meed Ward will tell you that people are constantly approaching her on the street and telling her they like what she is doing. She has a ward council that is the most active in the city – so much so that at least one Council member has taken in one of her ward meetings to see how she does it.
Meed Ward admits that some of the things done by Council members “hurt”. Being ambushed by the Mayor was cruel but Meed Ward finds solace in “knowing who you are. I am well-grounded and the people I represent are with me. I hear it from them every day and that sustains me.”
Meed Ward has this profound sense that things could be better and believes that the “adversarial approach pulls the least and the worst from us.” She is not a native to Burlington. She used to live in the Tyandaga community and once ran against Councillor Craven. Community life for Meed Ward was not that satisfying in the western part of the city and the family moved into the downtown core.
We are all impacted by our upbringing and the families within which we are raised. A chilling experience at the age of 16 caused Meed Ward to think hard about the life she was to live and a conversation with her Mother, the strongest of her parents, helped her set a path that got her into communications.
 Meed Ward with Mayor Goldring: she is more comfortable with herself as a speaker. Meed Ward loves the camera; she has one of those moths to a flame relationships with the camera. While she does write, she is stronger as a panelist; the camera is kind to her. She is controversial at times and news editors will instruct their camera operators to get a clip from Meed Ward. Councillor Craven is also visually good in front of a camera but he tends to preach. Mayor Goldring just isn’t comfortable with media. The camera lens loves Councillor Lancaster but she seldom has anything to say. Oddly, neither Councillors Taylor or Dennison have strong media skills;Dennison does have a capacity to make news.
Hearing a council member say that all kinds of people approach her and say she is doing a great job is a little self-serving – what else do you expect then to say? But Meed Ward is beginning to collect hard data. During the Water Street land debate she turned over 32 pages of email messages she received from people across the city. Councillor Taylor reported getting 45 messages with just one of them from a person in his ward. Meed Ward clearly has a constituency that is city-wide.
So who is this lady, why does she do what she does and where might she take the city if she were running it and what are the changes she wants to see made?
 Meed Ward has always known where she wants to go and what she needs to do to get there. It is a bumpy road but this is a well grounded politician. Meed Ward will tell you that the governance model used by the hospital is the one that inspires her. She has served on the hospital board since 2007 and finds that the way information gets to the Joseph Brant Hospital Board and how it is handled by the board is much more effective.
The hospital board requires its members to take part in professional development classes. Meed Ward has worked with trainers on her own dime as well. I suspect that cannot be said of most of our current council. Three of them have professional and or commercial interests that result in revenue for them which must take up some of their time if only to make up the bank deposit book.
Given the size of the work load – our council members serve as both Regional and municipal Councillors – these are full-time jobs. They are decently paid. Unfortunately Burlington does not appear prepared to pay them what they are worth and they don`t appear to be prepared to tell the public they are worth more than they are getting.
Meed Ward believes far too many minds are made up before council members take their seats and that the dialogue needed to arrive at a consensus doesn’t happen in this city.
 During the last provincial election all the good Liberals in the city did their bit including Meed Ward and Rick Craven who supported Karmel Sakran who lost to Progressive Conservative Jane McKenna. She has been the object of more than one unprofessional pointed attack from Councillor Craven who just cannot tolerate the woman and makes no attempt to bridge the differences.
Mayor Goldring will tell anyone who asks him that this council works very well – it doesn’t. Councillor Lancaster recently laughed publicly at something Councillor Taylor saw as very serious and he lashed out at her in a way we have never seen him do before. Taylor can get very emotional – but lashing out the way he did with Councillor Lancaster was surprising.
Meed Ward keeps her own counsel. She doesn’t appear to have close advisors, she tends to want to work on her own and listen to everyone. She has a more inquiring mind than any other council member. She does speak too long but she also asks a lot of questions and she pushes staff to deliver.
Her core understanding of economics is limited; business is not something she takes to naturally and there are many who think she is the worst thing that could have happened to the developers in the city. Meed Ward wants benefits for the advantages the city gives a developer.
While her understanding of what Section 37 of the Planning Act means and the way she interprets it drives the city planner bananas, Meed Ward wants as much as she can get for the city when a height restriction of eight floors grows to 16 floors.
Meed Ward would be well served if she had advisors she could trust. In this city the people who understand the processes use that understanding to their personal advantage.
 We have seen Meed Ward mature as a politician. She is described, derisively for the most part, as a populist – something she is not uncomfortable with if by populist you mean someone who is prepared to represent the interests of all the people.
In the last six months we have heard a slightly different Mead Ward – she is sounding like a Mayor. On those occasions when she is speaking at an event at which the Mayor is also speaking the difference between the two is marked. Meed Ward is a natural communicator. She is comfortable in front of a camera; she likes being in front of a camera. She likes talking – that is her element.
Mayor Goldring tends to be a forced speaker – he appears to be trying too hard. He is more of a loner than Meed Ward. Put another way, Meed Ward is more comfortable in her skin than Rick Goldring is in his.
What would Meed Ward change if she had the opportunity? She notes that before there can be any discussion at city Council, there has to be a motion on the floor – and that, she maintains, has members of Council going to their positions and arguing that point of view. She doesn’t believe that new ideas can come forward when a position is on the table and everyone is focused on the position.
 City Hall delegations are, for many people, tortuous. People who are not used to speaking publicly stand before Council for their five or ten minutes and, all too frequently, there is no feedback from council members. Delegations are not allowed to debate or argue. Stand, speak your mind and return to your seat if there are no questions. Far, far too frequently there are no questions. It is diminishing for the delegations.
The delegation has prepared their comments; some are well delivered others could have used more time and there is frequently a lot of nervous energy. But these are citizens speaking to their leaders and they deserve more in the way of respect.
Meed Ward’s thinking on how this approach might change has not been fully thought out – she does feel that there should be, could be, dialogue and conversation about the problem, opportunity – call it whatever you want – before there is a motion on the floor. Her view is that a motion gets people into fixed positions when she believes that is the last thing needed.
Some of the more rigid thinkers on Council, and on Staff will explain that the Procedural Bylaw calls for a motion to be on the floor before there can be any debate. They are correct. Meed Ward`s response to that type of response is likely to be, then change the procedural bylaw, which may be too much of a leap for most of this Council.
Meed Ward believes in dialogue, the exchange of views, along with new and credible information from the public are what’s needed at the early stages of a conversation.
Meed Ward appears to be suggesting that there be public dialogue before a detailed Staff Report or a motion is put forward so that people can make their views known, and then a Staff report could be prepared and out of that a motion fashioned. She seems to be looking for a situation akin to developments where a planner floats an idea to get initial public reaction and then uses that reaction to fine tune the project.
Right now there is a motion that someone has to put forward. That motion can get amended and an amendment can be made to the amendment, which makes for confusion and at times is rather amusing to watch as Council members get lost in the words they created.
Meed Ward looks for situations where there is a common vision or at least as close to a common vision as a group can get.
To be watched for from Meed Ward is her thinking on economic development and what the city administration is going to suggest the city is going to get out of in terms of the services they currently deliver.
 Progress on the IKEA plans to move their operations from Aldershot to the North Service Road are vital to the city’s tax revenue; this project has seen delay after delay – it might yet put some significant strain on the tax rate going into an election year. There are some hard truths to be faced by city council on the tax front – we are not pulling what we need from the industrial, commercial sector and if the IKEA deal does not close the way we need it to close – we do have a problem. Taxes will get risen at some level.
The public goes to the polls next October. In January current members of Council will begin to announce their intentions; Councillor Taylor has already done so publicly, Meed Ward and the Mayor have made it known they intend to run again. Councillor Craven has muttered that he “might” give running for the office of Mayor a shot. By the end of January they will all, except for Councillor Dennison, be in election mode. Dennison traditionally announces in June and should not be expected to announce until his OMB appeal scheduled for May, has been heard.
Then look for some imaginative photo ops. Around March some new names might begin to appear and we will see some new regulars attending council meetings with their loose leaf binders in their laps.
Wards 4, 5 and 6 will be hotly contested and there will be a number of acclamations.
 By Staff.
BURLINGTON, ON. August 14, 2013.
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation inched itself a little closer to their $60 million goal to complete the redevelopment and expansion of the hospital.
The Burlington Lions Club has committed $75,000 over the next 5 years towards getting the job done.
Burlington was told by the provincial government that it has to come up with $120 million of the $300 million + it will cost to upgrade the hospital. The project is the first major upgrade to our hospital in over 40 years.
The city took on half of the $120 million – that part is shown on your tax bill. The rest has to be raised by subscriptions from the community.
 Burlington Lions showing their support for the redevelopment and expansion of the Joseph Brant Hospital – $75,000 over five years. First installment ready for deposit. The Burlington Lions Club is one of over 45,000 Lions Clubs throughout the world. All clubs are members of Lions Club International, a non-profit organization made up of men and woman who volunteer their time for fundraising activities to benefit their communities. Chartered as the Lions Club of Burlington on April 27th, 1925, the group is currently known as the Burlington Lions Club; a group of passionate service people, 36 members strong.
The Burlington Mall Farmers Market, operated by Burlington Lions Club members began in 1960. The Market is open from May to October, Wednesdays (8am-2pm), Fridays (8am-4pm) and Saturdays (8am-2pm). The vendors carry a variety of locally grown fresh produce, baked goods, meats, cheese, eggs even some small craft items. Shopping at the Farmer’s Market lets you get fresh food and support your community at the same time.
 When completed, the hospital will take on the look and feel of a campus with its entrance re-oriented to LAkeshore Road. The first phase is the construction of the new McMaster Family Medicine facility that will bring 10 new family practitioners to the city. Three levels of parking will be built above the medical offices. Anissa Hilborn, JBHF President explained that the hospital foundations “ partnership with the Burlington Lions Club is an excellent example of how Community members and organizations can engage and contribute to our Hospital’s fundraising goals. The Burlington Lions Club holds an excellent weekly Community event, and has shown their passion and philanthropic commitment by donating funds back to our Community.”
 By Pepper Parr.
BURLINGTON, ON. August 9, 2013. The first time you read the email you wonder – what is this? How did they get my name and – this isn’t real is it?
A lot of people take a second look and click on a link or respond to a message. When they do that they have begun to engage the person who sent the email. The people who send this stuff are patient; they have nothing else to do but build confidence with you, make you believe that they are for real.
Dear Sir/Madam
I am sorry to bug your privacy. My name is Siti Rohani Salleh, I am the wife to late Abu Talib Yadin who happens to be a government contractor, trader and a politician. My husband was divisional treasurer of trade and contractors of the Malaysian Indian Congress in Perak state. He was brutally murdered by opposing members of his party for his straightforwardness and accountability though the government claimed that it was a robbery attack but everybody know it was assassination by some people in government. I was lucky to stand this gruesome murder on the night of Saturday, 15th September 2012 but they still stabbed me on my abdomen but I was lucky to escape. I was rush to the hospital by some neighbors and eventually the same assassin still came to the hospital in Malaysia just to take my life but eventually they miss their access to my ward.
So I had to instruct our account manager to transfer our money to South Africa where I had to run and seek asylum/refugee. Presently I am in the government hospital.
Please copy link below and read more about the incident where my husband was murdered on 12th September 2012.
https://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?sec=nation&file=/2012/9/15/nation/12034249
I write you to seek your assistance in the security of US$5.5million Deposited by me with a SOUTH AFRICAN RESERVE BANK before I seek refugee/asylum here. The South African reserve bank will allow you go on their online banking to transfer the funds. I am the only one with direct access and information of this deposit.
I decided to seek help knowing that My days are numbered having received a call from the Reserve bank that they will turn the deposit to its government treasury if I fail to present a representative for the claim. I seek your assistance to be made the Administrator to this inheritance since I have no relative or children. I intend to introduce you to the director of the bank whom I deem very competent to guide you through this claim process. Please get back to me for more information on this inheritance.
I was lead (note the spelling error) by the Almighty to send this mail to you after serious thought of all emails I saw on the internet. Please treat this seriously. I have all documents of deposit of this fund to proove I hope to hear from you soonest before I go.
Thank you. send your reply to me so that we can finalize this transfer within 3 days, I have all documentation to back up this claim, this is my email address: mrsitis@aol.com Mrs.Siti Rohani Salleh. Reply me to: mrsitis@aol.com
The people who sent you this are hoping you will be enticed to click on the email and if you do that – you have taken the first step to someone beginning the process of stealing more of your identity and as much of your money as they can.
The stealing of your identity will have already begun if you get an email like the one below. They have your email address – what else do they have?
There are people who earn their living this way – they look for naive people, gullible people, curious people or greedy people and they work their scam.
 Spend $10 on a good read and the best introduction you will ever get to how identities are stolen and why you get some of the email that appears in your inbox. Just how this is done was explained all too well in a book written by Will Ferguson “419”, a title that became a best seller and won the Scotiabank Giller prize in 2012, is the story about a man who got pulled into one of these scams and chose to end his life.
The book is a great read – and an interesting look at what the police in this country can and can’t do about identity theft.
We quote from the book, which is fiction, and very well researched. Detectives from the Economic Crime Unit of a police service are explaining to a woman whose father got taken that “The only defence we have with these types of fraud is education”.
In the novel the police show the woman some of the documents they have collected. “One is both very specific and oddly vague: A Fund Management Agreement issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria; an International Remittance voucher; a Certificate of Registration; Letters of Intent, affidavits, court orders, banking forms, all duly signed and duly sealed.”
And all phony, all created to fool people into parting with their money.
The people who do this type of thing are pretty good at it – but they succeed only because they gain your confidence.
In Will Ferguson’s “419” he takes you through just how the thieves, all from Nigeria in this book, work to gain a person’s confidence.
“These are some of the actual documents your father received; our tech unit recovered them from the cached files on his hard drive. You father had tried to delete them in the days before his accident. He thought he had cleared the memory – here – your father would have scanned and signed these forms and then emailed them back to Nigeria as attachments.”
When you get emails like this – scroll through it – some of the claims these people make are amazing – just don’t click on any of the links – you don’t really know where they are going to take you.
This is one of an ongoing series the Gazette will be doing on Identity Theft as part of an effort to make our readers more aware of what might show up in your email inbox one day.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. August 5th, 2013. Barbara Sheldon, the Appleby Line resident with mountainous piles of landfill on the north, south and east sides of her property that are part of the landfill work being done by the owners of the Air Park wasn’t sure if last Friday was going to be a good day for her or not.
 Regional staff prepare to test the water in the well on the Sheldon property on Appleby Line. The background view is to the west – the only one not blocked by huge piles of landfill. The Regional Health people were going to be on her property to test the well water and attempt to determine if there was any damage being done to the water in her well as a result of the run off from the landfill which slopes onto her property. She was told she would see the results in two weeks.
Sheldon believes the data from documents inspected by Terrapex Environmental, a company hired by the city to make some sense out of all the testing reports given to them by the Air Park, confirms that there are contaminates in the water on her property and that of a neighbour to the north.
 The view from the north side of the Sheldon property. At one point Sheldon could see Rattlesnake Point from her house She felt the city should have moved to have the well water in properties immediately adjacent to the Air Park land tested, but the city did nothing. Sheldon worked her way through the Regional bureaucracy and the provincial Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to get the testing done last Friday. Sheldon wonders where her Council member was on all this; not a word of support from Blair Lancaster on what residents could do.
 The southern view from the Sheldon property – that 30 foot plus pile of landfill wasn’t there when the property was purchased. If the owners of the Air Park get their way this part of their land will become a helicopter landing and take off area. There goes the neighbourhood. With the well water testing done, Sheldon headed for Milton to sit in a Court room and hear how the city and the Air Park were going to work their way through a couple of procedural issues.
A few weeks ago the city and the Air Park planned a meeting at the airport to talk through the issues. At the last-minute the Air Park cancelled that meeting and served the city with a document that was to get them both in front of a Judge.
The Air Park was asking the Courts to declare the Air Park rights under the Constitution Act, the Aeronautics Act, and the regulations within those acts are valid.
The Air Park wanted the Court to declare that the city’s Topsoil Preservation and Site Alteration By law does not apply to the Air Park’s operations and construction of aerodrome facilities on its premises;
The Air Park also wanted a judge to declare that the order to comply with that bylaw, issued by the city, on or about May 3, 2013, is null and void and of no legal effect;
The Air Park also wanted an injunction that would prevent anyone acting on the city’s behalf from interfering or attempting to interfere with the Air Park’s operations and construction of aerodrome facilities on its premises.
The city was surprised at those moves and concluding that the friendly talks were over quickly moved to apply for a permanent injunction restraining the Air Park from placing or dumping fill, removing topsoil or otherwise altering the grade of the land by causing, permitting or performing any other form of site alteration on the land.
The city also asked for an interim injunction restraining the Air Park from placing or dumping fill, removing topsoil or otherwise altering the grade of the land by causing, permitting or performing any other form of site alteration on the Property.
The city added to that a request for a mandatory order requiring the Air Park to remove the fill deposited on the land in contravention of Table 1 of Ontario Regulation 153/04.
These two applications to the Court were to be heard on August 28th. The first thing that had to be done last Friday, was to put these on hold and to have the judge certify an agreement the city and the Air Park had reached on what could be done and what could not be done while all the legal wrangling went on.
The city and the Air Park had come to an agreement on how things should work out on the site while the lawyers did their talking. City hall was now very wary over the Air Park’s behaviour; they thought they were meeting to talk about the problems a few weeks ago, while the Air Park was preparing documents to get in front of a Judge – so rather than rely on a verbal agreement the city asked that the agreement be taken before a judge and endorsed which meant the verbal agreement had the clout of a Court order.
The Judge endorsed an agreement that the arguments that were to be heard August 28th were to be moved to a date sometime after October 4th.
Between now and then the Air Park “will not bring any fill on its land other than gravel and pairings grindings for runway base only and not to be mixed with other fill and asphalt for pairing to allow completion of runway widening and taxiways”. The judge added that these “terms will continue to apply until the disposition of this application”.
So, the city in effect has its injunction and north Burlington residents can rest assured that there will be no landfill dumped on the site until the October 4th hearing.
 The Air Park sits in the middle of the eastern part of north Burlington and has operated as a small dirt runway operation for years. Vince Rossi purchased the operation and began his quest to develop it into almost a regional air park with little if any input from the city of the region. Economic development was in the hands of an independent entrepreneur who believed he had found away to avoid complying with city bylaws. The city didn’t see it that way. The Air Park claims they are regulated by federal government rules and are not subject to municipal bylaws. The city agrees that the running of the airport is regulated by the federal government but what the air park does with land fill and changes to the grading of the land and how water runoff is handled is regulated by the municipality.
 During a council chamber foyer conversation city manager Jeff Fielding made it very clear to Glenn Grenier that the city did not share his view that the Air Park did not have to comply with city bylaws. Grenier had positioned himself as a leading expert in aeronautical law and that the city should respect their rights. The city doesn’t believe the Air Park actually has the rights they say they have. Stopping work at the Air Park until the differences of opinion are heard by a judge had the potential for Air Park to lose what is left of the construction season
Where does all this leave Barbara Sheldon? She will know in two weeks if the water in her well is damaging her health.
And, on October 4th , after four hours of deliberations she will know if a Judge sides with the city and says they have the right to impose their rules on the Air Park or if the Air Park comes under federal jurisdiction and does not have to comply with municipal bylaws.
 Should the Air Park prevail, this idyllic setting will cease to exist – there will be helicopter pads less than 75 yards away. If the Air Park argument prevails Sheldon sees a quiet life on her property coming to an end.
And if the Air Park prevails Burlington is going to have to do a big think on just what is going to happen in terms of development in the rural part of the city should they be told that their bylaws have no impact on the Air Park. That’s a huge issue for the city.
Whatever the decision – expect it to be appealed. This case has ramifications for every municipality across the country – it’s a fight that has been brewing out there for some time. Burlington looks as if it is the city that will be taking this one on.
Should a Judge tell the Air Park that their aeronautics operations do indeed come under federal jurisdiction but what they do that relates to the way they grade their land or manage water that runs of land they own is subject to the bylaws of the city, then the Air Park is going to re-think how they are going to get along with city hall and the Region. No more thumbing their noses at the city.
That kind of a decision could have a very significant impact on the operation Vince Rossi runs and could put his $5 million investment – and then some – at significant risk.
We got a hint of what the argument is going to be about when one of the lawyers representing the Air Park commented last Friday that for “many years the city has agreed that its regulations and bylaws did not apply to the Air Park”. If there is documentary evidence to support that argument the city could have a problem.
The city didn’t pay nearly enough attention to what the Air Park was doing for the past five years. They seemed content to go along with the Air Park’s claim that they were federally regulated and they could do whatever they wanted with their land. When the city got a look at just how much grading was being done – they began to take action and since then have been very aggressive.
 Vince Rossi at his only meeting with north Burlington residents since the issue of what he was doing with his Air Park once the extent of his landfill work was clear. The city has also been much more forthcoming with information. They have posted copies of the documents served on them by the Air Park and have posted copies of documents they served. Burlington has not seen this level of transparency in the past. Healthy to say the least.
Had the city been on the ball they would have seen the signs and begun to monitor what was going on up there. The Mayor knew they were doing something; planners were at least apprised of what was happening and the Economic Development Corporation was aware – as to just how much they knew and what they did with what they knew will prove to become an issue in a court room.
The Air Park for its part should have been more forthcoming, less arrogant and been prepared to work with the city and be good neighbours.
The city’s failure to be on top of this file and the arrogant approach the Air Park used in their dealings with the city is what got both of them into a Court room.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 29, 2013. One side blinked; guess which one?
The City of Burlington and the Burlington Executive Airport have reached a settlement to stop fill operations at the airpark until a decision is made about whether the city has jurisdiction to regulate fill operations through its site alteration bylaw.
According to a city media release, “representatives from the legal teams for the city and the airpark continued discussions over the weekend to try and resolve the dispute. They reached a settlement on behalf of both parties, and together will request that the court endorse the following directions on Friday, Aug. 2:
that the city’s motion for injunction and the air park’s motion to strike or stay the city’s claim be adjourned pending the outcome of the air park’s court application regarding jurisdiction
that a hearing date for the application from the court be set for a date as soon as possible after Sept. 2, 2013
that the airpark will not bring any fill onto its land other than gravel and pavement grindings for a runway base (not to be mixed with any other fill) and asphalt for paving to allow completion of the work being done to widen a runway and taxiways
that the airpark will permit city staff on site to ensure no fill operations are taking place during the runway and taxiway base preparation and paving work
that the city will not exercise any self-help remedies, such as a prosecution under the Provincial Offences Act, against the airpark during the term of the settlement agreement
that the terms of the agreement will continue to apply until the court makes a decision on the airpark application.
Scott Stewart, the city’s general manager of development and infrastructure, sees this as “a positive step forward in resolving the issue of fill on the Burlington Executive Airport site.” He added that: “The settlement will ensure that fill is stopped on an interim basis until the disputed matter of jurisdiction can be determined by the court.”
Up until this recent shift in attitude the Air Park has been one tough customer. Shortly after a citizen, Vanessa Warren, delegated at city council the Air Park announced that it would be operating until as late as 11:00 pm some evenings while it dumped asphalt scraped from the 407. They explained at the time that this work had to be done at night because that was the only time the trucks had access to the 407. That didn’t go down particularly well with the city and the Air Park backed off that idea.
There will still be some trucks entering and leaving the airpark to complete the paving of the runway and taxiway, Stewart said, but truck traffic associated with the deposit of fill will not return until the court matter has been decided.
In the meantime, residents along Appleby Line and Bell School line are asking the office of the Regional Medical Officer of Health to test the water in their wells.
Sheldon said: “My suspicions and worst fears of Mr. Rossi’s mammoth landfill dumping operation have been confirmed by the environmental firm hired by City. Their report indicates the fill that has been accepted by Mr. Rossi does indeed contain contaminants.
“Mr. Rossi intentionally piled this fill, in some places at least 30 feet higher than my land, on three sides of my property and in very close proximity to my property line. Because of the towering elevations he created, Mr. Rossi has recklessly destroyed the natural storm water drainage pattern. Over the years, I have accumulated a great deal of documented evidence, photos and videos, of filthy surface water flowing onto my land and into my pond. I also have documented requests to Mr. Rossi, dating back to 2009, that he restore the storm water drainage pattern or at the very least have it professionally engineered to stop the flooding and ponding on my property. He never did.”
 Trucks bring in landfill described as contaminated onto their site south of a residents property. The fill is some 25 yards away from a pond on the residents property. Air Park has committed to stopping the landfill operation while the Court’s work out the matter of jurisdiction. “This dumping has been going on for 5 years, so I have grave (appropriate term) concerns about my well, my pond and my land being contaminated – if not already, then soon. These need to be thoroughly tested immediately and ongoing until the contamination and/or the threat of contamination has been permanently eradicated. For that matter, all of the landowners in this community need theirs tested as well. What about those here who farm commercially? Has Mr. Rossi contaminated their crops and endangered their livestock as well? And what about the treasured wildlife in this rural area – what happens to them when their water sources are poisoned? Not only have lives and livelihoods already been destroyed, but the significant natural elements of our rural green belt region have been jeopardized by this thoughtless, greedy man. I delegated to City Council a month ago that he is getting away with murder. Truer words I’ve never spoken.”
Sheldon advises her neighbours to call the Medical Officer of Health at the Region and demand to have the water in their wells tested to see just how contaminated it is.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 22, 2013. It is getting nasty out there. And it is getting expensive but the city has taken the position that the dumping of landfill at the Air Park site south of Derry Road between Bell School Line and Appleby Line has to be stopped.
 Were you to drive by this site today the elevation would be considerably higher. The owners of the air park have been dumping fill on their property for more than five years without obtaining a permit which the city believes they must do. Last week the Air Park served documents on the city setting out an application they are making to Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice to have their rights, as they see them, clarified and enforced. In a delegation to city council late in June, lawyer Glenn Grenier, representing the Burlington Executive Air Park, tried to tell Councillors that they had no rights as far as what is done at an Air Park.
 City manager Jeff Fielding, on the left, making his views known to Air Park lawyer Glenn Grenier after a council meeting. City lawyers stand to the right. City manager Jeff Fielding was closed to incensed at the comments and on three occasions that evening advised the Mayor to send the delegation packing. After the council meeting Fielding had some choice words for Mr. Grenier.
Some saw that as a stall on the part of the Air Park. The city would very much like to see the rights the Air Park claims it has judicially confirmed. BUT – in the meantime – stop dumping landfill on the site and to make that point the city sued the Air Park seeking a permanent injunction.
Interestingly, the city filed its claim in the Ontario Superior Court in Toronto while the notice the Air Park served was filed at the Superior Court in Milton.
Can the two proceed at the same time in two different courts? The lawyers will work that one out. What is evident in all this is that the city is not stepping aside. Nor is it waiting for anyone to do something for them.
 Based on a voluntary decision not to haul landfill to the Air Park site you won’t see any King Paving trucks working this location. A bit of positive news is the decision on the part of King Paving to voluntarily stop hauling fill to the site. Kudos to them for taking that position. City Manager Jeff Fielding publicly thanked King Paving for “doing the responsible thing at this time.” This decision on the part of King Paving will certainly fracture their relationship with the Air Park. There was a point at which the Gazette could not get a comment from King Paving without their clearing it with Vince Rossi, owner of the Air Park.
Based on the opinions of a respected environmental testing firm the city now knows there are excessive levels of substances such as petroleum hydrocarbons, lead and zinc in some of the fill. Based on that evidence the city wants:
A permanent injunction restraining the Airpark or anyone acting on their behalf from placing or dumping fill, removing topsoil or otherwise altering the grade or any other form of site alteration at the airpark;
An interim injunction, along the same lines as above;
An order requiring the airport to remove all fill deposited on the airpark lands that does not meet the Table 1 of Ontario Regulation 153/04 standards; and
Recovery of costs.
The city has also asked the Ontario Ministry of the Environment (MOE) to review the findings and take the appropriate action on behalf of Burlington residents and enforce any applicable ministry regulations against the airpark owner.
The city commissioned a review of the available environmental testing reports of the fill received at the airport amid growing concerns from residents and City Council.
 The culvert shown here is reported to run the full width of the Air Park property with thousands of tons of landfill for which there are not adequate testing data draining to the culvert and into land on the Cousins Appleby Line farm and into the area water table. According to the city’s Statement of Claim approximately 59% of the landfill dumped since 2011 is contaminated. In a report from Terrapex environmental, the company that did the review of the documents that set out what is in the landfill, there are not nearly enough documents (reports on where the fill came from and what is in it) to be able to give an opinion on just what is in the landfill dumped before 2011.
The only way to find out what is in the fill is to drill a series of “bore holes” throughout the site and analyze the results. The city feels it is up to the Air Park to do this testing at their expense and to make the results available to everyone.
The Air Park uses the fact that air parks are federally regulated – and on that point they are right; they also take the position that “everything” they do on their property also comes under federal regulation and this is where the city, the Region, the MOE and the federal department of transport bureaucrats have parted ways in terms of their thinking.
The Air Park has twenty days to prepare a statement of defense (they can ask for an additional ten days) and then the judicial process begins. If the city can come up with evidence that the contaminants in that fill are of significant and truly endangers public health this whole business can be expedited and a hearing held that could result in an interim injunction until more facts are gathered.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. July 15, 2013. The report that tells city hall just how bad the fill that has been dumped on Air Park lands has been leaked. It is not a pretty picture. Representatives from the Rural Burlington Green Coalition are both sick to their stomachs and dancing for joy because now there is, they believe, more than enough evid ence to shut the site down and begin the process of removing the landfill.
The Terrapex Environmental was hired by the city to provide an opinion of fill quality within the framework of applicable federal and provincial regulations. Approximately 500,000 cubic meters of fill has come to the Airport between 2008 and present.
Terrapex has taken the position that because the federal Aeronautics Act “is silent on matters of fill placement at airport sites” and further that if a site is “not owned by the federal government, regulatory evaluations automatically default to the applicable provincial regulations, and in some cases to applicable municipal regulations.”
Up until now Burlington Executive Air Park has taken the position that their project comes under federal regulation and they don’t have to comply with municipal, Regional or provincial regulations.
Terrapex says that Ontario Regulations made under the Ontario Environmental Protection Act (EPA), as well as regulations governing waste management, both apply. These regulations govern movement of waste from shipping sites and transportation of waste on Ontario roadways . Contaminated soil is considered a solid non-hazardous waste.
Should this prove to be the case both the Air Park organization and King Paving become liable under the regulations.
 Terrapex analyzed 56 documents (shipping sites) covering 323 samples (2 indicated material that was rejected; 2 provided no chemical data) thus 52 reports had data to be reviewed; the majority from 2010 and 2011. The Terrapex report suggests “either much of the fill was not tested or all of the data was not available or provided.”
The provincial regulations require that chemical analysis of soils to be received is one sample per 160 cubic metres for first 5000 cubic meters and one sample per 300 thereafter. To comply with these regulations 1700 samples would have been needed for the Airport. The sum of samples was 52 reports covering 323 samples. Thus, Terrapex concluded “the sampling frequency was inadequate.”
Only one of the 52 reports provided any rationale for expected contaminants of concerns at the shipping site, therefore Terrapex cannot conclude that appropriate analyses were completed at the remaining 51 shipping sites. Thus the adequacy of the sampling programs to determine potential contamination “cannot be assured.”
The report differentiates between Table 1 data and Table 2 data. The difference is: Table 1: Full Depth Background Site Condition Standards. (Everything about the site)
Table 2: Full Depth Generic Site Condition Standards in a Potable Ground Water Condition.
Terrapex explains that only materials meeting Table 1 Site Condition Standards are appropriate for the use of fill at the site. Only 134 samples (41%) from 13 of 52 sites met the Table 1 Site Condition Standards (thus, by projection, at best 200,000 or 500,000 cubic meters meets the standard). 17 of the 39 sites yielded failing samples, and “indicated exceedences of Table 1 standards for parameters such as petroleum hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and/or metals such as cadmium, lead, antimony and zinc.”
The report has the Air Park owner screening results to ensure fill met Table 2 standards. Only 244 of 323 samples met Table 2. Halton Region has said Table 2 standards “are not appropriate for the site due to the presence of environmentally sensitive sites proximate to the Airport lands.” 
What does all this technical language mean? If the report is valid, and there is no reason to believe it is anything but valid, then the Air Park has been dumping what is classified as waste.
The deposit of waste at the Airport site has essentially resulted in the establishment of an unlicensed waste disposal site, which may have ramifications for not only the receiver but the various shippers and haulers of the waste.”
 John Hutter in the foreground along with Ward 6 Councillor Blair Lancaster, Carey Clarke from the city’s Engineering department and property owner Carl Cousins inspect the landfill at the edge of the Cousin’s farm property and the flooding of the farmland. The city now knows that much of the landfill is really waste. It gets worse. Over the weekend Halton Liberal candidate Indira Naidoo-Harris toured the Cousins property on Appleby Line and observed the dumping of what everyone watching said looked like sludge. Was this material from the flooding in Toronto and does anyone know what was in those trucks?
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. June 12, 2013. Tracy Burrows, the city’s by-law enforcement office got a “heads up” phone call from Milt Farrow, who works with Vince Rossi, owner of the Burlington Executive Air Park, who wanted to advise her that trucks would be trucking in asphalt from highway 407 at night and on to the grounds of the air park.
It is not clear if Farrow is an officer of the Air Park corporation or working in some executive capacity or just some guy on the payroll but it is clear that he is a pipeline from the Air Park corporation to the city.
In a follow-up Memorandum to the city, dated June 7, Farrow sets out what they are going to do:
“The Ontario Ministry of Transport is resurfacing part of the 407 in or near Burlington. Some of the old asphalt material to be removed from the 407 is suitable for use as the sub base for the runways, taxiways and aprons being constructed. Further, the ability to reuse this material as part of the permanent finished product of the airport construction is also general beneficial as it will not other wise need to be disposed.
 The original position of the Air Park people was that they could do what they wanted when they wanted – which meant they could use construction equipment around the clock. While not admitting that the city might have some rights in enforcing their by-laws the Air park is believed to have said they will not use heavy equipment at night. “As you can appreciate” Farrell goes on to say, “most, but not all of the 407 re-surfacing is done at night. WE are required to accept the materials as it is removed from the 407. The timing is not something under our control, but it is obviously under the control of the MTO. While we anticipate some of the materials will be made available during the daylight hours, we understand that much of it must be done at night when traffic on the 407 is light.
“To minimize the noise at night, we are told by the contractor that the following measures will be observed:
a) The trucks to be used will not have banging tail gates
b) Work flow will be arranged so the drivers can deliver and deposit loads while driving forward without the need to stop and back up. As a result, the beeping back up alarms will not be sounded, and
c) To the extent possible, the night-time work will ne conducted on those areas of the site furthest from neighbours. Areas of work closer to the neighbours will be planned for the daylight hours.
d) We anticipate the work will commence on June 10th but we have no end date as it depends on weather but it will take two to three months on an intermittent basis.
Again, the airport takes the position that our construction activities are not subject to municipal by-laws because of the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government over aeronautics, including the construction of permanent facilities at the Airport. Further, we are advised by our counsel that there is a specific case wherein it was held that a Toronto noise by-law did not apply to activities at the Downsview airport.
 It was going to be close to around the clock truck traffic because of a highway 407 asphalt removal contract – but there seems to be some common sense and decency creeping into the behaviour of the Air Park owners. Notwithstanding, we want to be a good neighbour. We understand that in some cases exemptions are given further to the Burlington noise by-law and thus, the City must have some experience in minimizing the noise impact of night-time construction activities, when same are necessary. As explained above, it is necessary in this case. We would be pleased to receive and consider implementing any other noise abatement measures you care to offer
All this was BEFORE the city Council meeting where the Mayor said that the Air Park people may be good at hiring lawyers and constructing airports but that they know nothing about “public” relations. Councillor Craven prefaced his questions to the Air Park lawyer with the question: “why are your clients such lousy neighbours”.
It is close to standard practice for the city to give professionals delegating to Council the time they need to state their case and engage in plenty of Q&A. Glenn Grenier, counsel for the Air Park and a resident of Burlington didn’t get much of that courtesy.
Some of the ire of the city appears to have gotten through to the airport people. While they have consistently maintained they can operate outside city by-laws they are said to have advised the city they will follow the noise by-law and NOT truck in fill after 11 pm nor will they do any construction on the site outside the hours of 7 am to 7 pm.
A usually reliable city hall source said it was good news – but “we have had all kinds of problems with these guys broken before so we will just have to wait and see”.
Maybe just a trickle of civility.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON. May 17, 2013. According to a usually reliable source, there is “a big story developing in rural north Burlington and it will be going to council this Tuesday. “Burlington Airpark has been in existence for about 50 years and has lots of planes / hangers there. It was a relatively benign part of the community.
“In 2007 ownership was purchased by Vince Rossi and the objectives of the business changed significantly. A significant amount of fill began to be deposited on the site and resident concerns began to register with local Councillors.
“During 2012, local Councillor Blair Lancaster facilitated two meet and greet festivities inviting residents to meet the ownership, enjoy a corn roast and enter a draw to get some free flights. She personally told me “there was no real reason for community concern as the owners had no money to expand the operation and that the current fill was simply to support improving existing operations”.
 Fill has been going into this part of the Air Park for many months. Residents say the traffic has reached the 1000 trucks of fill a day level. “Fast forward to today. Approximately 1000, that’s right 1000 trucks arrive every day dumping loads of fill. The traffic on Appleby has become dangerous as there is no turning lane into the site and the road itself is treacherous due to debris and mud on the road especially after a rainfall. The owner receives a fee for every load as any developer wishing to get rid of debris has to send it somewhere and pay fees. Do the math…..I’m speculating but at even $ 50 per load you’re looking at close to $ 50,000 per day. Nice business to be in.
 The trucks were certainly coming from all directions. These pictures taken at 2:40 pm, Friday May 17,when a total of 9 trucks came and went.  A truck would roll in, dump its load, get a piece of paper from someone in a hard hat and leave the area. Then the next truck rolled into place. “The loads arrive from all directions. I’ve watched them coming from a variety of directions. Does anyone know the source of the fill? Does anyone know the content and whether it is toxic free? Apparently there are documented dumps at hours after midnight. It`s not unreasonable to assume that those loads can`t be dumped anywhere that is inspected, so what`s in them. And the ultimate insult.
“On May 03 the City of Burlington issued an order demanding a stop to filling until some of these questions could be answered. But the filling has continued despite the order as the owner states that only the Federal Transport Department has authority over an Airpark. I don’t know those legal details but I find it hard to believe that thousands of trucks of fill can be deposited anywhere without examination, knowledge of source and without determination of effects on watercourses etc.
 Bulldozers would level the earth dumped, and it wasn’t always earth, sometimes shale and small stones and then a grading roller would level out the bumps. This is no small undertaking – the equipment has been working over a large area for many months. This ain’t no cabbage patch. “This is going to be a HUGE issue in the rural north. Some, but not the majority, of what I have stated above is based on rumour, conjecture and reports to me from others that I cannot verify. I can verify the remarks of Councillor Lancaster last summer that seem so incorrect. She was either very fooled by the owners of the airpark or will require another explanation for her actions.”
There you have it. It will be interesting to see how this breaks at the Council meeting on Tuesday.
Here is what Councillors will be dealing with:
 Appleby Line is seen on the left. There is a lot of fill being dumped into the property – residents want to know why and the city says it has to stop – it’s illegal. Let’s see how this one works out. Something is certainly going on. An application has been submitted for a consent to sever for property known municipally as 5431 Appleby Line. This property is located directly north of the existing airport lands, and has frontage on both Appleby Line and Bell School Line, with a total area of approximately 35.25 ha. The consent application was received by the City on January 22, 2013 and was circulated to the public, City staff and external agencies in accordance with the Planning Act and regulations, and City procedures. 5431 Appleby Line is not currently owned by the airport, and the application was submitted by a representative of the airport, on behalf of the property owner. Currently, the application proposes to sever an approximately 12.95 ha portion of land from the easterly portion of the site, so that it can be combined with the airport lands to the south. The current airport owner has stated that the airport wishes to lengthen the existing north -south runway by approximately 1000 feet (305 m), which would be almost the entire width of the property to be severed. No specific details of a runway or airport expansion have been provided with the application, other than to state that the proposed use of the severed lands is “Airport”. No other changes are currently proposed for the retained lands (i.e. remainder of 5431 Appleby Line).
The current consent application is subject to the full range of provisions under the Planning Act, as well as current provincial and municipal planning policies, including:
Provincial Policy Statement
Greenbelt Plan
Region of Halton Official Plan
City of Burlington Official Plan
Conservation Halton Regulations and Policies
City of Burlington Zoning By-law
Currently, the application is on hold in response to comments submitted by Conservation Halton. In those comments, a deferral was requested so that
Conservation Halton staff could visit the site and examine a watercourse and wetland feature to determine the significance and possible regulation of these features. It was also indicated that the applicant may need to prepare various studies to confirm on -ground conditions and delineate the features, regulated areas and any required buffers.Should the application proceed, it will do so in accordance with the Planning Act requirements and provisions for land division. Staff have been advised by the Clerk of the Land Division Committee that a public meeting will be held to decide on the applications as at least one letter of objection has been received from a member of the public. Notification of the meeting would be provided in accordance with provisions of the Planning Act, which require a circulation radius of 60 m from the property boundary.
In addition, a notification sign would need to be erected on the site at least 14 days prior to the hearing date. The meeting would be a public meeting under the Planning Act and could be attended by any member of the public. In addition, any decision made by the Land Division Committee would be subject to appeal provisions of the Planning Act, which state that any person or public body can appeal the decision of the Committee within 20 days of the giving of the notice of decision.
 At least 100 small aircraft are stored in hangers at the Air Park. In the evenings they can be seen landing on the field, one after another. Kind of nice to watch. At present, Planning staff have not provided formal comments on the applications to the Land Division Committee. Staff’s position on the applications will be provided to the Committee through these comments, to be considered by the Committee in conjunction with comments from other agencies (i.e. Region of Halton, Conservation Halton, etc.),the applicant, and members of the public.
The Ward Councillor contacted the Engineering and Planning departments for assistance in responding to ongoing concerns expressed by residents regarding the
deposit of fill on the airport site. Based on advice received from the Legal department, City staff advised the airport owner that the City’s site alteration is applicable and by -law must be complied with. This information was communicated to residents at a meeting held on May 1, 2013.
As a result, on May 3, 2013 the Engineering Department issued an “Order to Comply”,related to the City’s Site Alteration By-law 6-2003, to the Airport owner Mr. Vince Rossi. The serving of the Order to Comply was done in person in a meeting with Mr. Rossi. The Order to Comply included instructions that the current dumping and filling operations were required to stop and that the owner would be required to apply for and obtain a Site Alteration Permit in order to continue the dumping and filling operation.
 It used to be a small, sleepy little airport – then ownership changed hands – and something is going on. The current owners argue they are regulated by the federal government; the city argues that have some control and the residents think their Council member has had some wool pulled over her eyes. The owner was contacted again by phone on Monday, May 6, 2013 and the Order to Comply was reconfirmed and that the dumping and filling operations were to be stopped immediately. Also that the Order to Comply would require the owner to apply for and obtain a Site Alteration Permit in accordance with the Site Alteration By-law in order to continue the filling.
 Escarpment residents seem to feel their Council member has misled them. Did she? The owner has since advised the City that they do not agree that the City has jurisdiction on their operations and thus have instructed their contractor to continue thedumping and filling operations. The Order to Comply required compliance to be achieved (in this case meaning a permit to be obtained) within 10 days (in accordance with our by-law). The owner indicated that he would not apply for a permit. The 10 day period to comply expired on May 13th, and on this date a Notice of Violation was served to the owner. This Notice is the next step in the “Order to Comply” process.
It set out the potential penalty (up to $50,000 for a first offence) and required immediate attention to avoid the laying of charges. The Airport owner has communicated that he is not interested in acquiring a Site Alteration Permit, however he has expressed that they would be cooperative and meet with the City “without prejudice” to discuss the typical conditions required under a Site Alteration Permit. The owner indicated there are approximately 2 months of filling operations remaining at the current fill location.
A meeting with the Airport representatives was held on Wednesday, May 15, 2013 @ 1:30pm at Burlington City Hall. This meeting was held “without prejudice” to the Burlington Executive Airport’s right to assert that it does not require a site alteration permit, and also “without prejudice” to the City’s right to assert that the Burlington
Executive Airport does require a site alteration permit and may be charged for the contravention.
The Airport representatives will convey the typical conditions, as discussed at the meeting, and required under a Site Alteration Permit to the owner for consideration.
It will be an interesting council meeting. The Air Park web site shows their latest newsletter dated April 2011 – not all that communicative are they?
 By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON April 11, 2013 The weekend of April 20th BurlingtonGreen hopes to have 10,000 people out on the streets, the ravines and the vacant lots picking up trash that has accumulated or been left on the ground by irresponsible people.
They call the event their CleanUp, GreenUp and this year they have added a new, interesting twist that gives the GreenUp part of the event real oomph. BurlingtonGreen, in partnership with the City of Burlington and Conservation Halton will be hosting a Green Up event at Beachway Park thanks to the Great Lakes Guardian Community Fund.
 Part of the team that is going to be out on the Beachway planting shrubs and native plants Saturday April 20th. Up to 100 people can sign up to participate in this rewarding stewardship event to improve the coastal environment of Lake Ontario’s shoreline by picking up litter, removing invasive species and planting native grasses, shrubs and trees. Those interested in participating are asked to register.
Why Green-up? The removal of invasive species is important because they compromise the ecological balance of the region and put native species that exist in the area at risk. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, invasive species move into ecosystems and take over, killing some native species. They disrupt food webs, degrade habitat, introduce parasites and disease and lead to species at risk. Globally, only habitat loss is a bigger threat to biodiversity.
Advantages of planting native trees, shrubs and grasses will help to restore the area by providing food and habitat for native wildlife, protecting water quality by controlling soil erosion and they add beauty to the landscape while preserving our natural heritage.
 It is locations like this at Beachway Park where the vegetation is sparse and the sands constantly shift that shrubs and flora native to the sands will be planted Saturday April 20th. Beachway Park is a special place, sometimes referred to as the jewel of the city. It is a popular spot for walking, beach activities and special events. The beach itself is part of a formation called a Baymouth Bar, which is a pure sand feature, formed through natural processes of erosion and deposition.
The Beachway community is currently the focus of a study being done by the Region along with Conservation Halton to determine what kind of a community people want in that part of the city. It’s clear what BurlingtonGreen wants – a place that is as natural as it can be with flora that works with the land mass.
If you have what it takes to bend over and plant shrubs – put your name down for this one – and let the family know that you will be in the tub for an hour or so after you’ve done your shift.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON March 20, 2013 They were less than ten minutes from getting away with at least $300,00 in cash along with documents that looked like passports, coins and jewellery. Police were responding to a security alarm at a bank on Fairview.
 It was Show & Tell time for the Halton Regional Police as they displayed the more than $300,000 in cash that thieves nearly got away with after the broke into a branch of the TD Bank of Fairview early Monday morning. The alarm, for what is turning out to be the biggest bank break-in this city has ever experienced, came in at 1:00 am Monday March 18th. Security alarms are all part of what police on night duty contend with – but within seconds the officers responding to the call knew they were dealing with a bank which drew in other patrol cars out on the road.
 When police arrived at the bank entrance the doors were secure – but there had been a bank alarm. The duty officer would have been alerted and additional police cars pulled into the parking lot of the Nicholson Plaza on Fairview immediately west of Walkers Line.
 Police would not say how they believe the thieves got out of the building – but if there were cars with lights blazing in the front – the rear of the building would appear to have been how they got out and then crossed the railway tracks. The first thing the police did was establish a perimeter which in this case meant covering off space on the north side of the railway tracks which complicated things.
 The thieves came out of the building on the left and crossed these railway tracks and were found by police dogs amongst trees on the north side of the railway tracks. The canine unit was brought in even though at that point the police didn’t know what they were dealing with. While the police officers on the plaza side of the building were checking the front entrance the police officer and the dogs did their routine searches and came across five males hunkered down amongst trees on the north side of the railway tracks and took the men into custody. Police say none of the five resisted arrest.
In police custody and awaiting a bail hearing on Thursday are:
John HICKEY, 44 yrs of Caledon
Alexander PAPIC, 48 yrs of N.F.A.
Aldo SIMONI, 31 yrs of Scarborough
Mentor VISHJAY, 36 yrs of N.F.A.
Besim RUGOVA, 32 yrs of N.F.A.
 Police photo of the hole cut through the floor of a second floor unoccupied office directly above the bank vault. As the investigation unfolds, and this is still a very active investigation, the police report this was a “very sophisticated and well planned bank break-in.” The accused had actually gotten away with it and were out of the bank and across a set of railway tracks with the $300,000 in duffle bags before the police were fully aware that a bank had been broken into.
The investigation so far shows that the thieves had taken empty office space on the top floor of the two storey building presenting themselves as workers doing renovations. It is not known if they actually rented the space or if they had just broken in and did all their cutting and drilling at night
Police report they believe the men were in the space for at least two days prior to their escaping from the building early on the Monday morning.
Walky-talkies were recovered along with construction tools used to cut through the concrete floor. The doors to the offices on the upper level had very small hallway windows which on the north side of the building were covered over. There was no building permit anywhere near the offices where the hole was cut through the floor.
There are tenants on the second floor of the building.
The police described this break-in as one with a “degree of sophistication … that is unrivalled” in their experience. Detective Donna Whittaker, who has been with the force for 20 years, is still following leads and working with other police jurisdictions to learn if they have come across anything like this.
The thieves appear to have spent a lot of time planning and appear to have known where the weaknesses were in the bank’s security system – and there certainly were weaknesses. Cutting through a floor and dropping into a bank vault, scooping up hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and then getting out of the building and on the way to vehicles on the other side of the railway tracks suggest there were some delays somewhere.
Expect the bank to be giving the Fairview branch a tight security review.
 Tools of the trade for renovators and thieves. When police first arrived at the bank the entrance doors were secure. The police were not prepared to say how the thieves left the building but they did report that the men were able to cross the railway tracks and hide amongst trees on the north side of the railway tracks.
The bank, a branch of TD Bank, brought in a senior staff member to meet with safety deposit box holders and, if their box had not been broken into – they were allowed to do whatever they wanted with their valuables. For those who were looking at a gaping hole where the safety deposit box they rented used to be – there will be all kinds of forms to fill out to describe what was in the box.
 Deputy Chief Andrew Fletcher and Detective Donna Whittaker answer media questions during the display of all the cash and other valuable recovered during a bank break-in where the bad guys almost got away. The police seized an acetylene oxygen tank, concrete cutting tools, repelling equipment, ladders and auxiliary lighting sources.
The police believe they have recovered everything taken from the bank but they may not be certain they have everyone involved in custody. There were probably lookouts stationed in the parking lot and in the immediate area which is perhaps why the thieves were able to get out of the building before police arrived.
Three of the accused did not have a fixed address and there is the suspicion they are from out of the country.
 There was not going to be another un-authorized withdrawal – this officer from the Tactical Rescue Unit watched everyone very closely. The police were keen to display the cash that almost got away – and they were equally keen that the money didn’t get away a second time. Two officers from the Tactical Rescue Unit, fully armed, were stationed outside the community room and the Burlington station as well as an officer inside watching a room full of shifty eyed reporters.
Pension day – the funds are in the bank if you’re using automatic deposit. If you’re on a fixed income then every dime counts. Walter Byj, our newest correspondent has discovered that the theatre prices are better in Burlington on Seniors’ Tuesday.
 By Walter Byj
BURLINGTON, ON. January 29, 2013 Want to see the latest blockbuster movie at a price that feels decent and leaves you a couple of coins for popcorn? And you don’t know which theatre offers the best deal? I’ve some helpful tips for you.
Believe it or not, Burlington has better theatre prices on Seniors’ Tuesday than Oakville.
Pricing is not uniform in the theatre offerings. If you want to go to your local (Burlington) Cineplex theatre, know that if you are 14 to 64, the price for a ticket at the Silver City in Burlington is $11.50 while the same ticket is $12.25 at the Silver City at Oakville, a difference of $.75 per ticket.
The pricing for children and seniors is lower, at $8.99, for both theatres. Those prices don’t apply to Imax or 3D movies.
 Some of those first dates were a trip to the movies – for seniors there are deals in Burlington on Tuesday’s. Perhaps you want to go on a Tuesday night when prices are discounted. The pricing at the Silver City in Burlington is $6.99 for everyone, while at the Silver City in Oakville the ticket price is $7.25.
If an evening outing is not your style – there are afternoon presentations. Burlington does not do afternoon screenings except in July and August, vacation periods and school breaks
There are two additional theatres nearby that offer seniors’ discounts. The Ancaster Silver City where the admission price is $6.99 or to the former AMC theatres located in Mississauga. They are now known as Cineplex Odeon Winston Churchill Cinemas and the admission price is $7.50.
If you’re taking in a movie at one of the Cineplex locations (we call them Silver City in Burlington and Oakville) and you’re over 14, be sure that you sign up for a Scene card. It is free and offers a number of benefits. You will get 250 points when you initially get your card and will earn 100 points each time you purchase a ticket. Note that if you purchase a ticket for a child, you will get an additional 50 points. However, if you purchase a ticket with an accompanying adult, you will not get points for their ticket. Get a separate card for your wife – that way you both get points. You also earn points on concession purchases along with 10% discounts on movie snacks and 10% discount on Tuesday tickets.
When you reach 1,000 points, you are eligible for a free ticket that can be used anytime. Go to the Scene web site and register for your card.
There is another theatre in the Burlington/Oakville area that offers good prices: the Encore theatre , in Oakville on Speers Road. General admission is $9.00 while children and seniors pay $6.50 on a regular basis. On Tuesdays, everyone pays $6.00.
 Walter Byj has been a Burlington resident since 1975. Raised in Brantford, a job at Dofasco brought him to the city and he has been here ever since. Walter “took the package” after 31 years with a consumer products company where his last position was as Sales Operations and Planning Manager. He serves as a volunteer tutor with the Literacy Council. Married with two children and the one grandchild, Walter and his wife usually cannot be reached on Tuesday – they’re at the movies.
 By Margaret Lindsay Holton
BURLINGTON, ON November 12, 2012 There is something very grounding about crafting clay into ceramics. Shaped by human hands for over 14,000 years, clay is one of the oldest naturally-occurring building materials we have to create, like stone or wood. When mixed with water, clay develops a plasticity that hardens in shape when dry. When fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical changes occur to create a ‘ceramic’. Different types of clay, when used with different minerals and firing conditions, create different types of ceramics such as stoneware, earthenware, or porcelain.
 Attendance during the first hour of a pottery show in Dundas, Ontario – the bi-annual Potters Guild of Hamilton and Region. MLH photo. As humans, we have long distinguished ourselves by preferring to eat our food from a decorative dish, plate, bowl, mug or tea cup. It defines us culturally and, more often then not, socially. As most know, not all soup bowls are created equal …
 Film adaptations of Charles Dickens’ famed Oliver Twist clay crock contrasted with high-end 19th century Sevres and Meissen porcelain from Europe. Photos by MLH During the 1800s, much of the world’s finest porcelain tableware came from Germany, France and England. Companies such as Meissen and Rosenthal in Germany, and Havilland and Sevres in France, became world famous for beautiful ornate designs, while the Staffordshire region of England produced such legendary companies as Wedgwood, Royal Doulton, Spode and Minton. The great porcelain manufacturers of the era marked their products with the company’s name, initials or trademark symbols. Today, individual potters from the Potter’s Guild of Hamilton and Region continue this time-honored tradition. Look for their marks or signatures on the bottom of their wares.
 Signature or mark of maker on the bottom of clay bowls. Photo credit MLH North American pottery, first developed by the indigenous coastal people, occurred around 3000 BC. Pots, or vessels, were made using the ‘coil’ method. Strands of clay were coiled one on top of each other then smoothed over to create a seamless bowl shape. Designs were imprinted into the clay using sticks, shells or twisted cording. To date, no evidence has been found of a ‘thrown’ bowl in pre-contact native North American cultures. It seems they never used – or developed – a potter’s wheel.
 Potter’s wheel – Photo courtesy Potter’s Guild of Hamilton. The mostly highly priced base clay for all ceramics is ‘kaolin’. A large deposit exists in the Moose River basin in Northeastern Ontario, but we, as a people, have never mined it. Instead, we, in Ontario, import most of our clay, for decorative and utilitarian purposes, from the States, or Alberta. Interestingly, a unique shale-derived clay well-suited for ceramic production was once found in abundance in both Hamilton and Burlington, but it has long since been depleted, lost to rapid urbanization. Somewhat ironically, potters and ceramicists in the region are now forced to use imported clay mixtures to make ‘local’ pots.
 Burlingtonian potters Barbara Taylor & Kia Eichenbaum show their wares in Dundas. Photos by MLH Over the past weekend, the Potter’s Guild of Hamilton & Region held their unequivocally fantastic bi-annual three day Sale featuring over 100 local potters, (including Burlingtonians Barbara Taylor and Kia Eichenbaum and recently transplanted Dale Marks , at the Lions Memorial Community Centre on Market Street in Dundas, Ontario. An extra-ordinary diversity of shapes, covered in a variety of slips, mottled glazes and highlighted with colourful and pleasing configurations satisfied the aesthetic palettes of all enthusiasts. I have gone to this event for over four years now, and every year I am super impressed by the abundance of product. I highly recommend this sale as a ‘regional sojourn’. Mark your calendars for next years Spring Sale.
A little closer to home, it is well known that the Burlington Art Centre boasts “the largest collection of contemporary Canadian ceramics in the world”. Their collection contains more then 1800 artworks, with over 400 Canadian artists represented. Unlike the utilitarian (and beautifully crafted) eating earthen and stoneware featured at the Dundas show, the BAC collection explores the more abstract artistic possibilities of clay. Illustrative examples from their decades-old Fire & Ice Exhibition can still be seen on the Virtual Museum of Canada website:
The Burlington Art Centre holds its annual Soup Bowl Event, in the Rotary Shoreline Room at 1333 Lakeshore Blvd, Burlington, from November 15th to November 18th. Reserve your seat early for this very popular event. (BAC members pay $35, non-members pay $45). Enjoy a hearty soup and salad, and then take home your locally-crafted soup bowl – made from a mixture of clays from elsewhere.
Margaret Lindsay Holton is both an environmentalist and a community activist. She is an artist of some renown and the designer of a typeface. She is also a photographer and the holder of opinions, which are her own, that she will share with you in an instant. She appears as an Our Burlington columnist every two weeks. All photographs are by MLH unless otherwise indicated.
 By Pepper Parr
BURLINGTON, ON October 17, 2012 One of the fun things you can do in November is take in the Art in Action Studio Tour.
You get to drive around the city, spend time in ten different locations looking at all kinds of art from some very, very nice wood turning, to iron work, or stained glass if that works for you.
 Thirty six artists – ten locations – you will see much that you like and some you may want to buy. The event is put on by Art in Action – an artist’s collective that puts on the event each year on a Saturday and a Sunday – this year it will take place November 3rd and 4th – from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
You get to meet the artists and talk about the work they do – which ranges all over the map. Sort of like going to ten different art galleries.
There are ten studio stops where 36 artists will have their work set out.
 Paintings, jewellery, glassware, weaving – this city has a rich artistic community that you can experience in a single day. You might even get to know many of them personally. We did this tour last year for the first time – it went so well that we invited friends to join us this year.
What will you see? Well there is a brochure but it’s more fun just to dive from location to location and be surprised when you walk in the door.
Don’t be shy about walking into someone’s home. They want you to come in. As you make the rounds you will find that you bump into people you saw earlier in the day and you get to exchange ideas and comment on what you saw.
Last year we watched Don Graves sell a piece of art to a young woman who had not bought art before. She didn’t really see herself as an art collector but the paining appealed to he and the price was right – so she bought it.
At another location there was an almost party atmosphere. I swear that if we had had a bottle of wine in the trunk of the car the party would have begun right then. I’ve learned that the same group will be opening up their home again this year – and we will put a bottle of wine in the trunk of the car – you never know. Where did this happen last year? That would be telling but it was in the western part of the city – in a valley.
 All 10 locations can be done in a day. You’ll see parts of the city you’ve not seen before as well. How do you buy art? There is usually a price sticker on the piece but you’re not in a supermarket, this isn’t a commodity you’re buying. The object you buy is something the artist has spent many hours on and they put a lot of themselves into the piece you’re looking at.
What if you think you like it – but you’re not sure. Many of the artists will rent a piece of their work. Each artist will have their own approach to rentals – but if you’re interested in a rental – talk to them. What if the piece is more than you want to spend at that moment – but you really like the piece? Many artists are quite happy to take a couple of postdated cheques from you. They can’t be dated too far into the future – the artist would like to be alive when they are deposited.
Artists are people you can work with – they want good homes for their art and they want to sell what they make to people they like. So – if you’re not an art buyer – but you think you’d like to be an art buyer – pick either the Saturday or the Sunday and drive around. You’ll enjoy yourself.
Meet some really interesting artists as well as Burlingtonians who will be doing what you’re doing – looking around.
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