By Staff
March 23rd, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
The City of Burlington is hosting a public telephone town hall that will take place on Thursday, March 26 at 6:45 p.m. This one-hour town hall will be open to all members of the public and provide an opportunity to hear from a panel of leaders including members of council and senior staff, Mayor Marianne Meed Ward and our City Manager, Tim Commisso. Newly confirmed to the panel is:
MPP Jane McKenna
Eric Vandewall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Joseph Brant Hospital
Eric Vandewall, President and Chief Executive Officer of Joseph Brant Hospital
Dr. Dale Kalina, Medical Director of Infection, Prevention and Control at Joseph Brant Hospital
Roger Wilkie, Deputy Chief of Halton Regional Police
Anthony Odoardi, Superintendent for Halton Regional Police
Any further updates to panelists for the March 26 Telephone Town Hall will be shared with the public.
How to Participate
Burlington residential phone numbers will be randomly selected to be part of the telephone town hall. Residents who would like to be added to the telephone call list can email their name and telephone number to getinvolved@burlington.ca by the end of day March 25.
Anyone who does not receive a telephone invitation can call 1-800-280-9610 at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, March 26 to join the town hall. For those individuals calling in to the town hall, please be advised that more than one attempt may be required to connect to the call due to the high volume of traffic on the phone lines. If your call does not connect you to the town hall on your first try, please hang up and dial the 1-800 number again.
Information about the town hall will also be shared with residents through the City and Mayor’s website and social media channels as well as news media.
We ask our residents to share this information with their friends and neighbours so that anyone who is interested may participate.
Once the call begins, participants will be provided instructions by a moderator for submitting their questions to the leadership panel.
Any questions that are not answered within the hour-long call will be posted, with answers, to the City’s website at burlington.ca/coronavirus, along with an audio file of the call and a full transcript as soon as possible.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
“I am in complete support of today’s announcements from the Province. Their message to shut down all non-essential businesses to curb the COVID-19 spread echoes what we have been asking of our local businesses. This is a necessary step to protect everyone, customers, employees, families and friends. Closing down your brick-and-mortar shops doesn’t necessarily mean closing down your business for the time being – if you and your employees can work from home, do so.
We also strongly echo Premier Ford’s statement that people returning from outside the country MUST self-isolate at home for 14 days. Do not stop at the store first. There are volunteers willing to assist you. Check the City’s webpage at Burlington.ca/coronavirus for links.
I also applaud the Province’s announcement today of additional funding to support our food banks and homeless shelters. These are much-needed funds and making it directly accessible to municipalities gives us the ability to provide direct support to our most vulnerable in our community. I now ask our federal government to act and institute a larger lock down and enforcement of self-isolation. I look forward to hearing more details in coming hours.”
