By Pepper Parr
November 11th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
They are getting there.
There are now 2488 signatures on the petition that asks Council to stop the proposed tax increase.
What is interesting and confusing. While the number of signatures increased – there isn’t exactly a rush ti sign on.
We have since learned that the 501 represents all the people that signed a petition. The Tax Protest is one of a number of petitions on the Change.org site.
What we are seeing in there is certainly a lot of interest – since the last report we published 36 hours ago 501 people have logged in. They logged in – but they didn’t sign.
Getting the petition read into the public record turned oust to be easier said than done. City Clerk Keven Arjoon rejected the request to delegate and then changed his mind and Wendy Fletcher made her delegation.
Ensuring that it appeared in the Minutes of Council took a little more effort – someone had to call the Clerk and point out that the petition was not yet on the City Web site.
Why all this fuss over a petition – people are permitted to speak – surely that comes home to us on Remembrance Day.
I brought your petition up last Thursday to Rory Nisan at his budget meeting I attended with Blair and Gary and others. We said it is unacceptable that council won’t consider 2500 names – real names and comments with real names – as legitimate feedback. We said essentially it’s 2490 more people than you have in this room right now for heaven sakes!
We stated how offensive it is that delegates are treated with disrespect and frankly disdain when they speak on something council doesn’t like. That this isn’t engagement, etc. He disagreed. We ended up arguing with him as he tried to defend his questioning to Lydia with which we took exception, claiming some survey which he is taking out of context shows most citizens essentially wanting a tax increase. Utter nonsense. Others in the room agreed with us. One gentleman asked Rory “who do you work for?” Rory said “the city of Burlington”. The gentleman corrected, “no, the ratepayers!” As always, we walked out knowing he checked off a box and has no interest in considering anything we said.
They are looking at the petition but they won’t admit it, they won’t acknowledge it and they don’t care. It’s absolutely the same as always and it’s arrogant and disrespectful in the extreme.
Youre saying that rory said most taxpayers want an increase? Itsnot the first time or first one of them thats said it. Are you willing to go on record?
The issue arose because I raised his remarks at council when Lydia Thomas delegated and he cited a survey as per her two articles in the Gazette.
I said that the City should not be quoting survey results from surveys because they aren’t verifiable, we have no idea who answered them, how many times, etc, and the total number of respondents is so low. He agreed with this, to which I replied then the City needs to stop doing them. I further stated that you can’t choose to cite a survey as he did, and then ignore petition which is also valid feedback.
He said there is only one survey which he cites and which he believes in and this is the September one and that was the one to which he referred during Lydia’s delegation. I disagree with its validity too, but that’s another issue.
Rory said that in this survey the City did in September, a majority supported increasing services, and therefore an increase in taxes. He asked the staff member present if she could find that and put it on the screen, which she did. I don’t recall the figures now but it showed a small majority I think choosing that they would like to see services increased. Other options were remain the same or be reduced.
I read out the following stats from Lydia’s notes: that in fact, “a survey shows the following: 39% of people in the survey want 0% tax and 31% want 0-3% (likely most want the low end of that); this is very different than what councillor Nisan was stating.”
He asked what survey that was from and I wasn’t sure. I believe Lydia provided it. He didn’t know and didn’t accept that result. Hence, why he said he only believes in the other survey, perhaps. In any event, my point, and the points the rest of my table and the table beside us who heard all this discussion tried to make, was that the September survey was not a “budget” survey. It was a broad city survey and this was one question.
Asking people if they’d like to see services increased, remain the same or decrease without also stating exactly what the correlating tax increase will be with each choice, is not the same as the response we are seeing now when people are responding exactly to the crux of the matter: if we increase services and do the things we’ve decided we want to do, the tax increase is over 6 percent (and if you want a more accurate figure, it’s over 10). Certainly the answers may well have been different in this scenario. Perhaps respondents imagined it would be a 2 or 3 percent increase. And even if you don’t think so, you now have evidence that 2500 people on a petition are saying no we don’t want this. You can’t only take one question on the broad September survey, lacking in the most pertinent detail, as the relevant feedback.
In the end and despite us getting rather heated on the whole thing, as per usual, he didn’t accept anything we said.
Thank you all for your feedback. Somewhat depressing as it is.
Someone forwarded me a copy of an exchange with Sharman today. They’d written him and the Mayor to protest this budget and let them know they wouldn’t be getting that households votes next election if they pushed forward with it. I’m fairly certain they knew it came from me as it’s where they cut me off at the end of my delegation. As well, I’ve been actively encouraging people to write the mayor and their councillor and do just that.
A few things interesting about that. He responded that he knew there was an online petition with 2500 signatures. It was alot less when it went on record so obviously, he’s following it. Or he looked it up before responding. He made it clear they wouldn’t be changing what they were doing. So I guess he doesn’t care about votes. But he also took the position that it was only a small portion of taxpayers that felt this way. He said the vast majority are able to pay and implied they were willing to. Then went on to make a comment about this being a bit of a conundrum for them. haha.
So the petition is an issue or it isn’t? Is sounds like they aren’t sure. As a minimum, I’m sure they are not liking me or my influence over people.
I found it his response both amusing and offensive. Amusing that he fails to recognize that it affects middle class workers at least as much and maybe more as they have larger more expensive homes and costs of living. Also amusing bc it will be his arrogance that befalls him.
He also apparently doesn’t realize that according to the 2021 census about 21% of Burlington are over the age of 65. That’s 40,000 people. Tho he ought to as its in their own BMA report that there is a shift in demographics. The number concerns me. People on fixed incomes shouldn’t have to eat into their home equity or other things to cover these enormous increases they never would have expected. On the other hand, its alot of seniors to vote them out of office.
Wendy – I echo Gary’s comments. From my perspective you have done everything properly and, from the petition itself, your delegation and your comments, I believe that you articulate the issues better than most.
There are several issues here. First, except for the Gazette, the Bay Observer and, infrequently, the Spectator – the media dealing with Burlington events and politics is almost a shill for this Council. So, citizens receive a distorted view of the health of the City and a very friendly treatment of its Mayor and Councillors. I attended a Ward 3 session held by Councillor Nisan and read the ‘article’ done by BURLINGTONTODAY. It give kudos to Councillor Nisan (which I believe he deserves if only for not holding his engagement meeting in a food court) but provided, in my opinion, a skewed version of the comments and concerns voiced by the attendees. This is the rule not the exception.
The second hill that you are climbing is the general apathy of Burlington citizens. It was evidenced in the extremely low voter turnout in 2022 and most of the engagement and feedback exercises that the City has undertaken since. It is not that people don’t care but that they don’t feel that they can make a difference. And in one sense they are correct. If you had 50,000 signatures on your petition you may have a chance of changing the direction of this budget. But even 5,000 is just a rounding error on this administration’s tone deaf arrogance.
Finally, and again in my opinion, you are dealing with a Clerk who is not only woefully inadequate for the position he holds but has a penchant for not opening up the forum where his lack of control over/knowledge of protocol would become obvious. His oversight and stewardship of the 2022 Election was horribly lacking and his decisions, during and after, benefitted incumbents disproportionately.
Keep doing what you are doing (you’re at 2496 as of 5:00 pm) and that is a very significant achievement.
Blair, would you consider running for Mayor in 2026? We need someone to take MMW out. And if not you, who? This cannot continue. They want 32% over 5 yrs! Thats insane. The acutual increase from 2022 will be about 60%. Nothing justifies that. Certainly not the minimal growth. 0.75% planned for 2024. People are being forced out of their homes. To add to the appall, many of the seniors who put her in office are among those. 40,000 who are 65+. How many on fixed incomes? The apathy out of this Mayor and council, I find it very difficult to reconcile. We need a candidate who can win. Would you consider?
Hi Wendy – apologies but I didn’t see your comment until now. I am very flattered but I think that you overestimate both my popularity and my competence. I will do everything I can (within reason) to correct what may be the worst Council and City Hall that we have encountered in years but I will do so largely in the background.
Chip-in if you think the tax increase is too high.
When someone chips in to promote a petition, it helps Change.org share it with a wider audience of action-takers. Each contribution helps cover the costs of distributing the petition to hundreds, or thousands, more taxpayers.
In short: Chipping in, can help the petition continue to gain momentum, and get it closer to winning.
I believe you followed all the rules about presenting a valid petition to Council, Wendy. When looking at the City of Burlington website under Engaging with Council, the section on petitions is pretty light. It doesn’t seem to require Council to do anything beyond accept it into the record. When you delegate, as you did, there is no special wordings on how Council is to react. In my mind, if none of the Council members asks you a question about the petition, then there is nothing Council needs to do with the petition other than file it. Even if a question is asked, the rules still don’t appear to require them to take any action on your petition’s request.
Because of that, I don’t think the ombudsman would have any power to tell them to do something (anything) with it. That would be very disappointing, but then in Burlington we have grown accustomed to disappointment over the last five years.
If anyone else has some wiser words for Wendy, please comment.
Looking for feedback. Why aren’t people signing? Because alot of people are looking at it. Now some of that is people on the site for other petitions. I know the petition is long. But it’s only the first 6 lines you’re agreeing to. That’s where the “we the undersigned is”. I did it that way on purpose so people could disagree with other things and still sign it
Also the rest of it is just so people know what’s going on. Its seems alot of people don’t. I didn’t before this year. Not really
Some people take issues with the salaries and get defensive about that. Maybe they make good $ and somehow feel that’s a shot at them. But that’d be misplaced. The amount isn’t the issue as much as the claims they don’t make as much as other cities / towns. They must seem to think they need to pay Toronto wages in Burlington. Otherwise they’re lying bc comparing financial statements, they pay way more than comparative cities eg Oakville
So please, feedback. I can’t materially change the petition. . I could delete a line or two. But its on record
There is one other question. How is it that 2500 names and its ignored. Millcroft was 1500. Is this an issue I can take to the ombudsman?
Millcroft have been delegating for years on the issue.
Mt. Nemo even longer.