Red tape reduction gets a solid hearing but no one brought a pair of scissors - so nothing got changed

By Pepper Parr

April 30^th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

It was billed is as a Symposium on Red Tape Reduction put on by the Burlington Chamber of Commerce with Alinea  as the main sponsor.

Attendance was thin – maybe 100 people. City Councillor Paul Sharman and Angelo Bentivegna were on hand; Mayor Meed Ward glad handed her way around the room;  Councillors Nisan and Kearns took a pass on the event – Councillor Stolte is out of action and on a leave of absence.

For some reason the photo op is a necessary part of these events

Milton MPP Parm Gil, Minister of Red Tape Reduction gave a pretty strong political speech which seemed to take too many pokes at the former Liberal government and far too much patting on the back for the Ford government – but this was a Chamber of Commerce crowd.

A banner at the front of the room with the statement ‘’’Business without boundaries” surprised me.  They wish.

My immediate thought was – have they never heard of Walkerton?

Parm Gil made mention of using robots to do inspection work – can you imagine how quickly that would spiral out of control.   Where public safety is the issue experienced eyes are required.  You can program a robot to do whatever you want it to do.

Deputy Mayor Kelvin Galbraith

Our interest in the event was to see how ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith handled himself.  He was positioned as both a small business owner and a Council member with a Deputy Mayor for Business and Red Tape Reduction portfolio on a panel of three people. That included John Romano  of Nickel Brook Brewery and Josie Tavares, Senior Development Planner/ Project Manager, CLV Group Developments Inc., a group that has significant rental properties in Burlington and is one of the partners involved with the Holland Park development on Fairview close to the GO station where seven towers are proposed.

Kelvin Galbraith getting a look from Josie Tavares during the panel discussion

Ms Tavares knew her stuff and talk with both confidence and experience about the problems – she didn’t appear to hold much hope for any real change in the way planning is done remarked that planning is getting to be a legal exercise.

She made some very good points; knew her brief and was able to point to situations where the developers were able to work with the planners.

John Romano, Co-founder, Nickel Brook Brewing Co. had some hard earned experience with the planning department.  When he moved from Drury Lane to Mainway his intention was to take the brewery operation with him – years later years later the brewing is now being done in Etobicoke and Romano has no idea when it will be on Mainway – if ever.

Galbraith didn’t have much in the way of experience as a business man with planning issues but as the Deputy Mayor for Business he was the guy getting the calls and the person who probably knows best where the problems are at city hall.  And that wasn’t something he was going to talk about in a public session.

He did mention the reduction in the length of time needed to get a development application through city hall and spoke as well of the “My File Portal” software that was due any day now that would let an applicant log in and see exactly where their application was and where the holdup was is as well.

John Romano – Nickel Brook Brewery – waiting for an application to get through city hall

Tavares and Romano appeared to agree that the problem in Burlington was at the Engineering level and that the number of retirements taking place has put a lot of younger people behind those desks now doing the work.

Did anything useful come out of the panel discussion ?  Could anything useful have come out of it ?

The province is introducing new legislation that is going to have a huge impact on the way development gets done.

Burlington is expected to have 29,000 new homes in place by 2031 – they signed a pledge saying they would deliver.

Some of the legislation cuts deeply into the amount of money from Development Charges and Community Benefit Charges the city would receive.

The municipalities don’t have the power to do very much – they are on the receiving end of everything except the cash needed to do the work that has to be done.

The federal government is bringing in close to half a million people every year to do the jobs that are part of a robust economy.

Growth is taking place at every turn with a public that is fine with the growth –“ just don’t put it where I live”.

Kelvin Galbraith responding to a question during a symposium on Red Tape reduction

Anyone expecting more from Galbraith would be disappointed – he just wasn’t able to make a presence. His hopes to at some point be the Mayor of Burlington didn’t advance much at this event.  This was a panel where the speakers were there to talk about planning problems – Galbraith didn’t have any.  However he has more in the way of planning issues to deal with in his ward.

Lou Frapporti, a partner with Gowlings in Hamilton said publicly that he was corporate counsel for Alinea, adding that Alinea  had taken over the Paletta International operations – which while true was just part of what was a messy corporate battle that ended up with Angelo Paletta leaving the firm and Paul Paletta taking the reins, forming a new corporate entity and doing his best to create a different, less abrasive approach to development.

Alinea  is the largest landowner in the Region and the holders of the three largest development properties in Burlington; Bronte Meadows in the east and 1200 King Road in the west.  Eagle Heights, in the north west, is outside the urban boundary where the infrastructure needs a lot of work.

Waterdown Road is undergoing some widening north of the 403.

It is in the southern part of Waterdown Road where all the action is taking place and where Galbraith has significant personal property holdings.