Staff shortages might limit what the city can deliver in the way of services

By Pepper Parr

January 11th, 2022

BURLINGTON, ON

After spending three quarters of the day on Monday in Closed sessions dealing with legal matters Council got down to issues that impact how we live our day to day lives.

City Manager Tim Commisso told Councillors that a total of 150 staff members have been “impacted” by Covid19 – that the number represented 8% of the total staff.

Service levels are being threatened by staff unable to report for work due to Covid19

The bigger concern was what the number of people who cannot report for work is going to have on the city’s ability to deliver services.

Will there be enough people available to remove the snow from roads and sidewalks?

Will there be enough fire fighters on hand to man the equipment should there be a fire?

The GO train service has had to cut back on the number of trains running due to staff shortages.  The Toronto Transit service has had to cut back on the number of streetcars and busses in service.

City Manager Tim Commisso has alerted Council to some potential staff problems.

With the city in a State of Emergency the day to day operations are worked out by the Emergency Control Group (ECG) that meets three times a week – on an hour’s notice if that is what is required, to revise what can be delivered in the way of services.

People in Burlington might want to begin thinking about how they are going to cope with any changes that are required.

Things could get bumpy.  On the upside there are some very smart people sitting on that ECG committee.  They have shown an impressive ability to pivot and then pivot again before the first pivot was completed.

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