By Pepper Parr
July 11th, 2023
BURLINGTON, ON
Doug Brown – a transit advocate has something to smile about.
Totally free transit service for everyone?
That is the Staff Direction put forward by Councillor Sharman put on the table; he wants a report early in 2024.
Sharman is the last person many thought would put forward a Staff Direction like this.
It has been the wish of Mayor Meed Ward for some time and it would be a huge win for the Bfast people who have been sterling advocates for better transit service.
Sharman has always been a data hawk – he wants to see a lot of data before doing anything.
I am totally opposed to free Burlington transit for everyone. (However I have no issues wth Seniors riding free – they have earned that).
This idea of Free Burlington Transit for Everyone, which has had absolutely no citizen engagement what so ever, will increase our property taxes as it will be added to the COB budget in 2024, which is already high enough.
Burlington transit is already loosing money with a User Pay system. If the City Council chooses free Transit for everyone, our property taxes will go up significantly and be added to the 2024 Budget and passed on to Burlington taxpayers which may or may not use Public transit in Burlington.
There are alot of residents in Burlington who need to commute by car for work etc. These residents are already forced to pay for Licensing and Car Insurance + gas. Why should someone who uses Burlington Transit go for free? Seems very unfair for residents who don’t use Burlington Transit and will be forced to pay for this free service thru their property taxes when they don’t use it?
City of Burlington Burlington Council spends money they don’t have. They show no restraint and continue to spend our tax payer dollars on whatever they want? Without citizens engagment!!
Most residents, if not all, have seriously cutback, and only spend money on necessities and Not on frivilous expenditures.
Also, although this City Council professes to be Engaged with their citizens, they are not. This is a fallacy! There is NO Engagement in Burlington. i.e Bateman is a great example.(we only heard about all of this after the October 2022 Municipal Election! And were still not provided with the actual costs or details of the renovation costs etc.).
City Council needs to stop spending money on unnecessary items that are Not Not needed now. Everything is expensive for everything all around for everyone. City Council – Please start showing some restraint on any expenditures for the sake of Burlington Taxpayers.
And, you need to be Engaged with your Taxpayers on any and all
projects moving forward, as we are the ones left with the Property Tax bill to pay for it!
Looking forward to the 2026 Municipal Election! Time will tell?
Transit isn’t free–the taxpayers are footing the bill. In a major affordability crisis in Canada, MMW seems to believe that raising taxes will help with cost of living.
Councilor Sharman just wants the numbers and the details of what it would look like.
With the City budgets going through the roof and downloading from the province, we really do need to see how free transit for all pencils out.
The Councilor is just doing what I would expect from him sooner or later.
Good idea to me.