By Pepper Parr
May 5th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
We asked the city communications people how Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith managed to find himself sitting on a park bench in Apeldoorn with the Mayor and Councillor Nisan when he was not part of the official delegation which consisted of:
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A photo op that could come back to bite. Mayor Meed Ward and Councillors Nisan and Galbraith sitting on a park bench in Apeldoorn that was donated to the people of the city by Burlington.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward
- Rory Nisan, Ward 3 Councillor and Council Liaison on the Mundialization Committee
- Hassaan Basit, Chief Administrative Officer
- Samantha Yew, City Clerk/Director of Legislative Services
- Hasan Raza, Chair, Mundialization Committee (volunteer)
- Anne Koopman, Chair, Apeldoorn Sub-committee (volunteer)
The Communications people got back to us with the following:
Councillor Galbraith’s participation in Apeldoorn is not as part of the City of Burlington’s official delegation. He was invited to participate in ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation and the 20th twinning anniversary celebrations by Apeldoorn officials hosting the events.
Councillor Galbraith’s travel is funded through the budget for the office of Ward 1, and not from the Mundialization reserve which was set up when the twinning agreements were established.
So far so good. The next question is: Who invited Galbraith? And the question after that is: Just how much money is there in the “budget for the office of Ward 1”?
The Apeldoorn Ceremony was a respectful and dignified memorial to the service of Canadians, and it was appropriate that it be recognized by Burlington, but sending another army of sluggos, at a cost approaching $10,000 each from Burlington taxpayers, is diving face first into the public trough. The Mayor and one another would be acceptable, but this is analagous to the Brantford School Board’s trip to Italy. Disgusting!
Well said – I agree totally! It is an awful lot of taxpayer money spent (some of which is mine) to get extras there – but then we are just their “clients”….. not their employers, according to CoB jargon.
Interesting how certain people always seem to get the perks or the extra leeway – of course, maybe the opportunity WAS offered to all. It would be nice to know if that were true.
So all in all 7 people from the City of Burlington are in attendance at Apeldoorn. The city’s communications comment that a different budget is covering Kelvin Galbraith’s expenses is like “splitting hairs”. How ridiculous!
All of their expenses are still being paid for by Burlington Property Tax Payers.
COB is definitely lacking in transparency.
He was probably on Apeldoorn’s mailing list of Burlington City Officials they met here on one of their Junkets.
What is that City Clerk doing there?
Exactly Graham!!
So ridiculous! Maybe she is taking Blake Hurley’s spot who attended the Japan Trip in October 2024. As Blake Hurley is the city solicitor, maybe he had more pressing things to look after here for the City of Burlington.