BurlingtonPost.com: News: Story: City should have more control over $$$ spent

BurlingtonPost.com: News: Story: City should have more control over $$$ spent

Re: Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital request for $60 million.


Accountability: Let me say from the outset, I do not disagree with the city capital funding for the hospital. What is a concern to me is the investment taxpayers are making with no additional controls in place.

City council and, therefore, the citizens and taxpayers must exercise more control and accountability over the expenditure of the millions we are investing in Jo Brant.

My suggestion to city council and Jo Brant is the city be allocated additional seats on the hospital board of governors, who will be spending tax dollars.
This additional oversight would give me more confidence the money is being spent correctly for the tax dollars expended.

It’s no different than an investor who makes a large investment in a private sector company and demands a seat on the board of directors.  City council should have asked for this as a condition prior to rerouting our tax dollars to the hospital.  Burlington’s health care is vital to the community and oversight means more accountability for tax money spent.

Nelson Aggregate vs The Escarpment

I was resident of Lowville for 15 years and lived as a neighbour to Nelson Aggregate quarry. I was a rural resident who worried about the infrastructure of my water, waste water and leaching beds. I was respectful of the environment in my little piece of the country. Nelson never caused me any difficulty as a neighbour with the minor exception of windows rattling, every once in a while, from the quarry blasting.
Nelson Aggregate and Mount Nemo have had a shaky relationship over the 60 years aggregate extraction has existed on the escarpment. But now Mt. Nemo is fighting back. The existing quarry has about 5 years of aggregate available before they close up operation but Nelson wants to expand. Residents and others are saying enough is enough and want it to stop. Their license to take aggregate is ended, should be shut down and rehabilitated, which has been the plan for many years. The City of Burlington, Region of Halton, Niagara Escarpment Commission and many other agencies agree the escarpment needs a rest from this intensive industry and have voted against the expansion.

City Hall and Developers

lob⋅by⋅ist


ˈlɒb i ɪst Show Spelled Pronunciation [lob-ee-ist]

“a person who tries to influence legislation on behalf of a special interest”


Lobbying has been part of the political landscape since the beginning of time. Community groups, ratepayer associations, private companies, associations, not-for-profit groups are all lobbyists who want to influence public policy. Lobbying may be as benign as: an individual representing neighbours in front of council for a park or as significant as developers who want a change in the municipality’s official plan. Lobbying is legal and can be a good thing when it brings new information to an issue or lets the political system know how the constituency feels. But lobbying must have parameters and must be transparent to the general public.

Let’s focus on councils where I have some experience. My time on Burlington City Council indicated to me that lobbying takes place constantly with environment groups promoting sustainability, the art centre needing a new air conditioning system, ratepayer groups wanting less development or developers wanting members of council “on side” for their development. These issues will eventually be in front of council and the public should be aware of whom our politicians have been discussing the issue with and we can evaluate what impact lobbying is having on our political system. Therefore, not-for-profit and for-profit companies and associations should be registered as lobbyists and what contacts they have with council and staff. The list should be placed on the web site, in a timely fashion, for all to see and we will decide who is being influenced and who is not. There will be a cost to registering lobbyists but what is the cost of not registering lobbyists?

Aldershot Clinic

Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ShUScLrdTk

Fear of the unknown creates an atmosphere of anger and distrust in the City of Burlington, politicians, a planning process that doesn’t listen to residents and in the clinic itself. We can all understand community concerns about a clinic, referred to by some as a methadone clinic, would operate close to an elementary school in their neighbourhood when they feared illegal drug users where going to be hanging out waiting for a fix close to an elementary school.


The many stumbles around this issue create concerns and City Council will have to address these issues to avoid misunderstaandings in the future. The first mistake was misinformation, contained in a letter to the community, labelling the clinic as a Methadone Clinic, prior to informing themselves about the medical information and the planning process.

The next misstep was the school trustee who quickly called a public meeting (the fact 2010 is an election year wouldn’t have anything to do with it? – more about the politics later) because her constituents wanted to talk about a strategy to rid the neighbourhood of the Methadone Clinic. Collecting relevant information is the job of all politicians before making a decision. The school board trustee didn’t obtain vital information to help her with advice to her constituents or facilitate her public meeting.