Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital

While I still think our hospital should be funded entirely by the Provincial Government I recognize that Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital will not qualify for funding from the province without a commitment of $120 million from our community with $60 million of that on the tax base.

I will press to have the city's $60 million spread over 30 years so that as people move to our community, they also will be paying a portion of this very significant cost. A community survey shows that 77% support a renewed and expanded Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital.

I want to have this expense appear on our tax bills as a separate line item with an end date. I will do my best to find room in each city budget to cover the hospital contribution. This year, we covered half but I had further proposed budget reductions that I was not successful in getting approved that would have covered the other half.

Joseph Brant Museum

The community attitude survey that is done at the start of every new council term, has consistently ranked our museums in the last quarter very near the bottom of the 33 services ranked. While there may be some appropriate cost effective expansion/enhancement to the existing facility I am absolutely not supportive of increasing the size of the Joseph Brant Museum building 400%.

Some of the proposed cost of $9 million is proposed to come from senior levels of government and from community fundraising. I feel a majority of my residents are not in favour of this project.

Save Green space including General Brock (Gary Allan High School), and Lansdown Park

SUCCESS!
I have been part of the General Brock Park Committee (Co-Chair for many years) since its inception. It has been a very exhausting process and thank-you to the committee and community for holding firm. We are in the process of finalizing an agreement with the school boards that involves a few properties but I feel the General Brock and Lansdown Park people will be ecstatic about the outcome, which will keep all of this land in public ownership.

McMaster University Burlington

I supported the 3 part McMaster project on the basis of $5 million from the City and $5 million from the Region for a number of reasons:

1. The addition of a McMaster-based teaching/ drop-in clinic in the downtown (temporarily on Harvester Rd) because of the need but also because of the ultimate possibility of interns re-locating in Burlington
2. Joseph Brant to become a teaching Hospital under the McMaster umbrella
3. The addition of a Masters of Business Administration program in our community will provide economic development spin-offs in our community.

Performing Arts Centre

I supported this initiative when it was originally proposed as an $18 million project funded 1/3 by senior levels of government, 1/3 from Burlington and 1/3 from community fundraising. It was my anticipation that a community property could be sold to generate the $6 million without the taxpayers having to pay.

The net operating cost at that point was projected at $250,000-$300,000 which is less than the Burlington Art Centre and many other community projects. When the projected cost started to drastically escalate and only the Federal Government made a commitment of $4 million that made the city commitment about $25 million of the total $40 million. I felt that this was excessive for a community want, not a need.

Nevertheless, the project will be beautiful and is on budget and schedule- in spite of the U.S. made bricks. (which I also did not support)

Pier

The pier has become a blight on our waterfront through no fault of our council nor staff. The competitive bid process was utilized to contract qualified engineers and qualified contractors but 3 significant problems occurred, an over pour of concrete by the contractor, welding on beams not meeting design requirements and the toppling of the crane which was lifting steel reinforcing bars onto the superstructure.

At this point, we have lawyers and their clients fighting each other and the City and it is unlikely to be a short process. The cost to remove the pier would be substantial and we would have to refund the senior levels of government approximately $6 million.

I will continue to press for the completion of the pier, including the fair weather dockage, as close to budget as possible.

Size of Council

I was elected to council in 1994 when council numbered seventeen and found that, because of the size, meetings took an excessive amount of time (debating with 10 or 12 and then re-debating some information and positions with full council of 17). With the present format of seven acting like a board of directors, I have more time for constituent business than I did in the past. Regional Council did a restructuring/reallocation at the same time that reduced us from 8 regional seats to 6.

New City Park

The New City Park at the east corner of Kerns Rd. and Highway 5 has had development planned for years and has been deferred because of other city priorities. The plan now is to move forward with the project based in part on additional funding from Pan Am games if approval from Niagara Escarpment Commission, can be obtained.

My preference would be to develop facilities in existing community parks so that constituents would have easy access. Nelson Park could have been a great site.

Alton Community Centre

The Alton Community Centre is a joint project of the city, the school board, and the senior levels of government. The project is to include 4 double gymnasiums and access to significant varieties of sport amenities as well as a full high school, Community Centre and Library. This project will be in the North part of Burlington between Highway 5 and Highway 407.

Assumption, Nelson and Pearson

While these are Board of Education academic sites they all have sport facilities utilized for a variety of outdoor events by the entire city. Assumption field was converted to artificial turf and Nelson will be converted next year. There are no plans at this point to convert Pearson. Artificial Turf allows a longer season and lower maintenance costs. The city sells the permits for field use which should generate improved revenue to the city.

 

For Perspectives on other issues or concerns please contact me.