We at BRAG have been a little slow in getting our first 2025 newsletter to you – we’ve decided to blame the snow, but our excuse is now melting rapidly 😉. We hope you all managed to dig yourselves out, and we note that there are only 13 days until Spring – so let us find some comfort in that!
BRAG and Our Website
We at BRAG recently discussed our core values, an important reminder for us to stay focused on them and not get too sidetracked by the minutiae coming out from City Hall.
Our values:
• To promote greater awareness and understanding amongst residents on local and regional issues that impact residents.
• To actively lobby politicians and civic officials on behalf of residents and to ensure the interests of residents always remain of paramount concern.
• To advocate for measures to enhance and protect Burlington’s unique history, culture, and character.
• To support the election of local and regional representatives who support the aims and objectives of our association.
We are always adding to and updating our website, so be sure to visit regularly (www.gobrag.ca). We recently made a couple of minor tweaks — please suggest that friends and neighbours sign up for our newsletters — membership is always free, and you can unsubscribe at any time. Click the “Newsletter” button at the top left corner. We also added some more details to our “HELP BRAG” button in the top right corner in response to those who have asked, “How can I help?”
BRAG is grateful for all the help we receive from the community. We have been fortunate to receive valuable assistance from residents on particular areas in which they have an interest and/or expertise, such as the budget. Help can mean as little as offering a suggestion or as much as joining or leading a subcommittee on a topic of interest, joining our board, or anything in between. The help can be one-time or ongoing. All feedback is important and valued.
• Write an article for our website.
• Make a financial contribution.
• Research.
• Investigate a policy issue.
• Serve on a committee.
Or simply send us a comment or suggestion, or ask us a question. Everyone can help. Please use the “CONTACT US” option at the top of our website to let us know that you are interested.
Tax Bills
By now everyone should have received their February tax bill. You may have noticed that the City has spent time and obviously resources on changing the look of our bills. One would have hoped that this would have resulted in making the tax bills MORE transparent and clear. One would, however, be disappointed. In our view, the bills are in fact considerably less transparent, certainly unnecessarily confusing, and we would argue that this aligns with the entire budget process in this regard. It is also our belief that COB is not complying with the requirements of the Municipal Act with respect to how information must be presented on tax bills. Please read Eric Stern’s article on this here https://gobrag.ca/?p=1615. We will be raising this issue with council and staff.
File this under “Who knew?” You can look up your tax bill, or anyone else’s, online on the city’s website. BRAG has created a link and step-by-step instructions here: https://gobrag.ca/?p=1688 Thanks to the person on NextDoor who discovered this.
Staff Directory
Anyone who has tried to find the name and contact information of a City of Burlington staff member using the City’s much-touted “new” website or through contacting Service Burlington has surely wondered why it is so difficult to simply locate the appropriate staff members on the website and contact them directly. Names, positions and direct contact information should be readily available. Other municipalities, including Ontario’s largest, Toronto, and the Province of Ontario itself, have easy-to-use, transparent staff directories on their websites and have had them for decades.
In an article on the topic of the need for such transparency to the public, Blair Smith notes, in part: “BRAG believes that a readily accessible staff and organizational directory is fundamental to promoting the transparency and accountability of the current City administration and staff. Accordingly, a request was sent to Ms. Jacqueline Johnson, Commissioner of Community Services Division, to post on the city website for public use, the staff directory and contact reference material used by Service Burlington. Additionally, BRAG has requested a copy with regular updates to put on its own website for reference by Burlington citizens.”
Since that initial request was sent on February 25, there has been what we can only call a dismissive response from the city full of non-answers and misleading claims in each of the back-and-forth emails. In COB’s increasingly common practice, the questions asked of them were not answered, and when this was pointed out in a polite follow-up email, their reply came, not from a named individual, but by the ubiquitous “Communications Mailbox” (the irony seemingly lost), and ended with: “we consider this matter closed.”
Alas, it is not closed for us, and we have said so. If you’d like to read the ongoing back-and-forth, we are posting the email chain on our site https://gobrag.ca/?p=1695.
BRAG is also writing to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and the Premier, praising their own publicly accessible staff directory and requesting that they “consider making readily accessible staff and organizational directories a mandatory component of municipal government.” We believe that this should be a province-wide initiative, thus eliminating the current practice where some municipalities provide transparency to their residents and others do not.
Deflect, Obfuscate, Rinse, Repeat
Speaking of transparency, Blair Smith, tongue firmly in cheek, sent an official request to the mayor’s office asking for a debate. Alas, the request was rejected, but the mayor’s staff did agree to forward his ten questions to the mayor for a response in writing, which he received. Read the questions and see the replies here https://gobrag.ca/?p=1539 — in the words of one commenter, “this is kind of a primer on How Not To Answer Questions.” We wholeheartedly agree. We look forward to responding with our thoughts.
Stephen White, writing on this, said, in part, “Truth be told, the city really isn’t interested in this form of engagement. In fact, they aren’t really interested in listening to citizens, entertaining new ideas, or critically examining and implementing new business processes. The city is interested in what many of us might cynically describe as a “tick the box” exercise. The aim isn’t to critically consider Blair’s response, or any other citizen’s input for that matter. The aim is to get a response back in 72 hours, and close the file. Case closed. Performance metric successfully achieved. Tick the box. Done.” Read his full article here https://gobrag.ca/?p=1677.
Upcoming Steps for BRAG
We continue to watch our current council and try to keep up with the goings on at COB, attempting to separate the wheat from the chaff. We even have BRAG members who regularly watch the council meetings – brave souls, indeed.
On our radar as Spring approaches: the increasing traffic gridlock; our first ever BRAG Open House; preparation of a BRAG policy platform; 2026 municipal election candidate search. Stay tuned! As always, thanks for reading.
The BRAG Team