Burlington Year in Review - 2023

It’s hard to believe the one-year anniversary of this Burlington City Council’s second term has come and gone.On Oct. 24, 2022, the residents of Burlington re-elected every member of Council. Being the Mayor of Ontario’s Most Livable City and the Fifth Most Livable City in Canada (as announced by the Globe & Mail for 2023) continues to be a true honour and a privilege. Our city is even a draw to Gen Z, being ranked the top city in Ontario and 13^th overall in Canada among that generation in Point2homes’ 2023 City Readiness Index.Collaborative CouncilFacing and overcoming the challenges of the first term together as a city, a Council and a community has been nothing short of amazing, and I was truly grateful to continue to hit the ground running with all my Council colleagues to start our second term. In 2023, Council had 34 approved motions -- 15 of which I put forward and was a part of that all passed and most unanimously.This year also saw my introduction of new Deputy Mayor portfolios for each Councillor that I am pleased to say has been used to great success, so far -- building on the individual strengths and experiences of each Councillor to advance our community's priorities as a truly collaborative Council. The portfolios include:

• Deputy Mayor for Business & Red Tape Reduction: Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith
• Deputy Mayor for Community Engagement & Partnerships. Ward 2 Councillor Lisa Kearns
• Deputy Mayor for the Environment: Ward 3 Councillor Rory Nisan
• Deputy Mayor for Housing: Ward 4 Councillor Shawna Stolte
• Deputy Mayor for Strategy & Budgets: Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman
• Deputy Mayor for Recreation and Community Services: Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna

And most-recently, we had a Council approved 2024 Budget that focuses on need-to-have essentials, frontline services and planning for future growth. Keep an eye out on all my communications channels as I’ll be providing highlights on specific investments in the 2024 Budget throughout next year.This year also saw two new members join my team: Marie Nash as my Chief of Staff and Esther Gibbs as my Policy and Community Support Specialist. They have both been fantastic and already proven to be indispensable additions to the Mayor's Office.We returned to some semblance of normal and an improved one in 2023, as we implemented the positive learnings from the past term. I want to thank each and every person in our Burlington community for their feedback, their support and fantastic ideas on how we can continually improve the livability of our city for everyone. Your voices are always welcome, heard, and respected – even if we disagree – and I continue to encourage residents to reach out directly to my office, attend committee and council (either in-person or virtually), and participate in democracy.Public EngagementThe Burlington community continues to be exceptionally engaged at City Hall and within our neighbourhoods.I’ve seen this firsthand with the growth from the first term of the multiple communications channels I use to connect with residents. My website has more than 139,000 views for this year and we shared more than 400 posts there, helping to keep you all informed about what’s happening at City Hall. More than 10,000 people now subscribe to my monthly newsletter and nearly 37,600 of you connect with me on my various social media channels – not to mention the incalculable number of emails my office receives from residents, community groups, businesses, and schools.I’m truly grateful for the multiple ways I can connect with you all and hear directly from you (including in person at events) on what’s most important to you in Burlington.I'll also be looking to host community drop-in sessions in 2024, so please keep an eye out on my social media platforms for details on those as they're scheduled.Mayor’s Commitments for Second TermI set out five commitments for my second term, and those included:

• Protect neighborhoods with reasonable growth in the right place;
• Implement plans for affordable housing, climate change and transit/mobility;
• More community centres and parks for our growing population;
• Protect our rural boundary; and
• Promote community pride so that every person living in and visiting our city feels welcome and included.

We’ve already achieved so much on our path to meet those commitments.Protect neighborhoods with reasonable growth in the right placeWe’re working hard to build complete communities in Burlington where people in all stages of life, from all incomes and with different needs, want to live over the next seven generations with a high quality of life. A place that is safe, inclusive, diverse and connected; environmentally sustainable; has housing choice and affordability; offers services, shops, community amenities, jobs, and parks within walking distance; and is easy to get around with multiple transportation options.Council is getting closer to adopting the proposed Official Plan amendment outlined for our Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs) and our Community Planning Permit Bylaw. Council also recently approved an updated Vision to Focus Plan for our city – one that increases economic prosperity and community responsive city growth; improving integrated city mobility; and supporting sustainable infrastructure and a resilient environment.Council unanimously approved multiple actions to help speed up the permitting process at City Hall, including additional staff (with no tax impact) to help process permit applications that require site-engineering reviews. The City also launched a pilot program using AI-powered technology to accelerate the permitting process for industrial-commercial buildings – Burlington is the second city in Canada to use this technology to improve its permitting process and make it easier to build, and we’re the first city in Canada to use this tech specifically for development on employment lands. Council also approved an updated and enhanced list of new and evolved Red Tape Red Carpet recommendations, from the original 2019 recommendations, including creating a Joint Working Group with City of Burlington and Burlington Economic Development staff and Landscape Ontario to review outstanding permit process issues.Implement plans for affordable housing, climate change and transit/mobilityBurlington Council is also working with upper levels of government to address the housing crisis.We unanimously accepted the Province of Ontario’s housing pledge for Burlington to build 29,000 housing units by 2031 and that helps us become eligible for the Province’s Building Faster Fund – Burlington currently has 40,793 units in our pipeline. We also unanimously signalled our support to allow four-units as-of-right on any residential property that makes Burlington eligible for the Federal Government’s Housing Accelerator Fund.In addition, Council unanimously endorsed a new Pipeline to Permit Housing Standing Committee and Terms of Reference to help the City streamline process, by identifying and addressing gaps and opportunities, and do our part in seeing more shovels in the ground for housing, including affordable and attainable housing. This committee will also help with monthly tracking and identifying further funding opportunities with upper levels of government.The City of Burlington also has its first-ever Council unanimously-approved Housing Strategy that sets out 12 key actions to drive the overall vision for housing in Burlington, including protecting our urban and rural boundaries. The Strategy emphasizes the City’s role and opportunity to address the “missing middle” from both the perspective of having housing options that are affordable/attainable for middle-income households and for the opportunity to diversify housing types and tenures.As part of 2023 Budget investments, we approved one-time funding to help implement our Housing Strategy and 12 key action items through our Burlington Lands Partnership and Community Planning Department.In addition to our Housing Strategy, Burlington Council unanimously approved our city’s first Integrated Mobility Plan (IMP) to guide how people and goods move in and through our community for the next 30 years. The IMP is a balance of innovate policies, active programs and capital projects that will guide how Burlington builds and operates a sustainable transportation system citywide – making getting around our city safe, accessible, sustainable, balanced, and livable.We made additional investments in transit and our transit plan. Council unanimously approved implementing free transit for seniors all day, every day and free transit for youth (aged 13-19) in the evenings (after 6 p.m.) and on weekends, as of Aug. 1. Children 12 and under already ride Burlington Transit for free to mirror the similar program offered by GO Transit. As well, we directed staff to look into the impacts of offering free transit for everyone and report back to Council in 2024This is all about getting more people on buses and that translates to being better for the environment, social connections, other road users and transit users, and the economy, among other benefits. Increased ridership helps us meet our climate targets and modal split goals and qualifies us for increased Gas Tax Revenue from upper levels of government – with a greater number of people taking transit relative to vehicles, currently.The City of Burlington also partnered with the federal government and the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC) in a joint investment of $462,500 to support planning activities to transition our fleet to zero-emission buses. This joint funding will help Burlington complete planning activities like feasibility, implementation and market studies to help us get and deploy zero-emission buses and secure and build the related infrastructure for Burlington Transit.More community centres and parks for our growing populationWe also continued to make investments in much-needed enhanced and new community centres for our residents in 2023, most notably with the expansion and updates to the Skyway Community Centre and Park and the new Robert Bateman Community Centre at the site of the former Robert Bateman High School.Skyway will feature an NHL-sized ice surface to help accommodate older and more experienced skaters, an indoor walking track, and additional community program space, changerooms, new universal washrooms, and spectator seating, as well as an updated lobby with customer service area and offices. The previous 48-year-old building with its refrigeration equipment and building components had reached the end of their life-cycle and needed repairs and upgrades. This brought forward an opportunity to provide our community with an improved centre to meet their growing needs. Click/tap here to watch a time-lapse video of the construction so far.Acquiring the Robert Bateman High School site not only preserved it to eventually become the largest community centre in Burlington, but it also reaffirmed our commitment to expand the number of community centres for our growing city. The support from residents to see the City work to retain this site as a community hub and park space was and continues to be overwhelming positive and we thank our residents for that support.We have preserved this area and protected it from other uses, such as a potential high-rise development, because we need more amenities like this to meet the increasing needs of our growing city and further enhance quality of life in Burlington.At the end of the day, we will have a repurposed community centre that incorporates sustainability and community-building, while aligning with our City’s objective to be net-zero carbon by 2040. In addition, by partnering with Brock University, the Burlington Public Library, Halton District School Board, and Tech Place, this means costs of providing these services at the centre will be shared.We made investments in our parks through Burlington’s 10 year Capital Budget and Forecast for Parks and Open Space from 2023-2032, and these included upgrades to 13 local parks in 2023 and several more planned over the next few years.In June, we held a grand reopening and ribbon-cutting for our revitalized and renewed Mountainside Pool and Splash Pad, with many exciting features for the community including:

• A new pool with a beach entry and three separate 50M lap lanes;
• Accessibility ramps;
• Water spray features;
• Climbing wall;
• Waterslide; and
• Shade structures.

In August, we officially unveiled a new Adult Outdoor Fitness Equipment and Social Space at Central Park that was made possible through an amazing $50,000 donation from the Burlington Seniors Community Initiatives (BSCI) group that was used to purchase the equipment! This is the second outdoor adult exercise spot in Burlington -- the first one opened at Burloak Park two years ago.Protect our rural boundaryIn 2023, Council reaffirmed our commitment to protecting our rural area and not expanding our urban boundary, while also speaking out against proposed changes to the Greenbelt by the Province.Thanks to public advocacy and your efforts, the Province announced it would be returning the lands removed back into our protected Greenbelt, admitting it was a mistake to remove them. Burlington remains committed to working with all levels of government and the building community to do our part to get permits to builders, so they can get shovels in the ground. We know the City of Burlington can do this within our urban boundary, while protecting our rural area, the Niagara Escarpment and Greenbelt lands.Promote community pride so that every person living in and visiting our city feels welcome and includedThis year also saw increased community pride, particularly with a special recognition of our Burlington 150+ anniversary.A myriad of community events across our city throughout 2023 culminated in a special Burlington 150+ event on Sept. 9 – the date the Village of Burlington was formed.The ‘+’ is a key part in our recognition of 150 years of Burlington because it acknowledges the Indigenous Peoples who were here living on this land for a millennia before that. The City of Burlington has been built by generations.I was pleased to join urban Indigenous residents of our city this year in launching a new Indigenous Talking Circle. Officially announced in Nov. 2022, we began meeting in 2023 to advance the first principle of Reconciliation as Relationship. The goal of the Circle is to foster relationship building and dialogue between the Mayor’s Office, City Council, staff, and urban Indigenous residents in Burlington, to take action on Reconciliation.In 2023, we also issued 71 proclamations, held 30 flag-raisings at City Hall, and lit our Pier in recognition of 98 different community events and important causes.This year, we presented two Burlington Keys to the City -- Beverly Kingdon (July 2023) and our twin-city Apeldoorn, The Netherlands (May 2023).Beverly Kingdon has been a volunteer in conservation work for more than 40 years, and a driving force behind the creation of the Trumpeter Swan Restoration Group. While in 2023, we celebrated the 18^th anniversary of the twinning agreement between the cities of Burlington and Apeldoorn, The Netherlands, and I presented the Key to the City to Apeldoorn Mayor Ton Heerts and the City of Apeldoorn, The Netherlands when they came to visit us here in Burlington in May.During our last Council meeting of 2023, we unanimously approved a resolution from Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman and Ward 1 Councillor Kelvin Galbraith to make the Trumpeter Swan our official city bird! This comes off the heels of Bird Friendly Hamilton Burlington undertaking a process to name our City Bird earlier this year and after voting from the community. On April 7, 2022, Nature Canada announced that Burlington was officially certified as a ‘Bird Friendly City’, largely due to the efforts of Bird Friendly Hamilton Burlington.The history of this bird is something spectacular and has a special connection with our city, and so I was very happy to see the Trumpeter Swan designated as Burlington’s Official City Bird!Your Burlington Council has been very busy in 2023 accomplishing so much in the first full year of our second term and it’s all the result of the collaboration, passion and joint commitment towards a collective goal by every single person who lives and works in Burlington.I look forward to seeing what 2024 and beyond will bring.Thank you, Burlington.