New manager has many issues to tackle
Burlington will have a new city manager April 22 to follow Tim Commisso’s retirement.
Commisso has been an effective manager, and Hassaan Basit comes very highly recommended. Hailing from Conservation Halton, he reportedly made fine organizational changes, and prepared excellent budgets. Commisso’s and Basit’s tenures will overlap slightly to allow for on-the-job training. A huge welcome to Basit! He could be the right man at the right time. And he knows our area.
As expected, at its last meeting, council ratified changes for seasonal patios and increased parking rates.
The biggest outstanding issue now is housing. How do tenants afford rents from $2,000 to $3,000 a month for apartments? And that excludes most three-bedroom units. And try navigating a dysfunctional provincial Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB), with a backlog of over 50,000 cases! Tenants fighting evictions and renovictions wait two years, and landlords can’t evict problem tenants.
I sympathized with one landlord and affected tenants a few years ago, when one bad apple who drank, did drugs and partied, made life miserable for everyone in the building. Even then, eviction took more than two years. And rent control doesn’t apply today to new buildings occupied after November 2018.
In the ’50s, our first home was an upstairs apartment in an Aldershot house for four years, for the princely sum of $85 a month until we could afford a split ranch home on a ravine lot. Our mortgage was five per cent. That aging house sells today for about $1 million.
Assessments used to be updated regularly, but this provincial government froze them in 2016. Not fair to the city (which relies on assessments to distribute tax costs fairly), homeowners or buyers. This government lets routine items slide until there’s a crisis.
With Burlington’s population hitting 260,000 by 2051, and no land left on which to build, competition for lower-cost homes will increase. Only tiny condos will even be close to affordable. The feds could at least be more selective on immigration until this crisis eases.
And the planning system is broken. Residents in the Appleby Line and Cottonwood Drive area pleaded with council to reject an application for an oversized semi-detached project on the corner. But council approved it, knowing the Ontario Land Tribunal would anyway, and housing is needed.
Waits for OLT hearings mirror those at the LTB. And costs are high to hire expert witnesses. A Millcroft group raised almost $40,000 to prevent homes from being built on their golf course — zoned open space for decades — then learned it would likely take around $70,000. That’s a lot for citizens to raise. Developers love developing golf courses — easy — but it’s costly and unfair for Millcroft residents who bought golf course homes.
Road construction is always inconvenient, but a planned underpass on Burloak Drive by Metrolinx will disrupt residents and businesses until mid-2026. Turning lanes, bike lanes and sidewalks will be welcomed, but let’s hope it’s completed on schedule, unlike some Metrolinx projects.
An Indigenous group wants a seat on Hamilton council. No one, or group, is entitled to a seat in a democracy unless elected. When I ran, there was only one woman on our 17-person council. Women are electable today. So are minorities. And many Indigenous individuals would make fine candidates.
A 60-something friend, recently diagnosed with a risky cardiac issue, was hospitalized for five days at the Jo Brant awaiting a pacemaker. She received caring attention, but spent two days in the ER and three in a brightly lit noisy corridor. Hallway medicine at its finest?
The implant will be done at Hamilton General. She was advised it would be last week or this week, and called the surgeon’s office midweek. A recording advised that the office was closed, and to go to the ER if necessary.
That’s today’s health care facing at-risk patients. Thanks, Premier Ford!