Reinventing the Wheel - Square Peg in a Round Hole?

Burlington council debated for 90 minutes over a $45,000 expenditure that would result in traffic calming, slower speeds and safer roads for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.  The lengthy debate was most likely due to the large number of emails and phone calls the councillors received in opposition to staff's report recommending converting 1 vehicle lane into 2 bike lanes on Walkers and Appleby Line.

The same night, Burlington council passed a motion to spend $380,000 to repair the Drury Lane bridge extending its life for 5 years after which an additional $1.5- $2+ million expenditure would be needed.  In January several councillors were "dead set" against repairing the bridge.  What happened?

Citizens were engaged.  Nine delegations and a room filled with children and parents!  A concerted effort by a community to let council know how they collectively felt about the issue.  Obviously, numbers and children work.  They swayed council and the vote to spend $380,000 was unanimous!

Perhaps Burlington's attempt to engage public involvement by the creation of its own community engagement charter is placing a square peg into a round hole - forcing the issue.  Turnout at several meetings has been sparse.  Media coverage has waned.  Re-inventing the wheel is the long way to get there and will take time.
In my opinion, the secret for an successful engaged community is right before our eyes.  

The Drury Lane bridge revealed citizens of all ages, professional and labourer, housewife and businessman, will effectively mobilize in their own self interest.  This shouldn't be a surprise.  What's needed is a way to channel the concerns & issues of groups around the city.  The creation of a Burlington Ratepayers Association with subgroups for areas around the city would accomplish this.  Local ratepayer groups could delegate, make their wishes known through their councillor or ask the executive to lobby on their behalf.

Its not a new idea and a working template can be found in another community.

Engaged Mississauga citizens created MIRANET  the Mississauga Residents' Associations Network to bring their concerns to city hall.   Citizens banded together to provide a wide range of input into the governance of Mississauga.  Check out the website.  Created entirely by the engaged citizens without city hall input.


I attended their meetings, experienced their energy and ability to make things happen transforming Mississauga into a better place to live.  The depth, scope and involvement of the community into so many projects in Mississauga is astounding!  All the ratepayer groups are connected to the executive board.  It is the connectivity between the city-wide groups that enables MIRANET to mobilize an army of citizens to appear before council with their concerns and position on any issue deemed important.  The "network model encourages distributed leadership and ongoing cooperation among residents' groups in order to exchange timely information, share best practices and foster community engagement in the public decision-making process.


Individual residents' groups continue to work with their Ward Councillors and other elected representatives as usual, but the City-wide issues involve all Councillors, and all citizens, and we will help the work of the City by consolidating our input, where and when we can.  We have an open, research-oriented process designed to inform and confirm consensus among all groups before officially taking a united position on any issue."  

Ratepayer groups works!  Mississauga's model can be done in Burlington.  It should be done in Burlington.