Mayor Marianne Meed Ward held an informal drop-in Friday morning at the Burlington Seniors’ Centre, touching on development, transit, and the upcoming budget for 2025.
Halton Regional Police Det./Cst. Dwain Newham, in charge of seniors' fraud in Burlington, and who has provided dozens of seminars in the last year alone in an effort to keep the city's seniors safe, especially from finance fraudsters, also provided some tips for the small crowd.
Meed Ward touted the various “top” positions the city has been recognized for in the last year such as safest city, most liveable, access to amenities, and being a tree city, which is no small feat.
She noted that the city now provides free transit to seniors 65 years and older who need to use a Presto card to ride; this also applies to the Handi-van services for those who have disabilities. She also noted there's a bike lending program through the central centre which, in addition to regular two-wheeled bikes there’s also a step-through and a three-wheeler style available year-round.
Meed Ward explained the upcoming budget process, relaying that one of the negatives she hears is how difficult it is for residents to understand a 700-page document. She assured that this year’s budget will be presented in a more understandable fashion and she is going to be in attendance at the individual ward meetings this fall when the budget is explained, and feedback welcomed.
“We’re going to make it simpler and more clear for the community,” she said, adding the ward meetings will allow the community a chance to provide good feedback, with the final budget being presented Nov. 4.
Again, she added there are finance programs in place for those struggling to pay their taxes, including those with disabilities to help as long as they’ve owned their home for a year and are not in arrears.
Like last year, it will be a budget by the mayor, but she said, it is given mayoral direction and a promise to follow four principles which were laid out by council earlier last week. She also said some of the tax increase is going toward infrastructure that had been overlooked. “We know it’s not enough for infrastructure repair with today’s known needs.”
She spoke about the city’s newly-hired CAO Hassaan Basit, whom she has had a good rapport with for many years having worked closely with the former CEO of Conservation Halton in past years as she served on that board.
Meed Ward spoke about the City's three Major Transit Station Areas (MTSAs): Downtown Burlington Urban Growth Centre/Burlington GO, Aldershot GO and Appleby GO, where high-density development is being proposed. She lamented the fact that developers do not necessarily have shovels in the ground, making it tough to make imposed provincial housing targets.
She also spoke to concerns that Aldershot residents have without a key grocery store to support the growth. She said development in those high-rises is to include smaller neighbourhood-type grocery stores on the first floor; those stores would be smaller, not “Fortino-size,” but more like Marilu’s or Farm Boy.
The Mayor also spoke about the city’s commitment to truth and reconciliation and the large number of Indigenous people who live in the city, and who she has a great connection with.
Meanwhile, Newham shared ways that seniors can avoid phone scams. He encouraged people not to answer any phone calls from numbers they don’t recognize.
He recommended against crypto-currency, which is an ongoing scam in many cases, and the romance scam where someone from out of country strikes up a friendship with a stranger. In addition, he said there are still those fraudsters who pretend to be service providers such as roofers or water heaters.
“Others will say they can recover your money - they’ll use the recovery pitch,” he said. “These bad guys will tell you they can find your money, but they need money to get it back.”
In addition, he suggested keeping only one tap-card when going out to shop to avoid losing or having an entire wallet stolen.
And the number one issue he sees more than any other is purse thefts.
“They get in your personal space,” he said, adding that was one thing Covid helped as people were more aware of that during the pandemic.
Finally, he reminded residents never to share any personal banking information over the phone. “They can be very believable,” he said of scammers impersonating financial institutions. He said they’re rarely in Canada, operating somewhere else. “Everything looks real but they’re professional thieves, probably not in Canada. If it sounds good to be true, then it probably is.”
