Could the Boards and Committees not get by on a 1.5|% budget increase?

SwP thumbnail graphicBy Pepper Parr

January 17th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Local Boards and Committees are to be given a 2% increase over their 2018 base budget.

AGB logo with colour graphicThe group consists of the Library, the museums, the Art Gallery, Performing Arts, Tourism and the Economic Development Corporation.

Is there going to be a council member who stands up and say “Let’s make that 1.5%” Some belt tightening at the Boards and Committees is about due. These groups have been handed 2% almost automatically for the past decade.

If we are asking city hall to pull in the belt a notch or two – the same could and should be asked of the Boards and committees.

brant-museum-renderingThe city can expect to hear for more in the way of funding for the Museum. The re-launched Joseph Brant Museum is going to have its hand out for more in the way of funds to staff the new digs.

Get ready for the grand announcement sometime when the frost comes out of the ground of the opening exhibit – an exhibition of pin ball machines.

2_Joseph_Brant_Painting_George_Romney-1200x500Little wonder that Joseph Brant’s body was carried to Brantford and buried there; he would roll over in the grave he had in Burlington if he knew what they had done to his Burlington homestead.

Salt with Pepper reflects the views, musing and opinions of the publisher of the Gazette

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7 comments to Could the Boards and Committees not get by on a 1.5% budget increase?

  • Susie

    Toronto with all their expenses, etc. seem to be able to keep their budget within the Cost of Living percentage each year! Have no idea why we can’t cut those same figures and eliminate alot of the unnecessary frills to make it so.

  • Susan L.

    I was curious as to the total cost so I looked it up:
    “$2.9 million from the City of Burlington. $4.5 million from the Government of Canada. $1.5 million from the Province of Ontario. $2.5 million from the Joseph Brant Museum Foundation.” A total of $11.4 million.

    I thought, that can’t be true, but it is.

  • Penny

    Another legacy project that seems to have gone wrong. I agree the modern glass addition does nothing to enhance the Brant Museum. In fact it makes it look ridiculous. Perhaps the correct decision would have been to move the museum to the grounds of Ireland House where people actually go and visit?

    A pinball exhibit – really? Who thought that this would be an appropriate opening exhibition?

  • Maggie

    I have not been at all impressed with what I have seen for the plans for the new museum. It is much to modern and while modern design can be very good for some things this design just does not mesh with the house. I am particularly disappointed that the house will only be used for office space. This is counter to the original purpose of having a replica of Joseph Brant’s house for a museum named in his honor. While I don’t believe expansion is a bad thing the way it is being done is. You need to keep the house open to the public. A style of expansion that is compatible with the house should have been chosen. Offices could be housed there as well as expanded gallery and learning spaces.

  • steven craig gardner

    Totally agree with 1.5% and the ludicrous Brant museum no one visited the old and if it can’t be self supporting should not exist. So hoping this new council greets the museums open hand with a wave and thye leave empty handed.

  • Walter Mulkewich

    I think Chief Joseph Brant would be very proud and pleased that his old house is being restored and enhanced with such prominence. Congratulations to Burlington.

    • Lynn Crosby

      The house is a replica of his old house. And my understanding is that the replica is going to be the new office, not a public space. The public space is the new glass building. As a taxpayer, I must say I feel neither proud nor pleased ….