Published in the Burlington Gazette January 30 2014

By Vanessa Warren

Published in the Burlington Gazette January 30 2014

An open letter to the LaSalle Park Marina Association (LPMA),

Last night I attended a public Consultation Meeting and Workshop for the City of Burlington’s 2014 budget.

Full disclosure: I am a farmer in Burlington’s rural north, sit on the board of BurlingtonGreen, and Chair the Rural Burlington Greenbelt Coalition. I had never attended a workshop like this before and to be sure, what got me off the couch and to the meeting was a desire to see that public transit, environmental sustainability and rural issues were being represented within the context of the City’s financial plan; but I also attended because I feel we all have a civic duty to ensure our municipality’s house is in order.

I prescribe to the belief that I cannot ask my government to be accountable to me, if I do not engage with them.

Upon arrival, an encouragingly large group of attendees were put into working groups around large tables, and instructed as to the evening’s ‘feedback’ process. We were then given an opportunity to ask questions, and the first two or three queries from the group were salient, intelligent and budget-related; but when John Birch, president of the LaSalle Park Marina Association stood up, it quickly became clear that the meeting had been hijacked.

Some background. The wealthy boat owners at the LPMA, led by rhetorician John Birch, would like to expand their private harbor, currently occupying the waterfront of a public park and further, want the city to provide more funds beyond the $150,000 already given to them to start detailed designs before the environmental assessment challenge is resolved. The crux of the issue, as I and many others see it, is that the desired construction will almost certainly destroy the wintering grounds of 1/4 of Ontario’s Trumpeter Swan population; a population that has been crawling back from the brink of extinction. I would, and have, also publicly argued that there is no demonstrated need for this redundancy particularly in the face of the City’s fiscal concerns, and with a great deal more environmental assessment to come.

However, regardless of your position on the project IT WAS NOT AN AGENDA ITEM at this budget meeting. The LaSalle Park Marina Expansion is not even being considered in the 2014 budget, and yet, the LPMA thought it appropriate to use the workshop as an illegitimate soapbox for its cause.

Many, many people, citizens, City staff, and almost the entire City Council (with the exception of Councillor Blair Lancaster), devoted their time last night to be engaged in the messy process that is democracy. The workshop was well-attended, well-organized, and should have been much more fruitful; instead, we spent a devastating amount of utterly useless time being commandeered by a special interest group railroading a non-budgetary issue.

John Birch and the LPMA: I find your case for public funding of a private marina totally without merit. However, if you believe it to have merit, and as a “joint venture” of the City of Burlington, then you must follow the public process as it has been laid out. Your project already hangs by a thread of legitimacy, and if you truly believe your cause is just, then you should promote it justly.

Engage with the community and your council where appropriate, and where people who have a counterpoint may enter the dialogue as well.The guerilla tactics that you used so disrespectfully last night were disruptive and unprofessional, and from my perspective, only further eroded your project’s credibility.