Parks & recreation for Ward 6 families

What I'm asking for

Ward 6 deserves a councillor who puts the numbers on the table before asking for the big ones. Fix what we can fix now. Study the land honestly. Build only if the case holds up.

Seven things I'll do

1. 1. Deliver the parks we’re already owed(more)

   I’ll publish a Ward 6 parks watchlist — Millcroft, Ireland, Norton, Palladium, and the rest — with dates, what’s included, and quarterly updates so you can see what’s on track.

2. 2. More programs now, not years from now(more)

   Use three honest tracks: City recreation in school gyms; licensed before/after care with an eligible operator; and authorized skill-building programs. Burlington already sits in a Halton Reciprocal Agreement with HDSB and HCDSB. I’ll ask staff to model a north school-gym pilot, identify the legal operator and seat economics for care, publish who pays gym time vs program staff vs fees, and pursue seniors funding only when an intake is open.

3. 3. An open site study — with a named base case at Pearson(more)

   The former Lester B. Pearson High School on Headon Road has sat without students since 2018 — three gyms and fields in the middle of Ward 6. Burlington has done this before: it bought Bateman High School for $29.6M and converted it at roughly $273 per square foot — a fraction of building new. I’ll move to register the City’s interest and test Pearson as the adaptive-reuse base case in the study — with the full appraisal, cost, and plan published before any purchase vote. Every other serious site still goes on the same public scorecard.

4. 4. Price tags before any build vote(more)

   Show 2026-dollar construction and estimated opening-year capital; land, site work, design, escalation, equipment, financing, operations, revenue, and lifecycle reserve — published before Council is asked to commit to a major build.

5. 5. Make sponsorship work for families(more)

   Naming rights, ads, concessions, and tournaments should cut the tax bill, improve the facility, or help more kids and seniors get in the door — including a public access fund.

6. 6. A complete community around the hub — without selling the green space(more)

   If Pearson proceeds, the paved edges of the site could carry seniors and missing-middle housing — preferably on a long-term ground lease so the City keeps the land — while the building, a full lit sports field, and the green space stay public. Reusing the building, partner contributions, and recycling part of the land could cut the net cost roughly in half compared to building new. I won’t claim the land sale pays for the hub: the City must buy at fair market value, which already prices in development potential. The honest gains are the reuse discount and the value the City itself creates by rezoning.

7. 7. Ontario’s first suburban aging-in-place network(more)

   One in five Burlington residents is over 65 — the oldest municipality in Halton — and the City’s Active Aging Plan was quietly closed out. I’ll move to map Burlington’s naturally occurring retirement communities (the apartment and condo buildings where seniors already live) and pilot OASIS-style programming in three of them, with a university delivery partner. Kingston’s flagship site runs on about $130K a year, and provincial seniors-centre funding covers up to $55K per approved program. This is community programming and convening — not a promise to deliver health care.

More than a building

Every sponsorship dollar should reduce the tax burden, improve the facility, or help more families use it. No revenue goes into the base case twice, and unsold inventory stays in sensitivity analysis — not the bank.

How we get there

First 100 days

1. Host a North Burlington recreation town hall
2. Publish the Ward 6 parks renewal watchlist
3. Publish a Ward 6 park concession inventory and gap report
4. Bring a Council motion for one combined access, feasibility, and site study
5. Move to register the City’s interest in the former Pearson school site and refresh the City’s 2022 school-site reuse analysis
6. Move a staff motion to map naturally occurring retirement communities with an academic partner
7. Move to bundle the mobility plan’s rural segments as a named Escarpment Loop program synced to resurfacing
8. Build sponsorship, naming rights, and an access fund into that study
9. Meet school boards, sports groups, seniors groups, care providers, and landowners under the Halton Reciprocal Agreement — and publish who pays gym time vs program staff
10. Ask staff for a Milton-style school-gym pilot modeled to recover costs through registration
11. Map SALC and other grant matches so seniors programming isn’t 100% tax-funded
12. Publish the first quarterly parks and recreation update

How you'll know I'm following through

I won't promise a ribbon-cutting date before the all-in capital and annual tax-supported cost are proven. If the full case fails, redesign or stop. At each step I'll ask:

• Does the site actually work?
• Do the costs make sense?
• Can partnerships lighten the load?
• Can sponsorship help more families use it?
• What is the total tax-supported cost after debt and lifecycle renewal?
• Does the full business case pass — or should the project stop?
• Are families and seniors getting something better while we study the long-term plan?