“Oakville is the city that calls itself a town and acts like a village and I want to take it confidently to the future and protect its identity, its character, its nature and to keep it the best place in the country to raise family and to keep it safest, and if possible, to keep it one of the most successful communities. If we can do all that we can get closer to achieving our goal of making it the most livable place.”
This is how Mr. Rob Burton, Mayor of Oakville, defines the city of Oakville and his aspirations to make better his City. He speaks fondly of Oakville’s character, the symbols that represent Oakville and the consistent air quality of Oakville.
As an advocate of cleaner environment and passionate about the air we breathe in, Mayor Burton firmly believes that good practices to preserve nature and fresh air lead to better plans to improve industries that have potential to generate revenue.
Before being a Mayor, Mr. Rob Burton was a retired businessman. He had started a TV called YTV. He became interested in environment in Columbia University in New York City. His groundbreaking graduate thesis statistically linked the effects of air pollution to health and was presented at the United Nations’ international conference on the environment in Stockholm, Sweden.
In 1972, Mayor Burton immigrated to Canada and became a Canadian citizen after being recruited by the CBC to help start the world’s first consumer journalism show – Marketplace. In 1974 he broadcasted the first story on acid rain.
On November 13, 2006, Oakville residents chose Rob Burton as their new mayor with a mandate to make the Town the most livable community in Canada.
When Mr. Burton speaks about Oakville, his voice tends to be filled up with silent passion and when he speaks of economy and businesses, he is nothing but a cool-headed businessman who looks at the facts and believes in giving chance to innovative ideas and projects. The combination makes him the individual and the Mayor he is.
Following are excerpts of Generation Next’s Asma Amanat’s conversation with Mayor Rob Burton:
GN: With so much poverty out there, do you think environment should be a genuine concern?
Environment is a valid concern. How much poverty do you think is there in Oakville?
GN: Our understanding is that it is about 15 to 20%.
The reports that we get tell us that it is much lower than that. I guess it depends on how you define poverty. The impact of air pollution was felt mostly on poor people. When I was in Columbia University, for example, the worst air was where the poor people lived. The most polluted area was Harlem, and was famous as impoverished area in 1970s. The wealthiest areas had best air quality; the poorest areas had the most air pollution related disease and death; the wealthier areas had least. This made me think that beside other burdens, the poor had to pay more for the pollution that caused other problems. So I became interested in improving air pollution.
GN: Does good environment help economy?
Most pollution is waste. And therefore if you reduce pollution, you reduce waste and you strengthen economics of the companies that waste. There is a multinational chemical industry in Oakville; they have a corporate goal of zero pollution, and they are very very good.
GN: Are you happy with what the federal government is giving to the cities?
When I consider that the federal government is run by people who say that we are not in the business of fixing potholes, I should be happy that it gives us any money at all. They gave us a little bit of money from the portion of the federal gas tax for transit and we get a share of provincial gas tax, and both of them expect us to spend it on transit. That’s the reason Oakville has the bigger bus transit system than it had.
GN: Some people say that Oakville transit system is expensive and provides lesser services than other neighboring towns like Toronto where bus service is available every 5 minutes.
There is no route in Toronto where buses are available every 5 minutes. We run buses hourly or every half an hour. My street is served only at rush hours. Every bus that is there costs $7.50 but we charge much less than that. The average revenue per ride is $1.97, so it costs the tax payers almost $5.00. You have to be respectful of how much tax people can pay.
GN: Would you want to keep Oakville as a bedroom community?
Over the last 8 years, there was a long process of setting the plan to make most of the space residential. So Oakville will remain 85 per cent residential. We’re 151 years old from 1857 when the town was incorporated so Oakville’s character as a lakeside residential area is set. It’s a very good place to raise kids.
GN: Is there a special significance of the symbol of town of Oakville?
Well, that is about 10 years old as I recall. Many people and businesses like to have symbols. A code of arms is our symbol. About 10 years ago, people who ran decided that it was not modern enough. So O is for Oakville and the leaf is representative of the artistic representation of Oak, and then we kept the code of arms.
GN: Are you satisfied with how media plays out various stories?
I am satisfied. As a Mayor I accept that media have a job to do, they write the stories the way they see it. If I do not give the right answers or confuse people with my answers, it is my fault, not the media’s. If media writes stories that hurt somebody, in Canada, we have legal tools to use. By and large everyone in media tries the best they can. There are reporters who show bias but they are all over the map. I have never believed hat media is overwhelmingly conservative or liberal.
GN: What’s your impression of Oakville’s South Asian community?
As far as I can tell, they are more engaged in politics than any other community so I see them more. They are like the rest of us; they want the same things. If you read the Constitution of Canada, you’d know that we all want peace and good governance.
Author: Asma Amanat
