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Name: Paul Sharman
Office Sought: Ward 5 City and Regional Councillor
Campaign website: paulsharman.ca
Email: paul@paulsharman.ca
1. Affordability and Taxes
Affordability begins with recognizing that taxpayers ultimately pay for everything government does. My approach is to protect the services residents value while continually challenging how efficiently they are delivered. Burlington needs disciplined long-term financial planning, clear priorities, and rigorous attention to strategy, process and performance. I introduced the City’s rolling five-year financial outlook seven years ago because decisions made today often create costs years into the future. We must also distinguish genuine spending increases from transfers between governments. When Ontario transferred planning responsibilities from Halton Region to Burlington, staff and costs moved with them: Burlington’s budget rose while the Region’s fell, without that transfer itself increasing the combined municipal tax burden. My test is straightforward: What value are residents receiving, and can we achieve the same or better result differently?
2. Managing the City’s Finances
Municipal budgeting should start with strategy, not last year’s budget plus an increase. I ask four questions: What are we trying to accomplish? What services and investments are necessary? Are we delivering them efficiently? What can taxpayers reasonably afford? Essential services, public safety, infrastructure maintenance and legislated responsibilities must come first. Other projects should be evaluated against demonstrated community need, long-term benefit, affordability and measurable results. Burlington’s rolling five-year financial outlook helps Council understand the future consequences of today’s decisions and avoids pushing difficult choices into later years. We must also challenge major structural costs. Transit is a clear example. Rather than accepting a large annual operating deficit indefinitely, I want to redesign service to make it more useful and attract substantially more riders while improving efficiency. Sound budgeting protects today’s services without creating unaffordable obligations for tomorrow’s taxpayers.
3. Accountability and Transparency
Municipal budgets are necessarily complex, but residents should not need to be accountants to understand where their money goes or why taxes are changing. Burlington should present its budget increasingly from the taxpayer’s perspective: what each service costs, what changed from the previous year, why it changed, what results residents receive, and what portion of an increase is within the City’s control. We should also distinguish Burlington’s tax requirement from the combined property tax bill, which includes the City, Halton Region and education. Otherwise, transfers of responsibility between governments can create misleading comparisons. I support accessible online information, plain-language summaries, multi-year projections and performance measures showing whether programs achieve their intended results. Transparency is more than publishing thousands of pages. It means presenting information in a form that allows residents to understand it, question it and hold Council accountable.
4. Improving Efficiency
Efficiency is not simply cutting services; it is redesigning how they are delivered so residents receive better value. I would continue emphasizing strategy, process and performance: simplify processes, eliminate unnecessary steps, use technology appropriately, measure outcomes and challenge established practices. Transit may offer our largest opportunity. Burlington relies predominantly on conventional full-sized buses and requires a substantial annual taxpayer subsidy, while much capacity remains unused. I want to move progressively toward smaller, electric, on-demand vehicles where appropriate. More convenient service could attract thousands of additional daily riders, particularly seniors, teenagers and last-mile commuters, while substantially reducing and potentially eliminating the operating deficit. The same thinking should apply throughout the corporation. Modernization should begin with the question, “How can we accomplish this better?” Done properly, process redesign and technology can improve service, shorten response times and control costs without compromising the outcomes residents expect.
5. Growth and Infrastructure
Burlington’s growth challenge has changed. After largely running out of greenfield residential land around 2015, our population grew only about 5% over the following 11 years. In 2022, however, the Province converted roughly 700 acres of former employment lands to mixed use, creating new development opportunities. Much of that land was initially expected to accommodate high-density development. The condominium market has since slowed dramatically, with almost no new projects financed over the past three years. Some of these lands are now being developed with traditional townhouses and single-family homes. We should plan for growth based on what is actually happening, not outdated projections. Halton Region is expanding wastewater and drinking-water capacity, while Burlington is improving stormwater channels. Our most urgent infrastructure challenge is transportation: regional through-traffic has increased far faster than Burlington’s population, requiring major provincial investment in highways, interchanges and transportation capacity.
6. Housing
Burlington’s housing strategy should respond to what people need and what the market is actually telling us. For years, future growth was expected to be accommodated mainly through high-density condominiums. That market has slowed dramatically, with almost no major new projects financed over the past three years. Many buyers are instead seeking family-oriented homes with three bedrooms and some private outdoor space. The roughly 700 acres of former employment land converted by the Province to mixed use in 2022 creates an opportunity to meet some of that demand. Portions are already being developed with townhouses and single-family homes rather than the high-density development first anticipated. We need a balanced mix, including family homes, townhouses, apartments, rentals, affordable housing and seniors’ housing, supported by appropriate infrastructure. Planning should respond to actual needs and market conditions while protecting safe, attractive, well-serviced and livable neighbourhoods.
7. Public Safety
Residents are increasingly concerned about crime and community safety, and those concerns must be taken seriously. At Halton Region, I supported significant increases in funding for Halton Regional Police in both 2025 and 2026 to provide resources for a growing region and changing public-safety environment. I support strong neighbourhood policing, appropriate staffing, effective response times and continued attention to auto theft, break-and-enter, organized crime, traffic enforcement and road safety. Policing alone, however, cannot address every cause of crime or disorder. Police, municipalities and community organizations must collaborate when homelessness, mental health, addiction, isolation or other social conditions contribute to recurring problems. Residents also have a role through timely reporting, neighbourhood awareness and practical crime prevention. Our objective must be clear: Burlington and Halton should remain among Canada’s safest communities, and residents should feel safe in their homes, neighbourhoods, parks and public spaces.
8. Public Engagement
Good municipal government requires more than communicating decisions after they have been made. Residents need meaningful opportunities to influence decisions while options are still being considered. During 16 years as a councillor, I have remained directly accessible through email, telephone, community meetings, newsletters, social media and conversations throughout Ward 5. That connection is invaluable because residents often identify problems and practical solutions before government does. The City should improve digital engagement while ensuring that people who prefer traditional methods are not excluded. Major initiatives should clearly explain the problem, alternatives, costs, trade-offs and how public input affected the recommendation. Trust also depends on closing the loop. Too often governments ask for views without explaining what happened afterward. Residents may not always agree with Council’s decision, but they deserve to know their views were heard and why a particular decision was made.
9. Strong Mayor Powers
Strong Mayor powers fundamentally change the traditional balance of municipal government. They exist under provincial legislation, so any mayor must understand them and be prepared to use them where legally required or genuinely necessary. However, Burlington is best served when important decisions receive thoughtful consideration by the entire elected Council. Seven representatives bring different experience, perspectives and knowledge of their communities, which strengthens decisions. These powers should not become a substitute for collaboration, debate or consensus-building. Where normal Council processes can produce a timely and responsible decision, I favour using them. Exceptional circumstances may justify Strong Mayor powers, particularly where provincial law specifically requires action. Even then, their use should be transparent, limited and clearly explained. Authority may enable a mayor to make a decision; leadership means building the support needed to make good decisions collectively whenever possible.
10. Respect and Civic Leadership
Respectful leadership does not mean avoiding disagreement. Council members are elected to bring different perspectives, challenge assumptions and debate important issues. The test is whether we can disagree without making disagreement personal. To me, respectful leadership means listening carefully, relying on facts, explaining my reasoning, treating residents, colleagues and staff professionally, and changing my position when better evidence emerges. After four terms on Council and a career in business and financial management, I have learned that difficult organizations and issues are rarely improved by unnecessary conflict. Strong leadership establishes clear objectives, encourages honest discussion and focuses people on solving the problem. The next Council will include several new members. Experienced councillors have an additional responsibility to create a constructive environment in which they can contribute quickly. Burlington benefits when Council challenges ideas vigorously while continuing to respect the people presenting them.
11. Looking Ahead
By 2030, I want Burlington to have planned for the growth that actually occurred rather than building policy around projections made during a very different housing market. That means responsibly developing the new mixed-use lands, ensuring water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure keeps pace, protecting established neighbourhoods and green space, and maintaining disciplined financial management. Most importantly, I want meaningful progress on transportation. Burlington’s population has grown only modestly over the past decade, yet congestion has increased substantially as more traffic from Milton, Waterdown, Hamilton, Niagara and communities farther west moves through our city. Provincial infrastructure has not kept pace with regional growth. I will keep pressing the Province to treat necessary highway, interchange and transportation investments as urgent. Locally, I want Burlington to modernize transit with smaller electric on-demand vehicles, attract substantially more riders and dramatically reduce its operating deficit.
12. Optional Question
Burlington’s traffic problem deserves greater attention because it is not primarily a Burlington population-growth problem. Our population has increased only about 5% over 11 years, while congestion appears to have increased by perhaps 20%. Burlington sits at a transportation bottleneck between the GTA and rapidly growing communities to our north and west. Traffic from Milton, Waterdown, Hamilton, Niagara and beyond increasingly travels through Burlington; when provincial highways become congested, vehicles divert onto local streets. Decades of inadequate provincial transportation planning and investment have caught up with us. The consequences include longer travel times, neighbourhood cut-through traffic, road-safety concerns, and massive and costly underutilization of Burlington Transit. Burlington cannot solve this alone. Provincial highway, interchange and regional transportation capacity now require emergency-level attention. I will continue advocating strongly for the Province to accelerate those investments.