Opinion – Insights from La Belle Province

I recently returned from vacationing in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. During my travels, there were several things I noticed that both impressed me and contrasted with my experience living in Burlington.

Here are three things that really resonated during my recent trip:

The Police are Everywhere

A good portion of my time was spent in Magog. For those who are unfamiliar, Magog is a town about 120 kilometres south of Montreal and just west of Sherbrooke. The population is around 28,000.

No matter where I went, I would invariably see police. I saw them in the morning as I was travelling to my neighbourhood McDonald’s for my coffee and Egg McMuffin. I saw them during the day patrolling streets throughout the town. I saw special constables patrolling the downtown core at night when I was going out to dinner at a local restaurant. And, of course, I constantly saw the Sûreté de Police patrolling the highways in and around the community. In fact, I saw more police in six days in Magog than I’ve seen all year in Burlington.

Is the police presence a function of the fact that the region is heavily dependent upon tourism? Maybe. Is it because Magog has an unusually high crime rate? No, according to data that is available on the subject. In fact, Magog’s crime rate is 48% lower than the national average, and violent crime is 29% lower:

https://areavibes.com/magog-qc/crime/

The Lakefront is Truly Accessible

Like Burlington, Magog is blessed to be situated on a lake; in this case, Lake Memphremagog. However, the amount of land space available to residents far exceeds that of Burlington. I would estimate their lakefront parkland is about four to five times the size of Spencer Smith Park. Moreover, unlike Burlington, there is abundant space for parking for residents, tourists and visitors.

Some people like me drove to the park. Others cycled. Some walked. I suppose some took public transit. The point is that everyone, no matter their mode of transportation, was able to avail themselves of the park, the scenery, and the ambience. In short, no restrictions.

Lots of Housing Development, but no High Rise Condos

Here in Burlington, it seems that every week there is an announcement of yet another unwanted high-rise condo being proposed. The fact that the GHTA is awash with 30,000 vacant and unsold units somehow hasn’t dawned on our developer friends, who continue to preach the merits of this form of housing as a panacea for all our housing woes.

In Magog, as well as in other communities I visited, such as Cowansville, Sherbrooke and Granby, I saw housing being constructed. However, I didn’t see a single high-rise condo under construction during my travels.

What is being built are duplexes, triplexes, quadplexes, and in some cases, the long-forgotten bungalow.  In many cases, these are being built in older, established areas of the downtown core, or on land that has been re-zoned for residential. The housing was attractive, unobtrusive, and fitted in well with the surrounding neighbourhood. Most importantly, the people living in these homes were young families, the particular demographic segment that, one assumes, new home construction is designed to target.

Time to Stop Drinking the Kool-Aid

Politicians are a bit like weavers: they like to spin yarns, albeit not the kind you can readily turn into sweaters or mittens. For instance, one of the lines they like to spin is telling us that we need to spend a lot more money on expensive surveillance equipment and other measures to reduce crime. They also tell us that automobiles are incompatible with living in an urban environment. And, of course, they continually remind us that increased densification in the form of massive high-rise developments is the only option if we are to substantially address our housing crisis.

Yet, places like Magog challenge the prevailing narrative. They show that we all can live in safe communities where vigilance and high police visibility actually serve as an important deterrent to crime. They highlight the fact that cars and people can co-exist, and don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Furthermore, they also reinforce the fact that sensible, family-oriented housing projects don’t have to be thirty stories high and destroy the surrounding character of established neighbourhoods.

Rather than sending our local politicians to Japan for a mundialization event that yields questionable value, perhaps we should encourage them to vacation in Quebec. With any luck, they’ll return with not just a tan and some souvenirs, but also some innovative public policy insights.

The Halton Police Services Board has approved an 8.22% spending increase for 2026, higher than the 4.3% requested by the region. If Halton Region approves the increase, and Burlington continues with a 5.8% increase, we’ll see our property tax rise by almost 5%. 

The 2026 police budget increase will lead to an additional 20 frontline patrol officers.

These are the main drivers for the increase:

In total, 85% of the police services budget is for salaries and benefits.

We can expect continued police services budget increases and corresponding tax increases.

We understand that Halton is expanding with new and forecasted growth in Milton and Oakville. New housing developments require new officers. However, Burlington has many seniors in the southern portion of the city. This is a segment of the population that is particularly vulnerable to scams, purse-snatches, distraction thefts, muggings and carjackings. Who is looking after them?

Let’s hope that an expanded police force also includes more front-line resources in established neighbourhoods.