Moving to Burlington

Three levels of government act on an address here, and confusing them is the most common reason a resident’s question goes to the wrong place.

City of Burlington handles planning and zoning, building permits, local roads and sidewalks, parks and recreation, fire, transit and property-tax billing. It is governed by a mayor and council.

Halton Region handles water and wastewater, regional roads, waste collection, public health, paramedics and social services. If a street is closed for a watermain, it is usually regional work even though the City posts the notice.

The Province of Ontario sets the planning framework the City works inside, funds and approves school construction, and can override municipal zoning directly with a Minister’s Zoning Order.

Burlington has 55 schools across Halton District School Board, Halton Catholic District School Board, Conseil scolaire catholique MonAvenir and Conseil scolaire Viamonde. The newsroom follows boundary reviews at the Halton District School Board.

Which school a child attends depends on the address and the board, not on the City. Each board sets attendance boundaries and changes them through a formal boundary review, a public process with published options and a decision by trustees. In a growing municipality those reviews are frequent.

Before committing to an address, confirm the school assignment with the board directly. Our schools page lists every publicly funded school in Burlington, by board and level.

Burlington Transit runs 16 routes across 787 stops, on the schedule it publishes as open data. The transit pages carry every route, its stops and its timetable.

3 GO stations — Aldershot GO, Burlington GO and Appleby GO — serve Burlington for commuter rail and bus, operated by Metrolinx.

Most Burlington commuters do not stay in town. At the 2021 Census the most common places of work outside Burlington were Oakville (6,590), Hamilton (5,265) and Mississauga (4,320), and 88.8% of commuters drove while 4.3% took public transit. Those figures were collected in May 2021 under pandemic restrictions, so they describe that moment.

The City bills property tax on every home. How the bill is built, the current rate and the instalment dates are set out on the property-tax guide, each figure linked to City of Burlington’s own page.

The City has 97 projects of significant development on the planning record, 95 of them still active. The practical difference between areas is what will change around you.

Start with the development record and the pre-construction pipeline, which link each project to City of Burlington’s own file.