Good news on electoral boundaries
Back in November a resident (Paul Virdo) noticed that for federal elections, the electoral commission was proposing splitting Milton into two parts, merging northern part in a Halton Hills riding and the southern part with Burlington. I wrote about it on my blog (here and here) and other local papers covered the issue.
I made a motion asking the council to unanimously voice its concern to the Commission, urging it to put all of Milton in tact in a “Milton” riding. The town clerk, along with the mayor and many of us councillors, went to the commission’s hearing and made a strong case for Milton.
Fortunately, the Commission listened. It is now creating a brand new riding of Milton which includes the town of Milton and some parts of rural Burlington.
It is a great news. More importantly, it was amazing to see people from all political backgrounds to come out in support for a new Milton riding. Although Halton Hills opposed a Milton riding, this is overall a great news for Milton as it deserves an MP focused on Milton issues.
Read MoreTremaine Road closing from Dymott to Britannia
Heads up: A section of Tremaine Road (between Britannia Road and Dymott Avenue) will be closing for a watermain construction project from February 25 until April 19.
I know it’s terribly inconvenient and will impact our commutes (I take that path daily). Road closure is always the last option. However, having no shoulder on Tremaine and winter months made working on one-lane-at-a-time to allow traffic on the other lane much harder. Unfortunately, closing the road turned out to be the best option to ensure both motorist safety and to minimize construction time.
The details of the road closure and detour route on Bronte Street can be found on the Region’s website under http://www.halton.ca/cms/one.aspx?portalId=8310&pageId=93648
Door hangers and flyers will be distributed to almost everyone in the Harrison neighbourhood this week. Road signs will also go up this week to give residents enough time to find good detours for their commutes.
Chris Ewen is the project manager for this project. You can contact him directly at 905-825-6000, extension 7141 or by email at chris.ewen@halton.ca.
Read MoreSnow Removal Route & Response Time
A snow storm is about to hit us. It’s important to note our snow clearing timeline :-
(click to enlarge)
These are similar to neighbouring municipalities (eg: Mississauga’s standard, which are actually below Milton’s).
If you’re unsure about your street then check out this map: visit this link and click “urban roads”. One correction: the map incorrectly classifies the north-south section of Duncan Lane as residential, rather than collector. That stretch receives the full width bare treatment.
As always, please keep your cars off road after the storm. The parking limit doesn’t apply if cars obstruct snow clearing operations. These cars can be ticketed.
Stay safe!
Read MoreHarrison Union Gas Trail
Back in November when the 2013 budget came out I was shocked to see that two Harrison Neighbourhood trails (the area around Scott and Savoline, south of Derry) were left out of the budget. I was able to pull one into the budget, but another one was too close to my house. Due to the conflict of interest (since the project was too close to my home), I couldn’t do anything about it.
Fortunately Councillor Cluett noticed and asked for a report to see if this trail could be pulled forward to 2013 as well. The report is going to the Community Services Standing Committee tonight. As expected, staff is recommending the trail to be built in 2013, rather than waiting for the next year’s budget, since homes are mostly built and money, from development charges, is already raised. There is no impact on the budget or your taxes since the money was already put aside.
So thanks to Councillor Cluett, the project can go through in 2013 rather than in future years. You can check out the report here.
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Video log: property taxes
Next Monday the budget committee will pass the budget and send it to the council for approval. There are some misconceptions about budgets in general. I have a series of videos explaining a few things.
The first video talks about property taxes in general, discusses the share of your property taxes that go to the town and compares Milton to other municipalities :-
(Note: first 10 seconds of this video got cut off)
Second video looks at the age-old question: why the heck do my property taxes go up every year?
This video talks about what happens with your property taxes and where that money goes.
As always, if you have any questions then please leave a comment here or shoot me an email at zee@ward8.ca.
Read More2013 Proposed capital and operating budgets are online
You can read the entire document here. The budget committee will debate it on December 10th, with the council following up on December 17th.
I will post my thoughts later once I have had time to digest everything.
Once you get to the Schedule A (pages 86 to 90), please note that rural residents pay the ‘General’ rate, urban residents pay the ‘town’ rate. The urban portion is for internal calculations to calculate the town rate.
Read MoreChampion’s coverage of the Electoral Boundaries Saga
- Keep Milton electoral district intact: committee
- Commission’s proposed riding split wouldn’t do Milton justice
- Commission’s proposed riding split unfair to the town
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Kelso Glen Eden Transit Service
In its effort to improve Milton’s transportation infrastructure, the town is partnering with Kelso Glen Eden Conservation Area to provide a “custom-designed employer partnership service” at full service cost recovery. Kelso experiences major parking capacity issues during the ski season and this service will help elevate some of those issues.
The service is expected to cost $32,726 which will be fully paid by Kelso. Beyond this, users of the service will be fully integrated with current Milton Transit services, subject to our current published fare (including passes).
You can read the full report here. The council will be voting on this on Monday.
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