Last night during the council meeting … that almost broke the midnight barrier … there was an interesting discussion that came up.

 One of the delegations Michael Fox who lives in an area just north of Main Street and east of Thompson brought up some concerns about intensification and the heights of buildings to be constructed along Main.

 The main concern he brought up was the fact the residents in the area that will be affected by these changes haven’t been informed of public meetings and left in the dark.

 Town staff brought up the fact they advertise in the Champion extensively about these meetings and signs are erected as well informing residents of the potential changes.  They also advertise on the Town website as well.

 What can be done to help this?

I don’t think there is one solution to this problem but one thing that comes to mind is the 11 people surrounding the council table.  If there is something that is going on, changes to zoning, new development etc that will affect a certain area, councillors have a responsibility to get out and do what they can to inform residents and gather public opinion.

Over the past couple of months, on weekends and some week nights I have been able to knock on many doors and drop flyers for my campaign.  I don’t say it to impress people but I want to impress upon councillors that it doesn’t take a lot of effort to reach people.  Flyers can be relatively cheap to produce and possibly can be expensed and in an afternoon or over a weekend you can quickly drop these flyers to households.

You don’t even need to have flyers made, just an effort to contact people. 

“Hi my name is _______ and I’m the councillor for this area.  I don’t know if you know this but there will be a public meeting on _______ about possible changes to zoning”  or whatever it might be…

If they can’t make the meeting, ask for an email address (as most people have at least one) and say I’m setting up an email list to let everyone know what’s going on.

Using other tools like social media is just as effective.  When I ran back in 2006 there were very few candidates with websites and even fewer with blogs.  Thankfully now, the number of candidates in this election with websites and blogs has increased dramatically.  Some don’t use them as effectively as they should.  Twitter is another way of getting short messages out to the public.  I’ve found recently that “tweeting” during council meetings helps people understand the process and keeps them informed.  It’s such a good idea that even other candidates are doing it now.

The beauty of this “new” technology (it’s not really new anymore but new to some people) is that most of its free.  It’s free to get a Facebook account…its free to get a Twitter account and so on.

The town has its limitations to what they can do to inform people of upcoming meetings.  Not everyone reads the Champion from cover to cover and the local media doesn’t really do an effective job being proactive when it comes to these things.  They normally report on them after the fact and when people read it, they say “why didn’t I know about it”

I don’t want to over simplify this and I’m sure I’ll have some incumbent councillors email me and say “that’s nice to say but wait until you’re elected and you have to do it.”

To them I say “bring it on” I’ve had a lot of comments from people in Ward 6 saying “why are you out so early?”  I tell them this is something they can come to expect of me as their councillor.  I plan on direct contact throughout the term of council, not just during the election campaigns.  I can’t count the number of people who don’t know who the councillors are or who they voted for last time.

If councillors really want to represent people they have to think outside the box when it comes to how they can stay in touch.  Corporations over the last couple of years have really taken to social media as a way of advertising.  How many people who are on Facebook are “fans” of something whether it is the Milton DBIA or Chamber of Commerce or COKE or Pepsi? 

For instance, I got regular messages from the Milton DBIA about the Street Festival, how I could volunteer, when things are happening, schedule updates and everything else going on that day.  They used the tools effectively and got the message out.  In fact many candidates (including myself) have a “FAN” page on Facebook (go to www.mikecluett.ca and click on the Facebook logo on the right to join ) and this means those who are on that list get campaign updates, and comments from other fans about that particular campaign.

These things can be used as effective communication tools and combined with old fashioned “feet on the street” door knocking, websites, blogs, Twitter, Facebook you can help enhance interactivity between local government and the taxpayers.

It takes a little effort to get things going and it won’t be an overnight solution.  But at least it’s a bit more than an ad in the Champion, and something posted on the Towns website.

Speaking of direct communication, I’ll see you at the doors.

The sun is setting pretty late in the night these days with some sunlight lasting until well after 9pm.  Coupled with the extra sunlight and the end to the NHL playoffs, this gives me an opportunity to hit a few more doors than I normally would.  I’ve also noticed that while door knocking the last few days, I have been followed by a number of wild bunny rabbits.  I’m pretty sure thats a good thing so I am now known as the “Pied Piper of Rabbits” in Milton.  Lucky rabbits feet following me.

You can tell its World Cup time by the sheer number of flags that are on peoples cars and hanging from porches around the ward.  It goes to show that Milton has become, and will continue to become very diverse in the backgrounds of its residents.  Having all these flags flying around is challenging my knowledge of the countries involved but I’m sure I’ll get it as time goes on.

As I walk down the streets in our ward, I get a chance to speak with many of you about issues that are important.  Between stop signs and crosswalks at intersections, speeding down our streets and concerns of a tax levy for hospital  funding, Miltonians are trying to get informed.  I’ve even had a few people honk and wave from their cars screaming “HEY MIKE” (Rick, you’re not the only one!)

Many of the people I speak with visit the highly popular Hawthorne Villager website to try to get as much information as possible.  The hospital is of a big concern seeing how it has been in the local papers recently and there’s some confusion as to what Milton as a town can do to move that process forward.  If our hospital is to expand, it relies solely on the whim of the provincial government.

Recently, due to increased budget constraints (ie an almost $30 BILLION  deficit) the Province of Ontario has frozen any further capital projects until 2011.  At a recent council meeting, John Oliver from Halton Healthcare Services made a presentation in which he stated that even if the province gave the project its blessing THAT DAY, we are several years away from shovels in the ground.

With this coming election, you are going to want to elect someone who understands the issues we face in Milton; one who is ready to speak out for Miltonians and put even more pressure on the provincial government to get them to realize that Milton, Canada’s fastest growing municipality for a few years running, is in dire need to access required medical procedures.

The Town of Oakville just has a new hospital approved and work will be beginning soon on that project.  Having another hospital so close to Milton will definitely help improve access to health care services for Miltonians but more is needed.

This will not be resolved overnight.  Milton Town Council as well as Halton Regional Council have to put pressure on the province of Ontario to get this project started.  There are many factors involved as well with possible changes to the LHIN (Local Health Integration Networks) and how they are organized.

I was speaking with Stuart and Carrie on Clark Blvd last night and they also brought up their concerns on when Milton District will get its much needed expansion.

I’m sure the daylight will get shorter in the days and weeks to come, so I’ll be doing my best to get my flyers to everyone in the ward.  I’m just over half way done the first round and my goal is to hit every door at least twice before October 25th.

Many thanks goes out to everyone who has pledged their support and vote in October.  As the campaign rolls along, I will be getting lawn signs ready for you.  If you would like to donate to my campaign, please visit my DONATE page.  Any donation is helpful and will go towards the printing of my flyers, lawn signs and other campaign related items.

Most importantly I hope that you come out and vote on October 25th.  Last election there was roughly 25% of residents in the area that voted, which is quite low.  I’m hoping it improves this year for sure.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

From the Milton Canadian Champion May 20, 2010 By Tim Foran

Councillors to debate hospital tax levy

Milton council will debate whether to provide cash, perhaps through a dedicated tax levy, to assist Halton Healthcare Services Corporation’s as yet unapproved plans to expand Milton District Hospital.

At Monday’s council session, Ward 3 Councillor Cindy Lunau introduced a notice of motion, which Ward 4 Councillor Paul Scherer indicated he would second, stating the Town would “endeavour” to help HHS cover its share of the costs to redevelop the half-century-old hospital, which hasn’t undergone a major expansion since the mid-1980s.

The motion states the Town would research and identify potential funding mechanisms including the possibility of including a special property tax levy beginning next year.  Council will debate and vote on the motion at the June 28 council session. Lunau said she wanted the long lead time for the community to have an opportunity to provide feedback and plan to attend the session.

Under Provincial funding guidelines that began in June, 2006, Ontario pays for all of the planning costs and 90 per cent of the bricks and mortar for hospital capital projects. Previously, most capital cost share rates varied from 50 to 80 per cent depending on the project, the Province stated at the time.

However, the hospital corporation is still responsible for the remaining 10 per cent of construction costs along with covering the full cost of building revenue-generating facilities such as cafeterias, retail areas and parking lots as well as the medical equipment inside the hospital.

In total, depending on the equipment a hospital needs, that means the Province will cover around 70 per cent of the total project costs, with the hospital corporation paying the remaining portion, dubbed the local share.

The hospital has three ways to pay that local share: its own revenues from, for example, parking lot fees or stores; fundraising done by the Milton District Hospital Foundation; and through financial assistance from municipalities.

The problem Milton council tried to wrap its head around Monday is that HHS won’t provide the municipality with an estimate right now of how much money it would need.  “At the end of the day, if we put too much (money) away, that’s fine,” Scherer said to HHS President John Oliver during Monday’s council session.  “But we need a starting point.”

Oliver said he understood council’s frustration but he doesn’t want to float a dollar figure that would inevitably turn out to be wrong years later after more detailed planning has taken place.

The hospital provided a preliminary cost estimate when it presented its business case for the expansion to the Ministry of Health in September, 2008 but Oliver said after the council meeting that number is already out of date and he doesn’t wish to release it.

“It’s not just inflation, the original size and scope has evolved from the original business case,” he explained. He said he also doesn’t want to jeopardize a competitive bidding process by leaking expected total costs.

However, Oliver did provide council with a benchmark for comparison when he said the redevelopment planned for Milton’s hospital is at least as big as the one proposed for Burlington’s Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. The first phase of the redevelopment of Jo Brant is projected to cost $312 million, with the local share pegged at $120 million. In December, Burlington’s city council committed to covering half of that cost, or $60 million, and has already started a dedicated property tax levy this year. The City of Vaughan last year committed $80 million to a proposed new hospital for its community. Both projects are also unapproved and are in competition with the Milton hospital expansion to get on the Province’s next 10-year list of infrastructure projects, to be released next year, likely as part of the 2011 budget.

However, the competition is not just among those three hospitals. The Ministry of Health is currently prioritizing at least 50 other proposed hospital projects before submitting its list of requests to the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure, which will ultimately decide on the 10-year capital plan.

Other ministries are also prioritizing their own lists of proposed capital projects, one of which includes the proposed Wilfrid Laurier University campus in Milton. That prioritization is expected to take place over the next three months, said Jason Grier, a professional lobbyist from Hill and Knowlton working on behalf of HHS.

One of the things the Ministry of Health will be looking for during this time when prioritizing projects is whether the hospital corporation has a firm plan to meet its local share commitments, Grier said after council Monday.

“They don’t want to move forward on projects that aren’t going to have that local share commitment because then the project isn’t going to happen,” explained Grier, who served as executive assistant to George Smitherman when he was health minister in the provincial government.

Oliver told council it would help the hospital if the Town made a firm commitment of financial support. “I don’t know if you need to put a dollar figure behind it right now.”

Last nights council meeting had it all.  Expectations were running high by some members of council that it could either be a very short meeting or a very long meeting.

I had reported before that council salaries would be discussed at this meeting but apparently it went through on consent items and didn’t even make a blip on the radar.

Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau had a notice of motion to include a quick presentation by Halton Healthcare Services to Milton Town Council to give them an update on Milton District Hospital and its possible expansion.

John Oliver from Halton Healthcare made a presentation outlining the fact that expansion of the Milton DH is essential and must happen.  The provincial government has put a freeze on capital projects and will be reviewing them for the 2011 budget.  He made it very clear that Milton needs to be on the radar and get approval fast.  Even if they were given the green light today, it would be at least 2-5 years before anything will happen.

Regional Councillor Colin Best was frustrated with the process, as all councillors are, and with the fact the provincial government KNOWS Milton is growing but is doing nothing to help out.  We are being mandated to grow our population and size but yet have a hospital that is well under the required size for our community.  Mayor Krantz also shared in that frustration as well.

Mr. Oliver also outlined his pleasure with the community as a whole that came out as a result of the Friends of Milton Hospital campaign when over 35,000 people signed a petition to raise awareness with the provincial government that we need something done and soon.

He said that more work is needed and the community and council need to get behind this full force.

Councillor Lunau also put forward a notice of motion for staff to review possible ways for Milton Town Council to fund expansion, as if it were to happen, the local level of government would be required to put money forward.  Council’s idea is to start saving soon for that eventuality.

The problem council faces is where do you start?  And how much do we save for?  John Oliver couldn’t give us a number, although pressed by Councillor Paul Scherer a few times, as legally he could not give a number.  Council was advised to review other area municipalities and what their costs were as a starting point.

These possible funding options include, but are not limited to:

Increase of Development Charges; Special Tax Levy on Milton taxpayers to go to a dedicated hospital expansion fund only to be used for that purpose; Combination of the two.  Another possibility is using the GTA funding poll that has been collected from Milton taxpayers to support Toronto (don’t get us started on that) and now is no longer needed as another source of funding.

Needless to say, this will be something that will require community support like we havent seen before.  Last year, 35,000 people came to the table and to go forward we will need more!

There were some other discussions last night about parking on Queen Street, which is not allowed.  Councillor Greg Nelson failed in his attempt to put forward a motion to reopen the discussion to allow parking on either one side or both.  But after a very convincing presentation by the Milton Fire Chief, which included pictures of the street with one emergency vehicle and how it would impede traffic and cause a safety issue, it was voted down and parking on Queen Street will not be allowed.

And of course, the highly anticipated motion from Ward One Councillor Rick Day was ruled out of order.  Im not going to get into it here, but if you wanted to read what he was going to talk about, here is a link to his proposed notice of motion.

I also experimented with live Tweets from the council meeting last night.  Judging from some of your emails and comments to those posts, it was pretty successful.  I will try for future meetings to post updates via Twitter, which of course you can keep track by going to www.twitter.com/mike_cluettor follow here on the home of the Mike Cluett.

As always I welcome your emails and comments so keep them coming.  Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

From the Milton Canadian Champion

Kim Arnott, SPECIAL TO THE CHAMPION  

Councillors to consider pay raise

A pay hike for local politicians is likely to be a hot topic of discussion at next week’s council meeting.

On Monday night, the Town’s administration and planning committee voted to recommend a 2 per cent pay raise for non-unionized staff employed by the Town.

However, the committee recommended that councillors not receive the same raise.  Salaries for Milton’s non-unionized staff are reviewed annually, and compared to those paid in seven nearby municipalities.  According to a staff report, non-unionized employees working for area municipalities have seen an average 2.39 per cent wage increase this year.  The report recommended a 2 per cent increase for Milton staff, effective July 1. It also recommended that councillors receive the same raise.

Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson moved to eliminate the council increase, saying he was uncomfortable with voting himself a third pay raise for this term of council.  Councillors and non-unionized staff received raises of 3 per cent in 2008 and 2.5 per cent in 2009.  However, Town of Milton CAO Mario Belvedere said the aim of reviewing the salaries annually is to ensure they don’t fall behind as inflation and growth occur.  “What you see before you is the policy we’ve been following for years,” he told the committee, noting that staff and council raises have been linked for about seven years.

Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau isn’t a member of the administration and planning committee, so she didn’t have a vote.  However, she said she favours providing the pay raise to both staff and councillors.  “I wouldn’t want a good candidate for council to be discouraged by an inadequate remuneration,” she said.

Local resident Mike Grimwood, the only delegation speaking to the matter, argued that Town staff should receive raises based on individual excellence and initiative, not simply as an across-the-board bonus “just for showing up.”  Noting that 2 per cent is above the rate of inflation for the year, he said, “Milton taxpayers’ pocketbooks seem to be depleted on a regular basis for the sole reason that others are doing it. This is ludicrous.”

The provincial government recently imposed a two-year freeze on the salaries and benefits of all non-unionized employees in the Ontario public service, including school board, hospital and provincial government workers. That included extending the current salary freeze for MPPs from one year to three years. Regional politicians also voted to freeze their salaries for the year, at a meeting in December.

The pay increase would only be applied to employees not represented by bargaining groups. Raises of 2.5 to 3 per cent have already been approved for the Town’s unionized employees, including Milton firefighters.  The cost of a 2 per cent increase for non-unionized staff was included in the approved 2010 budget.

The issue will be considered by the full council at a meeting Monday.

As I mentioned in a previous entry, there have been a lot of concerns raised while out at the doors about the area around Thompson Road and Kennedy Circle/Louis St Laurent.  After talking with some candidates in the ward across the street (ward 7) those concerns are shared by a lot of people.

I received an email from the engineering department at the town of Milton informing me that some changes are coming.  They told me there will be a set of lights installed at the intersection of Clark Blvd and Thompson Road, possibly up and running by the end of July.  Further studies have been and will be done again for the following intersections:  Thompson & Hepburn, Thompson & Kennedy Circle and Thompson & Louis St Laurent.

Now before the “too many lights” people start raging, this doesn’t mean that there will be lights at each of these intersections.  In order for that to happen that intersection needs to meet certain warrants (traffic totals in each direction) before anything happens.

I got further clarification of what is required for a signalled crosswalk, the most popular choice of people living in these areas, to be installed.  During a period of study there needs to be approximately 200 pedestrians crossing the street in an 8 hour period.  I don’t know exactly when these studies were done in the past but Im sure it comes close to that amount during the summer time.

People on the west side of Thompson Road directly across from the Metro Plaza have repeatedly told me and other Ward 7 candidates that its a challenge to walk to that mall.  While they live less than 1KM from the plaza, they are forced to get into their cars and drive over for the fear of crossing Thompson Road.  The same goes for the people on the east side of Thompson (our ward 6) trying to take advantage of the beautiful park and soccer fields.  We shouldn’t have to get into our cars, to go to a park or go shopping when we live so close.

A signalled crosswalk would be beneficial for these and other people who want to walk in the town of Milton.  Who knows when the lights will be put in at Louis St Laurent.  LSL is slated for a major expansion this year and next in order to keep up with the growth of the Boyne Survey.  There needs to be something at this location sooner.

Send me your email at mike@mikecluett.ca to add your name to a list of people interested in finding out if and when we can get a signalled crosswalk there sooner.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Just as a reminder to everyone, if you havent already received them, the MPAC Enumeration Forms have been sent out to homes in Milton.  Some may not receive this form as they are sending it out to people who’s information might be outdated or incomplete from the last time.

This is the form thats used to help update the voters list for the upcoming municipal election on October 25, 2010. 

When you receive the form, you are supposed to verify that all the information is correct such as address, occupancy status and what school board you will be voting for (english / french – public or seperate).  If everything is correct, sign the form and return it to MPAC by June 1, 2010.  If there is any incorrect information, make the changes and send it back to them as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, or if you havent received this form, call MPAC at 1-866-296-MPAC (6722)

Dont miss out on your chance to vote on October 25, 2010!  Have your say!

I’ll see you at the doors.

I had a chance to attend the open house of the Milton Toastmaster’s Club last night and it was quite a success.  Not only were there lots of current members there, but also a large number of interested people, like myself, to see what it was all about.

It was a great event and it was capped off with a presentation by Gary Mull about how to be not just an acceptable speaker, but an exceptional speaker.  As someone who is in the sales profession, I always keep my mind open to new ways to make presentations even if some of the ideas and skills I already have.  The more you hear about them the more chance of you using them are.  I like to call them the “a-ha” moments.

If you were ever curious on what the Milton Toastmasters are all about, I urge you to attend their meetings as a guest (every Tuesday night at the Royal Canadian Legion in Milton from 7:30pm to 9:30pm).  You will be surprised to know who members of the Toastmasters were in the past.

While waiting for Gary to speak I had a chance to introduce myself to a few people there and some recognized that I was running for council.  Inevitably the question comes up…which ward?  I proceed to tell them Ward 6 and I’m usually met with a “huh-like” stare.  For years Milton has been divided into 4 wards with two councillors in each ward representing them.

Recently the ward boundaries in Milton have been changed becoming effective for the 2010-2014 term of council.  This isn’t the first time I have run into people not knowing where ward 6 or any ward for that matter.  Outside the original news story about the changes, nothing has been said since about the changes by the Town of Milton.  I think the Town of Milton staff needs to do a better job in educating voters on the changes as much as possible.  Before you know it, election time will be here and people will be scrambling to figure out where they are and how to vote.

This past January a number of candidates, including yours truly, made the trek to Town Hall to file our nomination papers to become candidates in this election.  So far there are close to 20 people who will be asking Milton voters for their support over the coming months to represent them around the council table.

In the past couple of weeks, I have also had a chance to take advantage of the nice weather and knock on a few doors in our ward to introduce/reintroduce myself as the candidate for the area.  I was actually taken aback as to how many people remembered me from 2006 and even further still, how many people had my old magnet on their fridge almost 4 years later.  If you’re a parent of a kid in school, magnets are a must.  Stay tuned for that.

I also found most of the people I spoke with didn’t have a clue about the ward changes or which ward they lived in.

What ward do you live in?  Do you even know that the wards were changed?  Every one in town seems to know about the Milton Sports Centre expansion and the speedy design and construction of the arts & entertainment centre (that’s a discussion for another time) but hardly anyone knows what ward they live in or who their councillor is.

Part of the responsibility of the candidates for election is to educate the voters on where they live, which ward they will be voting in and (hopefully) garner their support and vote on Election Day.

I will be doing more entries as the days/weeks/months go on reminding people that things have changed for this election, thanks to the provincial government, which include a new date for the election.

October 25, 2010.  Mark that date in your calendar, as I have of course, as the date for the next municipal election.

I am running for the local council position for Ward 6 which is encompassed by the following boundaries.

NORTH:  DERRY ROAD

SOUTH:  BRITANNIA ROAD

EAST:  FOURTH LINE

WEST:  THOMPSON ROAD

If you click here, you will see the map of Ward 6.  If you live within this boundary, I am your candidate for council.  There are other positions you can vote for (regional council, public/separate school board trustee, mayor, regional chair) but more on that later.

If you want to see the ward boundaries for the entire Town of Milton you can visit www.milton.ca and find out where you live, and which ward you live in.

I’ll see you at the doors!

***UPDATE*** Laura Steiner from the Halton Compass has a Milton oriented blog as well.  She recently did a posting on the ward boundary changes thats a good read too.  Thanks Laura!

http://miltonviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/follow-changing-ward-boundaries.html

Over the last couple of days, I have been working on getting back to a number of emails I received this week.  The general tone of these emails was about fiscal responsibility.  It reminded me of this weeks committee meeting, and lost in the excitement in the number of public meetings which went to 10:30PM, there was a report to council that stated the remuneration and expenses of our elected officials for 2009. This report includes the salaries of the councillors, the amount of benefits they receive, expenses incurred for professional development and mileage they claimed.

Click on the image below.

Out of the local councillors it looks like Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau received the most remuneration lead by a large mileage allowance of over $4,300.00 (total $ 35, 635.12) and the most thrifty local councillor is Ward 1 councillor Rick Day at $ 29,216.00 for 2009.

After looking at the list you will see Mayor Krantz tops the list in mileage at just over $5,000 but in all fairness our Mayor does a lot of travelling in and around the province and realistically should be the only councillor to submit mileage for reimbursement.  Remember, the local councillor position is “part time”.

There are a number of councillors whos claims for mileage is rather excessive in my opinion and its seems to be a regular trend.  Lets look at 2008 for instance.

The trend continued back in 2007 and 2006 with very similar numbers.  The first question that comes to mind … “Is Ward 3 REALLY that far to claim mileage?”

What do you think?  Is it justified?  Should our councillors be more frugal with tax payers dollars?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.  I’ll see you at the doors.

Today in the Ontario Legislature the governing Liberal party announced via the Throne Speech potential changes to Ontario hospital funding formula.

Details are expected to be released when the budget is delivered later this month by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.  Will this mean more or less funding available for hospitals like Milton and the surrounding areas?

Will areas that are experiencing massive road (ie MILTON, ON) receive more funding to match the ever increasing demand for services or will we be left by the wayside?

Here is a link to the article in the Globe and Mail this afternoon.

More to come later.