An interesting letter to the editor earlier this week from Zeeshan Hamid regarding Milton Town Council. In his letter he outlines that Milton Town Council directed staff to apply for some funding from the federally run Recreation Infrastructure Canada and the provincially run REC for two projects of interest.
In a motion earlier in June, town council had approved the application for $5.3 million for renovations and improvements for John Tonelli Sports Centre and the Nassagewaya Tennis Club. In that application, $2.9 million would be directed to improve the NTC which has approximately 200 members.
The Town of Milton already has arrangements with the NTC which include $100 per year rental and a 50% sharing of some improvement costs among other perks. As Mr. Hamid points out, that funding works out to be roughly $15,000 per member.
Is this a priority for the Town of Milton?
The problem that comes up is the NTC is a membership only club. Does council have the justification to apply for and spend that much taxpayers money on a club of 200 people when the organization receives so much already? Can that funding be used for something else that would benefit more people in the town of Milton?
The article mentioned the Nassagaweya Tennis Club, which is a private club that the Town subsidizes by paying 50 per cent of the court re-surfacing costs, 100 per cent of the exterior and structural clubhouse upgrades and 100 per cent of the cost of security and damages. This is in addition to the fact that the club only pays the Town $100 a year in rent.
All this may actually make sense, but I couldn’t help but be appalled to read that town council directed staff to submit an application for a $2.9 million redevelopment of the club that only has 191 members. That translates to more than $15,000 for each member.
Am I the only one who’s shocked at this waste of public money? Is this really the right time for this? Wouldn’t this money be better spent on some of the urgently-needed infrastructure improvement projects that far more residents could benefit from?
ZEESHAN HAMID, MILTON
I read that letter earlier this week. All I can say is that its so sad we have “leaders” like this directing the future of our town.
This is even worse than that million $ wall at town hall!
As Shakespeare said, “there is no darkness but ignorance.” What I didn’t say in the letter was how appalled I was (and am) at the lack of information. It’s our money. Milton.ca should break out all ‘discretionary’ expenses the Council undertakes. But it’s next to impossible to find detailed information about this. In these trying economic times one would think that the Town Council would tighten its belts and think several times before approving an expense that the town can live without. And this isn’t just another irresponsible expense. This smells rotten. Something doesn’t feel right. I am trying to find more information about this.
Zeeshan Hamid
We need a municipal counterpart to the Parliamentary Budget Officer!
I’d ask Colin Best – he seems to know everything about everything.
What we need is a bunch of people who know how to read financial statements and understand how a business is run and someone who values taxpayers dollars as much as their own. Sadly…we dont. – Mike