…Regional Councillor Tony Lambert left Milton high and dry.
The following video is from yesterday’s Halton Regional Council meeting. After a marathon 4 hour plus meeting an in camera report came up for a vote. This report is a result of 3 years of discussion regarding ROPA 38, which is the Regional Official Plan Amendment that affects many areas in Halton, including Milton.
Our council representatives Mayor Gord Krantz, Councillor Best and Lambert received this detailed report less than 24 hours before the meeting before having to be asked to vote on it. I wasnt part of the in camera discussions obviously, but what came out of it was a motion by Mayor Krantz to defer the report until such time that Town of Milton staff and legal teams could look into it in more detail. This comes on top of an announcement from the provincial government regarding a change to the Places To Grow Act that will now, once complete, bring a total of 1,000,000 people to the Halton region, and MANY of those to Milton.
When its all said and done, the province of Ontario has deemed Milton to grow to over 350,000 people by 2041.
You can see that due to this development and the fact that Milton will be the location of the majority of that growth, our councillors representing the best interests of Milton would want to take a look at it some more.
If you watch the video, you will see that some of the discussion on Mayor Krantz’s deferral motion. The results of the vote were 11-3 with our 3 regional representatives voting for the deferral, so it lost.
Then the vote on the main motion came up and this is where the head scratching begins. When Milton needed to stand united on an issue that will affect this town for 20-30 years down the road, Tony Lambert first opposed the report by voting FOR the deferral, and then after that motion was lost, voted FOR the original report.
Regional council voted against the deferral and in turn lone Councillor Tony Lambert chose to support it in the end leaving Mayor Krantz and Colin Best standing alone. When the chips were down and Milton needed to stand united, for whatever reason he might come up with, Lambert chose to flip flop and change his mind to in essence desert Milton’s long term needs.
As regular readers of my blog will know, THIS is why there has to be change in representation for Milton at the Region and why I intend to run for the regional councillor position for wards 1,6,7 & 8 in 2014.
3 years of on the job training has not worked. Sadly as it is, this isnt the only example of erratic voting behaviour.
With all of these changes and important issues facing Milton in the coming years, we need someone who will stand up for Milton when the chips are down.