ward one

Every Vote DOES Count

Mike Cluett

As many of you are aware, there was a provincial election recently. The campaign seemed to go on forever since Premier Dalton McQuinty closed down Queens Park early this summer and thus the rubber hit the road.

During that campaign there was a referendum on our voting system that we, as voters, had to figure out and make a decision on. The future of the province was up for grabs. Did we think that the Liberals did a good enough job to carry on for four more years or did they deserve to get the boot?

Despite what side of that arguement you sat on, one thing we should all be able to agree upon is this…the voter turnout was dissappointing.

Just over half of the electorate came out to vote. This statistic has been continually debated after each election and a common theme has emerged. My vote doesn’t count.

Now when I hear that, it makes me shake my head. A perfect example can be given from this past provincial election.

Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh has been representing our riding of Halton for 12 years. He, in my and many peoples opinions, has done a very good job representing us in fights to secure more funding for Milton’s hospital and other services our growing community needs.

To put a long story short, Ted was returned to Queens Park on October 10th with a difference of only 164 votes when everything was counted. Going from having the highest plurality of votes by a winning candidate in the last elections to one of, if not THE closest margin of victory this time. Regardless of what you thought about faith based education funding and what kind of impact that had on Ted’s results, it just goes to show that everyone who did vote here in Halton….those votes counted.

Another example from the previous federal election can be found with our current Minister of Health, Tony Clement. He won his riding by only 28 votes. On election night and before the recount, he had only won by 21 votes. Again, in that riding as well as others, those votes counted.

Want more? Lets go back in time shall we? Almost one year ago in fact.

Last year around this time we were in the midst of our municipal election campaign. I was spending almost each and every waking moment hitting the doors and talking to as many people as possible. My blog was being updated on a daily basis with comments and observations that I got from the voters in my ward.

Every issue that came up, I did my best to put out there exactly what my stand on the issue was and what can be done to fix that problem. From Pristine Power to road safety to green growth and to accountibility of the elected officials…everything was up for discussion.

In Milton, each ward can elect 2 town councillors to represent them. In our current system its the first two candidates with the highest votes that win. In past elections in Ward One, the difference between the first two candidates and the third were hundreds of votes. This time around in 2006, the difference betweeen an elected seat and the third place was only 92 votes.

Less than 100 votes separated myself from current Councilor Brian Penman. Not a large margin…and that’s democracy for you.

So when I hear from people that my vote doesnt count, I bring them to these examples and say, YES your vote DOES count.

Instead of coming up with different ways to count our votes (ie MMP et all) we should be taking a hard look at ourselves and our priorities when it comes to the ballot box.

Why didnt you vote?  Oh I didnt have time.  The last provincial election had several days of advanced polls so that people who would find it hard to go vote on election day, can come out and have their voice heard.  I believe the advanced polls were open 5 days and open for almost 10 hours on election day.  There are laws in place to allow everyone a chance to vote.  Many people dont take advantage of these options and its saddening to say the least.

In the last municipal election less than 30% of people voted.  In the following by election in Ward 2, even less voted … approx 20%.  Again in this situation, advance polls were available, extended voting hours and many opportunities given, but yet people didnt show up.  I dont think that by changing the system from its current incarnation to MMP or another system will help.

The problem is people dont want to vote.  Again, many feel that their vote doesnt count.  Hopefully after reading this, they might change their opinion.  We need to find out why people arent voting and work at it from that angle…not changing the system so that we end up losing local representation in some ridings by having some political party people sitting in a seat and speaking out on our behalf.

Lets have that discussion soon.  A federal election is looming in the next few months quite possibly and given the current state of affairs and the minority government in place, our vote counts even more.

Lights at Thompson and Yates Drive

Mike Cluett

There are a few sources of information available for Milton residents on the internet.  If you need a good source of local information and news in a one stop shop, you can go to www.miltonsearch.com where they update almost daily on the happenings around town.

One other site that I go to, which I highly recommend, is www.hawthornevillager.com

On this site theres some great background information for one of Hawthorne Village’s first residents and the process it took to build a brand new home.  Great read.

Also included on his site is a forum for not just HV residents, but all residents of Milton.  Its a great source of information on your local community, whats happening around the area, and where residents can vent, complain, and ask for help on a number of items.

One of the many concerns in Hawthorne Village (Ward 1 mainly) is traffic.  While campaigning last year, that issue ranked number one as most residents were concerned about stop signs, traffic flow, and lights.

If anyone drives down Thompson Road south of Derry, you will find there to be a high level of traffic at Yates Drive.  Those who live on the west side of Thompson on Yates have found it increasingly difficult to turn north or south without taking their lives in their hands.  Many residents have asked for and demanded a stop light be installed.

After several months planning through the Town of Milton, it was decided and approved recently that there will be lights installed at this location.  Regional Councillor Colin Best confirmed in a post on the HV forum that construction should be starting soon with a targeted finishing date of October 27th.

I know I can speak on behalf of many residents in that area both east and west on Yates that this is a welcome development.

You can find the post here on the HV website.  While youre at it, register to post and introduce yourself.

Community Road Watch

Mike Cluett

With the new school term beginning and the almost in synch complaints about peoples “bad driving” running rampant throughout the town this article by Halton Region Chair Gary Carr is quite timely.

Many people I spoke with during the last municipal campaign talked very passionately about road safety. In fact it was one of the core parts of my campaign. Unlike some other candidates I ran on issues that were important to Miltonians and had a plan of action for each. For every resident I talked to, I always brought up this organization as the ones to contact and find out more information. Road safety is very important…even more now that we have our kids walking through the streets to the bus stops and along the sidewalks to school.

We have all experienced it. The car speeding down the street at an obviously high rate of speed with what we all assume to be reckless abandon while a number of students are trying to cross the street to get to the school bus. I live on Yates Drive at March Crossing and I seen my share of speeders. Many of them not realizing that they are driving at excessive speeds or if they do notice, they don’t seem to care.

Many people plead from their porches and from the sidewalks to those who feel it necessary to exceed the speed limit on our residential streets and endanger the lives and safety of all of us, but most importantly our children. Those pleas go unheard.

The police cant be at every street corner in every part of town, although at times we would like nothing better than to see those who break the law get punished. The Community Road Watch program is set up for just this reason.

It really shouldn’t have to come to this but here’s what you can do. Thanks to Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr for including this in his recent guest column in the Oakville Beaver.

Participating in Road Watch
Gary Carr, Guest Columnist

Published on Sep 08, 2007

As the Chair of Halton Region, I have the pleasure to sit on the Board of the Halton Region Police Service (HRPS).

As a member of the police service board, I have the opportunity to hear about the community programs HRPS is involved in with the community, as well as their ideas for new projects that would benefit our community.

One very exciting project currently being run in Halton Region is the Community Road Watch program.

This is a community-operated program that gives residents the opportunity to report aggressive and unsafe drivers through a Citizen Report Form to police.

Here’s how the citizen report is processed:

The first time a citizen report is received, an information letter is sent by the police to the registered owner of the vehicle explaining that their vehicle was observed being operated in an unsafe manner at a specific time and location, and asks them to remember to drive safely on Halton roadways.

If the vehicle owner was not driving their vehicle, it is their responsibility to speak with the person who was.

The second time a citizen report is received on the same registered owner, a repeat letter is sent from the police with the potential for personal contact from a police officer to address the problem.

A third report against an owner will result in a third letter and a personal visit from a police officer.

If you observe a dangerous act of aggressive driving on the roads in Halton Region, please consider taking the time to submit a Citizen Report Form.

You can fill out the form online, or place a completed form in one of the secure drop boxes that are located throughout the community at participating police stations, businesses and libraries.

Copies of the form can be faxed to the Halton Region Police Service at 905-845-0381.

The information you provide in the reports is held in strict confidence by Halton Regional Police and you will remain unidentified.

Please fill out the forms as completely as possible to provide the police with the most information possible.

All completed forms are picked up on a regular basis and verified by the police for accuracy. I encourage you to participate in this program and help to keep Halton streets safe from dangerous and aggressive driving.

To fill out a Citizen Report Form, or for more information about the Community Road Watch program, please contact the Halton Regional Police Service at 905-825-4777 — South Halton; 905-878-5511 – North Halton, or visit the website at www.hrps.on.ca.

Hawthorne Village Ranks in the Top 25 in Canada

Mike Cluett
Yep, you heard it right. Hawthorne Village Public School has been ranked in the top 25 schools in Canada. That is an amazing achievement in itself, but for a school to be at that level in its 2nd year of operation is worth a second look. We are quite familiar with HVPS as its where Anthony has been going to school since senior kindergarten. Every expereince we’ve had with the school, the teachers, the volunteers and any events held there have been nothing short than outstanding.

This article appears in todays Milton Canadian Champion. HVPS is home to many great teachers (not that all teachers arent great!) including a teacher of the month Mrs Sheldrick.

Enjoy…and congratulations to Grant Clatworthy…the Principal of HVPS…GREAT JOB!

School ranks among top 25 in country
Melanie Hennessey

Published on Aug 17, 2007

When it comes to learning institutions in Canada, Hawthorne Village Public School gets an A.
The local school was ranked as one of the top 25 in the country in the recent edition of Today’s Parent magazine, placing in the ‘all-round cool schools’ category.

“It’s exciting,” said Hawthorne school principal Grant Clatworthy. “The most satisfying part is it indicates parents are satisfied with the school.”

The article says, “While it’s not technically an arts school, Hawthorne weaves the arts into traditional curriculum areas daily and co-curriculars are crammed into every possible time slot — whether it’s basketball at 8 a.m., Lego robotics at 10:55 a.m. or clay class at 3:30 p.m.”

It also goes on to note, “Many of the school’s language classes integrate drama or visual arts, helping kids to express their comprehension of material they’ve read.”

The story highlights the Arts Beats assemblies the school holds once a month. Clatworthy explained the assemblies give students a chance to present something they’ve been working on, such as poetry, a drama presentation or even a musical/dance number on recycling.

“It’s designed to provide an opportunity for kids to showcase the learning they’ve done through the arts,” he said. “And the kids have become really appreciative of each other’s presentations. They show a lot of respect.”

The magazine highlights the school’s “creative and industrious” teachers, “encouraging” principal and the estimated 200 parent volunteers that help make things happen.

Clatworthy emphasized that his staff works extremely hard from day to day.

“It’s really a big team effort,” he noted.

The school opened its doors in September 2005 on Bennett Boulevard with a vision of rejuvenating the arts in students’ lives. It made a point of bringing on staff members who have backgrounds in the arts.

Even the school’s design helped contribute to the arts focus, such as the specially designed music room with vaulted ceilings to allow sound to escape.

Burlington’s Alexander’s Public School also made the top 25 this year in the ‘overcoming a challenge’ category, since it had to deal with a construction delay by operating in three different schools.

Today’s Parent readers nominate the schools for consideration on the list.

Melanie Hennessey can be reached at mhennessey@miltoncanadianchampion.com.

Look whats coming now

Mike Cluett

Town council was told recently by the budget department of Milton that an 8 per cent increase in taxes for 2008 and a further increase of 5 per cent in 2009 will be needed in order to sustain existing service levels.

8 %? Thats not a small increase now is it? Back in 2007 taxes only went up a minimal 2% but that was just before a municipal election. We are now close to a year into the term and this comes up for discussion.

This would mean an approximate increase of $55 for residential taxpayers and $ 46 for rural taxpayers based on $300,000 value of the home. Thats just to keep things where they are now.

The town of Milton recently spent over a million dollars on new transit buses for the town. The question is do we really need them now. The quick answer is yes, but not right now. We could have maintained our transit system with the current buses acquired from the Town of Oakville.
Transit in this town is quite the issue. Some believe we need it and some say, why bother. The only hard part of this is finding out how much its being used. If it is, then it can be justified. If not (and I’m leaning towards the latter) then we can take some time, analyze ridership numbers and make those decisions later. BUT, its a done deal. Now if we didnt buy those buses, could they have come back with a smaller increase in taxes? Quite possible. But we’ll never know.

Over the course of the next few months there will be some public meetings on budget matters, and thats where Milton residents can have their say. Now, we get to see if pre-election promises match post-election actions.

In a statement I found most shocking, Councillor Jan Mowbray of ward 3 stated it would be a waste of time to ask town staff do a report for a zero increase budget. Doing what we can to save taxpayers dollars is never a “waste of time.” Thankfully her motion was defeated and town staff will look at what they can to reduce the impact.

What’s required of us? Communication. It may be summer and at this point dealing with summer vacations, soccer practices, barbq’s, and preparing our kids for school next year might be in the forefront of our minds, but we need to let our elected representatives know what you’re thinking. Phone, fax or email your councillors to let them know what priorities they should have. If the tax increases go through, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

In all reality, the tax increase might not be as high as 8 % because the town staff always asks for more and then its negotiated down to a more reasonable level. Thats just negotiations. But still, one year after a tax increase we’re hit with the possibility of even more money coming out of our pockets is hard to take.

I dont know about you but Im tired of being told its “ONLY going to be another X amount of dollars.” It seems we’re told that every time theres an increase. My response is, it its ONLY going to be that amount, then find the savings or stop spending money. This council has prided itself on being a pay as you go council. We’ll soon see.

Here is the link to the Champion story by Stephanie Hounsell.

Town’s taxes could jump up 8% in 2008

Budget process begins

Stephanie Hounsell
Published on Jul 20, 2007

Residents can expect to pay anywhere up to eight per cent more in taxes next year, and will now play the waiting game as the Town’s 2008 budget process begins.

A budget call report — which outlines what the anticipated tax increase will be for the next year and sets directions for staff in preparing the budget — went before council Monday night.

Town director of corporate services and treasurer Linda Leeds told council a 9.36 per cent tax hike would be necessary next year to maintain existing service levels as well as a five per cent increase in 2009.

But council directed staff to prepare packages showing what the operating budget would look like at a maximum of an eight per cent increase ($55.67 more for urban residents and $45.97 more for rural based on a $300,000 assessment), as well as with no tax increase, a three per cent tax hike ($20.88 more for urban residents and $17.24 more for rural) and a five per cent increase (urban, $34.79 and rural, $28.73).

To get down to a zero per cent increase, staff would have to look at reductions in various services, Leeds told council.

Amongst the items driving up the 2008 operating budget are staff wages, new debt payments, the cost of inflation and a decrease in funding from provincial grants.

Ward 3 councillor Jan Mowbray said it’s a waste of Town staff’s time to have to crunch the numbers for a zero per cent increase.

“It seems like it’s a ridiculous exercise to put staff through,” Mowbray said.

She put forward a motion to that effect, but it failed.

Council also approved a recommendation that the $738,000 funding received from the Region of Halton for 2007 GTA Pooling be included as a funding source in preparing the capital budget.

At this point, it’s expected budget packages will go out to the budget committee by November 26, and the committee will meet for deliberations December 11.

Final council approval of the budget could be given December 17.

Stephanie Hounsell can be reached at sthiessen@miltoncanadianchampion.com.

Milton Search

Mike Cluett

For those who are new to Milton, it can be a confusing place. There is a lot of construction going on, roads are closed at times and theres so much to learn about the town, you dont know where to begin. That’s all changed.

Back in June, at the 150th Anniversary Street Party in fact, there was a new website launched called http://www.miltonsearch.com/

If you need to find out something about the town, events that are happening soon, places to eat and things to do…its all here.

You can find pictures of events past, a listing of restaurants near you and fun things to do with the kids for the summer. Some of you are finding my blog through http://www.miltonsearch.com/ and I thank you for coming back.

I recommend you take a stroll through the website, send in some feedback and bookmark it as one of your favourites. Its a great source of information on Milton and news that affects us as well.