I recently had an opportunity to speak with the Rotary Club, one of our great service clubs in Milton this week and combined with the fact we have now just passed 100 days in our term of council, I find it a good time to provide Miltionians an update – a state of the town so to speak – on what Milton council has done in a very short time.
New Council
To say that the last few months of the brand new Milton Town Council have been busy, would be a gross understatement.
Ever since our council was sworn in back in December, we have had to deal with a number of time sensitive issues including a decision on temporarily opting out of allowing cannabis retail in Milton, a regional government review, updates to the provincial growth plan, a “pause” on funding for the Milton Education Village and the review/approval of Halton Region and Town of Milton’s 2019 budget.
All of this in the first 3 months of the new term and the most optimistic of us will predict much more is to come.
It’s important that our council leaders, from time to time, provide residents, businesses and our great service club community a regular update on the state of the town, where we are now and the outlook for the coming years.
That outlook…our future looks good. I am optimistic.
Servicing is complete for areas like Derry Green Business Park and shovels will soon be in the ground for construction of new businesses providing much needed job opportunities for Miltonians. Council has recently approved a new site plan for one of those developments along James Snow Parkway and construction will be starting soon there as well.
We are also working on updates to some of our master plans, Agerton and Trafalgar Road Master Plans, the Milton Education Village, transit master plan for 2019, and downtown Milton improvement plans to name a few.
2019 Town of Milton Budget
To start off here tonight, I want to discuss the most recent town budget and hopefully shed some light as to why certain decisions were made by council from a financial standpoint.
The last few budgets have had higher than usual rate increases in the local portion, with this years increase being higher than most.
For many years, town council increases have been kept in and around the rate of inflation. Some would say that is sound financial strategy, whereas others would argue its led us to the financial situation we are currently faced with. As a member of council for the last 8 years, I will take some blame as to what got us to this point.
As a municipality that is mandated by the province to grow, we face rising pressures financially to provide the necessary infrastructure for that growth, all the while trying to balance the needs and demands for servicing by the public.
These pressures and challenges have been front and centre of the budget discussions past few months during our budget process.
Even though most people’s opinion would be that our growth rate is very high, it is important to know that we have been short in our growth projections the last few years, leading to our long range financial planning being off. This has presented the town with some financial challenges that need to be addressed during our budget process.
What is normally a one, maybe two day deliberation, this year we had 3 days of solid discussions and debate as we did our best to approve a budget. Again taking into consideration the future growth needs of infrastructure renewal and making sure we limit financial risk going forward.
The 2019 budget originated back in July of 2018 with staff proposing a 12.8% increase which is something no one wants during an election campaign.
When the final document was presented to council, the increase was roughly 9.6% showing some improvements, but still at a challenging level.
For those 3 nights, council deliberated the budget, even rejecting it and sending it back to staff for further review and new options to reduce it even more. Options that in my opinion could have put the town in future financial risk.
The 8.3% increase to the local budget is quite high. I’ll be the first to say that this type of increase isn’t something we’d like to propose every year. But included in that number, I know there is some sound decision making.
The towns operating budget is spent in areas such as transportation, roads, parks, recreation services, fire, library and economic development.
2019 Budget Investments
Some of the highlights in this years budget include:
* $35 million on expanding and improving our local road network, improvements to transit, maintenance of our parks and fields as well as continuing our preparation for future growth.
* Continued investment in our passive weed control program of $300K that has made a substantial impact on weeds/dandelions along our boulevards and parks.
* $7 million to widen Louis St Laurent eastward to help improve some of our traffic congestion issues, something we all heard during the election campaign.
* Reconstruction of Bronte St N from Steeles to Main and further south. Now that the widening of Steeles is complete, we at the town can improve other north – south routes to handle traffic from our industrial park.
* $ 1,000,000 investment in infrastructure renewal. We currently have a $32M infrastructure deficit to deal with as we need to work better with roads and facilities for new growth . Attention needs to be paid to save for our existing roads and facilities
* Sherwood Community Centre will open later this year to help address the lack of services/facilities in the western part of Milton. This new facility will contain 2 new ice pads to help meet the continued demand for hockey and skating as well as swimming pools, a satellite library branch and meeting rooms for our seniors.
Not only do we need to continue planning for more facilities like this, which come mainly from development charges on new growth, we also have to maintain and repair our current facilities. These costs don’t come from DC’s but are funded by taxpayers.
For example Milton Sports Centre. while still considered relatively new, it is “getting up there in years” and requires a minimum of $500k in upgrades this budget year in order to keep it running. That along with the other facilities are included in our current budget. Some of those repairs can be put off, but most are needed right away.
Since the budget was passed last month, I along with my colleagues have heard from many residents, both for and against the budget increase. Some call it overblown government, increased bureaucracy, and government waste. Others have told us that we are doing better to ensure we are making the necessary investment for the future.
So yes, this local budget increase is higher than most in the past. Were all of our future needs addressed? The answer is no. We haven’t come close to addressing some staffing issues we face.
As the town grows we need to ensure we have the adequate staffing levels needed to service the residential and business community and what its needs are.
Core Services Review
These concerns should be looked at as the Town of Milton embarks on a core services review; a department by department analysis of the services we currently provide, what future needs will be as we continue to grow as a community, and if cost savings can be found.
Now as we await that report to come back to council later this spring, we do have a lot of things to look forward to in 2019 and in coming years. the future looks optimistic and it is.
As I mentioned earlier, we are currently working on a number of master plans that will shape the Milton we know into what it will become. I honestly feel that our council and members of the public need to start looking at the reality we’re facing. We are no longer a town of 35,000 growing to over 100,000. Milton is now a community of 135,000 growing to 375,000 and we need to ensure we’re planning for that growth from both, a financial standpoint as well as how we choose to design our new community.
I also mentioned earlier the development of the Agerton and Trafalgar Road Master Plans. This will be where a majority of the new growth will come from as we plan mixed use development for industrial and commercial growth as well as much needed office space. Our economy is changing rapidly and we need to prepare for the growth to come instead of what’s already here. Plan for the new economy of jobs, technology and innovation that will shape not only our future but the future of the Greater Milton Area (or the GMA as I call it.)
How You Can Get Involved
We are also working closely with the province to ensure that we get the services we so desperately need in the form of transit funding, two way all day GO service – in addition to possibly another GO Station – as well as support for affordable housing. These master plans are at their beginning stages and I urge all residents to be part of the discussion.
The Town of Milton has a portal called “Let’s Talk Milton” and its a place for you to register your thoughts and concerns on a number of upcoming ventures by the town. Be it downtown Milton redevelopment, planning for intensification in our urban growth centres, building a useful and affordable transit service – its all there for you to have your say.
The website is www.letstalkmilton.ca and I hope you all find your way to be part of the process. We need innovative ideas to come from not only council and staff but the public as well.
These areas will be just pieces of what’s to come in economic development for Milton. We are very proud to state that a large portion of the Milton population is highly educated with close to 80% of residents with post secondary education. This is a good base for innovative economic development and the potential of job opportunities for Miltonians. Just imagine, being able to live, work, travel all in the same community. Instead of being stuck in traffic on the 401 / 407 / QEW etc, a quick walk, bus or bike ride to your place of employment?! It’s possible and as we say Milton is a place of possibility.
Future Challenges
While all of these other factors are being dealt with, we still currently face a few more concerns that are outside of our control but we are dealing with.
* The proposed CN intermodal – The CEAA process continues to this date and the panel is still taking submissions from the public, local businesses outside governing bodies. The Town along with all the other Halton municipalities and Conservation Halton continue to oppose the proposed CN intermodal and have set forth legal action in conjunction with the CEAA process. We are looking at another year or so before any decision is made on this, so I expect this to be a hot topic, yet again, for the upcoming federal election.
* Regional Government Review – earlier this year the provincial government embarked on a review of the two tier level of government in Ontario. Some of Ontarios 444 municipalities are part of a two tier format called Regional Government. The review will continue until late summer this year and the province will make a decision on whether or not to amalgamate some into one level (ie City of Halton) or leave it as it is with some minor modifications. My current opinion is of the latter. We might see some changes but nothing major going forward. The Town of Milton, along with our Halton counterparts have passed motions and directed the panel to leave us as we are as we find our current set up to be working quite well.
* Milton Education Village – Just after the provincial election last year, the government advised us that they are putting a “pause” on funding for the construction of the Laurier University / Conestoga College cooperative venture in the MEV. The previous provincial government approved $94 million in funding but after the new government was sworn in, changes were made. Does this mean the project is dead? Far from it. As recently as last month, Laurier University met with Milton Town Council to outline their new plan in getting things started. They are continuing with initial plans of using some space at 555 Industrial Drive, the current home of the Milton Innovation Centre, as classroom space for programming starting in the 2019/2020 class season. They are moving forward with an updated action plan and the Town of Milton is committed to ensuring that this happens.
Places to Grow, the provincial legislation that mandates our population growth, has touted Halton Region and Milton as priority areas. Current projections state that Milton will be roughly 250k by 2031 and by 2041 Halton Region along will increase to 1 million people.
We have to make sure that we’re on top of it all as we move quickly and we physically change in Miltons appearance.
My last point will be on the recent council decision to approve a new 3 building and multiple storey development by the Milton GO station. It’s on lands that used to be Link Line Transportation and will consist of 3 buildings (31, 29 and 27 storeys). This area is in what’s called the Urban Growth Centre and if you’ve noticed already has new multi storey buildings . More is to come. Will improvements to our transportation network be needed as in roads and transit? Yes it will. Will we need to make sure we keep our small town feel? Absolutely.
I’m Optimistic
To me the small town feel doesn’t consist of buildings, apartments, and houses. It’s the people that live within this town that gives it the small town feel . The way we can still say “hello” to a stranger on the street as we go shopping, or attend a number of events in our downtown core and fair grounds and how we can continue to work as individuals and in other forms like service clubs to make this a better place. That’s the small town feel of Milton we love and as long as we don’t lose focus on that, we will be just fine.
Are there challenges ahead of us? Most assuredly there are. The challenges will be coming from all directions – the province, the region, the federal government, the economy and the challenge of how we face this change on a daily basis. I’m confident that we can and will do it. I’m very optimistic of the future of this town and the people and businesses that currently live here and who will call Milton home in the near future.
The state of the town looks good. I’m very optimistic of our future as we continue to grow. Stick around as there’s more to come.
Thank you.
