mayor gord krantz

Community Services Meeting May 9 2011

Mike Cluett

This coming Monday May 9th will be our Community Services Standing Committee meeting at Town Hall.  This Committee consists of five Councillors and the Mayor. Committee members review all reports, formulate policy and make recommendations to Council on matters over which Council has authority under the Municipal Act.  These matters are related to Community Services, Fire, Library, Transit and other operational programs.

The agenda can be found here at this link.  Some of the highlights will be discussion on whether or not the Canadian Road Cycling Championships should be re-routed due to some issues Springridge Farms have with road closures.  The race is slated for Saturday June 25th and this would mean the road in front of Springridge would have to be closed, meaning customers wouldn’t be able to get there.  There are also other issues about the road in general and there is one delegation slated to speak.

Another presentation to be given is the Transportation Projects update which gives updates on Ministry of Transportation’s projects, GO Transit, Halton Region, and the Britannia Road Environmental Assessment process.

If you would like to speak on any of the items listed you can email the Town Clerk before 10AM on Monday and get listed as a delegation.  You can also drop me an email mike@mikecluett.ca if you have any questions. 

As always the meetings are now streamed live and click here watch council in action.

Milton Canadian Champion Covers Grow Milton Hospital

Mike Cluett

Citizens rally for Milton hospital expansion

(Photo Courtesy of Milton Canadian Champion, Graham Paine) – By Christina Commisso, Milton Canadian Champion

The signs are up, the signatures are in and the will is strong.

The time for Milton’s hospital expansion is now — that message was heard loud and clear Saturday morning.

About 30 people huddled under the gazebo at Victoria Park, sheltered against the rain and wind, to show their support for the expansion.

“We’re a small group, but we’re mighty,” said Halton MPP Ted Chudleigh.

He, along with citizen’s group Grow Milton Hospital, has collected more than 5,000 signatures of support for the expansion over a six-week campaign.

The petitions were delivered to Queen’s Park yesterday.

The urgency of the expansion was outlined by Milton District Hospital (MDH) surgeon Dr. Jeff Kolbasnik, who spoke during the morning event. 

“When I started (at MDH) we had lots of ward beds. Anytime I needed to admit a patient there was no issue. In the emergency department there would be a few people backed up, but routinely people would get seen within an hour. We never had surgery cancelled because no beds were available and getting a patient in urgently was no problem. Things have really changed.”

According to Kolbasnik, it’s not just the population spike that has placed mounting pressure on MDH; the infrastructure at the hospital is showing signs of deterioration.

He pointed to a leaky roof last summer that led to the evacuation of the medical surgical ward for almost a week. MDH recently received a “state of the art” surgical sterilization machine, which Kolbasnik said took a week to install because the hospital’s infrastructure was too old to support the new technology.

“During that week we had to ration surgical equipment…that’s not the sort of thing that should be happening in a growing community like ours.”

He continued, “As much as there’s a gradual deterioration, we’re worried we’re going to reach a breaking point when things just start to fall apart.”

Organizer and Ward 6 Councillor Mike Cluett took some time to dispel common rumors circulating about the MDH expansion.

Pointing to the new north Oakville hospital, Cluett said: “The Oakville hospital is designed for Oakville’s growth, not for other communities. We need a made-in-Milton hospital expansion for Milton’s needs now.”

Cluett added that he’s unfazed by naysayers.

“We’ve heard, ‘It’s great you’re doing this but it’s not going to make a difference.’ Well we’d rather go down swinging than not do anything at all. We want to let the provincial government know that it starts with them. Give us the go ahead, and we’ll figure the rest out.”

Playing MC for the event, Scott Fox of Z103.5 said when he moved to town seven years ago he would brag to his friends about the zero wait times at MDH.

“Now the tables have turned,” he said.

“All you have to do is look around at a town that’s bursting at the seams and a hospital that was built decades ago. The fact that people are waiting, they’re being sent to other communities for critical care, surgeries are being postponed because there’s not enough beds — this screams expansion.”

Chudleigh said he hopes the message comes through loud and clear at Queen’s Park. The petition was delivered mere weeks before the Province is expected to release its 10-year infrastructure list for high-priority projects.

Despite what transpires in the next few weeks, Cluett said the momentum for the expansion won’t slow down anytime soon.

“It doesn’t end today. It’s going to continue until the spade is in the ground and we have our hospital.”

Town Council Meeting April 18 2011

Mike Cluett

Tonight is a full meeting of council.  The agenda for the meeting can be found here.

There will be a presentation from the Halton Regional Police Services, a recommendation for the company eSolutions Group as the company in charge of the website for the Milton Centre for the Arts, and a 2010 financial update from KPMG .

I’ll also be providing council an update on the ward 6 Milton Makeover team from last Friday and the all important update of the Grow Milton Rally from Saturday, which despite the weather was a great success.

As always you can view the meeting online by going to the WATCH ONLINE link at the right.  Hope to “see” you there.  If you have any questions on the items included in the agenda, feel free to email me mike@mikecluett.ca

Town Council Meeting Tonight

Mike Cluett

Here is a link to the agenda for tonights meeting.

Some of the items up for discussion is Milton’s participation in the 2011-2013 Metrolinx Joint Procurement Initiative for purchasing transit buses, the memorandum of understanding with the Town of Milton & Wilfrid Laurier University for the Education Village, and a technical report regarding a possible zoning change for the intersection of Harris Blvd and Main Street to permint mixed use condominium development.

As always, you can follow the links to the right and click to watch the meeting streamed live on www.milton.ca  I, along with a few other councilllors will do our best to “tweet” updates from the meeting for those who cant make it.

See you tonight.

Arts Centre Announcment

Mike Cluett

Earlier today Minister of Labour and MP for Halton Lisa Raitt made an announcement at the Milton Centre for the Arts about the success of Canada’s Economic Action Plan in creating jobs for Milton.  Surrounded by members of town staff, Mr. Rob Mackay who is the manager of the Arts Centre/Library, councillors such as myself and Reg. Councillor Colin Best, we heard of the many successes for both Milton and the Halton area.

Using the backdrop of the almost completed Milton Arts Centre she announced that thousands of jobs have been created in our area from the Milton Sports Centre and Arts Centre and more to come once the work has been completed.  Mayor Gord Krantz in his trademark work boots thanked the Minister and all levels of governement for working with the Town to ensure the completion of these projects.

The Invest in the Arts fundraising campaign is nearing the end and will be expected to announce that its hit (or maybe even surpassed) its fundraising goal of $2.2 million dollars and there will be more to come from that I assure you.

There was an opportunity to do a quick check on the status of the project and they are assured it will be completed on its original deadline of March 31st and not need the extention as much.

Many thanks for Minister Raitt for attending today for what Mayor Krantz likes to call “good news stories”.

Milton Town Budget Barely Passes

Mike Cluett

From Christina Commisso, Milton Canadian Champion

Town budget barely passes

Council divided in approving Milton budget that will see municipal taxes rise by 4.58%

The 11 members of council spent little time discussing the increase during Monday’s marathon meeting, which saw only six of 11 councillors vote in favour of the controversial budget. Much of the divide and discussion came down to a 1 per cent tax levy that will establish a hospital expansion reserve fund.

Though Milton continues to enjoy one of the lowest property tax rates in the GTA, the 4.58 per cent increase was still too much for some councillors, including Milton’s mayor, to swallow.

“You’re always going to get differences, but a council split down the middle doesn’t send a very good message to the community and it doesn’t show a lot of confidence,” said Mayor Gord Krantz. “It sends a message that a lot of people are not comfortable with what’s going on. I hope it’s not a prelude of things to come.”

Voting against the budget were Krantz and councillors Tony Lambert, Greg Nelson, Rick Malboeuf and Mike Cluett. Voting for the budget were councillors Colin Best, Sharon Barkley, Cindy Lunau, Arnold Huffman, Rick Di Lorenzo and Zeeshan Hamid.

The increase isn’t nearly as steep as staff previously predicted was necessary, when an initial budget report suggested a levy of close to 7 per cent was needed. The report presented to the budget committee last week showed a 5.72 per cent levy, with options to bring that amount down to 2.08 per cent.

While a lot of Town Hall’s priorities were set during the previous council term, newly elected and returning councillors did make some slight changes to bring the increase closer to the rate of inflation. A $100,000 bike lane implementation program was reduced to $50,000 to be spread out over four years. The opening of the Milton Centre for the Arts and the new main library was delayed from April to June and a snowplow advertising campaign was eliminated from the budget.

The changes saved about $143,000.

The Town’s $164.2 million budget includes 80 infrastructure projects that total $85.6 million. The capital budget was largely influenced by eight multi-year projects pre-approved in 2010, which include the Main Street grade separation and several new facilities that should be operational by the year’s end.

On a $350,000 home, the 4.58 per cent increase translates to a $40.70 increase in the urban area and $34.05 for rural homes.

Combined with the regional, local and educational components of residential taxes, which account for 44 per cent, 29 per cent and 27 per cent respectively, Miltonians are looking at an overall tax increase of 2.2 per cent in the urban area ($19.41/$100,000 of assessed value) and 2.09 per cent in the rural area ($17.48/$100,000 of assessed value).