News Release

July 24, 2020

Milton plans for Stage 3 of Province’s reopening

Halton Region has been given the go ahead to move into Stage 3 of the Province’s Recovery Framework starting today. This stage allows for the reopening of the majority of businesses and services across Ontario. The Town of Milton will continue to take a gradual approach to reopening services and facilities.

The Town’s gradual approach allows for the necessary measures to be in place to ensure the safety of residents and staff. A new way of doing business is required to continue to fight the spread of COVID-19. Therefore, the Town is identifying longer-term solutions to enable service continuity. These solutions take time to assess and implement. We thank the community for their ongoing support. 

As a reminder, face coverings or non-medical masks are required indoors at Town facilities. Some exemptions apply for activities and individuals.

Residents can expect the following to resume in Stage 3.

Parks

• Park playground equipment open for use
• Equipment will not be sanitized
• Health measure signs will be posted at each location

Recreational Facilities

• Introduction of fitness programs at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre starting Aug. 10
• Sherwood Pool expanding its programming to include Saturdays starting Aug. 8
• Gatherings sizes apply to our indoor facilities of a maximum of 50 people as per the Provincial Emergency Orders.

Town Hall

• Introduction of further services through appointment bookings is anticipated to begin in August

Milton Transit:

• Riders must use face coverings or non-medical masks and continue practicing physical distancing while on transit, where possible
• Fare collection resumes Sept. 1
• New operational details coming for the fall 

Parking enforcement:

• Resumes Sept. 1
• Until Sept. 1, parking enforcement is limited to safety issues such as blocked fire hydrants, limited to safety-related issues such as fire routes, fire hydrant obstruction, accessible parking and blocked driveways

‪Today is the first full day of the Halton Region mandatory mask bylaw. This bylaw encompasses all of Halton Region including Milton, Oakville, Halton Hills and Burlington and takes precedent over any other local bylaws.

Please make sure you have your mask with you when heading out to public places where they would be required (subject to exemptions)

We ask that you please be kind to each other, be patient to everyone including staff at businesses as we are all getting used to the new bylaw.

Halton Region Public Health is reminding residents and businesses that other important public health measures and direction remain in place as the COVID-19 pandemic and emergency continues. We must protect the progress we have made together so we can continue to move forward, not backwards.

Please remember that wearing a mask does not replace other important public health measures:

• wash your hands; 
• stay home when you are sick;
• physically distance (social distance) with those outside your social circle; and
• physically distance and wear a mask in indoor public places.

For more information, please visit www.halton.ca/covid19

Unanimous! Thank you to Halton Region councillors, staff, Halton’s Medical Officer of Health, legal team, everyone who submitted their presentations, to those who sent emails, made phone calls, commented on social media (even the ones who called me a loser 🙂 and other unmentionable names & reminded me they knew where I lived) …

THANK YOU for participating. I will have a link to the new bylaw up when its prepared and ready.

This afternoon after an over 6 hour debate at Halton Region Council, I along with all mayors, councillors and Regional Chair Gary Carr in voting unanimously for a region wide bylaw requiring the use of non-medical face masks in enclosed public spaces in Milton and across Halton Region.

The by-law comes into force on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 and will provide consistency across Halton and the GTA in order to minimize public confusion on non-medical masks and face coverings.

Earlier today Milton Town Council unanimously endorsed a recommendation brought forward by myself & Regional Councillor Zeeshan Hamid to have Halton Region discuss & vote on a region wide mandatory mask bylaw. The next meeting will be Wednesday July 15th.

Over the course of the last number of days, Halton Region municipalities have either passed their own local bylaw for mandatory masks or asked Halton Region to do the same. Milton Council decided bringing the debate and bylaw to the upper tier of local government to be a better choice, so that if a mandatory mask bylaw is passed, it covers all 4 local municipalities.

One of the consistent themes of the discussion by council was to in fact have this debate at the Region to ensure uniformity throughout Oakville, Burlington, Halton Hills & Milton.

Local members of council took this opportunity of the special council meeting to outline a number of questions and concerns they have heard on behalf of their ward residents.

Councillor Sameera Ali brought up some very valid concerns regarding special needs residents, those who are hard of hearing & those who have medical conditions that might cause issues in wearing cloth/disposable masks.

All members of Regional Council noted these and other comments & will get those answers from Halton staff and our Medical Officer of Health.

The draft bylaw from Halton Region will be made available online for council and the public tomorrow and will be discussed and voted upon during the July 15th Halton Region Council meeting.

I’d like to thank my council colleagues for their support and comments made during the meeting. This is obviously a hot button issue with lots of viewpoints to take into consideration. As always I’m looking for your comments and you can email me mike.cluett@milton.ca

Halton Region is drafting a bylaw for discussion/approval on July 15th should regional council move in that direction. The draft bylaw will be made available for viewing this Friday and will be discussed on July 15th at Halton Regions next council meeting.

You can visit www.halton.ca for the details and how you can register to speak virtually as a delegate should you wish.

It’s best to have a region wide bylaw and not 4 different ones that will inevitably cause confusion with residents. This should be the direction of Milton council at our meeting later this week. The virtual meeting will be held this Thursday July 9th at 4:30pm. You can visit www.milton.ca and get more details on how you can watch and/or participate as a delegate.

Halton Region being the tier of government that is responsible for public health should be where this bylaw is passed. As the draft gets sent to regional council members later this week we can discuss then. Milton Town Council can and should have a public discussion on pros and cons of mandatory masks but the actual bylaw should have the input from our Public Health department and that can be done on the 15th.

In addition to all these measures we will be asking for considerations of those who have a medical reason why they can’t wear a mask to be exempt. One item I will be recommending is a comprehensive and detailed education component so that people are taught how to properly wear masks ie washing them daily, properly removing them, storage etc. They shouldn’t be hung on the visors of our cars, worn multiple days without washing with soap, etc. If we’re going to do this, let’s ensure its done correctly.