milton election 2010

Council Salaries To Be Discussed At Monday’s Meeting

Mike Cluett

From the Milton Canadian Champion

Kim Arnott, SPECIAL TO THE CHAMPION  

Councillors to consider pay raise

A pay hike for local politicians is likely to be a hot topic of discussion at next week’s council meeting.

On Monday night, the Town’s administration and planning committee voted to recommend a 2 per cent pay raise for non-unionized staff employed by the Town.

However, the committee recommended that councillors not receive the same raise.  Salaries for Milton’s non-unionized staff are reviewed annually, and compared to those paid in seven nearby municipalities.  According to a staff report, non-unionized employees working for area municipalities have seen an average 2.39 per cent wage increase this year.  The report recommended a 2 per cent increase for Milton staff, effective July 1. It also recommended that councillors receive the same raise.

Ward 2 Councillor Greg Nelson moved to eliminate the council increase, saying he was uncomfortable with voting himself a third pay raise for this term of council.  Councillors and non-unionized staff received raises of 3 per cent in 2008 and 2.5 per cent in 2009.  However, Town of Milton CAO Mario Belvedere said the aim of reviewing the salaries annually is to ensure they don’t fall behind as inflation and growth occur.  “What you see before you is the policy we’ve been following for years,” he told the committee, noting that staff and council raises have been linked for about seven years.

Ward 4 Councillor Wendy Schau isn’t a member of the administration and planning committee, so she didn’t have a vote.  However, she said she favours providing the pay raise to both staff and councillors.  “I wouldn’t want a good candidate for council to be discouraged by an inadequate remuneration,” she said.

Local resident Mike Grimwood, the only delegation speaking to the matter, argued that Town staff should receive raises based on individual excellence and initiative, not simply as an across-the-board bonus “just for showing up.”  Noting that 2 per cent is above the rate of inflation for the year, he said, “Milton taxpayers’ pocketbooks seem to be depleted on a regular basis for the sole reason that others are doing it. This is ludicrous.”

The provincial government recently imposed a two-year freeze on the salaries and benefits of all non-unionized employees in the Ontario public service, including school board, hospital and provincial government workers. That included extending the current salary freeze for MPPs from one year to three years. Regional politicians also voted to freeze their salaries for the year, at a meeting in December.

The pay increase would only be applied to employees not represented by bargaining groups. Raises of 2.5 to 3 per cent have already been approved for the Town’s unionized employees, including Milton firefighters.  The cost of a 2 per cent increase for non-unionized staff was included in the approved 2010 budget.

The issue will be considered by the full council at a meeting Monday.

New Lights Coming

Mike Cluett

As I mentioned in a previous entry, there have been a lot of concerns raised while out at the doors about the area around Thompson Road and Kennedy Circle/Louis St Laurent.  After talking with some candidates in the ward across the street (ward 7) those concerns are shared by a lot of people.

I received an email from the engineering department at the town of Milton informing me that some changes are coming.  They told me there will be a set of lights installed at the intersection of Clark Blvd and Thompson Road, possibly up and running by the end of July.  Further studies have been and will be done again for the following intersections:  Thompson & Hepburn, Thompson & Kennedy Circle and Thompson & Louis St Laurent.

Now before the “too many lights” people start raging, this doesn’t mean that there will be lights at each of these intersections.  In order for that to happen that intersection needs to meet certain warrants (traffic totals in each direction) before anything happens.

I got further clarification of what is required for a signalled crosswalk, the most popular choice of people living in these areas, to be installed.  During a period of study there needs to be approximately 200 pedestrians crossing the street in an 8 hour period.  I don’t know exactly when these studies were done in the past but Im sure it comes close to that amount during the summer time.

People on the west side of Thompson Road directly across from the Metro Plaza have repeatedly told me and other Ward 7 candidates that its a challenge to walk to that mall.  While they live less than 1KM from the plaza, they are forced to get into their cars and drive over for the fear of crossing Thompson Road.  The same goes for the people on the east side of Thompson (our ward 6) trying to take advantage of the beautiful park and soccer fields.  We shouldn’t have to get into our cars, to go to a park or go shopping when we live so close.

A signalled crosswalk would be beneficial for these and other people who want to walk in the town of Milton.  Who knows when the lights will be put in at Louis St Laurent.  LSL is slated for a major expansion this year and next in order to keep up with the growth of the Boyne Survey.  There needs to be something at this location sooner.

Send me your email at mike@mikecluett.ca to add your name to a list of people interested in finding out if and when we can get a signalled crosswalk there sooner.

Until then, I’ll see you at the doors.

Enumeration Forms Have Been Mailed

Mike Cluett

Just as a reminder to everyone, if you havent already received them, the MPAC Enumeration Forms have been sent out to homes in Milton.  Some may not receive this form as they are sending it out to people who’s information might be outdated or incomplete from the last time.

This is the form thats used to help update the voters list for the upcoming municipal election on October 25, 2010. 

When you receive the form, you are supposed to verify that all the information is correct such as address, occupancy status and what school board you will be voting for (english / french – public or seperate).  If everything is correct, sign the form and return it to MPAC by June 1, 2010.  If there is any incorrect information, make the changes and send it back to them as soon as possible.

If you have any questions, or if you havent received this form, call MPAC at 1-866-296-MPAC (6722)

Dont miss out on your chance to vote on October 25, 2010!  Have your say!

I’ll see you at the doors.

New ward system in Milton

Mike Cluett

I had a chance to attend the open house of the Milton Toastmaster’s Club last night and it was quite a success.  Not only were there lots of current members there, but also a large number of interested people, like myself, to see what it was all about.

It was a great event and it was capped off with a presentation by Gary Mull about how to be not just an acceptable speaker, but an exceptional speaker.  As someone who is in the sales profession, I always keep my mind open to new ways to make presentations even if some of the ideas and skills I already have.  The more you hear about them the more chance of you using them are.  I like to call them the “a-ha” moments.

If you were ever curious on what the Milton Toastmasters are all about, I urge you to attend their meetings as a guest (every Tuesday night at the Royal Canadian Legion in Milton from 7:30pm to 9:30pm).  You will be surprised to know who members of the Toastmasters were in the past.

While waiting for Gary to speak I had a chance to introduce myself to a few people there and some recognized that I was running for council.  Inevitably the question comes up…which ward?  I proceed to tell them Ward 6 and I’m usually met with a “huh-like” stare.  For years Milton has been divided into 4 wards with two councillors in each ward representing them.

Recently the ward boundaries in Milton have been changed becoming effective for the 2010-2014 term of council.  This isn’t the first time I have run into people not knowing where ward 6 or any ward for that matter.  Outside the original news story about the changes, nothing has been said since about the changes by the Town of Milton.  I think the Town of Milton staff needs to do a better job in educating voters on the changes as much as possible.  Before you know it, election time will be here and people will be scrambling to figure out where they are and how to vote.

This past January a number of candidates, including yours truly, made the trek to Town Hall to file our nomination papers to become candidates in this election.  So far there are close to 20 people who will be asking Milton voters for their support over the coming months to represent them around the council table.

In the past couple of weeks, I have also had a chance to take advantage of the nice weather and knock on a few doors in our ward to introduce/reintroduce myself as the candidate for the area.  I was actually taken aback as to how many people remembered me from 2006 and even further still, how many people had my old magnet on their fridge almost 4 years later.  If you’re a parent of a kid in school, magnets are a must.  Stay tuned for that.

I also found most of the people I spoke with didn’t have a clue about the ward changes or which ward they lived in.

What ward do you live in?  Do you even know that the wards were changed?  Every one in town seems to know about the Milton Sports Centre expansion and the speedy design and construction of the arts & entertainment centre (that’s a discussion for another time) but hardly anyone knows what ward they live in or who their councillor is.

Part of the responsibility of the candidates for election is to educate the voters on where they live, which ward they will be voting in and (hopefully) garner their support and vote on Election Day.

I will be doing more entries as the days/weeks/months go on reminding people that things have changed for this election, thanks to the provincial government, which include a new date for the election.

October 25, 2010.  Mark that date in your calendar, as I have of course, as the date for the next municipal election.

I am running for the local council position for Ward 6 which is encompassed by the following boundaries.

NORTH:  DERRY ROAD

SOUTH:  BRITANNIA ROAD

EAST:  FOURTH LINE

WEST:  THOMPSON ROAD

If you click here, you will see the map of Ward 6.  If you live within this boundary, I am your candidate for council.  There are other positions you can vote for (regional council, public/separate school board trustee, mayor, regional chair) but more on that later.

If you want to see the ward boundaries for the entire Town of Milton you can visit www.milton.ca and find out where you live, and which ward you live in.

I’ll see you at the doors!

***UPDATE*** Laura Steiner from the Halton Compass has a Milton oriented blog as well.  She recently did a posting on the ward boundary changes thats a good read too.  Thanks Laura!

http://miltonviews.blogspot.com/2010/03/follow-changing-ward-boundaries.html

2009 Milton Council Expenses

Mike Cluett

Over the last couple of days, I have been working on getting back to a number of emails I received this week.  The general tone of these emails was about fiscal responsibility.  It reminded me of this weeks committee meeting, and lost in the excitement in the number of public meetings which went to 10:30PM, there was a report to council that stated the remuneration and expenses of our elected officials for 2009. This report includes the salaries of the councillors, the amount of benefits they receive, expenses incurred for professional development and mileage they claimed.

Click on the image below.

Out of the local councillors it looks like Ward 3 councillor Cindy Lunau received the most remuneration lead by a large mileage allowance of over $4,300.00 (total $ 35, 635.12) and the most thrifty local councillor is Ward 1 councillor Rick Day at $ 29,216.00 for 2009.

After looking at the list you will see Mayor Krantz tops the list in mileage at just over $5,000 but in all fairness our Mayor does a lot of travelling in and around the province and realistically should be the only councillor to submit mileage for reimbursement.  Remember, the local councillor position is “part time”.

There are a number of councillors whos claims for mileage is rather excessive in my opinion and its seems to be a regular trend.  Lets look at 2008 for instance.

The trend continued back in 2007 and 2006 with very similar numbers.  The first question that comes to mind … “Is Ward 3 REALLY that far to claim mileage?”

What do you think?  Is it justified?  Should our councillors be more frugal with tax payers dollars?

I look forward to hearing what you have to say.  I’ll see you at the doors.

Changes to Ontario’s Hospital Funding Formula

Mike Cluett

Today in the Ontario Legislature the governing Liberal party announced via the Throne Speech potential changes to Ontario hospital funding formula.

Details are expected to be released when the budget is delivered later this month by Finance Minister Dwight Duncan.  Will this mean more or less funding available for hospitals like Milton and the surrounding areas?

Will areas that are experiencing massive road (ie MILTON, ON) receive more funding to match the ever increasing demand for services or will we be left by the wayside?

Here is a link to the article in the Globe and Mail this afternoon.

More to come later.

Karen Howlett

Toronto — From Monday’s Globe and Mail Published on Sunday, Mar. 07, 2010 10:07PM EST Last updated on Monday, Mar. 08, 2010 3:31AM EST

Ontario is preparing a radical change to hospital funding, tackling health costs by tailoring hospital budgets to match the size and age of their communities.

The new formula, which could quickly spread to other provinces if successful, would also give more money to hospitals that treat patients more efficiently, according to health care insiders and sources close to the government.

Governments across Canada face aging populations that are driving up health costs. The pressure is particularly acute in Ontario, where health care consumes 42 cents of every dollar in program spending, while the province struggles with a record deficit of $24.7-billion.

The new approach would do away with the global hospital budgets that for decades have allocated funding evenly across the board, and could reshape the way health spending priorities are set. Premier Dalton McGuinty’s so-called Health Based Allocation Model, or HBAM for short, would divert more money to hospitals in regions where the population is growing and aging . The proposed model, which may be announced as soon as the provincial budget later this month, would also reward better-performing hospitals. They would be in line for additional money based on how cost-effectively they treat patients.

“It’s hugely controversial because there could be winners and losers,” said a hospital executive who asked not to be named.

The model is designed to close the gap between hospitals that have more than enough funding to meet their operating budgets and those that are deep in deficit. Under such a scenario, some hospitals would receive no funding increase at all, the sources said.

Changing the way hospitals are funded would not actually produce savings for the province, especially when labour costs account for a huge chunk of a hospital’s budget. But the change would slow down the pace of growth, now running about 6 per centv a year, because it would put pressure on hospitals to operate more efficiently, the sources said.

“HBAM has never been about saving money,” said a source close to the government. “It’s all about getting the incremental new dollars to the most needed areas.”

The new model would direct extra funding to hospitals that serve growing populations, or populations of above-average age, which can be expected to have higher health care costs.

Under the current regime, Ontario’s 154 hospitals received a funding increase of 2.1 per cent for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, bringing their total base funding to $14.9-billion. But the government also quietly topped-up funding for a handful of cash-strapped hospitals. William Osler Health Centre, which operates three hospitals in Etobicoke, Brampton and Peel, received a $20-million increase to its base funding, the largest of any group.

Duncan Sinclair, professor emeritus and former dean of medicine at Queen’s University who led a restructuring of Ontario’s system in the 1990s, said most provinces are moving in the direction of introducing incentives for hospitals to boost their productivity.

“It would seem that Ontario is following a general trend,” he said.

Some hospitals already receive a portion of their funding based on pay-for-performance. For example, just under one-third of the funding for University Health Network, one of Canada’s largest operators, is based on performance because of the complexity of services offered by its three hospitals in Toronto.

Tom Closson, head of the Ontario Hospital Association, has urged the government to adopt a funding system that takes into account the quality of service a hospital provides as well as the mix of patients.

“The concept makes a lot of sense,” he said in an interview yesterday. “It ensures that we’re taking into consideration the community being served as well as the efficiency of the organization.”

But he cautioned that the proposed system should not be applied across the board to smaller hospitals in small towns and rural Ontario. Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition also said expanding pay-for-performance to small hospitals would lead to further disparities between the level of care available in rural versus urban Ontario, and would force patients to travel farther for care.