region of halton

Halton Region Announces 311 Service

Mike Cluett

Halton launches 311 service

Halton Region is making it easier for residents to connect to programs and services.

It has launched the 311 non-emergency service online, which allows residents to find, pay, register, report or request services from the Region, Halton Regional Police, or local municipalities.

Residents can now either dial 311 or visit www.halton.ca/311 to access all eight Halton government partners (Regional and local municipal governments, Halton Regional Police Service, Halton District School Board and Halton Catholic District School Board) and find out more about recycling and waste pick-up or register for parenting or parks and recreation programs.

Customer Service is a priority of Halton Region’s Citizens’ Priorities (2011-2014) Action Plan. Last year, more than 290,000 residents called Access Halton for information about programs and services.

What is 311?

  • 311 is an easy-to-remember, three-digit, non-emergency telephone number that offers a single window of direct access to Halton government services.
  • 311 provides free, multilingual assistance to anyone calling from within Halton.
  • It allows citizens to request a service or receive general information.

Whose services can I access by dialing 311?

  • Halton Region
  • City of Burlington
  • Town of Halton Hills
  • Town of Milton
  • Town of Oakville
  • Halton District School Board
  • Halton Catholic District School Board
  • Halton Regional Police Service (non-emergency calls)

Why do we need 311?

  • 311 means you don’t need to know which Halton government provides a particular service. You don’t have to sort through dozens of telephone numbers to find the people you need to talk to.
  • 311 also provides an easy-to-remember telephone number for non-emergency police calls which will reduce the burden of non-emergency calls made to 9-1-1.

How does 311 work?

  • 311 calls will be answered by customer service representatives in Access Halton.
  • While 311 is a program of Halton Region, callers will be able to access the programs and services provided by any of the eight partner organizations:
    • Regional and Local Municipal governments
    • Halton Regional Police Service
    • Halton District School Board
    • Halton Catholic District School Board
  • The customer service representatives will use a powerful database of about 1,500 records to respond to your inquiries on a vast array of Halton government services.

What are some examples of 311 calls?

  • reports of potholes
  • questions on site plan applications
  • location and hours of libraries
  • requests to register for parks and recreation programs
  • complaints about parking bylaw infractions
  • reports of stolen property after an event has occurred
  • requests to hire police officers for special events
  • reports of motor vehicle accidents
  • queries on police security checks
  • reports of suspected food poisoning
  • queries about well water
  • requests to book travel health clinic appointments
  • reports of dog bites
  • requests for financial assistance
  • queries on child development
  • queries on road construction projects
  • reports of sewer backup
  • reports of missed garbage collection
  • queries on acceptable items for recycling

What are the hours of operation?

  • You can dial 311 any time and speak to a live person.
  • Regular business hours of 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
  • After regular business hours, only those of an urgent nature will be handled.

Will 311 work from cell phones, payphones, etc.?

  • Yes.

Can I still call the city or town directly using the ten digit number I have previously used to reach them?

  • Yes, and if you know the name of the person you wish to speak to, you should always call the ten-digit numbers.

Thanksgiving Stuff A Bus A HUGE Success

Mike Cluett

Release from the Town of Milton

NEWS RELEASE

October 16, 2012

Milton Transit’s Thanksgiving Stuff-a-Bus collects over 1,700 lbs of food donations

Milton Transit held its Thanksgiving “Stuff-a-Bus” on Saturday, October 6, 2012 where over 1,700 lbs of food were collected, including some cash donations for the Salvation Army food bank in Milton.

“On behalf of Milton Transit, I would like to thank our generous Milton community and the many volunteers who helped make this year’s Thanksgiving Stuff-a-Bus such a great success,” said Milton Mayor Gord Krantz. “A special thank you also to Metro food store in Milton for their support and assistance during the event.”

Milton Transit will hold its next Stuff-a-Bus event during the Milton Santa Claus Parade on Sunday, November 18, 2012.

For more information on Milton Transit, visit www.milton.ca, e-mail transit@milton.ca or call 905‑864-4141.

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For further information, please contact:          Paul Cripps – Director, Engineering Services

Champion Editorial Comments on 3 Bag Limit

Mike Cluett

Unloading baggage

We fully support Halton Region’s plan to reduce the bi-weekly number of garbage bags residents will be able to place curbside before a user-pay system kicks in.

Next spring (April 1, 2013), residents will be provided with complimentary bag tags to affix to any garbage bags beyond their three-bag limit (currently residents enjoy a six-bag limit) they place at the curb on their regularly-scheduled waste collection day.

Five months later, on September 9, 2013, after having had ample opportunity to monitor and adjust their waste habits, residents will be asked to pay $2 for each tag they affix to garbage bags beyond the three-bag minimum.

There will be some exemptions granted, to those living in townhouses with common collection pile areas, those with diaper/medical condition-related waste as well as a two-week exemption for everyone immediately following the December holiday period.

While some municipalities have similar limits to free waste collection — Durham’s bi-weekly limit is three bags and Peel’s weekly limit is two bags — other municipalities — like Wellington (Guelph) — charge residents for every bag collected on garbage day.

We believe the Region’s tag concept is an incentive for Halton residents to be less wasteful and more thoughtful when deciding what should and shouldn’t get thrown out. The goal is to reduce the amount of Halton waste ending up in the landfill and, by doing so, extending the number of years before the landfill will be full. Regional staff say a three-bag limit could extend the landfill by as much as four years, creating an overall savings of $15 million.

Halton has been a leader in waste diversion among GTA municipalities with a rate of 57 per cent. That success is due, in part, to 85 per cent of homes already placing three garbage bags or less to the curb.

Only five per cent of Halton homes don’t participate in the Blue Box program each week, while 70 per cent of residents have been regular users of GreenCart since its Halton launch in mid-2008.

In order to help Halton homeowners reduce their waste, the Region is also planning to expand its Blue Box program to include mixed plastics like clear clamshells and yogurt and pudding cups, empty steel paint cans and cardboard spiral cans, which are commonly used for products such as refrigerated dough, frozen juices, chips, nuts and other snacks, powdered drink mixes and baby formula, shortening and powdered cleansers.

With this boost to the Blue Box program will come a larger 22-gallon container to hold the additional recyclable items.

Hopefully these initiatives will convince more of us to divert our waste and maintain Halton’s place among the greenest communities in the GTA.

Attention Residents in Louis St Laurent / Hwy 25 Area

Mike Cluett

Just received an email from Town of Milton staff informing us that MADD Canada will be filming a documentary called “After Party” of a car crash. Details are listed here.

This will be in the area of Diefenbaker Street / Louis St Laurent just west of 25 in Ward 7.  Please pass this information along to people you know in this area.  Traffic shouldn’t be disrupted while filming too much but people will get worried if they don’t know whats going on.

To: Milton Council

Please be advised that I am working with MJM Productions for the filming of a MADD Canada Documentary entitled “After Party”

They are looking at filming on Louis St Laurent Avenue between Diefenbaker Street and Bronte Street South/First Line. They will be doing overnight filming of a car crash and the filming is proposed for October 25,26 and 27th starting at 6:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m.

Halton Regional Police and Milton Fire are aware of this filming and will be on site during the car crash.

Advanced Road closure signs will be installed at some time next week. Area residents are now being papered and the filming company will be getting signatures from any resident that faces Louis St Laurent Avenue. Detour signage will also be installed when the closure is taking place.

Local access will be maintained to the subdivision on the north side of Louis St Laurent Avenue.

At this time filming permits have not been issued and I will advise you of when this has been completed.

Thanks
Heide Schlegl, C.E.T., MITE, Dipl. M.M.

Letters to Editor re: garbage

Mike Cluett

As I have brought up here on my site a few times, there has been a growing concern with the amount of trash collecting along the side of Louis St Laurent in ward 6.  Since the opening of the new high school (Craig Kielburger Secondary School) earlier last month, there has been a growing problem regarding garbage.

This frustration has led to what I assume is more than one letter to the editor of the Milton Canadian Champion.

Dear Editor:

I’m a Milton resident and I live close to the new Craig Keilburger Secondary School at the corner of Fourth Line and Louis St. Laurent Avenue.

Since school began, there has been a huge increase in the amount of garbage along the bike path and sidewalk area running from the high school to the Metro plaza.

Recently, while I was out for a walk with my family, my husband picked up a full shopping bag worth of trash.

I have noticed two garbage bins put in by the Town along this stretch, however, they quickly overflow. Two isn’t enough.

Brenda Lacey

Milton

Thank you Brenda for sending that letter.  What follows here are not excuses for the garbage, but it can provide a little insight as to what has happened and what we are doing at the Town of Milton to address it.

When the new high school opened in September there were some delays in the completion of the school cafeteria.  From what I understand now, those issues have been fixed and it is now functional for students to eat their lunches during break time.  Seeing how the students didn’t have anywhere to go for lunch hour, many students (and I do mean MANY) made their way up Louis St Laurent Avenue towards the Metro mall for lunch.

What was happening on the way back is the students ended up throwing their garbage along side of the road as they returned to school.  This as you can expect, caused quite a bit of mess and that is unacceptable.

The town has now installed two garbage containers alongside the street with the hopes the students at CKSS will use them to dispose of their garbage as they head back to school.  So far, its seems to have improved, but not to the point where I or any resident in the area would find to be acceptable.

The students are being urged by their principal through announcements and assemblies not to toss their waste along the street at any time and hopefully the message will get through to them.  Another problem that has come up with the installation of the garbage containers is some people in the area are using them for their own garbage.  This causes them to overflow, and in turn doesn’t help at all solving the problem.

If you miss your Monday morning garbage pickup, please do not use these containers for your excess bags.  Staff is aware of the problem and is doing what it can to pick up the waste when it does overflow so that we don’t continue to have this problem.

I would just like to let residents in the area know that we are looking into it and doing what we can to help solve the problem.  Personally, I would like to ask students at CKSS, many of them I met yesterday at the grand opening of their school to work with us, and not dump garbage on the road.  CKSS is now a big part of our area and some might say a second home to our kids and hopefully they will treat this “home” with the same respect they treat their own home and surrounding area.

Thank you for sending the letter with your concerns and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to call or email me mike.cluett@milton.ca anytime.

I’ll see you at the doors.

Official Opening of Craig Kielburger High School

Mike Cluett

It was more like a rock concert than an opening!  All the students of CKSS were in the gymnasium of their new school to celebrate in the opening of Milton’s newest high school.

The CKSS Spartan’s squad lead us with some great music and dancing.  There was singing by the glee club followed by student after student talking about what makes them different, yet the same, as each one of them declared afterwards that they “are the face of CKSS”

The excitement continued to build until what many were waiting for happened…Craig Kielburger was introduced to a standing ovation.  He talked about is journey as a 12 year old speaking to politicians and government officials to do something that many want to do…change the world.

He spoke passionately about his teachers, his parents and his family.  Everyone who supported him in his journey.  Many would have said a 12 year old couldn’t make a difference in the world…but he has.  Craig told us stories of people who inspired him in other countries to continue his quest and how deeply honoured he was to be there today.  Looking around at the students in attendance, you could see they were hanging on every word.  The opening ended with a mini concert from the band Neverest.  Once it was over students surrounded him to shake his hand and meet with him personally.  Like I said, it was like a rock concert.

Thank you to everyone involved in the organization of today’s event and I am very honoured to have been invited to attend along with Principal Donna Taylor, Mayor Krantz, Halton school board trustees Donna Danielli and Nancy MacNeil and the teachers of CKSS among others in attendance.

Congratulations on a fantastic opening and good luck with the rest of the school year and the years to come.  Im very proud that in 2 years my son Anthony will be able to attend CKSS as they are laying the ground work of a successful curriculum and a great learning environment.