Milton Transit offering seniors door-to-door transit service during COVID-19 pandemic
Starting Monday, April 27, Milton Transit will offer seniors aged 65 plus door-to-door transit service to grocery stores and pharmacies during dedicated senior hours. The Town recognizes that not all seniors have supports or assistance to attain these necessary items, so this new service implementation will support seniors by providing safe, essential travel during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’re offering this service to ensure seniors in our community can access essential services, worry-free,” said Tony D’Alessandro, Manager, Milton Transit. “During these uncertain times, we want to provide seniors safe transportation service they can rely on.”
Scheduling a trip:
Call Milton access+ at 905-875-5417 before 5:30 p.m. to book a trip for the next day (Note: For a trip on Monday, a booking must be made by 5:30 p.m. on the Saturday before)
Scheduling periods: (when you can book a trip)
Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Saturday, 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
No service available on Sundays or statutory holidays
To maintain physical distancing measures, there is a maximum of two people per trip. Milton Transit is not collecting fares until further notice.
For more information, call 905-864-4141 or visit miltontransit.ca. Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook and download themyMILTON mobile app to access the Triplinx trip planner.
During this meeting, I had brought up a couple of questions regarding by law enforcement. Recently the Town of Oakville and City of Burlington passed additional bylaws to help deter residents from breaking the social and physical distancing rules, as well as those who hang out in parks, playground equipment and dump used PPE material. Staff had recommended that we in the Town of Milton continue to enforce the provincial rules and focus more on education. This measure I support entirely. We already have bylaw officers as well as Halton Police monitoring parks, trails and town properties and residents can continue to report infractions using the Halton Police COVID line (905) 825-4777 and people can learn more at www.haltonpolice.ca
The second item I brought up in the meeting was looking forward post COVID19 are we, as a part of the continuous improvement and the core services review, looking at the possibility of redefining some of our positions to possibly offer tele-commuting options going forward. As we have seen through previous reports, in the next few years the town will have to increase the number of staff working and long term plans are to build an addition to Milton Town Hall to accommodate future growth needs. If more people are working from home, using shared meeting spaces like the Milton Innovation Centre and other locations, the less need there will be for physical additions to town hall, therefore deferring or postponing future capital costs. Staff will of course keep this in mind moving forward. I call it “looking at the silver lining” as during the COVID19 situation, staff have done an incredible job keeping the business of the town flowing and adapting quite well to the “work from home” model. I will keep you posted as this continues.
Some concerns were brought up by our finance staff saying that in a “worst case scenario” of the current level of social/physical distancing guidelines continuing until the end of 2020, the Town could realize a revenue shortfall of close to $14 Million. Of course this is a situation we don’t expect, but we should prepare for. It can also aid once again in reviewing some of the services we provide and if they are currently viable going forward. The Town in the report states clearly that we are in a good cash flow situation as tax reserve accounts as well as some of our short term investments can aid in bringing us back into balance. As I’ve brought up a number of times, the municipal level of government is not able to run a deficit as with our provincial and federal partners. We must balance our books each and every year and a more formal financial plan is forthcoming by staff in the coming weeks.
Here is more details from the press release earlier today.
News Release
On April 14, the Town of Milton’s Strategic Management Team (SMT) presented a COVID-19 update report to Milton Council, outlining how the Town is responding tothe pandemic.
Since the beginning of this crisis, the Town’s focus and immediate actions have been on the safety of staff and residents, continuity of essential services and providing for the community’s needs.
As the COVID-19 situation continues to evolve, the Town’s Crisis Management Team (CMT) is monitoring the situation and reassessing the Town’s response on a daily basis, in consultation with Halton Region Public Health and various Town departments.
To date, CMT has implemented many actions including, but not limited to:
Declaration of a State of Emergency;
Closure of all Town facilities and park amenities;
Additional safety measures and protocols in all aspects of the Town’s operations and service delivery;
Financial assistance with respect to property taxes and development charge indexing;
Revisions to the Town’s by-law enforcement to focus on safety-related issues;
Maintenance of essential services and related staffing in a fiscally responsible manner.
Since March 17, all facilities have been closed and all recreation programs and theatre shows have been cancelled. Due to these closures and cancellations, the difficult decision was made in early April to temporarily place approximately 544 part-time, casual and seasonal employees on Emergency Leave or defer their start dates until further notice. The Town of Milton is committed to providing eligible staff with the support they need to access the financial relief programs offered by the federal government.
The Town continues to plan carefully through the pandemic to protect and maintain the financial stability of the organization. The most significant financial impact to the Town has been the loss of revenue associated with the closure of facilities and programs. A portion of this impact can be mitigated with reductions in the associated costs. Staff will continue to evaluate further opportunities as part of the planning for the balance of the year and will be reporting to Council with updates, reports and the regular variance reporting program.
For more information about the Town of Milton’s action to help reduce the spread of COVID-19, please visit milton.ca/coronavirus.
For the most up-to-date information on COVID-19, visit
Earlier today, the Ontario legislature passed Bill 189 (Coronavirus COVID19 Support and Protection Act which amended a number of laws including the Education Act, the Planning Act, the Development Charges Act along with the Police Services Act.
This will provide all levels of government the flexibility to adapt their own legislation to ever changing deadlines due to the declarations of emergency at both the provincial levels as well as here locally in Milton and Halton Region.
Through this new bill, the province has extended the provincial state of emergency until May 12th, with provisions available for further extensions if needed. This is an incredibly fluid situation with the numbers of COVID19 infections continue to rise which can lead to a longer period of time for the state of emergency.
I spoke with Milton MPP Parm Gill today before the vote (we recorded an interview segment for my weekly YourTV program “Local Matters” which airs every Tuesday at 8pm on channel 14/700HD) where he outlined the intention of the new piece of legislation.
Here are some details listed in the press release from the Province of Ontario:
Today, April 14, the legislature also passed the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Support and Protection Act to amend the Education Act, Planning Act, Development Charges Act, Police Services Act and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act as follows:
Education Act
Amending the Education Act will allow school boards with an expiring education development charge (EDC) by-law to use their existing by-law for an additional six months after the end of the COVID-19 outbreak, so they can continue to charge fees on new construction. This change ensures school boards can retain a vital source of revenue that helps support new school projects.
The Education Act is also being amended to provide a fair and consistent, province wide approach to addressing school suspensions and expulsions. During the closure period and with the physical distancing requirements, it is not feasible for boards to complete investigations and hold expulsion hearings.
Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act
Amending the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities Act will temporarily suspend student loan payments for OSAP borrowers and initiate a six-month interest-free moratorium on OSAP loans. Both measures will automatically apply to current OSAP loans, providing immediate relief to OSAP borrowers during this difficult time.
Planning Act
Amending the Planning Act will provide municipalities the time they need to focus on local public health priorities by making it possible to suspend certain planning decision timelines during a declared state of emergency. These changes will temporarily pause the need for municipalities and planning boards to make planning decisions within specified timelines without the risk of appeal.
Development Charges Act
Amending the Development Charges Act will ensure municipalities can continue to count on a vital source of revenue that helps pay for local growth-related infrastructure, such as roads, water and sewers as well as fire and police services. This change allows municipalities with an expiring development charge by-law to use their existing by-law during the current emergency and for six months following the end of the emergency declaration, so they can continue to charge fees on new construction.
Police Services Act
The amendments to the Police Services Act allow the Solicitor General to extend the deadline for community safety and well-being plans past January 1, 2021, which will help ensure municipalities are able to meet the legislative requirements and complete their community safety and well-being plans within new required timelines, which will be set at a later date.
From Halton’s perspective, we have already passed and approved our Community Safety & Well Being plan and the province had legislated other municipalities to have theirs approved by a certain date, so this doesn’t apply to Halton Region as we were ahead of the curve. To see a copy of our CSWB plan, click here.
These new provisions will allow municipalities like Milton to be able to collect much needed development charges from developers to be able to continue to fund new infrastructure during the COVID19 situation.
As was outlined by staff during todays Milton Town Council meeting, there has been a huge financial impact so far on town revenues during the COVID19 situation. The report states:
As uncertainty remains with respect to the time horizon and degree to which COVID19 will continue to impact operations, a number of financial scenarios are being assessed. If closures were to extend to the end of 2020, as an example, gross revenue losses could exceed $14 million with a remaining operating budget pressure of $2 million after the existing list of available forms of mitigation are considered. If the Town’s fall programs are able to generate approximately the normal amount of revenue, the existing list of mitigations may be sufficient to offset a large portion of the budget pressure that is expected.
This obviously is the worst case scenario provided this current level of social and physical distancing continues until the end of the year. We are currently working on these assumptions but hope for the best – and as long as residents continue to follow the direction from our medical officer of health, we will get through this. We are getting through this! Day by day we are getting closer to be able to get back to being with our friends, family members and neighbours.
One of the things that must be remembered, municipal governments can not run deficits like our provincial and federal partners. We MUST balance our budget with the limited revenue tools that we have at our disposal. Either taxes/DC’s have to increase or spending decreases are needed to ensure we balance the books. Given this situation there are financial plans in place and Milton is in a good position for cash flow, reserve accounts etc to mitigate this impact. If the situation does get worse, we would have to look to other levels of government to provide assistance. Now that the province has passed this legislation, hopefully the dialogue between the municipalities and Queens Park continues and options are left open to assist towns & cities should they require the help.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend. More statistics are coming from Halton Region regarding COVID19 later today but I wanted to give you a quick update as to what is happening this week at the Town of Milton as our community continues to deal with our state of emergency.
A message that I wanted to stress…a narrative that I think needs to be changed. The narrative of “We will get through this” needs to be changed to “We ARE getting through this!” Thank you Milton for doing your best to continue social & physical distancing, staying home whenever possible and to flatten the curve to get back to where we want to be…a community … together.
Earlier today with the support of Milton Town Council, the Town of Milton & the Crisis Management Team has officially declared a State of Emergency. This declaration supports Halton Region and the Province of Ontario’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19 and on-going measures to “flatten the curve”.
This action provides the municipality with the flexibility needed to manage this rapidly evolving emergency situation. Declaring an emergency supports the Town’s ongoing efforts to slow down the spread of COVID-19 through the implementation of public safety measures and encouraging social distancing.
This measure is used to ensure that the Town of Milton does everything we can to protect the health and safety of our residents throughout the COVID-19 situation.
As always, we want everyone to follow the advice of the medical professionals at both Halton Region and the Province of Ontario by doing the following things.
Stay at home and only leave when necessary / to get essential items like food & prescriptions.
Keep a social-distance of 2m or 6ft between people when outside the home.
Wash hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds on a regular basis.
Monitor any symptoms you might have & use the self assessment tool on www.halton.ca/covid19
Call 311 or Telehealth Ontario if you have any questions.
If you have symptoms and they become severe, please call 911.
Check in on friends and family as well, either by phone or internet video options. It can make someones day to see a friendly voice and face during times of self-isolation. This isn’t the time for play dates with kids, congregating at friends homes for parties, or gathering in large groups in parks.
My church, like many of yours has be cancelled for the time being and we urge all other religious gatherings to follow suit and postpone your services. It is so important at this point to stem the tide, flatten the curve and stop the spread of this as soon as possible. Schools will remain closed as well for the time being so please help your kids maintain contact with their friends through technology or picking up the phone and having them call.
As Ive said before, we will get through this. This situation is new for all of us and we’re dealing with things the best we can. I urge you all if you have any questions, please get a hold of me at mike.cluett@milton.ca – Call / text / WhatsApp me (647) 888-9032
The Regional Municipality of Halton For Immediate Release March 24, 2020
Halton Regional Chair declares state of
emergency in response to COVID-19
On March 23, 2020 Halton
Regional Chair Gary Carr declared a State of Emergency in support of the
Province of Ontario’s efforts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic,
with the advice and support from the Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Hamidah
Meghani. Halton Region Public Health
initiated its Infectious Disease Emergency Response Plan on January 23 and Halton
Region activated its Emergency Response Plan, including its Regional Emergency
Operations Centre, on February 27 to ensure a coordinated and rapid response to
the pandemic.
This
declaration of a regional emergency is part of Halton Region’s ongoing efforts
to protect the health and safety of the community, and will ensure the Region
can continue to act and respond quickly to the pandemic and any other events
that arise in the weeks ahead. A copy of the declaration is included below.
“This declaration is an important message to our
community: we need to take this seriously and we need to act now,” said Chair Carr.
“We need to listen to the recommendations of Public Health to practice social
distancing and self-isolate when directed – to protect ourselves, the ones most
vulnerable, our first responders and healthcare workers. We must all do our part to
control the spread of COVID-19.”
Halton Region’s top priority remains the health and
safety of our residents. Please continue to follow direction from Halton Region
Public Health and visit halton.ca/COVID19 to get the latest information about
symptoms, risk, when to contact 311 or seek medical attention.
-30-
Media Contact:
Julia Le Communications Specialist
Halton Region
905-825-6000, ext. 7763
Cell: 365-228-5342 julia.le@halton.ca
