Find your Ward here and your Council Members here | |
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Mayor suggests
free transit pilot
for kids & seniors
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2023 Budget Committee meeting, January 24, 2023 | |
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Mayor Rob Burton asked budget staff on Tuesday to bring back a proposal for a 2023 pilot of free transit for youth and seniors, after several Council members floated different ideas to increase transit use to recover ridership to pre-pandemic levels.
Ward 1 Town and Regional Councillor Sean O’Meara raised the need to make free transit for kids under 12 permanent because “five years from now we want them be using the buses.”
“Somehow we have to get people on the buses and I can't think of a better way to do it than to get them in high school and in public school,” Ward 4 Town and Regional Councillor Allan Elgar said, enlarging the idea.
Ward 7 Town Councillor Scott Xie inquired about an off-peak pilot project for seniors from Monday to Friday, to offer seniors “good options and encourage their use of public transportation.”
"Let's motivate all youth and seniors since Ontario gives so much to regular users who use GO," Mayor Burton said.
“We’re in a funny situation where regular riders are riding almost free and the ones we want to encourage to use it have discounted passes already but we would like to explore: would there be uptake if the only barrier was that you had to have a PRESTO card so that we could count your ride?”
Staff will design a program for running a free fare pilot project for 0 to 18 age group and seniors and report back on the budget impact and the implications.
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CN-Halton legal fight
protects residents' health
and housing supply plans
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Mayor Burton opposes CN Intermodal Project in Halton | |
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The fight to prove private railroad companies are not exempt from municipal and Provincial legislation will continue, Regional Council decided unanimously today after they received a confidential update on the legal proceedings between the Halton Municipalities and CN related to CN’s proposed truck-rail hub in Milton.
A federal expert panel found that that the hub will cause significant harm to air quality and human health that cannot be mitigated for the residents who will ultimately live within one kilometer of the proposed hub.
The railroad company chose its truck-train hub location knowing the area was already designated for a large residential population.
Now, the Province has chosen the same area for a huge increase in residents to help solve the Province's housing supply emergency.
That's why Mayor Burton said when voting in support of the motion to continue the legal work on the truck-train hub, "I think it's really important to understand that the province of Ontario has a housing supply crisis. In fact, the Government of Ontario has called it an emergency and the (truck-train hub) project is in such a place as to cause significant harm to the health of residents already there and the future residents that the province itself has planned to put there.
"That makes this project no less than a sabotage of the province's efforts to meet the housing supply crisis emergency and for that reason, I'm strongly in support of the motion by my colleagues."
It is important for the Province to join with Halton to prevent the railroad company's truck-train hub from sabotaging the Province's plan to overcome the housing supply emergency, Mayor Burton believes and is carrying that message to the Provincial Government and the Oakville MPPs and MPs.
For more information on the CN project, please visit Halton Region’s website here.
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Halton Council unanimous
in asking Ottawa to deliver
promised clean water funds
Ward 1 Councillor Sean O'Meara today won unanimous support from Halton Region Council for a motion asking the Trudeau government to keep its promise for clean water funding.
Councillor O’Meara stated: “It is called securing Canada's $1 billion investment in the strengthened freshwater action plan. From chemicals to blue green algae microplastics contaminating our waterways coupled with wetland habitat biodiversity loss, the health of Halton and Quebec's waters are facing multiple threats.
"As we all know, during the last federal election, the government put forward a billion-dollar commitment to strengthen and expand the scope of Canada's freshwater action plan. Unfortunately, last year, its federal budget allocated a mere $19.6 million to the action plan.
"Again, as most of us who have a region that lives on the water, we know that the water health is essential to our future as a region and to be quite honest as a nation in Canada here. So, we're asking the Federal Government in this motion to keep its promise by investing a billion dollars over the five years into the freshwater action plan to safeguard our most important asset here, which is our waters.
Mayor Burton said in support of Councillor O'Meara's motion he was glad the Councillor had accepted the duty of representing us on the Great Lakes committee where the need for the motion was identified, "I knew that Councillor O’Meara with his customary industry and intellectual rigor and curiosity would make this role his own and indeed, he has made us proud over the years representing us on the Great Lakes committee.”
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Province admits funding needed
for municipal role in more housing
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Minister Clark delivers remarks at the ROMA 2023 Conference | January 23 | |
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At the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference, Premier Doug Ford and Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Steve Clark spoke to the importance of working collaboratively with municipalities to build more housing and acknowledged the need for investments in municipal infrastructure.
Minister Clark signaled an openness to innovative solutions from municipalities to implement Bill 23 and inform future legislation.
Mayor Burton has indicated a willingness to work with all levels of government in order to address the housing crisis and has offered ideas on the best ways to fund municipal services going forward.
Read Mayor Burton's letter here
Minister Clark stated, “I want to make myself very clear, our government is committed to the approach laid out in More Homes Built Faster, because we know it's the right thing to do. But at the same time, we recognize that it's critical for municipalities to be fiscally stable and have access to the funds needed to deliver both infrastructure and services to support new housing.”
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Premier Ford, Minister Fedeli
believe 2023 will be big
for Ontario auto sector
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Premier Ford saluted Mayor Burton's role in saving auto industry | |
January 18, 2023 | Breakfast with Premier Ford | MBOT Events | |
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Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade, Vic Fedeli was adamant 2023 will be a big year, especially for Ontario's auto sector.
His office was kind enough to provide QP Briefing with a handy document outlining all the money various automakers have invested in Ontario since October 2020.
The running tally's about $16 billion, split between remodelling existing auto assembly plants and diving headfirst into next-gen auto manufacturing stuff like electric vehicle batteries.
Premier Doug Ford spoke about the auto industry at the Mississauga Board of Trade.
“The real exciting area right now is the EV’s, electric vehicles," Premier Ford said.
"So, when we came to office and Mayor Burton remembers this, we were over at Ford and with his great support, working collaboratively with the federal government and with municipalities in the province, we were able to save Ford Oakville.
"When I said we saved them, after over 100 years, as the mayor remembers, they were on their way down to Mexico at the time and we put the investments in so now they're going to be here for many, many decades to come."
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New parkland for Oakville
featured on YourTV
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Oakville's new parkland was featured on a YourTV Halton episode with reporter Jason Trout.
The episode highlights how Oakville will be expanding its parkland system by building a new 110 acre park after purchasing the site of a former social club.
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Lisa LaFlamme to speak at The Un-Dinner Party
Celebrating its 40th anniversary, the Women of Halton Action Movement (WHAM), a voluntary, non-partisan, non-hierarchical feminist lobby group, is announcing its 20th annual International Women’s Day fundraiser on March 8.
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Last-minute P.A. day childcare options for parents
Whether a young parent or a new resident of Oakville, you may need to learn about childcare options available when schools run Professional Activity (P.A.) for school staff. Or you could be the busy parent who forgot to enroll your child in his/her/their favourite P. A. day camp on Jan.27, 2023.
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Ontario Expanding Mental Health Services for Children and Youth in Every Corner of the Province
The Ontario government is investing $4.75 million to expand the “One Stop Talk” virtual “walk-in” counselling program to connect children, youth and their families with more convenient and timely ways to access mental health counselling no matter where they live.
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12,000 children still waiting for surgery in Ontario as pediatric capacity slowly ramps up
Pediatric surgeries are once again ramping up at children’s hospitals across Ontario after hundreds were cancelled during the massive wave of ER visits over the fall.
However, Dr. Devin Peterson, the chief of pediatric surgery at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, told CityNews the crisis is far from over and surgery levels are nowhere close to normal.
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Bank of Canada raises interest rate again - but hits 'pause' on any more
The Bank of Canada has raised its benchmark interest rate again, to 4.5 per cent.
The move was widely expected by economists as the bank tries to wrestle record-high inflation into submission.
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$2,500 Digital Transformation Grants NOW available | |
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Applications are now being accepted for the $2,500 Digital Transformation Grants! Applications will be accepted until September 30, 2023, or until funds are fully exhausted. There are a limited number of grants available, so businesses are encouraged to apply early!
It is free to apply and the process is simple:
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Register your business at digitalmainstreet.ca/ontariogrants/ and complete the digital assessment.
- Pass the pre-qualification quiz, complete the 2.5 hours of online training, and develop your Digital Transformation Plan.
- Apply for a $2,500 grant.
Businesses can register for a free webinar to learn more about the Digital Transformation Grant 4.0 program.
Thursday, February 2, 2023
11:00 AM – 11:45 AM EST
Register today!
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Town of Oakville
1225 Trafalgar Road,
Oakville, Ontario
mayor@oakville.ca
905-845-6601
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