Letter From Gary Carr - Halton Regional Chair

*"The Elimination of GTA Pooling *

On Thursday, March 22, the Provincial government announced the 2007
Ontario Budget. An important piece of the Budget for Halton taxpayers is
the elimination of GTA Pooling, which Halton Region has been advocating for.

GTA Pooling was established in 1998 to share social assistance and
social housing costs across the GTA. Since the program started Halton
Region has contributed $325 million to the City of Toronto for their
social services costs.

As part of the provincial government's plan, Pooling will be reduced by
one-sixth of its 2004 levels each year until the program is completely
eliminated by 2013. This will result in a savings of close to $6 million
this year alone to Halton Region.

GTA Pooling was an unfair burden on Halton taxpayers and those across
the GTA. I applaud the Ontario Government for listening to the advocacy
efforts of myself, Halton's four mayors, as well as Regional and Local
Councillors, by taking steps to eliminate GTA Pooling.

The elimination of GTA Pooling puts us one step one step further to
ensuring fairness for Halton. It is important now for Halton to continue
to push the Provincial Government for the funding commitments and
financial tools we need to ensure that growth pays for itself, and that
the cost of growth is not on the backs of our current residents.

GTA Pooling was just one of the many shortfalls facing Halton Region
with impending growth as a result of the Province's Places to Grow Plan.
To address the shortfalls, Halton will continue to ask the Province to
provide an enhanced municipal infrastructure funding program, make
immediate changes to the Development Charges Act, and address
inequalities in provincial cost sharing requirements. A review being
undertaken by the province is not timely enough. We will continue to
call for immediate action to allow Halton to address the current
infrastructure deficits and respond to the objectives in the Places to
Grow Plan

To find out more about the elimination of GTA Pooling, you can contact
Halton Region at 905-825-6000, toll free 1-866-4HALTON (1-866-442-5866),
TTY 905-827-9833, or visit our website at www.halton.ca

<http://www.halton.ca/>. I would like to remind you also, that if you
have not visited our page on Fairness for Halton, please do so. There
you will find a postcard that you can forward to your local MPP and MP
to support our efforts to achieve fairness for Halton.

Sincerely,

Gary Carr

Regional Chair"

Stopping Urban Sprawl - putting people before cars

It is being recognised that Urban Sprawl is the buzzword of
Architectural Planners. What this means to the uninitiated is putting
people in high-rise, high density buildings instead of chewing up large
swathes of land building low-density housing and the necessary
infrastructure (roads, water, power, sewage etc.) to support it.
So, at a moments notice, off we go increasing the density of the
population, hoping that the developers will at least give us something
smart.
In Oakville we have an official town plan, that requires the higher
density buildings to be built "around" retail and commercial sites, and
"adjacent to" good public transit systems. This is smart-development
policy.

So why is it, that whilst we are shoveling people into smaller,
high-rise, higher density accommodation, we do not apply the same rules
to the vehicles they drive.

Every day, those who live in medium density II, and high density housing
extract themselves from their small accommodation, trsuting the elevator
hasn't broken (again) to get to the ground level, so that the can get in
their cars and drive to the shops, because they are not actually
adjacent to their buildings after-all, or to the GO station, which is
also not adjacent to their building, nor easily accessible in a timely
fashion other than driving to it, and they park their car. They then
travel on a cramped and aging public transit system, to go to their
cramped cubes, in a super high-density office to work. Doing the
reverse journey home in a cramped public transit system they arrive to
find their vehicle, completely free of stress because it has been
lounging around in a nice open area free from the cramped conditions we
as humans have put ourselves through.

And why do we do this? Probably because we a re too stupid to realise
that our pride and joy actually doesn't have any feelings after all. He
or She does have a brain, and it only has a name because we try to
humanise it. Face it people, it's a CAR.

Why is it, every time we build a shopping Mall, the Cars get more floor
space than the people? Why is it at every GO station the cars are
spread out like fat bathers on sunbeds, lounging around all day whilst
we are continually shoved into shoe boxes?

Have none of the developers in Canada heard of Multi-storey car parks?
Of course they have! They are just not as profitable as pouring asphalt
(very often badly) onto swathes of farmland and painting lines on it.

In the footprint used for car parking at the Oakville and Bronte GO
Stations, with a bit of sensible planning we could have 4 times the
amount of cars, AND a Medium Density Residential Unit, AND Shops, yet in
the villages we are still having our low-density residential properties
demolished to put up Sequoia size buildings to cram the Sardine people
into, blocking off the light and views to all around.

This may sound like a rant of negativity, but if you look deeply into
this, you'll see that there is a positive point being put. Put the cars
into secure high-rise buildings, and let the people have the space to
meet, greet and communicate, and you will develop the communities
positively. Put the cars in large open, asphalted and paved spaces, and
you will end up putting us into our little solitary confinement cells
staring across at other cell blocks, whilst the car parking spaces are
giving off enough heat from Solar absorption to power generators to run
most of Oakville!

And for those who say Car Parks are not safe when they are multi storey,
so people wont use them, I suggest you look around. Ever Car park space
in the multi-storey car park at Oakville Place, Square One, and Sherway
Gardens is completely full every time it rains or snows, leaving the
outside ones until there is no space in the mutli-storey.

So does this mean that people put their hairstyles and fashion higher on
the list than their safety?

Interesting thought for a priority list, first the Car, then the hair,
then the style, then the people. I would have thought we should be
reversing that particular list, and then maybe, just maybe we might
start to create rules for developers to Develop communities, rather than
just build profit centres.

So we want to stop urban sprawl? My suggestion is to stop giving our
cars large footprints of paved land, and utilise the land properly for
us, the people, and our needs. Maybe then the land we recover from our
metal buddies could be used to provide yet more and better public
transit systems that we can use, and yet more and better organised
spaces in which to park our cars to use them.

Earth Day Cleanup - 21st April 2007

Once again that time has come when we as responsible residents go out a
pick up garbage that it strewn around our neighbourhood.

Where this garbage comes from who knows? I'm sure we don't drop this
much each year, let's blame it on the construction workers, or passing
vehicles tossing the crap from their cars as they pass through our
community on roads to who knows where.

Anyway, on April 21st, Richard Zavitz and Brent McKnight will be
organizing all of us able bodied people in the community to go out and
clear-up the mess. Last year it poured with rain, but unbelievably we
managed to clean every nook, every brook, and every street of garbage in
less than three hours.

This year we are hoping for better weather. Also, we have a new pub in
our midst, up at the Great Lakes Plaza, the Wild-Wing has offered to
provide complimentary wings and soft drinks for all participants from
12:30 'til 2:00. This is a great opportunity to meet and discuss things
that are happening in the community, and to get to know a bit about each
other.

The cleanup starts at 10:30 am at the traffic circle on Great Lakes
Blvd, and Creek Path Avenue, and as usual Richard and Brent have managed
to get Tim Horton's to supplying coffee, Timbits and T-Shirts for
everyone, as well as gloves and garbage bags.

Richard & Brent need to know the number of participants by Sunday, April
15 as people at The Wild Wing have to place their supply orders early in
the week, and we wouldn't want to not have enough food to go around
would we?

Anyone interested, *please RSVP* to richard_zavitz@yahoo.ca
<mailto:richard_zavitz@yahoo.ca> by Sunday April 15th.

Another Residents Perspective

As I said, we would be posting Blogs from other residents and trying to
represent everyones viewpoint. Here's a transcript of one that we
received recently.

"We are new residents of Oakville, having left downtown Toronto for a
better quality of life. We left densely populated communities which were
suffocating under the weight of an unmaintainable level of demand for
services, transit gridlock, and frustration at a lack of resources and
space. The stress of overbearing density is ruining our communities.
Before Oakville concedes to the Provincial plan to combat urban sprawl
by increasing residential density, we should explore other possibilities
and solutions. The problems inherent in the type of development which
Daniels Corporation is proposing in response to the medium density
zoning allotted to the woodlot in Lakeshore woods are likely to be long
term and costly to the community.

1) The development proposed is not similar to the existing properties in
the area, and will lower property values in the immediate area.

2) The development will destroy natural space, the shortage of which is
currently forcing a local tree by-law to become a contentious issue.

3) This natural space is part of a corridor for wildlife to access the
lake-front.

4) The traffic in the area is already becoming quite heavy. During rush
hour Rebbecca Street is backed up well past Bronte Road to Burloak
Drive, and Great Lakes Boulevard is becoming very busy. The last traffic
study for this area was in 2001, when there was very little development
completed. The traffic will be significantly increased in the area if
this proposal is approved.

5) Some statistics have shown that there is a correlation between
population density and the crime rate, especially if other issues are
factored in.

6) Condominiums and apartments without sufficient publicly available
amenity space and facilities reduce the sense of community.

7) Oakville is rapidly losing its green-spaces. To continue along this
path we will eventually find ourselves struggling with flooding and
other environmental impacts such as those which through tragedy led to
the creation of the Halton region Conservation Authority.

Halton region has an opportunity to reconsider its future before it has
to repair its mistakes. The current population density targets are a
reflection of the provincial governments plan to curb urban sprawl. The
concept being, that if we force population growth into less space we can
slow the spread of the growth outward in favor of growth vertically. The
issues of traffic congestion are not lessened by this plan, but are
intensified as more vehicles are forced to utilize fewer interchanges.
The increased density magnifies flow restrictions in the traffic grid,
and increases the stress and tension of drivers resulting in more
collisions, and aggressive driving.

The loss of this wetland space is irreversible. The impact on the
wildlife that uses this corridor is difficult to measure without further
study. Many residents report that deer are often seen in the area, and
the wetland is a breeding area for ducks. It seems that at a time when
such controversy over a tree bylaw is top news, it would be prudent to
scrutinize any development that encroaches on some of the few remaining
natural spaces left in Oakville.

SUGGESTION

Oakville should take a leadership role in proposing a decentralization
of the business model that is currently creating the issues associated
with urban sprawl, traffic congestion, and the resulting environmental
impact. Oakville should encourage industry to create satellite offices
in outlying regions and create an environment where local residents can
opt to live and work in the same region. If a decentralized model was
incorporated then the emphasis in urban planning would return to
creating places where people could live in more natural settings in
harmony with the environment. This focus of Oakville's strategic plan
should be on creating communities that people want to be a part of. We
should attempt to create model communities that incorporate sound
environmental balances and do not compromise the quality of life that
attracts residents to Oakville.

Global Warming Forum - Saturday, April 14, 2007 at 7:30 PM,St. John’s United Church, 262 Randall Street, Oakville

This is posted from an article printed in the Oakville Beaver on March
21st, 2007.

"Climate change and global warming are major concerns for Canadians. The
recent February 2007 Report by the United Nations International
Committee on Climate Change has confirmed that we can expect there to be
extremely disruptive consequences for our planet's environment unless
this issue is resolutely dealt with," said Stephen Dankowich, OCCPEHR
director.

"We consider it highly important that the public be informed about the
contents of this UN Report and its predictions for the future," added
Mervyn Russell, coordinator of the public forum.

Professor Richard Peltier, a climatologist from the University of
Toronto who contributed to the research of the report, will give a
40-minute, illustrated presentation. A panel consisting of
parliamentarians, representatives of industry and a local environmental
activist will respond.

The evening will conclude with 40 minutes of comments and questions from
the floor. Mayor Robert Burton will chair the Public Forum.

Said Sue Carduelis, an OCCPEHR board member, "anyone who is concerned
about what will happen to the environment in the near-future or for
future generations to come should make a point of attending this event."

Maria Catania, who is a resident of the Lakeshore Woods Community has
asked us to post this addition, and in the spirit of letting everyone
have their say


"...The Daniels Corporation plans to replace part of our beautiful
(Creek Path woodlot) with (two 50 apartment 4-storey condominium
buildings) or 100 units of stacked townhouses.

Not only will this development destroy much of the plant and wildlife in
the area but adding 100 more residents to this small enclosed space will
also add significantly to the traffic congestion in our community.

If you are concerned about what will happen to your immediate
environment now and for generations to come, we urge you to attend the
OCCPEHR public forum on Saturday, April 14'th at St. John's United
Church, 262 Randall Street.

Global warming and climate change are already affecting our environment,
are we willing to do nothing while our woods and the wildlife they
protect are taken away from us?

According to the Beaver article (above) Mayor Robert Burton will chair
the Public Forum and take questions from the floor at the end of the
meeting.

This is a timely opportunity for Lakeshore Woods residents to let the
Mayor know how we feel about the destruction of our woodlot

If you wish to attend please
call The Oakville Community Centre for Peace, Ecology and Human Rights
at 905-849-5501 or e-mail them at volunteer@oakvillepeacecentre.org
<mailto:volunteer@oakvillepeacecentre.org> and plan to attend this
important meeting. Global warming is not someone else's concern. It
affects us, and it affects our community"