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BURLINGTON 905-639-7106 WWW.PLUMBINGMART.CA WELLWORTH$199 KELSTON$299 CIMARRON ROUND$270 CIMARRON 1 PIECE$425 Promotion price includes toilet seat FREE Installation Kit Qualifies for Halton rebate of $60-$75 Live fl ushing displays Kohler representative present Other one day specials 7 Thursday , Septem ber 23, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF I labour always to prepare a way for those willing to follow. Oakville Mayor Rob Burton used this quote by the explorer Samuel de Champlain to sum up councils performance during the past four years. The quote kicked off the Mayors Annual Town Status Report in which Burton listed this councils accomplishments at Mondays council meeting. The last four years, our council has pre- pared a way towards a more livable and sus- tainable future for everyone in Oakville, said Burton. As the chosen representatives of our community, we have parked our party labels at the door, weve worked together for the good of the town we all share. Burton stated that at the beginning of this councils term, a strategic four-year work plan was created listing numerous objectives, which allowed council to focus to the extent that nearly all of these objectives were reached. The creation of the Livable Oakville Official Plan was listed by Burton as the great achievement of this council as it directs growth to controlled areas and pro- tects existing neighbourhoods from unwanted development. With our new Official Plan, we will con- tinue our record of success this term at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), said Burton. Our legal and planning team is now defending our new Official Plan at the OMB from the developers, who are fighting so hard to turn back the clock to when they always seemed to win at the OMB. The adoption of the Downtown Oakville Strategic Review was also pointed to as a success story for its potential to preserve the vitality of Oakvilles downtown. Councils passing of Ontarios first Health Protection Air Quality Bylaw to address community concerns about air pollution was listed as another important achieve- ment as was the heritage designation of 500 properties and the impending designation of the Great White Oak tree on Bronte Road. Burton also dubbed the changing of Oakvilles transit system to a grid system for faster cross-town travel was listed as anoth- er important council milestone. Ridership rose all this year, said Burton. We have no empty routes. We do have empty stretches, we do have empty times, but that ladies and gentlemen is nor- mal for transit. Burton said council had also improved connections to GO Transit and added hun- dreds of parking spots to local GO Stations to assist GO commuters. A 2,000-space parking structure, sched- uled to be built next year in the area of Trafalgar and Cornwall Roads, will continue to make GO Transit travel more accessible, said Burton. A program of continuous improvement for road resurfacing and repair, protection of employment lands and an award-winning Economic Development 10-year Strategic Plan were added to the list of council achievements. Burton also talked about the action council has taken to erase Oakvilles facili- ties deficit. The Queen Elizabeth Park Community Centre (scheduled to open in 2012) is just one of many facilities we have acquired or built to catch up on the Towns facilities deficit. We celebrated one of our biggest catch-ups when we opened Sixteen Mile Sports Complex to rave reviews just this past weekend, said Burton. We looked after our small facilities, too. Kinoak Arena is getting an upgrade to its building through stimulus funding. Minor ice hockey associations the Blades, the Hornets, Oakville Speed Skating, the Oakville Skating Club and others are all benefiting from more ice time and we can now see the day when adults will also bene- fit from good town ice time. Burton said this council has also opened the Pine Glen Soccer Centre in partnership with the Oakville Soccer Club, purchased Joshuas Creek Arenas, opened a new library branch in the Clearview neighbourhood and opened the Bronte Youth Centre. A new Oakville Transit facility to support expanded transit service is also scheduled to open in 2011. In the process of doing all this, Burton said the Town was able to reduce the amount of tax-supported debt from $24 mil- lion at the beginning of the term to $22 mil- lion this fiscal year. We held the rate of tax increases this term to the same as the previous four years and we did more this term, too, said Burton. Our overall property tax increase was 2.6 per cent a year, close to the rate of infla- tion for the period. This year it was just 1.6 per cent. At .98 (per cent) we have one of the lowest property tax rates in the GTA and it is the same tax levy rate that we started this term of council with. Burton also talked about the measures council has taken to prevent TransCanadas Mayor says council hit most of its targets As the chosen representatives of our community, we have parked our party labels at the door, weve worked together for the good of the town we all share. Mayor Rob Burton See Mayor page 8