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19 | Thursday, December 5, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Your Halton Connection December 2013 www.halton.ca Planning for a safe & healthy future By Regional Chair Gary Carr This time of year is often used to reconnect with family and friends, appreciating the past year's accomplishments and thinking about the year ahead. Halton residents are fortunate to enjoy some of the best quality of life experiences in the country and to live in the safest Region in Canada. To help keep Halton a great place to live, Regional Council is committed to supporting vibrant communities and enhancing the safety and health of all its residents. In addition, if you witness dangerous drivers, you can report them through the Road Watch program. This is a community driven program encouraging anonymous reporting of incidents involving dangerous and/or aggressive driving. Reports can be made by completing an online form at www.haltonroadwatch.ca. This holiday season, help us keep our roads safe while ensuring that Halton remains a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire. Providing infrastructure for vibrant communities Maintaining and expanding a safe and efficient Regional road network requires a substantial investment. Consistent increases in the Region's capital budget for roads reflects the additional revenue available from new development fees and supports Regional Council's position that infrastructure related to new growth should pay for itself. Recently Regional Council approved its new Allocation Program. The Allocation Program is used to ensure that as Halton continues to grow, the cost of providing the water, wastewater and transportation infrastructure is paid by the developers and not our existing taxpayers. With the approval of the Allocation Program, Halton Region can begin implementing a $1.44 billion infrastructure program over the next three years ­ the largest infrastructure program the Region has ever undertaken. There are significant water, wastewater and transportation projects including a significant expansion of the Mid-Halton Wastewater Treatment Plant, the Boyne Sewer, the widening of Dundas Street to six lanes through sections of Oakville and Burlington, and the widening of sections of Tremaine Road and Britannia Road in Milton. This most recent investment reiterates Halton's commitment to planning for the needs or Halton residents. Over the past seven years, Halton's capital budget for roads has increased REGIONAL ROAD CAPITAL BUDGET from $50 million in 2006 to $289 million $289 million in 2013. At the same time, residents have experienced an average zero per cent tax $50 increase for Regional million services, one of the best 2006 2013 records in Canada. Keeping our roads safe When you're getting together with family and friends to celebrate holidays and ring in 2014, be sure to keep the party at home and off the roads. To help stop impaired driving and keep our roads safe, Halton Region has partnered with the Halton Regional Police Service to create www.halton.ca/impaired. Here you can find ways to plan for a safe ride home, how to report a suspected impaired driver, ways to talk to teens about impaired driving, as well as a powerful video testimony. Help us help you Through Halton's partnership with the Police, you can help keep our roads safe by being an extra set of eyes on the roads. If you see a driver who you suspect is impaired, pull over and call 9-1-1. Impaired driving is considered a crime in progress and calling 9-1-1 to report it is not only acceptable, but encouraged. Providing transportation choices Halton has prepared an Active Transportation Master Plan (ATMP) to make it easier for people to walk, bike and roll around the Region. This exciting project will provide Halton with a strategy for infrastructure, as well as initiatives and programs to promote people-powered travel throughout the Region. Visit www.halton.ca/activetransportation to learn about the plan and provide your feedback. Meetings at Halton Region Headquarters Dec. 9, 9:30 a.m. Budget Review Dec. 11, 9:30 a.m. Regional Council Please contact us as soon as possible if you have any accessibility needs at Halton Region events or meetings. This page has been donated by this newspaper to communicate important information to Halton residents at no cost to taxpayers. We welcome your feedback. Contact us at AccessHalton@halton.ca