Oakville Ontario News, Articles and Reviews

Halton Region is a location of choice for business investment and a place that residents choose to call home. Our Region has become one of the best communities in Canada. At Halton Region, we are committed to ensuring our quality of life continues.

Residents have identified that maintaining current infrastructure and planning for future infrastructure requirements is a top issue of concern. To address this, we have introduced Building a Better Halton, which is our infrastructure construction plan. This plan covers road, water and wastewater projects.

This year, Council approved $362 million in infrastructure investments. Upgrading and adding to our infrastructure will help us to reduce commute times, provide a high-quality water supply to new communities and complete preventive maintenance on key services such as wastewater mains.

These investments will benefit residents across the region — from Burlington to Halton Hills to Milton to Oakville, as we are upgrading and maintaining current infrastructure, and adding new services to not only meet the needs of residents, but also business owners.

Each year our budget focuses on an investment in the services and programs you have told us are important to you, one which includes infrastructure. Over the last four years, the combined tax increase for Regional programs and services has been less than 0.5% – one of the lowest among municipalities in Canada.

In order to keep Halton’s portion of taxes low we need to come up with other sources of revenue. One such example is how we are financing the infrastructure construction needs of Halton, which is being addressed through our collection of Development Charges. This year alone, Development Charges will cover 82% of the costs for road construction.

The use of Development Charges, (paid by developers on all new development and is the primary source of funding for the required infrastructure), to pay for infrastructure construction ensures that the developers pay for these costs, not taxpayers.

During summer construction, remember we’re Building a Better Halton to ensure that Halton remains a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire.

To find out more about Halton’s construction plans, dial 311. If you have any Regional concerns or comments you would like to share, please feel free to email me at gary.carr@halton.ca.

Communicating Building a Better Halton

In an effort to help keep residents informed about these and other Building a Better Halton construction projects, we are launching a Twitter feed @HaltonBBH on August 9, so residents can get real time updates.

Gary Carr is the Regional Chair of Halton – which consists of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Contact Chair Carr by telephone at 905-825-6115 and by email at gary.carr@halton.ca

On June 10, I attended the 2010 Halton Region RBC Business Plan Competition to offer congratulations to the participants on behalf of Regional Council.

In attendance that night to help honour the promising young business leaders of tomorrow were Kevin Flynn, MPP Oakville, Elizabeth Cornish, Regional Advisor, Ministry of Economic Development and Trade, and Marilynn Roch, RBC, Sales Manager, South Halton Market.

I truly believe in the efforts of Halton’s young entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are an important part of our economy. According to Statistics Canada, Halton Region was the location of choice for 37,501 enterprises in December 2009. Over the past ten years, there has been a 55 per cent increase in the number of enterprises in Halton. Growth was led by “micro-businesses,” businesses that have fewer than 5 employees. These increased 64 per cent since 1999. Overall, 82 per cent of Halton companies are micro-businesses and, of those, 71 per cent are self-employed individuals.

Young entrepreneurs such as Elyse Simpson, a grade 12 student at Iroquois Ridge High School, and the young people who were honoured, represent the future. For those of you who don’t know, Elyse is the owner of Jangle Records and was the 2009 Business Plan Competition Winner, a Summer Company Participant, and a Top 20 under 20 Award Recipient.

Through our Small Business Centre and other services, we are proud to support these future entrepreneurs and provide them with tools to help them succeed. Located in the Regional Administrative Building, the Centre offers seminars, resources, e-learning tutorials and consultations. Residents and entrepreneurs can also attend Halton seminars at their local libraries, and in North Halton they can take advantage of the monthly Consultant-on-Site program for one-on-one consultations. In the past 10 years, the Halton Small Business Centre has responded to over 65,500 inquiries and met with over 6,800 clients in one-on-one consultations.

We provide these services because we value the contributions of small business in Halton. We’re dedicated to assisting today’s entrepreneurs. We are also committed to supporting the entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

This is the ninth year we have hosted the Halton Region RBC Business Plan Competition with our partners at the Ontario government and at RBC Royal Bank. The competition gives secondary school students hands-on business planning experience and the chance to win financial awards. More importantly, the competition instils a sense of pride in the accomplishments of these young people. It helps them build the confidence they need to take control of their own destinies.

Four Halton-area high schools participated in this year’s competition: Abbey Park High School in Oakville; Appleby College in Oakville; Nelson High School in Burlington; and Holy Trinity Catholic Secondary School, Oakville.

I’d like to thank the teachers from these schools who helped their students develop their plans. Your guidance and support are invaluable to these young people, and likely a key factor in their success.

Thank you also to the people from our business community who volunteered their time to review and judge the submissions: David Ernst from MCAN Communications, John Stevenson from the Halton Business Advisory Group along with our own Paul deBurger, Business Consultant with Halton Region Economic Development.

I would especially like to recognize the support of RBC Royal Bank, the official sponsor of our local Business Plan Competition, and the Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Trade who developed this and other youth entrepreneurship programs.

I’d like to recognize each student who submitted a business plan this year. I hope this competition has given you an idea of what it’s like to be your own boss, and I encourage you to continue to make the most of your opportunities.

Gary Carr is the Regional Chair of Halton – which consists of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Contact Chair Carr by telephone at 905-825-6115 and by email at gary.carr@halton.ca

Halton Region is committed to safeguarding residents’ health. The Air Quality Health Index (AQHI) will help us achieve this goal together.

The AQHI is a national tool that helps individuals protect themselves and the people they care for. The Index reports air quality in relation to health on a scale from 1 to 10. The higher the reading, the greater the health risk and need to take precaution. Air pollution worsens heart problems and aggravates lung conditions, such as asthma and bronchitis. In healthy people, air pollution reduces lung function and irritates the eyes nose and throat. Poor air quality is associated with thousands of hospitalizations and premature deaths in Canada each year.

The AQHI can help people plan ahead by telling them the best time of the day to be physically active and when to reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activity. The AQHI provides health messages for both the at-risk and the general population. The at-risk group includes children, the elderly, and people with pre-existing heart and breathing problems. When the Air Quality Health Index reaches seven or above, children, people with heart or breathing problems, and the elderly should reduce or reschedule strenuous outdoor activities. AQHI forecasts are posted at www.airhealth.ca and www.halton.ca/aqhi with readings updated hourly.

Halton’s AQHI is based on two Ministry of the Environment air monitoring stations in Oakville and Burlington. The Region has installed its own air monitoring station in Milton to add another air monitor to the network.

Halton Region in partnership with the City of Toronto, and Durham, Peel, and York Regions, have introduced an electronic toolkit to assist organizations in promoting the Air Quality Health Index. The toolkit contains radio and web advertisements, newsletter articles, a presentation, print resources and a short educational film. The film walks viewers through what the index means, how air quality can affect our activities and why we should check in if we’re planning on spending time outdoors.

The AQHI helps to protect our health, and also serves as a reminder of the need to protect our environment. As cars, trucks and coal-fired power plants are major sources of air pollution, reducing energy use at home and on the road will impact the number of high AQHI days.

To help you reduce both home energy use and vehicle use, download or order a free copy of the 20/20 Planner which has a step-by-step action plan to energy reduction.

Halton Region’s air quality program aims to protect and enhance Halton’s air quality and protect Halton residents’ health. The AQHI is part of a broader air quality education and awareness-raising program. Learn more by visiting www.halton.ca/airquality.

Gary Carr is the Regional Chair of Halton – which consists of Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills. Contact Chair Carr by telephone at 905-825-6115 and by email at gary.carr@halton.ca