Where is town council’s vision? The recent news of a settlement regarding a proposed waste transfer facility on Alliance Road is what I believe is just the latest in a litany of questionable, poorly-managed decisions that have continued to plague the communities of Milton. Town council once again has come up short in its explanation of how this makes sense to its constituents, as it has in its efforts to effectively manage a comically congested traffic grid. It once again fails to appease a community that I believe is rapidly losing faith in its elected leaders. I have been a Miltonian for the past 14 years — so I have been a witness to the vitriol that accompanied the relentless, almost frenzied, expansion of that core community, in which so many of my friends and colleagues fondly recall growing up. I was on the receiving end of it more than once. But with that awkward expansion has come new parks, services, recreational/arts centres and fantastic educational facilities from which both ‘old’ and ‘new’ Milton continue to clearly benefit. I’ve also seen what other municipalities like Oakville, Burlington and Guelph have accomplished by putting the communities’ interests first. Ask Premier Kathleen Wynne what happens when a community takes an interest in what goes into their backyard (cancelled gas power plants). This is vision. Now comes word of a settlement being reached between town council and Victoria Hill Finance Group Inc. This, once again, just adds to what I believe is a growing perception that Milton is saddled with a leadership group that either possesses no real vision, or — and this is the chilling alternative — total ambivalence toward the community that empowered them. It’s incumbent for council to provide complete transparency on these types of deals. Pollution, traffic, truck noise and other environmental issues are what people are elected to councils to help minimize, to find solutions in a difficult time. The people of Milton may have to start facing the reality that this council isn’t prepared to be part of that solution. This is the latest example of its ‘vision’ and I think it’s blurred. Election, please. Chris Lightfoot Milton
Posted on: Tue, 27 Aug 2013 15:34:40 +0000
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