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•Th e IF P• H al to n H ill s • Th ur sd ay , O ct ob er 1 6, 2 01 4 24 161014 Thank You for Supporting the 2014 Halton Children's Water Festival Aird & Berlis LLP Associated Engineering Inc. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP City of Burlington Burlington CAER Association Town of Halton Hills NALCO Canada Co. R. V. Anderson Associates Ltd. Storage Solutions Thomson, Rogers Wastewise PRESENTED BY IN PARTNERSHIPWITH You are cordially invited to be the guest of The Rotary Club of Georgetown at their 59th Annual Norm Bigg Senior Citizens' Dinner THURSDAYNovember 14th, 2013 at 6:30 pm GEORGETOWN ALLIANCE CHURCH 290 Main Street South, Georgetown ON L7G 4T1 AGE LIMIT: 70 YEARS AND OLDER DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, ONLY THE FIRST 275 SENIORS CAN BE ACCOMMODATED YOUMUST CONTACT Kay Bigg **to confirm your registration** PLEASE CALL 905-702-0013 This Rotary-sponsored event is held annually to celebrate and show our community's appreciation for the seniors in our town. This is the 59th year that the Seniors' dinner has been held, and as a service club, provides one of the highlights of our year of community activities. As usual, we will be taking orders for Brandt Christmas hams at the dinner - the proceeds of which support our Rotary club's international service projects. If you are not attending this event and are interested in ordering a ham, please contact us at president@rotarygeorgetown-on.ca THURSDAY November 13th, 2014 at 6:30 pm 60th Candidates put the issues on the table in Acton Traffic woes, affordable housing, at- tracting new businesses and even the state of Fairy Lake were among the top- ics up for debate Tuesday evening at an all-candidates meeting in Acton. The session, held at the Acton Town Hall, brought together about three doz- en local residents and four of the five Ward 1 candidates: incumbents Mike O'Leary and Jon Hurst and political newcomers Robert Bedard and Geoff Maltby. David George Hyde sent his re- grets. The candidates fielded questions for over an hour, each being given one min- ute to reply. The evening got off to a live- ly start after Acton Active Living Centre President Dave Maloney sought the can- didates' opinions on affordable housing options for seniors who are looking to downsize. Hurst told him that council does rec- ognize the importance of providing af- fordable housing in the community. "The problem we have is getting de- velopers to commit to providing such a type of housing," he said. "The money seems to be in larger homes." Maltby countered with criticism, ask- ing why Hurst would be worried about affordable housing now. "You had 11 years to work on it," he said. "Maybe you're too busy worrying about your developer friends being tak- en care of first." He suggested council needs to set forward further rules for developers to coerce them into building the types of housing needed. But Bedard argued that developers are going to look else- where if the Town begins imposing re- strictions. "It boils down to the fact affordable housing needs to be a priority of the community. And if it's a priority, we have to be prepared to pay for it," he said. O'Leary said the lack of affordable housing is due to the cost of land, add- ing he wants to look into the Canada Packers (Beardmore) property in Acton as a future potential location. "We have struggled with affordable housing for not only seniors, but other people too," he said. Among those in attendance was may- oral candidate Sally Stull, who asked the men how they will deal with the ev- er-increasing traffic that flows through Acton on Hwy. 7. Hurst said he thinks the only solu- tion to the problem is a bypass. Maltby concurred that a bypass needs to be considered, but pointed out that divert- ing traffic away from the downtown is a double-edged sword that could hurt lo- cal businesses. Bedard took a slightly different ap- proach, saying the answer lies in getting people out of their cars and into public transit. With Hwy. 7 falling under the Prov- ince's domain, O'Leary said there are regulations that limit what the Town can do to solve traffic woes. The candidates were then asked by Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce General Manager Kathleen Dills about what they would do to encourage more businesses to set up shop in Acton. Hurst said while the Town's econom- ic development officer already does a great job, Acton is facing restrictions on water and sewer capacity, making it challenging to welcome new businesses. "We must remember that we can look at increasing the opportunities in Georgetown," he said, noting that job creation there would benefit Acton resi- dents too. O'Leary explained that Acton cur- rently has more water capacity avail- able than sewer, or wastewater, and that the regional budget for the wastewater treatment plant won't be debated until 2017. "Until we can get wastewater settled, it (development) is not going to go ahead," he said. Maltby said he would work day and night to bring good jobs to Acton, go- ing on to criticize Halton Hills council's previous decision to seek a casino as a potential local business. "I don't believe that's the kind of in- dustry we need," he said. Bedard said the issue boils down to working with regional, provincial and federal partners to attract businesses to town. "And ultimately the incentive needs to be financial," he said. Rounding out the evening was long- time Acton resident Herb Dodds, who polled the candidates for their opinions on Fairy Lake being allowed to return to its natural, marsh-like state, as directed by Credit Valley Conservation. "I totally disagree with it," Dodds said. O'Leary and Maltby also indicated they don't want to see Fairy Lake be- come a swamp again, with Maltby stat- ing that part of the problem is residents aren't frequenting Fairy Lake or de- manding anything different. Hurst concurred Fairy Lake is a "hid- den jewel" that residents should make an effort to use more, while Bedard said he doesn't have a problem with the lake returning to its natural state. By MELANIE HENNESSEY Special to The IFP