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6 uw ° =z = Ss = SIDES OF Halton Hills | Thursday, December 9, 2021 | & EFFORTS CONTINUE = TO ENSURE HALTON HILLS IS HEARD, WRITES TED ARNOTT TED ARNOTT Column The Ministry of Trans- portation's proposed High- On the one hand, the ministry maintains a new 400 series highway i is need- ed in the western GTA to petitiveness, plan ‘for future population wth and create jobs and economic activity. the other hand, crit- ics of the 413 proposal ques- tion the cost, the environ- mental impact, the loss of farmland, the traffic stud- ies that have been done and even the provincial govern- ment's motivation for pro- Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce has expressed support. As your MPP, I continue to carefully monitor the is- sue. $ Future traffic projec- : tions are less certain be- EXAMINING BOTH HWY. 413 PROPOSAL cause of the pandemic, but agree that we need to plan realistically for future Ta pg of the GTA, we necal to ot forward looking, while ensuring the envi- ronmental impact of new infra: icture projects is inimized, quality farm- land is protected and tax dollars are spent effective- ly and carefw. Last month, ‘I sought a meeting with senior staff of the Ministry of Trans- portation to discuss the lat- est ooements on the 413 pro} Wem at virtually on No- vember 25. Once again, I urged ministry staff to con- sider the views of the peo- ple of Pa riding, consult with Hills town Souneil and Histen to us be- fore final decisions are le. I was assured that dis- cussions with the town will continue. I will ensure that they The ministry is holding a public informa- tion centre virtual meeting for Halton residents on Dec. 14. You can register here: www.highway413.ca/ consultation-2. It will include a discus. sion of the Government of Canada's impact ne ment process. This review may con- clude that a federal impact assessment is required be- fore moving forward, which might take up to five ars. lways, your com- ments are very helpful as I continue to ensure your voice is heard at Queen's Park. Ted Arnott is the MPP for Wellington-Halton Hills. He can be reached at ed.ar' org. TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT THEIFPCA SNAPSHOT Anuthatch visits a backyard on Fifth Line in Georgetown. Do you have a gr: like to share? Send it to sleblanc@metroland.com, along with a brief description. Heather LeBlanc photo it local photo you'd DN PETER WATSON Column Recently the Bank of Canada warned that inter- est rate increases were likely for in the first part of next year in order to put the brakes on inflation. we have seen is the rising prices of homes and dan- gerously high amount of household debt — both of ich serve as signific cant toi FINANCIAL STABILITY ON PINS AND NEEDLES NEW COVID-19 VARIANT HAS INCREASED FINANCIAL WORRIES, WRITES PETER WATSON country. Then news spread about a new COVID-19 variant. Could this be the start of the 1 next wave that would uch of the world economy into another slow The "result of the news was instant panic. Stock markets around the world plummeted. On Nov. 26, the S&P 500 lost 2.27 per cent which was the largest sin- gle day loss since February. similar loss happened in Canada. The S&P/TSX Composite index was down 2.25 per cent. Gasoline prices, that had been a strong contrib- utor to high inflation, sud- denly dropped 11 cents per litre. If another wave of CO- VID-19 fears spread, gov- ernments, ling our oe — ke continue Het This would. add t to the staggering levels of govern- ment debt that have al- ready resulted from the demic. We will recover from the pandemic, but we don't know when. Until nen the financial _ stabilit many is on pins on nee- dles. Peter Watson is regis- tered with Aligned Capital Partners Inc. (ACPI) to provide investment advice. Investment products are provided by ACPI. ACPI is a member of the Invest- ment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada. The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of ACPI. Watson provides wealth janagement services through Watson Invest- ments. He can be reached at www.watsoninvestment- ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised of more than 70 community publications across Ontario. 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