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the HERALD Wednesday October 1991 Election 91 Page IE The most important town aspect that must be improved If public and environmental concerns were put first in the process delays and added expenses would be avoided and developers could proceed with confidence The of water as a commodity Water is the singularly most important commodity in the municipality Tom The main thing that has to be improved in the Town is com munication between Council and the public at large whether it be an individual or a group I think it could be vastly improved AlCook The single most important aspect of the Town that must be im proved is that of establishing a seniors centre Right now we dont provide anything for the social cultural and recreational needs of this segment of the population We are all going to be seniors someday whether we like it or not Statistics show that such a facility is needed in our com munity It doesnt have to impact our taxes Property that is surplus to the Town could be sold This money along with provincial fun ding could then be used to establish such a centre The need is there Gail Rutherford Development the most im portant issue this new Council will have to deal with It will have an impact on all members of our com munity from babies to seniors It will influence taxes our water sup ply our environment how businesses succeed or fail and the very character of our community The process needs to be revitalized and revamped so that people have more effective input and therefore some control over their neighborhoods and lifestyles They dont want to become another Brampton Rob Heaton The main aspect of the town that needs to be improved is the quality of service to the public Most Ward people are critical of Town staff appearing to just pay lip service in answering the publics questions and not the value of questions which could lead to changes to the administration of the Town Peter Norton Looking after our environment is the single most important aspect of Hills that must be im proved Without an adequate supply of clean water the town cannot attract industry which would reduce the tax load on homeowners and provide more affordable housing would not be possible Moreover we would not be able to build a seniors centre or extend our recreational facilities for our children To ensure a clean water supply we must continue opposition to the proposed RSI lan dfill site Council and citizens alike must work together Our children are counting on us Ron I would like to see the newly elected council spend considerable time deciding what hills will be like in the year 2000 Using the feedback received these past few weeks the reports available let council set priorities for the next three years Communicating this direction and these priorities ratepayers is crucial Ratepayers elect represen tatives to listen to their concerns receive feedback and make decisions Too often consultants reports I feel are not necessary The majority of decisions should be made using staff council and com munity knowledge Working cooperatively within time frames all groups understand perhaps we can make the whole process more positive and less adversarial And in the end everyone in Halton Hills benefits Grant What we need to do is attract in dustry If we can get industry here we can stop increasing everybodys taxes This is turning into a bedroom community Gerald For the community of Acton confirmation by the Region of and the Ministry of Natural Resources that Acton has sufficient water supply to enable the large projected developments to proceed Actonians have been waiting for this for years and that confirmation is almost upon us The larger projected population will ensure the viability for the downtown core and more market services in the area without diminishing the quiet com munity life that Acton now enjoys For the whole Town of Hills a greater sense among the whole citizenry of living in ONE Town Hills which means seeking to live in harmony with an appreciation for one another and accepting the individual dif ferences which make us unique while working together for the com mon good of the whole community We can achieve this by a by accepting that there must be a balance between Individual rights and community needs by building an even higher level of trust between the residents and the Council by electing a Council whose members speak for the whole of Hills and not simply for singleissue pressure groups Rob Barlow Hills is a community where the people is involved We take pride in how much we care about out neighborhoods As mayor I would encourage public input in the decision making process The people have a right to be informed about Town Council business and they should expect public meetings be held when convenient to the politicians The future of our Town is in our hands- what is needed is the leadership to protect and determination to fight for the right to decide what we want our community to be ANNE CURRIE I think the most needed im provement is lessening the feeling of uneasiness that seems to prevail among many citizens at this time In existing neighborhoods a fear of change seems to exist and the very word development creates con troversy Development or re development that does not threaten the environment must be a development which will not disrupt nor overweigh the neighborhood must be given equal weight in importance in reasuring residents The town must allow for a wider range of housing but in or der to dissipate the fear of change people must know where and what kinds of changes may occur The Urban Area Study now being un dertaken with the help of 30 local residents will set guidelines where apartments and townhouses are most likely to be located Some areas are just not appropriate for high rise apartments but many are suitable including abandoned in dustrial sites When people un derstand what is going on and the process involved suspicion lessens and the feeling of uneasiness is lif ted A return of the feeling of pride in the community and a boosting of hometown spirit may increase A further boost in pride in the com munity will be the improvement along Highway particularly where no landscaping was required when it was built Examples of lan dscaping improvement in other areas show what can be done Russ Miller You really cant single out one most important issue every issue is important Taxes are an important issue in the this election People are being overtaxed but people must relate that with services provided Without taxes cant have ser vices I will always listened to the public with respect to services provided in relation to whether they want taxes to increase taxes to remain stationary or taxes to decrease But in many cases people want taxes reduced and services in creased So we have to make a respon sible decision to meet the needs of every individual which is almost an But I feel we Coun cil have had responsible budgets to meet the needs of the public Having said that the en vironment is probably the most im portant issue which includes the Ac ton landfill proposal and I feel my years experience with the Con servation Authority and my long residency in Town gives me the ex perience to stop the dump Claude We should try and improve the level of employment To increase employment you have to bring in in dustry You must advertise the Town to let industry know we exist Norm Elliott The single most important aspect of the Town that needs to be im proved is the way in which Council interacts with the public It is absolutely crucial that there be a return to reasonableness for want of a better word in the manner that discourse occurs bet ween our citizens and the people they elect to represent them Norm Elliott Council must take the lead role in initiating a less confrontational process This may be partly achieved through better education to ensure the public understands the process and the often obscure constraints that municipal govern ment works underlt also requires that Council adopt a less defensive stance when criticized by citizens The other side of the equation is that the public must be prepared to accept some decisions of Council without condemning the decision makers Councillors are also citizens and taxpayers Any changes to facilitate reasonable dialogue bet ween them and the public are to be encouraged Taxes The public is paying milion a day on our federal debt The provin cial debt isnt any better And the municipality has been spending more than it has been collecting Georgetown has been studied to death Consultants are getting rich with our taxpaying dollar We need sensible budgeting I think we need to focus on the needs of the com munity from the publics point of view The homeowners have been carrying too much of the tax load We have a ratio of per cent com mercial and 78 residential Therefore Hills needs to double its tax base through in dustrial and commercial develop ment We have acres of serviced in dustrial parkland so Georgetown needs to have a committee of ex perienced people who can recruit prestige industry and commercial development to reduce the tax bur den on the public HALTON HILLS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Presents MEET THE CANDIDATES November 700 PM ActonHigh School Wards 2only Mayoralty Candidates November 6 1991 700 PM Georgetown District High School Wards 3 only Mayoralty Candidates Candidates will deliver a prepared speech followed by questions from the public