Halton Hills Newspapers

Acton Free Press (Acton, ON), May 14, 1969, p. 7

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per mckeou toy regional government will bring town country together the actor frw press wednesday may 14 19rw dascy mckeoujh the minister of municipal aflalrs aays he ts not ruthing the establishment of regional government m ivel and halton counties speaking to the annual dinner meeting of the georgetown chamber of commerce at the north halton golf and country dub last wednesday the minister said that contrary to press reports he did not ut november i this year as a deadline date for the pedmalton vropotab what i did aay that if they wished to ret underway in 1971 we would have to present a final proposal by the end of thl year he told the audience- of georgetown buanenmen anda tprlnxjln of municipal rifrviau from other llakon municipalities including acton inouuton if this is not potslble they must be wldlng to wall until 1972 or 197s- the minister stated what b important is the participation and understanding of where we are golngon the part of the people mr mckeough emphasized t departing only slightly from the prepared script the minister added little lo the plans already well known to municipalities throughout the county lie tald his government is discuss arctic the geography department of acton district high school la holding three meetings open lo the general public lo discuss the arctic regions of canada department head paul marllrvdale has invited mr anderson to talk on the dew line and the arctic at the first meeting on wednesday may 21 mr anderson spent tome lime in the arctic and hat an interesting story to tell the second seminar on may 28 will feature vice principal joe bray lie will talk and show pictures of the mackenzie delia where he spent summers on research work third and final event has not been fully worked out but mr martindale expects rt will be on siberia and the contrast it presents to the canadian arctic it wilt be on june 4 dredg again dredging operations in fairy lake begaln again last week the dredgers stopped for the winter in january prepared lo accept the responsibilily of ensuring that the comprehensrve regional plans fit into a rational plan for the orderly development of the entire province the regional government program is very much oriented towards local participation and consultation mr mckeough said but he made it dear thai no towmhip of 3000 people which icemcd lo be a direct reference to nauagaweya was going lo tell the much larger parts of the pecllullon region how they should be governed the minister said plant for regional government were based on representation by population burlington wanted lo leave llalton county three months ago he claimed because there was no adequate rep by pop at the county level mr mckeough said the county system was in drastic need of overhaul since the province had changed in the last 1 20 years when the sy hem was set up we must have changes across the province he staled to bring town and country together again we have abandoned the old idea of the country and the city as two entirely separate units the minister continued the needs and wants of tire modern famdy are best served by having a region that ha an urban centre and hut includes both urban and rural areas he uid the peel halton region was udyrtamic growing area and desperately needed a broader plan of development one that was recognizable and usable by residents he slid the province wj not going lo impose its ideas on the residents of this asea i want community participation and acceptability to be the keynotes of he john armstrong centre an old friend of oarcy mckeoofiht helps fallow georgetown residont ken mcmillan renew acquaintance with the minister at last wednesdays georgetown c of c annual meeting the pair met before when mr mckoouoh accompanied chatham maroons on a hockey iunket to russia mr mcmillan president of the ontario hockey association at the time also made the tour which helped lower the iron curtain at a time when relations between the soviets and other countries were strained stall photo 3du stationery s6 mill si 853 2030 spkiau adleb universal 20 typewriter 523950 ho ttuiw remington addin6 machine atakombltiontoi 4950 onty atlas ribbons tvmrwtittm ft abotts pots most machine only 100 shaeffer k n5 ball pens desk sets typewriters an i0eai graduation olrt corsair 6995 clipper 11295 sterling 13495 bic pens 19 25 39 tempo pens only 59 lines 3949 we carey a complete range op ledger sheets coluaanar sheets ring binders indexes staplers recipe cards boxes pencil sharpeners staples aaany other staple lines wr the artist oils canvass boards brushes sketch pads pencils charcoal easels pastels etc for your business let us show you the complete line of custom register forms work orders invoices etc our prices are reasonable regional government program he declared i am relying strongly on the ideas efforts and dedicated involvement of organizations such as councils chambers of commerce service clubs and churches in achieving our goal the minister set out the governments reform objectives which included 1 reform of the provincial tax system 2 he font t of provincial aid to locjt government hinting af wliat premier robarts announced llie net jjy about culling down on grains to municipalities and grunting litem moie power in the la field i 1 reform of total taxation 4 the property owner it not uddled willi a burden that is ttumly unfair a reform of local government wtructuie m order to reduce the lota number f municipalities and establish larger more vuble units lie traced the history of attempts to establish j working committee j nd some sort of rapport between represent ilives of ml ton jnd picl he uid one of the nuiii concerns which held up a wedding of the two counties was finances hut didnt think thcie was anything that couldnt be solved 1 ic congratulated the milton piper for attempting to assemble the figures involved m uich a merger but comment his department felt mine of the figures were not as related as they might have been in a question and answer period which followed mr mckeough fielded some knotty puzzles from actons mayor and reeve and the georgetown nuyor and other members of the audience replying to host nuyor wetdon i miner son he said that his statement that no municipality would have the right to veto m regional government provided it stuck to the plan in design for development was uimetlme misunderstood the minister tiuphaiied that hmtanl that a idiik nty in a small community was not going to hold lite whole shooting match up when tl minority of lite population wanted change despite the fuel that sometinm the small municipality might be operating efficiently on its own fte stressed that regional lovcrnment wai nol trying lo destroy the sense of community hut create a bigger community than it used to be mr mckeough used the words of marshall mcluhan global village to dcscriltc his feelings on that score to j c president dave kentner reeve i rank oakes of acton who mentioned his political experience encompassed just six years less than the ministers age uid it had been his experience that any form of government takeover inevitably cost the taxpayers wore he wondered how much more region government was going to cost the minuter said be was not going to guarantee the cost would be less i wouldnt be surprised if the total cost goes up he continued because i dont see taxes getting any lower he cited the many things people want govern met t to do now compared to 36 years ago we an t have all these hung and not expect taxes to go up the reason they are going up is not of regional government but because the municipalities are doing nvwe and rtore things llie people want them to do he c chimed a three point question from actun nuyor les duby was answered point by point the minister said that lite community of acton would go on regardless of whether it was merged with georgetown in one municipality where the preponderance of the vote would be the larger centre he uid the boundaries of region four were drawn hastily however and lite department was by no means sure the line was in the proper place yet replying to mr duby he asserted part of the reason it was difficult to get local people to run for political office was because the poutlons were downgraded tbe minister thought this was partly because so many of the decisions were made at queen park we want to get tome of tbe decisions out of queens park and into local municipal 1 1 les so we can attract the quality of people in politics answering the georgetown mayor mr mckeough uid lite government was trying to eliminate the unconditional per capita grant because the money never got to the property owner who rweded tax relief he uid many of ote grants from the government were of the carsot type to encourage municipalities to do things but often the decisions cause tu the wrong ptionty for the good of the community the initial mayor of the peat halton region the minister uid would probably be appointed so he cquld ujive the full we i glit of the government behind him ilul eventually the position would be an elected one mr mckeough uid tint method had worked successfully in three imtances to date he uid the chief need was for an administration ol to get the job done not necessarily a mayor of the people acton mayor les duby asked if the region became a reality and acton georgetown and i cq ue sing were hooked up if there was any way this would encumber acton s growth the minister replied in the negative and asserted that one of the main reasons for the peel halton hookup was to prevent the area between toronto and hamilton from becoming a faceted blob we dont want another lo angeles he asserted the minister uid his office would do nothing to atop reasonable annexation in halton and peel but large parcels of land would likely be refused using milton and oakville as examples be uid that a 10 acre lot in oik vi he with a factory oo it serviced by milton could very well be annexed by milton a i 000 acre tract was a horse of a different color however mr mckeough was introduced by an old georgetown friend and former mayor john armstrong whom he met in hlf work with the anglican church halton last mpp jim snow olcri spoke briefly to the meeting outlining some of the things he had done since go rig to queens park and explain questions about bis proposed sporuvcoinpiex mayor brian rest and clerk j mcgeaclne attended from milton reeve gordon gallagher represented burlington ttjiy i hamilt 6w ojo 6tomtfiftt i 16 mouniamviaw road s

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