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OAKVILLE BEAVER Friday, July 10, 2009 · 6 OPINION & LETTERS The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5571 Classified Advertising: 632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 www.oakvillebeaver.com Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: NEIL OLIVER Vice ­ President and Group Publisher of Metroland West The Oakville Beaver is a division of Media Group Ltd. DAVID HARVEY General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief ROD JERRED Managing Editor DANIEL BAIRD Advertising Director RIZIERO VERTOLLI Photography Director SANDY PARE Business Manager MARK DILLS Director of Production MANUEL GARCIA Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution SARAH MCSWEENEY Circ. Manager Plan your work, work your plan Congratulations are in order for Town Council and staff for passing a 10-year Economic Development Strategy for Oakville earlier this week. The plan includes several lofty goals including what may be the most important -- reducing the number of people who currently work outside the community. This is not an easy task. It's no secret that it takes a higher than average income to live comfortably in Oakville. Currently, more than 63 per cent of working Oakville residents leave the town to work each day. Many of them are heading to high-paying jobs which maintain the lifestyles they enjoy at home in Oakville. The trick in the future is to ensure future economic development will provide jobs which allow residents to live and work in Oakville. As a first step towards this, the Town wants to target the remaining 770 hectares of vacant employment land to attract knowledge-based industries in professional services, advanced manufacturing and life science sectors. Oakville already plays home to many of these types of industries and the strategy hopes to expand upon this success. A key component of this strategy is the creation of a 50-acre life sciences/technology park adjacent to the future Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital site at the corner of Dundas Street and Third Line. The park would feature numerous offices, manufacturing and research facilities for companies involved in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and biotechnology. The strategy also hopes to create spin-off industries from Sheridan College's emerging international reputation for excellence in the digital media and animation fields. However, the economic development strategy will fall short of its goals without a firm commitment from the current and future councils. They must resist attempts from developers who wish to erode Oakville's employment lands with residential rezoning applications. They must also resist the temptation of approving developments, which may provide immediate business tax gains, but fall short of meeting the strategy's livework employment goals. Without this commitment, the town will ultimately fall short of the strategy's worthwhile goals. The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone 416-340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Letter to the editor Town tax increase higher than 2-3% Re: Town eyes 2-3% tax increase, Oakville Beaver, July 3. In the article it is suggested that such an increase translates into an extra $24 to $32 per $100,000 assessment. Since the Town of Oakville tax rate for 2009 is $365.676 per $100,000 assessment these dollar increases do not correspond to the percentage increases suggested in the heading to the article. If, in fact, the increase is to be in the range of $24 to $32 per $100,000 assessment, the property taxpayers of Oakville are looking forward to an increase of between 6.6 per cent and 8.8 per cent in the Town of Oakville portion of their tax bill. This follows increases of 9.9 per cent and 7.9 per cent in 2008 and 2009, respectively. I suspect your article was based on a release from the Town of Oakville. If that is the case, they continue to quote misleading increases, relying on the fact that there has been no increase in the education portion of the total tax bill and relatively small increases in the Region's portion of the bill. If the current council believes that such percentage increases are justified, why is it not publicizing the true increase in the Town portion of the tax bill rather than expressing that increase as a percentage of the total bill, including the education portion and that relating to the Region? ROGER JENNER Letters to the editor The Oakville Beaver welcomes letters from its readers. Letters will be edited for clarity, length, legal considerations and grammar. In order to be published all letters must contain the name, address and phone number of the author. Letters should be addressed to The Editor, Oakville Beaver, 467 Speers Rd., Oakville, ON, L6K 3S4, or via e-mail to editor@oakvillebeaver.com. The Beaver reserves the right to refuse to publish a letter. Seniors grateful for act of kindness To the lady in the rose-coloured dress: On July 2, you quietly spotted us at Sobeys. We were the lady in the wheelchair and the old guy behind perusing the produce. You caught us picking up a package of meat in the display case. I must have said, "those were the days," a little too loudly as I returned it to the bin. I'm sure you quietly observed our wandering through the aisles looking over the vast array of foods, but only buying a box of Ritz crackers and a bar of soap. When you jumped in front of us at the checkout counter I was annoyed, but then you turned around and handed us two Tbone steaks and said, "These are for you to enjoy." You took our breath away by your generosity. In the coming week or two, we will enjoy these steaks one at a time and think of you always. JEANNETTE AND BILL BY STEVE NEASE snease@haltonsearch.com Speak up Oakville Believe it or not, on June 22 I was one of only 90 Oakville residents to attend the second and final open house presentation by Trans Canada regarding the proposed Oakville gas-fired generating station held at the Holiday Inn. The previous presentation in April yielded a mere 120 concerned area residents. I will dictate part of the letter I received just today, Pud See Action page 7