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Beaver THE OAKVILLE Voted Ontario's Top Newspaper Four Years in a Row - 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 www.oakvillebeaver.com CELEBRATING 25 YEARS! Resident's grandfather honoured as aviation pioneer Page 22 FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 2009 Between Kerr & Dorval YOUR FRIEND IN THE BUSINESS 175 Wyecroft Rd. Oakville 905.845.6653 www.lockwoodchrysler.com OUT OF INK? REFILL AND SAVE UP TO 60% Upper Oakville Shopping Centre (Upper Middle & 8th Line) 905-842-5600 A member of Metroland Media Group Ltd. Vol. 52 No. 105 "USING COMMUNICATION TO BUILD BETTER COMMUNITIES" 48 Pages $1.00 (plus GST) Woman drowns while walking her dog By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Mattamy challenging Halton's latest development charge By Tim Foran METROLAND WEST MEDIA GROUP A golden retriever was unable to save its master Wednesday following an apparent accident along the shoreline area of the Birch Hill Promenade. Three canoeists found the dog in Lake Ontario at around 5:30 p.m., along with the body of a 66-year-old Oakville woman, who was floating face down. Jon Kuronen, 20, was among the canoeists who made the sad discovery. "It was my friend Chris's last day in Oakville, so we decided to go out canoeing and we were out there just chilling in the water when we saw a dog on the edge of the water, trying to get up the rocks," said Kuronen. "We thought it was a lost dog at first, so we approached it to try to see what was going on with it and, when we got closer, we noticed there was a dead body there. We were realDAVID RITCHIE / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER ly shocked at first, you don't expect to see a dead body when you're out LOYAL DOG: A Halton Regional Police officer escorts a golden retriever found paddling beside the body of a 66-year-old woman floating facedown in the water just off the Lake Ontario shoreline area of Birch Hill with the boys." Promenade. See Dog page 8 The legality of a regional charge placed last month on residential developers in the fastest growing parts of Halton has been called into question by a former judge hired by Mattamy Homes. In a 13-page legal opinion addressed to regional council and released publicly Aug. 12, former commercial court justice James Farley argues the Region and its council are going beyond their powers by collecting an extra $7,888, on top of Halton Region's $29,000 in regular per-unit development charges, from developers in Milton and north Oakville. Farley is a lawyer at the firm McCarthy Tétrault, which acts on behalf of Mattamy. Halton Region has had similar but less expensive surcharges since 2005. They have been included in financial agreements developers in new growth areas must sign if they wish to receive the necessary sewer and water pipe allocations for their developments. Regional staff have said these financial agreements and the surcharges included in them are allowed by sections in Ontario's Municipal Act. Farley argues the Province's See Judge page 3