The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

4 THE NEW TANNER THURSDAY, JULY 19, 2007 Some of the health care coping strategies that would have had a huge negative impact on health care at Georgetown Hospi- tal have been avoided with a multi-million dollar fund- ing announcement from the province last week. Plans for a new Oakville hospital received a $12.5- Halton Regional Council approved the guidelines for the preparation of the 2008 Budget and Business Plan last Wednesday, July 11. Council directed that the guideline for the tax bud- get should not exceed an increase of 2.9 per cent (ex- cluding Police Services). For a typical homeowner with a property assessed at $300,000, this would mean a property tax increase of approximately $24.54 for Regional services (or $8.18 per $100,000 of assess- ment). The guideline for the Police services tax increase is 6.2 per cent, or $25.16 for the typical household. The total projected tax impact for Regional and Police services would be 4.0 per cent or $49.70 for a typical household. The 2008 Budget guide- lines give us a framework to provide programs and services to Haltons taxpay- ers in 2008 while we look for more ways to improve cost-effectiveness and co- operation between levels of government, said Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr. Staff have prepared the guidelines based on known 12 Main Street North Acton Beach/Sport/ Garden Clogs 2pairs $10 FOR All Sizes Jr. Kids to Adult. All Colours. While Quantities Last Chiropodist / Foot Specialist DEANNA WILSON B.Sc.,D.Ch. Thompson Wellness Centre 25 Main Street North Acton, Ontario L7J 1V9 519-853-3460 Foot/Nail Care Sports Injuries Pediatrics Diabetic /Arthritic Foot Conditioning Custom Orthotics and Footwear Home visits Georgetown Fergus 16 Mountainview Rd S., Suite 205 200 St. Patrick St. E., Suite 5 Georgetown, Ontario L7G 4K1 Fergus, Ontario N1M 1M4 (905)702-2597 (519) 843-7344 Michael Chong, M.P. Wellington-Halton Hills Here to assist you 1- 866 - 878 - 5556 Chong.m@parl.gc.ca WORTH THE DRIVE: Carter Leslie, 5, of Georgetown and his dad caught more than a dozen Crappies during fishing excursions to Fairy Lake on Saturday and Sunday. Frances Niblock photo economic conditions and pressures, although there is still a lot of work and consultation to do before the budget is approved in December. Regional programs that require a base budget increase include the fol- lowing: Social Service Program Payments: $930,000 in ad- ditional funds to respond to pressures relating to the cost-shared Ontario Dis- ability Support Program and additional funding to Social Housing Providers. Waste Management Operations: $4,000,000 largely related to acceler- ating the implementation of the GreenCart organics program. Debt Charges: $551,000 related to increased debt charges primarily for the transportation program. Debt charges are the prin- cipal and interest payments that the Region needs to pay for the funds borrowed to finance significant infra- structure. Transportation Capital: $4,500,000 to realign the Budget with the 2004 Trans- portation Master Plan. The 2008 Budget pro- cess will also address other program pressures to meet service demands and im- plement new initiatives identified in the Regions Strategic Plan. These in- clude: Health program delivery; EMS Master Plan implementation; Social Services program delivery; Comprehensive Housing Strategy implementation; Sustainable Halton, a plan- ning process to determine how and where Halton will grow in the future; and the Economic Development Strategy. Halton needs to address various cost pressures, in- cluding increased costs of oil, hydro and natural gas, and the impacts of updates to our master plans, which will be incorporated into the budget process as appropri- ate, said Haltons Acting Chief Administrative Of- ficer Jane MacCaskill. The next step is for staff to prepare operating and capital budgets based on input from Regional de- partments, with the budget being considered by Coun- cil throughout November and December. Council has directed that $6.1 million in available funding resulting from the phase-out of GTA Pooling be transferred to the local municipalities on a one- year basis to address their infrastructure requirements, and that the Region reinvest the balance (approximately $6 million) to fund Re- gional requirements. GTA Pooling was a Provincial funding formula by which Halton and other GTA Re- gions contributed funds for Social Service costs in the City of Toronto. The Ontario government has committed to eliminating GTA Pooling by 2013. The base budget guide- line for the Rate Budget for water and wastewater ser- vices is 6.5 per cent, which reflects cost increases in consumable items such as chemicals and hydro, to meet Provincial standards, additional capital financing requirements and impacts from the Tangible Capital Assets Project. If approved, the typical homeowners annual combined water and wastewater bill would increase by approximately $43.86. Water rates increase $43.86 Haltons budget, business plan New money for hospitals million shot in the arm from Health Minister George Smitherman who also de- livered $2.5-million for upgrades and expansion to the Milton Hospital and $1-million to Halton Health Care Services at an Oakville press conference last Mon- day. Councils rep on the Halton Health Care Servic- es board, Acton Councillor Jon Hurst says the pretty significant announcements will have a positive ef- fect on the service delivery in Georgetown, as Milton wont face growth pressures it would have without the additional money. Hurst also told Town Council that Smitherman is pleased with the transition of the Georgetown hospital into Halton Health Care Ser- vices with the Milton and Oakville Trafalgar hospi- tals, and not with Brampton and Etobicoke hospitals.