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Wednesday July 1991 Opinion Development charges issue must involve taxpayers I don t envy Halton Hills Coun position of having to decide on an equitable development charges fee For those who don know the Town charges developer and builders a fee to cover the cost of services accompanying a development project Town consultant C N Watson and Associates Limited of Toron to has recommended developers be charged per square foot to build a commercial or in dustnal space Currently no such charge is imposed To build a single family home the consul recommends builders be charged a total of 727 for Town and hydro related services con to the houses construe tion The recommendations are ed on the principle servicing re quired by new development should be paid for by the developer and not the existing taxpayers Note if the fees are lower than those proposed then existing ratepayers will be required to make up the difference to cover the cost of new servicing through increased taxes Knowing that the recommen dations seem fair at least from the taxpayers perspective Why should existing Town residents cover part of the cost for ing related to new development when they won be using those services Needless to say the developers don consider the issue as being that cut and dry For instance construction of parks accompanying new sub divisions is an example of ing the development charge is meant to cover However developers argue that once a park is built it will be used by the entire Town and not just those liv ing in the new subdivision In that sense existing ratepayers do use some of the services accompany new development The builders also have a pro with covering the total cost of road construction necessitated Bens Banter by Ben by new development They point out Halton Hills has several roads in dire need of upgrading The developers explain if their project is slated in areas where road upgrading is already necessary then they be required to foot the entire bill If no new development was to hap pen the Town would still be obligated to repair the roadways they say In this sense road upgrading in connection with Political Forum OTTAWA REPORT new development should be paid for by both the developer and ex isting taxpayers The developers appear to be especially concerned with the commercialindustrial develop ment fee charge Builders say Halton Hills has had next to no commercialin development for the past several years without a develop ment charge in place A charge will therefore make it that less likely for this type of develop ment to come to Town in the future Developers predict this scenario is that more likely to become true given the slowdown in the economy The developers don t rule out a commercialin dustnal fee being imposed in the future it should only be considered during better economic times they say This rational appears to make sense However the Town didn attract any industrial develop ment during the boom times preceding the current recession a tune when there was no development charge place It follows then the existence or nonexistence of a development charge on this type of develop ment has little or no beating on it being established in Halton Hills Instead other factors such as the Town s relatively long distance from Highway probably plays a more prominent role Therefore who not impose a charge on industrial and com mercial development There is obviously no easy answer to the development charge question What is obvious however is for the general public to make their opinion known or else permit Town council to make its final decision on the charges with input from the development and building community alone If this happens there is a strong possibility the general tax payer could be facing higher than expected taxes for years to come Council will make a final deci on the development fee ques on September 24 Excess GST cash will help fight the federal deficit There are some reports flying around that the GST has collected a lot more money than anybody expected it would Maybe so it could be true Finance Minister Don Mazankowski as I write this has not yet told us what the surplus so far in is Or why While some people have said the GST would drive more economic activity underground 1 never bought that argument Just the opposite may be true Smart business people know they can deduct the GST they pay on whatever they buy to do business And they know people without a GST number pay the tax out of their own pocket After all this is supposed to be a tax on spending not on business The whole idea was to help business by getting rid of a bad tax So this could be a big reason why the GST is raising more money because there are more businesses now part of the system than anticipated More companies with GST numbers means more GST The big question is Where s the money going Just before Parliament ad a few weeks ago created a minor stir by asking the government exactly that It go ing to the deficit I was told Since then some people have asked me what guarantee tax payers can have that this bonus tax money will actually reduce the deficit And that a fair ques We all realize that until the deficit drops taxes won t So the priority is to get that deficit down Now about the last thing any of us want in tax money being used for more federal spending or to see it disappear into a big black hole in Ottawa Garth Turner MP Halton Peel Progressive Conservative What we need is some kind of a guarantee which has now come The government has set up a new national bank account call ed the Debt Servicing and account It s separate from the bank account that Otta a uses to run programs and the bills and into this new account will go all this extra GST cash Every dollar of the Debt count is being applied directly to paying down the deficit So is the money from selling Canada And so are any gifts given to the government like the cheque I turned from the Bolton Lions Club and another from the Hills Chamber of Commerce And to make sure all this hap pens as it s supposed to the government will let the federal Auditor General make regular checks on the account and how it is used After the deficit is cut to zero now planned to take place within about four years the debt ac count money will be used to ac tually start paying off the money that Canada owes This is what I wanted to hap pen It is exactly what I asked Michael Wilson to do after being elected late and what I ve bugged the finance minister about since We finally have a tax that is dedicated to paying off our debts and some other important commitments from the feds For example the government has now promised that no new taxes will be imposed to pay for any new spending And Ottawa is going to make it illegal for federal politicians to increase spending by more than 3 per cent annually over the next five years If we d had a law like that in Ontario the last provincial budget would have been illegil It increased spending by per cent while raising taxes by 1 billion and bumping the deficit to Maybe governments at all levels had better copy some of the things Ottawa is doing There no point giving taxpayers restraint at one level while they get fleeced at the next Right now there s no fleece left QUEENS PARK REPORT Recycling programs underway in provincial parks I hope that you ve been enjoy the summer Those of you who plan on going camping for your vacation will now be able to take advantage of the recycling programs underway in over 70 provincial parks including near by Bronte Creek Recycling was first implemented at lie Provincial Park in and expanded to where are local markets for recyclable materials Partners in these forts to reduce waste at our parks include the Environmen Youth Corps Ontario Media Recycling Incorporated and the Association of Municipal Recycling Coordinators One re cent element in parks recycling is the Blue Bag pilot program im through a new part with First Brands Canada Corporation and designed to help visitors collect at their campsites If you re no longer thinking about summer but about the up coming school year you may be interested in hearing about another type of education adult literacy programs Education Minister Marion Boyd recently announced funding for a wide range of programs throughout the province The Adult Learning Network and the North Halton Literacy Guild were among the organizations that received financial assistance to continue their efforts to help our adult residents obtain these necessary skills As I mentioned in my last report various standing commit tees of the legislative assembly have been scheduled to meet dur ing the summer One of tha com mittees I sit on General Govern has been holding hearings this week to hear presentations about the closure of various land registry offices And we hope to finish up some important during the upcoming session of the legislature which begins in September Some of you have asked about the status of the Wage Protection Fund Bill 70 for example which received cond readiWg in June before the recess Bill 74 regarding a system of advocacy to protect the rights of vulnerable adults also proceeded as far as second reading In fact the spring ses produced a number of ac complishments Although we ve had to cope with the worst reces sion since the Second World War our government has preserved our health care and education systems and worked toward reducing the impact of the economic situation upon you and your neighbors Some of the initiatives of the past session include eliminating or reducing On income tax for an additional Noel Duignan low income Ontanans and moderate tax increases for those earning over a year establishment of the Fair Tax Commission to review the tax system with a view of making it fairer a budget that fights the reces by maintaining or creating jobs a commitment not to piggy back the Ontario sales tax on top of the federal GST a savings of million to you this year alone funding increases greater than the rate of inflation for hospitals school boards colleges and universities and municipalities to prevent decline in service million for income for grain oilseed and horticulture producers and million in interest rate relief for farmers a commitment for the con struction of 10 new profit and coop housing units creating 20 jobs in the hard hit con industry a new family support program Bill to bring fairness to mothers and kids entitled to sup port payments from delinquent ex spouses more than 20 million of addi tional funding for victims of sex and domestic violence and for emergency shelters for battered women and children a new fairer and more open process of making government appointments to agencies boards and commissions If you wish to comment on these or other issues feel free to call my Milton office Tuesday through Friday at 1729 Please note that the telephone number for the Georgetown of fice was printed incorrectly on the householder you were and should read as Thanks to those of you who brought the error to my at tention and my apologies in par to the recipients the misdirected calls Please remember to recycle this newspaper along with your glass bottles and jars J aluminum and steel food 7 and beverage cans plastic soft dnnk containers RECYCLING It only if we all do our part