Province shoots down town request

Rural councillor Bryan Lewis expressed disappointment that Ontario Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay has turned down a Town of Halton Hills request. Last June, the Town endorsed a resolution calling for a review of the aggregate licence fee. Currently municipalities receive four cents per tonne removed by aggregate companies from their jurisdiction. The resolution asked that amount be upped to five cents. In a letter to the Town, Ramsay said it's a longstanding government policy that a review would only occur once all significant parts of the province were designated under the Aggregate Resources Act. "It's a long-winded `no'," said Lewis. In Halton Hills about $150,000 annually goes into a reserve to help fix roads. It

costs about $26,000 per kilometre to tar and chip a road, and in the millions of dollars to reconstruct one.