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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, M ar ch 21 ,2 01 9 | 6 ABOUT US This newspaper, published every Thursday, is a division of the Metroland Media Group Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Torstar Corporation. The Metroland family of newspapers is comprised family of newspapers is comprised f of more than 80 community publications across Ontario. This newspaper is a member of the National NewsMedia Council. Complainants are urged to bring their concerns to the attention of the news- paper and, if not satisfied, write The National NewsMedia Council, Suite 200, 890 Yonge St., Toronto, ON M4W 2H2. 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OPINION TO LEARN HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR OWN CONTENT VISIT INSIDEHALTON.COM EDITORIAL How many travellers are affected by the federal government's decision to ground all Boeing 737 Max aircraft? For Air Canada, which has 24 of the jets in its fleet, the answer is 9,000-12,000 - every day.That's up tofleet, the answer is 9,000-12,000 - every day.That's up tof 12,000 passengers daily who will suffer some degree of inconvenience, from being stranded away from home, to missing vacation or business dates, to having to rebook on a different aircraft, a process that Air Cana- da admits upfront will be slow and arduous. None of that is intended to question Transport Min- ister Marc Garneau's judgment. He announced the grounding after receiving new evidence showing simi- larity between last week's horrific Ethiopian Airlines crash and another one off Indonesia last October. But those wondering why it took so long for Canada to join many other nations that have already taken similar actions should give some thought to the sheer scale of the logistical and human challenge posed by the grounding. No doubt that's part of the govern- ment's rationale - it didn't want to impose that sort of difficulty on passengers and airlines without very compelling evidence, which it finally received last week. As well as the 23 Air Canada flies, WestJet flies 13 of the Max model and Sunwing four. All three carri- ers were quick to declare their support and co-opera- tion for the measure, but you can bet it will render the air travel marketplace more chaotic than usual, and that's saying something. Of course Garneau's decision is the right one, just as he was right to wait until he and his advisers saw enough credible data to justify grounding the fleet. Based on extensive media coverage since last week- end's crash, it's clear consumers have lost confidence in the safety of the aircraft, but that in itself doesn't justify such drastic action. And speaking of evidence, there is enough about problems with the Max aircraft to wonder if industry and regulators shouldn't have acted sooner. Several American pilots have complained about the way the jet has performed in flight. And the complaints are simi- lar. One pilot reported an anomaly with the autopilot which the pilot said caused the aircraft's nose to be pointed down for a brief period. Another flight crew member reported the aircraft pitched nose down after the autopilot was engaged during departure. Those and other complaints were made in an online database, which was accessed and reported on by CNN last week. The March 10 crash involved a new Ethiopian Air- lines Max 8, which crashed minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa. All 157 passengers, including 18from Addis Ababa. All 157 passengers, including 18f from Canada, perished. The October tragedy was afrom Canada, perished. The October tragedy was af Lion Air Flight which crashed shortly after takeoff from Jakarta. All 189 aboard died. from Jakarta. All 189 aboard died. f With this decision, Canada joins the majority of countries that have banned 737 Max aircraft, including China, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Aus- tralia and others. The U.S., which had been a notable holdout, followed Canada. So now we wait. We wait amid unconfirmed reports and suspicions about a software problem that was diagnosed but untreated, and other theories about what went wrong. And we think about the families who lost loved ones, for whom the waiting is much more than merely inconvenient. GROUNDING BOEING 737 MAX AIRCRAFT RIGHT MOVE This year's tax increase for town services and facili-for town services and facili-f ties is substantially below in- flation. The town portion offlation. The town portion off our property tax increase is 1.99 per cent. Toronto-area in- flation was last reported at 2.6flation was last reported at 2.6f per cent, in December. Infla- tion is 30 per cent higher than our town-only tax increase. When taken together withWhen taken together withW the 1.9 per cent tax increase for Halton Region municipalfor Halton Region municipalf services and facilities, and the expected education levy, homeowners will see only a 1.53 per cent property tax in- crease. Inflation is 70 per cent higher than our total actual tax increase. Before I became mayor, the tax-increase trend was upward in direction and higher than inflation in amounts of increases. We turned that trendWe turned that trendW around 11 years ago after we adopted the same budgeting tool used by major corpora- tions: performance-based program budgeting (PB2). PB2 is a budgeting disci- pline that operates at the staff level and continually seeks improvements in efficiency. Our window on council in- to that process is with our an- nual budget direction to staff and the work of our budget committee of me and council- lors Allan Elgar, Natalia Lishchyna, and Sean O'Mea- ra, led by chair Coun. Tom Adams. With this year's PB2 bud-With this year's PB2 bud-W get, we again kept our prom- ise to deliver value and effi- ciency to make any tax in- creases small and affordable - without losing valued servic- es and facilities. Council's unanimously approved oper- ating and capital budgets de-ating and capital budgets de-a liver new facilities and ser- vice enhancements all across town. Our 11-year trend of ever- smaller tax increases has been supporting strategic in- vestments in our communityvestments in our communityv infrastructure and keeping programs and services you value. value. v We have doubled our com-We have doubled our com-W munity facilities and im- proved and increased service levels such as snow-clearing, fire protection, and infra-fire protection, and infra-f structure maintenance and renewal. It's worth noting that in the past 12 years we have climbed from 30th to first place in the MoneySense rankings as Canada's best place to live. Our property-tax burden as a per cent of household in- come is almost the lowest in the province, while our ser- vice levels are the best. So how do we stay on this path of efficiency and afford- ability? Great things are pos- sible when we work smarter and work together, and that's what council will keep doingwhat council will keep doingw for you.for you.f Details in my column next week. Rob Burton is the mayor of Oakville. Visit www.oak- ville.ca/mayor for more information and follow @MayorRobBurton on Facebook and @Oakville- Mayor on Twitter. EFFICIENT AND AFFORDABLE BUDGETS FOR OAKVILLE BUDGETING TOOL A SUCCESS, WRITES MAYOR ROB BURTON ROB BURTON Column