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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 ay 30 ,2 01 9 | 30 .ylppa yam stnuocsid rehtruF .ecirp lanigiro ffo %52 tsael ta fo ecirp decuder ydaerla na stneserper esidnahcrem decirp ecnaraelC .noitacol yb yrav yam noitceleS .sreffo rehto htiw denibmoc eb ton yam stnuocsiD .seuqehc oN .sesahcrup roirp ot stnemtsujda oN .detnuosid eb ton lliw sdrac tfig yaB s'nosduH ro srettiftuO emoH .segnahcxe ro snruter oN .lanif era selas llA .ylno snoitacol gnisolc srettiftuO emoH ta dilaV .ylno snoitacol gnisolc ni dilaV .ylppa snoitpecxe detimiL !SNOITCUDER WEN YNAM MOC.SRETTIFTUOEMOH TA UOY RAEN NOITACOL EHT DNIF MOOR GNINID · MOOR GNIVIL · MOORDEB · STES SSERTTAM Why cook when you can simply enjoy? Made for Seniors The answer to "What's for dinner?" just got a lot easier! With Heart to Home Meals, you can have delicious Mediterranean- Style Chicken (or one of over 200 other breakfasts, lunches, dinners or desserts) on the table in minutes! Delivered frozen | Delivered FREE* | No subscription *Some conditions may apply. Get your FREEMenu 1-855-444-0640 HeartToHomeMeals.ca gional review. "Big government is bad, in my opinion. What's - Ni- agara and Muskoka - what's Niagara? They have 122 or 130 elected officials? That's ridiculous. That's absolute- ly ridiculous. I think I'm un- derestimating that. You look at Muskoka too, just layers and layers of region- al government. I'm just - I'm not a big believer in big gov- ernment - a lot of politi- cians. The less politicians, the better it is," said Ford. There's also the histori- cal precedent set by previ- ous provincial govern- ments. The 1998 Toronto amalgamation that created the city's current political borders was proposed as a cost-saving measure by the Progressive Conservative government under Mike Harris. Municipalities tend to draw less attention than the higher-tier governments. Municipal elections consis- tently have the lowest voter turnout and citizens tend to have the least understand- ing of the role their local municipality plays in their lives. Robertson and We Love Oakville want to raise the level of engagement and help people to understand why their local government is important. "It's an important level of government and people don't pay that much atten- tion to it, but it's the streets we drive on, the garbage that's picked up. It affects all sorts of our day-to-day liv- ing, it's really very, very im- portant and people do un- derestimate the value of the municipalities," said Rob- ertson. The possibility of amal- gamation has been widely opposed by municipal lead- ers across Halton. Many have argued the smaller municipalities create better value for taxpayers and have representatives who are far more accessible than the upper tiers. Provincial representa- tives, including local ones, have maintained that the review is about determin- ing the most effective forms of local government with- out providing detail of ex- actly what that means. When Vic Fedeli, the minister of finance, was in Burlington on May 16 he was asked multiple times by both local media and business people about what the review will result in. He said he couldn't say what the findings will be but that they are open to a variety of possibilities. "The report will come out sometime, I'm guessing mid-fall, end of September, October, but there are abso- lutely no preconceived ide- as on this whatsoever," said Fedeli. That lack of concrete an- swers on what the review will result in has led to some questioning the transpar- ency of the process. Robertson believes that any major change should be put to the voting public. "It's really, really impor- tant that our community knows what's going on. This would be a major change for us in Halton. If they were to change our two-tier system in any way, they'd be doing it without due process with- out democratic voting," said Robertson. For more information including how to get a lawn sign or take part in the let- ter writing campaign, visit www.weloveoakville.org. ANALYSIS Continued from page 1 PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT PLAYS DOWN AMALGAMATION Douglas McKirgan and Nancy Robertson are on the front lines of a friendly, grassroots movement opposing the amalgamation of Oakville. On May 25 they distributed roughly 400 lawn signs around the community. Roland Cilliers/Torstar THE QUESTION: HOW CAN CITIZENS OPPOSE A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE TO THE WAY THEY ARE GOVERNED? THE CONCLUSION: EDUCATION, GRASSROOTS ACTIVISM AND ENGAGING COMMUNITY MEMBERS IN A FRIENDLY MANNER. STORY BEHIND THE STORY Fears of a Halton amalgamation have been discussed around the community. We wanted to learn more so we spoke with both the activists on the ground and officials at the very top of the review.