THE OAKVILLE BEAVERA8 Wednesday April 21, 1999 Police budget approval could raise taxes $12 By Irene Gentle SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER If a $45.9-million Halton Regional Police Service budget is passed at regional council today, the average homeowner will pay an extra $12 for police protection this year. The $45.9 million police budget, up $2.4 million from last year, represents a 5.6% budget increase. It amounts to a 4.8% increase in the police services portion of a residential property tax bill -- or about $12 extra per year for the owner of a $185,000 home. The normally contentious police budget was passed at last week's regional administration and finance committee meeting with little opposi tion. Though the budget appeared to skate through, it will have to stand up to a budget review committee before going to regional council for final approval today. Halton Region Police Chief Ean Algar appeared before the committee last week to make a low-key pitch for approval of the budget, which received a stamp of approval from the police services board earlier in the year. Cost cutting measures have shaved expenses so that a full 83% of the bud get is being spent on personnel costs, said Algar. "We've done a lot," he said. "We continue to do a lot." Debt and building costs take up more than $2 million each in the bud get. Another $2 million is slated for vehicles and other capital costs. The 1999 budget has set aside funds for the hiring of 24 new officers through a Community Partnerships Program (CPP). Under the program, the Province will temporarily pay half the salary of the new hires. Despite this, a question mark will M issin g lin k w ill be c o m p le te d (Continued from page 1) 407 and 403 at the Mississauga/Oakville border, to the junction of QEW and Hwy. 403 in Burlington. The west extension will be construct ed as a six-lane highway, expandable to eight lanes. Interchanges will be con structed at Hwy. 5, Appleby Line, Hwy. 25, Neyagawa Boulevard and Trafalgar Road. Halton Regional Chair Joyce Savoline said she was delighted with the successful negotiations which will lead to the construction of what she called the "missing link". "It's an end to 15 years of wondering when we were actually going to see this highway," she said. "It will relieve at least some of the congestion, so we real ly wait with great anticipation the open ing of this roadway." Not only will the QEW flow more smoothly, she said, but also Dundas Street. The entire toll highway will be sold for $3.1 billion to a Spanish consortium of Grupo Ferrovial and its subsidiary, Cintra Concesiones de Intraestructuras de Transporte, SNC Lavalin, and Capital d'Amerique CDPQ, a subsidiary of the Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec. The main investor is the second- largest construction company in Spain. The consortium will purchase from the province the right to own and operate Hwy. 407, charging tolls for 99 years. While they will set their own rates, the consortium will be required to achieve pre-set congestion relief targets in order to increase rates above a speci fied level, currently set at 11 cents per kilometre for automobiles, more for trucks. If traffic volumes aren't met, the tolls will be clawed back. hang over the new hires until the results of an ongoing police review are known. The $92,000 review was launched in January to look into how Halton Regional Police do business. In particular, it is meant to investi gate police staffing formulas, known as the cop-to-pop calculations. In that formula, police officers are hired on a population basis. As the region's population base grows, more officers are hired to keep pace. A recommendation against that for mula in the review could potentially put the new hires in jeopardy. Should the officers not be recom mended, $400,000 set aside for them would go towards Y2K financing instead. Oakville Councillor Keith Bird expressed concern with what was miss ing in the budget. "Is the impact of Milton with the racetrack casino factored in here," he asked. Beginning as early as June, Mohawk Raceway in Milton will be adding slot machines to their grounds. Since that announcement, there have been concerns that policing and roads costs would increase as a result of extra traffic. The police are taking a wait and see approach, said Algar. "We don't have that factored in," he said. "We're setting up a monitoring system first." /AIRHOME FABRICS 2 0 /2 0 Book Order Sale I f you order 20 yds. or more o f one fabric we'll give you 20% o ff your order. Includes: Robert Allen • Joanne Kravet • Maxwell or Sanderson Final 4 D ays! Sale Ends April 24! 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