My letter to the editor, published in Milton Canadian Champion on July 31st, 2009:-

DEAR EDITOR:
I read Tim Foran’s column ‘Part-time council not realistic in this new ‘small city’ back in April, when he argued for a pared-down, full-time council.

I’ve been thinking about that issue for a while and must say I prefer that Milton council stay part-time, for now at least.

Town councillors make about $26,000 a year, a third of it tax-free. Compare that to the cost of full-time councillors in Toronto, Mississauga, Brampton and other cities and one realizes that Milton spends less money on all eight local councillors than larger cities spend on just a couple, especially once you include office costs, personal staff and expense accounts fulltime councillors get.

It’s cheaper, at least financially, to have part-time councillors.

Milton has one part-time councillor for about every 10,000 residents, while Mississauga has one full-time councillor for 60,000 residents. At that ratio Milton would only get one full-time councillor if a switch was made. Even if we double this, we will end up with a council size of three — the mayor and two councillors. This is hardly a representative council for a town as diverse as Milton.

In addition, it’s expensive to have full-time local councillors who do not draw their salaries from serving regional council as well. This means that Milton’s full-time local councillors should also be regional councillors. This is what cities like Burlington and Mississauga do as well. This will also put a cap of only three councillors in Milton.

Then there is the accessibility issue. I believe that one passionate part-time councillor can represent a neighbourhood of 10,000 people a lot better than a single full-time councillor representing half the town.

It also allows each part of the town to elect a councillor who understands issues and challenges faced by that area, and can therefore effectively represent that ward.

Finally, it is easier for newcomers to enter politics if their wards have 10,000 people or so. As a result, a few incumbents lose their seats in every Milton election. That is not true in larger cities like Mississauga, where incumbents win by large margins because it is so difficult to challenge them.

It may be possible to make regional councillors serve fulltime while local councillors work part-time. That may relieve some of Foran’s concerns. I’m not sure if it is necessary, but it’s a better compromise than an exclusively full-time council in a town with less than 100,000 people.

Milton will one day grow to a size where the sheer number of part-time councillors will make a smaller number of full-time councillors an attractive option. However, at less than 100,000 people, Milton is not there yet.

ZEESHAN HAMID, MILTON

Schedules did not meet and I spent most of my free time creating that petition e-mail form.  I apologize.  I have next two weeks scheduled, it won’t happen again :).

I have been debating for several weeks whether to do this or not. I have been unsure about the format as well (should we collect signatures and take them to the Council, or have individuals e-mail them?)

Here is the issue :-

There are already thousands of homes west of the CN Rail track on Derry Road. The only practical way to get to the town is to go east on Derry, which requires crossing the tracks. Many trains take that track every day, causing a lot of traffic delay. Once traffic backs up, it takes a long time to clear, especially during rush hours. The situation is getting worse every day as more and more people move. We need an underpass on Derry NOW!

After a lot of thinking I have decided this :-

• Halton’s Regional Chair, Gary Carr (sort of the “boss” of the Council) himself admitted that the underpass “should have been done years ago” and was “an example of poor planning”. He also admitted that the development west of the rail tracks “should never have happened without a grade separation”. This tells me that the Regional Council agrees that we need the underpass NOW.
• In 2007 the Town of Milton passed a motion calling the Regional Council to finish the underpass. This tells me that the Milton Council agrees about the urgency.
• The project is still not expected to start until 2016, with an end date of 2017 (and many recent projects have been delayed, some by over a year). By then who knows what the population will be. This points to a disconnect between the first two bullets and this one.
• Our Councillors already know about the issue. However, Regional Councillors are mostly from Oakville and Burlington (2/3rd of the Council) and may not completely grasp the situation
• We tax-payers, as employers of Councillors, have the right to contact them.
• I debated whether I should just encourage people to contact our councillors (Barry Lee, Colin Best and the Mayor, Godon Krantz [who also sits on the Regional Council]). However, after I lot of thinking I concluded that these individuals already understand the situation and need the support of other Councillors in the Halton Council.
• If Councillors mind getting an e-mail from residents who pay their salaries then they do not deserve to be in the Council (my opinion of course, you may disagree)
• I thought about contacting the staff instead. I have found Milton staff to be very approachable and helpful. However, the Halton website has a department e-mail (MiltonRoads@Halton.ca), but not a point of contact (an individual with a name). Your e-mail (should you decide to use the form linked below) will go to the engineering department as well.
• Finally, it is the Council that will approve or disapprove this project. I feel that getting one e-mail from the tax-payer who suffers from this everyday is not too much to ask. Sure, an individual Councillor may get 100 e-mails, but that is still 1/100th of 10,000 residents impacted by this

Based on this, I reached the conclusion that I should ask residents to contact all Regional Councillors, asking them to move up the project date for the underpass.

To help residents, I set up an online form that will send the e-mail for you. In fact, I even put some sample messages so you dont even have to type a message, if you don’t want to. Honestly, if Mattamy can bombard them for its interest, I think we have the right to do the same for ours.

If you disagree then please do tell me why, because I may have missed something. This is a case where I feel it’s better to ask for forgiveness later, if they mind getting e-mails from residents. Otherwise please follow this link to the petition page . It has link to the online form, as well as individual contact information.

I appreciate your help :).
ps. I am willing to take the e-mail form down if most people find it inappropriate. Please leave a comment telling me if you disagree. Thanks.

This is a followup to my post on logical thinking.  Here’s something I said :-

Over the next few weeks I’ll analyze some arguments commonly presented (and sadly, accepted) by people that are about as valid as 1+1=11.  Just because it seems logical, it doesn’t mean it is.

I mentioned one of my pet peeves related to arguments in the previous post.  Here are a few more that annoy me to no end.   I am not just ranting about my pet peeves.  I am mentioning these because it is my belief that many disagreements stem from people’s inability to think logically, rather than differences in their principles.  We would all be more agreeable and happier if we all had the ability to correctly present and analyze arguments.

Before I start, I must mention that labeling an argument incorrect only implies that the conclusion does not follow premises presented.  It does not make a judgement about the conclusion (eg: “Every time she snores, it’s night.  She is snoring.  Therefore, it must be nighttime“.  It may well be night, but the above argument is still illogical). 

This is my last post on this topic (I think :)).  Wendy Schau,  Ward 4 Councillor, had some good points that she researched.  They may be useful for others as well :-

Episode 2 of my ‘Coffee Chat’ series. This time I met Mike Cluett.

This is a follow up to all Nassagaweya Tennis Club posts.

I am still convinced that something other than a tennis club may have been a better option, but I suppose that’s a decision for Nassagaweya residents.  I accept the possibility that such few people use the tennis club today because of its poor condition.  Bottom-line is that we first have to agree that it’s okay to spend this much money on Nassagaweya at this point.  If we agree then the second question is what specific upgrade is most appropriate.  Perhaps us Urbanites should let Nassagaweyans (is that a word?  Well, now it is) decide that themselves. 

Jan Mowbray, Ward 3 Councillor from Nassagaweya, was kind enough to have a detailed conversation about it (isn’t it sad when half the councillors you contact do not even bother to send a single-line response?)

Here is what she sent me  :-

(If you cannot see the entire post then please click the ‘Continue Reading‘ link below) 

I found a flyer from 2008 called “Connections” from the Halton Region and the Town of Milton (official).  Here is what it had to say about Derry :-

At the western end of Derry, the widening from two to four lanes from Bronte Street to Tremaine Road (Regional Road 22) began in October 2007, and is scheduled to be complete in the fall of 2008.  The project was accelerated from its original completion date of 2009.

Umm, soon it will be the fall of 2009 (forget the completion date of “fall of 2008”) and the project has not even started yet.  For months it has been “will start in a couple of weeks”.  Couple of Pluto weeks perhaps.  Oh and did you notice that the “project was accelerated from its original completion date of 2009”.  Thank goodness they accelerated it, because now it may be done by 2010. 

Meanwhile it has been over a year and the other section of Derry (East of James Snow) is not even half done.  It was originally supposed to be done in 2009, but now they said it will be done in 2010.  At the speed they are working at, I doubt it.

I normally try not to do enraged posts, but every once in a while an issue comes up.  The town identified upgrade of Nassagaweya Tennis Club as one of the high priority shovel-ready project and applied for stimulus funding. It got it.  Federal and Provincial governments will contribute just under $2 million while the town will chip in with another $1 million. 

Sounds good, right?  Wrong!  Here’s why :-

1. 1. The club is not getting any additional tennis courts. Its members will have same number of courts.  Huh?  $3 million and not even an additional court!  As far as maintaining exist courts go, the town already pays half the cost of resurfacing tennis courts.
2. Nassagaweya Tennis Club has less than 200 members (not a typo).  Why is the town spending $15,000 / member (total $3 million) when the money is so badly needed elsewhere?  If the town is so flushed with money then why does it not just give some of it back to the tax-payers?
3. The money will go towards the demolition and replacement of a building on site.  Will the town still collect $100 in rent for the entire year, or will the rent reflect the true cost? 
4. The money will also re-align the three tennis courts from east-west to face north-south to reduce sunlight glare issues.  Sweet!  The hospital is a disaster, roads are gridlocked but hey … those less than 200 people should not have to put up with sunlight glare when paying tennis.  On top of this the town also shares operating costs, including paying all electric bills and clubhouse interior upgrades and half the cost to resurface tennis courts.
5. The club’s president, Jim Harding, said anyone within the town of Milton is welcome to become a resident.  Oh gee, thanks.  I think people already voted with their wallets when less than 200 decided to become members.  Why don’t they join other tennis facilities in the town or pay more so their tennis doesn’t have to be subsidized by others?
6. Rural residents pay a lower property tax-rates than urban residents do (many Miltonians don’t know this fact).  This is because rural residents do not want to pay for services that only urban residents receive.  So I ask, is this money raised only from Nassagaweya residents?  If not then why not just have the same tax-rate for all of Milton? 

If the money had to be spent on tennis then the town could have built courts where a large number of tax-payers could benefit from them.  When you live in a high-population-density-area-where-you-can-high-five-your-neighbour-without-either-of-you-leaving-your-homes then you trade open spaces for access to more facilities (because the cost gets divided among a larger tax-base).  Similarly, people who live in rural areas opt for open spaces and all the goodness of country life that us urbanites miss out on.  However, they do have to travel to use facilities because the population density in rural areas often does not justify the expenditure.  It is completely absurd for several dozen people to expect this sort of subsidy from the town and it is equally absurt for the town to provide it. 

Moreover, it’s okay for the town to subsidize a library or a public park because a business case does not exist for a profitable library or public park (not a reasonbale one at least). However, there are plenty of profitable sports clubs.  As such, the town should only build sports facilities if it expects to run them at a no-loss situation.  If members using a facility cannot even pay for the on-going cost then it’s a good indicator that running such a facility does not make economic sense. A better use of money is to stop throwing money after such activities. 

The part of Milton I live in has more than 10,000 residents and we do not have a single neighbourhood park (we do have two dirt fields that will get developed into a park at some point in the future).  There are a number of badly needed road projects in Milton that the town is responsible for.  The money could have gone there.

Heck there is the often mentioned Hospital that could use some money.  If nothing else then the town could build the hospital a parking lot so people wouldn’t have to fork out close to $10 for parking on top of spending 5 hours in the waiting room.

In this economy I am sure Miltonians wouldn’t mind getting a rebate cheque from the town if it could not find a better use for money.

But in the worst recession in living memory the town found it necessary to spend this much needed money to subsidize tennis for such a small number of residents!  I counted and there are more than 200 people on my street.  Should we get a private tennis club of our own too?

If you agree with me that this is a waste of tax-payer money then please join me and leaving a note to your councillor.  Follow this link and ask the town clerk to forward the message to the  entire Council.  You may also call or email them directly, which is always better.  Their phone numbers and e-mail addresses are here.

From Milton Canadian Champion:

Looking for a good family time?

The Muslim Association of Milton is gearing up for its community barbecue, which will be held Saturday, July 18 from 2 to 6 p. m. at the Milton Fair Grounds (Robert Street entrance).

Tickets cost $10 per person and $20 per family, with all proceeds going to Milton District Hospital.

Admission includes food, rides and games for the kids.

Special guests will include Mayor Gord Krantz, Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr and other dignitaries.

And the flyer: