Ann Lawlor says she's not completely happy with the Town’s budget for 2025.
The Town’s portion of the tax bill next year will add about $240 for a home assessed at $600,000. And despite the work of staff to keep expenditures down and council trimming $1 million from the budget, the Mayor told the Halton Hills Chamber of Commerce “the budget increases still seemed a bit too high. There are real risks in the decisions we made and in some cases we did kick the can down the road.”
However, the Mayor said Halton Hills finds itself in the same position as most municipalities in the province.
“The fact is the current structure of municipal finances in Ontario and much of Canada is unsustainable,” Lawlor said. “The property tax base was not designed and cannot accommodate the needs of and demands on our municipal governments.”
As a result, she said, “property taxpayers are carrying an uneven burden.”
Lawlor said she would like to see the province share part of the land transfer tax or have the federal government contribute a portion of the GST to municipal expenses.
Lawlor made the comments Thursday at the Chamber’s annual Mayor’s Lunch and State of the Town Address at Georgetown Golf Club.
Despite the financial constraints, Lawlor said there were many positives in the past year and the year ahead, such as:
- Six million square feet of non-residential development in progress or under construction representing 1.2 billion in investment, and potentially 3,000 local jobs
- Adding more firefighters and investing in equipment and training
- Increasing bylaw enforcement to help combat the more than 50 illegal trucking depots in Halton Hills
- The creation of an agricultural business roundtable
- Road improvements projects with minimal disruption, such as the repaving of Mill and Main Streets in Acton
- Increasing the number of full-time staff at the Town’s two senior centres
- Continuing to enhance parks and recreation amenities.
During a question and answer session following the Mayor’s address, Chamber CEO Melanie Frazer asked Lawlor about the state of public transit in town. She said many businesses have told her that in order to remain competitive with surrounding municipalities, transit is needed to attract and retain employees.
“Halton Hills is frankly behind every municipality in Ontario when it comes to the provision of public transit,” Lawlor said. “The reality is too, that it is a very expensive service to provide.”
While the Mayor said there is demand for transit, particularly in the Armstrong Avenue area as well as between Georgetown and Acton, she said the Town is currently prioritizing its Activan service that provides transportation to hospitals in Milton and Oakville and its Steeles corridor partnership with Milton Transit.
Lawlor said the Activan program is “literally a life-saving one for many clients whose illness prevents them from driving and are spared hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars in taxi fares.”
Frazer said the local Chamber is working with two other Chambers to push the provincial and federal governments for transit funding.
“It’s that big of an issue for us,” Frazer said.
Lawlor said while new development is being planned with transit in mind, “introducing a new transit system in a big way is probably not something we’re going to be able to handle in the next year, but it is something I am very very conscious of.”
In terms of new development, the Mayor said work should begin on the land between Eighth Line and Trafalgar Road south of 15 Side Road in 2025 or 2026. The 1,000 acres will have 9,000 homes.
“We need a range of housing at various price points so people can afford to live in the community where they work,” Lawlor said. “We need housing for entry level, young homeowners, housing for singles, housing for seniors who want to downsize, we need rental housing, we need supportive housing. The full range of it. Frankly, the private market place is not providing it right now.”
She said these types of housing and rental opportunities are largely being provided by non-profit organizations like Habitat for Humanity and various levels of government.
The Mayor said the year ahead will also be important as the Town plans the required intensification around the Georgetown and Acton GO stations.
