HawthorneVillager.com

The magic word is assuming as of yet we have none of the funding gaurantees from the private sector, that supporters of this project keep mentionning. The only commitment I am confident of receiving is the $2 million from Mattamy for the naming rights, the balance is simply pledges or offers of support in fund raising. The province has not announced officially if and when we will get the Laurier Campus. If this is to go ahead we must commit to the Pan-Am Games committee by Jan. 24th. Once that is done, we are on the hook for the $ 17.5 million which is our share. If the fundraising falls short and until the Laurier Campus happens, if it does, it is the Taxpayers of Milton who will have to make up the difference. Considering all the other challenges we face as a growing community, the biggest being the hopital expansion, I question if going ahead with this is in the best interest of the town.

From what I am hearing from the majority of Miltonians is they do not support this if it is going to cost the taxpayers any money. The only way that can happen is if by Jan. 23rd we have ironclad contracts for financial support from the private sector for $ 12 million dollars and an annoucement from the province that yes we will be getting the Laurier Campus within the next 3 years. I can not see that all happening before we as a council have to vote on this.

Rick Malboeuf
Councillor Ward 4

My dad was a huge cycling and windsurfing fan growing up and took us to a famous velodrome in Belgium & France during vacation, here is a photo of my adopted brother on one of our trips to France, this was at a theme park just outside the velodrome.

Do they? I can't speak for other levels of government, lets just stick with Milton. 9 out of 10 projects come on budget. Those that are over, there are just as many (if not more) that come under budget. That's why Milton consistently runs a surplus (things cost less than you budgeted). From transit to athletic facilities to the library, almost everything has come on budget and then gone on to perform much better than expected. Transit generated far more revenue than expected, athletic facilities generated more revenue than expected, even libraries were used significantly more.

It's true that road projects haven't ended up on time, but even they ended up on budget. The assertion that "9 out of 10 projects" end up costing a lot more isn't one that can be backed by facts in Milton.

I challenge you to look at last 20 projects Milton undertook and see how many came on or under budget and how many went over.

People say they want governments to run like businesses. Businesses make decisions by understanding and analyzing risks. The tendency to reject every opportunity (and I mean everything) without even understanding it better isn't healthy IMO.

Search this forum to see how many people just jumped to conclusion that Milton couldn't pull anything off (getting its hospital expansion approved before electing a different Provincial government, substantially increasing transit use, increasing development charges on developers etc. etc). But so far we've managed to do everything we set out to do, and we've done it on or under budget in almost all cases. We'll get our education village too, despite all naysayers. And we've managed to do that because we sat down (as a group), studied issues and made informed decisions instead of choosing not to even consider options simply because of ideology.

I think holding games like PanAms and Olympics is almost always a waste of money, I am not a cyclist and I have no interest in watching people cycle around a track. However, I do consider it an opportunity worthy of our investigation.

Zeeshan Hamid

Hey Rick M,

How do you go about gathering public opinion in your ward? I live in Ward 4 an I've never heard from you or received any correspondence from you, ever.

You attitude toward spending terrifies me, I don't want to live in a town of nothing. Let me know next time you're making your rounds, soliciting public opinion, I'd love to chat.

KGC

I am not a Councillor just a taxpayer like yourself!

Actually I find not a helluva lot of difference between Zeeshan's position and my own! I agree the due diligence has to be done.

You pose an interesting question about risk. If I were a Councillor my capacity for risk would certainly be lower than what it was as a business leader but it definitely would not be zero. Equally I don't think my "gut" or "faith" as you put it would play as big a role either.

Martin

[quote="westender said
You are great as shooting down ideas, but still haven't come across one place where you have made a positive contribution to developing Milton into anything more then Mississauga lite.

This will divest from the topic but I can not let your comment go by without responding. I have lived in Milton for 25 years, in that time I have coached minor baseball and lacrosse, spent 14 years as a member of a local service club, 2 years as President, have been involved in numerous fundraising events. I have sat on Milton Council for a total of 7 years, 6 years of that as a Regional Councillor as well. As a councillor I initiated the policy to improve our part time fire department to a full time 24/7 department, I initiated the policy to place heart defibrillators in all municipal buildings, I initiated, chaired the advisory committee and moved the motion that led to the banning of smoking in all Milton restaurants and bars before the province passed its legislation, and as a Regional Councillor I was able to convince the Land Ambulance Service and Regional Council to increase the service in Milton from a part time 12 hour a day service to 2 full time 24/7 ambulances as well as the establishing of two ambulances stations where we had none before. So those are just a few contributions I have made, can I ask what you have done ??

Sincerely
The Kindler Gentler
Rick Malboeuf

westender said:[ So Rick, in a word you can say I have struggled.

So given that I have lived here for 10 years and you have been a member of counsel for 7. I guess you are as responsible as anyone for the infrastructure and planning issues we have all witnessed first hand.