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YMCA of Oakville, 410 Rebecca Street, Oakville 905-845-3417 www.ymcaofoakville.com We have great programs to keep you healthy in spirit, mind and body. Swimming Wellness Centre Recreational sports Martial Arts Fitness classes Zumba Yoga CycleFit Child minding Check out our program schedule online. FREE one week pass Visit us from October 4 to 17 and ask for a FREE one week pass. Passes will be valid until October 31, 2010 11 W ednesday , O ctober 13, 2010 O A KVILLE BEA V ER w w w .o akvillebeaver .co m By David Lea OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Speeding, access to recreational facili- ties, balancing the budget. These are just a few of the issues being discussed by the four candidates who are after the Ward 4 Town and Regional Councillor position. On Oct. 25, Ward 4 incumbent Allan Elgar, 59, will attempt to defend his coun- cil seat from challengers John Foster, 41, Jeff Gareau, 38, and Bhupinder Singh Sandhawalia, 74. Allan Elgar Elgar, who has held the position of Ward 4 Town and Regional Councillor for the past 10 years, lists numerous accomplish- ments in making his case for re-election. He points out that the 2006-2010 term council created a new Official Plan protect- ing existing and future neighbourhoods, shifted costs of growth to developers, improved fire response times, opened new recreational and public facilities, created an award-winning job creation plan, an award-winning heritage plan and created more GO parking, among other things. In Ward 4 Elgar pointed to such accom- plishments as the addition of a splash pad and playground at the West Oak Trails Community Park, the completion of the new baseball diamonds and the leash-free dog run at Palermo Park, the expansion of the Glen Abbey branch of the Oakville Library, increased speed monitoring by Halton police, development and implementation of the Bronte Road/Hwy. 25 bypass of the old white oak tree in front of regional headquar- ters, road resurfacing improvements, the introduction of bike lanes and more. What Im most personally proud of is the fact that I fought for zoning of a Natural Heritage System. They were saying that if we tried to save the Natural Heritage System it was going to cost the Town $230 million, said Elgar. I ended up going to the Legislative Assembly and talking to them about it and they said they had the planning tools to do it. Both the staff at the Town and 90 per cent of council said we couldnt do it, but I kept fighting for it and the resulting Ontario Municipal Board case let us do it through zoning at no cost to the taxpayer. Elgar said he is concerned about a num- ber of major issues including speeding and controlling growth. He sits on the Niagara Escarpment Commission and is on the board of direc- tors of Conservation Halton and the Credit Valley Conservation Authority. He is the past and founding president of the environmental residents group Oakvillegreen and has served on numerous committees during his time on council. A few of these include the Community Services Committee, the 2010 Budget Committee, the Environmental Strategic Plan Committee, Halton Regions Planning and Public Works Committee and the Mid- Halton Wastewater Treatment Plant Advisory Committee. Before coming to council Elgar worked for Bell Canada as an administration and finance manager for 30 years. He is married, has two sons and has lived in Ward 4 since 1994. John Foster Foster, who works as a senior systems analyst and management consultant for a private company, said he is running for office to try and give his children a better future. He said his priorities include tackling the financial issues that are keeping the Town from having the flexibility to under- take environmental projects. It really is about making sure the Town is in order, so we can be a leader on the environment, said Foster. If you are not doing that at the munic- ipal level it is never going to happen at the federal or provincial level. People have seen Kyoto and Copenhagen, nothing gets done. Foster pointed out that he has recently received flyers from Oakville Mayor Rob Burton and Elgar in which they claim to have a payment plan for the $200 million Town council has committed to the new Oakville hospital. Foster said he has doubts about that statement noting that if it was true it would have been discussed before the election. Foster also said that because the sur- rounding communities will benefit from this new hospital the Region should pay some of the costs. He also asked whether the hospital issue itself could be revisited. Its in Ward 4, so thats obviously great for us, but maybe we have Cadillac aspira- tions and a Pontiac budget, he said. The money has got to make sense for all this to happen and on top of that this hospi- tal will be overcrowded before we are even done paying for it. Thats a pretty serious thing if were talking about a 30-year com- mitment. Going in knowing its not going to last you 30 years. Foster also listed the recent removal of the $110,000 West Oak Trails Skateboard Park as another financial folly. On the environment side of his agenda, Foster said he would like to see money freed up to do things like purchase hybrid buses and construct Town facilities that have geot- hermal, wind or solar power aspects to them. He said the Town needs to do something to eliminate the huge number of young peo- ple who are on waiting lists to play team sports. We really need to work to make sure we can have participation by all, he said. Anybody who wants to play should be able to play. Foster has lived in Oakville for more than 30 years and has lived in Ward 4 for 11 years. Tenth in a series Elgar faces three challengers for Ward 4 regional seat Allan Elgar John Foster See Ward page 12 Speak up! You can comment on any story in todays Oakville Beaver at oakvillebeaver.com.