The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, June 14, 2012 · 6 The Oakville Beaver 467 Speers Rd., Oakville Ont. L6K 3S4 (905) 845-3824 Fax: 337-5566 Classified Advertising: 905-632-4440 Circulation: 845-9742 The Oakville Beaver is a member of the Ontario Press Council. The council is located at 80 Gould St., Suite 206, Toronto, Ont., M5B 2M7. Phone (416) 340-1981. Advertising is accepted on the condition that, in the event of a typographical error, that portion of advertising space occupied by the erroneous item, together with a reasonable allowance for signature, will not be charged for, but the balance of the advertisement will be paid for at the applicable rate. The publisher reserves the right to categorize advertisements or decline. Editorial and advertising content of the Oakville Beaver is protected by copyright. Unauthorized use is prohibited. Guest Column Halton's online survey panel ne of the things I enjoy as I travel through the region and meet Halton's residents is the passionate discussion that I have with citizens about Regional issues. Two-way communication between government and residents is important and that is why I would like to take a moment to encourage you to join Halton's new online survey panel. Gary Carr The best decisions are made when citizens are engaged and involved. Governments involve citizens in many ways; from elections, to surveys, public meetings and more recently, through social media. That's why Regional council made public engagement a key priority in our Citizens' Priorities Action Plan. During the development of The Citizens' Priorities: Halton Region's 2011-2014 Action Plan, it became evident the residents of Halton wanted to be a part of the Region's decision-making process. Thanks to the overwhelming interest shown by many residents in the Citizen's Reference Panel, a group of randomly-selected residents who helped provide input to our Citizens' Priorities Action Plan, we are excited to launch Halton MVP (my ViewPoint). This survey panel is an innovative and flexible opportunity for residents to provide Regional council and staff with important information about satisfaction levels, attitudes, needs and priorities in relation to programs and services. The online survey panel will ask participants to provide their viewpoint on a variety of Regional issues and initiatives including waste management, service optimization, housing, emergency preparedness and more. Members of Halton MVP will receive up to eight surveys per year by e-mail. Each survey should take between five and seven minutes to complete. Simply respond to the surveys and have your viewpoint heard. As part of the program, and to ensure there is two-way communication, Halton Region will make summary survey results available online. Please take a moment to register and tell your friends, family members and neighbours about this opportunity. Registration is open to all residents of Halton, 18 years of age or older, excluding Region employees. As your elected representatives, Regional council wants you to become involved so that we can make the best decisions possible for all of us. By working together we can ensure that Halton remains a great place to live, work, raise a family and retire. For more information about Halton MVP, or to sign up, visit www.halton.ca/ MVP. As always, if you have any regional concerns or comments you would like to share, please feel free to e-mail me at gary.carr@halton.ca. Neil Oliver Vice-President and Group Publisher, Metroland West David harvey Regional General Manager JILL DAVIS Editor in Chief Daniel Baird Advertising Director ANGELA BLACKBURN Managing Editor Riziero Vertolli Photography Director Sandy Pare Business Manager RECOGNIZED FOR EXCELLENCE BY: Ontario Community Newspapers Association MARK DILLS Director of Production Manuel garcia Production Manager CHARLENE HALL Director of Distribution Sarah McSweeney Circ. Manager Website www.oakvillebeaver.com The OakvilleBeaver is a division of O Gary Carr, Halton Regional Chair Canadian Community Newspapers Association Suburban Newspapers of America THE OAKVILLE BEAVER IS PROUD OFFICIAL MEDIA SPONSOR FOR: United Way of Oakville ATHENA Award INSIDE TRACK: St. Ignatius of Loyola High School recently hosted its first Inside Ride event raising approximately $31,400 for The Inside Ride charity, which is part of the Coast to Coast Against Cancer Foundation (CTCACF) that benefits children with cancer and their families by providing financial support to parents who sacrifice their jobs to be close to a child receiving care. The event had 66 teams of six ride on stationary bikes for one hour. Left to right are, Sarah Traynor, Allie Ash, Nicole Collaton, Stephanie Solty, Loyola teacher Mrs. Copp, and Nicole St. Onge. SUbmitted photo When enjoyable exercise becomes the best part of the day t was a vicious cycle. Despite the early morning hour, we'd already been out on the road seemingly forever, traversing the landscape -- which, in our neck of the woods, fluctuates between hilly and, well, hillier -- peddling until our lungs and legs burned and our butts sang a saddle-sore lament. We stopped at a crossroads to catch a breath and hydrate. At which point my wife suggested we take a different route home, a route that would add a good 30 minutes to our ride. Did I mention that this had become a vicious cycle? At my wife's suggestion, I may have emitted a certain mouse-like pipsqueak squeal of complaint -- nothing truly unmanly or anything -- to which my wife responded: "You know, when you go to bed tonight you'll be thinking that this bike ride was the best part of your day." And my wife was right (hey, it occurs, occasionally). So, as we took the long way home, I contemplated just how and when cycling had ever-so gradually become the very best part of so many of my days. I started cycling several years ago to supplement my running regimen. To be honest, initially I was not enthralled. But as time marched on, and as my knees increasingly com- I plained about the pounding they were taking whenever I ran, and the crippling pain that followed, I began looking forward to hopping on that bike and exploring the countryside (the smells, the sounds, the sights) around our home. Early one morning on a gravel road in the middle of nowhere I encountered Andy Juniper a herd of deer crossing the road. They halted at my approach and a staring contest ensued. A full minute passed before they finally decided that I was harmless, and continued their unhurried march across the road. This story had a far happier (and less stinky) ending than the time my wife had a similar close encounter -- with a skunk. Anyway, last year my doctor (a) thanked me for helping him afford a winter home in Costa Rica and (b) told me to give up on running before my knees completely gave out on me. I began cycling in earnest. Given the nuttiness of our weather in the age of global warming, I was able to get out all but one month of the year. And in that period, I became wholly hooked. Cycling is oftentimes a pack activity. On any given day in the country you can see colorfully clad collections of cyclists taking on the rural roads. Personally, when it comes to exercising, I can be a bit antisocial -- more of a lone wolf than a pack animal. I like the freedom of being able to hop on my bike whenever I please, not co-ordinating my time with the schedules of others, and spinning off into solitude for as long as I please. However, on weekends, my wife often joins me. It's treasured time together; it's the oxymoron known as `enjoyable exercise'. We use these bike rides to reconnect -- to both find ourselves and, after another nutty week of work, to lose ourselves. And no matter how vicious the cycle, we oftentimes hit the hay thinking that our bike ride was actually a lot of fun. And, yes, the best part of the day. Andy Juniper can be contacted at ajjuniper@gmail.com, found on Facebook at www.facebook.com, or followed at www. twitter.com/thesportjesters.