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Burton gives state of the union and looks ahead Continued from page 1 9 · Friday, February 22, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com The event attracted an audience of more than 200 people. In answering a question about his future career plans, Burton referred back to an earlier statement he had made that thanks to the revenue coming from local renewable energy projects the Town's $130 million contribution to the new Oakville hospital would not come from the taxpayer. "I am really proud to be able to deliver so huge a donation to our hospital without using taxes. Every other community that has been faced with this demand has had to go to the taxpayers," said Burton. "Having gotten us to a position where we can do that, I desperately want to be the guy that hands the cheque over (in 2015)." The restrained statement followed a presentation in which Burton spoke about the achievements the town has seen under his leadership. This included the addition of 800,000 square feet of community facilities, lower property tax levy increases than those brought forward by the previous administration and the addition of 1,200 jobs to Oakville in 2012 alone. He said there are challenges on the horizon. One of them, Burton said, comes in the form of developers bringing the Town and Region before the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) this month to challenge the level of development charges currently being charged to pay for growth. "The first threat is this desire by the developers to make us finance them," charged Burton, adding the Region of York finances infrastructure for residential developers. "We do not. York has levels of debt that we cannot imagine taking on and the debt the developers want us to take on would be entirely at our risk -- your risk -- not at their risk," charged Burton. "Our municipal debt for Oakville is only six per cent of our revenues. On a consolidated basis for Oakville and Halton, our municipal debt is 36 per cent of our consolidated revenues. York's debt is 117 per cent, Ontario's is around 200 per cent and the federal government's is about 250 per cent. So who do you want to be? I say we should stay the way we are on the question of debt and who we're banking with." Regional council, which includes Burton, has directed staff to vigor- "I am really proud to be able to deliver so huge a donation to our hospital without using taxes. Every other community that has been faced with this demand has had to go to the taxpayers. Having gotten us to a position where we can do that, I desperately want to be the guy that hands the cheque over (in 2015)." Oakville Mayor Rob Burton ously defend the development charges bylaw at the OMB. A second threat Burton listed was Ontario's Big Move Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area transit plan. Burton said the Metrolinx plan, which strategizes how to tackle gridlock and improve transportation access, integration and efficiency in the GTHA over the next 25 years, has a $34 billion funding gap, which municipalities like Oakville are expected to step in and pay. "In the last two weeks, the budget chair and the mayor of the City of Toronto have come out and said they are going to fight any taxes or even tolls to pay for the Big Move," said Burton. "This means the Toronto Board of Trade and Mr. (John) Tory have not been able to bring their own city and their own mayor to the table. Tomorrow the mayors of the GTA are meeting with Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion to decide what the heck we are going to do now. I can tell you that if Toronto doesn't want to pay its own way, I have trouble imagining you wanting to subsidize them." Burton said the Big Move could cost each GTA household almost $1,000 per year or more than $1,600 per household per year, if Toronto does not contribute. Burton listed improving asset performance and increasing high-end economic development as two opportunities Oakville should pursue. The mayor said improving asset performance could see additional parking space and office space built above parking lots downtown. That would create more parking so more customers could come downtown and create an asset that would generate more revenue for the Town. In the area of high-end economic development, Burton noted the Town's Economic Development Strategy focuses on attracting professional and financial services, advanced manufacturing, life sciences and digital media and animation. Burton said all indications are that business is thriving in Oakville. The Oakville Ford Assembly Plant recently added a third shift creating 300 jobs while Siemens Canada moved its head office to town. PricewaterhouseCoopers is set to open an office in Oakville later this year. 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