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2 - Thse Canadian Chi Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty taika with Halton Reagi1o na 1 Councillor Kevin Flynn and Halton CAO Brent Marshall. Mr. McGulnty met wlth reglonal couniclIlors ln 0Oa k v e11 Thuraday as part of a swing through sauth- ern Ontario to gmt feedback on Issues. Photo by BARRIE ERSKINE '199 $» '29 w %- fflm AW 1 l a MISaUILpG aà 110 i L ie rI<9511 *NO PAYMENTS NINTEREST FOR 1 YFAR. O.AC SUE STORE FOR DETAILS 1978 m0 ru , * ~!~ e FREELayaway We Malleany sin botmalro e Dispoai of 01<1 m*mi savaiiable e Delivery and setup available e*Wo accept ai tou of payniont e Ovr 25,0 q. Ri. of factory u Senior Citizen Discolimi e F*nnc.lg Mailable SERVINO YOUR COMMUNITY FOR OVER 21 YEARS * .. oelr p ., iiuu.i 11 a p .u Doirt rush into amalgamation, McGuinty says By SCOTT MACARTHUR Specti 10 The Champion There shoul' d be no rush toward amalgamation in Halton, according to Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty who made a stop in Oakville Thursday for a private meeting to discuss various community concerns with regional councillors. 1I see no pressing reason to get into any headlong rush toward amalgamnaton in this community," hie said. "My advice to tise councillors today and to the people in Haltun region is to think very carefully before you go down tisat patis." Mr. McGuinty stated that once an amalgamation is put tisrough it will be nearly impossible to reverse and cost-saving measures will be isard to find. He cited Toronto, Hamilton, and Sudbury as cities finding combined communitiea more expensive "More and more tisese days a sense of community is very important," hie ssid. "We live in a world with 50 million websites and 150 cisannels. Wits so-nuch around, people are becoming more concemed wits wýhere they live and it's important to be informed befote changes are made. Halton's growing traffic problenu were discussed attse meeting and Mr. McGuinty said hie felt tise Harris govemment recently missed an opportsinity to rectify tise problem. "Tise st provincial budget was a missed opportunity on this score," hie said. "We're talking about over $6 billion in business tax cuts and we should bavé taken some of tisat and put it into municipal infrastructure issues sucs as transportation." Regional Councillor Kevin Flynn, who attended tise meeting, said hie feit tise event went positively and that Mr. McGuinty was responsive to concerrus facing Halton region. "Our counicillors did moat of tise talking and Dalton was extremely attentive and reaponsive to our concems," ie said. "There was no sense tisat a Liberal agenda was being put on us, ratier there waa seriaus concem about tise future of our region." Mr. McGuinty said hie expecta tise next election to take place in 2003 and by that time ie wants to have a aotid, community-based platform tisat takes into consideration tise needa of ail individuals. "I'm travelling to different towns whenever 1 have tise opportu- nity,"1 he said. 1I want to understand intimately tise needs of thia community s0 that our platformn speaks to it in a compelling wsy. It's impor- tant for Halton families to be able to feel that their leader knows wisst they're talkcing about aitie breakfast table every moming and that isis platformn is there to iselp tisem out." Ià Reemer aretheactr