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35 | O akville B eaver | T hursday,D ecem ber 13,2018 insidehalton.com Dec. 14, 15 & 16 Christmas Songbook on the way! S O N G S O F 2 O 1 8 2018 Christmas Songbooks will be available after December 1st. Limited copies available, hurry to reserve your copy, just email: klondon@metroland.com Please include "Songbook" in the subject line our environment and our economics. Second: Pro- tecting our cultural and natural heritage resources and green spaces. Third: Providing the high-quality services and facilities our residents need and want. Fourth: Keeping our financ- es strong and healthy and Fifth: Engage in expanding mutual understanding with our provincial masters." Burton said this term of council would see the con- tinuing defence of council's decision to refuse Clu- bLink's application to de- velop Glen Abbey Golf Course. Other significant work objectives include: reliev- ing traffic congestion through major road widen- ings and through construc- tion of the Wyecroft bridge; the reconstruction of Lake- shore Road and its street- scape in Downtown Oak- ville to reinvigorate that ar- ea; the completion of need- ed recreational facilities in south and north Oakville; the development of an inno- vation hub in the downtown and the Dr. Joseph Dableh Life Sciences High-Tech Business Park beside the new Oakville hospital; us- ing the Town's Community Safety and Well-Being Plan to engage the Province in combating poverty in the community and encourag- ing local businesses to be- come living wage employ- ers. Another objective in- volves the consideration of retail cannabis stores and whether council will permit them in Oakville. The Province is offering a one time "opt out" option for municipalities that dofor municipalities that dof not want cannabis retail stores. Burton said the matter will be examined during a Jan. 14 council meeting. Residents will have the opportunity to delegate and have their voices heard on the subject at that meeting. Another area of concern Burton discussed involved the Province's desire to in- crease housing supply. "We the public are asked to let them know by Jan. 25, 2019 how they can get a big increase in the speed and number of houses being built. They want the pub- lic's input on four things: How to make housing ap- provals faster; how to cut development charges the builders pay toward the cost of infrastructure to make housing cheaper to build; how to add new hous- ing into our stable and es- tablished neighbourhoods; how to get new housing op- portunities in our heritage districts, areas and proper- ties," said Burton. "These four points go right to the heart of the Oak- ville way of life and our small town values and ev- erything we have worked so hard at for the last 12 years ... I call on the residents of Oakville to clearly tell our MPPs how fast they want growth to be in Oakville and to tell our MPPs clearly how much of the cost of growth we want to pay on our prop- erty taxes. Already almost 10 per cent of our property taxes go to subsidizing builders." Burton noted he and his council colleagues are 100 per cent committed to serv- ing all of the Oakville com- munity and said they would never shy away from their challenges. NEWS Continued from page 34