Editorial — The case for representation : Caledon Citizen : https://caledoncitizen.com

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Editorial — The case for representation

The message might not have been new, but timing was refreshing.
Caledon's former CAO Patrick Moyle appeared before Town council last week with an update on the work of the task force to look into terms of reference of a review of the governance of Peel, options for the election of the Regional Chair and the composition of council.
There have been calls that Brampton deserves more representation at the Regional council table, and it looks like they can make a pretty good case. But not if it's going to result in Caledon losing representation.
One of the points he commented on is a lot of people in Caledon don't realize that about 36 per cent of their property tax dollars go to the Region to provide a lot of the services we all depend on, like water, public health, garbage collection and maintaining some of the main roads in the community. Local residents need and deserve their representation.
There is a good example of why that is playing itself out at the Region these days. Discussions on how to deal with land use issues in Caledon have been coming up lot at the Regional council table. There have been calls for facilitation to look into these matters. Caledon's representatives, interested in trying to keep the process open and transparent, have been fighting the notion. Mayor Allan Thompson and councillors are aware that there have been charges over an apparent lack of openness in dealing with such matters as the massive Canadian Tire development in Bolton, and they want to try and make sure the public is involved.
Councillors are scheduled to discuss the idea of facilitation at their meeting this coming Tuesday (May 26).
Regional council last month voted in favour of facilitation, but there were a couple of conditions. One of them was the Town had to decide to participate.
There are some members of the community who have spoken in favour of facilitation. But do they represent a majority? We suspect not, and one way residents can prove it is by getting out to Tuesday's meeting and saying so. It is very easy for one side in an issue to stack a meeting, meaning it should also be easy for the other side to make sure they are there to be heard.
Granted, the timing of the meeting is not the greatest. It's slated to start at 1 p.m. in the middle of a work day, with Thompson predicting this item won't come up before 2. But standing up for one's community sometimes requires some inconvenience.
As well, it's possible to contact your councillors and tell them what you think of Brampton and Mississauga trying to manage growth in Caledon. Now's the time for them to hear it.

Post date: 2015-05-20 17:31:49
Post date GMT: 2015-05-20 21:31:49
Post modified date: 2015-05-21 16:30:06
Post modified date GMT: 2015-05-21 20:30:06