Chairman Partington's "Vision for Niagara's Future"
Chairman Partington's
"Vision for Niagara's Future" Address
January 19, 2006 Meeting of Regional Council
Good evening Councillors, and Happy New Year.
We thank Bayview Flowers of Jordan for the flowers that grace Council Chambers this evening.
I wish to welcome Niagara-on-the-Lake's Acting Lord Mayor Art Viola to Council this evening.
The start of a New Year is an ideal time to celebrate and reflect upon the accomplishments of the year gone by. Our accomplishments are numerous:
- Our ambulance communication centre went live in June;
- We opened a state-of-the-art recycling complex in Niagara Falls;
- Significant upgrades were made to our water and waste water systems;
- The Greater Niagara Circle Route was brought closer to completion;
- We broke ground for our addition to Regional Headquarters;
- The Niagara-Hamilton Waste Plan was brought to a point where we are
now considering a consultants report on the treatment of residual waste;
and,
- We experienced tremendous success with Niagara Week - namely the Province's announcement they will expand the 406 to four lanes from Beaverdams to Port Robinson Road.
And the list goes on.
I would like to detour from the traditional retrospective speech that usually opens our first council session of the New Year and concentrate on the future and where I believe we need to be headed as a region.
Let me begin by saying that Niagara understands the Province's need to provide guidelines for municipal growth through Places to Grow and the need to protect our environment through its Greenbelt legislation.
However, development that is consistent with the spirit of the Greenbelt must be allowed to continue in our northern communities.
We need to ensure, in collaboration with the province, that our northern communities have the smart growth tools and the support they need to continue to grow and prosper within their urban boundaries.
In 2005, Niagara began to speak with a united voice. The one-voice agenda worked very well in Queen's Park last April and again in Ottawa last October as part of Niagara Week.
Our Niagara Week initiative was an important first step in building lasting relationships with Queen's Park and the Federal Government on a co-ordinated, strategic basis.
However, the hard work of relationship building must continue. Discussions with our partners in other levels of government are on-going throughout the year.
I plan to lead return missions to Toronto and Ottawa to strengthen and build up the relationships we established last year.
On this year's Niagara Week agenda, we will a include variety of initiatives that are key to ensuring that Niagara and its municipalities remain strong.
Among those agenda items will be:
- the need to ensure that the Niagara - GTA Corridor moves ahead
expeditiously,
- the need to drive highway infrastructure further south into Niagara;
and,
- the need for the Province to incorporate our Regional Development Strategy when implementing its Places to Grow Plan and to provide the infrastructure support to allow and promote the growth that is essential to our future prosperity.
Directing development pressures to our southern tier has long been recognized as a key priority by Regional Council. It is part of our planning policy and understood as essential to the cohesion of our region.
I believe that we as a Council must raise the bar of expectation and determination if we as a region are going to realize our goal of balanced prosperity and economic opportunity for all in Niagara throughout all of Niagara.
This is by no means an easy task. However, there are steps we as a Council can take to help Niagara realize its own potential.
Our efforts to advance the cause of the Niagara - GTA Corridor must continue. This piece of transportation infrastructure is critical not only to the economic health of Niagara, but to the economic health of the GTA and the entire province.
However, we in Niagara cannot sit back and be passive observers to the events that will shape our future. We must continue in our planning for the further development and the strengthening of our own regional transportation infrastructure.
The expansion of the 406 to four lanes between Beaverdams and Port Robinson Road is a result of the success of Niagara speaking with one voice, and this is where our efforts must continue.
The 406 must be expanded to four lanes down to East Main Street in Welland, under the Welland Canal, and down Highway 140 and to Port Colborne.
In addition to this, a route must be identified that will connect this new stretch of Highway 406 to the QEW in the Fort Erie area.
We need a decision on the necessity for a Class Environmental Assessment to identify an appropriate southern connection route between the 406 and the QEW.
I also want to revisit past work that has been conducted on the Niagara - GTA Corridor and explore with you the necessity of obtaining an Economic Impact Study to examine the ramifications delaying the Niagara-GTA Corridor will have on the economy of Niagara.
I strongly believe this is the right thing to do. As such, I propose that the schedule for our March 9th Council Business Planning Session to be dedicated to the discussion of how the vision for the expanded and extended 406 can be advanced as quickly as possible.
The Niagara - GTA Corridor, combined with the 406 southern expansion and connection to the QEW, will finally provide Niagara with the infrastructure necessary to to better support Niagara's manufacturing industry and significantly increase opportunities for greater prosperity across our entire Region.
On another front, Niagara is challenged by the loss of young people. As students finish their education at our fine institutions of Brock University or Niagara College, young people seek opportunities outside Niagara. Another challenge is the loss of newcomers to our country.
While newcomers enter Canada through Niagara, they tend to move to other areas of Ontario for settlement.
I am delighted that our Community Services Department will look for solutions to these challenges in 2006 so that Niagara will benefit from the intellectual capital young people and newcomers can contribute to our Niagara tapestry.
We must continue to provide the services that are essential to the health and well-being of our community:
- We must carry on with our pandemic planning and emergency management
exercises - and I remind Council of the February 16th Council
Business Planning Session we have on pandemic planning;
- We must continue to combat obesity and continue to support the efforts
of our leadership roundtable;
- We must continue to provide access to high quality licensed child
care and continue to support our Best Start program; and,
- We must recognize that the need for additional safe, secure, permanent affordable housing in Niagara is essential for social development.
On the topic of social services, Niagara will continue to strongly support AMO's campaign to remove public health, housing and social services from the property tax bill. As these services are primarily ones of income redistribution, they should be paid for through income tax not property tax.
And now we come to customer service --- a topic that deserves to move higher onto our agenda. When we think of customer service at the regional level, I'm sure that we all think of services to our residents --- how we respond to inquiries, requests for service, how we provide services. To improve customer service to our residents, customer service to our municipalities must also be one a top priority.
Through the efforts of Mike Trojan, and his senior team, customer service will see new emphasis in 2006. Mike will lead a corporate-wide effort to improve customer service that will have wide-ranging implications for relationships within Niagara. This agenda includes:
- Common objective: In 2006 all managerial staff will share an objective
to effect significant immediate improvements in working relationships
that will benefit the tax payer. This will be translated into a multitude
of action plans specific to the roles played by our affected management
staff.
- Service reviews: 2006 will see fruition of reviews of how the Region
and municipalities deliver water/wastewater services, planning services
and policing issues. These are important areas of regional/municipal
functions that can be improved to the benefit of our taxpayers.
- The Integrated Common Services Project --- an initiative that looks at improvements in business support activities may be subject to some form of 'peer review' to ensure that Niagara Region is taking advantage of all opportunities for savings and service improvements. Good success has been achieved to date in this area with savings in the range of $1 million.
2006, like 2005, will hold many opportunities and challenges for Niagara. However, our region possesses assets unrivalled anywhere else in the country.
I believe our future is very bright, but will be made brighter by continuing to work hard together and with other levels of government and our community partners to ensure the success of our future.
I am confident we can chart a course that will make Niagara an even better place to live. Our best time is still ahead of us.
Thank you.
