Area Councillor Update - September 30, 2008

Added October 9, 2008

Summarized below are the key actions and issues arising from the Council meetings during September:

• The Waste Cost Review Committee (WCRC) has delivered the Draft Final Report to Council for their digestion, in preparation for the debate of the recommendations at the next Council Meeting on October 20th. The report is available on-line here. Also, the report is available at the front desk of the Admin Office. Please read the report and forward to anyone you feel would be interested. If you have any questions or comments, please contact me.
  
  
• The District of Muskoka debated the Debt Reduction proposals for the Sewer & Water $90 million DMM debt, on Sept 2 and approved all recommendations from the Commissioner of Finance report. This means that ALL of Muskoka now will pay for the reduction of the debt on DMM assets that only 10 - 15% of the population enjoys; Sewer & Water. This results because the vast majority of the debt reduction proposals will become part of the general taxation levy, which all of us pay, based on our property assessment. The insidiousness of these proposals is that those who receive the benefit of the Sewer & Water assets generally have the lower assessments in the district, whereas those who can never enjoy the benefits of the assets, have the higher assessments and so pay the lion's share of the cost.
  
  
• The Township Planning Department is in the initial stages of re-doing the Strategic Plan for Port Severn. One of the first steps is a public information meeting to be held Saturday Oct 4th at the Admin Offices starting at 1 PM. This is your opportunity to provide input to the process which will shape the future development of Port Severn.
  
  
• Sadly, Hayes Jackson, a long time resident, past local and district Councillor, and vigorous supporter of Georgian Bay initiatives passed away last week at his home.
  
  

That's it for now. As always, if you have questions or concerns, please contact me.

Jon Lett
Ward 3 Councillor
Township of Georgian Bay
705-756-2967 Home
705-733-6019 Cell

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