Brampton Board of Trade President Wayne Waters discusses
the completion of Highway 410 with Ontario Transportation
Minister Donna Cansfield. The completion of the
410 has been a major issue of the Board of Trade. |
The minister was speaking at a Post-Provincial Budget
Breakfast in April, sponsored by The Brampton Board
of Trade.
A recent survey of Brampton Board of Trade members
indicated that transportation and traffic gridlock are
the issues that most concerns businesses in Brampton.
Highway 410 has long been a issue of The Brampton Board
of Trade and BBOT President Wayne Waters says, “it’s
great news to hear that the minister is working expeditiously
to complete this project.”
Cansfield said Phase 2 to Mayfield Road “is progressing
well and should be open this year. Phase 3 engineering
design and property acquisition is underway and we expect
to start construction this year.” The minister said
the remainder of Highway 410 will open in phases over
the next seven years.
The minister acknowledged that Brampton is growing
at “an extraordinary” rate, second only to Calgary.
She recognizes that transportation and gridlock are
key concerns in the community.
The minister said there is a need to create balance
between roads and transit, pointing to the government’s
$95 million investment in the city’s AccelRide program,
matched recently by the Federal Government. She also
said the province is contributing two cents of the gasoline
tax or another $14 million a year in Brampton, plus
$1.6 million for bus replacement.
She said the future of transportation in the GTA relies
on an integrated transportation strategy, supported
by the newly formed Greater Toronto Transportation Authority
(GTTA)
“The movement of people is critical and an integrated
GTA fare structure is necessary to make transit simple.”
When questioned why Brampton doesn’t have a representative
on the GTTA, Cansfield said each region has one representative.
Mayor Hazel McCallion represents Peel Region. She said
the region put forward two names and one was selected.
Cansfield said there would be “ample opportunity” for
business to get involved through an advisory committee.
BBOT President Wayne Waters said gridlock is costly
because of lost productivity and lost business opportunities.
The minister responded “we want to take congestion off
local roads and put it on the highway where it belongs.”
She said sheldonshe is also looking at High Occupancy
Vehicle lanes across all 400 series highway, in an effort
to ease congestion and reduce pollution.
Wellspring
Centre underway
Brampton Board of Trade President
Wayne Waters and CEO Sheldon Leiba are presented
with a picture of the Wellspring Chinguacousy Cancer
Support Centre following the sod turning. Counc.
Gael Miles, center, has championed the project,
which is expected to open within a year. |
Citizens, health care professionals, community leaders,
land developers, construction companies, service clubs,
community groups, faith organizations, municipal government,
legal firms and people who have been touched by cancer
have joined together to build an amazing new cancer
support centre to serve Brampton Caledon and surrounding
communities.
What started as an idea less than a year ago, has become
a reality with a ground breaking ceremony on Tuesday,
April 24. Construction will commence immediately following
the groundbreaking, and barring any unforeseen difficulties,
the Wellspring Chinguacousy Cancer Support Centre should
open for service within the next 8 to 10 months. It
is anticipated the centre, when fully operational, will
receive more than 10,000 visits each year from people
of all ages experiencing cancer in their lives. The
centre is located at Torbram Rd. & Father Tobin
Road—less than ten minutes drive from the new Brampton
hospital, and on a public transit route.
Wellspring Chinguacousy, named in recognition of a $650,000
donation by the Chinguacousy Health Services Board,
will be a cooperative community facility, accessible
to all cancer patients, their families and caregivers
at no cost for services. It will be the sixth Wellspring
centre to be built in Ontario since the Wellspring Foundation
was started in 1992. The others are located in Toronto
( 2 facilities ), Oakville, Niagara and London.
Each Wellspring centre provides social, emotional, psychological
and informational support to people in their community
coping with cancer every day. Trained health care professionals
and caring volunteers work together to ensure people
living with cancer don’t not have to face the devastating
effects of this disease alone.
The idea to open a centre in Brampton began in 2006
with Regional Councillor Gael Miles, herself a breast
cancer survivor. As champion of the project, she organized
a team of community leaders to take on the challenge
of building and financing a Wellspring centre to serve
Brampton and Caledon. It quickly became a project of
the entire community with support from many sectors.
“The response has been incredible”, reports Miles. “It
started with the land developers. Paradise and Arista
Homes generously donated the land for the centre. Zancor
Homes and the Cortellucci family kindly offered the
build the 6,000 sq. ft. facility at no cost to the community.
And that was just the beginning. Since then almost everyone
we’ve talked to has offered to help. At the groundbreaking,
we are recognizing more than 80 contributors who have
donated money or in-kind services worth more than $1,000
each.”
When built, the Wellspring Chinguacousy Centre will
be a non-institutional, non-residential, fully-accessible
facility run by the Wellspring Foundation as part of
their GTA family of centres. Their cancer support programs
have been developed over the past decade by teams of
oncology professionals, cancer patients, faith leaders
and citizen volunteers working together to find innovative
and creative approaches to helping people touched by
cancer.
The Wellspring Foundation has agreed to put its renowned
programming into place in the Brampton-Caledon centre
on the condition the local planning committee provides
the operational funding on an ongoing basis.
“Financially, we are not quite there yet,” Miles says.
“Although all of the capital costs have been covered
by donations from the land development sector, we are
still facing the challenge of raising almost $1 million
to cover the centre’s operating costs for the first
three years. The community has been very generous with
their donations so far, and we hope this will continue
so we can reach our fundraising goal by the time the
centre is built.”
A special endowment fund has been set-up with the Brampton
Community Foundation to receive donations in support
of the Wellspring Chinguacousy Centre.
POLICY PRIORITIES
SURVEY REPORT
Click
here to download the report
Transportation infrastructure, traffic gridlock and
growth management are of vital importance to Brampton
Board of Trade (BBOT) members, according to a survey
of key policy issues that most concern the business
community.
Related to growth management, is a strong desire to
see local political decision makers preserve employment
lands, attract more business, develop jobs, and rein
in residential development.
The BBOT’s Policy & Government Relations Committee
initiated a Policy Priorities survey to poll BBOT members
on key policy issues of concern. The survey was delivered
electronically to BBOT members in November and the findings
are based on the responses of 94 business leaders, representing
member businesses and organizations of various sizes
and sectors.
The survey was comprised of a combination of 10 open
and close-ended questions, and respondents had an opportunity
to provide additional comments. The full survey report
is available online at www.bramptonbot.com
The report says transportation, traffic gridlock and
growth management are the issues most likely to affect
economic development and quality of life in Brampton.
Employers also raised concerns about a looming shortage
of skilled labour and the need to better capitalize
on the growing pool of skilled immigrants that are settling
in Brampton. Editor’s Note: See Page 3 for related story
on The Brampton Board of Trade’s Skills Without Borders
project, which explores labour needs in North Peel and
Barriers to Hiring Skilled Immigrants.
The Policy & Government Relations Committee, recently
renamed from Public Affairs Committee to reflect the
broad-based nature of the work performed, asked members
to help it focus on the top local/municipal issues.
Transportation infrastructure was identified by 76%
of respondents as a “top five” priority, followed by
crime/safety (58%), growth management (54%), government
accountability (53%) and property taxes (48%).
48% of respondents also identified the redevelopment
of the Peel Memorial Hospital as a much-needed second
health care facility in a large and growing city as
a “top five”. And 46% said downtown redevelopment should
be a priority to create an attractive and vibrant economic
and community centre.
Preservation of Employment Lands and Economic Development,
including lack of commercial/industrial space, attracting
large business to Brampton were also high priorities
for business leaders.
The survey also asked respondents to rank the top five
provincial and federal issues.
Health Care, education, transportation, taxation and
government accountability were ranked as the top provincial
issues. Government accountability, taxation, health
care, the fiscal imbalance between Ontario and the Federal
Government and the environment were identified as the
top five federal issues.
Overall, business believes that government should and
must do more to support business development and be
less of an impediment through its policies, regulations
and actions/inactions.
When specifically asked to list any “unique policy
areas or issues,” where The Brampton Board of Trade
could be a leader, respondents answered:
• Transportation/Traffic Gridlock
• Growth Management
• Taxes/Taxation (personal and business)
• Employment Integration of Immigrants
• Preservation of Employment Lands
• Brampton Downtown Development and Revitalization
• Health/Hospital Care
Of the respondents, 99% strongly agreed or agreed that
policy advocacy is “a very important function” of The
Brampton Board of Trade. And 77% indicated that they
were well aware of The Brampton Board of Trade’s involvement
in the area of policy advocacy.
“We’re pleased that our members believe that policy
advocacy is a key function of the Board of Trade and
that a significant majority are aware of the work we
have done on their behalf,” says Sheldon Leiba, CEO
of The Brampton Board of Trade. “This focus is entrenched
in our Mission and Strategic Plan.”
“The Policy Priorities Survey results will be extremely
useful to our Policy & Government Relations Committee
as they develop priorities for our business advocacy
work. We also want to keep an open dialogue with members
so that we can continue to be their voice with government
and other agencies,” Leiba said.
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