Over crowded schools and red tape

In response to Parm Gill's Milton Champion opinion piece dated July 14, 2022 titled Plenty of work ahead for provincial government I would like to point out that despite spending $250 million on new schools and $28 million on school expansions almost every school in Milton is overflowing with some wondering where they will put the next portable classroom because they already have 10, 20, 30 or more portables. In fact, in 4 years Mr Gill has done nothing to address the overcrowding in Milton schools. New school building is not keeping pace with Milton's growth.

The post secondary campuses promised by Mr Gill were first nixed by his government and only came back when a long-term care home was included – a home run by a private, for profit company with one of the worst Covid death records in Ontario. He refers to Long Term Care spots as “beds” like he is building hospital wards. Long Term Care is more than just a “bed” Mr Gill. We need more in-home care and assisted living accommodations, not just “beds”.

Now Mr Gill is the red tape reduction Minister. PCs call it red tape. I call it environmental impact studies, infrastructure impact studies, local planning considerations, impact on Conservation lands, impact on historical buildings etc. Cutting red tape is just their way of saying we're going to run roughshod over all of this.

Instead of building highways Mr Gill we need better transit and more opportunities to live and work in the same community. Building more highways flies on the face of any logical path towards meeting our 2050 Green House Gas reduction targets.

Mr Gill, if you are going to serve Milton with honour then you need to double your spending on new schools, put long term care into public hands, make developers work harder and cancel new highway plans.





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