Myth #1: "Oakville's debt is out of control."

Fact: The only kind of debt you, the taxpayer, pay for is down 9% under Rob. (Read more below.)

Myth #2: "Tax bill increases have been out of control during this term of council."

Fact: The average tax bill increase per year under Mayor Burton was 2.67% – lower than the 3.61% per year average of Mrs. Mulvale's last two terms. (Read more below.)

Myth #3: "If development charges are increased substantially, developers will not build in Halton Region and jobs will be lost."

Fact: Developers' desires to build in Oakville have not slowed down one bit, despite the higher development fees! (Read more below.)

Myth #4: "We will be on the hook for millions of dollars for the new hospital, and it will be charged to our taxes."

Fact: Rob has a plan to use non-tax revenues to finance the new hospital, better than how the original hospital was financed in 1948 by taxes. (Read more below.)

Myth #5: "The Oakville council could have prevented the power plant by protesting more and sooner and had to be pushed by citizen groups to act."

Fact: Council began defending the town’s health and safety almost two years ago -- nine months before Citizens for Clean Air organized. Town Council and all citizen groups worked together cooperatively to protect Oakville’s health and safety throughout this period, until the successful resolution on Oct. 7, 2010. (Read more below.)

Myth #1: "Oakville's debt is out of control."

Facts:

• The Town’s finances are in good health. The Town’s debt is significantly below both its own debt capacity and the provincially-authorized level, and the Town’s assets exceed liabilities by $184.5 million in 2009.





• Town debt is composed of two components:
  
  
  1. Taxpayer Debt: This is debt issued by the Town and repaid by taxpayers through property taxes. It is used to pay for things like road repaving, the fire department, and maintenance of existing parks and recreation facilities. Taxpayer-supported debt has actually decreased by 9% compared to what it was in 2006, before Mayor Burton took office. This is because Rob and Council are taxpayers, too, and they don't want to use taxes where they don't have to. Between 2000 and 2006, the previous mayor more than doubled the debt you, the taxpayer, pay for, raising it from $10.8 million to $24.2 million. Rob’s council has since cut it to $22 million.
  
  
  
  2. Self-Supported Debt: This is debt issued by the Town and repaid with interest through non-taxpayer sources (primarily through development charges). It is used primarily to pay for building new infrastructure. Self-supported debt is increasing, because Rob and Council unanimously voted to now borrow against future development charge revenues to build infrastructure as we grow, not afterward! Developers are required to repay the cost of this infrastructure plus interest through development charges that they agree to pay for when they win permits to build housing units in Oakville.
  
  
• Applications to build housing units in Oakville still far exceed supply (as you'll read below under Myth #3) -- suggesting we've been missing out on a substantial funding source for years!

$ in millions	Actual 2006	Opening 2010	Budget 2010	Projected 2010
Total Debt	$25M	$29M	$89M	$74M
Self-Supported Debt (to be repaid with interest from non-taxpayer sources, mostly development charges)	$1M	$9M	$67M	$52M
Taxpayer Debt	$24M	$20M	$22M	$22M

Myth #2: "Tax bill increases have been out of control during this term of council."

Facts:

• Average annual tax bill increase for the 2006 to 2010 term of council: 2.67%. (And this year's tax bill is only increasing by 1.5%!)


• Average annual tax bill increase for the 6 years (2 terms) before this term of council: 3.61%


• Not only did Mayor Burton and Council slow the rate of increases to our tax bills, they did so while absorbing millions in expenses Mrs. Mulvale left the new council to pay!

Combined Oakville Average Tax Bill Increase by Year

(The total tax bill is made up of three portions:

Education (24.5%), Region (39%), and Town (36.5%))

Myth #3: "If the development charges are increased substantially, developers will not build in Halton Region and jobs will be lost."

Facts:

• Developers' desires to build in Oakville have not slowed down one bit! In February 2010, developers requested a total allocation of 9,297 single detached equivalents (SDE), which represents the number of units they want to build. (The allocation is based on the ability of the region to be in a position to provide water and wastewater.) The Region was only able to provide 6,254 SDEs. The developers wanted to build an additonal 48.7% more units, despite the higher development fees!

Myth #4: "We will be on the hook for millions of dollars for the new hospital, over and above what was agreed to, and it will be charged to our taxes; and the cost is way out of line with other similar hospitals."

Facts:

• The Town has capped its donation at $130 million at the time of completion + $40 million over the next 30 years.


• Rob’s plan to pay for the new hospital is to use new non-tax revenues to finance the Town’s $130 million donation due in 2015, and spread its carrying costs over the 2015-2045 period -- so future residents who benefit from the new hospital share these costs. (The debt required for the Town to do this is similar to the debt the Town took on when it first built the hospital in 1948.)


• We have conditions that protect us – we’re "last in, first out." That means any savings are ours.


• The Town gets to keep the current OTMH site which is currently owned by the province. The Town is considering converting it into a facility for seniors.


• Our hospital is to be built to state-of-the-art standards – for example, 80% of the rooms are single-patient, to help prevent deadly infectious diseases (instead of ward rooms).


• Our new hospital's price tag also includes a 30-year maintenance package (other new hospitals don’t have this feature). This will ensure our hospital is well built, and is still in excellent shape decades from now. Peterborough has a new hospital without the maintenance component and they are having trouble financing the maintenance costs.


• The South Calgary Hospital Campus is a project of similar magnitude.

To read more answers to your questions about the new hospital, click here.

Myth #5: "The Oakville council could have prevented the power plant by protesting more and sooner and had to be pushed by citizen groups to act."

Facts:

Council began defending the health and safety of our families and our town almost two years ago -- nine months before Citizens for Clean Air (C4CA) organized. Town Council and all citizen groups worked together cooperatively to protect Oakville’s health and safety throughout this period, until the successful resolution on Oct. 7, 2010.

• When Oakville's Town Council saw the start of the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) power plant process almost two years ago, they carefully considered their options. They realized they would never be able to protest louder than Mississauga. Mississauga has four times as many people as Oakville and six times as many members of the government. So Council decided unanimously that if they couldn't out-shout them, they would out-think the problem instead.


• It’s illegal to ban a land user or a land use. What the Planning Act does let you do is regulate or prevent negative impacts. So Council chose to use its legal powers to block adverse impacts from power plants.


• And it unanimously acted in February 2009 to highlight the issue with public Council meeting resolutions.


• In early March 2009, staff reported that Oakville's old Official Plan “could be interpreted to mean that power generating facilities are permitted throughout Oakville.” Council knew it had to act, and it did, to protect against negative impacts from power plants. (Note at this time no contract winner was known, and would not be known until September 30, 2009.)


• In late March 2009, Oakville's Town Council passed the Interim Control By-law – unanimously, as reported in the newspapers.


• Also in March 2009, Mayor Burton became aware that Ford officials were aggressively promoting their location for a power plant to all of the OPA’s qualified bidders. Mayor Burton called Ford on this. And three times, they denied it to him. Mayor Burton likes and supports Ford, but if you want to know how TransCanada got here, Ford went out and recruited TransCanada’s power plant.


• In July 2009, Mayor Burton called the leaders of all of the residents groups in Oakville and began a community leaders roundtable at the end of every month.


• In August 2009, Mayor Burton met with the Premier and the Premier promised subsequently what became the Balsillie Task Force on the Oakville-Clarkson Air Shed.


• On September 30, 2009, the OPA chose the Oakville site for the power plant.


• In October 2009, C4CA organized to focus the efforts of several residents’ groups on this issue and give it a higher media profile.


• In December 2009, Dr. Balsillie was appointed. The Town and the citizen groups had representatives on Dr. Balsillie’s advisory panel.


• In March 2010, Mrs. Mulvale showed up for the first time in this battle, to write a letter to the editor defending Ford for having brought TransCanada to Oakville by selling the land for the power plant to TransCanada. Click here to read it for yourself.


• In May 2010, Council unanimously passed a ground-breaking new bylaw regulating the emission of deadly fine particulate matter. TransCanada Energy launched several lawsuits against the Town – not against citizens’ groups – to try to quash the Town’s protective by-laws.


• On June 24, 2010, Dr. Balsillie recommended no new sources of pollution in Oakville's air shed.


• In September 2010, Council unanimously passed ground-breaking new Official Plan amendments and Zoning By-law amendments that Mayor Burton calls the “do-no-harm” clauses. These protect against the negative impacts of power plant operations anywhere in Oakville.


• Council and Mayor Burton did not miss any opportunity to address this issue effectively. They used the tools at their disposal –- consultation with the parties involved, and science- and evidence-based by-laws -- to the extent of the law. Council worked with grassroots groups and Oakville's MPP Kevin Flynn to address this issue from every angle. C4CA put a human face on the issue while MPP Flynn worked the corridors at Queen’s Park and Oakville's Town Council protected against harmful effects and denied TransCanada the permits they expected but were not entitled to. Council and Mayor Burton are very pleased that this multi-level strategy has succeeded in getting a result needed to protect the health and safety of residents. They have proven that Oakville works best when it works together.


• Some critics have now warned that cancelling the contract with TransCanada could cost provincial taxpayers millions of dollars. This, too, is a myth. The contract between the province and TransCanada required the company to get municipal approvals, which it had not.