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Dear Residents,
Happy February! I have been amazed by our recent mild weather allowing us to enjoy and take advantage of our neighbourhood walks and trails.
As warm as it has been, I suspect we may still be in for a few more cold days and even snow, so thank you to all of you that keep your driveway snow on your own property. The city spends a great deal of money to keep our roads as safe as possible, and pushing your snow onto city streets can create unsafe conditions, and is actually prohibited under by-laws. Even if the snow plows leave you with a windrow (that pile of snow at the foot of your driveway), you cannot push the snow back onto the street or onto someone else's property.
City Council has looked into providing windrow service for everyone, but it would be an additional 4.4 million on our winter maintenance budget and would extend the length of time it would take to plow all of our streets. It would be hard to justify increasing everyone's taxes to provide a service which is normally only required 3 - 4 times per season; however, as always, your feedback is most welcomed.
Another hot topic these days is the projected increase to property taxes. I was greatly encouraged to see the voices across Markham raised in opposition to Bill 23 and its impacts. This is a provincial bill, proposed and passed by our provincial government, and the impacts on our city’s finances, and also our heritage and environmental protections, will be devastating. Markham, along with other municipalities, are frustrated and hoping that changes will be made to the Provincial legislation of Bills 23, 109 and 93, all of which will have a significant negative impact to the revenue that cities receive from the development community. I have asked staff to provide an overview of the provincial legislation and the impacts to our budget at the public meeting on March 9th - details below. Many of our seniors are now on fixed incomes, and a sudden increase in property taxes in order to give developers more profits is an extremely unwelcomed act from the province.
I have some information on these changes below in this newsletter, plus a detailed review of this legislation in my latest mailed newsletter, sent in January, and a digital copy is here. I hope we all keep the pressure up on the province through our local MPPs to ensure that significant changes are made to all new legislations that will impact our city revenue and, therefore our property taxes.
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Provincial Changes - that will affect our taxes
Bill 23 " More Homes Built Faster Act"
Municipalities will lose revenue from development charges which is required to build infrastructure for future growth. For parkland, the city will see a reduction of 80-90% compared to the current methodology of calculating parkland.
Fun fact: If you have tried ChatGPT enter "why do municipalities need development charges". Even Artificial Intelligence knows why this revenue is needed and that growth should pay for growth.
Bill 109 "More Homes for Everyone"
Timelines have been significantly reduced for cities to process development applications and approvals. If council fails to make a decision within prescribed timelines the city will be required to pay back application fees to developers, regardless of who is holding up the process.
Bill 93 "Getting Everyone Connected Act"
“Locates” are location surveys conducted to identify the presence of critical infrastructure, most notably gas lines, in order to not damage or create safety problems, when new work is being conducted. The city and others, could be fined for not having locates completed within a reduced prescribed timeline. The city will be hiring additional staff and vehicle to move this service in-house for city infrastructure instead of relying on a third party, in order to meet these demanded timelines.
Repeal Bill 23
A number of residents have asked about a form letter to send to our local MPP's, the Premier and Minster Clark. I have provided a few links below to "open letters" that have been sent and can help with wording. While we can all agree on the need for "affordable homes" (meaning housing that is no more than 30% of your income) it is apparent that this legislation will do nothing to accomplish this goal, just as a "buck a beer" did not lower your grocery bill, Bill 23 will not create affordable housing.
The impact to our environment, our heritage, our wetlands and municipal finances will be significant and Bill 23 needs to be repealed!
Contact information for our MPP and Premier:
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This month's survey is about dog parks.
Do you prefer a large park (one in each ward) that would have a fenced area and amenities that would include mulch surfacing, water service, shade structures, accessible walkway, parking and associated landscaping. Alternatively, maybe we should look at something more simple similar to what Edmonton is doing. Edmonton Pilot Project Please fill out the survey with your opinion! |
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Public Statutory Meeting February 27th 7pm
A submission for an Official Plan and a Zoning By-Law Amendment has been received. The applicant has applied to re-designate the property from Mixed-Use Mid-Rise to Residential High-Rise. The Zoning By-law amendment proposes to rezone the lands from a commercial zone to a residential zone. Proposal is for a 13-story residential apartment building containing 146 units.
Applicants Presentation from the community meeting HERE
Preliminary Staff Report will be HERE |
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Participating in Public Meetings
All public meetings are now hybrid and livestreamed from the city website.
Residents can attend in person at the council chambers or you can attend virtually. Written submissions can be emailed to clerkspublic@markham.ca by 5pm the day before the meeting.
Residents who wish to speak on a topic can fill out an online request to speak form or email clerkspublic@markham.ca. If someone does not have access to email they can call the clerk's office at 905.479.7760 on the day of the meeting to make a deputation (speak).
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City staff and council are working through our budget for 2023. All meetings are livestreamed and open to the public to attend either virtually or in person.
Our 2023 budget presentation to the public will be held on Thursday, March 9, 2023
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM.
For further information about the budget process please click here
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Design work has begun on the Markham Village flood control implementation. Our consultant RV Anderson and their sub- consultants will be carrying out the following work from Feb to Oct 2023. There is storm sewer upgrades and water main replacement proposed for the Church St and the area to the North with construction planned to be in 2024, 2025 and 2026. There might still be some adjustment to phasing as the design work is just beginning with our storm water group in environmental services.
Please see Flood Control Mapping
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Team Markham will be participating in the 360Experience this year on March 2nd in the corporate challenge. 360kids is a local organization that provides support and services to at-risk and youth who are experiencing homelessness in York Region. There are 2 residential homes in Ward 4 and 360kids also has a partnership with TRCA that is home to 3 youth/young adults for transitional housing and more recently have 2 units in the newly built apartment building on Water St. The 360kids HOPE program is a transitional housing program for female survivors of human sex trafficking. As we are all aware government funding does not cover all expenses that many organizations need to operate. It would be greatly appreciated if you could help us raise funds by making a donation.
Donate to Karen Rea HERE Donate to Team Markham HERE
Tax receipts will be issued by 360experience automatically. Thank you for your support.
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The City of Markham is developing a strategy to help guide the City's economic and arts and cultural landscape for the next 5 years. The strategy will provide a 5-year road map, along with associated goals, targets and actions, that will guide the work of City-staff and its collaboration with businesses, artists, creators, not-for-profits, post-secondary institutions and community members. Help shape the future of by completing the following survey.
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Responsibilities of our By-Law Department HERE. |
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Aggressive driving continues to be a concern in the city, our own local ward and across the entire GTA. Moving violations are under the jurisdiction of York Regional Police (YRP) and reports can be filed through RoadWatch. For general concerns you can use the community concerns online reporting HERE. |
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As we have seen on the news, theft of motor vehicles is on the rise across the GTA, a concern for all and a focus of all police services If you see something out of the ordinary on your street in your neighbourhood please contact YRP. Check out vehicle safety tips HERE
I would also encourage anyone that has a home camera system facing their driveway and the road to register with YRP Register Here
Registering does not give YRP access to your camera, rather it just means that if there is an incident on your street they can reach out to you to see if your surveillance picked anything up.
Collectively we may help shut the bad guys down!
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No presto, No Problem! York Region Transit (YRT) travellers can now pay their fare using a credit card with PRESTO contactless payment, now making it even easier and more convenient to get where you're going using public transit. Travellers can tap their credit card or mobile wallet on their phone or watch on a PRESTO device to pay their YRT fare. Further to this, Metrolinx now allows users to tap their credit cards to pay on Durham Region Transit, Burlington Transit and Hamilton Street Railway. Even UP Express users can also use their debit cards to pay for their rides. With each advancement we make public transit easier. |
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Ward 4 welcomes The Salvation Army Markham Ministries - 136 Main St. Markham.
The Salvation Army organizes a host of initiatives for the community, ranging from meet and greets, material assistance, spiritual counselling and community projects.
Markham's Community Ministries Officers are Captain Leonard Heng & Captain Peck-Ee Wong.
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Visit YourVoiceMarkham.ca to learn about great projects our staff are working on! Consider joining the conversation by registering on the site or sign-up to follow specific projects that interest you. Share your ideas and opinions! |
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Markham Food Bank Needs our Help
The Markham Food Bank has seen a great increase in the number of families using the food bank during the pandemic. Help our community members in need during these challenging times.
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If you have any municipal inquiry, please send an email to customerservice@markham.ca or call 905.477.5530. Our staff can investigate and address your concerns. |
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