Jennifer Smith

Local food is all the rage these days. Proponents usually focus on fruits and vegetables, encouraging consumers to stock up on seasonal produce at farmers' markets and grocery stores. But buying local meat and dairy products is just as important - perhaps even more so. After all, what better way to ensure that the animals that feed you are being treated humanely than to get to know the farmer who raises them?

That's why one of my favourite vendors at the Farmers' Market is Dave McCann at 'The Beef Bloc'. I found out a bit of the story behind the beef a couple of years ago when I interviewed Dave for my Sprawlville blog and have been a loyal customer ever since. His beef isn't 'organic' or anything fancy like that, but he grows his own feed, does his own butchering, and raises his cattle free-range, with no antibiotics except when the animals are actually sick.

As someone who knows a little too much about conventional factory farming practices, I found it all very reassuring.

If you've ever driven through the village of Omagh on Britannia Road, you've probably seen Dave's cows. His family has owned the parcel just north and west of the village for over a century, and until recently it looked like this pastoral oasis would be spared the ravages of Milton's urban sprawl. Unlike their neighbours, the McCann's have not sold their land to developers, and although the new Boyne Survey development plan covers that whole area, their little patch will remain a farm - at least as long as the McCann family owns it.

But now there is a new threat.

Halton Region is moving forward with plans to widen Britannia Road to four lanes across the entire width of the region. The bottleneck through Omagh presents a problem, however, so consultants have devised three different options.

The first would simply widen the road along its existing path, essentially destroying the entire village. The second and third options would divert the road around the village, much in the same way that Regional Road 25 was diverted around Palermo.

The problem for the McCann's is the second option, which would divert Britannia Road north of Omagh... straight through the middle of their farm and all of their farm buildings.


The obvious solution is the third option, which would divert the road south through open fields. It's so obvious that one would assume that Regional Council would automatically reject the other two, and from the comments I've read on Hawthorne Villager it sounds like that is what will be happening. However, the fact that the other two options are even being considered is troubling, and illustrates the sorts of obstacles being faced by local farmers like the McCanns.

There was a presentation to Regional Council a few months back about the state of farming in Halton. One disturbing statistic: fully half of Halton's little remaining farmland is actually owned by developers and speculators who rent it out to short-term operations for quick cash crops like corn and soy. That way they can reap the agricultural tax benefits while they sit and wait for municipal development plans to reach the property.

The result is that serious, long-term farming operations like the McCann's are increasingly rare. And despite the lip service paid to sustainable agriculture and local food, all levels of government seem determined to drive them out of business.

The pressures faced by family farmers in the GTA range from major economic roadblocks to seemingly endless minor irritants. For example, Dave McCann was suddenly informed a couple of years ago that he would need to purchase a food vendor license for the farmers' market, despite the fact that Milton's business license by-law includes a specific exemption "if the goods, wares or merchandise are grown or produced by a farmer resident in Ontario who offers for sale or sells only the produce of his or her own farm."

The license itself is relatively cheap, and after arguing his case for months he just ended up paying the fee. But the fact that even that minor roadblock should be thrown up in the way of one of our few remaining local food producers is upsetting. And now the family is being forced to attend public meetings to explain why driving a four lane road through the middle of their farm might be problematic.

It makes you wonder if some people might be happier if farmers like the McCanns would just go away.

The consultants hired by the Town to investigate options for the Bruce Street Library buildings presented their recommendations to the public this week during two somewhat sparsely attended meetings at the Seniors' Activity Centre on Thursday.

The feasibility report details three options, or 'concepts':

Concept #1:
Sell both the 45 Bruce Street and 407 Pine Street properties for about $3 million.

Concept #2:
Sell the 407 Pine Street property, but keep the 45 Bruce Street building and lease the whole thing out to a third party community group such as the YMCA, a child care centre, a Christian school, or other similar organization.

Concept #3:
Sell Pine Street, keep Bruce Street and lease out about 3/4 of it to a community group, while maintaining a small 4,000 square foot branch library.

Needless to say, Concept #3 was the most popular one in the room, but the consultants will be recommending Concept #2 to council on July 18th.

This recommendation is disappointing - but hardly surprising - for those of us who wanted to see a branch library at that location. Still, I was pleased to see that they did a more thorough cost analysis of the branch library option - and somewhat amused that their figures turned out to be nearly identical to mine.

If you will cast your minds back to December when the first round of public meetings was held, you will recall that the numbers being bandied about at the time for a branch library were about $2.5 million in capital costs (refurbishment, replacement of books and fixtures, etc.) and about $600,000 a year in operating costs.

In my submission to staff, I maintained that by selling Pine Street to offset the capital costs, recalculating the rather outlandish operating costs quoted, and offsetting what was left by partial lease of the site, those figures could be reduced to $213,000 per year net operating and $1 million net capital.

And what are the consultants saying now for their 'shared use' option? $222,000 per year net operating costs, and (after the sale of Pine St.) $1.45 million net capital costs, which includes ten years of maintenance and repairs.

Of course, this still means that the Town would ultimately be incurring an added ongoing cost, whereas with option #2 (the one the consultants prefer), the lease income would offset the capital expenses after ten years. Precisely ten years, in fact, and almost to the penny, which I found a little odd. But then I have a suspicious nature.

At any rate, it's all in the report. Note was made of the questions and comments at these latest sessions, some of which I recorded in the videos below, and further comment will be allowed at the July 18th council session where the final report is to be presented. However, the way the numbers are shaping up I can't see any way a majority of councillors would pass the branch library option, especially with a conveniently cost-neutral plan in front of them that they can pass off as a compromise.

One question I should have asked that didn't occur to me until later was how, or if, the Federal infrastructure grant for the new library worked into the consultants' accounting. I wonder because they made a point of emphasizing that all the Town's capital project plans were based on the assumption that we would be getting about $3 million in revenue from the sale of the former library properties, and so by not selling them we would be generating a shortfall that would have to be made up elsewhere.

My question is, didn't those same plans operate on the assumption that the Town would be paying the full cost of the new library / arts centre? And so doesn't that $16 million stimulus windfall more than make up for the $3 million we won't be getting for the property sale - and for all the other capital costs for that matter?

I'll let you know if I find out.

When my husband and I first moved to Milton back in 1994, my Uncle Bill sent us a letter. He had been a teacher and vice-principal at Milton District High School back in the '60s and '70s, and he wanted to welcome us to his former home by telling us about a few of his favourite things about this town. Things like the farmers' market, the Mill Pond, and antiques auctions at the Fairgrounds. He even bought us a subscription to an auction newsletter.

I came to love Milton as much as he had and so, in that spirit, I would like to welcome those of you who may be new to this town with my own list of the unique, the iconic, and the obscure. Even if you've lived here for years, you might find a few on this list that you didn't know about or hadn't visited in a while.

This gem in the heart of town has something for everyone: trails, forests, fishing, a lovely view from the gazebo, even summer concerts. You can spend hours exploring the network of trails that wind up one side and down the other, all the way up to the spot where the creek was first diverted to form the pond over 150 years ago. What it really needs - and what it has always historically had - is boating. How lovely would it be to rent a paddle boat or a canoe and take it out on the pond on a warm summer evening?




Believe it or not, Waldie's was actually a functioning blacksmith shop from the very founding of our town right up until the 1970s. After a few decades of closure and neglect, it was resurrected and re-built and now serves as not only a working blacksmith shop and teaching centre, but also the home of the Milton Historical Society and Archives. Go in and check it out. And say hi to Marsha Waldie - she lives right next door.




This is my favourite street in Milton. Not just because it has some of the most beautiful historic homes in town, or because it's just around the corner from my house. I love it because it contains, in just a few short blocks, a perfect example of the kind of architectural and social diversity that I consider to be the best part of downtown Milton. Huge old Victorian homes stand side by side with narrow brick duplexes, clapboard homes of varying quality, a modern bungalow, a small apartment house, a row of shops, and even the Legion Hall. Jane Jacobs would have loved it.




For lovers of Victorian architecture, welcome to paradise. Except for their slightly newer westermost blocks, you'd be hard put to find a single building on these streets that is less than a century old. Each one has been painstakingly restored and maintained by its owner, to the point where you half expect one of them to come out their front door with a bustle dress and a parasol. And just in case you find the common Queen Anne, Italianate and Gothic Revival styles a little dull, this part of Milton also has one of the largest collections of Regency Cottage-style houses in all of Ontario.




Much more than a bakery, this family owned and operated store has a fantastic Italian deli counter, daily hot lunches, a wide variety of groceries, frozen goods, and an outstanding produce section with more local fruits and vegetables than you'll ever see at the big chains. Plus of course a huge selection of breads and pastries, baked right on site. You can even get milk and eggs from local producers there! Now if only they could be convinced to open a location on Main Street...

Photo by Ivan Sorensen

The importance of the Escarpment for Milton cannot be overstated. Our town was literally built from it, from the stones and brick and cement that make up our original homes to the gravel under our roads. It affects our weather. It is dissolved in our water. It reveals itself unexpectedly along roads and around corners and takes our breath away. People complain about all the restrictions imposed on its lands, but to me this seems like entirely the wrong attitude. We have a unique natural treasure here that could benefit our town far more than it does in terms of tourism - we just need to start looking at it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. And stop digging bloody great holes in it.




When developers start work on a new subdivision these days, the very first thing they do is raze the land completely flat. That's unfortunate. Not only does it disrupt the natural contours and cause enormous drainage problems, it also removes the opportunity for impromptu activities such as tobogganing. Which is why spots like Sixteen Mile Creek around Commercial and Laurier are starting to attract kids from all over town. Sure, parking is a problem (can we please move parking from the west side of Commercial to the east side?), and injuries do happen (my husband broke his ankle there once). But there's nothing that says 'Winter in Canada' quite like dozens of kids squealing down the hill after the first snowfall of the year.




Our town hall and the adjacent park are almost stereotypically small town Ontario - so much so that both have proven popular locations for film shoots (although not so much lately - what happened?). The gazebo, the cenotaph, the formidable stone facade of our former court house - it's all almost painfully quaint... except that it really is a lovely place to pause and relax. The enormous trees give plenty of shade. A bike path meanders across the green lawn. A small playground, admittedly in desperate need of an upgrade, brings just enough children to keep it lively. And if you want to impress your guests, you can always tell them about how that lovely stone walled courtyard on the north side of Town Hall is where they used to hang people.



I'm of two minds when it comes to graffiti. If it's just plain black tags that serve no purpose other than to let some middle-class white kid from Milton pretend he's not, then I have no use for it. But if it's attractive, or creative, or carries a message, and it's not overly obtrusive, then I think it has a place. The Graffiti Wall is one of those places. I won't say where it is just in case someone decides to get serious about covering it up, although the Town certainly knows about it. I will say that it's not anywhere you'd ever see unless you were literally standing right in front of it, which is part of its charm. It's always changing, of course - sometimes mundane (like when I took these pictures), sometimes downright beautiful, but always impressive just for its sheer scale. If you don't know where it is and want to see it, drop me a line and I'll let you know.




Again, almost every town has one, but ours holds a special place in my heart. I think it's because of its location, right smack in the middle of town. Yes, it's woefully underused, and some of its buildings are in dire need of restoration (one of them actually fell down of its own accord last year). But come Canada Day or when the Fall Fair rolls around, it's all bustle and life. Midway rides, tractor pulls, farm animals, warm beer, bad music, fireworks and funnel cakes. As long as we have the Fairgrounds, Milton will always be a small town at heart.

Mark June 16th on your calendars, folks! We are finally going to be hearing back from the consultants hired by the Town about future uses for the (now former) library buildings at Bruce Street. It's being billed as a 'public information session', which is Town-speak for "the decisions have already been made", and given that the new library is already open and the old one closed, I'm guessing that decision won't involve maintaining a branch library at Bruce Street.

In the end there simply weren't enough of us who will be hurt by this to override the wishes of the majority. But more on that later.

Apparently June is 'Walking Month' (who knew?), so in order to promote more physical activity - and, perhaps, to counteract the criticisms that the new library is too far to get to easily from downtown - the Library has been encouraging people to walk, bike, or take transit to 'Main@Main':

"Make each visit to the Main Library an outdoor adventure. Take a hike or ride your bike. Take to the trails or take transit. Take time to play at a park. Walk, stroll or saunter!"

Since I've been one of the ones doing the criticizing, and since it was such a lovely day yesterday, I figured I'd take them up on it. I wasn't going to walk, of course - that's about a half hour each way from my house, and I'm simply not that energetic. So I decided to take my bike.

On the way, I stopped by the old library (which is only about a ten minute walk from my house, BTW). I took a peek in the windows and was rather shocked by what I saw. You see, when the arguments were being made about just how prohibitively expensive it would be to maintain a branch library there, one of the biggest expenses was supposed to be replacing all the shelving and furniture that was going to be moved to the new site. Hundreds of thousands it would cost. Really.

So imagine my surprise when I saw this...



As far as I can tell, not a stick of furniture has been removed. Not a shelf, not a table, not a chair. Hell, even the computers are still there!

Actually, I'm not surprised at all. From the very beginning I had questioned why the Library would want all that tacky old shelving in their shiny new facility. And now we know.

I continued on my merry way, perhaps unwisely choosing to take the Main Street route to my destination. It's not a pleasant route, especially with all the construction that is only going to get worse as they move forward with the rail underpass. In fact I took Child's Drive home, which is really the best way to go if you're coming from the south-west. But I wanted you to see that section of Main Street from ground level so you'd have some idea of what sort of "outdoor adventure" they're asking the seniors in those Millside apartment buildings to go through as they make their way to the new library.

The Main Street underpass is slated to take three years to complete

In the winter this is usually blocked with snow. And watch your bike tires don't get stuck in the rails!

This is how most kids coming from schools south of the tracks get to Main Street

I take it this is NOT one of the 'trails' they're talking about

Things improve east of the GO station

I am assured that the bike racks are on their way

You will note that I was riding my bike on the sidewalk and not on the street, which is generally a no-no. In fact, I saw six or seven cyclists of all ages on this section of Main and not one of them was on the street - and for very good reason. Between the heavy traffic, the narrow lanes, and the sinkholes that tend to form around manhole covers there, you'd have to be suicidal to try it. And that's speaking as someone who used to commute along King Street in downtown Toronto on my bike every day.

I must say, when I finally got inside the new library I was very impressed. It's beautiful - big, well stocked, lots of cool features like a silent study area and a room where some kids were playing Kinect. My main complaint is that my favourite section - the local history and microfilm area - seems to have actually shrunk (just for the record, I'd be happy to help them develop a proper genealogy section for a reasonable fee).

I also found the place a little... well, bland. But I'm sure it will warm up once they've been in there a few months.




Let me be clear: I've always been in favour of having a new library and arts centre. I think it's a lousy location, but I never disputed the need for a larger, more modern main library. And count me among those who love the design of the new building.

What upsets me - and what upsets a lot of people, especially in Ward 2 - is that our concerns were never taken seriously. If they had been, this 'feasibility study' would have been done as soon as the project was approved - not six months before the buildings were to be vacated. In fact, the effects of removing the library from downtown Milton on the social and economic fabric of our central core and the town as a whole would have been examined and analyzed many years ago, as soon as the idea was first conceived.

Instead, we were thrown a bone. We're lucky it was an election year - otherwise they wouldn't have even bothered with that. But at least now our Ward 2 councillors will be able to make their token 'Nay' votes and tell us with pride that hey, they fought the good fight. Just don't ask them why they approved the bloody thing in the first place.

Having spent spent much of the past six months in seemingly endless debate with both councillors and residents who are unwilling to see the Town spend money to keep a branch library at Bruce Street, I can honestly say that, while I continue to disagree with them, I have a much better understanding of their perspective. You see, from their standpoint the new library is a net gain for the town as a whole. While some people will have reduced access, even more will have their access increased, so obviously it's a win. And from a purely linear point of view, ignoring all the physical and psychological barriers between here and there, it really isn't that far at all.

If that was all there was to it, their perspective would make perfect sense. If Milton was a single, homogenous entity with one part exactly like every other part, then it really wouldn't matter where we put facilities like libraries as long as they were evenly distributed. If 'downtown' was simply wherever the planners or the mall developers decided it was, then we could just call Main and Thompson 'downtown' and turn the old one into a tourist attraction.

Unfortunately, real live towns just don't work that way. And that's what I can't seem to get them to understand.