I was honestly jealous that Mississauga got close to $100 million in Federal and Provincial stimulus money. Fortunately, my jealousy did not have to last too long. Milton today got almost $15 million for the Arts & Entertainment Centre, and for the expansion of the Milton Sports Club.
Lisa Raitt, Halton’s MP, mentioned that $6.7 million was for the Sports Club expansion. It’s not clear to me whether that’s from the $15 million or in addition to the $15 million. Rumour is that this is just the first instalment. Of course Milton will have to fork out money itself too (this represents at most two-third of the cost, likely less). But these projects would have happened regardless of the stimulus. This way Milton gets some help.
I am really excited about these. Milton does need an Arts & Entertainment Centre. Desperately. As for the sports club, I’ve blogged about it in the past and would really like to see some diverse offerings. However, even if the sports club does not offer any new activity, this would still be exciting. Regardless of what the expansion offers, Milton is a diverse enough town that plenty of residents will benefit from the expansion. And that is good enough for this Miltonian.
Here’s hoping that we can continue to expand the facilities for our kids, parents, and families in general, to at least keep up with the population growth. Growing up in Milton, there was never much to do, so we got into petty mischief, nothing illegal, but certainly not the most rewarding things we would have done, had we had the opportunity to do better things.
Chris Newell
http://MiltonBlog.ca