June 16 2019
The Deputy Mayor's Exchange
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I got mine, did you get yours?
I'm referring to our tax bill.
While I am pleased that the City of Markham kept its tax increase under 2%, I'm not happy that the Region came in at 3.96%. Unfortunately I didn't have enough Regional Council support to send the budget back for further consideration. Perhaps next year?
Tuesday's Development Services Public meeting will deal with initial development in the Langstaff area. This area will be very dense and will depend mostly on the Yonge subway being extended to Highway 7. There are lots of "ifs" for Langstaff to come to complete fruition.
With all the bad weather that is happening around the globe, we need to remember our dependence on the birds, bees, flowers and trees. Check out the article on National Pollinator week!
Get ready for a great
Canada Day celebration here in Markham. Our Canada Day Committee has been working hard to prepare a fun filled day of activities for you and your family to enjoy.
Click here
to read the previous edition of
The Deputy Mayor's Exchange.
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In this issue
- 2019 Final Tax Bills
- Upcoming Meetings
- National Pollinator Week
- Your Voice Markham
- Why Plant Trees?
- Municipal Election Rebate
- McKay Art Centre
- GO Transit Service Changes
- YRT and VIVA Transit Changes
- Canada Day Celebration
- Markham Life Survey
- Community Meetings and Events
- Q&A - Why is the grass so long?
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Please feel free to forward this update to anyone that may find it of interest.
Make sure you are on the list for future updates.
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Looking for more information?
Any of the blue text, blue buttons and most of the graphics have links to further detail.
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The 2019 final tax bills for residential properties were mailed this week. The City collects property taxes on behalf of the City of Markham, York Region, and the Province of Ontario for education.
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What’s in the tax bill envelope?
The 2019 final tax bills for resident properties will include:
Quick Facts
- In 2019, Markham will mail 103,784 final residential property tax bills
- Of the 103,784 final residential property tax bills, 72,438 accounts are regular installment type and 31,346 are Pre-authorized Tax Payment Program (PTP) accounts. For details on various payment options and ebilling are available here.
For more information on your property taxes -
click here
Below is a quick video on how your property taxes are calculated
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Markham Civic Centre, Council Chamber
Monday June 17 from 5:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Markham Civic Centre, Council Chamber
Tuesday June 18 from 7:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Varley Art Gallery
Thursday June 20 from 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
Markham Civic Centre
Friday June 21 from 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
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Pollinators play a very important role in our ecosystem. Pollinators are bees, birds, butterflies, bats and beetles and this week is a time to recognize the work that they do and to take steps to help protect them as their populations have been declining.
York Region has some excellent resources that are available
here. Also did you know that the City of Markham was the first city in Canada to be declared a Monarch butterfly friendly city?
More information
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From the
LEAF
website
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Trees do more than produce oxygen and give us shade. Trees intercept rainfall and reduce stormwater runoff, reduce noise pollution, provide wildlife habitat and even positively impact our physical and mental health!
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Have you stopped by the
McKay Art Centre on Main Street Unionville? There are interesting exhibits which typically showcase the works of local artists.
Recently
Reid McAlpine (Ward 3 Councillor) and I stopped by the Art WorX show which was a unique exhibition of two and three dimensional art, in a variety of styles and mediums. It is great to see that Markham has such a vibrant arts community!
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Beginning June 29, GO Transit will run more rail service on the Barrie and Stouffville GO lines.
On the Barrie Line – is being extend by four weekend train trips all the way up to Barrie to make it easier for you to spend time with family and friends or have a weekend getaway. The specifics of these changes can be found
here
.
On the Stouffville Line – every weeknight there will now be extended to service to the Centennial, Markham and Mount Joy GO stations. These trips replace existing bus service, a GO bus at Mount Joy GO will connect customers to Lincolnville GO and Stouffville GO stations.
For additional information on these changes, please click
here
.
You can also use the
trip planning tools
on their site for easier travel. If you would like real-time updates sent directly to your mobile device, you can sign up for their On the GO alerts
here
or follow your line’s @gotransit account on Twitter.
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Effective Sunday, June 30, 2019, select YRT routes will be impacted with service changes. Details can be found
here
to see a complete list of affected routes, details and new schedules.
Another change to take effect is a fare increase which begins on July 1. The details are noted
here
.
The Summer 2019 MyTransit newsletter is available
here
.
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Before you know it July 1st will be here and it will be time to celebrate the 152nd birthday of Canada.
The City has many events planned for the day. The details can be found
here. Why not make some plans now to celebrate this great country of ours!
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After 10 years of Markham Life, it is time for a refresh and the City is looking for some new ideas and want to hear from you! Please take a few minutes to complete a short survey and be entered to win up to $250 in prizes -
survey is here
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Community Meetings and Events
All City of Markham meetings are listed on the City's website at
Upcoming Council and Committee Meetings
. Unless noted differently on the link above, meetings are held at the Markham Civic Centre and are open to the public. If you aren't able to attend in person, meetings are live streamed.
The calendar of York Region meetings is available
here.
You can listen to meetings on line. The details from past meetings are available online.
I'd be pleased to highlight other community meetings in future newsletters. Please forward the details to
dhamilton@markham.ca
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Frequently Asked Questions...
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As an ongoing section in these email updates, I would like to provide answers to some commonly asked questions by residents.
If you have a question that you would like answered, please send me an email with your question.
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Question:
Why is the grass so long in our parks?
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Answer: Parks, City boulevards and sports fields are all maintained by our Parks Department. Unfortunately, this particular season there has been a lot of rain. This abundance of rain puts our City staff behind schedule. The dandelions are particularly happy with all this rain. They are strong and resilient. If we get a dry spell, our staff will be able to catch up on the backlog of cutting to be done.
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Working together to make Markham better!
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