{"id":26066,"date":"2020-02-27T23:21:08","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T04:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26066"},"modified":"2020-02-27T23:21:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T04:21:16","slug":"mayor-reflects-on-year-of-positive-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/mayor-reflects-on-year-of-positive-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor reflects on year of \u201cpositive change\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Change is inevitable,\nbut how does one go about ensuring such change is positive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Mayor Tom Mrakas,\nit depends on \u201ctaking purposeful action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is the message\nhe brought to the local business community last Wednesday afternoon at the\nAurora Chamber of Commerce\u2019s annual Mayor\u2019s Luncheon, hosted at the Royal\nVenetian Mansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, Mayor Mrakas\ndelivered the annual \u201cState of the Town\u201d address, one which focused on\n\u201cpositive change\u201d that has been, he said, the hallmark of the last twelve\nmonths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile reflecting on\nthis past year and what we have achieved together, one constant theme has\nemerged: positive change,\u201d he told the 250-strong audience. \u201cFrom the opening\nof the Canadian Food & Wine Institute (CFWI) in the newly-renovated\nhistoric Aurora Armory, to the first event of the York University Scholars Hub,\nfrom the approval of our new Economic Development Strategic Plan, to the\npositive impacts of changes to Development Charges for major office\ndevelopments, it has been an exciting year of positive change in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe question is how\ndo we ensure we get more? It is true: change is inevitable, but whether that\nchange represents an obstacle or opportunity rests entirely in our hands. Our\nfuture \u2013 tomorrow, five years, ten years, 20 years from now \u2013 is entirely\ndependent on what we do now. I believe in effecting positive change, in taking\npurposeful action towards a desired outcome. In other words, getting things\ndone and done right. Positive change isn\u2019t a given, it doesn\u2019t just happen, it\ntakes a shared commitment by all of us: community, business, Council members\nalike, to work together for a better future and in just one short year, we have\nseen the results of that strong, shared commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the results, he\nsaid, was Aurora welcoming 73 new businesses over the last year, most of which\nwould be classified as small businesses, as well as 3.4 per cent employment\ngrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last year also\nsaw the realization of several projects Mayor Mrakas characterized as \u201ckey\neconomic development initiatives\u201d \u2013 top of which, he said, was the arrival of\nthe CFWI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis extraordinary\nrepurposing of one of our heritage buildings is an important milestone in the\nrevitalization of the downtown core,\u201d he said. \u201cIn November, we hosted the\ngrand opening of the building and it has been a huge success to date. The\ntransformation of the building itself is absolutely incredible. It is a\nstunning combination of modern functionality and historical aesthetic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur partnership with\nNiagara College and the Canadian Food and Wine Institute has already had a\npositive impact on our community. Through the CFWI, the space is being used for\nculinary classes, wine tasting, corporate team building, special events,\nlectures, and a host of other activities that offer endless opportunities for\nour residents and visitors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Armoury is just\none project key to this Council\u2019s vision for downtown revitalization. The\ncentrepiece of the vision is the redevelopment of Library Square. In his\nspeech, Mayor Mrakas highlighted Council\u2019s approval of the budget required to\nbring Library Square to fruition and the financing plans needed to issue a\ntender package for Library Square\u2019s construction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs you all know, a\nthriving downtown isn\u2019t just good news for businesses in the core, it is good\nnews for all businesses,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, Mayor Mrakas\nadded that not all change is positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The negative impacts\nof climate change are already being seen in \u201cvirtually every aspect of our\nlives\u201d and \u201cin ways we have yet to understand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn fact, it may not\neven be us sitting in this room who have to deal with the full impact of\nclimate change,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will be our children and our children\u2019s children\nand I don\u2019t think we want that to be our legacy. It is clear we need to take\naction, but what? What can we do as residents, as business owners, as a Town,\nto positively address climate change? The answer, unfortunately, isn\u2019t as\nsimple as a motion or two to Council. Just as our climate is a complex\ninteraction of multiple environmental factors, the response that climate change\nwill necessarily be similarly complex. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAurora has taken\npositive steps over the past two decades to proactively address climate change.\nWe joined the Climate Protection program in the early 2000s and have taken\ndirect steps to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through our Corporate Energy\nManagement Plan, the Building Condition Assessment and Energy Audit, and the\nTown-wide green development guidelines. We have also recognized the importance\nof trees in managing climate change by implementing initiatives to increase our\ntree canopy, improve our tree biodiversity, and reduce the number of trees that\ncan be cut down. These are all good initiatives and many of our neighbouring\nmunicipalities have undertaken similar good initiatives to combat climate\nchange, but climate change doesn\u2019t end at municipal borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo effect real change, we need to take an integrated region-wide approach to finding solutions that work. The Regional Climate Change Action Plan looks to do just that. This plan, to be presented to Regional Council soon, will outline both the mitigation and adaptation measures we, as individual municipalities and the Region, can implement to address climate change in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By<\/strong> Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Change is inevitable, but how does one go about ensuring such change is positive? For Mayor Tom Mrakas, it depends on \u201ctaking purposeful action.\u201d That is the message he brought to the local business community last Wednesday afternoon at the Aurora Chamber of Commerce\u2019s annual Mayor\u2019s Luncheon, hosted at the Royal Venetian Mansion. Here, Mayor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Mq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 05:10:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}