Newmarket Mayor John Taylor writes about the power of partnerships and collaboration in creating an outstanding community in this month's column. As always, he welcomes your questions and comments via [email protected].
Our goal at the Town of Newmarket is to be one of the best places to live, work, and raise a family in all of Canada. This is an ambitious goal and one that is not easily accomplished; it takes hard work, prioritization and focus.
However, even with this level of determination, we will fall short of our goal without a relentless focus on partnerships and collaboration. It is through partnerships that we can accelerate Newmarket on its journey to be one of the very best places to live. Whether we collaborate with the Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Business Improvement Area (BIA) to deliver a strong local economy, or we collaborate with Southlake Regional Health Centre and York Region Public Health to provide first-class health care and pandemic response, we know that the outcomes are stronger because we did not try to go it alone.
Two quick examples will demonstrate my point fully. First, downtown Newmarket is thriving and is the envy of many towns in the GTA. We worked this year with local real estate agents and the BIA and Streetcar Developments to move the Clock Tower from a derelict building to what will soon be the only boutique hotel in York Region with an event space, 57 rooms and a restaurant.
We then partnered with a local developer who agreed to build a new tennis centre for the town, at no cost to the taxpayer, which will free up valuable space downtown for enhanced parking and a better resident/customer experience.
Another great example is the Shining Hill Development and Mulock Park. We recently completed a legal agreement with the Shining Hill development to provide green homes, affordable housing, 80 acres of public forest, six kilometres of trails, and money to support the renovations at the historic Mulock house, public art in the Mulock Park, as well as a trial that will connect the various parks, trails and facilities all along Mulock Drive.
These two examples demonstrate how we are making Nemarket’s economy, recreation, environment and finances stronger through partnership and thereby moving aggressively forward on our goal to be one of the best communities in Canada. Our council is pursuing many strategic partnerships and relationships to be sure we are ready to advance the next opportunity to make Newmarket even better.