(Grace Anglican Church, 317 Main Street East in Milton)
The Town of Milton is trying to find out how to provide better services.
Town Council discussed a recent ‘Places of Worship’ survey during Monday’s meeting.
The background on the report says:
‘Places of worship play an important role in building communities in Milton. They strengthen community spirits and create a better place to live, work and grow. Currently, the Town of Milton encourages establishing places of worship sites through its land-use policies in the Official Plan.”
Staff and Council will be looking to find out how they can assist religious residents over the next couple decades
“The main goal and objective of faith groups for the next 20 years is to serve the community for spiritual needs (prayer, worship, healing) and provide a destination for a community hub for their worshipers’ social needs.”
The survey results show that 51% of the faith leaders stated that they currently do not have a location for their place of worship.
Similarly, the Town Councillor for Milton’s Ward 4, Sameera Ali, says that 71% of the respondents are still looking for a place of worship.
There were two local delegates during the discussion: Darpan Patel and Nik Thakkar. They were a part of the Milton Hindu Forum, representing “local Hindu community groups and a growing, diverse Hindu community in Milton.”
The Regional Councillor for Ward 1, Colin Best, asked the two delegates if they’d be open to sharing a community space with other religious groups. This was asked due to the reported lack of space that was given as feedback in the survey. Both Patel and Thakkar felt that this would be a good solution to the issue and were very open to the idea.
Councillor Ali speaks to what the Town might consider doing moving forward.
The planning will continue as the work on the official plan progresses.
You can read the full report on the Places of Worship survey here.
The full agenda from Monday night is available here.
A recording of the full meeting is available on YouTube here.
