Halton Hills
Town (lower-tier)
Town of Halton Hills
Main Street, Georgetown
Coat of arms Logo
Motto(s):  Hereditas Integritas Veritas (Latin:Heritage, integrity, truth)
Halton Hills Show map of Regional Municipality of Halton Halton Hills Show map of Southern Ontario
Coordinates:43°37′37″N079°57′05″W / 43.62694°N 79.95139°W /43.62694; -79.95139[1]
Country	Canada
Province	Ontario
Region	Halton
Incorporated	1974
Government
• Mayor	Ann Lawlor
• Federal ridings	Milton East—Halton Hills South Wellington—Halton Hills North
• Prov. riding	Wellington—Halton Hills
Area
• Land	276.26 km2 (106.66 sq mi)
• Urban	39.52 km2 (15.26 sq mi)
• Rural	236.74 km2 (91.41 sq mi)
Highest elevation [2]	411 m (1,348 ft)
Lowest elevation [3]	197 m (646 ft)
Population  (2016)[4]
• Town (lower-tier)	61,161
• Density	221.4/km2 (573/sq mi)
• Urban	49,854
• Urban density	1,261/km2 (3,267/sq mi)
• Rural	9,154
• Rural density	38.67/km2 (100.1/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC−05:00 (EST)
• Summer (DST)	UTC−04:00 (EDT)
Area codes	905, 289, and 365
NTS Map	30M12Brampton
GNBC Code	FBLIE
Website	www.haltonhills.ca

Halton Hills is a town in theRegional Municipality of Halton, located in the northwestern end of theGreater Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada with a population of 62,951 (2021).

There are many natural features within these bounds; they include theNiagara Escarpment, and theBruce Trail. Many of these local features are protected by theConservation Halton,Credit Valley Conservation &Grand River Conservation Authority.

The primary population centres areGeorgetown andActon. Additionally, there are a number ofhamlets and rural clusters within the town, including Ashgrove, Ballinafad (straddling the boundary withErin), Bannockburn, Crewsons Corners (straddling the boundary withErin,Guelph-Eramosa andMilton),Glen Williams, Henderson's Corners, Hornby,Limehouse,Mansewood,Norval, Scotch Block, Silver Creek, Speyside, Stewarttown, Terra Cotta (straddling the boundary withCaledon), and Wildwood. The area was first settled in the 1820s.

Esquesing Township, of which the greatest part went to form Halton Hills, was favourably described in 1846:

This is a fine township, containing excellent land, and many good farms, which are generally well cultivated. Wheat of superior quality is grown in this and adjoining townships. The land is mostly rolling.^[5]

The town is bisected by theNiagara Escarpment from southwest to northeast, and a significant portion of the rural area is located within theprovincial Greenbelt. Above the Escarpment, a large proportion of the rural area is classified as environmentally sensitive wetlands, and there are several sites that are licensed for aggregate extraction, for which expansion requires detailed environmental assessment.^[6] Below the Escarpment, the rural area is mainly agricultural, with the exception of an industrial area currently being developed betweenHighway 401 and Steeles Avenue.

The town also forms part of three watersheds:

• to the west of Acton, a small area flows toward theGrand River
• the northern half flows into theCredit River, including the Black Creek^[7] and Silver Creek^[8] tributaries
• the southern half flows into theSixteen Mile Creek^[9]

TheWater Survey of Canada operates two hydrometric monitoring stations in the town, on the Black Creek below Acton,^[10] and atNorval on theCredit River.^[11]

Halton Hills is located in the transition zone between the Huron-Ontario Forest Section of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence forest zone to the north and the Niagara Section of theCarolinian forest zone to the south. Both forest zones are part of theMixedwood Plains Ecozone. The natural vegetation in the Huron-Ontario Section is dominated by mixed wood forests. It is a transitional type between the southern deciduous forests and the northern coniferous forests. The forest communities of the Niagara Section are dominated by broad-leaved trees. Overall, Halton Hills consists predominantly of agricultural lands with scattered woodlands and wetlands. The woodlands are mainly deciduous forest and the wetlands are eithercedar swamp orcattail marsh.^[12]

American ginseng exists in the town, and is protected under theEndangered Species Act, 2007.Butternut trees are also threatened by the butternutcanker. Thehooded warbler and theJefferson salamander are also designated as threatened species.

Brook trout had been eliminated from the Black Creek watershed for many years, following the ongoing environmental disaster due to the excessive consumption of faecal mater as well as the trailer park polluting the water in the town of Erin. The trout have not returned, and anglers report that most of the fish have almost entirely disappeared from the area.^[10]

The physiography^[13] and distribution of surface material^[14] in the Town of Halton Hills are the result of glacial activity which took place in theLate Wisconsinan Substage of thePleistocene Epoch. This period of time, which lasted from approximately 23,000 to 10,000 years ago, was marked by the repeated advance and melting back of massive, continental ice sheets.

The Niagara Escarpment dominates the physiography of the town and greatly influenced the pattern of glaciation in the region. The Escarpment, formed by erosion over millions of years, is a high relief bedrock scarp which trends to the north through the central part of the town. To the west, on the upper surface of the Escarpment, hummockymorainic ridges deposited by glacial ice form part of the Horseshoe Moraines physiographic region. To the southeast below the Escarpment, is a smooth glacial till plain partially bevelled bylacustrine action, which forms part of the South Slope and Peel Plain physiographic regions.

The Town of Halton Hills is underlain byOrdovicianshales of theQueenston Formation east of the Niagara Escarpment, and bySiluriandolomites of the Amabel Formation west of the Escarpment. The escarpment face exposes a complex succession ofshales,sandstones,limestones anddolomites of theClinton and Cataract Groups. Red shales of the Queenston Formation underlie the eastern half of the town and are generally covered by more than 15 m of glacial sediments, predominantly the Halton Till. There are several areas of thin drift cover south of Georgetown.

Thequarrying of limestone has been undertaken since the 19th century, and thelime industry was once quite prevalent. In 1886, the Toronto Lime Company had operations in Limehouse and Acton, employing a total of four drawkilns and eleven set kilns, producingcommon lime andwater lime.^[15] At Limehouse, rock from the Clinton formation yielded green and brownshales and bluemarl, which were used in the manufacture ofmineral paints.^[15]

Small oil and gas deposits have been discovered northwest and south of Acton, and around Hornby. While exploration had occurred as early as 1908,^[16] with oil being discovered in 1912,^[17] significant strikes did not occur until 1954.^[18]

The town is located in an area that is considered to be of low seismic potential, and the largest recent earthquake to take place within its limits was ofmagnitude 3 on 29 June 1955.^[19] There is aPOLARIS seismic monitoring station located just west of Acton.^[20][21]

Halton Hills has ahumid continental climate (Köppen climate classificationDfb).

The Town has two distinct climate zones:^[22]

• Zone 5a - north of the Niagara Escarpment
• Zone 5b - south of the Escarpment

Environment and Climate Change Canada operates one climate monitoring station at Georgetown.

Both Georgetown and Acton, as well as the smaller communities in the rural area, have histories which go back about 200 years. Settlement began in the 1820s.^[24]

The hamlet of Hornby was home to the large Brain Brewery, established in 1845;^[25] it was eventually making 5,000 barrels of beer per year with ten employees. The facility closed when Prohibition started in 1916 and did not later reopen.^[26]

Halton Hills was formed in 1974 through the amalgamation of the former Towns ofGeorgetown andActon, together with much of the formerEsquesing Township, and a small portion of the Town ofOakville lying north ofOntario Highway 401. Originally named the Town of North Halton in the establishing legislation,^[27] provision was made for a name change to be adopted in consequence of a referendum,^[28] and Halton Hills was thus chosen in October 1973:

On August 1, 2013,Toronto Premium Outlets, the first Premium Outlets Centre in Canada, opened for business on Steeles Avenue at the south end of Halton Hills near the border ofMilton, Ontario.^[31][32]

In 2021,^[36] Halton Hills was 84.6% white/European, 13.6% visible minorities, and 1.8% Indigenous. The largest visible minority groups wereSouth Asian (5.6%),Black (1.7%),Chinese (1.2%),Filipino (1.0%) andLatin American (1.0%).

80.8% of residents spokeEnglish as their mother tongue. The next most common first languages werePolish (1.7%),Portuguese (1.6%),French (1.5%),Punjabi (1.4%),Croatian (1.2%),Italian (1.0%) andSpanish (1.0%). 2.2% of residents listed both English and a non-official language as mother tongues, while 0.5% listed both English and French.

61.4% of the population wereChristian, down from 72.1% in 2011.^[37] 34.3% wereCatholic, 16.8% wereProtestant, 6.2% were Christian n.o.s, 1.6% wereChristian Orthodox and 2.6% belonged to other Christian denominations or Christian-related traditions. 32.2% were non-religious or secular, up from 26.3% in 2011. 6.4% belonged to other religions, up from 1.6% in 2011.The largest non-Christian religions wereIslam (2.0%),Sikhism (1.9%), andHinduism (1.5%).

The town is divided into four wards, each of which elects two local councillors. Two regional councillors are also elected - one from Wards 1 and 2 (i.e., the area that was in the former Town of Acton and the former Township of Esquesing), and one from Wards 3 and 4 (i.e., the area in the former Town of Georgetown). The mayor is elected at large. The mayor and two regional councillors (who also serve on Halton Hills council) represent the town at the council meetings of theRegional Municipality of Halton.^[38]

The current (2022-2026) membership of the town council is as follows:^[39]

Halton Hills has its own fire department. However, policing is provided by theHalton Regional Police Services.^[40] The Town has its own official plan which came into force in March 2008 and was consolidated in 2017 with the Region's plan.^[41] The libraries in the Town are managed by theHalton Hills Public Library Board.

In 1975, theLord Lyon King of Arms awarded arms to the town, followed by the grant of a badge in 1984. Both were subsequently registered with theCanadian Heraldic Authority in 2005. They are specifically described as follows:^[42]

• Arms: Per pale, dexter Or two bendlets wavy Sable, sinister Azure two escarpes wavy Argent, a chief per fess dancetty Azure and Argent, overall a white pine tree (Pinus strobus) proper;
• Motto:Hereditas Integritas Veritas (Latin:Heritage, integrity, truth)
• Badge: On an oval Azure a white pine tree Argent within a wreath of five oak leaves alternating with five papyrus leaves Or.

The town has four main roads:

East-west

•  Highway 7 connecting Acton and Georgetown
•  Regional Road 8 (Steeles Avenue) between Milton and Brampton

North-south

•  Regional Road 25 between Acton and Milton
•  Regional Road 3 (Trafalgar Road) between Ballinafad and Oakville

Bus service is provided byGO Transit along Highway 7 on itsGeorgetown line corridor.Via Rail andGO Train service are provided atGeorgetown GO Station.

TheGrand Trunk Railway brought train service to the area in 1856, with stations at Acton and Georgetown. Passenger service to Acton ceased in the 1990s, butGO Train service isplanned to be revived there in 2013.^[43]

Rail freight service is also provided byCanadian National on its Halton Subdivision from Georgetown southwest through Milton to Burlington.^[44] CN's Guelph Subdivision between Georgetown and London is currently managed byGoderich–Exeter Railway.

In November 2020, VIA Rail Canada rerouted some of its trains onto the Halton Subdivision through Stewarttown while their usual route was closed for signal upgrades.^[45]

From 1917 to 1931, Norval, Georgetown and Acton were also served by theToronto Suburban Railway.^[46]

HaltonHillsToday.ca is an online local news source in Halton Hills, offering the latest breaking news, weather updates, entertainment, sports and business features, obituaries and more.

insidehalton.com is a website run byMetroland Media Group, which used to publishGeorgetown Independent andActon Free Press.

The New Tanner was a print newspaper in Acton from 1992 to 2020.Halton Herald was an online-only news website.

Halton Hills is also covered by the following local newspapers and online media:

• The Halton Compass
• In Georgetown Community Website

A radio transmitter in Hornby is used by stationsCFZM andCJBC.^{[citation needed]}

Halton Hills has one sister city:^[47]

• Wenjiang (Chengdu),Sichuan, China

• List of townships in Ontario

• Media related toHalton Hills at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website

• Halton Hills
• Lower-tier municipalities in Ontario
• Towns in Ontario
• Lime kilns in Canada

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