Representatives from Penetanguishene council and staff recently attended the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in London, where they had secured a delegation with the office of Steven Guilbeault, federal minister of environment and climate change, to discuss the town’s infrastructure needs with the contaminated and sealed Robert Street West water supply.
Mayor Doug Rawson told MidlandToday the matter was discussed, but with the Payette water system secondary water supply study presented to a previous committee of the whole shortly before the conference, the focus of the AMO delegation placed primary importance on addressing the brownfield contamination of the Ojibwa Landing.
“We met (David Piccini, provincial minister of the environment, conservation and parks); he heard us about the environmental assessment process for the protracted length of time — 22 weeks between assessment periods. We’re on our third go-around,” Rawson said regarding the town’s frustration on progress. “If every time is half a year, that’s adding to the length of time for our environmental assessment process.
“This brownfield site is no different from many other brownfield sites in the province (and if remediated) could be a potential solution to some of the housing challenges. So, we’re working together to try to mitigate the timelines. That was really our ask for the brownfield site (for) Ojibwa Landing.”
Rawson praised the amount of networking that was undertaken between the Penetanguishene attendees and the other 443 municipalities of the AMO who chose to attend. He went down with CAO Jeff Lees, as well as councillors Doug Leroux, George Vadeboncoeur and Bill Waters. Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose was also in attendance, but represented Simcoe County for its part.
“From Premier Ford … and other ministers’ comments on housing and targets and bonuses and all those, we got to see it first-hand as well as a lot of other educational things going on within the province,” said Rawson. “I think from mine and council’s lens, it was a good few days.”
One opportunity he had taken was to address speeding issues in Penetanguishene, and he said the conference allowed the town to see what other municipalities had tried and how they succeeded.
“I think there’s some really positive things that we can implement fairly rapidly to have a serious impact in the community,” said Rawson.
“Do I believe we got a return on investment? Yes, I do. I think just the networking alone, from the speed opportunity as an example — if we’re able to implement some solutions in the next 12 months, and our timed implementation has been saved by months, and that makes our streets safer and community safer and prevents any tragic accidents on our roadway — I’d say it’s a tremendous return on our investment.”
In saving time and money, Rawson added attending AMO was a positive use of the town’s resources.
“I see great value,” he said, “and I can rest my head high saying we took away the education, we did the networking, and I think we’re going to be stronger for it.”
Council is expected to receive an update on Penetanguishene’s attendance at AMO at a regular meeting next month.
