North Simcoe municipal officials will be busy this weekend at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, with consideration on how that impacts the lives of average citizens.
Ontario is host to 444 municipalities, and AMO provides a way for those lower-tier government officials such as the mayor or CAO of a town or township to get a one-on-one with provincial members during the annual conference – held in London from Aug. 20 to 23 this year.
MidlandToday reached out to North Simcoe’s municipalities to see what they would be seeking to accomplish at the conference, how much it would cost their ratepayers, and why it was an important function which would benefit their residents.
MIDLAND
Mayor Bill Gordon shared that the town had tried for three delegations on the weekend, but were only successful in one bid.
“Each year, every municipality vies for a limited number of short meetings with Ministers or their parliamentary assistants,” Gordon explained. “We submit a summary of what we’d like to meet about and then wait to see if we were successful in securing 10 minutes of face time.
“We were successful in landing a meeting with (Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport) Neil Lumsden’s staff to discuss our waterfront master plan and great lakes tourism strategy, as well as access to grants and funding to help us realize those goals. -
“Our ability to lobby the Ministry is not limited to this single event, but we never miss any opportunity to showcase Midland’s potential and ask for help from our upper tiers of government,” Gordon added.
Gordon noted that five council members and two of Midland staff would be attending for approximately a $10,000 expense (at a $950-per-person rate plus roughly $615 hotel cost), but that the largest return on investment could take place at the conference.
“Beyond personal and professional development that comes from networking with your peers, this is one of the best opportunities to learn about pressing issues and solutions, firsthand, with all stakeholders in the room,” said Gordon.
“This is, from my perspective, money well spent, and we would be putting our municipality at a disadvantage by not availing ourselves of this yearly opportunity.”
PENETANGUISHENE
Mayor Doug Rawson said five members of Penetanguishene council would be attending the conference at $855 per member; Deputy Mayor Dan La Rose would also be attending but on behalf of the Simcoe County council which would cover his fees.
Three delegations were applied for, but the town was only able to secure one: with the office of Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault.
“The one that we’re going to be delegating for, and one of the issues we’re eager to discuss with the Ministry, is regarding our secondary water source,” said Rawson in regards to the contaminated and sealed water supply at Robert Street West.
“Now, there’s some remediation we need to do to those wells – there is still some contaminant in them – and there’s some engineering work that needs to be done to them to bring those into the appropriate thresholds to meet the needs.,” Rawson noted. “But we’re going to need some capital support from the ministry to turn that on.”
In the same delegation, Rawson said that Penetanguishene would be speaking to Guilbeault’s office about the Ojibwa Landing brownfield site and moving that remediation process forward as well.
“A lot of people have ideas and thoughts with what we should be doing with that property down at Ojibwa landing,” Rawson explained, “and I think there’s a lot of opportunity for the community – but we can’t make any decision or conversation until we can move out of this stage.”
Rawson also felt that the AMO conference was a cost-effective spending of taxpayer dollars.
“If this costs us a few thousand dollars (to go), but we get a few million dollars to support the water thing we're just talking about, I think it's a good investment,” Rawson stated.
TINY TOWNSHIP
CAO Robert Lamb said that of the three deputations requested by the township, only one with Ric Bresee, Parliamentary Assistant for the Minister of Natural Resources and Forestry, was successful.
“The No. 1 issue we are hoping to address is our shoreline alterations interim control bylaw and our efforts to protect our dynamic beaches in Tiny Township,” said Lamb.
He said the discussion would include “how the Province of Ontario can assist us in managing our dynamic shoreline and protecting our shorelines for generations to come. We will also be having a few one-on-one conversations with other provincial officials.”
Lamb explained that as the largest annual gathering for local and provincial elected officials to meet, both formally and informally, attendees would also be able to gain insight to common issues and upcoming changes that could affect ratepayers.
“AMO is also the main organization that advocates on behalf of issues in common for local government with the provincial and federal governments,” said Lamb.
“The conference agenda this year has sessions scheduled on climate change, age-friendly communities, energy, cyber security, and many more. This is the best way for your elected officials to be able to see what’s happening in best practices across the province, and bring those possible ideas back to the township,” said Lamb.
TAY TOWNSHIP
Mayor Ted Walker said that Tay Township wouldn’t be participating in the AMO conference this year.
“The Minister meetings, in my opinion,” said Walker, “are highly over-rated as my experience has been nothing fruitful results from a 15-minute meeting, including time taken on introductions.
“Provincial Ministers should make themselves available throughout the year for meetings with municipal representatives on issues of concern and devote sufficient time for discussion,” he added. “Our MPP (Jill Dunlop) is very approachable and always willing to meet.”
Additionally, Walker said of the expenses involved: “Tay council does not feel the expense in these times is justifiable as registration, accommodation, meals, mileage allowance and per diems can easily top $3,000 per delegate.”
