Municipal leaders from throughout Ontario have began gathering on the Shaw Centre in Ottawa for this yr’s Affiliation of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) convention.
The one hundred and twenty fifth version of the convention will carry collectively greater than 2,500 contributors — together with mayors, metropolis councillors and municipal workers — to debate urgent points going through communities throughout Ontario.
Matters on the agenda embrace the housing scarcity, the opioid epidemic, local weather change, crumbling infrastructure, entry to well being care and Indigenous engagement.
The convention can even function workshops and speeches from greater than 60 folks, together with Premier Doug Ford, Well being Minister Sylvia Jones, Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra.
Delegates can have the chance to have interaction straight with representatives from provincial ministries and ask questions over the course of the occasion.
“Each municipality is a bit totally different,” mentioned Isabel Anne McRae, a city councillor in Perth, Ont., who was on the convention Sunday.
“They’ve totally different views, they’ve totally different concepts and are available from totally different backgrounds — and sometimes they might give you an thought or answer that probably your municipality hasn’t even considered.”
Housing is seen underneath building in Ottawa’s Kanata suburb in 2022. Ontario’s housing scarcity is likely one of the massive matters on the agenda at this yr’s AMO convention. (Sean Kilpatrick/ Ontario Chronicle)
This yr, AMO is pushing for a joint “social and financial prosperity overview” with the Ontario authorities.
The overview’s aim is to evaluate how sustainable and efficient the present investments in public providers and infrastructure are, with a concentrate on making life extra reasonably priced throughout the province, in keeping with the affiliation.
“We need to collaborate with the Ontario authorities to take a look at how Ontario’s public providers might be funded and delivered extra successfully,” mentioned Brian Rosborough, AMO’s govt director.
“In Ontario, and in contrast to some other a part of Canada, municipalities are anticipated to resolve systemic social and financial points which might be provincial and nationwide in scope.”
Municipalities ‘overwhelmed,’ says AMO head
Rosborough informed media Sunday that municipalities are “overwhelmed” by challenges that embrace homeless encampments and the opioid disaster, issues they cannot tackle alone.
“What’s taking place in our streets is an unprecedented humanitarian disaster,” added Burlington, Ont., Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, chair of Ontario’s Huge Metropolis Mayors (OBCM).
“Simply this week we discovered that an estimated 234,000 individuals are homeless in Ontario.”
Meed Ward mentioned her group is calling on the Ford authorities to nominate a minister or create a ministry that may function “a single level of contact to deal with the complete spectrum of housing wants in addition to psychological well being and addictions.”
OBCM can be urging the province to carry collectively specialists on the problem and develop a “made-in-Ontario motion plan,” she mentioned.
Marianne Meed Ward, chair of Ontario’s Huge Metropolis Mayors and mayor of Burlington, Ont., informed media in Ottawa on Sunday that the province’s municipalities going through an ‘unprecedented humanitarian disaster.’ (Maude Ouellet/Radio-Canada)
Jap Ontario points
The convention will get underway in Ottawa simply days after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe expressed issues about truthful funding from the provincial and federal governments, highlighting the town’s disproportionate burden in areas like transit funding and property tax funds.
Casselman, Ont., Mayor Geneviève Lajoie, mentioned her municipality has lined up conferences with Surma to debate funding for plans to repair the excessive manganese ranges which have periodically turned the city’s water brown for the higher a part of a decade.
Lajoie mentioned she’ll additionally carry up the necessity for more cash for medical doctors, including that she’s wanting ahead to listening to Ford converse Monday.
“I am simply hoping to listen to what his new initiatives are going to be, and [I’m] excited to see how we may adapt our municipalities to these provincial guidelines and incentives,” she mentioned.
Isabel Anne McRae, a city councillor in Perth, Ont., says the annual convention affords municipalities the prospect to listen to from different communities — each massive and small — about how they’re addressing challenges. (Jenna Legge/CBC)
As for McRae, she mentioned the convention affords a fantastic alternative to work with different communities — each massive and small.
“I feel it provides you a reassurance that you simply’re not the one [one] that’s feeling the pinch and going by way of these very attempting occasions,” she mentioned.
The AMO convention runs till Wednesday.
