On Aug. 19 and 20 I joined local mayors and councillors from 444 municipalities across Ontario, attending the 125th Annual Conference of the Association of Municipalities Ontario in Ottawa.
My staff and I attended 33 delegation meetings, both in my role as associate minister of energy – intensive industries and as local MPP for Niagara West. This year’s conference was attended by over 3,300 participants and provided local mayors and councillors with an opportunity to engage with MPPs, ministers, various agencies and key provincial officials.
Both Premier Doug Ford and Paul Calandra, minister of municipal affairs and housing, addressed delegates at the conference. A highlight of the annual gathering in Ottawa was the release of an updated Provincial Planning Statement, which will continue to cut red tape to speed up homebuilding.
In his address, the premier announced that the Ontario government is now accepting applications for the new Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund. The $200-million fund will help local communities across the province revitalize existing community sport and recreation infrastructure and build new facilities. The premier also announced that the province is now accepting new applications for the second round of the Housing-Enabling Core Servicing Stream. This $400- million fund will help municipalities build, maintain and repair municipal roads, bridges and culverts.
As the premier said in his keynote speech, “We need to work together to build the roads, highways, transit, homes, hospitals and schools our growing communities need. We need to continue to create conditions to attract new investments, to create better jobs, bigger pay cheques and keep costs down for hardworking families.”
As your local MPP, I take municipal concerns very seriously – as important as federal and provincial issues are, it is often issues at the municipal level that affect people day to day. And as our province grows faster than it ever has before, we need to build critical infrastructure to support sustainable growth in our local neighbourhoods and communities.
I noted two key municipal issues for the Town of Pelham at this year’s conference, including the ongoing need for key water infrastructure, and density classification rates for hydro customers across the municipality.
Delegation meetings at the annual conference of mayors and councillors in Ottawa are not only about presenting technical issues and concerns – it’s also about building genuine relationships of trust and accountability between the province and local governments. It’s about a team approach to solving local issues at street level, neighbour to neighbour and around the table at town hall and at Queen’s Park.
It's this proactive local approach that I like to promote as an elected member of the legislative assembly, whether I am speaking in the chamber at Queen’s Park or sitting down with local residents and stakeholders at my constituency office in Beamsville.
As I have always said, my role is to remind Queen’s Park that the world doesn’t end at the Burlington Skyway – and to be the voice of Niagara at Queen’s Park, not the voice of Queen’s Park to Niagara.
