Grey County Warden Alan Barfoot will join more than 1,900 participants at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario's (AMO) 2017 Conference in Ottawa from August 13 to 16.
For more than a century, Ontario's largest municipal conference has brought together municipal, provincial and federal officials to work collectively to overcome municipal challenges and plan for the future.
Canada's Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, Ontario's Premier, Minister of Municipal Affairs, and both opposition leaders are featured speakers and several additional provincial ministers will participate in the conference.
The annual conference is a chance for municipal officials to discuss and move forward on shared challenges, to learn and to create new opportunities that can benefit their communities. Officials also take part in delegation meetings with municipal and federal ministries.
Warden Barfoot and a County delegation will be participating in three meetings at this year's conference.
The first meeting is on Monday, August 14, with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry to discuss the levy charged for aggregate production. Grey County supports a minimum levy of $0.54 per tonne to better address infrastructure costs linked to aggregate operations. Currently the County only receives $0.015 per tonne.
On Tuesday morning, August 15, the delegation will meet with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to discuss three issues. First, Grey County will update the Ministry on the success of local community paramedicine programs and discuss the need for full and stable funding for future years. Second, Grey County will advocate for the realignment of Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) boundaries to align with municipal borders. Lastly, the delegation is a requesting an update on the status of the Centre Grey Hospital in Markdale.
The final meeting will take place late Tuesday morning with the Attorney General. Grey County is asking the Province to update the software used for provincial offenses courts. The County is at risk of serious operational interruptions due to the outdated Provincial software which requires the use of the Windows XP operating system that is no longer supported.
Warden Barfoot and many councillors will be participating in other sessions at the conference. Key sessions include the need for new and modern approaches to funding municipal government, changes to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB), infrastructure and transit, climate change, new waste legislation and changes to the Blue Box program, marijuana legalization, the digital and sharing economy, affordable housing, police modernization, and much more. These province-wide matters have local implications for our community.
