Town delegates hope to get answers from politicians regarding local issues next week when they attend the Ontario Good Roads Association/Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto.
Mayor Roy Avis, Couns. John Albanese, Andrew Hallikas, and Paul Ryan, and Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig will be attending the conference, which runs Feb. 24-27 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and this year follows the theme, “The Municipal Climate: Adapting to Change.”
As this year’s conference follows the provincial election last fall, delegates will get their first opportunity to talk to Ontario’s new government.
“We’ve got a few meetings lined up with some ministers there in our annual lobbying efforts, which are sometimes successful and sometimes they just listen,” McCaig said at last night’s town council meeting.
“Hopefully, we’re going to get about six [meetings],” he added. “Issues range from getting the province to pay for court security costs to the potential sale of the international bridge to some environmental issues in regard to Household Hazardous Waste Day to the grant appeal for the library to the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. to a meeting for our Rural Economic Development Initiative grant.
“We’ve applied for nine meetings and heard back on three or four. Hopefully, we can get another three.”
Invited speakers this year include Premier Dalton McGuinty, Opposition leader John Tory, NDP leader and local MPP Howard Hampton, Municipal Affairs and Housing minister Jim Watson, Transportation minister Jim Bradley, Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs minister Leona Dombrowsky, and OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino.
McCaig noted OGRA/ROMA is always a worthwhile conference, where local delegates not only can get information on municipal issues but network with other municipalities facing similar problems as Fort Frances.
The conference also will feature workshops on subjects ranging from alternative infrastructure financing, waste management, and alternative energy to bridge condition and maintenance.
Council will receive a full report from the local delegates once they return, McCaig assured.
Fort Frances Times
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