Duane Hicks
Local delegates had their chance to speak with provincial officials on important issues during the 2011 Ontario Good Roads Association/Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference in Toronto last week.
Mayor Roy Avis, Couns. John Albanese and Rick Wiedenhoeft, and Fort Frances CAO Mark McCaig attended the conference, sitting in on plenary sessions, a ministers’ forum, speeches by the heads of the three major parties, and delegations with various ministers or their parliamentary assistants.
Mayor Avis said one meeting was with Revenue minister Sophia Aggelonitis, also the minister responsible for seniors, to get some guidance on establishing assisted living homes in Fort Frances.
“We were just trying to seek where the government stands on assisted living and what path we could take,” the mayor noted.
“Should we be involved in the initiation of it, should it be the LHIN [Local Health Integration Network], should it be the DSSAB board?
“We went through this process with her and, of course, they don’t really answer you there but they do take it under advisement,” Mayor Avis added.
“There is no actual funding available at the present time but . . . there is some slight direction from her that we should talk to LHINs, talk to our DSSAB, talk to different areas,” he remarked.
The local delegates also spoke with both Northern Development, Mines and Forestry minister Michael Gravelle and MTO regional manager Ian Smith about the status of “Connecting Link” funding, which the town has relied on for projects like the reconstruction of Central Avenue but has not received in more than two years.
“[The ‘Connecting Link’ funding] covers all the main arteries coming into Fort Frances—for tourism to the south, for truck traffic that goes through the municipality, for truck traffic that goes to the mill, Scott Street is a ‘Connecting Link’ road,” the mayor explained.
“We wanted to find out whether this program, because it’s been over two years now since we received any funding, is still on,” he added.
“We do what they call a five-year capital forecast, and we’ve been doing it constantly for the last two years and we’re not getting anyplace.
“What we want to know is, is it on, it is off, are they going to call it a new program—give us some idea,” Mayor Avis stressed.
“We, basically, didn’t get any direct answer nor did they say we were going to get any funding, but we had a good conversation.”
Local reps also met with Gravelle and Lou Rinaldi, the parliamentary assistant to Municipal Affairs and Housing minister Rick Bartolucci, about the regional airport concept.
“We told them that because of the cost of operating the airport, the amount of money it’s costing us, the municipality, it’s a losing proposition for us,” the mayor noted.
“And yet the airport is used by all district residents and First Nations people,” he reasoned.
“We told them we’d already been in contact with the district municipalities, and they were very concerned on whether the unorganized territories would be participating in the funding process in order to keep this airport open.”
Mayor Avis said they asked the ministries if the town and other district municipalities should expect the unorganized areas to pay for a airport they also use.
Speaking more generally about the conference, the mayor said it was busy, with a “bear pit” session featuring 18 ministers fielding questions from the floor about everything from the regulation of wind farms to arbitration settlements.
A good deal of conversation revolved around electricity in Ontario, especially the application of the HST to hydro bills and the overall cost of power and where it’s going.
As well, the local delegates attended several plenary sessions covering various topics, such as “Building a Bicycle-friendly Community?” and “Is Your Community Investment-Ready?” (the former was attended by Coun. Wiedenhoeft, the latter by the mayor).
And they also heard Premier Dalton McGuinty, NDP leader Andrea Horwath, and PC leader Tim Hudak give pre-election talks, as well as Transportation minister Kathleen Wynne speak on Ontario’s roads infrastructure.
