Delegates from Fort Frances got a chance to discuss common issues, and give their input to the provincial government, at the annual general meeting of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario in Ottawa on Aug. 22-25.
Following the theme, “Renewing Our Communities: From the Municipal Front Door to Parliament Hill,” local delegates Mayor Dan Onichuk, Coun. Tannis Drysdale, and CAO Mark McCaig joined hundred of others from across Ontario attending seminars at the Ottawa Congress Centre on waste diversion, revitalizing small communities, best practices, and infrastructure financing and asset management.
But perhaps most importantly, the delegates—either individually or in groups—also met with several Cabinet ministers, including George Smitherman (health and long-term care), Greg Sorbara (finance), David Caplan (public infrastructure and renewal), and Jim Bradley (tourism and recreation).
The meetings provided the opportunity for local delegates to speak with ministers, as well as some parliamentary assistants, for 15 minutes.
Briefs with summaries of the issues were presented to each, along with a copy of Neil McQuarrie’s book, “Fort Frances: The Story of a Town and Its People.”
The briefs, which were written by both town staff and councillors, and representatives from other local agencies, reflected a wide range of topics, from policing costs to tourism.
One of the briefs submitted to Smitherman was from Dan McCormick, health services manager for the Rainy River District Social Services Administrative Board.
He noted the increased costs of delivering land ambulance services to area First Nations is having to be absorbed by municipalities, and continued failure to address the issue is leading to undue hardship on the DSSAB member municipalities, and therefore, increased costs to taxpayers.
McCormick requested the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care expedite consultations with designated delivery agents affected by this issue, and that a resolution on First Nation funding be implemented within the 2004-05 budget.
He also asked the ministry to reconsider increasing its funding for land ambulance operational costs for this year.
In a second brief to Smitherman, Dr. Elaine Spencer asked him to address the issue of physician recruitment in Fort Frances.
She stressed the current calculation for the designation of physician-to-patient for Northwestern Ontario needs to be reviewed and revised, lowering the population component.
Currently, the ministry allocates one family practitioner to every 1,380 people in our catchment area.
In a brief submitted to the parliamentary assistant to Transportation minister Harinder Takhar, Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown requested the ministry ensure that funding for “connecting link” projects, such as the current work being on King’s Highway here, be in place as early as possible in the calendar year.
For instance, a municipality ideally should be informed it will receive funding for highway repairs in February. It then put can put the work to tender in March, award the contract in April, and have the work begin by May.
This would result in projects not having to be rushed or interrupted due to freeze-up, and the town likely would get better prices from contractors by putting out tenders in the off-season.
Brown and Community Services manager George Bell also submitted a joint brief to Caplan requesting a more stable infrastructure program.
While the provincial and federal governments signed a letter of intent in regards to the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund in May, the application process for this program has not been determined—and the funding limits are unknown at this time.
This makes it difficult for municipalities to provide consistent infrastructure renewal programs as there’s no stable source of funding.
As an example, the $2-million underpass upgrade in Fort Frances has been put on hold because the town still is waiting to find out when it can apply for funding under the Municipal Rural Infrastructure Fund.
In a brief to the minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, McCaig requested policy be changed so that the cost of court security at the Fort Frances Courthouse falls under jurisdiction of the Ministry of the Attorney General and not the town.
Currently, the town pays an extra $100,000 a year into the police services contract with the OPP to have an armed officer provide security there.
McCaig, along with Coun. Drysdale, also submitted a brief to Sorbara requesting a review of Community Reinvestment Fund policy as it relates to municipal policing costs.
Under current ministry policy, the town is ineligible for CRF dollars to cover policing due to the fact it had its own police force prior to 1996.
They also asked that the ministry lobby its federal colleagues to provide border communities in Ontario with financial assistance in managing increasing policing costs related to international border crossings.
Coun. Drysdale also submitted a brief to Bradley regarding relocating the Ontario Tourist Information Centre here, stating the new Canada Customs facility effectively has cut it off from eastbound traffic coming across the border.
That, in turn, significantly limits the amount of information about Northwestern Ontario that visitors get upon crossing the border.
She urged the province to approve and support relocating the tourism centre to a location where it could be built alongside a new Canada Discovery Centre, making for a new and improved tourist stop for visitors to Fort Frances.
“I’m very confident the government listened to our thoughts,” Coun. Drysdale said yesterday.
She noted while it’s sometimes difficult to gauge what might come out of such meetings, there can be pleasant surprises.
She cited the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference she and Mayor Onichuk attended in Toronto earlier this year, at which time they convinced the province to give the town more than $1 million for the work on King’s Highway—something they didn’t find out until months afterwards.
“I’m hopeful this was as productive,” remarked Coun. Drysdale.
“We were very happy to get the six meetings we had,” noted McCaig, adding the local delegates did not get to meet Children and Youth Services minister Dr. Marie Bountrogianni.
Bell did, however, prepare a brief to be submitted to that ministry requesting full-cost recovery for subsidized child cares spaces, among other things.
“It’s hard to gauge success or failure,” McCaig said of the meetings. “But overall, I was pretty happy with the responses we got.”
Besides acting on behalf of the town, Coun. Drysdale pulled double-duty, making two presentations for the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association.
One was about “Grow Bonds,” which she expects will be legislation by the fall, while the other was on provincial land tax reform, which she expects to reach the consultation stages later this year.
And also at last week’s conference, Northwestern Ontario saw one of its leaders elected to the AMO’s board of directors.
As a member of the board and AMO’s Northern caucus, Atikokan Mayor Dennis Brown now will help set policy for the AMO and serve as a key municipal leader in the province.
“AMO and Ontario’s municipal sector will benefit from the expertise and dedication that people like Dennis will bring to our board,” AMO president Roger Anderson said in a press release issued yesterday.
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