AMO 2021 Virtual Conference: Ontario's Big City Mayors Delegation Meets with Ministers
At this year's Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) virtual annual conference, Ontario's Big City Mayors (OBCM) had a separate delegation to meet with the Province’s ministers and speak to them about the issues affecting Ontario's larger municipalities and seek assistance from the provincial government wherever possible.OBCM, formerly the Large Urban Mayors' Caucus of Ontario, includes mayors of 29 single and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more, who collectively represent nearly 70 per cent of Ontario's population. OBCM advocates for issues and policies important to Ontario's largest cities.The current OBCM chair is Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman, and OBCM vice-chair is Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie.I was part of the delegation that included the Mayors from the municipalities of Ajax, Barrie, Brampton, Brantford, Burlington, Cambridge, Chatham-Kent, Clarington, Greater Sudbury, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Markham, Milton, Mississauga, Oakville, Oshawa, Ottawa, Pickering, Richmond Hill, St. Catharines, Thunder Bay, Toronto, Vaughan, Waterloo, Whitby, and Windsor.We met with ministers via Zoom. Below is a brief synopsis of the meetings.Summary:Health Minister and Deputy Premier Christine Elliott & Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Michael Tibollo
- Purpose of Meeting
- I was invited to attend this delegation and speak (in my capacity as co-chair of the OBCM working group on mental health and addictions alongside co-chair Chatham-Kent Mayor Darrin Canniff) to the growing mental health issues we are seeing in Ontario.
- ACTION:
- During the delegation, we had the opportunity to present the highlights of our working group’s policy paper, endorsed by OBCM. Read OBCM’s Mental Health Working Group paper here.
Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma
- Purpose of Meeting - discussions on:
- municipal infrastructure;
- how municipalities carry too much of the burden of maintaining and investing in infrastructure, relative to their fiscal capabilities;
- the 2019 Canada Infrastructure Report Card's statement that lags in investment make it problematic to catch up; and
- how OBCM is bringing forward solutions with its policy paper that includes recommendations on how to permanently improve the way we fund infrastructure development.
- ACTION:
- Permanent steady state infrastructure funding -- OBCM recommends the provincial government adopts a permanent funding framework that provides municipalities with a steady flow of infrastructure dollars to go towards municipally-identified priority projects and work with the federal government to cost share this program;
- Implement a fair funding formula -- OBCM recommends convening a working group to gather feedback, conduct research and ultimately develop a set of criteria that considers the varying needs across municipalities to be used to dictate annual funding;
- Require annual municipal reporting on funding spends -- OBCM recommends replacing the existing reporting structures with an annual municipal reporting framework that includes results-based reporting on infrastructure funding from both levels of government;
- Create an infrastructure concierge service for municipalities -- OBCM recommends the provincial and federal governments work together to create a concierge service that mandates Infrastructure Ontario and the Canada Infrastructure Bank to work with municipalities to leverage bulk procurement, best practices and special projects.
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