ROMA 2022 Virtual Conference Highlights

On March 2nd, I'll be bringing a Mayor's Office report on highlights for the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) 2022 virtual conference to the Corporate Services, Strategy, Risk & Accountability (CSSRA) Committee meeting. The conference ran from Jan. 23-25, 2022.Burlington has the best of both urban and rural living. We are a large urban municipality, with a seat at the Ontario Big City Mayors (OBCM) caucus and through the Mayor’s participation on the Large Urban Caucus of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO). At the same time, half of our land mass is also rural, with thriving rural and agricultural communities in Ward 1, Ward 3 and Ward 6. The issues faced by our rural residents are similar to those faced by exclusively rural communities across Ontario.We attend the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) annual conference each year to learn and share insights on how to support our rural residents here in Burlington. This year I attended with two additional city staff: Helen Walihura, Government Relations Manager, and Kelly Cook, Senior Planner and staff liaison to The Burlington Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee (BARAAC). Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna attended as well. This year some of the key issues emerging that are relevant to Burlington are increasing rural broadband, supporting Indigenous residents in our communities, and supporting our agricultural economy. I also met with two provincial ministries to advance Burlington priorities, detailed below.About ROMA 2022The Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) is the rural municipal voice of the province. ROMA promotes, supports and enhances strong and effective rural governments. About 270 of Ontario’s 444 municipalities have populations of less than 10,000 while scores more are rural in character. As the rural arm of AMO, ROMA advocates for policies and programs that will help build thriving rural Ontario communities.The annual ROMA conference remains an opportunity to connect with key government partners and learn from experts on important and timely rural issues. Similar to last year, this year the conference took place virtually.More information about the conference and the full program of speakers and events can be found here: https://www.roma.on.ca/roma-2022-rural-opportunities/programAt this year’s event we again heard from the Premier of Ontario, key ministers and opposition leaders. The conference provided an opportunity to attend workshops, keynote sessions and directly engage with provincial ministers.Highlights:Some key highlights of this year’s conference are below.Speakers:Chief Perry Bellegarde: The keynote speaker to kick off the first full day of the conference was Chief Perry Bellegarde, Former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. Chief Bellegarde spoke passionately about the fact that many Canadians don’t know our own history with indigenous peoples, or the restrictions under the Indian Act that continued until the 50s and 60s and beyond including: Indigenous residents couldn’t leave their reserve without a permit (till 1951); couldn’t vote till 1961. He emphasized the need for curriculum that includes the Indigenous experience. He urged municipalities to build relationships with indigenous residents to learn and find opportunities to make our communities stronger together.Hon. Gudie Hutchings: The Honourable Gudie Hutchings, federal Minister of Rural Economic Development stressed the importance of agricultural economy. She noted rural Canada is 20% of population and contributes 30% of GDP. The federal rural strategy aims to ensure a rural lens on programs and policies, including investment in broadband.Premier Doug Ford: Premier Ford addressed delegates and spoke of the importance of rural economies and broadband. The province is investing nearly $4 billion over six years beginning in 2019-20 in broadband infrastructure. There was also focus on how population growth will affect all municipalities. It is projected that Ontario will see a population increase of more than 2 million people over the next decade, particularly in and around the Greater Golden Horseshoe.Hon. Andrea Horwath: The Honourable Andrea Horwath, Leader of the provincial New Democratic Party, and Ontario's Leader of the Opposition, advocated to preserve and protect rural farmland from urban expansion. She also called for more funding for rural broadband.Additional political party speakers included The Hon. Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, The Hon. Helena Jaczek, Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, Steven Del Duca, Leader, Liberal Party of Ontario, Mike Schreiner, Leader, Green Party of Ontario, The Hon. Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, and The Hon. Kinga Surma, Minister of Infrastructure.Day two’s keynote was Dr. Bruce Lourie on the role of science in policy. Dr. Lourie is an environmental policy expert and Co-author of international bestseller Slow Death by Rubber Duck. He explored how best to navigate the complexity and cut to the chase on the most recent and relevant ideas for managing climate risk and transitioning to a net-zero economy.There were also daily Ministers’ Forums with dozens of provincial ministers that touched on topics such as adapting health and social services for rural communities in a post-pandemic environment and how to spark rural economic growth with the environment, infrastructure and resource development.Two items of note:

• The Minister of Transportation Hon. Caroline Mulroney was asked about the 413 highway and the possibility of buying back the 407 and making that the highway for everyone. She reiterated the government’s commitment to building the 413 (as well as the Bradford Bypass).
• Attorney General Doug Downey was asked about action to address Joint and Several Liability (JSL) – so municipalities don’t pay a greater share of a settlement than the proportion of their liability. (Reference the resolution on this matter recently unanimously approved by Burlington City Council: Item 15.1 Joint & Several Liability. He said he has found no connection between JSL and increased municipal insurance rates (which misses the point of fairness in decisions) but is continuing to do more work on this.

ROMA Action PlanDuring the conference, ROMA released an action plan on rural growth and resiliency entitled Opportunities for Rural Ontario in a Post-Covid World. Commissioned by the ROMA Board, the plan outlines nearly two dozen ways to rethink the role of rural communities in the economic and social vitality of the province – today and in the future. One key takeaway was seeing rural and urban areas as not separate and distinct, but as part of an interconnected whole.Read the whole report here: https://www.roma.on.ca/opportunities-rural-ontario-post-covid-worldRural Change Makers:The Mayor dropped in to the Rural Ontario Institute’s youth rural community development program. The Institute aims to develop future leaders and facilitate collaboration on issues facing rural and northern communities. The Rural Change Makers program is open to residents across the province, 18 to 29 years old who live in rural Ontario. Applications are open and ongoing for the 2022 cohort, available here: Rural Change Makers. Change Makers come together to mobilize action in their community, structured around an identified priority in their region.Daily summaries of speakers and daily media announcements from throughout the event can be found on the ROMA website here: https://www.roma.on.ca/roma-insiderDelegations:Mayor Meed Ward participated in two delegations with provincial ministers or their representatives on a variety of issues:Deputy Minister Monique Rolf von den Baumen-Clark and ADM Craig Brown, Policy Division, Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources and Forestry to discuss Red Tape reduction, and a coordinated approach to approvals.Our farmers and rural/agricultural businesses like Backed By Bees are a cornerstone of Burlington’s economy and a core part of our history and identity as a community. But we know Red Tape can be a problem for new businesses in our rural area. We shared the story of Backed by Bees - which took 2.5 years for approvals - in our meeting at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association with the Deputy Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Natural Resources and Forestry, Monique Rolf von den Baumen-Clark. I was joined by Kelly Cook, Senior Planner and point person on rural affairs, and Helen Walihura, Manager of Government Relations.We advocated to host a pilot project in Burlington that would coordinate planning approvals across agencies including the Niagara Escarpment Commission and Conservation Halton.Regulations can be onerous and favour large scale operations and prolonged timelines are an issue with multiple agencies involved. Special thanks to the Burlington Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee (BARAAC) for pulling together the Backed by Bees case study. Their 2022 workplan will focus on identifying improvements in the various agri-business approvals processes and providing recommendations to city council.Minister Lisa Thompson of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, joined by Oakville North Burlington MPP Effie Triantafilopoulos and Burlington MPP Jane McKenna, to discuss:

• Thinking differently and inclusively about farmers “in the City” when engaging with the agricultural sector.
• Considering focused stakeholder groups for urban/rural split municipalities, where feasible.
• Considering cumulative Agricultural Impact Assessments. Measure the health and viability of the Agricultural System at a Provincial scale. Invest in soil restoration and enhancement to build resiliency.
• Identify and address potential competing provincial interests: we are losing prime agricultural land to highways, expanded aggregate operations, and expanded natural heritage systems.
• The Minister offered to join a future meeting of the Burlington Agricultural and Rural Affairs Advisory Committee (BARAAC), with the local MPPs.
• *ADMINISTRATOR'S NOTE (April 7, 2022): We received the following letter from the Minister in response to our delegation -- Letter from Minister of Agriculture Food and Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson April 2022.

Top Aggregate Producing Municipalities of Ontario (TAPMO)Burlington has a seat around the TAPMO table by virtue of having three active quarries in our jurisdiction (See Table 2, Page 5 of Halton Region’s 2021 State of Aggregate Resources report): Aldershot Quarry (Meridian Brick Canada Ltd.); Tansley Quarry (Meridian Brick Canada Ltd.); and Burlington Quarry - The Majority (Nelson Aggregates Co). The Chair of TAPMO is James Seeley, Mayor, Township of Puslinch.Annually, TAPMO schedules a board meeting in conjunction with the ROMA conference. This year, that meeting took place on Sunday, January 23rd.The focus of this year’s discussion was the impact of a recent court ruling led by Wellington County related to the valuation methodology of quarry properties. The ruling accepted a new formula which essentially increases the value by about 2.5 times. This is a significant achievement for municipalities to receive an appropriate amount of taxes from aggregate producers, and ensure they pay for their fair share. Municipalities have the opportunity to appeal the assessments under the old formula to the Assessment Review Board to receive the new valuation and additional dollars. The opportunity to appeal is for the 2022 and 2023 years, until the new assessment year where this will be automatically incorporated. Paperwork must be filed by the end of March. The Mayor will be working with staff to explore this option and report back to council.A second part of the court ruling is now under appeal, and that is the tax classification of aggregate operations whether industrial, farm or residential. There are significant tax implications depending, given the different tax rates for each class. The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation has joined aggregate landowners in fighting reclassification, against Wellington County which is seeking a more appropriate tax class rate for aggregates that better reflects their actual activities and ensures aggregate operations pay their fair share of property taxes. The Mayor will report back on that in a future report once the court cast is settled.The agenda and minutes of the TAPMO meeting can be found at this link: TAPMO.