The 2018 Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Conference is over and I thought I’d write a blog to tell you what you got for the expense of sending me to Ottawa.

Over the four days we made Delegations to the Ministry of Transportation about the High Speed Rail Proposal, the Ministry of Natural Resources about gravel pit operations, the Ministry of Education about rural schools, and the Ministry of the Environment to talk about the proposed South West Landfill.

The delegation to the Ministry of Transportation arguing for alternatives to the High Speed Rail Proposal to be considered went well (I posted the full text of Mayor Lupton’s comments on Facebook).  Minister Yakabuski seems open to the idea that there may be better, more cost effective ways, to improve transit, but my sense is that the new government hasn’t “officially” decided to include alternatives in the Environmental Assessment…yet.  I am optimistic.

Minister of Transportation John Yakabuski.

The Ministry of Natural Resources delegation was presented by Councillor Keasy and the main requests were better regulation of gravelpit operations to reduce the impacts on neighbours, and an increase in the royalty payed to the Township for the gravel extracted.  In Ontario we get 19.8c/tonne which does not come close to covering the damage done to roads by the gravel trucks, and makes it very difficult, and unfair, to simply tax residents to attempt to maintain roads damaged by industry.  In Alberta they get 30, and in Quebec 50 c/tonne.  The industry representative group the Ontario Sand, Stone, and Gravel Association (OSSGA) even supports the increased levy as it is a small increase compared to trucking costs and it is hoped it would help to pay for some rehabilitation and enforcement of haul routes.  Minister Yurek was concerned about our issues and is familiar with them as there are also many pits in his riding of Elgin/Middlesex/London (which is on the other side of Cobble Hills Road). But again, it is early days for the Minister and all we got so far was a commitment to keep talking to us and that they would look into some things.

I presented the Delegation to the Ministry of the Environment to talk about the proposed South West Landfill.  We made our two main concerns clear: drinking water, and the injustice of a community like Zorra and Oxford who have done so much to reduce our waste having another community’s waste forced upon us.  An unwilling host municipality is unacceptable for a project of this scale.

I presented the Ministry of Education delegation as the Deputy Mayor and Vice Chair of the Community Schools Alliance.  While we have a 19 point detailed list of requests for the Minister, we started off by simply introducing ourselves and requesting that they continue the existing moratorium on school closures while they consider policy changes, and that they support policy that recognizes the differences between rural/northern schools and urban/suburban schools.  The Minister was very forthright that “we cannot develop our rural communities without our schools”.  During the Ministers Forum at the conference I was also able to ask her another question.

And again later on I had a “hallway conversation” with her that was very promising.

Education Minister Lisa Thompson

One of the best parts of these conferences is the “hallway conversations” you have with people, the unplanned meetings where you get to really talk about stuff in detail with a real expert.

I had several with different municipal politicians, and some Ministers as well, but the best, and longest (we’re both talkers…) was with OFA President Keith Currie.  We talked for over an hour about all kinds of agricultural issues and municipal government.  In particular about property tax policy and the need for municipal governments to keep the farm tax rate low.  We talked about how Oxford had recently lowered it’s rate, but agreed that it should have gone lower.  We also talked about enabling farms to add value to their product on farm before shipping it.

Ontario Federation of Agriculture President Keith Currie.   Great guy, great talk.

The Community Schools Alliance held our AGM at the conference.  Two new members were elected to the Executive, we are in good financial health, but most importantly we have been getting good work done.  As Chair Doug Reycraft said in his Annual Report “The past two years have been the most eventful, and I would humbly suggest, the most successful in the nine-year history of the Community Schools Alliance.”

I am really proud to be a part of this group and the work they’ve done:
– moratorium on school closures
– changes to accommodation review process
– $20M Rural & Northern Education Fund that ALL Zorra schools qualify for

The Community Schools Alliance Executive.

The formal education sessions at this conference weren’t as good this time I felt, but the informal learning with people more than made up for it.

I have a lot of homework to do after this conference to try to turn the things I’ve learned into good policy for Zorra.

Marcus

Going door to door is stressful.

I want to give you the opportunity to talk, to tell me things, to ask me things; but a lot of the time I just feel like I’m interrupting your life.

If I’m interrupting your life, I apologize.  I just want to give you the chance to talk.  If you don’t want to, that’s fine.

This is my postcard I’m leaving at doors:

intercityrail.org

I’m on the train on my way home now and thought I’d give you a little summary of my time at the ROMA (Rural Ontario Municipal Association) Conference.

The TAPMO (Top Aggregate Producing Municipalities of Ontario) meeting was informative as always. This organization (of which Zorra is a member) collects the data, analyzes it, and puts forward practical new policy alternatives to the Ministry of Natural Resources. But the MNR is very slow to consider changes to the ARA (Aggregate Resources Act) which is very powerful legislation that almost totally curbs a Municipality’s ability to control pits and quarries, and to get anything approaching cost recovery from royalties. I think there is an opportunity with this organization for Zorra to be more involved and try to push this issue more aggressively.

There was a session on rural broadband, but it was disappointing. It was focused on convincing residents and politicians that high speed internet is a legitimate need. I think that in 2018 access to high speed internet is like access to a phone: you need it. Period. This needs to be a top priority for Zorra.

Zorra requested a Delegation with the Ministry of Transportation, but was turned down. However, I think Councillor Doug Matheson had a chat with the Premiere about that too…

I attended a session on Bill 68 – Updates to the Municipal Act and Municipal Elections Bill. This bill makes many good changes to Municipal governance structures, but will be A LOT of work for Municipal Staff to implement locally.

One area that it changes is the definition of a “meeting”. Now, under the new Act, if a Council member phones another Council member to discuss an issue and then discussed the same issue with another Council member over coffee, it could be interpreted as a “serial meeting” if the discussion “materially advances the business” and could be interpreted as an illegal meeting.

I was invited, along with Doug Reycraft (Community Alliance Chair) and Katherine Sedgwick to present to other politicians on “Keeping Community Schools Open”. This was easy. We all lived that experience together and it’s always easiest to speak what you know about first hand. In fact, after “We SAVED A. J. Baker!” Daniel West and Henriette McArthur and I sat down to come up with a “how to” of lessons we learned from the experience, and I basically just presented that. It was all revived, over 75 people total attended both sessions.

Of course there was the Delegation to the Education Minister on Rural schools that I presented on behalf of Zorra and the Community Schools Alliance. I posted on that separately on FB, I’ll add another Blog on it here too.

You may notice that I have not mentioned the South West Landfill proposed to be in Zorra. In my opinion, at this point there is little to say. There is extensive work going on in the EA (Environmental Assessment) and by the Community Liaison Committee (where Zorra is represented). Until there are results from the EA there is little new information to discuss. There is a Motion before Zorra Council to demand the right of a Municipality to refuse a landfill (which I FULLY support in principle), but (and I have posted separately on this) there is some problematic wording for me in that it could inadvertently set a precedent by also allowing “adjacent” or “affected” Municipalities to refuse. Zorra will be getting a legal opinion at the next Council meeting (Feb 13 at 11am).

One aspect of these conferences that I have not made the most of in the past is the “schmoozing” or “buttonholing” MPPs and Policy Advisors. It’s awkward and probably counterproductive until you have a bit of a relationship with them. Well, this time I jumped in feet first. I talked informally with Senior Policy Advisors to the Minister of Education (several times), the Minister of Education herself in addition to the formal Delegation, and Ernie Hardeman.

In the “bear pit” (where the Premiere and entire cabinet sit on the stage and take questions from conference attendees) I asked the Premiere if she would commit to implementing the specific changes we’ve been asking for with respect to rural schools. She didn’t really answer, so when I saw her later I asked her again and we had a good conversation about it. She asked me good questions and listened to my answers, but the proof will be in the policies that will be released in a few weeks and the Provincial budget to come after that…

Overall a good Conference. I think a good expense that will pay off if we get the Rural school policy changes we want, and if we utilize some of the things learned in developing future strategies to advance Zorra’s goals of being Prosperous, Vibrant, Engaged, and Environmentally Conscious.

#doingmypart