Now that the dust has settled on last week's Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, local politicians have had a chance to reflect on all they saw while attending and are ready to bring some innovation to Simcoe County.
About 444 municipalities participate in workshops, learning sessions and cabinet minister meetings at the annual conference, which was attended by many local representatives from different parts of the county.
From Barrie, those in attendance included Mayor Jeff Lehman, Couns. Barry Ward, Mike McCann, Arif Khan and Rose Romita, as well as two members of city staff. Barrie did six minister meetings, and Lehman also participated in some others due to being a part of the Big City Mayors’ Caucus, which represents the 27 largest cities in Ontario.
There were three main innovative ideas Lehman saw while at the conference that caught his attention as ideas worth bringing to Barrie, he said when contacted this week for an interview.
“The first one’s really boring, but I think it could be really helpful,” laughs Lehman.
Due to a recent change to the Municipal Act, there is now an option to give municipalities 'prudent investor status', which allows municipalities as a group to pool reserve funds and invest it together for a higher return.
“The City of Barrie has reserve funds, and we have money that comes in and out over the course of the year,” says Lehman. “(Right now), we don’t make investment revenue of any real amount on that because we’re basically just putting it in the bank.
“The ability to possibly invest that money together on slightly longer terms, but because it’s a pool you have access to that investment capital, it means we could do better for the taxpayer,” he adds. “It’s not millions of dollars, it’s thousands, but every penny counts.”
Another idea that caught Lehman’s interest was a parking app for smartphones.
“That’s not new... there are a few out there that allow you to pay with your phone. I think the world is going that way,” he says.
The apps presented will remind you if your meter is running out and you can top it up on your phone without having to go back to your vehicle to feed the meter.
“It means you can top it up and you don’t have to worry about getting a parking ticket, which means we don’t have to write you a parking ticket,” he says. “Even though nobody ever believes this, we don’t make any money on parking tickets... you have to have a whole system in place to challenge them in court.
“We actually prefer it if we can make it easier for people to not get tickets.”
Lehman also attended a session discussing the savings municipalities have made by switching the LED streetlights. Barrie completed their LED streetlight conversions in 2015, and today the estimated yearly savings are a little over $1 million a year.
“Those savings are measured in millions,” says Lehman.
When asked about the recent county council discussion on the cancellation of the GreenOn funding from the Ontario government, Lehman said it was brought up at the conference by him and others.
“There’s something called ‘The Bear Pit.’ I’m not sure why it’s called that, maybe because we’re all grizzly bears who get up and ask cranky questions,” laughs Lehman. “The entire cabinet sits on a stage in a big conference hall that holds 1,500 people. There’s microphones set up in the audience and people get up and ask the ministers questions.
“The rule is you can only ask general questions of a general interest.
“Somebody early on in The Bear Pit asked exactly that: Does the cabinet realize that by cancelling the GreenOn fund that it’s affecting social-housing projects all over the province?
“I also raised it directly with the minister about the local impact,” says Lehman. “I was very encouraged. I think the government is concerned with the impact on people’s wallets of the carbon pricing. They haven’t outright promised they will replace the funding, but they have said they are looking to do that.”
Collingwood Mayor Sandra Cooper says that the county did request a meeting with the Minister of Health Christine Elliott to discuss the Collingwood hospital, however the request was not fulfilled.
“It was suggested that a meeting be arranged in Toronto with county representatives and various provincial ministers,” says Cooper. “I have confidence in the CGMH (Collingwood General and Marine Hospital) CEO and board along with the county warden, Collingwood CAO Fareed Amin and representatives to work to an amicable plan moving forward for the redevelopment.”
Cooper said she also attended sessions on varying issues including flood risks for homeowners, human-resources updates and long-term care.
The Town of Innisfil received the Peter J. Marshall Award for transit innovation for its Uber model.
Adjala-Tosorontio Township Deputy Mayor Doug Little sat in on three deputations at the conference: one on greenbelt mapping concerns with Minister of Agriculture Ernie Hardeman, one on water and wastewater challenges and regional transit including discussions on a 400-404 highway link with Minister of Infrastructure of Ontario Monte McNaughton, and one on solid-waste management with Minister of the Environment, Conservation and Parks Rod Phillips.
“Overall, you never get conviction on any issue, but its more to bring these things to the attention of the new sitting members,” says Little.
While Little thinks it will take the newly elected government a bit of time to get up to speed, he has faith that municipalities were heard by the PCs.
“They seem to recognize the funding models to lower tiers for infrastructure maintenance is inadequate, but time will tell how they improve on it,” he says.
Essa Township Mayor Terry Dowdall, who is also the acting warden of Simcoe County following the recent resignation of Gerry Marshall, attended AMO, sitting in on discussions on the Lake Simcoe Regional Airport and the government commitment to funding for the county-wide LINX transit system.
Dowdall has been attending AMO for 18 years, and there’s one thing that stood out to him as being different from past years.
“The biggest and most pleasant surprise is the amount of local MPPs that sat in on meetings,” said Dowdall, listing Simcoe North's Jill Dunlop, Barrie-Innisfil's Andrea Khanjin, Barrie-Springwater-Oro-Medonte's Doug Downey, Simcoe-Grey's Jim Wilson and York-Simcoe's Caroline Mulroney as all being in attendance.
“I’ve never seen that before! We were outnumbered,” says Dowdall. “I’ve never seen that many, so kudos to them. We’re going to be well represented here and in Ontario.”
A report on AMO talks will be coming before Simcoe County council on Sept. 11.
