Housing shortage, health-care crisis on agenda as Ontario municipal leaders meet

Municipal leaders from across Ontario have started gathering at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa for this year's Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference. 

The 125th edition of the conference will bring together more than 2,500 participants — including mayors, city councillors and municipal staff — to discuss pressing issues facing communities across Ontario. 

Topics on the agenda include the housing shortage, the opioid epidemic, climate change, crumbling infrastructure, access to health care and Indigenous engagement. 

The conference will also feature workshops and speeches from more than 60 people, including Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Sylvia Jones, Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra.

Delegates will have the opportunity to engage directly with representatives from provincial ministries and ask questions over the course of the event.

"Every municipality is a bit different," said Isabel Anne McRae, a town councillor in Perth, Ont., who was at the conference Sunday. 

"They have different views, they have different ideas and come from different backgrounds — and often they may come up with an idea or solution that possibly your municipality hasn't even thought of."  

This year, AMO is pushing for a joint "social and economic prosperity review" with the Ontario government. 

The review's goal is to assess how sustainable and effective the current investments in public services and infrastructure are, with a focus on making life more affordable across the province, according to the association. 

"We want to collaborate with the Ontario government to look at how Ontario's public services can be funded and delivered more effectively," said Brian Rosborough, AMO's executive director.

"In Ontario, and unlike any other part of Canada, municipalities are expected to solve systemic social and economic issues that are provincial and national in scope."

Municipalities 'overwhelmed,' says AMO head

Rosborough told media Sunday that municipalities are "overwhelmed" by challenges that include homeless encampments and the opioid crisis, problems they can't address alone.

"What's happening in our streets is an unprecedented humanitarian crisis," added Burlington, Ont., Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, chair of Ontario's Big City Mayors (OBCM).

"Just this week we learned that an estimated 234,000 people are homeless in Ontario."

Meed Ward said her group is calling on the Ford government to appoint a minister or create a ministry that would serve as "a single point of contact to address the full spectrum of housing needs as well as mental health and addictions."

OBCM is also urging the province to bring together experts on the issue and develop a "made-in-Ontario action plan," she said.

Eastern Ontario issues

The conference gets underway in Ottawa just days after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe expressed concerns about fair funding from the provincial and federal governments, highlighting the city's disproportionate burden in areas like transit funding and property tax payments.

Casselman, Ont., Mayor Geneviève Lajoie, said her municipality has lined up meetings with Surma to discuss funding for plans to fix the high manganese levels that have periodically turned the town's water brown for the better part of a decade.

Lajoie said she'll also bring up the need for more money for doctors, adding that she's looking forward to hearing Ford speak Monday.

"I'm just hoping to hear what his new initiatives are going to be, and [I'm] excited to see how we could adapt our municipalities to those provincial rules and incentives," she said. 

As for McRae, she said the conference offers a great opportunity to work with other communities — both big and small. 

"I think it gives you a reassurance that you're not the only [one] that is feeling the pinch and going through these very trying times," she said.

The AMO conference runs until Wednesday.