They may not have met with everyone they’d hoped for, but Centre Wellington council made its concerns heard loud and clear last month at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa.
In a recent update to council, Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj summed up the meetings with various ministers/ministries.
Ministry of Energy
She said, “We started off with the Ministry of Energy and brought to their attention how the Green Energy Act is impacting our community in a negative way because of the imposition of wind turbines and the lack of us not being able to get the response that we need to work with this industry in the proper way.”
The municipality also brought up the issue of a report suggesting utilities think about mergers or selling their utilities to a bigger entity, the mayor added.
Ross-Zuj then mentioned a report from a working group she had participated in quite a few months ago.
“It is rather interesting – the perspective of 60 plus smaller utilities which service 600,000 people in Ontario.”
Ross-Zuj commented that one needs to remember that there is only a very small portion of the hydro bill which can be controlled locally.
“The rest is controlled through the actions of the province. Even if they did something with the smaller utilities, it would not impact the bottom line very much.”
The message Centre Wellington sent was that it was trying to garner efficiencies, but asked what was being done in the larger picture.
Ministry of Training Colleges and Universities
Ross-Zuj said discussions here focussed on the AO Smith plant closure.
“The action centre is open now in Fergus and they are tracking employees in regard to placement success and their needs.” she added.
Ross-Zuj added that she appreciated the communication which is happening in that the municipality gets regular updates.
Ministry of Economic Development
Ross-Zuj believed it was a very positive meeting with the Ministry of Economic Development.
“There was great concern with the loss of a manufacturing industry, but great optimism with the potential of four industries which could be expanding in our area.”
She said the ministry expressed interest in assisting the municipality to help make that happen.
She noted that two of those industries have made application and the other two are being encouraged to apply.
“That is good News for our industrial development because that is something we’ve been trying to work on.”
Minister of Rural Affairs
“Well, he kind of got dumped on,” the mayor said.
She explained the minister was the only one there to take on the issue of infrastructure.
Ross-Zuj said it always seems to come as a surprise to ministry officials that Centre Wellington has 104 bridge structures.
“It seems to blow them away when we tell them that over and over again.”
She added the seven bridges which are currently closed remain critical.
“We also brought up the connecting link issue on Highway 6 in Fergus which includes the major bridge section on St. David Street.”
She said there appeared to be “a little bit” of movement on that issue.
There will be more information coming back to council about the provincial downloading of connecting links to the municipal level.
Ross-Zuj said that while the move could cost Centre Wellington a few million dollars, the impact to some municipalities is much larger.
She noted that at a round table discussion later on, councillor Walt Visser made it very clear what would happen should the St. David Street bridge on Highway 6 be closed.
She said the racing industry and turbine issues were also brought forward at the same time because the minister of infrastructure and transportation was not there to respond.
Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport
Ross-Zuj also saw this as a positive meeting.
A suggestion was made that the municipality make use of the Celebrate Ontario program to assist its various festivals.
Ministry of Natural Resources
While Centre Wellington was unable to meet directly with ministry representatives, Ross-Zuj noted that the Grand River Conservation Authority did.
That group brought up the issue of the Drimmie Dam reconstruction which is now well underway.
“It’s a great place to go down and have a look, it’s rather a show in itself to see how it is being done.”
She added “We received incredible support from our MPP Ted Arnott who sent out letters to reinforce our issues with the connecting link program and wind turbines.”
FCM Meeting
Following the AMO meeting, Ross-Zuj headed off to the FCM (Federation of Canadian Municipalities).
While there, representatives dealt with two huge issues.
“At the federal level, there are so many things going on which are impacting us right here at the local level.
One is the federal budget.
Ross-Zuj said “We want to be sure the infrastructure plan is getting out of the 2014 construction season. This is going to be a tough, tough thing to have actually happen when you think that Parliament is prorogued until Oct. 16.”
She commented “(The federal government) is keeping all the conditions of this program very tight. People are not being told what it’s going to look like and there are very few indicators as to what is going to be in there.”
“However they are focussed on a couple of hints,” she said. “These are the core infrastructure needs.”
She said the federal government has opened up the gas tax revenue to be used for more types of projects, rather than just roads and bridges.
That, she said, might indicate the federal government’s long term infrastructure plan is going to be focussed on roads, bridges and wastewater.
She noted that for Wellington County, the gas tax revenue represents about $3 million while for Centre Wellington, it is getting close to $800,000.
“It’s a nice chunk of change we can use for good planning.”
2015 election readiness issue
Mayor Ross-Zuj said “It’s a big topic, but now is the time that each one of our political parties are planning their platforms for the upcoming elections.”
“As municipal politicians … we are not into the parties. What we do is try to get our message onto everybody’s platform.”
She said work is now underway in planning the message municipalities want to get out to all federal representatives.
She added a lot of the same message could also be taken to the provincial level as well.
