Chatham-Kent Mayor Randy Hope and councillors Carmen McGregor and David VanDamme are attending the 2018 Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference in Toronto this week.
More than 1,000 rural municipal officials from across the province were to attend the session, the last major municipal conference before this year’s provincial election.
There were to be nearly 50 sessions and workshops from topics including property tax assessment, to rural education and health care to new legislation regarding marijuana legalization, waste management, municipal investment and elections.
Mayor Hope said ROMA brings together municipal officials who have the same issues and allows them the opportunity to interact with the province.
“We sometimes need to remind the provincial leaders that there is a province outside of the GTA,” he said in a media release. “There can be some tunnel vision at Queen’s Park.”
Conference news releases, fact sheets and presentations from a number of key speakers will be posted on ROMA’s website throughout the duration of the conference at www.roma.on.ca.
ROMA is the most representative and effective voice for Ontario’s rural municipal governments, according to municipal officials.
About 270 of Ontario’s 444 municipalities have populations of less than 10,000, while scores more are rural in character.
Through its relationship with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, ROMA advocates for policies and programs that will help build thriving rural Ontario communities.
Premier Kathleen Wynne, Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown and New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horvath are to attend the conference.
To Larry Yott reply, the additional tax dollars government to send should first be applied to the citizens of Dover and North Kent 1 for water as they do not have water which was caused by the wind turbines. Help these citizens first as to get water from a water tank is not the way to go.