The First Ontario West Municipal Conference Since COVID Was Held In Chatham This Past Weekend

by Bob Montgomery

The Executive Director of the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus says this year's Ontario West Municipal Conference in Chatham was a huge success.

Kate Burns Gallagher says they went into the conference hoping to focus on the four strategic priorities that municipalities in the regions have been dealing with in the past year. And those priorities are the same priorities facing municipalities throughout the province. They are Housing, Infrastructure, Work Force and Mental Health Addictions and Homelessness. So they focused on those priorities throughout the day and shared best practices for dealing with those issues.

Burns Gallagher says people from Eastern Ontario were at the conference as well as Ontario Big City Mayors, which indicates the extent of the problem, but also that municipalities from all over the provinces are sharing ideas about how they're addressing the problems. Burns Gallagher says it's generally conceded by most people that a quick fix is unlikely for any of the four priority issues, but she says it's also felt by most of the people at the conference that progress is being made through collaboration and sharing successes.

The solution is definitely going to require some help from the province and several provincial ministers. Huron-Bruce MPP and Minister of Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson, was at the conference, so Burns Gallagher says the province is listening. She says the focus at the conference was on solutions, communities, or businesses that are making changes, or non-profits, and they had someone there who was building not for profit housing for people who are at risk, a company that is building housing for their employees, and then a private individual who was using their own money to build housing for teens in their community. This shows that some people aren't willing to wait and they're finding solutions in their communities.

This year's conference was the first since COVID and the first conference the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus had hosted, and they had 275 people, so they were very happy with the attendance and what it says about the general need to find solutions to the four main issues they would like to address.