Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus Announces Mayor Amy Martin As New Chair

by Bob Montgomery

Norfolk County Mayor Amy Martin is the new Chair of the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus.

She takes over from Huron County Warden Glen McNeil who has served as Chair for the last two terms. Martin says housing is one of the biggest concerns for Norfolk County and most of Ontario. She says even beyond the obvious problem created by the shortage of housing, housing provides the people they need to support their local businesses, to keep their schools open, and community centres and arenas operating. That is a huge issue for the Western Ontario Wardens. Breaking down the barriers to get housing built is a municipal issue but what the municipalities need from the province is help in actually getting the shovels in the ground. Municipalities can give the approvals, but they can't be held accountable if a developer chooses to sit on the land because the economy doesn't encourage them to build at this time. That problem has to be addressed.

One concern Martin has at the federal level is that all of their housing or infrastructure plans that are attached to dollars which state that municipalities are only eligible if they approve four units as of right per parcel and that's more density than a lot of rural municipalities want. She says they have to be conscious of very old infrastructure in the ground and if they can even get that much capacity to their areas in their communities that have old infrastructure laid as a foundation. They need the federal dollars to provide more housing but it's not a one-size-fits-all situation and all of the federal funding shouldn't just be going to urban centres.

Martin says she's encouraged by the amount of housing southwestern Ontario is producing, their population is good and there's a lot of economic development in agriculture so rural Ontario should be taken seriously. She is optimistic about the future. They've built a good brand over the past two years under the leadership of past Chair Glen McNeil. One of their initiatives last year was the return of the Western Ontario Municipal Affairs Conference and a number of provincial ministers attended that event and she felt their presence demonstrated they are listening to rural Ontario and counting on rural Ontario to be part of the solution, so she found that encouraging.

Martin says their group has identified what the priorities are; housing, infrastructure, mental health and addiction, and workforce development. Now the next step is to come up with solutions and that's what she's looking forward to doing in the next year.

Vice Chair - Warden Kevin Marriott of Lambton County, Chair Mayor Amy Martin of Norfolk County

Photo courtesy of Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus