Minto Mayor George Bridge and Wellington North Mayor Andy Lennox were among eight mayors from northern Wellington and Perth County who attended a private meeting with deputy premier Deb Matthews on July 20.
The mayors of Stratford, St. Marys, North Perth, South Perth and West Perth were also on hand. Bridge said Mapleton Mayor Neil Driscoll was unable to attend due to other commitments.
While there were no major announcements made at the meeting, “There’s some stuff going to be coming down the pipe,” said Bridge, who is also warden of Wellington County.
Bridge said the meeting provided a good opportunity for direct access to a cabinet minster.
“We always talk about our 15 minutes of fame at Good Roads (the Ontario Good Roads Association annual convention),” said Bridge.
“You get in front of a minister for 15 minutes and you have to do your whole spiel,” he added, noting five minutes of that time is generally taken up with a photo-op.
“This was a good hour and a half that we had a good opportunity to discuss just rural issues.”
Among those issues, said Bridge, was workforce planning.
“We’re in a situation here where we have almost full employment – and we need to attract people.”
Bridge said Matthews, MPP for London, president of the treasury board and minister responsible for the government’s poverty reduction strategy, told the mayors the province is close to signing a deal with the federal government on infrastructure funding promised during last fall’s election campaign.
“That was a concern of mine, that that money wasn’t flowing,” said Bridge, noting other provinces were also working through final details on the funding.
“The province is going to administrate it … each province had to work through their priorities,” Bridge explained.
Early in the meeting, Matthews made it clear natural gas expansion to rural areas remains on the Liberal government’s radar.
“She did talk about, which I was happy to hear, that they’re not anti-natural gas. They definitely are looking at natural gas in the rural areas, which we need. So that program’s continuing. That was good to hear directly from someone in the government,” said Bridge.
Rural transportation was another topic discussed at the meeting. Bridge said an enhanced bus network is vital in rural areas. If plans for a high speed train system along the 401 corridor come to fruition, rural residents will need ways to connect.
“If you do rural transportation you need to have a feeder system to the train system. You need a feeder system because in our area, the Western Wardens’ area, 80 per cent of people have to drive because there’s no way of getting to a train.”
Bridge said such a system is being championed by the Western Ontario Wardens Caucus, which is in the process of considering requests for proposals from firms to handle regional economic development.
Working with independent cities in the region, such as Stratford and London, Bridge said the caucus aims to provide “a single voice on big issues like rural transportation and rural broadband.”
Overall, Bridge said he felt the meeting was positive and indicative the government is listening to rural concerns.
“I was quite positive on it. Deputy Premier Matthews, I’ve had meetings with her before. She’s from London, so she knows the southwestern area. She knows rural. So its good for us to have those conversations. I think, yeah, they’re open to suggestions.”
