“It’s going to be an interesting year, and the rural voice is certainly at the table,” Centre Wellington Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj told councillors on June 17.
The mayor had recently returned from a Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) conference in Vancouver, and described the event as an extensive four-day workshop involving municipalities from across Canada.
“The city of Vancouver put on excellent study tours and moved 1,800 delegates from place to place in a very accommodating way,” said Ross-Zuj.
The benefit in participating in these workshops, is that they deal with all the issues Centre Wellington is working on, she added.
“It gives both a national and international perspective, because of the speakers who came to address the delegates.”
She noted Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the delegates via video.
“It was an interesting conversation,” she said, because the FCM agenda, which the group will be marching to Ottawa this fall and promoting throughout the year, “deals with this new relationship with the federal government.”
Ross-Zuj said “the prime minister was quite adamant that this is a new beginning for partnerships for our municipalities. Being recognized as a partner at the federal level is one of our big achievements.”
She added the FCM is at the table for the discussions of the new infrastructure program to be announced in 2014.
“Our contribution to this has been very significant and the prime minister is acknowledging this.”
However, Ross-Zuj said the partnership must be defined by more than just the infrastructure. She said there needs to be other areas where municipalities can work with the federal government.
“We have quite an agenda for the FCM in the next year to promote and stabilize this partnership with the federal government.” Such a relationship in the past has only been with the provincial government – so this is new and groundbreaking for municipalities to be considered as partners at the discussion table, Ross-Zuj added.
The response at the conference included government ministers and all of the political parties. She added that next year the conference is in Niagara Falls. “It would be a good opportunity [for other councillors] to participate and see what the FCM is all about.” She noted many of the issues in 2014 will be Ontario issues. “In the past year we were travelling coast to coast, but the next year will focus on Ontario.”
Councillor Kelly Linton noted that up to now, council had not congratulated Ross-Zuj on her election as chair of the FCM Ontario Caucus.
“It is great News. Congratulations,” Linton said.
Ross-Zuj commented that she did not head out to the conference with that expectation.
“I went out with my canvass materials just to get a seat on the board. When my colleagues elected me as their chair, I was quite honoured. It is a little bit more work to do, but that is alright.” She explained representation on the board includes major cities “and it’s nice to know they know where Centre Wellington actually is … and that we are in the county of Wellington.”
Councillor Walt Visser suggested this was the first time a non-Torontonian was elected as chair.
“Not quite,” corrected Ross-Zuj. She added there is “another rural friend” on the board.
Ross-Zuj said Clark Somerville of Halton Hills was elected as third vice president.
She said whether this involves AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario) or the city of Toronto, “Infrastructure is infrastructure, no matter where you live. We have to be sure it gets repaired and that it stays strong. Infrastructure is the backbone of the community.” She said everything else relies on that infrastructure being in place.
