Kitchener, Guelph mayors react to Premier Ford’s speech at AMO Conference
Posted Aug 21, 2018 08:57:00 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Premier Doug Ford referred to the cuts made to Toronto City Council during the recent AMO conference.
He tells other municipalities that the last thing they need is another layer of elected politicians.
Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic says he is hoping the provincial government will consult with each individual municipality before making any cuts to council.
“It's important that, number one, they engage with municipalities in it. Number two, that they make it clear what the direction is that they would like to see things go in. And then, I said, don't necessarily create a one-size-fits-all solution from Queens Park, using bureaucrats from the ministry, rather, tell us what the end goal is and let us come up with a solution,” says Vrbanovic.
Vrbanovic says during the Premier's address to Ontario municipalities at the AMO conference, Ford and the minister made it clear that they will be doing a review of regional government.
“The minister has said he is looking to hear from us both what we see as strengths and opportunities of the system as it works presently.”
Guelph Mayor Cam Guthrie was there as well to hear Premier Ford's speech when Ford referred to the cuts to Toronto's government.
“He did actually mention in his speech that they were not going to be doing that to any other city moving forward.”
Guthrie says he took away a lot of positives during the conference.
He says Ford seems to be very much on the same page with the City of Guelph on what they would like to do with infrastructure, transit and finding efficiencies with government.
Guthrie says attending the AMO Conference also gives him an opportunity to have many interesting conversations with delegates from Waterloo, Kitchener and London.
“We talked about all the two-way GO services coming to our communities and making sure the new government is committed to that. Along with also making sure that there is a commitment to high-speed rail after all the two-way GO is implemented. We really spoke about strength in numbers for us mayors in the corridor about the transit issues.”
