Every year mayors and councillors from communities across Ontario gather for the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference.
It’s a couple of days where municipal officials attend seminars on various topics, smooze, and make contacts. It’s also a time when otherwise hard to meet Ontario government ministers make themselves available for brief ‘audiences’ with municipal officials.
The province has always made a big deal out of their attendance – often either the premier or other party leaders are main speakers – and of making themselves available to hear the concerns of mayors et al.
This year was no different and Brockton Mayor Charlie Bagnato spent a great deal of time leading up to the conference researching issues he wanted to address such as the ongoing blue algae problem in Lake Rosalind (and across the province) and the growing issue of giant hogweed with Environment Minister John Gerretsen and the crystal meth problems in Brockton with Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Rick Bartolucci.
Now it’s a quick pitch the mayors have to make as they only get 15 minutes each. And given that each minister probably sees more than 60 municipal representatives over the two days, follow up is very important.
The trouble this year is that the very day after AMO ended, Premier Dalton McGuinty played musical chairs sending Gerretson to Consumer Affairs and Bartolucci to Municipal Affairs.
The mayor said each minister had several assistants and even experts at the meetings.
Regardless, it must be seen as a slap in the face to municipal politicians that the province would make the changes at that time. Many issues will be dropped and lost in the shuffle through no fault of the municipal officials.
It also shows that it’s the bureaucrats who have the real power at Queen’s Park (and Ottawa), not the ministers, they’re just window dressing.