A few municipal leaders will take local concerns straight to provincial officials at the 2019 Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference in Toronto.
The three-day conference starts on January 27. Mayor Darrin Canniff and CAO Don Shropshire will attend the event, along with councillors Amy Finn, Aaron Hall, Karen Kirkwood-Whyte, Mary Clare Latimer, and Carmen McGregor.
This will be the first time Mayor Canniff will be attending the event, which he called a great opportunity to network with provincial officials and other municipal leaders.
"It's a great opportunity to get the issues that we're facing as a community out to a lot of the decision-makers in the province," said Canniff.
A few topics to be discussed include well water concerns, ultra high-speed broadband infrastructure, erosion on the Great Lakes, climate change, as well as the Endangered Species Act and its effect on municipal drains.
"There are a lot of environmental things that get pushed onto municipalities that cost a lot of money, we're hoping to have [the provincial government] understand," he said.
In regards to water wells, Canniff said they would like to see details from a water quality study soon or at the very least get an update on the matter as several residents had previously reported having dirty well water.
"The next steps depend on what the province is going to do," said Canniff. "So we're hoping that they can put [the study's results] out shortly and then we can work together towards a solution."
Besides discussing Chatham-Kent centric concerns, municipal officials will also take part in workshops and sessions. The nearly 50 sessions scheduled during the conference will go over topics such as cannabis legalization, rural transit, labour laws, and tourism.
Premier Doug Ford will be at the conference on Monday where he is expected to "deliver remarks".
