The 125th annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference in Ottawa has come to an end and it looks like some issues, like how to address the growing problem of homelessness, are still up in the air.
One large funding announcement made was the $378 million to support 19 treatment and social support hubs for individuals with mental health and substance abuse challenges.
The Minister of Health said the province would be accepting proposals from municipalities and communities for these hubs to provide a range of services. These include integrated mental health and addiction care, primary care, supportive housing and shelter beds, as well as connections to other social and employment supports.
With the opioid crisis and homelessness a big issue for the municipality, Mayor Darrin Canniff spoke with CK Mornings with Chris, Allanah & Matt on 94.3 CKSY Wednesday morning and was asked if he saw some of this funding coming to Chatham-Kent.
"The announcement that they made yesterday for the new 19 sites, we don't know where they are going to be," said Canniff. "I don't know whether one will be in Chatham-Kent or not. If it doesn't appear in Chatham-Kent, then I don't know if there is much coming out of AMO in regarding homelessness help for Chatham-Kent. There were no funding announcements for new housing or anything along that line."
In the meantime, Let's Talk CK has launched a survey for residents and business owners to have their say on the homeless encampments.
"We want to get the public input on that and how we correct this potential bylaw," said Canniff.
Another announcement coming out of the conference was the ability to apply for the $200 million Community Sport and Recreation Infrastructure Fund. This would give municipalities the ability to apply for money to repair or upgrade existing sports and recreation facilities or to build new sports and recreation facilities.
Mayor Canniff explained that Chatham-Kent would be looking in to apply for funding, but with 444 municipalities who can also apply, something like a new arena in Chatham might not be an attainable goal.
"I heard some people mention we could get arena funding... well we could, but it would probably be two or three or four million dollars," explained Canniff. "I can't imagine getting more than that just based on if you took the Chatham-Kent population of 100,000 compared to the population in Ontario is 16 million so you do the math there. We wouldn't be getting a lot of money. But we are certainly going to be applying for any and all opportunities and get whatever money we can from it."