After attending the recent Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference, Hanover Councillor Steve Fitzsimmons was able to attend a number of different seminars that were useful to the municipality.
Fitzsimmons said outside of learning new things, including tips on things like cybersecurity and new technology, many councillors including himself had one very similar concern that they voiced to the provincial government.
“Well I think one of the focuses is affordable housing, it’s a major problem across the province, affordability for individuals," he said. "We certainly see that locally where we have a ton of entry-level positions that are unfilled or they’re having trouble filling those jobs.”
Fitzsimmons said affordable housing seems to be a top of the list issue for every area of Ontario, and that the problem stretches across many parts of the country. He said employers will continue having trouble attracting new employees if there’s nowhere to find an affordable dwelling. Another big issue was funding cuts for municipalities. Fitzsimmons says being asked to find further cost savings is nearly impossible because municipalities are already extremely responsible.
“To find four per cent in efficiencies, for massive municipalities it’s a huge amount of money, for our municipality it’s significant services. We can’t just come up with four per cent out of nowhere, or we would have already done it.”
