Mayor's Report for May 7, 2024
April 16th
I attended Hastings County Planning and Development, and Finance, Property and Personnel Committee Meetings.
I presided over our regular Council Meeting.
April 18th
Warden Mullin and CAO Roxanne Hearns met with Tonia and I to prepare our presentation for the upcoming delegations with the Minister of Transportation and the Minister of Infrastructure at the Ontario Good Roads Conference. The information documents presented in the delegations can be found on the Marmora and Lake website. We made a joint presentation to ask for support from the Ministry for the Stirling-Marmora Road. The road was originally called Hwy 14, downloaded to the County. The County divested itself of having a transportation department and ultimately what is now known as the Stirling-Marmora Road became a municipal responsibility. The former Hwy 14 is approximately 32 KM and Stirling owns the biggest portion and have spent considerable funds to resurface a bridge. We estimate the cost to repair the 32 KM is approximately 40-50 million dollars. Thank you to Tonia for preparing a good presentation.
April 19th
Tammy May, Economic Development, and I presented new business certificates: i) Lashes by Anna; ii) Trevor Welsh, 3D Prints; iii) McDonnell Law Office.
Congratulations and thank you for opening your businesses in Marmora and Lake.
April 21st
I travelled to Toronto to attend the Ontario Good Roads Conference.
April 22nd
I attended various programs throughout the day.
At 3:45 we attended a delegation with the Minister of Transportation and his staff to make our presentation and appeal for funding regarding the former Hwy 14, now Stirling-Marmora Road. We felt the delegation was well received.
April 23rd
I attended various programs. One in particular was titled “Investing in Excellence: The Vital Role of Training and Skills Development.” The data presented, in summary, stated that every time you lose a long-term employee and replace them, it costs the employer approximately $70,000.00 to complete the recruitment and hiring process, and it takes approximately 10 months for the new employee to be trained and reach the same productivity rate. This is why it is extremely important to hire right and retain staff for the long term.
April 24th
Warden Mullin and his team, and our team had a delegation with the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure. The main focus was to express the dire need for the Ministry to provide funding to enable our municipalities to maintain the numerous pieces of infrastructure that we are responsible for. Marmora has 32 bridges/culverts, some of which are in immediate need of repair and/or should be replaced.
Both Stirling and Marmora representatives were extremely disappointed by the lack of serious attention and little attempt to understand the overall financial impact to our small municipalities that have a relatively low tax base and little or no commercial base. The Asset Management Plan shows increased demands to ensure our infrastructure is safe for public use and can accommodate the day-to-day needs of the travelling public including emergency vehicles. We immediately requested a follow-up meeting with MPP Ric Bresee to express our frustration that we were not being heard.
April 25th
Returned from Toronto.
April 26th
I attended the regular meeting of Hastings County Council.
Immediately after the meeting, Dan Taekema, CBC News, interviewed Warden Mill and a number of Hastings County Councillors including myself.
“Provincial neglect risking infrastructure collapse, Eastern Ontario Mayors warn - Communities say “Insurmountable” costs will lead to bridge closures, maintenance delays.” Warden Mullin, Mayor DeGenova and I were quoted in the article and it aired on CBC Ottawa news on April 30th.
April 29th
Warden Mullin, Tonia and I met with MPP Ric Bresee to express our complete disappointment in the delegation with the Ministry of Infrastructure and appealed to him for support for necessary funding.
Our municipalities, in an effort to secure grant funding, spend numerous staff hours and tax dollars to complete engineering studies and plans to prepare and submit grant applications for various projects. Usually, the projects have to be considered shovel ready to even apply. When not successful, it has been a waste. This method is also detrimental to the planning and budgeting process. There needs to be a complete change in the overall funding formula to make it fair and equitable. MPP Ric assured us that he would continue to advocate for support.
May 1st
I chaired the regular meeting of the Hastings Prince Edward Board of Health. Dr. Ethan Toumishey, Medical Officer of Health, will be providing an overview of the Board of Health as a delegation next on the Agenda.
I travelled to Orillia to attend the OSUM Conference representing Hastings County.
May 2nd
I attended all conference sessions. One session which was particularly interesting was “Revitalizing the Local Media Landscape.” We have recently heard that Bell Media is closing radio stations, stopping newspaper production and local delivery, etc. This is a vast reduction in professional journalism. The increased availability of social media and AI is changing the media landscape. Journalists, as professionals, in reporting news and events, generally must comply with the ethical standards of their employer. In contrast, social media groups posting and commenting are only self-regulated and in many cases provide misinformation.
May 7th
Today, I presented new business certificates to: i) Kim Alldread, Remax Realtor and owner of Studio K Interior Designs; ii) Ashante Fray, owner of Synchronized Souls Inc.; iii) Mat Noble, owner of Noble’s Tire Service; iv) Dwayne DeSouza, owner of Dwayne’s Delicious Desserts; v) Mili Mezei, Mortgage Broker for Rush Mortgages Inc. Thank you to all of these businesses for choosing Marmora and Lake to own and operate their business and we wish you every success.
At 5:30, I presided over our regular Planning Meeting.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the litter campaign and to the organizers and volunteers who participated in the tree giveaway.