KENORA – The city on Lake of the Woods has a delegation of three councillors and its chief administrative officer at the 2024 Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa.
Deputy Mayor Lindsay Koch, Coun. Kelsie Van Belleghem and Coun. Barb Manson, along with chief administrative officer Kyle Attanasio, are among the more than 2,500 participants at the conference that started Sunday and concludes Wednesday.
Kenora’s representatives met with the province’s solicitor general, health minister and transportation minister, Attanasio said Tuesday from Ottawa.
“I think councillors put forward our positions very well, very eloquently, and these things are a process,” he said.
“We'll allow the ministers and their staff to take that away and hopefully follow up with us and help us move forward some of our priorities in the coming months.”
The key issues raised with solicitor general Michael Kerzner were controlled access to liquor stores and the cost of provincial police services in Kenora, he said.
“And we've also been advocating strongly for some funding to perhaps support a pilot project to create community safety officers, which is sort of a layer between our by law enforcement team and the OPP that would allow us to do some additional enforcement and also free up OPP officers to focus on some larger issues,” he added.
The funding model for primary care was one topic in Kenora’s meeting with Health Minister Sylvia Jones, he said.
Also, Attanasio said, “we're continuing to advocate for funding for an MRI machine” and “we always plug our ongoing efforts to build a new hospital in Kenora.”
Premier Doug Ford spoke to the conference Monday morning.
The conference agenda also includes addresses by cabinet ministers and provincial New Democratic, Liberal and Green party leaders.
