ROMA conference wraps up

This year’s Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference has wrapped up in Toronto.

North Bay Deputy Mayor Tanya Vrebosch says the highlight was an event last night called North Bay In The Six.
She says it was a chance for councillors and staff to meet with North Bay ex-patriots about possibly coming back to the city.

She says important contacts were made and they’re already seeing benefits.

“We were able to connect somebody that was looking to move to North Bay for a job. There happened to be someone in attendance for the same type of company he was looking to work with and they were able to exchange information,” she says.

Meantime, the issue of joint and several liability came up in a speech by the premier.

Some municipalities are banning some events due to concerns about potential liability if an injury occurs on municipal property.

Vrebosch says Doug Ford indicated says he would consult with municipalties on the issue.

“That is something municipalities have been talking about for years. It’s nice to see he wants to try and do a consultation,” Vrebosch says.

She says the city delegation met with 4 ministers and a deputy minister.

The issue of funding for a new arena-community centre came up as well.

Vrebosch says they were looking for provincial funding support. She says it seems there’s not going to be a lot.

“It is going to be spread out over 10 years and the applications won’t be out until the end of the year. We’re going to have some challenges. We’ll need MP Anthony Rota on the federal side to start helping us out and do some joint funding to get the community centre up and going,” she says.

Vrebosch says conflict of interest legislation concerns were also raised.

“One of the municipalities was talking about 1 investigation costing $130,000. We’ve budgeted $150,000 for the Integrity Commissioner. 1 investigation can completely wipe us out,” Vrebosch says.