Staff
Grey County Warden Paul McQueen, Grey County councillors and senior staff joined more than 1,000 participants online at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO)’s 2020 Conference.
This year’s conference, which ran August 17 to 19, was Canada’s most comprehensive gathering of government leaders since the global pandemic began. For the first time in its history, the 121-year-old organization delivered its entire program online.
Grey County delegations, with the support of MPP Bill Walker, met with the province to discuss future planning for key highway corridors, innovation in the delivery of long term care services, and further support for broadband investment to address gaps in access to high speed internet. Warden McQueen joined with the Wardens of Bruce and Huron to press the need for additional beef processing capacity with Minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Ernie Hardeman.
Grey County will have a strong voice at the AMO table for the next two years, as Grey County Councillor and West Grey Mayor Christine Robinson was elected to the Rural Caucus of AMO and Warden McQueen, Mayor of Grey Highlands, is returning to the County Caucus. “AMO is working hard to support municipalities through this emergency and Christine and I are committed to helping to build policies and programs for the future,” said Warden McQueen.
The annual conference is a chance for municipal officials to discuss solutions for shared challenges and create new opportunities that benefit their communities.
When not in delegations, Grey County representatives were busy learning more about other key conference topics including COVID-19; municipal services and economic recovery; building strong relationships with Indigenous communities; economic perspectives on immigration and youth retention and more. Conference news releases, fact sheets and presentations from key speakers are posted on AMO’s website at www.amo.on.ca
AMO is a non-profit organization representing almost all of Ontario’s 444 municipal governments. AMO supports strong and effective municipal government in Ontario and promotes the value of municipal government as a vital and essential component of Ontario and Canada’s political system.