HALDIMAND — Last week, representatives from Haldimand County travelled to Ottawa to take part in the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference, wherein municipal governments have the chance to speak with representatives from the provincial government on topics of concern within their communities.
This year, Mayor Shelley Ann Bentley attended alongside councillors John Metcalfe, Patrick O’Neill, and Stewart Patterson. Also in attendance was Haldimand Norfolk MPP Bobbi Ann Brady.
Overall, Brady said of this year’s conference, “There was this general sense that the government isn’t doing enough to help our municipalities. They’re being pressured to build, build, build and they don’t have the infrastructure to do that. There was a lot of delegates, a lot of municipal representatives, who were looking for the government to announce some sort of magic solution to all the woes and that didn’t happen. I think some people left disheartened.”
While Brady did not take part in any official Haldimand delegations due to a vote cast by Council in June barring her participation, she did travel the conference floor with the mayor, engaging in conversations with various ministers and government representatives.
Over 3,300 participants were on hand for the 125th anniversary of the conference. Initially, Haldimand requested six delegations, including three centred on Ministry of Transportation concerns (the Argyle St. Bridge, traffic lights at the intersection of Highway 6 and Haldibrook Rd., and the need for a Hagersville traffic bypass). All three MTO delegations were denied.
The Ministry of Long-Term Care also denied Haldimand’s delegation request, which related to the need for more funding toward Dunnville’s Edgewater Gardens expansion plans, but made an informal promise to visit the county to discuss the issue in more detail in the near future.
Councillor Metcalfe touched on this denial in an interview, noting that Edgewater Gardens funding is still set at pre-pandemic levels, causing issues with a planned 64-bed expansion to the site. However, he believes that the Ministry’s promise to visit holds more weight than the delegation would have.
“We can show him Grandview, we can show him Edgewater, we can show the plans. The committee for Edgewater can sit with the minister and if I don’t come up with the right question, the people who are actually involved in getting it off the ground can step in,” said Metcalfe.
Haldimand was offered a delegation with the Ministry of Infrastructure related to the in-the-works Tri-Party Water project that would see Haldimand connecting its water supply to both Norfolk County and Six Nations. However, Haldimand ultimately declined the delegation as the minister just recently visited the county for a hands-on tour of local facilities.
That left Haldimand with just a single formal delegation at AMO, with Metcalfe leading a discussion with the Ministry of Health related to the topic of aging in place.
“The mayor, myself, and Councillor O’Neill sat in on that,” said Metcalfe. “I sit on the Senior Advisory Committee; they have concerns about aging in place. They want to stay in their homes and communities longer.”
He said the meeting touched on funding for several important initiatives locally.
“There’s only funding for our community paramedics until 2026. The Community Paramedic Program cuts down 30% on emergency room visits; it also cut down on the number of 911 calls,” said Metcalfe, also noting his desire to keep the Community Paramedic wellness dog program running.
Metcalfe also championed Senior Support Services, looking for funding to help pay their volunteer drivers gas mileage, which they currently can’t do because of budget shortfalls, which is a problem Metcalfe believes limits their ability to attract new volunteers.
“What I impressed upon them is that the ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In this case, with the community paramedics and everything we have in place, the support services in the rural area do cut down on hospitals and LTC beds that need to be used as people can stay in their homes longer,” said Metcalfe. “That saves dollars.”
Fellow delegation attendee O’Neill shared, “Councillor Metcalf did a fantastic job relaying the needs of seniors in Haldimand County and we were given some unofficial assurances that the funding for the Community Paramedic Program would stick around.”
Outside of the delegations, Haldimand’s representatives had multiple chances to speak with provincial government members to push forward items of importance, with Metcalfe noting, “Sometimes you get a little more business done away from the formal setting of a delegation.”
Metcalfe recalled “going to bat” for Haldimand in a conversation with Transportation Minister Prabmeet Sarkaria that centred on the Argyle St. Bridge and Highway 6/Haldibrook intersection, something that Bentley and Brady were also photographed together doing, with Brady calling it the standout conversation of the conference.
“We approached the Minister of Transportation and we reminded him about the Caledonia bridge reconstruction, to which he said ‘it’s close, it’s close’, to which I said ‘that’s what you continue to say’,” recalled Brady. “We also brought forward the issue of Highway 6 and Haldibrook Rd. and the stream of accidents that continue to occur at that intersection. We impressed upon him that something needs to be done there as well. My office is following up with a reminder that we had this conversation at AMO and that we will continue to press him until the intersection is made safer.”
Brady was also pleased to see more municipalities begin to push back against the Province’s development mandate, noting a marked change in the general mood related to development from last year’s conference: “That’s good; the government needs to have a dose of reality. You can’t just keep asking for more and more without helping them out.”
The Press requested a phone interview with Mayor Bentley about her AMO experience, providing a list of questions for discussion. Haldimand County responded by email with answers from CAO Cathy Case.
Both Brady and Case emphasized the opportunity for working together to push forward Haldimand’s agenda in high-impact environments like AMO.
“There are multiple networking opportunities throughout the conference, most which do not involve formal delegations with ministers,” said Case. “When these networking opportunities present themselves in a casual setting, any conference participant is able to optimize the available time they may have to chat with members of the provincial government.”
Brady shared, “We shouldn’t always be agreeing, but we have to work together – the reason being the people that we represent. You have to have those amicable relationships, so the people of the area are served to the absolute utmost. We made an effort to do that. We will be seen together so Haldimand County is seen as a force to be reckoned with, with both the mayor and MPP advocating for the same things.”
She categorized Bentley as “easy to work with”.
Brady iterated her willingness to advocate on behalf of the mayor and county on important issues despite the divisive vote made earlier this year in which five of Haldimand’s six councillors voted to block her from appearing at their AMO delegations.
Metcalfe shared his thoughts on that vote, stating, “The whole crux of the motion that Councillor (Stewart) Patterson brought forward is that we get 15 minutes with these ministers. We don’t see them every day like Bobbi Ann Brady when the House is sitting. We get in there and plead our case and show them the evidence and it goes from there.”
With Haldimand only having one delegation, Brady argued that the council “could have saved a lot of face by not bringing the motion forward. Having a conversation with me and saying ‘hey, we’d like to do this on our own, we love your advocacy but don’t need you there that day’. Fine. But they decided to do something public, which was completely unnecessary.”
She concluded, “At the end of the day that was their decision. I don’t think it was a wise one given that they were only given one delegation.”
