Municipal leaders from across Ontario will begin gathering at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa today for this year’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) conference.
The 125th edition of the conference will bring together more than 2,500 participants — including mayors, city councillors and municipal staff — to discuss pressing issues facing communities across Ontario.
Topics on the agenda include the housing shortage, the opioid epidemic, climate change, crumbling infrastructure, access to health care and Indigenous engagement.
The conference will also feature workshops and speeches from more than 60 people, including Premier Doug Ford, Health Minister Sylvia Jones, Infrastructure Minister Kinga Surma and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra.
Delegates will have the opportunity to engage directly with representatives from provincial ministries and ask questions over the course of the event.
This year, AMO is pushing for a joint “social and economic prosperity review” with the Ontario government.
The review’s goal is to assess how sustainable and effective the current investments in public services and infrastructure are, with a focus on making life more affordable across the province, according to the association.
The conference gets underway in Ottawa just days after Mayor Mark Sutcliffe expressed concerns about fair funding from the provincial and federal governments, highlighting the city’s disproportionate burden in areas like transit funding and property tax payments.
It runs until Wednesday.