Rural Mayors' Forum of Eastern Ontario created

Jeff Green | Dec 09, 2015

It started as a conversation about how to deliver services to Norcan Lake, a waterfront sub-division located in North Frontenac that is accessible only from the Township of Greater Madawaska. It has morphed into a new organisation called the Rural Mayors' Forum of Eastern Ontario.

North Frontenac mayor, Ron Higgins, and Municipality of Greater Madawaska mayor, Glenda McKay, talked in the spring about the Norcan Lake issues, which they were not able to resolve, but while they were talking they quickly saw that the two municipalities had other issues in common. They then talked in general about shared services. The two met at the Eastern Ontario Municipal Conference, and their conversations led to an informal meeting of politicians from a number of small municipalities located north of Highway 7 one evening at the conference.

“We realised that we had issues that were different from the larger, less isolated municipalities and decided it was an idea to hold a meeting,” said Higgins.

A meeting in October in Madawaska Highlands was followed by one in North Frontenac in November and a third meeting this past Sunday in Maynooth, Hastings County.

At this time, the group has decided there are enough common issues to be dealt with that it makes sense for them to establish the Rural Mayors' Forum of Eastern Ontario (RMFEO), which they have done this week.

A press release was released by Ron Higgins on behalf of RMFEO. It says that the 13 member municipalities “have crafted a mission, vision and objectives. Its specific mission is to identify opportunities for collaboration to improve operational effectiveness and long-term sustainability, with a vision to work closely with stakeholders to coordinate common goals. Over the coming months a strategy will be put in place to communicate and work with other organizations and government bodies.”

The first issue that will be addressed by the group is the billing model for policing services that are provided by the Ontario Provincial Police.

“We have found some flaws in the model and will be doing some more research into the model for our next meeting,” said Higgins.

Three of the mayors, all from municipalities in Renfrew County, will be working over the Christmas holidays to complete that research. Once a report is considered at the next RMFEO meeting, a decision will be made as to how to use the report to try and effect a change in the model so that it is less of a burden on municipalities that do not contain a larger population centre.

Other issues that are being looked at include broadband service in isolated locations and the approval process under the Ontario Community Infrastructure Fund.

“One of our members was refused funding under that program on the grounds that they had a very robust asset management plan in place and could finance the project using loans. We all were told to put good asset management plans in order to be eligible for grants. We are going to look into the possibility that smaller municipalities are losing out in the way these grants are handed out,” said Higgins.

Over the coming months, RMFEO will be publicizing its strategy and seeking out other partners throughout Ontario to initiate collaborative discussions aimed at ensuring that small rural communities in Eastern Ontario and elsewhere have favourable and equitable representation.

The member municipalities of RMFEO include: Addington Highlands, Bruedenell, Lyndoch and Raglan, Central Frontenac, Greater Madawaska, Hastings Highlands, Horton, Lanark Highlands, Madawaska Valley, McNab/Braeside, Mississippi Mills, and North Frontenac.