The City of Stratford will be bringing five representatives from Toronto for the Rural Ontario Municipal Association annual conference, and Stratford mayor Martin Ritsma says he is very excited to be attending the ROMA conference.
“I enjoy ROMA because it gives us a chance to be in front of a delegation,” said Ritsma. “The delegations may discuss things that are important to your community. But these conferences allow for lots of networking with different levels of government, from municipalities to the province, and there is of course the opportunity to participate in workshops.”
Ritsma will be joined by councillors Brad Beatty and Geza Wordofa, along with Chief Administrative Officer Joan Thomson, and Director of Social Services Kim McElroy. ROMA will feature keynote speaker Chantal Hébert, a political columnist whose work appears in The Toronto Star.
Government officials who will speak include Premier Doug Ford, Minister of Rural Affairs Lisa Thompson, Minister of Agriculture Food and Agribusiness Rob Flack, Marit Stiles (NDP leader), Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra, Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, Green Party Leader Mike Schrenier, and Minister of Infrastructure Kinga Surma.
Other speakers include President of AMO Robin Jones, Lindsay Jones (the Director of Policy for AMO), Brian Rosborough (executive director of AMO), ROMA chair Christa Lowry and Chief Claire Sault (Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation). ROMA will also feature workshops and sessions, something else that Mayor Ritsma is excited to attend.
“I try to get into sessions that support what we are doing in our community,” said Ritsma. “I tried to get into sessions that discuss non petroleum energy. I think that is important because we know that in our own municipality vehicle usage makes up nearly 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, so any way we can lessen that is interesting. Last conference I took part in a session about landfills and the opportunities that can be taken to extend the life of your landfill. Certainly anything that has to do with homelessness and supportive housing, we know our residents are suffering from homelessness so I will take advantage of that session as well.”
ROMA runs January 19-21.
