Perth County officials want provincial leaders to address rural Ontario's financial squeeze.
Perth County leaders are in Ottawa pushing provincial officials for financial relief and administrative fairness at the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) Conference.
The county is demanding action on skyrocketing municipal costs and shrinking funding channels.
Delegations representing the county met face-to-face with key provincial figures at the conference to address pressing local issues, starting with reduced transfers from the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund. Municipal leaders warned that shrinking provincial support, combined with rising operational expenses, is pushing an unfair tax burden directly onto local property owners.
County representatives also pushed for urgent policy overhauls to Workplace Safety and Insurance Board claims, advocating for better cost fairness and administrative efficiency for Schedule 2 employers like municipal governments.
"The core focus of the conference centers on local democracy, economic uncertainty, sustainable infrastructure, and municipal finances ahead of local elections," noted a statement from the county.
The county stressed that sustainable, long-term funding is vital for housing infrastructure, fully funded health and social services, and joint provincial-federal strategy to tackle the region's ongoing homelessness crisis.
These targeted delegation meetings provided Perth County staff and council members with a direct pipeline to voice rural priorities alongside more than three thousand municipal delegates gathered from across 444 Ontario communities.
The AMO conference wraps up Wednesday.
