#NotMyMayor
Ottawa bosses.. Home | Federation of Canadian Municipalities (fcm.ca)
Heading to Ottawa for FCM Advocay Days as President of UMNB. This is my first opportunity to lobby on behalf of municipalities across the Province with Federal MPs. Full days ahead making our voice heard.
Landed in Montreal.....one more flight to go!
Talking with CBC here:
Continuing Day 1 of FCM Advocacy Days select representatives from across Canada met with Liberal Minister of Rural Economic Development Gudie Hutchings of Long Range Mountains, Newfoundland and Labrador.
This session focused on FCM's four main advocacy points - Infrastructure, RCMP, Climate Adaptation and Housing but from a rural perspective.
The Minister spoke about the push from FCM and the Federal acceptance of working on an expanded broadband service across the Nation. She called it the great equalizer. Concerning infrastructure, the Minister agrees that there is money there but there needs to be more of it and to continue to work on what has been successful for rural municipalities, such as the Canada Community Building Find (gas tax). There is also work being done on public transit and what that looks like at a rural level in the country and where do municipalities and the Feds fit in. Around RCMP the Minister asked how do we do provincial policing better and this is a concern from coast to coast to coast. Lastly, under climate adaptation Minister Hutchings agreed there needs to be more money to support small communities with climate change needs but also believes that every dollar spent on prevention saves many more dollars on reconstruction.
The conversation with the Minister was a good one, focusing on that rural piece that sometimes get missed when making significant policy changes and we all thanked Gudie for her guidance, and being open and welcoming."
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