Mayor's Report
GTA mayors call for action on funding, JPs
By Marolyn Morrison

One of the wonderful things about this job is that I get to meet so many interesting people that I probably wouldn't normally meet.

Recently, at the GTA Mayors and Chairs meeting there were many new faces around the table that were newly elected as mayors of their municipalities and of course there were those of us who were re-elected and were happy to see each others familiar face. When you have a new group of people that come into any organization or committee there are always the new views on issues that are very healthy for everyone else to hear.

At the GTA Mayors and Chairs meeting we had a wholesome discussion about the lack of COMRIF funding for the GTA municipalities. Caledon applied in 2006 for COMRIF funding for infrastructure replacement in Inglewood to coincide with the sewers going into the Village core. We have applied for COMRIF funding for three years now and have not received any dollars towards important projects that the Town needs to complete.

In fact only .007% of the COMRIF funding came to municipalities in the GTA. Two culverts, one in Vaughan and one in Georgina. Considering that the province does not contribute any dollars to our municipalities for infrastructure and they have set up a process for funding through COMRIF it is very unacceptable that the GTA only received .007% of the funding.

We also discussed the lack of justices of the peace (JPs) for our provincial courts. We have been telling the Province of Ontario for a couple of years now that we have a serious problem. Not just Caledon, but all municipalities in the province. The province has been dragging its feet with studies and reports, but what we need is

action. I have heard via the grapevine that Queen's Park will be appointing a number of JPs by summer, but not enough to solve the problems. The GTA Mayors and Chairs will be working on a strategy to use come this fall.

It is always interesting to attend another municipality to see how they run their council meetings. I had the pleasure of attending a recent Niagara-on-the-Lake council meeting and found some of the things that they do very interesting.

For one, they sing O Canada after the opening prayer. I like that. Sometimes I don't think that we show our patriotism enough. The second thing that they do is they address their mayor as "Lord Mayor."

I was there to delegate Niagara-on-the-Lake council regarding road safety and the Road Watch program. After I thanked the mayor and council for the invitation to speak to them I told them that I enjoyed the traditions that they had and I always find it interesting to see how others do their council business. It made for a very enjoyable evening with a wonderful group of councillors and residents who truly want to improve the safety within their community.

Just for your information Amherstburg, near Windsor joined the Road Watch family last summer and I would expect Niagara-on-the-Lake will be joining shortly. They passed a resolution at their council meeting to start a Road Watch program. I would expect that it will spread quickly throughout the Niagara Region now that one municipality has started.

Hats off to Caledon where Road Watch began!