Rob Sampson, councillor with the Town of the Blue Mountains (TBM), says a regional roundtable of decision-makers in the South Georgian Bay-area is “long overdue”.
“We need to start to look at services first, and governance models second,” said Sampson, who has often mentioned the need for regional discussions when trying to manage transportation issues in TBM. "This is long overdue."
TBM council voted unanimously in favour of joining the regional roundtable proposed by Collingwood Mayor Brian Saunderson, at a council meeting held on Wednesday.
Saunderson proposed the idea of gathering area mayors and CAOs to facilitate discussions around regionally-based issues, such as transportation, attainable housing and homelessness to Collingwood council earlier this month.
Following Collingwood council’s endorsement of the concept, Saunderson penned a formal invitation to TBM, Clearview, Wasaga Beach and Grey Highlands.
“We certainly do a lot of work together with Collingwood and we share a lot of things, including the Ontario Provincial Police detachment,” said TBM Mayor, Alar Soever. “I think this roundtable would be a very valuable step forward.”
Soever and TBM Deputy Mayor Rob Potter also noted that they would like to see deputy mayors included in the roundtable makeup.
“This will eventually involve some work at the county level and deputy mayor's also represent the municipalities at that level,” Potter said. “So, I think it would be a good idea to include them as well.”
Once all partner municipalities have an opportunity to respond to Saunderson's invitation, Collingwood’s CAO, Sonya Skinner is expected to schedule an inaugural meeting that will discuss the terms of reference and roundtable format.
