One of Chatham-Kent’s councillors is in Ajax, Ontario this week to help address common challenges facing municipalities across the country.
Ward 6 Councillor Alysson Storey is representing Chatham-Kent at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) board of directors meeting as part of the Ontario regional caucus.
The FCM advocates for municipalities to ensure their citizens’ needs are reflected in federal policies and programs. The organization is comprised of members from more than 2,100 municipalities across Canada.
By the third day of the meeting, Storey said she had met with several other representatives whose municipalities have been facing similar issues being experienced in CK, such as shoreline erosion and extreme climate events, affordable and attainable housing, and infrastructure needs.
“Getting this dialogue going and getting these connections made with other councillors in other communities — to me it’s a win-win to bring great ideas back to our community and to help share what we’re doing [in CK] with other communities across the country,” she said. “There are a lot of great solutions being worked on.”
Storey said the Federation of Canadian Municipalities will be presenting these issues to the federal government for consideration ahead of the upcoming budget.
“A national organization can really bring their weight to say ‘we are representing hundreds of thousands of municipalities across the country and this is something we all need help with,” said Storey. “Having a national voice, a collective voice that really pushes us forward is something that I know will benefit us in Chatham-Kent.”
Storey added that she also hopes to return to Chatham-Kent with any best practices and solutions she can learn from other communities.
The FCM board of directors meeting runs from March 7-9.
