Council lobbies ministers at OGRA conference

News — 01 March 2011

Mayor Craig Nuttall, councillors Ken Moss and Mike Wood, and city staff Mike Louttit and Gail Solomon attended the Ontario Good Roads Association (OGRA) annual conference in Toronto on Feb. 26 to March 2.

During this conference, the local group requested delegations with six ministers, and were able to secure four meetings.

One delegation was with Leona Dombrowsky, the Ontario Minister of Education which Dryden council and staff discussed the concerns with local child care.

City manager, Arie Hoogenboom says with more children attending full time kindergarten, the need to revamp the facility and adjust staffing ratios for primarily younger children has caused some difficulties with funding.

“That creates certain stresses on the budget, and we actually do anticipate a budget shortfall on child care from 2010 and that will be the first time that’s happened,” says Hoogenboom.

The second delegation was with the Ontario Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry, Michael Gravelle. Some topics of discussion with Gravelle included the future of Aspenware, permanent funding for Enterprise Dryden, various Northern Ontario Heritage Fund (NOHFC) applications, mobility expansions, Crown land development and some of the Dryden Development Corporations priorities.

“It (Aspenware) looks more positive than it did before, I think there were certain conditions the company had to meet and I think those conditions will be met shortly,” said Nuttall. “I’m very positive on it now after speaking to Minister Gravelle. It looks like the government is not going to be in our way.”

The third delegation was with the Ontario Minister of Natural Resources, Linda Jeffrey. The city is approaching this ministry regarding a property development on King Street that is stalled due to conditions placed on the property many years ago.

The city is attempting to eliminate the bureaucracy attached to the transfer of this property, and encourage the minister to expedite the process.

The final delegation awarded to the city was with Rick Bartolucci, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

There was formerly a special assistance grant available to communities who have had economic hardfall, such as mill closures or mine closures.

“It’s a pot of funding they had to sort of one time bail communities out,” said Hoogenboom. “Last year we applied for $5 million to transition us over a four or five year period but we ended up getting $431,000.”

The city is still in need of over $1.5 million and is requesting assistance from the province to find a new funding source to help get over the current financial crisis.

“We’re saying you’ve got to find another program or pot of money to help us through this financial crisis that we have in terms of losing revenue from the mill,” says Hoogenboom. “We’ve lost a million dollars already and we’re probably set to lose another million dollars. Well if we had to pass both those increases on to the tax payers, that’s a 20 per cent tax increase.”

“There are no decisions made, but we got our message across that Dryden needs everything we can possibly get to get some more revenue and tax money,” said Nuttall.

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No ministerial meetings for delegation at Good Roads

City to release DMTS financials early next week

Unease lingers in council over tone of debate

City treasurer on defensive as OMPF reps pay

Water meter billing model in development, expected in

Budget passed: staff struggle to maintain service levels

To the editor:

Budget trimmed in draft

City not alone in solving deer problem

Oh deer!