Tobacco Mayors Make Most of Summit

Source from:  Monte Sonnenberg SIMCOE REFORMER Thursday August 23, 2007 08/24/2007

Group shares blueprint for economic renewal Mayors from the tobacco belt took the opportunity of a major municipal summit in Ottawa this week to flog their blueprint for renewal. Norfolk Mayor Dennis Travale and officials from Oxford, Brant, Elgin and Haldimand used the Association of Municipalities of Ontario's annual general meeting to discuss key development issues with members of the McGuinty and Harper governments. Travale, Elgin Warden Lynn Acre, Aylmer Mayor Bob Habkirk, Tillsonburg Mayor Steve Molnar, Brant Mayor Ron Eddy and Norwich Township Mayor Don Doan secured face-to-face meetings with Ontario agriculture minister Leona Dombrowsky, provincial transportation minister Donna Cansfield, provincial finance minister Greg Sorbara and Liberal MPP Carol Mitchell, parliamentary assistant to Ontario infrastructure minister David Caplan. On the agenda was the mayors' game plan for moving south-central Ontario forward now that tobacco farming is faltering. "We won't let this drop, that's for sure," Travale said yesterday. "As I said in my inaugural address (last fall), no one should underestimate my conviction or my perseverance. Send a senior official down here and let's get going on this." Over the past seven months, the tobacco mayors have identified key areas where the province and Ottawa can work hand-in-hand to help the counties retool and move their economies to the next level. The discussion this week focused on infrastructure, diversifying and marketing local agriculture, promoting tourism and the hospitality industry, and building on the local area's reputation as a source of green energy. Travale noted that Norfolk and surrounding area are emerging as major players in the automotive industry. Toyotetsu's decision to build a $72 million parts plant in Simcoe is only the most obvious evidence of that. "We're going to need better roads," Travale said. "The other issue is sewage capacity. We're going to need more if we want to grow our economy." Though no tobacco is grown in Haldimand, Mayor Marie Trainer sat in on some of this week's meetings because the economic decline in tobacco country has impacted her county as well. While in Ottawa, Travale also had a face-to-face meeting with federal environment minister John Baird. Travale bent Baird's ear because Baird and local MP Diane Finley, minister of citizenship and immigration in the Harper cabinet, have been appointed to monitor economic development issues in southern Ontario on behalf of the federal government. Travale said the tobacco mayors are under no illusion that help is around the corner. They suspect that, with an abbreviated session of parliament in Ottawa this fall and the October election in Ontario, any word of pending assistance will be contained in the next provincial and federal budgets. These will be tabled in February of next year at the earliest. Enditem