Chatham-Kent's mayor remains positive the federal government will still get his message after the minister of infrastructure was replaced just days after his visit to the municipality.
Randy Hope met with Amarjeet Sohi Monday and discussed building plans in CK, which centred around the former Navistar site. The mayor left the meeting full of positivity that Sohi would help bring needed support from Ottawa to get the plans off the ground. Sohi was removed as minister of infrastructure two days later.
Hope said despite the change, he's not concerned.
"I have [Sohi's] staff reassuring me that the new minister will be brought up to speed as quickly as possible and they will make sure there will be a dialogue between the new minister and myself," Hope said. "In no way do I feel that anything that was talked about was a waste of two hours of my time and everyone else's. I think it was very productive."
Hope said the key to the visit was the fact Sohi and the federal government requested the meeting with him and not the other way around. According to the mayor, the minister and his staff heard about the arena proposal and some of the other plans CK has going on and were so impressed, they came to see it for themselves.
Hope said since the visit, he is getting a lot more calls from the federal government.
"The requests are coming to me and that's quite different than me requesting to meet with a minister or for one to come down," Hope said. "These [requests] are actually being generated in Ottawa towards my office and that is usually not heard of very often."
Hope said while ministers have come through CK before, this was the first time in his tenure one has specifically come to sit down and have a full-length conversation with him.
"His first words to me were 'I'm here to help Chatham-Kent,' those were his first words," Hope said.
The mayor added when visiting other ministers, he had to go to them and received two minutes of their time. Hope said this time they were here for the municipality.
Sohi is being replaced by François-Philippe Champagne, the former international trade minister. Hope said he understands it will take a bit of time for Champagne to become acclimated to his new position, but hopes to begin a dialogue as soon as possible.
