Two Midwestern Ontario wardens have been elected as Chair and Vice Chair of the Western Ontario Wardens' Caucus for 2024.
Ashfield-Colborne-Wawanosh Mayor and Huron County Warden, Glen McNeil, has been re-elected the Chair of the caucus. Before his re-election as WOWC Chair, Warden McNeil served as Vice-Chair in 2022.
Additionally, Wellington North Mayor and Wellington County Warden, Andy Lennox, has been elected as Vice Chair.
Municipality of Central Huron Mayor Jim Ginn, was re-elected by acclamation as Chair of the WOWC Economic Development Sub-Committee.
Also, Meighan Wark, CAO of Huron County, was appointed as Secretary for the WOWC.
"I am deeply honored to continue serving as Chair of the WOWC, and I am sincerely grateful for the continued trust and support from our members,” stated Chair McNeil. “As we embark on this new year, our commitment to advancing the priorities and initiatives of the WOWC remain unwavering. In 2024, we will continue to collaborate to further enhance our advocacy efforts in expanding housing options, fostering workforce development, and addressing the critical issues surrounding mental health and addiction in Western Ontario."
Chair McNeil emphasized the Caucus's dedication to advancing key priorities in the upcoming year, including housing, workforce development to support economic growth, and mental health, addictions, and homelessness.
“The WOWC is committed to advocating strongly for these priorities and will continue engaging with all levels of government to address the challenges facing Western Ontario," emphasized Chair McNeil. "Our ongoing efforts to address pressing concerns such as workforce development and housing remain paramount for our region's economic stability. Collaborative efforts across all levels of government are essential in finding sustainable solutions to these critical issues."
McNeil says of the 15 member municipalities in the caucus, all of them have very similar issues to address in the next year.
"The first and utmost would be housing and that is inter-related with workforce development. Western Ontario is a driver for economic development, and the growth of that is a priority to us. We all have issues with mental health and addictions and homelessness. At a different time, those were considered urban issues, but that is not the way it is today," McNeil stated.
Protecting and growing the agriculture sector is also a major key that McNeil highlighted.
"Agriculture is so important and we want to continue to protect farmland. In the fall of 2023 we had discussions when the government initially proposed three severances on farms and we saw the limitations of that as it relates to agriculture. When we met with the upper levels of government, they understood our concerns and reversed the decision," noted McNeil.
McNeil also notes that the caucus had 9 delegations at the recent Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference, and their delegations were all well received by upper levels of government.
"One of the issues that we spoke of with the ministries was the leave to construct. The present level is at 2 million, and that is, as we suggested, completely outdated and that was agreed on by the ministry. We've asked that this be looked at and to raise the threshold and they were very interested in the data and the reasons we provided to do so, and they assured us that it would be considered as far as raising that leave to construct level," McNeil said.
