The Warden of Bruce County is going to be busy at the upcoming AMO conference in London this week.
Chris Peabody, who is also the mayor of Brockton, is set to take part in three delegations.
One is a joint delegation with Grey County about hiring more Justices of the Peace to help clear the backlog for the courthouses in Walkerton and Owen Sound.
The two other delegations for Bruce County are for two specific topics.
The first is to ask the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD) parliamentary assistant Deepak Anand to extend a training program for personal support workers that is operated by the YMCA.
“We think Grey-Bruce being such a large area would benefit from enhanced health funding, given the fact that we have eight long-term care homes in Bruce County.”
Expanding and enhancing the program into Bruce County would allow workers in Walkerton to access training closer to home.
The other topic that they’re looking to tackle is to update their community improvement plan and be able to move forward with moves that would make affordable housing more accessible.
They would need to get that permission in a meeting with the Associate Minister of Housing Nina Tangri.
The changes they’re looking to accomplish are to offset application fees for housing, help with design costs for affordable housing, and offer incentives to subsidize affordable units inside rental units.
“Eight other upper-tier municipalities already have it,” says Peabody. “We feel that since it doesn’t cost to province anything, we should be able to change our CIP to give incentives for affordable housing and we can partner with the private sector.”
The ability to create an Affordable Housing Community Improvement Plan would both help solve issues with shortages now and allow for rural communities to grow over time.
According to Bruce County:
– there is a projected resident growth for the county of at least 20,000 people by the year 2046
– currently, 1,093 applicants are on the wait list for Community Housing
– 45% of renters spend more than 30% of their income on housing
– there is a 76% rise in average home value in Bruce County, surpassing provincial growth rates of 56% (2016-2021)
He adds that aside from the three delegations, he has a total of 12 engagements while attending the conference.
Peabody will be attending the conference with Arran-Elderslie Mayor Steve Hammell, Kincardine Mayor Kenneth Craig, Bruce County CAO Derrick Thomson, and Deputy CAO Christine MacDonald.
The conference is taking place from August 20-23, 2023.
