Today AMCTO President Yvonne Robert appeared before the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs during its pre-budget consultations in Ottawa to present AMCTO’s recommendations for the 2018 Ontario budget. Our submission contains the following recommendations: ...
Bill 152, the Representation Statute Law Amendment Act , has passed third reading and is awaiting Royal Assent. Amongst other measures, Bill 152 will allow the Chief Electoral Officer to provide information from the Permanent Register of Electors of Ontario (PREO) to MPAC ...
The Standing Committee on Social Policy completed its review of Bill 68 this week, and ordered it for third reading with a number of amendments. Notably the committee removed the provision in Bill 68 that would allow integrity commissioners to conduct investigations on their ...
Today Ontario’s Minister of Finance Charles Sousa tabled the province’s 2017 budget. The first balanced budget following deficits that reached $19 billion at the height of the global recession in 2009, the government’s 2017 plan pledges new investments in sectors, such as hea...
On April 19th, AMCTO staff were invited to meet the Secretary of the Cabinet, Steve Orsini to discuss our research into municipal reporting to the Province. Laurie LeBlanc, the Deputy Minister for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs attended and participated in discussions on ...
Last week the federal government released legislation that will lead to the legalization of recreational cannabis. The legislation is designed to end 94 years of prohibition that the federal government has declared an “abject failure,” while protecting minors, and strengtheni...
Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner and Ombudsman both spoke out this week in opposition to additional closed meeting exemptions proposed in Bill 68. Bill 68, as it is currently written, adds a number of new exemptions for when council meetings could go into closed...
Today AMCTO submitted its comments on Bill 68, the Modernizing Ontario’s Municipal Legislation Act , to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. AMCTO believes that a number of the changes proposed in Bill 68 are positive for municipalities—including many that we advocated f...
Today the federal government tabled its 2017 budget. Following large investments in its inaugural 2016 plan, the federal government’s follow-up budget for 2017 is focused on flushing out the details of previously-announced policies, and introducing a variety of targeted, smal...
The mayors of Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver released a letter today calling for increased revenue powers. According to the Mayors, For too long, city governments have been required to rely on property taxes alone to support our growing operating budgets, w...