Zorra Mayor Talks Landfill and Regional Review After Doug Ford's Visit to Oxford County

Tuesday, 26 March 2019 14:27

ZORRA TOWNSHIP - The Mayor of Zorra Township is hoping the Premier of Ontario will stay true to his word after comments he made in Oxford County last week.

Speaking in Oxford Centre, Doug Ford said that municipalities should have the final say when it comes to landfills.

"Who are a bunch of politicians in Queens Park to tell municipalities how to run their municipality, it is up to them, they have an option, to opt in, or opt out, that is up to them, it is not necessarily up to us to overrule a municipality that is the last thing I would want to do. I don't care if someone says they have 300 or 400 jobs, we are not going to stick something in an area that people don't want."

Zorra Mayor Marcus Ryan welcomed those comments from the Premier, however he is says he will believe it when he see's it.

"Politicians, including myself, we can say all sorts of things at a press conference or in a radio interview, the question is, what do we actually do when it comes to writing policy and passing laws or bylaws. So I would like to reserve judgement here. A lot of politicians on the landfill have said a lot of things over the years and really when you look back over the years in terms of everything that has been said, none of it has actually changed the process that we are going through. So until somebody actually says we are going to change the law, I am going to reserve judgement."

Ryan also noted that he thinks Ford's comments could also be applied to the Regional Review, where the Province will be having a say on how the municipality is run.

"When the Premier made his comments about politicians from Queens Park sticking there nose in a municipality business, I heard it definitely in the context of the dump and who should decide, I also heard in the context of the current Government's own announced Regional Government Review where the Provincial Government, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is definitely saying we want to look at how municipalities conduct their business and I thought, I would really like the Premier and Minister of Municipal Affairs to listen to those comments in the context of the Regional Government Review."

Ryan wants to make sure that municipalities will have a larger say in the Regional Government Review.

"I think the Premier's remarks are welcome in that context, to say we are going to review regional government, but it should be a collaborative thing, where the province helps us identify things that we may or may not want to do and we decide in Oxford, what is our made in Oxford solution for this that we think will best deliver services to our residents."