SIOUX LOOKOUT — Mayor Doug Lawrance says there’s good progress with the many issues his community brought forward at the Rural Ontario Municipal Association conference, which wrapped up earlier this week in Toronto.
Lawrance said along with cost of policing, the municipality also brought up the need to release of Crown land in order to build more housing in the community.
“We have a lot of pressure for growth. The conditions in northern communities are quite different from the south. On paper, it looks like we have a lot of land, but we have a pipe, sewer, water system that's bound in by lakes, by bedrock, by our airport, and by Crown land,” he said.
“We need that Crown land released, so we can have a rational extension of our infrastructure system so we can grow. And our growth is really tied to the development of northern communities that is putting pressure on us.”
He said they met with Health Minister Sylvia Jones, where they spoke about the emergency department [at the hospital] and working with the province to do all they can to keep it open, “because if it closes, the domino effect on hospitals in the region and within our community is drastic.”
He said they also touched on mental health and addictions.
“We were looking at the need to come to a good agreement and funding arrangement for addictions treatment — detox sobering centre in our community,” he said.
Sioux Lookout officials also had a conversation with Attorney General Doug Downey.
"We're looking at continuing to try to find alternatives to the justice system, to expand the community justice centre that's developing in Kenora to Sioux Lookout and expand the use of virtual court to help keep people out of the correction system and get them into the right stream," Lawrance said. "It's not jail for everybody. That's for sure.”
Lawrance said meeting decision makers in-person is important.
“One of the ministers looked at me [and asked] “How many of these conferences have you been to?” And I said 17. It is two terms of council, twice a year. I think there was an additional in there somewhere. So I obviously see the value in them,” he said. “The value of sitting down face to face with the minister is immeasurable. And it's not just the minister. [Sitting] to the right and left of the ministers are senior staff.”
Lawrence used a farming analogy to explain the process.
“We're going there. We're tilling the soil. We're sowing the seeds. We’re watering them,” he said. “And you have to keep on repeating the stories from our community, the needs and our northern communities are so different from the south, but they only get told if you tell them. And you need to tell them multiple times and be persistent.”
“Sometimes it takes years for that for that crop to grow and sometimes it does die and whither on the field, but just have to keep trying,” he said. “And it's, I think it's a unique opportunity, always appreciative that ministers make themselves available and are willing to listen and the fact that senior staff are there as well is really helpful.”
