Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing

That's huge.

And I think it's the most ever in that timeframe for minister, mi- uh, the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.

But it was busy.

It was fun.

Adam Bell explains.

County Council adopted the new official plan in July, but the document still requires approval from the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing before it can take effect.

The plan is intended to guide growth and development across Bruce County through 2046, including where new housing and employment should be directed and how agricultural, rural and natural areas are managed.

Growth projections incorporated into the planning framework anticipate the county's permanent population increasing by approximately 20,000 over the next 20 years.

And some other of this staff of the Ontario government staff would have gone to sites such as the post office in Bracebridge.

And I believe it was the Ministry of Municipal Affairs that would have gone there.

I'm not sure, but some of the staff might also have gone to the Ontario Fire College at Ravenhurst.

And some of the Ministry of Natural Resources staff would have gone to their training center in Dorset.

You can look at the way that Doug Ford has gone after regional municipalities.

in the past and this is something that started even in his first term right there's talk about amalgamating the region of waterloo at one point and then there's a report that was commissioned it was called the fen ceiling report i tried to get my hands on it it talked about the costs and benefits versus you know issues with amalgamating regions when that was sent to the ministry of municipal affairs and housing in 2019 which i believe is the year that it came out or that they wrote that report, it got sent to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, and then was promptly buried and never spoken about again.

I tried to get my hands on it this year, was denied, and then I appealed it with the Information Privacy Commissioner.

And my appeal was also denied.

Councillors say they pushed for funding during the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference last week, during which time they were able to have face-to-face time with ministry officials.

The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which administers both programs, said in an email statement to the standard, it is working closely with Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority to assess impacts of recent flood events and determine whether there may be areas that could meet the criteria of the disaster recovery assistance for Ontario programs.

It said it is also on the ground with a Provincial Disaster Assessment Team that deployed to St. Catherine on August 14 to directly assess impacted areas.

Oaks said the city had been meeting on a daily basis with ministry staff and toured various locations with the review assessment team to show it areas impacted by floods.