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Ontarios Big City Mayors Attend the 2025 AMO Conference Focused on Housing, Infrastructure, Homelessness, Public Safety and New Funding Models for Municipalities  

Aug 20, 2025Housing, Infrastructure, Mental Health and Addictions, Top Stories

OTTAWA – Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) were pleased to take part in this year’s Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s (AMO) Conference in Ottawa along with municipal, regional, provincial and federal partners. We welcomed the opportunity to listen and learn from our colleagues as well as advocate for the key priorities of Ontario’s biggest cities.

Joint Meeting with Mayors and Regional Chairs of Ontario (MARCO)

On Sunday OBCM and MARCO held a joint meeting welcoming Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Hon. Rob Flack as well as the Parliamentary Secretary to Federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Jennifer McKelvie. 

They were productive and meaningful discussions focusing on the necessity of including municipalities when developing programs and solutions on our shared priorities. These include getting housing and housing related infrastructure built, supporting our most vulnerable residents with programs and housing systems that fit their needs, keeping our communities safe, supporting our local economies from the impacts of tariffs. We also raised the issue that municipalities subsidize the Province roughly $5 billion for public services that everywhere else in Canada are provincial responsibilities, including community housing, social services, long-term care, public health, and ambulance services.  If these costs were assumed by the province we could direct those dollars back to Municipal priorities like housing.

OBCM and MARCO members passed five motions (all motions can be found in full HERE) focused on various issues including:

  • Addressing bad faith renovictions
  • Necessary reforms to improve paramedic safety 
  • Ensuring sustainable funding for municipal police services 
  • Advancing the Elect Respect campaign to restore civility in public service
  • Requesting that the federal government reverse the recent changes to ensure municipalities can continue providing shelter supports to refugee claimant arrivals

OBCM Delegations with Provincial Ministers   

Throughout the conference OBCM’s member mayors met with several ministers to outline our priorities for their ministries and the province, including:

  • Deputy Premier, and Minister of Health, Hon. Sylvia Jones
  • Minister of Finance, Hon. Peter Bethlenfalvy
  • Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Hon. Rob Flack
  • Minister of Infrastructure, Hon. Kinga Surma
  • Attorney General, Hon. Doug Downey
  • Solicitor General, Hon. Michael Kerzner
  • Associate Attorney General, Hon. Michael Tibollo
  • Associate Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Hon. Vijay Thanigasalam

In each discussion we focused on both ministry specific and overall OBCM priorities for the Ontario government. OBCM looks forward to continuing these conversations in more detail on topics such as:

  • Predictable Municipal Infrastructure Investment
  • Next steps in addressing the Homelessness, Mental Health, and Addictions Crisis including through a Housing and Supportive Housing Strategy
  • Addressing Trade, Tariff, and Procurement Concerns and Protecting our Local Economies
  • Public Safety and Municipal Police Budgets 

Meeting with Federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure, Gregor Robertson

OBCM Chair Marianne Meed Ward joined AMO President Robin Jones and MARCO Chair Karen Redman for a meeting with the federal Minister of Housing and Infrastructure. The discussion focused on how municipalities, the province and the federal government can work together to facilitate building the homes our residents need and can afford including providing feedback on the initial vision of Building Canada Homes. 

Provincial Government Announcement

OBCM would like to thank Premier Doug Ford for his announcement at the conference that the province is  investing an additional $1.6 billion in the Municipal Housing Infrastructure Program to help communities across Ontario build the infrastructure they need to unlock more housing and support economic growth. Housing enabling infrastructure is a key to ensuring our communities have the services and spaces they need including – water and wastewater, roads and bridges, transit, schools, hospitals, community centres, libraries and parks. Supporting the build of this infrastructure also helps to create well-paying jobs and attract investments improving our local economies. 

“The conversations we’ve had with provincial and federal government ministers have shown us they are listening and want to work with us to address the issues facing  Ontario’s biggest cities. Our message has been clear: Ontario municipalities can’t continue to absorb the costs of services downloaded from other levels of government, nor can we fund the complex issues we face, such as homelessness, mental health and addictions, on the property tax base alone. The status quo isn’t an option and we need to act now, together, to address these urgent challenges.”

                          •      Marianne Meed Ward – Chair of OBCM and Mayor of Burlington

About Ontario’s Big City Mayors

Ontario’s Big City Mayors (OBCM) is a non-partisan organization that includes mayors of 29 single and lower-tier cities with a population of 100,000 or more, who collectively represent nearly 70% of Ontario’s population and 30% of Canada’s population . OBCM advocates for issues and policies important to Ontario’s largest cities.

Media Contacts

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward                                                                               Chair Michelle Baker, Executive Director

chair@obcm.ca                                                                                                        michelle@obcm.ca

905-335-7777                                                                                                           647-308-6602

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