A Collingwood councillor is returning to the job of strengthening the federal and municipal government relationship as a member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) board of directors.
Councillor Kathy Jeffery was one of nine people from Ontario elected as a national director during the FCM annual general meeting and trade show in Quebec City May 30 through June 2. The board is made up of 75 directors from across Canada (16 from Ontario).
Jeffery has been part of the FCM National board for seven years since 2006, and is excited to return to her work this year.
According to the FCM website, the national organization serves as a federal voice for local government.
“We are the government closest to people’s daily lives,” said Jeffery. “Canada can’t be healthy if its municipalities aren’t healthy.”
With a federal election scheduled for the fall, Jeffery said the AGM included visits by all four national political party leaders who heard from FCM delegates the importance of a strong relationship between the federal and municipal governments.
Jeffery said that relationship more requires modernization, though some has happened through FCM advocacy.
“We’re creatures of the province,” said Jeffery, and in some cases that meant money allocated for municipal level projects went from the feds to the provincial level, but didn’t trickle down to municipalities.
“We work with the federal government to make sure the funds intended to get to municipalities do get to municipalities,” she said.
For example, the Green Municipal Fund is a more than $1 billion fund given to the FCM for distribution to Canadian municipalities.
Another change, pushed by FCM is the allocation of funds for local infrastructure, where historically municipalities had to get a project to the “shovel ready” stage and then apply for the funds in competition with other Canadian municipalities.
In addition to advocacy work, the FCM offers workshops and networking opportunities for councillors like Jeffery to learn more about how other municipalities are handling their own issues.
During the recent AGM, for example, Jeffery attended a workshop focused on how municipalities can help reduce their carbon footprints with policies built into the procurement process.
For example, when a municipality sends out a request for proposal, they can ask the bidders to include the level of greenhouse gas emissions for each product used - even for materials such as concrete.
The next step up would be building an emission cap into projects put to tender by the municipality. And that’s projects as small as a new sidewalk and as big as a new town hall or water treatment facility.
In another workshop, Peterborough Police Deputy Chief Tim Farquharson delivered statistics and practical ways for communities to combat the nation-wide opioid crisis.
“There’s a lot of networking … you learn from each other,” said Jeffery. “We are not the first municipality to go through stuff.”
Last year, Jeffery was the chair of the municipal finance and intergovernmental arrangements committee, a job she hopes to return to this year.
Her appointment will be a decision of FCM’s national board president Bill Karsten.
She will automatically return to the rural forum (for municipalities with a population of 100,000 or fewer) and the Ontario Caucus.
She’s also part of the election readiness committee, which is tasked with preparing FCM members for the upcoming federal election and keeping municipal matters on the minds of those running for federal office.
She served on the committee to increase participation of women in local government, and on the international relations committee. Both roles she hopes to reprise this year.
She was hesitant about the value of an international relations committee for small municipalities, but said she’s learned a lot about the impacts of global change on everyday lives.
For example, after the renegotiation of the Canadian-European Trade Agreement, all Canadian municipalities (including Collingwood) were required to open up their tender process over a certain value to all countries covered in the trade deal.
Being at the FCM board table is “fabulous,” said Jeffery.
The board represents 2,000 member municipalities and about 90 per cent of the country’s population.
