The Citizen, 1997-05-21, Page 7THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 21,1997 PAGE 7.
Clerks hear of uncertain times ahead
Continued from page 1
costs as originally proposed. "We
knew if education came off the
property tax we'd get saddled with
something, but that was more than
expected," said Knight.
"It does give an indication of the
chaos," said Knight, "with negotia
tions going on, and back and forth,
over several issues. I think it will
be a lot more interesting a year
from now."
The best answer Vanini had for
the municipal adminstrators is that
there are no answers. "We may not
know what everything's going to
look like, but there are going to be
a lot of new things landing in your
laps. We can't afford to wait until
the pieces are in place. There are
going to be short-term and long
term learning needs."
Vanini said, "We keep getting
asked for answers to many ques
tions. And the answer is we just
don't know yet, but questions, con
cerns and input will be important.
Municipalities can bring a lot of
advice onto legislation."
One question that concerned
Brussels Clerk-Treasurer Donna
White was when Vanini alluded to
10 pieces of legislation to be pul
forward before summer. "What
could they possibly be?" White
said.
Also, White noted that when leg
islation is filtered through at a regu
lar rate, it makes confusion easy
and opposition difficult. "We just
keep working and listening."
White also expressed the com
mon frustration at the unknowns.
"It seems to be the same as a lot of
meetings lately. You go with a lot
of questions and no answers. 1 felt
sorry for the people making presen
tation, because they don't know the
answers either."
One clerk from the Chatham-
Kent area, which the province
recently restructured, had spoken
up at the morning session, White
said, expressing much of the help
lessness felt by others. "When I
hear his story it worries me,
because the province is looking at
much bigger populations for
restructuring than we've been con
sidering. In one night, this man
said, the province created the 10th
largest municipality in Ontario. It
tells me we have to keep looking at
new ways of doing business."
No answers
The answer to the questions facing many municipalities today is that there are, as yet, no
answers. Pat Vanini, a political analyst with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario
(AMO) updated the 150 clerk-treasurers in attendance at the Zone 2 meeting held in
Brussels at the arena on Thursday. Her message was that there were still many areas of the
province's Mega-Week announcements for which the impacts are unknown.
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