1999 Conference Wrap Up

Ontario East Municipal Conference Tops 450!

The Ontario East Municipal Conference (OEMC'99) was held in Kingston this past September with 455 participants. This conference attracts municipal elected officials, CAO's, Clerks, Planners, Economic Development Professionals, Committee Members from Eastern Ontario and Provincial officials.

Over 20 breakout sessions covered a wide range of topics. Those of particular interest to EDO's included a day long pre-conference workshop sponsored by the Ontario East Economic Development Commission (OEEDC) on "How to Successfully Deal with the Media and the Public". This workshop presented by Williamson Consulting Inc., included a 100 page working manual developed for the Commission which was distributed to workshop delegates.

Doug Harrison, Deputy Director, Emergency Measures Ontario spoke in detail on implementing Y2K for municipalities. Another topic of great interest was the new legislation centred around Bill 35 (PUC) and how it will affect municipalities, presented by the law firm of Aird & Berlis.

Internet and Municipal Use presented by Christine Norris, Deputy Clerk-Treasurer, Township of Somerville and Kathy Coulthart, Deputy Clerk with the Town of Smiths Falls demonstrated how municipalities can use the internet in their day-to-day business as a key source for research, communication and learning about the best practices for municipal business.

M. Rick O'Connor, Solicitor for the Regional Municipality of Ottawa-Carleton presented a "nuts and bolts" review of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and open/closed meeting provisions of the Municipal Act.

An interesting presentation made by EDO, James de Pater of the S. D. & G. Community Development Corporation illustrated the changing face of agriculture and its role in rural economic development. This very popular session focussed on agriculture becoming a "hot technology sector" rivalling that of the information technology sector found in Ottawa.

The opening plenary entitled "Local Government into the Next Millennium" featured Michael Fenn, Deputy Minister, MMAH and Pat Moyle, Executive Director, AMO. Bill Hutchins, News Anchor of CKWS TV moderated the session. This thought provoking session created much interest and questions from the audience.

Thursday afternoon, 50 plus attendees enjoyed a presentation and toured the state-of-the-art Bombardier Transportation Systems facility located west of Kingston.

Carolyn Booth, Clerk of the Town of Fort Erie spoke of the "Fort Erie Experience" where a comprehensive analysis was undertaken of the agenda process which resulted in the identification of cost savings and significant improvements.

At the Thursday luncheon the presentation of Eastern Ontario's "Economic Developer of the Year Award" sponsored by VIA Rail Canada Inc., was presented by President James Timlin, OEEDC to Vic Allen, Economic Development Commissioner of the South Grenville Economic Development Commission.

Another interesting session Thursday afternoon was "Managing Change for Municipalities". Attendees heard "hands on" examples from two CAO's, Linda Mitchell, County of Northumberland and John McCormack of the Town of Lindsay.

Of particular interest to EDO's, Doreen Collins of the Economic Development Unit, Agriculture and Rural Division, OMAFRA spoke on the subject of tourism as "the world's fastest growing industry". This was followed by a presentation on "Ontario's Key Investment Account Program" by Bill Anderson and Greg Wootton, MEDT. This program targets multinationals and large Ontario based companies in a pro-active program in order to influence investment decisions in Ontario. Next, James Stirling of the Information Highway Secretariat, MEST explained how current Ontario initiatives are advancing the application of information technologies to support the development of "Smart Communities" and how communities may qualify to participate in these initiatives.

The closing day of the conference included a case study, "An Economic Roundtable". Presenters included Robert W. Runciman, MPP for Leeds-Grenville, now Ontario's Minister of Consumer and Commercial Relations, David Beatty, President of Canarm Ltd., and Bill Fraser, Chair of the Roundtable's Equity Investment Committee. The group talked about how they brought together over 100 local people interested in economic development, how they determined key issues of most concern to their region and how they established a program to take action including the establishment of a local equity investment capital fund for entrepreneurs.

Motivation speaker, Terry Evanshen, a Member of the Canadian Football League Hall of fame closed the conference with an emotional packed message. In 1988 Terry was involved in a car accident which nearly claimed his life. He shared with conference delegates how on his road to recovery, he has rebuilt his life one step at a time and learned to turn every situation into an opportunity for personal growth and triumph. His powerful message "Seize Each Day" was a powerful highlight of the conference!

Four hundred and fifty five people participated in the conference with some excellent discussions, tours and presentations.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to complete the evaluation of OEMC'99. Your evaluations help us to organize a conference based on your needs and wishes. The following is a brief summary of the 83 submissions received:

Question	Yes	No	N / R
Was the expanded area and the time for the exhibits and Wednesday reception an improvement?	71	0	12
Should the tours be a part of the Conference?	62	10	11

Finally, we asked all those who thought tours should be a conference what tours they would like to see. Over 30 suggestions were made covering a wide range of municipal and development sites. Your suggestions are very helpful for our conference planning.

We received several write in ideas covering suggested topics, logistic improvements that will help with conference planning.

One of the many excellent suggestions was that speakers presentations be uploaded to our web site following the conference in the year 2000. What do you think? This would give you the ability to download presentations and possibly ongoing archive presentations for a period of time. Please e-mail us your thoughts as there is a cost involved.

Did you attend???

If you did not attend, we encourage you to consider attending OEMC 2000 in Kingston, September 20, 21 & 22. Plans are almost finalized, and it looks like our best yet. Visit this site for regular updates.

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