Huron County's council has endorsed a list of rural priorities presented at a recent meeting of the Western Wardens Caucus.
The county CAO, Meighan Wark, explained the list was developed by the Ontario Federation of Agriculture to be distributed to all of the Provincial parties ahead of this summer's election.
Wark added the thinking was that if rural communities came together with a common, shared vision of the priorities that are important to rural Ontarians ahead of the June vote.
“The idea is that if rural communities come together and we share a vision in terms of what priorities should be for rural communities during the election, it's a better opportunity for us to have a voice at the Provincial table.”
The priorities on the list include distributed economic development, smart growth and sustainable farms, new opportunities for good-paying jobs, affordable housing, investment in rural mental health initiatives and infrastructure investment.
Wark said it's extremely important that the rural and agricultural community speak with one voice and the list will now be passed on to all of the Provincial parties before June's election.
On February 21st, the OFA will be joined by the President and CEO of the Ontario Chamber of Commerce and the chairs of the Eastern Ontario Wardens’ Caucus and the Western Ontario Wardens’ Caucus to outline the growing support for distributed economic development dollars across Ontario.
