Cannabis, Highway 401 collisions on agenda as Ontario cities meet

Municipal leaders from across Ontario are descending on Ottawa today, hoping tokick-start important conversations with the new Progressive Conservative government on everything from retail cannabis stores to Highway 401 safety.

Over the past two months, communitieshave watched closely asPremier Doug Ford cut seats on Toronto city counciland cancelled the cap-and-trade regime that funded a number of municipal projects.

When the premier gives a speech tothe Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) on Monday morning, Ottawa Coun. Mark Taylor will be watchingfor clues to how he'll approach the city-province relationship.

"Is he going to have a very collaborative tone? Or is he going to be, 'I'm going to make decisions and inform you of the outcome' kind of thing?"

Questions about cannabis

Taylor said Ontario municipalities are also anxious to learn more aboutthe government's plans related to legislation that has changed course since the PCs took power.

Chief among those is the move to allow private retail stores to sell cannabisinstead of government-run shops.

In the coming months, municipal councils will have to decide whether to opt outand not allow the retail stores within their boundaries.

But municipal and provincial officials will also have to consider othercomplicated elements related to the legalization ofrecreational marijuana, such as policeand bylaw enforcement and the effect of cannabis on teens.

Eastern mayors to discuss 401 safety

Taylor says a big city like Ottawa regularly has the ear of provincial ministers and high-level staff, but the AMO conference is a "bit of anequalizer" wheresmaller rural and northern communities can also get the attention of a minister's office.

Gananoque, Ont., MayorErika Demchuk said it has been difficult to line up meetings with the new government because everyone is after their attention.

That said, the Eastern Ontario Mayors' Caucus will soon be sittingdown withnew Transportation MinisterJohn Yakabuski todiscuss fatal collisions on Highway 401.

"We feel that the minister of transportation has to start looking at either widening the road, or maybe making a special lane just for the transport trucks," said Demchuk.

"There have been a lot of lives lost and accidents in the past few years."

Officials from all over Ontario will be hoping to get their issue on the table in the coming days, whether it's social housing in Prince Edward County or Peel Region, or a rail link between Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie.

The City of Toronto is the only one ofOntario's 445 municipalities that does not belong to AMO. Itwithdrew from the lobbygroup in 2005.

The conference runs in Ottawa until Wednesday.