The Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities met Oct. 2 in Little Current, its final meeting before the election of a new board that will take place after the Oct. 26 municipal election. FONOM advocates to upper levels of government on behalf of the 110 municipalities in northeastern Ontario. President Dave Plourde said the focus of the Oct. 2 meeting was the priorities they’ll continue to advocate once the new board meets for the first time, likely in January. ‘We’ve done a good job’ “I think we’ve done a good job in bringing the issues to the forefront,” Plourde said Oct. 5. Safer highways remain at the “top of the list to continue to push forward,” he said, including twinning Highways 11 and 17. Other priority topics include the rising cost of policing, infrastructure deficits and housing. “Homelessness is obviously a problem and twinning of highways – right up there,” Plourde said. “Whether you live on Highway 17 or you live on (Highway) 11. It’s problematic in summertime, never mind wintertime.” Make it a national priority He added that they’ve been trying to get the federal and provincial governments to sit down together to come up with a plan to make improving highway safety a top priority. The term was unique in that representatives from FONOM were able to meet with the federal government. “We’ve handled ourselves quite well in making sure that they know who we are -- and you know what? They do know who we are,” Plourde said. He was acclaimed as mayor of Kapuskasing and said he’s likely to stay on as president of FONOM, but that decision will be up to the new board members. The meeting was also a chance to thank two of their colleagues for contributions to FONOM over the years. Temiskaming Shores deputy mayor Danny Whalen and Sault Ste. Marie councillor Sandra Hollingsworth are not seeking re-election. Plourde said bringing on a new board of FONOM can be challenging, since there is a lot to learn if there are a lot of new members. “I expect that we’ll probably see a lot of the same faces around the table, to a certain extent,” he added.
