2024 Year End Message

By Judy Dezell
Director AMO Enterprise Centre, Business Partnerships, LAS & ONE

One of the broad themes for 2024 was learning how the municipal sector, and LAS specifically, can help solve big problems. Our communities are facing challenges with opioid addiction, homelessness, and housing affordability that require strong efforts and a united front to resolve. While AMO’s policy team and membership centre have been hard at work on legislative and educational resources, LAS has focused on programs and supports for municipalities that can help to boost capacity and get results. 

Infrastructure is a key challenge as municipalities work to balance budgets and build more housing. LAS conducted a feasibility study to offer a water and wastewater program. Our staff assembled an Expert Panel to get their advice and expertise on the possibility of a joint municipal services corporation for water and wastewater. The panel gathered feedback through consultation sessions at AMO, ROMA, FOMON, and NOMA.

The findings and recommendations of the Panel, supported by LAS and AMO Policy staff, were compiled into a report and delivered to the LAS Board. This has the potential to significantly change how some of our most expensive infrastructure is managed, saving limited municipal resources while allowing for more housing to be built. More details will come in 2025, stay tuned!

Our Automated Speed Enforcement program continues to grow, with new participating members joining the program and an additional ticket processing centre set to open in early 2025. This has been a challenging program to get off the ground, and we appreciate the patience our members have shown as we grow to meet the need. Our task will be growing the program quickly to meet the needs of our members, with nearly one in four Ontario municipalities having expressed interest so far. 

Expenses related to risk and insurance have become a key challenge for municipal budgets. As an alternative method of financing risk, LAS is developing a protective association focused on Cyber Risk. In this model participants agree to collectively share the costs, risks, and benefits. We’re planning to launch in mid-2025, if you would like more information please contact Shannon Devane at sdevane@amo.on.ca. 

Our Team at LAS continues to grow and evolve. We welcomed Meagan Khan in February in a new role as our Business Development Manager. Meagan brings with her a wealth of experience in various aspects of business development; she has taken a lead role in working with our partners to grow the tools LAS is able to offer. Aliya Khayat will be moving from the LAS team to a new role on AMO’s Canada Community Benefit Fund (CCBF) team. We’re sad to see her go but grateful she’s staying under the AMO umbrella so we can still see her at the office. Aliya played a key part in our Water and Wastewater Feasibility Study, providing extremely high-quality data analysis that was critical to the success of this project. 

This has been a very busy year for the entire LAS team, and I’d like to thank them for doing the hard work needed to continue in our mission of helping Ontario’s municipalities thrive. 

We wish all of you a happy and healthy holidays season and look forward to a busy and productive 2025!

Category
General Interest
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