Year End Message

By Judy Dezell
Director Enterprise Centre, Business Partnerships & LAS

After nearly two years of fully remote work, 2022 became a period of transition from a world dominated by COVID-19 to one resembling a new version of ‘normal’. It has been great to connect in person instead of through a computer screen or telephone. 

We started 2022 attending the ROMA conference virtually, but by May were able to attend our first in-person event since 2019 – the OSUM conference in North Bay. A major highlight was our return to Ottawa for the AMO Conference, attended by staff and Council from across the province. We enjoyed speaking face to face with our members and delegates; it was as if 2020 and 2021 never happened. 

As conference doors opened, we welcomed our team back to the office in a hybrid model, with many municipalities adopting a similar style of work. We were able to meet many of municipal staff in person to reconnect and discuss the programs and services we’ve been working on over the past few years.  

In 2022, we started developing an Automated Speed Enforcement program. This will give municipalities the ability to control speed enforcement directly, with LAS taking care of the many complex pieces of keeping everything running properly. We are continuing to develop this program, stay tuned for details.  

We were pleased to welcome Shannon Devane as the Program Manager for Municipal Risk Management, a newly created position at LAS. Her first task was the procurement and launch of a Digital Incident Response Team program in early 2023. She will be working on new offerings to help municipalities manage challenges relating to insurance and risk, stay tuned for updates. 

We will be focusing the next year on starting to implement our new strategic plan. Our focus will be on supporting our municipalities as they embrace digital government, manage the causes and impacts of Climate Change, and expand the capacity of municipal staff. 

I would like to thank Ontario municipalities for their continuing support through the challenging times of the last few years. I hope 2023 will continue the transition to a world not dominated by COVID-19. I would also like to thank the LAS Board and our team of staff for their dedication in Helping Communities Work Better. 

We wish you and your community all the best this holiday season.