It is now 2023 and we turn our attention to the County of Hastings.
Stirling-Rawdon Mayor Bob Mullin has been elected as the warden and he spoke to Quinte News about the focus for the new year.
He says on the infrastructure front, housing will be critical.
“We’ve been working with a number of agencies to develop more available housing, for our own needs and for the community as a whole.”
It will serve the entire county. The training and maintenance centre will be moved from the current centre near the 401 in Belleville.
The Province of Ontario has launched the More Homes Built Faster Act, with a goal of creating more housing and Mullin says they want to make sure they are in line with that. He says he wants to see the developers moving faster and governments need to work with them.
He says there is one particular infrastructure project that is near and dear to him because it is in his own municipality.
“We’re building the new paramedic base in Stirling-Rawdon for Hastings County. The design is done, some of the infrastructure’s already in place. It’s going out for costing right at the moment. We’re hoping to come in around $3.5 million.”
On the side of social issues, child care will be front of mind.
“So we’re working with our partners to get more spaces available and licensed.”
The feds and province recently enacted more affordable child care for parents across Ontario and Canada.
On major projects, Mullin says it is critical to have the 14 member municipalities and two cities (Quinte West and Belleville) on board. They can then work in lockstep as part of the Eastern Ontario Wardens Caucus, to carry more clout with the province.
He finished by discussing other issues which included a revamp of the land department, looking at a new marketing plan to promote tourism and a focus on long-term care. He says that will take a lot of planning.
“The entire field is under such stress. People are retiring and it’s hard to replace them.”
