By: Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
Representatives of the Town of Essex took the opportunity to discuss flooding mitigation and the developing Essex Sport File Complex at the 2026 Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference.
This year’s convention was hosted in Toronto from January 18-20.
ROMA is the rural voice of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), and the conference is a way for representatives of rural municipalities across the province to connect and even delegate to Provincial ministries about policy, concerns, important matters, or advocate for projects they hope to undertake with provincial assistance.
On behalf of the Town of Essex, CAO Kate Giurissevich, Mayor Sherry Bondy, and Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley attended the conference.
The trio went before the Ministry of Infrastructure, including Parliamentary Assistant Amarjot Sandhu, regarding all of the flooding experienced in Colchester. The message sent was that Essex appreciates the Province is trying really hard to promote housing and new development, but we are really struggling to support people already here.”
Bondy said they explained to the Ministry that it is a lot of money to fix flooding for residents, and the burden is on the residents. “It is going to be really hard to develop Colchester if we can’t take care of the homes that are already there first.”
The trio also met with representatives from the Ministry of Sport, including Minister Neil Lumsden, to discuss the future of the Essex Sports Field Complex, which is being built on the south-side of Highway 3.
“We had some really good conversations and we got a lot of feedback on how we can make our grant applications better,” Bondy said. The Town has applied for provincial grants to help develop this sports complex in the past, but has so far been unsuccessful in receiving any money to date.
Bondy believes the Town may have to put more of its own dollars up front when making a grant application for this project.
“We are going to be waiting for the next round, so we can apply for provincial grants for our Sports Complex. They are really interested in the location and everything we have to offer.”
One thing the Essex delegates were sure to relay was that Essex is central in the county. It is looking to get a hotel. The Sport Fields Complex is something that it hasn’t had a lot of tax dollars for.
She is hopeful the next grant application for this facility will be successful.
The last round of recreational grants was so competitive, Bondy relayed that the Province had $200M to allocate to successful applications, but the total all applications requested was $1.25B.
“It was a great conference. We were so busy,” Bondy said, reflecting on the events and activities that took place when she returned back to the region. “It is such a learning opportunity, these conferences, to meet with the Ministers right in the room.”
The benefit of attending the ROMA Conference is the networking and being able to ask questions, Bondy commented.
She was able to enter the “bear pit” and asked a question of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Rob Flack,regarding the concerns she has heard from residents in local land-leased communities in trying to sell their homes, due to increase in the land rent.
“Although I didn’t get the answer that the residents needed, I did follow up,” Bondy said, noting she spoke to the Solicitor General to build further relationships.
She also met Graydon Smith, Associate Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, to bring forward concerns around local social housing. She said her concerns seemed to be taken seriously. She does believe the Province will review social housing if enough concerns are brought forward.
During the conference reception, the Essex reps were able to greet Minister of Health and Deputy Premier, Sylvia Jones. They thanked her for the work the Province has done in the area to reduce Code Reds and Code Blacks. They also spoke about what the County can do to support its EMS, not only at budget but through out the year at County Council.
While there, Bondy was also able to attend a session on cemeteries, which the Town is responsible for several.
“From this conference, I had a lot of takeaways, and I have a lot of questions for staff back home,” Bondy said, noting she would like to know how many cemeteries the Town takes care of, and the annual cost to do so.
There was also a whole session on Code of Conducts, as the Province is looking to standardize that for the entire province. That is something the Town needs to keep an eye on.
Another session Bondy attended spoke to emergency management and ice storms, where she was able to learn what other municipalities do during those types of crises situations. She met with Minister of Emergency Preparedness and Response, Jill Dunlop, to provide feedback that the disaster relief program offered to Colchester after the 2023 flood needed work.
Attending ROMA was a great experience, Bondy noted, and possibly even better than her experiences at AMO. Now that she had more experience, she felt more at home there. The ROMA Conference is more personalized than AMO as it is smaller.
“You get more attention from the government because it has a lot less people,” she said, noting ROMA is specifically for rural communities.