Blog

For me 2021 has been about putting the needs of municipalities front and centre in everything we do. Our goal is always to help communities work better and so we support them as best as we can by offering programs that cater to the unique needs of the municipalities -- from saving money to extending municipal staff capacity.

The City of Temiskaming Shores is a picturesque community in Northern Ontario, Canada, offering ideal boating, hiking, skiing, snowmobiling and golfing and an exceptional place to both live and work. The recently amalgamated municipality with a population of 11,000 needed a cost-effective method to assess and repair its 114 km road infrastructure for citizens and visitors.

As COP26, the 2021 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, wrestles with the global effort to reduce emissions and limit changes in average temperature on an international level, municipal leaders may be asking themselves just what we can do locally to help. AMO’s Board has identified the priority of addressing the urgency of climate change as a strategic objective this year and last.

The LAS price for the November 2021 - October 2022 period will be 11.7 cents/m3. This rate represents a 15% ($0.016/m3) commodity increase; a result of market volatility due to the pandemic, lower natural gas storage reserves, flat natural gas production levels across the globe, and uncertainty surrounding winter natural gas demand.

Since March of 2013 until early 2021, the LAS Streetlight Program helped municipalities across Ontario upgrade their systems to energy efficient LED. Over the eight years it was offered, 190 municipalities chose it as their program of choice. This means you can see the results of our work throughout 43% of the Province! And with the overwhelming majority of municipalities now lighting their roadways with LED, Ontario became a Canadian leader in streetlight integration.

The biennial Risk Management Symposium is taking place virtually on October 5 and 6 this year. This year the sessions will center around climate change and strategies of how Ontario municipalities can mitigate risk. This is a timely subject considering the extreme weather events we have been experiencing in recent years. Or is it?