Essex County mayors share insight over breakfast

Leamington Mayor and Essex County Warden Hilda MacDonald took the podium at this year’s Breakfast with the Mayors, hosted by the Leamington Chamber of Commerce, to celebrate her town’s history and future.

“We need to celebrate those things,” MacDonald said. “I believe we tend to take them for granted many times, forgetting the past. Getting sidetracked by the stress of today.”

She is looking forward to the future. MacDonald said the town’s LTGO On-Demand transit service has done so well since its launch in May of 2022 that she told everyone at this year's breakfast the municipality has ordered a third bus.

“We're looking at making the route bigger as well because right now it's basically servicing the urban area,” MacDonald said. “We see it expanding out a little bit further as well.”

MacDonald also shared the importance of the municipality’s relationship with the Bridge Youth Resource Centre, Caldwell First Nation, Hogs for Hospice, and others.

She also noted the excitement surrounding the former Leamington District Secondary School site, a development creating affordable housing.

“The sale should be complete by March and then there's a time frame in which the building has to come down. We definitely expect shovels in the ground by the fall.”

Pelee Island Mayor Cathy Miller also took the podium and spoke about advocating for the retirement of the Pelee Islander, which has served the island well but is approaching 65 years old.

Miller pointed out Pelee has commodities and product from Canada's largest privately owned estate winery moving off the island.

“It's estimated that the excise tax on those products is upwards of $30 million a year, so there is value on what comes off Pelee Island to the province,” Miller said.

For more than a year, Miller said the municipality has been asking the province for a new vessel, “Now we have to advocate that that funding is approved and that it gets put in the budget and that a plan starts to take shape of what that vessel could look like.”

Kingsville will have a better traffic flow with the opening of Road 2 East and the addition of a turning lane of Jasperson Drive. Mayor Dennis Rogers said that the big question his council will face in 2024 is what to do with surplus property when the “super school” opens.

“We have three properties that are going to be deemed surplus when the super school opens,” said Rogers, who feels the possibility of a new town hall should be up for discussion. “That could be in one of the properties. Housing is definitely going be a part of it. Continuing to grow and develop our business community as well so there's a lot of options.”

Rogers likes where Kingsville and surrounding communities are heading, “It’s an inside-out approach.” Rogers said. “The stronger we are, the stronger our neighbouring communities are, the more support we can provide for our neighbouring communities. Collectively we are strong.”