Caledon Council returns from ROMA after discussing future of community

January 29, 2026 · 0 Comments

By Riley Murphy

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Caledon Council recently travelled to Toronto to take part in this year’s Ontario Rural Leaders Conference, where they discussed important initiatives for the future of Caledon.

The Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) held the annual conference, where municipalities and organizations across Ontario gathered to work together and discuss each municipality’s challenges and priorities.

Mayor Annette Groves noted that at ROMA they were able to meet with Provincial ministries to discuss key priorities for the Town of Caledon.

Groves says that these conversations focused on issues that “matter most to the community,” including concerns around aggregates and the approval of OPA1, illegal land use and trucking, advancing the Caledon-Vaughan GO Line, improving safety along Highway 10, securing funding to support seniors and accessibility, a new courthouse, reliable high-speed internet, and ensuring that housing growth in Caledon is well supported while prioritizing local job creation.

“We were encouraged by the productive and collaborative discussions with the ministries, which demonstrated a strong commitment to working with Caledon to move these priorities forward for the benefit of our residents,” says Groves.

Christina Early, Regional Councillor for Caledon, who also sits on the Board of Directors for ROMA, says “rural priorities took center stage, giving Caledon unprecedented access.”

As a Board member, she says she participated in the “most impactful conference yet,” with nearly 2,300 delegates from 316 municipalities and 651 delegation meetings with 25 ministers, associate ministers, and parliamentary assistants.

“We prioritized updating the Municipal Act and Planning Act for stronger tools against illegal land use, ensuring no financial shortfall from Caledon’s Regional Development Charge Deferral commitment, and securing infrastructure funding. These aligned with rural-wide concerns like housing affordability and economic resilience,” says Early.

She also noted Caledon’s various positions, including their position to update the Municipal Act and the Planning Act to give municipalities the tools to address illegal land use and Caledon’s position of ensuring that there is “no financial shortfall resulting from the Regional Development Charge Deferral commitment.”

ROMA’s sessions tackled topics of housing, health care access, and community services head-on.

Early says that issues such as illegal land use were vital conversations at ROMA.

“From my ROMA Board vantage, rural municipalities showed growing influence at Queen’s Park via cross-party engagement which is a real potential for policy wins. We will continue prioritizing follow-ups to drive action on our priorities,” says Early.

Going into ROMA, Councillor Doug Maskell shared he was hoping to address issues “of great importance to the Town of Caledon,” such as getting a commitment from the Province to bring forward legislation on illegal land use and seeking information on the construction of Highway 413 and its impact on Caledon.

Maskel led two delegations on behalf of the Town of Caledon with the Official Opposition, New Democratic Party and the Green Party.

“During these delegations, I emphasized the importance of advancing the date for the Vaughan-Bolton GO Line and its importance in building transit oriented communities. In addition, I asked them to push the Provincial government to amend the Municipal Act and Planning Act to give municipalities the tools to combat illegal land uses such as truck yards and event centers,” said Maskell.

He adds that as Council’s new designate on the SWIFT board he delegated to the Ministry of Energy and Mines on the “serious deficiencies” in Caledon’s broadband network and how imperative it is to Caledon’s residential and industrial growth.

“My key take away was Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack’s commitment to bring forward legislation to deal with illegal land use in the spring session of provincial parliament. The issue of illegal land use has been a priority of this Council since day one, so to see provincial action on this file will be most gratifying,” says Maskell.

Councillor Cosimo Napoli says that ROMA was a very productive and collaborative conference for Caledon.

“Our delegation was focused on ensuring issues like illegal land use, infrastructure funding, extortion, transportation, managing rapid growth had a strong voice at the table as well as many more crucial issues in Caledon, and the discussions were overwhelmingly positive,” says Napoli.

At ROMA, he says, they emphasized the need for provincial support and sustainable funding to deliver the infrastructure required to support housing growth and job creation.

For him, highlights from the conference included discussions with MPP Amarjot Sandhu, Assistant to the Minister of Infrastructure, on advancing the Peel Public Utility model to help fast-track infrastructure, as well as a meeting with the Minister of Seniors and Accessibility, where we advocated for expanded eligibility, flexibility, and longer-term stable funding to better support aging in place.

“Overall, ROMA reinforced the strength of Council’s relationships with the provincial government and set the stage for continuing these important conversations,” says Napoli.