Perth County warden and councillors reflect on 2026 ROMA annual conference

Galen Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Perth County Warden Dean Trentowsky, county councillors and staff joined more than 1,900 municipal and provincial representatives from across Ontario at the 2026 Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) Conference at the Sheraton Hotel in Toronto Jan. 18-20.

At the Jan. 22 Perth County council meeting, Trentowsky reflected on how the conference and the sessions the local delegates attended went, and how Perth County was able to advocate for rural needs across two official delegation meetings with representatives from the provincial government.

“For our part, we had two delegations from the county to the province,” Trentowsky told council. “One was on planning matters related to trying to find some methods to be innovative in finding efficiencies within the planning-submission requirements, asking the province for some funding assistance towards that goal of streamlining the applications.

“We did get some recommendations on how to pursue that further, so staff will be following that up. Thanks to Andrea Hachler, director of planning services, for putting that delegation together, and thanks to councillors (Walter) McKenzie, (Todd) Kasenberg and deputy warden (Sue) Orr for attending and supporting that delegation.”

While the first delegation was with Laura Smith, the parliamentary assistant to the minister of municipal affairs and housing, the second delegation was heard by Minister of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Trevor Jones and revolved around agribusiness growth, investment successes and opportunities in the region.

“Meredith Forget, our economic development and tourism director, in cooperation with (communications officer) Sarah Franklin and the rest of staff put together a package that we presented to Minister Jones highlighting the wins, celebrating the successes of provincial funding towards agriculture and also the ag. tourism sector in Perth County, reaffirming with the province that their programming is successful – it’s having a definite positive impact within the county.

“We highlighted some local agricultural and ag. tourism businesses that were direct benefactors of provincial funding, and we offered to work together with the province to continue getting the message out, getting provincial-funding programming to our residents and ratepayers, helping these ratepayers find these programs and facilitate their participation in these programs.”

Trentowsky said the delegates invited Minister Jones and his staff to visit Perth County in the fall and see firsthand the benefits of the provincial funding extended to local farms and agribusinesses – an invitation Trentowsky said Jones eagerly accepted.

This year’s conference theme was ROMA 2026: Ontario’s Rural Leaders Conference. The three-day event served as a key moment for municipal and provincial officials to connect on the unique challenges faced by rural municipalities.

Sessions focused on topics covering the breadth of rural municipal matters, including rural access to health care, Indigenous relations, codes of conduct, Community Safety and Wellbeing plans, infrastructure, waste management, housing, and road safety in rural communities.

“It’s a very worthwhile conference to attend with a range of really important municipal topics and a chance to connect with colleagues across the province,” said county CAO Lori Wolfe.

“Warden Trentowsky did an excellent job in the presentations and I’m very grateful that he took the lead,” deputy warden Orr added.