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LIVE from the 2024 Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference · Kvetch & Release

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  Welcome back to AM eight hundred CKLW John Lydkey here. June sixth to ninth
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  is the annual conference of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. They bring together two
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  thousand municipalities of all sizes and represent more than ninety two percent of all Canadians.
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  It is the big handshaking event, it's the networking event. It's the
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  one that brings all of these people together. And we've got some of our
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  own elected officials who are there right now in Calgary, one of which is
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  Windsor's Ward three downtown Representative and Counselor Rinaldo Augustino. How are you doing,
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  Ronaldo? I'm doing great, John, How are you doing really well?
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  Thank you? You having a good time in Calgary. I am having a
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  great time. I'm learning a lot, I'm seeing a lot. You know,
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  every day is something new and it's been really good. So for people
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  who haven't spent much time at you know, annual conferences like this and trade
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  shows. What are you seeing there? Well, you know, you're seeing
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  a lot of the a lot of the issues that we have in Windsor,
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  when it comes to homelessness, when it comes to housing, when it comes
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  to poverty, addiction. Uh, those are big discussion points that not just
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  this conference, but really every concept every conference I've been to, and this
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  one in particular has had a real focus on downtown's and you know, we're
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  staying in downtown Calgary. The conference is being held at the Tellas Center,
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  which is right in the heart of downtown Calgary. So there's a lot to
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  there's a lot to see, and there's a lot to listen. It's it's
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  been very good so far. Yeah, it's Calgary is a very interesting city.
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  It's it's a much bigger city than us in terms of population, but
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  it is experiencing some of similar problems, issues, challenges, opportunities that we
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  are. What are some of the similarities. Well, certainly the addiction in
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  their mental health is right there, you know, it's something that I think
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  every city across this continent is facing at various degrees. Here, of course,
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  it seems to me that they have a handle on it. There's a
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  much bigger issue here because obviously the population is much big, bigger, but
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  I think they're learning along the way, just like the rest of us are.
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  I think if you would have been here probably four or five years ago,
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  I was not, but I would assume that the issue wasn't as manageable.
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  But I feel that they're starting to get a grip on things, just
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  like we're starting to grip on getting grip on things. And I don't think
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  it's because any of us are smarter than anybody else. I just think as
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  time goes by, just like anything else in life, you get better at
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  managing certain situations and managing certain problems. And I think every year, every
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  day, we're learning more and more about the situation we're in. And those
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  are the things I see in Calgary. I see a strong police presence in
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  the downtown core. I see a unity between all the shelters and the hospitals,
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  and they're all working together. It's a very collaborative effort that they have
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  here in Calgary. And that's one of the things that I want to highlight
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  when I get back home, is that everyone seems to work together. Whether
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  it's the overnight homeless shelter which has now gone twenty four hours that's also got
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  their homeless hub built in, whether it's their safety consumption site, whether it's
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  the Salvation Army, whether it's some of the housing projects, mid high end
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  low barrier housing projects. They all seem to go to lunch once a month
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  and have these great open discussions and work together. And that's something that I
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  know we do, but I think we could do better, and that's something
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  that they seem to really be proud of here. Well, it's you're at
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  a networking conference right now. It's almost like what you are describing within their
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  immediate social services and the whole community effort in Calgary is sort of the same
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  thing, like a networking kind of thing. As long as everyone's staying in
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  contact and on the same page, there's opportunities for better dialogue, understanding and
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  collaboration, i'd imagine, yeah, for sure. And it's not just that
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  end of it too, Like there's other aspects of this conference that I've been
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  able to look at that I'm very interested in too. You know, obviously,
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  being in downtown Calgary, I see that the hospitality industr here here is
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  booming, right, it's booming here. It really I'm so impressed by the
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  way that they, you know, we have these great conversations about actors,
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  transportation and walkable areas and closing off streets and making them pedestrian walkways, and
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  they have a great pedestrian walkway here. But really you can see that it
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  wasn't just somebody who said, we need to have a pedestrian walkway, let's
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  shut down the street and see what happens. No, they plan perfectly for
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  it because basically it's a pedestrian walkway amongst three hundred patios that are all full.
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  That's everybody out there, and it's all dining and hospitality, whether it's
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  a sports bar or high end restaurant. It's really a to see and sandwich
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  Diddles is active transportation, protective bike lanes. But it all serves a purpose.
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  And I think that's the big picture here, is that everything's got to
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  come together and make it work. It's not going to be one thing with
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  the other, it's going to be everything together. And it seems like in
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  their downtown core they've made it work. Here. Well, hopefully you can
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  bring back some of what's working there for us here in Windsor As. There
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  are still ongoing conversations and efforts, of course, with our downtown core to
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  strengthen it. As is the plan you were saying to me earlier that you
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  stopped by their mission. It's it's a big mission. It sounds like,
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  oh yes, so the homeless population at the MINS in Calgary is at twenty
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  eight hundred. Wow, this this facility is over eleven hundred. So that's
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  almost stay in this one facility. And it's not it's not what we would
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  consider overnights there hat times saying this is a place that's opened full time.
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  And I was so fascinated by it because they don't ask anybody to leave it.
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  It looks like a prison from outside, but from inside, you know,
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  the place is sixty five years old and it's a massive building. But
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  they've got different levels, different floors. They've got one section that's strictly for
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  LGBQ that duty, They've got one section that's for high qunity. They've got
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  all kinds of different levels. But what they do have, and I was
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  fascinated to hear it, is they have twenty four to seven around the clock
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  doctors and nurses. And since they instituted that program of having twenty four to
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  seven doctors and nurses around the clock, their calls to police have gone down
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  by eighty five percent, wow, which is just a fascinating number. They
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  have a detox that are right inside the facility, so that when somebody feels
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  that they they're ready to go clean, that they you know, immediately can
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  go upstairs and not wait two weeks for an appointment like it's it's it's it's
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  fascinating to see, uh, this place in all the inter workings of it
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  and how they put all together and this this place wasn't part of the tour
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  myself and concert because dont they kind of really wanted to see it, so
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  we just walked up to it and we happen to run into the CEO and
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  she was like, hey, if you guys want a tour, come back
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  at ten o'clock in the morning. I'm like, absolutely, I'll be there.
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  So really really interesting to see that sound. I mean, listen,
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  we know with our H four hub that we're looking towards the services that are
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  going to be provided. It's that idea of the wrap around services and meeting
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  clients where they're at to be able to provide those services. That sounds it
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  just it makes a lot of sense. You said as well that you stopped
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  off at their homeless Hub, which is a different place. Yeah, it's
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  a different floor. So in this facility it's all together, so it's a
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  different floor. And you know it, I asked, I asked that the
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  CEO actresses is it? How is it having all this in the same facility.
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  If it was up to her, she'd like to see different facilities in
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  different stylos. But she she she knows that she'll never get the funding for
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  anything like that, Like it's it's a pipe dream, right when you look
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  at the costs and the expense that to do something at that scale. But
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  she says, well, she has now works, but their leaf is in
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  the process of expiring. I'm not sure when it expires. But she said
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  that the city has not offered her a renewal for this facility because that part
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  of the what they call it the East Village is now seeing it's being rehabilitated.
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  There's million dollar condos right next to it, so they're looking for a
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  new home. That's going to be a little bit further out now, so
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  as the down as at downtown continues to grow. So very interesting to hear
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  all this a lot of interesting parallels, I suppose to a certain extent,
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  albeit not in terms of the figures. It's it's a big event. You
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  were talking briefly about, you know, just how how great the hospitality scene.
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  Is it sounds like things are really bustling out there. Yeah, they
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  are. Like I we couldn't believe how busy it was last night, and
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  I I was talking to the waitress and I said that there's this Is it
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  always this busy because or is it just busy because of the conference? As
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  she turned to me says, what are you talking about? It's not even
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  busy. So I was like, okay, all right, I haven't heard
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  that in a while. You know, that's that's the way to go.
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  She's like, oh, it's not very busy. And the place was packed,
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  right, so you could tell that. But that's a lot of is
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  that the way that they've built down there downtown. They've got a their downtown
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  here is full of big office towers and they're all full with oil and gas
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  money, right, So it's a little bit of a different piecet here,
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  right. Yeah, they're they are in the uh economic red basket, if
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  you will, of the oil and gas industry. So one thing that I
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  noticed every now and then I come across some flight tracking for or the Prime
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  Minister, and it appears as if now after his trek over to France for
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  D Day commemorations on the eightieth anniversary he has landed in Calgary. Is there
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  a keynote tonight that people are expecting at the conference? Why? You know,
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  there's a jazz Mek thing with here, and I know that there's a
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  lot of fund obviously there's This is the biggest at CM of all time at
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  thirty one. So I wouldn't be surprised if Minister Shrudeau is speaking tonight,
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  And we haven't gotten any notifications that he is just yet, but I'm certainly
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  going to look into it, and if it is, I certainly like to
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  be there. Yeah, it'd be pretty interesting to see what that type of
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  conversation is that he presents to municipalities. They just announced earlier this week a
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  five hundred billion dollar Climate Adaptation Infrastructure Fund, which is a really big deal.
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  Up to a million dollars for shovel ready projects for municipalities as well as
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  up to seventy thousand dollars for feasibility studies. So that would be the kind
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  of thing that you could see him touting and I'd imagine getting a pretty large
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  applause at the event. Yeah, no question about it. So I just
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  got a notifications funny as just as you're speaking, he's speaking at four today.
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  So I'll find out the location and well we'll figure it out for sure.
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  I'd love to be there. I'm sure talking with that love being there
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  as well. Well, there you have it. I need to just quickly
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  correct. I said five hundred billion. I meant five hundred million. Excuse
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  me on that. Er Hey, counselor. I want to thank you so
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  much for your time. I'm going to let you go and get back to
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  the event and hopefully the rest of it all goes well. Safe travels.
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  I look forward to hearing all about the rest of it when you get back.
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  Thank you very much, all the best, Ronaldo Augustino. Thank you.
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  Ronaldo Augustino is the Award three Councilor for the City of Windsor. We
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  will be right back.