BARRY’S BAY – Madawaska Valley Mayor Kim Love has just returned from a busy Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) annual conference, where she brought several rural concerns to the table. “Everyone knew this was an important conference,” Love said. “Get in on the ground floor, and get them aware of our concerns.” This is the first AMO conference since Premier Doug Ford’s conservative majority government took over. This was Love’s second AMO conference, which was held in Ottawa from August 19 to 22. “The main reason why I like to go to that conference is because we have great access to ministers, deputy ministers and parliamentary assistants for the government,” she said. “With this being a new government, this was our first opportunity to gain access on a number of issues that we weren’t making any traction on with the previous government and we hope to make traction on the new government.” Her first delegation was with the Minister of Finance, Vic Fedeli. “We talked to him about business education tax,” Love explained. “One of our local business people brought it to my attention not too long ago that he was paying higher education tax on his business than he was on his residence.” To read the full story, pick up a copy of the August 29, 2018 Valley Gazette.