Last month, at the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) Annual General Meeting and Conference, Ward 6 Councillor Alysson Storey was elected as Vice Chair of the Board’s Ontario Caucus. S
he was also re-elected for her third term to the 2025-2026 Board of Directors.
FCM is a strong advocate for communities across Canada, with a focus on a new municipal growth framework and urging the federal government to properly fund our critical infrastructure needs and serves as the national voice for local governments across Canada, advocating on vital municipal issues, Municipal officials say.
“It’s been an honour to serve both my community and my country as a Board member of the Federation of Canadian Municipalities,” said Councillor Alysson Storey, in a media release.
“I have learned so much about important relationship between federal and local governments and have done my best to bring back those lessons to our Council table. To be recognized by my FCM peers and elected Vice-Chair of the Ontario Caucus, the largest Provincial Caucus at FCM, raises the profile of Chatham-Kent even more, and allows me a greater leadership opportunity to make sure our local voices are heard at the federal level.”
“Councillor Storey’s appointment as Vice-Chair is an excellent step forward in Chatham-Kent’s renewed focus on advocacy. It gives Chatham-Kent a voice at a very important table when issues affecting all of us are brought up,” said Mayor Darrin Canniff, in a media release.
“I am confident that Councillor Storey will continue to bring the voice of our community to the FCM Board.”
More than 2,000 local leaders and officials from across Canada gathered in Ottawa last month for the FMC Annual Conference, which featured keynote addresses from Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Deputy Leaders Melissa Lantsman, NDP MP Gord Johns, Green Party Leader Elizabeth May and National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak.
Guided by the theme, “Stronger, Together: Local Strength, National Prosperity”, this year’s conference reinforced the importance of solidarity and collaboration between communities across the country.
A highlight of the conference was the collaboration and strong partnership with delegations from the U.S. Conference of Mayors and the National Association of Counties (NACo), reinforcing the growing role of local governments in international cooperation, especially when it comes to discussions around tariffs and economic impacts at the local level.
Councillor Storey was part of an FCM delegation to Washington, D.C. earlier this year to represent local governments on this issue, and was part of the bilateral meeting with NACo at the FCM conference in Ottawa as well.
FCM also launched its much-anticipated rural report, “The Future of Rural Canada”, a comprehensive road map to unlock the full potential of rural communities.
As a member of the Rural Caucus, Councillor Storey was part of these discussions that led to the development of these recommendations.
Photo from left: Matthew Chase, Executive Director of NACo, Rowena Santos, Councillor, City of Brampton; J. Ryan McMahon, County Executive of Onondaga County, NY, and Mayor of Burlington, Marianne Meed Ward and Councillor Alysson Storey.
