LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche and Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald plan to push regional priorities.
Essex County will have two seats on the Association of Municipalities of Ontario’s board of directors this term.
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LaSalle Mayor Crystal Meloche and Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald, who is also warden of Essex County, were selected during the AMO Annual Conference in Ottawa this week.
Both women are seeking re-election in their municipalities this fall, though MacDonald has said she will not run for warden.
For the 2026-28 AMO board term, Meloche will serve on the Small Urban Caucus, and MacDonald on the County Caucus.
“It means a lot when your peers have confidence in you,” Meloche told the Star during a phone call on the drive back from Ottawa.
As a member of the AMO board, she said she hopes to highlight the concerns of small, urban municipalities like hers — ones that fall “in the middle” of big cities and rural municipalities and are sometimes left out of grant opportunities — during conversations with Ontario ministers around the table.
For example, Meloche said, the Town of LaSalle is one of 56 municipalities not eligible for the Ontario Municipal Partnership Fund, the province’s main general assistance grant. This year, the Town of Essex received roughly $4.4 million from the fund, and the City of Windsor received $25.3 million. Lakeshore, Amherstburg, Leamington, Tecumseh, and Kingsville all received funding from the envelope.
“It does make a difference when it comes to budget time when you don’t get that funding,” Meloche said. “There are definitely a lot of things I’m hoping to bring to the table and to talk to them about.”
MacDonald previously served on the AMO board for six years: two as a member of the Small Urban Caucus, two as vice chair, and two as chair. She told the Star she stepped away while performing her duties as Essex County warden, but was asked to run for the board again this term. This time, she’ll add her voice to the County Caucus.
“It’s a great opportunity to bring our particular . . . point of view to the table, because we are different than the other counties in the province,” MacDonald said.
AMO “carries a lot of weight with the upper levels of government,” particularly the Government of Ontario. “And when you sit on that board, there is an amount of influence there.
“It benefits the county, but it also benefits the municipality because I can bring our points of view to the table as well. We have opportunity to speak on all different issues that aren’t always just particular to the caucus.
