City Councillor Mark King is back from the annual Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference and feels like this year’s edition had a more political feel.

King says many of the municipal representatives in Ottawa this week were lobbying the government for what they could, because of next year’s provincial election.

King says he had the chance to hear from both Premier Kathleen Wynne and leader of the Opposition, PC leader Patrick Brown on hiking the provincial sales tax (PST) by one percent.

AMO was calling for the move to pay for infrastructure, but the Premier has said they aren’t going to do that.

“I think it would have been terribly hurtful to the local and provincial economy. Senior levels of government are realizing residents can’t continue to pay more. It’s also signalling to all public sector unions there’s a very difficult road ahead,” he said.

King also believes there’s a sort-of taxpayer’s rage where residents are fed up with constantly increasing taxes.

Meantime, the chair of Community Services was also able to speak with the Minister of Infrastructure on the subject of replacing West Ferris Arena.

“We indicated where we are at this point with the arena and the fact we would be looking for provincial help to fund a new build,” he says.

Council will be discussing the issue at it’s September 5th meeting.