A sold-out Mayors’ Trifecta Breakfast at Colasanti’s Tropical Gardens on Friday, January 9 had the region’s three mayors presenting their 2025 progress and a look forward to 2026.
The annual event organized by the Leamington District Chamber of Commerce brought together business people, municipal staff and charitable organizations for a light-hearted look at local happenings and a delicious breakfast topped off with Colasanti’s famous donuts.
Leamington Mayor Hilda MacDonald was joined on the podium by Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers and Pelee Island Mayor Cathy Miller for the event, sponsored by WFCU Credit Union.
Chamber President Diane Malenfant and Manager Wendy Parsons each said a few words to welcome those in attendance and introduce the mayors one-by-one.
Leamington Mayor — and Warden of Essex County — Hilda MacDonald was chosen to be first to present her outline.
She began by quoting Charles Dickens by saying, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” and bringing that quote all the way from 1859, comparing to today’s world.
Locally, Mayor MacDonald talked about how homelessness and affordable housing continue to present challenges and fears of what tariffs would do to the agricultural industry, the decision to end Leamington-to-Windsor transit, and Leamington’s myriad of road construction over the past year.
When she switched over to the “best of times” scenario, the mayor spoke about new international trade, buying Canadian and made in Canada stickers. She praised the province for providing funding for new waste water systems and major infrastructure upgrades, and the new MRI suite at Erie Shores HealthCare.
A green bin waste diversion program for Windsor-Essex was introduced for the first time, an overnight shelter program at the Homelessness Hub and the $41 million funding from the province for the Northeast Trunk Sanitary Sewer Project.
“The most defining moment for our community (Leamington) this past year was securing a $41 million investment from the province,” she said. “This is a project that will shape Leamington’s future for generations to come.”
MacDonald says that project lays the foundation for about 6,500 new residential units in the municipality, as well as newly serviced commercial and industrial lands, which will also create new jobs.
“This growth is not by accident, it’s by design,” she said. “It’s the product of long term strategic planning and bold, sometimes difficult, decisions made by successive councils for over more than a decade.”
As for the 2026 outlook, the mayor says the municipality is growing in every way. New major projects include the aforementioned sewer project, a new fire truck purchase, waterfront plaza work and a new traffic light at the intersection of Armstrong Drive and Talbot Street West.
Leamington’s building department reported that permits issued in 2025 had a value of $202 million and expected to remain strong in 2026.
Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers then took the podium to speak on his town’s progress throughout 2025 and what lies ahead for 2026.
Rogers thanked his “team Kingsville” for working collectively over the past year and into the future.
“We’ve been a team since day one,” he said. “You guys show up, you work hard, you work collectively.”
Rogers talked about the beginning of this term and how three years ago, Kingsville’s strategy was long-term planning.
“Any policy that served for a term of council, wasn’t acceptable,” he said. “Developing the strategy would take time, thoughtful consideration, collaboration, resident consultation and full buy-in from council and administration.”
He said the strategic plan — A 2040 Vision for Kingsville — was developed at the end of 2023 and they’ve been working diligently toward their goal and the four key priorities that represent those goals: a fiscally sustainable community, a thriving local economy, healthy happy residents and a resilient infrastructure.
He talked about progress and setbacks alike. “After some of our residents experienced flooding during a storm, we launched an investigation and discovered capacity issues in our Ruthven sanitary sewer system and suddenly the things we wanted to do had to take a back seat to what we needed to do,” he said. “Staff and council had to act quickly to find solutions to increase capacity in the short and long term.”
He talked about community events, recreation programs and other community-minded programs, as well as helping the Kingsville Community Food Bank to relocate to the Lions Hall.
For 2026, he talked about it being a year of building. They’ll officially begin construction on the west side collector road, a long term solution for the sewers and begin planning for expansion at their waste water treatment plant.
“These are things that we must do,” he said.
For Cathy Miller, life is a little bit different on Pelee Island, but she remains positive that they are making progress in the middle of Lake Erie throughout this term of council.
“Pelee isn’t really a place that makes a lot of traditional business sense,” she said. “And it is a place still deciding what it wants to be.”
She said the island can be an unusual opportunity for good actors to build with intention.
“Success on Pelee isn’t always measured in traditional business metrics and requires consideration of the greater good,” she said. “For any Pelee business to do well, Pelee has to do well.”
Long term planning is the order of the day and Miller says they are making steady progress, saying their official plan review is in the works and will make sure it’s for the greater good.
She thanked neighbouring municipalities for their ongoing support and partnership and said that Pelee’s relationship with the Ministry of Transportation is strong, ensuring they are at the table for a very exciting time, discussing what a potential new vessel should look like.
She said a shift from farming to commercial tourism is in the works as well, and 2026 will be no different.
“The future economy on Pelee — that can serve Pelee — is commercial tourism,” she said. “The importance of building this industry sustainably and intentionally, is still not yet well understood on Pelee.”
She talked about cycling tourism and being added to the Trans Canada Trail maps, as well as Pelee Island’s birding industry.
Miller says that in 2025, unlimited high speed internet came to the island and has made doing business as a municipality much easier, with access to the cloud now a regular thing for administration.
In 2026, Miller says infrastructure and drainage upgrades are on target and a relationship with the Ontario Clean Water Agency continues to thrive.
Late in 2025, council approved a site study for a new municipal building. They currently work out of a century old home.
“I’m really looking forward to beginning a process that gives our staff and council an appropriate work and meeting space that our community can be proud of,” she said.
