‘It’s been an honour to be a part of the important conversations that are shaping the north,’ says Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association president

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY — Municipality of Shuniah Mayor Wendy Landry, a Red Rock Indian Band citizen, stepped down as president of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA) on April 23 after serving for eight years.

“As I step into my final conference as president of NOMA, I find myself reflecting on the privilege it’s been to serve this incredible region that I’m so passionate about,” Landry says. “It’s been an honour to be a part of the important conversations that are shaping the north.”

Landry adds that she has also had the opportunity to serve as a board member of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), where she served as co-chair of the Northern Caucus and member of the Indigenous Advisory Council.

“These roles have reinforced for me not just how vital our Indigenous partnerships are … but they are essential to us moving forward, these partnerships are the heart of sustainable growth, reconciliation, and mutual prosperity,” Landry says. “Throughout AMO, we’ve worked to elevate Indigenous voices, build stronger municipal-Indigenous relations, and support municipalities in leading with respect, humility, and purpose in engaging in meaningful relationships.”

Landry says the Indigenous Advisory Council has been a powerful space for dialogue, learning, and developing thoughtful guidance on shared priorities.

“It’s clear when municipalities and Indigenous communities work together, our entire region is much stronger,” Landry says.

Landry says she has also served for 10 years on the NOMA board.

“I’ve become the past president, so I stay on the board, which is really good,” Landry says. “There’s lots of work we’ve done, lots of good work, but I’ve been doing some full-time [work at Confederation] College now and doing some other stuff, so it’s time to pass the torch over to someone who has more time to make those trips to Toronto. What I aimed to do was to raise the profile of NOMA in the beginning, and I think we’ve done that.”

Landry says reconciliation was one of the key initiatives she worked on while she was on the NOMA board.

“[I was] working on reconciliation with municipalities and guiding municipalities on how to have friends before you need friends and developing genuine relationships with their First Nations neighbours, working with the Association of Municipalities of Ontario on the reconciliation action plan for all the municipalities in Ontario,” Landry says. “Sometimes we end up in places that we didn’t anticipate, and being First Nations and bringing the connections and the relationships and whatever knowledge and advice I can guide to bringing our worlds together is something that I’m very proud of.”

Landry says she was the first First Nations woman to be elected as a mayor in Ontario.

“(Hornepayne Mayor) Cheryl Fort in the meantime has become the second First Nations woman to be elected — there’s still not a lot of us,” Landry says. “As a First Nations person, we are all about community, so when we get involved in the communities we live in, it brings that voice. It’s really key to ensure that Indigenous perspectives are brought to the table when we’re planning things like strategic plans, like sustainability, like community programming, how to keep our people in our communities, all of that is vital and it’s even more important when we talk about the underrepresentation for First Nations people that are living in our communities.”

Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles says Landry has made great strides as a leader and Indigenous woman in politics.

“And you’ve been an incredible fighter for Northwestern Ontario,” Stiles says. “I know you’re not going very far away, but I do want to say on behalf of the entire NDP caucus, the Official Opposition of Ontario, thank you so much for all that you have done.”

Ontario Liberal Party leader Bonnie Crombie says she met Landry while undertaking Memorandum of Understanding negotiations when she was the mayor of Mississauga.

“We got to know each other and you are a force of nature for sure, Wendy, and we thank you,” Crombie says. “Thank you for your service, you’re just blazing that path for the rest of us.”