Official Visits 2024

As part of her mandate, the Lieutenant Governor conducts official visits to municipalities across Ontario. These visits involve courtesy calls (i.e., formal meetings) with mayors and local representatives, as well as tours of places and organizations that play important roles in their communities, or where innovative initiatives are taking place.  

During 2024, Mme Dumont conducted six official visits—to North Bay, Orillia, Peterborough, Saugeen Shores, Thunder Bay, and Toronto. 

Meetings with Officials 

Integral to every official visit is a meeting with the mayor. In all six municipalities, Her Honour took the opportunity to learn about the current issues and challenges facing each city or town and their regions, as well as about current projects and stories of success. 

Often, other leaders from various sectors joined these meetings—in Toronto, city councillors; in Saugeen Shores, chiefs of emergency services; in Peterborough, Warden Bonnie Clark, who is chief of Peterborough County council; and in Orillia, Chief Ted Williams of the Chippewas of Rama First Nation. 

Indigenous 

As the representative of the Crown in Ontario, Mme Dumont has a responsibility to advance reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. When she travels across the province, she prioritizes meeting with local Indigenous residents and leaders.  

On her trip to North Bay, she visited nearby Nipissing First Nation, on the north shore of Lake Nipissing. There, she met with Gimaa Scott McLeod and members of his council, toured a community hall and daycare centre, and stopped by Nbisiing Secondary School, where she observed a class being taught in the nation’s language, Anishinaabemowin. In Orillia, Mme Dumont met with representatives of the Orillia Native Women’s Group, a non-profit organization serving Indigenous women and their families; she learned about their plans for a new facility and expanded programming. In Peterborough, she met with representatives of Curve Lake and Alderville First Nations at Lang Pioneer Village Museum, which offers education about the historical impact of settlers on the local Indigenous population. 

In Saugeen Shores, Mme Dumont attended the Saugeen First Nation Pow Wow, where she was honoured to be asked to be part of the Grand Entry procession. 

Education 

Having had a long and distinguished career in education before her installation, Mme Dumont has made education a focus of her mandate. At many of her official visits, Mme Dumont met with postsecondary education leaders to discuss the contributions their institutions make in building skills and preparing engaged and informed graduates. In Thunder Bay, she visited the Roots Community Food Centre, which offers culinary business courses for women refugees and immigrants, as well as food-related immersive activities for high school students in and out of the classroom. And in Peterborough, she visited Trent University, where she toured the Student Centre Career Space and the Trent Centre for Aging and Society—a hub for interdisciplinary research about Canada’s fast-growing demographic. 

Seniors and Aging 

At her installation, Her Honour spoke about the importance of “treating the elderly with dignity and respect” and addressing the realities stemming from an increasingly aging population. Many of her official visits have involved interactions with seniors and those who are involved in their care.  

In Toronto, she visited Bendale Acres, which provides bilingual support for the largest population of Francophone residents of any long-term care home in Toronto. In North Bay, she toured the Nipissing Serenity Hospice, where she invested its founder and director emeritus, Mathilde Gravelle Bazinet, into the Order of Canada, on behalf of Governor General Mary Simon. In Orillia, Mme Dumont officially opened the 55+ Ontario Winter Games, which featured 300 volunteers and 1,000 participants. 

In North Bay, Her Honour toured The Village at Canadore College, an innovative facility where seniors live on campus and students deliver care and lead clinics, in an environment that promotes Western, Eastern, and Indigenous ways of knowing. 

Community Building 

Each of Her Honour’s official visits in 2024 highlighted the importance and power of building inclusive communities.  

Efforts to do so are bolstered by events and organizations that highlight and encourage reflection about local history and heritage. In Saugeen Shores, Her Honour was delighted to serve pancakes at the opening ceremony for the town’s 25th anniversary celebrations. Residents joined past and present community leaders, some of whom presented a lighthearted theatrical depiction of the town’s amalgamation from the communities Port Elgin and Southampton. Mme Dumont also toured the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre, which opened in 1955 on the site of a school dating back to 1878. 

In both North Bay and Thunder Bay, Mme Dumont visited community hubs that offer support to, and opportunities for, wide ranges of residents. OUTLoud North Bay is a grassroots organization that provides a safe space for youth of all genders, backgrounds, and sexual orientations in northern Ontario. It builds support networks and hosts programming to support mental health and wellness. Thunder Bay’s Goods & Co. Market showcases the variety and creativity of local vendors and artists, and the Roots Community Food Centre runs educational and employment programs for young people in their kitchen and on farms. At Roots, Mme Dumont met with volunteers who were serving a community meals for seniors and Elders. 

In Peterborough, Her Honour attended the grand re-opening of the Canadian Canoe Museum in its new, 65,000-foot facility, which houses 600 canoes and related watercraft—the world’s largest such collection. The museum tells the stories of these boats in Anishnaabemowin, in French, and in English. 

During the opening ceremony, Mme Dumont and His Honour, Tony Viscardi, joined community leaders to paddle canoes across Little Lake. She praised the museum’s staff and volunteers for their skill in steering through rough waters—they had persevered when the museum’s first planned site fell through. As Mme Dumont told the gathering, “Sometimes the journey we make is not the one we had planned, but it’s the one we discover we needed all along.”