Niagara regional chair shifts focus away from amalgamation after feedback

Niagara’s regional chair is changing his tune on amalgamating the region’s 12 cities and towns.

In a letter to the provincial minister, regional chair Bob Gale says he’s heard “considerable feedback” and criticism on his initial idea and is now looking to cut back the number of people on his own council instead.

“We are against any amalgamation,” said Mayor of Pelham Marvin Junkin. “We think that the governments of Niagara definitely need a review, but we see that taking place more at the regional level than at the lower-tier level.”

Junkin made Pelham’s stance on amalgamating the Niagara region clear Thursday.

He’s one of eight mayors — all in charge of the region’s smallest municipalities — who penned a letter to Premier Doug Ford Wednesday, outlining a plan for what they call “modernizing governance” in Niagara, including lowering the number of politicians and getting rid of duplicate departments between the two levels of local government.

“We all have a roads department, do we need also at the regional level roads department?,” said Junkin.

It’s in response to a letter penned by Gale late last month, calling for reforms including potentially amalgamating Niagara’s 12 municipalities into one or four cities.

The chair pointed to the 126 elected officials in the region as one of the reasons for high tax increases, inefficient government and a $2.7 billion infrastructure backlog.

READ MORE: Niagara mayors present Premier Ford governance reform agenda

But in his latest letter to the minister, Gale says he’s received “considerable feedback” and criticism, and is no longer pushing to combine the cities and towns.

It’s not clear if the chair is planning to back away from the idea of amalgamation for good — his letter just saying that municipalities are not in support of an “immediate move to full amalgamation.”

The chair’s office has declined CHCH News’ multiple requests for an interview over the past several weeks.

Instead, Gale’s latest letter suggests reducing the number of local councillors for some regions, as well as limiting the regional council to just the 12 mayors and the chair, reducing the number of elected officials by just 35 seats in total.

The new regional council would also be given weighted votes based on their population.

Gale’s proposed system would give St. Catharines eight votes, compared to just one for Pelham’s population of 18,000 people.

Mayor Junkin would like to see a more even system, with between one and three votes for each municipality.

“Then that way if there is indeed somewhere a decision that had to be made, the smaller ones would still have enough votes to overrule the more populated centres,” said Junkin.

The Town of Pelham is having a public meeting Wednesday, where community members can voice their concerns.

The ministry says it’s reviewing the letters it has received.

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