St. Catharines mayor behind the four-city model for Niagara Region

For the first time this year we welcomed the Mayor of St. Catharines, Mat Siscoe, for a look at the future of the Niagara Region.

Siscoe presented his budget last night, where residents will see a 1.49% on the city side.

“On property tax bills, what people actually care about, because of the city changes, if it goes through, it will be a .61% increase on their property tax bills.”

Yesterday, the Ontario Legislative Committee hosted a meeting in St. Catharines about the the two-tiered government structure. At the meeting Mayor Siscoe and Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati made their cases for the four-city model. All of the mayors got to present, all with different view points and Mayor Siscoe would like the province to just make a decision so they can stop talking about it and focus on real issues.

“Governance just sucks the oxygen out of the room. Any time we are trying to have conversations about other issues, the governance conversation just shuts everything else down and we can’t afford that”.

The mayor also talked about GO Train improvements, Mayor Siscoe’s Reading Challenge and the Buffalo Bills.