It could be a matter of weeks until a decision is made on the future of Ontario towns like Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake. It’s part of an urgent push by the Niagara Region’s chairman to consolidate the 12 municipalities that make up the area. It’s a divisive proposal that some say is all about politics.
Four cities, or just one. That’s the proposal newly appointed Niagara Region Chairman Bob Gale sent in a letter to 12 mayors and Ontario’s municipal affairs minister.
It worries leaders of the region’s smaller towns, like Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, who believes communities would lose their distinction and voice in decision making.
“It's really a failure to recognize that there is diversity, that diversity is good, that local government is typically more responsive and better scrutinized by the public," Redekop told BTPM NPR. "Because you're closer to the people. And my experience has always been that the larger the level of government, the less accountable it is to the public.”
The consolidation is being pitched as an efficiency measure, creating cost-savings on shared services and speeding up infrastructure development. Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said that is why it has won his support.
“The current path we're on is not sustainable," said Diodati. "We're having significant tax increases. Our infrastructure is not in good shape. In fact, 51% of our infrastructure is in poor or very poor condition.”
The region’s chairman is going around to various town council meetings to gauge public input, and has set a deadline of March 3.
CHCH TV’s Queen’s Park producer Randy Rath, who’s covered provincial politics for decades, finds the timeline suspect.
“After having observed the way Queen's Park works and the way particularly the [Doug] Ford government works, I suspect that they already know what they are going to do in Niagara, and this is more formality," said Rath.
Premier Doug Ford unveiled his “Destination Niagara” plan last year, an ambitious project to turn the region into the “Las Vegas of the north.” With so much construction and municipal approvals needed, Rath said it would be a political win for Ford to have amalgamated local government.
“They could really push to get friendly mayors elected, and they give mayors strong mayor power," Rath said. "So whoever ends up being the mayor of one of these four municipalities, or the mayor of one big municipality, is going to have a lot of power. They can override council essentially, and they can move through infrastructure projects.”
The proposal would eliminate a bulk of the 126 elected local officials in Niagara, which is two higher than the total amount of members of Ontario Provincial Parliament.
Ford has eyed amalgamation before. Shortly after taking office in 2018, his cabinet commissioned a report to examine streamlining local governance provincewide to a regional model. But Rath said that report was never made public.
Ultimately the decision to do away with several local governments in Niagara rests with Ford and Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack.
Diodati indicated he supports the four city model, with the goal that eventually the entire region is governed by just a single city government.
"I do believe eventually we're headed to become the City of Niagara, and that'll be the reality one day. I don't believe that day is now," Diodati said. "I think it'll be further down the road. And there's a number of reasons, specifically the fact that we've got three urban centers and a lot of rural areas geographically, the region is huge. So as we grow more into each other, it'll make more logical sense."
Redekop is concerned there is not enough data or research to show what impacts amalgamation would have.
"What happens with the regional debt? How does that get distributed among whatever number of municipalities are created? What about the reserves they have? What about their infrastructure obligations to maintain these vast stretches of water lines, sewer lines, roads? How does that get all divvied up?"
Towns and cities in Niagara are no stranger to amalgamation. In 1970, two counties were absorbed into one to form the Niagara Region, and 26 municipalities were amalgamated into the current 12.
