While police services in Niagara were merged under one command when the Region was created by the Province back in 1970, fire services, it was determined, would remain the domain of the lower-tier municipalities.
Even in 2023, a patchwork of public transit services across Niagara were rolled into Niagara Region Transit, which had been established by the Region back in 2011. All the while, fire services have remained largely untouched – at least until recently.
That has begun to change, however, as the spectre of municipal amalgamation is percolating in the background once again as residents in Niagara West get ready to go to the polls on Thursday to elect a new provincial government.
And in a sense, amalgamation has already begun with Lincoln and Grimsby entering a shared fire services agreement in 2021, and just last year Port Colborne and Wainfleet entered a temporary agreement for fire services in those two municipalities to share a chief and deputy chief and explore the idea of permanently shared fire services.
PelhamToday reached out to candidates to get their thoughts on the issue. Five out of the eight candidates on the ballot for Niagara West responded. The other candidates— Aaron Albano (New Blue Party), Aaron Allison (Ontario Party) and Jim Torma (Populist Party of Ontario)—could not be reached as PelhamToday was unable to find campaign contact information for them.
Incumbent Progressive Conservative Sam Oosterhoff said municipalities have already been utilizing a provincial program to help them find efficiencies.
“The Municipal Modernization Program has been used by local municipalities to increase efficiencies and streamline the provision of services,” Oosterhoff said.
He noted that Pelham and Lincoln, for instance, merged their library systems back in 2022.
But some other candidates aren’t so sure it’s such a good idea.
NDP candidate Dave Augustyn said now is not the moment, with the spectre of the Trump administration’s threats to impose tariffs on Canadian goods being imported stateside, to “destabilize our fire services.”
His party is, instead, calling for any provincial government “to work together with businesses leaders, labour unions, residents, and farmers to fight for every job, preserve food security, build local infrastructure, and tariff-proof our economy.”
Liberal candidate Shauna Boyle said it’s best to take a hands-off approach.
“Fire services are better delivered as they are,” she said. “Niagara Region is very diverse with a lot of rural areas that have farm buildings that need specific equipment and trained firefighters versus urban areas where there are different types of needs and special training to address high-rise, utility and industrial fires.”
But Green Party candidate Mark Harrison is not dismissing the idea outright.
“With respect to the amalgamation of the Region’s fire services I would like to see studies on the consolidation,” he said.
Libertarian candidate Stefanos Karatopis, meanwhile, is steadfast in his opposition to the idea, saying there are already issues surrounding the needs of urban versus rural areas.
“It would saddle everyone with debt, forcing taxes to rise (and) making them even more restrictive,” he said. “Resources would be moved around and leaving some municipalities without adequate equipment.”