A seeming divide between Niagara's smaller rural municipalities and larger urban ones became evident during Wednesday’s open meeting with the Ontario government’s Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy at the Holiday Inn in St. Catharines.
It was the first of several to be held across the province in the next two weeks.
During the afternoon session with the committee’s 10 members and Niagara’s four MPPs, both West Lincoln Mayor Cheryl Ganaan, Niagara-on-the-Lake Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa and Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop all questioned the need for any changes to the way their municipalities are governed, this following Pelham Mayor Marvin Junkin's earlier remarks in the same vein.
On the other hand, Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and his St. Catharines counterpart Mat Siscoe both spoke passionately and urgently about their preference for the abolishment of regional council and the 12 current municipalities in favour of a four-city model for the region.
Zalepa began his delegation by making four requests to the committee.
“One is that we acknowledge, respect and protect the distinctiveness of our communities,” Zalepa listed. “Two, that we budget infrastructure funding for municipalities to achieve housing targets. Three, prioritize shared service funding for local municipalities so we can efficiently deliver services. And four, keep local decision-making at a local level.”
The lord mayor went on to boast of NOTL’s consistently high voter turnout and engaged local electorate and added that the part-time nature of NOTL council makes local politicians more accountable.
“Our governance structure has created this rich heritage, distinctive community attributes and a proven, effective government,” said Zalepa. “We feel it must remain an independent municipality so we can maintain that important blend of cultural significance, economic vitality and community engagement, all of which is a testament to the success of local government.”
Our governance structure has created this rich heritage, distinctive community attributes and a proven, effective government
Similarly, Ganaan told the committee that her community, the 11th of the 12 municipalities population-wise with just over 15,000 residents, would not support a change to one big city of Niagara.
“We are already working with other nearby municipalities,” Ganaan pointed out, speaking of recent moves to share some services with Lincoln and Grimsby. “We would support our existing model but would be open to some changes with improved service delivery.”
Much of Redekop’s delegation focused on housing and the need to build more homes faster in Niagara.
“There seems to be a disconnect between rapidly approving the construction of new homes and the actual construction of those homes,” said the Fort Erie mayor. “Municipalities are responsible for receiving and processing applications for construction. It’s the builders and developers who are actually responsible for putting the shovels in the ground.”
With infrastructure demands often being the reason for that disconnect, Redekop insisted that his municipality of just under 33,000 residents has developed an asset management plan that has successfully addressed the issue.
“I’m proud to say the Town of Fort Erie bridged what’s called the infrastructure gap in 2022,” said Redekop. “I don’t know if there are any other municipalities that have done that. No one else in Niagara has.”
Amalgamation, Redekop insisted, will not get homes built any faster.
Diodati made it clear from the outset that the status quo is not good enough for him.
“This has been discussed for many decades,” he told the committee. “We’re hoping that we’re at a point now that we’re going to actually make some changes. At the Region we have 32 members. I wouldn’t call that good governance. It’s hard to make good decisions with too many cooks in the kitchen.”
With 13 governments, he pointed out, that means 13 sets of by-laws, 13 sets of rules and 13 CAOs.
“That leads to overlap, duplication and red tape,” he summarized. “Time is money, and we use up too much time, which costs too much money. It’s hurting and impeding business. There’s a whole set of rules whenever you move to a new community.”
Diodati said he believed that one day Niagara will be one city, but that should be perhaps 50 years in the future. He stated his clear preference for the four-city model, which would allow for a better balance between rural and urban communities within the region.
“It respects the uniqueness and the commonalities that we have between municipalities,” said Diodati. “I also believe that four cities is better than one because we will still have competition. Competition between municipalities is good. Two levels are too expensive. Four cities is the sweet spot.”
I also believe that four cities is better than one because we will still have competition
Similarly, Siscoe opined that multiple levels of bureaucracy in Niagara have resulted in systemic barriers which have been impeding growth.
“In St. Catharines council voted unanimously in favour of our pledge to build 11,000 homes,” said Siscoe. “As we embarked on this process we have run into issues that have made continued progress difficult. Regional governance results in decisions and resources spread over a large area of 12 towns and cities with conflicting goals. This dilutes accountability for supporting housing.”
Siscoe’s opinion is that the four-city model, with the urban centres of St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland along with the more rural western municipalities as the fourth.
“Creating four larger cities would make reform economically feasible,” Siscoe added, “and would allow for major efficiencies to be created that would allow our communities to focus on the priority that we share with the provincial government, to get more homes built faster.”
Earlier in the day the committee heard from the mayors of Welland, Thorold and Lincoln as well as Regional Chair Jim Bradley.
“It is important to learn from past experiences,” said the former Liberal MPP who spend who sat at Queen’s Park from 1977 until 2018. “Many long-term academic studies have demonstrated that the projected benefits of past amalgamations often failed to materialize, leading to the same outcomes if no changes had been made.”
“Once we start pulling at these threads,” warned Bradley, “the entire system may start to unravel.”
Pointing out that “no system is perfect”, Bradley suggested that rather than a full-on reform of governance, instead a series of incremental changes could strengthen Niagara while avoiding governance experiments that would be costly and distract from the region’s goals.
He suggested the creation of an approvals facilitator or provincial chief planner to expedite construction approvals, a streamlining of the Ontario Land Tribunal appeal process, and the introduction of more provincial incentive programs to encourage the private sector to build more purpose-built and affordable rentals.
Niagara’s opposition MPPs, Jeff Burch, Jenny Stevens and Wayne Gates, as well as PC MPP Sam Oosterhoff, were all in attendance and were given time to ask each speaker, who had exactly seven minutes to present, questions.
“The smaller municipalities were very clear in their defence of their particular communities,” Gates told The Local Wednesday evening. “They don’t have a problem with sharing some services, but they want to have their own elected councils. Niagara-on-the-Lake is a wonderful town with its own character and challenges.”
Gates wouldn’t hazard a guess as to what will come of the meeting with the committee when the process comes to an end. And he added that when he is out in public people aren’t talking about the governance issue to him.
“They tell me they can’t afford to buy groceries, their kids are living in their basements,” Gates said. “Our seniors are struggling to find places to live. There’s homelessness and refugees. That’s what people are talking to me about.”
Gates added that any talk of governance reform expediting the home building process is wishful thinking.
“You’ll have a whole different set of rules that have to be put into place,” he said. “That’s not going to speed up the process. This particular meeting should have been about where we are at on housing. The (regional) chair said today Niagara has 39,000 housing units already approved for development. We need shovels in the ground. This should have been about helping us do that.”
And he said there’s one other misconception about any form of amalgamation.
“All the studies say that it doesn’t save money, it doesn’t reduce your taxes," he said. “The other side is trying to say it will save us money. But the experts are clear that none of the other amalgamations across Ontario and in other provinces has saved any money. Why would it be any different in Niagara?”
Updated to correct West Lincoln and Ft. Erie population figures.
