St. Catharines meeting committee witness material: Study on Regional governance as overseen by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Statement by Pelham Mayor Marvin Junkin
Good morning,
As Mayor of Pelham, it is my pleasure to speak to you today on behalf of the municipality that I serve. The community of Pelham has shown their continued trust in me, electing me once as a councillor and then twice more as their Mayor.
Within my roles, I have always been dedicated to advocating on behalf of the over 18,000 local residents who call the Town of Pelham home. Pelham is a wonderful community with continuous growth, reasonable taxes, and deeply caring residents who love living here. Pelham residents value local input in the community that they live and have continued to be engaged in the planning decisions, development of recreational services, and the public services that impact their daily lives.
Residents in Pelham do not want to live in a city or be part of a larger community, they chose to live in a small, progressive place and want it to stay that way. Residents have shared that they fear that a potential amalgamation will mean their voices will be drowned out by the crowds of larger population centers within the Region and the benefits of our smaller local community would be lost.
Our continued success in Pelham and the high-quality of life the community expects and enjoys depends on truly local leadership. The leadership in Pelham is from both municipal government and from the many service clubs and community groups who work together to create a caring and active community. These groups and dedicated volunteers collaborate with the town frequently to offer festivals and events fitting to Pelham, which reflect the local culture and history. If part of a larger community, I fear we will lose our unique ability to host local community events like the award-winning Pelham Summerfest.
Having spent my entire life in Pelham as a dairy farmer, I am also particularly concerned with how the agricultural communities in other amalgamations have been negatively affected by those decisions.
These communities have suffered from a loss of representation and loss of their unique identity, as they have been overshadowed by nearby urban centres. I would hate to see this fate repeated within the Niagara Region, with decisions that would impact the unique and varied Pelham agricultural communities being made by those in large city centres who would not share the same appreciation as those who are actively growing and farming in Pelham.
The Town is actively seeking ways to address the housing crisis. With over a 20-year history of a streamlined approval processes between the Town and the Region, Pelham is positioned to continue to support housing growth. In 2023 alone the town’s population grew by 3.19 percent. Looking to the future, the Pelham has currently approved more than 1,000 housing units of all types, including apartments, townhouses, condos, duplexes, and single-family homes.
Once new residents move into these units, Pelham will grow by approximately 14 percent. We do not expect to slow down this pace, and are continuing to find gentle-density options that allow for population growth without negative impacts to current residents.
Our municipality must be able to continue to offer highly responsive, personal, local services to residents. And while Pelham has an incredible capacity to operate independently, as a Town we also recognize the benefits and balance that have be achieved through the cooperation with neighboring municipalities. I’m proud to say that collaborative efforts Pelham has participating in to reduce costs and increase government efficiency have been a great success.
The Lincoln-Pelham Public Library is a key example of how this collaborative relationship can be done successfully. By joining together, the two libraries were able to save $130,000 in administrative salaries. This money was all poured back into frontline service and library materials, keeping the same cost for operation but providing a much-improved service level for residents.
Similarly, Pelham shares a Town Solicitor with the Township of Wainfleet. This has reduced costs for both municipalities and improved institutional capacity. While neither of our municipalities were large enough to have a staff lawyer on its own, together we benefit from the collaboration.
Looking to the future, the Towns of Pelham and Lincoln will share an environmental policy and climate change employee starting in 2024 to assist both in delivering green services to residents. Other negotiations are also currently in place to establish a way to share purchasing services and building inspection services with other Niagara Region municipalities.
While these are works in progress, and it is too soon to make an official announcement, we firmly believe these steps and others will help lower costs to residents while increasing the efficiency of staff and improve services for the community. These examples clearly demonstrate that even small municipalities can maintain independent status and still work towards larger collaborative goals with the best interest of the whole region in mind.
If the government of Ontario is committed to making changes in the Niagara Region, I ask that they review opportunities for improvements within the water system and roads operations. These services are areas where both the Niagara Region and local municipalities play a role in.
Perhaps one option for review would be for the Niagara Region to handle all water services, while local municipalities maintain all roads. This division of labour would reduce the amount of people all working on one service, and also respect the end goal of allowing municipalities to make decisions in the best interest of their residents.
Pelham continues to be positioned now and in the future, to offer highly responsive services to residents while balancing the benefits of shared service opportunities that support the communities local decision making.