West Lincoln’s extra rep request in to province
West Lincoln’s mayor planned to move forward with his request for an extra Niagara regional councillor for the township Monday during a face-to-face meeting with Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs.
Douglas Joyner was scheduled to meet with Minister Bill Mauro Monday at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference in Ottawa, where local politicians and those throughout the province are gathered until Wednesday.
Joyner’s request to change the composition of Regional council by adding an extra member was emailed to the minister on July 21.
“I wanted the opportunity just to put the letter in his hand and more or less say to him, ‘Look, West Lincoln is ready to go. The Niagara Region has given its blessing’,” Joyner said Monday by phone from Ottawa. “Please sooner than later sign off on this, so that we can begin the next steps.”
Joyner told Regional council on July 21 that he wanted another regional representative for West Lincoln because its population is anticipated to double in the next 25 years.
West Lincoln and Wainfleet are the only two municipalities in the region with only one representative on regional council — their mayors.
The 31-member body is made up of the chair, 12 mayors and 18 members elected from 10 Niagara municipalities.
Niagara Regional council agreed to ask the province for permission to begin the process to change the size of council.
If the province grants that authority, the region would have to hold at least one public meeting. It would then have to go through a “triple majority” process. A majority of regional councillors would have support the idea and the majority of Niagara’s 12 municipalities, representing the majority of the population, would have to support it.
That’ s sure to set off debate within the various municipalities.
St. Catharines city councillor Bruce Williamson, who represents Port Dalhousie, is already planning to ask for a city staff report at the city’s Aug. 21 meeting in anticipation of the issue coming to council.
Williamson said St. Catharines citizens are under-represented at the Region and city council needs factual information about the state of representation by population in Niagara Regional government when it deals with Joyner’s request.
He said Pelham received an extra seat a few years ago and at the time St. Catharines was told the inequity it faced would be addressed next.
“It never was,” he said. “Now we’ve got an even smaller town with much superior representation comparatively, wanting another seat to get even more representation. It flies in the face of common sense.”
While Williamson said he’s in favour of representation by population, he doesn’t think the region needs more politicians. He said there may be another governance model they can explore, but it won’t be in time for the next election.
St. Catharines has six regional councillors plus the mayor. Its 2016 population was 133,113, compared to West Lincoln’s 14,500.
Joyner is aiming to have the process for an extra West Lincoln councillor done by Dec. 31, which is the deadline for changes for the 2018 election.