Falls turns to public for NPCA board seat
Seven applicants so far for position normally filled by an elected official
Niagara Falls is looking for people who want to represent the city on the Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board.
It’s an unusual step — normally the process is left to regional council.
But recent confusion over how the position should be filled, and how many seats the city might get, forced staff to prepare in advance of Tuesday’s council meeting, said chief administrative officer Ken Todd.
“We thought if the process is going to change, let’s get ahead of this and get the advertising done. Several municipalities have taken the same approach, to be proactive,” said Todd.
As of late Tuesday, seven people had applied on the city’s website. St. Catharines took a similar position and received more than 30 applications from the public.
Niagara is allotted 12 of the 15 NPCA board seats, Hamilton gets two and Haldimand County one. Mayor Jim Diodati is Niagara Falls’ lone representative.
Usual practice sees Niagara regional council choose the representatives, and on the out-going board 10 of the 11 seats were filled by politicians, with one vacancy.
But recent comments by out-going chairman Sandy Annunziata — a Fort Erie town councillor defeated in the October municipal election — muddied the waters.
Annunziata claimed a 1994 order in council, from the provincial legislature, mandates three groups of Niagara municipalities should select Niagara’s representatives at meetings chaired by him.
Under that scenario, Fort Erie and Niagara Falls would share four seats on the NPCA board.
That drew sharp criticism from the public and other politicians, and in an email to Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch the Ministry of Natural Resources shot down Annunziata’s claim.
Current legislation gives “municipalities the clear authority to appoint and replace members,” a ministry representative wrote Burch.
Legal advice was sought for Niagara Falls council, Todd said, and councillors could end up recommending one or more people — from the public or elected officials — for regional councillors to choose from in filling the city’s seat.
Fort Erie town council took a similar step, recommending a private citizen, Leah Feor, as its representative.
The issue of having the NPCA board filled almost entirely by politicians was addressed by provincial Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk in her investigation of the board this year.
She said having politicians as members creates a conflict, because provincial laws authorize board members to “vote and generally act on behalf of their respective municipalities.”
The conflict, she said, is “especially problematic when board members are also elected officials whose municipal priorities include facilitating economic development in their municipalities.”
That could put them in the position of having to choose between economic growth and the environment, she said.