Niagara mayors ready to play role in province’s governance review
Niagara mayors are uniting to create a solution they hope the province will put into place when a review of how their regional and local governments function is complete.
A statement was recently released and signed by the heads of council from all 12 lower-tier municipalities in Niagara, saying they collectively support “improving governance, transparency and accountability in local government.”
Niagara Region and its municipalities are all included in Premier Doug Ford’s plan to assess how 82 governments in the province are operating, nine of them regional.
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said the assessment, to be led by former Waterloo Region chair Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn, a former deputy minister and Hamilton-Wentworth chief administrator, is long overdue.
It’s been nearly 50 years since Niagara Region was formed and 20 years since the authoring of the Berkeley Report, an analysis of governance reform that was tabled in 1999.
“When you look at the amount of politicians we have in the region, I don’t think anybody would say we have the right amount,” Diodati said.
Admitting as a whole that Niagara’s municipalities are “heavy” with elected representatives, he isn’t sure reducing their numbers would create significant cost savings.
“It’s a matter of too many cooks in the kitchen, and we can’t stick our heads in the sand and pretend this isn’t happening,” said Diodati, who believes forming an alliance of mayors to present options to the province is the best course of action.
“If we don’t come up with a solution, they’re going to hand us their solution.”
Shared services such as water, transit and police have proven to be effective, he said.
Communities potentially losing their uniqueness is a matter he expects will be at the forefront of discussion as the review unfolds.
“That’s where you’re going to get a lot of debate,” said Diodati.
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said it will be a “challenging topic” but agrees that a careful examination of Niagara’s councils needs to take place.
“When it comes to making governments more responsive to the people, this is a good opportunity for us,” he said.
With services being offered and connected across Niagara through technology, it’s vital to evaluate what the best possible system is for government in the region — keeping in mind what taxpayers look for in their elected representatives and how services can be delivered efficiently and responsibly, he said.
“There’s that fine line of what people expect from a government on a service level, and the affordability of government.”
The St. Catharines mayor also said working closely with other municipal leaders on an agreement with the province is crucial.
“It’s about showing we are together on this, we understand our differences, and that we’re going to work toward the common areas,” he said.
Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop brought up the last time amalgamation took place in the province during Mike Harris’s time as premier.
“It was an elaborate exercise that ended up in very little occurring,” he said, referring to when East York, Etobicoke, North York, Scarborough and York were merged into the City of Toronto.
In Fort Erie, there are roads belonging to the town, the regional government and the province. This is an area for which Redekop would be open to change.
“It’s hard to imagine there’s a need for the Region to be involved in roads,” he said.
He said a two-tier delivery of water services has “worked well” in his opinion, but is open to it being given an assessment, along with another “seven or eight” systems.
Stripping small communities like Fort Erie of their identities is something Redekop hopes doesn’t happen.
“It won’t serve the residents or the business community well,” said Redekop, whose town also includes the villages of Ridgeway, Crystal Beach and Stevensville. Welland Mayor Frank Campion said the province’s review is “not unexpected” and agreed there are flaws with Niagara’s two-tier system.
“There is duplication between upper and lower municipalities,” said Campion, citing planning and engineering as examples of what he believes could be modified.
“A lot of it is redundant and a lot of it is time-consuming.”
What he doesn’t want is to see lower-tier municipalities dissolved as a result of the review.
“That’s the government that’s closest to the people. As you get bigger, with a larger jurisdiction, you become slower.”
Several mayors in Niagara are scheduled to meet with the province’s lead representatives on the review this week.