Welland population signs remain below actual figure
Even though Welland’s population has increased, signs on the city’s borders won’t be changed to reflect that growth, according to an email from CAO Gary Long.
The issue of the signs, on the border with Port Colborne on Highway 140 and Highway 58, was raised at last week’s city council meeting by Ward 3 Coun. John Chiocchio.
The councillor said the two signs show Welland’s population at 51,000, even though as of 2016 the population was 52,293. He said the sign on Highway 58 is all dinged up and smashed and he wants something done about it.
At the meeting, Chiocchio said he wanted Niagara Region to take care of the signs and have the population number changed.
An email sent to council and the media from Long said he spoke “with Mark Slade in our traffic, parking and bylaw division, and he informed me that these are MTO (Ministry of Transportation) signs and that the MTO will only change the signs if the population has increased by more than 2,000.”
“These signs list Welland’ s populationas 51,000. According to the latest census information, Welland’ s population is 52,293. This increase is under 2,000, therefore MTO won’t change the signs,” Long said in the email.
Chioccho said he first brought the issue up last November, again in December and a couple of times this year, as well.
“I asked someone speak to the Region about them and have it straightened out. Now I’m told it’s an MTO issue … too bad it took seven months to learn that. If I had known that, I wouldn’t have said anything about the Region.”
The councillor said if the population number can’t be changed, because it’s 707 below the threshold, he’d at least like to see the signs upgraded and made to look decent, especially with the city moving to redo all of its signage.
“With all of the great things happening in Welland, the factories moving here … the MTO signs, they don’t look great.”