West Lincoln is getting its regional councillor
Regional council will grow by one member after next year’s municipal election, despite St. Catharines and Pelham voting down the idea.
West Lincoln received the necessary votes for an extra councillor to represent its township Monday night by clinching support from Grimsby and Lincoln councils in addition to six other councils last week.
The votes of support come just in time for the Dec. 31 deadline to get a new politician on the 2018 municipal election ballot.
“It’s been a journey,” said West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner Tuesday, currently the sole representative from the township on regional council.
“Everybody from the beginning said this can’t be done, there wasn’t enough time. And I just kept going with my council’s blessing until someone told me no.”
This will be the first time West Lincoln residents will vote for a regional councillor since Niagara Region was formed in 1970.
Since July, Joyner has worked to get the necessary support from the province’s minister of municipal affairs, regional council and local councils.
He’s been pushing for a second representative to help deal with the regional workload, which includes committee meetings, and which he’s been juggling alone in addition to his duties in the growing township. West Lincoln is anticipated to grow to 30,000 residents from 14,500 in 25 years.
The only other municipality that has a mayor as its sole regional representative is Wainfleet.
Regional council voted 17- 10 on Dec. 7 in favour of passing a bylaw to increase the composition of regional council by adding a member for West Lincoln.
West Lincoln then needed to win the support of the majority of lower- tier councils representing the majority of Niagara’s population to get a required “triple majority.”
That meant the township needed support from at least seven councils representing half of Niagara’s 447,888 population plus one person — 223,945 people based on 2016 population census data. Councils in Fort Erie, Niagara Falls, Niagaraonthe- Lake, Port Colborne, Wainfleet and West Lincoln voted in favour of West Lincoln’s request for an extra councillor last week. Grimsby and Lincoln added their support Monday.
The eight councils represent more than 226,500 people.
Thorold and Welland councils were scheduled to vote on West Lincoln’s request Tuesday night but the results will not affect the outcome.
Niagara Region spokesman Darrell Neufeld said the Region will send out a memo to all local area municipalities on Wednesday advising them a triple majority has been reached. It means the bylaw to change the composition of council is in effect.
Neufeld said West Lincoln will need to ensure it changes its ballot for the 2018 municipal election to accommodate the new regional councillor position. The province no longer has to get involved.
“I’m very pleased with Team West Lincoln,” said Joyner, adding township councillors took West Lincoln’s request to councils throughout Niagara. “Everybody was singing from the same songbook. That’s good to see. It was a real good team- building exercise.”
While West Lincoln received support from the majority of councils, it got a cold reception in St. Catharines Monday night.
Its city council voted 10- 2 against the addition of a regional councillor, with only Mayor Walter Sendzik and St. George’s Coun. Sal Sorrento in support.
PortDalhousie Coun. Bruce Williamson said the request would put West Lincoln’s representation by population at the Region at one regional councillor for every 7,250 people. St. Catharines, by comparison, has one representative for every 19,016 people with its seven councillors.
“I’m lost as to how this could be in any way fair to the people in St. Catharines,” Williamson told Joyner during a presentation.
Joyner said he was following his mandate.
“Perhaps it isn’t fair to the citizens of St. Catharines, but right now I have a mandate from my constituents of West Lincoln, from my council, and that is to go out and get another regional councillor and that’s exactly what I’m doing,” he said.
St. George’s Coun. Mike Britton questioned why another councillor should be added when Niagara is most over- governed region in Ontario and perhaps in Canada by population per capita.
“Why do you want to push it even further to over- governance, in my opinion wasteful spending, when we don’t need that many politicians, instead of going towards the middle where it should be in the average?” Britton asked.
Joyner said West Lincoln supports a governance review and will ask for a change in the composition of regional government, but right now it needs another regional councillor.