Consultant suggests Niagara should have 24 NPCA board members
If a consultant’s findings stand up to legal review, there could be almost as many Niagara Peninsula Conservation Authority board members as there are regional councillors.
“Our understanding of the (Conservation Authorities) Act is that Niagara Region is entitled to 24 representatives on the board — not 12 and not five,” consultant Timothy Cobban told Niagara’s 31 regional councillors at a special meeting Thursday afternoon.
Cobban, a political science professor from Western University, was quick to point out that the Region should obtain a legal opinion on the issue.
But since Niagara appoints members to the NPCA on behalf of the local municipalities, he said the populations of those municipalities would warrant a total of 24 board members.
With Hamilton’s recent decision to double its representation to four, as well as the single member from Haldimand on the board, that would bring the total number of NPCA board members to 29.
St. Catharines Coun. Brian Heit later corrected Cobban, saying he calculated that Niagara should have 25 councillors, potentially bringing the total up to 30 board members.
Councillors referred to the report — that also made recommendations concerning regional committees, and educational opportunities for councillors, while recommending against the long-term appointment of a deputy chair — to the corporate services committee for review. It’s the first of three reports developed by the consultants to be presented to council.
Andrew Sancton, who teamed up with his Western University colleague to develop the report looking into various aspects of Niagara’s governance, said the Region doesn’t necessarily need to have the full number of representatives.
Responding to concerns from West Lincoln Mayor Dave Bylsma, who said the NPCA watershed has a larger impact on his community despite its smaller population, Sancton said although the Act bases board appointments on population size it also gives municipalities the authority “to work out their own agreement about how the board should be structured.”
“That does not mean that through discussions with municipalities and around this horseshoe there couldn’t be different arrangements made where geography might turn out to be more of an important factor,” he said.
Cobban said the “contentious issue” is who should be appointed to the board — regional councillors or citizens.
Sancton said “the overwhelming practice” of other municipalities across the province is to appoint councillors to conservation authority boards.
The report suggested limiting the number of citizen representatives to one third or one half of the board’s complement.
Sancton said conservation authority boards “are governments.”
“They make legally binding rules. They have the right to extract tax money from the taxpayers of Niagara,” he said. “In our view, the people who should predominantly be making those kinds of decisions are elected.”
St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik said the consultant’s findings are “a bit skewed” with respect to the ratio of community members versus politicians recommended for the board, adding hospital boards, the LCBO and other agencies do not necessarily have elected officials on their boards, despite receiving public funding.
“I think you should broaden your scope and look at other bodies that are funded by government agencies that don’t have elected officials on them,” Sendzik said.
But Sancton stuck to his initial assessment.