West Lincoln wins support from Wainfleet
Wainfleet council threw its support behind West Lincoln as it seeks to have another elected official at Niagara Region council.
Mayor April Jeffs said the township sees West Lincoln’s request as a benefit for its own residents.
“Wainfleet and West Lincoln have always felt underrepresented. We discussed how this could benefit Wainfleet. Even though we’re two different municipalities, we’re the most rural and share a lot of the same issues.”
Jeffs said the neighbouring townships consist of cash crop farms, share drainage services, fought the wind turbine issue and collaborate together on rural issues.
“We’re more municipal partners because of the rural connection.”
Jeffs said West Lincoln township Coun. Dave Bylsma came to Wainfleet last Thursday during a special council meeting to ask for its support.
Earlier this month, regional councillors voted 17- 10 to add a member for the growing township.
The proposal must meet a socalled “triple majority” support to pass locally. That means it needed support from the majority of regional council and now must garner support from the majority of Niagara’s 12 lowertier governments representing the majority of Niagara’s population. Each local council will have to debate the issue and vote on it prior to the end of the month for the change to come into effect for the 2018 election.
“They need resolutions from the local councils … and we’ve already had our last council meeting of the year. We had a special meeting set for Thursday and added West Lincoln to it.”
While there was no recorded vote, Jeffs, and Alds. Richard Dykstra and Ted Hessels supported West Lincoln’s request, while Betty Konc voted against it. Ald. Terry Gilmore was not at the meeting.
“None of us really like the idea of adding another person to regional council. We have heard from the public that we are overgoverned,” Jeffs said of the vote.
The mayor said Dykstra felt Wainfleet shouldn’t punish its neighbour for its request, adding council felt the issue was about fairness.
West Lincoln could double in population to 30,000 in the next 25 years and an extra representative would be needed.
Jeffs said it’s doubtful Wainfleet will see that kind of growth. She said for that reason, the township would not seek a second representative for itself.