Falls suggesting governance review
Niagara Falls is the least represented municipality by population on regional council.
But the city’s four regional representatives are not calling for an additional voice.
In fact, most are calling for a reduction in the number of politicians at Niagara Region as a whole, and a governance review to study the composition and effectiveness around the table.
Niagara Falls, with a population of 88,071, has one councillor for every 22,017 residents.
West Lincoln, with a population of 14,500, has one councillor for every 6,372 residents.
Yet the township has received the necessary votes for an extra councillor starting in the 2018 municipal election.
West Lincoln Mayor Doug Joyner has 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.
Regional council voted 17- 10 earlier this month in favour of passing a bylaw to increase the composition of regional council by adding a member for West Lincoln.
The township then needed to win the support of the majority of lower- tier councils representing the majority of Niagara’s electors to get a required “triple majority.” That has now happened.
“This is nothing against West Lincoln, but I am not in support of it because I feel we are over- governed in the Niagara region,” said Niagara Falls Coun. Bob Gale.
“I feel that regional council is too large, and I think that before we put any more members around any of the council tables anywhere, we should do a review of the amount of politicians and the effectiveness of having such a large amount of them.”
Gale said geography can hamper statistics when it comes to representation by population, and he doesn’t want to use that to justify adding councillors.
“Across the board, regional council is too big to be effective, and I find that mayors support mayors … and it hurts the process at regional council. There has to be a change here. There’s too many people sitting around the table.”
Niagara, with a population of 447,888, has 94 municipal councillors and 30 regional politicians, meaning it has 27.7 councillors per 100,000 population.
By comparison, the Peel region, with a population of 1,381,739, has nine municipal councillors and 25 regional politicians, meaning it has 2.5 councillors per 100,000 population.
Niagara Falls Coun. Bart Maves said he didn’t support West Lincoln’s proposal, pointing to the fact Niagara Falls is the least represented municipality on regional council.
“I don’t think anyone should have more,” he said.
“I think if we’re going to go in any direction, it should be to have less.”
Maves said he believes Niagara Region should be made up of roughly four riding boundaries, similar to, but slightly altered from, provincial and federal ridings, and have two or three full- time councillors from each for a total of eight to 12 regional politicians, plus a regional chair.
“Like, for instance the Niagara Falls riding, you would be a regional councillor representing three municipalities, so you can no longer kind of get parochial about your own municipality, you’re representing multiple municipalities,” he said.
“I’ve believed ( in this concept) for a long time, and I’ve said it many times, although I don’t know how we get there, short of the provincial government taking control of the situation.”
Maves said the four Niagara Falls regional councillors get along “extremely well, and we work well together on a lot of things.”
Niagara Falls Coun. Selina Volpatti agreed about the camaraderie among her colleagues, describing them as a “real team.”
She said she supported West Lincoln’s proposal because Joyner “really feels he needs some help.”
However, in the grand scheme of things, Volpatti said she believes there should be fewer regional councillors overall.
“I’m just hoping that … in our next term we talk about governance.”
“We need a good governance review — people put their thinking hats on, listen to residents and see what they want. When we look at models of change, I really like the three- city model that was proposed in a report a dozen years ago, more than a dozen years ago, so I’m thinking that all that will be brought up in our next term.”
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said he voted in favour of West Lincoln’s request, but “a lot of the vote was contingent on asking the province to have another look at all of our representation.”
“Currently it does not really follow representation by population, and it should,” he said.
“I don’t believe in bigger governments and more elected officials, but at the same time, there’s an inequity in representation. St. Catharines is in the same boat as us.”
Diodati said West Lincoln is one of the fastest growing areas of the region, and he understands Joyner’s “dilemma.”
“We’ve got enough councillors to share the load in Niagara Falls, where he doesn’t, but in terms of representation, for the voting piece, we’re not equally represented. That’s why we’re asking the province, take another look at it for the whole region, and let’s figure out what makes the most sense because right now this doesn’t make an awful lot of sense.”
Joyner has 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.