Chair wants in on consultation process
While Niagara Centre MPP accuses Ford government of ‘pursuing amalgamation’
Niagara Region chair Jim Bradley says he plans to be part of the consultation process for a provincial review of Ontario’s regional municipalities announced Tuesday because “it’s incumbent upon municipalities to participate, as opposed to sit back and wait for whatever happens to happen.”
Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch, the NDP's municipal affairs critic, however, accused the province of “unilaterally pursuing amalgamation” through the review.
Burch said “the pattern of this government has been really to impose its will on to governing bodies,” referring to abrupt changes made leading up to the Oct. 22 municipal election.
“They’ve already reduced the size of Toronto council without asking anyone,” he said.
“They’re obviously not afraid to do things undemocratically, and that's what I'm worried about.”
Rather than “imposing its will on other levels of government,” he said the province should be focused on issues that people are concerned about — such as transit, jobs and health care.
Although the province has not ruled out the potential of amalgamating municipalities, Bradley said “there's no agenda that I see yet for amalgamations” within the plans for the review.
“I think that’s wide open, and I think they’ll want to assess what would be positive for each of the areas,” he said.
Bradley said the provincial government undertook a similar review in the in the late 1990s that “had different results.”
“I think the government eventually abandoned it because there was some considerable opposition. There were some major changes that were made at that time,” he said, referring to megacities that were established as a result.
Bradley said the unique characteristics each of the regions, such as geography and transportation needs, must be considered.
Greater Niagara Chamber of Commerce government relations policy director Hugo Chesshire said if the review does ultimately lead to amalgamations of Niagara municipalities, he said “it’s important that we take our time to do it right.”
Chesshire said, for instance, an amalgamated region — there are12 lower-tier governments within — could “potentially make things more efficient, but we have to do the research first to make sure that what we're doing for certain.”