Regional Chair Bob Gale appeared before Fort Erie’s City Council on Monday to make his case for amalgamating Niagara Region into either one large municipality or four lower-tier municipalities to replace the 12 lower-tier municipalities that currently exist.
Under Gale’s proposed four-city model, Fort Erie would be amalgamated with Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake into a single municipality called Niagara Falls.
Gale began his presentation by noting that he did not give local mayors advanced notice the letters he sent out to the mayors and to the provincial government calling for amalgamation.
He argued that having 126 politicians for roughly 500,000 people in Niagara Region simply doesn’t make sense and is standing in the way of government efficiency.
“Status quo does not work,” argued Gale. “We have to find efficiencies, and at the same time we have to make sure we are preserving the identity of all our unique, wonderful communities.”
Gale noted that he is asking for responses to his proposals by March 3 from local mayors and intends to act swiftly in terms of what he recommends to the province.
“The bottom line is we cannot sustain the tax increases that we’ve had, and we will have, in the future,” added Gale.
Gale was met with significant opposition from protestors, who repeatedly interrupted his presentation to Council.
Fort Erie Councillors were given an opportunity to question Gale after his presentation.
Mayor Wayne Redekop asked Gale whether he had been given direction by Premier Doug Ford to pursue amalgamation through a mandate letter when he was appointed Regional Chair back in December, and Gale insisted that he had not been.
Rather, Gale noted that it is part of his mandate as Regional Chair to make recommendations to the province if he believes there are issues with local governance. Gale made it clear that he feels the current system is not working well, causing inefficiencies and high taxes, and insisted that he feels compelled to recommend changes to the provincial government, which is why he kicked off the consultation process with local mayors.
Because municipalities only exist at the behest of the province, and do not have constitutional status, it is ultimately up to the province to decide whether amalgamation into a four-city model or one-city model makes sense.
Redekop, who appeared quite skeptical of Gale, suggested that Gale is going forward with his amalgamation agenda without pursuing any real consultation or data.
Gale pushed back, arguing he’s talked to both citizens and some of the Region’s 12 mayors about the need for amalgamation. Under questioning, Gale said he wasn’t planning on doing any public consultations at the regional level but rather would leave that up to the province.
“I’m submitting this to the province for them to look at,” insisted Gale.
But Councillors, who had an opportunity to question Gale after Redekop, were just as skeptical, if not more so.
Councillors actually voted to support a code of conduct complaint against Gale, arguing that his letter to Niagara Region’s mayors calling for amalgamation violated the Region’s code of conduct.
“I do believe these violate the Region’s code of conduct and I would like to move that Council authorize the mayor, on behalf of Council, to file a formal complaint under the Region’s code of conduct regarding these letters,” argued Councillor Nick Dubanow.
Councillors unanimously endorsed Dubanow’s proposal and came out against Gale’s push for amalgamation, arguing in particular that Gale was poorly prepared and lacked the evidence and consultation needed to move forward.
Ford weighed in on Wednesday and said the decision would be up to local mayors. He said he agrees with Gale that there are too many politicians in Niagara and that taxes are too high, but any amalgamation would need the support of a majority of local mayors.
Jay Goldberg is the Canadian Affairs Manager at the Consumer Choice Center. He previously served as the Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a policy fellow at the Munk School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Jay holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Toronto.
