Niagara-on-the-Lake has joined Port Colborne and Thorold in asking the Ford government to slash its council size from eight members to six, plus the Lord Mayor.
Normally, city councils can decide to change member composition on their own. However, because this is an election year, such a move would require provincial intervention.
Lincoln, for example, opted to shrink its council size down to six members from eight, but did so in December, meaning provincial approval was not required.
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Port Colborne, and Thorold have all asked the Ford government to shrink their council sizes in 2026, meaning the Ford government would have to pass legislation to allow it.
All three municipalities moved to shrink their council sizes based on Premier Doug Ford’s regular comments about there being too many politicians in Niagara Region and former regional chair Bob Gale’s move to try to cut the number of politicians in several lower-tier municipalities.
In the debate at Council, there wasn’t much consideration about how much taxpayers might save by cutting the number of politicians at the table.
Rather, there seemed to be a feeling of inevitability that such a cut was necessary to please the province. Some councillors also worried about the possibility of forced provincial amalgamations if municipalities like Niagara-on-the-Lake didn’t move to try to find efficiencies.
“We’re just doing it because the province said it would be nice to do it,” said Councillor Gary Burroughs.
Councillor Andrew Niven seemed to be on the same page as Burroughs, asking what the province’s general goal is in wanting to reduce the size of municipal councils.
Nivens questioned whether the province would have been satisfied if councillors had cut their salaries but kept council size at eight, with Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa quipping that Ford wasn’t at the council session to be able to ask him.
“I think the premier has made it very clear that he’s looking for a reduction in the number of councillors and he’s not having a conversation around the cost,” said Zalepa.
Deputy Mayor and Councillor Erwin Wiens seemed supportive of shrinking the size of council because of Ford’s views, arguing that the premier has made it crystal clear that he’s looking for fewer politicians at the table, even though Wiens also noted that he thought council at its current size was getting a lot done.
“The premier has been pretty clear that 126 is too many,” said Wiens, referring to the fact that there are currently 126 councillors in the Niagara Region. “And we exist at the whim of the province,” Wiens added.
“Changes are coming and I just want to make sure we’re at the forefront of these changes.”
Niagara-on-the-Lake currently has eight councillors for roughly 19,000 residents. Councillors are elected at-large, as there are no wards in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
Province-wide municipal elections will be held this October, with the writ period beginning on May 1.
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.
