Five candidates seeking a seat on Niagara-on-the-Lake council found plenty to agree on Friday night.
Infrastructure needs to catch up. Strong mayor powers should stay on the shelf. Residents should be able to see how councillors vote. And more tourism is not necessarily better.
But the harmony did not last all night.
The final council candidates forum turned pointed when the discussion shifted to conflicts of interest, with candidates invoking real examples involving sitting councillors, family ties and business relationships.
They also warned that Glendale is being left behind and challenged how the town has handled — and paid for — growth.
Growth has to pay its way
Candidates were asked to rank investing in water and wastewater infrastructure, services for youth and seniors, and holding tax increases to inflation.
Nicholas Colaneri put the inflation cap last.
He argued “people’s needs come first,” especially water and wastewater, with youth and senior services a close second.
Weston Miller said development charges should be raised to better reflect the costs of growth, arguing existing residents should not be left to cover the infrastructure bill that comes with it.
“As Niagara-on-the-Lake grows, us as taxpayers should see the benefit, not just a bigger bill.”
Steve McGuinness agreed that development charges should increase.
“Growth has not paid for growth and that’s why we’re in an infrastructure deficit right now.”
Gary Burroughs also put infrastructure first but said senior levels of government need to shoulder more of the burden.
“We need to develop a much better relationship — a different relationship — with the province,” he said. “Also with the federal government.”
Adriana Cater-Vizzari said the town must balance desired services with what taxpayers can afford, but argued it has multiple revenue sources and can address infrastructure while continuing to support youth and seniors.
“We can do it all,” she said, “with the right people at the table.”
Glendale cannot be an afterthought
McGuinness said some Glendale residents feel separated from the rest of NOTL and argued the community has been asked to absorb growth without enough everyday services.
He pointed to the lack of a supermarket or drugstore despite the outlet mall nearby and warned Glendale should not become a place where the town sends growth it does not want elsewhere.
“We can’t let it become a suburb of St. Catharines,” McGuinness said.
For Burroughs and Cater-Vizzari, one major need is a high school.
Cater-Vizzari said her oldest daughter attends high school in Niagara Falls and also called for more library, community and employment opportunities in Glendale.
Colaneri said Glendale residents do not want to feel “like orphans anymore” and need schools, grocery stores and other basic amenities.
“We need to pull up our socks and add what they actually need for their lifestyles,” he said.
Conflict questions get pointed
Candidates were asked how they would handle real and perceived conflicts of interest.
McGuinness used his answer to offer examples that sounded anything but hypothetical.
He first pointed to Burroughs’ former ownership of the Oban Inn. He said that if Burroughs still owned it and was voting on an application for a competing hotel across the street, he would obviously see it as a conflict and step aside.
“He has integrity,” McGuinness said.
He then drew a pointed contrast with Coun. Maria Mavridis, who was among the six council candidates who took part in the association’s first council forum the week before.
Mavridis’s father owns Corks Wine Bar & Eatery on Queen Street.
“If I was fortunate enough to have a dad who owned a restaurant down on Queen that had an enclosed patio, I don’t think I would feel comfortable leading the charge and the debate on a patio,” McGuinness said.
Mavridis has participated in council debates over the town’s temporary patio program and has previously faced a conflict-of-interest complaint over that involvement.
The town’s former integrity commissioner dismissed that complaint. In 2025, the town’s current integrity commissioner advised Mavridis that if her father had a financial interest in a future patio matter, that interest could be deemed hers under provincial conflict-of-interest law.
McGuinness then pointed to “a deputy lord mayor” with a first cousin who is a prominent developer.
“Is that a conflict?” he asked.
McGuinness confirmed to The Lake Report that his references were to Mavridis, Deputy Lord Mayor Erwin Wiens and Wiens’s cousin, developer Rainer Hummel, who has brought multiple development proposals before the town.
McGuinness filed a conflict-of-interest complaint against Wiens in 2025 over matters involving Hummel. The town’s integrity commissioner dismissed it, finding their family relationship did not automatically put Wiens in conflict.
Colaneri, meanwhile, said his own first cousin is proposing a development on Four Mile Creek Road.
Although he said he strongly opposes the proposal, he would recuse himself if elected because of the family connection.
“If I wasn’t at the table, I’d be fighting it tooth and nail,” he said.
Miller, a NOTL real estate agent, said he would also step away from a matter if his professional involvement with a property created a real or perceived conflict.
“If I had my friend’s house listed and they wanted to put in an application for a severance — and that would directly increase the value or something like that of a property that I had listed — of course, I would completely step away and recuse myself,” he said.
“Even if there was, you know, a genuine perception that there could be a conflict — I would do it, just out of good faith and representation of my community.”
Enough tourism already?
Candidates were also cool to the idea that the town needs more tourism promotion.
“Definitely not. No, definitely not,” Colaneri said when asked about more tourism advertising.
“We’ve done way too much as it is.”
Miller said his approach is “residents respected and visitors welcomed in that order,” arguing tourism should not come at the expense of traffic, noise, parking, housing or residents’ access to public spaces.
Burroughs said tourism is vital to the town but argued the sector should also help pay for the pressure it puts on local roads and infrastructure.
Cater-Vizzari said the municipality itself should not be doing more tourism promotion because that is the role of Tourism NOTL.
Little appetite for strong mayor powers
Most candidates were unequivocal on strong mayor powers: they should not be used.
Colaneri said using them would mean a mayor had “already lost the table” and “lost the people,” calling it a failure of leadership.
McGuinness said he was “totally opposed” to them.
Miller said he would not help a lord mayor use the powers.
“If those decisions, in my opinion, are contentious enough that someone is tempted to use strong mayor powers — that’s a signal that the public consultation isn’t over,” Miller said.
Cater-Vizzari said she was against their “undemocratic use,” but added they were less of a threat if council could still reach decisions through a vote.
Burroughs instead warned that the province’s move to an appointed regional chair and a regional council made up only of mayors could leave NOTL with less influence on issues such as heritage and the Greenbelt, arguing the town will need a council that works closely as a team.
The candidates also agreed residents should be able to see how councillors vote.
All five backed recorded or electronic voting, with McGuinness pointing to the 5-4 Parliament Oak decision as an example of why individual voting records matter. He later urged voters to check incumbents’ voting records on his campaign website before casting their ballots.
In his closing remarks, Miller held up logs from 3,428 homes his campaign said it had visited, using the stack to underscore his pitch that residents’ concerns would follow him into every vote at town hall.
Colaneri said the experience had given him “a greater purpose” than he knew he needed.
Cater-Vizzari pointed to her four years of bringing “a stronger voice for families with young children” to council.
Burroughs warned NOTL is heading into “very challenging times” and said the next council will need to work as a team, while McGuinness told voters it was “report card time” for the current council.
With Friday’s event, the association has wrapped its three election forums.
Now it is up to voters to decide which candidates they trust to act on the problems the contenders largely agreed exist — and who they trust to make sure NOTL does not lose itself in whatever comes next.
