Dear editor:
If past is prologue, when we look at the slate of candidates running for NOTL council, then the citizenry needs to turn the page on those who have caused so much confusion and rancour in our community.
The newly adopted official plan for Niagara-on-the-Lake, submitted to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs in 2026, bears no resemblance to the one created after a great deal of time, money and effort in 2019. Countless amendments, approved by the previous council, have diluted the intention, direction and scope of how the municipality should grow, without any justification or explanation.
This has led to unfettered growth without any guardrails, leaving the municipality and its citizens dealing with completely foreseeable, costly expenses, and those individuals who put our communities in this position are asking for four more years of much of the same.
How many subdivisions have been built on our agricultural farmland? Land that used to absorb water to grow crops and fruit. How many of these new neighbourhoods were built and tied into the existing, aging infrastructure that was never going to be scalable for the people now living in the region?
Insurance companies and families now bear the burden of carrying the costs of developing without a plan, of a council that shirked its responsibilities, and of developers putting houses where houses shouldn’t be.
Solutions offered in debates, forums or conversations at the doors of the electorate don’t address where water that fills these neighbourhoods can go. Simply clearing the drains doesn’t speak to the fact that development costs have fallen behind, along with infrastructure investments and the trust of people throughout the affected areas.
Dog-whistle slogans of “Taxes are too high and going higher,” “This is the region’s fault,” “I grew up here, so I care more than the other guy,” and “It will be different with me in charge” are meaningless when the question is asked, “But why did you let it happen then?”
Time to turn the page. Time to give new faces and new ideas a chance. Time to say to those who have failed our communities:
Thank you for your service, but watch the door on your way out.
Joe Dias
Queenston
