Dear editor:

Perhaps our lord mayor and council should take a long, hard look in the mirror when contemplating “governance reform.”

At last week’s council meeting, buried at the end of the agenda there was “Information Item 15.1: Council Composition — Lower Tier Municipalities in Niagara Region.”

Hardly the kind of agenda item one would expect to engender a basic change in the structure of our current council structure with no staff recommendation, or public discussion: simply, a couple other towns have jumped off the bridge, so maybe we should too? (“NOTL votes to reduce number of councillors from eight to six,” March 26)

In the town’s reply to the province on March 4 (“NOTL council will fight ‘tooth and nail’ against amalgamation,” March 5), our lord mayor states, “Council has expressed clear concerns that amalgamation could dilute local representation, redistribute responsibly managed reserves and tax base capacity, disrupt responsive service delivery, compromise agricultural and heritage stewardship. Structural consolidation does not automatically produce efficiency.”

Further, “Niagara-on-the-Lake supports collaboration. We support modernization where it is evidence-based and outcome-driven … We cannot support structural change imposed in the absence of demonstrable benefit.”

Where is the evidence-based-outcome driven benefit of reducing council to six from eight? How is springing a change like this on the citizens of Niagara-on-the-Lake with no opportunity for discussion or study “good governance”?

And, now in an email letter dated March 31, nine of our 12 mayors have written to the premier betraying their constituents by suggesting “on the question of regional governance structure, we are united in our support for a weighted distribution voting model that balances representation by population with fairness and ensures every municipality has a meaningful voice.”

Without doubt, the three heavyweight cities will control the region by a weighted distribution system, which will likely be a mayors-only regional council, with Niagara Falls, St. Catharines and Welland controlling the votes and the smaller municipalities footing the bill.

In the rush to appease the bully tactics of Premier Ford’s desire to usurp any sense of local governance by municipalities, our local mayors have rushed headlong into a major amalgamation with no study, no citizen mandate and no planning.

Maybe this is Premier Ford’s ultimate vision for his strong mayors powers?

Bob Gale was at least forthright and open about wanting to abolish our municipal governance in favour of a three-city or one-big-city model.

What a shame these nine mayors didn’t really get what Mayor Redekop was saying in his rejection of Bob Gale and the premier’s three-city design in early March.

Bob Bader
NOTL