By David Israelson
Special to Niagara Now/The Lake Report

If you have the feeling that Premier Doug Ford’s government is aiming to saddle Niagara-on-the-Lake with amalgamation whether we like it or not, you’re not alone.

The clumsy attempt by appointed Niagara Regional Chair Bob Gale to force a quick debate about amalgamation may have set back the dubious cause, but did it?

Gale’s own regional councillors ordered him to stop bugging us about amalgamation, but here we are talking about it — NOTL’s ratepayers, our lord mayor, town council and ordinary residents like me. 

There seems to be a consensus emerging that we don’t want amalgamation. But what do we want? It’s time for our local leaders to speak up. 

For many years, and through many local councils (though not always), Niagara-on-the-Lake has said no to change, with only vague alternatives. Our successive councils have been less good at getting 110 per cent behind visionary moves, though.

Why isn’t there more support for the amazing work the Niagara Foundation is doing at the Wilderness, for example? Councillors should be posing in front of it every day. 

Which brings us back to amalgamation: was Gale’s ham-handed effort a scheme to allow Ford to put Niagara-wide mega-government on the province’s agenda quickly?  

Ford claims no, but he has shown no hesitation about disemboweling other municipalities. He cut Toronto’s city council in half, gave mayors unwanted bossy new “strong mayor” powers, scrapped and rewrote planning laws to favour developers and sprawl regardless of whether it’s good for cities and towns.

To its credit, the Niagara-on-the-Lake Residents Association quickly came up with a position paper opposing amalgamation, based on research into whether it would save NOTL taxpayers money.

Hint: it won’t. 

And Lord Mayor Gary Zalepa has also come out firmly against amalgamation. We’ll see if all this works, or if the province simply goes ahead and ignores the wishes of local people and their representatives. 

The residents association has gathered data and the town has more data at its disposal showing that NOTL taxpayers would be worse off if amalgamation takes place.

There was also a regional report looking at amalgamation done in 2019, which the region so far has refused to make public. Why? 

The bigger question is: Why mash up Canada’s most beautiful town? 

The answer is simple. Ford has a vision of building the Niagara region into a Las Vegas-style tourist magnet that would attract exponentially more visitors than we already welcome.

NOTL likely doesn’t have to worry about becoming casino-ville, but forcing our town to add more poorly planned development could easily be a part of this vision. 

For those who would pave more of Niagara, the logic of amalgamation is that it leads to bold and quick decision-making. It’s harder to commit provincewide taxpayer funds and attract private investment when there are 12 pesky local mayors and governments that want a say. 

We should have a say though. We live here. 

Enhancing region-wide tourism could actually be a great idea if done right. But can the Ford government be counted on this? We need only to gaze at the hellscape Ford has made of Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre to see what can happen when the public is ignored.

It’s commendable that anti-amalgamation voices among ratepayers, NOTL’s council and regional councillors are marshalling their facts to oppose any unwanted moves to turn Niagara into a political mosh pit.

But as we have seen so many times in this era of so-called populism, that facts won’t necessarily matter to politicians who have already made up their minds. 

That’s why it’s so crucial for NOTL’s council to try something it has seldom done before, over many years — show some vision. 

What exactly do we want for NOTL? What should it look like in 10 years? Maybe almost the same as now, only better. How?

Our local leaders should think boldly and speak clearly. It’s time to dream — otherwise, someone else will be dreaming for us. 

David Israelson is a writer and non-practising lawyer who lives in Niagara-on-the-Lake.