By Doug Draper
Niagara, Ontario, December 11th, 2014 – Niagara’s regional council has a new chair.
Niagara, Ontario’s regional government headquarters
Al Caslin, a one-term regional councillor for St. Catharines and long-time business leader in the community, swept a four-way race for the Region’s top political job in the first and only round of ballots cast by 30 regional councillors from across Niagara.
Caslin replaces Gary Burroughs, a former lord mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake who has served as chair for the past four years and who will continue to hold a seat for his town on regional council for the coming four years. Caslin beat Burroughs by a vote of 18 votes to seven.
The other two candidates for regional chair – Lincoln regional councillor Bill Hodgson and Thorold regional chair Henry D’Angela – drew three votes and two votes respectively.
In the close to 45 years since Niagara’s regional government was established by an act of the provincial legislature, its council has opted to have newly elected or re-elected members of the regional councillors choose a chair at the beginning of each term by secret ballot and from amongst themselves. That is in contrast to some regional governments in Ontario that leave the choice to eligible voters every four years in region-wide municipal elections.
Political pundits and others in Ontario have debated for years over which system of choosing a regional chair serves the public at large is better. While some argue that the choice of a chair would be more democratic if it was put to all voters, others say that making individuals interested in the job mount a campaign in a region as large and widespread as Niagara would make it too costly for many to run, unless they courted support from parties with deep pockets.
Caslin, in an address to regional councillors before they cast their vote, said one of his first jobs as chair will be a detailed review of regional government operations with an eye to making any changes necessary to ensure Niagara’s taxpayers “are getting good value for their money.”
Over the years, Caslin added, “there has been a lack of vision (at the regional level) and regional government has become all too “comfortable with the status quo.”
Although virtually nothing was said about any need or interest in expanding a regional transit system in Niagara, Caslin has previously expressed his support for more inter-municipal bus services in the region and he promised to pursue efforts, led by Burroughs over the past four years, to work with the province to expand Go Transit services to the region.
Niagara At Large will have more news and analysis on the choice of Al Caslin as Niagara’s new regional chair and what it may mean for residents of the region around a wide number of municipal services in the weeks and months ahead.
The following is brief bio on Alan Caslin, posted December 11th, 2014 on Niagara Region’s website.
Regional Chair Caslin has been employed with General Motors of Canada Ltd. for the past 16 years in several capacities and is currently Facilities Manager for both St. Catharines plants. Before GM, he worked as a Project Manager for a large consulting firm, Acres International, for 15 years.
Niagara, Ontario’s new regional chair Al Caslin
Regional Chair Caslin has served as a member of the Business Liaison Committee, a committee of St. Catharines City Council.
Regional Chair Caslin has been actively involved in youth sports as a volunteer and coach for more than 15 years. Some of the organizations that he has volunteered with include Port Dalhousie Softball, CYO Basketball and Jets Soccer.
He is a member of several community boards including the YMCA of Niagara, United Way of St. Catharines and District and The St. Catharines Jets Soccer Club. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of Meridian Credit Union.
Regional Chair Caslin’s family includes wife Anita, son Kevin and daughter Kelly.
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Niagara At Large 
Congratulations to Al Caslin on his election as Regional Chair. I hope that the issues of South Niagara will not be ignored.
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Well reported Doug, with a lot more detail about both candidates & the vote than the Tribune report, especially about the background of Mr Caslin.
And well said Bill about remembering the quite different issues affecting both South Niagara (and Niagara South, which includes Niagara Falls).
Perhaps Mr Caslin could start by asking for the GO Train to go through Welland to Niagara Falls. After all, St. Kitts & Niagara Falls are already well served by the GO Bus.
What now serves South Niagara? The tax-paid GO Bus has put a tax-paying Megabus out of business & we no longer have service from Port Colborne through Welland to Niagara Falls to St. Kitts. Oops! Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps we have tax-paid Welland Transit & Regional Transit busses which connect the 4 cities?
Who pays the taxes to run those busses? Does it cost a passenger more or less than Megabus charged … without tax support?
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Doug:
This is Not a comment to post.
I just noticed that the clock on your NAL Word Press site is set to Greenwich Mean Time – 5 hrs ahead of our EST. Can you change your settings?
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Now that Fort Erie has managed to get the no show Regional Councll members out of office finally, will we have a voice at Region? Time will tell. …. This new man at Region sounds very promising and a background that includes GM and Acres is what we need here. sure beats the “milk man” that ran Region for about twenty years.
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