Gary Burroughs Is Niagara, Ontario’s New Regional Chair

By Doug Draper

Gary Burroughs, the former lord mayor for Niagara-on-the-Lake and veteran regional councillor, is replacing retiring Peter Partington as chair of Niagara, Ontario’s regional government.

Niagara's new regoinal chairman, Gary Burroughs

Burroughs won the Region’s top political job this December 9 in a race that included veteran St. Catharines regional councillor Bruce Timms, former Thorold mayor and newly elected regional councillor Henry D’Angela,  former Conservative MPP and newly elected Niagara Falls regional councillor Bart Maves and former Welland mayor Damian Goulbourne who lost a bid for a regional councillor position during last October’s municipal elections.

The contest was decided rounds of voting by newly elected members of regional council from across Niagara since this region does not hold the regional chair job out to Niagara voters during municipal elections, to be elected at large. D’Angela, Timms and Goulbourne fell out in the earlier rounds, leaving the final round to Burroughs and Maves, which Burroughs won by a spread of 19 to 11.

Niagara At Large posted a piece on Burroughs and his bid for regional chair on December 1 (you can visit it by visiting NAL at www.niagaraatlarge.com and scrolling down to the story). But here is just to recap a few key points about Burroughs with more to come later.

Burroughs is a life-long resident of Niagara-on-the-Lake and was the owner of his family’s Oban Inn up to and including the time it suffered a destructive fire more than a decade ago, and he, with the support of other prominent town residents, rebuilt it.

Earlier than that, he was an active supporter of the former environmental group Operation Clean – a group led by the late Margherita Howe, a Niagara-on-the-Lake resident, and known to some as “one of the first ladies of the Canadian environmental movement” who received the Order of Canada for her tireless efforts to fight against the polluting of the Niagara River and lower Great Lakes.

Later, Burroughs served as chairman of the Niagara Parks Commission, embracing that NPC’s 125-year-old mandate to protect and preserve the natural Niagara River corridor to a point that he fought plans to develop high-rise hotels above the Table Rock area and the Horsehoe Falls. Pressures from powerful hoteliers, developers and other concerns prevailed, however, and for better or worse, we now have a wall of towering hotels lining the area.

As Niagara-on-the-Lake’s lord mayor, Burroughs also sided with residents who were concerned about plans to create a summer orchestra festival on Parks Canada land off the Lakeshore near the old town. There were other powerful interests pulling for that plan but it died last year, possibly for lack of financing.
In his new role as Niagara regional chair, Burroughs faces a region with tremendous opportunities and challenges. Niagara has a great deal of potential but it also suffers from one of the province’s and country’s highest unemployment rates and a good deal needs to be done to build and maintain public services here in a ways that are affordable to burdened property taxpayers.

He has a big task ahead of him and we should all wish him well.

(Click on Niagara At Large at www.niagaraatlarge.com for more news and commentary on matters of interest and concern to our greater binational Niagara region and please feel free to share your views on the news in this post in the comment boxes below.)