By Doug Draper
For Andy Petrowski, an outspoken and quite-often controversial member of Niagara, Ontario’s regional council from the City of St. Catharines, it seems like two out of seven ain’t bad.
Niagara, Ontario’s regional headquarters
“Not a bad outcome: two of my seven questions (funding transit and “One Niagara) are approved for a referendum on next fall’s (2014) municipal ballot,” said Petrowski in a mass email following this past Thursday, December
Those two questions, approved by a majority of regional councillors to possibly appear on ballots in the October, 2014 municipal elections across Niagara will allow voters to give their yes or no on the two following referendum questions:
“Should the twelve municipalities of Niagara amalgamate to form a new “City of Niagara”?,” and, “Should the Region of Niagara fund region-wide transit service?”
If local municipal councils across Niagara agree to include these two referendum questions on the municipal ballot for next October, 2014 municipal elections, a yes or no vote on them may be game change players if more than half the eligible voters across this region actually vote – which is a real question given that recent municipal elections have attracted less than half of all eligible voters.
The question of amalgamating some, if not all local municipalities into one City of Niagara has been a controversial one for most of the more than 30 years this region has had a regional government.
Whether or not a truly regional transit system should be established in Niagara has been a more recent issue for debate.
For your information the other questions Petrowski put forward for a referendum for the nest municipal ballots include:
“Should the Regional Chair position be elected at-large by the people of Niagara versus the current process of election by the Regional Council?
“Should the regional councillor position be limited to a maximum of three consecutive four-year terms of service versus the current unlimited number of 4-year terms of service?
“Should the regional councillor position be a dual-role position serving both at the Region AND at the
respective municipality?
“Should the regional councillor position be full-time versus the current part-time position?
“Should the Region of Niagara employ an Integrity Commissioner to oversee the conduct of Regional
Councillors?
Now Niagara At Large asks you to to share your views on this one. Should we move to one ‘City of Niagara’, and how about a regional transit system to replace the patched-together job of local transit systems we now have? Should some of the other questions been includecd for vote in a municipal referendum?
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post. A reminder that we only post comments by individuals who share their first and last name with them.)
Niagara At Large 
One giant city?
No. For example Niagara Region decision to force composting on all municipalities demonstrates how little urban dwellers understand rural dwellers.
Regional Transit?
No. If ridership supported it, some enterprising resident or visionary outsider would have already done it. Like what local residents did in one Detroit community.
Residents or councilors to elect a Regional chair?
Let the councilors decide. They care. You’ve already said fewer than 50% of eligible voter bother.
Term limits?
Always
Dual positions?
Sure, as long as it’s clear whose side the representative represents.
Part-time politicians?
Always. Get those who only want to serve, instead of those who only want a swizzle-swervant job.
Full-time integrity commissioner?
No. If a politician is dirty, in this phone-cam social media era eventually someone will expose him or her.
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Before voting in such a referendum on amalgamation, I strongly urge all residents of the Niagara Region to look very closely.
A number of years ago, the former Conservative government of Mike Harris forced amalgamation on a number of cities/municipalities across the province. From what I have seen, most have been absolute disasters!
I live in what had been the township of Flamborough. I moved here after the amalgamation, but my life partner has lived here for more than 50 years (yeah, we are old and retired). Flamborough did not have a common border with the old City of Hamilton. It bordered on Dundas, Burlington, Milton, Puslinch, Cambridge, and Brant County. It was a part of the old Region of Hamilton-Wentworth. Anything that was Hamilton-Wentworth became City of Hamilton.
Why?
Simple answer: to bail out the financial disaster that was the old City of Hamilton.
There had been a push to have Flamborough join Burlington or Halton Region, but that fell apart of a number of reasons.
Since amalgamation, taxes have skyrockted, services have not improved.
The crumbling downtown core of Hamilton is a huge black hole, sucking all the tax revenue from the surrounding areas, but nothing changes. People will not go to downtown Hamilton because it is too much like Detroit or Cleveland. Beggars, panhandlers, prostitutes and drug addicts have taken over.
Is the City of St. Catharines leading the drive for amalgamation in Niagara?
Here in our area, it was the City of Hamilton that led the push.
Residents of the smaller and rural municipalities in Niagara must think long and hard before voting in favour of amalgamation.
The larger areas, because of their population density, will overpower the smaller when it comes to dispersal of tax money.
If the residents vote in favour of amalgamation, so be it.
All I am urging you to do is look closely. Don’t buy “a pig in a poke,” just because some politician says you should.
Remember, a promise from a politician is null and void with the next breath he/she draws.
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We need to get rid of the Niagara Region and allow the cities to provide whatever services their tax base allows. The NRP have the same amount of officers as Buffalo PD yet their budget is 140 million compared to 78 million for Buffalo PD.That is a perfect example why we don’t need a regional bureaucracy.The region spends 330 million on salaries which would be better in the cities themselves.
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Yes and the police chief of sleepy Niagara gets paid twice as much as the police chief of New York City …. go figure. So the “pigging out” starts right at the top and all the way to the bottom! All for a job that doesn’t even make it to the top ten dangerous occupations.
That’s why unions need to be eradicated from the public service! PERIOD! A sad state of affairs indeed….
Just sayin……
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I am all against amalgamation.
True story… a long time ago the rural upper mountain of what we know as Grimsby used to be autonomous from Grimsby. There came a time when someone idiot thought it would be a good time to change that. The outcome… 0 upper mountain representation on council…. a riding design that eliminates the upper mountain from having any voice on council….. a council and mayor that are sooooo out of touch with upper mountain issues that it boggles the mind…. What do you think will happen to the voice or needs of all the smaller municipalities? Each of our towns/cities are unique, have unique requirements that require unique attention. No one in their right mind can expect that type of individual type of consideration to be possible with a centralized (St. Catharines/Welland centric) governing body.
With respect to regional transit… I think we all know what I think about that! I get municipal transit…. I get regional transit when you are going between cities like Oakville and Mississauga….. I don’t get sending empty buses for 50km+ trips to cities that are remote from each other! There are private transportation options available. Niagara Falls, St. Kitts through to Hamilton are served by the Go Transit service. If you live in Port Colborne and work in Niagara Falls and don’t want to drive considering moving! Shop and work where you live. Do the environment and yourself a favor! Do all of us taxpayers a favor?
Fixed Councillor terms – Well what would happen if we found someone worth keeping? Good politicians are few and far between! Tough nut! However, I say limit terms. Too many bad politicians seem to enjoy an indefinite seat at the big table.
Integrity Councillor – I don’t know ONE private corporation that employs one or NEEDS to. The fact that the region thinks this is necessary further exemplifies how out of touch and how unprofessional this council is.
Regional Chair – All positions of public trust need to be elected. Simple! Including the Regional Chair.
Just sayin…..
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Answer, I am for one city of Niagara. Too much parochialism has held back this region for years from growth. Each municipality fighting with one another where businesses and head offices, hospitals and everything else should be located. As for the smaller communities, they can still retain their identity. Ask people in Port Dalhousie if they feel their identity was swept up by the city of St. Catharines. When you ask them, they will tell you they live in “Port Dalhousie” and most people in St. Catharines, even in Niagara know where that is. The amalgamation should take place slowly, or by uploading things one service at a time. It’s also beneficial as essential services should be equally delivered by population throughout the region, instead of some municipalities having little or no services in one department, where a bigger community like St. Catharines can afford to pay more for better services. I don’t think it should matter where one lives in the region – we all should enjoy a certain standard of essential services.
Transit should cover all of Niagara in accordance to areas that demand it. People who drive and have access to personal vehicles should not be making the determination here, as there are many populations in Niagara that cannot drive or afford to purchase their own vehicles. From what I am seeing, just by observation in St. Catharines alone, I’ve seen more families including two parent couples, having to use the bus because they could no longer afford to drive. One of my in-laws is also in the same position and both he and she rely on the buses to get them places, including out of town (for her job).
Many people who do drive would also appreciate a more efficient affordable and environmentally friendly way to get around. Many people DO use regional transit. I do several times a month, as well as many others. I know several people who live here in St. Catharines and work in Niagara Falls or Welland and use it regularly, as well as know a few in Welland that come here to work, using regional transit. Yes, and some of these people are drivers and they tell me they appreciate having it as they were able to cut down from two cars to one, or others that cannot drive for whatever reason can now access jobs in other locations. Having it coordinated by the region might reduce some of the duplications that exist, as well as provide for smaller areas that might not need a full transit service but can benefit from something like transcab.. As somebody said, we have other services, we don’t. It costs a fortunate to get from one place to another without it and it makes no sense to allow that to continue to be returned.
As for some of the other questions, I AGREE with term limits, not just for municipal politicians but for federal and provincial politicians too, as well as some kind of recall legislation, so there is an “out” in situations like with Rob Ford in Toronto. The recall legislation should of course reflect a large enough voters so that it doesn’t just become a way to ditch politicians that might make necessary, but unpopular choices – but for serious issues of misconduct, ethics among other issues of propriety.
Direct election of the chair? Absolutely! All regional councillors have to run for their respective communities and the region’s chair only being chosen from among them is not right, as this also adds to the parochialism. I don’t know about the double duty thing. It didn’t seem to fly when it was discussed here in St. Catharines. I am mixed about the idea of full time councillors. In one way it might work for some to keep them focused on their work, but in another, what is next? Pensions for full time councillors? I don’t think any politician at any level should be getting pensions for being a politician; they should get their pensions the same way the rest of us do, saving their money or having a regular job or business that provides one, or just CPP/OAS whatever the case may be. That way, there might be more appetite among the elected to discuss real pension reform as it would affect them too.
An integrity commissioner is needed, but I can’t see a full time job for one here. Perhaps, on an issues based contract, where this “outsider” can review certain issues. I do think politicians get carried away and although they may all join the game with good intentions, mistakes are made and they should be remedied before they become more serious. There should also be some oversight to lobbying activities as well, even at the municipal level.
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I hate to challenge so well crafted an argument, but respectfully the premise that underpins it is, in my view, flawed. When did “parochialism” become a dirty word, redefined to mean anything myopic the author wielding it chooses to imply?
Parochialism is the cornerstone of democracy, keeping our elected officials grounded in the concerns of their voters. It used to mean localism – a word that too has been hi-jacked by agenda driven critics. And this lack of, dare I say “parochialism”, may be why people have grown disengaged from the political process. How often do you hear people say “it doesn’t matter what I think/say/vote … they will do it their own way anyway”.
I challenge the premise that “parochialism”, or more likely you meant to say “self interest & political ambition”, has been the cause of the apparent lack of cohesion in Regional Niagara. I ask you what does Grimsby have in common with Fort Erie?
What you have is a collection of incohesive cultures separated by fair distance, slapped together by provincial authorities who wanted to deal with a small homogenous handful of representatives of similar standing. My goodness but dealing with all those disparate bergs and their bloody minded representatives must seem like herding cats. Or as one humorless editorialist recently put it, what we have in Ontario is not a democracy, but an oligarchy of bureaucrats cowing the poorly informed with the illusion of democracy.
And you can see this at every level in the loss of accountability, the lack of access, the circle the wagons mentality by unaccountable and often unelected “leaders”, unskilled in matters of governance.
Democracy can be very untidy, so the default position of these wanabe empire builders quite often is group-think. This amalgamation nonsense is just a continuation of this drive for top-down command and control.
The laws of unintended consequences have proven over and over again that this type of amalgamation for its own sake, is a prescription for the worst excesses of cronyism, untempered by the very distributed nature of parochialism that provides the checks and balances to sustain a free society.
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Well, two cheers for Andy Petrowski’s “parliamentary” success.
As we see, the items that failed were generally ones that were not specific to St Catharines, and items that generally most communities could get behind. That should be red flag No. 1.
The ones that did pass, however, further tilt the game in favour of St Catharines. Amalgamation in particular is all about consolidating power. And on the surface that would appear to be the culmination of the defacto amalgamation that already exists. Most important services have been centralized. Health Services, School Boards, Waste Management and Police Services just to name 4 have been consolidated to the benefit of St Catharines and at the expense of the 350,000 people that live outside city limits. It is just a matter of time that Fire Departments are forced into consolidation. Then you will see tax based rural services disappear. At least now the fire department manages to arrive in time to save the foundations.
In a carrot and stick political system, South Niagara in particular has been given the short end of the stick without the benefit of the carrot. Typical of this is the 50 years it took to get the 406 to barely beyond the Pen Center and lately Hwy 20. It is unclear if it will ever go beyond the East main Tunnel in any meaningful way in our lifetime.
Mr Middleton, although in a different context, nailed it in capturing the St. Catharines mindset with his “…consider moving.” comment.
This is what we in the South keep hearing – “if you don’t like it, move”.
And Petrowski’s initiatives are a prime example of his consolidationist agenda. “The sooner all us hicks wise up and get with the program, the better off we’ll be.” It is unclear just who will end up being better off, but it is clear who will be further marginalized. And wait till Petrowski wakes up to the state of Welland’s finances – a poison pill to amalgamation if there ever was one. But more on that at another time.
And it is politicians like Petrowski, aided and abetted by power hungry Chamber types with political aspirations like Sendzik and sycophantic scribes like Herod, truly exemplifying parochialism with his disdain for those South of Glendale, who are creating a backlash.
It drives a so-far unfocused malaise, a mistrust, the type of grudging compliance and forced gratitude offered by the disenfranchised.
We cannot wish Niagara Region out of existence, and it serves St Catharines well. But perhaps South Niagara would be better off breaking away from the Region as it stands now and reconstitute “Welland County” as the “Region of South Niagara”.
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The waning days of democracy in Niagara have arrived at the point whereby the empire builders of regional government requests the votes on amalgamation within it’s own bureaucracy. I mentioned to Mr. Petrowski that he should add the question of disolving regional government completely.
Not being totally naive, I knew that would be akin to an oyster in the
punchbowl and not likely included in the discussion. The future of regional transit will be decided by ridership demand and all government officials should be duly elected by the people.
Regional transit feasibility should be directed by ridership. That’s pretty straight forward
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Did “DEMOCRACY” in it’s truest form “EVER” exist in Canada??? In my opinion the only “People” to experience Democracy in Canada were/are the Elites and each day the Monetary gap between the so called elites and the Blue Collared folk widens. The Privatization of our Social Programs by Corporate Owned and controlled Governments where the Corporations become the owners and providers of Hydro, Health Care,the LCBO and a host of what was once our not for profit associations and services is problematic and that is demonstrated by the drastic increase in the cost of those services that is leaving the common folk gasping for breath as they get squeezed to death.
Once again this Ontario Corporate Liberal Government is again, against the wishes of the majority of Ontario Citizens, putting another portion of Hydro One up “FOR SALE” or should I say the true word .,…… PRIVATIZATION.
THIS IS NOT DEMOCRACY……..THIS IS A DICTATORSHIP …Attempting to Cover up for their Malfeasance and poor management
Could an INJUNCTION “PREVENT” this SELL OUT ??????
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