Debbie Zimmerman, the Niagara regional councillor for Grimsby and former Niagara regional chair, speaks at the launch of a pilot inter-municipal transit system in September, 2011. File photo by Doug Draper
By Debbie Zimmerman
(The following column by outgoing Regional Councillor and former Niagara regional chair Debbie Zimmerman is being posted on Niagara At Large by permission of its author.)
I always find the intensity with which people will fight to win your vote during an election campaign interesting.
Because when elected, candidates often turn that support into a personal, one-dimensional focus, forgetting the reasons they were elected – to work to ensure your property tax dollars are spent on services for you. Services you use every day like water, sewers, roads, senior and social services, police, ambulance and public health.
Every four years, and next this Monday, October 27th, we get a chance to elect our municipal and regional government. To choose a representative who understands, I am not just a taxpayer, but a resident. Who understands they weren’t elected by you to bring their political party affiliations, their ideologues or one-dimensional agendas to the council chambers.
Local and regional government is about service delivery and not about party platforms.
Take Niagara’s regional government, for example. In 1974, then premier Bill Davis established regional governments across Ontario as a collective of resources. This was to ensure citizens, whether in Grimsby, Welland, Wainfleet and every other local municipality, would have equal access to common services. Cities and towns on their own could never afford to provide these necessary services.
This collective of communities called the Region of Niagara has worked pretty well for the past 44 years. Most councillors shared a common purpose of working respectfully together for the people they served.
Leaders like former Niagara Falls regional councillor Bill Smeaton, Rob Nicholson, Gord Harry, Peter Partington, Gladys Huffman, Brian Merrett, Ross Hall, Cindy Forster, Eleanor Lancaster, Bob Saracino, Ivy Riddell and many others were legendary for their work ethic, values and contributions in making the lives of their citizens better. They fostered a forum of respect, regardless of any other party or partisan affiliation they may have had. They knew pulling in the same direction was good for Niagara.
Since making my announcement not to seek re-election to regional council, I have been asked the same questions over and over again; Is regional government broken? Why is regional council so dysfunctional?
My response is fairly simple: regional government works when people are working together. On that score, this past term of regional council will not be remembered fondly by anyone. I am sure of that.
This regional council may more likely be remembered by long, un-productive council meetings, staff abuse, verbal abuse of citizens, and integrity commissioner reports, plus a need to hire police officers to attend council meetings to ensure the safety of not only members of regional council, but of the press.
It is unconscionable that anyone would think this is a good use of our property tax dollars or of what you as residents expect of your elected officials.
However, I am not totally discouraged. In fact I am encouraged to see that there are some bright lights, some beacons of hope for a more functional future, who have entered the regional council race, especially in St. Catharines.
But why is it we as citizens seem to pay more attention to the windbags or to the over-the-top antics of politicians who take the liberty to label themselves as self-anointed “watchdogs” for the people.
What an insult.
I never went to regional council to be a watchdog. I went to respond to what services the citizens expected and needed.
Unfortunately, the low voter turnout and general cynicism of citizens is creating a minority agenda, hijacked by the windbags and bullies who claim to be populists for the majority of people.
On Monday, let’s have a high voter turnout. This is the most important chance you have, every four years, to decide who best will serve us as municipal leaders.
Debbie Zimmerman lives in the Niagara, Ontario community of Grimsby and has a decades-long history of representing that community and our region at large – first as a Grimsby town councillor, then later as a regional councillor before she served as Niagara’s first and only woman to date to serve as regional chair from 1997 to 2003. She is also CEO of the Ontario Grape Growers.
(NOW IT IS YOUR TURN. Niagara At Large encourages 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.
On this post, in particular, Niagara At Large’s moderator will not approve for public consumption the kind of venomous, mud-slinging comments from cowards hiding behind pseudonyms that were allowed on other blogs when this same column appeared n the St. Catharnes Standard and its Sun Media affiliates in the Niagara region.)
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