A Brief News Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper
Posted May 8th, 2026 on Niagara At Large
Well that’s it for a Niagara Regional Council with a Chair and 32 locally election members.
That’s also it for a Regional Council with a Chair chosen by those 32 council members elected by we, the people, across this region.
Thanks to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, those days of local decision making by representatives elected by us are all over!
In the wee, small hours of this past Thursday, May 7th, after many of us across Niagara were home in bed, Ford and his Conservatives used their majority to drive through Bill 100 – also identified by the Orwellian title; ‘the Better Governance Bill’ – despite opposition from Niagara NDP MPPs Wayne Gates, Jeff Burch and Jennie Stevens, and from coalitions of citizens across the region.
The bill means that Niagara’s Regional Council will be reduced from 32 councillors, including the mayors of Niagara’s 12 municipalities, to ONLY the 12 mayors and a Regional Chair appointed by the Ford government rather than elected by those the people across the region chose to site on the council.
The Niagara Regional Council chambers will soon be close to being nearly empty
Further to that, the Bill gives mayors siting on the council weighted votes, meaning that those mayors representing municipalities with the highest populations, like St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland, will have more voting power than those representing municipalities like Thorold, Pelham, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, West Lincoln and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
To top it off, whoever the Ford government appoints as Regional Chairs will have “super powers.” Allowing them to veto or override any vote the 12 mayors may make.
In an arrangement like that in Niagara, you could therefore have the appointed Chair and the mayors of the two largest municipalities – St. Catharines and Niagara Falls – voting together on a motion and it wouldn’t matter how the other 10 mayors voted.
Does that sound like a healthy democracy to you, because it sure doesn’t for me.
In the week leading up to the passage of Ford’s Bill 100, Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, who has been one of the strongest political leaders in Niagara when it came to opposing this legislation, had the following to say at an April 30th Regional Council meeting –
Town of Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop
“I wouldn’t have thought that when I started my political career, and during my lifetime,” said Redekop, “that I would ever be involved in a debate about whether or not local representatives of local government would be appointed (by the provincial government) as opposed to elected by the residents.”
“I wouldn’t have thought,” added Redekop at the Niagara Regional Council meeting this past April 30th, “ that I would be involved in a discussion about whether or not the majority rules, which is something traditional and historic in all of the democracies, beginning with the English Parliament — but here we are today.”
Well here we are alright. And unless some individual or group challenges this undemocratic legislation in the courts, this is where we are going to be for the foreseeable future unless or until the Ford government is defeated and the next party that comes to power in the province restores the local say in our communities that we have now lost.
In the meantime, the Ford government is arguing that getting rid of locally elected politicians will make it easier for its friends in the development industry to build more housing, and more roads and highways where ever they want, as if that will benefit those in our communities looking for affordable homes.
We will see about that.
For more on this, click on the following links –
https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-44/session-1/bill-100
Governance changes approved for Niagara in Bill 100 – 610 CKTB
Niagara At Large will be posting more on this issue later. Stay Tuned!
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