Fort Erie mayoral candidates clash over key issues at Crystal Ridge forum

All four of Fort Erie’s mayoral candidates vowed Thursday to keep urgent care in town after 2028, but they clashed at a Ridgeway-Crystal Beach forum over how to do it, four days before Monday’s election.

Niagara Health plans to close the urgent care centre at Douglas Memorial Hospital when the South Niagara Hospital opens in Niagara Falls in 2028. Ridgeway resident John Florio organized the forum at the Crystal Ridge Community Centre.

Mayor Wayne Redekop, who is seeking a fourth term, faces Regional Councillor Tom Insinna, Mike Campbell and Juan Liu. The candidates also sparred over building fees and town salaries.

Douglas Memorial 

Insinna faulted the town’s plan to keep urgent care at Douglas Memorial for lacking committed partners at Niagara Health or Queen’s Park.

“We’re reimagining a facility we don’t own,” said Insinna. “Right now, [Niagara Health] owns that building. Right now, taxpayers of Fort Erie are paying for another study to reimagine that, but we don’t own it.”

Fort Erie council voted September 28 to push ahead with its Reimagining Douglas Memorial plan to convert the site into a community health hub with urgent care, and pulled another $118,000 from its South Niagara Hospital reserve for more planning.

Insinna said a plan without funding partners at the table goes nowhere, and urged the town to scout a second urgent care site in case the Douglas Memorial building cannot be used.

Redekop countered that the town’s plan is already in the hands of Niagara Health and Ontario’s Ministry of Health.

“We’re in the process of refining it now through our consultants,” said Redekop. “That is our plan, and we believe that we’ll be successful.”

Redekop argued a Fort Erie urgent care centre would take pressure off the new hospital’s emergency department and cut the time ambulances spend parked outside waiting to hand off patients.

The town has recruited four family doctors in three years by paying each an incentive to work in Fort Erie for five years, Redekop said.

Backup plans for urgent care

Campbell said he would first try to work with Niagara Health, but would push for a 24-hour walk-in clinic and late-night pharmacies if talks failed.

“But if we can’t get to that point, we need to bring in other avenues,” said Campbell.

Liu insisted Fort Erie must keep a hospital and blamed corruption at every level of government for the loss of services, but offered no evidence.

“We have 38,000 people–you must have a hospital,” said Liu. “I (would) not allow them to close it.”

Fees and red tape

Insinna said builders pay about $74,000 in fees before they can start building a home in Fort Erie, among the highest totals in Niagara, then wait more than a year for a permit.

Redekop replied that the town has already streamlined its approvals process.

“The reality is that if a developer comes into town and wants to build according to our zoning bylaw, they can start with a building permit day one,” said Redekop. “The problem is they all want to change the zoning bylaw; they want denser development.”

Redekop said the town has applied to the federal-provincial Development Charge Reduction Program, which would halve its development charges, the fees builders pay toward roads and pipes, in exchange for federal and provincial infrastructure money.

A matching cut at Niagara Region would save a developer about $37,000, but no provincial rule requires builders to pass that saving on to buyers, Redekop said.

Payroll under scrutiny

Insinna, who spent 30 years with the RCMP, pitched himself as an investigator who questions every decision, and said he went through Niagara Region’s budget “line by line” as a regional councillor.

“I’m a digger. I ask the question, why?” said Insinna. “As things come up, as they’re put forward, I ask, ‘Okay, I understand that. What’s the motive? What’s everything behind it, how can we fix it?'”

Insinna said 57 town employees appear on Ontario’s public sector salary disclosure list, known as the sunshine list, which names public workers paid $100,000 or more. He called the number high for a town of about 37,000 people.

Redekop said some people on that list have since left the town, while back pay from a new collective agreement pushed other employees over the $100,000 mark.

Campbell told resident Karen Woodford he had never seen a town budget when she asked the candidates whether they had attended a budget meeting. Redekop said he has attended many, while Insinna said he watches recordings of them.

Infrastructure before housing

Campbell, who moved to Fort Erie from Milton six years ago, said he watched infrastructure there get “out of hand” and warned Fort Erie lacks the sewers and roads for the 2,500 homes planned in town.

Redekop said Fort Erie has “religiously maintained” money for long-term infrastructure repairs for about 15 years, and is relining sewer pipes to save about 70 per cent of the cost of digging up roads.

Campbell called for a halt to new home approvals until infrastructure catches up, and pitched a town-run RV resort he said could bring in $1.6 million a season from 400 sites.

“I know a lot of people have been heckling about my idea,” said Campbell. “At least I’m thinking of something outside the box.”

Power to the voters

Liu, who has lived in Crystal Beach for about 10 years, promised residents the power to force a referendum on any council decision and recall the mayor at any time.

Liu also promised to abolish property tax and save $2 million a month, but did not say where the savings would come from.

What’s at stake

Monday’s winner will become Fort Erie’s only voice on Niagara regional council, after the province eliminated the town’s elected regional seat, which Insinna has held since 2018.

In-person polls and online voting both close at 8 p.m. on Monday, October 26.

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