Campion appointed regional chair, once favoured amalgamating Fort Erie

Ontario has appointed Frank Campion, the outgoing Welland mayor who once favoured merging Fort Erie into Niagara Falls, to lead Niagara Region with new powers over its budget and bylaws.

Campion takes office November 15 as chair of Niagara’s new 13-member regional council, where Fort Erie mayor-elect Tom Insinna will hold the town’s only seat.

Fort Erie loses half its seats at regional council on November 15, when the province’s Better Regional Governance Act eliminates the elected councillor seat Insinna has held since 2018 and 18 others across Niagara. Ontario passed the law May 7, one week after regional council voted to oppose its strong chair powers.

Campion told then-chair Bob Gale in a February 25 letter that he preferred splitting Niagara into four cities rather than creating a single municipality. Gale’s four-city plan, which he presented to Fort Erie council February 23, would have folded Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake into a municipality called Niagara Falls.

Campion explained his choice in a statement dated March 2 on the City of Welland’s website, citing a consultant’s study from 2000 that he said found Niagara’s two-tier government overly complex and duplicative.

“This preference stems from a more fundamental belief: Niagara needs to eliminate a level of government, the regional tier,” Campion wrote.

Campion dropped his support for amalgamation in a March 6 statement on the City of Welland’s website, saying feedback from residents and Welland council members had shifted his focus. He endorsed Gale’s March 4 proposal to the province, which kept all 12 Niagara municipalities but shrank regional council to the 12 mayors and a chair.

Regional council voted 18-9 on April 30 to back a resolution from former Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop opposing the strong chair powers. Campion, one of five mayors who voted against it, argued that stronger control over budgets and senior staff would make local government more stable.

At his final regional council meeting Thursday, Redekop repeated his objection to the new powers.

“I have misgivings about granting extraordinary powers to any head of government, whether it’s a mayor or a chair,” said Redekop. “Even more so when it’s someone who’s not elected, but someone who’s appointed.”

Regional councillors have taken turns as acting chair since Gale resigned March 11, hours after anti-racism groups said he owned a signed copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack named Campion on Tuesday as one of eight regional chairs appointed across Ontario. Campion served 12 years as Welland’s mayor but did not run for a fourth term.

Campion will propose Niagara’s annual budget and control the hiring and firing of senior regional staff. Those decisions shape the regional roads and water service Fort Erie residents depend on.

Campion will also hold a veto over bylaws he believes conflict with provincial priorities, and council needs a two-thirds vote to override him. Certain bylaws advancing those priorities need support from only one-third of council.

Campion and Niagara’s 12 mayors hold their first meeting as regional council November 26.

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