Noyes calls Gale’s amalgamation plan ‘a lot of bluster with very little fact’

For nearly 90 minutes as Fort Erie councillors grilled regional chair Bob Gale about his February 19 letter to the provincial government recommending some kind of municipal amalgamation in Niagara in an effort to save tax dollars, just one councillor remained silent.

But later in the meeting, Darren Flagg would admit it wasn’t because he didn’t have any questions.

“I’ve remained silent on this a little bit because all of my colleagues asked questions and they didn’t get answers, so I really didn’t think I would either if asked a question,” he said Monday night at the town council meeting.

Councillors did thank Gale for coming to town hall to share his thoughts after last week’s letters, one to Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack and a second to Niagara’s 12 mayors, in which he proposed governance restructuring as a way to save taxpayer dollars.

He proposed in the letter amalgamating Niagara into four municipalities, one municipality or otherwise reducing the number of politicians.

But the niceties more or less ended there, as councillors took turns trying to get a better sense of what Gale’s plan was–he acknowledged at one point it was more of an idea than a plan–what evidence he had that amalgamation would be beneficial to the taxpayer, and what level of public consultation would take place before such a monumental decision was made.

Councillor Nick Dubanow would later in the meeting call the presentation a “fiasco” and Councillor Ann-Marie Noyes said it was “a lot of bluster, with very little fact.”

Councillor Joan Christensen said she observed “a monumental arrogance that flies in the face of any formal and informal democratic process within the Region of Niagara that I am aware of.”

Christensen also sought assurances that unlike in other amalgamations, such as with transit and healthcare, that Fort Erie this time wouldn’t be left worse off.

“Our experience as a municipality is that we run efficiently and in the black and we lose both money and services in any amalgamation,” she said.

Throughout his presentation and the ensuing questioning, Gale repeatedly went back to recent significant tax increases as his rationale for pursuing amalgamation, even after councillors presented him with evidence produced by the Fraser Institute and from other regions that suggested amalgamation did not in fact save tax dollars and in some cases ended up costing residents more.

They also questioned what would happen with some services, such as Fort Erie’s mostly volunteer firefighting complement. Under an amalgamated system, there would be intense pressure for volunteer services to be transitioned to a professional service, potentially increasing costs.

Mayor Wayne Redekop, and others, also pointed out a bulk of recent property tax increases were the result of things outside their control. These include provincially mandated services like policing, which have been a main driver in the last few budget cycles, and the rising cost of materials for infrastructure work.

However, Gale appealed to what he called “common sense” that amalgamation would save money.

“The bottom line is we cannot sustain the tax increases that we’ve had and we will have in the future,” Gale told the councillors.

At the meeting, he also said residents could send emails by that deadline, and his goal is to send a package of all the information he receives to Flack’s office for the provincial government to review and make a decision on.

At that point, he said he assumes the provincial government would perform some level of public consultations, but once again details were sparse.

“I believe they would have public consultations on this,” Gale said.

The regional chair said the question of amalgamation has come up multiple times over the years, and he saw his recent appointment as regional chair to replace the late Jim Bradley as a chance to finally make a decision on it.

“I would not say it’s a Bob Gale flyer, but I would say it’s my mission to bring this in line. I’ve been…on regional council for 11 years and seen that we can’t afford this,” he said.

Noyes had a different take, pointing out that not amalgamating during any of the previous times the issue came up was itself a decision and perhaps a suggestion that amalgamation isn’t right for Niagara.

Local resident Greg Hunter also spoke at the meeting about the proposal, arguing amalgamation would only reduce the voice residents have in the municipal government process.

Hunter said he appreciated Gale’s intent to reduce the tax burden, but suggested, with the afterflow of the recent Winter Olympics still in his mind, that the regional chair may have “got out over his skis” on the issue.

“We’re all in the same team in the sense that we want to reduce taxes,” Hunter said. “What we don’t understand is the details of why.”

In his work life, Hunter said he was involved in process improvement and a common mistake people make is jumping to the solution before truly understanding the problem.

He said there was a common idea in the field called the five whys. Essentially, the idea is, when faced with a problem, to ask why. But don’t stop there. Instead, keep asking why and peeling back the layers.

“If you ask why five times you’ll get down to the kernel of the problem, and then you’ll at least have ideas of how to fix it.”

Stay Informed

Events, offers, contests, and breaking news, all delivered straight to your inbox.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Subscribe