Redekop motion sidelined as province unveils Niagara council overhaul

Mayor Wayne Redekop has spent more than a month pushing for local communities to lead any changes to Niagara’s government. On Thursday, Queen’s Park made the decision for them.

Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack announced on April 2 the province’s Better Regional Governance Act, 2026, which would slash Niagara Region’s council from 32 members to just 13, including a regional chair.

The chair would hold new “strong chair” powers similar to those already given to some Ontario mayors, with authority to drive decisions on housing approvals and infrastructure projects.

The town currently holds two seats on the 32-member regional council that oversees roads, public health, emergency medical services and social services across Niagara’s 12 municipalities. Under the new structure, that council would shrink to the 12 local mayors plus a provincially connected chair, eliminating all dedicated regional councillor positions.

Redekop did not sign a March 31 joint letter to Premier Ford from nine of Niagara’s 12 mayors, which called for a weighted voting model at the regional table and asked the province to pass legislation by May so that voluntary local council reductions could take effect before the fall municipal election.

On March 26, Redekop had put forward a motion at regional council directing Niagara’s chief administrative officer Ron Tripp to consult with lower-tier CAOs and begin a structured governance review.

“We know that this is of some importance to the province, and I think we need to take some active steps in the direction that they want us to go,” Redekop said at the meeting.

That review was to report back no later than April 30. But Thursday’s announcement by Flack arrived before that process produced anything.

Redekop has been one of the more vocal local voices in the governance debate since it erupted in February, when then-regional chair Bob Gale, appointed by Premier Doug Ford in December, sent letters to all 12 Niagara mayors proposing to collapse the region’s municipalities into as few as one or four cities.

In a February 20 town statement, Redekop rejected the pace and process of the proposal, calling for any structural change to be grounded in financial evidence and public consultation.

“Fort Erie has a proud history of strong, independent local governance,” Redekop said at the time. “Decisions that affect our community must be transparent, evidence-based and shaped by the people who live and work here.”

Fort Erie was among eight Niagara municipalities that wrote jointly to Ford on March 4 opposing outright amalgamation and calling instead for an evidence-based review through regional council, not through the chair’s office.

Regional council voted February 26 to launch that review and to direct Gale to stop corresponding with the province on amalgamation.

Gale resigned March 11, the same day a report emerged that he owned a signed copy of Adolf Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf.’

“I think the amalgamation issue isn’t going to be moving forward right now,” Redekop told Fort Erie Radio the night of Gale’s resignation.

The regional chair’s seat has been vacant since Gale’s resignation and a replacement has not been named.

The Better Regional Governance Act has not yet passed. If it does, the changes would represent the first major restructuring of Niagara’s regional government since 1970, when the province combined 26 different municipalities and two county governments into the current two-tier model.

Municipal election nominations open May 1, the first day residents can register to run for local office. Any changes to the structure of regional council would take effect before that deadline.

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