The province will once again decide who will hold Niagara’s top municipal post after the sudden resignation last week of Bob Gale, but exactly when the next regional chair will be announced isn’t clear just yet.

The post became vacant on the night of March 11 when Gale, then-regional chair, abruptly sent Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack his resignation letter, effective immediately.

That resignation, which Flack accepted, came hours after local anti-racism groups expressed outrage after saying they’d learned Gale owns a signed copy of Mein Kampf, the manifesto penned by former Nazi Germany dictator Adolf Hitler.

Gale’s resignation means the Region’s bylaw covering what to do when the regional chair’s post becomes vacant automatically kicks in.

Under that bylaw, members of regional council take turns serving as interim regional chair for a period of one specific month of the year each while the post remains vacant, with councillors listed in alphabetical order.

Lincoln Coun. Robert Foster, whose month is March, automatically becomes interim regional chair and will hold that post until the end of the month.

Gale was appointed as regional chair in December by Flack after the post was left vacant by the death of former chair Jim Bradley. 

Within months of taking the post, Gale sparked controversy when he informed regional council members that he intended to push for Niagara’s 12 cities and towns to be mashed together into a different model of perhaps four cities or one large city.

When regional council collectively instructed him to steer clear of any talk about amalgamation, Gale then wrote to Flack to propose slashing regional council from 32 members to just the 12 mayors and a chair, and for half of the town and city councils to have some seats eliminated.

Now, with Gale out of the picture, that proposal appears gone but the issue of municipal government reform in Niagara may not be because Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made it clear he thinks Niagara has way too many municipal politicians at 126 in total.

Province preparing to appoint new chair

CBC reached out to Ford and Flack’s offices to ask if the province will once again be appointing the regional chair, and if so, what steps that would entail and what the timeframe could be.

A spokesperson for Ford’s office deferred to Flack’s office. Michael Minzak, Issues Manager for Flack, said in a statement that the rotating interim chair system will continue “as the government prepares to appoint a new permanent regional chair.” How long that appointment will take is yet to be determined, Minzak said.

After Bradley died on Sept. 26, the post remained vacant except for rotating interim chairs until Gale was appointed by Flack on Dec. 18, a period about a week shy of three months.

This time around, if the post remains vacant, West Lincoln Mayor Cheryl Ganann, Wainfleet Mayor Brian Grant, St. Catharines Coun. Brian Heit and Fort Erie Coun. Tom Insinna are next in line to serve as interim regional chair.

Traditionally, regional chairs in Niagara were selected by members of regional council following a municipal election. Bradley was appointed chair by fellow council members in his first term from 2018 to 2022, but the province opted to appoint him to his second term before appointing Gale as his successor.

Ombudsman investigation ongoing, says councillor

Despite Gale no longer being the regional chair, an investigation by the Ontario Ombudsman will continue, related to Gale’s push for governance changes, regional councillor Haley Bateman told CBC on Friday. 

The investigation was prompted by Bateman’s complaint to the Ombudsman office on March 4, over what she says was a lack of communication by Gale about private meetings he was having around possible changes. 

Bateman said Gale had been leaving out the non-mayoral regional councillors, such as herself, and the public in the decision-making process and holding “closed-door meetings” with the region’s mayors on governance reform and municipal restructuring. 

“These actions raise significant concerns regarding transparency, procedural fairness, compliance with Niagara Region’s Procedural By-law, adherence to the direction of Regional Council, and potential contraventions of the Municipal Act, 2001,” Bateman wrote in her complaint. 

“While chair Gale is no longer with the region, all of those participating… meaning all of the 12 mayors who received that letter [sent by Gale to mayors in February] and participated in meetings surrounding amalgamation and acts to remove councillors privately, will be part of this [investigation],” Bateman said.