Niagara’s regional council voted to hold back its chair Bob Gale from “any further action” concerning amalgamation, while it recognized it needs to do its own review on how services are working and are shared among the 12 municipalities.

The motion was passed at the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Feb. 26, where regional councillors, which include the 12 mayors in the region, shared their stance on amalgamation.

The decision came right before Gale previously said he would send “initial recommendations” to the province on the issue “the first week of March.”

Gale had told the province he was “deeply contemplating” the possibility to amalgamate the 12 municipalities in the region to a one- or four-city model. He also sent out a request to all mayors on Feb. 19, asking for feedback, after which he said he intended to submit his recommendations.

With the regional council’s vote last Thursday, Gale is now also not permitted to use regional resources and staff time to matters regarding the review and amalgamation.

Lots to be done before governance review

Regional council also voted to initiate a governance review to identify “duplication and improve service efficiency” based on data, financial research and public consultation with the 12 municipalities.

Introduced by Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop, the motion was brought to the table after councillors critiqued what they said was a lack of research by Gale.

“There’s going to be more that needs to come before a governance review actually gets underway,” St. Catharines regional councillor Laura Ip told CBC News in an interview Monday.

When CBC News asked for details on how the governance review will be conducted and who will be involved, Niagara Region’s chief of staff Nick Colosimo said, in an email to CBC, they are “unable to discuss” the details due to the motion.

Coun. Ip said she expects a plan to be sorted out in the next few months at the region’s Corporate Services committee.

Thoughts from a mayor against amalgamation

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said last week while he believes Niagara has “too many politicians,” it would be up to the region’s mayors to decide. There has been mixed views from the various mayors so far.

At regional council last week, Pelham Mayor Marvin Junkin expressed his town of 18,000 residents do not “see either a need or potential benefit” from amalgamating to a one-city model.

“It would force residents who prefer a rural and small town living to become part of an extremely populist municipality dominated by urban concerns,” Junkin said at the meeting.

Thorold Mayor Terry Ugulini and Port Colborne Mayor Bill Steele later shared the same view as Junkin, that, as Ugulini says, “there’s low hanging fruit” of regional issues which can be dealt with at a municipal level, such as regional roads.

Junkin said addressing those issues is one solution to help save government expenditure — a main argument for amalgamation — and end “overlapping authority jurisdiction” while respecting residents’ preference for municipal “control over the local affairs.”

Regional councillors say they were left in dark

At council, many regional councillors shared their disappointment regarding the lack of transparency within the council on the discussion of amalgamation and governance restructuring.

“The respect of the regional councillors, not mayors, just regional councillors around this table is pretty well diminished,” said Thorold regional councillor Tim Whalen at Feb. 26’s meeting.

“I had a call from a reporter asking for my thoughts on the letter. I had no clue what letter he was talking about,” said Coun. Whalen.

“[Gale] did not communicate any of this with regional council as a whole,” said Coun. Ip, who found out about the letter from St. Catharines Mayor Mat Siscoe. “I would have found out about this through the media, which is wholly inappropriate.”

“What is the problem we’re trying to fix?” is the question Coun. Ip believes the regional chair and council needs to answer before they can begin a governance review.