Called it

At the Committee of the Whole meeting on Thursday, February 26, 2026, I opened my remarks with:

I would imagine that the reason these letters weren’t shared with the directly-elected Regional Councillors until well after they were sent and still not by the Regional Chair is because the decision has already been made that the next election will not include directly-elected Regional Councillors, so why ask for their opinions at all.

It is incredible to me the disdain that some politicians have for… politicians. And, every single time I’ve seen this disdain, it has – without fail – been about those disdainful politicians wanting more power for themselves.

And here we are.

Earlier today, although he had been explicitly directed by Council to abandon what he says is a personal project for him, Bob Gale sent the following letter to Minister Flack:

I draw your attention to the second page where it says:

1. Regional Council composition

That Regional Council be composed of the 12 municipal mayors plus a Regional Chair, directly addressing concerns that the current body is too large to operate efficiently while maintaining a clear voice for every municipality.

2. Weighted voting based on population

That each mayor’s vote at Regional Council be weighted according to population in increments of 15,000 residents (e.g., a municipality of 100,000 residents would have six votes; a municipality of 6,000 residents would have one vote), reflecting both representation by population and municipal diversity.

For at least the tenth time since I publicly announced it two weeks ago, I decided last year that I would not seek re-election; however, this is problematic.

I keep hearing from a very small number of people that Regional Council is too large to “operate efficiently,” but I’ve seen no evidence of this myself. Meetings happen, people have their say (on behalf of their constituents), and work gets done.

The notion that “a clear voice for every municipality” should be “maintained” is also problematic. We elect more than one person for our Councils so that different voices can be heard. My goodness, do I need to get into all of the research about better decisions being made by boards (which is what Council is, essentially) and organizations that have a diversity of voices?

There has, in the past, and it was alluded to last Thursday evening as well, been concerns about the municipalities that have more than one Regional Councillor and how they could “out vote” the smaller municipalities, but I can’t think of a time (outside of issues where all of Council voted unanimously) where all of the St. Catharines Councillors have been on the same side of an issue. Now, one guy gets the equivalent of six votes. His opinion is worth more. End of.

Every resident of Niagara should be outraged.