Latest Blog Posts

The 2019 AMO Conference is just about to wrap up in Ottawa, and myself and a number of my Regional Council colleagues and a few staff have spent the last three days learning about several issues related to municipal/regional governance, the changes that are coming from the province, and meeting with Ministers and Parliamentary Assistants to advocate for what’s important to Niagara. (more…)

At this morning’s Corporate Services Standing Committee meeting, we returned to the issue of councillor remuneration.

And I had some things to say.

The motion that was before us was: (more…)

To say that issues swirling around the NPCA are contentious and have been for years would be the understatement of at least the decade. This past Thursday, Regional Council took what I think is an important step toward resolving the issues that arose following the appointment of an interim board.

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During the campaign, I promised to:

Bring a motion to have an expense policy put in place that more clearly details how councillors can spend Niagara Region money, what they can and cannot spend it on; outline how expense records shall be kept in order to be reimbursed, and implement a procedure whereby all expenses are to be approved by the Regional Clerk before they are paid out.

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I am relieved to report that many of my colleagues on Regional Council were convinced – whether by personal stories or by the evidence – to vote in favour of constructing barriers on a piece of infrastructure where we’ve seen six deaths in as many months.

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Tonight, Regional Council decided in a 23-4 vote to install barriers on a piece of infrastructure where the community has been impacted by six deaths in as many months. (more…)

It should come as no surprise at all that I have strong opinions about the state of mental health care in Niagara (and beyond) and some of the ways in which we can assist members of our community who are living with mental health concerns. (more…)