Niagara Region’s newly appointed chair has ignited a political firestorm with a proposal to dramatically reshape local government, and Progressive Conservative insiders say the province may move as early as this spring.
In a letter sent to local mayors and Ontario’s municipal affairs minister, Niagara’s Chair Bob Gale argued that Niagara’s two-tier governance model is failing taxpayers. Gale was appointed in December following the death of longtime chair Jim Bradley.
He said the region’s structure of 12 lower-tier municipalities and a regional government is “unwieldy,” costly and inefficient.