an earlier brief<\/a> that provided information and options for possible amalgamations in Niagara in response to the Ontario government\u2019s examination of how decisions are being made, and services being delivered, in some two-tier municipal systems.<\/p>\nA major concern was that the Ontario government would force its own amalgamation and re-structuring plans on municipalities. In late October, the provincial government announced there would be no forced amalgamations, instead leaving it up to municipalities to identify changes they think need to be made.<\/p>\n
The most recent NCO brief analyzes an array of perceptions and criticisms of the Niagara Region\u2019s governance system and municipalities within the region.<\/p>\n
Controversial areas include the number of councillors \u2014 126 in the 13 local governments in Niagara \u2014 a relatively heavy presence when compared to much larger populations, such as Halton and Peel. There\u2019s also a general perception of too much duplication among governance bodies.<\/p>\n
The brief suggests that an excessive amount of time and energy have been wasted on \u201cmindless complaining\u201d centred on councillor numbers and vague notions of inefficiencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Niagara could put aside phantom discussions about council size and general complaints about overlap and duplication and instead focus on organizing these two related areas that really need attention, surely some working arrangement could be developed,\u201d says the brief.<\/p>\n
People who live in Niagara should start with fresh eyes on identifying problems and then seeking solutions for those problems, says the brief.<\/p>\n
This could be accomplished by an \u201cAll-Niagara Summit\u201d in which a wide selection of people representing many different sectors of the region would come together to address a simple question: \u201cHow do we make Niagara a better place to live?\u201d<\/p>\n
The group could then propose methods of moving toward the improvements they identify.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for Niagara to control its own destiny,\u201d says Siegel. \u201cWe need to get past old differences and look to the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new Niagara Community Observatory (NCO) research brief says now that the Ontario government has taken a hands-off approach to regional governance structures, it\u2019s time for Niagara to reflect and further examine potential changes it would like to see.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":57488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3319,1,5],"tags":[2897,4104,522,2984,63,617],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62404"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62404"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62418,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62404\/revisions\/62418"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}