Dear Mayors and Regional Councillors,
I oppose any amalgamation of municipal governments in Niagara and am asking you to express opposition to this to the Regional Chair and provincial government.
The Regional Chair’s February 19 letter blamed the current structure for "successive tax increases," but studies show that, if anything, amalgamation would increase taxes even more. The Fraser institute found “We find very little evidence of tax savings or cost reductions. In most of our cases, the tax burden on individual households increased.” (pg. 25, https://www.fraserinstitute.org/sites/default/files/municipal-amalgamation-in-ontario-rev.pdf)
The Chair’s letter also called "Council’s recent decision to delay final approval of the 2026 operating budget pending a detailed Chair’s review "dysfunctional," but this is not the fault of lower-tier municipalities.
Amalgamation “reduced the opportunities for citizen involvement” (pg. 27) according to a study by the Institute on Municipal Finance and Governance from the Monk School of Global Affairs (http://archives.enap.ca/bibliotheques/2013/10/030566310.pdf), which also said, “two tier structures may be more effective in allowing municipalities to reap the benefits that come with large size, while retaining the responsiveness typical of smaller municipalities.” (pg. 1)
Losing lower-tier elected officials will mean less access and accountability for those who live here in favor of corporations and developers, many from outside the Region, who are already being heavily subsidized by our taxes in grants and rebates.
Sincerely,
Saleh Waziruddin
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