A fundamental reworking of some regional governments was announced by the provincial government today, with Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack announcing he’s slashing the number of regional council seats in Niagara from 32 to just 13 including a regional chair.
The province also plans to reduce the number of regional seats in Simcoe County from 32 members to just 17, made up of 16 mayors and a regional chair.
Flack also announced the province, under its new Better Regional Governance Act, 2026, will have the power to appoint regional chairs in Durham, Halton, Muskoka, Peel, Waterloo and York as well as the warden of Simcoe County.
If the legislation is passed, the province will also be giving regional chairs “strong chair” powers, similar to strong mayor powers given to some cities.
Flack made the announcement Thursday at Queen’s Park. The changes are “to the way regional governments function in some of Ontario’s fastest growing regions,” the province said in a news release. “These changes would support lower costs for municipal taxpayers and better alignment between regional decision-making and shared provincial-regional priorities.”
At the news conference, Flack said reducing regional council sizes in Niagara and Simcoe isn’t really about saving money. It’s about creating governments that are more nimble, and can move faster on things such as approving new housing and critical infrastructure projects.
“Less politicians is about efficiency, it’s about decision-making, about having effective government,” he said. “This is getting politicians out of the way.”
Niagara West Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoof said he’s heard loud and clear from residents and businesses that the current local government model in Niagara is just too clunky.
“I’ve been hearing frustrated constituents and local business owners who talk about facing what they call the merry-go-round of red tape and regulatory burden as they go round and round working with multiple levels of municipal governments and agencies to try to approve projects, build homes and move business forward,” he said.
“A streamlined regional council in Niagara will reduce red tape. It will ensure our region is nimble” to focus on building critical infrastructure, he said.
But reaction from some elected officials in Niagara came swift on Thursday.
St. Catharines city councillor Greg Miller — who is not a regional councillor — said the announcement was “anti-democratic and a likely disaster for Niagara,” in a statement on social media.
“Our last ideologically appointed regional chair resigned in disgrace. Now the province wants to do it again but give this unelected chair more power. There will also be [zero] directly-elected politicians on regional council,” he said.
These “changes will ‘not save money’ and are not about getting homes built. He said it himself. It is only about consolidating political power in fewer and fewer people, and ensuring those people are beholden to whatever political party holds power in Ontario,” Miller wrote.
St. Catharines regional councillor Haley Bateman slammed the changes in an interview with CBC, saying they amount to a takeover by Premier Doug Ford’s Conservative Party of local government in Niagara. “This is now a Conservative government in the Niagara Region, full stop,” she said. “This is a huge step in taking over Niagara, and it’s terrifying.”
Bateman said municipal government is supposed to be about fighting for the residents of Niagara and being a voice that Queen’s Park is supposed to listen to. “Ford has made the decision to silence that voice,” she said. “I’m beyond disappointed.”
Meanwhile, Niagara Falls regional councillor Barb Greenwood called changes to regional government long overdue and said having 32 people in one room trying to make decisions is difficult.
“There’s too many opinions,” she told CBC on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s time for change,” said Greenwood, noting there are more municipal elected officials in Niagara than there are provincial MPPs collectively representing 16 million people.
Flack’s bombshell announcement marks the first major shakeup of local government in Niagara in more than 50 years. Niagara’s current model of town, city and regional governments has been largely unchanged since 1970, when the province combined 26 different municipalities and two county governments into one regional and 12 local town and city governments.
But fears that the province would make major changes to the region’s 12 local town and city governments proved to be unfounded on Thursday, with Flack steering clear of that.
The announcement comes after months of discussion over possible amalgamation and regional governance restructuring in Niagara.
Governance reform has also come up multiple times in recent years in Simcoe County including when Bradford West Gwillimbury’s mayor advocated for a new structure in 2024, and when county council considered reducing its size in 2025.
Ford says Niagara governance decisions will be led by region
In Niagara, the region’s now-former regional chair Bob Gale, appointed by the Ford government, caused a stir earlier this year with a proposal to consider amalgamations as a solution to what he called high tax increases and too many elected officials.
In February, Gale informed regional council members that he intended to push for Niagara’s 12 cities and towns to be mashed together into a different model of perhaps four cities or one large city.
When regional council collectively instructed him to steer clear of any talk about amalgamation, Gale then wrote to Flack to propose slashing regional council from 32 members to just the 12 mayors and a chair, and for half of the town and city councils to have some seats eliminated.
Premier Doug Ford also made it clear in recent months that he thinks Niagara’s 126 local elected officials are far too many.
He said on March 18 that while he preferred Niagara’s mayor lead the way on slimming down local government, he doubted they’d step up.
“I always say it’s like asking the turkeys to vote for Thanksgiving. They don’t want to lose their jobs,” he said at the time.
“So we’ll step in and streamline it and make sure there’s an efficient government running it because it’s all about protecting the taxpayers’ money,” Ford said.
Gale resigned on March 12 and a replacement chair has yet to be named.
Since then, contrary to what Ford said, some Niagara municipalities began announcing plans to slim down their councils, spurred on the urgency of knowing if they didn’t the province would step in.
Niagara-on-the-Lake council, for instance, announced on March 24 that it would ask the province to allow it to reduce its council size by two seats.
Coun. Wendy Cheropita said the move could allow the town to ward off threats to amalgamate it with other municipalities. “If [this] helps then I’m all for it,” she said.
