PelhamToday received the following letter to the editor in response to yesterday's story, Junkin just says 'No':
I read this story with much interest and Mayor Junkin’s full statement to the committee. I also believe that many of the mayors at the Regional public meeting last week agreed with maintaining the present system whilst offering suggestions on how it may be improved.
The report that appeared in the Welland Tribune about the same meeting came up with the following headline: Megacity, four-city model supported at Niagara governance hearing
That particular report allowed Mayor Junkin just two paragraphs, with Mayors Cisco and Diodati getting plenty of coverage regarding their chosen four-city model.
They were almost like reports on two totally separate meetings.
For myself I was sad there was little, if any support, for actually dissolving Niagara Region completely. The Region takes around 50 percent of the tax income from each of the 12 municipalities, and because we taxpayers are never told just how much of our taxes go to the Regional bureaucracy, and all the support benefits and materials we all ‘fund’, we still don’t have just a single a dollar figure for the total cost of regional government?
I often wonder why this is never shown, especially at budget time.
I’m pretty sure all the usual suspects would squeal their protests if actually asked to provide such a total, single figure for Regional governance, and would guess they might even suggest that dissolution would lead to a total breakdown across all 12 municipalities and create chaos!
It seems to me that many of those presenting at that meeting were very aware of the concept, and process, of shared services between different municipalities and so there are already precedents in place to suggest there is no reason why the 12 municipalities should not be more than capable of replacing a one single region that, in spite of its self-professed excellence, can show few, if any services that are actually cost-effective, when in fact that same region continues to grow and demand more taxes to do so.
I also wonder if Mayor Junkin is aware of how different he is than some of our mayors.
I also wonder if Mayor Junkin is aware of how different he is than some of our mayors
Reading his reports and comments it is apparent that he does actually listen to his constituents and takes notice of their concerns and works for them. I’m sure he doesn’t always please all of the people, but he certainly appears to try.
I do recall he had a fairly disruptive time when first elected as a councillor, but did not follow that story as I should have. To have come back to be elected mayor, then win re-election tells me enough to wish we had a mayor like him.
I did not know he was a dairy farmer but it does explain a lot! I have been a professional mariner my entire life, including a 20-year period in marine pilotage on the Manchester Ship Canal (a ‘sister’ canal to the Welland Canal) which gave me enough free time to bring up three sons on a smallholding rearing calves, so I hand-milked cows each day for a time.
I do not claim to be a dairy farmer because I never was, but buying and selling or just attending the local cattle auctions made me realize how similar farmers and seamen were. Even in today’s world, where weather folk are perpetually getting it wrong, a farmer or a seaman will wait to go out every single day and look up at the sky. Both immediately know how today’s weather will affect what they do, and also have a pretty good idea of what the weather will be like for the foreseeable future.
Maybe we need a movement to encourage more farmers to run for office?
Andrew Watts
Wainfleet
