Comment 10 – comments and feedback

Bart Maves

Re: Niagara Riding Boundary Realignment

To Whom It Concerns,

My name is Bart Maves and I am from Niagara Falls, Ontario. Between 1995 and the end of 2003, I served as Member of Provincial Parliament for the riding of Niagara Falls. Following my time as MPP, I also served as a Niagara Regional councillor representing the city of Niagara Falls between 2010 and 2018.

In 1995, my 'riding' consisted of the city of Niagara Falls proper. Prior to the 1999 provincial election, the Ontario government passed legislation to adopt the federal riding boundaries to among other things,

• Reduce the number of MPPs from 133 to 101;
• Avoid confusion among the electorate concerning differing riding boundaries for their MPPs and MPs;
• Better allow said MPs and MPPs to work together for the same constituents and with the same municipal governments withing their riding boundaries; and,
• Remove crass gerrymandering processes at the provincial and federal levels.

Following the passage of this legislation, my riding in 1999 consisted of the municipalities of Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Around 2003, the federal government undertook a national consultation to speak to the public about boundary realignments. The guiding rationale for the realignments was to attempt to make each riding have similar representation by population whenever and wherever possible but more importantly, to ensure that ridings for MPs and MPPs had similar 'communities of interest'.

During this federal boundary realignment process, I made written and oral presentations about the riding of Niagara Falls. In fact, my presentations were cited by the commission in their Final Report when they did formally adopt my suggestions for the riding boundaries.

At the time the record will show that I emphasized that the riding of Niagara Falls should consist of the entirety of the three municipalities that paralleled the Niagara River, those being the Town of Fort Erie in the south bordered by Lake Erie, the City of Niagara Falls in the centre, and the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake in the north bordering Lake Ontario.

Communities of Interest

As a lifetime resident of Niagara, and from my many years as a legislator, I came to thoroughly understand the strong communities of interests shared by these three municipalities. To name a few, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Fort Erie all:

• Share the Niagara River as an eastern border;
• Have at least one international bridge linking Ontario with New York State;
• Share an interest in the 100+ year old Niagara Parks Commission, which governs the river and its immediate adjacent lands. Further, the Niagara Park Commissioners are predominantly from the three municipalities;
• Share tourism as a major economic engine;
• Niagara Falls and Fort Erie host gaming entertainment sites (the Niagara Falls Casinos and Fort Erie Racetrack) as part of the tourism attraction mix;
• Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake have wineries and share a thriving winery tourism industry.
• Share the QEW highway, which runs through and connects all three municipalities in both directions.
• Share work on international issues with their U.S. counterparts on issues like the international bridges, national security and public safety, economic development, transportation linkages, airport access, emergency health care access, water quality in the Great Lakes, and more.
• And many more shared communities of interest, including many historical and cultural connections concerning Black History, Indigenous Culture, and the War of 1812, which was fundamental in nation-building the country we live in today.

The Practical Reality of Working with Municipal Governments

Given my experience as a former MPP for Niagara Falls and Niagara Regional Councillor, it is important and useful in my view, for the MPP and MP to know each other well and to work well with the mayors and city/town councillors within their riding.

Together these representatives from each level of government form the political leadership of their riding and respective jurisdiction. It is important that they know each other well and communicate well. This is especially true in times of emergency – like during the recent COVID-19 pandemic or in my day, 9-11 in 2001.

In addition, their offices often work together to solve constituents' issues or explain different areas of government jurisdiction and responsibilities. A council may need both federal and provincial financial assistance on infrastructure or some other project – and the political representatives must be able to focus their efforts to achieve success for their citizens.

Effective representation of citizens needs to be an important consideration of the Ontario Commission.

Conversely, some of the proposed new riding boundaries, for instance in Niagara West, put too much emphasis on achieving a 'number of constituents' in the riding and not enough attention to political practicalities of MPPs, MPs and councils being familiar with one another. I believe the current proposal has the Niagara West MP representing 8 different municipalities. Expecting an MPP and MP to know well all of the mayors and councillors of eight different towns and cities within his or her riding is untenable, and it would inevitably lead to ineffective representation of the constituents within that riding.

Keep Municipalities Whole Within a Riding

Considering this, I believe that the commission should attempt to form riding boundaries wherein municipalities are kept whole. Splitting the City of St. Catharines into a riding with two MPs has always been confusing for its citizens and has forced that city's council to have two different MPs and MPPs. Similarly, giving the Niagara West riding MP seven or eight municipal councils, or partial municipalities, to represent, will only lead to confusion and ineffective representation.

As a former MPP and Niagara Regional Councillor, I would like to make the following proposal recommendations for each of the four Niagara federal ridings:

Proposal for Niagara Falls – 'The River Riding'

I recommend the federal boundaries for Niagara Falls riding should remain as intact as possible to the current boundaries. Thus, we should maintain the 'river riding' in Niagara Falls, so that it also includes the Town of Fort Erie in the south and the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake in the north, with the City of Niagara Falls between them in the middle.

This riding boundary has been successful and effective since its inception and the communities of interest remain the same and strongly connected through history, culture, and importantly, the economy.

However, I do understand that this causes a high population problem for this growing riding. As such, if the Commission must parse out some population and hand it to an adjacent riding, it should consider carving out the rural western portion of Fort Erie (including Crystal Beach). This portion of the municipality does not have the same communities of interest that the rest of Fort Erie (including Ridgeway and Stevensville) has with both Niagara Falls and Niagara-on-the-Lake. In fact, this western area shares more community characteristics with the proposed Niagara Centre/Niagara South riding in proximity to the Welland Canal and a rural and sparse, spread-out population.

Proposal for Niagara Centre – 'The Canal Riding'

Western Fort Erie, and the whole municipalities of Port Colborne, Wainfleet, Welland and Thorold share extensive communities of interest. Most prevalent is the Welland Canal and their proximity to Lake Erie. There is a healthy marine economy in each. There is a rural nature to western Fort Erie and parts of Port Colborne and all of Wainfleet. The riding is served throughout by Highway 406 and by the east/west Highway 3.

Proposal for St. Catharines

The City of St. Catharines has sufficient population to be a riding unto itself. Further, St. Catharine's growth is stunting because it has developed to the edge of all of its urban boundary borders. Within 10 years, the other three ridings will grow faster, and so any remaining population imbalances will mitigate naturally. Clearly having one MP and one MPP and one City Council all from the same one city will lead to familiarity and effective representation of local issues.

Proposal for Niagara West

The remaining population and municipalities of Grimsby, Lincoln, West Lincoln, and Pelham should be put into Niagara West. It would be a predominantly rural riding. Its population is growing in small community centre nodes and is projected to grow faster than any of the other remaining municipalities in the Niagara Region. This would be a geographically expansive riding. Four smaller municipal governments could work effectively with one MP and one MPP. A future mid-peninsula transportation corridor is planned by the Province of Ontario to travel through the middle of this riding to connect with Highway 403 in the north and with the QEW in the south.

Conclusion

In conclusion, for all the reasons listed above and more, I strongly believe the federal riding of Niagara Falls is effectively served as it currently is. Furthermore, the three municipalities of Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and Fort Erie share many deeply entrenched communities of interest, history, culture, and economy. These should not be severed to the extent of what has been proposed by the Commission in August 2022, which proposed to remove the entire municipality of Fort Erie from the Niagara Falls riding, and add it to the newly renamed adjacent riding, Niagara South.

Rather, perhaps the Commission considers severing this municipality along the lines of East and West, if necessary, to appease the high population concerns. The Western portion has shared interests with Niagara Centre/Niagara South riding and the Welland Canal, whereas the Eastern portion has shared interests with Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and the Niagara River.

Therefore, for all these reasons and more, the 2022-2023 Ontario Commission should seek to keep the riding boundaries as intact as possible, to include as much of the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake, the City of Niagara Falls, and the Town of Fort Erie, as they can, within the same federal riding.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my perspectives and input into this important process.

Sincerely,

Bart Maves

Former MPP for Niagara Falls and Niagara Regional Councillor