Niagara Regional Chair Alan Caslin has asked a councillor to resign following a shocking pornographic image that was sent out in an email this afternoon.

The whole incident started with an email sent out by the Niagara Region updating work on St. Paul Street over the Burgoyne Bridge in St.Catharines.

The email from the region was sent out at 12:05p.m today.

At 12:24p.m Councillor Bruce Timms replied saying that it was nice to see the final touches being completed on the Burgoyne Bridge.

At 1:22p.m St. Catharines Regional Councillor Andy Petrowski replied to that email and all 95 recipients with this message: "There must have been a sale on these multi-million dollar, taxpayer-funded, non-functional arches...guess who put these up in Ottawa? You're right if you said .... drum roll, please....'Pomerlau'...what a joke!" but attached is a picture of a nude woman.

The picture, which was sent to the CKTB Newsroom shows a woman completely nude sitting on a chair with her legs apart.

At 1:27p.m Petrowski sent out an apology saying "I apologize to everyone for the previous e-mail just sent...this was sent in error as a terrible message by someone who was using my iPad I thought to send a private message. I am very sorry for this unacceptable and inappropriate transmission."

CKTB News reached out to Petrowski asking for a better explanation and we received this response: "I sent this e-mail as soon as I became aware of the terrible message sent apologizing for the unacceptable content. I take full responsibility for the lack of judgement in leaving my Regional e-mail system unlocked."



Caslin has had a conversation with Petrowski and has asked him to resign.

Caslin says Petrowski didn't respond.

He tells CKTB's Larry Fedoruk the content of the email from Councillor Petrowski is reprehensible and the conduct is completely unacceptable for a Regional Councillor.

Caslin has requested a meeting tomorrow at 9 AM to discuss limits on his use of Regional devices and email accounts.

St.Catharines Liberal MP Chris Bittle has also issued a statement:

“My thoughts on this topic are well known and have been documented. As I have stated previously, this pattern of behaviour has not ceased- in fact it has only gotten worse. The councillor in question has shown no contrition for his actions what so ever. Even after multiple findings of wrong doing from the regional Ethics Commissioner, this pattern continues. Our regional leaders must act on this matter, enough is enough. This behaviour is completely unacceptable, and is degrading to the public discourse. It continues to foster the negative view the public have of local elected officials. It must stop now- Mr. Petrowski must resign, and allow council to get back to the important work of serving the people of Niagara.”