When the dust settles over Ontario Premier Doug Ford's plan to slash the size of Toronto's city council, Niagara regional councillors may be next on the chopping block.

In his first interview with The Standard since the controversial decisions by Ford cut the size of Toronto's council and cancelled elections for regional chairs, Niagara West Progressive Conservative MPP Sam Oosterhoff said the Ministry of Municipal Affairs has begun to examine whether the size of regional governments also need to be cut.

That's a very good question and one that I know our minister of municipal affairs, not for Niagara specifically but for broader regional governance structure reviews, has begun looking at," Oosterhoff said. "Already at AMO he began informally having those conversations about what regional structure changes would look like. As I said before, we're taking a pause with the Liberal changes that were made in 2016, including direct election of a chair and saying, "What's working? What isn't? Let's go back to the drawing table. Let's examine how we can improve our municipalities."

Oosterhoff, Niagara's only government MPP, also defended the government's cancelling of the regional chair election and said that although the Tories did not mention these changes to Ontario's municipal elections during the provincial election campaign, they fall squarely into the government's mandate, which he believes the majority of Ontario voters support.

Oosterhoff's comments came in an interview about the government's changes to the Municipal Act, and Ford's decision to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause to override last week's court decision that found the changes were unconstitutional.

Queen's Park descended into chaos Wednesday during an emergency meeting convened by Ford for the purpose of reintroducing his legislation by using the Notwithstanding Clause.

When Ford announced his intention to use the controversial constitutional clause — one that has only been used 15 times in the past and never in Ontario — said he was very concerned that an appointed judge had overruled a piece of legislation passed by an elected government. He also said he would use the clause again in the future to further his legislative agenda.

Oosterhoff said slashing the size of Toronto's council from 47 members to 25 is necessary to protect taxpayers and make the city's decision-making "more efficient." He echoed Ford's comments that the council is mired in gridlock and cannot make important decisions.

He could not specifically say how a 25-member council would make better decisions other than to say he believed it was "very evident" that a smaller council could reach consensus faster.

When asked about the size of Niagara's 31-member council — which will grow to 32 after the Oct. 22 election with an additional seat being added for West Lincoln — and its four year history of marathon meetings and controversy, Oosterhoff said the size of regional government is part of an ongoing municipal government review by the Tories.

The review is part of the "pause" Oosterhoff said the government introduced, undoing changes to the Municipal Act made by the previous Liberal government that would have seen voters choose a regional chair instead of the post being selected by council members through a process of backroom horse-trading after the election.

"We are not saying the door is closed on a regional chair election in the future," Oosterhoff said. "We're just not going to do everything the Liberals were doing. So we are talking a pause to fully examine what works and what doesn't."

When Ford initially announced the cancellation of the chair's election in July, he said it was being done to eliminate a new layer of politicians imposed on Ontarians by the previous provincial government. Oosterhoff echoed those statements at the time, and repeated them again during an interview with The Standard Thursday.

He also said the province was saving tax dollars by eliminating a layer of staff administration to run the elections.

However, the size of the council was not impacted by a regional chair's election. Council would remain the same size, with the same powers. The only difference was how the chair was selected. And the election was run by the municipal clerks, with no additional staff needed.

After the interview, Oosterhoff called The Standard back to say he checked with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and said an elected chair would not, after all, add a new layer of politicians.

He did defend the move as a part of the Progressive Conservative platform to reduce the cost and size of government. However, during the election campaign, the changes to Toronto's council and the regional chair elections were never mentioned.

The Standard asked Oosterhoff if he thought people were caught off guard by the government's decisions, particularly since they were not part of the party's election platform.

"I think voters understand there is only one taxpayer, whether it is provincial or municipal taxes," said Oosterhoff.

The Standard will publish the full transcript of Oosterhoff's interview with The Standard online Friday.

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