10/17/2026
Happy Saturday Lincoln. Here is part 2 of the answers from the Mayor’s Q&A from the Chamber event this week. It is quite cool out there today, fall is definitely here. Have a fantastic Saturday.
QUESTION: How will you exercise strong-mayor powers while remaining transparent and accountable?
Reimer
Strong-mayor powers were brought down in the last year of the last term (of council by the province). There’s certain areas that strong-mayor powers can be used for, obviously with a focus on housing. For myself moving forward that mandate comes from the province. That’s what I would use it for. As far as transparency goes, I think our last two terms of council, everything is transparent, everything’s open to the public, everything’s accessible on speakuplincoln.ca. That would continue if I was elected mayor.
(I wish I had asked for clarification if he would use Strong Mayor powers to veto a council decision on a development if it aligned with provincial mandates)
Russell
I wouldn’t use strong-mayor powers. I believe in the democratic process. I believe that we have a good, healthy council that has open communication. I don’t think it’s required. Now, the mayor presents the budget and council can amend and change it as required.
Keddy-Scott
I will not be using strong-mayor powers. I believe in healthy debates around the table. We have six strong councillors that get elected and we will have those healthy debates and discussions and we will come up with a democratic solution for that.
QUESTION: The province has established growth targets for the Niagara Region that sees the region adding about 200,000 residents by 2051 (with 45,600 living in Lincoln). As we plan for the future and increased development, how will you balance the concerns of residents and the policies of the Town, Region and the Province to ensure appropriate development occurs within our various unique communities?
Reimer
The growth that we’re going to experience, we want to control it obviously. We need to blend our economy. We can’t just have residents moving in and have no places to shop and no places to eat. Our staff is key in attracting and continually bringing in more small businesses to this community. When this growth happens, we have our density already targeted. We have secondary plans in place for Prudhomme’s and our GO train station. The blended economy that would involve manufacturing and commercial, not just residential, helps our tax base as well.
Russell
Bringing those numbers forward from 2051 is something that everybody should be in arms about. We should be pushing back to the province to say this is something that is not necessarily unsustainable but is something that is going to require a lot of investment from upper levels of government in order for that to be made so that it doesn’t impact our existing residents. We can’t short-circuit anything just to meet the province’s goals. We need to make sure that it is sound investment and sound growth.
Keddy-Scott
Growth should pay for growth whenever possible. If we have to push back to the province and say we need to take a little bit of a step back because of infrastructure (matters), we need to make sure that we look at growth but we also look at our essential infrastructure right down from having the Niagara Regional Police to the fire stations.
