Caslin makes it official

“Hands on the wheel, eyes on the road” has been a familiar mantra for Regional Chair Alan Caslin. It was a theme he quoted often in his previous role as a senior manager at a local GM plant. He hopes to continue driving Niagara’s economic engine forward, accelerator to the floor, and accordingly has filed papers to run for re-election as Regional Chair in the municipal election on October 22.

Thus far, he has two competitors for his seat—John Ringo Beam, of Niagara Falls, and Damian Goulbourne, of Welland — but Caslin is confident that the voters of Niagara will give him the opportunity to finish what he says he has started.

“Niagara has seen unprecedented growth in this term of Regional Council. With the positive change that’s taking place in Niagara, I want to make sure those foundations we have put in place are built on...that we continue the momentum,” said Caslin.

Caslin was elected Chair by his colleagues on council in December 2014. Following a provincial mandate that such positions be directly chosen by the electorate at large, this will be Niagara voters’ first opportunity to do so.

Caslin previously served as a Regional Councillor for St. Catharines from 2010-2014. He is quick to point out that four years ago, when council was choosing a chair, he received 17 of 30 votes on the first ballot, a majority never before achieved at Regional Council.

“The 2018 vote for Regional Chair will be the largest election of any level of government in Niagara history, encompassing not just 12 municipalities, but four federal and provincial ridings. All for one position. The magnitude is huge,” said Caslin.

Prior to his foray into Regional politics, Caslin was Facilities Manager with General Motors in St. Catharines. He was with GM in various capacities for 20 years. Before GM, he worked for 15 years as a project manager for Acres International in Niagara Falls, a large consulting firm.

Proud of his local roots, Caslin was born in Merritton 57 years ago, and grew up in the north end of St. Catharines. He attended high school at Lakeport and Governor Simcoe, and enrolled in college technology programs at Niagara and Fanshawe before heading south of the border to earn a business degree in New York state, followed by a masters degree in operations management at Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute) in Flint, Michigan.

Caslin has served on a number of local committees and boards (including the YMCA, United Way, and Meridian Credit Union) and has been active as a coach and volunteer for youth sports.

“We have found our stride in Niagara,” he said, touting a long list of recent accomplishments: 5% unemployment (the lowest in 18 years), a record $1.34 billion in business construction permits, 12,700 new jobs, billions of dollars in new investment, a commitment from the provincial government for GO Train service to Niagara Falls by 2023, putting in motion the framework for an inter-municipal transit system for Niagara that will mesh with the GO network, and successfully landing the 2021 Canada Games.

“I am especially proud of the fact that our Regional property tax increases have been below inflation at an annual average of 1.47 percent over the last four years,” said Caslin. “In many years prior, we had double-digit increases.”

With massive waiting lists for affordable housing, the Region is planning to invest more than $46 million in new social housing units by 2026.

Attracting the new General Electric manufacturing facility in Welland (recently sold to Advent International) Caslin cited as proof of how the current Regional Council has aggressively pursued new investment and development with a business-friendly attitude.

“The Welland plant will immediately generate 300 jobs, which can easily be doubled with anticipated expansion. And the spin-off effect is that, exponentially, jobs can be created in peripheral support industries,” said Caslin.

“$25 million in industrial and tax relief grants have created more than 1,600 new high-paying jobs in the region.”

Caslin also spoke to reduced Regional government complacency, and greater transparency in their operations. All councillor expenses are now viewable online, for example.

“We have done things smarter, more efficiently. Services have been maintained and even increased in some areas. We scrub the books annually, going through the budgets line by line to see what we can improve or eliminate.”

Communication with constituents, keeping them informed, is important, he maintained.

“Taxpayers need to understand what the Regional government provides. We deliver a huge variety of services —police, ambulance, garbage and recycling, public health, children’s and senior’s care, and roads to name but some — and over a huge area. When I talk about Niagara, it’s 450,000 people, but also 450,000 acres. Until you’ve actually driven across Niagara, you don’t have an appreciation for how big it is.”

Another priority is maintaining the “Under 35” demographic in Niagara.

“Once we educate our young people at Brock and Niagara College, we want them to stay in the area, and to do that we need to provide a full spectrum of employment opportunities,” said Caslin.

Niagara received Foreign Trade Zone designation in April 2016, which Caslin considers a game-changer for local business, and a significant reason that General Electric picked Niagara for its new plant.

“In basic terms, if you are a manufacturer in Niagara, importing parts from Germany or the US, for use in a product that you are exporting, you can avoid paying taxes, duties and tariffs. Prior to this, you would bring in parts and pay duties and taxes on them. This new designation streamlines the process and dramatically reduces red tape.”

Caslin is an advocate of the Mid-Peninsula Corridor, a proposed highway linking Fort Erie with Hamilton on a route south of the Niagara Escarpment. The project has been discussed for decades, but needs to be an action item, he says.

“[The QEW] is probably the most heavily-travelled stretch of roadway in Canada, and we cannot allow it to slow economic activity. When I was with GM, we had an eight-hour window from when engines were completed and loaded in St. Catharines, to when they were installed in trucks in Oshawa. To keep inventories low, that’s what we had to manage. And if traffic accidents slow passage on the QEW, it creates expensive problems for industry.”

Despite the accolades and achievements, the current Regional Council term has seen its share of controversy.

The Burgoyne Bridge project in St. Catharines had massive expenditure overruns— essentially doubling in cost to over $91 million dollars. Caslin pointed out that this project was actually inherited from the previous council. Gaps in the procurement and construction process were identified, which have been addressed, he said.

Councillor Andy Petrowski was often a sore point for Council. The self-appointed “watchdog of the public purse” was accused of sending crude emails and inflammatory Tweets, bullying staff, and wracking up significant expenses (despite taking two leaves from Council). Mounting code of conduct complaints against Petrowski led to the hiring of an integrity commissioner, and was, Caslin admits, a “huge distraction.” At one point, Caslin reportedly characterized Petrowski as “reprehensible.”

Caslin noted that Petrowski has indicated he won’t seek re-election to council.

“But it’s Andy, so you never know.”

With Petrowsky off on leave from Council, said Caslin, "We have gotten a lot more traction, and as a Council been able to get through business without being distracted as much as we had been in the past."

The Region’s Integrity Commissioner will be delivering a report to the new council. Caslin is hoping that reasonable recommendations will address the sometimes frivolous complaints launched by residents (often “serial complainers,” in Caslin’s words) against Regional Councillors, “which cost the taxpayer $5,000 to $10,000 a pop,” said Caslin. He himself was the focus of one complaint, which was dismissed by the Integrity Commissioner.

A review of the past council would not be complete without discussion of “the case of the confiscated computer.”

To recap, at the December 7, 2017 council meeting, Regional staff seized the notes and computer of St. Catharines Standard reporter Bill Sawchuk, who was falsely accused of secretly recording a closed (“in-camera”) session of council.

Sawchuk left his notes and computer on the media table and waited in the lobby for the open session to resume. Local blogger Preston Haskell left his digital recorder on the media table as well. Fort Erie Councillor Sandy Annunziata asserted that he found Haskell's recorder hidden under his hat on the media table. Haskell says the recorder was never hidden. Councillor Dave Augustyn suggested that the police be contacted.

Shortly afterward, a regional manager, accompanied by two Niagara Regional Police officers, ejected Sawchuk from the building. Sawchuk's equipment was returned several hours later.

Haskell's recorder was also seized by the Region, which then turned it over to the NRP. To date, police have not laid charges against Haskell.

Caslin said in December 2017 that the Region has no legal authority to seize a journalist's property, and called Sawchuk to apologize for the incident. Sawchuk said he accepted the apologies on a personal level.

“I don’t want to speculate on the outcome of the Ombudsman’s report on this issue,” said Caslin, “but the reality is that we had 60 seconds of pandemonium that has resulted in six months of investigation at substantial cost. What happened outside the Council chamber doors, I wasn’t privy to,” said Caslin, who asserted that the incident prompted improvements in how closed meetings are handled.

“We now have a checklist for when we go in-camera,” said Caslin. “It’s sensible stuff, not rocket science.”