Good morning, neighbour 👋

Niagara has posted a help-wanted ad for the person who will lead Regional Council.

The unusual part: voters are not on the interview panel.

Niagara’s current Regional Council has 32 members: 12 mayors, 19 elected Regional Councillors and one Chair. Starting with the October election, those 19 Regional Councillor lines disappear from the ballot. The next table will be 12 mayors and one Regional Chair, with stronger powers than the role has carried before.

Elsewhere today: a former Tim Hortons is preserving hands instead of warming them, Welland gets a new grocery arrival, and our new farmers’ market guide is ready for bookmarking.

In today’s Grapevine:

Let’s get into it.

— Ian

This October, Niagara voters will still choose their mayor, local councillors and school-board trustees.

What they will not choose is a separate Regional Councillor.

Ontario has eliminated Niagara’s 19 independently elected Regional Councillor positions. The next Regional Council will consist of the 12 local mayors and one Regional Chair. That means the Regional Councillor line disappears from local ballots.

Applications for the next Chair opened June 29 and close Monday, July 13 at 11:59 p.m. The Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing is expected to appoint the Chair after the October municipal election, for a term beginning November 15.

The incoming Chair will also receive Strong Chair powers. That includes proposing the Regional budget, making certain senior staffing decisions, vetoing some Regional bylaws believed to conflict with provincial priorities, and advancing provincial-priority bylaws with support from only one-third of Council.

Weighted voting may also be introduced later, but no Niagara formula has been set.

This is not simply a smaller committee table.

The Region still oversees or funds roads, water and wastewater systems, public health, ambulances, housing supports, transit and policing. The responsibilities remain broad. The number of directly elected people making those decisions does not.

A shorter ballot does not mean smaller consequences.

👉 See Niagara’s governance changes →

The former Tim Hortons space at 4960 Clifton Hill is now Gizmos Wax Hands, where visitors pose a hand, dip it in warm wax and customize the result with colours, glazing, writing and accessories.

The official Clifton Hill page says the process takes about 15 to 20 minutes, with children able to participate from age four if they can hold still long enough - which may be the attraction’s most selective admission requirement.

You used to leave with coffee in your hand. Now you can leave with the hand.

👉 See how Gizmos Wax Hands works →

Longo’s opened its first Niagara-region grocery store on June 24 at 968 Niagara Street in Welland.

The store adds a market-style bakery, deli, meat and seafood counters, prepared-food sections, sushi, pizza, sandwiches, salad bar and Starbucks to the Niagara Street plaza. Regular hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

That is a lot to fit beneath one roof, and a meaningful new grocery option for Welland.

This is an arrival story, not a declaration that your current supermarket has been voted off the island. Still, Niagara has a new food player, and Welland got it first.

👉 See the Welland store details →

Since Welland is already getting the bigger grocery story this week, here is the smaller counterpoint: Bomb Bish Bakery at 185 East Main Street.

The downtown bakery’s menu is built around signature butter tarts ($3.50 each or six for $18) along with gluten-friendly and reduced-sugar versions, fresh scones, cookies, bars, cupcakes, flakies and custom cakes.

It is not new in the same way Longo’s is new.

It is the local dessert detour sitting beside the bigger food story: the one where “I’ll just grab one thing” enters bravely and leaves with a box.

👉 See Bomb Bish Bakery →

Niagara Region is holding the first public meeting tonight for its North Service Road environmental assessment.

The study covers 2.8 kilometres between the Victoria Avenue North and Jordan Road QEW interchanges. It will examine traffic, safety, walking, cycling and transit as the Prudhommes area develops.

📍 Lincoln Fire Station #4, 3763 19th St., Jordan Station
🕔 5–7 p.m.; presentation at 5:30 p.m.
📅 Comments remain open until July 24

👉 See the study details →

Trying to remember which Niagara market runs on Tuesday, which one moved, or where Wednesday supper markets fit?

We organized the region’s verified farmers’ markets, community markets and selected farm-gate stops by day of the week, with direct links to check before leaving home.

👉 Open the 2026 Niagara Farmers’ Markets Guide →

Through September 7, visitors aged 17 and under receive free admission at four Niagara Parks heritage sites. Those aged 18 to 24 receive 50 percent off:

No physical pass or registration is required. The offer covers regular admission; special programming or added experiences may still have separate costs.

History may repeat itself.

At least this time, the younger members of the family get in for less.

👉 See the Canada Strong Pass details →

Once your separately elected Regional Councillor disappears from the ballot, who will you expect to answer for Regional decisions: your mayor, the appointed Chair or the full Council?

Hit reply and tell me what accountability should look like at the smaller table. I am especially curious whether this feels like a simpler system, a less direct one, or both.

That is enough chairs, wax fingers and grocery carts for one Tuesday.

Thursday, we trade ballot lines for weekend plans: what to do, where to wander and which Niagara stops are worth building a few hours around.

See you Thursday.

🍇 Ian
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