Ontario's new Premier Doug Ford says he will cancel planned elections for regional chair positions in Niagara, Peel Region and York Region.
Ford making the announcement this morning, on the same day of the deadline for candidates to file for municipal positions including Niagara Regional Chair.
Ford announced that Niagara will go back to the 2016 model in which candidates were appointment and not elected by the people.
This would have been the first election that residents in Niagara would get to vote for their selection for the chair's job, instead of a vote amongst Regional Councillors.
We have not heard if the deadline will be extended for municipal candidates who may want to seek different positions following this shocking move.
He is also cutting Toronto city council from 47 councillors to 25.
Now in the case of Toronto he is extending the deadline for candidates to file to run in the October race, from this afternoon until mid September.
But there is no word if we will get a similiar extension here.
Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn, who is running for regional chair this time around would not say what he will do.
We contacted the Niagara Regional Clerk's office to see if they have heard whether the candidate filing deadline is being extneded, and we were told they are working to confirm and would get back to us.