Port Colborne voters will elect a smaller city council this fall after the Province of Ontario approved a plan to cut the number of seats from nine to seven. The change, announced by the city on May 26, 2026, means the next council will have six councillors and a mayor, down from the current eight councillors plus the mayor. It takes effect for the October 2026 municipal election and will be in place for the 2026-2030 term.
The new structure also redraws ward boundaries, reducing the number of wards from four to three. Two wards will cover urban neighbourhoods, and one ward will represent the rural area of the city. Each ward will elect two councillors. The old system had four wards, each with two councillors.
The Province needed to sign off on the changes because Port Colborne missed a deadline under the Municipal Act that would have let the city make the adjustments on its own. The approval came through Bill 100, the Better Regional Governance Act, which passed on May 7, 2026. The same law let Niagara-on-the-Lake and Thorold reduce their council sizes by two seats each.
Port Colborne City Council voted in March 2026 to back the reduction and the new ward map. That decision was based on a 2025 Ward Boundary and Council Composition Review done by outside consultants. The review included surveys and open houses to get public input. Mayor Bill Steele said a seven-member council for a city of about 22,000 people is “both reasonable and efficient” and lines up with how similar-sized communities are governed.
Residents can expect an online map on the city website later this week where they can type in an address to see which ward they now belong to. The tool is being finalized right now to help voters figure out where they will cast a ballot in the upcoming election.
