In the week leading up to the 2026 Municipal Election, we will be featuring profiles for candidates running for Mayor in Niagara's three largest municipalities - St. Catharines, Niagara Falls and Welland.
Today's profile is Anthony Adeoye, who is running to be Mayor of St Catharines. Anthony Adeoye is a community-focused leader and business professional running for Mayor of St. Catharines. He has held leadership roles with organizations including Canada Post, UPS and the Toronto Transit Commission, and currently serves as Director of Operations at VEC Ventures Inc. He holds credentials in Community and Health Studies and Police Foundations, a Bachelor of Science in Educational Management, and is pursuing a degree in Sociology at Brock University. Adeoye’s priorities include public safety, small business support, economic growth, improved municipal services and transparent, accountable leadership.
What is the single biggest issue facing your municipality right now, and what is the first concrete thing you would do as mayor to address it?
We all talk about the high cost of living. We all talk about property taxes going through the roof. Currently, we're one of the municipalities with the highest property taxes based on the quarterly amount. One thing I would do if elected mayor is put a cap on property taxes, specifically the city portion. That in itself would provide greater relief to hardworking residents of St. Catharines. It would save them a few dollars to help buy groceries. You shouldn't have to choose between paying property taxes and buying groceries or little toys for your kids. You should be able to do both without having to sacrifice one for the other. So that's the first thing I'm going to do: relieve hardworking residents. Now, let's look inward. We have an enormous amount of waste in our system, and we need to address it. We need to close those gaps. St. Catharines hasn't balanced its budget in decades. That's one of my first priorities in my first year in office: to balance that budget. There are a lot of loopholes in our system, and we need to close them. We need to diversify the tax income for the City of St. Catharines. We need to look into the red tape and conduct an intensive review to ensure we create a more enabling environment for investment and businesses to succeed, so we can diversify the city's income and not keep going back to already hardworking residents of St. Catharines.
Niagara continues to grow. How should Welland handle new development and housing while making sure infrastructure and services can keep up with that growth?
That's a good question. Yeah, I get that a lot. People ask, "Are you going to pay for this? Are you going to pay for that?" To be honest, St. Catharines is about 100 years old, and we have, if I'm not mistaken, somewhere between 140,000 and 150,000 people in the city. Proportionately, I think the cost of governance is through the roof. If you look at our governance system now, it's growing bigger every day, while the level of important services is shrinking. There's a problem there. As a leader with a vision and a focused macro-management guide, I think we need to reduce the size of government in St. Catharines. We've created offices without proper job descriptions, and we've had a lot of senior figures sitting around. The heroes of St. Catharines are the frontline workers — those who go outside in snowstorms and clear the roads so we can travel safely and get to work in the morning. Those are the heroes of a city, not people sitting around in offices. There are offices doing great jobs, but we have to look inward and start reducing and combining services and offices so we can provide more efficient services to the people. There's a lot of waste. I'm the guy who's going to sit down and renegotiate contracts that give us room to do that. We need to negotiate in the best interests of the city's residents. It's about time we had a government that focuses on taxpayers' interests and asks why we're spending their tax dollars before spending them. We've had gross incompetence and gross mismanagement in our city. I don't blame the current council because, if you look at the backgrounds and careers of these people, they are not business managers, money managers or accountants. They're regular people who feel they know how to run the city. No, the city should run itself. Let the people decide where their tax dollars go, rather than having a group of people dictate that to them and then come back and say, "Oh, we made a mistake." I always say we're the ones who pay for those mistakes. We don't want that anymore. We need a government with focus, a government that listens to the people, and a government that gives the people power over individual self-interest or group interests in the city.
Property taxes are a major concern for many residents. How would you balance keeping taxes affordable with the need to maintain roads, infrastructure?
As I said, we're growing. Amalgamation is something I'd like to address in this question. Sharing services is great when you work together, and it saves costs. Amalgamation shouldn't mean bringing two cities together and merging their identities. No. It should focus on what services can be shared to save Niagara taxpayers money. What services can we amalgamate? One example is the transit system. We've amalgamated transit, so now how can we make it more efficient? If elected mayor, I'm proposing that we transition our entire fleet of buses to electric buses. It's very important. Niagara is older than most regions in Ontario, but when it comes to development, growth, innovation and technology, we're about 10 years behind. We need to start looking at ways to improve efficiency and bring new technology and modern innovation into our systems so they can run smoothly and efficiently. That applies to road construction and infrastructure upgrades as well. We have Thorold next to us and the Welland Canal nearby. Why can't we have a shared system for our sewer and water infrastructure? Why do we need different contractors and boundaries between us? You don't need to join cities together, but you do need to identify where you can save money and improve efficiency when it comes to infrastructure across these municipalities. That's what I believe will help grow our infrastructure and the region as a whole.
What do you believe Niagara's municipalities and the Region should be doing differently together, and what would you personally do as mayor to improve regional cooperation?
As mayor, and as someone who would have a seat on Regional Council, I would always advocate for collaboration. It's very important. Everything should be calculated on a per-capita basis. If St. Catharines has a population of 150,000, its fair share of services should obviously be greater than that of a smaller municipality. These are important considerations. We have to get the numbers right and understand where efficiency is needed most. If you take a holistic view of transit, for example, how can we ensure there are no barriers to service across our cities? Transit should travel through cities and along local roads without unnecessary restrictions. You should be able to take a bus from the north end of St. Catharines and end up in south Thorold without interference. That's transit efficiency, accessibility and affordability. It saves money, rather than having a bus from the north end stop at the Glendale boundary simply because its route doesn't extend into another city. Those barriers need to be broken. We need a seamless, uninterrupted transit system, and that same approach should apply to most of the essential services and amenities across our region.
If elected, what is one thing you would change about how your municipality operates that residents would actually notice within your first year?
All right, that's a good question. As mayor, I'm committed to having an open-book policy when it comes to the municipality. Anyone should be able to walk into City Hall or make a request. We're scrapping any fees associated with Freedom of Information requests. We're opening the books so everyone can see where every dollar is going. We're going to explain it in plain English, not in contractual terms or negotiation language. People need to understand where their money is going and feel comfortable asking the right questions. People need to understand that we're all shareholders in the city. We're not just bystanders contributing to it. I've had many conversations with people who ask, "Why am I paying for transit when I haven't used the system in 40 years?" Others ask why they're paying for education when their children are grown and no longer in school. People need education and a better understanding of these things. You're not just paying your own share; we're all contributing to the growth of our community. With an open-book policy, accountability and transparency, people can see what their tax dollars are supporting and feel proud of it. It's not necessarily about how much they're paying, but what their money is going toward. That's what people want to hear. Another thing I'm going to introduce is a mayor's town hall program that will run throughout the year. By the end of the year, I would have visited each of the city's six wards twice. The mayor needs to speak to residents because the mayor wants to hear what they have to say. Today, 85 per cent of the population doesn't even know who the mayor of St. Catharines is. If you show them a picture, they might say, "I don't know who that is." That's not good enough for a city of 150,000 people. Residents shouldn't have to wait until election time to find out who their mayor is, when candidates are suddenly knocking on doors saying, "I'm the mayor." People should already know their mayor, and there shouldn't be difficulties accessing the mayor's office. Those are some of the things I would change in my first 100 days in office. Another thing I'm going to do is sit down with the business community. I believe local businesses deserve credit because they contribute so much to our city. All I hear from them is frustration over permits and other issues. I strongly believe there's a double standard when it comes to creating opportunities for people in our city. We're going to examine these issues closely, review the processes and make changes. St. Catharines should work for everyone: hardworking taxpayers and every resident, regardless of their status, class, circumstances or needs. The city should represent everybody. That's what I stand for, and that's what I hope to achieve in my first 100 days in office. Thank you.
Four years from now, what do you want residents to be able to point to and say, "That's what this mayor accomplished"?
Over my first four years, I believe St. Catharines should help residents feel proud of their city once again. People should want to settle here, find work and feel they can proudly say, "Yes, I live in this city." This goes beyond simply wanting to be mayor. I'm proposing real changes. Homeowners aged 70 and older should be exempt from the city portion of property taxes because they helped build this city, and they deserve that. Right now, we're not doing them any favours beyond offering a $100 water rebate, which I find very ridiculous. We need to start taking care of the people who built this city. After four years, I want people to look around and say, "Yes, this is the kind of city we want to build, not just for ourselves, but for our children and our future." That means creating job opportunities, supporting growth, providing relief for hardworking taxpayers, improving road networks and infrastructure, and investing in technology and innovation for our youth. St. Catharines isn't even among the world's top 100 cities for youth innovation and development. We need to change that. We need to invest in our young people and give them the skills they need to grow, reach their potential and become valuable contributors to their communities. Those are some of the things I believe we'll be talking about and celebrating after four years.
Adeoye is one of five candidates running for Mayor in St. Catharines, alongside Mat Siscoe, Ann-Marie Zammit, Jimmy Jackson and Henry Bosch.