A campaign for local accountability, local representation, and local decision-making.
Bring Decisions Back Home is built around a simple principle: decisions should stay as close as possible to the people who live with them.
For nearly two years, Stand4Oxford has participated in local government through every available channel. We attended meetings, delegated before council, submitted petitions, filed freedom-of-information requests, and asked questions about decisions affecting our communities.
Through that experience, we encountered a recurring concern: decisions often felt increasingly distant from the people expected to live with the consequences.
That concern extends beyond any single issue or piece of legislation. It raises a broader question:
Who should govern our communities?
Why This Matters
Across Ontario, decisions that once rested closer to local communities are increasingly being moved into larger, more centralized structures.
Each change may be justified on its own merits. Some are presented as improving efficiency. Others are intended to streamline decision-making or reduce administrative barriers.
But efficiency is only one measure of good government.
A healthy democracy also depends on accountability, transparency, and the ability of citizens to influence decisions that affect their daily lives.
As decision-making moves farther from local communities, those connections can become weaker.
The result is a simple but important question:
Are decisions moving closer to the people they affect — or farther away?
Bill 100 and Regional Governance
Bill 100 proposes changes to regional government structures, including allowing regional chairs to be appointed rather than elected.
Supporters argue that the change will improve efficiency and strengthen governance.
Our concern isn’t simply how regional chairs are selected.
It’s what these changes represent within a broader trend toward concentrating authority farther from the communities affected by those decisions.
If accountability is already challenging at the local level, what happens when decision-making becomes even more removed from the people it serves?
Our Open Letter to Minister Rob Flack
As the minister responsible for introducing Bill 100, Minister Rob Flack is uniquely positioned to address these questions.
Stand4Oxford has sent an open letter to Minister Rob Flack. To encourage broader public discussion, we have also shared the letter with media outlets across Ontario and invited them to publish it. The letter asks three straightforward questions:
- Why should citizens accept less local control than they had before?
- Why should appointed authority replace elected accountability?
- How does Bill 100 strengthen local democracy in practice?
We encourage residents to read the letter and consider these questions for themselves.
About This Campaign
Bring Decisions Back Home isn’t about partisanship.
It’s about preserving the connection between citizens and the decisions that shape their communities.
We believe local government works best when residents can understand how decisions are made, access the information they need, and meaningfully influence outcomes that affect their daily lives.
That’s why this campaign exists.
Efficient government matters.
But accountability matters too.
We encourage residents to read and share the open letter, speak with their mayor and councillors, contact their MPP, and respectfully share their views with Minister Flack’s office.
Meaningful democratic participation begins with asking questions — but it doesn’t end there.
Bring Decisions Back Home.