‘Rexit?’

Ridgetown joins movement to leave C-K

By Michael Bennett
Local Journalism Initiative
The Ridgetown Independent

You can add residents in the Ridgetown area to the growing list of people who are fed up and want out of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.

A petition that originated in the Blenheim area has made its way to Ridgetown, asking the province “to release us from Chatham-Kent and allow us to amalgamate as a new lower-tier municipality under the County of Lambton.”

Rick Williams, who helped orchestrate the petition in Blenheim, added Ridgetown to their cause after hearing from several disgruntled residents.

“They came to us and said, ‘We want in on this too,’” Williams said. “They said ‘Don’t leave us out here.’”

Williams said his group was hearing the same feedback from Ridgetown residents expressed by people in Blenheim and area.

The main concern that led to the Blenheim petition was the spending by Chatham-Kent council and administration centred around projects in Chatham while service in the rural area continues to be reduced.

“People in Ridgetown tell me that it’s the disrespect for everybody out here in the rural area, the total disrespect,” Williams said of the locals’ feeling towards the municipality. “It’s like, ‘give us your money, shut up and we’ll do what we want,’ … and we’re fed up with it.”

The petitions to leave Chatham-Kent started in Bothwell-Zone where residents want the province to allow that area to join Lambton County as a second-tier municipality.

There are citizens’ groups in the Wallaceburg and Dresden areas who also want to leave Chatham-Kent for Lambton County, as well as a movement in the Tilbury and Wheatley areas to join Essex County.

“It’s not so much we want to leave Chatham-Kent, we want to kick Chatham out, we want them to go away,” Williams declared.

A number of recent decisions by council and administration have rekindled the urban/rural divide that was prevalent at the time of amalgamation in 1998 but had simmered over the years.

The proposed Chatham-Kent Community Hub is a major sore spot for residents in the communities and rural area outside Chatham and despite assurances from administration, there is fear that local libraries and service centres may close if the new Civic Centre, along with a library and museum, opens in the former Downtown Chatham Centre.

Rural residents were also upset at the elimination of dust suppression on rural roads, disputing administration’s explanation that the process does not work.

The final straw, both Williams and organizers of the Bothwell petition said, was the threat of closing fire departments and municipal centres and eliminating other services in the rural area – all while residents were facing another large tax increase.

Administration responded to South Kent Coun. Ryan Doyle’s motion that called for a 2.5 percent reduction in service from seven municipal departments, which was introduced less than two months before the start of the 2025 budget deliberations.

Each municipal department issued a list of items that would have to be eliminated in order to meet the motion’s 2.5 percent target, but each general manager said they would never recommend any of the proposed cuts.

While none of the cuts were brought to the floor by councillors during the budget deliberations, it was the fact they were even mentioned – again – that angered many residents in the outlying communities and rural areas.

The latest action from the municipality that has come under fire is the municipality’s intent to hire a deputy chief administrative officer, with a salary in the $220,000 range.

Ward 3 Coun. John Wright told the Ridgetown Independent News that he was aware of the concerns of Bothwell and Zone Twp. residents when their petition surfaced.

Wright said that while he had to stay neutral, he certainly sympathized with the frustration.

“They’ve been taking, taking, taking from … you can’t keep taking and not expect them to be upset,” Wright said. “That’s what they’re saying and I agree with them.”

Williams said he is still waiting to hear back from Paul Calandra, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing for Ontario, to set up a meeting to present the petition.

Williams said he is realistic and the chances of the Ridgetown and Blenheim area joining a neighbouring county – or breaking away from Chatham-Kent to return to some form of the former Kent County – are very remote.

“We’re not naive, I don’t think this is going anywhere, I don’t know if the petition is going to do much anyways,” he admitted.

But, the number of petitions and unrest in the outlying areas should be a wake-up call to the mayor, councillors and administration.