By: Michael Bennett, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Ridgetown Independent News
A petition that began in September of 2024 by frustrated residents in Bothwell and Zone Twp. reached the floor in Queen’s Park last Wednesday.
Independent MPP Bobbi Ann Brady, from Haldimand-Norfolk, brought the petition to the floor, asking the provincial government to allow Zone Twp. to succeed from Chatham-Kent and amalgamate as a lower-tier municipality in Lambton County.
The petition began as ‘coffee shop talk’ among residents who were frustrated by what they felt was the Municipality of Chatham-Kent’s lack of support for rural citizens and communities.
By December, the petition was posted in several businesses in the Bothwell area.
Emery Huszka, a spokesperson for the group, did not say how many signatures were collected, as a minimum of 300 is required by Parliamentary procedure to bring a petition to the floor.
“Whether we have 500 or 5,000, it doesn’t matter,” Huszka said. “We were very successful, thanks to the community papers that picked it (the story) up across the country.”
He said coverage of the petition opened “a good discussion.”
“Municipal governance structures are good discussions, and we’re going to have an election, so this is a very timely discussion,” Huszka said, referring to the Oct. 2026 municipal election.
What fuelled the rush of residents signing the petition last December was Chatham-Kent Council’s decision to eliminate dust control and reduce rural road service as savings in the 2025 budget deliberations, as well as talk about losing at least one local councillor in a proposed ward boundary restructuring.
Although it never made it to the deliberations, residents were also riled when the possibility of closing the Bothwell arena and library, as well as losing other basic services, was mentioned in a report to Council in response to Ward 2 Councillor Ryan Doyle’s last-minute request to find 7.5 per cent in savings with reductions to seven departments.
Last week’s budget deliberations surrounding the dust suppressant, including administration’s recommendation to eliminate the process in 2026, did not go unnoticed by rural residents.
“Watching the budget deliberations was a really good indicator of that urban-rural split,” Huszka said. “There is still a real disconnect.”
Huszka said the province’s “forced amalgamation” in creating the Municipality of Chatham-Kent had some issues that are still unresolved to this day.
“When we had a two-tier system, the second tier looked after those things that were important to rural Kent,” he said. “Now that we’re Chatham-Kent, we’re all supposed to be one big happy family.”
Huszka said Bothwell looks like “downtown Beirut” with the burned-out buildings from last January still standing.
“Ten months later, it’s still not cleared up, let alone rebuilt,” Huszka said. “There doesn’t seem to be a community advocate who really recognizes the importance of rebuilding Bothwell.”
“They lost the bank, the restaurant, the Beer Store and the liquor store … I don’t know how much more we have to lose before we finally get some attention,” stated Huszka. “If they had a local council, it would have been a high priority.”
Zone Twp., which was once a part of Lambton County in the late 1800s, still enjoyed a strong relationship with Euphemia Twp, right up to amalgamation.
Huszka said that although the two townships sit on opposite sides of the Kent-Lambton county line, there is a history of cooperation with multiple shared projects, services and facilities, including fire service, community programming and an arena.
He also pointed out that the Moraviantown community was instrumental in the construction of the Bothwell Arena in 1972.
“Prior to Chatham-Kent, it was a co-operative neighbourhood,” said Huszka.
The plan was to give the petition to Steve Pinsonneault, MPP for the Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding, but Huszka reached out to Brady to bring it to Queen’s Park.
“It’s not a snub, I talked to Steve to give him a heads up, he did offer to take it up,” Huszka said.
“But we figured it was better to have Bobbi Ann present because, when we talk about the process, generally you’re petitioning the government and Steve is a part of the government,” he said of Pinsonneault being a member of the majority Conservatives. “It’s not a partisan issue, so having an Independent MPP present (the petition) was a bonus.”
Rob Flack, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, has 20 procedural days to answer the petition.
“It’s like playing roulette, I know the wheel is loaded against us,” Huszka admitted. “But it’s up to the Minister.”
“The best-case scenario is they let us go back into Lambton County; the worst-case scenario is they do nothing,” he said. “The main point is on the floor; the question has been raised, the problem has been cited.”
Huszka said it’s not just residents in Zone Twp. who are unhappy with the current local government format, as there were also petitions in Raleigh, Harwich and Howard Twps. to break away from the Municipality of Chatham-Kent.
“The hope is they see there’s a problem – and it’s not just Bothwell and Zone, there’s concern throughout Chatham-Kent,” Huszka said. “Let’s hope he (Flack) appoints somebody to come down here and ask some questions, to look at Chatham-Kent and say ‘hey, maybe we need to do something a little more.’”
“That would benefit every part of Chatham-Kent, I think we all want good governance,” ended Huszka.
