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Port Colborne’s elder statesman: ‘I gave my life to this city’
Posted: December 3, 2025
(December 2, 2025) By: Kris Dube, Village Report
PORT COLBORNE – It’s been more than 15 years since Bob Saracino last held elected office, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t paying attention to what’s going on.
The fire to help the city where he’s lived and worked and raised a family still burns as hot as ever.
Now 87, Saracino entered the political arena 53 years ago as an alderman in 1972 and quickly forged a reputation among voters for his passionate devotion to his hometown of Port Colborne.
He became the south Niagara city’s mayor in 1977, a position he held until 1995. He also served as Port Colborne’s regional councillor for 14 years until he was unseated in 2010 by newcomer David Barrick by a vote differential of just 165 ballots.
These days, Saracino enjoys his retirement by staying involved in the local fight to keep Port Colborne’s urgent care centre open and staying active with Royal Canadian Legion Branch 56.
Saracino’s daughter, Global TV news director Amy Saracino, lives in Toronto with his two grandchildren.
His wife Adele lives at Northland Pointe, a facility he played a role in opening more than 20 years ago. He still drives around the city and visits her every day.
And in his local travels, Saracino gets “emotional” when seeing some of the projects he fought for as a municipal and regional politician.
The projects he’s had a hand in are varied and fill the Port Colborne landscape.
The establishment of the Port Colborne Historical and Marine Museum 50 years ago, the construction of the Mellanby Avenue bridge and a new water treatment plant in 1980 are among the achievements still standing today of which he feels most proud.
In the early 1980s, there was a push to move the city’s Niagara Regional Police building to Welland.
But Saracino wasn’t going to let that happen.
“I said to the chief of the day there’s no way you’re going to close it,” he said, adding the current building serving the city was built afterwards.
The creation of Sugarloaf Marina in 1988, a 700-boat facility, was met with opposition about it being too big, he recalled.
But lo and behold, it was approved and is one of the city’s most important lakefront jewels today.
“Council was very good to me on these big projects,” he said, adding another related project he had a hand in getting built was the bridge from the marina to H.H. Knoll Lakeview Park, which came at a cost of more than $360,000.
Saracino served on the Niagara Parks Commission, as well as the Ontario Police Commission.
He has received numerous accolades, such as being one of a few recipients of an Ontario Citizen of the Year Award in 2013.
He has received the Queen Elizabeth jubilee, diamond jubilee and platinum jubilee medals, as well as more recently, the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
He is a proud and active member of the legion, a place he regularly visits.
“I try to get down there as often as I can,” he said.
While many of his former political colleagues are no longer alive, Saracino said some of the Niagara elected officials he has spoken to in recent years include St. Catharines Regional Coun. Tim Rigby, Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop and former mayor Doug Martin.
He has met a number of former Ontario premiers like Dalton McGuinty and Bill Davis, as well as prime ministers such as Pierre Trudeau, Brian Mulroney and Joe Clark.
“I had the privilege to meet all those people,” he said.
What’s one issue in Port Colborne that still keeps him going?
Fighting to keep the city’s urgent care centre part of the community, he said.
He said the local government should be doing more to preserve services at Port Colborne’s urgent care centre, which, along with Fort Erie’s, is slated to close in 2028 when a new hospital in south Niagara Falls is put into operation.
A health-care advisory committee has been meeting regularly since June, and local efforts are now focused on obtaining provincial funding that can be applied to a primary care strategy.
Port Colborne is also working with Niagara Region to recruit new physicians, an essential part of the overall plan, Mayor Bill Steele said, adding three have been brought to the city in the last two years.
Steele said he understands Niagara Health’s position that critical care in its emergency departments is a focus, and they are short-staffed with doctors.
That’s why planning is underway to enable local health-care providers to treat minor cases, the mayor continued.
Saracino said he worries local leadership in the city has “basically caved in” to Niagara Health.
The city and current Mayor Bill Steele refute Saracino’s suggestion, pointing to numerous ways the city has fought to keep the facility going, including the idea of the municipality leasing the site and operating it in partnership with local physicians and health-care experts. That possibility has gone by the wayside, Steele said last month, but other avenues are being explored through the creation of a local advisory committee, hiring of legal counsel and more.
Saracino said he thinks there is more of a fight to be had and does not accept the impending closure of the Port Colborne site, which opened in 1952 with shares sold to residents.
The building is more than bricks and mortar.
“It’s the lifeblood of our community,” said Saracino from his Steele Street apartment.
He said the city should be working closely with people like MPP Jeff Burch, while also urging Premier Doug Ford to visit the community.
Saracino took part in a recent rally in front of the Port Colborne urgent care centre, hosted by the Ontario Health Coalition.
Decades ago, when services at the hospital were in jeopardy under the Mike Harris government, rallies were held and frequent trips to Queen’s Park were made.
Advocates back then were “not just going to sit down,” he said.
Everyone needs and deserves access to health care in their communities, said Saracino, questioning the ability of seniors to get to one of the three main hospitals in the region when the Port Colborne site closes.
“That’s a right of every Canadian citizen,” he said.
Saracino said it’s “absolutely ridiculous” that a tourist destination like Port Colborne, which grows significantly in population during the summer, won’t have its own hospital or urgent care centre.
Saracino doesn’t see himself slowing down any time soon and plans to continue voicing his opinion.
“You have to keep on top of it,” said Saracino. “I’ll do what I can to help.”
Before entering the political realm, Saracino worked at Robin Hood flour mill in Port Colborne as well as Atlas Steels in Welland.
His colleagues in the Jaycees urged him to run for council in the early 1970s, a step he’s delighted he took.
“I gave my life to this city,” said Saracino.
Steele and city staff were asked for comment about Saracino’s stance on the current local government’s efforts.
Communications officer Doug Hunt provided a statement outlining what is being done, such as work by the city’s health care advisory committee.
“The committee will create a health care strategy by engaging local voices and drawing on expert knowledge to help ensure that Port Colborne residents have reliable access to local health care services,” the statement reads.
The committee reports directly to Port Colborne city council, and is tasked with producing an evidence-based and attainable health-care services strategy in 2026 that closes service gaps with a community-first approach; building partnerships that are aligned with the goals and objectives of the health care services strategy; developing a plan on how to advance the community’s priorities with upper levels of government; and engaging in a meaningful, respectful and transparent manner with the community and ensuring all residents have a voice in shaping the path forward, said the statement.
The committee has been meeting on a biweekly basis since June and has heard from more than 14 subject matter experts and agencies from across the health-care spectrum.
City council requested staff develop a robust community engagement plan, which was approved earlier this year, and included online and paper surveys, working groups, pop-up engagements, open houses and town halls.
Several key players at the provincial government, such as Minister of Health Sylvia Jones, have had discussions with city officials on more than one occasion.
A meeting has also been held with federal Minister of Health Mark Holland, continued the statement from the city.
“The city has retained a lawyer who specializes in health-care regulation and legislation to look at our case and give us a legal opinion on the closure of the hospital as well as other crucial areas of service delivery for Port Colborne residents,” said Hunt’s statement.
As well, the city has retained an external consulting firm to review the current plan for health-care services delivery in Niagara and provide recommendations to “determine if access to health care is equitable and identify gaps for future service planning.”
