Ontario is close to announcing a final decision on how it will handle the dramatically watered-down separation of a three-municipality region directly to the west of Toronto after more than a year of back-and-forth.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Paul Calandra told Global News he was expecting to wrap the process soon after the mayors of Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga were given a briefing on how the government plans to change the Region of Peel.
“I’m finalizing some of the work, doing some additional work with Peel and the three cities specifically,” Calandra said Tuesday.
“I am hoping over the next number of weeks to come forward with some additional recommendations and the next steps for us in terms of Peel.”
Senior leaders in Peel Region were briefed recently, Global News has learned, on how the government would handle the future of an area that is home to roughly 1.5 million people, living mainly in Brampton and Mississauga.
Local government in the region was hit with upheaval in May 2023, when the province announced its “intent to dissolve” Peel Region.
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The province named the planned legislation in honour of late Mississauga mayor Hazel McCallion, who had advocated to dissolve the region for much of her career. It promised a transition board to split up the assets, disband the regional structure and allow Caledon, Brampton and Mississauga to manage their own affairs.
Months later, however, in December 2023, the province announced it was scrapping the process, after sustained lobbying, particularly from Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown who said local property taxpayers would lose.
The transition board was kept in place with an amended scope and asked to work out if there were services that could be downloaded to Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga.
The board delivered its recommendations earlier this year and the government has been considering them.
Multiple sources told Global News the recommendations include creating some kind of state-run group with appointees to run water and wastewater services. It was also suggested that roads should be run by lower-tier municipalities, along with waste collection.
Through the process, concerns have been raised about the ability of Caledon — with fewer than 100,000 residents — to afford extra services. That could lead to some kind of cost-sharing agreement with Brampton, mirroring a deal that is already in place for transit.
Former Mississauga mayor and Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie said the government hadn’t thought through the initial decision but that the recommendations sounded, at least partly, like the original split.
“This is a government that makes announcements and then reverses them all the time because they don’t do their due diligence,” she told Global News.
“I think they’ve reconsidered, realizing it (the split) is the right thing to do. The third and fourth largest cities in the province of Ontario should stand on their own two feet.”
Current Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish and Brown, her Brampton counterpart, both confirmed to Global News they had been briefed on the details but said they were bound by an embargo.
“I’m very pleased with the work that has been happening behind closed doors to make sure what is done best at the region stays at the region and what can be done more effectively on a local level is done on a local level,” Brown said.
He said he thought the work was “90 per cent” complete.
Calandra said he thought the changes would ultimately need legislation to put them through and that the transition board would stay in place to continue to help.
“There’s still a lot of additional work that needs to be done working with not only Peel, Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon as we work together with the final recommendations that will move forward,” Calandra said.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
