Newly elected leader Bonnie Crombie, pictured at the Queens Park Legislature in Toronto on Dec. 5, is urging Doug Ford to stick to his promise about dissolving Peel region.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie is urging Ontario Premier Doug Ford to stick to his promise to dissolve Peel Region, saying he should not make any “rash decisions” amid reports the provincial government is considering backing down on the plan.
Ms. Crombie, who was elected Leader of the Ontario Liberals this past weekend and is set to leave her post as mayor in the new year, made her comments at a news conference on Wednesday. Mr. Ford’s government announced in May that it intended to break up Peel’s regional government, which represents the municipalities of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, west of Toronto.
“It goes without saying if this is truly the direction the province is heading in, I’m deeply disappointed and frankly angry for the wasted time and resources,” Ms. Crombie said of the possibility of the breakup being abandoned.
“But if there’s something the Premier and I can agree upon, it’s that we need to deliver for taxpayers, and local government must be efficient and effective.”
Mr. Ford is scheduled to meet with his cabinet on Thursday. The provincial government has been weighing whether to proceed with the dissolution in view of concerns about the costs associated with such a substantial change, according to a senior government source. The Globe and Mail is not naming the source because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
Ms. Crombie said the reversal would be a “tough one” for the Premier and local MPPs to explain. She has argued that Mississauga taxpayers are footing too much of the bill for Peel Region, particularly as Caledon and Brampton continue to require expanded infrastructure to grow.
Eliminating the regional government would allow all three municipalities to become more efficient, Ms. Crombie said. She added that the change would reduce confusion, streamline services and save residents time and money.
“We’re confident it’s the right thing to do,” she said.
She also disputed numbers released last week by Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown, a vocal critic of the plan to break up Peel.
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Mr. Brown said his city’s numbers show that the Ontario government’s plan to dissolve Peel could cost local taxpayers an extra $1.3-billion over 10 years and require property taxes to rise sharply, particularly in his municipality and in Caledon. He said the numbers update a 2019 study from accounting and consulting firm Deloitte, but he has not released a detailed report.
Mr. Brown has warned that the added costs could necessitate tax increases over the course of a decade amounting to 17 per cent in Mississauga, 34 per cent in Brampton and 256 per cent in Caledon, which is expected to experience rapid growth, requiring new roads, pipes and other infrastructure. With no regional government, Caledon would likely need to fund much of that construction from its own tax base, which is smaller than those of the other two communities.
On average, Mr. Brown said, the added costs would be the equivalent of a 38-per-cent one-time tax increase across the region. About 1.5 million people live in Peel.
On Wednesday, Ms. Crombie called those claims “unfounded and highly questionable,” and called on Mr. Brown to release the updated report publicly. She said the initial Deloitte report has been discredited because its methodology favoured the status quo.
She called on the Premier and Ontario Municipal Affairs Minister Paul Calandra not to make “any rash decisions based on faulty numbers and a report that no one has seen.”
In response to Ms. Crombie’s comments, Mr. Brown said in a statement that the mayor is throwing paramedics, police, public health staff, long-term care and shelter employees who have concerns about the plan “under the bus.”
Caledon Mayor Annette Groves also urged the government to reconsider its plan this week. “At this time there are too many unknown costs to fully understand the true impact to taxpayers if Peel dissolves,” she said on social media.
The province has set up a five-member transition board to oversee the dissolution of Peel, which was supposed to happen by January, 2025.
The dissolution of the region has been a priority for Ms. Crombie and her predecessor as mayor, Hazel McCallion, who died earlier this year. When Mr. Ford’s government confirmed it would dissolve Peel in the spring, it introduced legislation named after Ms. McCallion. But the government has since paused plans to redraw other regional governments that surround Toronto – Halton, York and Durham – and put them under review.
Justine Teplycky, a spokesperson for Mr. Calandra, echoed a statement from last week, in which she said the Peel transition board continues its work, and must protect the financial sustainability of the municipalities.
Laura Stone