Halton Hills Council has made its position clear on a hypothetical dissolution of Halton Region.
The local politicians passed a motion at this week's meeting that declares their desire to keep the upper-tier municipality intact.
After the Province adopted the Hazel McCallion Act - which essentially dissolves Peel Region - earlier this year, Ontario’s then-minister of municipal affairs Steve Clark revealed that he intended to appoint “regional facilitators.”
Their job would be to assess whether certain lower-tier municipalities can stand on their own without assistance from regional governments. Halton and its local municipalities of Halton Hills, Milton, Burlington and Oakville were among the ones chosen.
“There has never been any talk of public consultation in any of this that they (the Province) have done,” noted Councillor Clark Somerville, who brought the above motion forth with Councillor Bob Inglis. “Halton is a region that works. It's the only one in Ontario that’s had a AAA credit rating for many years.”
More recently, Clark’s replacement - Paul Calandra - has backtracked on the facilitators and instead indicated he wants a legislative committee to conduct the review that will assess the future of six regional governments, including Halton.
Regional government allows municipalities to share certain services that would be difficult to offer at the local level. These include water and wastewater, garbage collection and policing, among others.
“The Town will be, I believe, considerably financially burdened if this (potential dissolution) goes through,” Inglis said in council. “We will have a lot more on our plates, a lot more to pay for and a lot more to handle, and there is a cost to all of that.”
He added, "I’m an ex-technician, and the number one rule in the technician’s world is ‘if it works, don’t fix it.'"
Councillor Alex Hilson also threw his support behind the resolution and said "hopefully the Province is listening.”
