After Mississauga got its way on the future of Peel Region, some other big-fish municipalities now say they want more control over their affairs.
In a committee meeting Monday, mayors seemed eager to bait the premier's interest by promising to deliver on his priorities — building more housing and infrastructure — on their own. One even brought up Lean Six Sigma.
In May, then-municipal affairs minister Steve Clark said he'd soon appoint "facilitators" for the upper-tier municipalities of Durham, Halton, Niagara, Simcoe, Waterloo and York, to figure out ways to make them work better — including more potential breakups. In September, new Housing Minister Paul Calandra, who has walked back many of his predecessor's moves, said the provincial Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy would take over that work.
The committee met on Monday in Barrie to talk about the issue. It heard from the mayors of Barrie, Oakville, and Bradford West Gwillimbury, the chair of Durham Region, and the executive director of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition.
Oakville Mayor Rob Burton said regional governments were supposed to be temporary, to help rural municipalities "grow up" with the help of established cities and towns.
"Isn't it fair to ask, when do the now grown-up kids leave home?" he said.
He suggested this review could be a good time to set criteria for when municipalities should move out, so to speak.
Oakville pays 42 per cent of Halton Region's costs and receives one-third of the services, Burton said. He argued instead for the municipalities to share the costs of certain services, without a regional government.
He cited Lean Six Sigma, a cost-cutting management technique used by some major companies — and a favourite of Premier Doug Ford.
"An upper legislative chamber always functions to delay things. Period, full stop," he said. "In Lean Six Sigma and Toyota systems, you remove unnecessary steps to gain efficiency and value."
The lone upper-tier representative, Durham Region Chair John Henry, said smaller members like Uxbridge and Scugog can't afford key services like IT and legal on their own — and the bigger ones are happy too.
All eight municipalities signed off on a joint statement released in September to that effect.
"...with a region-wide population of about 743,000 residents, the current two-tier model is the best choice; providing fiscally responsible savings for our programs and services through economies of scale," it said. "Just like all families, we’ve leaned on, learned from, and supported one another during some very difficult times."
"It really does seem like Durham is happily married," Liberal MPP Mary-Margaret McMahon said.
Dumping his own bucket of Ford chum, Henry said the region plans to expand by 9,100 acres and build more transit-oriented communities together.
Bradford West Gwillimbury Mayor James Leduc said his town wants more independence within Simcoe County. There are 16 municipalities under the regional government, of which Bradford is the biggest. But each one has two votes, Leduc said. He argued for a representation-by-population model instead.
"This year alone, we're only at 24 per cent of our actual targets for growth. That is because we keep getting stymied by the upper-level government," he said.
Leduc said the government is "supporting us" by building the Bradford Bypass highway, "and we want to be able to provide housing and job opportunities for the province of Ontario."
Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall said his city was just fine standing apart from the Simcoe County government, touting his city's strong progress on its provincial housing goals.
“We’ve been getting it done," he said, borrowing a Fordian slogan.
Nuttall, who was almost a PC candidate in 2010, used his time to make the case for expanding Barrie's urban boundaries, arguing the city needs more land to attract industrial companies. Calandra has walked back boundary expansions in many municipalities, including Barrie, but has said mayors can let him know if they'd like to keep the expansions.
Margaret Prophet of the Simcoe County Greenbelt Coalition argued the regional government actually needs more power, particularly over infrastructure. Without a top-down approach, smaller municipalities often opt for cheaper, more environmentally risky options, she said.
"Growth concentrated in the wrong areas, with servicing that has less environmental oversight, with costs that will not be recuperated through new assessment and that doesn’t consider the impacts to the larger ecosystems and watersheds, puts much at risk," Prophet said. "This is why we are calling for a clear, consistent, top-level approach to growth management including infrastructure planning and financing."
