"Premier Ford Announces the Termination of Peel Regional Government." May 18, 2023 Ontario News Update and Commentary, Bill Kelly
Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon will be on their own after 2025.
Here’s a little piece of advice for the Mayors of Ontario municipalities… If the Province calls and says they have a plan to make your local government operate more efficiently and save millions of dollars, be afraid, be very afraid!
That’s what the Ford government is trying to sell to the Mayors of the municipalities Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon with the Provincial government’s announcement that they’re terminating the Regional government in Peel and telling those cities that, after 2025, they’re on their own.
Back in the 1990’s, the Harris government imposed amalgamated city government on cities including Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa… and it didn’t go well.
It was a forced marriage of communities that nobody wanted and, instead of saving millions, it cost those amalgamated cities tens of millions annually and created animosities in those cities that still exist today.
What Ford is imposing is not a shotgun marriage of amalgamation, but a forced divorce, which will lead to acrimonious debates about division of assets like who owns what, and arguments about financial compensation for cities who feel they’re getting ripped off in the deal.
It could get very ugly, and it won’t end there.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark says that other regional governments in Niagara, Halton and York are on Premier Ford’s hit list for the same treatment.
It brings to mind that old truism; the worst thing taxpayers should fear is when someone says, “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.”