Queen's Park to take action on York Region elected chair by end of year

YorkRegion.com
Oct. 4, 2016
Lisa Queen

While a private member’s bill to make York Region’s chair an elected official is dead, Queen’s Park will take action by the end of the year to make sure voters have the right to choose the region’s top political job in time for the next municipal elections, Newmarket-Aurora MPP Chris Ballard says.

“I believe by the end of this year, I will be able to report exciting things, not only to the constituents of Newmarket-Aurora, but all the voters and all the people of the Region of York,” he said.

“I can just beg of you to stay tuned, it’s not dead.”

Ballard’s private member’s bill, which must be put forward by backbenchers, died when he was promoted to housing minister in June.

Meanwhile, even though all Liberal bills that died when the legislature was prorogued last month are expected to be reintroduced, no other York Region Liberal MPPs can move a private member’s bill because they are all cabinet ministers.

But a more powerful government bill could be introduced by the end of the year, Ballard suggested, perhaps as part of a wider review of regional representation.

“If you can convince a government to adopt your position and make it its own, you are much more assured that that bill will go through,” he said.

“I can’t say it will be a government bill, but I think we will see some good things…All I can tell you is stay tuned, this concept of an elected regional chair is not over, we just have to wait for due process.”

Last spring, York Region councillors once again rejected the idea of an elected chair, now held by Wayne Emmerson, although they did agree to a future review of the region’s governance structure.

Former Thornhill Liberal MPP Mario Racco has been told by provincial politicians that the government will soon act on ensuring York has an elected chair.

But he’s worried, given how many times the issue has been raised and died at Queen’s Park over the years.

“Quite frankly, until it does happen, I’m not going to accept it and the reason is that we have a history on this matter. If you go back in memory, you will find that it was started by (former Newmarket-Aurora MPP) Frank Klees. After Frank Klees, it went to (Richmond Hill MPP) Reza Moridi, from Reza Moridi it went to (Oak Ridges-Markham MPP) Helena Jaczek and from Helena Jaczek it went to Chris Ballard.”

“We (the public) may need to put a bit of pressure or pay attention to what is happening because the last thing I would want to see happen is that they nobody is looking at it and they have other priorities.”

Ballard said the government will take action on the issue before the end of the year.

“There are a whole bunch of people who will be very disappointed if we don’t act on it this time around, including the local MPPs,” he said.

“If the government is going to go ahead, let’s have it in place by early 2017 so anyone who is interested in running for regional chair knows what the ground rules are.”