Durham chair ‘caught off guard’ by regional government review announcement

Thestar.com
Jan 15, 2019
Mike Johnston

Noting he was “caught off guard” by today’s announcement from Queen’s Park about a review of eight regional governments in Ontario, Durham Region’s newest chairman said he can’t see any amalgamations leading to a more efficient form of regional government.

“I can’t imagine trying to combine a large part of the province into a manageable area,” noted chairman John Henry.

Rumours swirl at Queen’s Park that Durham, York and Peel could be amalgamated. Henry, who won the chairman’s position this past October, noted that area would be bigger than Prince Edward County.

“I can’t imagine adding Durham to neighbouring regions.”

On Tuesday, the province announced it has appointed former Waterloo chairman Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn, a retired deputy minister, to undertake the review of Regional government.

The review will include consultations with municipal officials, stakeholder groups and the public and it will be done during the spring of 2019 with a final report due in the summer of 2019.

In addition to Durham, other Regions in the review include Halton, Muskoka District, Niagara, Oxford County, Peel, Waterloo and York, along with Simcoe County, and all the lower-tier municipalities in each Region.

In making the announcement, the province noted, “The government is committed to undertaking a review of regional government and Simcoe County to help ensure that the upper- and lower-tier municipalities in these geographic areas are efficient and accountable to their residents and businesses.”

The mandate of the advisory body is to make recommendations to the government on opportunities to improve regional governance and service delivery. That includes how well the upper and lower-tier municipalities work together, is the two-tier structure efficient and is the size and structure of a Regional Council serving the public well.

Henry noted regional governments are not allowed to run deficits and already send their budgets to the province for review.

“To drop this announcement as we are doing our budget is very interesting,” said Henry.

He did not oppose the consultation but noted any review must include the voters.

“If you want to have a dialogue about regional governments, that’s OK. But you have to consult the public.”

Pickering Mayor Dave Ryan wasn’t surprised by the provincial announcement.

“It’s been forecast for some time. The premier mentioned it at AMO (Association of Municipalities of Ontario),” Ryan noted.

When Premier Doug Ford announced he was unilaterally shrinking the size of Toronto council, he added a review of regional government was also going to be undertaken.

“We’ll fully participate. It’s a provincial initiative and it will make us all take a hard look at what we’re doing,” the Pickering mayor added.

One concern Ryan has is the possibility of regions or municipalities in regions being amalgamated.

“Anecdotally, they haven’t created great savings. There’s turmoil and angst. There’s no public appetite for amalgamation,” Ryan stated.

One aim could be to improve municipal performance, he said.

“It doesn’t matter where you are and what you’re doing, there’s always an opportunity to improve,” Ryan said.

Another concern is the short duration of the consultations. The government announced it wants the review completed by the summer.

“It’s always a problem if you have a short duration on a complex discussion. It deserves adequate time to do an in-depth analysis and get all the inputs that are required,” Ryan said.

A spokesman for Pickering-Uxbridge MPP, and president of the Treasury Board of Ontario, Peter Bethlenfalvy, said the MPP would not be commenting on the announcement. He said MPPs have received direction from Queen’s Park that all media inquiries must go through the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.