'Already made up their minds': York Region mayors brace for amalgamations

Ford government has short timelines for regional governance review

Yorkregion.com
March 28, 2019
Lisa Queen

While the provincial government is seeking comments from residents and councillors about amalgamating municipalities, the decision is probably already a done deal, some York Region mayors believe.

“I think they’ve already made up their minds,” King Township Mayor Steve Pellegrini said.

Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark has said many times there is no predetermined outcome of a provincial governance review of York and seven other regional governments and Simcoe County, ministry spokesperson Praveen Senthinathan said.

Among other considerations such as making better use of taxpayers’ money, the province is considering amalgamating municipalities, including Georgina, East Gwillimbury, Newmarket, Aurora, King, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Markham, Richmond Hill and Vaughan, and whether to cut the number of local politicians.

The province’s short time frame is making some York mayors suspect Queen’s Park may already have at least the broad strokes of its plan already in place.

The public has until April 23 to respond to an online survey found at Ontario.ca/regionalgovernment.

Clark’s advisers, Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling, have been interviewing municipal officials and are expected to bring recommendations to the minister by early summer.

On March 21, York Region launched a task force, made up of the region’s nine mayors and regional chair Wayne Emmerson, to consider the region’s governance structure, decision-making processes and delivery of service.

While York’s task force can look at finding new efficiencies, there’s little point in spinning its wheels coming up with recommendations before the province announces its intentions, mayors said.

The “heavy lifting” will come in the fall after the province determines the future of the eight regions and Simcoe County, they said.

If the province does merge municipalities, it needs to act quickly, Emmerson said.

“If you’re going to do something like this and make amalgamations or change the structure, you better do it (quickly). Pull the Band-aid like you did in Toronto and make our election two years from now,” he said.

Any amalgamations need to ensure new communities are financially sound enough to deliver big-ticket services such as transit, Newmarket Mayor John Taylor said.

While the province may cut municipal politicians, that wouldn’t save much money and could jeopardize local democracy, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti said.