'Loss of local identity': Oakville Mayor Rob Burton says amalgamation would result in higher taxes

Burton says advisers chosen to undertake review are well known for favouring amalgamations

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 25, 2019
David Lea

Oakville mayor Rob Burton used this year’s State of the Town address to again call on residents to make their feelings on amalgamation known, arguing the change would lead to higher taxes and a loss of local identity.

The mayor made these remarks at town hall on Monday, Sept. 23 before a crowd of around 70 people.

The speech comes as the town awaits the results of the province’s Regional Government Review, which are expected after the federal election before the end of the year.

The Ford government announced in January it would be reviewing the governance, decision-making and service delivery functions of eight regional municipalities (including Halton) and Simcoe County.

Burton and others have voiced concerns the review could result in Oakville and Halton’s other municipalities being amalgamated.

“I believe that would constitute a loss of local identity, and I believe local identity is a crucial part of community engagement, and I believe that community engagement is the heart and soul and backbone and brain of community health and it’s the reason why Oakville is Oakville,” said Burton.

“We lose that and we start turning Oakville into just another place.”

He also said the regionalization of fire departments and transit would make these services more expensive, which in turn would result in taxes going up.

“All of our firefighters are professional firefighters. We have more stations. We have more trucks. We have a fire training campus where we train our firefighters to the highest degree,” said Burton.

“Our neighbours in Halton all have, to one degree or another, partly volunteer fire departments. The result is we have a much higher standard of fire protection and lower fire insurance and that is good for homes and businesses.”

For transit, Burton pointed out that Oakville has 100 buses and a grid system while Burlington has around 50 buses and Milton has around eight buses.

Halton Hills, he said, does not even believe in buses.

“Are you going to take transit away from Oakville or are you going to raise everyone up to Oakville’s standard?” Burton asked.

The mayor said the province has floated the idea that in the event of some kind of amalgamation the transit service levels would be kept the same but taxed differently so that areas of the region with more transit would be taxed more for it.

Burton argued this approach defeats the point of regionalization.

The mayor says many residents have already told the province how they feel about amalgamation.

He said work by the We Love Oakville-Stop Amalgamation citizen’s group has so far resulted in 3,400 emails being sent by residents protesting the idea of amalgamation to the premier.

“In the history of Oakville there has never been 3,400 letters or emails sent about anything,” said Burton. “So, Oakville is fully engaged in this issue.”

He called on residents to keep up the pressure by going to weloveoakville.org and joining the email campaign.

Burton pointed out Oakville may be fighting an uphill battle because while the minister of municipal affairs and housing recently told municipal leaders gathered for an Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference that no decisions regarding amalgamations have been made, there are indications where the province wants this all to go.

“He chose two advisers who both are well known for favouring amalgamations … That’s not exactly what I would call a ‘look at both sides of a question' set up,” said Burton.

“Also when the minister spoke to us at the August AMO conference about how no decision has been made the slide behind him said his goal was to ‘Strengthen Regional Government.’ Whatever that means, I have to leave to you to interpret.”

The Regional Government Review was not the sole topic of Burton’s speech.

He noted Oakville is succeeding in attracting new businesses with Prodigy Game, an award-winning educational technology company, coming to town soon with 300 jobs.

The mayor said BDO, a leading consulting, business advisory, public accounting and tax company, is bringing 500 jobs to Oakville at the new office tower on 360 Oakville Place Dr.

For 2020 Burton is forecasting a property tax increase of 1.96 per cent.

He said Burlington is aiming for a 2 per cent property tax increase and predicts Mississauga will have an increase of 3 per cent while Toronto will have an increase of 2.5 per cent.

Burton also noted that for 2019 Oakville had total tax paid debt equal to 1.4 per cent of its revenue while Ontario had total tax paid debt equal to 245.5 per cent of its revenue.

He anticipates Oakville’s number in 2020 will drop to total tax paid debt equal to 1.1 per cent of its revenue.