Peel council conflicted on the future of the Regional Chair position

Thestar.com
Oct. 18, 2021

Regional Chair Nando Iannicca had to step out of council for another meeting and also excused himself declaring a conflict of interest before members debated on a notice of motion about the future of that position.

“It is not in any way a criticism of the current chair,” said Coun. Carolyn Parrish, who brought forward a notice of motion to explore changing the regional chair position from full-time to part-time, and potentially having the role filled by an elected councillor, instead of being appointed. “That I think would be its truest form of accountability.”

She is proposing that if the chair is a councillor of one municipality, then two vice-chairs must be representatives of each of the other two municipalities.

“Time is of the essence,” Parrish said, urging council to pass the motion in order to change the process for regional chair selection at least one year before the election cycle, which is the provincial regulation.

She argued that the job of regional chair could be filled by a current councillor, or a member of the public part-time, cutting down the $890,000 budget for the chair’s salary, vehicle, four staff members, and more.

Not everyone liked the idea.

“It’s a really big decision. We’re changing how we govern ourselves,” said Dipika Demerla, who favoured the idea of having staff consult a third party to investigate the role of the chair, the needs of the region and the potential changes that could benefit the community. “I’d like to see more substantive evidence.”

chief administrative officer Janice Baker weighed in, stating that the municipal act is not explicit on the duties that the chair of the region is supposed to fulfil.

Currently, the regional chair is the political head of the organization, as well as its CEO. The person filling the chair role runs meetings, advocates on behalf of the region to the province and federal governments and works as a liaison between staff and council.

“The staff cannot tell us how to make a political decision,” Parrish said, adding that there wasn’t a staff report when council voted to change the number of council seats each municipality had in Dec. 2020.

Back in 2019, the Ontario government considered changing the Peel regional chair position from being appointment to elected, but ultimately didn’t.

Pat Saito said that she has seen very active regional chairs over the years, and less hands-on ones.

“It should be more than a part-time job when you’re dealing with this type of organization,” said Karen Raz, pointing to the sheer size and complexity of the community and its government.

Michael Palleschi shared concerns that a councillor holding the chair position would be biased toward their own community, suggesting that the idea is a way for Mississauga to “keep a foot on the necks of Caledon and Brampton.”

Council voted in favour of the change, and residents will be encouraged to attend a public meeting to share their own thoughts on the matter.

The public meeting date is yet to be determined.