No more Peel Region? Doug Ford supports ‘an independent Mississauga’

Thestar.com
May 16, 2023

Premier Doug Ford says Mississauga will be allowed to secede from Peel Region.

“I’ve always been for an independent Mississauga,” Ford told reporters Monday at a Mississauga firefighter training facility.

“You can’t have a city the size of Mississauga -- close to 800,000 people and it’s continuing to grow -- being tied into other jurisdictions,” the premier said, noting his Progressive Conservatives represent every seat in Peel.

Sources, speaking confidentially in order to discuss internal deliberations, told the Star an official announcement could come from the Tories as early as Thursday.

There is an ongoing provincial review of the region’s two-tiered government that currently has Mississauga tied to Brampton and Caledon under the Peel umbrella.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, who was at Ford’s news conference, welcomed a move for which she has long advocated.

“I’m delighted that the premier has publicly stated that he’s on the way to separating Peel,” said Crombie, who is mentioned as a possible Ontario Liberal leadership candidate.

“It gives me great, great pleasure. I know he’s fulfilling a promise to (late) former mayor Hazel McCallion and myself,” she said.

“Of course this makes great sense that we go our separate ways. It’s more cost effective,” the mayor said, saying it costs her city $84 million annually to subsidize services in Brampton and Caledon.

“It allows us both to build great cities and … allow my taxpayers to invest their tax dollars back into our city rather than to support the growth of the other municipalities -- and continue to support their growth as they have for the past 50 years,” she said.

“So I look forward to this announcement and I want to thank the premier.”

But Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown warned his city will lose $1 billion worth of shared existing infrastructure -- in two water treatment facilities and the Peel Regional Police headquarters -- when Mississauga separates.

“Over decades, hard-working Brampton residents have paid this enormous cost,” Brown said in an interview Monday.

“It would have to be repaid if Peel Region dissolves and we have to rebuild in Brampton,” he said.

“Premier Ford has said Brampton won’t get shafted but Mayor Crombie is singing a very different tune. This needs to be addressed. Otherwise it is theft.”

Indeed, Ford emphasized last week that Brampton is “not going to be shafted by Mississauga or anyone else” in the dissolution of Peel.

“Brampton and Mississauga are large cities that can stand alone, but I’ll guarantee you that Brampton will always be taken care of and they’ll be made whole -- and so will Mississauga and Caledon as well,” he said Thursday in Brampton.

Brown said there is “duplication,” especially when it come to municipal planning, that would end if Brampton is no longer tethered to Peel.

Caledon Mayor Annette Groves has said she prefers the status quo for her city.

In the 2021 census, Mississauga’s population was 717,961 to 656,480 for Brampton and 76,581 for Caledon.