A new city above Toronto? Markham’s mayor thinks York Region’s municipalities should amalgamate

But several mayors say the feelings are not mutual.

Thestar.com
June 15, 2023
Noor Javed

Peel Region is getting divorced. But one GTA mayor thinks York Region should do the opposite.

Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti put out an unexpected statement on Wednesday calling for the province to consider amalgamating all of York’s nine municipalities -- but he didn’t ask his neighbouring communities if they were interested in the union.

“The province has taken bold steps restructuring the City of Toronto Council and Peel Region and should be doing the same in York Region,” said Scarpitti. “I hope when the facilitator embarks on their mandate for York Region, they will come forward with some changes and not just leave the status quo in place.”

But several mayors say the feelings are not mutual.

“I frankly disagree with the suggested direction of Mayor Scarpitti,” said Newmarket Mayor John Taylor. “This is coming out of nowhere and trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”

“As far I know, people’s priorities are housing affordability, or the climate crisis, or homelessness … if we take this on, it will redirect us and will limit our ability to address issues that are priority number one and that our residents really want us to focus on,” he said.

Last month, the province announced it was moving ahead with the dissolution of Peel Region -- which stretches over 1,200 square kilometres -- and the creation of three distinct municipalities of Mississauga, Caledon and Brampton to help cut red tape.

And in 2018, in the middle of the municipal election, the province decided to cut Toronto council from 47 members to 25 plus the mayor.

Now, the Markham mayor has thrown another option into the ring to see if consolidating York Region (1,700 square kilometres) is the best way to achieve efficiencies.

The province also recently said it would conduct another review of municipal governance for the upper-tier municipalities of York, Durham, Halton, Niagara, Simcoe and Waterloo. A similar exercise took place in 2018, but the province did not release the report from the review.

The regional facilitators will be named in coming weeks.

“While the review process has not yet begun, the province has no intention of unilaterally imposing amalgamations on municipalities in these areas,” said Victoria Podbielski, press secretary for Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark.

“Facilitators will be tasked with making recommendations to ensure municipal governance structures can effectively respond to the issues facing Ontario’s fast-growing municipalities today, including tackling the housing supply crisis.”

Richmond Hill Mayor David West said he’s opposed to the idea of amalgamation because all the municipalities in York Region are different.

“They all have a unique flavour and getting rid of them just takes all of that uniqueness and puts it into jeopardy,” said West, who said he welcomes the review and opportunities to make government more efficient.

West said studies have shown that amalgamations aren’t often cost-effective. Both Aurora Mayor Tom Mrakas and Whitchurch-Stouffville Mayor Iain Lovatt said in statement they also opposed the idea of amalgamation.

But in his statement, Scarpitti said it makes little sense that York Region with 1.2 million people has 77 municipal representatives, whereas the City of Toronto has 26 for three million people. Peel Region, which is now being split apart, has 1.45 million people.

He also said the operating expenses of all nine York municipalities -- Markham, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, Newmarket, Aurora, Georgina, Whitchurch-Stouffville, East Gwillimbury, King City and the regional office of York -- amount to $4.4 billion.

Consolidating electric utilities and transportation services, for example, would represent a saving.

“I think we need to consolidate, save money and make local governments and programs stronger,” said Scarpitti, admitting that it’s a different approach than what’s happening in Peel.

He believes that trying to dismantle major services like transit, police, public health and EMS -- which will eventually take place in Peel -- is a “difficult exercise ... and you can get across the finish line much sooner by consolidating.”

Taylor worries a merger would further minimize the voice of the people.

“That’s what is missing here. I think before we run out and tell everybody what we think their government should look like, we should ask the people what their government should look like,” said Taylor. “That seems to be a dying tenet of democracy -- asking the people what they want.”