Make York Region one city, Markham mayor says. Back off, Newmarket mayor counters

Merging would save taxpayers money, Frank Scarpitti says. Amalgamating would cost taxpayers more, John Taylor says.

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 19, 2024
Lisa Queen

York Region’s nine municipalities should be amalgamated into one city, a move that would save taxpayers money and streamline services, Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti told a provincial governance review committee this week.

York Region’s nine municipalities and regional government should be left alone to save taxpayers money and allow politicians to focus on crises facing towns and cities, Newmarket Mayor John Taylor told the same committee.

The opposing viewpoints are just two being shared with the province’s standing committee on heritage, infrastructure and cultural policy, overseen by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which is studying governance in York, Durham, Halton, Simcoe County, Niagara and Waterloo.

It’s the latest in a long line of municipal governance reviews dating back to the mid-1990s, which at the time led to the amalgamation of several Ontario communities, including Toronto.

While restructuring has been discussed off and on in York for years, the governance structure of one regional government and nine municipalities has been left untouched since it was first implemented in 1971.

After more than half a century, it’s time to shake things up, Scarpitti told the committee.

“This review represents a critical opportunity for the Ontario government to make changes that will improve service delivery and reduce the tax burden on property owners,” he said.

“If nothing else, the status quo in York Region must change ... Our world has changed. Our communities have changed. Our municipal role has changed. So it’s time for change.”

Having 10 municipal governments -- nine local and one regional -- should give way to one, Scarpitti said.

“Excluding the education portion of the property tax bill, 70 per cent of what property taxpayers pay for municipal services already go to York Region. We would only be consolidating that remaining 30 per cent,” he said.

“A consolidation would realize significant savings in both operating and capital budgets.”

York’s nine towns and cities have their own IT departments, water and tax billing and recreation departments, among other things, Scarpitti said.

Between the local and regional governments, there are eight fire departments, 10 planning departments, 10 economic development departments, 10 roads departments and 10 corporate communications departments, he pointed out.

York has 77 municipal politicians for a population of 1.2 million, compared to 26 in Toronto, which has a population of three million, he said.

The merger of Enersource, Powerstream, Horizon and Brampton Hydro One into one Alectra utility saved $310 million in operating expenses and an additional $110 million in capital, Scarpitti said.

Having one streamlined York government would help the province realize its goal of building 1.5 million homes by 2031 to address the housing crisis, he said.

Hold on a minute, Taylor counters.

While he’s open to change, such as potentially consolidating some services, by and large, the current structure of governance has and continues to serve York taxpayers and communities well, he said.

The region provides crucial services such as police, paramedics, public health, public transit, social services and vital infrastructure such as roads, bridges, water mains and sewers that local governments can’t afford or have the capacity to deliver, he said.

Going down the governance rabbit hole would be a distraction from solving real problems, Taylor said.

“There are currently significant challenges on which all levels of government need to focus. The top three are the housing crisis, affordability crisis, and growing challenges related to mental health, which are reaching crisis levels,” he said.

“Combined, these factors are casting more and more people into homelessness and imposing a growing burden on all levels of government. These three crises feed each other, have the potential to overwhelm resources throughout our communities and threaten to have a profound and lasting impact on the quality of life of Ontarians.”

Time and again, it has been proven that amalgamations don’t save taxpayers money, Taylor said.

“The legacy of 90s amalgamations in Ontario has shown us that imposing a new governance organization on municipalities will cost the taxpayer more, not less. The transitional costs of those amalgamations and the cost of harmonizing services erased the savings that were expected or assumed through eliminating administrative redundancy and attrition,” he said.

“In fact, research led by Western University professor Timothy Cobban found that in the 15 years following amalgamation costs increased, as staff complements grew at amalgamated municipalities at twice the rate of those municipalities that were left on their own. The Fraser Institute also has concluded that a vast amount of research has found that consolidation fails to produce promised cost savings, rarely leads to more efficient service delivery, and reduces the ability of citizens to be involved in the life of their local governments. More recent efforts in Peel suggest dissolution would also be costly.”

The province should drop the governance review and focus on priorities like the housing and homeless crises, Taylor said.

“It could start by once again making housing services eligible for development charges so Housing York and similar public housing agencies can continue to build homes for those most in need,” he said.

“A second step could be transferring surplus provincial lands and unused land dedicated for schools to municipalities, removing the cost of land from some public housing projects. Lastly, as part of reviewing its own process, the province could by default issue minister’s zoning orders (MZOs) for all deeply affordable and transitional housing projects to help expedite the construction of homes for those most in need and support those municipalities and not-for-profit agencies that would build these homes.”

Scarpitti and Taylor’s thoughts on York’s governance aren’t the only ones being floated.

For example, last year Vaughan Mayor Steven Del Duca pitched Vaughan as a standalone city not part of the Region of York.