Municipal leaders in 905 buoyed by Liberal election victory
Long considered a Conservative stronghold, four ridings in the 905 moved into the Liberal fold, and now municipalities anticipate payback.

Thestar.com
June 13, 2014
By San Grewal

Across the 905, municipal leaders are saying they might be the biggest winners after the provincial Liberals’ decisive victory Thursday.

Oakville Mayor Rob Burton foresees “a golden age” for the 905 in the four regions - Halton, Peel, York and Durham - surrounding Toronto.

Long considered a Conservative stronghold, four more ridings in the 905 - Halton, Burlington, Newmarket-Aurora and Durham - moved into the Liberal fold Thursday, accounting for the biggest share of the party’s 11-seat gain in the election. Some of those ridings have been Conservative for decades.

Now, municipal leaders representing an area that accounts for the lion’s share of provincial growth are hoping for some payback.

“I think a Toronto-centric view of the world needs to be replaced with a Greater Toronto view of the world,” said Vaughan Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua, who represented the area as a Liberal MP for 22 years. “This is where population growth is taking place.”

As of 2011, Toronto’s population was 2,615,060. The 905 population was 3,439,131. Toronto has 23 provincial ridings, the 905 has 24 (those numbers are set to change to 25 in Toronto and 33 in the 905 with a new electoral map coming into effect).

Demographics across the 905 are rapidly changing.

Bevilacqua expects a Liberal majority to help deliver a new university for the region, which many new residents have demanded. He’s also confident Liberal Leader Kathleen Wynne will help keep plans for Vaughan’s desperately needed first hospital on track.

Meanwhile, Burton said, Liberal governments “have made growth greener and more fiscally responsible,” and that Wynne’s leadership will help guarantee her party’s commitment to its 2005 legislation outlining smart growth in Ontario, particularly in the 905, which at full build-out could easily have double the population of Toronto.

Burton also pointed out how beneficial the Liberal government support for the auto sector is to 905 cities such as Oakville, Oshawa and Brampton. Oakville is home to a Ford assembly plant that employs more than 3,000, Brampton’s Chrysler plant has more than 3,000 workers and GM employs about 4,000 people in Oshawa. Each of those jobs reportedly creates two to three other spinoff jobs in the region.

PC leader Tim Hudak called Liberal government incentives for the auto sector “corporate welfare” and vowed to scrap them, throwing the Ontario auto sector’s future up in the air.

Burton said Oakville is hosting a conference on the future of the automotive industry next week. “That’s going to be conducted in a much more optimistic environment than it might have been.”

Brampton city Councillor John Sanderson, who also sits on Peel Region council, is running for the mayor’s job. He echoed Burton’s sentiments about the auto sector and the Liberal government’s support of Chrysler in Brampton.

On his election website Sanderson’s detailed platform includes another big issue facing the 905, the need to get population-based “fair share” funding from the province for a number of social services and education.

He said 905 municipalities got a lot closer to that goal with the Liberal win.

“All of our populations continue to boom. We have funding areas like children’s services that get their money from the province. In Peel that service gets one-third the (per capita) amount of funding that areas across the province (outside the GTA) get.”

It works out to $833 in Ontario excluding the GTA, compared to $284 in Peel.

“It’s the same across the board, we’re not getting our fair share even for special education funding. But I’m confident that’s changing. We’ll now have more 905 MPPs in the government fighting for us. I think Kathleen Wynne’s going to help us reduce the funding gap in Peel and the 905. We’re the ones taking all the growth.”

Perhaps the Liberal win’s biggest boon to the 905 is transportation infrastructure.

“Queen’s Park can finally get moving to fund transportation infrastructure and start fixing gridlock,” said Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion, one of Wynne’s most vocal, and most influential, supporters.

She said minority governments and recent turmoil at Queen’s Park were disastrous for the stifling situation on 905 roads and highways, as nothing got done or too many people pushed conflicting plans.

She wants Mississauga and the 905 to get the same level of transportation funding that Toronto has received.

Much of the transportation and manufacturing industries that depend on the smooth shipment of goods are based in the 905, McCallion said.

“And Mississauga needs its LRT. We were shocked when Hudak said he was going to cancel it. We don’t have to worry about Hudak cancelling plans that are almost ready to get shovels in the ground.”

But McCallion pointed out that even though she’s praised the Liberals for things such as removing transfer payments from the 905 to Toronto for its social service costs, many files in the 905 have stalled with the Liberals.

“I’m not happy with the progress, but now Premier Wynne has four years.”