Peel Region is heading towards divorce, but the fate of the services it runs remains unclear, with at least one expert predicting a “dog breakfast” scenario rather than a “perfect” separation.
Housing and Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark introduced legislation in Queen’s Park on Thursday, which sets the stage for Mississauga, Caledon and Brampton to become independent cities by 2025.
However, details about what exactly that means are scant and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has already hinted that some services, such as the Peel Regional Police, could “remain intact”, albeit with a different funding model.
“There will be some changes, but I hope that they are behind the scenes and behind the curtains and that the changes are smooth for the residents, except that I hope that in the long run, there is evidence that this was beneficial to their tax bills. ”Crombie said Thursday.
The Ford government has said it will appoint a five-member panel to help oversee the dissolution of the Peel Region assets and ensure the process is “fair and balanced”.
Funding is likely to be one of the biggest sticking points, as Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown demands that his city be “recouped” for the billion dollars in investments he says his taxpayers have made in shared infrastructure, such as the Peel Regional Police Headquarters on Mississauga Road.
Crombie, for his part, accused Brown of “hyperbole” and said that, if anything, Mississauga taxpayers have been forced to pay the costs related to supporting growth in Brampton.
“I think we’re in a very difficult transition period and it remains to be seen if what comes out at the end is going to be as stripped down and I’ll call it smooth as what we have now, or a bit like a dog. breakfast,” Myer Siemiatycki, a professor emeritus at Toronto Metropolitan University, told CP24.com this week. “Simply put, I don’t think we’re headed toward true three-city independence. I think that, in any case, we are heading towards sovereignty-association with that underlining of the word association”.
Siemiatycki said there was a reason why regional governments were created in places like Peel in the first place and that reason “has not gone away,” despite significant population growth.
He said that while some services could theoretically be provided at more localized levels post-divorce, others will undoubtedly be much more cost-effective if costs continue to be shared among taxpayers in Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga.
“There are economies of scale,” he said. “So you have to ask yourself, are we going to have three police departments now? Are we now going to have three health departments and three official health doctors? Are we now going to have three water purification and distribution operations? It’s kind of mind-boggling how much actual tinkering is going to have to be done here. And I think that at the end of the day, the truth is that we are going to end up with something with mechanisms similar to what we are now abandoning, but not as efficient or as profitable.
Here’s a closer look at what Peel’s divorce could mean for the services provided to its 1.5 million residents:
Emergency services
Crombie has already said that services such as Peel Regional Police and Peel Regional Paramedic Services must remain “intact”. But she has called for changes to the funding model. She told reporters Thursday that she would like to see the Peel Regional Police move to a “fee-for-service” model similar to the way the Ontario Provincial Police operates. Currently, the Peel Regional Police’s $524 million budget is covered by the Peel Region, with Mississauga covering approximately 60 percent of the cost.
“Because we have a higher population, we pay more to fund the Peel Regional Police. So by definition we are paying for Brampton’s policing needs and that is going to have to change,” Crombie said Thursday.
Garbage and water collection.
The Peel Region currently provides waste management services for Brampton, Mississauga and Caledon at a cost of approximately $130 million per year and water and wastewater services at a cost of approximately $488 million per year. Crombie said Thursday that he anticipates a “smooth transition” in which those services will continue to be provided in a similar way to how they are now, but said they “could be provided by an independent utility managed by an outside board.” .”
“It would be a pay-as-you-go service,” he said. “Things will be much more streamlined.”
Other services
Peel Region is currently responsible for everything from city planning to road infrastructure maintenance to the operation of five long-term care homes. While it’s impossible to say how all those responsibilities will be divided, Siemiatycki said he hopes for “some broad regional mechanisms for coordination, cooperation and even shared funding,” especially given the tight timetable for negotiating a division.
But that, he says, will be far from a perfect system.
“The Peel Regional Council is a democratically elected body. If you have concerns or criticism about the decisions they have made, go to Peel Regional Council like you would any elected government body and complain and say your part and the people who have to come back for re-election are going to have to think about the issues. that you have raised,” he said. “What will now probably become the new coordination mechanisms are what are known as special purpose agencies, water commissions, police commissions, public health commissions. But those are not going to be run by elected people. They are going to be led by appointees and it could be much more difficult for the public to have a say and an opinion.”