TORONTO – Doug Ford’s government will no longer dissolve the Region of Peel. The announcement, made today by Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister of Ontario, Paul Calandra, will cancel plans that would have seen Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon become independent cities by 2025.

“While we initially thought the best way to achieve our goals of better services and lower taxes was through dissolution, we have since heard loud and clear from municipal leaders and stakeholders that complete dissolution would bring a significant tax increase and to the disruption of essential services on which the people of Peel Region depend” Calandra said in a statement ahead of the announcement. “And that is something our government will never support”.

Instead, the Government will introduce legislation in the new year that would “recalibrate the mandate of the Peel Region Transition Board” to focus on making local governments more effective. This will include improving regional services such as police, paramedics and public health. The board will be asked to make recommendations on “optimizing the provision of services that support efforts to build more cases”. On this last point in particular, Calandra announced a review of some MZOs (Ministry Zoning Orders: a provincial mechanism that allows the government to “rename” a piece of land for the purpose of bypassing restrictions on building development).

Between March 2019 and March 2021, the Ford government issued forty-four MZOs, compared to one per year in the past, so the Auditor General has already announced that he will investigate the Ontario government’s use of MZOs. Announcement which was followed today by Calandra: “Some MZOs linked to housing are under enhanced monitoring because they show a lack of progress”, said the minister. “The new approach will be: either you exploit it, or you lose it”.

Furthermore, Calandra promised greater clarity on the application of exemptions from expenses relating to building development, to support better planning of the various municipal budgets which risk going into further trouble due to the lost revenue deriving from the costs related to development borne by the builders. Charges that the Ontario government, as is known, has effectively eliminated to encourage the rapid construction of new homes and for this reason some municipalities had warned that the elimination of these taxes and charges would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to municipal coffers. Very precious money, given that the fees paid by builders are often used to develop critical infrastructure. To address this issue, the Province will consult with municipal partners and explore a “five-year phase-in of development fee increases and fee reimbursement framework”. At the same time, however, the Province reiterated that development fee exemptions for non-profit, affordable, purpose-built rental homes will remain unchanged.

In the pic above, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister of Ontario, Paul Calandra (photo from Twitter X – @PaulCalandra)