Premier Doug Ford is tackling regional reform.Ford’s Progressive Conservative government announced Tuesday it would review regional governments in eight municipalities, including Peel, Halton, Durham, and York.To that end, Michael Fenn, a former deputy minister and one-time chief executive of Metrolinx, and Ken Seiling, the recently retired long-time chair of Waterloo region, have been retained as special advisers.“Our government committed to improving the way regional government works,” Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said in a statement.“We will be looking at ways to make better use of taxpayers’ dollars and make it easier for residents and businesses to access important municipal services,” said Clark.“Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling bring a wealth of experience that will help us examine if the way regions are governed is working for the people.”Fenn and Seiling will work with Queen’s Park to look at ways to make it easier for residents and businesses to access services; for municipalities to better deliver those services, and examine “possibilities to cut red tape and duplication, and save costs.”Along with the GTHA regions, they will look at Waterloo, Niagara, Muskoka, Oxford, and Simcoe — and their lower-tier municipalities.When Ford, who was elected June 7, unilaterally downsized Toronto council from 47 members to 25 last July, he also cancelled the first-ever regional chair elections in Peel, York, Niagara, and Muskoka.At the time the premier and Clark said they were pressing the “pause” button on those votes — but allowing democratically elected chairs in Durham and Halton — because they were thinking about regional reform.In 1997, former Tory premier Mike Harris eliminated the former regional municipality of Metro Toronto and amalgamated the old city of Toronto with Scarborough, North York, Etobicoke, the city of York, and the borough of East York to for ...
|
