Premier Doug Ford is tackling regional reform, a prospect met with excitement by some Ontario mayors and dread by others after Toronto’s council was unilaterally cut in half.Ford’s Progressive Conservative government announced Tuesday it would review regional governments in 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.”The consultation will be done this spring.Along with the GTHA regions, they will look at Waterloo, Niagara, Muskoka, Oxford, and Simcoe — and their lower-tier municipalities. In all, some 82 municipalities will be included in the review.At Toronto city hall, after a routine meeting with Mayor John Tory, mayors had differing reactions to the announcement. Mississauga’s Bonnie Crombie welcomed it and said she will urge Ford to get her city out of Peel Region.“I made no secret that I think there is inefficiency and duplication in two levels of government,” Crombie told reporters. “We have proven in the past that Mississauga could realize up to $3 ...
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