Seize the day and reform Waterloo Region

Doug Ford’s full-throttle endorsement of the public’s right to know this week was music to our ears.

At issue were the findings of the Canadian military’s report on five Ontario nursing homes ravaged by COVID-19. Ontario’s premier was unequivocal in insisting the damning report must be made public. It was a serious and fundamental issue involving his government, after all.

We applaud Ford’s fearless display of openness. And now we expect him to apply the same noble principles to the report he commissioned for reforming many of the province’s local governments — including the eight in Waterloo Region.

Ford has stubbornly sat on the report’s findings since late 2019. Yet this same report, co-authored by former Waterloo Regional Chair Ken Seiling, contains recommendations for how to improve local governments. Why is the premier willing to make public the military’s nursing home report but not the one on local government reform?

The arguments for sharing that report with Ontarians were compelling last year. Today they’re irrefutable. So is the case for Ford to finally overhaul how this region and eight other regional governments across Ontario are run.

The game-changing reason is the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating economic fallout. Municipal governments across Canada, including governments in Waterloo Region, are begging Ottawa for a $10billion bailout to get through the crisis — and no wonder.

They’re still on the hook for providing a host of essential services, ranging from policing to firefighting, water supplies, public transit and road repair. But they’re mired in a pandemic-induced recession. Their revenues have tanked. By law, they can’t run deficits. So they need help.

Fair enough. Canadian municipal governments should start receiving cash transfusions ASAP. But in this region, at least, there must be strings attached.

If Waterloo Region, the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge and the townships of Woolwich, Wilmot, Wellesley and North Dumfries expect help from taxpayers, they should return the favour. When Seiling came calling over a year ago looking for their input in reforming local governments, they flat-out told him the status quo was as good as it could get.

Seiling thought otherwise and recommended many reforms. It’s now in the public interest that these recommendations be released. There is a clear and urgent need for an overhaul of municipal governments because of COVID-19. Canadians want more help from governments. But those governments have fewer tax revenues to pay for it. Something must give.

Many local governments are themselves beating the drum for change, though not to their own operations. Kitchener is calling for a universal basic income in Canada while Waterloo wants more lanes on roadways for cyclists and pedestrians. But if the COVID-19 crisis justifies costly changes like these, surely it justifies reworking local municipal governments to make them more efficient and cost-effective for taxpayers.

Why does it take two levels of government in Waterloo Region to manage the water and sewage systems? Why do we have one regional police service but seven fire departments? Why do we require 59 elected municipal politicians to govern a region of 600,000 people? The report Ford is keeping secret might answer some of these questions as it proposes new ways of doing things. If Waterloo Region’s municipal leaders want to rebuild our society, they should willingly open their headquarters for some overdue housecleaning.

As for Ford, he should make this week’s transparency a habit and release this report. Then, he should find the will and a way to adapt local governments to whatever “new normal” follows the pandemic.