Province asked to pay for transition board
Ford government reversed course last year on separating region into three cities, citing costs
Peel Region is asking the province to take on the responsibility of funding the Peel transition board, which the Ford government set up to oversee the called-off dissolution of the region — as new numbers show the flip-flop has cost taxpayers more than $4 million.
“It logically makes no sense that our residents are paying for this,” said Brampton Regional Coun. Gurpartap Singh Toor, who brought the motion forward at Peel Regional Council on Thursday.
“The province asked for this work to be done, so they should be paying for it.”
The region says that in addition to the $1.5 million it has paid out to the transition board, it has also incurred $2.7 million in internal costs to deal with the province’s decision to dissolve Peel Region — and its subsequent reversal.
The motion — which does not call for the province to repay that additional $2.7 million — also asks for a breakdown of all third-party consultants the board has hired, and their associated costs.
As first reported by the Star, the transition board invoiced Peel Region for $1.5 million even though Premier Doug Ford cancelled the breakup of Peel last December. The board has been tasked to look for ways to reduce duplication around land-use planning, regional roads, and waste management and make it more “efficient and responsive to the needs of the taxpayer.” They are to present their findings to the province this spring.
The region’s documents show that the extra $2.7 million has been spent on items such as employee psychological health and wellness, staffing, external legal support and long-term disability wellness premiums.
Toor said part of this money was used for retention, bonuses and other strategies when “people thought the region was getting fully dissolved, just to prevent people from jumping a sinking ship.”
Regional chair Nando Iannicca did not respond to requests for comment by deadline.
Documents made public by Peel Region also show a detailed invoice outlining the five-person transition board’s $1.5 million in costs. Those include tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, more than $150,000 in leasing costs for an office, and over $150,000 in consulting fees.
At Queen’s Park, Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Paul Calandra said the province will consider picking up “some” of the costs of the Peel transition board.
“If the Peel transition board has results that are specific to Peel, then those expenses will continue to be covered by Peel,” he said, adding that some of the board’s work will inform “other decisions that I’m considering … I think it’s only fair that those be covered by the province and not by Peel taxpayers,” he said.
Calandra did not elaborate on whether the province would refund money the region has already paid, or if this would apply to future costs. The Peel transition board is expected to continue its work until January of next year.
In September, Calandra requested that the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy conduct the reviews for all other regions, which are ongoing.
Ford first announced the dissolution of Peel in May, calling the legislation the Hazel McCallion Act, named after the former long-serving mayor of Mississauga, who championed the city’s independence for decades.
In one of many high-profile policy reversals last year, the province decided in December that the separation of the Region into three stand-alone cities of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon would be too onerous on taxpayers.
But opposition parties said the province should be paying the full freight of the Peel transition board, given that it was Ford’s government that decided to scrap the dissolution.
“This was the government’s mess, a mess of their own making,” said New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles. “They created chaos and confusion, flip-flopped. And Peel taxpayers shouldn’t be footing the bill.”
Peel taxpayers should not be on the hook for any of the costs, said Liberal House Leader John Fraser.
“Just pay the bill. That’s a reasonable thing to do.”