Ontario backs down on breaking up Peel, reviewing development orders

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The Ontario government is backing down on its pledge to dissolve the regional government of Peel, west of Toronto, a move that will require Premier Doug Ford to scrap legislation named after his late friend and mentor, the long-time mayor of Mississauga, Hazel McCallion.

Mr. Ford’s Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister, Paul Calandra, announced the reversal on Wednesday, saying Peel’s breakup would be too costly to taxpayers and “disrupt” critical shared services such as paramedics and police.

The climbdown is the latest for Mr. Ford, who has walked back a long list of botched initiatives, including a move to allow a select group of developers to build housing on parts of the province’s protected Greenbelt – a plan that has prompted a criminal investigation by the RCMP.

The province’s Progressive Conservative government introduced what it called the Hazel McCallion Act in May. The legislation set 2025 as the deadline to break up Peel Region, which consists of the large municipalities of Mississauga and Brampton and smaller, more rural Caledon.

Ms. McCallion, a uniquely prominent political figure who governed Mississauga for 36 years, died in January at the age of 101. Mr. Ford had visited her on her deathbed.

She had long championed the idea of independence for Mississauga, Ontario’s third-largest city after Toronto and Ottawa. So has her chosen successor as mayor, Bonnie Crombie – who will leave her post next month after being elected leader of Ontario’s third-place Liberal Party, with the aim of taking on Mr. Ford in the 2026 election.

While the Premier said earlier this year he had always been in favour of an independent Mississauga, it was left to Mr. Calandra on Wednesday to say the government was changing course on Ms. McCallion’s dream. He said legislation to reverse the Peel breakup would come in the new year. He suggested Ms. McCallion would have understood.

“What I know about Hazel McCallion is that she was a very, very strong advocate obviously for Mississauga, a great mayor, but also somebody who focused on keeping costs down for municipalities,” he told reporters.

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown released numbers this month warning the Peel breakup would cost property taxpayers $1.3-billion over the next decade. (The data’s analysis included outdated assumptions, including that Brampton would need to create its own police force.) Caledon Mayor Annette Groves had also called on the government to rethink its decision to dissolve the region. She thanked the province in a statement on Wednesday.

However, Mr. Calandra said the five-member transition board the government set up to oversee Peel’s divorce would not be disbanded. Instead, new legislation, if passed, would have it focus on ways to “enhance the self-determination” of Peel’s member municipalities – and speed up housing construction. The board would look at “optimizing” and removing duplication in some services now provided by the region, including land-use planning, water and sewer services, regional roads and waste collection, he said.

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Ontario had already committed to remove the authority for land-use planning from Peel and the other regional governments that surround Toronto.

At a press conference in Mississauga, Ms. Crombie insisted the dissolution of Peel was not completely off the table, calling the province’s announcement a “bump in the road.” She pointed to the transition board’s work continuing. She also lashed out at what she said was “fear-mongering” on the costs of dissolution from the mayor of Brampton.

Official Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles said the latest reversal was yet another example of Mr. Ford’s incompetence. She said Mr. Ford and Ms. Crombie had “used the people of Peel Region as pawns in some bizarre political chess game.” And she added that the cloud of dissolution hanging over the region created uncertainty and caused hundreds of regional staff to leave.

Mr. Brown, Brampton’s mayor and Mr. Ford’s predecessor as PC leader, praised the province’s decision and said going through with the dissolution would have been “a financial train wreck” for Peel.

The regional governments that surround Toronto were set up in 1974, as suburban growth spilled over the borders of what was then the regional government of Metro Toronto. The new regions were meant to unite smaller rural municipalities so they could afford to finance the infrastructure they needed to grow. Mississauga, now largely built-out, argues it should not subsidize further growth in the rest of the region. Smaller Caledon is expected to undergo rapid growth in the coming years.

Mr. Calandra also announced Wednesday that he was either revoking or reviewing a list of what are known as minister’s zoning orders. The government has issued scores of these previously rarely used directives to trump normal procedures and fast-track development projects.

But Mr. Calandra said he is concerned some developers have not acted quickly enough to produce the promised housing or other projects. In all, 22 of the orders are under review, with the public able to comment at the government’s online environmental registry.

The government also tried to address its dispute with municipalities over changes to what are known as development charges, the fees municipalities charge developers to pay for needed new infrastructure such as roads, sewer pipes or community centres. These fees have shot up in many municipalities in recent years.

Ontario had passed a bill calling for discounts or exemptions for affordable, non-profit and rental housing projects, as well as what it called “attainable” homes. Municipalities warned the lost revenue would cost them billions. Mr. Calandra now said it will consult them on some of the details of the plans and has cancelled a series of audits of major cities meant to examine their use of development charges.

Mr. Calandra said exemptions for development charges for “attainable” homes would only apply to modular homes, built with prefabricated components, on provincial land.