Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills will continue to be unique independent municipalities.

News 100 yellowBy Pepper Parr

October 25th, 2019

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Map Region Halton

Each municipality will continue to be an independent municipality.

Halton Regional Chair Gary Carr is delighted with the announcement made by Steve Clark, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing that the idea of doing anything with the way Regional governments are organized is off the table.

The announcement of the walk back by the Minister was made at the Association of Municipalities of Ontario Fall Policy Forum.

Carr said he wanted to “thank Premier Ford and Minister Clark for recognizing that Halton Region is a safe community, with low taxes, the highest credit rating and where 97 per cent of residents are satisfied with the quality of Halton Region services.”

“We appreciate the Minister’s recognition that municipalities are best positioned to determine what works for their communities and for not imposing a top down approach.”

Carr added that thanks were due too, to residents who participated in this consultation process through their letters, delegations and submissions.

The We Love Burlington advocacy group was ecstatic saying “Minister Clark acknowledged the message of many of the delegations, including WeLoveBurlington’s, that “municipalities are the level of government closest to the people, [that] every community is different – one size doesn’t fit all”.  His announcement is a victory for responsible and responsive government at the municipal level. It is a recognition that local voice matters and that all levels of government must align and work collaboratively in order to best serve the citizen.

“Take a bow people – you made this happen.”

Related news story:

Minister backs away from the idea of municipal amalgamations.

 

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7 comments to Burlington, Oakville, Milton and Halton Hills will continue to be unique independent municipalities.

  • Joe Gaetan

    One of the many things manufacturing concerns were forced to do in the 80’s was to take a serious look at how their organizations could be more effective and efficient. These organizations recognized the importance of front line workers, and service delivery personnel were to be left intact. The objective was to eliminate non-value add positions. Some called it line of sight, others flow-through, others focused factories. And it worked.
    Aside from the hobnailed boot approach, is fiscal responsibility not one of the reasons why Ontario dumped the past government? I like, “We Love Burlington”, questioned what we would lose if we were amalgamated and recognized we would lose the Burlington that we know today.
    I still question the duplicate overhead we have. Case in point, Oakville and Burlington are strategically close. A valid question whether we like it or not should be, why do we need two mayors, two city managers etc.., etc., to manage two communities that when combined, are much smaller than let’s say Mississauga or Hamilton. I would like to see the analysis that backed the decision to reverse course.
    It is now up to the three communities (Oakville, Milton and Burlington) to get the fiscal job done, while not sacrificing services. The last time I looked Ontario had the highest non sovereign debt in the world, so the job is far from done. The recent election demonstrated that only 3.5% of Canadians are concerned that the total debt of the nation stands at $768 billion and that may come back to haunt us.

  • Penny Hersh

    Interesting that no one has commented that when a Premier uses “bully like tactics” to get things passed that ultimately when challenged they back away. School class sizes have been reversed, autism assistance to parents with children who need these services reversed, amalgamation reversed.

    Let’s continue working on not cutting medical services, now that would be a true win/win.

    I don’t drink alcohol so I will not mention the “cheap beer” reversal ( everyone needs a chuckle now and then).

    • Ogden

      Penny:

      Actually, I don’t believe that classroom sizes have been reversed as yet, although there are several other examples of reversal that you could cite that were actually wrapped into the ‘no amalgamation’ announcement. Interestingly, there was one Burlington citizens group that consistently advocated pushing back at the provincial government and gave citizens the means to do so; one group that said “let your voice be heard”; one group that stood firm and did not minimize the risks presented. I believe that deserves some recognition.

  • Fred Crockett

    Steve Clark correctly left Halton alone. Now, he has to take a dispassionate look at the dozens of little municipalities in Eastern Ontario that have fewer constituents than most Mississauga condo buildings, with every third person being an elected official or a municipal employee….

  • Gary Scobie

    The members of We Love Burlington deserve a big “Thank You!” from Burlington residents. They researched deeply, delegated powerfully, organized the case against amalgamation in Halton and provided the mechanism for citizens to send in excellent responses to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and his two consultants heading up the project.

    I suggest some sort of an award from the City by the Mayor would be appropriate.

  • Stephen White

    The people who really deserve the credit are Lynn Crosbie, Blair Smith, and the organizing team from We Love Burlington. Kudos to them for their advocacy, communication and leadership in spearheading the opposition to amalgamation. Great work!!! Saner heads have prevailed after all.

    Dare I say it but….a small round of applause to Doug Ford for finally seeing the light and recognizing that amalgamation wasn’t going to result in any significant cost-savings. I’m happy to see the provincial government back track on several other ill-advised earlier initiatives, and pleased that more moderate, reasonable voices in the party (e.g. Rod Phillips, Todd Smith, Stephen Lecce) having more sway and influence over policy development. Time to put the “Progressive” back in Progressive Conservative.