Ahead of a town hall meeting on Monday, the Mayor of Mississauga said she believes her residents will support the city’s decision to leave Peel region.
“I know our residents,” mayor Bonnie Crombie told CTV News Toronto. “They are ‘Sauga strong and ‘Sauga proud.”
Mississauga’s city council approved a motion on March 29 to, in principal, make Mississauga a “single-tier municipality, independent of the Region of Peel.”
The decision must ultimately be made by the province, which has launched their own review of the eight regional governments across Ontario, including Peel, Halton, Durham and York.
The Region of Peel includes Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, but more than half of the 1.3 million people who reside in the region live in Mississauga.
“Mississauga has proven that we can govern its own affairs and now it’s time for Mississauga to control our own destiny,” Crombie said.
Crombie also said that leaving Peel region will save the taxpayers about $85 million, money she says is being used every year to pay for the development of Brampton and Caledon.
“That’s money that we feel should be better invested into our own city.”
However, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said that if Mississauga does leave Peel region, they will end up owing the other municipalities money.
“They would have to pay back the huge investment that the City of Brampton has made in Mississauga’s roads, to their water treatment centre,” Brown said. “We share so many costs, it’s like you have two people going for dinner and you say you’re going to split the cost and as soon as the bill arrives one of the parties is about to leave. That’s not fair.”
In the motion put forward by city council, Mississauga said that it provides 59 per cent of Peel region’s funding, but only holds 50 per cent of the votes on council. Crombie told CTV News Toronto that being part of the larger region has meant the city has been “impeded” from building infrastructure, transportation and affordable housing.
“We need the approval of Peel region,” she said. “We need the approval of Brampton and Caledon councils.”
Mississauga is holding a resident town hall at 7 p.m. on the matter of independence. While Crombie said she is confident she will have support for the motion, residents appear split ahead of the meeting.
“If you got a better quality of life living in Peel, then this money won’t count for you, right?,” said Amir Warsi. “Money is not everything.”
“I don’t think the tax payers of Mississauga should be responsible for injecting their hard earned money anywhere other than Mississauga,” Anaf Iqbal said.
The provincial review of regional governments is scheduled to be completed this spring.
With files from CTV News Toronto's Sean Leathong
