Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie said Thursday the city’s taxpayers could save $1 billion in a decade with Peel Region’s dissolution.
The three municipalities that make up Peel Region, immediately to the west of Toronto, are to become independent by Jan. 1, 2025.
Crombie said the announcement by the province made it a historic day as the dissolution stems from a campaign launched by late Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion 25 years ago. Now the legislation bears her name.
“I actually thought (dissolution) wouldn’t be till 2026,” Crombie said. “This is even better news.”
Crombie also talked about Brampton, whose mayor Patrick Brown said previously at Queen’s Park that Mississauga would have to pay compensations.
She said Brown was quoting a report by Deloitte “commissioned to justify the existence of the status quo and of the Region of Peel.”
After that report was published, Crombie said the three municipalities commissioned Ernst and Young to conduct another report which showed three scenarios: maintaining the status quo, amalgamating the three communities into one, and independence.
Crombie said the scenario of separation showed savings of $1 billion for Mississauga residents in a decade.
Meanwhile, she said, the city will be transferring $84 million to Brampton for their regional roads, for their planning and for their policing needs.
“And this is all while they have frozen their property taxes in four of the past five years,” Crombie said.
Mississauga’s councillors and mayor laughed at a question about the courts adjudicating disputes involving Brampton and Mississauga.
“With respect to the mayor taking the city of Mississauga to court, I’m quite sure that the provincial legislation would supersede any of those actions,” she said.
Mississauga resident Simon Saad, 38, said there were a lot of issues to consider.
He said he listened carefully to the news in the morning and wondered whether municipal taxes were going up.
“They said a new ambulance station is in Brampton, but we have the headquarters for the Peel Police,” Saad said.
He said he needed to know more about the issues and Saad said he was worried about where people are going to work.
But Saad said the changes to Mississauga don’t deal with other issues such as inflation. He said what he really cared about was the food prices going up.
Haisam Taha, 35, said he voted for Crombie and he’s confident Mississauga will lower taxes.
He’s been working and paying taxes in Mississauga for more than 10 years, but still can’t afford a mortgage, he said.
“For our people here, the kids, the [cost of] living and the taxes are the priority for us,” said Taha, who works in transportation.
Single mom Lian Batchelor said she hoped Mississauga could focus on problems like housing.
“People need housing, but even these are very expensive,” she said pointing at the condos that surround Mississauga City Hall.
She said she hoped also that pollution and cleanliness would improve with the separation.