Newmarket Mayor John Taylor suggests "a radical alternative" to regional government reform — the status quo — as his regular monthly opinion column returns to NewmarketToday. As always, he welcomes your questions and comments.
The provincial government will soon appoint a facilitator to review York Region government. This has led some elected officials across the region to support the philosophy that we had better propose something dramatic before they — the province — propose it for us.
Some have recommended making all York Region municipalities one mega city, while others have proposed eliminating regional government and having only lower-tier towns and cities, but still sharing services across the region, like policing and paramedics — which sounds a lot like regional government!
I would like to propose a radical alternative — the system we have now works very well. There, I said it, I support the status quo. Sorry if that is boring but reinventing local government is not needed, not a priority of anyone’s, and has rarely worked well in the past.
I would also like to point out that the region is home to some extraordinarily dedicated and passionate staff members doing work that improves our lives each day. Having said that, I am more than happy to work with a provincial facilitator to explore (quickly) the opportunities to be more efficient and avoid duplication. What I do not support is spending the next two years trying to dismantle regional government and another two years trying to replace it with a coincidentally similar replica.
Our communities want us to focus on the significant challenges we face: housing and housing affordability, homelessness, climate change, economic development, transportation and gridlock, to name a few. As a mayor, I can assure you I have a limited number of hours in a day or a week and I can’t get to all of the pressing issues I need to now. Adding a complete reinvention of regional government will be a significant distraction.
If we all agree we need more housing and affordable housing, I would suggest we focus on that significant challenge and avoid going down the black hole of reinventing regional government.