| August 11, 2004 The Chairman of the Region of Peel has
issued today an inaccurate press release regarding Mississauga's actions at
today's Council meeting. I felt I should let my residents know what really
happened. The Mayor is also issuing a counter release on Friday.
As you know we have been trying to get
changes made at the region for some time. The province had indicated that they
prefer to not deal with our separation from the Region so Council prepared and
submitted to Brampton and Caledon a proposal that left regional council in place
but changed the representation to a more fair number as well as reviewing
expenditures and responsibilities at the region.
As
Mississauga pays 66% of the assessment to the region and we only have 48% of the
vote, we asked for 2 additional councillors and a reduction in Caledon's
representation. Caledon, representing less than half of the population of Ward
9 has 5 representatives. Both Mayors have refused to discuss this and have
stated they will not agree to our adding more councillors at the region.
Mississauga mustadd more councillors by 2006 as Wards 6 and 9 will have each
more than 100,000 residents by that time.
Today Brampton and Caledon tried to pass
a motion that would result in the tender for a new regional headquarters
building in Brampton to proceed at a cost of more than $40 million. As the
province has recently appointed a facilitator to work with us in our request for
changes, we did not think it responsible to proceed at this time with such a
huge expenditure and commitment without knowing if we will even need the
facility.
Our Council caucused and we told the
Brampton and Caledon Councillors that we would return to complete the agenda if
the motion on this item was withdrawn. We knew that if the motion was voted on,
it would pass as we do not have the majority vote and we could not allow that to
happen. The Brampton Councillor, Gael Miles, refused to withdraw the motion so
that Council could continue and the Chair called the meeting ended. Our action
was not done lightly - none of us wanted to stop the proceedings of Council but
we felt we had no other choice.
This is not the first time this has
happened. Brampton Councillors have walked out of regional Council twice in the
past - once to avoid a vote to put a landfill site in Brampton and once to avoid
a vote for equalized assessment that would help Mississauga taxpayers who had
been unfairly assessed by the region.
This occurrence today has made it even
clearer that changes must be made at the region. As your elected
representatives, we are at the whim of the other two municipalities and your tax
dollars are affected by their decisions. The Chairman of the region has clearly
sided with Brampton and Caledon and has not been willing to work to reach any
compromises. It is clear that only the province can make any changes for us and
we will continue to urge them to do so.
I encourage you to let the premier,
Dalton McGuinty know how you feel about this. Without these changes,
Mississauga Councillors will have no say at the region of Peel - this is not
acceptable for the 6th largest city in Canada. I hope we have your support.
Please let meknow if I can provide any more information.
Pat
|
Ward
9