Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Stephen Clark made the first significant announcement today in relation to the Regional Review. He emphatically stated the Province will not force amalgamation on municipalities.
OXFORD COUNTY - The Ontario Government will not impose any changes on municipalities, this means there will be no forced amalgamations.
Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Stephen Clark made the announcement today at the AMO Fall Forum in London, in relation to the Regional Review, which included Oxford County. During a scrum with reporters, he made it clear that the Province will not be forcing amalgamation.
"The announcement today was to make it very clear that our Government will not impose any changes on municipalities, in other words there will be no forced amalgamations and no forced de-amalgamations and nothing will be imposed on council in terms of size. I announced a five point plan today that basically fosters continued cooperation. What our Government wants to do is we want to build upon the success of the municipal modernization program, the audit and accountability fund and some of the collaboration of our relationship that has transpired over the last couple of months. This is a great announcement for municipality because it signals to them that the Province wants to be an active partner with them moving forward."
Clark did announce $125M over 4 years to help municipalities modernize services today. Zorra Township Mayor Marcus Ryan has been very vocal during the Regional Review, stating numerous times that residents would feel the impact of a forced amalgamation. He says today's announcement is great news for municipalities and great news for Oxford.
"Now we have to be somewhat cautious because we have not received any formal communication yet but it is without a doubt good news. We meant when we said it that we welcome opportunities to work with the Province to find more effective ways to deliver services to our residents but we always felt that area municipalities like Zorra were the most efficient and effective way to deliver those services and today we found out that the Minister agrees."
Ryan says he is hoping to get more formal communication on this soon.
"I have already asked the Minister for the an official communication on it and I have asked AMO for an official communication on it so that we can get all the details and make sure we are fully understanding. I did see the Ministers announcement this morning and the video scrum afterwards and he was very clear that there would be no force amalgamation."
Ryan says this means that our residents will still have the same level of access to their elected officials that they had before.
Oxford County Warden Larry Martin says he was thrilled with today's announcement.
"That is the best news I have heard in the past year, it is great that we are going to be allowed to carry on as we have in the past. We are undergoing a efficiency review ourselves in house as far as the County goes in all 8 area municipalities, we are looking for efficiencies, we are always looking for efficiencies, that is how we stay in business."
Martin notes that every municipality in Oxford was adamant, they were not in favour of amalgamation and the announcement today is going to alleviate a lot of fears.
"Not just the politicians, but more so the staff, whether you are thinking about it, or speaking about it verbally, it's always there at the back of your mind and your wondering, how is this going to impact us, what is going to happen, when is the shoe going to fall. It came down this morning and it was all good news."
Martin says he is not sure when we will see the full report from the review, but he does know this means we will stay as a two tier system in Oxford County.
Oxford County and it's lower tiers was part of 82 municipalities included in the regional review, that also looked at Halton, York, Durham, Waterloo, Niagara, Peel, Muskoka District, the County of Simcoe and their lower-tier municipalities. Today was the first announcement in regards to the results of that review. We are still waiting for more official communication on the review, that will likely be happening in the near future.
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