Ontario abandoning plans to dissolve Peel Region

The province is scrapping its plans to dissolve Peel Region, with Premier Doug Ford's government backpedaling on the move less than a year after it was announced.

Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs Paul Calandra made the announcement Wednesday, saying that the government will introduce new legislation in 2024 that would "recalibrate the mandate of the Peel Region Transition Board" to instead focus on improving regional services like policing, paramedics and public health, instead of splitting things up.

"While we originally thought that the best way to achieve our goals of better services and lower taxes was through dissolution, we've since heard loud and clear from municipal leaders and stakeholders that full dissolution would lead to significant tax hikes and disruption to critical services the people of Peel Region depend on," Calandra said in a statement.

Opposition NDP Leader Marit Stiles is speaking about the changes now. CBC News is carrying that news conference live in this story.

Stiles told reporters that Ford and Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie, now the head of the provincial Liberals, were playing some sort of "bizarre political chess game" with the region.

"The people of Peel and their livelihoods are not a game," Stiles said.

"This is an expensive mess, and it is no way to run a province."

Ford announced in May that Peel Region would be dissolved in January 2025 through the Hazel McCallion Act, named after the former mayor who served Mississauga for 36 years. McCallion died in January at the age of 101. 

"I promised Hazel many years ago ... that a city of almost 800,000 people should be independent," Ford said back in May.

Calandra said he is not worried about backing out on that promise, because while McCallion was a strong advocate for Mississauga, she also wanted to keep costs down for residents.

"She understood that you have to keep costs down, you have to encourage growth in a community," he said at a news conference.

The legislation would have let the province dissolve the region, turning the cities of Mississauga and Brampton and the Town of Caledon into independent municipalities.

Crombie was in favour of the move, while Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown vehemently opposed it. Caledon Mayor Annette Groves also urged the province to rethink the split.

The Ontario government and the transition board it appointed were reportedly shocked by the cost of dissolution and the fact that it may cause massive tax increases in all three involved municipalities, a source with direct knowledge of the discussions previously told CBC News.