Brampton mayor says Mississauga counterpart can’t take her city from Peel Region and ‘not pay her bill’

Mayor Patrick Brown says Brampton will be “outraged” if Peel Region is split up without making sure Mississauga doesn’t take some critical infrastructure with it.

The province has announced plans for a review Peel’s two-tiered government that could lead to Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon standing on their own as either independent entities or even possibly as one large city.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has long said she wants to see that city split from the Region while Brown has been more cagey in his comments on the review, saying he welcomes a chance to remove redundancies and duplication at the municipal level.

But Brown had choice words for his Mississauga counterpart on Thursday (May 11).

While responding to questions in Brampton, Brown said that residents would be livid if a split did come and Mississauga kept shared assets in its borders, particularly the water treatment plant or Peel Regional Police headquarters.

“And if the Mayor of Mississauga thinks she can leave and not pay her bill, the citizens of Brampton would be outraged,” Brown said.

“Since the 1970s, through their hard work and toil we built the infrastructure in Mississauga,” he added. “Any notion that the mayor of Mississauga could walk away from that and stiff the residents of Brampton is offensive.”

Premier Doug Ford echoed Brown, saying that he agreed “100 per cent” with the mayor’s comments.

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has said she is in favour of splitting up the Region of Peel into three sand-alone municipalities.

Brown said he’s often frustrated by duplication between City and Regional departments, particularly when it comes to housing projects and developments, and again said he is in favour of finding ways to cut back on redundancies.

Mississauga has a long history of fighting for independence from Peel that dates back decades to former mayor Hazel McCallion’s time in office.

Crombie and Mississauga councillors have remained insistent that the City needs to split from Peel and forge an independent political path moving forward.

Such a move would lead to savings in Mississauga of $1 billion, Crombie said in an earlier interview.

There has also been speculation that Crombie may seek to become the next leader of the Ontario Liberals.

In late 2022, Premier Doug Ford government announced it would appoint facilitators to review several regional governments, including Peel, to “assess the best mix of roles and responsibilities between upper- and lower-tier municipalities.”

Today, Ford said a decision on the possible future independence of cities within Peel Region will hopefully be made “very, very soon.”

Ford has previously said he believes Mississauga and Brampton are large cities that can stand alone.

Crombie said recently that the City of Mississauga is still waiting for the aforementioned facilitators to be appointed by the provincial government to talk to officials at City Hall about assets, liabilities, revenues and other matters that would have to be addressed should there be any political changes in Peel.

Ford previously said he would rather see the three Peel municipalities broken up rather than form one Peel megacity, and no timeframe has been given for a final decision from the Province.

With files from Declan Finucane and The Canadian Press