‘He’s a male chauvinist pig’: Councillor goes after Doug Ford to defend Mississauga Mayor Crombie

Mississauga Coun. Carolyn Parrish says she’s appalled with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, calling him “a male chauvinist pig” for his recent “disgusting” comments about Mayor Bonnie Crombie.

Ford took aim at the Mississauga mayor on Wednesday (Dec. 8) for her criticism of the controversial More Homes Built Faster Act housing plan, telling Crombie to “get on board” and “stop whining” about the bill that could cost municipalities billions in lost revenue and higher taxes.

Parrish jumped to the mayor’s defence on Thursday at a Region of Peel council meeting, accusing Ford of singling out Crombie in a way he wouldn’t have done with other mayors like Toronto’s John Tory or Brampton’s Patrick Brown.

“I believe in everything Bonnie has done, and I think it’s disgusting the way she’s being treated by the premier,” Parrish said. “He’s a male chauvinist pig.”

She called the premier’s comments “unacceptable,” saying he has to “start a new page” with municipalities in regards to the housing bill.

“He has to start treating us all with some respect. His press conferences I watched yesterday were appalling,” Parrish said.

Premier Ford was not immediately available for comment.

Crombie and other mayors across the province have said that Ontario’s new law that eliminates and freezes some developer fees to municipalities will force them to raise property taxes in order to pay for infrastructure that supports new housing.

Ford fired back on Wednesday, saying the province wants to work collaboratively with cities. But he took exception with what he called “complaining that I hear day in and day out.”

“We have a few mayors that, you know, don’t want to play in the sandbox and one being mayor Crombie, and I don’t know what her issue is,” Ford said.

Crombie responded with a lengthy statement refuting many of Ford’s points.

“I’m not whining, I’m simply doing my job as mayor to stand up for our residents and taxpayers,” she wrote.

“We are trying to build a great city and accommodate growth, but as it stands, this legislation will force us to either put the brakes on these plans due to lack of funding or significantly raise taxes by up to 10 per cent a year for the next decade. I think we can all agree that none of us want that.”

A recent Region of Peel report exploring the potential implications of the Province’s recently passed Bill 23 says that the act, which pledges to incentivize the creation of more housing by freezing, reducing and exempting fees that developers typically pay to towns and cities, could cost the region $2 billion over the next 10 years.

Those fees, known as development charges, are used to pay for services to support new homes, such as road and sewer infrastructure and community centres.

In order to meet the province’s targets, Mississauga will have to build 120,000 homes–significantly more than the 33,000 units outlined in the Region of Peel’s official plan forecast. Brampton will have to build 113,000 (the Region’s plan calls for 55,000) and Caledon will have to build 13,000 (the current plan calls for 12,000).

The report also says the bill endangers the Region’s ability to create affordable housing because Peel Housing Corporation does not meet the technical definition outlined in the act to qualify for “nonprofit housing development” levy and fee exemptions.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario says the changes could leave municipalities short $5 billion and see taxpayers footing the bill – either in the form of higher property taxes or service cuts.

Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark has said he will launch a third-party audit of the finances of select municipalities to determine if the law will indeed cause a shortfall and if so, the province will make those communities “whole.”