Mississauga councillors argue Brampton’s money claims are ‘nonsensical’

Mississauga councillors want to clear the record over Brampton’s claims on water treatment and infrastructure ownership.

The councillors discussed the financial issues and job ramifications over the dissolution of the Region of Peel at the General Committee meeting today (May 24).

On May 18, the Ontario government introduced the Hazel McCallion Act, which would, if passed, begin the process to dissolve the Regional Municipality of Peel by 2025.

While Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie was thrilled with the move to make Mississauga independent, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been vocal about his concerns around the ownership of shared infrastructure, specifically water treatment services and Peel Regional Police headquarters.

And he said there’s a potential $4 billion bill coming due for water and wastewater facilities that lie in Mississauga’s borders.

But Mississauga councillors wanted to ensure Mississauga’s message was getting out there.

“There are op-eds and articles out there talking about how Brampton needs money to build wastewater treatment plants, it is just completely nonsensical,” said Ward 2 Councillor Alvin Tedjo.

Wastewater treatment plants are shared between municipalities. Water and other services could be handled through a utility board, much like electricity.

And Mississauga contributed more than its fair share.

“The reality is we paid 70 cents on the dollar to develop Brampton, Caledon and all the infrastructure and perhaps they put in 25 cents at the time for the first 40 years,” Mayor Bonnie Crombie said. “You can’t dispute the math.”

Other councillors argued the province’s transition board will handle the division and the municipalities will have little say.

Ward 5 Councillor Carolyn Parrish suggested the more councillors talk about the issue, the more Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown “feeds off it.”

“I think if you just let him (Brown) rant and rave, and don’t bother picking it apart, I think eventually he’ll run out of steam on that,” Parrish said.

“The reporters won’t pay attention to one guy yelling, they have a lot of fun with people yelling back and forth at each other. So, that’s just my opinion on this. I think we should cool it and just let him rant and rave if he wants to.”

Parrish said she was more concerned about the Region of Peel staff losing their jobs in the split. She asked council to consider a resolution for the city to hold off hiring non-essential jobs and hold those positions for Region of Peel employees.

A town hall meeting was suggested for residents to learn more about the process but staff suggested that might be better at a later date, after the province has set up the transition board.