Ontario may not move forward with facilitators for regional governments in Halton, Durham and Niagara

Ontario’s new minister of municipal affairs and housing suggests the province may not move forward with a review of six regions with both upper- and lower-tier municipal governments.

Paul Calandra wrote in a statement today that he will be reviewing the move announced by his predecessor to appoint facilitators to assess regional governments in Durham, Halton, Waterloo, York and Niagara regions and Simcoe County.

Calandra says he wants to ensure the province’s approach supports the goal of getting homes built quickly in those fast-growing areas.

The government enacted a law in the spring to break up the upper-tier municipality of Peel Region, which includes the municipalities of Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon.

The previous minister, Steve Clark, said last month that the facilitators in the six regions would be appointed by today, but the change in plans comes a week after Clark resigned amid the fallout of two scathing reports on Greenbelt land swaps.

The integrity commissioner found Clark violated ethics rules when the province opened up parts of the protected Greenbelt for housing development, and both the integrity watchdog and the auditor general found that the process to select the lands was hasty and flawed.

The Canadian Press