Salary hikes up to 40% at Peel Region anger Mississauga residents

A recent post on social media drew attention to “massive” salary increases for Region of Peel’s top staffers.

Established in 1974, Peel Region is the upper-tier municipality that consists of the City of Brampton, Town of Caledon, and City of Mississauga. Region services include waste management, road, water, health and paramedics.

The post on the Mississauga sub-Reddit suggested the chief administrative officer, commissioners, directors and managers received 40 to 50 per cent pay increases in 2024.

“This is a total abuse of the public purse and homeowners in Peel, as a result, have faced significant tax increases during challenging economic times,” the poster on Reddit said. “A public inquiry should be being called for.”

“No wonder taxes went over the roof,” one person wrote in response to the post.

“My property taxes went up 900$,” another person said.

Others asked for a source and more information on the increases.

Ontario’s Public sector salary disclosure website lists the salaries of public sector employees who were paid $100,000 or more. The disclosure, also known as the Sunshine List, is released annually in March.

A comparison of salaries of Region of Peel executive staff over the last two years shows there were large pay hikes.

Kealy Dedman, commissioner of public works, was paid $266,530.22 in 2023 and that was bumped up 40 per cent in 2024 to $374,818.36, the salary disclosure website shows.

Patricia Caza, regional solicitor and commissioner of legislative services received $255,113.62 in 2023 and got a 34 per cent increase in 2024 to $341,840.63.

Nancy Polsinelli, commissioner health services earned $266,540.02 in 2023 and got a 28 per cent increase in 2024 to $341,967.33.

There was a 14 per cent increase for chief administrative officer, Gary Kent, who went from $326,716.80 in 2023 to $374,101.01 in 2024.

The Region of Peel said the move to dissolve Peel was one of the reasons behind the pay hikes.

“2023 was a historic year defined by Bill 112 to dissolve the Region of Peel by December 31, 2024,” an emailed statement from the Region of Peel to INsauga.com read.

The government passed the Hazel McCallion Act to dissolve Peel Region, which would have seen Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon broken up into stand-alone municipalities as of Jan. 1, 2025, but at the end of 2023, the province cancelled the split.

The statement indicated there were other reasons for the salary increases.

“The increases you note were a result of several factors including tenure, revised responsibilities and the heavy workload involved in supporting the objectives of the bill while ensuring business continuity was maintained through a period of extreme uncertainty,” the Region of Peel said in the statement.

Lead photo: Region of Peel