On January 11, I delegated to the Provincial Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure & Cultural Policy (external link) for its Study on Regional Governance Structures in Ontario as overseen by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, to ensure that Halton’s voice is heard as part of the Standing Committee’s review. The meeting was held in the City of Burlington at the Burlington Convention Centre.
Delegations were also provided by the Mayor of the Town of Oakville, Rob Burton, the Mayor of the City of Burlington, Marianne Meed Ward (external link) as well as Burlington Councillors Rory Nisan (external PDF) and Paul Sharman (external PDF).
The following are my speaking notes from this meeting. You can also view Halton Region’s written submission to the Standing Committee (PDF file) from November, 2023.
Introductory remarks
- Good morning. I am pleased to be here today and would like to welcome everyone to the City of Burlington and Halton Region. Thank you to the Standing Committee for an opportunity to provide information about regional governance in Halton.
- I’m Gary Carr, and I have served as the Halton Regional Chair since 2006. Prior to being elected Regional Chair I served as Member of Provincial Parliament, Speaker of the Ontario Legislature and a Federal Member of Parliament. I’m a longtime advocate for Halton residents, and I am proud to have represented our Region at all levels of government.
- On Regional Council at Halton we have the Mayors of the municipalities of Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville as well as 19 elected Councillors from those communities.
- I understand that Minister Calandra has asked this Committee to study regional governance to consider if it enables effective service delivery and whether it supports achieving 1.5 million new homes in Ontario.
- Today, I will be sharing with the Committee that for Halton Region, the answer to both those aspects of the review is a resounding “yes it does”. Our structure and approach to governance provides existing and future residents with exceptional services. And you will hear about our commitment to ensuring that our municipalities have the Regional services they need to fulfill their housing pledges in support of the Province’s goal of delivering 1.5 million new homes.
- I have provided copies of Halton Region’s submission to the Committee for your reference. This document outlines Halton’s services, our role in supporting housing, and the value we provide to our residents. It reinforces and provides additional detail on many of the points I will make this morning.
Overview of Halton Region
- Halton Region is a diverse community with growing urban centres, agricultural activity, and access to beautiful natural areas like Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment.
- Halton is a fast-growing community, home to more than 600,000 people and almost 14,000 business. Halton consists of four Local Municipalities: the City of Burlington, and the Towns of Halton Hills, Milton, and Oakville.
Halton's services are streamlined and continuously improved
- Halton Region, in collaboration with our Local Municipal partners, provides our residents and businesses with a full suite of high-quality services.
- Halton is solely responsible for providing many region-wide services to residents across the four municipalities. These include an integrated, region-wide water and wastewater system, waste management services, social housing, social and community services, policing, paramedics, and public health.
- As Regional Chair for almost two decades, I know first-hand the importance of these Regional services and how they are delivered to Halton’s residents and businesses in an efficient and cost-effective manner:
- residents have rated their satisfaction with the quality of Regional services at 97 per cent;
- both S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s Investor Service have awarded Halton a AAA/Aaa credit-rating for more than three decades; and
- from 2013 to 2022, Halton has successfully delivered an average annual property tax increase of only 1.4% (excluding Police)
- consistent delivery of high-quality drinking water contributing to the health and safety of the community; and
- we have consistently been named one of the safest communities in Canada thanks to our Police Service and the proactive approach we take with our community partners implementing our award-winning Community Safety and Well-being Plan.
- There is a clear separation between the services offered by Halton and by the Local Municipalities – this ensures duplication and overlap is avoided while enabling delivery of services that benefit from economies of scale on a region-wide basis.
- Halton Region has built strong working relationships with each of the Local Municipalities over the last 50 years to address duplication and provide clearly delineated services that will support the fast pace of growth anticipated over the coming years.
- We have always worked together to review and adjust service delivery responsibilities as needed to ensure effective service delivery to the Halton Community. For example, in the 1980s Waste Management Services were moved to Region. On a periodic basis, we undertake a review of the road network in the Region to determine the most appropriate accountability for each road. Regional Council’s Strategic Plan for this term includes a review of transit services in the Region.
- A recent example is our proactive approach to implementing the Provincial direction in Bill 23 to remove duplication from land use planning – we are the first upper-tier to have Council-endorsed plan for the transition of planning services to the local municipalities. This demonstrates our commitment to a streamlined development review and approvals system that supports the acceleration of housing.
- Our continuous improvement approach to governance reviews and changes is evidence-based, transparent, and always with an objective of enhancing service for our residents and businesses.
Halton's role in delivering infrastructure for housing
- As mentioned earlier, Halton is a fast-growing community. Over the last 10 years, our population has grown by almost 19% – the highest rate for all the upper- or single-tier municipalities in the GTAH.
- The Provincial housing target for Halton is 92,500 new housing units by 2031 – achieving this will require Halton to further accelerate our growth.
- This would see Halton’s population reach around 900,000 people by 2031, and, looking further into the future, the Local Municipal visions for growth would see Halton grow to almost 1.4 million people by 2051.
- Given our forward-looking approach in planning for infrastructure, we have water and wastewater infrastructure capacity planned and being delivered that will enable our municipalities to achieve their housing pledges. We are planning to expand and invest in this infrastructure to support even more growth over the long-term.
- Expansions to region-wide water and wastewater infrastructure like treatment plants, pumping stations, reservoirs and trunkmains will be necessary to accommodate growth and these represent billions in new investment. Historically, we have successfully partnered with the development community to help finance and deliver major infrastructure so that the taps turn on when our new residents move into their homes.
- A key to our success has been our coordination, not only with the development community, but more importantly with our Local Municipalities: Over the past 10 years, our approach has supported the funding of $3.5 billion of infrastructure, enabling more than 50,000 housing units in greenfield areas, supporting the growth plans of our communities.
- A new partnership, currently in development, would support at least another 30,000 units in greenfield areas and an initial $3.2 billion of enabling infrastructure for residential uses, with the potential for another $2 billion in expenditures to be identified in updated infrastructure master plans. This program will ensure long-term growth plans are fulfilled.
- Local municipalities alone would not have the fiscal means to finance the scale of investment required to deliver this infrastructure.
Advice to the Standing Committee
- I hope my presentation has made clear that for Halton Region, regional governance will continue to support achieving 1.5 million new homes in Ontario and the delivery of effective services.
- Halton’s current service delivery model is working, and working well. We have a strong track record of supporting growth and working with our local partners to provide effective services in a fiscally responsible manner.
- We look forward to continuing this work. The focus of municipalities, including upper-tiers like Halton Region, should be on delivering key growth-enabling services and accelerating the infrastructure needed to support growth.
- To ensure we can do so, the Committee should not consider any changes that would disrupt Halton’s proven approach to facilitating growth, delivering housing-enabling infrastructure, and providing high-quality services with fiscally-responsibility. Halton will continue its proven ability to continuously improve the effectiveness of services at the Local and Regional level.
- We have done a great job, with the tools we have and the partnerships we’ve developed, to deliver infrastructure needed to support growth, but with the significant acceleration of growth in the short term we require significant new water, wastewater and road infrastructure our growing communities. This means we need to continue conversations with the Province about how to pay for the infrastructure and we look forward to continuing discussions with the Province on how to support our growing communities.
Concluding remarks
- I would like to express my appreciation to the Committee for the opportunity to speak with you today about Halton and effective regional governance.
- Thank you for your time.