As Region of Waterloo waits for provincial facilitator to be named, minister asks for patience

It's been more than eight months since Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Steve Clark announced a provincial facilitator would be named to review whether the Region of Waterloo "continues to be relevant."

In an interview this week with CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition host Craig Norris, Clark was unable to provide a timeline for when the facilitator would be named.

"We are very, very close to be announcing that information so that they can move forward," Clark said. "So be patient everybody, we're almost there, very close."

The Region of Waterloo is among six upper-tier municipalities the province has said it will review. The other municipalities are:

• Halton.
• Niagara.
• Simcoe.
• Durham.
• York.

In May, the province announced it would dissolve the Region of Peel by 2025. In that announcement, the province again mentioned the provincial facilitators.

"These facilitators will be tasked with reviewing whether the upper-tier government continues to be relevant to the needs of its communities or whether the lower-tier municipalities are mature enough to pursue dissolution," the release from the province said.

"Where they recommend that a two-tier government is still required, the facilitators will also make recommendations on how they can more effectively respond to the issues facing Ontario's fast-growing municipalities today, particularly when it comes to meeting municipal housing pledges and tackling the housing supply crisis."

Delay has had impact on region

Regional Chair Karen Redman said in an emailed statement that she continues to hear "steady feedback" from people in the region, as well as businesses and organizations, that the regional municipality is "stronger together," especially as the area grows.

"Reflecting on the past few months, it would be disingenuous to say that the uncertainty has not had an impact," Redman said of the provincial facilitator not yet being named. "Saying that, I know we have dedicated public servants at all eight municipalities who are focused on delivering exceptional services across our community."

Coun. Rob Deutschmann is one of six regional councillors who have spoken out about the provincial facilitator and endorse the idea of the region becoming one-tier.

"This has been 10 months now of wondering what the heck's going on and in the meantime, they blow up Peel," Deutschmann said. "What does that mean for us here?"

Deutschmann says he doesn't think the region's work has been impacted by the delay, in that regional council continues to meet and make decisions as usual. But he says they're still unclear what the exact role of the facilitator will be.

In the meantime, the province has said it will bring in auditors to examine the region's finances "to see if it's as bad as we say it's going to be," Deutschmann said. 

"When the minister says be patient — I think we've been patient enough," he said. "They've created this uncertainty in the community and we're going to keep going about doing our business, but if there's a change a-coming, we want to know sooner than later."

Next step: name facilitators

Asked in November if the province ultimately plans to do away with regional levels of government, Clark said he was "not going to presuppose the discussions that take place by the facilitator."

Clark said the focus has been on the Region of Peel and appointing a transition board to help dissolve that municipality.

"We've appointed auditors that we promised municipalities that we would to get to the bottom of some of the revenue shortfalls that they feel will happen because of the More Homes Built Faster, Bill 23. So that's moving forward," Clark said.

He added it's "very important for us to move forward" and that the province is "working right now with a number of individuals."

"We've announced that the next piece will be the regional facilitators for those six other regions," Clark said.