Municipal governments and residents across Simcoe County are waiting on the edge of their seats for the outcome of the provincial regional governance review.
While special advisors Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn were due to provide their report to the province on the topic by early summer, no report has been received yet and no new timeline has been officially announced.
Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin confirmed she checked with the province, but no new information has yet been released.
“There were 8,500 submissions made to the special advisors,” said Khanjin. “I haven't seen the report or heard any details about it, so I am presuming it's going to take time to get everything right.”
When the regional governance review was initially announced, the special advisors were expected to report back to the province by early summer. As far as Khanjin knows, the advisors are still reviewing the public submissions, and no new time estimate has been provided.
Messages left for special advisors Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn were not returned by publication time.
When asked for an interview with MPP Steve Clark, the minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, Praveen Senthinathan, spokesperson for the ministry, instead sent a press release. Follow-up requests to the ministry for an interview with Clark were not returned.
“The outcomes of the review are not predetermined,” wrote Senthinathan. “We received over 8,500 submissions through the consultation process. The special advisors, Michael Fenn and Ken Seiling, also attended nine in-person sessions and listened to almost 100 individuals and organizations present their ideas on how to improve their local governments.”
Senthinathan said the advisors are still assessing the feedback, with the recommendations still planned to be received sometime this summer.
“Next steps will be determined after the recommendations have been received and reviewed by our government,” Senthinathan wrote.
On Jan. 15, the province announced a review of the regional government model, including the County of Simcoe, whose governance structure has remained similar for almost 50 years, while some municipal amalgamation and restructuring has occurred in the region during that time.
The province's stated objective is to ensure that regional governments are working efficiently.
When the County of Simcoe put forward their suggestions to the advisors back in May, the main recommendation from their governance committee was to reduce the size of Simcoe County council, while including new elected positions of regional councillors. Included in the recommendation was that any future wardens be selected from the regional-councillor pool only.
The regional governance review task force kept its focus on service delivery, and listed the services members believed needed further consideration, rationalization or improvements in delivery or co-ordination. Those services were conservation authorities, fire services, land-use planning, library services and stormwater management.
Other services that were deemed by the task force to be satisfactory, but could still benefit from a review, were housing, legal services, long-term care homes, paramedic services, roads and infrastructure, transit, water and wastewater.
The County of Simcoe is one of the largest counties in Ontario with its population expected to surpass 500,000 residents this year.
