The five-member transition board tasked with overseeing the dissolution of Peel Region will receive more than $800,000 in pay for roughly 19 months of work, with the region itself forced to pick up the price tag.
The transition team, comprised of people with experience in municipal governments, policing, and government finances, is expected to examine the best way to untangle the shared regional assets before the dissolution takes effect on Jan 1, 2025.
Once complete, Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon will become single-tier municipalities with potential cost-sharing arrangements for services such as policing, social services, garbage removal and sewage.
The Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing told Global News the government wanted to attract “skilled and talented individuals” to advise the province on a range of restructuring issues, including contractual obligation and how the debts and liabilities are divided up between the three municipalities.
On Wednesday the government unveiled the five-member board:
- John Livey, former deputy city manager and chief administrative 0fficer in Toronto, Markham and Region of York
- Tracey Cook, former executive director of Toronto’s municipal licensing and standards division
- Sean Morely, an infrastructure and P3 lawyer
- Eric Jolliffe, former York Region chief of police
- Peter Weltman, former Ontario financial accountability officer
In response to a Global News request, the Ford government revealed the board’s compensation package for a total of 320 working days needed to unwind the region and divide its assets, which the province views as a “monumental task.”
- As chair of the board, Livey will receive between $240,000 to $480,000 for his oversight role — $1,500 per day for a full day’s work and $750 for three hours or less.
- The other board members will receive between $192,000 to $384,000 for their roles — $1,200 per day for a full day’s work and $600 for three hours or less.
Picking up the bill will be the Region of Peel which, a government spokesperson said, is common practice for wholesale municipal changes.
“Reflective of past practice when it comes to municipal restructuring, the costs of the transition board and any support required by the board will be the responsibility of the Region of Peel,” a spokesperson told Global News.
Unspooling the region, which was created in 1974, is expected to be a complex undertaking that could also pit local politicians against one another — likely one of the reasons why local representation is absent from the transition process.
Both Mississauga and Brampton have claimed their cities have shouldered the financial burden of the region’s growth over the past 50 years. Despite assurances from Premier Doug Ford that the municipalities would be made whole, local mayors have raised the spectre of financial reparations.
Unions have also raised concerns about how their employees will be split up during the regional divorce and have questioned why union leaders were shut out of the transition board.
The transition board is expected to make recommendations in the summer or fall of 2024, allowing the provincial government to introduce a second piece of legislation to tie up loose ends before the final dissolution.
The transition board will be disbanded in late January 2025.
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