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Amalgamation

Splitting Peel Region up would actually be a good idea, with Mississauga and Brampton being single-tier municipalities and Caledon being a part of Dufferin County, especially given that Dufferin County itself was actually created from parts of surrounding counties and the character of Caledon is much more in line with the existing Dufferin County than it is with Mississauga or Brampton. The seat of Dufferin County, Orangeville, already borders Caledon (and Orangeville even annexed parts of Caledon).

If the animosity between Mississauga and Brampton were to cool down, then they could have merged to become "City of Peel" and Caledon would become a part of Dufferin County anyways.
 
I don't see an issue with Mississauga becoming a single tier municipality. Peel Region, out of all of the regional governments in the GTHA, is the one that makes the least sense. It also has the fewest lower-tier municipalities of any regional government in the GTHA.

The only thing that I worry about is Caledon becoming more developer-friendly if it were to join Dufferin County. The relatively small amount of development in Caledon is peanuts for Peel Region, but it would be pretty big for Dufferin. Yes, the PTGA and the Greenbelt Act would still keep it somewhat in check, but I still think there would be increased pressure to expand.
 
RyanM12 said:
The whole GTA should be amalgamated, however, each city should retain more autonomy than the current City of Toronto structure. Maybe a borough system.
Click to expand...

I've given some thought to this since the posts I made on the last page (back in 2015). I agree that the borough system is probably the best way to go. In order to have boroughs that have relatively even populations, it would require splitting some municipalities and combining others. Here's what I came up with:
  • Borough of Toronto (Old City + East York + York)
  • Scarborough
  • North York (including Richmond Hill south of the 407)
  • Markham (Markham + Richmond Hill)
  • Vaughan (Vaughan + Woodbridge)
  • Newmarket (Newmarket + Aurora + Stouffville + King City)
  • Pickering (Pickering + Ajax)
  • Oshawa (Whitby + Oshawa + Clarington)
  • Mississauga
  • Brampton (Brampton + urbanized area of Caledon)
  • Oakville (Oakville + Milton)
  • Burlington (Burlington + Waterdown)
So 12 boroughs total, each with a minimum of 100,000, although most would be 300,000+.

Flamborough and Halton Hills would become part of Wellington County, rural Caledon would become part of Dufferin County, rural York Region and rural Durham Region would be combined into a new York-Durham County (similar to Prescott-Russell in Eastern Ontario). The 4 exurban cities of Hamilton (minus Flamborough), Barrie, Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge would remain separate cities.
 
I was actually thinking the opposite. I think It would be better to break up the larger cities/boroughs, to have several around 100k - 300k.

Since there would be GTA level government dealing with regional issues, I think a smaller local government would be better at dealing with neighborhood and community level issues.

At least, I would prefer if East York and York (which should be called West York) regain their identities.
 
am29 said:
The GTA or Southern Ontario should be it's own separate province.
Click to expand...

This idea has been tossed around before, but its been usually killed off with the half-true argument that you need two-thirds of the provinces with 5o% of the population in support, something that will never happen in the breakup of Ontario. Although there are other ways, the major road block will be Ontario itself, none of the parties in the Ontario Legislature have express interest or support, and I doubt they ever will, so its a dead issue, even if you can make a strong case.
 
CodeMonkey said:
This idea has been tossed around before, but its been usually killed off with the half-true argument that you need two-thirds of the provinces with 5o% of the population in support, something that will never happen in the breakup of Ontario. Although there are other ways, the major road block will be Ontario itself, none of the parties in the Ontario Legislature have express interest or support, and I doubt they ever will, so its a dead issue, even if you can make a strong case.
Click to expand...
The only realistic way to enact it is to give the GTA special status in Ontario, much like how Quebec has special accommodation within Canada. A devolution of provincial powers/taxes to the region would simulate the effect of separating from the province, but without diluting Ontario's dominance on the national scene. The City of Toronto Act is a step down that path but there's obviously a long way to go.
 
animatronic said:
The only realistic way to enact it is to give the GTA special status in Ontario, much like how Quebec has special accommodation within Canada. A devolution of provincial powers/taxes to the region would simulate the effect of separating from the province, but without diluting Ontario's dominance on the national scene. The City of Toronto Act is a step down that path but there's obviously a long way to go.
Click to expand...

That would be sensible, but a change of government on the provincial level and that can all go away in one swoop, a PC government could take away Toronto's limited taxation power in one sitting because of their "cut-tax" mantra. Even old Hudak is proposing an provincial wide Uber regulation that will make Toronto's by-laws on the matter useless. The only way this can truly work is if the spinning tables at Queen's restricting themselves from interfering with the city's day to day decisions.
 
gweed123 said:
I've given some thought to this since the posts I made on the last page (back in 2015). I agree that the borough system is probably the best way to go. In order to have boroughs that have relatively even populations, it would require splitting some municipalities and combining others. Here's what I came up with:
  • Borough of Toronto (Old City + East York + York)
  • Scarborough
  • North York (including Richmond Hill south of the 407)
  • Markham (Markham + Richmond Hill)
  • Vaughan (Vaughan + Woodbridge)
  • Newmarket (Newmarket + Aurora + Stouffville + King City)
  • Pickering (Pickering + Ajax)
  • Oshawa (Whitby + Oshawa + Clarington)
  • Mississauga
  • Brampton (Brampton + urbanized area of Caledon)
  • Oakville (Oakville + Milton)
  • Burlington (Burlington + Waterdown)
So 12 boroughs total, each with a minimum of 100,000, although most would be 300,000+.

Flamborough and Halton Hills would become part of Wellington County, rural Caledon would become part of Dufferin County, rural York Region and rural Durham Region would be combined into a new York-Durham County (similar to Prescott-Russell in Eastern Ontario). The 4 exurban cities of Hamilton (minus Flamborough), Barrie, Guelph, and Kitchener-Waterloo-Cambridge would remain separate cities.
Click to expand...
There is actually no Richmond Hill south of the 407.
 
RyanM12 said:
I was actually thinking the opposite. I think It would be better to break up the larger cities/boroughs, to have several around 100k - 300k.

Since there would be GTA level government dealing with regional issues, I think a smaller local government would be better at dealing with neighborhood and community level issues.

At least, I would prefer if East York and York (which should be called West York) regain their identities.
Click to expand...

That approach would work too. Whatever system is set up, the Regional Council's seat allocation needs to be based on a set formula (ex: 75,000 residents = 1 seat), so that there isn't a geographic imbalance in favour of one borough or against another.
 
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