Provincial facilitator won't review Region of Waterloo after all

Nearly a year after the project was first announced, the provincial government says it won’t be appointing facilitators to assess the future of six of Ontario’s regional governments, including Waterloo Region.

Instead, in a statement Wednesday, Ontario’s new minister of municipal affairs and housing Paul Calandra said he wants a legislative committee to do the review.

“The committee can carry out this work in a manner that is transparent, accountable and open to the public,” Calandra said.

He said the study should examine whether two-tier governments in those regions support or hinder the construction of new homes and whether certain services could be combined or moved from one level of government to another.

The provincial facilitators were announced by Calandra’s predecessor, Steve Clark, who resigned last month amid the fallout of two scathing reports on Greenbelt land swaps that found the process of selecting lands for housing favoured certain developers.

On Monday, Calandra announced he was reviewing the intention to assign the facilitators.

In a statement released following the latest provincial announcement, Waterloo Region Chair Karen Redman said: “These important conversations need to happen in public, and I support an open and transparent process.”

“The Region of Waterloo delivers essential services that people rely on everyday,” Redman continued. “We are stronger together as we work to address the housing crisis and improve quality of life for everyone who calls Waterloo Region home.”

Meanwhile the provincial New Democrats accused the government of “stumbling through important housing policy.”

“This government is lurching from one random decision to another, with no clarity on their direction or motives,” NDP critic for municipal affairs Jeff Burch said in a release.

With files from The Canadian Press