We still want those regional review results, Mr. Ford

Doug Ford has a secret he doesn’t want to share with you and millions of other Ontarians.

For two years, the premier has carefully squirreled away the results of a sweeping investigation that found ways to make local governments in Waterloo Region and other parts of the province more efficient, responsive and cheaper for their citizens.

The point was to improve life for “the people” Ford and his Progressive Conservatives constantly insist they were elected to serve. But now two years after the investigation was completed and despite repeated requests by The Record for its findings to be made public, Ford continues to deny the people of this province something for which they paid $127,177.

We do know that, after eight months of work that included nine public consultations and 8,500 citizen submissions, a final report in the fall of 2019 was packed with ideas for overhauling 82 upper- and lower-tier municipalities. We also know the report’s co-author was former Waterloo regional chair Ken Seiling and that he was deeply disappointed the government mothballed the results of his efforts. But he can reveal nothing publicly because he and the report’s other co-author had to sign a confidentiality agreement.

So why won’t Ford do it. What’s he trying to hide? His government’s argument that the report was meant only for the eyes of cabinet ministers is a bad joke. It’s more likely Ford was afraid to be swamped by waves of anger if he rocked any municipal boats. But if the premier is betting most people have forgotten all these things, he’s wrong for two reasons.

First, after a freedom-of-information request filed by Record reporter Jeff Outhit, the people of this community are finally learning what 1,052 of their neighbours told the province in a survey two years ago about ways Waterloo Region could be changed.

It’s true that what Outhit was able to obtain — after an unreasonable wait of 441 days and a $970 bill from the province to The Record — wasn’t the report itself. But he did get his hands on 725 documents that included what Waterloo Region residents liked and didn’t like about their municipal governments. While most of these local residents were satisfied with the current two-tier system of regional government, more than a third of them want the region’s seven fire departments rolled into one. Likewise, more than a quarter said the region’s eight governments should be amalgamated into one.

Let’s be clear. No one is arguing the findings of a survey that involved a fraction of local residents justify a radical transformation of this community. But there is an appetite for some changes to a massive regional municipal system with annual expenditures of nearly $2 billion, a yearly tax bill to the community worth about $900 million and 59 elected officials running it all.

This brings us to the second reason the results of the municipal efficiency report should be released. After Ontarians vote in a provincial election next June, they’ll choose new municipal leaders on Oct. 24. The calls for change contained in the municipal efficiency report should be considered and debated in the 2022 municipal vote. They could make Ontario a better place. As for Ford’s Progressive Conservatives, they’ll be judged by the promises they delivered and the ones they failed to make good on. That includes the promise to improve local governments.

For the sake of this region, this province and perhaps the future of his own government, it’s time for Ford to retrieve that report from some dark storage room at Queen’s Park and introduce it to the light of day — and the people for whom it was written. There should be no secrets between people who are supposed to be friends.