Reversing the Harris-era downloading onto Peel Region
Savings of $9.4 million in Ontario court costs upload

Ontario is providing the three municipalities in Peel Region: the cities of Mississauga and Brampton and the town of Caledon with funding for court security, and the transportation of prisoners. This year, Ontario will pay these costs, which will save municipalities across the Province up to $125 million per year by 2018. This will give municipalities the ability to invest these funds into local priorities, and minimize property tax increases.

The costs had been downloaded from the Province during the 1990s. Ontario feels as Mayor McCallion does, that costs for such servics as court security, prisioner transportation, and other provincial programs should not be paid from property taxes. This uploading removes these costs from the city, and pays them at the level of the Provincial government.

For Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, which comprise Peel Region, this amounts to a savings this year of nearly $9.4 million in the first phase of the program to upload court costs. Ontario's upload of court security costs is being phased-in over seven years. Provincial funding will reach a maximum of $125 million per year by 2018.

We view our relationship with the Mississauga City Council, and the Peel Regional Council, as one of partners. This is one of a series of steps taken in the past few years, and which will continue for much of this decade, to reverse the Harris-era downloading that forced municipal property tax payers to bear costs for programs that should not be on the municipal tax base.