With Bradford West Gwillimbury homes among the most expensive in Simcoe County, Mayor Rob Keffer said he pushed for cost savings for residents at a meeting with a regional government review advisor Tuesday.
Keffer met with Michael Fenn, one of two special advisors appointed by the Ontario government for the review, which was announced in January to examine Simcoe County and eight other regional governments.
“The big issue is the MPAC assessments, and the value of Bradford West Gwillimbury homes is higher than any other municipality,” Keffer told BradfordToday.
“It is a burden on our taxpayers because the rate of the county council tax levy increases quicker, faster for our residents than it does for some of the other municipalities whose housing hasn’t increased as much.”
Keffer said Fenn understood the issue and “was taking note if there’s some areas that could be helped out.”
Fenn works for StrategyCorp, the company the Town of BWG hired to do its own structural and financial review of the town’s place within Simcoe County, which submitted a report last spring that called leaving the county to join York Region “politically improbable.”
Fenn did not work on that specific report, but Keffer said he knew a little bit about the history of BWG when they met.
“He was just taking ideas, and he seemed receptive. We’ll see how that process proceeds,” he said.
Keffer said he also hopes the review will make changes to the county’s service delivery model for lower-tier municipalities to make it more open and transparent.
“One of the biggest disappointments would be if there were no changes,” he said. “We think there’s some opportunities for cost savings for our residents.”
Fenn and the other special advisor, Ken Seiling, met with all county mayors Tuesday at the Simcoe County administration office in Midhurst.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Simcoe County Warden George Cornell called the meetings a “reasonable first approach” for mayors to give direct feedback to the province.
“ While the County continually evaluates ourselves internally through a lens of constant improvement and value processes, this current Provincial Review is an additional opportunity to look at the broader impacts of growth and change on municipal services and consider the most effective and sustainable ways forward,” he wrote.
Members of the public are expected to be consulted as part of the review this spring.
