Standing Committee's Study on Regional Governance

On January 16, 2024, Regional Chair and CEO, John Henry, and Chief Administrative Officer, Elaine Baxter-Trahair, represented Durham Region at the Legislative Assembly of Ontario’s Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy, to speak about the regional governance study.

Good morning Committee members,

I’m John Henry, Regional Chair and CEO of the Regional Municipality of Durham. I am joined today by Elaine Baxter-Trahair, the Regional CAO and Nancy Taylor, Durham’s Treasurer and Commissioner of Finance. 

I want to thank you for taking the time to come to Durham Region to allow our unique local perspective to be heard. Today you are seeing just a small piece of the largest region in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.

I also thank you for the opportunity to speak a second time on this very important topic. I would like to use this time to provide more detail on the benefits that a regional governance model brings to advancing our shared priorities.   

Specifically, Elaine and I will highlight the efficiencies, economies of scale and service delivery excellence that are realized in an effective two-tier system.

Nancy is also with us today and available to share insights into the strong financial practices that have enabled Durham Region to grow and built major infrastructure in a financially sustainable manner. 

I was first elected Regional Chair by the residents of Durham in 2018 and re-elected by voters in 2022. This follows eight years as the Mayor of Oshawa.

It is an absolute privilege to serve alongside Durham Mayors and Councillors as part of Durham Regional Council. I don’t take this responsibility for granted. I work with my colleagues to meet the evolving needs of residents and businesses and to provide the required investments. I am a proud grandfather and this new role has me thinking more than ever about the next generation. 

As elected officials we have a responsibility to ensure that we plan for the services and infrastructure that residents need today and in the future. And that these services and capital projects are delivered in the most efficient and sustainable way possible. That is what I believe Durham Regional Council does best.

Chief Administrative Officer, Elaine Baxter-Trahair

At the Region we approach service delivery and the location of major assets with a vision of most effectively meeting growth related and existing needs across a large area. When we look at the optimal placement of assets, we are looking to achieve the balance between environmental considerations, growth opportunities and the best value on investment regardless of local boundaries. If you look at a map of Durham, some of our lakeshore communities are relatively narrow and so the best location of a facility to serve the maximum number of people and get the best return on taxpayer money is achieved through a Regional lens. For example, we have three interconnected water supply plants that provide safe drinking water to all five lakeshore communities.  Likewise, three of Durham’s Water Pollution Control Plants treat sanitary sewage across multiple boundaries.

Some of our assets require coordination beyond our Region’s boundaries. For example, we are working on an expansion to Duffins Creek Water Pollution Control Plant to service growth in both Durham and York Regions.

Likewise, the provision of effective and safe transportation infrastructure through public transit and roads is enabled by the long-term planning across the Region. 

The Region is entering into a period of significant capital investment to support our growth.  We have a bold capital plan that is projecting average annual capital spending of $1.1 billion over the next four years which is a 65 per cent increase over the previous four years.

We are working closely with our local municipalities to support their provincial housing target of 84,000 new housing units across Durham’s lakeshore communities. We are also planning to service a  9,100 acre urban boundary expansion in the Region’s Official Plan which is currently with the province for review and approval.

To date, the Region has delegated nearly all its planning approval authority for development applications to area municipalities. In contrast, the Region’s new Official Plan serves as the overarching integrated growth management document to guide future development to 2051, and should not be eliminated by Bill 23.  It is critical to ensuring efficient infrastructure planning and financing for services that cross municipal boundaries.      

The Region’s capital budget planning process which ensures infrastructure is planned, funded and delivered in a cost-effective manner, stems from the Regional Official Plan.

When we look at assets, like a new water treatment plant, that costs hundreds of millions of dollars and supports multiple municipalities, it is critical to use a broader lens. The Region has a strong track record for effectively managing such projects, and we are one of only a handful of municipalities in Canada that continue to be awarded a Triple A credit rating.  This speaks to the effective long-term management of tax revenue, water and sewer user rates and development charges, including reserve funds, to ensure infrastructure and services are in place.

We time and size projects to ensure economies of scale so that projects can be delivered at the lowest cost while also ensuring that capacity is in place when and where it is needed most.

The potential for the Region to up front the costs of the four GO stations along the Lakeshore GO East Extension is another example of major capital projects with region-wide benefits that would be much more challenging for any one single municipality to lead on their own.

On the operating side, service delivery is also much more cost effective when provided on a regional scale. Paramedics, policing, transit, waste management, homelessness and affordable housing are just some of the services that the Region effectively delivers across eight municipalities. At an operational level, the Region and Durham local municipalities constantly collaborate on joint opportunities such as the Durham Municipal Insurance Pool, road expansions, road maintenance and winter maintenance, coordinated construction of surface and underground infrastructure, and road safety partnership initiatives, in order to achieve efficiencies and economies of scale in operations. 

The Region provides direct operational support to various local municipalities in other areas such as legal, IT, human resources, and 311 to maximize the efficiency of service delivery.

The Region has made service excellence and value for money a key part of our core business, and we will keep working together with our partners at the local area municipalities to meet our common goals.

I thank you for your time.