The mayor of Canada's sixth largest city, one of the largest suburbs in North America, says it's time for Mississauga to get out of Peel Region and stand on its own two feet.

“Me and the council I'm a part of believe it's time for our city to control its own destiny,” Bonnie Crombie told the Star Wednesday, shortly after a council vote for an independent study to determine if the city should secede from the region.

The move reignites an issue brought up numerous times by former mayor Hazel McCallion. The regional government system, created by former Ontario premier Bill Davis in 1974, was meant to help smaller municipalities with a variety of costly services and infrastructure needs, as they entered into rapid growth periods that would have been difficult to sustain using their own tax base.

But with about 750,000 residents, Mississauga officials have long argued that it is time to stand on its own. That would mean Peel's other two municipalities, Brampton and Caledon, would be left without the largest source of tax revenue in the region.

“We contribute two thirds of the tax base (for the regional government),” Crombie said. “Caledon has 60,000 residents. Our smallest wards have more than 60,000 residents. It's an inequity.”

Crombie has suggested that Brampton, with almost 600,000 residents, should also become an independent single tier government.

Crombie said that Caledon should be amalgamated with neighbouring Dufferin County, to help it with its burgeoning growth, as that municipality is set to explode over the next 30 years.

“We might have a referendum,” Crombie said, suggesting that it could be done during the 2018 municipal election, if the staff report strongly favours leaving the region.

In two-tier regional governments, municipalities only contribute taxes to the region for the services provided at that level. For example, policing in Peel is handled and paid for by the region. But for other services, such as parks and recreation, Mississauga collects its own taxes for its own municipal government. Seceding would bring everything under one roof, controlled by one council, so Mississauga would have nothing to do with the other municipalities.

Ultimately the province would have to approve the move, but with Mississauga's considerable clout during election time, and the reality of its stature as one of Canada's largest cities, sources have told the Star in the past that it's unlikely Queen's Park would refuse whatever the city decides.

“We are Ontario's third largest city,” Crombie said. “There are many other cities in the province that are much smaller than us, and have their own single tier government.”

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