The Ford government has named a new slate of appointed regional chairs to oversee some of the largest municipal jurisdictions in the province, including those surrounding Toronto. In a statement Tuesday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack said he was appointing chairs to oversee Durham, Halton, Niagara, Peel, Waterloo and York regions, Muskoka District and Simcoe County. Flack said the appointments were important as the province looks to “create the conditions for growth” amid geopolitical challenges. “These appointments reflect our confidence in local leaders who bring a deep understanding of their municipalities and a proven record of performance and public service,” Flack said. “As heads of council, they will foster collaboration across municipalities, support responsible growth and ensure services are delivered efficiently, so that these communities remain great places to live, work and raise a family.” The move comes after the Ford government made legislative changes earlier this year allowing the minister to appoint chairs in more regions and grant them “strong chair powers.” The government said the move would help keep those regions “in sync” with decisions being made by the government. Opposition critics have said the move consolidates power at Queen’s Park. The new appointees are as follows: Two of the chairs are sitting mayors. The province says they will not get a double salary, but will instead get whichever is the higher of the two salaries between the positions. The chairs of Peel, Durham, York and Halton all made salaries north of $225,000 in 2025, according to the Ontario public sector salary disclosure. Iannicca was the highest paid chair, earning 278,203.48, with more than $15,000 in taxable benefits. That compares to a salary of $269,567 the same year for Premier Doug Ford. Scott Aitchison, who is currently the federal MP for Parry Sound-Muskoka, said at the end of September that he plans to step down from federal politics by the end of the year. Aitchison unsuccessfully ran for the leadership of the federal Conservative Party in 2022. In an interview with CTV Barrie, Flack expressed confidence in the appointees and said they will be particularly helpful in getting infrastructure built. “We’ve got eight outstanding, proven leaders, proven chairs, with one common goal, and that is to protect Ontario. And what do they need to do? They need to create jobs and protect the jobs we have. They need to respect the ratepayers, the taxpayers, and get costs down,” Flack said. “They’re going to come to me, I hope, with great solutions to better or right-size regional government, like we already have done in Simcoe County. Finally, we need to get massive infrastructure built across this province, new infrastructure to support growth where it’s needed, and replace aging infrastructure.” Flack denied that the appointees are simply party insiders who will do the government’s bidding, pointing out Del Duca is the former leader of the Ontario Liberal Party. But speaking with CTV News London, Opposition Leader Marit Stiles said she “strongly” believes the positions should be elected rather than appointed. “These should be duly locally elected because we want to make sure that it is actually the local community, the community voice that is actually driving the decisions that are going to impact us at the municipal level and at the regional level,” Stiles said. “It’s nothing personal about the actual people who’ve been selected, but we’ve seen this government in the past use this opportunity to appoint people that they think are going to be most in line with their way of thinking.”
