The mid-to-late 1960s brought a great deal of restructuring for municipalities in Ontario. For the most part, this restructuring was led by the Province with the formation of regional governments. This article offers a broad overview of the complicated and tumultuous, and somewhat confusing, road to Mississauga becoming a city in 1974 within the larger Region of Peel.

Changes were in the air as rural municipalities between Toronto and Hamilton were growing at a rapid pace post Second World War. Developers were buying large swaths of land, and many long-time residents were uneasy over the pace of rapid changes on the landscape. Politicians too felt the pinch, as rural areas were transitioning into something decidedly less-than-rural. Developments like Applewood in the 1950s, followed by Meadowvale, Erin Mills and the S.B. McLaughlin and Associates’ plans in the early to mid 1960s, brought drastic changes, and increased population, to our landscape. But what would the future hold? Amalgamation, separation, incorporation and expansion were all part of the conversation, without a clear path forward. Amalgamation of Toronto Township (historic Mississauga), Malton, Port Credit and Streetsville had been proposed as early as the 1950s by Reeve Mary Fix. Robert Speck followed Fix as Reeve in 1959 and was also a champion of amalgamation and of achieving town status for the township, although he was not in general a supporter of the Province’s initial concepts of regional government.

1963 saw the Province conduct a review of proposed regional government, and highlighted efficiencies that would come through a merger of southern Trafalgar and Toronto townships into a single municipality, which they named “Sheridan”. Although this concept was later abandoned, it was one of the first steps by the Province towards restructuring and the adoption of Regional Government.

At the same time, Toronto Township was also seeking its own path forward, and even approached the Town of Port Credit with the idea of joining together as a new town, under the name of Port Credit. The push toward Town status by the Township would ultimately lead towards the incorporation of the Town of Mississauga in 1968 (not to mention the selection of the name “Mississauga” for the new town). Despite a last minute request from nearby Etobicoke to the Ontario Municipal Board to delay a decision on Toronto Township’s application for town status, the application was approved and Toronto Township officially achieved town status on January 1, 1968 (as the Town of Mississauga), although this did not yet include the towns of Port Credit and Streetsville, which remained independent.

Prior to the creation of the Town of Mississauga, 1966 saw the release of the Province’s Plunkett Report (a Report by Thomas J. Plunkett, Special Commissioner, on the Peel-Halton Local Government Review). Plunkett had been directed to review the municipal structures within the largely rural counties of Halton and Peel, and to make recommendations for restructuring. The report was unveiled at a public meeting by the Minister of Municipal Affairs, Wilfrid Spooner, at a crowded hall in Oakville, and met with a decidedly cold response. Plunkett’s report proposed that Toronto Township, Port Credit, Streetsville, Milton, Oakville, Burlington and Brampton be amalgamated into a single-tier municipality, which Plunkett called the “Urban County of Mississauga” (this was before the name Mississauga had been chosen by voters for the new Town). Plunkett’s report was not well received, either by local governments or by residents worried that in such a large-scale merger that local priorities and identities would be lost. While the Plunkett report did not, ultimately, come to fruition, there was also no going back. The die had been cast for change by the Province.

In November of 1966, Toronto Township offered a rebuttal to the Plunkett Report. Their favoured system was a two-tier regional government made up of four lower-tier boroughs. The boroughs in this proposed restructuring would be Port Credit (composed of Toronto Township, Port Credit and Streetsville), Oakville (composed of Oakville and Burlington), Halton (composed of Acton, Georgetown, Esquesing and Nassagawaya) and Peel (composed of Brampton, Caledon, Caledon East, Bolton, Albion, Chinguacousy and Toronto Gore). They modeled the restructuring concept on Metro Toronto, as was championed by former Township Councillor and MP Hyl Chappell. A major supporter of municipal restructuring and the adoption of Regional government was also Liberal MPP and local resident Ted Glista. And while Toronto Township’s “rebuttal” to the Plunkett Report was part of the larger conversation surrounding regional government and municipal restructuring, ultimately it was the province steering the ship, and not local municipalities.

A new Provincial proposal emerged in 1969 under the direction the Minister of Municipal Affairs, W. Darcy McKeough, which proposed joining Halton and Peel counties into a new Regional structure and amalgamating the exiting 17 lower-tier municipalities into seven. Facing strong opposition to this plan, by 1970 it too had been abandoned.

Between 1969 and 1972, the continued review and push towards municipal restructuring continued. Newspapers through that period highlighted back-and-forth proposals on future growth and municipal needs for Port Credit, Streetsville and the Town of Mississauga.

In 1971 the new minister of municipal affairs, Dalton Bales, continued to press forward regarding the creation of regional governments, although the new approach focused on a Peel-only format, abandoning the proposed union of Halton and Peel – the Peel-only approach was strongly favoured by Premier Bill Davis.

Only Streetsville did not quite agree to go quietly into the night (we will explore Streetsville’s story around amalgamation in future articles, and the story of Streetsville during the amalgamation years is fascinating and is captured in “Farewell, Town of Streetsville” by Tom Urbaniak).

By 1972, different proposals were once again on the table, featuring different types of amalgamations and regional reorganization, but by August of 1972 it was apparent that Port Credit, Streetsville and the Town of Mississauga would be joined as a single lower-tier municipality under the Peel-only approach, ignoring Streetsville’s stated position.

On January 23, 1973, MPP Arthur Meen announced governmental proposals for municipal restructuring for several areas west of Toronto, including Peel County. For Peel, it was determined that 10 separate municipalities would be restructured into three, under the Regional Municipality of Peel (Region of Peel). In this proposal, Port Credit and Streetsville were to merge into the larger Town of Mississauga, thereby losing their independence. The formal groundwork was made for what would become, in 1974, the new City of Mississauga within the Regional Municipality of Peel.