Four years ago, Burlington voters helped elect Halton's regional chair. This term, the province picked the chair. The Ontario government has appointed Ann Mulvale, a six-term former mayor of Oakville, as Halton Regional Chair for the 2026-2030 council term.
Halton Region is the upper level of local government over Burlington, Halton Hills, Milton and Oakville. It handles services the four share, including the network of regional roads that connects them. The chair presides over Regional Council, the region's 24-member decision-making body, which includes the mayors of all four municipalities. Burlington sends seven members, including its mayor. The chair is the only member of the council who doesn't also sit on a local council.
That is a change from the last term. In the municipal election on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, voters across Halton chose their chair, and Gary Carr won the job with 51,776 votes. Ahead of this fall's vote, Halton Region said the chair for the 2026-2030 term would instead be appointed by the province at a date to be determined, so the job was not on Burlington ballots.
Halton was not singled out: the province named heads of council for eight upper-tier municipalities, the regional and county governments that sit above local councils, in the same announcement.
Mulvale first won seats on Oakville's council and Halton's regional council in 1980. She was first elected mayor of Oakville in 1988 and went on to serve six terms. She was also twice president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the group that speaks for the province's cities and towns in dealings with the provincial government.
The province says she is currently a director of the Walkerton Clean Water Centre, which trains the people who run drinking-water systems, and of the Waterfront Regeneration Trust. She previously sat on the board of OMERS, the Ontario Municipal Employees' Retirement System, the pension plan for municipal workers, where she chaired its HR and Compensation Committee.
The new Regional Council holds its inaugural meeting Wednesday, Dec. 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Regional headquarters, 1151 Bronte Road in Oakville.
