On March 26th we were joined by Carl Zehr, Former Mayor of Kitchener who spoke to the club on the topic of Municipal Amalgamation.
- our guest speaker was Carl Zehr, Kitchener's longest serving mayor, who spoke to us about regional amalgamation
- a bit of a timeline:
- 1973: we became the Region of Waterloo, from the County of Waterloo and the number of municipalities was reduced from 15 to 7
- 1989: there was more amalgamation across the province, but Waterloo Region was spared
- 1990s: garbage and transit were taken over by the Region. Regional Councillors were elected
- 2005: there was local discussion about governance, not amalgamation
- 2010: Kitchener and Waterloo held a referendum to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a merger. The referendum failed.
- 2019: Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn are completing a review of regional governments. 9 Regions and 82 municipalities are being studied. The review, due early summer 2019, will make recommendations on: governance & decision-making; efficiency, alignment and representation; service delivery; duplication of services
- public input ends April 23. If you wish to participate in the on-line survey, you can go here: https://www.ontario.ca/page/regional-government-review
- our Region is the 10th largest in Canada. Our regional GDP is $27 Billion--the largest GDP per capita in Ontario and Canada
- Downsides of multi-municipality government: there is a lot of confusion as to who does what; a lot of internal competition between municipalities for tax dollars; multiple layers slow response (e.g. the Region has 8 different emergency plans); there are complex and differing bylaws between municipalities; there's a fear of losing our rural lifestyle and farm land; there are multiple standards; 7 different fire departments and 59 local politicians
- Advantages to a single municipality include: more efficient and effective service; eliminate the "who does what" that currently exists; the total tax base would be shared; the Region would speak with one strong voice; some administrative duplication would be eliminated; and the identity of individual towns and cities would be restores (e.g. Preston, Galt, Hespeler)
- there are several options to be considered, including: keeping the status quo; having one large municipality; having 2 or 3 municipalities; forming special interest boards
- if people would like more information, they can go to the government website above, or follow the discussion on social media: FaceBook, Instagram or Twitter (use #ItsTimeWaterlooRegion)