[All] Fw: Amalgamation increases costs & weakens democratic voice

Tue Feb 9 00:15:38 EST 2010

FYI What I sent to Waterloo Council Members.

--- On Tue, 2/9/10, Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com> wrote:

From: Louisette Lanteigne <butterflybluelu at rogers.com>
Subject: Amalgamation increases costs & weakens democratic voice
To: "Jan d'Ailly" <jdailly at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Diane Freeman" <dfreeman at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Brenda Halloran" <bhalloran at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Ian McLean" <imclean at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Karen Scian" <kscian at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Angela Vieth" <avieth at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Mark Whaley" <mwhaley at city.waterloo.on.ca>, "Scott Witmer" <switmer at city.waterloo.on.ca>
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 12:11 AM

Amalgamation and Community Identity

Ontario's Conservative government initiated an agenda to restructure municipal governments in the province beginning in 1995. The stated intent was to "reduce the size and cost of municipal government," proposed as a benefit to taxpayers (Richmond 1999). Municipalities were required to initiate their own programs of restructuring or have the province do it for them; for the most part the result has been forced amalgamations among previously independent communities (Downey and Williams 1998). Research on amalgamation indicates that it substantially increases costs, rather than generating savings (Sancton 2000), and there are those who argue that Ontario's amalgamations are not about efficiency but about increasing provincial control and decreasing democratic voice among citizens (Sewell 1998). As of August 2001 there were 159 amalgamations and 60 annexations in Ontario, nearly halving the number of municipalities and councillors (MMAH 2001). The first
 high profile case was the creaseven municipalities became one on January 1tion of the "megacity" of Tor onto, in which , 1998. A protest group calling itself Citizens for Local Democracy was formed, and in a referendum 76% of voters were against amalgamation, but the province did not withdraw its directive (Richmond 1999). Proposed amalgamations elsewhere were also met with civic protest. A referendum organized by the Wentworth Citizen's Referendum Coalition resulted in high turnout from the municipalities that were to be engulfed by amalgamation into the City of Hamilton; 94% of voters were opposed (Hughes 1997; Kerman 1997). One major concern of citizens has been the removal of local access to the political system through the reduction in elected representation and the relocation of remaining representatives to the new municipal centre, away from their communities of interest. In some cases formerly independent municipalities have been reassigned the
 status of a single ward, and are challenged to represent local values in an arena where the centre is comprised of many wards, each with a vote equal to its own. Planners based in the municipal centre are newly assigned the task of planning for people and places that have well established collective place-based identities and planning priorities. Paralleling concerns about the ne w structure of political representation, there is a concern that as outsiders, these planners may lack awareness of and sensitivity to the local distinctiveness and values of the formerly independent communities. As a result, locally valued places that had received special protection may be threatened if the new regime fails to acknowledge their significance to community identity.

To view this entire report visit here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/82476114.html

To view reports showing how amalgamated governments are not more cost efficient you can view the following reports. There are a vast number of documents to support the fact. These are but a few case examples regarding various Canadian communities:

http://www.publicpurpose.com/tor-demo.htm
http://www.queensu.ca/iigr/conf/Arch/03/03-2/Sancton.pdf
http://www.iedm.org/uploaded/pdf/fusions_en.pdf
http://www.chs.ubc.ca/consortia/events/E-20071014/Smith_presentation-NPC_workshop-Oct2007-ENG.ppt
http://www.fcpp.org/publication.php/247
http://dept.econ.yorku.ca/schwartz/paper/Ten%20years%20after%20Ammalgamation.pdf
http://www.newgeography.com/content/00318-the-toronto-megacity-destroying-community-great-cost
http://www.aims.ca/library/amalgamations.pdf
http://www.thunderbay.ca/City_Government/City_Records_and_Archives/Web_Exhibits/Amalgamation_of_Fort_William_and_Port_Arthur/Merger_Plan.htm
http://www.localgovernment.ca/show_bulletin.cfm?id=24

Louisette Lanteigne
700 Star Flower Ave.
Waterloo Ontario
N2V 2L2
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