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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Emil Thank you for your response
in this manner. You are probably aware that there is great danger to
The Strasburg and Huron Road area in that Hallman Dev.
and Paul Britton plannning of MHBC have been promoting ....and
anticipating to get passed ....the absolutely unrealistic and abominable
currently zoned (SINCE 1987) Gas Station ( But will down grade to a
<STRONG>Gas Bar )</STRONG> <STRONG>to look good and as responsible citizens
</STRONG> LOL for their
community responsibility Within the area of a regional
welllhead protection area of only 2 years travel time for
contamination. !!!!! I spoke to the issue . Yvonne
Fernandes could not be there due to family committments , and
fortunately there was another problem and we BOTH said this decision should be
DEFFERED We have another crack at it until Sept. 13 and I need to
meet with one or both of you and hopefully at a time when .our champion,
Yvonne., will be available. We need her and more
responsible 'environmentally responsible' councillors on active duty
if we are to ,leave a decent legacy to our children and their
children. Good going LULU. Ginny</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><STRONG>----- Original</STRONG> Message -----
</DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=frind@uwaterloo.ca href="mailto:frind@uwaterloo.ca">Emil Frind</A>
</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=butterflybluelu@rogers.com
href="mailto:butterflybluelu@rogers.com">Louisette Lanteigne</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Cc:</B> <A title=all@gren.ca
href="mailto:all@gren.ca">all@gren.ca</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, August 29, 2010 10:14
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [All] KW Merger: Facts on
why it's not a good idea.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Very good summary of the merger question, Lulu.<BR><BR>I am not
sure if you have seen my Second Opinion piece in The Record, June 22, which is
based on research of the relevant expert literature, and which comes to the
same conclusions.<BR><BR>However, nobody seems to have picked up on the
environmental part of the merger issue. This issue has come out loud and clear
in the recent Kitchener Council meeting June 21, where Council voted to keep
the southwest corner of Kitchener open for development. The Region wants it
declared Protected Countryside because it is a vital recharge area for the
Moraine. The issue came up again at the Regional Council meeting June 23 where
Council voted on the ROP. Although Mayor Zehr and his Kitchener colleagues on
Regional Council fought very hard for keeping the southwest corner open for
development, they were defeated, fortunately. But this gives you an idea of
what would be in store for us if Waterloo were to merge with Kitchener.
Kitchener, with twice the size, would dominate with their slash-and-build
mentality. I have warned about this danger before, and the events of the week
of June 21 proved my point. The clear conclusion is that for Waterloo, a
merger would mean higher taxes, less representation, and less environment.
<BR><BR>Keep up the good work.<BR><BR>Emil.<BR><BR><BR>Louisette Lanteigne
wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE cite=mid121076.42719.qm@web88301.mail.re4.yahoo.com type="cite">
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<TD vAlign=top defanged_style="font: inherit;"><DEFANGED_META
content="text/html; " http-equiv="content-type">Hi
folks</DEFANGED_META>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><BR>I created a webpage which I've shared with several candidates
regarding the Kitchener - Waterloo merger issue. I did my own
preliminary research on the matter and compiled a summery of the
findings that can be viewed here:<BR><BR><A
href="http://waterloomoraineact.com/costsofmerger.htm">http://waterloomoraineact.com/costsofmerger.htm</A>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>Along side what was on the net, I have another report re:
costs per capita increases due to amalgamation with figures reflecting
various mergers across Canada that can be seen here: </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>( I can't get the links to PDF reports working in my emails due
to the new web browser I'm trying out but if you cut and past the URL
and you'll get there.)</DIV>
<DIV><BR><A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/FB%2022%20Reassessing%20Local%20Government%20Amalgamation%20FEB%2004.pdf">http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/FB%2022%20Reassessing%20Local%20Government%20Amalgamation%20FEB%2004.pdf</A><BR><BR></DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV>When it comes to costs and mergers, the main issue is scale. The
bigger the municipality, the larger the demographics of servicing is
needed and this reduces the pool of companies that municipalities
can selecting from when providing municipal services. The larger
companies tend to merge with area firms creating a monopoly
and these larger firms tend to take full advantage of
municipalities.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The 20-30% increase in taxes is a fiscal
demographic arguement not limited to the concept of mergers
but certainly relevant. For example, U.S. cities of more than one
million population spend 21 percent more per capita than the cities
with 500,000 to 1,000,000 residents, 18 percent more per capita than
cities with 100,000 to 500,000 residents and 13 percent more than the
average city To view one
quick Chart titled <EM>US City Expenditures per Capita
by Size</EM> visit this weblink<EM>:</EM></DIV>
<DIV><EM></EM> </DIV>
<DIV><A
href="http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.publicpurpose.com/tor-wcc3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.publicpurpose.com/tor-demo.htm&usg=__3bOQB5A1cmI-ZlyTcVEaFDxJDvU=&h=268&w=313&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6o9a0_shQY4L8M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damalgamation%2Bcities%2B20%2525%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7IRFA_en%26tbs%3Disch:1"
target=_blank
rel=nofollow>http://www.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.publicpurpose.com/tor-wcc3.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.publicpurpose.com/tor-demo.htm&usg=__3bOQB5A1cmI-ZlyTcVEaFDxJDvU=&h=268&w=313&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=6o9a0_shQY4L8M:&tbnh=100&tbnw=117&prev=/images%3Fq%3Damalgamation%2Bcities%2B20%2525%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox%26rlz%3D1I7IRFA_en%26tbs%3Disch:1</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>What we need to do is focus the view on our current population
and municipal financing numbers per capita on topics folks can
relate too: waste management, schooling, library services etc.
A merger will basically "increase"
the population artifically so if we examine
the economic per capita numbers from cities that have a
population equal to a Kitchener and Waterloo city combined, we can
create our fiscal arguements from there.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This next report is a handy one. It shows a basic
example of a cost issues associated with mergers on page 15 ( or page
21 of the PDF report) featuring the section regarding waste
management. It's a common service that folks can relate to. Check
out the costs of this service for small vs. Larger municipalities and
observe how complicated the service becomes the bigger
the city gets. <A
href="http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/bish.pdf" target=_blank
rel=nofollow>http://www.cdhowe.org/pdf/bish.pdf</A>. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Now if you recall the inconvience of the Toronto Garbage
strike, you can see how quickly these issues can get out of controll.
The bigger the city, the bigger the firms involved, the more potential
impacts from labour disputes etc. Smaller cities, more flex, less
problems and costs.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Taxpayers need to clearly understand that a merger will
increase their tax base should they want to merger. Study after study
proves it. The data is evident not only among merger
documents but in many general studies comparing the basic
costs differences of larger and smaller municipalities. Contracting
firms know the tax base is larger for bigger municipalities and the
price difference of their contract jobs reflects this.<BR><BR>In spite
of the overwhelming amount of data showing smaller cities are more
cost effective there apparently is no shortage of pre-merger promises
from companies itching to profit from a merger. They state that costs
will be reduced but the data to support these claims simply doesn't
exist when examining the per capita tax base. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>One of the most alarming examples of mergers that didn't pan out
is the City of Toronto. They're getting buried in debt. Here is the
latest report regarding their situation that was released in Feb
2010. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV> <A class=moz-txt-link-freetext
href="http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/feb10/schwartz.pdf">http://www.irpp.org/po/archive/feb10/schwartz.pdf</A></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Right now 80% of Canada's infrastructure needs to be replaced
over the next 20 years, so a municipality, it is absolutely vital
we take the long term view in order to keep costs
down. Smaller cities means more
competition among bidders and more flex for municipalities
and in the end, this creates the kind of
economic resilience we need in order to maintain a
reasonable tax base while maintaining our current quality of life.
</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>In the attachment is a correspondence I received from Minister
Bradley (MInister of Municipal Affairs and Housing) for your
reference regarding the merger question basically stating the vote is
non binding etc. </DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I just wanted to bring everyone up to speed on these concerns and
I encourage people to send a copy of this email to various candidates
for consideration. The more folks aware of these issues the
better!</DIV>
<DIV><BR>Louisette Lanteigne</DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR>
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_______________________________________________
All mailing list
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</PRE></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><PRE class=moz-signature cols="72">--
================================================
Emil Frind
Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Waterloo
200 University Avenue West
Waterloo, Ontario Canada N2L 3G1
519-885-1211 ext 33959
<A class=moz-txt-link-abbreviated href="mailto:frind@uwaterloo.ca">frind@uwaterloo.ca</A>
================================================</PRE>
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