Amalgamation

[nms]

Amalgamation would do a disservice to the various municipal relationships that already exist. Hamilton's amalgamation did not go well for the rural parts of the new city as the urban members generally outvoted the rural members when it came to deciding who got what amount of funding for existing or new services.

I could also foresee that it would be very difficult to build marquee arts or sporting venues in the amalgamated unit as it would be a dance to decide which legacy city was going to get the next one on the list. Inevitably, I would expect that Kitchener would end up with everything with the argument that they are central to the Region while Waterloo and Cambridge would be left out. (Just ask Preston, Galt and Hespeler about how easy it was to place a new sports facility!)

[jeffster]

In regards to the planning departments. We have all three cities plus the region determining where development should occur, where bike lanes should be placed, where parks should be built. We are a region that is seriously lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).

I just don't see the reason why we as a region wouldn't want to amalgamate. Endless amounts of city departments would finally have a coordinated effort in terms of providing services to the residents. on that note, personally I would like to see the region kept and the three main cities amalgamate. I would sever off a bit of the townships into the new city, mainly breslau and bloomingdale. The townships would continue to be run as rural areas, but the urban centres would be one cohesive city.

First, I don't see how amalgamation could have much of an effect on us "lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).
"
Not sure if or why an Olympic size pool is needed. What does it bring to the table? The Waterloo Rec Centre has a huge pool (and I thought it was at Olympic Standards) and has high diving platforms - but it's their only indoor pool as well. Kitchener has 4 indoor pools and Cambridge 2 or 3? But pools are expensive to run, and larger ones have larger requirements that might make pool require 1 or 2 other pools to close, which isn't the direction that we should go in (in this case, Waterloo's way is not very smart).

Not sure what we would use a sports stadium for, it's not like the CFL would come here, or MiLB. If you meant arena, sure, it would be good if we had a larger one. However, Kitchener could, if they wanted to, go at it alone. They already have the property (just stop using Centennial Field) to build a 10,000 seat area. In the case of amalgamation, though, people of Cambridge and Waterloo will be fighting for their right to build it in their cities, despite not being central to each other.

I recall when the Ontario Government built the new courthouse in Kitchener, and all Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig did was complain and threaten legal action because he felt that the new courthouse should be in Galt (Cambridge) -- that somehow everyone driving to south Cambridge was convenient.

As for Art Gallery, I thought we had a good one already at Centre in the Square? Does the region need something much larger? Unsure what you mean by 'event space' -- as in performing arts? Again, Centre in the Square is one of the better ones in all of Ontario. Otherwise, we do have Lot42 and Bingemans.

I agree that we should or could have a better convention centre. We have Bingemans, but I am unsure how it compares to some cities comparable to size with us (namely Hamilton and London). I had hoped that when the Schneider's plant went down, part of the redevelopment would have included a convention centre, and I thought that Bingemans had put some thought into this.

As for hospitals, that is a provincial matter, and always has been. Unless the 3 cities want to get together to someone help finance a new and larger hospitals, I don't think being 1 large city would make a difference.

As others mentioned: as to where these facilities might be located, this will be a source of major contention, even if we were one city. Just look at Cambridge, Hespeler, Preston and Galt all argue still, with the lions share still going to Galt. Wisdom would dictate that any major investment belongs in Kitchener, because it is the logical choice due to its geography, wisdom also tells you that the rest are going to be upset that their area wasn't chosen.

Another thing to consider is that all 3 cities are run very differently and have different agenda's. These agenda's don't change if your merged everything, so you end up with a fractured staff. Go to Hamilton and no one is really happy. Same applies to Cambridge with their merger that happened 26 years ago.

[jamincan]

In regards to the planning departments. We have all three cities plus the region determining where development should occur, where bike lanes should be placed, where parks should be built. We are a region that is seriously lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).

I just don't see the reason why we as a region wouldn't want to amalgamate. Endless amounts of city departments would finally have a coordinated effort in terms of providing services to the residents. on that note, personally I would like to see the region kept and the three main cities amalgamate. I would sever off a bit of the townships into the new city, mainly breslau and bloomingdale. The townships would continue to be run as rural areas, but the urban centres would be one cohesive city.

First, I don't see how amalgamation could have much of an effect on us "lacking in certain amenities that a city of similar sizes have (Olympic size pool, sports stadium, art gallery/event space, convention centre, hospitals that weren't built in 1950's).
"
Not sure if or why an Olympic size pool is needed. What does it bring to the table? The Waterloo Rec Centre has a huge pool (and I thought it was at Olympic Standards) and has high diving platforms - but it's their only indoor pool as well. Kitchener has 4 indoor pools and Cambridge 2 or 3? But pools are expensive to run, and larger ones have larger requirements that might make pool require 1 or 2 other pools to close, which isn't the direction that we should go in (in this case, Waterloo's way is not very smart).

The Rec Centre was supposed to be Olympic-sized, but they ended up shortening to make room for the splash area for kids, or so I've been told. In either case, the pool isn't Olympic-sized and can't be used for competition. Laurier has an Olympic-size pool, and UW and the Stork YMCA both have 25m pools.

[timc]

The Rec Centre was supposed to be Olympic-sized, but they ended up shortening to make room for the splash area for kids, or so I've been told. In either case, the pool isn't Olympic-sized and can't be used for competition. Laurier has an Olympic-size pool, and UW and the Stork YMCA both have 25m pools.

Minor correction: UW has a 25 yard pool.

[tomh009]

The Rec Centre was supposed to be Olympic-sized, but they ended up shortening to make room for the splash area for kids, or so I've been told. In either case, the pool isn't Olympic-sized and can't be used for competition. Laurier has an Olympic-size pool, and UW and the Stork YMCA both have 25m pools.

Minor correction: UW has a 25 yard pool.

Yards!

And for anyone still wondering, an Olympic-size pool is 50 metres long.

[danbrotherston]

Ironically, I use the library system as an argument against amalgamation.  KPL, WPL, and Region all do very different things, have very different needs, and also very different successes.  If we had one library system, the townships would not have anywhere near the library service the enjoy now, nor would WPL and KPL have the unique successes we see right now.

Why would KPL and WPL have very different needs? (The regional library, yes, it does need to do things differently in the townships, but there is no reason why that couldn't be done by a single library system, either.)

You can argue about whether they have different needs, but they have different challenges and different strenghts.  KPL has been effective at delivering an innovative program through it's central branch to stay relevant in todays world.

WPL has remained relevant with strong interest from the community in traditional library programs, but has challenges deliving those programs to the community which wants better services at local branches.

[MidTowner]

I'm surprised that the advisers didn't wind up recommending the amalgamation or dissolution of even a single one of the nine regional municipalities they reviewed. But I'm not sure if investigating the amalgamation of only some constituent parts of a regional municipality was part of their purview.

Amalgamating the whole county would be a mistake. Others have wisely pointed to the difficulties that the new City of Hamilton has had, and most of those are due to the fact that extremely rural parts of Wentworth were included.

They ought not to have been, and equally the rural parts of Waterloo should not be governed by a single tier that includes the cities. But the cities are so intertwined in every way besides governance that they should be amalgamated, and I include Cambridge in this even if the case is not quite as abundantly obvious. It's bizarre that, in some parts of KWC, people a block apart receive different services, and we are held back by a lack of central planning.

[neonjoe]

They may have but the Government changed its mind. In an interview with Ken Seiling that I saw on the news he said that not one of the recommendations in the report were followed through with.

[ijmorlan]

They may have but the Government changed its mind. In an interview with Ken Seiling that I saw on the news he said that not one of the recommendations in the report were followed through with.

Ultimately, these are political decisions. No-one can truly say when amalgamation is warranted; but on top of that, in recent memory it seems to happen mostly when a PC government wants to be seen by its base as saving money, and they don’t care if it actually does so.

I assume that Ford decided that he didn’t want that particular bit of controversy coming up in the next election. Or maybe he just wants to save it for the election. Either way, it’s not based on an assessment of what is the best way of running our cities.

[JoeKW]

This is good news. How anyone looks at the amalgamations of other cities across Canada and thinks we will be different is beyond me.

[panamaniac]

This is good news.  How anyone looks at the amalgamations of other cities across Canada and thinks we will be different is beyond me.

This.  I'm thinking that they also realized that there is little or no money to be saved through amalgamation.

[Spokes]

Which surprises me. I would think there is plenty to be saved

[ijmorlan]

Which surprises me. I would think there is plenty to be saved

A full-scale amalgamation requires everything to be re-organized into an amalgamated form. But large organizations don’t really have the capability to re-organize their entire selves all at once. Things tend to be made the same. For example, the pay scale will be harmonized. Guess in which direction? The services will be harmonized. Guess in which direction? And so on.

By contrast, proceeding in a measured and careful way with individual projects involving moving services from the cities/townships to the Region allows the areas where there is the most saving to be prioritized, and avoids overloading the institutional ability to change. And if there aren’t any reasonably obvious such projects, then amalgamating everything isn’t exactly going to make savings appear by magic, is it?

[KevinL]

Not sure what we would use a sports stadium for, it's not like the CFL would come here, or MiLB. If you meant arena, sure, it would be good if we had a larger one. However, Kitchener could, if they wanted to, go at it alone. They already have the property (just stop using Centennial Field) to build a 10,000 seat area. In the case of amalgamation, though, people of Cambridge and Waterloo will be fighting for their right to build it in their cities, despite not being central to each other.

The best stadium tenant at this time would be for Canadian Premier League soccer - they are looking to expand and our area is one of the targets.

That said, I don't see how amalgamation will ease that process.

[KevinL]

The question of a name for the amalgamated city is always sticky - but there are past examples to learn from. For example, London (UK)'s new boroughs created in the 60s: