Change Kitchener's name back to Berlin?

[ijmorlan]

Fire services seem to be strangely powerful, politically. I'm not exactly sure why.

Do you think they would be opposed to amalgamating the fire services and making them a Regional responsibility? That is, are you suggesting that part of the reason this is not much discussed is because they would oppose it?

I think I agree with many here on amalgamation: amalgamation itself should not be attempted, but there may be specific services that should be amalgamated. Those who are in favour of amalgamation need to explain why we shouldn’t start with certain services, on the basis that there is no obligation to amalgamate everything else.

My top two “obvious” candidates for amalgamation (by which I mean changing from city/township responsibility to Regional) are the libraries and the fire services. Of course if either of these were actually discussed I would want a careful study of the costs and benefits, and the outcome might convince me that amalgamation of these services is a bad idea, but I think they merit study.