(11-20-2018, 10:58 PM)Spokes Wrote:(11-20-2018, 03:17 PM)tomh009 Wrote: We can do it gradually, giving the region more powers, step by step. It's time for the region to take on fire services, to start.
It's never made any sense that police and EMS are unified but Fire isn't. They could save a boat load putting them all together
I’m not sure I would call it a “boat load”. Ultimately, you would need to have almost the same fire stations with almost the same staffing. Having said that, I agree it would make sense to move Fire to the Region: all the 911 services managed by one entity.
This is the right way to do amalgamation, anyway: instead of making a big deal of it and insisting on amalgamating everything all at once, which is frankly a stupid thing to do in this case which will not provide the savings expected by people who haven’t thought about the situation (and probably aren’t capable of clear thinking), amalgamate the services that would actually be improved or made less expensive, starting with the most obvious cases. This allows proper attention to be paid to each component of amalgamation.
Over time, I think the stated goals of those who want amalgamation would be met, possibly ending in complete amalgamation or on the other hand maybe the constituent municipalities would continue to exist but with radically reduced responsibilities (and cost).