Amalgamation

[danbrotherston]

This is disappointing news in my opinion. This is the one thing I thought Ford would be good for. The region needs to combine into one city. not because i think there will be cost savings, but because we will have stronger presence provincially, federally, and internationally as 1 city of 600k versus 3 cities of roughly 200k. I also would like to see amalgamation so that the region has 1 planning department, 1 library system, 1 arts and culture, and 1 fire department.

All the changes in your last sentence can happen without amalgamation. I actually agree that the fire department and library should be considered for moving to the Region.

And the Region already does stuff to promote the Region as a whole. If there is anything it isn’t doing, it can do it. There is no need to wait for the constituent cities and townships to go away.

I’m moderately shocked. Usually this provincial government stomps all over everything (see Toronto city council, where a proposal that had been developed over time with ample consultation was thrown out in favour of whatever Ford thought was good that day, right in the middle of the municipal election).

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.