Amalgamation

[ijmorlan]

In my opinion the region has done a good job promote itself. but then we have 3 different cities going out and promoting them selves as well. The whole process is convoluted. I think the region could attract new business in an less complicated fashion if each city wasn't looking out for its own interests.

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.

I agree that the whole Region should be promoted as one place with several areas within it. Waterloo and Kitchener, for example, should definitely not be poaching from each other but rather supporting each other. I don’t know much about the Region and cities’ promotional efforts but I hope they aren’t working against each other.

You may have a point about planning. I seem to recall some discussion here about cities doing a good job on some bike lanes, then running into problems with Regional planning. But if amalgamation gives us a planning department that is all about moving motor vehicle traffic across the city, we won’t be better off than we are now.

I’m interested to see that you would like to see just the cities amalgamate. Other discussions that I recall have either focussed on KW, or on the whole Region becoming a city like Ottawa or Hamilton (both of which start way out in the country; I believe Hamilton borders Waterloo Region). It would be interesting to see the effect of a 3-city merger. I suspect the combined city would be accused of throwing its weight around on Regional Council; if we kept representation the same, we would then have 4 township representatives, one from each township, and 11 representatives from the combined city, or 9 if we kept the same number of Regional councillors plus the (now single) mayor.

I’m just glad that Ford isn’t going to push through a unilateral amalgamation (or at least, is putting it off for a time; who knows what he will decide next month). If it is to happen, it should arise out of discussions at the municipal level, not be imposed from above. I continue to believe that we should combine individual items as it makes sense to do so, rather than insisting that everything be amalgamated as would happen if the political entities are re-arranged.