Amalgamation

[jeffster]

6) Ownerships (Kitchener Utilities, Kitchener Rangers, Kitchener City Hall) Waterloo, owns nothing of significant importance like this. The U of Waterloo remains U of Waterloo no matter the outcome.
7) Festivals & Special Events -- Kitchener has way more going for this than Waterloo. Bluesfest, Rib and Beer Fest, Multicultural Festival, Cruising on King, Christkindl Market, etc. I think Waterloo has the Jazz Fest, Comedy Fest and Buskers, but Kitchener does have more going on, especially the summer.
8) Kitchener Memorial Auditorium. The place is historically significant, and very busy, not just with the Rangers, but with concerts (Waterloo really has nothing), and Shows (RV Show, Home and Garden Show, Wine and Food Show, etc). Not that the name could be changed though.

6. Doesn't Waterloo North Hydro count as something if Kitchener Utilities counts? Waterloo also has a city hall, but it's mediocre and I would definitely approve of Kitchener City Hall being the seat of local government if amalgamation happens.

7. Jazz Fest and Buskers are pretty big, not Blues Fest big, but respectable and definitely a draw to out-of-town visitors. Living in Uptown I'm actually amazed how much is going on in the summer, there is something in the public square every weekend and Waterloo Park multiple weekends a month (medieval festival, afro-canadian festival, other cultural groups).

8. There are regional, provincial, and national sporting events at RIM Park and the Waterloo Memorial Rec Complex, not really any concerts, but they are respectably busy. The Aud still wins.

FYI: I'm just addressing these points alone, not really in relation to how things would play out if amalgamation were in play.

As a life-long Waterloo resident who worked at a Kitchener community centre in high school, I agree that in general Kitchener seems to be the better run city on average, but I'm not sure how much that will have to do with anything the province actually does to us.

Yes, Waterloo does have it's own hydro, though not its own gas company. A merger of Kitchener-Wilmot and Waterloo-North wouldn't be too difficult. Both utilities work for the cities. Cambridge owns none of its hydro or gas.

As for Waterloo City Hall, I was under the impression that they still were renting their current digs. I don't think everyone would expect that City Hall would be located in Waterloo -- and again, though, this is going to be an issue for Waterloo residents as well as Cambridge residents. I do know that Kitchener City Hall was originally designed to be built higher if needed, but unsure if that is still possible with todays engineering standards.

You're probably right though, if Ford wants to get this done, he'll just do it and make decisions without too much thought whether or not we want it. The main issue being the size of the government in this region, which is really large.

Councillors in Kitchener are 1 per 24,000
In Cambridge it's 1 per 17,000
In Waterloo it's 1 per 14,500

Collectively, just at the local level, there are 25 councillors, this is the same as Toronto. This doesn't include the region plus the townships. This seems to be the issue. But at the same time, these councillors only work part-time, it's not a real job like it is in Toronto.

I don't think amalgamation is the answer, but the region should try to come up with a better solution. But whatever the they come up with, people are going to be pissed off.