Alberta Municipal Governance Symposium,
Grande Prairie, Alberta
September 5, 2014
Goals of the Symposium:
The Alberta Municipal Governance Symposium explored how rural and urban municipalities could come together to be more sustainable and better serve their communities. The symposium, moderated by Alberta Primetime’s Michael Higgins, brought together panelists from across the country to discuss the realities of how communities function today and what that means for local government structures. Experiences of amalgamation, regionalization and dissolution from other provinces and in Alberta were explored. The importance of community identity, what builds it and whether or not it it exists independently of the municipality was also discussed.
The Symposium was for:
Alberta reeves, mayors, councillors and municipal administrators to benefit from the open exploration and wide ranging discussion of the Symposium. Private sector and civil society representatives interested in the future of local government and successful communities also enjoyed the opportunity to take part in the conversation.
The Capital Region Municipal Amalgamation Society (Amalgamation Yes) was invited to the Amalgamation Politics panel.
Watch the Amalgamation Politics panel discussion
Panelists for the discussion:
Andrew Sancton, (starting)
Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Lesley Ewing, (at 15:45 min.)
Board Member, Capital Region Municipal Amalgamation Society, Victoria, BC
Zachary Spicer, (at 35:49)
Social Science and Humanities Research Council post-doctoral fellow at the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
Q & A (at 43:40)
Grande Prairie, Alberta
September 5, 2014
Goals of the Symposium:
The Alberta Municipal Governance Symposium explored how rural and urban municipalities could come together to be more sustainable and better serve their communities. The symposium, moderated by Alberta Primetime’s Michael Higgins, brought together panelists from across the country to discuss the realities of how communities function today and what that means for local government structures. Experiences of amalgamation, regionalization and dissolution from other provinces and in Alberta were explored. The importance of community identity, what builds it and whether or not it it exists independently of the municipality was also discussed.
The Symposium was for:
Alberta reeves, mayors, councillors and municipal administrators to benefit from the open exploration and wide ranging discussion of the Symposium. Private sector and civil society representatives interested in the future of local government and successful communities also enjoyed the opportunity to take part in the conversation.
The Capital Region Municipal Amalgamation Society (Amalgamation Yes) was invited to the Amalgamation Politics panel.
Watch the Amalgamation Politics panel discussion
Panelists for the discussion:
Andrew Sancton, (starting)
Chair of the Department of Political Science, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
Lesley Ewing, (at 15:45 min.)
Board Member, Capital Region Municipal Amalgamation Society, Victoria, BC
Zachary Spicer, (at 35:49)
Social Science and Humanities Research Council post-doctoral fellow at the Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario
Q & A (at 43:40)
Watch Andrew Sancton's closing comments, at 14:48 minutes:
“Finally, I think the most successful amalgamations are going to be ones that result from voluntary action, from people voting in favour of it. I see a lot of problems with amalgamation. But I can imagine, and we'll hear about this in Victoria, I can imagine a circumstance, not all circumstance, in which I would vote in favour of amalgamation if I lived in a particular place. It would be if I felt I was really part of a larger community where I shared the same services as everybody else and it simply didn't make sense to have different municipalities.”
Those of us who live in the 13 municipalities of the CRD don't need to imagine the circumstances. We live with these circumstances each and every day, and residents' feedback is frequently expressed in local media articles and newspaper editoriais.
“Finally, I think the most successful amalgamations are going to be ones that result from voluntary action, from people voting in favour of it. I see a lot of problems with amalgamation. But I can imagine, and we'll hear about this in Victoria, I can imagine a circumstance, not all circumstance, in which I would vote in favour of amalgamation if I lived in a particular place. It would be if I felt I was really part of a larger community where I shared the same services as everybody else and it simply didn't make sense to have different municipalities.”
Those of us who live in the 13 municipalities of the CRD don't need to imagine the circumstances. We live with these circumstances each and every day, and residents' feedback is frequently expressed in local media articles and newspaper editoriais.
