Check New Zealand for a better way
Times Colonist
August 20, 2014
Amalgamation is an ongoing topic of conversation in the Greater Victoria Area. Observations made on a recent trip to New Zealand show a very different way to organize a series of contiguous municipalities.
Greater Auckland has 1.416 million people. Governed by a single authority, the Auckland Council, formed in 2010 from the merging of the region's seven city and district councils, many already large organizations in their own rights.
Auckland Council controls all water and waste services for this area along with all the other usual municipal functions (see aucklandcouncil.govt.nz).
In the larger context, New Zealand with 4.52 million population has one police force and one fire service (what a radical concept!)
Greater Victoria has 0.36 million people, governed by 13 municipalities and three electoral areas, with 13 fire departments, four police departments and separate RCMP detachments. And we can't even organize the completion of a regional sewage system thanks to the lack of an integrated authority with the power to get things done.
Just wait until the big quake comes. That will almost certainly emphasize the lack of regional cohesiveness and organization!
Malcolm Parslow
Saanich
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc
Times Colonist
August 20, 2014
Amalgamation is an ongoing topic of conversation in the Greater Victoria Area. Observations made on a recent trip to New Zealand show a very different way to organize a series of contiguous municipalities.
Greater Auckland has 1.416 million people. Governed by a single authority, the Auckland Council, formed in 2010 from the merging of the region's seven city and district councils, many already large organizations in their own rights.
Auckland Council controls all water and waste services for this area along with all the other usual municipal functions (see aucklandcouncil.govt.nz).
In the larger context, New Zealand with 4.52 million population has one police force and one fire service (what a radical concept!)
Greater Victoria has 0.36 million people, governed by 13 municipalities and three electoral areas, with 13 fire departments, four police departments and separate RCMP detachments. And we can't even organize the completion of a regional sewage system thanks to the lack of an integrated authority with the power to get things done.
Just wait until the big quake comes. That will almost certainly emphasize the lack of regional cohesiveness and organization!
Malcolm Parslow
Saanich
© (c) CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc
