“So the anti-amalgamators claim that smaller is better in the realm of municipal governance. Are resources used more effectively in smaller municipalities? Here are a couple of recent observations we have experienced in the past few weeks:
"This morning, Oak Bay Public Works came to provide a required storm sewer connection to our house, which is undergoing a major renovation. The crew was there from 8:30 am until about 11:30 am. At one point, we counted 7 employees. One was the driver of a large Oak Bay dump truck. He was doing crossword puzzles for some period of time. Another operated a backhoe - he dug a trench about 2 meters long and 2 meters deep and he was there for most of the 3 hours. The other five employees mostly leaned on their shovels (all left, presumably for coffee and were gone about 1/2 hour). Two of these employees spend about 15 minutes actually using their shovels, but most of the time they were leaning on them. One had a collapsable chair, had a coffee and was just sitting there drinking coffee.
"My partner went to the bank in Oak Bay village on Monday about 6:00 am. An Oak Bay Police car was parked in the slot across from Starbucks in the Village (they have their own parking spot). My partner observed that the officer was just sitting there reading a book (not patrolling, etc).
"Our builder had Oak Bay Public Works at another site he is renovating yesterday, where they were also connecting a storm sewer. He said a similar number of Public Works employees were present at that job, so this wasn’t a one-off thing.
"So, based on these antidotal observations, more effective use of resources does not seem to result from smaller municipalities, at least not in Oak Bay.”
"This morning, Oak Bay Public Works came to provide a required storm sewer connection to our house, which is undergoing a major renovation. The crew was there from 8:30 am until about 11:30 am. At one point, we counted 7 employees. One was the driver of a large Oak Bay dump truck. He was doing crossword puzzles for some period of time. Another operated a backhoe - he dug a trench about 2 meters long and 2 meters deep and he was there for most of the 3 hours. The other five employees mostly leaned on their shovels (all left, presumably for coffee and were gone about 1/2 hour). Two of these employees spend about 15 minutes actually using their shovels, but most of the time they were leaning on them. One had a collapsable chair, had a coffee and was just sitting there drinking coffee.
"My partner went to the bank in Oak Bay village on Monday about 6:00 am. An Oak Bay Police car was parked in the slot across from Starbucks in the Village (they have their own parking spot). My partner observed that the officer was just sitting there reading a book (not patrolling, etc).
"Our builder had Oak Bay Public Works at another site he is renovating yesterday, where they were also connecting a storm sewer. He said a similar number of Public Works employees were present at that job, so this wasn’t a one-off thing.
"So, based on these antidotal observations, more effective use of resources does not seem to result from smaller municipalities, at least not in Oak Bay.”
