Saanich shies away from amalgamation vote but opens discussion
Times Colonist
October 3, 2014
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard is proposing a question be put on the Saanich ballot that falls short of asking residents if they support amalgamation but opens the door to community discussions on the issue.
“For the amalgamation people, it’s half a cup,” said Leonard, who up until now has repeatedly expressed no interest in putting any amalgamation question on the Nov. 15 municipal election ballot.
“But it does, if it passes, give them a venue to come out and discuss the issue with their neighbours. It also opens up the door for every member of our community to be involved in how Saanich does governance for the next generation.”
The proposed question is: Do you support council initiating a community-based review of the governance structure and policies within Saanich and our partnerships within the region?
A governance review would cover the gamut from parks and recreation to the possibility of a regional police commission, Leonard said.
“Our council meetings are run pretty much the same way they were 28 years ago when I first showed up, but the world’s changed and people’s expectations of democracy have changed. So they [council procedures] need a refresh,” he said.
“I know from my interaction with council members and with citizens that there’s an appetite to modernize the way we do business.”
Leonard admits that there’s no legal requirement for a governance review to be put on the ballot. But asking the question could generate more community interest in the process, he said.
“A mayor could in December put it in the inaugural speech; do this process and come out the other end and you’d have thousands of people saying: ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were doing that,’ ” Leonard said
“So getting a mandate from the voters is going to give us tens of thousands of people becoming aware that we want to look at this issue and get a mandate from them and hopefully have them become participants in the process.”
And, he said, it does offer the opportunity for those on both sides of the amalgamation debate to make their case.
“This would be an opportunity for them to come out and talk to their neighbours to see where it goes. We’d want to put together a good body of research and knowledge so people could come to community meetings and have a good starting point of what the status quo is now, and then they can put forward some suggestions and changes and some of them might require a body of research too,” Leonard said.
“This process would benefit from an elector mandate as it will require time, resources, funding and their participation. Ultimately, the committee would bring forward recommendations to Saanich council and depending on the scope of those recommendations, council may once again seek direction from the electors.”
John Vickers, Amalgamation Yes spokesman, welcomed the initiative.
Amalgamation Yes is a non-profit group seeking amalgamation within Greater Victoria. It has been pushing municipalities to add a non-binding referendum question to the Nov. 15 ballots.
“To me, should that question be approved, the fact that it opens the door for a regional look at governance, I would deem to be positive. When you look across the table right now we have six municipalities forwarding a question to their constituents, however all six are different questions. So this would make the seventh different question,” Vickers said.
“But at the end of the day, from a regional perspective, I think that a positive result from all of the questions would be a clear signal to the provincial government that citizens of the region do, in fact, want a governance review and to explore more ways of how we could better work together.”
This week both Esquimalt and Oak Bay agreed to include amalgamation questions on the Nov. 15 municipal ballot.
Central Saanich, Langford, Victoria and Sidney have also agreed to some sort of amalgamation question.
© Copyright Times Colonist
Times Colonist
October 3, 2014
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard is proposing a question be put on the Saanich ballot that falls short of asking residents if they support amalgamation but opens the door to community discussions on the issue.
“For the amalgamation people, it’s half a cup,” said Leonard, who up until now has repeatedly expressed no interest in putting any amalgamation question on the Nov. 15 municipal election ballot.
“But it does, if it passes, give them a venue to come out and discuss the issue with their neighbours. It also opens up the door for every member of our community to be involved in how Saanich does governance for the next generation.”
The proposed question is: Do you support council initiating a community-based review of the governance structure and policies within Saanich and our partnerships within the region?
A governance review would cover the gamut from parks and recreation to the possibility of a regional police commission, Leonard said.
“Our council meetings are run pretty much the same way they were 28 years ago when I first showed up, but the world’s changed and people’s expectations of democracy have changed. So they [council procedures] need a refresh,” he said.
“I know from my interaction with council members and with citizens that there’s an appetite to modernize the way we do business.”
Leonard admits that there’s no legal requirement for a governance review to be put on the ballot. But asking the question could generate more community interest in the process, he said.
“A mayor could in December put it in the inaugural speech; do this process and come out the other end and you’d have thousands of people saying: ‘Oh, I didn’t know you were doing that,’ ” Leonard said
“So getting a mandate from the voters is going to give us tens of thousands of people becoming aware that we want to look at this issue and get a mandate from them and hopefully have them become participants in the process.”
And, he said, it does offer the opportunity for those on both sides of the amalgamation debate to make their case.
“This would be an opportunity for them to come out and talk to their neighbours to see where it goes. We’d want to put together a good body of research and knowledge so people could come to community meetings and have a good starting point of what the status quo is now, and then they can put forward some suggestions and changes and some of them might require a body of research too,” Leonard said.
“This process would benefit from an elector mandate as it will require time, resources, funding and their participation. Ultimately, the committee would bring forward recommendations to Saanich council and depending on the scope of those recommendations, council may once again seek direction from the electors.”
John Vickers, Amalgamation Yes spokesman, welcomed the initiative.
Amalgamation Yes is a non-profit group seeking amalgamation within Greater Victoria. It has been pushing municipalities to add a non-binding referendum question to the Nov. 15 ballots.
“To me, should that question be approved, the fact that it opens the door for a regional look at governance, I would deem to be positive. When you look across the table right now we have six municipalities forwarding a question to their constituents, however all six are different questions. So this would make the seventh different question,” Vickers said.
“But at the end of the day, from a regional perspective, I think that a positive result from all of the questions would be a clear signal to the provincial government that citizens of the region do, in fact, want a governance review and to explore more ways of how we could better work together.”
This week both Esquimalt and Oak Bay agreed to include amalgamation questions on the Nov. 15 municipal ballot.
Central Saanich, Langford, Victoria and Sidney have also agreed to some sort of amalgamation question.
© Copyright Times Colonist
