Thinking outside the amalgamation box
Times Colonist Letters
June 10, 2015
Re: “Maybe it’s time for an independent James Bay,” June 5.
Though tongue-in-cheek, Shellie Gudgeon’s commentary had me wondering about what else might lie outside the amalgamation box.
The amalgamation debate is very much framed in terms of a provincial/ municipal state of affairs that goes back to structures set about 150 years ago. Perhaps some things have changed.
The study terms of reference now being debated might usefully be expanded to explore possibilities for new arrangements within existing municipalities, say at a neighbourhood level (like a James Bay).
This could include consideration of the ”convivialities” that Robert Theobald identified in his controversial mid-1990s think-piece, Reworking Success. Neighbouring could be harnessed in positive ways, applying the subsidiarity principle.
The expansion of scope could also engage the provincial/municipal interface, and the prospects for more of an intermediary “city-region state” more province-like in responsibilities and resources than the current Capital Regional District. It could be argued, for example, that the current province is the most redundant level of government for most residents of the capital region, if what is now the CRD could be revamped as more of a sub-province and less of an inter-municipality.
Once these aspects of the current provincial/municipal interface are explored, we might find attractive alternatives to an otherwise unappealing amalgamation status quo — not necessarily more governments, but more and better governance, helping to mediate our collective undeniable fact of multiple “territorial autonomies” in relationship through multiple “functional interdependencies.”
We just might find some better fits with today’s 2015 realities.
Ian Wight
Retired University of Manitoba senior scholar in city planning
North Saanich
- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/thinking-outside-the-amalgamation-box-1.1963237#sthash.rplSlySq.dpuf
Times Colonist Letters
June 10, 2015
Re: “Maybe it’s time for an independent James Bay,” June 5.
Though tongue-in-cheek, Shellie Gudgeon’s commentary had me wondering about what else might lie outside the amalgamation box.
The amalgamation debate is very much framed in terms of a provincial/ municipal state of affairs that goes back to structures set about 150 years ago. Perhaps some things have changed.
The study terms of reference now being debated might usefully be expanded to explore possibilities for new arrangements within existing municipalities, say at a neighbourhood level (like a James Bay).
This could include consideration of the ”convivialities” that Robert Theobald identified in his controversial mid-1990s think-piece, Reworking Success. Neighbouring could be harnessed in positive ways, applying the subsidiarity principle.
The expansion of scope could also engage the provincial/municipal interface, and the prospects for more of an intermediary “city-region state” more province-like in responsibilities and resources than the current Capital Regional District. It could be argued, for example, that the current province is the most redundant level of government for most residents of the capital region, if what is now the CRD could be revamped as more of a sub-province and less of an inter-municipality.
Once these aspects of the current provincial/municipal interface are explored, we might find attractive alternatives to an otherwise unappealing amalgamation status quo — not necessarily more governments, but more and better governance, helping to mediate our collective undeniable fact of multiple “territorial autonomies” in relationship through multiple “functional interdependencies.”
We just might find some better fits with today’s 2015 realities.
Ian Wight
Retired University of Manitoba senior scholar in city planning
North Saanich
- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/thinking-outside-the-amalgamation-box-1.1963237#sthash.rplSlySq.dpuf
