Victoria should follow Ottawa's lead
Ottawa Citizen
August 3, 2014
Shannon Moneo
In a beautiful land of 800 square kilometres live 340,000 subjects in 13 kingdoms. They are ruled by 13 masters and their 78 auxiliaries. There are seven armies to maintain law and order and 13 departments to keep fire at bay. If not for the signs, people would not know when they cross the border from one territory to another.
Some relish living in a small fiefdom of country bumpkins, others live where posh castles perch while others call home a capital burg that is building a huge drawbridge and would appreciate help from the outliers.
Welcome to Greater Victoria, where last week, the Amalgamation Yes group revealed survey results from 441 people. Eighty-four per cent of them want to amalgamate the area’s 13 municipalities.
The main benefits of amalgamation, respondents said, would be reduced governance costs (paying fewer city councillors and fire chiefs), better regional planning and improved public transit and waste management.
No kidding.
Greater Victoria has endured a litany of missteps made by a mix of politicians intent on doing what’s best for their domains but not what’s best for the empire.
Recent slip-ups include spending $17 million to buy emergency communication equipment that works fine in one municipality but is useless in other.
A regional crime unit, created in 2008 to investigate “cross-border crime” will likely die next year when only two RCMP departments remain.
On horrific example of the problems caused by territorial attitudes happened in 2007 when a woman living in Oak Bay dialled 911. A technical snafu routed the call from Oak Bay to Victoria which then sent the call to Saanich. It took 30 minutes before police entered the home where five people lay dead.
It is ironic that of those surveyed who oppose amalgamation, 22 per cent were worried that if amalgamation occurs, the quality of policing would suffer.
The latest, most egregious example of Victoria’s dysfunctional duchies is the ability of one municipality – Esquimalt – to stop the government-ordered construction of a sewage treatment facility in Esquimalt. The $783-million project, to serve seven Victoria-area municipalities, is on hold with each month of delay adding $1 million to the bottom line.
In 2001, Ottawa amalgamated its 11 municipalities and the region of Ottawa-Carleton. Before the forced marriage, opponents worried that taxes would soar, fire service and infrastructure work would diminish, citizen government would be lost, and historic communities, swallowed whole into Ottawa’s big-city mouth, would lose their distinct heritage.
By many accounts, Armageddon did not arrive. No one is now seriously talking about de-amalgamation in Ottawa.
John Vickers, Amalgamation Yes’s vice-chair, said it’s unacceptable that one powerful voice doesn’t speak for the region. A glaring need in the rapidly growing capital area is a regional transportation plan.
“We’re a rudderless ship here,” the former Ottawa resident told me.
From Halifax to Winnipeg, amalgamation has occurred, but around Victoria, stubborn and ignorant local politicians don’t want to get on board, Vickers said. And the provincial government has abandoned ship, saying it won’t force a non-binding referendum on amalgamation, one option Amalgamation Yes is asking for in the upcoming November municipal elections.
Maybe a united kingdom won’t be a panacea but the least that local politicians can do is let the people speak and put the amalgamation question to ballot in all 13 strongholds. More likely, weak arguments against amalgamation will prevail. The kings will retain their crowns in Victoria, a place named after a queen.
Ottawa Citizen
August 3, 2014
Shannon Moneo
In a beautiful land of 800 square kilometres live 340,000 subjects in 13 kingdoms. They are ruled by 13 masters and their 78 auxiliaries. There are seven armies to maintain law and order and 13 departments to keep fire at bay. If not for the signs, people would not know when they cross the border from one territory to another.
Some relish living in a small fiefdom of country bumpkins, others live where posh castles perch while others call home a capital burg that is building a huge drawbridge and would appreciate help from the outliers.
Welcome to Greater Victoria, where last week, the Amalgamation Yes group revealed survey results from 441 people. Eighty-four per cent of them want to amalgamate the area’s 13 municipalities.
The main benefits of amalgamation, respondents said, would be reduced governance costs (paying fewer city councillors and fire chiefs), better regional planning and improved public transit and waste management.
No kidding.
Greater Victoria has endured a litany of missteps made by a mix of politicians intent on doing what’s best for their domains but not what’s best for the empire.
Recent slip-ups include spending $17 million to buy emergency communication equipment that works fine in one municipality but is useless in other.
A regional crime unit, created in 2008 to investigate “cross-border crime” will likely die next year when only two RCMP departments remain.
On horrific example of the problems caused by territorial attitudes happened in 2007 when a woman living in Oak Bay dialled 911. A technical snafu routed the call from Oak Bay to Victoria which then sent the call to Saanich. It took 30 minutes before police entered the home where five people lay dead.
It is ironic that of those surveyed who oppose amalgamation, 22 per cent were worried that if amalgamation occurs, the quality of policing would suffer.
The latest, most egregious example of Victoria’s dysfunctional duchies is the ability of one municipality – Esquimalt – to stop the government-ordered construction of a sewage treatment facility in Esquimalt. The $783-million project, to serve seven Victoria-area municipalities, is on hold with each month of delay adding $1 million to the bottom line.
In 2001, Ottawa amalgamated its 11 municipalities and the region of Ottawa-Carleton. Before the forced marriage, opponents worried that taxes would soar, fire service and infrastructure work would diminish, citizen government would be lost, and historic communities, swallowed whole into Ottawa’s big-city mouth, would lose their distinct heritage.
By many accounts, Armageddon did not arrive. No one is now seriously talking about de-amalgamation in Ottawa.
John Vickers, Amalgamation Yes’s vice-chair, said it’s unacceptable that one powerful voice doesn’t speak for the region. A glaring need in the rapidly growing capital area is a regional transportation plan.
“We’re a rudderless ship here,” the former Ottawa resident told me.
From Halifax to Winnipeg, amalgamation has occurred, but around Victoria, stubborn and ignorant local politicians don’t want to get on board, Vickers said. And the provincial government has abandoned ship, saying it won’t force a non-binding referendum on amalgamation, one option Amalgamation Yes is asking for in the upcoming November municipal elections.
Maybe a united kingdom won’t be a panacea but the least that local politicians can do is let the people speak and put the amalgamation question to ballot in all 13 strongholds. More likely, weak arguments against amalgamation will prevail. The kings will retain their crowns in Victoria, a place named after a queen.
