Amalgamation proposal worthy of more study

Before anyone runs Gordon Barnhart out of town for reinvigorating the idea of municipal amalgamation in Saskatchewan, here’s a couple thoughts to explore:

First, when a politician proposes something that so flies in the face of his own best interests, doesn’t it carry added weight and value?

Coming from the Municipalities of Saskatchewan (MOS) president — who also held the positions of clerk of the Saskatchewan legislature, Canadian Senate, lieutenant-governor of the province and president of the University of Saskatchewan — doesn’t amalgamation deserve at least as much consideration as the damn fool talk from the Wexit Movement?

In fairness, about the only similarities between western alienation and municipal amalgamation are that they have been around for about as long and both have been used by politicians to advance their own agenda.

To this day, Premier Scott Moe has not outright condemned separation talk without the heavy qualifier that he can understand the alienation sentiments and frustrations with the federal Liberal government and the carbon tax that’s driving it.

It was a slightly different tactic 20 years ago when the Saskatchewan Party vehemently opposed “forced rural amalgamation.” This was not exactly what was proposed when the NDP government of Roy Romanow commissioned a report by University of Saskatchewan political science professor Joe Garcea suggesting the then 1,006 local governments could be consolidated into 125 districts.

There was really no “forced” element ever proposed, but the simple reality is that “volunteer” amalgamation won’t work.

Saskatchewan still has the same 296 rural municipalities today, as it did 20 years ago at the time of the Garcea report — basically the same 300 or so RMS Saskatchewan has had through its entire 115-year history, despite the massive depopulation of rural areas.

Since a “county” style of governance that was first proposed 60 years ago in the Tommy Douglas CCF government’s Royal Report on Agriculture, amalgamation has always been tied to our politics. Given the Sask. Party history and penchant to never do anything to upset its rural base, it seems unlikely that Moe wants to entertain this conversation.

As Barnhart suggested to Postmedia’s Alex Macpherson, who broke the original story, “I might be run out of town” for now suggesting it’s again worthy of consideration.

Certainly, even urban politicians like longtime Saskatoon city councillor Darren Hill were quick to condemn Barnhart’s idea as not coming from the MOS board (not that Barnhart ever claimed it was).

Admittedly, there has always been the reasonable consideration that local municipal government is closest to the people and that larger governance models distance people from their most immediate needs, like getting your street or your grid road plowed in the winter. And politicians — especially local ones — don’t want to alienate their voters.

But that’s also one of the things that makes what Barnhart is saying that much more tantalizing: He is putting ideas ahead of career aspirations, and his municipal amalgamation idea is likely more relevant than it has ever been.

This takes us to the second reason why it needs to be explored: We all need to take a hard look at what the world is going to look like after COVID -19.

“To my mind, I think we’re starting to get close to crisis proportions, where these communities are really needing help to survive and thrive,” Barnhart said. “Without that, it’s really holding back the economic development of the province.”

The shocking labour statistics on Friday showing 53,000 lost jobs in Saskatchewan from March to April are surely telling us — especially, small municipalities — that we won’t have the tax base to allow the same level of government subsidization when the bills come due for the massive public support programs we are now rolling out.

The new normal will be less funding that will only speed up the changing realities for rural municipalities that are already seeing unwanted change. (See: the mess in the RM of Mckillop).

So why not at least consider governance models that will provide efficiencies?

Instead of dismissing what Barnhart has to say, we need to take a look at what things are going to look like.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-post and Saskatoon Starphoenix.