All politicians biased on amalgamation, Young tells students
Royal Roads team trying to figure out how to gauge opinions on municipal integration
Don’t look to local city councillors or anybody even thinking of running for city council for an unvarnished view of issues surrounding amalgamation, Victoria Coun. Geoff Young advised a group of Royal Roads students.
“In this region, we’re all very well aware that there’s 100 of us [municipal politicians] or so, and that number would be reduced by a factor of 10 under amalgamation,” Young told the cohort of Royal Roads masters of environment and management students last week.
The students have been examining public-engagement strategies for gauging opinions on municipal integration or amalgamation.
“So basically my first word of advice would be: Don’t trust any city councillor or anyone who is thinking of running for city council to express an unbiased view about amalgamation.”
While the province says there will be no forced amalgamations, Young said he’s not sure what would happen if a council said one thing and the residents said something else.
“I’m not quite clear on whether, for example, the people [through a direct vote] expressed a different view from the council whether that municipality would be considered as favouring amalgamation,” he said.
Young said that the capital region’s local politicians are “all paid very well to do a job that we enjoy. A lot of us would do it as volunteers, the same way our community association boards serve without remuneration.”
He advised the students not to be “overly influenced by what people sitting around tables like this say to you.”
Coun. Pam Madoff countered that while local politicians might not be able to provide an unbiased view, it would be an informed view.
“What I would like to see is a time when members of the public are as informed about the workings of municipal government and the potential for integration and amalgamation as folks are who are really closely involved with it, and are not just going for the high-level wins that they think they might see,” Madoff said.
Coun. Ben Isitt told the students that while he believes in integration of some services and that there should be a single police department and a single fire department from the Malahat to Victoria, quality of life would diminish through outright amalgamation.
“I think some of the reasons why this place is so great is because we have government close to the people, and it’s responsive on things like parks and trails, things being walkable. And it’s government hearing what the public says because it’s close enough to listen and acting on it,” Isitt said.
“I actually think there would be a deterioration of the quality of life, and this would be a less special place to live if we eliminated this kind of eclectic localgovernment framework,” he said, adding that he’s worried about the cost implication “of transitioning to a mega-city.”
The idea of studying some form of amalgamation was put to the electorate in eight of the 13 municipalities in the 2014 municipal election.
Seventy-five per cent of the voters supported the idea.
The province responded by announcing in June it had awarded a $95,000 contract to Circle Square Solutions — a firm headed by former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott — and Urban Systems to examine integrating municipal services and governance in Greater Victoria.