One and done? McGarry, Cambridge eager to keep pleading their case to the province
Concern grows over lack of face-to-face chats in Regional Government Review
CAMBRIDGE — That’s it? Just one half-hour meeting with the special advisers looking into the province’s ominous-sounding Regional Government Review.
That’s all Cambridge, fearful of disappearing into Waterloo Region in the Ford government’s search for municipal efficiencies, may get.
“We had hoped this would be the first of several or many conversations with the province,” Cambridge Mayor Kathryn McGarry said Tuesday, nearly a week after Waterloo Region heads of council had their meetings with special advisers Ken Seiling and Michael Fenn.
“The advisers tell us their mandate is to have a 30-minute meeting with all 82 heads of council that are affected by this review. That there will be an online portal for other commentary to come in from interested stakeholders or businesses or chambers of commerce. But no further public engagement by these two advisers.”
So that may be the last time Cambridge gets to chat face-toface with Seiling, the former chair of Waterloo Region, and Fenn in a bid to fend off the gathering forces of amalgamation.
And Cambridge, as usual, has no interest in losing what remains of its political autonomy by being forcibly submerged further within a Waterloo Region, created by the province in 1973 and, some argue, dominated by KitchenerWaterloo.
McGarry doesn’t care to go down as the last mayor of Cambridge.
“The thing I hear from most residents is they certainly do not want an amalgamated city,” McGarry said.
Amalgamation can be a messy business. Cambridge should know.
The shotgun wedding of Galt, Preston and Hespeler also occurred in 1973.
“Cambridge is the only one with recent experience with amalgamating three cities and we continue to hear about that today,” McGarry said.
“We’ve got three town centres. So you always need to identify what downtown Cambridge you’re talking about. I think that’s part of what it takes to get beyond an amalgamation.”
McGarry adds that forced amalgamations did not go smoothly in the rest of the province when they’ve happened in the last few decades.
Reform led to the forced mergers of Sudbury, Ottawa and Hamilton in 2000.
But Cambridge would surely like another chance to chat chinto-chin with the special advisers who have input on its fate. After all, Cambridge hired former City of Kitchener chief administrator Jeff Willmer as its interim chief administrator with an eye to using Willmer’s expertise to fend off amalgamation.
But the retired Willmer, who takes over from the departed Gary Dyke, doesn’t start until next month. And now, the key meetings may be done.
And McGarry isn’t sure what the province’s true objectives are.
Fewer politicians? Better governance? Changes in boundaries with municipalities? McGarry would like some clarity.
“It doesn’t appear that there’s sort of a good sense of what the end goal is going to be,” said McGarry, after releasing a statement on Regional Government Review on Tuesday. “Until that’s made clear to us, we — as area municipalities — don’t have as much to say on that.”