Amalgamation: How we got here 18 years ago

Protests, even death threats, marked megacity plan pushed by the Mike Harris government

For better for worse, the amalgamated City of Hamilton will turn 18 on Jan. 1.

But the seeds of this union had been planted long before the Mike Harris government passed the City of Hamilton Act on Dec. 6, 1999, that set in motion the amalgamation of HamiltonWentworth Region with the City of Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, Glanbrook and Flamborough as of Jan. 1, 2001.

In 1974, regional government was imposed on Hamilton and the municipalities from Wentworth County.

Discontent with regional government led to the HamiltonWentworth Review Commission which in 1978 recommended a new City of Wentworth replace the region and the five suburban communities.

The province rejected the proposal.

Meanwhile, the issue continued to quietly percolate and, in 1993, then-regional chair Reg Whynott conducted a review of the region’s political structure and recommended a task force look at setting up a single-tier regional administration. Again, no action was taken. Then, in 1996, west Hamilton councillor Terry Cooke was elected regional chair running on a pro-amalgamation platform. While there would be more studies and recommendations, it was the election of the Harris Progressive Conservatives that made amalgamation a priority.

The Tories, who argued the number of municipalities in Ontario was excessive and a burden to the taxpayer, set about to force the province’s big regional areas to merge into big cities, beginning with Toronto in 1997.

Hamilton’s turn would come two years later.

Nowhere was amalgamation less welcome than in Flamborough, where residents wrote frequent letters to the editor and organized numerous public meetings.

“We were very concerned we would lose our voice and everything would get buried into Hamilton,” said Roman Sarachman, chair of the committee to free Flamborough, who noted he was told by provincial officials that Flamborough was geographically too big to be added to Hamilton.

Flamborough councillor Dave Braden drew headlines when he said Hamilton “had a culture of corruption.”

Then there was Went worth Burlington Tory MPP Toni Ska rica, who tried to get Fl am borough, An caster and Dundas to opt out of amalgamation and join Burlington.

Skarica’s suggestion drew a “get real” comment form then Hamilton mayor Bob Morrow.

Morrow wanted two more seats on the new council for his city noting Hamilton had a population of 320,000 compared to 140,000 in the other five communities combined.

Morrow’s idea was supported by former east-end councillor and Hamilton East Liberal MPP Dominic Agostino, but was rejected by the province.

Meanwhile, Skarica would eventually resign his seat saying his colleagues in the Harris government broke a promise to him that they would not turn the Hamilton-Wentworth Region into a single-tier municipality.

That move paved the way for Flamborough mayor Ted McMeekin to enter provincial politics as a Liberal.

Back in Flamborough, anti-amalgamation activists pushed a number of alternatives including seeing Flamborough sliced into three pieces that would join Burlington (Halton Region), Brant and Waterloo Region.

The township did some telephone polling and distributed questionnaires on this alternative and received overwhelming support.

Brant County and Waterloo Region welcomed the potential additions, but Halton regional council voted 11-9 to reject the addition of Waterdown.

All of this would also be rejected by the province.

The initiative was dealt a further blow when Marvin Ryder, chair of the transition board that was appointed by the Harris government to oversee the megamerger, estimated it would cost Flamborough as much as $50 million to get out of amalgamation.

An attempt to get a judicial review of amalgamation by a Flamborough group was also abandoned.

The Flamborough question remained up in the air until July which added another challenge for transition board members.

“We were told to go down two roads,” Ryder said. “To plan for a scenario with Flamborough in and another with Flamborough out.”

Ryder said he was selected as chair essentially because he was from McMaster “with no axes to grind.”

Other members were former regional chief administrative officer Mac Carson, former police chief Colin Millar and former Hamilton and area councillors Don Ross, Kathryn Dinney and Ollie Thomson.

Ryder said Darlyne Mills from Dundas, who was not in favour of amalgamation, was added “to keep us honest.”

The chair noted he had been a member of Hamilton’s entertainment and convention facilities board from 1990 to 1996 and had a reasonable knowledge of how local government worked, but was by no means an expert.

“It was a bit of an uphill climb for us,” he said.

The transition board set up 27 task forces that looked at merging everything from economic development to emergency services to hydro to public works to social and public health services to public housing and libraries.

It also hired Doug Lychak as the city manager for the new Hamilton.

Lychak, who had been chief administration officer of the Hamilton-Wentworth Region, would last about a year in the new job.

Ryder said the board heard the final reports from each task force over a two-week period in June 2000.

The board also looked at a new ward system that would be like “slices of pie” according to Ryder where each ward where possible would contain urban, suburban and rural parts.

But he noted it was Tony Clement, minister of municipal affairs at the time, who imposed a 15ward system on the new city which included the eight wards in the old City of Hamilton, one ward each for Dundas and Ancaster, two wards for Flamborough, two wards for Stoney Creek plus a ward that included the eastern section of lower Stoney Creek plus upper Stoney Creek and Glanbrook.

The mayor would be elected at-large.

Kevin Werner, political affairs reporter at Hamilton Community News, covered much of the amalgamation debate at the time.

He recalls it all as “chaotic and angry.”

“The suburban areas did not want to do it,” Werner said. “It was imposed, driven down their throats.”

One-time transition costs amounted to $58.4 million, which included consultant fees, exit and early retirement packages, creation of municipal service centres, staff training, police and other emergency services uniform changes, new signage and equipment, new or upgraded computer software and hardware, and other technology improvements.

Working on amalgamation was not only a challenge for the members, but there were some potential signs of danger.

Ryder said he received two death threats that were mailed to the former county courthouse downtown where the board had set up shop. “They were saying if you keep doing this, you’d better watch your back,” said Ryder.

The police were not able to find the author or authors.

Ryder said the transition board held 35 to 40 meetings and left the new city council with a final report containing nearly 300 recommendations, including a new committee system and a proposed budget with $50 million in savings — all of which were ignored.