Ford’s municipal reform talk revives spectre of amalgamation

WATERLOO REGION — Premier Doug Ford’s government has put the reform of local government back on the table, reigniting a debate with a long, tortured history.

“What we are going to do … is take a long look at regional government across the province, where things have worked and where things haven’t, and figure out what we can do better,” Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said Friday at a Queen’s Park news conference.

Waterloo’s regional government delivers most local services including police, garbage and transit.

Three city and four township governments deliver fewer services.

It’s the first time in almost two decades that the province has signalled interest in municipal reform, which is within its power.

It’s unknown if the Progressive Conservative government is eyeing amalgamations.

“We don’t want to discuss that at all. That’s a dead issue as far as we’re concerned,” Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig said.

Craig advocates for reuniting regional and city councils, which were partly split in 2000 when voters began electing regional members separately. Craig wants city councillors appointed to regional seats.

He could also see replacing regional council with a board that looks after joint services.

Waterloo Mayor Dave Jaworsky wants the province to consider reforming property taxes.

“I think having a good healthy conversation, started informally and then formally, is a good thing,” he said.

If Waterloo faces a merger “I think it’s something that we’ll have to look at very carefully as it unfolds,” he said.

Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic supported merger discussions with Waterloo that failed to get off the ground in 2010.

“I would certainly always welcome a meaningful dialogue that would help ensure that the municipalities of this region are structured in a way that best serves the citizens of our community,” Vrbanovic said.

Friday’s announcement caught local politicians off guard, but nothing is changing in this region for the Oct. 22 municipal election.

Outgoing regional chair Ken Seiling warned the Ford government against wandering aimlessly into an issue that might burn everybody.

“Municipal reform never happens without it being forced from above,” said Seiling, who is retiring from politics after 33 years as chair.

“The debates that we had were quite bruising.

“And if, in fact, the government doesn’t have a plan or an agenda, it isn’t worth the kind of local fighting that would take place, without any indication of where it would end up.”

Seiling has long favoured strengthening regional government or moving toward a single city.

This, he says, is typically recommended when local government is put under review.

Clark said he’ll reveal more when municipal leaders gather in Ottawa Aug. 19 for an annual conference.

He was unavailable to elaborate Friday.

Local politicians have battled each other for more than a century over service delivery, council reform and amalgamations.

Two decades ago, former Tory premier Mike Harris left this region out of municipal mergers it imposed elsewhere.

The province partly separated city and regional councils.

Local politicians put transit and garbage under regional control, but left water and sewer services split.

In a 2010 referendum, Kitchener voters endorsed merger talks with neighbouring Waterloo, but Waterloo voters rejected talks.

“All of these kinds of reforms work better if it comes from the bottom up rather than imposed from the top down,” said Jim Erb.

Erb helped lead a citizens’ campaign that faltered in 2008 after proposing to make this region into a single city.

“I say let’s have the conversation, with input from the community,” said Erb, a candidate for regional council in Waterloo.

“It becomes a very emotional issue.”

Erb wonders if the public mood is shifting toward mergers or a stronger regional voice.

He points to politicians turning economic development into a regional venture.

Retired University of Waterloo political scientist Robert Williams is surprised to hear Clark’s call for regional reform because “there’s been no talk of it.”

Previous Conservative governments were burned by municipal reforms they imposed, Williams said.

“I’m surprised that they now think that they can just blithely walk right back into it and somehow pick up where it left off,” he said.

Williams sees issues around how regions are governed but doubts there’s more public appetite today to amalgamate cities.