Comment 120426

By RoboRobbins (registered) - website | Posted November 08, 2016 at 10:24:37

On amalgamation, its hard to disagree that its been a source of many problems. There is lots of information out there on the specifics, so I won't go in to much detail here. These expanded municipal boundaries and the high degree of operational integration of municipal services that came with them, might not have been ideal in hindsight. It was probably too much geography being too deeply integrated all at once. But with that said, folks like David Wolfe note that the overall trajectory continues to be governance of larger and larger municipal city-regions. The trend is for bigger, not smaller, and this is a function of macro global social and economic forces rather than any particular decisions being made by municipalities or provincial governments.

Now in an ideal world, we would just re-write the legislation governing the municipal boundaries and government functions but this time, the policy would hit its mark. Maybe cast a wider geographic net, as seems to be the global trend, but allow for more independently run services and decision-making in local sub-jurisdictions- in places like Waterdown. In practice however, this process is unlikely to be that simple. For instance, think about how long it has taken (10 years so far) just to agree (sort of) to build 15 stops of high density transit in Hamilton. With this comparator in mind, its likely that reopening questions of amalgamation will be a much longer, much more painful and all-consuming process, and one thats not guaranteed to be perfect (or an even an improvement). Considering where the city of Hamilton is at in its stage of development, an amalgamation controversy might not be the right place to invest its energies and political capital.

But of course, I am happy to discuss more and hear your thoughts :-)

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