Two Greater Victoria business associations say their members are increasingly frustrated by the region’s patchwork system of local government and want the public to vote on amalgamation in November.
The Hotel Association of Greater Victoria and the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce are pressing to have an amalgamation question added to municipal election ballots.
“We firmly believe that now is the time to ask the people about this issue,” Reid James, chairman of the hotel association, writes in a letter to mayors and councillors. “There is absolutely nothing to lose with asking a non-binding question and only insightful information to gain regardless of the outcome.”
The chamber has been pushing for some form of amalgamation since 1919, said chairman Frank Bourree. “We have not defined what that might look like; however, we believe it needs to be studied without being completely stonewalled by the local politicians.”
Bourree said businesses have long been exasperated at having to deal with 13 municipalities serving just 345,000 people. The issue has gained steam since the Capital Regional District’s failed attempt to build a sewage treatment plant at McLoughlin Point in Esquimalt, he said.
“The lack of efficiency in municipal politics in Victoria is appalling,” he said. “The dysfunction of the CRD as demonstrated by the sewage treatment issue has got our members completely frustrated.
“It’s the biggest single financial hit on our local taxation … and because of the lack of efficiency and consensus at the CRD — or even the authority to get anything done — that price is going to go up dramatically now.”
Bourree said business owners and developers are starting to look elsewhere because of the uncertainty around the sewage project.
“They just can’t afford what’s about to come or the lack of efficiency in getting development done in Victoria,” he said. “Nanaimo has one city council. They’re really starting to get some things done out there.”
Neither the chamber nor the hotel association favours specific wording for an amalgamation question. They say it should be kept simple to get a sense of where voters stand, and whether the issue deserves further study.
So far, only Victoria council has agreed to put the question on ballots for the Nov. 15 election.
A poll commissioned by the pro-amalgamation group, Amalgamation Yes, suggested 84 per cent of capital region residents favour amalgamation, while 89 per cent support a non-binding referendum and 80 per cent want an independent cost-benefit study and analysis. The chamber, the hotel association and the Victoria Real Estate Board paid for the poll.
James said his members struggle to cope with competing city plans and multiple agencies serving the region.
“Whether it’s police or fire or all of the different municipalities doing their own thing and not working together for the bigger picture, it makes it really difficult to operate,” he said.
“None of it makes sense. And the apathy around this … Everybody says, ‘Oh it will never happen.’ And I know our association is tired of hearing that.
“We applaud Amalgamation Yes for coming forward and trying to bring this issue back to the forefront. We really think it’s time.”
