Finally, there is hope for a sensible look at governance in the capital region, even though the assignment studiously avoids mention of an amalgamation study, something a majority of the region’s voters favoured in the 2014 municipal elections.
The province has awarded a joint consulting contract to Circle Square Solutions, headed by former B.C. Liberal cabinet minister George Abbott, and Urban Systems, a consulting company that focuses on community development, to work with the 13 municipal governments in the region on “exploring ways to integrate services and governance.”
It’s a namby-pamby response to the voters who said yes in 2014 to the idea of embarking on some sort of study into the pros and cons of amalgamation. Nevertheless, it can still be useful in identifying successful integration efforts and other low-hanging fruit.
Abbott’s involvement bodes well for the process — he is good at bringing people together, and he has a strong team. He served in the B.C. cabinet as the minister responsible for community affairs, and Circle Square Solutions includes Bob de Faye and Dale Wall, both former deputies in the Community Ministry, as well as Chris Trumpy, a former deputy finance minister.
The size of the consulting contract is relatively modest — up to $95,000 — so don’t expect detailed cost-benefit studies at this stage. Community Minister Peter Fassbender says the consultants are not mandated to look at amalgamation, but will identify the integrated services that already exist, suggest what else could be done and chart a potential path forward.
Fassbender’s approach is probably the politically prudent one, given that most municipal councils and mayors in the region are skittish about using the A-word, in spite of the 2014 election results.
The English language has many collective nouns — words used to describe groups of people or animals — ranging from an army of ants to a zeal of zebras. Perhaps the appropriate collective noun in Greater Victoria could be a confusion of municipalities. There are 13 of them, and they call themselves cities, districts (three of which have Saanich in their names), towns and one township. On top of that, they engage collectively in certain regional functions through the Capital Regional District.
Policing in the region is done by seven police departments. There are six 911 dispatch centres. Each municipality has its own fire and rescue department. Development standards and regulations differ across the region.
Bringing order to this confusion is a huge challenge; it won’t be accomplished through a few conversations.
But good questions can be asked. For example, could two or three municipalities merge public-works departments and be more cost-effective or provide better service? It’s also a chance to gather some baseline information that will help shape a discussion of broader amalgamation, even if that’s not the mandate.
Still, it would be more productive to take a direct approach. If we keep dancing around the topic of amalgamation, the conversation will go on forever.
Amalgamation might not be the answer, but at least the question should be asked.
