The majority of Greater Victorians who voted in the 2015 municipal elections made it clear they wanted to see a study on amalgamation for the region, yet those wishes are being thwarted by one person, Community Minister Peter Fassbender (“Fassbender won’t be pushed on amalgamation in capital,” Dec. 3).
Fassbender is obviously biased against amalgamation. When he was mayor of the City of Langley, he was very much opposed to the suggested amalgamation of the Township of Langley with the City of Langley, and said at the time that amalgamation was a “waste of time and money.”
Acknowledging the results of the 2015 municipal elections, Coralee Oakes, B.C.’s community minister at that time, promised the government would do a governance study.
“It’s going to be hard work,” she said. “It’s going to be complex. It’s going to be very, very difficult, but we’re committed to doing that.”
But that commitment appears to have been abandoned. Fassbender, who took over the community portfolio from Oakes, has taken a position that, at this time, there will be no study of amalgamation, notwithstanding that the public of this region voted overwhelmingly in support of an amalgamation study. Such a study was to explore options, feasibility, benefits and disbenefits of amalgamation.
Rather than a study on governance, Fassbender has moved to undertake, at great cost, “a study of integrated service,” whereby the consultants will recommend how the regional municipalities can become more efficient and co-operate more with each other, to reduce costs to the taxpayer.
My recollection of municipal administrators and city managers in this region is that they know full well, and in detail, how they can co-operate with each other and reduce costs, but only if there was a political goal and commitment to co-operate by all of the municipalities.
So how has it come to pass that the premier has appointed Fassbender the community minister when the previous minister pledged to the local municipalities that her ministry would undertake an amalgamation study?
We can only conclude that the premier appointed Fassbender because he has shown in the past his opposition to amalgamation, and that he has experience with governance, as the former mayor of the City of Langley.
What better senior politician could one appoint to shift focus from an amalgamation study to a simple study by consultants of co-operation and cost savings?
How can it be that one person in a position of political power can be so opposed so as to stop a proper study of amalgamation, when the public of this region has clearly supported the call for the study, which was supported by the previous minister?
Based on my experience with the studies of amalgamation in Ontario related to the Hamilton-Wentworth region about 30 years ago, and more recently in Metro Toronto, we are painfully slow in this province responding to focus on positive change in governance to the benefit of our taxpayers, because of our provincial government’s apparent position against amalgamation.
Victoria is B.C.’s capital city, so when will the provincial government start promoting change here so this capital city can sit with other capital cities in Canada to discuss important major issues such as housing, taxation, economic development, education, health and the environment?
Perhaps we will need to raise more clearly our public voice in the next provincial election concerning this government’s disrespectful attitude toward our wanting a study done of the benefits and disbenefits of amalgamation, and as soon as possible.
Donald Roughley has served as city manager in Victoria and in the Ontario cities of Waterloo and Scarborough.
