Based on my 6 years on Council and research on the issue, I am against a merger with the City of Kitchener. History has shown that the expected benefits from mergers have just not been realized. There is a list of articles about municipal mergers on the right hand side bar.
In summary, mergers:
1) increase costs. It does not decrease them.
2) make government less responsive to the local citizens. A little friendly competition between the municipalities does wonders to make them accountable!
3) do not make a city globally successful. Many cities and regions areas like Boston, Silicon Valley and Sydney are made up of many small municipalities.
4) reduce diversity. Waterloo is different from Kitchener. The two cities' policies and corporate culture are different in many ways including financial stewardship, public engagement, urban planning and design, development priorities, environmental sustainability, heritage and the arts, etc. As a region, our strength is our diversity.
And lastly, what problems do the pro-merger group want to solve that would make all of the costs and disadvantages of a merger worth it?
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