No to Merger with Kitchener

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?

Merger Question will be on the Ballot in October elelction

Yes, the merger question will be on the ballet in this fall’s municipal election. On Friday April 16, the province announced that it will order the City to ask the following question in the election:

“Do you support the members of Kitchener and Waterloo Councils engaging in discussions about the advantages and disadvantages of merging the Cities of Kitchener and Waterloo? Yes or No.”

I have always been against this question. We don’t need a referendum to discuss how to improve our governance structure. The question should have been “Are you in favour of a merger between Kitchener and Waterloo, yes or no?”

Attached is a good summary article on amalgamation written by the Montreal Economic Institute. It reviews experiences with municipal mergers and amalgamations. I hope that you take the time to read the article. There are other studies and comments about mergers on their web site as well.

Based on everything that I have heard and read to this point, my experience on Council over the past 6 years, and having heard the issues that the proponents of the merger want addressed, I do not believe that a merger is the right answer for Waterloo or for the Region.

Rather than have a debate on whether to merge or not, it would be much more valuable to have a discussion on the pros and cons of our current system, identify the missed opportunities and problem areas, and then look at a range of solutions. This is a process that I have been advocating for over the past few years, as described in my October 2005 Second opinion article on how to deal with municipal reform.

Merger isn’t the only answer. We should broaden our horizons, and take the time to do what is right for the city and the region, and find a made-in-Waterloo Region solution.

The Merger Question

Should Council request that a referendum question be placed on the municipal election ballot this fall regarding a possible merger between the cities of Waterloo and Kitchener?

I have always believed that one should fully understand the problem, before deciding on the solution. As I first said in my Oct 2005 Second Opinion article, we have to understand both the benefits and the shortcomings of the current form of government before we start down the path of municipal reform. We need to have the public engaged in an open community dialogue about what works and what doesn’t.

In my letter to the editor in The Record last weekend, I recommended that "having a community discussion, without a preconceived outcome, will enable a more robust examination of the issues and the development of alternative solutions, without the divisiveness of arguing for or against a merger."

The ballot question that was proposed does not accomplish this goal because everything is discussed in terms of a merger outcome. It is not about identifying the issues that need to be addressed. It does not permit a "third solution" or other alternatives to come forward. It does not ensure we protect many of the great benefits the current municipal structure offers.