The Citizens’ Assembly, appointed by Victoria and Saanich councils to examine options for amalgamation, has produced its first report.
The 48-member group, which began work in June last year, has yet to reach any conclusions. Those are expected in the assembly’s final report this year.
The study looks at how the two municipalities are governed, and examines the various services they deliver.
The assembly is made up of 27 members from Saanich and 21 from Victoria, chosen at random from a civic lottery, though there are equal numbers of men and women, and proportionate numbers of home owners and renters. First Nations are also represented.
The two councils have agreed that if the assembly recommends amalgamation, a referendum will be held to decide whether to proceed.
That some form of municipal amalgamation is overdue in the capital region has long been obvious. Do we really need 13 councils plus the Capital Regional District, 12 fire departments, four municipal police forces plus three RCMP detachments?
More pointedly, do we really need so many planning departments, human resource offices, legal affairs departments and bylaw offices? And what of the swarm of highly paid managers who head these departments, many making six figures?
At a time when property taxes are being hiked to meet local government expenses, surely it is time for some rationalization.
Yet if we were to choose where to begin, a Saanich-Victoria merger would be last on the list.
Population-wise, these are the two largest municipalities in the region. They have the size to justify remaining separate.
More important, Victoria is largely an urban core, while Saanich is more suburban in nature.
These are two quite different environments justifying different policies and zoning schemes.
If amalgamation is the route forward, better to merge Victoria with its neighbour Oak Bay, then Saanich with Central Saanich and North Saanich.
Geographically, it may also make sense to carry out a merger on the West Shore.
Yet there is something to be said for maintaining the region’s municipal councils. Residents are more likely to get prompt help and attention from councillors who live in their own community.
The larger a political body becomes, the less quick to react it is likely to be. Anyone who has tried getting a timely response from a federal department knows the truth of this.
There is also the issue of representation on a merged council. The population of Saanich is around 130,000, but only 17,000 in Central Saanich and 13,000 in North Saanich.
If council seats are allocated on a population basis, Saanich would dominate the new body, with 10 seats on a 12-person council, and only one seat each for the other two communities.
Likewise would the residents of Oak Bay, population 18,000, be happy in a merger with Victoria, population 94,000?
It’s unlikely that any of these smaller communities would vote for such a one-sided arrangement.
However, there is a distinction to be drawn between the political representatives who run local governments, and the officials working for them.
We may need or want 13 municipal councils. We definitely do not need 13 bureaucracies.
The sa国际传媒 provincial government has 23 ministries, but all of the human resource work is centralized in one, as are other purely administrative services like mail handling and print work.
In the same way, it should be possible, while retaining 13 municipal councils, to amalgamate some purely administrative tasks for the region in a central location.
Realistically, however, given the complexities of any such reforms, the provincial government may have to get involved if anything meaningful is to be done.
And we rate the likelihood of that happening as improbable at best.
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