ANALYSIS: 'Don’t give up consulting with the people' on York Region amalgamation

Self-serving officials will derail amalgamation talks: former York Region councillor

Yorkregion.com
March 4, 2019
Lisa Queen

Fred Cox has some blunt advice for Premier Doug Ford as he reviews municipal governments with an eye to possible amalgamations.

Just do it.

The shoot-from-the-hip former Markham regional councillor chaired York Region’s governance review committee two decades ago when words like restructuring, amalgamation, downloading and who does what dominated municipal circles in the Greater Toronto Area and beyond.

Worthwhile discussions eventually gave way to politicians and bureaucrats wrangling over turf, Cox said.

Ultimately, former premier Mike Harris amalgamated Toronto but left the 905 regions alone -- despite then-MPP wannabe Conservative candidate Frank Klees having put up a huge for sale sign in front of the York Region headquarters in Newmarket during the 1995 provincial election as a campaign stunt.

Maintaining the status quo means the region continues today with 10 local governments -- the nine municipalities of Georgina, East Gwillimbury, Newmarket, Aurora, King, Whitchurch-Stouffville, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and Markham and the upper tier Region of York.

Hypotheticals such as including Bradford in York Region were abandoned.

While vacationing in Florida this month, Cox recalled how exasperated he grew with local officials he felt cared more about protecting their jobs than in the needs of taxpayers.

“It’s a shame the politicians of 25 years ago didn’t have the fortitude to advance the cause for the people,” he said by phone.

“There would have been savings of millions and millions of dollars for the residents of York Region. Our services, recreation, transit would have been enhanced. You can provide better services with the savings.”

But while amalgamation benefits include some administrative savings, ensuring poorer communities receive needed services and boosting the larger community’s profile and political clout, saving money isn’t one of them, said Enid Slack, a municipal finance expert at the University of Toronto.

The per capita cost of delivering fire, recreation and garbage collection in Toronto in the decade leading up to the city’s forced 1998 amalgamation were falling but costs, adjusted for inflation, went up in the decade following the merger, she said. Only library service costs continued to decrease.

Slack supports the province’s municipal governance review to ensure, for example, York’s structure established in 1971 still makes sense in today’s changing world, as the growing population balloons by almost 700,000 to 1.8 million in 2041.

After studying amalgamations in different communities of the world, there is no one-size-fits-all municipal model and any structure should balance the need to provide broad services against local accountability, she said.

While York politicians considered different amalgamation scenarios, including splitting the region into two cities along Bloomington Road along watersheds, Cox was and remains a supporter of one York city.

The regional structure is already in place to deliver services such as policing, transit and roads, water and sewers, paramedic services and public health, he said.

There are now 78 local politicians in York Region including regional chair Wayne Emmerson. There’s no reason the region couldn’t function with about 25 councillors, similar to Toronto, Cox said.

Newmarket resident John Vickers, a longtime student of municipal amalgamations, moved here about 18 months ago from Victoria B.C., where he founded an amalgamation effort in an attempt to join 13 municipalities.

Amalgamations, which have been embraced more in Commonwealth countries than in the United States, are often a beneficial way of distributing wealth and enhancing services to lower-income communities, said Vickers, president of LifeLight Umbrella.

But Queen’s Park must make sure it involves residents in discussions or any amalgamations run the risk of being condemned by communities regardless of the benefits, he said.

Two decades ago, then-medical officer of health and later Oak Ridges-Markham MPP Helena Jaczek was project manager of the region’s governance review project team.

There are parallels between York Region of then and today, including a rapidly growing and aging population, economic pressures and a need to protect the environment, the Holland Landing resident said.

The governance team also analyzed the cost of delivering services such as fire protection.

Several politicians who argued they could survive without the region clammed up when a later report showed how much they were benefiting from regional services such as policing and regional roads compared to the amount of property taxes their taxpayers were contributing, Jaczek said.

That’s why when the province downloaded ambulances, they quickly voted for a regional paramedic service, she said.

While York’s governance structure remains the same, she believes there have been developments over the last two decades. including the alliance of the northern six municipalities known as the N6.

Cox doesn’t want to see self-serving politicians and bureaucrats control this governance review.

“(Ford) will get a lot of kickback and pushback from politicians but he has to ignore it. No resident would ever disagree with me when I talked to them about (amalgamation),” he said.

“My advice to Doug Ford is go hard, go strong. Don’t give up consulting with the people because the people will be on his side.”