Amalgamation talk
Posted Sep 30, 2010 06:07:04 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
This morning’s gathering of the KW Chamber of Commerce heard a passionate debate over the question of a possible Kitchener-Waterloo amalgamation.
The October 25th municipal election will pose a ballot question to voters in those two cities if they would like their leaders to begin a discussion about amalgamating the two cities.
The Chamber hosted a debate on that topic, with Tim Jackson of the Accelerator Centre and Fred Kuntz of CIGI on the “yes” side; software entrepreneur Benton Leong, and former Waterloo Mayor and MPP, Herb Epp took the “no” side.
For Jackson, it’s a question of the two cities determining their own future, whether the ballot referendum goes in favour or against amalgamation talks.
Jackson says either way, the cities would be able to say to, for example, the provincial government, don’t force us into or out of amalgamation, we know how we want to go.
Kuntz is in favour of the discussion to find better ways of doing things between the two cities, and it would be worth the cost of exploring the pros and cons, even if it were hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Leong is against any K-W amalgamation conversation because the focus is too narrow: it excludes Cambridge, and even communities as far away as Stratford and Guelph, he says.
Epp says an amalgamation with Kitchener would be a raw deal for Waterloo, with Kitchener having twice as many councillors on a common city council.
Epp says the two cities already share over 75 co-operation agreements which work very well.
Members of the Chamber asked questions to the four panelists, mostly focusing on the cost of consultants, etc., to explore the idea of amalgamating.
