Is it time for the Northeast Avalon to become a Regional Municipality like Halifax?
Is it time for the Northeast Avalon to become a Regional Municipality like Halifax?
The a-word (amalgamation) is still very much a dirty word on the Northeast Avalon, which - as you can see - is home to fully half of our province's 10 largest municipalities (St. John's, Mount Pearl, Conception Bay South, Paradise, and Torbay): http://i48.tinypic.com/2zolkyq.jpg In my opinion, the fact the City of St. John's and its suburbs are separate communities is having an extremely negative impact. Each suburban city and town is rushing to cash in on our construction/population boom by erecting as many cookie cutter subdivisions of single-family, detached homes as they possibly can. We are, as far as regional and urban planning goes, clearly in a race to the bottom. Do you share this view? If so, what do you feel would be an appropriate solution? I'm especially curious if you believe we should follow Halifax's lead. For the most part, I think we should. While a Regional Municipality is not perfect, it clearly leads to more regional cooperation and better regional planning than we have been able thus far to achieve here. However, I think calling it the HRM instead of the City of Halifax was an unnecessary compromise meant to appease the unreasonable. I would still want ours to be called the City of St. John's, comprised of Wards. What do you think? |
No.
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I don't think this will happen unless the provincial government forces it and most of the votes come from this region so I don't know if they will ..
even if some sort of NEA higher council or committee is formed to tackle specific issues such as overall development patterns, transportation, garbage collection, water services etc. I think something along those lines with representatives from each municipality is more likely (even if it's more expensive) Even if we could amalgamate some of the other municipalities ... just to reduce the number of municipalities |
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That suggestion has come up several times in other discussions here and I like it as well, at least as an interim step. Say... amalgamating Mount Pearl and Paradise to start. Maybe CBS and Portugal Cove-St. Phillip's? Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove and Torbay? |
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each municipality is quite head strong however I think Mount Pearl and Paradise would be more keen on each other .. St. Philip's Portugal cove .. they are already an amalgamated community and still don't really get along and the council there is nutzo Mcgee it's funny though because most of these communities have already amalgamated .. imagine if we still had all the original municipalities .. St. John's The Goulds Kilbride Pouch Cove Bauline Torbay Flat Rock Middle Cove Outer Cove Logy Bay Mount Pearl Paradise St. Thomas St. Philip's Portugal Cove Manuals Topsail Chamberlains Long Pond Foxtrap Kelligrews Upper Gullies Seal Cove Petty Harbour I'm sure I'm forgetting some former municipalities .. but you can see why it's so fractured .. it comes from many former towns |
I don't even know where St. Thomas is, ha! Is that part of Paradise?
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History of paradise Quote:
St. Thomas: http://maps.google.ca/maps?q=st.+tho...rador&t=h&z=15 Also WHAT THE HELL was the St. John's Metropolitan board???? and what happened to it?? |
I don't know if you guys know this exists but here is the North East Avalon Economic Development Board:
http://www.northeastavalonredb.ca/index.php |
That's what stood out to me as well. Maybe that's what we need to resurrect? It would probably be easier and cheaper than combining municipal governments or, God forbid, adding a new regional level of government (say, like the mainland's counties).
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"NEA REDB"? No thanks. |
here is a review of Amalgamation done in 2011 by Stantec
this comes from that report: Quote:
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I don't have time to get into this deeply at the moment (about to run to a meeting) but my short answer is that yes, the region absolutely should. However, it won't. So, with that in mind, some sort of regional planning committee / council needs to get together and think rationally about the good of the area when it comes to projects.
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Yes. It should 100% happen. The benefits of amalgamation and regional cooperation are undeniable. But, unfortunately each community (especially Mount Pearl) is far too headstrong to amalgamate. The only way I see it happening is if the provincial government forced it (Which IMO, they should.)
Amalgamation is not the most important thing though. If our municipal politicians were civil enough to participate in heavy regional cooperation, amalgamation wouldn't be an issue. Unfortunately everyone seems to have an attitude of superiority.. ex: the gushue Highway Ext. |
I'll elaborate later but I don't see what the benefits are for a full merger of the region. The only good thing is from a planning perspective, which I don't think will improve, and we don't need amalgamation for that anyways.
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***** I'd have thought it'd be cheaper for just about everything - easier to afford municipal council, municipal services, etc. Of course, that said, I doubt taxes would actually go down :haha:. |
I'm not all that familiar with the municipal dealings between each of the municipalities in the Avalon area but I will try to provide something to this thread at a later date. Amalgamation and regionalization is something that we're really trying to work towards in New Brunswick at the moment.
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It probably makes more sense for us to do it than it did for Halifax. The HRM is currently a mess of urban and rural regions being treated as one. In comparison, most of the northeast Avalon can be considered urban, with a few places such as Pouch Cove, Maddox Cove, etc. which are definitely more rural. I think some differences in how the municipality is run which would account for the different needs of each city/town would be a must.
If there was a way to encourage still using the old city names instead of just saying Northeast Avalon Regional Municipality or whatever it'd be called would definitely be a plus for each town/city. Creating such a regional municipality would definitely keep the northeast Avalon from competing with each other and have them work as one to compete with other Canadian cities for regional funding/infrastructure/services. |
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The dealings are not really all that bad. I'm sure others can add more or correct anything if I'm mistaken, but here's how I see it: St. John's generally feels it's footing the bill for surrounding communities that leech off its infrastructure and services without paying to keep them going. This is ESPECIALLY exasperated by the fact leaders and residents in these suburban towns often cite their generally far lower taxes as reasons NOT to amalgamate. Suburban communities generally feel that St. John's is so horribly mismanaged that it would be devastating for their comparably smooth, well-run tidy, tiny town operations to join. Beyond that you have the Townie/Bayman divide, which doesn't exist (at least not to the same degree, nor framed by the same prejudices) among younger people. |
I don't like the fact that all involved parties consider amalgamation to be St. John's consuming all the communities in the region.
Why can't they do something like Greater London or the Dublin Regional Authority. Each community could retain it's legal status and councils, but there would a regional board that could handle things like public transport, fire services, water, and establish a regional plan. |
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when you get out to holyrood and further that's when you get the around the bay in town divide, not in the NEA you are definitely right about the other attitudes though |
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