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Old Posted Feb 20, 2017, 5:48 PM
Docere Docere is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2014
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Municipal amalgamations/annexations

What municipal amalgamations/annexations do you think were "right" and what places do you think should not have occurred?

Thinking of "justified" ones: I think Montreal Island with a borough system was the right move. The de-mergers were kind of silly. Imagine if Metro Toronto had amalgamated into one city but Forest Hill, Leaside and say Long Branch had remained independent municipalities (I suppose this exists in a few American cities where there were city-country consolidations like Nashville).

The creation of Metro Toronto was the right move. And now there are 4 community councils that function as "boroughs" in a sense, even though they need budgets and some more independent budgets. The Goldenberg report in the 1960s had recommended reducing the number of municipalities from 13 to 4, but ultimately went with 6. That made more sense. Toronto/York/East York as one municipality, as well as Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough.

The "city" of Ottawa is ridiculous given that it actually includes rural/exurban areas (it's like having King, Caledon, north Pickering etc. as part of the "city" of Toronto). Should have regional municipality of Carleton in place. The same is true I think for Hamilton-Wentworth.

Winnipeg I'm not sure about. In contrast to the right-wing Harris Tories doing amalgamations to "save money" and "reduce bureaucracy" Winnipeg was amalgamated by the Schreyer government on "progressive" grounds. I can see the argument - especially given that Winnipeg is one of Canada's inner city "donuts" - but on the other hand it may have led to suburban interests and outlooks dominating municipal politics.
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