Report on View Royal Mayor & Council discussion on placing non-binding question on ballot re: Amalgamation 1. Mayor Hill compared the Amalgamation Question to this - (he said this not once but twice) how do you answer, have you stopped beating your wife yet? For the record the non-binding question we are asking be placed on ballots on the 13 municipal ballots is: Are you in favour of reducing the number of municipalities in the Capital Regional District through amalgamation? 2. Mayor Hill said the AY group is seductive and mischevious 3. Councillor Screech stated AY petition, having been online since August, has only 700 signatures and that was proof that people arent interested. (Anyone visiting the petition site can clearly see there are two means to sign, one via the site the other face-to-face. The face-to-face signatures, addresses and contact information are in the 1000s and will be released in the future :) See it here ipetition...amalgamationyes 4. Councillor Screech said we (Amalgamation Yes) are selling Amalgamation 100% on saving money and that saving money is not possible. (we arent selling 100% on saving money, however, a visit to this recent report of an amalgamation that has saved money is informative - again, easily found information for those who feel they should do a little research beforehand ‘…..the evidence strongly indicates that amalgamation can save money, can stabilize financially troubled local government, and has ultimately been durable in every region that it was undertaken.’ stjohns.c...port_102011.pdf 5. Councillor Ron Mattson, Councillor Heidi Rast and Councillor John Rogers were all very well informed, did their reading, knew what they were talking about and were in favour of the question being on the ballot. 6. A resident of View Royal made a presentation and like the Councillors Mattson, Rast and Rogers, he did his research and was prepared. He was clearly in favour of the question being placed on the ballot - not necessarily in favour of Amalgamation but community engagement and research is needed and was his point. 7. Earle Anthony, Secretary of Amalgamation Yes made a great presentation. 8. Members of Capital Region Municipal Amalgamation Society were in attendance - Colin, Tony, Leslie, Aaron, Susan and Earle 9. Lisa Helps attended meeting 10. A resident, outside of meeting, advised us all that Mayor Hills behaviour and comments while addressing our presentation and request was consistant, not outside of the norm and compared it to a form of bullying. 11. The council approved a motion to have staff determine the questions being asked in other municipalities with a view to framing their question. 12) The final result was better than expected. With regard to the probability of having a question on the ballot in November 2014, it seems likely in View Royal
Posted on: Thu, 13 Mar 2014 03:10:52 +0000