Compiled by Michael Bhardwaj
Campaigning on the “Common Sense Revolution,” Mike Harris became Ontario premier in 1995.
Saying that provincial and municipal government had become too “cumbersome,” “costly” and “unresponsive” to meet the needs of Ontarians, Harris wanted to create a new, more effective government.
In a 1996 speech to the Ontario legislative assembly, Harris said: “We had accumulated extra politicians, administrators, civil servants and officials over a long time. It was an era in which the answer to each of society’s problems seemed to be to add more programs, spend more money, build more buildings and put more people behind desks to push more paper.”
Harris said he wanted to reduce the size and cost of government in Ontario. He began by amalgamating cities.
Promises made,
promises broken?
Ottawa may be one city in name, but the transition is ongoing. There are still lessons to be learned and consequences to be endured. Ottawa is not the first to go through this.
In 1998, Toronto and its seven satellite municipalities tried to reduce the number of politicians, costs and duplication of services by amalgamating.
Here are some of Toronto’s amalgamation goals, according to a city official:
• “A city that continues to improve its quality of life, including social, economic, environmental and physical.
• “A city that can embrace the marginalized in our society — the old, the very young , the poor and the minorities.
• “A city in which every resident, wherever they reside within the city, has equal access to the core set of municipal services…where differences in service relate to explicit socio-economic or geographic considerations rather than historic precedent of financial capacity.”
In his 1999 report , Glen Shortliffe outlined similar goals for Ottawa.
“Delivery of all municipal services, development of Ottawa as an economic unit and protection and vitality of our culture, historical and recreational activities in Ottawa,” were some of these goals.
Deep trouble in Toronto Is Ottawa prepared?
Toronto, amalgamated in 1998, has experienced some hardships. They may be repeated in Ottawa.
• Long-standing municipal differences in social and economic standing produced a competition for resources – a free-for-all that pitted each municipality against the other.
This created “an atmosphere of winners and losers,” said Roda McInnis, director of the Toronto amalgamation office, in a speech assessing three years of amalgamation.
• The provincial government downloaded responsibilities to the megacity, at a cost of $252 million during amalgamation. Any savings produced by streamlining the city ended up being used to offset the cost of downloading services, says McInnis
• “Harmonization” of services such as snow removal and garbage collection was expensive.
The city faced a series of “trade-offs” to implement these services.
In some cases, services would increase in one area while a reduction or an increase in user fees for the same services occurred elsewhere.