By Ann Lang and Joseph Quesnel
The single city was sold to people on the pitch that it would save them money.
It’s been almost two years since Ottawa’s 11 municipalities merged. So, has amalgamation saved money?
“Yeah it has, well, has it saved us money?” says Ottawa financial services director Lloyd Russell.
His answer perhaps reflects the fact that the question may be too simple for an honest answer. As the single city continues to grow, the costs grow too.
Still, sitting at a round wooden table in his city hall office on a November afternoon, Russell says,
“We’re spending less than we would have if we weren’t amalgamated.”
Bay Coun. Alex Cullen says he’s “not surprised people are saying ‘where are all the savings?’ Because, boom we’ve spent them.
“We actually did save money, but it all got swallowed up with the growth of the city,” says Cullen.
“In the past two years, we’ve saved $53 million, about two-thirds of the $77 million in targeted savings.The problem is that it’s all been swallowed up by the pressures of growth and the cost of running downloaded programs.”
Kanata Coun. Alex Munter says these “savings” have been used to “hire more public health nurses, expand transit, improve our ambulance system . . .increase funding to the library, and deal with many other pressing community needs.
“One of the biggest successes of the amalgamation is that we have been able to take dollars that used to go to administration and bureaucracy,” says Munter, “and use those dollars (for services).”
Beyond providing better services, city auditor Tracy McTaggert says responsibilities downloaded from the province onto the municipality have also eaten into the savings.
For instance, since January 2001, ambulance service, forestry management and the administration of public housing have become municipal responsibilities.
“Ambulance services are something that the transition board did not foresee,” says McTaggert.
“Some of those savings are quickly applied to other things.”
These “things” are costly, says Orleans Coun. Herb Kreling. “There are some who are accusing us of free spending . . . what they forget is that we’re picking up some expenses that the former municipalities weren’t paying for and there’s going to be some pressure.”
But will there ever be savings – or will the money always go to better services?
Baseline Coun. Rick Chiarelli says funds will be spent because “amalgamation is affected by a lot of pressure” from municipalities who now expect better services.
“The pressures are from ‘harmonizing-up’ service areas,” explains Chiarelli.
“For instance, if one area has a certain level for outdoor rink support, there’s pressure to go up on that level,” he adds.
“The pressure is to standardize to one of the higher levels, as opposed to one of the lowest, and that creates all sorts of upward pressures.
“So, we’ve had the amalgamation savings, but amalgamation has already brought with it pressure for high services.”
Nepean maintained high services through its pay-as-you-go renewal program, says Bell-South Nepean Coun. Jan Harder.
“If you were going to go out and look at facilities, and look at the fact that the Nepean Sportsplex is turning 30 years old before Christmas, and the Walter Baker Centre in Barrhaven is about 23 years old, and councilors who happen to be at these facilities with me say ‘wow, this is lovely!’ You know why? Because we took care, we invested . . . other municipalities didn’t do that.
“In harmonizing that, who’s going to be the loser?” asks Harder.
“Some municipalities, no matter how hard we try, they are going to be royally screwed by this whole thing . . . In the 11 former municipalities/townships, there was one community, one city, that rose far above everyone else, and it was Nepean . . . in harmonizing, somebody’s not getting the good end of the stick.”
Salary harmonization is also an issue in the city’s collective bargaining negotiations.
The single city has yet to ratify an agreement with all of its workers.
Single agreement would cost a lot of money – money that has to come from somewhere – and Mayor Bob Chiarelli opposes higher taxes.
While some unions have finalized their contract negotiations, some are still in various stages of arbitration or conciliation.
Is it possible to calculate the savings of the single city before all the union agreements are ratified?
“Absolutely not,” says Harder. “Not even close. In my books there haven’t been any.
“We gotta get through the union stuff and the staff stuff.”
Ottawa’s financial services director agrees.
“Until all (union) contracts are ratified, we will not know the true costs and therefore won’t know the final cost savings,” says Russell.