After eight months of deliberations, the Victoria-Saanich Citizens' Assembly has decided to make its recommendation to the Victoria and Saanich councils for the two municipalities to amalgamate. This means the two councils are expected to put the issue of merging the municipalities to a referendum.
The citizen’s assembly chair, Peter MacLeod, said he believes many of the members of the assembly felt a sense of achievement after contributing roughly 3000 volunteer hours to doing due diligence on this issue, adding how many people changed their minds throughout the process.
He said members of the assembly did an admirable job of keeping an open mind and learning about each of the issues at hand. He suggested many of the members saw amalgamation as a question about the future, citing pressures associated with the growth anticipated over the coming decades.
“I think the members of the assembly were broadly convinced they could meet the challenges of growth better if they had a coordinated approach to land-use planning, to transportation planning, to emergency services and ultimately service delivery," he said.
MacLeod also said the question of financial savings was of importance to many members. On that issue, he noted how many communities that have amalgamated did not necessarily save more from the process because the overall population of residents was unchanged.
“But what the assembly also concluded is both municipalities have a comparable approach to taxation, to how they spend their money, that neither has major financial liabilities that the other party would have to take on, and that the communities are of comparable size and scale,” he said. “So what they saw was real compatibility between the two.”
He said amalgamation would entail combining fire services and police forces, along with one singular official community plan which would take into account the diversity of neighbourhoods – including agricultural farmland. The detailed report of these reccomendations is expected to be submitted to Victoria and Saanich councils in May, according to the citizens assembly.
The citizens assembly was put together to explore the costs, benefits and disadvantages of amalgamation. Volunteers were randomly selected in a Civic Lottery, administered by Canada Post. Roughly one in 12 households in Saanich and Victoria received an invitation to volunteer. This process was initiated by the Victoria and Saanich councils, with funding from the municipalities and province.
MacLeod spoke more about this process on CFAX 1070 with Adam Stirling this week (April 7):