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Amalgamation would cut costs, taxes

Reader bangs the drum for amalgamation in Capital Region

Municipal costs and taxes keep going up, with little relief in sight. A solution is required, and soon.

Recently, the National Post reported that “... Halifax ... regional council has already decided that a 24-person council is too large for the community of fewer than 400,000 ...” and “... Vancouver, a city of about 600,000, has just 10 councillors.”

Yet here we are in Greater Victoria, with a population of about 330,000, divided into 13 municipalities with a total of about 100 mayors and councillors, plus a plethora of redundant highly paid upper and middle managers in each municipality.

In addition, we have a dog’s breakfast of fire and police departments, and a mess with roads, sewer, water, etc. – wherever one of the dotted lines marking a municipal boundary appears on a map.

Top that off with the CRD, which adds yet another layer of bureaucracy. It’s time to end this asinine situation with amalgamation of some, if not all area municipalities.

Roel Hurkens

Victoria