Canadian Approach to Municipal Consolidation

¶ … Canadian Approach to Municipal Consolidation in Major City-Regions," Jim Lightbody (2009) discusses the general model of municipal restructuring for several Canadian provinces. In particular, the article discusses the resistance to any type of municipal mergers or restructuring within the Canadian, namely Toronto and Montreal. Lightbody's argument is that restructuring makes sense, but only happens after other attempts to solutions regarding municipal government have failed. The main argument that he is presenting in this paper is that "a more conventional policy source in the respective communities provided the decisive element in setting the stage for significant change." (p. 10).

To validate his argument, Lightbody there were first conditions that we necessary for the change. He says that the citizens of urban cities as well and businesses with economic interests are the ones that were behind the drive for the restructuring of municipal government in the two cities. Because of the economic interest that businesses have in a community, they are therefore considered a part of that community. This makes sense because any decisions and policies made by the local government will have a direct affect on the citizens, the business owners and the community overall.

According to the author, the three policy issues that frustrate the city-region with multiple autonomous jurisdictions and they are the coordination of public policies between and with multiple local governments, to create open lines of accountability for choices and to be equitable to citizens both in service and in generating revenues (p. 14). These three issues are of importance and if not addressed properly will be further evidence that restructuring is needed.

Restructuring is needed in order to deviate from the two-tier form of government that was prevalent in many city-regions in Canada. This form of government is not preferred because of the inequities among the citizens of the communities it creates. Income disparities are great with this form of government. It does nothing but promote the idea of separate and unequal. This is the type of government that was run in Toronto and Montreal and Lightbody argues that is had not only become ineffective and inefficient, but also redundant (p. 15).

To combat the issues such as inequity, a change was needed in the form of restructuring. Toronto and Montreal had many other issues besides inequities among its citizens and this is the reason the government needed to be restructured. There were too many internal conflicts within the government between the two tiers which caused problems. The need for a change was near and more were in favor of it than against it. Lightbody states that a survey by the Board of Trades' 502 members revealed that 65% were in favor of a change while only 17% of the members preferred things stay the same (p. 19).

The decision to make the change to restructure was not met without opposition. The restructuring and merging of the two municipalities meant that the number of elected officials was decreases. With change, there will always be casualties but what is considered to be the best option for most is what should be considered. Change usually brings about doubt and fear for some. There was fear with the restructuring because it brought together people from opposite sides of the fence with opposing views. Neither side wanted their opinions to be lost or forgotten during the restructuring process. Many citizens argued that their issues would get lost in the shuffle in they were to merge with another municipality to create one large governing body. These types of concerns are legitimate and not unfounded and can typically be voice during a restructuring process.

Those opposed to the integration were vocal about their disproval of it and Lightbody says that they made use of the media to voice their concerns. And he insinuates that the opposition's plight is futile because the decision has already been made to restructure and integrate and their opinion does nothing to impact or persuade the government legislation (p. 24). If what Lightbody states is the case, then it appears that those opposed to the integration have no say so in how the government is run. Since the country is not a democracy, but yet a constitutional monarchy these types of decisions and actions can be expected.

Lightbody argues that restructuring process in Canada is often quick and not without drama. This may seem like an unlikely approach given that there is usually so much opposition to change within the municipalities, but he states that the opposition usually adapts very quickly to these changes because they begin to see them as improvements upon the old system (p. 25). One of the reasons for opposition is that many people naturally resist change because they are comfortable with the status quo. Those individuals who think outside of the box can take a step back and see what is working and what isn't working and are not afraid of change. This is good because without change there can be no growth or forward movement whatsoever. In the case of restructuring Toronto and Montreal, it was a matter of forward thinking and vision.

What Lightbody says he has observed from these restructurings is citizens may oppose it in the beginning but are usually quick to accept it once it transpires. His proof of this statement is a poll which revealed that seventy percent of the citizens of Toronto were satisfied with the restructuring and with a second poll, sixty-six percent of the citizens felt that the restructuring was successful (26). The restructuring probably should have been done long before it was instead of waiting for everything to go haywire and practically being forced to integrate. Canadian government should take a look at previous restructurings of comparable city-regions and take note of what they did in order to have a functionally capable government.

Lightbody presents us with what he says are the reasons why Toronto and Montreal eventually came to the point where they had to make a change regarding the municipal government. There were many issues that the government was dealing with, yet there were not being dealt with in the best manner possible and the author does a decent job of pointing out these issues. One of the main issues is the fact that many of these cities wait until the current processes are seen to be gravely wrong and ineffective before a change is made. They appear to not attempt to make any type of changes until they hit rock bottom. Such things as income inequities and class separation should not be allowed to get so far out of hand until drastic measures need to be taken to bring the community back into balance.