Speech against amalgamation to St. Catharines City Council (special meeting)

 Mayor and Councillors, I am Saleh Waziruddin.

Taxes going up is given as one of the main reasons for amalgamation. As some of you have already pointed out, that’s because problems are being given to municipalities to solve without the money, which is at the federal and provincial levels. Amalgamation won’t change that.

The same work needs to be done as before, and that work still needs to be managed. If anything, bigger government means more layers of managers, with even bigger salaries at the top for managing more.

Studies of Ontario amalgamations, ranging from the Fraser Institute to the Munk School, have found not even one case where taxes went down from amalgamation. They didn’t just go up but went up a lot everywhere except for one case where they held the line, they still had increased taxes but not by as much, but their debt ballooned, so it’s the same problem.

Another reason given by the Regional Chair at his State of the Region address is it makes it easier for developers to file fewer applications or deal with fewer rules. I think that’s who this is really for. We should be able to decide on development in our own areas and have different rules from those across the peninsula or down the Lake. It’s taking the little power and control we have away from us in favor of developers.

When there are more Councillors and more representatives, our voices count more, organized people have more power. When there are fewer officials, organized money has more power because it can focus on lobbying fewer people. Amalgamation waters down our votes but doesn’t water down developers’ millions, it amplifies it.

Amalgamation is being done by surprise with minimal consultation, by someone who was barely elected in the first place and not elected but appointed as Regional Chair, and this shows how what’s happening makes a farce out of democracy and representation. It’s being shoved down our throats and most of us don’t like the sour taste of the dictatorial way this is being done.

This came up nearly 10 years ago when Council defeated a plan for double duty Councillors, which is related to amalgamation because it made the same point about having too many elected representatives – representatives of us! It was Councillor Phillips who said then, “if it isn’t going to save citizens any money, why would they reduce representation?“ It’s as true today as it was 10 years ago.

We elected you to use your voice, please use it to send a message loud and clear that we don’t want amalgamation, it won’t save money, it will water down our voices, and is being rammed through so carelessly.

Thank you.