I read that another group is promoting the issue of amalgamation of the metro Victoria municipalities. I shake my head.
Let me make the following two points for the new group.
First point: the municipal model of government evolved approximately 900-years-ago (give or take a few years). Now, let’s use an analogy for what the group proposes. We have 13, 900-year-old cars and we want to amalgamate them into one car. What is the result? A humongous, 900 year old car, with all the old problems of the smaller cars, plus a host of new ones besides.
Second point: remember Pareto’s principle. Pareto says that 20 per cent of the group’s work will accomplish 80 per cent of what they want to achieve. So how does that relate to their project?
Well, maybe merging 20 per cent of the municipalities would be a good first step.
Dave Poje
Saanich