Should Metro Vancouver amalgamate? Survey gauges interest

Do you think merging municipalities in Metro Vancouver is a good idea?

The Angus Reid Institute is out with a survey looking at how people feel about amalgamation in the region. The pollster has found overall, half of respondents support the idea of merging municipalities to some degree — either total or partial.

“It’s highest in places like the North Shore and West Vancouver where… almost half say they’d support seeing their tri-city area, their region, become its own municipality. You also see that in the Tri-Cities, when you look at Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, those types of areas,” Shachi Kurl, president of the institute, told CityNews.

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In addition to the Tri-Cities and the North Shore, Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge also saw high levels of enthusiasm when it comes to the idea of amalgamation.

Associate professor of political science at the University of the Fraser Valley, Hamish Telford, gives his take on the poll results.

“Maybe they’re thinking amalgamation will lead to better transportation,” he said. “We’re concerned, maybe amalgamation leads to better ways to address crime. But, it’s not clear that is the solution here. Amalgamation is messy. And in fact, in places that have gone through with it, Montreal amalgamated and then very shortly thereafter, started pulling it apart again and recreating some of the municipalities that had been amalgamated.”

Telford compares merging municipalities in Metro Vancouver with amalgamation in Toronto and says what struggles people might have here.

“We saw Toronto amalgamate from five cities into one, and then more recently that one city which used to have 47 counselors now has 25 counselors,” he said. “So, there has been a dramatic reduction in representation from the five cities to the one city over a period of time.”

Telford adds people in different cities saw different pay structures so when cities amalgamate, people may expect to be paid at the highest level.

Survey takers were also asked what they thought about combining all Metro Vancouver municipalities together, with eight per cent supporting the idea.

“One of the questions that floats from time to time and sort of bubbles to the surface is the governability and the ability to make change when you’re dealing with a region that is made up of more than 20 separate municipalities. And Metro Vancouver is a little bit unique in that when you look at the other major metro area regions in the country,” Kurl explained.

“Between 30 and 20 years ago, we saw quite a bit of consolidation. The only place that remains an outlier nationally when we think about big cities or big urban regions in this country is the Metro Vancouver region.”

Metro Vancouver: Full or partial amalgamation supported by half in the region, highest enthusiasm on North Shorehttps://t.co/SdljVjvV8J pic.twitter.com/0tE8iCB0Pf

— Angus Reid Institute (@angusreidorg) November 2, 2022

Meanwhile, the Angus Reid Institute says three-in-10 people believe the current situation “is fine” the way it is.

Kurl notes people who feel satisfied with delivery of municipal services tend to want to keep the status quo.

“If you are less satisfied with delivery of municipal services, you’re a little bit more likely to say, ‘yeah maybe amalgamation is something we should be open to,’ or at least you’re less willing to reject it outright,” she added.

While the pollster asked people about their thoughts on amalgamating the Langleys and Surrey, and Vancouver and Burnaby, it notes there was not much support.

-With files from Mike Lloyd and Monika Gul