Vancouver Island amalgamation debates set to restart in 2018

There are only three certainties in Greater Victoria: death, taxes and discussions about amalgamation.

WhetherB.C.'s capital region should have fewer municipalitiesthan its current 13will be back on the radar this weekend, as the "Amalgamation Yes" group meets to discuss strategy for the 2018 municipal elections.

"We remain true to our mission, which is requiring the region hasmore accountable, responsible effective governance," said Shellie Gudgeon, co-chair of the group.

How the group goes about moving Greater Victoria towardfewer cities and towns through this election cycle is yet to be determined.

In the 2014 elections, the group campaignedin support ofnon-binding referendum questionsin eight municipalities. Voters in seven of those areas including Victoria, Esquimalt, Saanich and Central Saanich voted in favour of either amalgamation in the region, or to directtheir municipalities to lookat greater efficiencies.

But the provincial governmentrejected studyingamalgamation directly. Instead, it issueda reportthat looked at the costs and benefits of further sharing services.

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"It would be pointless to put the same question, because nothing was acted upon the last time," said Gudgeon.

Shehopesthe new provincial government will be open to a study that explicitly looks at political integration between various municipalities.

"We don't have a plan for whether it's one, three, five or seven municipalities," said Gudgeon.

"We want the data from a governmentreview that has been supported by the voters."

North Cowichan and Duncan hopefor vote

Fifty kilometres to the north of Victoria, two other municipalities are experiencing a delay in their ownamalgamation vote.

The City of Duncan (population 5,000, two square kilometres in size) and the District of North Cowichan(30,000 people, 195 square kilometres in size) were hoping to have a referendum this spring to ask residentsif they want the two municipalities to merge.

But that initiative was put in some jeopardy after the provincial government sent a letter to the municipalities. It's asking for more data on costs, and more information on how a new council would work before it will give the go ahead for a referendum.

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"Definitely our amalgamation committeethought they had provided that information, but we can understandthe province would like to see it in writing," said North Cowichan Mayor Jon Lefebure.

He's staying neutral in the process, and hopesa referendum can still take place in the first half of 2018.

"In local government, we learn that things do not happen necessarily as quickly as we would like, and all the T's have to be crossed, and that's where we're really at with this process.

"Being disappointed isn't going to help anything."

North Cowichan and Duncan are just two municipalities proposing a strict amalgamation after years of negotiations and citizen assemblies, whereas people have floated various theories for how Greater Victoria could be reconfigured.

It's one of the reasons whyLefeburewon't predict if Greater Victoria will join itsneighbours to the north on a referendum path anytime soon.

"There's a long history of us working together with the City of Duncanso I see it as a complete order ofmagnitudeto what the [capital region] is going to talk about," saidLefebure.

"The complexity of what their 13 jurisdictions have to do is far, far greater."