Quote:
Originally Posted by hilman
1.3 million people swallowing up the 60,000 St. Albertans isn't really going to change your taxes that much. Acquiring the commercial and business taxes of districts like Sherwood Park and Leduc/Nisku would offset that anyways.
The "benefit" we get from St. Albert commuters is them tearing up our roads, requiring the City to add more transit, fire, police, homelessness, etc., seems like a fantastic deal!!
Newsflash, being from St. Albert, Sherwood Park or any other region doesn't make you special, time to start acting like a team player instead of leeching off of the host.
So again I ask, why do we need 24+ mayors to govern a city of 1.4 million people. Think of the cost duplication in salaries, equipment, etc that the region is wasting.
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I do agree that based the make up of Edmonton's region, the governance models is really not good. The CRB is not set up to deal with the issues from both an urban and rural perspective. Edmonton's regional hierarchy is unique to most medium sized Canadian cities. But there are studies out there that demonstrates that one municipal government for the entire region does not benefit the central city. (I remember this from my municipal finance course during my undergrad - it was based on both Halifax and Toronto after they became super cities). The reasons all related to cost. There were savings in many areas - such as reduced duplication in certain areas - however the additional costs outweighed the savings. Another finding was that once a city gets to be a certain size, it creates many of its own redundancies. For example, the City of Edmonton has about 14 employees per 1000 residents whereas St. Albert is about 8; Fort Sask 8; Spruce Grove 8. The other findings were related to the central city having non-residential (higher paying) properties that serve the region. The costs associated with most infrastructure was almost nil - for example, once roads hit a certain volumn, the additional traffic has very little to do with its deterioration. Decision making doesn't work very well either - especially in Toronto. St. Albert, Sherwood Park, etc.. have a very distinct autonomy and the interests of its residents are much different than the residents of the City of Edmonton. They are still going to want their representation on Council. How effective is a Council with 30+ politicians? I think for the Edmonton region, we can learn from what is not working in the region and what doesn't work in other regions and look at creative ways to fixing the problems.
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"Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice. Carl Spackler, 1980
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