Originally published by the Chronicle Herald on May 12, 2009
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Search/1121610.html

By: Marilla Stephenson

LIBERAL LEADER Stephen McNeil is dead wrong about the Halifax merger and Premier Rodney MacDonald is bang on.

The premier’s offer to review the 13-year-old municipal amalgamation if he returns to government is driven by the political expediency of the provincial election campaign. Why, after years of complaints and calls for change, would he wait for a campaign before offering action?

Still, the review is an appropriate step that the next provincial government, regardless of who leads it, should take.

If anything is clear after more than a decade of squabbling among the regions of Halifax Regional Municipality, it is that the merger has not brought political harmony to the land. It is also painfully obvious that the politicians who run the city are too interested in self-preservation to dare to take a serious look at the flaws in our regional government, much less do anything to correct them.

In reaction to the news of a review by the Tories, McNeil leapt a little too quickly to the offensive, saying the matter should be left to the municipality.

"We’re in the worst economic crisis of my lifetime and the premier is more concerned about being the mayor than being the premier," Mr. McNeil said on the weekend. "He should focus on telling what he is going to do to move our province forward."

In fact, it is up to the premier, or the Service Nova Scotia minister who is responsible for municipal affairs, to trigger such a review. It has become painfully clear that Mayor Peter Kelly is comfortable with the geographically far-flung municipality, which has bolstered his political strength. He is not about to push for change.

And others around the council chamber who could work toward such reforms as a split municipality or a smaller council, or other measures that would consider the wide disparity of needs in the region, are more interested in protecting their political turf than in political change.

Good grief, they’ve been talking about tax reform for more than six years — it was even identified as a "council priority" — and they haven’t even come close to tackling it. What are the odds that a meaningful review of the governance of the municipality could be in the offing?

That slow rate of progress at the council table reflects not only a council that is too large but also one that has too many members worried about re-election in their own districts to consider the health of the region as a whole. Rural taxpayers feel they’re paying too much tax for the services they receive, and they complain that their tax dollars are being used to build infrastructure in the city core. Urban residents feel much the same way, grumbling that large tax increases are paying to jack up rural service levels while they receive nothing extra for their higher tax bills.

The situation is at an impasse, no matter how much some folks at city hall talk about a community of communities. The region is just too big and diverse.

NDP Leader Darrell Dexter has also dismissed the Tory platform plank, saying it’s not a priority for residents. It is, however, simmering just below the surface.

Kelly and Dartmouth Centre councillor Gloria McCluskey, neither of whom exactly embraced amalgamation to begin with, are now among those who say the merger is a done deal, that there is no turning back. That may be, but there is nothing to lose from undertaking an arm’s-length review that could consider the realities of the taxation issue without the territorial biases, and whether there are changes or another model that could better serve the region.

It was the province, after all, that drove the merger in the first place. Liberal premier John Savage pushed the agenda during his term in office, leading to the amalgamation of Halifax, Dartmouth, Bedford and Halifax County in 1996.

While an end to bickering among the various economic development agencies was seen as a driver of the policy, the projected tax savings never came to fruition. In fact, the levelling upwards of union contracts and a push for higher service levels across the region has led to a big, expensive government that has never provided the promised value to residents.

A review, by any party, is a great idea. And the premier, whomever that might be a month from now, is exactly who should make it happen. It will never, ever happen if it is left up to regional council.

(herald.ca)