The District of North Vancouver is exploring another attempt to amalgamate the two North Vancouvers back into one – and the municipality is about to begin surveying residents on both sides of the 1907 border to see if they agree.
District council is set to vote Monday night on publishing an open letter to the community outlining their case for reunification and launching a random-sample, demographically and statistically representative public opinion survey regarding North Vancouverites’ attitudes about identity, joint service delivery, and reunification.
The city was carved out of the larger district in 1907, when a group of landowners petitioned the province to create a new municipality that would be much cheaper to develop without having to pay for infrastructure throughout the sprawling district, which at the time stretched across the entire North Shore. There have been many campaigns over the years to amalgamate the two, including referenda that did not pass.
The district has been quietly continuing to work the matter since 2014, including commissioning studies into a hypothetical amalgamation as well as recent case studies of the Abbotsford-Matsqui merger in 1995 and the Duncan-North Cowichan amalgamation still in process. Those studies will be presented to district council on April 16.
If the survey shows overwhelming support from both city and district residents, it will send a strong message to both councils and may result in a reunification question being added to the 2018 municipal election ballots, according to district Coun. Roger Bassam.
“I think this is an excellent opportunity for elected officials to listen to their community and to take direction and to get a mandate. That’s the important part,” he said. “It has to be a marriage of willing partners. This is not about trying to force amalgamation or anything else.”
Bassam said he believes North Vancouver residents would be better served with one council and one administration serving all of their interests, particularly when it comes to transportation infrastructure and planning.
“What do you think about integrated transit planning? What do you think about one community plan for how we’re going to manage growth and solve the transportation problems? Does it make sense to have two library boards managing four libraries? Do we need two fire departments? There is a lot of common sense we’ve never explored and I think now is an excellent opportunity for us to do that.”
And, Bassam added, he believes the people of North Vancouver don’t acknowledge a need for two separate governments.
“The borders are transparent. We don’t know where they are. We use facilities across the border seamlessly, particularly around the recreation centres. People don’t understand the difference between the city and the district. They don’t understand the difference between using a library in Edgemont versus a library on Lonsdale. We’re very much one community,” he said. “That’s really what people want to get to – get past the politics, get passed the parochialism, get to a discussion about what’s the best thing for the people who live in North Vancouver.”
The district sent a formal letter to the city requesting that they “continue the conversation regarding potential reunification,” which the city pulled out of an in-camera session Monday night. The response to the proposal by city council members ranged from skepticism to outright disgust.
“On the broader issue, I have no problem discussing amalgamation at any time,” said Coun. Craig Keating, who voted in favour of the motion. But, he added, the City of North Vancouver should ensure that any discussion around amalgamation protects the interests of the city as it is today.
“It’s pretty clear to me that previous studies on this issue – and when I say previous, I reach back all the way to 2016 – have not found a real basis for bringing the two municipalities together. … I think when one party wants to reunify and the other one’s less keen I think that’s reunification on the North Korea/South Korea model rather than the East Germany/West Germany model.”
City council voted 4-3 in favour of sending the proposal to staff for more vetting and imposing several conditions including protection of the city tax rate, not allowing cuts to services within the city, ensuring the financial surplus of the city not be used for purposes outside of the municipality, and a condition that the district must adhere to the growth targets laid out through Metro Vancouver’s regional growth strategy – and that those targets are not met by shifting legislative growth targets into the current boundary of the City of North Vancouver.
Coun. Rod Clark was even more terse than Keating, accusing the district of throwing an ill-timed political football.
“They’re launching it on the eve of an election, trying to put some heat into this issue and that to me is totally bogus. If they’re really intent on doing this and serious about it in a political way they should give us some time and it should be deferred until after the next election and the new council pick it up,” he said. “I would like a much simpler response to the district. Two words: get stuffed.”
District Coun. Doug MacKay-Dunn said that response typifies why it is so important that the question be put directly to the citizenry.
“It’s time to investigate the costs and benefits of reunification … so the citizens can make a fully informed, evidence-based decision about the issue for themselves.
“This cannot be left to politicians. It must be left to the community, which we all serve.”
