Dear Editor:
Once again, columnist Elizabeth James hits the nail on the head (Swollen Tax Bills Are a Levy on Lethargy, Aug. 3, North Shore News). The incredible duplication of local government services in the Metro region deserves attention. The amalgamation of North Shore municipalities is imperative as costs rise for no gain in services.
In the 1920s, the City of Vancouver amalgamated with the municipality of South Vancouver to rationalize costs. Some believe you lose your community identity with amalgamation, but Vancouver puts the lie to this. Vancouver has Point Grey, Kitsilano, Fraserview, Hastings East, West End and so on, each with its own character.
There are several smaller municipalities where amalgamation would make sense. North Vancouver City and District are an obvious pairing, as is my own, White Rock, with Surrey.
White Rock conducted a study last fiscal year to see if it could save some costs by twinning with its neighbour. There is some sharing of police services already; however, getting the fire departments to see eye to eye has been much more of a challenge. Even though amalgamating Surrey and White Rock fire departments would have saved White Rock $700,000 a year, the council backed down due to a vigourous lobbying effort by White Rock's firefighters' union. The main argument for keeping all the firefighters around was their quicker response time to medical emergencies compared to the B.C. Ambulance Service.
The White Rock study showed that a vast majority of firefighter time - 80 per cent of calls - is spent attending medical emergencies and not fighting fires. I think this is the case for most Metro fire departments.
Responding to medical emergencies has been downloaded to local fire departments by the provincial government. Rather than supplying an adequate number of paramedics and ambulances, the province has increasingly relied on local governments and their slumbering taxpayers to pick up the bill.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to have more ambulances responding to medical emergencies than fire departments? By removing or reducing firefighter calls for medical emergencies, it would allow for more rational use of fire departments and hence make amalgamation more appealing.
Phil Le Good
White Rock
