Two Lambton County mayors are pleased the provincial government has closed the door on possible municipal amalgamations following a months-long review.
The province announced in January that they would examine the governance structures of 82 lower-tier municipalities in eight regions and Simcoe County, with the possibility of merging some of those municipalities and others.
Municipal Affairs Minister Steve Clark said the review concluded that a top-down approach won't work and that municipalities should be allowed to decide what's best for themselves.
County Warden and Lambton Shores Mayor Bill Weber said he's satisfied with the results of the review.
"We've always maintained we are a very effective and efficient level of government, and I think municipalities that see benefits in working together and amalgamation, will do that on their own and it's always good to have provincial government realize that, so we're pleased with the announcement," said Weber. "I wasn't directly involved in the review process, but I understand that they have input into that, so I believe it's working. The results speak for themselves, so I'm glad they have found that result."
Weber said that there are some opportunities for some savings, but that any change to better serve the residents would have to be mutually agreed to.
Village of Point Edward Mayor Bev Hand said while she agrees with the government's decision to close the door on possible amalgamations, she's upset with how the review was conducted.
"We have a strong sense of independence and community spirit, and we just wanted to be able to exist as we are, and we don't appreciate not being allowed to talk about or be involved in that process," said Hand. "If you go back to the beginning and look at the mandate of this team and the individual that was leading this review, it was eight counties and Lambton County wasn't one of them. Even so, I think there was many people in Lambton County that believed we could still be impacted even though we weren't part of the investigation or the discovery."
Hand said she hasn't seen any information that's come from the provincial review but that she's interested in seeing the results.
"Things are being done to you and you're not part of the process. There's a lot of things like that going on right now with the government where people want to be more involved, like with the hospitals, health teams, that type of thing, you want to have a say and have involvement in those decisions that affect so many people," she said. "The thought of amalgamation was a threat to continuing as we have been doing, so we have been through this over many years, this has come up, so it's good news for us that it's gone for now."
Hand said she wants to discuss the review at the upcoming Lambton County Council meeting on November 6.
