..."Executive Summary
· Provincial governments in Canada have actively promoted municipal amalgamations with the
claim that overall costs per capita for taxpayers are lower with larger urban government units.
· An analysis of US Census data indicates the reverse, that higher expenditures per capita are
generally associated with larger municipal units and that consolidated governments are more
costly than governments typified by multiple government units.
· Many of the world’s largest and most successful urban areas have numerous local government
units. For example, the Paris area has more than 1,300 municipal governments and the Tokyo
area has more than 225.
Larger Cities are not More Efficient Cities
While people may generally like smaller municipal jurisdictions, they pay no higher price
for them. The cost efficiency justification for amalgamation rests on a foundation less
stable than a transitional Nunavut permafrost. Larger units of government do not cost
less, they cost more. Of course, the studies commissioned by ministries and politicians
bent on consolidation always produce the required “bigger is better” results. The agendaarmed
consultants proceed from their offices and count the people that they would make
redundant if they were in charge and plan on sending back the excess personal
computers. But, of course, they are never put in charge, the elimination of redundancies
never comes, and more equipment is purchased. The real purpose of their reports is
simply to produce a smoke screen thick enough that it does not dissipate before the final
bill receives assent.
Regrettably, what none of the advocates of consolidation do is to look at the actual data.
Research in the United States illustrates the point. There are 10 city-county consolidated
governments in the United States that have, at one point or another, had more than
500,000 residents. The most famous is the city of New York, composed of five boroughs
and, as in Toronto, where their consolidation was forced upon local residents by the
legislature. Local government expenditures per capita in the consolidated city of New
York are 34 percent higher than elsewhere in the state. It might be expected that New
York, as the largest consolidated government in the United States, would have government expenditures per capita that are among the lowest. But not so, they are among the highest.
Successful Metropolitan Areas have Many Local Governments
Some of the world’s most successful metropolitan areas have highly fragmented
government. Paris has seven regional governments and more than 1,300 municipal
governments. Yet Paris has developed a governance structure that effectively delivers
quality public services throughout and regional services that would be the pride of any area. Tokyo, the world’s largest metropolitan area, has more than 225 municipalities that
stretch through the parts of four provinces. The Milan area has more than 150 cities.
The best guarantee of effective local government is a populace with a strong stake in its
performance. In a smaller jurisdiction, the stake of the individual citizen or neighborhood
group can provide an important counterbalance to interests that would prefer to siphon off
the resources of local government to their own advantage. Larger governments are
harder for the citizenry to control.
It is clear that the most efficient city size is not large, but is rather no larger than middle-sized.
Ontario’s Harris government got it wrong – all wrong. If it had been studying the
evidence, it might have made 20 cities out of six. But it would not have thrown everything
together in a Megacity that can only, in the long run, make things worse for the average
citizen. Manitoba and Nova Scotia municipal amalgamations also got it wrong. Québec
has a chance to get it right....
You can see this, plus more at: http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/FB%2022%20Reassessing%20Local%20Government%20Amalgamation%20FEB%2004.pdf
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