'Poster child' Essex County hoping to avoid any further amalgamation, says warden

The budget was the first priority at Wednesday's Essex County meeting, but the spectre of amalgamation was also at the front of many minds.

The province has said it will review regional governments, examining 82 municipalities — at this point, it doesn't include any in the Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent or Sarnia-Lambton areas.

Essex county warden Gary McNamara points to that county's fiscal responsibility when brushing aside concerns the province may ever consider more amalgamation in Essex County.

"It's more about service delivery than boundary changes," said McNamara, reasoning that the province wants to look for more ways municipalities can save money through cost-sharing agreements. Essex County and Windsor already have many of those efficiences in place.

Some of those partnerships include waste management, emergency medical services and social housing.

 Halton, York, Durham, Waterloo, Niagara, Peel, Muskoka District, Oxford County and the County of Simcoe will all be examined under the provincial review. The PC government will also take a look at their lower-tier municipalities, according to a government news release.

The province hasn't ruled out the possibility that some of those municpalities could be amalgamated in the future.

"We know there's only X number of dollars to go around and when you look at the delivery of a lot of the regional components of servicing, as I alluded to the minister, we're kind of the poster child of how things should be done," said McNamara, who is also a vice president of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario and chair of the county caucus.

Kingsville Mayor Nelson Santos pointed out that the list of regions being examined doesn't include Essex County.

"I'm not seeing what value can come from further amalgamation," said Santos, adding that he wants to "keep on top of it" to make sure Essex County isn't next on the list. 

Former Essex County warden and current Mayor of Lakeshore Tom Bain is concerned.

"Even though it's been roughly 20 years since we went through that process of amalgamation, I think there are still municipalities out there that are concerned about their identities as smaller municipalities," said Bain.

"I think things are functioning quite well now and maybe it's the old philosophy, but leave well enough alone."