Yves Potvin, in his letter to the editor ("One large city would help us lure investment," Sep. 25), contends that large central cities are better at promoting and attracting investors than the five-city concept we proposed ("Here’s a better structure for local government," Sept. 16). He cites several large cities to support his case and suggests that the seven urban municipalities in our region be merged. He also notes that smaller cities, such as Ottawa and Quebec City, are unable to raise sufficient financing to support major recreational facilities and retain professional sporting franchises because they have smaller tax bases.

We agree that one criterion for local restructuring should be the ability to promote and attract investors to the region in a cost-effective manner. However, we believe that economic development can be fostered as well by a regional government as by a mega-city. The Ottawa Economic Development Corporation is doing a commendable job of co-ordinating development and promoting the region. The NCC and the Tourism and Convention Authority are also doing a good job promoting the region. Such arrangements would continue under the proposed five-city and regional government model.

If a public facility is used by the residents of the region, it should be supported by the larger tax base of the regional government. In Portland, Oregon, for instance, the regional government provides the basic services and manages the regional parks, zoo, convention centre, civic stadium, Center for the Performing Arts and the Expo Center. Hence Lansdowne Park, which is an important regional recreational, trade and entertainment facility, might be supported in part by, or even transferred to, the regional government for a modest cost. However, we do not feel that taxpayer money should be used to support commercial sport franchises.

For Ottawa-Carleton to compete with other regions for attracting footloose industries and a highly mobile workforce, we need to develop adequate infrastructure to support the business of the new economy. Investors and developers are interested in inexpensive sites, low business and property taxes, a sound and reliable physical and political infrastructure, friendly banks and support from academic and government institutions. They are also interested in low residential and personal taxes and, if possible, a rich cultural and recreation environment.

Mega merging is not the way to an efficient and effective region. Restructuring a cluster of municipalities into a mega-city is costly and the new city often becomes unwieldy and inefficient. The forced merging of Halifax, Dartmouth and Bedford has cost over $25 million and the chaos has been such that developers have been unable to get site permits approved for over a year. It is much the same in Toronto and Hamilton.

The purpose of the five-city and regional government concept is to bring together the five distinct areas into a balanced regional government. This is a logical but modest step and a less expensive restructuring proposal. The concept uses the greenbelt and Rideau River, which are readily identifiable natural boundaries, to delineate the cities rather than using non-distinct roads or lanes. This provides for two efficient core cities within the greenbelt of about 300,000 for Ottawa and 230,000 for Gloucester, and three comparable satellite cities. This scheme also permits each city to develop its own infrastructure competitively, and hence efficiently, but at the same time the regional government provides efficient cross border services.

An independent technical evaluation should be made of the different alternatives and costs for restructuring and associated services and for one-of-a-kind facilities.

For more details on our proposal, check the web at http://home.istar.ca/~jwalker