A TEN-BOROUGH MODEL WITH METRO, REGIONAL AND LOCAL
GOVERNMENTS FOR AN OTTAWA CAPITAL DISTRICT

J. K. Walker and L. A. Walker
88 Starwood Rd, Nepean, ON, K2G 1Z5

INTRODUCTION

The national Capital Region with 2+ municipalities and two single tier governments is an ill-suited system for the mixed region of 10 urban communities and several large rural areas. The tax rates are also significantly greater than in comparable municipalities. The uni-city structure currently used in Ottawa and Gatineau has a number of flaws. A concept, which addresses these flaws and also provides for a capital district, is to have a staged evolution to some local governance for both the Ottawa region and for the Gatineau. The first stage is the formation of a three-district core and three satellite cities with a regional government for Ottawa in 2004 and four districts in Gatineau in 2005. The second stage is the formation of a few combined Ottawa-Gatineau standing committees in say 2006. The cities are now comparable and the joint metro board/government could be developed for some of the basic cross border services. We suggest any capital projects for these metro services be given special consideration for the proposed Infrastructure III program. This proposal, which contains many ideas and important points that are logical and politically palatable, could provide the framework for a more effective and effective government for Canada's capital.  Such a system of governance would also be significantly more accountable with only modest restructuring and provide a more comprehensible capital for Canada.

See the article "Here's a better structure for local government" (Ottawa Citizen, C5, Sept. 16, 1998) for a brief discussion of the balanced five city model for Ottawa-Carleton.  Also see the reply "Investors seek low taxes, efficient cities" to comments in the Citizen, Sept. 25 on the five city proposal.

The Citizens Panel raised some good points on governance and several others are included in this study. By including these additional principles in the requirements for governance a more logical, comprehensive, efficient, balanced and representative form of governance can be achieved. This will result in stronger local governments. It will also result in a stronger identity for each of the major communities and for the national capital district. Therefore, we believe that this proposal contains many ideas that are palatable for the electorate, the local politicians and the Ministries. Hopefully such a sound decision could be obtained so that Ottawa and Gatineau can avoid becoming another expensive monolithic but split cities with associated frustrations and mega restructuring costs.

Additional Principles for Local Governance

The Citizens Panel identified the characteristics of model governance as accessible; accountable; inclusive; representative; comprehensive; comprehensible and cost-effective. The following additional principles or criteria were used in developing the staged and balanced concept for the Ottawa-Carleton region.

1) Urban regions that are relatively uniform and of a few hundred thousand or so, such as Regina, can be effectively governed by a single tier uni-city structure. However, larger urban regions that consists of several distinct districts of different heritage, culture, geographic identities and significant rural areas, require both a regional level of government and a local level of government so each centre can retain its identity, heritage and destiny.

Services that cross municipal boundaries, or which have economies of scale, should be delivered by a regional or district (for split cities) service, whereas local road, water, land use planning and other such services are best delivered by the local administration. However, these district services should be available by degree or as options so local administration can opt in or out of a service. Note R. Bish of the University of Victoria has found that joint delivery of services by a two-tier system is more efficient than a mega-city structure (see Local Government Institute).

2) The number of divisions/municipalities should be reduced to a manageable level.

Reducing divisions or municipalities will improve cost-effectiveness of service delivery. However, the new municipalities should encompass the significant urban regions, but not be too large as they could be unwieldy to plan and manage and become too "distant" from the citizens. An optimum size for an efficient city is one of a few hundred thousand (A. Sancton, U. of Western Ontario.).

3) No single municipality should dominate the region.

The largest municipality in a cluster of municipalities should be no more than ~40% larger than the next largest municipality as it would dominate the regional government. A mega-city would also not be as efficient or effective and responsive for a large and diverse region. It would also become unwieldy and succumb to dis-economies of scale.

4) Some of the division or municipal boundaries should be redrawn using the principle that "good fences make good neighbours".

Physical barriers that separate municipalities and communities such as rivers, parkland and limited access highways, help create a strong physical identity to a community and facilitate planning, development and service delivery. A good "spatial barrier" is one that has a limited number of crossings, such as bridges over a river or roads through a greenbelt.

5) The Regional and/or Metro Councils should consist of both directly elected officials and indirectly elected officials (elected at the municipal level but sit on the regional or district council/board).

By having members of the Regional and/or Metro Councils from the local municipalities provides the "buy-in" between the municipal and regional/metro levels of government and at the same time reduces the number of elected officials. However, the chair of the Regional and Metro Councils should be directly elected to provide untainted regional and metro perspectives.

6) The number of regional and metro councillors for the core region should be balanced, if possible, with those from the suburban or satellite regions.

By having an equal number of representatives from the core and from the satellite regions provides a balance between the two regions so that one cannot dominate the other.

7) The number of rural and urban representatives for a suburban municipality with a significant rural area should also be balanced.

The representatives from the rural areas or townships should also balance those from the suburban region in the merged satellite municipalities, which have a large rural area, to avoid one region dominating the other.

8) Financing and merging of municipalities should be conducted equitably.

The merging of different municipalities, some with large debts and some with no debt burdens but large reserves, must be done equitably for the benefit of both the municipalities and the taxpayers.

9) Municipal, regional and metro service delivery should be optimized.

The delivery of municipal, regional and metro services should be modelled where appropriate and, with the aid of operational research tools (see INFORMS), optimized to make them more cost effective. Cost saving of 5-15% can often be realised as well as improved service. Furthermore, the costs of the basic services, including waste management, should be paid directly by the user so that the amount of service required will be minimal and the cost fair. Osgoode recently implemented a user-pay tags program for solid waste. The fee was $1 per bin, which was cost/revenue neutral and reduced the amount of solid waste by approximately 50 percent. Similarly development charges should reflect solely the incremental cost of the services for the different regions (urban, suburban and rural) within the area or regional municipality.

10) All funding for municipal services, including education and health, should be linked to the municipal government so efficiencies can be obtained from multiple use of buildings and other resources.

Some facilities, such as schools and hospitals, can provide several different uses for a community over their lifetime. They should be developed jointly by the municipality and the school and hospital boards so they can always be effectively utilized.

11) Co-operation should occur regularly within the municipalities and among the different jurisdictions and with the National Capital Commission.

The three levels of jurisdiction (NCC, district, regional and municipal) must co-operate to ensure efficient and effective local government, otherwise conflicts might be resolved by independent studies.  We suggest the NCC could be closely affiliated with the metro government and some of its operations might be transferred to this level.

The mega-city structure imposed on Ottawa-Carleton and the Outaouais is known to result in inefficient and ineffective cities, and it does not provide for independent development and community identity.  Such governments have not been successful in numerous cities (see "Let's Break Up Big Cities" ). The concept  of eight service centres within the one tier mega-city concept results in a confused system of governance. Citizens in the satellite and rural regions will have to travel a considerable distance to have their voices heard.  The region, with its Greenbelt, large parks, rivers and pockets of distinctive heritage is obviously not well suited to a mega-city government even with such "centres". The Mega-City and an alternative One-City with Six Divisions model for Ottawa-Carleton is compared in  appendix I.

GENERAL CONCEPT

Using the above principles resulted in our development of the following three staged concept to reduce costs of restructuring and maintain balance. The logistics of restructuring is considerable and can be costly and hence the staged approach to minimize the personnel and financial shuffling and other costs. The first stage has a three divisions core within the Greenbelt and there are also three satellite divisions outside it: one to the west, one to the east and one to the south. These divisions do not have a mayor but they do have a community council and service centre/city hall.  At this time the single tier municipality in the Outaouais would be divided into four boroughs.  The six divisions in the Ottawa are now comparable to the four in the Gatineau and hence merging of some of the regional services can  be considered. This would generate significant savings on the delivery of services but at the same time maintain the distinctive character and heritage of each subregion. This concept provides for common cross border services to be delivered by the district or Metro level while provincial and other services by the regional levels. It also avoids having municipalities that could dominate the region and become difficult to manage effectively and efficiently.

REDRAWING THE LINES

The boundaries of the current wards are obsolete and no longer meaningful from a governance or community perspective. The following boundaries are therefore proposed using the above principles and in particular the one "good fences make good neighbours".  We suggest they be adopted for the next election.  

For the core area the initial merging provides for three divisions. To the east is Gloucester; in the centre is Bytown and to the west is the old part of Nepean, which is inside the Greenbelt. The three core divisions provide some checks so that one division cannot dominate the others.

The new large malls and development in each of the satellite communities provide a focus for both the urban and rural populations and hence these communities should also be the centre of governance.  To the east of the Greenbelt would be one division that we call "Orleans".  This municipality consists of the communities of Orleans and Blackburn Hamlet and the surrounding former township of Cumberland. To the west of the Greenbelt would be one division (Kanata) consisting of the communities of Kanata and the former townships of West Carleton and Goulbourn. To the south of the Greenbelt would also be one division, which we call "Rideau". It consists of Barrhaven, Manotick, the South Urban Community and the proposed urban area east of the Rideau River and the townships of Rideau and Osgoode. The towns and villages within these rural counties could retain strong community associations that would work with the rural councillors and the local division to optimize the delivery of services. Note each of the satellite municipalities now has a significant suburban centre, which will be the commercial, recreation and education focus of the area.  They also have similar population and land area, which is desirable for maintaining checks and balances at the regional level and for administrative efficiency.  It is suggested that the Greenbelt be extended southeast and southwest between these satellite divisions to ensure that they do not eventually merge into a continuous urban ring.  The acquisition or control of this land should be fair to the owners.

The central part of the core, which we call "Bytown", would consist of downtown Ottawa to the Rideau River and the western part to Island Park Drive. The division west could be called "Nepean" to avoid confusion with the proposed name of Ottawa Metro for the district  services.  The eastern part of the core area, which we call "Gloucester", would consist of what is currently Gloucester (within the Greenbelt), Vanier, Rockcliffe Park, the MacDonald-Cartier International Airport and the eastern part of the old City of Ottawa. Three core municipalities are proposed instead of a single municipality, which could dominate the regional government.

The Outaouais could be reduced to four divisions and the CUO expanded to encompass the whole National Capital region in Quebec.  Aylmer and Pontiac would form the western municipality and Masson, Buckingham and parts of L'Ange-Gardien, Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette and Val-des-Monts would form the new eastern municipality of Masson.  Hull, Chelsea and La Peche would form the new Hull, while Gatineau and Cantley and the eastern part of La Peche would form the new Gatineau.  We suggest greenbelts be established between Hull and Aylmer and between Gatineau and Masson for better community identity and also to avoid having a continuous urban region along the north shore of the Ottawa River. To reduce confusion about the Capital Region, the regional/municipal borders and the National Capital Region Boundary (green area on map) could be realigned at this time so they coincide and fall on natural barriers where possible as indicated below by the dark boundary line.

Capital region and municipal boundaries

The new Capital Region should then be given a simple name such as "Ottawa-Gatineau District".

The  6 divisions in the new Ottawa are now comparable in size to those in the Gatineau. The third stage would involve exploring the joint operation of some services such as water, waste management, traffic control, public transit, hydro, cross border links and some emergency services.  Capital projects for improvements in some of these metro services might be initially supported with special consideration (say 50% Federal, 25% provincial and 25% municipal) of the Federal government's Infrastructure III program. The joint promotion of the region and development of some other services and recreational facilities should also be considered. The combined Ottawa and Outaouais regions is about a million people with a wide diversity of skills, culture and linguistic capabilities. Such assets are attractive to developers in Europe and the Far East as well as the Americas.

METRO AND REGIONAL REPRESENTATION, ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES

The new Metro Council for the new Ottawa Capital District would be composed of municipal elected officials and a Metro Chair, who would be directly elected at large.  The Metro government might be located in the old City of Ottawa Hall as it is visible over a large area and readily accessible from most parts of the Ottawa-Gatineau District.  This system resembles the structures of regional districts in British Columbia except that here the Chair is directly elected.

The premise is that since the municipalities are the principal "clients" of the regional and metro governments, they should be the main decision-makers and part of the overall management of these governments. The first stage is to develop comparable regional councils.  Hence a councillor from each of the 6 divisions (2nd stage), as well as one from each of the 4 divisions from the Gatineau could be on the Metro Council, as voting members.  The councillors could either be elected or appointed from the area municipalities/divisions.  There should be close liaison with the NCC to improve efficiency in the region. We suggest a representative be elected from voters residing on NCC property who would sit on both the NCC board and on the Metro Council. This results in 12 district officials, including the chair.  

  

 The services best supplied by the Metro government are water, sewage and solid waste management, electric power and possibly some generation thereof (see appendix II below), bridges, district planning, economic development co-ordination, public transit and possibly the conservation areas and major parks. The services should be available to the municipalities on an optional or by degree basis. The Metro government should not provide any of the local services. In general, the municipality would provide the infrastructure for the service but purchase the operational part (service or material) from the Metro government. For example, the Metro government would support the collector transit routes while the area municipalities would support local transit. They would then pay the Metro government its share of the corresponding subsidy, which would be in proportion to the amount of 'bus time' for the service within the municipality.

The present system of managing the services of a municipality by committees is not comprehensible and is outdated for a region with extensive and expensive infrastructure. For effective and efficient management of these services and for them to be comprehensible and accountable it is best that each of the councillors oversees or co-ordinate a cross border services rather than a bureaucrat. These cross border services could be guided by boards, which would be made up of the metro councillor, who also oversees special aspects of the service, and those from each of the divisions who are responsible for overseeing the corresponding local service. The four Divisions from the Outaouais that are participating in the service would also have a councillor sitting on the board for the corresponding service. Some of the services, such as electrical, would have subdivisions in each division. Note the district government would be responsible for special emergency (911), training and other such services.

A district councillor should also be on the board of the airport authority in order to provide a link with this important transportation hub. Links might also be established with post-secondary education institutions. A vision, specific programs and resources should also be developed by the regional government for the region to compete in the Canadian and North American markets (see Berridge). However, organisations such as the Ottawa Economic Development Corporation, would continue to co-ordinate and promote development. The district and regional councillors are expected to keep in close contact with their provincial counterparts and to advise them of concerns, difficulties and when a service is inadequate. Further, the name for the district government might be simply "Ottawa-Gatineau Metro". 

Some of the services provided by the Metro government should be extended and some new ones considered when resources become available. For instance, improved links between Quebec and Ontario are needed in both the western and eastern parts of the region as outlined in the recent RMOC transportation study. This is primarily the responsibility of the Metro government with support from the provincial governments and the NCC. However, regional (special) health care facilities such as the CHEO and the Heart, Cancer and palliative care institutions should be linked to the regional governments.

Some recreational, cultural and exhibition facilities require significant resources and draw on participants and spectators from both regions. Hence the district and regional levels should also support such facilities as Ottawa's Lansdowne Park. Other regional (special) facilities for training and for national and international summer and winter games and other events might also be considered. An inexpensive culture centre for amateur performances for festivals and other occasions is also needed for the core area. A multipurpose four seasons pavilion for local and visiting amateur groups was envisioned for the Daly site by the authors (see the proposal Chateau Gardens, NCC #ATI-9697-018 and Ottawa Citizen articles on May 14, 1997 section C4 and June 10, 1998). The Metro government in Portland Oregon is an example of regional/district support for a variety of regional facilities. It provides basic services and manages the regional parks, Zoo, Convention Centre, Civic Stadium, Centre for Performing Arts and the Expo Centre.

The LeBreton Flats, Chaudière Falls and islands and adjacent Tetreau Park in Hull provide a very interesting and attractive site for activities. The new Metro government together with the NCC and the cities of Ottawa and Hull, should explore the possibility of using this area for an international class B exposition (see regulations) before the Flats are converted into a small park with mainly commercial and residential sites. This location is ideal for national museums and for the arts, as it is adjacent to the downtown cores of both Hull and Ottawa and to Confederation Boulevard. We suggest that four of the buildings for the exposition could be permanent structures for a museum and for a performing arts centre on each side of the Ottawa River. The main part of the proposed war museum will be in this region and the science part of the science and technology museum could be updated and relocated in either park. The Quebec side is in need of a centre for the professional performing arts and the Ontario side could use a centre for the amateur arts such as the Chateau Gardens. We suggest the municipalities endeavor to use the Federal Government's recently proposed Infrastructure III funds which would cover possibly 3/4 of the cost of such capital projects.

MUNICIPAL/DIVISION REPRESENTATION, ADMINISTRATION AND SERVICES

The core divisions of Nepean, Bytown and Gloucester during the first stage should each try to work with 4 councillors. The satellite municipalities of Kanata, Orleans and Rideau might also try with 4 councillors; one councillor representing each of the original townships. Hence, the representation for the rural and urban regions is balanced.  Hence, the total number of elected officials for the region is 25 which is 3 more than for the present ONE-CITY ONE-TIER plan. 

The expanded core divisions of Hull and Gatineau might also use 4 councillors with one from each rural part of the municipalities.  The new satellite municipalities of Aylmer and Masson might also each have 4 councillors with one from each  sector.

The suggested system for electing officials to the Municipal Councils would be through a hybrid "ward" and "at large" system. The regional mayors would be elected at large while the councillors would be elected from wards. Each municipality would be divided into wards where there would be one councillor elected from each ward. The wards would be defined based on some semblance to the existing municipal and natural boundaries and communities in each municipality. Each of the existing townships in the satellite municipalities would be a ward with each represented by one councillor. This ward system ensures accountability and representation for rural and smaller areas within each municipality.

The services best supplied by the local divisions are: land use planning and development control, maintaining and developing the local road system, sidewalks and lighting, local parks and recreation, culture and library facilities, police, fire, education, health and social services.  Associated planning for such facilities and for residential, commercial, recreation, conservation and industrial parks is also best done by local governments. The local level of government should also have some control over education and health services and the ability to foster the provision of housing for the disabled, seniors and low-income families. Ideally each city should have its own health care and educational facilities which should be operated in partnership with the provincial ministries. The governance of the local municipalities should be similar to that of the region with councillors overseeing and become familiar with the various local and regional services.  It also makes the governance system more comprehensible for the electorate. The proposed governance structure is

Municipa

Some of the municipal services can be modelled and the relations of the different aspects of the services explored and optimized to determine a suitable degree of service. Privatization of some services might also be explored (see "Enlightened Unionism"). Nevertheless, the local councillors and the regional councillors need to work together to optimize the provision of services. Several boards should be formed to oversee the services, some of which are indicated below. Membership on the boards should consist of councillors from each of the municipalities, the CEO of the service and a few outside experts. The boards provide the guidance and control of strategic planning, management and leadership (see appendix III).

RMO

Health and Education Services

Our somewhat utopian "free" health services are paid by the taxpayer (about $2000 per person in Ontario; see funding structure) but the facilities and services are administered by non-elected boards that are generally not linked to the community (see Canada's Health System). An extended investigation at the University of Toronto also indicates the funding structure is now fathomless. It is an outdated system with at least a third of the resources being lost through abuse, misdiagnosed ailments and unoptimized delivery of services. Furthermore, many of our facilities have recently been closed because of fiscal mismanagement by the federal and provincial governments. The service is somewhat in disarray. The Canada Health Act should be modified so that the provinces and territories have some freedom to provide several levels of service via premiums rather than taxes and the citizens have some freedom to select the level of service depending on their needs and interests. These resources should go to an arms-length not-for-profit insurance agency that manages the system. This should provide a more stable and comprehensible health care system. Note, only the basic level of service really needs to be standardised across the country and the provinces should be free to establish other levels. However, the health care infrastructure, such as hospitals, should continue to be funded from general revenue or by other methods such as the new Federal government's Infrastructure III program.

Because of the cutbacks many communities now have limited health care facilities and services. Furthermore, if there is a major emergency, such as an earthquake, tornado, flood, epidemic or other catastrophes the municipalities must be prepared and have close liaison with the hospitals. It is proposed that each of the municipalities be linked to a hospital and that at least one councillor from that municipality be on the board of the local hospital. This provides some continuity for the administration with the community and health services system. Some of the facilities should eventually be transferred to the municipalities so that there is some local accountability for this important and expensive tax supported services.  As a first step, the councillors from Bytown and Gloucester could sit on the Ottawa Hospital Board (for the Civic and General and Riverside Hospitals respectively) while the one from Orleans could be on the board for the Montfort hospital. CHEO, Grace and the Royal Ottawa are regional/district hospitals so the regional health and social services councillor could be on their boards as well as the Regional Health Board. These area and regional councillors and those representing the health services in the other municipalities in the Champlain Health District could form an accountable board for the District Health Council. These boards might provide brief annual reports of the amount of use, costs and status of their facilities and any concerns to the area and regional municipalities. A proposed regional structure for such linkages (dashed lines) is:

RMO

The economic and cultural development and alliance of a region are tied to the success of its educational system. The facilities associated with a school, such as a gymnasium, library and sports field, is often the focus of a community. The schools can be used for other community requirements once they have met those for education. For instance some primary schools could be converted to adult educational facilities, community centres or eventually to special homes after the formative years of the community. Planning and transportation requirements for the facilities must also be co-ordinate with the municipality. Hence, the educational system could and should be closely linked with the municipality.

The present scheme of 4 separate boards, some of which are not well linked with the municipality, significantly increases the cost of the educational services. It also puts undue hardship on the community and on the students and families who have to commute excessive distances. Furthermore, it is discriminative and hence stresses the alliance of the community that could possibly lead to violence as in numerous other countries. It is an outdated structure and needs to be modernised much like the changes recently implemented in Quebec and Newfoundland. The electorate should demand one school system to encompass all students, whatever their family's religious practices, as there is no proof or statistics that such schools turn out better students. Councillors need to be closely associated with the educational boards to oversee their role in the community. The boards should provide regular reports of the nature and use of their educational facilities and of their planning to council. As a first step, councillors could be ex officio members of the various boards of trustees to provide a link with the municipality.

The new provincial funding scheme curtails the public school system from raising any resources via local taxes. This prevents the board from providing an enhanced educational facility and an enriched teaching environment for its community. The provincial funding should cover solely the basic services for the public school system and for qualified independent and sectarian school systems. This funding should be from general revenues and not skimmed from the municipalities. However, the municipalities can now, apparently, raise additional resources for educational services, which can be used to support and optimize the different educational boards, services and facilities to meet its needs and interests. Ideally, the councillors of the six divisions could form the boards of trustees with a view to modelling, optimizing and further consolidating some of the educational infrastructure and services. A balanced system of local representation of councillors/trustees for Ottawa-Carleton could be similar to that for the regional level with two for each satellite division and for core divisions of Gloucester, Nepean and Bytown.

Community Associations and Volunteers

The cities will have smaller geographic regions, which are often delineated by natural or other boundaries, with different interests that can be focused by community associations. These associations can provide an important framework for collecting and expressing concerns about the local infrastructure and services. They also provide a contact for the city administration and politicians with the community. The community associations should have the authority to hold public meetings regarding local effects of the Official Plans and Zoning By-laws and amendments. They should also be able to make recommendations to Council on neighborhood matters, recreational needs and safety concerns, and be able to nominate representatives to panels for property standards and management of recreational facilities.

Volunteers can significantly improve the quality of life in a community and a city. They can contribute to the operation of schools, hospitals, senior centres and fire and police services. Tax rates for wards with a significant number of volunteers should be adjusted in line with the reduced cost of the corresponding service.  Ideally, volunteers who contribute to such services would be rewarded with charitable tax receipts.

Volunteers are the main "force" of many recreational and cultural clubs. However, it is often necessary that the city provides the facilities for some of these activities and oversees their operation. The Nepean Sailing Club is a good example of a city facility that is managed by the many volunteers of the club at little expense to the city. However, it has recently become dominated by Keelboat sailors and become more of a yacht club.

TAXATION SYSTEM

Note the new debt requires about 9%  of its revenue for debt servicing.  Reducing these service costs to at most a few percent could save at least $10 million.  However, Ontario's debt requires about 17% of its revenue and the Federal government's $500 billion dollar debt takes 25% or $40 billion out of the Federal budget each year. If all levels of government were debt free, which they should be as we have not been at war or in a great depression for decades, our taxes could be reduced by at least thirty percent. These debt-servicing costs stem from years of fiscal mismanagement and are essentially an enormous boondoggle.  At the present rate of debt reduction of about $5 billion a year it will take Canada's Federal government perhaps 100 years to be debt free.  On the other hand, the Australian government is now nearly debt free. Obviously debt reduction should have the top priority at all levels of governments, as the OECD and CD Howe Institutions recently suggested, until the cost of debt servicing is less than a few percent of the budget, then tax relief and health care should be the priority.

Several provincial programs have been turned over to the municipalities but the associated funds have been limited.  These and other programs cannot be sustained with the already high property taxes and another source of income is required.  It is suggested that governments explore transferring either part of the fuel tax or a percentage of the provincial general revenue to the municipalities much like the Canada Health and Social Transfer (CHST) allocations.

COST SAVINGS

The estimated cost saving from the consolidation of municipalities may be about $5 million for general government and another $5 million in the main services.  Further, the use of operational research tools to optimize and minimize the cost of the different municipal services can typically save at least 5%  on the cost. This scientific method can also provide management with different options for improving the service and should be implemented for the analyses of the new staffing and the various operations. (see some benefits). Assuming a conservative 5% and the following estimated expenditures (in millions) a cost saving of at least $30 million might be realised.

Item

Expenditure

Savings

General government

 72

 3.5

Protection

135

 6.7

Transportation

221

11

Environmental

146

 7.3

Recreation and culture

~50

 2.5

Planning and development

~20

 1

Electricity

~40

 2

Total

 684

34

ADVANTAGES OF PROPOSAL

The advantages of the balanced regional government with three core divisions and three satellite divisions are:

Thus, because of these many advantages, and the fact that the proposal provides a method for a new and significantly improved capital district with ten distinct cities/divisions rather than a Mega-City, the proposal should be acceptable to both the regional and local councils. It significantly increases the democracy and retains the heritage of each of the main communities.  It also provides for economy of scale for cross border services but independence for other services. Hence it would be acceptable to the authorities and thus avoid the creation of an inappropriate and possibly calamitous uni-city. With further development, we believe that this proposal provides the framework that would much improve the local governance system in National Capital region in a politically palatable manner.

APPENDIX I

The mega-city, Tri-city, Four-city, and the authors' staged Five-city model are compared in the appendix I. .  Clearly, the staged five-city model with a regional government appears to be the best alternative for the Ottawa-Carleton region.

APPENDIX II

The power utilities are being restructured so that they can enter into the new free market system (see "Powering The Future" web site). The Ontario Electricity Act of 1998 (Bill 35) requires that every municipal corporation that generates, transmits or distributes or retails electricity shall form corporations not later than Nov. 7, 2000. Some of these are: an Independent Electricity Market Operator (IMO), a Generation Corporation, a Service (transmission) Corporation and the Ontario Financial Corporation to manage Hydro's "stranded debt" of $20.9 billion. This debt will be serviced by: (1) a transfer tax of 33 percent of the sale price of a utility if sold to the private sector or (2) annual payments in-lieu-of-taxes (PILT) which will come to about the same cost over time. The corporations will be regulated by the Ontario Energy Board to make a profit up to 9.3%. These extra surcharges, of course, are to be obtained from increased hydro rates of possibly 5-10% if the municipal utility is privatised.

The hydro utilities belong to the municipalities, however, a plebiscite should probably be held in each municipality before the utility is sold to a private corporation. Consideration should be given to a regional electric power service, which could be developed, from the combined assets of several nearby area utilities. Each municipality would have shares in the new regional Hydro Corporation in proportion to its assets. The new regional utility would then have greater assets and resources, which could be used to co-ordinate the purchasing of larger blocks of bulk power from distant less expensive sources in the USA and Quebec and to develop some local generating capability.  Power sources could be from wind generators on hills around the region (see windmills), or from dams on nearby rivers. Such a local generating capacity could alleviate concerns about Ontario Hydro's distant and sometimes limited generating capacity and those for emergency requirements for hospitals and some offices and industries during major outages such as the January 1998 ice storm. A nearby secure generating facility should be adequate for the needs of at least 10 percent of the users so that it could be switched around the region twice a day for an hour or so to prevent freezing of pipes etc in the homes during a severe mid winter outage. Security of supply is also an important consideration for some industries such as a silicon chip plant, which requires about 25 MW of power for fabrication and a substantial amount of water for cooling.

The new regional utility could be structured much like the other services envisioned above with a division in each municipality and a councillor overseeing the local service. This councillor also sits on the board for the regional utility along with a few outside experts and the CEO of the utility. The regional government assets could be developed over time by contributing generating facilities and other resources to the system. It is suggested that this option be explored Hydro Ottawa.

Energy Ottawa might acquire the nearby Chats Falls generating facility, if available. Alternatively, the large hydro potential of the Ottawa River within the city could be developed with the collaboration of the NCC. A low "natural dam" with some falls (~20' high) below the Remic rapids to minimize cost and some dikes along the parkways could raise the level of the river to nearly the datum level of Lac Deschenes and it would also improve control of the level of the lake. Then with large pipes to carry the water to turbines and generators below the Chaudière falls, a head of 30+ feet would be available that could produce about 50 MW (megawatts) of clean sustainable power. This is about 1/6 of the regions' requirements and is in addition to the present 60 MW. It would also provide a local contribution to the greenhouse gas reduction target of the federal government.

A road on the dam could provide an additional link between Ottawa and Hull. Associated locks with the facility could provide access for boats from Montreal or Kingston to New Liskeard about 450 km up the Ottawa River as lifts will soon be available at all obstructions on the river. Such a long water passage would significantly increase the boat traffic on the Ottawa River. The Chaudière falls and those at the dam and the new locks would be an important tourist attraction for the region. It is suggested that a feasibility study be conducted.

APPENDIX III

The boards of directors for the different services provided by the regional municipality could be a key role in optimizing the delivery and minimizing the cost of the service. The structure for the boards should consist of councillors from each of the participating municipalities; one from the region, the CEO for the service/utility and a few outside members who are highly regarded professionals in the field. The chairman of the board is selected from the members of the board and plays a key role in the board. He/she should have outstanding qualities as a strong and tough leader and should not be the CEO.

The job of the board is to manage or supervise the management of the service/business and affairs of the utility. This strategic management involves: (1) adoption of and participation in a strategic planning process, including organisation planning and development; (2) ensuring the adequacy and integrity of information systems and (3) identification and analysis of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and risk of the utility or service, and implementing appropriate programs and systems to manage them1. The boards mandate is strategic oversight and represents the perspective of the users and taxpayers. Managers are charged with the task of turning the strategic vision into reality. The board also gives initial approval of the annual operating and capital budgets and compensation for the CEO and senior management of the utility.

1 Making Boards Work: What Directors Must Do To Make Canadian Boards Effective, D. S. R. Leighton and D. Thain, McGraw-Hill Ryerson.

Please circulate and call or send constructive comments and any concerns to the above. Any constructive comments would be appreciated, thanks. The author is available for giving a short presentation.

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