Opinions abound on whether or not the amalgamation of Wellington County in the late 1990s ultimately benefitted the residents of former Guelph and Eramosa Townships.
As in other municipalities, often the only aspect of the merger that local officials can agree on is the motivation behind the move.
“It was inevitable,” said Janice Sheppard, the current chief administrative officer of Guelph-Eramosa. “We made the best of the situation.”
Sheppard was hired by former Guelph Township in 1977 and was its CAO in 1999. She was also the secretary of the amalgamation committee.
She explained that instead of having their hand forced by the province, Wellington County officials took over organization of the process and hired Harry Kitchen and Doug Armstrong to create a report on the best way to reduce the number of municipalities in the county.
“It was an extremely busy year,” Sheppard recalled.
Yet talk of amalgamation started years before the formal process ever kicked into gear, with initial discussions including a “three-E” merger of Eramosa Township, Erin village and Erin Township.
“That was quickly dismissed … I didn’t think it would be a good fit,” said Dave Adsett, who was deputy reeve of Eramosa Township at the time. He went on to serve as Guelph-Eramosa’s first mayor from 1999 to 2003, including a term as county warden in his final year in office.
“People forget how big this county is and how different the attitudes are across it,” Adsett said. “Eramosa needed to get married to somebody, and Guelph Township was the logical partner.”
The merger of Erin village and Erin Township in 1998 – a full year before the rest of the county mergers took place – basically ensured that was the case.
The easiest part of the merger between Guelph and Eramosa Townships was likely coming up with the new name for the amalgamated municipality.
Unlike others in the county – who either decided to go with a monicker based on geography (Wellington North, Centre Wellington), or the name of an existing area (Minto, Erin), or on a one-word compilation of existing municipalities (Mapleton) – officials in Guelph and Eramosa decided to keep things as simple as possible, settling on Guelph-Eramosa Township.
After that, the decisions were decidedly more difficult.
“We made a conscientious effort to save money and basically terminated all staff and established a new corporate structure for the new township,” said Adsett.
He explained the move was motivated by “the belief that amalgamation was designed to help municipalities reduce administration overhead and streamline the decision-making process.”
Adsett said former employees, who were all invited to apply for a position in the new township, were very understanding.
“Apart from the odd staff member, I think people understood we were finding our way and we had the best interests of the township at heart,” he said.
Sheppard, who eventually won the position of CAO in the new municipality, agreed.
“I don’t think staff was worried,” she said. “We knew we had to go through the process.”
Another difficulty was the process to merge services in the two former townships into one – including fire services, building inspection, planning and others.
Eventually officials decided on a mix of some in-house services (fire and building inspection) and some private contractors (planning) – a situation that continues today, to the satisfaction of most people involved, both past and present.
However, similar to the situation across the county, the Guelph-Eramosa merger led to a degree of competition between the former townships.
Current Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White said past and present officials tried their best to mitigate the divide – to some success – but in many ways, much like the process itself, geographical rivalries were unavoidable.
“These are like the Red Wings and Maple Leafs,” White said, noting residents had close connections to their former municipalities and processes.
In Guelph-Eramosa, it didn’t take long for residents, particularly those on the Guelph Township side, to question why the village of Rockwood appeared to be on the receiving end of more attention and financial projects than the rest of the amalgamated township.
“That was definitely a theme,” Adsett said of the years immediately following the merger.
He opined that “one of the great ironies” of the process was that residents of former Guelph Township, which was “very well run and managed” up to 1999, took the first “tax hit” when amalgamation occurred because Guelph Township’s impressive industrial tax base was “diluted.”
Sheppard agreed that first tax hit led to some hard feelings on the west side of the township.
“I’m sure people were a littler perturbed about that,” she said.
Staff members and councillors have, she added, tried to even things out across the township – a process that continues to this day.
“We’re trying to keep everything equal,” Sheppard said.
White agreed, adding, “It’s always been one township for me … we try to share services across the board.”
He counts a shared industrial tax base as a positive for the township, as Eramosa had very limited commercial and industrial areas.
“Having Highway 124 in the township as a whole is a strength for us,” said White.
Sheppard and White point to the county library and $6.2-million fieldhouse, both in Marden, as examples of efforts to ensure there are facilities in former Guelph Township.
“I think there’s a conscious effort to make sure we’re balancing things across the township,” White said.
He also pointed to other infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges as examples, as well as the township’s past opposition to a county plan to build a transfer station between Erin and Eramosa because it didn’t help people in former Guelph Township.
“That was one of the reasons we resisted that and got universal pick-up across the county,” White said.
Looking back, amalgamation detractors often argue the process failed in its three main objectives: saving money, cutting costs and streamlining government services – and Guelph-Eramosa is not immune to that criticism.
“I think it’s a far more costly situation than what was envisioned,” said Adsett.
He acknowledges officials tried to “make the best of a forced situation,” but he also argues the process has caused a lot of townships to lose perspective.
“They’re almost acting like city governments as opposed to sleepy townships,” he said, adding it seems many have placed less priority on providing simple services such as road maintenance.
“It’ almost like they have this big pool of money that allows them to do grandiose projects, instead of basic service delivery … and people have to realize there’s a cost to that.”
White acknowledged a larger tax base has allowed the township to support some larger infrastructure projects, but he also counts a growing population and demand for such services, as well as the township’s geographic location, as the impetus for some projects (for example, the Marden field house, now named the Royal Distributing Athletic Performance Centre, received provincial and federal funding based on it being a “regional facility”).
Another criticism often heard by Guelph-Eramosa officials – particularly since the announcement of a new $1-million, 3,850-square-foot expansion that will nearly double the size of the municipal office in Brucedale – is the perception of the township’s growing staff.
But White stressed the township has dealt in recent years with a lot of downloading from the province, new government regulations and added services.
“You can’t tell [what’s going on] by looking over the counter,” he said.
He specifically mentioned the township took over water and wastewater services from the Ontario Clean Water Agency (OCWA) in 2009, which resulted in the addition of three more employees.
White said he believes moves by the province basically eliminated any cost saving and staff cutting benefits of amalgamation.
“Whatever they might have saved by amalgamation is outweighed by a heavier workload and far reaching legislation that required you to hire more people to meet the provincial numbers,” he said.
He also stressed many of the township’s newer staff members – including a manager at the Marden field house, a chief building official and the new water staff – are basically paid for by user fees.
“You may see more staff on board, but it doesn’t necessarily mean [their wages are covered by] property taxes,” White said.
The mayor added, “The responsibilities of municipalities have grown as well.”
White, who is also the current warden of Wellington County, said while he was not on the scene prior to amalgamation, he thinks it is better having fewer representatives on county council.
“I’ve got to believe having seven townships is a lot more efficient at the county level than 21,” he said, noting it is hard enough to get consensus on certain issues with the current 16 members (seven mayors and nine ward councillors).
“I don’t know how they ever did it with 21 if there was something controversial.”
Others however, argue the reduced number of county councillors means upper tier representatives may not be as familiar with issues at the lower tier.
“With smaller townships, those [county councillors] knew everything going on in their municipality,” said Adsett. “I don’t think there is the same level of awareness now.”
He added county ward councillors in particular may be “removed from the people,” whereas prior to 1999 every county councillor was also the mayor of his or her respective lower-tier municipality.
Adsett also has concerns about what he sees as a trend of increasing salaries for municipal representatives, particularly at the county level, since amalgamation. Adsett said he made about $39,000 (base salary) as warden in 2003, whereas in 2012 that figure has more than doubled, to over $84,000. (The largest pay increase for the warden, which most admit is essentially a full-time job with overtime, came in 2007, when councillors voted to hike the salary from less than $40,000 to over $70,000).
“The rate of pay for these municipal politicians now is almost obscene,” said Adsett. “It has encouraged a different type of politician than what we had years ago.”
Also a concern for many residents is escalating salaries for municipal employees. Over the past three years, the number of municipal employees (both upper and lower tier) in the county making over $100,000 a year has almost tripled, from 13 in 2008 to 37 last year.
White said responsibilities have increased along with wages – the county budget has ballooned from $30 million to $180 million over the years – but he admits growing salaries for public sector employees and elected officials is something current municipalities have to re-examine.
“Whenever salaries go up, it is a concern … Obviously this growth is not sustainable,” said White, who noted the 2007 salary hike for the warden and county councillors was approved at his very first county council meeting.
He explained salaries are often compared to those being offered at other municipalities in the area, and “the argument is you need to be competitive.”
“It’s a problem across the board,” White said of public sector salaries. “There’s no doubt it has to be looked at.”
When asked about the overall effect of amalgamation, White said the process is “still fresh” for many individuals who prefer to view things as they once were.
“At the end of the day, you can still feel the effects of the amalgamation …. but they seem to be fading over time,” he said.
Added Sheppard, “I certainly hope it has [gotten better].” Overall, she considers amalgamation a success, though she admits it is hard to quantify.
“We’ve done the best that we can with what we’ve had to do,” she said.
White said “the concept was interesting” and made sense on an organizational level, but the amalgamation process likely did not save any money.
Adsett agrees, and goes one step further.
“I’m not sure the needs of the public are better served after amalgamation,” he said. “I’d say they’re not getting better government.”
Over 13 years after amalgamation in Guelph-Eramosa, it seems only one thing appears certain: everyone has a different take on the effectiveness of the process.
Only time will tell if that division, much like the geographical divide between Guelph and Eramosa, will eventually fade.
