My Greatest Fear

The Province might decide, if we can't govern ourselves properly, they will fold us like a blanket with the town to the north of us.

Forty years ago the plans for York Region involved a reduction in the number of lower tier municipalities. An initial proposal was from fourteen to five. Aurora and Newmarket were shown on the map as a single urban node.Five miles separated us.

Valid arguments prevailed against the notion. I was Aurora's last Reeve.The Office had existed since Aurora was a village named Machell's Corners. I was a member of the last York County Council and the Ad Hoc committee planning the new Region with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.

Arguments were : We had Volunteer Fire Brigades. If we lost our Volunteers, the alternative would cost millions. With amalgamation, we would certainly lose the Volunteers.

Parents managed sports programs. Potters spun wheels , artists painted and thespians strode the boards, wherever space could be found. Aurora Drama Group built sets in pieces in separate basements and put them together on a stage the night before the play went on.

The Director of Recreation, a man named of Ernie Batson was manager of the community centre. We had a Recreation Commission and he was the staff resource person. He found space for programs,advised about grants from senior levels of government and how to organise new ventures. Service Clubs were involved in supporting programmes.The town had one recreation facility.

We had our own transit. Our own wells . Our own treatment plants.

Our population was about eighty-five hundred. It grew a couple of thousand with the advent of Regional government.

Forty years later, where are we? A population of more than fifty thousand in Aurora. Seventy-five thousand in Newmarket. Nothing separates us. No local treatment plants . The York-Durham trunk system serves both towns. Water distribution is connected. Transit is one. Fire protection is joint.There are no Volunteers.

Recreation is a multi million dollar operation in both towns. People from Newmarket use our facilities and vice versa.Folk cross borders to shop all the time. Educational funding has been absorbed almost completely by the province along with the decision-making authority.

We have proportionately less representation on the Region and Boards of Education than we had forty years ago.

Last time out for a four year term of office, we elected a slate of candidates including a Mayor, who have no concept of principle save the political imperative of being re-elected. They practice determined and shameless pandering to special interest groups. It's a fail- safe strategy. They mow down anyone who gets in their way including staff.

It's not a new concept. It works in the party system at provincial and federal level of government. But unrelieved by an occasional responsible decision, it disregards an important reality of politics at eye level .

People cannot be collectively flim-flammed for four years without being able to recognise the pattern.

Resentment cannot simmer and smoulder without reaching a boiling point, spilling over and making one hell of a mess.

Municipalities have no legal right to exist. We are creatures of the province. We can be wiped off the face of the map and within a generation it would be as if we had never existed. It would be easier now than forty years ago. It could be seen as dealing with a pesky problem
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