“Esquimalt, Saanich show why they need to Amalgamate”.

May 6, 2009 the TC front-page headline should have been “Esquimalt, Saanich show why they need to Amalgamate”.

Victoria went ahead to build an arena, which without question, is a regional facility. They did so with the agreement of other municipalities who agreed to provide funds for ten years.

Now some of those same municipalities, after about five years have pulled out. Esquimalt claims the City of Victoria should make an annual application to them for funding. Saanich has the gall to say our money seems to be surplus to their needs. View Royal and Oak Bay keep paying their small shares, but even those are considered to be reviewable each year.

This is wrong and reminds me of the silly issues up in Central and North Saanich when they could not agree on funding a mutual recreational facility resulting in different user fees depending on where you lived.

Clearly this was a regional facility that should be paid for regionally. To say one city needs to apply annually for funding from another city is a waste of time and simply wrong.

The Province could correct this by at least amalgamating the four core municipalities. How anyone could think we currently have good governance when this can occur, has a poor sense of what good government is.