Reunification
The District and City have done a great job of sharing services, where it makes good financial sense, such as our North Vancouver Recreation Commission and North Shore Emergency Management. And, I believe there is more we can do. Do we really need two fire departments and two library boards? And, as housing and traffic pressures mount in our region, I think there are obvious advantages to having a unified North Vancouver as we work with other levels of government towards solutions. We currently do not have cooperation from the City of North Vancouver to explore reunification. I support the District’s initiative to survey both District and City residents for their feelings on the matter. If citizens of both municipalities want the issue of reunification explored further, then I think it is incumbent on the City to come to the table. I do support the notion of forming an advisory committee to look at the issue on an ongoing basis (rather than it just being an issue at every election cycle). I would also like to see Council direct DNV staff to look at every area of the organization where we could be sharing information with our neighbouring municipality better, to benefit both municipalities (example: transportation planning, development, etc) and identify the best framework for this type of information sharing. |