The Langley Reunification Association wants the Township of Langley and the City of Langley, including this neighbourhood, to study the merits of getting back together after a 57-year separation.
Like North and South Korea, the two Langleys in metropolitan Vancouver have been separated since the middle of the last century.
A grassroots group of Langley residents has been lobbying to change that for the past year, in what Metro Vancouver chair Greg Moore calls the most energetic push for an amalgamation he has seen in decades.
Vancouver – Canada's most balkanized metropolis – has resisted past efforts at even small amalgamations among its 22 municipalities, which range in size from 689 in Anmore to about 650,000 in Vancouver.
It has also resisted the national trend to amalgamation that turned Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto from collections of smaller cities into One Big Metropolis.
Vancouver the region continues with a unique federated structure in which Metro Vancouver – governed by representatives of all the municipalities, plus a rural area and the Tsawwassen First Nation – runs the common utilities such as sewer and water, while the member cities operate their own fiefdoms with the standard services such as garbage, planning, parks, business permits, road maintenance and dog licences.
But the Langley Reunification Association wants the Township of Langley (population 106,000) and the City of Langley (26,000) at least to study the merits of getting back together after a 57-year separation.
Most newcomers to Langley don't understand why there are two entities, said founder Rian Martin. And they do not even know where the border is.
Plus, there's the money issue.
"We asked ourselves, 'Do we need this many levels of government for 130,000 people? Do we need two mayors, two councils, two fire departments, two of everything?' " the retired businessman said.
The group presented a 6,700-name petition – with an equal number of supporters from each of the Langleys – to both councils in late January.
So far, the reunification lobbyists have not had a great reception.
"There is no advantage for us," Mayor Peter Fassbender said flatly as he talked about the $6-million the City of Langley gets from its casino and its cash reserves. That's money it wouldn't have if it had to support the growing Township, once mostly farms, now home to increasingly dense development that requires a lot of expensive new infrastructure such as roads, sewers and parks.
The mayor of the Township of Langley is sympathetic to the reunification supporters, but concerned about alienating his neighbouring council members by pushing.
"I really admire any grassroots group," said Township Mayor Jack Froese. "But if the city doesn't, there are bigger issues we need to work on with them."
Mr. Martin said the group will keep pushing, one way or another.
"We're probably not interested in occupying city hall, but that might be an option if needed," he said.
He acknowledges his group is bucking a comfortable status quo. Many mayors of smaller cities in the region say that, in spite of occasional questions about the benefits of amalgamation, most of their residents like things the way they are.
Some of the small cities separated from their surrounding rural or suburban districts because the denser core wanted to start paying for sidewalks and city amenities that the outlying areas resisted.
Now, many of the little cities are well-off – funded by casinos or taxes from their cluster of businesses – and the surrounding districts are more pro-amalgamation because they would like to share the wealth.
"I listen to the residents in my city and I hear loud and clear that they don't want their taxes increased," said Darrell Mussatto, mayor of the City of North Vancouver, which separated from the District of North Vancouver in 1907. It's a compact city of about 50,000 across the water from downtown Vancouver, surrounded by the much larger district of 80,000. "There's nothing in it for us."
Mr. Moore, also the mayor of Port Coquitlam (57,000), hears suggestions from time to time that his city should join with Coquitlam (128,000) and Port Moody (34,000).
Like Mr. Mussatto and Mr. Fassbender, he says the evidence from amalgamations in places such as Halifax, Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto show people do not like them and there is no real cost savings.
A few administrator salaries are saved, but it ends up being more expensive – and less friendly – to administer the larger, more corporate city. As well, union agreements usually have to be harmonized and that inevitably means everyone gravitating to the highest rate of pay, rather than the middle.
"And if you're not saving money," said Mr. Moore, who still answers the phone himself when called by a resident or reporter, "what's the benefit?"
Frances Bula