KITCHENER -- The subject of amalgamation was once again front and centre at Kitchener City Hall.
A motion was presented to ask the province to release the findings of the regional government review conducted last year.
This review was conducted to find out if the two-tier system, like we have here in Waterloo Region, should be scrapped for a single-tier system.
The study found that a 'one size fits all' approach is not what's best, and directed the province to not push for forced amalgamation.
The full report, co-authored by former Regional Chair Ken Seiling, was never released.
He says the review was extensive and contains a lot of potentially valuable information.
"We met with all 84 heads of council we held public meeting in every region. We received pubic submissions, I think around 8,000, which we summarized, We took that all into account and wrote our recommendation," said Seiling.
From that report, we know the province decided against forcing the amalgamation issue, but the contents of the review were never released.
Now, Councillor Scott Davey says it's time to find out what else was in that report.
"I know it’s a difficult thing to talk about things like amalgamation because there are all sorts of personal issue and antidotal issues that come to in to it, but at the end of the day, if we discover that we can do things more efficiently we owe that to our residents that we serve," said Davey.
Council voted unanimously on Monday night to ask the provincial government to release the details.
"It's important to be able to share as much information with residents so they can ultimately make their own decision if the right decision was made," said Kitchener Mayor Berry Vrbanovic.
Councillor Davey says he is uncertain about the impact this letter will have, but says he is hopeful other cities like Cambridge and Waterloo will follow suit.
Waterloo's Mayor Dave Jaworsky declined to comment, but at least one city councillor said they would also like to see what's in the report.
