As the communities of Victoria and Saanich discuss the possibility of amalgamation, residents will hear about Abbotsford’s experience two decades ago.
Coun. Patricia Ross is set to participate in a town hall meeting in Victoria Wednesday evening hosted by a group promoting amalgamation.
The two communities are considering including a referendum question to test support for joining the two municipalities together.
Abbotsford went through the process in 1994, when residents voted to unite the districts of Matsqui and Abbotsford. Ross told Victoria radio station CFAX that she’ll be sharing the reasons behind the decision at the time, and the city’s experience since becoming a single entity in 1995.
“There were a lot of economic reasons that the Chamber of Commerce were in favour of and they were bang on,” Ross told CFAX. She said the amalgamation has also enabled the city to better lobby senior levels of government for help on large projects.