Amalgamation of Victoria County into City of Kawartha Lakes 25 years ago has resulted in positives and negatives but one thing is certain — there’s no going back

The following is the final segment in a four-part series taking a look back at the amalgamation of Victoria County into the City of Kawartha Lakes 25 years ago.

More than two decades have passed since the residents of the former Victoria County voted to de-amalgamate.

The years have provided plenty of time for it to become clear that, whether they are Conservative or Liberal, provincial politicians have no more interest in reversing the commissioner’s order to create the City of Kawartha Lakes than they did in making the decision in the first place.

It has also been time enough to see it has impacted everyone’s life in different ways.

“Because there was so much negative feedback, it forced me to rethink my decision. After mulling it over a number of times, I am more convinced than ever that I made the right choice. I still feel proud of it,” reflected Kitchen.

Chris Hodgson has a different perspective than he did in 2003 when, as the Minister of Municipal Affairs, he called the vote on deamalgamation.

“I thought that the small-town history was being overlooked, the people who had made it great were not being listened to, and I think I made my point pretty clear. In hindsight, I think it has worked out really well. There are good roads, the garbage gets picked up, and there is professional staff. They have the budget to afford the best. Business wants to move to the region, and there are clear rules for development and protection of the natural environment. Maybe Harry was right, and to his credit, he did a fantastic job. He set up a structure with a road map that the new council could follow. Toronto did not have as good of a road map and they still haven’t sorted it all out. Harry spent a lot of time on the HR of the new government, and that made it a lot easier for the new council to manage it,” said Hodgson.

City of Kawartha Lakes Mayor Doug Elmslie acknowledges amalgamation was a contentious time.

“It was sold on how much money would be saved. The reality was the money wasn’t saved at the municipal level, but rather at the provincial level, and this could be a reason why there has been no personal income tax increase since then. Over time, and as shown in dissertations by Adam Found and John Beddows, single-tier municipalities are more efficient and operate more cheaply than two-tier municipalities. There........

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