Victoria and Saanich councils have agreed on the wording of the amalgamation question for this fall's ballot.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps says if approved the question will read like this:
Are you in favour of spending (an amount to be determined) for establishing a Citizens’ Assembly to explore the costs, benefits and disadvantages of the amalgamation between the District of Saanich and the City of Victoria?
Helps: "It's wordy but it's clear. Do you want to spend this much? Do you want to have a Citizens' Assembly? And do you want to explore the cost, benefits and disadvantages of amalgamation?"
Helps says it wasn't too difficult a process, but the issue of whether to include a dollar amount triggered some debate:
" The biggest debate we had was whether to include a dollar figure in the question up to "x" amount. And we did indeed, by amendments to the motion of both councils decide to do that. Our staff now have the responsibility of working together, working with the province to figure out what that amount is and bring back a report to both councils independently."
There will be an information campaign prior to the October 20th vote. The question still needs to be approved separately by Victoria and Saanich councils.
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