Cornwall ON – Many people talk about the challenges of raising the population of Cornwall Ontario and the tax rates. So while talking with a city councilor to remain nameless, (Denis Carr) the subject of amalgamating Glen Walter came up.
Glen Walter has a population of about 5,000 people, many of whom work and play in Cornwall enjoying the benefits of the city while not having to pay into the tax base.
It’s an issue for many cities like this that have surrounding areas that become Mecca’s for higher priced homes that pay less in taxes than they would in the nearby city.
It was actually an election issue as Mark A MacDonald complained that many city management and staff were earning high salaries while living outside city borders.
Of course you can’t really pass bylaws about this, but amalgamating Glen Walter would put Cornwall’s population over the magical 50,000 mark and help the tax base while Glen Walter would not be forced to face some of the sewage and water issues in the future.
What do you think? Should Glen Walter be amalgamated into Cornwall? You can vote in our poll below.
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Thirty-five years ago when I lived there the city of Kingston’s population statistically was not all that larger than that of Cornwall. However today the recreated Greater Area of Kingston boasts a population of over 120,000 on that sign on Highway 401 and elsewhere with the population, housing, and jobs steadily increasing since that action. I have been advocating the same form of population bloom for Cornwall. Includiing all the outlying villages populations of Long Sault, Ingleside, St. Andrews, Martintown, Glen Walter, Summerstown, etc. to create the Greater Area of Cornwall could potentially boost the perceived population to over 100,000 and spark interest in a city who’s population has actually declined and stagnated for decades. I think more industry might take notice of a larger centre and see no reason why we can’t follow Kingston’s example. With so much to offer in accessibility to land, power, transportation, workforce, and recreation there is no reason for this area not to be enjoying a time of economic prosperity, with an even brighter future. That’s my thoughts anyway.
Well, this is indeed a worthy topic for discussion. I don’t agree that Glen Walter or other areas surrounding Cornwall should be amalgamated into the city.
Stop for a second and think of this. Just like the greater area of Kingston the greater area of Cornwall could be an economical boon to everyone who lives there. However, we should think of the City of Cornwall and the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas & Glengarry being amalgamated into one large municipality. Even better if we include the United Counties of Prescott-Russell, Eastern Ontario could have a great regional center that would carry a lot of economical, recreational and cultural weight.
Queen’s Park would no longer be able to ignore us.
The benefits of such a move would surley make us noticeable throughout Ontario and in Canada. Alas though, petty differences between the governing entities will never allow this to happen. We would need another Mike Harris bullying move (as he had done in the 90’s) to make this a reality.
It would be could as our services would be properly aligned and our municipal costs (policing, fire, ambulance, welfare offices ) would go down as well. This would result in lower taxes.
So really, the Question should be “Is it time for Cornwall to be amalgamated into the United Counties of Stormont,Dundas & Glengarry?” Just think of the tax savings we would have.
Would the Glen Walter residents want to pay more for Police / Administration / Works Dept. etc? Would the city force bylaws designed for downtown on the rural area?
I don’t know how much savings would be seen, “new”city staff for arenas / roads etc will need pay and benefits brought to the same standards. All of sudden there will be all these roads to maintain which means extra fuel to monitor.
Researching and correcting mistakes of amalagations from Kingston, Toronto and London would be a start.
The option to merge should and would most certainly result in less government expenses on several fronts.
1. Currently there are six township councils with about 42 members, one county council with 12 members and one city council with 11 members. Think of an amalgamation as possibly reducing this by about 40% to say one regional chair, one vice chair and 21 members (three from each township and the city) A huge savings right there.
2. There are eight roads departments each with their own administration and garages etc. One for the whole area with properly placed service garages would certainly be a benefit.
3. Each township has several fire depts. Each dept looking for scarce government dollars. A combined municipal and volunteer dept would be a benefit.
4. Two police departments totalling almost 28 million per year in cost. What savings could be gained by one serving the whole area.
Need I go on.
As Eric said there are already amalgamated comunities in Kingston, Toronto, Ottawa. Learning from their experiences would surley benefit us greatly. AND my taxes would no longer be over 5500 per yr.
Time to do it is now.
Adding S D & G is one thing, but adding Prescott & Russell will be another. Language and language bylaws will need to be discussed. ( The Canadian Constitution Foundation will be in apeal court soon because of the sign bylaw in Russell, so nothing is final yet)
Cornwall according to the 06 census has about 23,000 English only, South Glengary about 5,800 and Russell also around 5,000 that would be concerned about employment etc.
Taxes are lower in South Glengarry (of which Glen Walter is a part) and there is a stronger feeling of community. Cornwall may want to amalgamate Glen Walter but I doubt that the reverse is true. If it isn’t broke, then don’t fix.
Maybe people in Glen Walter don’t want to live in Cornwall. Cornwall has a terrible stigma around Ontario. As someone who lived in Southern Ontario for 5 years to attain a Master’s Degree, I can tell you that the people of Ontario think Cornwall is a stinky mill town. Cornwall should work on it’s image, create jobs and right the ship before trying to force people to amalgamate. There are far more demanding issues for the city. They started to do it right when they were helping Montreal Rd. business’ clean up their store fronts. Cornwall should worry about the amount of people on welfare, a certain group of citizens who are double dipping in both Ontario and Quebec welfare by having multiple names and addresses.
The mayor is doing an O.K. job in bringing some new big box businesses near the Home Depot, but we really need to develop closer to the highway, and the former Domtar site. The new bridge will help out when that is built, but we need to make sure Canada Customs stay in our city.
If you have a problem with high paid city employees living outside of the city, encourage those people to live in the city. There are some great parts of the city where the wealthy live, but it’s hard to compare with the beauty of the St. Lawrence along County Road 2 in Glen Walter.
It’s all about money Worst. Cornwall needs more money and what better way to obtain it than to amalgamate Glen Walter into the fold. Other surrounding districts beware!
Cornwall’s reoutaion extends as far as a lil place ion Vancouver Island BC called Tofino.
and I quote
” we heard of Conrwall its where all the smuggling is done and aren’t they now having problems with people moleting kids”
” yea Cornwall is the stinkiest city in Ontario, we drove by on the way to the east coast”
from a construction point of view with the question would you work in Cornwall…Well just laugh aloud and you will get the same answer
i think cornwall try to get more jobs so they can attract more people.the new mall will help but add more than that. impress people and make them want to come to cornwall. the supidest thing they did is add walls on the bridges for the 401. cornwalls trying to attract people but they add walls so they can’t see the city when they pass by. uhmmm that doesn’t really make sense.. the should try to expand more on the other side of the 401 and add little malls like there doing right know.. the one thing that would attract the most people is a better mall(cornwall square) i find thats the most pointless mall in the world.. they want to get tourism in cornwall but they go ahead and add a hallmark store(card store) peole won’t go to the mall for a birthday card thelle just go to the closest corner store.. they need to make a bigger and bigger mall maybe near the 401 to attract people?? you have to use money to make money! also , this would be almost impossible for cornwall but Hollister a brand name that everyone has in clothes… almost everyone in Cornwall either has to order online or travel to watertown syracuse or toronto to get this. if cornwall would have a hollister in cornwall it would attract hundred of thousands of people to the town think about it… 2.5 million people in montreal 1 million in ottawa and you could probably say 250 thousand surround cornwall allot of people spend hundred of thousands of dollars of year on this brand.. if not a hollister try a amercan eagle we don’t want this cheap wrangler stuff we want real clothes..