Gourt Home::Gourt :: Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario
The Regional Municipality of Waterloo is a regional municipality located in Ontario, Canada. It consists of the cities of Kitchener, Cambridge, and Waterloo, and the townships of Wellesley, Woolwich, Wilmot, and North Dumfries. It is often referred to as the Region of Waterloo or just Waterloo Region. The Region is 1,382 square kilometres in size and its regional seat of government is in Kitchener. As of March 2006, the population is estimated to have surpassed 500,000..
History
The history of the Waterloo region goes back to 1783, when the British government granted the Grand River Valley to the Iroquois, who had supported the Loyalists in the American War of Independence, to compensate them for the loss of their land in New York. The Iroquois settled in the lower Grand River Valley (now Brant County), and sold the land which now comprises Waterloo Region to Colonel Richard Beasley, a United Empire Loyalist.
The land owned by Beasley appealed to a particular group of Pennsylvania German Mennonite farmers. They pooled resources to purchase all of the unsold land from Beasley, forming the German Company Tract and dividing the lands into 128 farms of 18,100 square metres and 32 farms of 12,000 square metres each for distribution. By the 1840s, the presence of the German-speaking Mennonites made the area a popular choice for German settlers from Europe. These Germans founded their own communities in the south of the area settled by the Mennonites, the largest being the town of Berlin (changed to Kitchener, named for Lord Kitchener, due to anti-German sentiments during World War I).
The Waterloo region remained predominantly German-speaking until the early 20th century, and its German heritage is reflected in the region’s large Lutheran community and the annual Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest.
There are still traditional Mennonite communities located north of Kitchener-Waterloo. The most famous is St. Jacobs, with its well-known thrice-weekly outdoor market.
In 1973, the regional municipality style of government was imposed on the county. In that major reorganization, the fifteen towns and townships of the county were reduced to just seven in the new Region of Waterloo. The new city of Cambridge was created through the merger of the city of Galt, the towns of Preston and Hespeler, the village of Blair and various parcels of township land. One township vanished when the former Waterloo Township was divided among Woolwich Township and the three cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge. The settlement of Erbsville was annexed to the city of Waterloo and the settlement of Freeport was annexed to Kitchener. The independent village of Bridgeport was also annexed to Kitchener and this created many hard feelings both in Bridgeport (which had once upon a time been larger than Kitchener, but failed to grow when the railways passed it by) and also in the city of Waterloo, where Bridgeport Road is a major thoroughfare terminating in the village centre. The former county government was given broader powers as a regional municipality.
Further municipal amalgamation began discussions in the 1990s, with little progress. In late 2005, Kitchener’s city council voted to visit the subject again, with the possibility of reducing the seven constituent municipalities into one or more cities.
Government
The region's governing body is the 16-member Waterloo Regional council. The council consists of the regional chair, the mayors of the seven cities and townships, plus four additional councillors from Kitchener and two additional councillors from both Cambridge and Waterloo. Since 1985, the regional chair has been Ken Seiling. Starting with the 1997 election, he has been elected by the citizens of Waterloo Region. Prior to 1997, the chair was appointed by the elected councillors. Of the nine regions in Ontario, Waterloo Region is the only one with an elected chair.
Communities
Within the townships are many communities. Some were once independent and had their own reeves and councils but lost this status in amalgamation. These communities include: Ayr, Baden, Bloomingdale, Breslau, Conestogo, Doon, Elmira, Freeport, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Maryhill, New Dundee, New Hamburg, Petersberg, St. Jacobs, Wellesley, West Montrose, and Winterbourne.
Demographics
438,515 people (2001 census) live in the Region of Waterloo. The region is estimated to have passed the 500,000 mark in March 2006. If one includes full-time university students, that number increases to 545,000. The population is increasingly diverse. It has the 4th highest percentage of visible minorities in Canada. Many locals (about 23%) are of German descent historically.
As house prices in the Toronto area increase, Waterloo Region is increasingly becoming an attractive area to reside in. This, among other factors, has made new residential construction rates very high; concerns about urban sprawl, with all its effects, continue to be raised.
Education
Waterloo Region is home to the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Conestoga College. For a list of all high schools in the area, see the List of Waterloo Region, Ontario schools.
Business
Waterloo Region is expanding in both commercial and population terms. The presence of two universities, the University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University, acts as a catalyst for growth in the high-tech area. As of late 2004, Waterloo Region has the lowest unemployment rate in Canada.
Major employers in the region
- Waterloo Region District School Board (4,900 employees)
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (4,300 employees)
- Manulife Financial (3,300 employees)
- SunLife/Clarica (3,300 employees)
- University of Waterloo (3,100 employees)
- Research In Motion (3,000 employees)
- Grand River Hospital (2,200 employees)
- ATS Automation Tooling Systems (1,800 employees)
- City of Kitchener (1,700 employees)
Services
Over time, many municipal services have come under the jurisdiction of the regional government. These include police, emergency medical services, waste management, licensing enforcement and recycling, and the public transit system. The main administration is run from the seat in Kitchener; various service offices are found in many parts of the Region. From a geographically central location in north Cambridge, maintenance operations and the police headquarters are able to reach anywhere in their service area.
Transport
Public transport is provided by Grand River Transit, created from amalgamation of the former Cambridge Transit and Kitchener Transit systems. The Region also owns and operates the Region of Waterloo International Airport, near Breslau. The airport is the 12th busiest in Canada and underwent a major expansion in 2003.
The Region is in the planning stages of a rapid transit link between Waterloo, Kitchener, and Cambridge.
Media
The broadcast television station in Waterloo Region is CKCO-TV, which operates as CTV Southwestern Ontario. The daily newspaper is The Record.
Notable residents
- Kitchener is also the birthplace of William Lyon Mackenzie King, Canada’s longest serving prime minister. His boyhood home is now Woodside National Historic Site.
- Joseph E. Seagram a partner in 1869 and sole owner in 1883, in the company later known as Seagram.
- Actress Jill Hennessy, formerly of Law & Order, hails from Waterloo.
- Dave Sim, creator of the comic book Cerebus the Aardvark, has lived in Kitchener since he was two years old.
- Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research In Motion came as a student to attend the University of Waterloo.
- Boxer Lennox Lewis lived from the age of 12, and began his boxing career in Kitchener. He maintains a home in Kitchener.
References
External links
"Regional Municipality of Waterloo, Ontario"