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For starters, do we really need 21 municipalities in Metro Vancouver? And do we have the right distribution of responsibilities between Metro and the municipalities, like policing and other emergency response services? Are municipalities on the right financial footing or is something other than property tax needed? Should permanent residents have the right to vote? What about lowering the voting age to 16 so some school-age residents can vote?

These are just some of the questions that need to be talked-out, both locally and at the provincial level. Some are more urgent than others, but it’s time to recognize that municipalities play a much larger role in our society than they used to. And because of this, residents expect more from their elected local representatives than they often have the capacity to deliver.

The new Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart is committed to looking at alternatives to the at-large system. This is great news as electoral reform is one of our urgent issues. But it’s past time for us to go further: we must engage the province on broader issues of municipal reform. Perhaps a Municipal Reform Task Force would be a good place to start this discussion.

Catherine Evans is a former Vancouver park board commissioner.

Letters to the editor should be sent to sunletters@vancouversun.com. The editorial pages editor is Gordon Clark, who can be reached at gclark@postmedia.com.

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