Six Canterbury councils are set to meet to discuss amalgamation opportunities on Monday.

Timaru District Mayor Nigel Bowen is hosting discussions with neighbouring councils on the potential future of local government options for the wider Canterbury region.

Ashburton, Mackenzie, Waimate and Waitaki councils will join Timaru at the meeting.

South Canterbury/Ōtuhituhi Environment Canterbury councillors will also attend.

Bowen said council leaders will be able to sit around the table and work through where there may be alignment and differences, and what a future model could realistically look like.

Ashburton Mayor Liz McMillan will attend alongside deputy Mayor Richard Wilson and chief executive Hamish Riach.

The meeting of the southern Canterbury councils takes place days before the Canterbury Mayoral Forum, where Bowen is the chairperson, is set to meet and discuss the reforms on Friday [May 29].

“These are significant conversations for the future of our communities, and it’s important elected leaders across the region continue to engage constructively,” Bowen said.

Selwyn District Mayor Lydia Gliddon, Christchurch City Mayor Phil Mauger, and Waimakariri District Mayor Dan Gordon have already had a brief catch-up around Head Start proposals.

Mauger stated earlier this week that Christchurch won’t try to force Selwyn and Waimakariri into creating a super city, and Gliddon doesn’t feel that Selwyn becoming part of a super city is an inevitability in the process.

Gliddon is eager to have the wider-Canterbury conversation at the Mayoral Forum and believes Canterbury should be submitting a regional proposal, encapsulating how the region's 10 councils will reorganise into unitary councils.

Canterbury is better off having as many councils in a proposal for the region as possible, she said.

“You don't want to have a detrimental effect on your neighbour.

“That's the thing that weighs with me. Whatever we do, you don't want to trigger something that is a terrible outcome for your neighbours., and none of us wants to do that.

“There are so many unknowns on how this process works, so I think you are safer if everyone is part of the proposal.”

Whatever arrangements are to be made will come with plenty of complexity to sort out, she said.

“The positive thing is that the outline proposals don't have to be too detailed.”

A key aspect to factor in is the functions unitary councils will inherit from the disestablishment of regional councils and how shared services could be an option in Canterbury, Gliddon said.

“We're talking with ECan as we want to know from them what they see us inheriting, if we were to become a unitary authority, so we could actually get a really clear understanding of what that might mean.”

By Jonathan Leask